"I'm just trying to get by," Neil said, squeezing his arms so tight across his chest he thought he'd crush his own lungs. "If I'd known our families were business partners I wouldn't have signed the contract."

Riko stopped so close to him they were touching, and it took all Neil had in him to not lean away. Neil hadn't realized before that they were almost the same height. Riko's Japanese genes had betrayed him just as Neil's tiny mother had betrayed Neil. Riko might be short, but he radiated power and lethal malevolence. The two inches between the strikers felt like twenty.

"You're lying," Riko said.

"I am not." Neil hated the thread of desperation that worked its way into his voice. "I don't want to cause any trouble for your family. I don't want you to cause any trouble for mine. I'm just here for a year and then I'm gone again, I promise."

"You don't want to cause any trouble for my family," Riko echoed, as if hearing them a second time would make them easier to understand. "You have already cost my family a sizable fortune and eight years of trouble."

"How?" Neil asked. "The money I took was my father's."

"If you think acting stupid will save you, you are sadly mistaken."

"I'm not acting," Neil said, finally giving in and taking a step back. "My mother said it was my father's money. She never even told me about you. If I'd known the money was yours—"

"Nothing your father owned was his!" Riko snapped.

Neil's words died in his throat. He stared blankly at Riko. Riko stared back at him, looking for deceit on his face. Whatever he found only served to infuriate him further. Riko grabbed Neil by his shoulders and slammed him into the wall. Neil's head hit hard enough to rattle his teeth.

"I refuse to believe she never told you. All that time running and you never asked why?"

Neil gave Riko an incredulous look. "Have you met my father? I didn't have to ask."

A door banged open down the hall, and Matt called Neil's name. They only had seconds before he found them, but that was enough time for Riko to lean in. He kept his voice down but packed a world of venom into his words.

"You were not running from your father, Nathaniel. You were running from his master."

The thought of anyone keeping the Butcher on a leash was insane. "He didn't have one."

Riko pushed back, putting space between them right before Matt rounded the corner. Matt leveled a furious look at Riko as he moved up alongside Neil. "What is going on here?"

Neil ignored him and insisted, "He didn't have one."