"Whoa, where are you going in such a hurry?" Yori asked Takumijo as he let Amaya out of the car at the front of the farmhouse.
"To get my car," Takumijo said. "It's Shaundra. We found her unconscious on the floor in her bedroom."
"What?" Yori asked, hopping out of the car.
"Satoshi is upstairs with her."
Amaya leaned against the railing on the porch. "It's probably from all those Valiums she pops," she said sarcastically.
Yori looked at his wife, dashed up the stairs past her and through the open front door. He ran up the stairs that led to the second floor bedrooms and toward Ichiro's rooms. He found Satoshi sitting on the floor next to Shaundra, stroking her forehead and holding her hand.
Satoshi looked up and saw him. "She won't wake up," he said, nearly in tears. "Where are Takumijo and that car?"
"No time," Yori said, staring down at Shaundra's pale face.
He bent over and scooped her up into his arms. "Come on. My car is parked out front." Yori turned and left the room, carrying Shaundra in his arms. He passed Amaya, who still stood on the stairs.
"What do you think you're doing, Yori?"
"Taking Shaundra to the hospital."
"She just needs her stomach pumped. Call an ambulance."
"Don't be so foolish," he told her. "She's barely breathing.
I can't wait on an ambulance."
Takumijo had arrived with his car.
"We'll take mine since it's bigger," Yori told him.
Takumijo nodded and reached into the window and turned his car off.
Satoshi opened the back door of Yori's car and stepped aside.
Yori bent into the car and laid Shaundra down across the backseat.
Satoshi climbed in and sat beside her. Yori ran around to the driver's seat, and Takumijo jumped into the front passenger's seat. Yori started the car and drove away from the farmhouse. He had to take her to the nearest hospital.
"Where's Ichiro?"
"I don't know," Takumijo answered. "He and Shaundra got into an argument earlier, and he hopped into his car and drove off."
Yori gasped. "Did he do this to her? I will kill his ass."
"No," Satoshi said. "Ich would never hit a woman."
"What were they arguing about?" he asked as he drove.
"You," Takumijo answered.
Figures. He'd probably seen their latest YouTube video.
"See if you can reach him by phone and tell him to meet us at the hospital."
Takumijo pulled out his cell phone and tried several time to reach Ich, but the calls went directly to voice mail. He left a message. "He's not answering. He must be really pissed."
"Are you guys sure he didn't touch her?"
"We can't be entirely sure because we weren't upstairs with them," Takumijo said. "But we know Ichiro. He would not hit a woman."
"You guys keep saying that, then why can't we reach him?" At the moment he didn't care about Ichiro's feelings.
He kept looking through his rearview mirror to the backseat of the car. Shaundra still hadn't woken, and poor Satoshi looked like he was about to spazz out. He still held her hand.
"Her fever has escalated," Satoshi announced. "She's burning up."
"We're about five minutes away from the hospital. She'll hang on...she's a fighter," Yori told him. Don't die, Shaundra.
"I've never seen her so still," Takumijo said, looking back at her. "She's always been a bundle of energy."
Satoshi bent over and kissed Shaundra on the lips.
"Hey, man," Takumijo warned. "That's Ich's wife."
"I don't care," Satoshi replied. "I may never get another chance to..." His voice faltered and broke.
Not good, Yori thought. Satoshi was the last one of them to get sentimental. Even Takumijo had his moments of weakness, but never Satoshi. He felt like a heel.
Shaundra body's suddenly jerked and convulsed.
"A woman never did that before when I kissed her,"
Satoshi spat out.
"Step on it, Yori," Takumijo told him. "She's may be in cardiac arrest."
The hospital appeared as Yori turned the corner. Takumijo jumped out of the car even before Yori brought it to a complete stop. He ran inside to get help. Two orderlies followed him back out. Shaundra's body was still not moving.
Yori almost had to pry Satoshi from Shaundra so the orderlies could get to her.
"What if she dies, man?" he asked with a sob.
"Then we're going to have one berserk six-feet-tall geisha to try to control."
The interns looked Shaundra over and then removed her from the backseat and put her onto a gurney.
Yori tried Ichiro's number as he walked to the admission section with Takumijo and Satoshi. It went straight to voice mail. Where was he?
Ichiro sat in his car outside the farmhouse for a long time, refusing to go in and face his wife. He was so embarrassed about how he'd acted. He'd been holed up at his restaurant all afternoon, getting on his brother's and sister's nerves pouring over books and checking supplies and making everyone miserable. Finally his brother sat him down and had a nice long talk with him about life and sent him back home to his wife.
The door opened and Cristal came running out. "Ich, where have you been? The guys have been trying to get in contact with you. They had to rush Shaundra to the hospital."
Ichiro literally felt the world stop revolving. "What? Call them and tell them I'm on my way." He started up the car.
He'd thought about checking his phone messages but decided against it, since he figured Satoshi and Takumijo would have given him the business from arguing with Shaundra. What had happened after he left? She had felt a little warm and her eyes were red, but she hadn't once told him that she didn't feel well. He pounded his hand against the steering wheel.
Idiot. Why would she tell you after what you said to her? He put his foot down on the accelerator, increasing his speed.
The nearest hospital was about ten minutes away. She'd better not die on him before he apologized.
After serious consideration, he'd realized that Shaundra would never cheat on him with Yori. Every day she tried to show him that she loved him with her mind, her touch and certainly her body. And she had chosen him over the more sexually advanced Yori and married him. She had given up her home, partial citizenship and left her kids to follow him to a country where she couldn't even speak the language. He felt like such a fool. It was just a dance, and had he not put his business before her, he would have been there to go clubbing with her.
Shaundra had never asked him for anything, but she had unselfishly given him her everything. If they made it through this, he promised that he'd be more attentive, less jealous and even apologize to Yori. Don't let her die, he prayed.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, and Ichiro quickly answered it. "Yes."
"Where the hell are you?" Satoshi. He sounded very upset.
"About five minutes away from the hospital."
"Get your ass here now. They're asking us questions we can't answer, and they can't do anything for Shaundra without a family member's signature."
"Tell them I'm on my way." He paused. "What happened?"
"No time to explain. Just get here to the emergency room." Satoshi hung up.
Ichiro looked down at his phone. He had twenty messages.
He was in deep trouble.
He didn't even remember parking his car or locking it.
Ichiro dashed into the emergency room and ran to the desk.
"My name is Ichiro Yoshida. My wife was just admitted."
The triage nurse looked at him oddly and then looked over toward the waiting room.
Ichiro looked around. Yori, Satoshi and Takumijo stood against the wall. They weren't even wearing disguises.
Yori nodded at the nurse. What the hell had happened when he left?
"Your wife is in pretty bad shape, Mr. Yoshida. We need you to fill out some forms and we need to see your insurance card."
He didn't have time for all of this. His wife could be dying behind those double doors. "What's wrong with her?"
"We don't know yet. She was brought in by those three gentlemen, and she hasn't regained consciousness yet. But we need your signature to perform tests."
Ichiro quickly scanned the medical documents while signing and initialing them. He pulled out his wallet and gave her his insurance card.
The nurse made a copy of the card and handed the original back to him.
"Can I see my wife now?"
"Not yet," the nurse told him. "You'll be able to see her as soon as the doctor finishes examining her. Please have a seat."
Takumijo walked over and led him away from the desk and to a seat. His heart pounded in his ears, and he couldn't concentrate. He'd nearly lost her once before. He couldn't keep doing this. "Will someone please tell me what happened to my wife?"
"We don't really know," Takumijo said. "We heard a loud noise upstairs right after you drove off. Satoshi and I ran upstairs and found her out cold on the floor. She had blood on her head and on her face."
Satoshi gasped. "Blood?"
"Yeah, the interns think she might have bumped her head when she passed out. She wasn't breathing real well when we found her. We couldn't wait for an ambulance. Yori had just arrived, and he put her into his car and we jettisoned her as fast as we could."
Ichiro started to hyperventilate. He put his head down between his legs and wrapped his hands around his knees. He should have been there for her. Instead Yori had to step in and handle things.
A hand touched his shoulders. "She's going to be okay." It was Yori.
Ichiro raised his head and stared at him. Concern showed in his eyes.
"She's a fighter and too damn cynical to die."
Tears welled in Ichiro's eyes, but he refused to let them fall, to let Yori see that he was weak and couldn't handle this devastating situation. "I can't lose her," Ichiro said. "I don't think I can go on without her."
Yori raised an eyebrow but did not comment at first. "The two of you had an argument?"
Ichiro nodded.
"What about?"
"That YouTube video...the one with you and Shaundra dancing very intimately. I said some terrible, hurtful things to her that I never should have said."
Yori moved closer. "I need to ask you something. You're a big guy. You didn't put your hands on her, did you? I mean, you didn't strike her, did you?"
Ichiro moved away from him. "No. What are you saying?
Shaundra is my wife."
"Okay, I just needed to ask. Sometimes people do stuff in a fit of rage. Did she seem ill?"
"Well, she was in bed asleep when I barged into our bedroom like a lunatic. Her eyes were kind of red and she felt warm."
"And you didn't ask her about her health?"
"Of course I did. But she backed away from me and told me not to touch her. She just sat back down on the bed, and I stormed out." His body shook with despair. "If I hadn't been so angry, maybe I would have noticed that she just didn't look well."
"You had no way of knowing, Ich."
"I should not have screamed at her. The doctor back in the United States told me not to stress her out."
"I can't imagine you getting angry enough to shout at her.
You must have really been upset about the video."
"What do you think? I know you're still in love with her. I can see it in your eyes every time you see her."
"It was just a dance, Ich, and I know how much she likes Silk. Granted it did get a bit heated between us, but she's a very sensuous woman. I just got caught up." He bowed.
"Forgive me. I will never do something so forward again."
The double doors opened before Ichiro could reply. A doctor came out. "Mr. Yoshida?"
Ichiro hopped to his feet with the other three with him.
"Your wife is awake."
"Can I see her?"
"I would like to talk with you before you do."
"What's wrong?" What did he want to talk about? Why couldn't he see Shaundra?
Yori and the others walked over. "You go with the doctor,"
Yori told him, being an adult. "We'll check on our sister-in- law."
"Don't upset her," the doctor told them.
Yori bowed. "I understand."
"My Yoshida," the doctor said, turning to Ichiro. "When was the last day of your wife's menses? How many children have she given birth to? What is her current medical condition? Does she take any medications?"
Ichiro looked back at his friends, who were trying hard not to listen. Yori walked toward the double doors, and Satoshi and Takumijo followed.
The doctor took him off to another room and questioned him for a long time.