Free Back to the Dream Sequel 2 Dreamland by Felicitas Ivey Page B

ain't Nippon. These people seem to be less civilized than they were."
    That wasn't too nice, but it was true. These people looked really rough, something I had never seen when we were at Tamazusa's place in what was called Nippon, which looked like it should have been in a bad samurai movie. They had been so civilized there it had made my head ache most of the time. Granted, that's what saved Murphy and Anya the ice bitch's ass when she had seriously pissed off that samurai with something she'd said to Wolf in Russian and exactly what Murphy had done after spending an afternoon with Tamazusa that ended with her dumping his ass back into the room under house arrest. But the politeness had been wearing on my nerves. I never knew what I would do to set Tamazusa off so she'd turn my insides into fuckin’ Jell-O. Not that I'd thought she would, since even the way I had acted was way better than Murphy and Anya had. Shit, I had been treating McGann the same way, so Tamazusa had probably figured out I hadn't been dissing her.
    "That is something that we can discuss later,” McGann told me.
    "Nippon?” Logan asked.
    I shrugged while Wolf looked... not pissed, but hurt. “I'll tell you later,” I promised. “Right now, let's go meet our new best friends."
    One of the big guys was looking at McGann funny. I was ready to reach out and smack him, while Wolf looked uneasy. “You're wearing men's clothing,” he finally said. “That's something of a taboo. I had forgotten about that."
    "Too late to tell them that she's your younger brother?” I asked. While she had long hair, she was kind of flat-chested for a woman. Not like the skinny chicks in Nippon, but she didn't have a lot of excess weight, really. I knew we couldn't have pulled something like that with Anya. The bitch was all woman and let everyone know it.
    Fuck, it figured Wolf knew about this shit. The guy was smarter and better educated than he let on. I was just glad someone had a clue and hoped that between him and Logan, we'd get out of this with our asses intact.
    There was some back and forth about it, and Wolf was looking more and more uncomfortable, until he barked something out that sounded like he was telling them to fuck off.
    "He can divorce her for that,” Logan sort of hissed at me while watching the argument between Wolf and the others to see if it was going to get nasty.
    I shrugged. “Not like they're really married. Can it be like a vow or something that she has to wear it? Hell, having her run around in pants makes me feel a lot better."
    "There were rules,” Wolf said when the argument was over. “I don't really remember the sagas. So I don't know how much trouble we're in. But I know that it can be bad that she's dressed like that."
    "We can always leave,” I said. “Just hang around until we have to go back or look for someone else. It don't matter to me either way, ‘cause I thought that this was a really stupid plan."
    * * * *
    We ended up in a small settlement on the edge of the ocean. There were a couple of fishing boats pulled up on the rocky beach and a collection of houses built out of dirt and grass. Pigs and goats were wandering around, and the place looked like it belonged on one of those ads for adopting a kid out of a Third World pest hole. Not that there weren't places in Boston looked worse than this, but this place was poor, and it showed.
    "Did I mention that I missed Tamazusa's place?” I asked the air. Wolf gave me a dirty look for that comment. Hell, the Nips might have been assholes some of the time, but they knew how to bathe, at least. I wasn't betting that there was going to be a daily bath in my future, from the looks of this place. Not that I was fanatic about stuff like that. It then dawned on me that I was sort of insulting Wolf's ancestors. “Shit, man, I liked the gardens and the cute chicks,” I said. “Not trying to diss your people or shit like that."
    Wolf nodded and relaxed. I wasn't going to remind him