Chapter 66 - 68
Akio POV
"I would never!" I refute, giving rise to an emotion too strong to deny. "You talk of matters you don’t know."
"I know more than you think," he counters. "You’re loyal to Botan. Even a blind man can see that. But Haru’s organization has thrived under the stewardship of Botan. Any threat to him is a threat to Haru but not all dangers are weapons and war."
My eyes cut back into him but I say nothing.
"I suspected... but with what you just said confirms what I didn’t want to believe." The back of his head drops against the seat with his face inclined, his back slightly arching as a breath claws through him. "This isn’t about betraying Botan. It’s about exposing his only vulnerability. Haru knows about her I’m sure but—but," he stammers, stumbling over his pain. "I’m also sure he doesn’t know how bad or how deep things are—which is the only reason Haru hasn’t had her killed yet."
The bastard’s body may be broken, but his mind certainly isn’t.
In principle, it’s betrayal, and he won’t see it any other way. But unlike Botan, I’m thinking beyond the now—I’m thinking about his survival. I don’t like him, but he is my blood and to me, that’s a sacred oath. I’ve been the one cleaning up after the chaos of every misguided whim, patching the cracks that his volatile impulses have left behind. But there will come a day when the damage is too great, too permanent for me to clean, to bargain, or to fix.
Defying him outright is unthinkable. And it would destroy us all if I put Avara in any kind of life-threatening jeopardy. Informing Haru is out of the question; I’m no snitch. I need to maneuver this delicately, a quiet rebellion of necessity. The only path forward is to make Botan sever ties himself—to convince him, somehow, that cutting this thread is his idea. It’s the only way to save him from himself.
"You can’t kill her," Simon utters, wincing as his head lolls to the side to glower back at me. "She’s the mayor’s daughter."
"Governor’s," I correct. "You missed a lot," I add quickly. "And we have had much more powerful women and men killed for far less. What’s going to happen is—"