“What’s up, Asher?” I asked, lowering my voice to a near whisper. I was deeply aware of Victor’s presence upstairs. And though Asher only wanted to give me a note or two, it still felt like I was doing something wrong just by talking to him.
“That’s the same question I had,” he said, lowering his voice as well. “What’s up, Dawn? One day you’re talking about going out with me after you file for divorce. But now your husband, who no one ever met before this year, is here and buying you overpriced food for your soft presentation? Kissing you in front of me? Picking you up from campus?”
I pause. Granted, I haven’t dated for ten years. But were guys really this entitled? How was this any of his business? “Okay, Asher, I understand that you’re upset, but I don’t think—”
“Are you getting back together with him?” Asher demanded, his voice pitching high. “After everything I did to make sure we’d be in the same city after you graduated? Do you think it was easy for me to get you that interview with Yinz Entertainment?”
What? He’d made it sound like all he’d done was put in a phone call in his email. “Asher, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to lead you on or anything like that. And I’m grateful for the job but—
Asher cut me off again. “But what? Are you trying to get back together with that rich asshole? Why? You think just because he’s here now, he won’t disappear on you again?”
Wow, this was crazy, but Asher was speaking out aloud all the hard questions I’d used on myself over the past couple of months to keep myself from falling head over heels for Victor again.
“No, I’m still getting a divorce,” I insisted to both him and myself. “It’s just…complicated.”
“Well, uncomplicate it for me,” Asher demanded. “Do you like me or not? Do you want to be with me or not? Because I like you. I want to be with you.”
I gawked at him. I get that he felt like I led him on or something, but I had never promised him anything. I mean, we hadn’t even kissed. Why was he acting so crazy over a date he never even asked me on? A date I would never agree to now after all this unnecessary drama?
“That’s what I thought,” Asher answered.
I realize in the next moment that he must’ve mistaken my silent outrage for something it really wasn’t. Before I could tell him that I didn’t return his way too strong-for-this-situation feelings, he grabbed me by the shoulders. And the next thing I knew, he was kissing me, trying to shove his tongue in my mouth.
Ew! Ew! Ew!
I pushed him away, but it was too late. I’d have to wash my mouth out with soap, like, a thousand times, to forget the slimy feel of his lips on mine.
I was about to scream at him to get out of my house, but the words lodged in my throat. Not because I wasn’t furious with Asher for kissing me, but because….
Victor. Victor was standing at the top of the stairs.
And for once, he didn’t look like a cold and removed raven.
More like an enraged dragon.
31
VICTOR
Dawn and Asher were so involved in their conversation that they didn’t notice Victor standing at the top of the stairs. White noise filled his head when he realized what they were arguing about.
Yet several words and phrases broke through the static, like horror movie serial killers, determined to mortally wound. Kissing you in front of me.… Everything I did to make sure we’d be in the same city… I want to be with you…
Along with her assurances to him that she was definitely getting a divorce.
Then Asher kissed her.
A red rage instantly replaced the white noise. In a flash, Victor was down the stairs, slamming a fist into the face of the man, who had actively tried to replace him. The man who cared nothing for the ring on his wife’s finger.
The man Dawn would be with now if not for Victor’s interference.
Asher’s glasses went flying, but the other man put up a surprisingly good fight. Phantom’s report had mentioned that he was Israeli by birth. He’d obviously done his mandatory military service. Perhaps even served in the special forces.
It took some effort on Victor’s part, but eventually, he got in a face hit that sent Asher to the floor.
As soon as he fell, Victor pounced on top of his fallen enemy. He grabbed the man who would dare to replace him by the front of his shirt and drove his fist into Asher’s face again.
“Victor! Victor! Stop, you’ve got to stop!” Dawn screamed somewhere in the background. “Please, you’ll kill him!”
Victor would not stop. His fist would be the last thing this maah lat gwai saw before he died.
He raised his arm to hit him again and again, as many times as it took until he was no longer breathing.
But Dawn grabbed the wrist of his striking arm before he could. She used all of her body weight to pull his arm in the other direction so that it could not go forward again.
“Victor, please!” she pleaded with Victor. “I don’t want anybody dying because of me.”
Dawn’s voice broke through his red haze. She was begging…
Begging for him to let go of the man she really wanted to be with after May 25th.
“I was warned about you before we began this partnership. A former Red Diamond told me that you were brilliant at crime. But stupid when it came to a girl once. So I decided to give you a woman. A beautiful one with an outstanding pedigree and background. My own daughter. But I suppose that American saying is true. ‘You can’t fix stupid.’”
Kuang regarded him from across the table of the very public and well-lit bar Victor had chosen for this conversation.
Phantom shifted in his seat. He was acting as Victor’s translator for this meeting since Han was still in Hawaii. But diplomacy wasn’t his cousin’s strong suit. He looked over at Victor, not sure how he should respond to Kuang’s insult.
Victor simply repeated to Kuang what he’d said at the beginning of their conversation, making signs that Phantom translated in real time: “I cannot go through with this marriage, but our partnership can continue to thrive without it. I will do whatever it takes to ensure that. Simply name your price, and you will have it.”
Kuang dipped his head, seeming to consider Victor’s counter offer. But then he said, “There are consequences for stupid actions. That’s something you must learn. Someone will have to teach you that lesson, once and for all.”
With that not-so-thinly-veiled threat made, Kuang then stood up and left without a further word.
“Well, that went well,” Phantom said in Kuang’s wake. “Guess The Silent Triad wasn’t so great at this buddy-buddy shit after all. Lucky for you, I still excel at fucking up bitches who to try to cross us.”
Victor smiled at his cousin’s coarse-yet-accurate summation of their current situation with Kuang.
“Thank you for your continued loyalty, Hak-kan,” he signed to his cousin with a solemn head bow.
Maybe because Victor so rarely called him by his Cantonese name, Phantom returned the bow. But then he picked up the beer he ordered and grumbled, “Hope she’s worth it.”
“She is,” Victor assured his cousin before signaling for the check.