Emperor of Havoc: Chapter 35

It’s the sunlight that wakes me.

It creeps over my eyelids, filtering in through the wide windows of the Ishida living room. A dull ache throbs in my neck, and I grimace, running a hand over my face as I sit up.

Apparently I fell asleep on the couch after talking to Hana on the phone. Great.

I roll my tight shoulders, my mind drifting to the conversation with my sister last night. The truth of it cuts deep: I shove it aside as I stand and stretch.

Fuck, I need coffee.

But first, I need Katarina.

I head back down the hall to our room. When I step inside, a quick glance shows the bed empty. The sheets are rumpled but cold, and there’s no sign of her in the bathroom.

I glance at my phone. Later than I thought. She must already be out.

Her absence twists something in my gut, but I shake it off, my focus narrowing on what needs to be done today.

Proof.

Because two parts of me are at war with each other, and I need to settle things before they rip me apart.

One part wants to burn Kolya Ishida to the ground, leaving nothing but ashes. I’ve cherished that dream ever since I tracked Akira’s last steps back to Kat’s father, and stoked the fire with every memory of the mentor and friend I lost.

Akira was the only one who saw me for who I really was and didn’t flinch. Where everyone else feared the darkness in me, he taught me to harness and channel it.

Kolya stole him from me.

That’s not something I can forgive, no matter how much time passes.

Never mind the fact that my “way in” eventually became the whole fucking game.

Katarina.

She was just supposed to be a means to an end. Get close to Kolya through her. A clean, surgical infiltration of the Ishida-kai camp to extract the truth I needed and bring Kolya to his knees.

It didn’t stay clean or surgical.

Because every time I look at her, half of me burns for revenge, for the justice I owe Akira. The other half burns for her.

Burns for the way she looks at me when she thinks I’m not paying attention, like I’m both the storm and her safe harbor from it. For the way her breath catches when I touch her, the way her strength falters for just a second before she lets it roar back to life.

She’s my chaos and my control wrapped up together.

I need proof. Not for Kolya. Not even for Akira. For me.

And yet… What if Kolya didn’t kill Akira, and I’ve been wrong all along?

Honestly, part of me truly hopes that’s what I’ll find. Used to be that all I wanted was revenge. Now I’ve found something much better. Something I want even more.

The easiest path right now would be to let this lie. To walk away from the vengeance and the pain, and focus on her. Focus on the fact that she’s here, and somehow mine.

But then I remember Akira’s voice, his laugh, the way he believed in me when no one else did. He didn’t just save me from myself—he built me. He deserves better than to be forgotten. He deserves justice.

And that’s not something I can just walk away from.

So I’m stuck. Torn between the man who taught me to be what I am, and the woman who’s showing me what I could be.

And proof is the only way out of this bullshit. The only way I can make sense of the chaos, and forgive myself for using the woman I now love.

I pause at the kitchen doorway, my eyes landing on Nina, seated at the breakfast bar with a cup of tea and a book. Her dark hair is pulled into a loose bun, and her sharp blue eyes flick up to meet mine.

“Morning,” I growl as I approach.

She raises an eyebrow. “Morning.”

For a second, I wonder if something is off with her. But then she smiles, looking at me curiously, and I shake the thought away.

Maybe it’s just that I slept sitting up on a couch with my neck at a fucked-up angle and no Katarina curled against me.

“Have you seen Kat?”

Her face flickers again with that strange look, but she keeps her smile.

“No,” she shrugs. “Have you?”

I shake my head as I walk over to the counter and pour myself some coffee. I take a sip, turning to glance back at Nina, who’s returned to her book.

A spark of an idea ignites inside me, and my mind begins to do what it does best:

Scheme. Turn. Plot. Figure out the weaknesses in those around me and see how I can exploit them. I turn it off around my family, and those I love. But with other people?

It’s a lethal weapon.

The trick with Nina is subtlety. She’s loyal to Kolya in a way that only someone desperate to escape her horrific past could be. Yes, there’s bad blood between her father and Kolya. But Kolya saved her. He plucked her from the wreckage of her own family and gave her a life far better than the one she fled. She owes him everything.

At least, that’s what she tells herself.

But everyone has cracks.

“Starting the day with a little light reading?” I ask, nodding toward her book.

“Something like that,” she replies, her voice polite but cool. She doesn’t lift her gaze.

Nothing unusual there. This is basically how Nina has been toward me ever since I stepped foot in this house. I don’t think she necessarily dislikes me—well, maybe a little, seeing as I did force a marriage to her best friend.

It’s more that when she watches me, and thinks I don’t realize it, she’s studying me with suspicion.

I have that effect on most people, though.

I move to the other side of the kitchen island and slide onto a stool, resting my forearms on the counter. “Tea and a book. Very civilized. Makes the rest of us look bad, though.”

“Some of us prefer not to thrive in chaos,” she says smoothly, turning a page.

“Fair enough,” I say with a faint smile, letting the silence hang between us for a beat before gesturing to the book. “Anything interesting?”

She sighs, setting the book down and finally meeting my gaze. “Do you need something, Takeshi?”

“Just making conversation,” I reply lightly, but letting a hint of seriousness creep into my tone. “Is that so bizarre?”

She squints slightly, suspicion flickering in her eyes. “It is with you.”

I chuckle softly. “Fair.” I glance at her tea, then back at her. “It’s nice here, isn’t it? Peaceful, even.”

“For now,” she replies, her voice wary.

“Well, that’s the trick with peace, isn’t it?” I muse, letting my words linger in the air. “It’s fragile. Always waiting for the next thing to shatter it.”

The walls around her rise even higher. “What are you getting at, Takeshi?”

I shrug, smiling. “Nothing. Just talking. Making conversation.”

“We barely ever have conversations.”

“All the more reason to fix that, no?”

She continues to peer at me cautiously. I lean back slightly, holding her gaze.

“You’ve been with Kolya a long time, Nina. You’ve seen how he handles… disruptions. How he ensures things stay peaceful. But you know as well as I do that peace comes at a cost. Someone has to pay. With money. Their life…” I shrug. “Their family…”

Her posture shifts, a flicker of unease in her expression. I say nothing more, letting her connect the dots on her own. When her fingers tighten on her book, I know I’ve hit the mark.

“I’m not a prisoner here,” she says suddenly, her voice almost defiant.

I tilt my head slightly, a small smile on my lips. “Did I say you were?”

“No,” she says sharply. “But you implied it.”

“Really?” I counter, my voice soft but pointed.

She stares at me for a long moment, and I can see the struggle in her eyes—between her loyalty to Kolya and the doubts she’s never allowed herself to fully explore.

And just like that, the first crack appears.

“I think you are,” I counter softly, studying her closely. “A prisoner, I mean. Your father was Kolya’s enemy. Technically, you’re Kolya’s hostage. Call it what you want—guest, adopted family, whatever—it doesn’t change that.”

Her jaw clenches, her hands gripping the edges of the book. “I know what my family was,” she snaps. “I know what they did. Kolya gave me a home. He treated me with respect in a way they didn’t⁠—”

“I’m not disputing that,” I say, my voice steady. “But don’t pretend he doesn’t use you when it suits him. You think he keeps you here purely out of the goodness of his heart?”

Her glare sharpens. “I do,” she snaps.

I lean forward slightly. “He’s a brilliant man, Nina—ruthless, cunning, always thinking five steps ahead. That’s why the Ishida-kai is so powerful. You don’t imagine for a second that he doesn’t see you as leverage?”

“I’m not leverage,” she hisses, but there’s hesitation now, the crack growing.

I lean back, giving her space. “You’re a smart woman, Nina. You know what he’s capable of. Hell, you’ve benefited from it. And you’ve also been shaped by it. Every decision he makes, every move, every word—it’s calculated. Always.”

“What’s your point?” she asks quietly, her grip on the book loosening.

“My point,” I say slowly, “is that no one is infallible—not even Kolya. And if you think he doesn’t have secrets…dark ones…you’re fooling yourself. I’m just saying, maybe it’s time to stop assuming he’s perfect.”

She stares at me for a long time. I can see the wheels turning in her mind, the doubts I’m planting taking root. I just need her to lean in to that doubt a little more. Get a little closer.

“I need your help,” I say.

Her lips purse, and I can see the conflict in her eyes. Finally, she exhales deeply and sets down her cup.

“What do you need?”

I keep my expression neutral, though a surge of satisfaction races through me. “I’m looking for something regarding someone I used to know— a friend of mine who might have done business with Kolya.” My jaw tightens. “Business that may have gone…badly.”

She stiffens.

“Look, Nina, all I want is the truth. I’m not trying to use it, or make it something bigger, or even try to come for Kolya with it. I’m married to his daughter. That makes him and me family.”

It’s almost alarming to me how easily I can bend the truth sometimes, or falsify my own emotional state.

“I just want to know what happened to my friend. I’ve tried, but it’s like any mention of him has been erased from Kolya’s records.” I lean a little closer, lowering my voice conspiratorially and injecting a wistful, sad note into it. “Do you…I mean, is there anywhere he might hide his more…let’s say…jarring records?”

Nina swallows, looking away, wetting her lips with her tongue.

“Nina,” I press quietly. “I know you’re happier here than you were with your birth family. But if you knew in your heart there was something off about how it all happened, and that there was an important piece of the puzzle missing, and then someone told you it was right there behind a locked door…” I reach out and lay a hand on one of hers. “Wouldn’t you want to open that door? Just to know? Because that’s how I feel about my missing friend. I just have to know.”

The kitchen goes utterly silent. Nina keeps her gaze averted. But I can see her breathing getting heavier, her throat working.

And then finally…success.

She turns to me slowly, her eyes flickering over my face. “There’s…a room in the basement,” she says quietly. She glances behind her, as if checking if we’re being watched or listened to. Then she slowly slides off of her stool. “Come with me,” she croaks quietly.

I bite back my triumphant grin.

I follow her through the house, down a staircase that leads to the finished basement. Through that, there’s another door leading down a much darker, narrower staircase to some sort of sub-basement. At the bottom, she stops in front of a scratched, battered steel door.

Nina nervously glances around, then taps a code into the keypad lock. The mechanism clicks, and the door creaks open.

“Be quick,” she mutters, moving aside to let me in.

I step into the room, eyes adjusting to the dim light. Shelves line the walls, filled with boxes and files. A desk sits in the center, its surface cluttered with papers and photographs. It’s exactly what I was hoping for.

And then before I can move further, I hear the sound of gun being cocked.

Shit.

I turn, coming face to face with Nina leveling a gun at me, her hands steady, her expression ice-cold.

“You really thought I’d betray Kolya?” she snaps, her voice sharp and furious, and maybe even a little amused. “I mean, are you fucking serious?”

She barks a cold laugh, shaking her head.

I don’t flinch, don’t move. My mind races, planning my next move.

“Killing me won’t solve anything,” I say calmly, meeting her gaze. “Would Kolya approve of you murdering his brand new son-in-law?”

Her grip on the gun tightens, her eyes blazing. “At the moment, all signs point to yes,” she snarls. “Now where the fuck is Katarina?”

Her words slam into me like a freight train.

“What?”

“Where is she?!” Nina shouts, her voice cracking.

My stomach plummets. I take a slow step forward, my hands raised in a gesture of appeal. “Nina, I⁠—”

A shadow moves behind her. We’re no longer alone.

Kolya levels a merciless stare at me, his gray eyes brimming with cold fury, silvered hair pulled back and a very sharp looking katana in his hand.

“Well done, Nina,” he growls quietly.

My jaw sets. “Where the fuck is Kat⁠—”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Kolya says icily.

He rests the tip of his sword against my jugular with the practiced ease of a surgeon.

“Where the fuck is my daughter,” he whispers venomously.

“I don’t know,” I snarl. “If she’s missing, we need to⁠—”

Two other armed men suddenly appear, guns drawn.

“Take him to the room,” Kolya growls as he lowers the blade. His men grab me, yanking my arms behind my back and cuffing them, Nina’s gun still trained on my face.

“You’re making a mistake,” I growl at Kolya.

He smiles coldly. “Well, by the time I’m done with you, Takeshi, we’ll know for certain, won’t we. Along with every fucking secret you’ve ever had.”