The air in the basement cell was thick with the scent of iron and Yuri's desperation. Yuri Hanamitchi stood there, his red hair damp with sweat, holding a serrated blade to Jay's throat. He was a man who had everything—wealth, status, the Hanamitchi name—and he was throwing it all away because he thought he could possess a woman who belonged to a god.
I stood three feet away. My tailored suit was ruined, covered in the dust of his broken mansion, but I had never felt more powerful.
One more step and I'll open her up!" Yuri screamed. His voice cracked, hitting a high, pathetic note.
I didn't stop. I took another step. The soles of my shoes crunched on the debris of the door I had just leveled.
"Keifer, don't..." Jay whispered. Her voice was weak, her beautiful face bruised where Yuri had struck her. Seeing that bruise felt like a physical blade to my own heart.
Look at me, Jay," I said, my voice dropping to a low, hypnotic hum. I ignored Yuri entirely. I focused only on her. "Do you remember the night I told you about my father? About Kizer?"
Jay's eyes locked onto mine. She nodded, a single tear escaping and tracing a path through the dust on her cheek.
"I told you I killed him so he could never hurt anyone I loved again," I said, taking another step. The knife was now pressing into Jay's skin, drawing a tiny, bead-like drop of crimson. "Yuri is a ghost, Jay. And I've already killed the king of ghosts."
The Strike
Yuri's eyes went wide. He realized I wasn't playing by the rules of a hostage situation. I wasn't negotiating. I was hunting.
"I'll do it! I swear—"
I didn't give him the chance to finish. With a speed I had learned in the dark corners of the Watson estate, I lunged. I didn't go for the knife; I went for Yuri's throat. My hand clamped around his neck, my thumb pressing into his windpipe with the force of a hydraulic press.
The knife slipped. Jay scrambled away, falling toward the corner of the room.
I slammed Yuri against the stone wall. The impact was so violent I felt the vibrations in my own bones. I didn't use a gun. A gun was too quick. A gun was too clean for a man who had dragged my wife by her hair.
"You touched her," I growled. My face was inches from his. I could see the reflection of his own death in his pupils. "You dragged her. You locked her in the dark."
I delivered a blow to his ribs that sounded like dry wood snapping. Yuri gasped, his face turning a sickly shade of purple as I choked the life out of him.
"Keifer! Stop!"
It was Angelo. He and Erdix had burst into the room, guns drawn, but they froze when they saw the look on my face. They knew that look. It was the look of the Watson Monster.
"Keifer, he's not worth it," Angelo shouted, stepping forward but keeping his distance. "The authorities are outside. Lia is already dismantling his banks. He's a dead man walking. Don't do this in front of Jay."
The Choice
The mention of her name broke the trance. I looked back. Jay was huddled on the floor, her eyes wide, watching me. She wasn't looking at me with fear—she waslooking at me with a profound, aching sadness.
I looked at Yuri. He was limp in my grip, his eyes rolling back. I could have ended it right there. I wanted to. My father's voice was whispering in the back of my head: Finish it. Show them why you are a Watson.
Instead, I dropped him.
Yuri crumpled into a heap of expensive silk and broken bones. He groaned, a pathetic sound that made me want to kick him again, but I turned my back on him. He was nothing. He was a bug I had stepped on.
The Reunion
I was across the room in a heartbeat. I dropped to my knees, my hands shaking as I reached for her.
"Jay," I breathed.
I pulled her into my arms, tucking her head under my chin. She felt so small, so fragile, but the moment my skin touched hers, the rage that had been burning my blood to ash finally began to cool. She sobbed into my chest, her fingers clutching at my shirt as if she were afraid I'd vanish."I've got you," I whispered, over and over, burying my face in her hair. I didn't care about the blood on my hands. I didn't care about the ruined mansion or the war I had just started in Japan. "I've got you, Jasper. You're safe. The monster is gone."
"You came," she choked out, her body trembling with the aftershocks of the torture.
"I will always come for you," I promised. I stood up, lifting her effortlessly into my arms. I looked at Angelo, who was standing over the unconscious YuriDeal with him," I commanded. "I don't care how. Just make sure that when he wakes up, he realizes he has absolutely nothing left. No name. No money. No future."
I walked out of that dark, damp cell, carrying my queen into the light. Outside, the Japanese sunrise was beginning to break over the horizon, but I didn't look at the sky. I only looked at the woman in my arms.
The Watsons had won. Again. But as I felt Jay's heart beating against mine, I knewthe real battle was just beginning. I had saved her body, but now I had to save her soul from the trauma Yuri had inflicted.
And I would burn the whole world down if that's what it took to make her smile again.