HAN: Her Ruthless Mistake
50 Loving States, Delaware
Theodora Taylor
HAN: Her Ruthless Mistake
by Theodora Taylor
Copyright © 2021 by Theodora Taylor
First E-book Publication: May 2021
Cover Design: Qambar Design & Media
Editing: Authors Designs
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Epilogue
Sneak Peek at HER RUSSIAN BEAST
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Also by Theodora Taylor
About the Author
1
JAZZ
BRAD: Are you coming or what? Dad’s got places to be, and I have to pack for a flight out tonight.
My heart crumpled as I read the text.
I’d been so excited this morning. I’d woken up with a bright feeling inside my chest—like I could do anything and that my future was as wide as the ocean. I’d finally saved up enough to buy my old coach’s surf school and camp. But then….
I’d come home after my morning surf class and found my father lying on the floor of our living room. Bruised and battered and embarrassed as hell.
Jazzy, I made a terrible mistake with all that money your sister gave me to cover the bills. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry….
“You coming in or what? I don’t have all day.”
A hard voice asked nearly the same question I’d gotten on the phone from my ex-boyfriend, Brad, the son of my old surfing coach. And I looked up to find cold, hard reality disguised as a bouncer.
Behind the reality mountain stood the Aloha Ballers Gentlemen’s Club. A two-floor white stucco building, it had a giant neon sign on its street-facing wall that featured a hula dancer gyrating against a stripper pole. So, you know, classy!
Just a couple of years ago, if any of the squeaky-clean brands I used to work with caught me standing outside this place, it would’ve lost me a few sponsorships.
But tonight…
I shot off a quick apology text to Brad:
Something came up. Can’t make the deal. Tell your dad I’m sorry.
Three sentences. Three sentences were all it took to kill my hopes and dreams. My stomach twisted, threatening to cave in as I pressed the send button.
But then the bouncer said, “In or out. Make a decision.”
His tone was awfully rushed for a guy sitting on a stool outside of a strip club with no line. But his lack of patience was probably a mercy.
It reminded me that I didn’t have time to regret my choice. It wasn’t even a choice, really. If I wanted to save my father, I had to go inside.
Enough stalling. I shoved my phone into the back pocket of my cut-off shorts, thrust my chin into the air, and told the bouncer, “I’m here to see K Diamond.”
HAN
“Me and the guys have been talking about it. This job is so easy. My father didn’t even have to send you. We’ll handle it ourselves. Just give us the names of the targets, and you can go back to the mainland.”
All the eyes in the bar area of the Aloha Ballers Gentlemen’s Club shifted to Han after Kris “K Diamond” Kuang said this, their stares pressing into him like red targeting lasers on guns. The men standing behind Kuang Jr. hovered their hands near their guns in anticipation of Han’s response. And the handful of men Han had brought with him to Oahu did the same.
The Hawaii arm of the 24K might favor a much more casual look than The Silent Triad—they wore baggy shorts and tees while Han’s gang sported suits. But their weaponry was just as sophisticated and three times as lethal since they outnumbered Han and his men three to one.
Moreover, Han doubted that Kuang Jr. had also outfitted his men with silencers as The Silent Triad did as a matter of policy. So, if this request wasn’t handled with the utmost care, this situation would get noisy and very messy. Lives would be lost, and jail time would most definitely be served.
This was why, despite Kuang Jr.’s claim to the contrary, Han knew the son of the 24K’s Dragon couldn’t handle the job the older Kuang had sent him down here to do.
Which was a shame because he was just as annoyed about having to come here as Kuang Jr.
The Silent Triad didn’t traffic anything that could breathe. That was the policy Han had insisted on before agreeing to his brother’s proposal to found their own triad. So, he would’ve gladly handed over the mission to hunt down and discreetly kill all the possible witnesses in the sex trafficking case the state of Hawaii was bringing against the 24K. If it were up to him, he’d give Kuang Jr. the target list and catch the first flight back to Rhode Island.
But it wasn’t up to him. Coming down here had been a personal request from the 24K Dragon himself, The Silent Triad’s most valued business partner. He hadn’t believed his son could handle the matter discreetly, and standing in front of the son now, Han couldn’t disagree with the older Kuang’s assessment of the situation.
Kuang Jr., as The Silent Triad called him behind his back, didn’t appear to be in any way acquainted with the word discreet. All of the men in both their triads sported tattoos, but Kuang Jr.’s were garish and a little too American. Topless women sleeved both muscled arms hanging out of his neon yellow sleeveless tracksuit jacket, along with a mishmash of Louis Vuitton symbols and roses dripping blood.
Where did one buy such an ugly jacket anyway? Had the young snakehead cut the arms off himself, or had it come that way? In either case, he wore no shirt underneath it, which put the guns and roses tattooed across his chest on full display underneath two lengths of gold chain.
If K Diamond was willing to start a conversation that could lead to a gunfight in a public space while dressed in that outfit, Han highly doubted that the entitled snakehead could take out all the targets on his father’s list without it getting splashed all over the local media as soon as he did it.
But unfortunately, the little shit wasn’t just the local snakehead. He was also the son of the 24K’s Dragon.
So, Han had to keep his tone respectful as he said, “I’d be more than happy to back off and leave it to you. Just have your father give me the word. Otherwise, I’ll need you to clear out a room for me here to use as an office.”
; Kuang Jr. regarded Han, his eyes blazing with hate and frustration. He even brought his hand to his gun, which he kept in the waistband of his matching neon yellow track pants like a cartoon version of a mafia leader. But he stopped just short of pulling it out.
Going against Han would mean going against his own father—the father who was known for putting down anything and anyone who stood in the way of his business.
Maybe Kuang Jr. would get a pass for being the Dragon’s only son. But he and Han both knew it would cost him. If the 24K Dragon didn’t kill him, he would most definitely resort to the old ways to make sure his son fell in line. Was losing a finger or possibly a whole hand worth saving face in front of his crew?
If Han were Kuang Jr., he’d probably have a hard time with this decision himself. But, then again, if Han were Kuang Jr., he wouldn’t have put himself in a no-win position like this in the first place.
Han supposed that was why Kuang Jr. was the little boy who’d been left to play down in Hawaii by his father, while Han was the real man who’d been sent in to handle their real mafia business.
Han stuffed his hands in his pockets, making himself the very picture of unbothered as he waited patiently for Kuang Jr. to realize he’d already lost this battle and back down.
A few more tense seconds passed. And finally, Kuang Jr. jerked his chin at one of his men and instructed him in Cantonese to clear out the manager’s office for their guest.
Then he grinned at Han as if they were old friends—not someone he’d met for the first time five minutes ago.
“We should party tonight,” he offered. “Pick whichever girl you want, and she’ll go down on you in the Champagne Room for as long as you need.”
Han stilled.
And Chen, one of the men Han had brought with him, let Kuang Jr. know, “The boss doesn’t mess with prostitutes.”
Kuang Jr. jerked his head back, looking much like a Hong Kong matriarch who had just been told a restaurant that looked perfectly respectable on the outside didn’t serve tea.
“We got the most beautiful girls on the island dancing for us,” he said, tilting his head so far to the side, it was almost comical. “You trying to say you don’t want a taste?”
Irritation simmered inside Han, along with grudging respect.
Kuang Jr. was smarter than he appeared. Someone must’ve told him beforehand about how Han felt about prostitutes. That he didn’t touch them. Ever. Hard boundaries like his weren’t exactly a thing in their world. So now Han was the one who found himself in a bad position.
He’d either have to deny his host an explanation—which would be taken as an insult—or he’d have to go into his tragic back story—which Han bet his 1970 Mercury Cougar Kuang Jr. already knew. Both options tasted sour in his mouth.
But then, as it turned out, he didn’t have to decide.
“Which one of you is K Diamond?” a voice asked.
And they all turned to see a woman standing at the transition strip that separated the bar area from the rest of the club.
She was small but not necessarily thin. A baggy T-shirt and long cut-off shorts covered but couldn’t hide entirely, the curvy body underneath. And above that…
Han found a face that held his attention and sent a rush of adrenaline, unlike anything he had ever felt before crashing through him.
Real. Everything about her struck him as real. From her long sweep of lashes to the full lips a few of his past dates had paid doctors to replicate. Her beauty was fresh and untouched. She wasn’t wearing even a speck of make-up as far as he could tell.
She licked her lips, possibly an unconscious gesture, but every thought Han had prior to her arrival emptied from his head, leaving behind only one question, which K Diamond asked a few tense seconds after her arrival.
“Who are you?”
2
JAZZ
“Who are you?” one of the men demanded, staring at me.
I hesitated, all the righteous anger steam fading out of my body. I’d walked into the bar area at the back of the strip club expecting to find one man but got a whole gang instead.
No, not a whole gang, I realized after scanning the men gathered before me. Two distinct gangs. They were all of Asian descent, from what I could tell, and they all sported tons of tattoos. But one gang was dressed casually, and the other wore lightweight suits. No ties and open collars, but this was Hawaii, so they looked choke formal. They put me in mind of sharks in an ocean filled with marlin, sleek and sharp, and definitely out of place. And even though the casual side outnumbered them, they somehow seemed way more lethal.
The whole situation felt ripe with potential violence. The leaders of the two separate gangs had been standing face-to-face with their crews gathered behind them when I walked in like they were just waiting for something to pop off.
But now, every single one of the criminals on both sides of the situation was staring at me. A thump of panic rushed through me, but I pushed it down. It didn’t matter if I was scared. I had to do what I came here to do for my father’s sake. Then hopefully, get the hell out.
“I said, who are you, girl?” the leader in the neon yellow tracksuit demanded again. I was pretty sure he was K Diamond. He looked exactly like what I imagined when my father described the heartless bookie who’d sent his thugs to our house to beat up an old, disabled vet. And he talked like a wannabe rapper from the mainland.
So he was probably the one I’d come here to see.
But I couldn’t help but stare at the rival standing directly across from K Diamond. He was tall and insanely gorgeous with tattoos that crawled up to his hairline.
I’d choose China if somebody asked me to guess his country of origin. But he had that lean muscled look that I often associated with the Japanese surfers.
One thing was for sure. He was not from around here. He was pale and sharp-featured in a way that made his beauty cutting instead of pretty. His eyes were completely mesmerizing, so dark and black. They shone like onyx inside his beautiful face. Jewels that regular people wanted but couldn’t afford.
I hadn’t had much time for reading lately, but the sight of him threw me back to my high school days when I was obsessed with young adult novels featuring regular humans who somehow got thrust into other dimensions filled with ethereal fae. His beauty was so preternatural. He could be the king of some High Fae court who’d somehow ended up here in Hawaii.
Yet the Fae King didn’t seem all that concerned about the argument I’d interrupted. He looked me up and down from head to toe and back again. And though I was wearing way more than the women I saw dancing on the front stage when I entered the club, his heated gaze made me feel naked and exposed. And it released a kaleidoscope of butterflies into my stomach.
“Stripper auditions aren’t until Wednesday,” one of the guys standing behind K diamond called out to me, pulling me out of my strange trance.
“I’m not here to audition,” I answered, clearing my throat.
I forced my eyes away from the beautiful Fae King and fixed my attention on the guy I figured was K Diamond. “I'm here to pay my father’s debt so that you don’t send any more of your thugs to our home to beat him up.”
“Oh yeah?” K Diamond looked me up and down, just like his possible rival. But his gaze didn’t set off any butterflies inside of me. It just made my skin crawl.
He glanced over his shoulder to ask the guys behind him, “Who all did we collect on today?”
He had so many people beaten up, he couldn’t keep them straight? Anger buzzed, frustrated and futile inside of me as one of K Diamond’s minions answered him in a language that sounded Chinese.
K Diamond nodded after the guy finished. “Oh yeah, that Lakers-Golden State playoff game. He bet six figures because he heard a rumor Lebron had an injury. Stupid…”
He laughed and shook his head, like sending his thugs to beat up an old man was some kind of joke.
I ground my teeth. “I don't understand why you would let anyon
e bet that much. Especially a vet."
K Diamond rolled his eyes and repeated in a mocking tone, “I don't understand why you would let anyone bet that much. Especially a vet—strange how nobody ever comes around here asking me that question when the guy wins. And who cares if he's a vet? Half this damn island got service on their records. Your father ain’t special.”
The urge to punch him was riding me so hard, but I couldn’t let myself lose my temper. These guys were too dangerous, and my father’s life was at stake.
So I just thrust the bag filled with my life savings at him. “Here, it’s everything he owes you.”
This was all the money I’d saved up over the last two years, ever since Brad’s father announced that he would sell his ramshackle surf school when he retired at 60. A few hours ago, I’d fought off tears as I painstakingly withdrew it from my account in blocks of cash.
But K Diamond barely spared the small duffel a glance.
“Count that,” he said to someone over his shoulder, pointing at my duffel.
K Diamond stroked a hand over his knuckles and winked at me as one of his guys stepped forward to take the bag from me. “So, what are you? You mixed? Like, Black and Chinese or something like that?”
HAN: Her Ruthless Mistake: 50 Loving States, Delaware (Ruthless Triad Book 4) Page 1