My heart thudded. What did he mean by dispatched? Had he killed the man out front? Why did he even want me? I was nothing to him.
The reality of my situation hit me, sending waves of adrenaline through my veins. I was alone. I was alone and unarmed. But I had my lab. Things I could use that might do even greater harm than the bleach had already done.
My mind was already a whirl of chemical formulas. I just had to snatch the right one out of the air.
“Jada’s father assured her no one would touch us. Are you ready to go against your boss? Against the Kyōdaina?” I asked, stalling.
Anger flooded his face before it was swallowed once again by a calm that terrified me. “Oyabun is no longer on my side. You―all of you―have seen to that. I, however, still understand the meaning of the words loyalty and honor. I will do what blood prevents him from doing. I will cast out the fox in the henhouse. And you, Miss Banner, are my bait.”
He pushed aside the plastic again and waved his gun. “Let’s go.”
When I didn’t move, he stepped forward menacingly. “On your own or partly broken. Which way will it be?”
I forced my legs to move, inching toward him and the door instead of away like I wanted.
“Good girl,” he said.
But I wasn’t a girl. I was a woman. And that was his mistake.
As I went by him, I shoved my elbow as hard as I could into his stomach. His gun hand jerked upward, discharging into the ceiling as he grunted, and I used the moment to fly out the door.
Fear tried to swallow me whole, attempting to stall my feet, but I shoved it aside to run down the driveway. I didn’t go into the house because I didn’t want to put Saul and Tami or the guests in danger. I had to lead him away.
I wasn’t athletic on a good day, and my breathing was already fast and furious as adrenaline flooded me. I was tired and sore and achy, to boot, but the terror of him and his gun was enough to keep me pushing forward.
I shed my protective gear a piece at a time like a gingerbread trail as I ran down the hill toward the park. He was coming after me. I heard his feet pounding on the blacktop, but I didn’t dare look.
Beyond the park, the Coast Guard Academy glowed. If I could get there, I’d be safe. I shed my last piece of equipment, my white lab coat, hoping he wouldn’t slow himself down enough to pick the pieces up.
I stumbled as my speed and the downhill slope of the road overtook my legs. My hands hit the ground, but somehow, I stayed on my feet. I balanced and took off again. He was taller, longer, and faster than me. I could feel the distance between us closing.
The pounding of my heart was making the sounds disappear again, like they had the night before in the safe room, and I had to force myself past it.
He wasn’t shooting. Maybe he was afraid of the sound alerting the police.
Maybe he didn’t want us to be found.
When I reached the park, I headed for the edge near the sea with its line of trees, hoping they would hide me. I did my best to slide behind one and then another, but my breath was heavy and gave me away. The crunch of leaves and branches as I ran couldn’t be hidden even with the crash of the waves to my right.
“You’re only angering me, Miss Banner. Any lenience I might have had for you is now gone,” his voice rang out in the darkness.
The cliff loomed near, and I scurried away, not wanting to chance my footing near it. The Academy had been my goal, but I wasn’t sure I’d reach it. There was too much distance between me and it at the rate he was overtaking me. The math jumbled across my mind, numbers flying through my vision.
A sob escaped me.
I hadn’t realized I was crying, but tears were streaming down my face.
I nearly tripped over a limb, and my body kept moving as my brain registered that I could use it. I turned around, picked up the branch, and hid behind a tree.
Ken’Ichi wasn’t being any quieter than I had been, and when I heard him rounding the tree, I swung with every ounce of force I had