The Grandmaster's Legacy (HOT Historical Suspense, Box Set)

by Taylor Lee

  Wyatt had cried so infrequently in his life that unlike everything else he did, he wasn’t good at it. He cried as a child when the men who used him beat him. When he was ten years old, he swore no one would ever make him cry again. He didn’t -- until Vivian. Even then he raged rather than cried. He hadn’t done that for nearly six years.

  When the sobs overtook him, he leaned against the wall for support. He slid to the floor his head in his hands, his back against the wall. How long he sat wracked with the physical and spiritual pain he allowed himself to feel he didn’t know. When the sobs finally stopped, he found his rage again. He walked stony faced from the room, closed the door behind him and went to the dojo.

  The sound of the punching bag slamming against the wall could be heard in the dormitory five hundred yards away. The students didn’t wake. They had become accustomed to the sound.

  ~~~

  Chief wasn’t surprised that Wyatt had not tried to find Lei after she left. He was sure Wyatt had told Lei if she chose to leave she would never see him again. And she wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for the child. No one closed doors in Wyatt’s face but Wyatt. No one ever walked away from him without his consent. But Lei had and she had taken his child with her. Unforgivable.

  Wyatt’s network was like no other except Wan Chang’s. Chief knew if Wan wanted to hide Lei it was unlikely they could find her. His biggest fear was that she had gone back to China. But Chief felt in his gut that Lei may have wanted to be found. He hoped so because whether Wyatt admitted it or not Wan Chang’s resources were as formidable as his. Chief also knew that no matter where she was Wan would have built a wall of dead eyed men around her that would be impossible to scale.

  When he left Wyatt’s office, he woke Alono and relayed Wyatt’s charge. Alono’s connections to the Apache tribes that had been decimated, but still active throughout the West were stronger even than the Chief’s. A request much less an order from Wyatt would be a sounding bell for a race. If it could be won, it would be won. The word spread through Alono’s network as quickly as the telegram Chief sent to the Caballeros throughout the country. The telegram was short, two words: Find Lei.

  Chief knew it was useless to ask Joey to help him though Joey’s connections in the Chinese community were as strong as Wan’s. But Wyatt had built a reserve of respect among the kung fu masters who had trained at his dojo that Chief could tap. Whether they would take on Wan Chang was another question, but there had to be a chink in the armor somewhere. Chief needed to find it.

  By Noon he had found her. It was almost too simple, brilliant, even. It smacked of Lei. She was in plain sight, within reach. But she was as unreachable as in a medieval fortress guarded by dragons. She was living in the penthouse of the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver eight stories above the ground. The only access was a narrow winding staircase easily guarded by men who would give their lives rather than let him pass.

  There was another element to Lei’s choice of the Brown Palace Hotel. It made Chief shudder. The photograph of Vivian and Wyatt that had stood on his desk for six years, the only one he had of her, was taken at the Brown Palace. Chief knew Lei chose this site purposefully. She put up a barrier that would be harder for Wyatt to confront than a hundred of Wan’s men; his obsession with his dead wife.

  When he told Wyatt her location, Wyatt looked at the picture and nodded. A bitter smile crossed his face. He shook his head and said, “That bitch.”

  ~~~

  The bigger question in Chief’s mind was not whether they would find Lei, but what the hell they would do when they did. He had to find someone more loyal to Lei than to Wan. Only Lei would be able to order the guards to let Wyatt in. There was one person he knew who would challenge Wan if Lei asked him to. That was Ri. He sent the note to Ri, asking him to give it to Lei. Chief begged him to let Lei decide. The note from Wyatt was simple. It read, “Lei I need to speak to you. Please see me. Wyatt.” Three days later, Ri told Chief Lei agreed. Wyatt was to come to the Brown Hotel alone the next night at ten o’clock.

  When he got to the hotel, Wyatt walked up to the second floor ballroom and stood where he and Vivian had danced the autumn before she died. His anger at Lei boiled up like a cauldron of bile. She was rubbing his nose in his pain; taunting him, challenging him. He was filled with rage. He wanted to hit her, drive his fist through her face, smash his elbow into her ribs and break them again. When he thought about what she was carrying in her body, more than anything, he wanted to hold her.

  “Goddamn you, Lei,” he whispered.

  He waited for Ri in the atrium. When he saw Wyatt, Ri refused to meet his eyes. Looking away, he motioned to Wyatt to follow him. He knocked on the door of a room on the first floor. One of the cold eyed white men Wyatt had last seen at the hotel in Cheyenne opened the door. In the room were what looked to be twenty to thirty Chinese men.

  Wyatt grinned. “Well, good to know you fellows believe in a fair fight. Any more than thirty of you at one time might have been too much for me.”

  No one smiled.

  One man stepped forward. Wyatt knew him by reputation. He was Longwai, Wan Chang’s prize fighter. He was known within kung fu circles as the strongest kung fu grandmaster in the Sing Leon. He motioned to Wyatt to remove his weapons. Wyatt took his gun from his side holster and put it on the table. He drew the two from his back and put them by the first, then reached into his boot and threw down the one hidden there. He took off the holsters and put them on the table with the guns. He reached into his other boot and drew out a bowie knife and then took a nine inch stiletto blade from the sheath on his belt. When the weapon count reached six he smiled and reached into a hidden place on the inside of his belt. He drew out his retractable custom designed Jian -- the traditional Chinese fighting blade that had killed more opponents than any weapon Wyatt carried. He put his hands in the air, indicating that was the last.

  Longwai motioned to him to take off his clothes. Wyatt kicked off his boots, took off his vest and shirt, unbuttoned his pants and stepped out of them. He turned in a slow circle with his hands up, then turned back to meet Longwai’s eyes. He knew the killer was sizing up a likely opponent. Wyatt didn’t have to see Longwai naked to know the body that lay beneath his clothes.

  One of the white men handed Wyatt his clothes. He dressed, then waited. There was a knock at the door. When it opened he saw another eight or so men. The one in front sneered at Wyatt and motioned him out of the room. They surrounded him in a tight circle and walked to the stairs where Ri waited. The group, led by Ri, moved as one up eight flights to the door of the penthouse.

  ~~~

  Ri knocked and called out to Lei. The door opened and the group moved inside. Lei was standing across the room with her back to him, looking out the wall of windows at the city below. It was a majestic sight, but Wyatt only saw her. The men around him flattened out to a protective wall in front of the door three men deep.

  When he saw they weren’t leaving, Wyatt, said, “Lei, I need to speak to you.”

  Not turning she said, “Speak.”

  “Alone.”

  “This is how you will speak to me.”

  He hesitated, then conceded to the reality.

  “Lei, I won’t let you keep me from my child.”

  “That is not your choice. You will never see this baby.”

  “Lei, you know the whole goddamn Tong can’t keep me away from my child.”

  “But I can.”

  He moved toward her, quietly, slowly.

  “Lei, please. Lei, look at me.”

  She turned to face him. His heart constricted painfully at the sight of her beautiful face. She looked fragile but she was carrying the baby proudly even regally. He squeezed his eyes closed holding back surprise tears. He ached to hold her. He wanted to take off her clothes and run his hands over her belly. To feel for the baby’s arms, legs, anything that was available. He saw that her breasts were swollen, enlarged. He wanted to hold them, kiss them, suck on them. But more than a
nything, he wanted to hold Lei and not let her go.

  He took several careful, slow steps toward her. She shook her head no. As if she could read his thoughts—as if he had spoken. He saw her body was trembling.

  “Lei, let me hold you.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes, but she shook her head again. “No.”

  “Please, honey.”

  “I am not one of your honeys.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  He moved closer to her and reached out to touch her.

  She stepped back to the windows and nodded to the men who closed in around him.

  “Go, Wyatt.”

  Heat flooded over him as his anger rose.

  “Lei, if this child is mine there is nothing you or your father can do to keep me from him.”

  ‘“If’, Wyatt?”

  Her eyes flashed. She motioned to the men.

  “Throw him out.”

  Twenty men moved to surround him. He waved his hand as if to brush them away. His face frozen with rage, he stalked to the door.

  Lei said to the one with the angry eyes. “Don’t hurt him. Do you hear me? That is an order.”

  Ri stayed in the room after they left. He was pale, shaking with anger. His voice was shrill. “He said it might not be his child!”

  Lei sighed. “He was angry, Ri. He didn’t mean that; he knows this is his child.”

  “No, I will not permit this further insult. I will kill him.”

  Their father came from the adjoining room.

  Wan said, “No, I will.”

  Lei knew Wan conceded to her demand that she see Wyatt because it fit his strategy. Lei knew from the beginning her father would find a way to back out of his agreement not to hurt Wyatt. Knowing that it might be the last time, she insisted that she see Wyatt. She knew that Wan would use it as an excuse to do what he planned to do all along -- kill him.

  ~~~

  Chapter 27

  Wyatt sat in his private quarters, sipping bourbon watching the flames in the fireplace, conflicting thoughts coursing through his mind. He thought with a start that he had never shown Lei this room. It ran the length of the back of his cottage and faced the Colorado Rockies. It was his sanctuary, his and Vivian’s.

  The anger that haunted him all his life was raging in him now. But since he had seen Lei standing by the window looking pale and fragile, other emotions fought for the stage. He was surprised that the sight of her pregnant silhouette had brought memories of Vivian more vivid than he thought possible. He remembered how excited they were when they discovered Vivian was pregnant. Scared but overjoyed. He had worshipped her, remarking on every change in her body. He had treated her as a glorious temple doing what no woman on earth had done before and that was to carry his child. Their days were consumed making plans. Their nights with filled with joyful, careful lovemaking. He never left her side.

  With Lei, the difference was achingly apparent. Though she was surrounded by a small army of men, she was alone. There was no one celebrating the miracle taking place within her. She faced her pregnancy alone -- in shame. He was sure that as her body changed and she grew more obviously pregnant those around her grew quieter, even less willing to talk as her shame became more apparent. There was no one to tell her how beautiful she was, even more beautiful than before. No one to marvel at the miraculous changes in her body. No one to argue whether it was a boy or a girl or endlessly consider the best names. And there definitely was no one to tell her how loved she was, that he would always be with her, that she wasn’t alone. Wyatt remembered the look in her eyes when he asked to hold her. He knew how much she wanted and needed him even though she refused. But he wasn’t there and she was alone. For the first time since she walked out of the hotel in Cheyenne Wyatt’s anger at her dissolved into profound regret. Finally to shame at what he had done.

  ~~~

  Wyatt went to Joey’s office at the dojo. He sat down in one the chairs by Joey’s desk.

  Joey looked up and didn’t speak.

  “I owe you an apology, Joey.”

  Joey looked surprised, but didn’t answer.

  “You warned me many months ago not to get involved with Lei. I didn’t listen.”

  “You fell in love, Wyatt.”

  “You’re right. I did. But I didn’t honor that love.”

  They were silent.

  “I apologize to you, Wyatt, for not telling you Lei was pregnant.”

  “You made an oath.”

  “I never should have done that. I am also your sensei.”

  “No, you shouldn’t have. But now we need to move forward.”

  Wyatt hesitated a minute. “Joey, you don’t believe that Lei’s being Chinese has anything to do with my actions, do you?

  Joey sighed. “No, Wyatt, I don’t. I was trying to hurt you.”

  The two men sat together without speaking, trying to absorb and deflect the hurt and anger they both felt.

  After several minutes, Joey said, “Wyatt, Wan contacted me last night. He wants a one on one fight to the death – here, at your dojo.”

  “That’s poetic.”

  “He is sending Longwai.”

  Wyatt nodded.

  “He is the strongest fighter in the Sing Leon. No one has ever bested him.”

  “Yeah, I met him at the hotel.”

  “Wyatt, he is a kobudo fighter; his greatest skill is with weapons.”

  “I know that, too. It’s been a while, Joey. I’ll need to brush up, don’t you think?” he said with a rueful grin.

  Joey’s face was pale. “I don’t think you have time. They’re coming in three days.”

  Wyatt had known from the minute Joey told him about the baby that Wan had marked him. No matter what agreement Lei thought she had with her father, Wyatt knew Wan would find a way to break it. He wasn’t surprised that he intended to make it a rematch of the one with Chinbau Li. It was to be expected. Wan grudgingly admired him and honored his defeat of Chinbau Li, but Wyatt knew this time it was personal. Wyatt understood. Wan was determined there would be no repeat. Wyatt needed to die. For Wan it wasn’t enough to kill him. He wanted to beat him to death, destroy him. To do it in a way that would bring the most shame to Wyatt. He wanted to kill him in a fair fight in his own dojo, where Wyatt had killed Chinbau Li nearly twenty years ago.

  Wyatt and Joey turned to what they knew best – how to fight. They tested his staff, a weapon he didn’t use with students because of its unusual size. It was the standard six feet long but had a four inch octagonal base as opposed to the usual rounded one and a half inch base. The larger base and the multiple sharpened edges had allowed him to drive it through Chinbau’s chest, killing him. The disadvantage was that his staff was heavier and less flexible than a typical staff. It took extraordinary strength to wield it.

  Joey shook his head not trying to hide his concern. “Wyatt, I know you are strong enough to use this, but Longwai is an expert with the staff. That is his point of difference.”

  “Then, Joey, I need to take it away. That’s where my heavier staff will make a difference. My goal is to get to my jian blade as quickly as possible. I don’t think he can beat me there.”

  “I agree. But I’m worried about giving him the advantage up front. It may be over before you get to your strengths.”

  “He’s that good, huh?”

  “From what I hear, yes, he is.”

  “Joey, there is one irony in this at least I think its ironic, not sure Wan will. My flying skills have always been my strategic advantage. But the work I did with Lei, coming up with new aerials and combinations for her, gives me moves no one at Sing Leon has seen before. Given that Longwai outweighs me by about the same amount that most men outweigh Lei, the moves I created for her are going to be the way I win this match.”

  “God, Wyatt, you have the strongest man in the most vicious gang in the country coming to kill you in three days and you’re still the cockiest son of a bitch around.”

  “Hell, Joey, I can�
�t lose. What would you and Chief and Alono do without me to push you around? But besides you three men, who I’ll admit can take care of yourselves, I have four people who need me to take care of them.”

  “I know Elena and Alex are more reasons than you’ll ever need and I assume you are talking about the baby. Who is the fourth?”

  “Lei.”

  Seeing Joey’s skeptical look, Wyatt added, “She just doesn’t know it yet.”

  “You haven’t said anything about how it went.”

  “Well, let’s’ see. They put me in a room with thirty Chinese fighters who had me strip so that Longwai could size up the guy he’s planning to kill. I had a three minute conversation with Lei in front of another twenty fighters. Lei threw me out after she told me I would never see our child. Other than those things I would say the evening went well.”

  “I’m glad you have your sense of humor back, Wyatt. You omitted one detail – the detail that Wan found most compelling. When you questioned whether you were the father of Lei’s child.”

  “Yeah, shit. I did say that. Hell, I was angry. Lei knows I didn’t mean that. And that son of a bitch, Wan—who I presume was in the other room – knows that, as well. He needed an excuse to break his bargain with Lei.”