Wheels of Steel Book 4 (21 page)

He nodded, pleased.

“I am like shaking.” Robin exclaimed once she was finally able to end the call.

Y loved seeing her this happy. “Seventy-five thousand is nothing. Negotiate it up to one hundred-fifty grand but don’t settle for anything less than one hundred thousand.”

Robin’s mouth dropped. “Y! I don’t want to ruin my chance by being too greedy-“

“Trust me,” he said while driving into the studio’s parking garage. “You’re going to have to fly out to Japan to do your voice over. That’s going to put your own life and work on hold. They are going to have to make doing that worth your while. I guarantee you that no one else involved in the show is getting low-balled like that. The Bushido Code brings in millions.” He glanced at her. “And once you’re involved it’s going to become even more popular.”

Robin nodded. “I know you’re not my agent-YET, but … do you think you can handle my negotiations?”

Y didn’t hesitate with his response. “Of course I will.”

Y parked and then walked to Robin’s side to let her out. She noticed that it was something he liked doing so she allowed it even though it would be much quicker if she just got out on her own. But there was something very nice about having someone there who cared enough to open your door and to offer you their hand just to make it that much easier for you.

He led her into the large skyscraper, his hand on the small of her back to guide her. Robin wasn’t used to that but it didn’t bother her, although it made her feel as if Y was subtly showing her that he had control of what she did as well as anything concerning her well being.

They boarded the elevator to the offices of Akita Tom Productions and Y led her to the front desk where a pretty woman greeted them, politely referring to Y as Mr. Kurahara and Robin as Miss Mathena. Robin was impressed that the receptionist knew who she was.

“I’m going to leave you in the hands of our receptionist.” Y placed his briefcase on the counter and handed Robin a copy of her contract. Then he spoke a few brief words to the receptionist in Japanese.

“The receptionist will give you some papers to fill out for employment purposes and then you can read over the contract. When I’m finished with the meeting you and I can go over it together and answer any questions you might have.” He smiled and it caused his chocolate eyes to actually twinkle.

“Maybe by the end of the day you’ll be the first artist signed by the newly organized Akita Tom Productions.” That is—as long as the rest of the board agreed with him and his new ideas. If not then there was no way that he would let the label get Robin. To allow that would mean that Riyu would get his hands on her. He vowed that he would not let Riyu hurt the careers of Robin or Wheels of Steel. This was the only way that he knew to keep Riyu out.

The elevator door opened and James stepped out. He took one look at Robin and Y and his color faded. He waved at them weakly and then rushed toward the double doors that led to the offices.

Robin thought that was odd. James was usually very talkative—annoyingly so. Maybe he’d gotten the message that his pushy ways had gotten on everyone’s nerves, or maybe he had been under the weather. He did look even more pale than usual. Robin looked at Y.

“Didn’t you think James looked a little sick? I hope he’s not coming down with something. Maybe he needs one of those face masks,” she said, referring to the number of surgical face masks she saw the Asian people wearing while out on the streets.

Y shrugged. “Maybe that’s why he hasn’t been around lately.” He changed the subject. “This shouldn’t take too terribly long. Wait for me here when you’re done, okay?”

“You got it.” Robin smiled.

Y headed for the office, anxious not just about his future but for those of his friends as well.

He was the last one to enter the boardroom and he was pleased to see that all of the shareholders were present including Hidalgo, Shim Shu, Aimi Haruto, James Edelson and last but not least Hideo Choi who had avoided meeting Yagano’s eyes and whose bandaged hand lay in his lap.

Robin finished filling out the human resources paperwork for her employment with Akita Tom Productions. The contract was a bit tougher. With her dyslexia the legal-ease was hard to put together. Sometimes when she looked at the words it seemed to say one thing but when she went over it again she would read a different meaning.

It was frustrating and she wished that Jason was here. She knew deep in her heart that Jason didn’t actually think she was stupid and he would help her to understand what all was written. However the main points were easy enough to understand.

The contract would give her the freedom to pursue other career paths including college and becoming a physical therapist. When it came to recording for others she would be required to get pre-approval from the label. The thing that she liked is that if they said no to a project then they would be required to pay her a portion of the loss wages.

There were other perks like what she and Y had talked about—agents and personal management along with free first class flights to and from Japan, and while in Japan free transportation, a daily per diem, security service and even a clothing allowance to be provided in the event that she was required by the label to appear in the public eye. She would even get to select her own stylist. The pages of perks went on and on. She just wanted Y to explain the royalties and what she would receive after the label took their cut.

No matter how good everything sounded, one thing stood out clearly. If she broke the terms of the contract forcing the label to release her then she would be responsible for any costs that they didn’t recoup from her recordings and performances.

It seemed to Robin that they had high hopes for her based on the perks they were offering. What if she didn’t do as well as they expected?

Her stomach began to twist into knots. It had been a while since she’d had to deal with her IBS but currently Robin’s stomach was churning. She darted off to the bathroom, grateful for the American style toilet. She chastised herself for allowing her emotions to get the better of herself.

Robin was unwilling to go down the road of allowing her emotions to dictate her health. Not only did she intend to be a success in her new career but also a healthy woman. And being healthy meant not taking risks with alcohol and drugs.

She’d come to a conclusion and it would be a hard one. After washing her hands Robin dug her phone out of her purse and she called Jason again. She was going to tell him that she was going to make some important changes in her life. She wanted a healthy future for both herself as well as for her eventual marriage to Jason. She was going to tell Jason that she was done with smoking marijuana.

She listened to the phone ringing on his end. She figured he was in the studio working and decided to just leave him a message about her decision. She had no doubt that it would make him happy. This is the way she wanted to start her future--as Mrs. Jason Hamilton, as a woman and not a girl that needed something other than the music to make her high. A smile tugged at her lips.

When the brief mechanical voice completed the instructions for leaving a voicemail Robin began to leave her message.

“Hi baby. Look I’ve been thinking about a lot of things and I’ve come to a decision. I really want to be healthy and I don’t want to go down the wrong track so-”

Robin covered the mouthpiece. There was a lot of commotion going on outside of the bathroom. She hadn’t seen enough people in the reception area to create that much of a disturbance. Besides her and the receptionist Robin had only seen a currier and two or three people hurrying about as if they worked there. She had tried to ignore the noise but the sounds of stern voices had escalated to yells and cries of alarm, which had raised her curiosity.

“…hold on a sec babe. There’s something going on …” Robin hurried to the bathroom door and opened it. What she saw caused her to pull the door quietly closed and to take a rapid step back. “Oh my God!”  She whispered into the mouthpiece. “There are people here with guns!”

The front room was filled with armed men. About ten to fifteen of them were crowding the office space, some holding handguns, a few holding automatic weapons. They were all Asian and she had clearly seen that they all had their shirts opened to reveal colorful and intricate tattoos.

The Yakuza.

One man had forced the pretty receptionist to the floor by gunpoint. They were ushering people from offices to lie on the floor while others went about checking various rooms.

Robin quickly looked around, forgetting about the cellphone in her hand until she heard the voice mail message instruct her to press one to keep the message or to just hang up if she was finished.

The sound of footsteps outside of the bathroom door abruptly halted at the sound of the recorded voice coming from the cell phone. The door burst open and Robin yelped out fearfully.

A man with a heavily pocked marked face was standing in the doorway with a gun pointed in the air. His unbuttoned white shirt was tucked into his pants and his tattoos covered nearly every inch of his torso. His brow gathered and he angrily gestured with his gun for her to follow him.

Robin’s guts began to churn again, even though she had just left the toilet. Her legs felt as weak as noodles. She was afraid but she knew that she couldn’t let go of her cellphone and she couldn’t let the man know that she was holding it. So she quickly raised her hands above her and placed them behind her head, concealing the phone with her hands.

The man grabbed one of her arms roughly and she let out a squeak of fear, gripping the cell phone so that it didn’t fall to the floor. He dragged her out to the front room where three other people had been forced to lay face down on the floor.

Robin knew that the presence of the Yakuza was linked in some way to Y, but she didn’t see him or the people that he was supposed to be meeting with. She was pushed roughly to the floor with the others and Robin wasted no time following the unspoken command to lay face down.

There was more loud shouting and then a tall Asian man wearing a suit entered the room from one of the corridors. He was handsome and looked important by the way he carried himself. Robin could see that one of his eyes was black and his arm was in a cast.

It had to be Riyu, Y’s brother.

Robin had no doubt for the reason for this visit. Y’s brother was paying him back for last night’s fight. Other people were being pushed into the room and some of these she recognized. An impatient gun-toting thug was pushing James and Hideo was stumbling along right beside him.

Robin then saw Hidalgo and his normally playful expression was now filled with fear. The shareholders were being led out of the boardroom by gunpoint and then Y appeared. But unlike the others two men were restraining him. Still he struggled and cursed them in Japanese. When he saw the people lying on the floor Y quickly scanned them until he located Robin. They locked eyes and then she blinked slowly.

Y frowned and then he understood.

Breathe.

It was the message he’d given her at the meeting with Jerry when she seemed about to unravel. And now she was telling him to calm down and to think before reacting.

When the armed men had crashed into the boardroom, Y’s first thought was not for his own safety but for the safety of the innocent. This fight was between him and Riyu and the other man was crazy to bring it to the studio—unless he intended to massacre everyone.

And then it made sense. Riyu wouldn’t dare kill him. He’d face the wrath of their father, but killing the others would just be chalked up to a robbery. Y could even now see the headlines—
An armed robbery leaves several people dead at the Akita Tom Studios located in Tokyo’s Shin-gu building. This after the untimely death of studio head Akita Tom who died in an auto accident weeks earlier. The only survivor of the attack is Yagano Kurahara, who described the massacre as vicious..
.

It was the type of thing that happened all the time to punish those that tried to cut their ties to their gang. Only it mostly happened within the ex-members family.

He thought about Amberly. Had they done something to her?! And what about Robin who they would have passed in the front room to get to this office?! And that’s when Y went into action. Even while the other board members were still seated in shocked confusion, Y had jumped into action.

He caught the first armed assailant off-guard when he bounded to him and did a flying kick, which connected to the man’s stomach.

Yagano was no prized martial artist, but he did know how to defend himself—and if needed, how to kick ass.

The man who he had just kicked in the stomach, doubled over with a loud humph and the two men directly behind him jumped on Y. He fought valiantly but was no match for them once they had his arms.

Riyu was watching him from the doorway, his eyes narrowed. “Hold him!” When Yagano saw his father’s son the anger and rage welled up in him.

“You are a coward!” He spat.

Riyu smirked. “Shut up, idiot.”

“Yagano?!” Came Robert Chancellor’s voice from the conference phone. “What’s going on?”

Riyu reached over and ended the call. The other members were being led out of the office by gunpoint and Yagano was roughly lifted to his feet and half dragged out along with them.

“What are you doing bringing this fight between us to the studio?!” Yagano shouted in Japanese.

“You came to my
home
.” Riyu replied angrily. “And now I come to yours.”

“Riyu let these people go and you and I will handle this like men-“

“Shut up. We will handle this like Yakuza.” Riyu replied calmly.

They were now in the front room and Yagano could see that everyone present had been made to lay face down on the floor. Other than the shareholders there were only five people present and he saw that Robin was lying there watching him. Everyone else was whimpering and crying. But Robin wasn’t. She looked at him as if she knew that he would save them all. The trust in her eyes did something to him, brought him back around. And then she blinked once, very slowly and he read her message clearly. She was telling him to stay calm and to think. Think before reacting.

Y drew in a calming breath. He took note of the armed men. There were ten to twelve that he could see—which meant maybe five to ten more that he couldn’t see.

The board members were now on the floor along with the others. Y saw that Hideo was among those made to lie on the floor so perhaps he wasn’t part of this ambush—or perhaps he didn’t want Yagano to know that he was involved.

“It was a fair fight.” Yagano said calmly.

“You had a weapon, I didn’t. How is that fair?” Riyu replied while touching the cast on his arm.

“You had a gun,” Yagano said. “You could have shot me.”

Riyu’s brow gathered. “Not around my child. Not around my woman.”

“Is it revenge that you want then?” Yagano asked.

“I want this company. You’re going to make sure I get it or there won’t be anyone left to run it.”

“Do you think that I have that kind of power, Riyu? To give you an entire company?”

“Yes. Your uncle told me that you got the black woman and Wheels of Steel to sign the contract …” Riyu suddenly swung around. His eyes moved to Robin who was watching everything. He looked at Yagano. “Is that her?”

Y didn’t have to speak, the look on his face was all the answer Riyu needed. The taller gang leader stepped carefully past the prone figures until he reached Robin. He offered her his hand.

“Rise.” He said in English.

Robin hesitated for only a moment and then she accepted his hand, making sure that the other concealed her phone. Thankfully she had opted for an iPhone instead of the Samsung with its humongous screen.

Riyu gently took hold of Robin’s hand and led her to the elevator.

“Riyu?!” Y called. “What are you doing?!”

“Finish this.” Riyu said. The two gangsters holding Yagano dragged him toward the elevator, which was guarded by two armed men. They entered along with Riyu who was still holding Robin’s hand and Yagano who was being restrained by the two Yakuza.

Robin and Y could see that the other armed men had fallen upon the people lying on the floor before the elevator doors closed cutting off their fearful cries and screams.

Peter looked at Jason. Jason was a quiet dude, and when they were working with music he was even more absorbed, but for most of the day he wore a sour look on his face. With all of the great things happening to them Peter couldn’t figure out what had Jason in such a bad mood.

Peter sat back in his chair, removing his hands from the controls that they had been tirelessly using to mix the music of the album. It took a minute but Jason finally looked up and at Peter.

His frown deepened. “What?” Jason asked.

“You tell me?” Peter replied.

Jason just blinked and shrugged. “Nothing-“

“Dude, you’re mixing music for an album that’s got to be the biggest thing to hit Japan in years. You’re negotiating a label deal with a studio created by one of your favorite music artists, you were just given your own record store, you asked a beautiful woman to marry you and she accepted—and said beautiful girl just got us a part playing music in our favorite anime show. So what in the FUCK do you have to be sour about?!”

Jason blinked and a half smile crossed his lips. He removed his headphones and his expression became thoughtful.

“It’s nothing, really. Robin and I were talking this morning. I wanted to go with her to discuss the contract with the guy from the show but she wanted to do it on her own.” Jason rubbed the stubble on his chin and sighed. “Before she left we got into this argument.”

“Uh oh …” Peter said.

“Well,” Jason frowned, “I said something I shouldn’t have said and it’s eating at me. But even though I shouldn’t have said what I did, I really don’t feel like I’m completely wrong about how I feel.”

Peter inhaled. “Maybe this is something you might not want to discuss with me. Maybe Belinda is better for this conversation-“

Jason’s eyes cut to his friend. Guys didn’t talk about feelings because you manned up and owned your actions. But this is something that he needed to talk to Peter about because part of it had to do with him and his relationship with Belinda.

“Look, Robin smokes pot,” Jason stated. “Not a lot but I don’t like the way she acts after she smokes it.”

Peter nodded, relaxing now that he realized that their conversation wasn’t so much about feelings as it was about reactions.

“Yes, I know you two have been having that conversation lately.” Peter stated. His expression became thoughtful. “B does it too. I didn’t use to mind it but …” he sighed. “It seems like she’s doing it a lot more—and drinking.”

Jason had noticed the same thing about Belinda. It had concerned him but he didn’t want to over-step his bounds by bringing it up to either of them. He was just happy to know that Peter was uncomfortable with it as well.

“This morning I asked Robin to move in with me once we got back to the States.”

Peter nodded.

“She told me that the only thing holding her back from it is my dislike of her pot smoking. She basically said that she was a
grown ass woman who would make the decision on whether or not she stopped smoking dope
.” Jason bobbed his head in the sassy way that a black woman would while he mimicked Robin.

“Is that when you said something you shouldn’t have said?”

Jason nodded. “I told her smoking pot was stupid.”

Peter looked up to the ceiling as he thought about that. “What’s wrong with that?”

“I used the word ‘stupid’. And Robin is very sensitive about the whole use of stupid. It’s like using the N-word or calling someone retarded or gay.”

“Well it’s insulting,” Peter agreed.

“Yes, but I didn’t call her stupid.” Jason paused and then he sighed. “But I actually did.” He looked at his friend in embarrassment. “I meant for her to take it as if I was calling her stupid. I know it was wrong but I really wanted her to understand how she makes bad decisions when she’s under the influence of pot. It makes her look bad. She doesn’t look cool. She-”

“Jason why do you feel as if you have to insult Robin?” Peter interrupted. “She is a grown-ass woman and recreational pot will be legalized everywhere. So it won’t even be illegal to use. Look the marijuana isn’t really the issue here. It’s your controlling attitude.”

Jason rubbed his hands through his hair and sulked in his stool. “I know, man. I know. That’s why I’m all ate up about it.”

“Look, I know that you love Robin but in some ways you’re also a little obsessed. You don’t have to own her-“

Jason flashed his friend a look of surprise. “What? You think I’m obsessed?”

“A little. You freaked out when you two were apart. And now that you’re back together you think that if you just talk to her about things she’ll dump you. That night at Hidalgo’s party she was basically masturbating on the dance floor. I know you didn’t say anything about it to her. I know you didn’t. And you were pissed.”

Jason had to agree with that.

“You’re letting that shit build up. Top, you two have to keep the lines of communication open.”

Jason stared at Peter. “Have you talked to Belinda about your concerns—you know about the drinking and drug use?”

“Oh, we had a pretty long discussion the morning after the party.” Peter’s lips turned downward. “But we will be having a long discussion about it. I’m waiting until we get back to the States.

“My baby has been through a lot this year,” Peter said, his voice going quiet. “She’s had a hard life, Jason--like the type of life that you read about in the newspaper when someone gets sent to jail for child abuse. I wish that I could kill that bitch that raised her. She doesn’t deserve to continue to take a breath. But B still cares about her. I don’t understand that. Maybe that’s why she drinks and does so many drugs.

“But I’m worried about her. I don’t want to lose her—and not the way you’re worrying about losing Robin—but permanently.”

Jason nodded. Their discussion had given him a lot to think about. He was controlling but he was also too passive when it came to speaking his truth. He had to speak his truth and allow Robin to speak hers and then they had to deal with it. It’s what couples had to do.

“When she gets back home I’ll apologize and this time I won’t negate it by telling her how what she does impacts me. I was an idiot for what I said and I have to let her know that I realize it.”