Free Shinobi (A Katana Novel) by Cole Gibsen Page A

him.”
    “Tell him what?” Q asked, walking into my room with two steaming mugs of coffee. If he was surprised to find me chatting it up with Whitley, he didn’t show it. After handing me a mug, he sipped his own coffee, keeping his eyes on Whitley.
    Whitley smirked. “She’s not going to tell Kim the three of us are teaming up again!” He rubbed his hands together. “Isn’t it exciting?”
    Q looked at me with raised eyebrows. “That’s not exactly the word I would use to describe it.”
    “I have a few choice words myself,” I agreed. “But Whitley here says he knows where Sumi is hiding. He’ll tell us only if we take him and don’t tell Kim where we’re going.”
    Q snorted. “Do we look like idiots?”
    “Fine.” Whitley shrugged. “Then I guess you can hunt down Sumi on your own.” He walked to the door. “Hopefully you’ll find her before she finds you.”
    Son of hibachi . If Whitley was telling the truth, having him lead us to Sumi would save us a lot of time and trouble. If we could add the element of surprise to our attack, it just might give us the edge needed to defeat her. “Wait!” I called out before Whitley passed through the doorway.
    He turned around with a smile. “Yes?”
    “What are you doing?” Q hissed into my ear. “You can’t be seriously thinking about going with Whitley and not telling Kim?”
    “That’s exactly what I’m thinking about doing.” But for an entirely different reason. As long as I didn’t call Kim, he would know something was up and come looking for me. With the GPS enabled on my phone, he’d also know exactly where I was. I gave Q a pointed look. “No one is going to call Kim.”
    Q blinked several times before his eyes lit up. “Oh. Oh. We’re not going to call him.”
    “Nope.”
    Whitley crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. “But what if he calls you?”
    “I won’t answer it.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and set it to vibrate before exchanging a quick glance with Q. It had almost been fifteen minutes since Kim walked out the door, which meant he would be calling at any minute. When I didn’t answer, he was sure to come looking for me. So he wouldn’t be far behind us, wherever Whitley planned to take us.
    “Good.” Whitley narrowed his eyes. “I just know if we invited your little boyfriend along, he’d want to imprison me along with Sumi.”
    I dropped my phone into my back pocket. “What makes you think I don’t?”
    He laughed. “Oh please. You wouldn’t do that. You need me.”
    I snorted. “Yeah, like I need a shuriken to the head.”
    He shook his head. “When are you going to admit that we make a great team?”
    “Uh, never. ”
    “That’s a little unfair, don’t you think?” he asked.
    “Is it?” I took a step toward him. “I let my guard down once. Once! And you led a group of ninja over our castle walls. You killed our Lord Toyotomi. You killed Yoshido. In order to be a team with someone, you have to trust them, and I don’t trust you. I will never trust you.”
    He grinned. “Fair enough. But if you don’t trust me as much as you say you do, why agree to go with me in the first place?”
    I stepped up to him with my hands balled into fists. “Because if you screw me over, so help me Whitley, I’m going to have Q alter your mind so you’ll never hurt anyone again. The only thing you’ll be able to do is stare out the window and drool. Do you understand?”
    A flicker of fear passed through his eyes. “He can do that?”
    Q shrugged and flexed his fingers. “Never tried before, but I’m willing to give it a shot.”
    Whitley swallowed, his eyes darting nervously between me and Q. “All right, point taken. So let’s put the brain damage on hold for right now. We should probably get going before Sumi makes her move.”
    I glanced at Q to make sure one last time he was on board with the plan. Any situation involving Sumi was a dangerous one. And throwing Whitley into the mix