HAN: Her Ruthless Mistake: 50 Loving States, Delaware (Ruthless Triad Book 4)

by Theodora Taylor

  My Fae King was there, holding Delun by the hair as he’d held me with one hand. And the other hand had a knife at his brother’s throat.

  No more English.

  Han spoke in guttural Cantonese. And Delun did the same—though his voice was a lot higher. He seemed to be pleading for his life.

  But then Han said something that made Delun start screaming words I did understand. “Cheng bat yiu! Cheng bat yiu!”

  Please don’t! He screamed that over and over again.

  Meanwhile, Han transferred the hand in his brother’s hair to the front of Delun’s pants.

  What was he doing? I blinked at Han’s weird actions, not understanding.

  Until suddenly, I did.

  His brother screeched even louder than he’d screamed as he fell to his knees, spurting blood from his now dickless groin.

  I watched, mesmerized as Han climbed on top of his brother and stopped his screeching with a punch. Then another. And another. So many punches until Delun lay dead, his face a mess of blood, bone, and skin.

  Then finally, Han stood up like an animal rising from a kill.

  And looked at me.

  He was covered in his brother’s blood. The dick he’d sliced off lying just a few feet away.

  I didn’t care.

  I didn’t care.

  I rushed into his arms. And he caught me.

  Like the perfect wave.

  Epilogue

  “I don’t care if that criminal saved you from those gangsters who faked your death. I still don’t like him,” Mika said when she came over to join me on her and Rashid’s huge lanai, where the reception for Dawn and Victor’s wedding was currently popping off in the background.

  I sighed as she carefully lowered herself and her six months pregnant belly into the chair beside where I was feeding Victor’s and Dawn’s baby, Joi, a bottle.

  “Mika, don’t,” I begged. “I’ve almost got her asleep.”

  Also, my usually loving and understanding sister had already made her feelings about Han known on more than one occasion. Including between tears of happiness when she discovered I was alive…then punched him straight in the nose while yelling that it was all his fault.

  Yaron, the Lacerdas, the few 24Ks K Diamond had been able to retain…

  The list of people Han killed to get to me that fateful day was in the double digits. But in our many long conversations afterward, he’d confessed to me that Mika had been the one name on his original list of targets that he hadn’t been able to kill.

  Because she was an innocent. Even more, because she was my sister.

  But he’d felt so guilty about everything that had happened after our fateful meeting, he probably would have let Mika beat him up if I hadn’t pulled her off of him.

  “I’m just saying you’re lucky Keane asked Rashid to host Dawn and Victor’s wedding and not Han. I would have been like heck no if I knew he was connected to the guy who got you kidnapped twice and made you move to Delaware right after I moved back to Hawaii!”

  The face she made when she said Delaware had me wondering if she considered that way worse than my two kidnappings.

  “He didn’t make me. He asked,” I gently reminded her. “And I said yes because I love him.”

  “How can you love a guy who made you give up Hawaii and all your hopes and dreams about starting a surf school?”

  I had to admit that question panged in my chest, pressing on parts of my heart I’d been trying to ignore during my five months in Delaware.

  Luckily, Rashid chose that moment to roll up in his wheelchair.

  “Sayonee, be nice,” he advised. “Your sister is only here for a few days, and you have already made your feelings about this event quite clear. Why I’ve barely seen Han all day, I think he’s afraid to come near you.”

  That was true. Han had to attend the wedding as one of Victor’s best men, but he’d told me he’d do whatever he could to avoid Mika this morning. Five months of peace hadn’t calmed her down like my parents. If anything, distance had made her heart grow even more bitter toward my husband.

  “I hope he does try to talk to me,” Mika answered Rashid, her voice low and sinister. “I’ve got a frying pan with his name on it.”

  “Where is this bloodthirst coming from?” I placed a cloth over my shoulder and raised Joi for a burp just like Dawn showed me a couple of days ago—after squeeing a whole bunch about why I’d volunteered for wedding and reception babysitting duties.

  Han and I had decided to remove my implant a few weeks ago, and it was low-key killing me that I still hadn’t broken the news to Mika because I knew how she’d respond.

  “I miss my sweet sister,” I told her for more reasons than one.

  “A divorce announcement would bring her right on back,” Mika guaranteed.

  “Why don’t you tell us the story of the bride and groom,” Rashid suggested. “I am curious about these two people who just had to be married on May 25th.”

  Good idea, actually.

  By the time I was done with Dawn and Victor’s epic story, Mika had to admit, “Well, that puts a lot more perspective on your situation with Han.”

  “I know, right?” I agreed, shaking my head.

  “Is there a word that means being happy that other people’s relationship stories are even more drama-filled than yours?” Rashid asked, taking Mika’s hand. “Something like the German word, schadenfreude?”

  “Schadendrama?” I suggested with a thoughtful tip of my head.

  Rashid clasped his hands. “Yes, I am feeling much schadendrama after hearing that story!”

  We all chuckled, and it felt good to be laughing with my sister instead of having to endure another harsh take on my marriage.

  But then, Mika asked, “So wait, if Victor’s and Dawn’s marriage was fake, do you think yours and Han’s might be too?”

  I froze at her question. Then said, “Excuse me, I need to go give back this baby and find my maybe not-husband.”

  PHANTOM

  “Is our marriage fake?” Jazz demanded, interrupting Phantom’s conversation with Han at the groom’s table.

  She looked mad as hell, but of course, Han went all moony-eyed at the sight of her holding a baby.

  “Hell, no,” Phantom answered on his honorary cuz’s behalf. Because the thing was, with Han laid up, he’d been the one who’d had to bust his ass last September to make that shit legal. Victor’s fake marriage had been easy in comparison.

  Han’s tone was a lot gentler when he got out of his seat to ask, “Where is this coming from?”

  “I don’t know.” Jazz softened out of her defensive stance. “I was talking to Mika, and she got in my head.”

  “Jasmine.” Han tilted his head and reached up to cup her face on the side of her body that didn’t currently have a sleeping baby. “You know she hates me.”

  “I know,” Jazz answered with a laugh. “I’m being stupid. We’re good. I’m sure of it.”

  “Yes, we are good and happy and so many other things I would not have been able to imagine before I met you,” Han agreed, his voice emphatic AF.

  But then he smirked and asked, “Were you really very upset at the thought of not being married to me?”

  “I mean, yeah….” Jazz rolled her eyes at his smug tone. “But don’t go getting a big head about it.”

  “Oh, I am getting a big head,” Han assured her. “We will sneak into the house, and I will show you just how big my head is getting at the thought of how much you want to truly be my wife.”

  That was all the warning Phantom got before Jazz transferred Victor’s spawn into his arms, and Han and his wife ran hand-and-hand off toward the house.

  Leaving him behind with the sleeping baby.

  He’d never actually held her before. And it wasn’t…

  Well, it wasn’t horrible. His baby cousin was kind of cute. Dawn’s face and Victor’s serious eyes—like, don’t sleep on me just because I’m cute, bitch. I could be The Silent Tria
d’s first woman Dragon someday.

  He thought about his fiancée and found himself wondering what it would be like to have a kid with—

  The baby’s eyes suddenly popped open, and her alarmed wail cut off all those thoughts of having a kid of his own one day.

  Phantom panicked. How did you turn this thing off? What was wrong with her? Was it hunger making her cry? Shit in her diaper? Or maybe she just didn’t like him the same as her mother?

  Luckily, Victor came through like a superhero and took the ticking bomb back with a signed, “Thanks, Phantom.”

  Joi immediately calmed down when she was back in her father’s arms, so odds were it was waking up to Phantom’s mean mug that pissed her off.

  Whatever….

  Without Han to talk to or a baby to defuse, Phantom was kind of on his own, so he got up and went out to the beach to stare at the ocean for a while. Funny how spending so much time in a landlocked state with his fiancée had made him truly appreciate this shit.

  Still, he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman who hadn’t been able to make it to the wedding. Eventually, he pulled out his phone and called her—like, actually called her instead of texting because he wanted to hear her voice.

  But all he got was her telling him to leave a voicemail.

  “Fuck, I’m not good at voicemail,” he told her after the beep. “I’m in Hawaii without you. And the ocean’s beautiful, but it doesn’t have anything on you. So I guess I’m just calling to say I….”

  So many words trembled on his tongue, including one that might have started with L. But in the end, he opted for, “I miss you. That’s all. See you tomorrow.”

  Okay, time to go, he decided after he hung up. Dancing wasn’t his thing, and everyone was on the villa’s huge-ass lanai getting down to one of those Justin Bieber songs Dawn liked so much.

  But just as he was planning to ghost out without saying goodbye, a blood-curdling scream cut across the party. And it came from inside the house where Jazz and Han had been headed the last time he saw them.

  Phantom immediately sprang into action, and he reached the inside part of the house at the same time as Jazz’s sister.

  “What happened?” she asked, her eyes full of fear. “Did somebody…”

  She couldn’t even finish that sentence. Considering what happened to her sister in December, Phantom couldn’t blame her. He was wondering the exact damn thing.

  He looked all around for Han and Jazz, but the house had gone quiet. Where were they?

  As if in answer to her question, Han and Jazz came tumbling out from someplace behind the stairs.

  Someplace that probably had a mattress, judging on their appearance. Jazz’s hair was a mess, and the shirttails of Han’s immaculate tux were untucked with the bow tie missing in action.

  They both stopped short when they saw Phantom, Mika, and just about half the damn wedding party gathered at the edge of the lanai.

  “Jazz! Did you two just—” Again, Mika cut off. But this time, it was because she was so disgusted. “In our bed?”

  “No!” Jazz answered, ducking her head under her hand…before peeking out to tell her brother-in-law. “Nice office, Rashid.”

  Mika made an outraged sound that was somewhere between a strangled choke and a banshee wail.

  And Phantom demanded, “Da fuck made you scream like that?”

  “This is my fault.” Han pushed Jazz behind him, like the protective asshole he’d become ever since he made her marry him. “I gave her some good news, and she was very happy, perhaps too happy to hear it.”

  “What could possibly….” Mika started to ask.

  “We’re coming back to Hawaii. For good!” Jazz answered before her sister could finish the question. “I’m going to take over Bill’s surfing school and camp. And Han bought a house for us in Haleiwa!”

  Mika gasped. Then she screamed even louder than Jazz, even though Phantom knew for one hundred percent that she hated her brother-in-law.

  Then the both of them started screaming together. And for some reason, everyone at the party began congratulating Han and Jazz like they hadn’t just scared the shit out of them.

  Phantom had to walk away at that point. He would either shoot them or himself if he had to listen to much more of this.

  His phone started ringing just as he made it to one of the many Infinitis parked outside Rashid Zamin’s mega villa.

  And Phantom’s mood immediately lightened when he saw his fiancée’s name pop up on the Caller ID.

  “Hey…” he started to say.

  “Hak-kan...”

  Phantom stilled. She was calling him by his Chinese name, and she sounded upset.

  She was over four thousand miles away, and she was upset.

  “What’s going on?” Phantom demanded. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, no, I’m fine,” she answered. Though the tears in her voice told him she wasn’t. “It’s just—I’m sorry, but I can’t…I can’t marry you.”

  What?! Oh no, what happened.

  Find out in the last Ruthless Triad book.

  Click here for Phantom’s story.

  And thank you so, so much for reading HAN: Her Ruthless Mistake!

  I’ve been wanting to tell this story ever since a very non-outlined Han popped up in the rough draft of Mika’s and Rashid’s book. I’m so glad he insisted that Jasmine was the one for him. And it was wonderful to get back to Hawaii, my second favorite state after California—also, I got to cross Delaware off my 50 Loving States list. Yay!

  I’m super excited to close out the series with Phantom, who’s been grousing at me for years to tell his story.

  Have you guessed who his fiancée is? Let me know on Facebook!

  And, if you loved Han and Jazz, you’ll really love Bair and Thel from Her Russian Beast. Keep reading for a sneak peek.

  Sneak Peek at HER RUSSIAN BEAST

  HIM: She showed up in my dark world and pulled me into her light. And then she ran away. For six long years she kept herself hidden from me. She is my wife. My siren. My everlasting obsession. Did she really think I would just let her go?

  Nyet.

  She belongs to me, and now that I have found her, I will make her pay for destroying me.

  HER: He’s the domineering monster I had to escape. The only place him and me work right is in bed. And now that he’s found me, he’s determined to take every scrap of dignity I have left.

  So why can’t I stop wanting him? Needing him? Aching for him?

  He’s my husband. My keeper. My Russian Beast. And I don’t have a chance in the world of getting out of our twisted relationship with my heart intact.

  1

  “HEY! Hey! Hey, Beast, look at me! Look at me!”

  His vision cleared, and the world came swimming back to him on a drunken wave of adrenaline and anger. He emerged from the Darkness to find himself in a hot concrete basement. The place reeked of blood and sweat, and a circle of yelling men surrounded him.

  But in front of him stood a girl. A vision of loveliness with dark tumbling curls, golden brown skin, and eyes the color of champagne.

  “Hey, Beast, welcome back,” she said with a teasing smile.

  Behind her, the crowd booed, same as they always did every place he fought. He wasn’t the pretty guy in the underground fighting movie who fought Goliath and won. He was Goliath, the villain everybody wants to see brought down. He was used to hearing his fight name get cursed in every language, but this crowd’s booing seemed especially loud.

  And now that the Darkness had receded, he could see four bodies on the floor. One a bloody pulp. The other three knocked out cold. That explained the booing. The other three must have tried to pull him off the bloody pulp and gotten K.O.ed for their efforts. Which meant the men who’d bet against him hadn’t just lost money on this fight, but on the next three, too.

  He knew this not because he was particularly adept at reading underground fight scenes, but because it had happened before. Enough ti
mes that he now knew exactly what had happened, even though he’d gone Dark.

  But there were still other fighters left. He could sense them even if he couldn’t see them in the messy circle of disappointed cowards who’d hoped to win big tonight with their pretty underdogs. Yes, he was back, and he was ready to fight again.

  He raised a gloved fist and started to call out for another fighter to approach him.

  “Wait, wait! Hold up!”

  The girl got in front of him again, and to his shock, she laid her small hands on his arms. As if it were just the two of them in this dark basement and she was pulling him in for an intimate conversation.

  “Stay with me here for a little bit, okay?” Her voice compelled him. Made him want to do as she asked for a second or two.

  But she wasn’t a fight. And he needed another fight.

  Nose flaring, he swung his gaze away from her, scanning the crowd for someone else to fight. And he spotted him. Tall and wide with a Greek nose and jawline, his next challenger was dressed in fight shorts and sparring gloves, which meant he probably knew a few different fight styles. A worthy opponent, even if he was currently talking to Cyrus, the Greek who ran this basement fight gig, shaking his head in a way that insinuated he had no wish to be The Russian Beast’s next victim.

  As he watched the fighter try to talk his way out of the match, the Darkness compelled him forward, blanking his mind of everything but the need to put his gloves on something. To hear the music of cracking bones beneath his fists. He pulled away from the girl and started toward Cyrus and the reluctant fighter…

  Only to find the girl in front of him again.

  “Hey, hold up! Hold up!” she said, putting her hands on his chest this time. “What you trying to do? Get me fired?”