Chen answered with a wince. “It’s just….”
He held up an envelope with hibiscuses printed all over it. “The guys downstairs got a weird piece of mail for you in the post. It’s addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Han, and I think it’s from Jazz’s mom—like, maybe she sent it before Jazz….”
Instead of finishing that sentence, Chen brought it over to the table and slipped what looked like a thank you card out of the flower print envelope. He set the card in front of Han’s ramen and opened it for him to see.
“Why are you showing us this?” Phantom demanded.
Phantom didn’t see it, but Han did. The word Jazzy was still intact, but what looked like his name had been scratched out, cards upper layer carefully torn off. And that wasn’t the only instance of missing words and letters. Quite a few of the other letter’s in the written note below the name Jazzy had disappeared under rough slits, as if someone had pressed a fingernail through them to make…
“A code,” Han realized out loud. “This is a code! Chen, give me a pen.”
Phantom looked at him like he was crazy, but Chen handed him a pen. And after Han was done translating, his heart stopped when he read the final note.
Jazzy
s-t-i-l-l
a-l-i-v-e
l-a-c-e-r-d-a-s
a-l-a-m-o-a-n-a
Love
37
JAZZ
“Don’t worry. There’s nothing in the car.”
That was what Bui told me when the cops pulled him over on our way back to the Gold Coast from Electric Beach Park.
But I had a bad feeling as the cops approached. Especially when I saw their guns already out.
That was when I remembered what Han told me about The Silent Triad not having secured all of K Diamond’s cops yet. And I realized soon after that I was right to be suspicious when I recognized who the police officers who’d stopped us were.
The Lacerdas. The Lacerdas were coming straight at us.
“Do you want me to kill them?” Han had asked me back in November after their “interview” was done.
I wasn’t a killer, and I’d been so intent on calling Mika to tell her what we had found out, I’d shaken my head.
A shake of the head. That one gesture had led to this moment.
Everything happened fast after that. Two of the Lacerdas—the father and youngest son—ran up on either side of the car and yelled for Bui and me to get out. Then the other still-living Lacerda brother showed up out of nowhere at my passenger door, practically dragging a woman with brown skin behind him.
My heart stopped when I recognized her. She was the girl I’d seen dancing for the STs that first night at Aloha Ballers. The one I imagined could have been me if not for Han’s intervention.
Her weave was gone now, and instead of dancing, her head lolled listlessly. The other Lacerda brother had to physically lift her into the passenger seat I’d occupied before they made me get out of the Infiniti.
I didn’t see much of what happened after my cop slapped handcuffs on me and shoved me into the backseat of a non-descript car parked behind the Hawaii State cruiser. But none of my guesses about the dancer’s and Bui’s fate were optimistic as the youngest Lacerda pulled a U-ey and sped off in the opposite direction.
The next thing I knew, I was being dragged into an old strip mall building in the Ala Moana shopping district and presented to a grinning Yaron and K Diamond.
The only nice thing I could say about the situation was that at least the Lacerda brother took off the handcuffs before shoving me into the storage room that would become my prison.
It was large and grey with concrete floors and walls. It also had an open window through which I could hear the sounds of traffic and even a bus, letting people on and off.
However, that window was located so high above my head, I could barely reach its sill without standing on my tiptoes. And even if I had the arm strength to pull myself up to it, it wouldn’t matter. The window’s only reason for existing was old-fashioned ventilation. So though it stood open, it was too narrow and small for a human body to fit through.
Other than the window, the only other items the room contained were one thin mattress, a metal pail to do my business, and a roll of toilet tissue.
I knew I couldn’t get away with yelling for help without someone coming in here to gag me or worse. But maybe I could use the pail the same way I used my bra underwire in Delaware….
That plan died on the vine, though, when Yaron walked in on me while I was trying to get the handle detached with no tools whatsoever.
“If you try to use that pail on me,” he said, setting a tray of food on the concrete, “not only will I hurt you, I’ll take it away and make you shit and piss on the floor.”
I’d known him for over a year, and those were the first words he’d ever said to me.
But as it turned out, creepy silent Yaron was much preferable to the one who talked.
“Why are you doing this to me? To Han?” I asked, jumping to my feet.
He was all too happy to tell me.
“They ruined my life,” he answered as if he’d just been waiting for me to ask. “I didn’t get to see my daughter grow up because of them. Then they exiled me here in Hawaii. And that was all before they killed my brother.”
I’d heard a few of the details about why Yaron might have decided to betray his triad, and his reasoning didn’t quite make sense.
“Your girlfriend dumped you and got a restraining order against you ten years ago. And Hawaii isn’t exactly considered exile by most people,” I pointed out. “As for your brother, his death was on you and him. He’s the one who decided to kidnap the partner of a Dragon. And you’re the one who decided to join with the enemy. That had nothing to do with Han.”
“You don’t think this wasn’t all part of my punishment for daring to make friends with a Dragon’s girl? I’ve had to watch everybody but me get advanced ever since I got assigned to Han’s detail. Most of the guys I came in with are in the upper ranks now, and they’ve still got me doing scut work.”
Yaron jabbed his finger in the air. “He made that fag a snakehead after a few months of driving you around. A few months! I’ve been his driver for nine years!”
“I…” As unsound as his reasoning was, Yaron was the closest thing to an ally that I might have in this ordeal. So I tried to validate him like we’d taught the kids to do at surf camp. “I didn’t advance as far as I wanted in my original profession either. So I get why you’d be mad.”
“You think you get it?” Yaron had asked, his eyes shining with hate. “You opened your legs, and Han gave you the world. Just like that Victor fuck did with Dawn.”
I swallowed, scrambling to reset. “You’re right. I don’t get it. I’m sorry I said that. But maybe if you let me go, I could talk to Han, help him see your side of things.”
Yaron straight up laughed at me. “You are fucking naïve if you think that is how it would work. He’d kill me. He’d kill me Victor style.”
I had no idea what “Victor style” meant, but I’d pleaded with him anyway. “Yaron, please. You don’t have to do this. Just listen to me—”
“No! No, don’t you get it. I don’t have to listen to you or Han ever again!” he yelled, cutting me off. “And you know what? I’d rather risk getting tortured to death than see you and him live happily ever after—no, no, that’s not how this story’s going to end. Not this time.”
I opened my mouth to try to reason with him again but then stopped. My imprisonment, this conversation, I suddenly realized, was all part of the story Yaron had been telling himself ever since he’d started plotting against his triad. I could beg on my knees, and it would only play further into his revenge fantasy.
So I went quiet, refusing to play his game.
But Yaron wasn’t done with his villain speech yet. “K Diamond’s already got a buyer all lined up for you. And he says he can finally get us off this fucking island. After he does, I’ll t
ake the money. Then I’ll go back to Rhode Island and figure out how to kill Victor and Dawn. Maybe Phantom too—never liked that guy.”
A cold wave of Delaware ocean water washed over me. K Diamond sold me?
“Yeah, and wait till you find out who it is,” Yaron said as if I’d spoken that question out loud.
He grinned with gleeful anticipation, and I realized it was the first time I’d ever seen him smile. “Now eat this food. It’s the only thing that’s going to make any of this better for you.”
I glanced at the tray he’d set down, my gut full of suspicion. The memory of the obviously drugged dancer the Lacerdas placed in my passenger seat flashed across my brain. I also recalled what Han had told me about how K Diamond’s first move would be to drug me into submission if he got his hands on me.
No…no prison food for me.
Instead, I waited for him to go and pulled out my mother’s thank you note. Since I never carried a purse, I’d tucked it into the waistband of my shorts. So it had been the only thing I’d been able to bring with me after they made me get out of the car and leave my phone behind…
There was a stamp on the envelope, so maybe I could…
I went to work, using my nails to scrape off and punch out letters in my mom’s sweet message. And I tried not to think about how I might never see her again. Or Han.
No, don’t go there, Hayes. Not yet. I swiped away the tears welling in my eyes and made myself focus on the task of creating a message with what I had, which was unfortunately only the nails on my hands—not a pen.
I did the best I could, considering. Then I pushed the stamped envelope out of the narrow casement window and sent it into the outside world on a wing and a prayer.
But so many factors would have to fall into place for this to work.
Somebody would have to notice the card and be kind enough to pick it up and put it in a mailbox. Then, Han, who I’d never seen open a solitary piece of mail, would have to get the card and decode it. Then he’d have to track down the Lacerdas and/or figure out that I was here in this Ala Moana old strip mall.
In short, the chances of my Hail Mary working out were extremely low. But what were the chances of Han and I being together in the first place? Surviving Delaware? Obviously, some higher power wanted us to be together. So I had to keep praying to whatever Fate or God had set up a cynical Fae King and a stubborn surfer girl in the first place.
However, three days later, I’d all but given up hope. But I hauled myself out of bed when I heard my prison door open.
It didn’t matter if the gnawing hunger had me fatigued. I didn’t want to take the chance of Yaron trying to force-feed me because I was lying down.
However, I stilled when I saw who had walked into the room.
Not Yaron carrying a tray. But K Diamond carrying a dress on a hanger and a pair of black stiletto heels.
No glitzy tracksuit for him these days. He wore a long-sleeved Ocean Pacific shirt and cargo pants with a canvas sunhat. I could see why Han’s men had such trouble tracking him down. If not for the gun poking out of his waistband, he’d looked like every other working-class local on the island.
The dress he held up was little more than a slip of glittery red fabric with the sides cut out. He threw both it and the shoes on the bed. “Put that on. Your buyer’s going to be here any minute.”
My buyer? My stomach sank like a stone, and I glanced at the dress. But I didn’t make a move toward it.
K Diamond slammed a fist into his hand.
“You going to fight me on this?” he asked. “I can’t touch your face, but believe me, I can make this painful for you if you don’t do what I say. Then you’ll still end up having to give me a strip show.”
The thought of doing anything this slimy snake told me to do grated over my tired nerves. And the idea of stripping for him made me want to throw up.
But I had to ask myself the hard question. Fight now with K Diamond or fight later with the buyer, who wouldn't be strapped if I was lucky.
Fight later, I decided after a calculated moment.
Swallowing down my nausea, I took off my shorts and t-shirt and snatched the dress off the bed. At least I was wearing a bikini underneath my clothes. Still, I found it hard to bear the slimy feel of his eyes on my body as I put on the cheap dress over it.
I didn’t give him any kind of show, but that didn’t keep K Diamond from grinning lecherously at me as I put on the heels.
“It’s too bad the buyer said I wasn’t allowed to fuck you.” K Diamond looked me up and down and licked his lips. Like a hyena. “I deserve to hit that after everything Han put me through.”
“Yet it’s not up to you,” a stern voice said behind K Diamond.
K Diamond whipped around, revealing who had just walked into the storage room.
And my heart soared when I saw the man in the lightweight suit with tattoos peeking out from his open shirt collar—only to plummet when I looked closer.
The guy exuded power and had a similar way of speaking as Han. But he wasn’t Han. He sported neck tats and the same underlying sharply planed facial structure, but none of Han’s Fae king beauty.
His real identity dawned on me in a sick instant…
And he confirmed my terrible guess when he stepped forward and introduced himself. “Hello. I am Delun Han. Zhiwei’s brother. And you now belong to me.”
38
JAZZ
Delun.
Han’s brother was here. Not the chosen one he’d returned to the East Coast to help. But the half-brother he hated.
And who apparently, hated him back enough to buy me.
Delun came to stand in front of K Diamond, and his eyes gleamed with smug triumph as he beheld me in the skimpy outfit.
“You were right,” he said to K Diamond. “She’s even prettier than the pictures you sent.”
He examined me the same way I looked over every inch of a used board before buying one for my class. It made my skin crawl.
“Such fresh, innocent beauty. I can see why Zhiwei likes you. We don’t encounter many girls like you in our world.”
“He doesn’t like me. He loves me, you asshole,” I let him know.
“Feisty, too. I will have fun teaching you how to speak to me.” He looked over his shoulder to share a laugh with K Diamond. At my expense.
Then he viciously grabbed me just like K Diamond did the first time we met, but worse. His fingers dug into my cheeks so hard I was afraid my jawbone would break under the pressure before he shoved me backward towards the mattress.
I stumbled. The heels I’d been made to put on were not my friends when it came to balancing. But no, no, I couldn’t let myself get into a vulnerable position. I stayed on my feet and somehow managed not to fall back on the mattress.
And when I regained my balance, I looked Delun in the eye—right before spitting in his face.
Rage twisted Delun’s face—but then he smoothed over his expression and wiped my spittle from his face.
“On second thought, K Diamond. I am going to let you have her. Fuck her now in front of me.”
K Diamond looked from side to side, suddenly not so sure of himself. “She hasn’t eaten any of the drugged food. So she’s going to put up a fight.”
Delun nodded approvingly. “Even better. You fuck her, then let that Filipino fuck her too. You two can take turns with her until she learns not to fight back. Like you said, for your trouble.”
Unfortunately, this was a reframing K Diamond liked. The wariness in his eyes faded and was replaced with anticipation as he took a step toward me.
Okay, I suddenly understood the full meaning of “over my dead body.” A fierce calm rose inside of me, the knowledge that these bitches would have to carry me out of her in a body bag before I let K Diamond touch me.
And did I say the heels weren’t my friends?
Without warning, I snatched one off my foot and charged that slimy bastard before he could come at me, wielding it like a wea
pon.
I knocked K Diamond onto his back. And he barely had time to blink before I finally punched him in the throat, like I’d wanted to do since the first day we met. But not with my fist this time, with the heel.
K Diamond’s life ended with a gurgling choke when the heel’s high stiletto plunged
into his neck.
I wasn’t a killer. That was what I thought.
But I killed K Diamond. I killed him. And after I did, a sense of satisfaction like nothing I’d ever felt before rolled over me….
Until Delun grabbed me by the hair and lifted me off K Diamond’s dead body.
“Now I do not have to pay him. How can I thank you for saving me so much money?” he murmured in my ear, the same, but so, so opposite from Han. My scalp screamed with pain as his words spidered into my ear.
Then he answered his own question, “Oh, I know. I’ll fuck you until you bleed.”
Heel…I had to get the other heel.
But when I lifted my right foot, I found out the hard way that I must have kicked my only other weapon off my foot when I charged K Diamond. I spotted it, still back by the mattress. And unfortunately, Delun was a lot smarter than his minion. He kicked it out of the way before throwing me face down on the mattress.
I fought. I fought as hard as I could. But he pinned a knee into my back. “Do you think I won’t break your spine? Send my brother pictures of me fucking your corpse?”
No, I didn’t put that past him. But I had to keep fighting. I loved Han, and I couldn’t let his brother win. Especially not like this.
I continued to struggle, refusing to give up.
“OK, have it your way,” Delun said, laughing on top of me. He increased the pressure into my spine. “You stupid b—umph!”
One moment I was fighting to the end, and the next, I was magically free with nothing holding me down.
Magic…
I flipped over, already knowing what had happened before I got a hold of the scene.
Or who had happened.
HAN: Her Ruthless Mistake: 50 Loving States, Delaware (Ruthless Triad Book 4) Page 25