Emmett found himself leaning into the gentle touch. “Twelve.”
At twelve years of age, Emmett had left the sea, forced into slavery for Kim Ji. In her warehouse where he worked, he had often caught glimpses of the Dragon Lady but hadn’t been allowed to look at her directly—the one time he dared to make eye contact, she’d struck him so hard, he was out for two days and when he woke, it was with a hellish migraine. Emmett could still remember the shackles he’d been forced to constantly wear while enslaved, their leaden weight heavy on his wrists and ankles, and the choking collar kept chained around his neck. For three years he was held prisoner in a drafty building made of corrugated steel, shivering in soiled clothing, bound hand and foot. Kim Ji ran several different rackets, importing and exporting a variety of illegal items, helped by her youngest son, Lin.