Playing With Fire (Games of Chance Series Book 2)

by T. L. Cannon

  “You are one stupid bitch,” Gabriel spat angrily as he watched her back out the door.

  Jade laughed. “I may be a stupid bitch but in a few hours, I’m going to be a stupid bitch lounging on a tropical beach somewhere with a cool twenty million dollars in my bank account.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Cheng said as he suddenly appeared in the open doorway behind Jade along with a trio of other triad members. With the ease of a man taking candy from a baby, he disarmed her before she even had a chance to react.

  In the very next instant, a tinkle of broken glass could be heard in the room followed immediately by a loud bang and a blinding flash of light as a flash grenade came hurtling through one of the windows of the loft.

  Through the billowing smoke emanating from the grenade, the deafening sound of exploding glass could be heard as four pairs of metal enforced shoes suddenly came crashing through the four large windows that surrounded the loft, swinging from ropes anchored to the top of the building.

  Kira didn’t need to see the faces behind the dark masks the men wore to know that Ethan, Donovan, Dylan and Kyle had arrived.

  Survival instinct had Kira using her feet to tip her chair over to the side. Jeremy followed suit mere seconds before bullets started flying across the loft, shredding the walls, meager furnishings and anything else in their path as Cheng and his men opened fire on the invaders who matched them bullet for bullet.

  During the ensuing chaos, Kira realized that the wooden spokes that comprised the back of the rickety chair she had been tied to had fallen apart as a result of her fall to the floor, freeing her from the chair. With her hands still tied behind her back, she rolled behind the dubious cover provided by a leather love seat situated not too far away. Looking to her right, she saw that Jade had done the same. Rubbing the side of her face against the edge of one of the sofa cushions, Kira managed to roll the gag out of her mouth. Then, closing her eyes, she eyes waited for the shooting to stop, reminding herself that Ethan and the guys had the element of surprise on their side but still sending up about a million prayers nonetheless.

  After what seemed like an eternity the sound of gunfire stopped and was replaced by the sound of a calm, masculine voice. “All clear.”

  Opening her eyes, Kira let out a sob of relief at the sound of Ethan’s voice. Through the clearing smoke, she saw the dead bodies of Gabriel, Cheng and the other triad members littered throughout the room, while the four masked men appeared to be unscathed.

  “Kira!” Ethan yelled as he ripped his mask off.

  “I’m hear!” Kira half laughed, half sobbed as she rose to her feet and prepared to sprint across the room and fling herself into his arms.

  “Not so fast,” Jade said as she grabbed Kira by the arm, preventing her from running to Ethan. Having grabbed a gun from Cheng's dead body, she pointed it at Kira.

  “What are you doing?” Kira asked, her mind struggling to make sense of what was happening as it shifted from terror to relief and then back to terror again in the course of just a few seconds.

  “I’m getting the hell out of here,” Jade said, as she wrapped an arm around Kira’s neck and began tugging her towards the door, keeping the barrel of the gun pressed firmly to Kira’s head. “And you’re my guarantee that I won't be detained by your boyfriend and his fellow ninjas in the process.”

  “That’s not necessary, Jade,” Ethan said, keeping his voice as calm as possible as he raised his gun above his head, signaling that he meant her no harm. “We won’t stop you. All we want is Kira.”

  “You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe you,” Jade said as she maneuvered herself and Kira towards the open door. “I’m a little low in the trust department right now and I have no desire to spend the rest of my life in prison for the mess that Jeremy created.”

  “I promise you that won't happen,” Ethan said.

  “I promise you that won't happen either. Not with good, old reliable Kira as my shield.”

  “You want me to take her out,” Donovan asked as he aimed his Kimber 911 in the direction of Jade’s head.

  “No,” Ethan said, immediately deeming the move to be an unnecessary risk given that the tracking device that he had planted on Jade's clothing back at her apartment, the one that had led them to the loft to begin with, would keep her from getting too far away with Kira. “Put your gun down. All of you.”

  At Ethan’s command, Donovan, Dylan and Kyle all placed their weapons on the floor.

  Jade smiled. “Smart move. I knew there was a reason I liked you so much. Now, I’m afraid that Kira and I must be going.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” Kira said flatly and she meant it. She had already experienced being kidnapped at gunpoint by Gabriel and didn’t much care for it. There was no way that she was going to repeat the experience with Jade.

  “You don’t have any say in the matter,” Jade replied.

  “This is your last warning Jade. Let me go,” Kira entreated, glancing down into Jade’s purse as it hung limply at her side, bouncing lightly against her thigh. Inside, she could just make out the handle of The Dragon’s Breath.

  “Shut up!” Jade demanded as she backed herself and Kira out the door.

  Ethan held his breath as he watched Kira stealthily slip her hands, which were still tied behind her back, inside Jade’s purse, keeping his face impassive.

  “What about the money?” Ethan asked, desperate to keep Jade’s attention focused on him and away from what Kira was doing. “You’re not going to get very far without it.”

  His words caused Jade to pause just long enough for Kira to make her move. Her movements had been so swift and smooth that Ethan didn’t even see The Dragon’s Breath come out of Jade's purse.

  He also didn’t see its blade sink into Jade's belly.

  All he saw was Jade’s eyes suddenly widen with shock before fluttering shut as a bemused smile flickered across her lips right before she collapsed into a heap at Kira’s feet, still gripping the gun tightly in her hand.

  Without looking down at the dead woman sprawled at her feet, Kira raced across the room towards Ethan. With her still bound hands preventing her from throwing her arms around him and holding on for dear life, she launched herself into Ethan’s arms, confident that he would catch her.

  “It’s okay, baby,” he whispered gently in her ear, pressing her tightly to him as she buried her face into the curve of his neck and sobbed. “I’ve got you and I’m never going to let you go again.”

  ***

  Kira moaned with pleasure as she sank deeper into the comfort of the hot bath that Ethan had drawn for her in her bathroom. Fluffy, fragrant bubbles tickled her skin as she felt the tension in her body melt away in response to both the heat of the water and the expertise of Ethan’s fingers as they lovingly massaged the muscles of her neck.

  “Are you feeling any better?” he asked, as he scooped up a handful of hot water and sent it cascading gently over her back and shoulders.

  Kira murmured contentedly in response.

  From his seat on the edge of the tub, Ethan smiled down at her through the candle-lit darkness as he stroked a hand down her arm, ending at her wrist. Through the water and bubbles he could just make out the red mark where the rope had been tied. The smile instantly faded from his face. “If I could kill that bastard a second time for what he did to you, I would.”

  “Fortunately, that won’t be necessary. Gabriel is never going to be able to hurt me or anybody else again,” Kira said as she felt her body beginning to tense up again at just the mention of Gabriel’s name, still struggling to fathom how completely she had misjudged the man she had once called her friend. “I can’t believe what a fool I was about him.”

  “You weren’t a fool for trusting him anymore than you were a fool for trusting me back in Vegas,” Ethan insisted as he tenderly stroked her hair. “You just have a big heart. It’s one of the things that I love the most about you.” Sliding his hand under her
chin, he gently tilted her to face up towards his. “However, one of the thing’s that I don’t love about you is the stubborn streak you displayed by getting involved in Donovan’s crazy plan to begin with. You took about ten years off of my life with that stunt.”

  “You’re one to talk considering that your entire adult life has been dictated by Donovan’s crazy plans.”

  “You’re right,” Ethan conceded as he watched Kira thoughtfully. “And as a result, I know that I haven't given you much of a reason to trust me which played a role in why you did what you did.”

  “You gave me enough of a reason when it counted the most,” Kira said as she gently ran her fingers through the fine, dark hairs sprinkling the surface of the lean muscular arm that extended from his rolled up shirt sleeve. “Besides, we both made a lot of mistakes.”

  “That’s very generous of you to say but the fact of the matter is that I’m the one who made the lion’s share of the mistakes, with letting you get away two years ago being the biggest one of all. I have no intention of letting you get away again.”

  “I have no intention of trying to get away. You're stuck with me,” Kira whispered as she craned her neck in order to brush her lips lightly against his.

  “Are you willing to put that in writing?” Ethan murmured against the softness of her lips.

  Kira laughed lightly against his mouth. “What do you want? Some sort of written contract or something?”

  “Actually, I do,” Ethan said as he gently stroked the elegant curve of her cheek with his thumb. “Although, it’s officially called a marriage license.”

  Shock caused Kira to abruptly break their kiss. “You want to marry me?”

  “More than anything I’ve ever wanted in my entire life,” Ethan said resolutely, his eyes dark with intense emotion. “So what do you say? Will you have me as your husband?”

  Kira stared up in silence at Ethan as she tried to get her mind to wrap itself around the idea of him being hers forever. When her mind finally did, she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and dragged him, fully clothed, into the bathtub with her, causing water to spill over the side of the tub and splatter all over the bathroom floor.

  Unbothered by the mess she’d made, Kira climbed on top of Ethan and began unbuttoning his shirt, causing him to chuckle beneath her frantic ministrations. “Can I take this to mean that your answer is yes, then?”

  Kira covered Ethan’s mouth with a kiss full of all of the love that she felt for him in her heart, answering his question without ever saying a word.

  EPILOGUE

  “Here it is,” Ethan announced triumphantly as he tossed the papers that Kira handed him onto Donovan’s desk. “The Wong sub-concession, signed, sealed and delivered as promised. You can thank me profusely now.”

  Silhouetted against the neon-lit panorama of the Las Vegas Strip afforded from Enclave's penthouse suite, which served as both his home and office, Donovan smiled at Ethan and Kira from across the smooth, ebony expanse of his desk as he scooped up the contract. “From what I understand, it's Ms. St. James that I should be thanking since she is the one who convinced Jeremy to sell it to us.”

  “Considering that I am going to be your sister-in-law soon, I think you should start calling me by my first name. And you would be correct, pushing this deal through at Gau Lung and getting the necessary government approval for it were my last official acts as an employee of The Gau Lung Group, so I am the one you should be thanking.”

  A shadow of a smile flickered across Donovan’s face. “In that case, thank you, Kira.”

  “You’re welcome. Although in all honesty it wasn’t that difficult to convince Jeremy to sell it to you once he saw the proof you gathered that showed Jared was using his connection to The Yellow Tiger Triad to help Gabriel frame him.”

  “Only the old man would be twisted enough to think that he could get away with pitting the real Jeremy against the fake one.”

  “He definitely overplayed his hand on that one,” Donovan said, his eyes gleaming at the contract in his hand. “And now he’s played right into ours.”

  “Based on the article in The Wall Street Journal this morning detailing all of the financial troubles his casinos are having, that’s just one of many mistakes he’s made lately.”

  “So it would appear,” Donovan murmured as he exchanged a brief, knowing glance with his brother.

  “Well, now that we have successfully delivered the sub-concession into your capable little hands, you’ll have to excuse us. I have big plans for my future wife tonight,” Ethan stated as he grabbed Kira by the hand and rose to his feet.

  “Big plans, huh?” Donovan smirked as he watched Ethan usher Kira out the door of his office. “Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  “That leaves our options wide open,” Ethan quipped over his shoulder just before the office door closed softly behind him.

  Once he was alone, Donovan carefully perused the contract in his hands. After making sure that all the ‘t’s were crossed, he picked up the receiver on his desk phone and dialed a number he knew by heart.

  “I’ve got the Wong sub-concession,” Donovan informed the person on the other end of the line. “Put out some feelers to Jared on behalf of The Consortium. Let him know that we have the answer to his current financial problems if he’s willing to play ball.”

  “You think he’ll take the bait?” The man on the other end of the line asked.

  “Oh, he'll take the bait alright,” Donovan replied confidently as he removed the latest edition of The Wall Street Journal from a desk drawer in front of him. “Just as long as he doesn’t know that I’m involved.”

  “In that case, I’ll let you know when I get a nibble,” the voice on the other end of the line said before Donovan ended the call.

  Donovan leaned back in his chair as he stared down at the picture splashed across the front page of the newspaper in his hand. A pair of green eyes stared back up at him. Eyes that were identical to his own in both color and coldness.

  A grim smile spread over Donovan’s face as he stared at Jared's picture. “Brace yourself, Daddy Dearest. It’s time for Endgame.”

  The End

  ***

  Keep reading for a preview of the next book in the Games of Chance Series

  ENDGAME

  By

  T.L. CANNON

  CHAPTER ONE

  Donovan Chance spoke discreetly into his cell phone, quietly issuing instructions in fluent Russian. His tone was flat and business-like as his emerald eyes skimmed restlessly over the elegantly dressed crowd assembled in the ballroom. Briefly, his gaze lingered on a couple cuddled together at a table on the other side of the room, staring lovingly into each other’s eyes, lost in their own rapturous little world. The grim line of Donovan’s lips curved ever so slightly into what could almost pass as a smile as he watched the bride and groom. He had never seen his brother, Ethan, look so happy. He had the same goofy grin on is face that their youngest brother, Dylan, had worn on his wedding day less than a year earlier. It was hard to believe that both of his kid brothers were married now. And while he was happy for them, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of something disquieting at the realization. That twinge intensified as his gaze shifted onto the pretty brunette seated next to Ethan and Kira and settled there for several seconds.

  “Are you still there?” The voice on the other end of the phone asked.

  The realization that his mind had wandered from the conversation he was having caused the shadow of a smile to fade from Donovan's lips just as quickly as it had appeared.

  “Repeat that last part,” Donovan replied tersely, switching to English, the tone of his voice now reflecting his irritation at having allowed himself to be distracted from the topic at hand. He was at a critical stage of an operation that had been years in the planning. One that would finally bring him the revenge that had been driving him for his entire adult life. He couldn’t afford to be distracted by anything.

  Or
anyone.

  With steely resolve, he turned his back on the image of the pretty brunette as he slipped through a pair of French doors that led to a secluded balcony. Forty-five stories below him the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip flickered in the darkness along with the dangerous glint in his eyes.

  “Got it,” he replied, quickly ending the call after he’d extracted the information he’d wanted. Shoving the phone into the pocket of his tuxedo pants, he contemplated the information he’d just received and plotted his next move. Leaning against the doorframe separating the balcony from the ballroom, he absently rubbed the tip of his index finger along the thin, jagged scar that slashed it’s way from the mid-point of his left cheek down to the corner of his mouth, his eyes once again finding their way to the pretty brunette. His mind once again wandering.

  “The least you could do is ask her to dance.”

  The voice that suddenly emanated from just beyond Donovan’s right shoulder caught him off guard. He hadn’t even noticed Dylan approaching him, a realization that he found more than a little disconcerting. Never being caught off guard was a trait that he not only prided himself on but one that had also been the key to his surviving to the ripe old age of thirty-seven, a feat that he’d managed to accomplish against odds that were at times stacked against him.

  “I don’t need you to tell me how to conduct myself on a date,” Donovan groused, ignoring the knowing smile on Dylan’s face.

  Dylan’s smile broadened. “So you admit you’re on a date. That’s progress.”

  “I didn’t mean to say ‘date’,” Donovan countered defensively, stunned by his own use of the word. When he’d asked his Executive Assistant, Cydney Chase, to accompany him to Ethan and Kira’s wedding, he had been compelled by strictly practical motivations. As he had discovered during Dylan and Chloe’s nuptials, weddings brought out a predatory instinct in some women. As a result, Donovan had spent an inordinate amount of time fending off the amorous advances of some of the more inebriated female guests at Dylan and Chloe’s wedding reception and he didn’t feel inclined to repeat the experience at Ethan and Kira’s. Attending the festivities with female companionship already in place seemed like a logical way to ward off such an event and Ms. Chase seemed like the ideal candidate for the job. During the year or so that she’d worked for him, more often than not logging late hours in the penthouse suite that took up the entire top floor of his resort casino, Enclave, and served as both Donovan’s home and office, he’d found her company to be surprisingly agreeable. She seemed to intuitively know when to engage him in conversation, when to remain in comfortable silence and when to leave him the hell alone. In fact, she seemed to have a knack for anticipating all his needs, often times before he did. She had managed to become as indispensable to him as his right arm and bringing her to the wedding had seemed both a natural and practical move. But from the instant that he’d arrived at her condo to pick her up for the wedding, he’d been forced to question the wisdom of that decision.