Page 129 of Poisonous Kiss

But this isn’t court.

This is my life.

“Yes.”

I don’t have to think about it. I just know it, as surely as I know the sun rises in the east.

“Yes,” I growl. “I love your daughter.”

Hideo smiles. “Good. Then let me tell you a few things I’ve learned about you.”

My brow cocks as he steeples his hands.

“You’re a good man, Gabriel.”

I scoff. “I think that might depend on your perspective.”

“I don’t think perspective enters into it. It’s a fact. Look what you did for me.”

“Let’s be honest, Hideo. I needed your daughter?—”

“But you didn’t need to move her old cancer-ridden father into a multi-million-dollar penthouse with a live-in nurse and bodyguard.”

I arch a brow. Hideo sighs.

“Which brings me to my next argument, counselor. You know who and what I am.”

I shake my head slowly. “Your past doesn’t?—”

“Yes, but it could have. Maybe it should have. You’re running for Governor, Gabriel. And your father-in-law was a Yakuza oyabun. Which, by the way, is how I know Tate is more than just a nurse with ‘some army training’.” He stares long and hard at me. “Taking care of me, even keeping me in the picture at all, was a huge risk for you. And yet…” he shrugs. “Here we are.”

I nod slowly, turning to stare out the window.

“You don’t need to tell me precisely what’s bothering you,” Hideo says quietly. “But I’m going to tell you one other thing I know about you.”

When I turn back to him, he’s eyeing me coolly.

“You’re a wolf, Mr. Black.”

I stiffen. “Excuse me?”

“A lone one, without a pack.”

“Mr. Yamaguchi?—”

“And once a wolf…” His eyes lock with mine, and I realize the man is more of an equal than I could ever have dreamed. “Always a wolf.”

The room goes silent.

“And the thing about lone wolves, Mr. Black?—”

My fucking phone chooses that moment to go off. I scowl as I glance at it. “Mr. Yamaguchi, I’m terribly sorry. Hold that thought. I need to take this.”

“Of course.”

I stand, walking to the doorway into the kitchen area before answering Ares’s call.

“Takato Ito is still on a non-entry list into the US. His passport is still showing him as being in Japan.”