When Tomi Hadley and his brother, Ren, make fun of their Japanese-born mom's annual Setsubun bean-throwing celebrations, she's furious. She warns them that their ridicule of her folkloric beliefs could be deadly. As if to prove her words, shortly after leaving her house, the two men are almost killed in a car accident by a hit-and-run driver.
Tomi's whole world collapses. Worried about his brother, whose injuries are severe, Tomi struggles to put the pieces of his life back together. This is nearly impossible, however, since he loses his dream job due to his inability to work, and then there's his mom's insistence that oni, Japanese demons, caused the collision.
But one day, when Tomi sees a man washing his car on the street, he realizes it's the same vehicle that caused the accident—a classic red sports car called a Crimson Cat. And the driver, the surprisingly handsome attorney Dusty Grayson, seems to be a man of hidden depth and many, many secrets...
Dusty stared at him. “I can’t go on any…witness stand. I’m sorry, Really, I am.”
Tomi wanted to scream. He finally said, “Yeah, me, too.” He turned and gave the two cops sitting across the street a thumbs-down sign just as Simon came out, drink in hand, a bartender following him.
“Sir, you can’t drink outside,” the bartender was saying. Simon shoved the guy back, hard, against the window, the drink splashing all over him and Dusty.
Dusty reached out to steady the bartender as Simon lunged at Tomi with the near-empty glass.
“I’ll show you!” He screamed. “Get the fuck away from my man!”
His arm rose high and started to come down, but Dusty gripped Simon’s hand, yelling at him.
“Simon! Stop it!”
The cops came running and took Simon down. He was a livewire, for sure.
“You okay?” Dusty asked the bartender.
“Yeah. Fine.” He glanced at Tomi and slipped back inside.
Tomi knew the bartender was the DEA officer who was working undercover. Simon, who clearly hadn’t spent enough time living in LA to know that resisting a cop here was virtual suicide, was kicking, screaming and generally letting his charges multiply, was subdued finally by four cops and a couple of zaps from a Taser.
He screamed blue murder as they hauled him away.
“You call my dad!” Simon screamed at Dusty. “Don’t you leave me in there!” He then let loose with the chilling words, “I know what you did!”…
People Also Bought:
