There’s nothing to be done for it, Kyle. I’ll take the jades back to Wen and tell him that I don’t want to broker any more blind trades for the Tangs.
And then what?
Kyle’s question echoed in Lianne’s memory. She hadn’t wanted to think about the future, much less talk about it, so she stopped his questions by the oldest method of all. She slid her hands down his wonderful, naked body. And then she slid her mouth.
A polite tapping on the driver’s window startled Lianne out of her sultry memories. She saw a middle-aged man in a dark gray suit. He held a badge in his hand and motioned for her to roll down the window. When she did, cool air gusted in, lifting tendrils of her black hair.
“What is it?” she asked. “Is something wrong?”
“Could I see some ID, ma’am?”
“Driver’s license? Passport?”
“Either one would be fine, ma’am.”
She took her purse from the passenger seat and pulled out her wallet. Her Washington driver’s license wasn’t in the first place she looked, or the second. She finally found it stuck in her checkbook, where she had last needed it for identification.
“Here you are,” she said, handing over the license.
The man glanced at it, measured her against the color photo, and said, “Ms. Blakely, would you get out of the car, please?”
“Why? Is something wrong with the license? I just renewed it a few weeks ago.”
The man opened her door and waited. Frowning, Lianne slid out of the car and stood up.
“Ms. Blakely, you’re under arrest for grand theft, smuggling, and sale of stolen goods.”
At first Lianne thought he was joking. Before she could do more than make a startled sound, he had turned her around and cuffed her hands behind her back. A woman in a neat business suit appeared at the man’s elbow. With smooth efficiency, she searched Lianne for weapons, found none, and hustled her into an unmarked sedan that was parked nearby.
When Lianne managed a fast look over her shoulder, she saw the man who had arrested her leaning over her trunk. He popped it open, reached in, and lifted out the first carton. Bright red wax seals gleamed against the white wrapping paper.
Kyle ignored the first four rings of the phone. Beneath a bright light, working with the aid of a big magnifying lens, he was assembling tiny silicon wafers on a circuit board. If all went well, the result would be a modem-activated control for the security system he had built into the Donovan penthouse.
At the fifth ring he swore, set aside his tools, and grabbed the phone.
“What?” he barked.
“…Kyle?”
The voice was so strained and hesitant that he almost didn’t recognize it. “Is that you, Lianne? You sound like you’re in another country.”
“I feel like it.” She took a ragged breath. “I’m sorry to bother you, but my mother is on her way to Tahiti with Johnny and I didn’t know who else to…” Her voice frayed into silence.
The last of Kyle’s impatience vanished when he realized it was emotion rather than a bad connection that had thinned Lianne’s voice into a stranger’s.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he asked.
“I’ve been arrested and I don’t know what…” She cleared her throat painfully.
Kyle didn’t like the mixture of emotions that shot through him, rage and regret and a prowling hunger he hadn’t even begun to appease, so he ignored emotion and focused on finding out what had happened. “Where are you?”
“Seattle.”
“What are the charges?”
“Theft, smuggling, sale of stolen goods, and some other stuff that I don’t understand,” she said bleakly.
“What kind of goods?” he asked, even though he had a cold certainty that he already knew.
“Jade. They think I stole from Wen Zhi Tang. I didn’t, Kyle! I never would steal from—”
“Do you have a lawyer?” he interrupted curtly.
“A lawyer? Where would I get a lawyer? I don’t even know one!”
“Take it easy. I’ll get you one. Don’t talk to anyone else until you talk to Jill Mercer. Jill Mercer. Got that? No one. Is there an officer nearby?”
“Yes.”
“Put him on.”
“Her.”
“Whatever. And Lianne?”
“Yes?”
Kyle wanted to tell her not to worry, it was all a mistake, he would straighten it out and she would be free; but he suspected it wasn’t a mistake, she wouldn’t be free, and he was worried as hell himself.
“I’ll see you as soon as I can,” he said finally.
“Sure. And thanks, Kyle. I just didn’t…have anyone else to call.”
The last words were spoken in a voice so low that he almost didn’t hear them. And then he wished he hadn’t. The thought of her being that alone cut him in ways he didn’t want to deal with. Especially after last night, when she had given herself to him without reservation, taking him higher each time, going with him; and the shock in her eyes telling him that she had never been there before. Not like that.
He wondered if the same shock had been in his own eyes.
“I’m glad you called me,” Kyle said. “Remember, don’t talk to anyone until you’ve talked to Jill.”
“I…hurry, if you can. Being held like this, handcuffed, locked in…” Her breath fractured as she swallowed the fear that was clawing at her.
Kyle’s eyelids flinched in a pain she couldn’t see and he couldn’t admit. “Put the officer on. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“What did the lawyer say?” Archer asked Kyle.
“Nothing good.” He looked out the window of the penthouse without really seeing the wind-burnished surface of Elliott Bay. Despite a strengthening wind, the mid-afternoon sunlight was losing its battle with time and clouds. Unless the wind won, there would be a long twilight before true dark came. “About all the Feds haven’t charged Lianne with is spitting on the sidewalk.”
“Standard operating procedure. The more charges, the higher the bail.”
“Half a million high. She doesn’t have the money for even a tenth of it.”
Archer whistled. “Half a million? Not bad for someone with no priors and a clean driving record. The judge must have had a case of the ass.”
“Or he had folks whispering dirty stories in his ear.”
“It happens. Especially when the suspect had a part in smuggling the Jade Emperor’s burial shroud out of China.”
“Nobody said anything about that to Lianne.”
“Yet. But we both know that’s why the Feds are in on it. They don’t give a rat’s hairy ass about Wen’s collection of erotica.”
“Which leads to an interesting question,” Kyle said, turning back to Archer. “The Feds were following Lianne because they thought she would lead them to the Jade Emperor, right? Once they had the burial suit, they could move in and defuse the international explosion.”
“That’s the way I see it.”
“But the Feds know where the jade suit is now.”
“So do the Chinese. They’ve demanded that the U.S. return it.”
“Sounds good to me,” Kyle said.
“Farmer says he got it from Taiwan, not mainland China.”
“What does Taiwan say?”
“They’ll get back to us,” Archer said.
“Mother.”
“Smart money says that Taiwan will step up and say they were the seller of the suit or the victim of a thief who stole the suit.”
“Why?”
“It’s a great way to stick a thumb in China’s eye,” Archer said. “China is yelling at Uncle to seize the burial suit because it was stolen from China, either by Chiang Kai-shek during the revolution or, more recently, by a person or persons unknown. If Uncle doesn’t return the stolen property, it will seriously strain relationships between China and the U.S. Human rights will be the first to go. The Chinese government is already screwing down on students and newspapers i
n Hong Kong.”
Kyle made a disgusted sound. “The only way China will ever have any human rights worth mentioning is when they have more GNP or less humans. It has nothing to do with a jade burial suit.”
“Grow up,” Archer said impatiently. “Politics isn’t about reality, it’s about what you can make people believe is real. If you didn’t learn that in Kaliningrad, you never will.”
Kyle looked away from his brother’s cold, intelligent eyes. Archer was right. Kyle just didn’t want to hear about it. “What is Taiwan’s version of reality?”
“It’s yelling at the U.S. that Taiwan is a legitimate, separate Chinese government and if Uncle gives anything back to China it will seriously undermine democratic Taiwan in its long, underdog battle against the overwhelming might of the Chinese Communists.”
“Bullshit.”
“You’re eighty percent correct,” Archer said, his voice as cold as his eyes. “The other twenty percent is why Uncle is tiptoeing and praying the whole thing will just go the hell away.”
“Which side are you betting on?”
“I’m keeping my money in my jeans. Unless something breaks soon, it’s going to be a hell of an international pissing contest, the kind nobody really wins.”
“They’re big boys. All I want to do is get Lianne out of the yellow rain.”
“Good luck,” Archer said ironically. “Choosing between the legitimacy of Taiwan and China is a nettle that Uncle really doesn’t want to grasp. If the Feds can pass the nettle off to someone else—anyone else—they will.”
“Lianne hasn’t earned it.”
“Maybe. And maybe Uncle tagged the right thief.”
“No,” Kyle said curtly.
Archer closed his eyes for an instant, then opened them again. Life had taught him that bad news didn’t go away just because you didn’t look at it. “Any particular reason you’re so sure of her innocence, or do you just like fucking her?”
“Don’t talk about her like that,” Kyle snarled.
“Bloody hell,” Archer said savagely. “Bloody, bloody hell.” His fist slammed down on the nearby end table with enough force to make a heavy bronze lamp jerk. “I should have yanked you out of the game the instant I saw you watching the sexy Ms. Blakely like you’d never seen a woman before.”
“I’m not the one at risk. Lianne is. She’s not hard enough for this game, Archer. She was as shocked as anybody when she saw Farmer’s jade suit.”
“Do you really believe that was the first time she had ever seen it?”
Kyle started to say yes. Then he remembered the way she had demanded to see the burial suit up close, and then the fear she hadn’t been able to conceal when he gave Lianne her wish.
“She didn’t know Farmer had the suit,” Kyle said. That, at least, he was sure of.
“But the auction wasn’t the first time Lianne saw that suit,” Archer said neutrally, “was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think you do. I think you just don’t like it.”
“Damn it, she doesn’t have the apparatus to pull off a theft the size of the Jade Emperor’s Tomb!”
For the first time, Archer smiled. It was thin and cold as a slice of ice, but a smile nonetheless. “Glad to see all of your brain cells haven’t sunk to your crotch. That’s why Uncle wants someone close to Lianne. To find out who else is involved.”
“Are you saying that the Feds don’t really want her locked up?”
“Not particularly.”
“Then why did they arrest her, cuff her, and haul her off?”
“They didn’t have much choice. They desperately needed a bone to throw China. Someone gave them Lianne and jade.”
“Who wants her off the street that bad?”
“Wen Zhi Tang.”
“But why?”
Archer bit back a cutting remark. He would rather have Kyle’s cooperation than the head-thumping brawl his youngest brother was asking for. “People tend to get pissed off when more than a million dollars’ worth of jade goes missing.”
“I don’t think Lianne stole anything. I think she was set up.”
“You think? You think? With what? Your hyperactive dick?”
“Shove it, Archer. I’m serious.”
“So am I!” And this conversation was going nowhere fast. He glanced at the mess of electronics on the kitchen table, where Kyle had been working when Lianne called. “Looks like you dropped something.”
Kyle refused the chance to change the subject. “Listen to me, Archer. I know how it feels to be set up, on the run, not knowing who to trust except family. But Lianne doesn’t have any family.”
“What about her mother?”
“Anna and her lover are on the way to Tahiti. Lianne is all alone. Even if I wanted to, I can’t just turn my back on her. She’s alone. And she’s scared.”
“Shit,” Archer hissed. He raked lean fingers through his thick, already unruly hair and reined in the desire to give Kyle the fight he was begging for. “Okay. Who set her up?”
“Whoever stole the jades.”
“Breathtaking,” Archer said sardonically. “Any other brilliant insights?”
“I need to talk to Lianne.”
“So do it. You know where she is.”
“Not in a cell. Here.”
“I thought you said she didn’t have the fifty grand cash against the bail.”
“She doesn’t,” Kyle said, heading for the front door. “But I do.”
“Take the money to Vegas. Your odds of coming out a winner are much better.”
Kyle’s answer was a middle finger over his shoulder.
Archer’s fist hit the table at the same instant the front door slammed behind Kyle. The lamp jerked, shivered, and settled back into stillness.
“So,” Wen said in his dry yet strong voice, “the ungrateful female has been arrested.”
Harry and Joe exchanged looks. Neither one of them was in a hurry to speak. Lianne’s treachery had hit Wen harder than they had expected.
Daniel was young enough not to understand the risk of being the bearer of bad news. “She is in custody. I am sorry, Grandfather. Not for the arrest, but for the pain of having given so much ancient, honorable knowledge to a dishonorable slut.”
Saying nothing, Wen shifted on the garden bench and tilted his face toward the afternoon sun. He felt the light more clearly than he saw it. The increasing darkness of age was difficult enough; having Lianne use his failing sight to dupe him was a pain approaching agony.
He had trusted her with the Stone of Heaven. She had betrayed him.
“You were correct in insisting that Johnny and his concubine be far away when this happened,” Wen said, turning toward his Number Two Son. “There is enough pain. I would not have a daughter’s treachery turn son against father. Against family.”
“Thank you,” Harry said quietly. “We would have spared you, Father. We would have waited until you joined our ancestors. Such waiting was not possible.”
“She was too greedy,” Daniel said. “In a few more years she would have bled us dry. Our jade treasury would have been plundered down to the velvet lining of the drawers.”
Wen said nothing. He simply sat with his face tilted up to the sun he could see only as a faint lessening of darkness.
“When Daniel came to me and told me about the substitutions,” Harry said, “I waited until Joe returned. Then we decided that no good would come of pretending that nothing had happened. You are the head of the family of Tang. It is your right to be informed.”
Wen’s gnarled fingers settled on the cool jade carving that was the head of his walking stick. He had never felt so old, so weak, so foolish.
“She will be jailed,” he said. “She will enter the house of Tang no more. Ever. See to it.”
“Yes, Father,” Joe said, speaking for the first time. He was glad his father’s eyes were hazed with age. Wen had always been too shrewd, too clever, too quick to find fault in his sons. He never al
lowed for errors or simple humanity. He would never forgive Johnny’s bastard daughter. “I will see to it. If she so much as looks toward Vancouver, I will know.”
Wen sat motionless for so long that the others thought he had fallen asleep. Then he lifted one hand and dismissed his sons and grandson with a jerky motion.
The three men left. Wen sat in the spring sunshine, head tilted back. There was no one to see the slow tears coming from his blind eyes.
“What do you mean?” the man said, squeezing the other man’s arm like it was an enemy’s throat. Everything had gone so well up to now. Jade flowed out, money flowed in. Nothing threatened him or his pleasures. “She was arrested!”
“Kyle Donovan arranged bail,” the second man said simply.
“I was assured that bail was impossible.”
“The United States government influenced the decision. They want Lianne Blakely to be free.”
“Why?”
“To lead them to the Jade Emperor’s Tomb. To us.”
The first man put his head in his hands and wished he had never thought to rob from one in order to pay another. “I am doomed.”
“You have less courage than a woman,” the second man said, turning away in disgust. “I will see that she talks to no one.”
“How?”
“Do you care?”
The first man said no more. All he cared was that the threat go away. He told himself what he always did when he found himself without money and thugs were breathing down his neck demanding payment of loans.
Just one more time. Just this once. Then I will stop and no one will ever know.
Chapter 17
Lianne looked pale and much too tightly strung as Kyle helped her into his car. Her own little Toyota had been impounded. It would stay that way until the smuggling charges against her were dropped. If she was convicted, the car belonged to the Feds. Vehicles used in smuggling were routinely seized by the law.
“Thank—” she began.
“If you thank me one more time,” Kyle cut in savagely, “I’m going to gag you.”
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