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Shin joins the three of us in the elevator, and we make our way to the top floor. He exits first, and we follow as he moves down a hallway, then opens the door for Natalie and me to walk through with Gina pulling up the rear.

Her grandfather is already on the bed, and she goes to him, grabbing his hand quickly as a man in a mask bows.

He fires off rapid Japanese, to which Natalie nods. The doctor bows, and Natalie squeezes her grandfather’s hand, then walks out the door.

I follow because what else the fuck am I going to do. Gina walks past us and turns down another hallway, leading us into a grander room with couches and a spectacular view.

“What did the doctor say?” I ask once I take a second to move closer to the windows. The lights are low, and the place probably has bulletproof glass with the way Gina is leaning against one of the windowpanes looking at her phone.

“Same as you. Bullet went high on his chest, going through the shoulder. It didn’t come out, so they’re going to do surgery to remove it. If it were an inch lower, he’d be dead,” Natalie says calmly.

If she were anyone else I might think she’s in shock. But not my girl. She’s thinking. Calculating. Deciding her next move.

“What do you plan to do?” Shin asks as he makes his way into the room.

Natalie doesn’t even glance at him when she speaks. “Call in my backups.” She turns and looks at me, then finally at him. “And show them they made a mistake in thinking I would go down so easily.”

Fuck, that’s hot.

“You know there will be more bloodshed if this doesn’t go the way she plans.”

I don’t acknowledge Gina as I pick over the food Shin’s people brought in for us. Mostly fish, but also more of that chicken-on-a-stick thing I like. I sniff at a green blob.

“It’s wasabi,” Gina says as she comes over, grabs a pair of chopsticks, and puts the whole thing into her mouth.

I give her the side-eye as she swallows it with a smile.

“Crazy motherfucker,” I say before moving on to fill my small plate, because normal-size plates seem nonexistent here.

It’s been two days, and I’ve gotten used to Gina. Enough to know that I can call her that and not worry about finding a knife sticking out of my chest in the morning.

She cares about Natalie’s safety, and since I do too, we’re in agreement to get along. We don’t say much, but I never was the talking type. Turns out neither is she.

“And that’s Nat’s call to make,” I say, getting back to the conversation at hand.

“You really okay with this whole ‘see woman roar’ thing while you just sit back and take it?” she mumbles around a piece of sushi as she points at me with the chopsticks.

I never saw any of the men who’ve come and gone from Shin’s building do that—I’m betting it’s another of those manner political things—but if the woman doesn’t care to be all fancy with me, I sure as hell ain’t going to say anything. Plus, I don’t even know what’s couth or uncouth with this culture shit. I should probably learn, but I’m taking it one day at a time.

Maybe after all this, I’ll figure it out. But now I’m feeling more like a coordinator than an enforcer.

Nat’s changed since we got here. Others might not have noticed it, but I have. Something happened when she was locked in the panic room. Not sure if it was seeing how many people came to kill her or watching her grandfather get hurt. I don’t let myself hope that it had anything to do with me.

She’s stopped hanging back. Stopped waiting for someone else to speak first. Somewhere along the way, people started looking at her before making decisions.

I always figured that part of her was in there.

Now everyone else is finally seeing it too.

Natalie’s been on the phone constantly, talking to the Leones, the Hounds, and even the Devils Damned. When she’s not talking to them, she’s taking calls with Shin or her grandfather to pull in their allies.

There’s a meeting set for tomorrow. They’re calling it a board meeting to discuss the properties involved in the Takahashi family’s will, but it’s more to show who has whom in their pocket. It’s a show-and-tell, nothing more. But politics are at play, as Vinny keeps reminding me when I grumble too loudly and he hears me over the phone lines. Half of ruling a group is keeping people happy, like a freaking politician.

This is why I never wanted the president’s chair for the Hounds. Too many push-pull games. I’d rather just hit someone than bargain.

“Don’t think I’ll just sit back,” I say with a raised eyebrow. We don’t talk about it, but I know she saw me take out more than a dozen men. I’ve never even seen her threaten a person. She’s this big bad assassin, but all I see her as is the comic relief. Scary relief, but still the side bit.

Still, I’d prefer to have her by my side than any other. She gets what’s going on when I don’t, and she lets me in on things. When someone tells her something, she tells me. We run Natalie’s protection detail like a team, something I wasn’t expecting to have on my side.