This is some house. The next room turned out to be a bedroom, and when he walked through the archway leading from that, he found himself in a kitchen. A pair of french doors opened out onto a massive balcony, where a table overlooked a courtyard featuring an infinity pool and a sheltered Jacuzzi.
He couldn’t see them, but no doubt there were cameras everywhere. He hadn’t turned on a light since the coat closet—the rest of the way had been illuminated by soft night-lights and scent plug-ins that came to life on motion sensors. But those things left shadows, which gave him the opportunity to stand behind a sweep of sheer curtains for several minutes, watching the courtyard below.
As he thought, men patrolled the grounds. When he’d been on the deck earlier, he put the creepy-crawly feeling of having eyes on him down to Albert watching from the house. But there were plenty of others here. Ms. Gao kept a discreet, fairly stealthy security team. They clung to the shadows in the courtyard—big, armed men, here one, there two….
As long as Koa and Freddie gave the perception of going along, they probably wouldn’t even show themselves. Right now, their party was being treated as guests who had already signed on the dotted line. Not until they tried to back out would they be treated differently. Or until they tried to leave by stealth.
Security wasn’t the same as law enforcement either. Gao’s men would do whatever Ms. Gao considered in her best interest, and in light of the things they’d witnessed, the things she’d asked of them, they were between a hot volcanic rock and hard place.
Theo’s ever-practical stomach growled, so he decided to raid the refrigerator. Like Ms. Gao said, it was stocked with everything they’d need—prepared trays of fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk, cream, yogurt, butter. He grabbed a couple boiled, peeled eggs, turned up tea bags, filled the electric kettle, and switched it on. It didn’t take long for the water to hiss and the appliance to click from “boil” to “warm.”
“Let me.” Albert came out of nowhere and hip-checked Theo from behind the counter.
“Where’d you come from?” Theo backed off and let the kid make his tea. “Is there a set of stairs beside the one we came up earlier?”
Theo’d been looking and hadn’t discovered an alternate exit yet.
“Stairs?” Albert tossed the box of tea bags aside and instead searched drawers and cupboards for loose leaf tea and a teapot, which he warmed expertly with hot water.
“Yes, to get down to the pool?” Theo prevaricated. “Or back to the garage?”
Albert kept his eyes on the tea he measured. “There is only one stairway. On the other side of the house.”
Theo put his eggs on a napkin and glanced around, hoping to find salt and pepper shakers. Albert set a cup before him and said, “Wait.”
The fragrant steam scenting the air smelled of jasmine blossoms, which was very nice. His lower back ached. His muscles would no doubt stiffen up by morning. Riding a motorcycle, if he even found his, was gonna be agony for several days.
Every pleasure has its price.
“Here, try this.” The kid gave him a glass half-pint jar of sambal oelek, not the familiar commercial sauce but homemade.
Theo spooned sauce on his egg and ate it, then the second. While he moaned around the delicious spicy-sweet flavor, Albert poured his tea. Deftly, without being asked, he fixed scallion pancakes. Theo ate the offered meal gratefully with a fine pair of chopsticks.
“This doesn’t seem weird to you?” he asked Albert. “All this BDSM shit, and hush-hush, and folks coming and going at all hours?”
The kid shrugged and poured himself tea.
“What do you think of Ms. Gao?” Theo asked. Black eyes slid away, and no answer was forthcoming. Theo grunted acceptance and changed his tone. There was a time when Theo could charm information out of any recalcitrant kid. “At least you get to live here. I could get used to this. Want a roomie?”
“Sometimes. Yes.” A slight softening reshaped Albert’s rosebud mouth. There we go. He still had it.
“How old are you?” Theo asked.
Albert’s eyelashes lowered. “Twenty-one.”
“For real? Or because you like drinking?” ’Cause yeah. The kid still looked twelve to him, and he knew what to look for.
“It’s my age.” Lips pursed. “And I don’t like drinking.”
“Hey, you thought I was forty.” Theo glanced at Albert’s hands. His fingers were long and delicate. Beautiful. The nails precisely trimmed. “Want to know a secret?”
Albert’s gaze rose to his.
“Detective Kekoa Palapiti and I go way back. We lived next door to each other as kids, and he followed me around everywhere because I was all that and he was a big nerd.”
That earned a disbelieving snort and a slight loosening of Albert’s taut reserve. Rule number one, Theo hoped. This wasn’t exactly a hostage situation, but he was under no illusions they were going to be allowed to walk out the door without some kind of unpleasant bargain in blood. Best to humanize himself with everyone, even if this kid was the lowest person on the food chain.
“I am not exaggerating how awesome I was back then. I had the best imagination, plus I was a superior athlete. You couldn’t make us go inside at night. We lived in paradise. Barefoot boys with tan cheeks and all that.”
Albert wrinkled his nose. “I saw the games you play. You’re a freak like Carlito.”
“Yeah, no.” Theo shook his head. “I am nothing like Carlito.”
“Your butt—”
“Is my business.” Theo glanced around again. “Look. I know you’re not supposed to be nice to me or whatever, but is there anything you can tell me about the house, or the grounds, in case I need to get my butt out of here? Just because I’m hot for my old neighbor does not mean I signed up for any of this shit.”
Albert shook his head. “Sorry.”
Theo brushed crumbs off his hands and stood. “At least let me make some calls, Albert. I don’t live with my mother, but we’re really close, and I only just moved back to the islands. She’ll totally worry if she doesn’t hear from me—”
“No.” Albert picked up Theo’s dishes and both cups. Playtime over, Theo guessed. Albert took a deep breath and turned back with a bold new expression. “Only wait—” He stopped and bit his lip.
“What?”
“I’m available for the next few hours, if you require anything else?”
“Like what? Piano lessons?” Theo stilled. Would Albert say it?
“Do you want me?” It was painful watching the kid grind out the words.
“Er… no.” Theo nearly said, Aw… sweetheart, but better to be honest and quick. “It’s not that you’re not awesome, but I really am with someone. Getting my ass beat is one thing, but my cock is a menu with one of those ‘we accept no substitutions’ clauses. Sorry.”
You lying McLiar, you would have fucked Spider in a minute.
But not after I knew Koa wanted me.
“No?” The boy had seen his hesitation. “Are you certain?”
Jesus. You waiver for, like, a microsecond and this is what happens. “Yeah. Nope. Can’t do it.” Theo sat, plop, back on his barstool. “Will you look at that. I finally have sexual scruples. I need to sit for a minute and take this in.”
“Fuck you.” The kid took off toward the master bedroom and, presumably, out.
“Hey. Where are my jeans at?” he asked.
“Washing.” He glanced back. “Looks like I’ll have to wash those too.”
Theo sat for a long time, trying to decide what to do. He could go after him, but honestly, he didn’t really want to find him or talk him down, or whatever that entailed. Everyone gets rejected. If he didn’t know that….
“Here you are.” Freddie entered the kitchen with Koa behind him. “This is some place, huh?”
“Guess so.” Maybe he and Freddie were dysfunctional, but at least they knew where they stood. Add Koa and the wheels came off. He couldn’t get his mind off seeing Freddie’s head in K
oa’s lap, and the look on Koa’s face while he was down there. And how much he wished it was him.
“Okay?” Theo’s concern was mostly for Koa, who nodded, giving the half smile that made Theo’s heart go thud. “Where’s Carlito?”
“He went to make a call.” Freddie turned to Koa. “Tell him.”
Koa frowned. “Tell him what? Nothing’s decided.”
“You want to play along with Gao. How are you planning to do that?” Freddie demanded.
“How you think?” Koa asked. “Shit falls through the cracks all the time. We slow play the case. We keep an eye, make sure it never gets priority, and then it finally goes away.”
“You can’t be serious.” Theo had never met the man standing before him.
“Oh, wise up,” Koa said bitterly. “Go look outside. You see the letters GAO everywhere. Container ships, trucks, farm equipment, construction.”
“So? That’s power. I get it. Money is power. And guns and muscle are power. But you know there’s something more important than that, brother.”
“She’s already dead. One girl, who is already dead, disappears—”
“Don’t you even want to know why?” Theo argued. “Or who it is pulling the strings here?”
“One dead girl against a hell of a lot of good.”
“You’re a cop, Woodie. One of the good guys. You don’t turn your back on a dead girl, even for a pot of gold and a rainbow. It’s like I don’t know you no more.”
“What would you do to protect the people you love?” Koa asked softly.
Theo swallowed a reply. Of the three of them, he only understood himself. He didn’t know what Freddie wanted. He didn’t know what it would be like to be closeted and have his sexuality splashed all over the news. He didn’t really know Koa anymore, his hopes or his dreams or his failures. But for Theo, whatever Ms. Gao could do to him personally—if her aim was blackmail or a beating or even death—he’d taken an oath. He carried a badge and a gun, and he’d been entrusted with upholding the law. Theo could no more break that vow than fly.
Koa stepped toward him. “Theo.”
“No. Leave me alone, I need to think.” He left them, striding fast, ignoring Koa’s questions. At the rotunda, he found the stairs leading down and peered into the shadows on the first floor to see if there were guards.
He took the first step, and discreet lights illuminated the treads as he went. On the first floor, someone stopped him. “You can’t leave, sir.”
“Hey.” Theo waved. “Can’t I look around the grounds?”
“Stay inside the courtyard, sir. If you need help, security is only a shout away.” The man let him pass with a glance at his ankle, where his knit pants outlined Koa’s knife in an obvious way.
“I’ll have you know, that’s the tip of my dick.” Theo jerked himself to his full height and sauntered away, looking for the courtyard and the pool and a chance to gather his thoughts.
The guard chuckled, and kept chuckling as Theo walked past.
A few months before, he’d been in an accident during a blizzard. They’d been unable to open the doors, unable to call for help. Jammed, immobile, helpless, while snow piled on the windows, blocking their view of the outside world. He’d literally and figuratively been buried alive. Not alone, but alone might have been preferable to listening to Mackenzie Detweiler and his boyfriend get busy in the back of his ride.
Far from wanting to forget that dumbassery ever happened, he’d learned a really good lesson from it. A man’s options may be limited, but his choices aren’t. Stuck there, marooned, destined to freeze to death, he still had a number of choices, the most important of which was to stay positive and try, or give up and freeze. Even when he was pretty certain that freezing to death was going to happen no matter what he did about it, he’d always had the conscious choice to fight.
Which brought him back to the present, and the current conundrum. Rainwater containers stamped with Chinese characters he didn’t recognize and the letters G-A-O sat beneath downspouts in the roof. Rain was scarcer on the windward side, so they probably didn’t collect much. The gardens were pretty, stone pathways set in moss that felt soft beneath his feet. Bright orange birds-of-paradise and ginger plants tucked here and there provided dramatic splashes of color, while ferns formed lush plantings around fountains and decorative glass balls. It brought back memories of all the lushly landscaped hotels he’d wandered while his mother danced.
Fluid and sometimes fearful, the bodies, the chants, and the drums all supported a story of survival. Those lessons didn’t come to him in a linear way, but instead formed a web that with time strengthened, tightened, stretched, and grew more resilient, until it made a framework around his heart.
If a man’s choices defined him, then his defining choice had been to go with his father. And now, maybe he saw the reason he’d made the choice, consciously or unconsciously, all those years ago.
His glance at the house found Koa in the window, watching him. He waved—a sad, a brief exchange between two people caught up in circumstances they couldn’t control. Two people who, he was now sure, loved each other.
Exploring that was too important to be left to chance. Opening up old wounds. Making amends for misunderstandings. Telling the people he loved his truth and letting the chips fall because his now was way more important than his past.
The now is all we have.
Theophilus Hsu had come full circle. And now he used the moonlight to show Koa his warrior’s face with joy, and reverence, and fierce, fierce pride.
Chapter Eighteen
MS. GAO stepped from the shadows. “I’ve seen your mother dance, Mr. Hsu. She’s a lovely woman.”
“Thank you.” He’d been wandering around the pool garden, looking for a way out, aware of being followed, but he never saw her coming.
“You don’t approve of what I’m asking Mr. Palapiti to do for me, do you?”
Because the security lights reflected the pool, it was hard to make out her features—light and shadow squirmed on her pale, perfect skin.
“There are people who think nothing of destroying the world for a profit.” She came to stand beside him next to the edge of the pool. Together they watched a waterfall tumbling over some rocks near the Jacuzzi. “My husband was one of those.”
Overhead, some nocturnal thing scrambled in the trees.
“He robbed his partners, cheated his workers, and poisoned the land.”
Theo wasn’t surprised. “Where’s he at now?”
She pursed her lips. “I’m a widow.”
“Is all this yours?” He spread his hands to indicate the house. “Lucky girl.”
She shrugged. “Money is only one thing. There are other things. Power is important. And respect. Legacy is important.”
“Family,” he agreed, if she meant family.
“I need Detective Palapiti’s cooperation. You must tell him to trust me.”
“Can’t tell him what to do,” Theo admitted. “Nobody ever could.”
“Nevertheless.” She cocked her head, and two men came from the shadows, weapons drawn. “I think it’s time to try a little further persuasion. Come with us, please.”
Out of options, he followed her back to the round room. The clock he read on the way said 1:00 a.m. She addressed the guard at the bottom of the stairs in Cantonese and then led him the rest of the way as if he were a guest, and not being trailed by men with machine pistols and grim expressions.
They joined Koa, Freddie, Carlito, and Albert in the main room.
“Have you made up your minds, gentlemen?”
Koa glanced nervously at Freddie, who glared back. Clearly they were no closer to an agreement than they’d been. Gao’s jaw tightened. Something unpleasant was coming, Theo knew it.
“Wait.” Carlito stepped forward. “I believe you’ve been misled, Ms. Gao.”
“How so?” she asked.
“If you’re under the impression Palapiti and Ortiz are lovers, I believe that’
s not the case.”
Ortiz growled. “The hell it’s not.”
“What are you saying?” Albert asked, looking from one man to another. “They’re partners. I researched them—”
“But are they loyal?” Carlito’s dark eyes burned. “How do you know?”
Albert’s gaze slid away.
“Oh, fuck that right in the ass. I’m loyal to the guy who pays me.” Koa got up and plowed his way through the room, which only worked because Gao’s men must have had orders to keep him alive. He got right in Ms. Gao’s face and asked, “What’s it gonna take? We’re here, we’ve played this stupid game long enough. I’m willing to slow play that case. I can probably even do more. Eliminate the dental records, if we get any, switch out the case numbers… but in return, you burn everything you have on us and back out of our lives. Got it?”
Lolo talk. Nothing worked that way. What was he doing?
“The point is, it’s late,” Koa said. “I’m tired. I have to get Hsu here home to his mother.”
“Koa, you don’t know what you’re doing here,” Theo argued. “You don’t want to be in her pocket like that.”
His heart beat harder while Carlito, Zhang, and Gao argued in English and Mandarin. Oh, why hadn’t he studied harder? They were talking about the girl. He, Freddie, and Koa should be agreeing to anything, promising anything, so they could get out of there and regroup, but it stuck in Theo’s craw to go along.
Koa had to have a good reason for all of this, and Theo… loved him. He still loved his Woodie with all his heart, despite the evidence he was making the worst decisions of his life.
Gao listened to everything they said and sighed. “I believe you’re right, Carlito. Detective Palapiti.” She turned to Koa. “I didn’t wish to have to do this, but he’s right. Choose.”
“Excuse me?” Theo had a pretty good idea where all this was going. Machine pistols kept him in place while the tension thickened. Freddie looked sick, and Koa…. Expressionless, unfathomable Koa hardly breathed.
“Button, button. We need the detectives’ loyalty put to the test.” Zhang smiled patiently. “So Palapiti must choose.”
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