by Taylor Lee
Wan smiled ever so slightly.
“I have never known gratuitous violence to fail to make an impression, Joey.”
Tom looked for help to Wyatt, who grinned. “I’ve learned fighting Chinese kung fu warriors all my life that the best defense is to be as offensive as possible. I defer to my sensei, Joey, on all questions regarding Chinese violence.”
“In other words, the campaign stays out of it and defers to Wan?” Tom asked with an uncertain smile.
Wan nodded, his expression unyielding. “That would be wise.”
“Christ, I ask once more rhetorically, what the hell have I gotten myself into?” Tom shook his head in wonder, muttering, “hatchets?” under his breath.
“Now on to our thorniest and most significant issue. How can we prove irrefutably that there is a Chinese prostitution ring and that Grant and his buddies are heading it up?
“Remember, to the national press and most Wyoming residents, all Chinese are the same.”
Tom turned to the group. “As good as your intelligence is, Wan, our problem is clear. We do not have enough irrefutable evidence to go public. If we went now with what we have, Grant and his political buddies would throw it back in our faces. Without a doubt make it our crime—specifically Wan’s—not theirs.
“How do we get irrefutable evidence? Let’s hear it folks. I am open to excellent ideas. At this point, any ideas. I admit I have little or none of my own. I have worked this issue back and forth so many times in my mind that I can no longer think clearly.”
“You may not have to, Tom,” Wyatt said with a knowing smile. “I recognize that look on Lei’s face. What are you thinking, Lei?”
“I think we have a different issue. While it is offensive for me to say this, the reaction from the broader community is likely to be “who cares” if little Chinese girls are being bought and sold into prostitution. Aren’t all Chinese women basically prostitutes? At least that is how the newspapers and pulp fiction portray us. Let’s face it, those cartoons of me aren’t exactly subtle.
“I think what we need is…” and here Lei launched into Chinese. She spoke for over a minute. Then Wan began nodding in agreement and soon Wyatt and Joey were smiling. Wyatt fired off several rapid fire questions that either Lei or Wan quickly answered.
Lei started to speak in English, but Wan asked her to permit him. He turned to Tom and Chief and said, “When Lei was twelve years old, I faced the most severe threat of my career from a rival gang that had three times as many members. Lei made the astute observation in her serious twelve year old way that rather than us trying to bring down their gang why not let them bring themselves down. After all,” and here a genuine smile crossed Wan’s face as he remembered, “Lei said they have more members than we do. If some of them get killed, they will still have more, but if some of us get killed it will have a bigger impact. I couldn’t argue with that. Her concept was simple and brilliant. She recommended that we infiltrate their ranks by ‘converting’ some of their highest ranking members. It worked. Within two years the hierarchy of the opposing gang was decimated, all from within. The Sing Leon recruited over a third of their members. We have been the largest most powerful gang in the country since that time.”
Lei smiled and shook her head. “In his pride over his precociously violent preteen daughter, my father has not made it clear how this example applies to our situation. Let me. What we need are blond, blue eyed young girls who were sold into prostitution by the evil Chinese in a ring explicitly headed up by Grant Forrester and his group.”
“Interesting. Are you suggesting that we find young blond girls and sell them to Grant’s ring? Sell them into prostitution?” Tom asked in ill disguised horror, ready to believe anything from this group.
Lei smiled. “You probably don’t know this, Tom. There are a significant number of Chinese women with mixed race backgrounds. Some of them have blond hair and blue eyes. Moreover, I don’t know if you have noticed, but Chinese women seem to age slower than full blooded whites – something about skin pigment. What I am suggesting is that we take a number of beautiful Sing Leon members who are young, blond haired, blue eyed women, who are at least twenty years old but who could pass for thirteen or fourteen. We have them infiltrate the prostitution ring. In this last month, my father has already infiltrated the ring at the highest levels with Sing Leon members—all of whom at this point are white men.”
She smiled at Tom’s shocked look and Wan’s satisfied one at that revelation. She continued, “With the men my father has put in place, it will be an easy transition to work the women into the inner circle. Our men can protect them. When the scandal hits the papers, the victims will be frightened European looking girls. They will swear they have been bought and sold by none other than Mr. Forrester and his friends.”
Midway through her presentation, Tom began to nod as if he was beginning to understand. Wyatt could see his concerns and jumped in to address them.
“Remember, Tom, all we need to do is get enough press looking into the prostitution ring and tying it to Grant and his boys. Once they start looking, the story will build by itself – with help from us, of course. The purpose of the European looking girls is to whip up public outrage at young white girls being sold into prostitution by Chinese men AND their white counterparts like Grant Forrester. Let’s face it. Lei is right. The public outrage at the same thing being done to young Chinese girls would not be the same.”
For three hours, the six of them batted the idea back and forth, testing and retesting various elements. When they decided to end the discussion for the evening, the basic concept that Lei had suggested was still in place. The hard relentless questions and concerns raised and reframed by each of these remarkably strategic people only served to strengthen it. The result was a step by step plan to expose the ring, in the process to run Grant Forrester and his campaign into the dirt.
As they were leaving, Tom said, “I can’t believe that four hours ago I thought I had been joined by the craziest bunch of people I had yet to work with. I repeat what I said then and believe even more now. I hope to god I never get on the bad side of any of you. Please let me know if I do, so that I can slit my throat before you do.”
Wyatt grinned. “Welcome to our inner circle, Tom. We do politics a little differently. It’s the mongrel effect. Hope we don’t scare you away.”
~~~
As everyone prepared to leave, tired but energized, Wyatt touched Wan’s arm. He said in a quiet voice, “Would you stick around for a few minutes, Wan? I want to talk with you.”
Wan’s face hardened. His eyes grew colder. He shrugged, then nodded reluctantly.
When the others left the room, Wyatt stood up, closed the door and poured each of them a glass of bourbon. He shoved a cigar down Wan’s way. He sat down in his chair at the end of the table, lit his cigar, and took a deep swallow of bourbon. Without preamble, and, ignoring Wan’s stony countenance, he began to speak in a low, serious voice.
“You said I owe you nothing, Wan. I don’t agree. I owe you an apology. I am apologizing to you now. I betrayed Lei once again. I have no excuses or explanations, just profound regret. As a direct result of my actions, I have driven away the man I call my brother, the man who never left my side in fifteen years. In that process, I further compromised Lei, the person I love above all else in this world.”
He paused and took a swallow of bourbon. Continuing to look at Wan, he said,
“Alono said the truest things to me about my actions that any of the people who love me have said, including Lei, Chief, Joey, and Tom. Alono said, ‘You have everything, Wyatt. You have everything in the world, and you throw it away with both hands.’ ”
Wyatt closed his eyes. His lips trembled as he remembered Alono’s impassioned speech and the tears running down his face.
With an effort, Wyatt continued, “He went on to say, ‘You have what the rest of us would give our lives to have and you throw it away. You are so careless, Wyatt, so careless.’�
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He paused for a moment, then struggled to continue. “Profound words, wouldn’t you say, Wan, from the man who rarely speaks?”
Wan continued to glare at him, but Wyatt sighed and looked down at the table.
“I have been agonizing over those words, Wan. I haven’t repeated them to anyone else. I thought you of all of the people around me would understand how true, how devastatingly true they are.”
He glanced up at Wan and then looked away, a flash of pain crossing his face.
“Before he left the ranch—in disgrace, I should add—I struck Alono as hard as I could. In the face—not once, but twice. I may have shattered his jaw, I surely broke his nose. You know how strong I am, Wan. Alono is as strong. Each time I hit him, he got back up, covered with blood. He raised his hands with tears running down his face. He wouldn’t hit me back. I hit him in a rage, even though Lei had told me he refused her request to take her. I wanted to kick him in the head, with one of my spinning full on washu strikes. He would have stood there and let me. If I had, I likely would have killed him.”
Wyatt sat silently, struggling with the emotions he felt. Agony and intense pain were written over his face, clouding his eyes.
Wan was silent for several long minutes, his face a mix of emotions. He took his time gathering himself and then said, “I understand why you are telling me this, Wyatt. You think I know how bad you are. You are right. I do know, and I recognize what you are feeling. I don’t want to minimize how you feel, but over the years, I have talked enough about your shortcomings—but not about your gifts.
“You are a man with great gifts, Wyatt. If it wasn’t for you, and had been up to what I did, Lei would have died and Nicolas Deshi would never have been born. We wouldn’t have Elena and Alex, and Wyoming wouldn’t be about to get the best governor in the country. If you hadn’t adopted Alono, and made him your brother, with all the privileges that bestowed, he would be just one more raped and damaged Indian boy, abandoned to the ashbin of the reservation.
“Chief was right when he said earlier that I admire you. And yes, I love you. That is a strange thing for me to say, given that I have never said that to anyone except Lei and the children—not even to my son, Ri, who you know has chosen to cut himself off from me.”
He stopped for a moment as if he understood for the first time the enormous implications of what he was saying. He shook off the emotion, and continued.
“I am fifteen years older than you, not enough to be your father, and not close enough to be like a brother. But we have an important complicated relationship, nonetheless.
“I envy you, Wyatt. I’m sure Chief told you what Lei said last night. Yes? I knew at some level the damage I was doing to her with my behavior. Hearing it from her lips was one of the more painful things I have known. Do you know what was more painful, Wyatt? This morning, Chief put his arms around her in front of Joey and me and held her while she cried. Do you know what she wished for in the middle of her tears? She said, ‘I wish Wyatt was here,’ and Chief understood her. He said, ‘I do too because he would know what to do to make you feel better.’ Amazing. Chief knew that all he had to do to comfort her was to remind her that you would know what to do—and you would, Wyatt.
“I don’t. I don’t know how to comfort my own daughter, the love of my life. But you do. You have great gifts, Wyatt. I am grateful that you do. For Lei’s sake, and Nicolas Deshi’s, and the twins, and, yes, for Alono’s sake, and many, many others. I admire you. Now that I have said it, it might be easier to say the second time. I love you.”
Wyatt was staring at the table, his face was tight with emotion. Tears were clearly threatening to fall. Wan stood, walked over to him, and put his arm around his shoulders. “I’m proud of you, Wyatt. I regret that you are in pain.” He turned to leave the room.
Wyatt said, “Thank you, Wan.”
Wan nodded, and left the room, closing the door behind him.
~~~
When Wyatt got their room, Lei was coming from seeing the children. She whispered, “They are all sleeping. I wanted to give them another good night kiss.”
Wyatt nodded. He went to the children’s room. Lei went to theirs.
~~~
When Lei came out of the bathroom, dressed only in her skimpy underwear, Wyatt was sitting in the armchair by the bed, smoking a cigarette. It was the first time they had been alone since he left her after the Alono declaration. His face was impassive.
Gazing at her pale, exhausted face, he said, “Come here, Lei.”
She walked over and stood in front of him. He reached up and pulled her down on his lap. She buried her head in his shoulder and began to cry. He held her tight against him until her sobs quieted. Within minutes, she fell asleep. When Wyatt was sure she was sleeping, his shirt soaked with both of their tears, he laid her in bed. For the next several hours he sat in the chair, occasionally smoking, more often watching her in silence. As the first rosy fingers of dawn stroked the horizon, he tentatively lay beside her. Without speaking, she nestled close to him. They spent the few hours left of the night sleeping soundly, wrapped in each other’s arms.
~~~
Chapter 28
When Wyatt woke, Lei was gone. For a moment he was angry, and then sad. But the more he thought about it, he was relieved. He knew as much as he wanted to hold her and, yes, God yes, to make love to her, it wasn’t the answer. He couldn’t let go of what had happened; what she had done, but mostly what he had don—to her—and to Alono.
He heard the children pounding at the door. Lei opened it and all four of them came into the room. The children rushed over and jumped up on the bed, hugging and kissing Wyatt. He tossed them up in the air and bounced them up and down on the bed. Soon, the four of them were wrestling on the floor, loud shrieks and laughter filling the room.
Tom knocked on the door and shook his head when he came in. He smiled and said to Lei, who was standing in the corner, “Excuse me, Madam, I was looking for the next governor of Wyoming. All I see is a man on the floor in his underwear and three children who have him in a headlock.”
Lei laughed. Wyatt stood up with Nicolas Deshi clinging to his neck and with one arm holding a squirming Alex and the other holding a giggling Elena.
“Damn, Tom, is it time to go already?”
“No, Wyatt, but I want to go over the logistics with you and Lei. Among other things, we need to decide if we are going to have the family on the stage or if you want to introduce them from the audience.”
“Okay, give me a half hour to get dressed. The three of us and Chief can meet in your room to go over the day. Millie and Theresa are both next door getting ready. They can get the children dressed. Is that okay, Lei?”
She nodded and turned to the children.
“Let’s go to your room and show Millie and Theresa what we brought for you to wear. I think your father will be surprised when he sees the beautiful dress Grandfather Wan bought for you, Elena, and the suit for you, Alex. Even Deshi has a special outfit, don’t you, honey?’”
Elena bubbled up, “Oh, Daddy, when Lei and I went to Denver, we had so much fun. Grandfather Wan took us shopping. He bought me three beautiful dresses and two new pair of boots and he bought Lei the most gorgeous suit and a dress and boots like mine and….”
Lei’s face flushed and she broke in, “That’s enough, Elena. Let’s surprise your father with your new clothes. I’m sure he’s not interested in …”
Wyatt interrupted, his face hard with anger, “No, Lei, that’s not true. I am interested. I heard from Clem and Mat that you and Elena went to Denver. I would like to hear more. I’m only sorry that you weren’t able to schedule your train rides from Cheyenne on days that I was here.”
Lei flushed a deeper crimson and looked down.
“Daddy, I wanted to see you so bad, but Lei said you were in Jackson and weren’t there.”
“Yeah, honey, on those two particular days, I wasn’t.”
Wyatt and Lei looked at eac
h other. The mix of anger and pain was visible on both of their faces.
Tom looked at Lei and Wyatt and shook his head in frustration. He turned to Elena with a smile.
“I for one am excited to see those new clothes, Elena. You too, Alex. How about if I take you next door so you can get started….”
Lei broke in and turned to Tom with a dismissive glance, her voice was cold.
“That won’t be necessary, Tom. I will take care of the children. Why don’t you handle your candidate and let me handle the children?
“Let’s go, Elena, Alex. Come, Deshi. You all need to rest, then eat your lunch and then we’ll get dressed for the meeting.
“I’ll see you in thirty minutes, Tom. I suggest you hold the meeting in the club room. Since we will be discussing security, please include my father, Bai and Nianzu. They need to be part of your plans.”
She turned and led the children through the door, closing it firmly behind her.
“Well, I guess I’ve been put in my place,” said Tom with a wry smile. “Does that mean I get stuck with you?”
“Yeah, the biggest of the children.” Wyatt said with a grin. “As usual, she’s right. We do need to include Wan and Bai and Nianzu in the security discussion. Chief said we might have several hundred people here today.”
“Wyatt, I have a question. How long is it going to take you to put your arms around that woman and tell her how much you love her and that you will never let her go?”