Betrothed To The Brotherhood

Not A Professor

“Mr. Zhao,” a man bowed lowly to the impressive figure sitting behind the clear glass desk overlooking the night sky of New York. “The family was found exactly where you said they would be.”

“Thank you,” he nodded once without glancing up from his computer screen, his fingers tightening on the mouse in his hand.

Fury was still coursing through his veins as he considered his little Iris had done the unthinkable and was out looking for trouble. Had she flirted with the boys in the bar? He had been playing the long game, making sure she felt completely comfortable with him before he pounced. Now he was going to have to move up his plans. He had to admit he had been chomping at the bit for a long time, but he’d kept himself focused with work.

A mocking voice in his head laughed, “work and m**********g to photos and videos of Iris.”

“Hung Bo,” he spoke to the man waiting further instruction. “There is a bar outside of our offices which does happy hour on Friday nights. Earlier this evening, Ms. Parker and her friends went in and had drinks, yet it wasn’t reported to me by the men who are assigned to her. I want to know why. Deal with them for failing to report. Also, I want to know the name of every person she was with, who spoke with her, what she spoke about and every single detail of their interactions. I want the video surveillance and if the bar doesn’t have any, find any evidence of anyone who took her photo, video, image and uploaded it anywhere. I want to know what she was doing, who she was doing it with and if she was at risk.”

“Yes sir.” The man waited to be dismissed knowing from his employer’s stance he wasn’t done speaking yet.

“And clear my schedule for tomorrow afternoon at four. I’ll be meeting Ms. Parker for coffee.” As his assistant’s eyes bulged before he quickly regained his composure, he stood up and swung his coat over his shoulders. “Get me an ugly sweater vest, bifocals and have your sister bring me the make-up she uses to cover her tattoos when she goes for job interviews,” he held up the hand he had which had the stamp of his affiliation proudly displayed on his skin. “Can’t have the poor child thinking her Mandarin teacher is in a Chinese gang now, can we?”

“You’re going to meet her as her tutor?”

“Yes. She wants to be wooed, Bo. Let’s see if I can’t make the transition to the next phase in her life slightly less,” he searched for the word as he exited his office and was immediately flanked by six of his most powerful men, “taxing, than I think it will be. American girls with their demands for equality, rights and expecting to be a partner in their marriage. She will need a re-education but let’s start with a softer approach for now.”

“Of course, sir,” the man swallowed any objections he might have had to the blunt misogyny his employer was spouting. His boss was the leader of the Obsidian Brotherhood. Forgiveness and understanding when he was wronged were not in his repertoire. Anyone who crossed this man was in for a world of hurt and none of it was delivered without painstaking deliberation and prolonged torture.

As they entered the elevator to take them to the rooftop, Jun inhaled impatiently. “The family does not know we located them?”

“No. Your interactions with the girl have allowed you to solicit the information. It truly was an act of genius on your part to infiltrate the online college where she was registered to take the online program to learn the language.”

“Getting the hit of her mother’s name on the application form was a stroke of luck. Who knew bigotry and bias would get us the sliver of information we needed to get to the girl? What kind of college insists one parent be a hundred percent Chinese before allowing them to register to learn to speak the language? It is mere bullshit to try to limit our language and culture to those only born in our home country.”

“Odder still, which college asks for the name of the birth parents and location of their birth but not the current address?”

“An online teaching forum has no need for physical address,” he shrugged carelessly as the doors to the rooftop opened. He exited walking quickly towards the waiting chopper. “It took me ten months to get her to tell me where she worked and finding out she was a receptionist in my own building was shocking. Learning she had been living on her own in a crappy little apartment in a New York slum for the last three years with barely any interaction with her parents was mind boggling. They moved to America to protect her, yet they’ve left her to the wolves.” He was the wolf who was going to gobble up the sacrificial lamb.

“It’s not wolves Mei Parker fears.” Bo gave a short laugh.

“Which is even more surprising for them to leave her alone in the city. It’s not as if I keep my name hidden. We’ve always had offices here but my relocation to New York was covered by the press. They know I’m here. Why let her live alone?”

“They watch her though. We confirmed her friend is paid a lump sum monthly to send a weekly report via email with photos and updates. Mei has been careful to hide her location even online.”

He paused recalling what Iris had said as he was hanging up. “She lied to me tonight.”

“Did she?”

“Mm.” He was completely stopped as a thought occurred to him in light of the fact her attendance to a bar went unreported. “Or perhaps she didn’t. She said she heard her parents coming into her apartment. The men who were supposed to be watching her tonight didn’t report in. I’m wondering who would be foolish enough to disregard their orders. If they weren’t watching her at the bar, perhaps they weren’t watching her apartment and if they weren’t watching her apartment, they weren’t able to report to me the comings and goings of the people in the complex. Is it possible, someone got lazy, and Mei and the American are in the area visiting her?”

Bo’s footsteps faltered as he regarded his boss. “I will verify this myself, sir.”

“If they did not do their jobs, you know the penalty for them.” Jun didn’t care one of the men assigned to watch over Iris was the nephew of his PA.

“I will handle it myself, sir.”

An angry hiss escaped his lungs at the notion he’d been disobeyed. Nobody ignored his commands. “See it is handled correctly. There are things I will not forgive and deliberately disobeying my orders is one, especially when it comes to the woman who will be their queen and give them their next king.” His words were measured as he made his way to the chopper and slipped into the front seat beside his pilot.

As the helicopter lifted from the landing pad of his building he looked to his phone and sent a quick message on the messaging app. “Coffee. Four tomorrow. City Café. Don’t be late.”

He pocketed his phone and leaned back in the seat and stared at the city below. It wouldn’t be long now. Mei Parker had made him an enemy by leaving him at the altar to run away with the older American man who had gotten her pregnant. For more than a thousand years, the eldest son of the Zhao family was promised to marry the first daughter hailing from a specific town and born under the next full moon following the son’s birth. The daughter was meant to be a blessing and a gift to ensure richness and prosperity and to provide a gentle counterbalance to the rough brutality of the Zhao men. The moment the wife of the current ruler of the Zhao family was declared pregnant, the women of the village vied to get pregnant in order for their potential daughter to be born. It was an honor and privilege for the daughter to be betrothed to the eldest Zhao son. Not to mention the entire family would be plucked from the town following the marriage and given a life of richness and prosperity. It was the American version of winning a lottery.

From the time he was a small boy, he’d known he was to marry Mei. She had been born exactly one month after he had been. He hadn’t particularly liked her and felt she was a bit homely and plain and incredibly whiny. She also wasn’t very smart by normal standards. She had no backbone and while being gentle was a trait the women in her town had been pushed to become, she had taken subservience to a disappointing level.

As a teenager he had been more than a bit of a d**k and he’d once strolled into the town to collect debts owed to his father and to show off to his crew, had ordered the young girl to lick his shoes. Mei hadn’t even hesitated. She’d dropped immediately intending to kiss his feet and swipe her tongue along the leather of his shoes. That she hadn’t even balked for a millisecond had never stood well with him. He’d stopped her before she’d actually touched his foot with her mouth, but his disdain had grown from there.

Her lack of any self respect had made him cringe, yet his father insisted her ability to do whatever was asked of her was going to be an eventual blessing. However, she had thrown everyone for a loop. The sweet, complacent girl whose family was ready to sell her to the devil in order to gain richness and prosperity, had disappeared on the morning of the wedding, with nothing more than a hastily penned note saying she was in love and pregnant with an American man’s child.

His father had been pissed at the dishonor and the potential of misfortune befalling the family by her failing to join their bloodlines. He had wanted blood from the family in exchange for the failed merging of the two families.

Jun, however had a different plan. Revenge. If Mei’s pregnancy resulted in a son, the child would die as a blood sacrifice. If it was a girl, she would take her mother’s place. All which was needed for the story to be fulfilled was the bloodline of the first daughter be merged with his. Her daughter could be her stand in.

Ten years after she had gone missing, he’d found her, but no sooner had she been discovered in Freemont, California, she had disappeared again. But not before he’d found out she’d had a girl.

His father felt the period of bad luck he’d had, including his prostate cancer, was a result of the dishonor which Mei had bestowed on the Zhao family. Cancer had never struck the family in a thousand years. He had immediately agreed to the alternative Jun had proposed. Only merging the two families would fix the bad luck.

Jun didn’t feel even remotely superstitious. For twenty-five years, he had been focused on nothing but taking back what was his. He didn’t want Mei though. He wanted her to suffer. He wanted her to know the child, the product of her betrayal, was going to pay her debt. However more importantly, he wanted Iris. He’d caught her scent in Freemont when she’d been a child. He’d wanted to take her and keep her safe and hidden from the rest of the world. The beast he was had found his ultimate treasure, a perfect light counterpart to his dark black heart.

He smirked as his phone dinged, dragging him from his memories.

“Great. See you then.”

Silly little Iris didn’t know what she was walking into.