Temper: Deliverance: Book Three of the TEMPER Saga, page 26
It took Lana a few heartbeats for the full implication of her words to register. Then any figment of hope, any thread of doubt that had lingered got snuffed out like candles. A long scream of rage and pain escaped her throat. Honda shuddered, caught by surprise.
Lana’s hands shot to grab his arm. On wobbling legs, she took two steps in the direction of Isabella, barely noticing how Honda supported her by her waist.
“You sick monster!” she cried. “You really knew all along! You sold me out! To the devil!” Yes, she had guessed, but to hear it like this, to know for sure…
Isabella burst out with a laugh filled with sadistic joy. “Why, yes! After all, you were a priceless possession. He didn’t care much about your plain looks. He just wanted a compliant toy. You could have been useful for once, but no! You and that little rat had to ruin everything! But we can fix this today. I don’t know how many critters you’ve got now, but just one will be enough.”
Sucker punched, Lana couldn’t find her voice. She stared, unbelieving, as Isabella’s hand went inside her handbag and pulled out something. It took her a few seconds to realize it was a gun.
“Despicable witch, you slut! Murderous bitch!” Rushing outside the house, Gabriella ran past Lana and Honda. “Get the hell out of here! You have no place here, back off! Leave her alone!”
Gabriella pushed the older woman so hard that Isabella stumbled and slipped, the gun falling in the snow. Lana had never seen her friend so enraged. She was hurling the most awful insults in Italian one after the other. Taken by surprise by this counter-attack, the woman snarled, shock and anger flashing on her face as she got up on her feet. It was enough to shatter the spell freezing Lana in place.
She took a deep breath. This was not Gabriella’s fight.
Freeing herself from Honda’s grip, she walked slowly toward her own personal hell, ignoring the icy, numbing sensation of the cold seeping through her clothes. But before she could reach her, Honda moved on her path again and tilted her chin to make her look at him straight in the eye.
“I will deal with this, don’t even talk to her,” he ordered with deadly calm.
A new wave of cold anguish twisted her heart. Of course, he hadn’t understood Isabella’s awful words. He couldn’t grasp how serious the threat was. She grasped his shirt.
“No, it’s my job! Isao! Take him away, protect him from her!” she croaked, bile rising in her throat as she pointed at the gun on the ground.
Eyes widening in anger, Honda threw a glance behind Lana’s shoulder. The rest of the family had gathered in the genkan and gawked at the drama unfolding in front of them.
“Yuki san, call the police!” he roared in an explosion of fury. “Otoh sama, keep Isao in your arms. It’s not safe for him here! Everyone, go back inside!”
Lips pinched, the patriarch nodded, while his pale-faced daughter reached out for her phone. Lana let out a shaky breath of relief when everyone retreated inside. Nakazawa would protect the child with his life and was deadly in his own right.
In two strides, Honda joined Gabriella and Isabella who now fought openly, clutching each other’s sleeves and screaming their lungs out.
“That’s enough!” His hollering effectively froze them into place. Nobody had the spine to confront him when he acted like that. “You! Leave this house! The police are on their way!” he shouted to Isabella’s face in English, not bothering to hide his open rage and disgust. Towering over her, he grabbed her elbow with a grip of iron and literally dragged her on her feet back to the gate, a furious Gabriella in tow.
Standing in the snow, staring at the retreating back of the cursed woman who was bent on destroying all her attempts at a normal life, Lana’s mind whirled while her body shook.
How? How did she find me?
The memory of her tense and short outburst with Andrea at Gabriella’s wedding flashed in front of her eyes.
Giacometti, you pig! You had to go and brag around, didn’t you? And then… they knew where to dig… they had names to follow… and all those pics… online... Isao’s… Papa said we looked so much alike...
The image of Giacometti’s drunk and heavy face summoned another one that struck her through the dense fog filling her mind. Awful pain pierced her stomach and she heaved. She hurried back into the house where the family stood, at a loss. She grabbed Akiko’s arm.
“Is she alone? Is there anyone with her?” she urged her sister-in-law.
Dumbstruck, Akiko shook weakly her head. “Uh, no… oh yes! Actually, there was a man in the car outside the gate, another foreigner.”
Her words jolted Lana. With newfound resolve, she pushed aside a worried Hiromi, a frantic Yuki and a fuming Nakazawa who all demanded explanations, and darted to the dojo.
She grabbed a bokken on the wall before bolting outside the main entrance once again. She ran past Honda, Gabriella and Isabella who were still shouting at each other in the alley. Without the gun, Honda could handle the situation. Her mind was focused a single purpose and cold rage had swept away the uncertainty caused by her panic and fear.
Motor running, a rental car waited on the other side of the gate. The weather had taken a bad turn, and snow had started to fall again; in the cold January air, its exhaust gas filled the street with white smoke. A blurry shape behind the white cloud startled her; it moved too fast for Lana to see what it was, but a strange feeling of recognition made her slow down.
Then her eyes fell on the car; what she saw inside made her all forget about it and ignited her rage.
Lo and behold, Giulio Faviole sat behind the wheel, a cigarette hanging on thin brownish lips tainted by nicotine. Their eyes met, and a hideous crooked smile tugged at his mouth. Bile rose in her throat. With his receding hairline and sickly lips, he was even uglier than what she remembered.
He opened his window and let out a raspy laugh. “Here you are, baby doll, how are you? It’s been so long.”
Lana walked up to his car door. “Get out of this car, you fucking pig, be a man for once in your life. Come here, now,” she stated with a cool voice, her bokken held tightly against her body, out of his view. She didn’t care if this was treacherous and violated every single aikido rule that she has been taught.
After throwing his cigarette, Giulio chuckled and stepped out of the car, taking his time. He had gained a lot of weight since she had last seen him.
“What now, doll, you want a kiss? A good, proper kiss, like the one I should have given you so long ago to teach you a few things? With the right guidance, you wouldn’t have gone and played the slut with –”
When her bokken found his right knee and smashed it to pieces, he crumbled down with a scream of pain. Lana put the end of the weapon under his chin, making sure to remain out of his range.
“Shut the fuck up, you bastard. You don’t get to do anything to me anymore. You killed him, you killed him without a blink and now, you will pay.”
In the deserted street, where a white and cold mantle muffled all sounds and kept any witness at bay, Lana took a deep breath and raised her weapon again, aiming at the wounded man’s head.
This time, it wouldn’t be her blood painting the snow red.
26 - Freedom
“Stop!”
Powerful arms grabbed Lana from behind, one going around her throat, almost choking her, the other hand twisting her wrist behind her back. She roared in frustration when the bokken clattered on the road next to a sobbing Faviole.
“Don’t! Don’t kill him!” Honda hissed in her ear, his entire body mass pressing against her back. Shaking from head to toes, rage tearing down all her barriers, she tried to get free of him, but he blocked her effortlessly.
“Do not. Tell me. What to do!” Lana screamed, nails digging in his arms. “This worthless piece of shit… I just can’t – He must –” She was hyperventilating but Honda increased his pressure. What is he doing? I’m going to pass out at that rate! “Why? Why are you stopping me? I thought you understood! You said that you would do it yourself!” she managed to croak, a feeling of utter betrayal swelling inside her.
“Yes. I understand very well. I will do it. Not you.”
Lana’s eyes widened, and she stopped resisting.
“You… Me… What difference would it even make?” she whispered.
“All the difference in the world,” Honda replied softly in her ear. He released some pressure off her neck, but still she couldn’t move, even less step away from him. “Now, tell me. Do you want me to kill this man?” her husband asked in a calm voice.
This was a voice calling from afar, a dark angel, tempting, so tempting, daring her to burn her fingers, but at the same time warning her against it, offering to shoulder the worst of it. Out of duty and devotion.
Out of love.
With a loud groan, Lana squeezed her eyes shut.
Wrong. This was no disembodied voice. This was Naruhito. Her husband who wanted to protect her. He would do it in a blink, he was ready, his mind was made up, his own tension, his own rage made his muscles quiver. His hard body wrapped around hers told the whole story.
But thinking of him striking the pig down was so much worse than imagining herself doing it.
She took a deep, shaky breath and opened her eyes to focus on the wounded man sprawled at her feet, miserable, hurt, humiliated. Defenseless.
Should she give her husband this order, to approve of this action – give him a bloody stain he would never get rid of.
The incredible gift Natsuko had bestowed her – thrown away like trash.
The miraculous second chance they had been given – reduced to ashes.
Their family, the life they had built these past two years, the four of them – blown apart.
Order it, and Isao will lose both of you. Yuki will be all alone.
But maybe it’s better this way? Maybe… maybe I’m nothing but a dead worm who will kill them from the inside? Me gone, maybe they’ll be safe, happy?
Still held in Honda’s tight embrace, Lana heaved in despair, tugged by too many conflicting desires.
I forfeited my revenge against a literal demon. I could have destroyed him, but I didn’t. I showed the devil mercy, yet crushing the skull of a despicable but helpless man doesn’t sound revolting.
Am I really like her then? Twisted, rotten? Not just my face, my very soul?
The stark, naked truth blinded her like the midday sun.
Forgive me, Paolo, forgive me.
Her guts twisted, and she nearly threw up at the violent pain striking her body from head to toes.
“No… no, don’t do it,” she croaked, face wet with tears. “He… they… are not worth it. They aren’t worth you being tainted by this horror. They aren’t worth destroying everything.”
Honda shuddered, and some tension left his body. Gradually, he let her go but still kept her in his arms.
“No, they are not,” he said in her hair, his lips brushing the top of her head. “But I can make sure that they never bother us again.”
He released her, walked to Giulio, grabbed him by his jacket and slammed him against the car’s door. The Italian shouted in pain. Impassible, Honda twisted viciously one arm after another, dislocating the man’s elbows without breaking a sweat, and then let him drop to the ground. The man howled again in agony and tried to crawl away in the dirty slush, but the wounds Lana had inflicted to his leg made it impossible to go far.
Right then, Isabella arrived, tailed by Gabriella who still hurled insults at her back. The woman began to scream hysterically when she saw her husband on the ground with limbs at odd angles.
Lana shook herself up and walked to the person who had sold her to a literal demon with glee, killed her unborn child and scarred her for life. The burning need to gouge her eyes with her nails choked her, but after summoning a mental image of her family and the bottomless love she had for them, she managed to repress her killing drive once again.
Still, a line had to be drawn.
With a heavy hand, Lana slapped her mother hard, making her stumble and stunning her into silence, then she grasped her coat.
“Go away. Never come back. Take this piece of trash with you. Forget me. Forget us. Get the hell out of my life. If you’re stupid enough to show up again near me or mine, nothing will stop us next time. Got it?” Lana wasn’t even shouting, only stating a simple fact.
Eyes wide, face as white as the snow around them, Isabella stared at her daughter, bewildered and more than a little fearful, unable to utter any sound. For the first time in her life, Lana held the higher ground.
The tide had finally turned but oddly enough, there was no joy to be found in this understanding. Rather, a whirlpool of sadness constricted Lana’s throat, and fresh tears blurred her sight.
A police car turned onto their street, lights on, and came to a screeching halt in front of the house. Two police officers stepped outside their vehicle.
Honda seized Isabella’s arm and threw Lana a meaningful look. “Go back inside, Gabriella san and I will handle this.”
Lana bowed her head, hands clenching and unclenching, jaw so tense it hurt. She cast a last glance at her mother, trying to commit her pained and scared look to memory, hoping it would replace the haunting picture of her hateful face hovering above her bloodied body.
Before she turned on her heels to head back inside, movement on the other side of the police car caught again her attention. This time, the shape didn’t go away and merely stood there. Even from a distance, she knew it stared at her. The boots and coat were unmistakable.
Rain Boy.
She sucked air through her teeth, and a renewed feeling of dread made her shiver. Slowly, she turned her back to the street and walked back to the house.
With each step she took, her blood turned into ice, her body into glass. Her skin was some kind of alien cloth that tingled and pickled painfully. Time slowed down. Her breath turned shallow and her mind shrouded in fog. She felt drained. A pit below her sternum syphoned all her will, all her energy, and for a split second, she wondered if some remnants of the poisoning curse of the evil fox lingered, attached to her forever.
Her feet brought her near the dining room where the rest of the family had gone back to, but she couldn’t make herself walk inside it. Her family. The people she loved. Her legs turned to jelly, and she slid against the wall of the corridor, unwilling and unable to go to them.
All this pain. All this suffering. All those fights and horror. This hate, this rage. She had brought this mayhem into their house. She was the agent of chaos, the sickness that would eat them from within. And on top of the rest, she given up on Paolo. However good her reasons, she was a still a complete failure.
Warm arms embraced her, and a sweet, delicate perfume surrounded her. Lana didn’t have to open her eyes to recognize her.
“Sweetling! Are you all right? You are freezing! Oh, let me help you, you look as if you’re about to faint. Are they gone?”
Lana nodded, hiding her face in her wife’s neck, inhaling her scent, trying to reconnect with reality.
“Lana san, listen to me.” Wary, Lana glanced up to see Nakazawa coming back from the entrance, phone in hand. “The police have them. I just talked with people at the Ministry of Justice, and they will be deported within twenty-four hours, barred from ever coming back here. You are safe.”
She blinked and frowned. “The Ministry of Justice? But how…?”
“Well, enduring the awful golf skills of their number two every weekend must have some perks, don’t you think?” The older man gave her a wry smile.
Yuki chuckled and caressed Lana’s hair. “Leave it to my father to do what he does best.”
Right then, Honda and Gabriella joined them. “They are gone,” Honda announced. “She made quite a scene, but as none of the police officers spoke a word of English, even less Italian, it was useless. The gun was pretty much self-incriminating.”
Nakazawa grunted. “I’m also going to place some calls to make sure they get a proper welcome committee when they land. The vice-head of the international cooperation department owes me a couple of favors, it’s time I collect them. Can you give me their names?”
Lana opened her mouth to reply, but Gabriella beat her to it. “Isabella del Ponte and Giulio Faviole. And yes, the Italian police will be definitely interested, because his business is all kinds of shady and dirty. Let me give you the name and contact details of a high-level Interpol officer I know in Italy. He knows about this bastard and will be delighted to help make things go even easier. I will also call him as soon as it’s early morning over there.”
“But how can we make sure this awful woman also gets her due?” Yuki wondered aloud, her hands gripping Lana’s.
Lana sighed and slowly got back on her feet. “For that, I need to file a complaint. Against the two of them. For what she did to me, and what he did to…” she struggled to keep her voice composed. “To Paolo. I have to stop running and confront it. I guess it’s time for me to go back there and do what needs to be done to get justice. The proper way.”
Cheeks wet, Gabriella embraced her tightly. “You don’t have to do it alone, cara mia, I’ll go with you. I was there, too.”
“We all will, Lana san,” Honda added, somber. “But this is not something you should do lightly. I suggest you take the time to review your legal options. After all, it was over twenty years ago.”
Lana nodded, and stared at the people around her, guilt and shame making her face burn. “I have no words, I am so sorry for this mess...”
Nakazawa snorted and shook his head. “When it comes to family drama, our combined histories make yours pale in comparison.” Honda grunted in agreement, while Yuki nodded thoughtfully. “Although some limbs were cracked, no head rolled today; our ancestors must be sighing in disappointment, but well, such are the constraints of our world today. Lawsuit or no lawsuit, Daughter, there are many ways to make them regret and pay. I believe that for once, I do speak for everyone here when I say we’ll make it our mission to bring them to utter ruin.”
The fiery intensity of his glare made Lana gulp. It had been some time since she had been on its receiving end.
