by Susan Lewis
The door opened again and Penny felt Christian tense. She turned to follow the direction of his eyes and instantly felt her own tension mount as she watched a scrawny, wide-faced man, who had obviously been in the cloakroom across the hall, swagger into the room, thumbs hooked in his belt loops, the customary mobile phone poking out of his Versace leather jacket. His eyes were masked by wraparound Porsche glasses and heavy chunks of gold dripped from his neck and wrists, while his thin mouth worked frantically at a thick wodge of gum. He was at least half the age of the other Chinese in the room, but managed to ooze twice the arrogance and apparently revelled in his thuggish, gangland image.
As his hidden eyes alighted on Penny he stopped and she felt her skin crawl at the way his lips curved in a grin. ‘So, this is Penny Moon,’ he drawled in a heavily accented English.
Penny’s face tightened. It was the first time since she’d been there that anyone had used her real name and that it should be this insolent, noxious little specimen of lowlife was as ominous as it was offensive.
‘Chérie, this is Benny Lao,’ Christian said.
‘How do you do?’ Penny said coldly as his gaze travelled the length of her body, turning her blood hot with revulsion.
His grin widened as, reverting to his native tongue, he began speaking to Christian in insulting, mocking tones. Almost instantly Christian cut across him and Penny’s eyes shot to Christian’s face. His fingers were digging into her shoulder, pulling her closer as his eyes darkened with rage and the others started to laugh. Until now Penny had never seen Christian anything other than in control, but it was clear, as Benny Lao’s tauntings increased the laughter in the room, that whoever Benny Lao was he neither respected nor feared Christian Mureau.
‘What’s he saying?’ Penny demanded, knowing that, whatever it was, it was about her.
‘Nothing,’ Christian snapped, not looking at her as Lao continued his unintelligible gibes, obviously as spurred on by Christian’s impotence as he was by his audience.
Penny’s eyes, blazing with fury, moved back to Lao. Her rage seemed to incite him further and, sensing Christian to be suddenly at a loss, she shouted again, ‘What is he saying?’
‘Nothing,’ Christian said, pulling her away. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Don’t!’ she cried, shrugging him off and turning fearlessly back to Lao. ‘I want to know what you’re saying,’ she demanded.
‘Penny, leave it!’ Christian barked.
‘No! I know you were talking about me, so I want to know—’
‘Penny!’
‘Tell her,’ Lao said, idly grinding his chewing gum while relishing the scene he had created.
‘No! You tell me!’ Penny seethed. ‘Or don’t you have the courage?’
Lao laughed and, to Penny’s horror, as he removed his glasses to reveal the scarred and callous slits of his eyes he rubbed a hand suggestively over his groin.
Her lips curled in disgust as she turned to Christian. For the moment she was too enraged to feel the fear that was burgeoning inside her. ‘Get him out of here!’ she spat. ‘Get him out now!’
‘Chérie, please, just go into the other room,’ Christian responded, his face pinched with unease as his eyes bored into Lao’s.
Lao’s telephone suddenly rang, stealing the tension from the moment. He snatched it from his pocket and put it to his ear. His eyes remained on Christian’s as he listened to the voice at the other end. The smirk never left his lips as he worked his gum and clicked his fingers for someone to present himself at his side. As someone hurried forward, Christian drew Penny away and steered her towards the door of the master bedroom.
Penny was about to speak, when she saw Tse Dong, who’d been standing to one side throughout, slide a hand out from under his jacket. Knowing that was where he carried his gun, she turned her panicked eyes to Christian. ‘What’s going on?’ she demanded in a whisper. ‘Who is that man?’
‘A necessary evil,’ Christian answered. ‘Now, please, chérie, do as I say and go into the other room. Tse Dong will go with you, you’ll be safe there.’
‘Meaning I’m not here, with you?’
‘Yes, of course you are,’ he soothed, ‘but he’s using you to weaken my position and I don’t want any blood shed over threats that are being made worse by your temper.’
‘What kind of threats?’ she said, flinching at the rebuke.
Before he could answer, Lao interrupted. ‘Did you tell her?’ he jeered, digging his phone back into his pocket.
Ignoring him, Christian turned back to Penny. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said softly.
Penny looked into his eyes, unsure what he was apologizing for. Then a sudden, icy fear slithered through her veins as she wondered just how powerless he was against Lao and if he was apologizing for something that he was about to let happen.
They both turned as Lao sauntered towards them, slaking Penny with his eyes. ‘He tell you I going fuck you like a dog?’ he hissed, poking his face towards her. ‘He tell you I going make you suck every cock in the room?’
When Christian didn’t speak, fear wrenched the blood from Penny’s heart. She drew breath to speak herself, then froze as she saw the knife slide out of Lao’s sleeve. A blinding rush of terror dizzied her. The lacquer chests and Chinese curios loomed in a grotesque parody of menace. The room was spinning, colours and faces were merging. A flicker of light glanced off the blade as he came closer. Obscenities dripped from his lips. Waning sunlight pooled in his eyes. Dear God, wasn’t Christian going to stop him? She whirled round in panic, then was thrown against Christian as Tse Dong moved in front of her, his hand back inside his jacket, his muscles bulging with intent. She could no longer see Lao’s face, but the violence in the air was palpable. Christian pushed her behind him and barked something in Cantonese. Lao shouted back and Christian turned to Tse Dong. Tse Dong didn’t move. Christian spoke again and Tse Dong whipped his hand from his jacket. Christian’s face hardened. The gun was pointing at Lao. It was a weapon that was powerful enough to blast Lao’s head from his shoulders. Christian snatched it away. Instantly Lao thrust forward with the knife. The gun crashed down on his wrist, splintering the bones. Lao screamed and the knife fell. Tse Dong kicked it across the floor. Lei Leen pounced on it. Christian pushed the gun inside his jacket and held out his hand for the knife. Lei Leen passed it to him. He nodded and she quickly opened the bedroom door, pushing Penny inside and coming in after her.
‘You OK, ma’am?’ Lei Leen asked.
Penny stared at her, unable to speak.
‘Take deep breath, ma’am,’ Lei Leen said.
Penny did as she was told, hearing the breath shudder into her lungs as her heart pumped the numbing shock from her brain. It had all happened so quickly. A man had almost been blown apart in front of her eyes. If he’d touched her, he would have been. Another had come within inches of a blade plunging into his throat. The violence had been cut through with a madness that was barbaric. These men didn’t fight, they killed! All that had stopped them then was Christian’s swiftness of hand. What would have happened had he not been there?
She sank down on the edge of the chaise-longue and buried her face in her hands. Only then did she realize how badly she was shaking. How much power did Lao have? she was asking herself. What would the reprisals be for this abhorrent loss of face? Would she be the one to pay, or would it be Christian? She bunched a fist to her mouth to stifle the sob that was choking her. How did Lao know her name? Why had he made such a point of using it? Why was he using her to torment Christian?
She looked up as Lei Leen handed her a glass of water. Taking it, she tried to force a smile, then her head spun towards the door as she heard a burst of laughter in the next room. As it died she turned her eyes back to Lei Leen.
Lei Leen shrugged. ‘They men, ma’am,’ she said simply.
Penny looked at her, unable to believe that Christian could be laughing so soon after such a confrontation. But maybe he wasn’t. Maybe it was the o
thers who were laughing because he was already being forced to pay for the humiliation he had inflicted on Benny Lao. But it was unusual for the Chinese to move so swiftly. Except what did she know about the Chinese? It was impossible for her to fathom what was going on out there and as her mind shied away from the horrific images her imagination was so ready to conjure she found herself slipping towards the void of despair she had been fighting so hard to resist.
Her eyes closed as the anguish rose from her heart and rushed helplessly to her throat. Her breath stopped; her body shuddered with the futile power of her feelings. The torment was moving through her with more severity and desperation than she’d ever known. She couldn’t bear it, it was too harsh, too real, too overwhelming and hopeless. She was more afraid than she had ever been in her life. She was adrift in a world that was as alien as it was terrifying and that she could ever have dreamt, even for a moment, that this was what she wanted was as shocking and unbearably painful as the reality of why, in the end, she had done it.
As her heart contracted with the tender bitterness of loss she turned her face to the window and gazed blindly out at the dying crimson of the sunset. She didn’t want to think about why she was here, she didn’t want to confront the terrible mistake she had made or why she had made it, but it was there and she knew that no amount of denial was ever going to make it go away. Her heart twisted as she wondered how she, who had always believed she knew her own mind, who had never knowingly hidden from a truth in her life, hadn’t recognized the incredible power of her feelings when they had been governing her life for so many months? How could she ever have considered her life to be parochial or dull when nothing could ever be that way with David around? Nuance wouldn’t be small-time much longer, not the way they had been building it, and with each day every frustration and every shared triumph had brought them closer and closer together, so that she had reached a point when the hours he wasn’t with her had seemed empty and disjointed, mere bridges to be crossed until he returned. Dear God, why hadn’t she realized how she felt when her own heart had been telling her all along – in the way it flipped with the pleasure of seeing him, the way it responded to the turmoil of his life, the way it warmed with the sound of his laughter and almost melted at the teasing intimacy of his voice. Where was he now? she wondered helplessly. What was he doing? Did he care that she had gone? Was he happy with his wife? Her eyes closed again as the pain folded around her heart. How could she have loved him this much without knowing? How had it managed to root itself in her so deeply when she hadn’t even known it was happening? It was as though he had taken each part of her and painted it with his touch, his scent, his humour, filling her so full of himself and taking her in exchange that it was only now that he was no longer there that she could see what he had done. But even if she’d known, what difference would it have made? It wasn’t her he wanted, so what was the point in tormenting herself this way?
‘You OK, ma’am?’ Lei Leen asked. ‘You want I bring you something?’
Penny shook her head. ‘No,’ she said hoarsely. Then, reading Lei Leen’s concern as genuine, she reached out for her hand and squeezed it. ‘I’m fine, really,’ she said, smiling.
‘You want to open this now?’ Lei Leen said, walking over to the bed and taking a small box from between the bronze and ivory silk cushions. ‘Or you want wait for the boss?’
Penny was barely listening as she feasted her eyes sightlessly on the intricate beauty of the silk screens. In her heart she was still crying out for David. Then, with a humourless laugh, she said, ‘Tell me, Lei Leen, why have your fellow countrymen taken such a dislike to me?’
‘Oh no, they like you, ma’am,’ Lei Leen protested, keeping her head lowered as she rearranged the cushions. ‘Everyone like you, for everyone know that the boss, he not give himself up because of you. We not want him to go and now he stay because of you.’
Penny moved restlessly, as though to pull herself away from the encroaching heaviness inside her, and fixing her attention on what Lei Leen was doing she said, ‘Well, they’ve got a funny way of showing it.’
‘They just men, ma’am. They think women should not be where they discuss business.’
‘And what do you think, Lei Leen?’
‘Me? I no paid to think, ma’am.’
Penny watched her as Lei Leen turned to reveal the mockery in her eyes.
‘What I think, ma’am,’ she said, ‘is that the boss, he love you very much. I see it in his eyes,’ she put a hand to her chest, ‘I feel it here in his heart. And you, ma’am, you are beautiful woman.’ Her expression became suddenly serious. ‘Not your face,’ she said. ‘No, no, not your face. But your soul, ma’am. You have beauty in your soul.’
Despite the way she was feeling, Penny laughed. ‘I suppose I should thank you for that,’ she said.
‘No thank me, ma’am. You want open this now?’ she said, holding out the box.
Penny looked at it, then swallowed hard to hold back the tears. She could guess what it was but, exquisitely beautiful though she knew it to be, she didn’t want to take it. Except what choice did she have? He had bought it now and the very thought that he had paid almost four hundred thousand dollars for a necklace because she had foolishly stopped to admire it as they’d strolled through the hotel galleries that morning made her want to scream for the sheer insanity of it.
Instead she held out her hand and took the box. Lei Leen came to stand beside her, eager to see what it was.
Even though she knew what to expect, Penny’s heart almost stopped as she opened the leather case and gazed down at the sixty-two-carat, emerald-cut sapphire set in a bed of glittering fifteen-carat diamonds and the strands of sea pearls interwoven with smaller blue sapphires.
‘Oh, ma’am,’ Lei Leen gasped, clasping a hand to her mouth. ‘You no tell the boss I give you this now,’ she pleaded. ‘I not know it was this. I think it is—’
‘It’s all right, Lei Leen,’ Christian said. Penny turned to see him standing at the door. ‘You can go now, Lei Leen,’ he said.
He waited until she had passed him, then closing the door he came over to the chaise-longue and sat down beside Penny.
‘Do you like it?’ he murmured, looking down at the necklace.
‘How can I not?’ She smiled through her tears. ‘It’s the most beautiful necklace I’ve ever seen.’
Christian lifted a hand to her chin and turned her to look at him, sweeping her face with his eyes. ‘Are you still upset about what happened out there?’ he said, dismissing the necklace as though it were no more than a trinket.
She nodded. ‘A bit.’
Sighing, he pulled her into his arms and laid her head on his shoulder. ‘I’d never let anything happen to you, you know that, don’t you?’ he whispered.
Dumbly she nodded.
‘If you weren’t a woman,’ he said with a quiet laugh, ‘he’d apologize for his behaviour, but I’m afraid that not even I can make him stoop to that.’
‘Who is he?’ Penny asked.
‘Like I said, a necessary evil. He works for someone I’ve been doing business with, someone to whom I owe a lot of money, which is what he believes gives him the right to push me around and try to humiliate me. He’s learnt now that he can’t.’
Penny lifted her head and looked searchingly into his eyes. ‘You’re afraid of him, though, aren’t you?’ she said.
He nodded. ‘I fear anyone who is without fear himself.’
‘Would he have killed Tse Dong?’
‘No. But only because Tse Dong would have killed him first.’
Penny shivered as the whole grisly scene played itself through in her mind again. Then, bringing her eyes back to his, she said, ‘How did he know my name?’
He looked at her for a moment; then, lowering his gaze to the box on her lap, he lifted the necklace carefully from its bed of black velvet and draped it over his hand. ‘Will you wear it tonight?’ He smiled, looking back at her. ‘We’re entertaining in the
Cartier room. Did you buy something today that will—’
‘Christian. How did he know my name?’
‘I don’t know,’ he sighed, shaking his head.
Penny waited, expecting him to say more, but he didn’t. ‘Who does he work for?’ she asked.
His expression was pained as he answered. ‘Penny, please don’t ask these questions,’ he said. ‘You know that I have committed crimes, but that is all you need to know. I don’t want you to be sullied by the types I have dealt with in the past . . .’
‘But you’re still dealing with them,’ she reminded him.
‘No,’ he said. ‘What I’m doing is winding things up once and for all. Benny Lao’s boss will receive the money that is due to h—’ He stopped as there was a discreet tap on the door and Lei Leen peeped in.
‘There is call for you, boss,’ she said.
‘Who is it?’ he said, obviously annoyed at being interrupted.
Lei Leen’s eyes shot to Penny as her cheeks suffused with colour. ‘No give name,’ she said awkwardly.
‘Then get the name,’ he said shortly. He was on the point of turning back to Penny, when Benny Lao appeared, grinning, in the doorway.
‘Why you not tell him is Gabriella?’ he drawled. ‘That get him running.’
Christian immediately stiffened and as Lei Leen blanched Penny felt the shock ripple through her.
David was sitting on the south-facing terrace of Penny’s villa, rocking steadily back and forth in a wicker chair. The collar of his coat was pulled up to shield his neck from the wind, his hands were stuffed deep into his pockets. It was a cold, wet, early winter’s day, the kind of day that made the whole world seem bleak. He wasn’t sure why he’d come here, though he’d always found something soothing in the semi-remoteness of the place – not too far from the world, but far enough to pretend for a while that it didn’t exist.