Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

MADDOX

“What does he mean someone’s trying to kill him?” Yumi asks in alarm as she rushes after us, trying to figure out what just caused Hiro’s panic. “What’s going on?

“Just… stay here. Call the police…” Fuck. Call them and tell them what? I don’t know the location or anything. “I’ll call them.”

“And what if they don’t understand English?”

That’s a really good fucking question.

She runs after me, but I want her to stay back. Who knows how she’ll react if something’s happened? Or what if they’ve killed him? It was good thinking for Hiro to have him followed, but what if we’re too late?

It’s already dark out since we hadn’t gotten back until late, and Hiro is running ahead because that’s what he does even if I want him to stay back more than anything.

“Yumi, please, just stay here.”

“You said something happened to Hikaru. What happened?”

“I… don’t know. Please just stay here.”

“No! If you want me to call the police, I need to know where to send them,” she insists.

“Yumi, I need you to understand that this is my job, okay? So when we get close to the area, you’re going to go into a building and call the police and you’re going to stay there. You promise you’re not going to run to anyone or do anything? If you don’t listen, you could get in the way of someone who is trained to help him. Please?”

“Okay, yes, I’ll stay back. But what is happening?”

“I don’t know yet,” I say as I question how the fuck Hiro can run so fast when he never trains. I guess his training comes from running after ghosts in a panic. “Hiro, please let me handle it.”

I don’t even know if he hears me as he turns around a corner and out of sight. “Dammit, Hiro,” I growl as I turn the corner and watch him rush off into some kind of park or something. It’s a large area filled with trees where he finally stops and starts looking around.

“Here, somewhere here. Keaton said this is where he left them to come get me,” Hiro says, sounding a little out of breath as he glances every which way.

“Yumi, call the police, tell them the location and describe Hikaru. Also give them our descriptions and that we’re trying to help him,” I order. “Go in that store and promise me you’ll stay there.”

“There’s a phone on the ground,” she observes as she calls the police.

Yumi nudges it before I can stop her and the screen lights up. “It’s not his… someone messaged the phone owner. It says, ‘Have you done it yet?’ What is this?”

“Yumi, please.”

She nods, and I hear her answer something the police are saying as she gets farther away.

“Hiro, there’s blood on the ground,” I say, glad Yumi was farther away when I noticed it.

“I saw that. The ghosts are… everywhere. Let’s split up and search the area.”

“We’re not splitting up,” I say as I begin moving deeper into the area. The landscaping and trees are dense, only broken up by little buildings sprinkled around the area, making it impossible to clearly see anything. Hikaru could have run for the street, but if the killer was planning on finishing him off, he’d likely have driven him in deeper.

“He could be hurt, and we could save him if we’re fast enough, Maddox. I kept… I kept being suspicious of him when I should have realized something was going to happen to him. The ghosts knew. We can cover more ground if we split up.”

“We’re not splitting up.”

“I’ll have Reggie and Natalie searching ahead of me. If I get close, they’ll warn me, and I swear I will back off, Maddox. I will fucking back off, okay? Please.”

“Hiro…” I hate this idea with a passion.

“Maddox, please. I won’t go far. I’ll stay in your sight, okay?”

“Reggie, you better not let him get hurt,” I demand.

“He said he won’t. He promises,” Hiro says as he turns from me.

Anxiety deepens inside me, and I know I’ve made a mistake letting him go, but we’d save so much time splitting apart from each other. It makes me feel better that Keaton is with him and will keep him away from danger. And he shouldn’t get so far that I can’t see him.

I don’t have a gun on me, and the likelihood that the attacker does is honestly pretty slim since we’re in Japan. The laws around guns are extremely strict, and while that doesn’t guarantee the person doesn’t have a gun, it would make it extremely hard for them to have obtained one.

Since I don’t have any type of weapon on me, I see a branch on the ground and grab it. I wish it wasn’t getting so dark, making it even harder to see, but I suppose the darkness could have helped Hikaru. I move carefully, knowing that if I’m erratic or rushing, I might miss something, scare the attacker off, or put myself and Hiro into a bad situation. I put my phone on vibrate but keep it in my left hand in case Hiro needs me, and I hope he did the same.

Knowing him, he tossed it off somewhere so he has both hands free for who knows what, and then will be stuck relying on ghosts to call me.

When I reach the door of the first building, I realize there’s blood on it. Careful not to disrupt it, I turn the handle but find that it’s locked, likely what Hikaru saw as well. This also tells me that one of them is injured and bleeding.

My phone beeps and I glance down at it.

Hiro: A ghost said they saw two men running your way about five minutes ago. She said they were heading south.

Me: Okay.

I start heading toward the next structure, a pavilion that seems to be completely open besides the solid half wall along the sides and a giant bell held up in the middle. Around the edges would be a good spot for either of them to be hiding, so I’m careful when I come up, moving quietly as I slide around the edge to get a look.

Movement snaps my attention over to where I see Hikaru jump up and stumble.

“Shh, it’s Maddox, get back down,” I say as I head toward him. I don’t want Hikaru moving too much to keep the blood pooling beneath him to a minimum.

“He stabbed me. He’s out here,” he says, panic filling his words.

“Do you know where?”

“No… no.”

I grab his hand and press it hard against the wound on his side. “Keep pressure. You need pressure here.”

His hand grows slack, and I realize he’s close to passing out.

“Hikaru, pressure.”

“I can’t! I can’t!”

“Shhh,” I say, needing him to keep quiet.

“He’s out here. He’s out here,” he repeats, not even cognizant enough to realize that he’s being loud. He’s panicking and is likely in shock, which is keeping him from thinking through the situation.

“Hikaru, come on,” I say as the sound of leaves shaking breaks the quiet night.

It’s such a loud sound that I turn quickly and see a shadow coming at me. A baseball bat slams into the pillar right where my head would have been if I hadn’t moved when I did. He must have been using the noise Hikaru was making to sneak up on me. He’s wearing a mask, is clothed in black, and has a knife in his left hand and a baseball bat in his right.

Dammit, I wish I had my gun or a taser at the very least. Who the fuck would have thought I’d have needed it on vacation? Then again… I’m on vacation with Hiro, and that man is drawn to trouble.

“Put the weapons down. The police are on their way,” I order.

He ignores me, rushing straight for me as he swings the bat, but I can see he’s poised with the knife. He’s trying to draw my attention to the bat while he plans to stab me in the side. Hell, it’s likely the move he used on Hikaru.

I throw the stick up to take the brunt of the attack but step back so the knife won’t have the reach it needs. The bat is knocked back, but he keeps coming at me. I swing the stick over his arm, trying to use it to disarm his right hand, but it snaps the instant I put pressure on it.

The man presses in, well aware that he now has better reach compared to me, even if he doesn’t have height on me. He seems to know what he’s doing when it comes to fighting, and it’s making it hard to get the upper hand. But I have to keep him away from Hikaru and keep him from hurting me until the police arrive.

He’s trying to drive me back, corner me so I can’t avoid the swing from his bat. I throw part of the stick at him, and when he dodges it, I try to go back in, this time for the knife, but he’s quick to recover.

That’s the moment the man is torn back like he’s being choked, a howl escaping him as he’s driven backwards by a force invisible to me and him. But I’m sure it’s not invisible to Hiro, who is standing a few feet away.

The man recovers quickly, but it’s all the time I need to lock his arm down and force him to drop the knife. I kick it out of the way and Hiro kicks it back even farther as I force the man to drop the baseball bat. I use my shoulder to drive him down, knocking him to the ground and onto his stomach as I pull both arms back and pin them against his back.

He’s yelling something at me in Japanese before he switches to English just to call me a “fucking asshole,” like I’m the one out here stabbing people.

“Hiro, Hikaru needs attention. Quickly, please.”

Hiro rushes forward and over to Hikaru as the attacker bucks and thrashes beneath me. He can’t get up, but he’s sure determined to try. I can hear Hiro on the phone with Yumi who is likely still on the line with the police.

“Tell them we’re in the area with the bell. We need immediate medical attention. Yumi, please don’t panic, just inform them now,” Hiro says, voice calm.

“How is he?” I ask when he hangs up.

“He’s bleeding really badly. How do we get them here faster?”

“I think I hear someone,” I say. “Over here!” I shout. “Here!”

The beam from a flashlight hits me as they say something in Japanese that I don’t understand, but they’re wearing police uniforms, telling me that help has finally arrived. But I keep my knees on the man’s back and hold my hands up so they’re aware that I’m of no concern.

“There’s a man in there that needs immediate medical attention. Stab wound in the abdomen. Bleeding profusely,” I announce.

There are two officers, and one splits off to check as the other comes toward me and takes over, motioning for me to back off, which I do.

“I’m informed you are homicide?” he asks, telling me Yumi must have told him that.

“Yeah, I am. US, Clinton PD. He had two weapons. A knife and a baseball bat which I’ve pushed over there,” I say as I nod.

“You can put your hands down,” he responds as I see more people coming.

Hiro walks over to me, hands coated in blood. “My heart… I think it’s racing out of my chest, and I didn’t even brawl with the guy. And you… you just look like this was a standard walk in the park.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Definitely not standard. I’m just good at making my face look like everything’s okay. He was bleeding pretty badly.”

“Yeah. Very badly,” Hiro says before giving me an anxious look. “How bad is it?”

“I don’t know,” I admit before squeezing his shoulder. “But you did good, Hiro. Keaton too. Is Keaton here?”

“Yeah.”

“And whoever rustled that damn tree,” I say, not wanting to admit that I might not have won that fight if they hadn’t. “And whoever choked him out.”

“Reggie choked him. I… don’t know about the tree. There were a ton of ghosts rushing over here, which is how I found you. I wonder if it was the collection of them being near me? I don’t know, but I’m glad it alerted you.”

“Me too.” I’m not willing to admit that this might have turned out much differently if it hadn’t happened.