by T. L. Cannon
“Kyle Mercer, ma’am. Backup for the backup.” Pushing the mop of shaggy sandy blond hair from his cornflower blue eyes, Kyle extended his hand to shake Kira’s. “Nice to meet you.”
Kira thought she detected the slight twang of a fading Texas accent as the tall, rangy stranger standing in her living room flashed her a boyish grin. “So even my backup has backup, huh?” Kira smiled as she shook Kyle’s hand. “I feel safer already.”
“You should,” Donovan pointed out. “Kyle is one of those law enforcement types you seem to have so much faith in.”
“You’re a cop?” Kira asked, genuinely surprised that Donovan had decided to include someone on the right side of the law in their caper.
“No,” Kyle replied succinctly, still smiling down at her but not bothering to fill in the obvious blank regarding his occupation.
“I see,” Kira nodded, getting the message loud and clear.
“So how did your field trip to The Atrium go?” Donovan asked, getting down to business.
“Well, the place certainly is public enough,” Dylan replied, recalling how crowded the large, courtyard-like space at the heart of The Gau Lung building had been during his and Kyle’s reconnaissance mission, with the airy, open-feel provided by the skylight overhead acting as a draw for both Gau Lung employees and visitors alike.
“That was the general idea.”
“I still don’t like it,” Dylan quickly added, flashing his oldest brother a disapproving look.
“While I agree that the set up isn’t ideal, I think that between you, me and Kyle we should be able to provide adequate visual cover.”
“I’m not talking about the location, I’m talking about the whole plan. I especially don’t like keeping Ethan out of the loop.”
“Then you should take that up with Ms. St. James. That was her idea, not mine,” Donovan explained.
Dylan fixed his hazel eyes on Kira thoughtfully. “Are you sure you don’t want Ethan in on this?”
“Positive,” Kira answered sharply.
Dylan frowned but decided against pressing the issue. “Then I guess we should get down to the brass tacks,” he announced as he set the large black duffel bag slung over his shoulder onto the cocktail table and unzipped it. “We need to get you wired up.”
“Like hell you do!” Ethan’s voice slice through the room like a knife. Ignoring the startled looks on the faces that suddenly turned towards him in unison, he set his focus on Kira. “The door was unlocked so I let myself in. I hope you don’t mind.”
Kira’s gaze was steady as it locked with his despite the tremors that were now vibrating through her body at his sudden, unexpected appearance. “Actually, I do mind.”
“Actually, I don’t give a damn,” Ethan shot back tersely. “We need to talk. Alone.”
“This is not the time for this,” Donovan cut in as he approached Ethan. “We need to prep Kira for her meeting with Jeremy.”
“Don’t!” Ethan’s emerald eyes blazed with barely contained fury as he raised a finger of warning to Donovan, halting his advance. “It’s bad enough that you got her to agree to go behind my back. I’m not going to tolerate anymore of your manipulations.”
“Donovan didn't manipulate anything. It was my idea not to tell you about this because I didn’t want you involved,” Kira explained, her voice rising. “I still don’t.”
“In that case, I guess you’re out of luck,” Ethan growled as he stalked across the space the that separated them. Grabbing her tightly by the forearm, he practically dragged her into her bedroom, slamming the door loudly behind them.
“Why are you here, Ethan?” Kira asked as she yanked her arm out of Ethan’s grip.
“I came here to try to talk some sense into you before it's too late. This meeting with Jeremy is a bad idea.”
“How did you even find out about it?” Kira asked as she rubbed absently at the spot on her arm where Ethan’s fingers had been.
“I overheard Jeremy telling Jade about it.”
Kira’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “Why would Jeremy tell Jade about our meeting? Those two can barely tolerate each other.”
“Oh, those two are doing a whole hell of a lot more than merely tolerating each other,” Ethan said with a grimace. “I just spent forty-five minutes in Jade’s bedroom closet listening to them go at it like rabbits.”
A look of disgust clouded Kira’s face. “So what happened? Did she double-book the two of you? I guess that’s to be expected. It must have been very difficult for her to squeeze you into her ever-growing roster of lovers.”
“I'm not one of Jade's lovers,” Ethan quickly shot back.
“Well, you sure were doing a good impersonation of one outside of her office yesterday.”
Ethan sighed deeply. “I can explain that.”
“Save it!” Kira snapped. “I don’t give a damn about who you sleep with!”
“If that’s true, then why do you sound so angry?” Ethan challenged.
“Because of poor Gabriel, that’s why,” Kira hedged. “Jade is playing him for a fool, twice over. I didn’t have the heart to tell him about you and Jade given everything else he’s been dealing with but as soon as I get the goods on Jeremy, I’m going to fill him in on everything, or rather everyone, that Jade’s been doing.”
“That’s assuming you walk away from this thing with Jeremy alive.”
“Stop being so damn melodramatic.”
“You stop being so damn flippant!” Ethan barked. “Jeremy is dangerous. You have no idea how he's going to react if he feels cornered.”
“That’s why I’m meeting him in a public place. And, on the off chance that he tries something in front of all of those witnesses, I’ll have Donovan, Dylan and Kyle there to protect me. I'll be fine,” Kira declared with a bit more confidence than she actually felt.
Ethan ran his hands over his face, shaking his head. Grabbing both of her shoulders out of sheer frustration, he refused to release his grip when she tried to shrug his hands away. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this, Kira,” he said, his voice soft and his eyes solemn as they stared imploringly into hers. “I’m begging you, please don’t go through with this.”
Kira stubbornly turned her face away from his. “I’m doing this, Ethan. You can’t stop me.”
Once again Ethan shook his head, this time in resignation. “You’re right. I can’t stop you,” he said as he reluctantly released his hold on her. “And by that same token you can’t stop me from riding shotgun.”
“I told you I don’t want you involved.”
“Well, that’s too damn bad because I’m involved!” Ethan snapped angrily. “And if you want to come out of this thing alive, you’re damn well going to follow my instructions to a tee! You got that?”
Kira flinched at the ferocity of Ethan’s words. “What about Donovan?”
“To hell with Donovan. I’m running this operation from here on out.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A hazy, late afternoon sunlight filtered in through the mosaic of glass skylights that comprised the roof of The Atrium, drawing a large crowd of employees and visitors from the gloomy inner sanctum of the Gau Lung Building like moths to an open flame. From her seat smack dab in the middle of the café area, Kira had a clear view of everyone in the vicinity. That meant they in turn had a clear view of her, she reasoned, which no doubt had been why Dylan and Kyle had selected that spot for her meeting with Jeremy. In fact, they had spent a full hour sitting at that very table in order to assure that no one else would be occupying it when Kira arrived. She resisted the urge to try to see where they went after they gave up the table to her by shifting her gaze to the untouched coffee cup in front of her. She didn’t need to see them to know that she was being closely watched. She could practically feel Ethan’s eyes boring into her from wherever it was that he was lurking. Despite how annoyed she was by him bulldozing his way into this sting and taking over, she had to admit that she took more than a littl
e comfort from the knowledge that he was watching her like a hawk. Settling back in her chair, she felt the thin wire of the listening device taped to her body dig into her back, reminding her of the careful way that Ethan had smoothed it against her skin when he’d placed it there with fingers that were surprisingly gentle given how furious he was with her at the time. Kira inwardly shook off that memory. Too much was riding on this to allow herself to be distracted by thoughts of Ethan, so instead she focused her mind on his firmly delivered instructions. He had told her what to say to Jeremy and what not to say, insisted that under no circumstances was she to leave her seat at the table and had given her an emergency codeword to use to signal him and the rest of the guys to move in if she felt that the situation was about to go sideways. The direness with which he had delivered, or rather barked, his instructions had seemed a bit excessive at the time but as she sat alone at the table waiting for Jeremy to arrive, she felt a sudden, nagging fear begin to claw at her gut.
Ethan had the exact same feeling in his gut as he looked down on Kira from the narrow walkway that gracefully coiled it’s way around the second story of The Atrium. Leaning against the wrought iron rail in front of him, his hands tightened into white-knuckled fists as he fought the urge to storm down the nearby stairway, grab Kira and drag her away from this whole setup, kicking and screaming if need be. He was a split second away from doing just that when he spotted Jeremy strutting his way through the sliding glass doors at the far end of The Atrium which connected The Gau Lung Building to the bustling downtown street outside. In his loud purple suit, he stuck out in the crowd of somberly dressed business men and women like a peacock at a funeral.
“It’s showtime,” a staticy voice whispered into his ear through the tiny listening device planted there, causing Ethan to grind his teeth, the mere sound of Donovan’s voice infuriating him. Shoving aside his anger, he focused his attention on the scene unfolding below as Jeremy approached the table where Kira was seated.
“So, what’s this all about?” he heard Jeremy ask as he joined Kira at the table, his voice coming in loud and clear through the tiny microphone that Ethan had planted on Kira.
“I already told you,” Kira replied, forcing her voice to sound calmer than she felt as she slid a manila envelope across the table toward Jeremy. “I have come into possession of some information that I think you will find very interesting.”
With arms folded defensively in front of him, Jeremy eyed the envelope warily for several seconds before opening it and removing its contents. Kira held her breath as he read the copy of the forged letter from Yi, praying that the handiwork of Donovan's forger held up to the intense scrutiny with which Jeremy was giving it. After several long, nerve-racking moments, Jeremy finally spoke.
“Where did you get this?” he asked, watching Kira with the same intensity with which he had read the letter.
“The original was delivered to me yesterday by an attorney your father had on retainer. Apparently, Yi had given him orders to personally deliver it to me in the event of his untimely demise.”
“This proves nothing,” Jeremy sniffed as he carelessly tossed the letter onto the table.
“It’s not my job to prove anything, that task is for the Hong Kong Police who, no doubt would find the information contained in Yi’s letter very helpful in conducting their investigation into his murder. I’m sure the bit about you being The Dragon Head of The Yellow Tiger Triad would be very interesting to them as well. And then there’s the matter of certain shipments being brought in on The Wayfarer…” Kira allowed her voice to trail off tauntingly as she watched the smugness drain from Jeremy’s face.
“If you think that the Hong Kong police would be so interested in this letter why aren’t you showing it to them instead of me?”
“Because showing it to you is a far more lucrative proposition.”
A shadow of a smile flickered over Jeremy’s lips. “You want money?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” Kira replied, returning Jeremy’s shadowed smile.
“So you’re not the paragon of virtue that my father thought you were,” Jeremy observed as he leaned casually back in his chair and openly reassessed Kira. “Quite an unfortunate miscalculation on his part.”
“Based on that letter, one of many,” Kira noted. “Not the least of which was turning his back on you one dark and stormy night, isn't that right Jeremy?”
He leaned across the table conspiratorially. “Are you asking me if I killed my own father?”
Kira resisted the urge to recoil in the face of the pure malice she saw swirling beneath the opaque depths of Jeremy's eyes like a school of sharks swimming in dark waters. “Yes, I am.”
Jeremy reached across the table and ran a finger lightly down Kira's cheek, sending a chill down her spine. Snaking his hand around the back of her neck he drew her close enough to him to whisper into her ear.
“Yes, I killed him,” Jeremy said, the soft lilting tone of his voice adding an eerie quality to his already chilling confession. “And now I’m afraid I’m going to have to kill you.”
Yanking Kira to her feet by her hair, he already had the barrel of the large, black gun to her forehead before she even had a chance to utter the emergency codeword that Ethan had given her. Not that she needed to. Ethan had given the order to move in the second he'd heard Jeremy make his unexpected confession. With his heart racing double-time and his Glock firmly in his hand, he raced down the stairway leading to the ground level of The Atrium, cutting his way through a group of bystanders frantically fleeing the lower level in response to Jeremy’s violent actions.
“Let her go!” Ethan yelled to be heard above the din of pure panic that now filled The Atrium, pointing his gun towards Jeremy as he sprinted across the wide expanse of ground separating him from Kira. Through his peripheral vision he saw Donovan, Dylan and Kyle doing the same.
Wrapping one arm around Kira’s throat, Jeremy flashed Ethan a sinister smile as he began dragging her kicking and screaming towards the sliding glass doors leading out to the street. Through the scattering crowd between them, Ethan’s eyes locked with Kira’s and his heart wrenched at the look of abject terror he saw in them. At that precise moment a loud roar ripped through The Atrium like a speeding train, causing the ground to rumble. Turning his head towards the source of the noise, Ethan blinked in disbelief at what he saw as a dozen or so motorcycles sped through the sliding glass doors. The insignia on the backs of the leather jackets of the dark helmeted drivers immediately identified them as Yellow Tiger Triad members. The sound of rapid gunfire accompanied the arrival of the triad members as they shot countless rounds of bullets into the air, splintering the glass skylight above and sending shards of glass raining down. Before he had a chance to react, one of the motorcycles zipped towards Ethan, causing him to dive beneath a nearby table as a stream of bullets whizzed over his head. Turning the table over onto its side, Ethan crouched behind the make-shift shield and returned fire on the cyclist as complete chaos broke out all around him. Knowing that the table he was currently hiding behind wouldn’t last long against the barrage of bullets from the high powered assault weapon being fired at him, Ethan scanned his immediate area for a more secure position. Spotting a crawl space beneath a nearby stairway, he stretched his body flat against the ground and barrel-rolled towards the shelter provided by the small barrier of slate colored concrete, a trail of rapidly fired bullets exploding violently against the ground in his wake, mere inches from his head, before he slammed into the base of the stairway with a grunt. Quickly climbing to one knee, he had once again raised his gun to return fire when he noticed the once deafening roar of the motorcycles beginning to fade like a violent tidal wave receding back into the sea just as suddenly as it had arrived. Scrambling from his hiding place, he raced into the middle of The Atrium just in time to see the last of the motorcycles speed out of the building, leaving behind mayhem and destruction in their wake. Doing a full three hundred and sixty degree turn, Ethan despe
rately scanned the chaotic scene around him, allowing his eyes to confirm what his gut had already told him.
Kira and Jeremy were gone.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The pounding in Kira’s head finally penetrated the numbing darkness that had enveloped her, causing her eyes to slowly flutter open. She was greeted by the sight of more darkness. After a few bleary moments, her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she took in her surroundings. Judging by the boxes scattered about, she appeared to be in a storage room of some sort. The only source of light in the room was a dim light bulb that dangled from the ceiling.
Wincing as the pain that her previous state of unconsciousness had shielded her from suddenly hit with a vengeance, she opened her mouth to let out the low moan that rumbled in her dry throat only to find her voice muffled by the gag tied tightly between her lips. As she attempted to reach up and remove the obstruction from her mouth, she discovered that her wrists were tightly bound behind her back. Panic shot through her like a bullet, brutally wrenching her from semi-consciousness and plunging her into full blown terror. The creaky coils of the old, musky mattress she was lying face down on squeaked in protest as she bounced frantically on top of its stained surface, trying in vain to free her hands to no avail. The cloth material jammed into her mouth stifled the scream that rose to her throat, causing her to choke on her own fear as tears began to stream down her face. Quickly exhausted by her futile efforts and the persistent pain that clawed viciously at the back of her eyeballs, Kira collapsed back on to the mattress, her shoulders shaking violently as she sobbed into it.