The chamber was softly lit by ambient lamps reflected on the tatami mats and filtered through light gray curtains going from floor to ceiling, covering the glass panels at the side of the building. At the center of the room was a raised wooden platform supporting a large mattress covered with plush bedding.

  Oroshi sat on the side of the bed. He was staring at his phone as if it was a snake about to strike. The words kept ringing through his head.

  She is alive!

  Why did things have to be so complicated? After all this work, all his preparations, and she dared to still be alive? Tanaka wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but his reasoning was sound. Who else would be traveling with Ma?l under the name of Aoki? It had to be Kaori. He was alive, so assuming Kaori had also survived just made sense.

  The merger with Daisuke was nearly signed, the family funeral would take place soon, and now the bitch wasn’t even dead!

  His father would be furious!

  Hold on, he thought. He was the one who told me about Kaori’s death!

  Oroshi sat there, stunned by the implication: Masamune had made a mistake. A big one. That changed everything. Masamune never made mistakes. As far as he could remember, he’d always been right, always. But not this time! He grinned.

  He’d show him, but first he had to get things under control. Kaori had eluded his wrath too long already, and it was time to stop playing around. She had escaped Japan, but that didn’t mean she was out of his reach, far from it. He had her destination right there… he quickly pulled up her plane ticket and checked his watch. Bangkok, Thailand! Her plane should be landing soon. It was too late to try and contact the immigration, and anyway, he didn’t want her arrested. However, she would need at least 30 minutes to clear immigration, plus another 10 minutes to wait for her luggage and at least 5 more minutes spent wandering around….

  Could he get an asset there on time? He grabbed the phone and feverishly searched through his contacts.

  Found it!

  “Oroshi’s speaking. Get in a car and go to Suvarnabhumi airport right now! As fast as you can! I’ll call you back in 10 minutes to give you the details. Get moving.”

  He looked at his watch again. Every minute counted, he should have acted faster but it would be fine. There was no time to arrange a hit right now, in the middle of the night, but as long as he could get them followed, sending a team to capture them the next day presented no major difficulty at all. Better yet, no one knew Kaori outside of Japan, she would just be some random tourist, he would have all the time in the world to play with her. Oh, he would make her pay for all the trouble she caused!

  After ten minutes, he called back his contact, a Thai guy by the name of Nut, short for Nattayakumporn. He was supplying local girls for one of their strip clubs down in Bangkok. Not the man he would have chosen to handle such a precious target, but he’d blend in, and at the very least, he could track his prey.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “How far are you from the airport now?”

  “Not far. You’re lucky I was in the area, I’ll be there in 15 minutes, there’s no traffic at this time. So, what is this about?”

  “A western guy and a Japanese woman will arrive on flight number…” he looked at the plane ticket, “China Eastern 547.” By the time they clear immigration and get their bags, they should be in the arrival hall in about 30 minutes. I’ve sent their photos on Line messenger.”

  “I got it. Damn, the girl looks fine!”

  “Make sure you don’t miss them. I want you to follow them and find out which hotel they’ll be staying at. Don’t make contact. If there is anyone you can call to help out, call them, I’ll cover all the expenses.”

  “And my pay?”

  “Do it right, and you can retire on the spot.”

  Nut let out a whistle. “You got it boss!”

  Now, who else did he have in Bangkok? No one personally. They were all his father’s men. He could order them about, but they would report to him. There was no escaping that fact. Nut himself wasn’t his direct subordinate and he might talk.

  I should go there now, he thought. I’m done underestimating her. I have to go there in person and see her face as I rip the limbs of that foreigner… He saved her, she probably likes him at least a little bit. I’ll make her pleasure me to stop torturing him. She’ll crawl on all four for me. Then I’ll start again, and again…

  I can even make her torture him. Should be easy, I just have to tell her that I would do worse if she doesn’t do it. I’ll make her enjoy cutting pieces of that man. Then, a simple “I would have never believed you capable of such cruelty.” And she’ll break. She’ll have to, after all she’s done to him. Then I’ll punish her, make her mine, force her to pledge her soul to me….

  He played the scene in his mind, fine tuning the torture and the pacing, the sex and domination… he was already hard and raring to go, lusting in anticipation. He touched himself, but held back.

  Calm down. One step at a time.

  First, he needed to get there with a team. His plane was ready at Narita. If he woke up his operator, he could get all the permits ready in the morning. The flight would take about six and half hours, plus clearing immigration, getting cars… at best he would be operational in the evening.

  Was that good enough? What if Nut screwed things up?

  No, he won’t, this is easy, stop doubting yourself! I’ll go there and everything will be … FUCK! The merger!

  The Daisuke fuckwit wanted to sign tomorrow. He could NOT go! He took in a deep, calming breath.

  Think! There has to be a solution!

  He sighed. There was one. An obvious one.

  He needed Masamune’s men. He looked at the phone, despondent. There was no way he could get everything done without keeping his father in the loop.

  Again.