This Is Gospel (ShimaxYukio)

55. Best Served Cold

Kyle sat across from Shima, tapping his fingers against the table nervously.

"Are you sure that right now is an appropriate time, Mr. Shima? You seem a bit worn out." He pointed. Shima looked up at him, eyes dark and sunken as he ran a hand through his pink mane. "I apologize, Gray. I'm grieving, you see. Please forgive me. I've buried one of my closest friends yesterday." He explained, voice like gravel in his throat. Kyle's brows furrowed in a cocktail of shock and slight anger. If he had known such a thing, he wouldn't have come here. No decent person would have.

"Oh dear, I'm very sorry. Please, do not strain yourself on my behalf. There is always another time for us to meet on matters of business; I shall take my leave."

Shima held up a hand as Kyle stood to leave and motioned for him to sit back down. Dubiously, the younger man complied.

"On the contrary. I've been meaning to speak with you on the matter. And I do believe that it's best to speak about this in person...while that lovely woman isn't present."

Shima did nothing to hide this distaste in his tone.

"You mean Ereka?"

"Yes, precisely. You see, my man was killed by your men during an attempt to take my life."

"You can't possibly be insinuating that I would---"

"You would do quite well to let me finish, Mr. Gray."

Kyle's lips snapped shut at Shima's tone. He wasn't loud or harsh in his words, but he left no room for objection. If everything that Ereka had told him was correct, then Renzo Shima was not a man to be provoked. It didn't help that no one had ever seen him in such a state as he was in that very moment, so the pinkette could very well be more unpredictable that he had usually been.

It was a mistake to come there alone.

"I have no quarrel with you in particular, Mr. Gray. It is with your assistant that I have grown quite weary of dealing with." Shima corrected once he had gathered himself. Kyle's brow rose in question. "You believe that Ereka is responsible then?" He asked. Shima's sharp gaze bore through him, eyes digging into Kyle's very being with their intensity.

"You intend to imply that the idea of it is absurd?"

"I just can't find a single reason as to why she would---"

"Let me explain something to you, Kyle."

The blonde was taken back by Shima's sudden hostility, leaning back in his seat as the pinkette leaned forward against the table. His lip was pulled back into an angry snarl, eyes nothing short of feral.

"Your assistant worked with your father first and then your older brother as he was chosen to be a successor to your father's legacy. It's no secret that she assisted that moronic brother of yours in your father's murder as she would have done anything to keep him quiet as long as he promised her a steady income. And now after I've so conveniently killed off that annoying excuse of a human being, she comes to aid you in your affairs. You are the last successor to the Gray heir, are you not?"

Kyle's nod came quickly and Shima sat back down in his chair when one of his guards put a hand on his shoulder to calm him. He shrugged them off, waving them away as to keep his and Kyle's discussion more private.

"So let's say you hold a grudge against me and you decide to wage some sort of war. Speaking quite bluntly, the Myo Dha and it's allies outweigh  your by ten percent at most and our way of strategy is matched by none. You would surely die...along with your pitiful legacy."

Kyle's brows furrowed together, not understand why he was being verbally attacked when he could assure Shima that he had done nothing to betray their alliance.

"Mr. Shima, I would never---"

"Of course you wouldn't, sweet boy. You haven't the heart for something so sinister as cold-blooded murder. But Ereka does. She knows that if ever a reason should arise that I saw you no longer fit to be in this alliance...via betrayal...she knows that it would be nothing short of child's play to terminate our agreement. Or, if the need shall arise, terminate your life."

That was true. Kyle was well aware that he had not the skill nor the numbers to defeat the Yakuza.

Nor had he ever found the desire to.

"But, if I may ask, why would that have anything to do with her? She is merely hired help."

"Precisely. You are her meal ticket...or should I say that the Gray legacy is her meal ticket? If I take you out, she loses any chance of maintaining that and then she goes back to sucking cock on the filthy streets of London. I've seen the types of things that she does for the sake of money. Murder is one of the less sinister on her list."

There was a slight silence, moreso from Kyle waiting to make sure that he had permission to speak.

"Even if that is to be true...what is it that I am to do about it?"

"Sinple. Kill that bitch."

"Mr. Shima---"

"Renzo."

"...Renzo. You've said it yourself that I haven't the heart to commit murder. I could never---"

Shima held up his hand to silence him.

"Yes, yes, I know. Such a terrible thing of me to ask of you, sweet boy. Let me tell you this, though. Do you know what Ereka did to keep her place at your brother's side?"

The blonde shook his head.

"She held my dear Yukio captive---she involved outsiders in Russell's own sick fantasies and held them at gunpoint while she watched him rape and innocent man and nearly strangle him to death. Russell was a sick man...and she aided him in his sick fantasies. It won't be long before she does the same to you."

Russell...his brother did that?

His brother was a sick man.

"Now, I won't force you to do something to tarnish that...purity...of yours, but if things do not go unchecked for the death of my brother in arms, I will destroy everything that you hold dear and everything that they hold dear and so forth and so on. And you will watch me. Is that understood, darling boy?"

Another cautious nod from Kyle before Shima leans forward, taking hold of Kyle's chin between his thumb and forefinger.

"Good boy, Kyle. Very good boy."