She placed her thumb against the sensor plate on the elevator to open the doors to the lift. She ushered Alicia in then pushed the button for the third floor. The girl turned to her. “How many families live in this building?”
“Just one. I own the building. We live on the top floor. Lee has an apartment on the first floor. The second floor is a gym. I’ll have the girls give you a tour as soon as you’ve been introduced.”
“Who are the girls?”
With her mind occupied by Lee’s assault, she’d completely forgotten to fill Alicia in on her family. “Dan is my thirteen-year-old daughter, and Jia is my fifteen-year-old. Elizabeth is my mother.”
Alicia’s brows knitted together as she appeared to draw in on herself.
Bai took her hand again. “It’ll be all right.”
The girl nodded and took a deep breath as the doors to the lift opened. Elizabeth, Dan, and Jia stood in the entry with anxious expressions. When they saw Alicia, their expressions morphed from anxious to curious.
“How is Lee?” Elizabeth asked before Bai could exit the lift.
“His surgeon expects him to make a full recovery.”
“That’s good news,” the older woman stated, her eyes shifting to Bai’s companion.
Dan and Jia seemed reticent to speak in front of a stranger, their usual boisterous behavior on hold.
“This is Alicia,” Bai informed them as they stepped out of the elevator. “She’s going to be staying with us. Alicia, these are my daughters—Dan and Jia—and my mother, Elizabeth,” she said, indicating each in turn.
Alicia nodded silently, and the girls nodded in return.
Dan asked, “When can I see Lee?”
Dan only had two friends: Lee and Jia. She developed fiercely loyal attachments to those she loved. Bai could see the tension and strain in her daughter’s face.
“We’ll have to wait and see. He’s still in intensive care. He’s going to be all right. I promise.”
Dan’s expression remained doubtful despite Bai’s assurances.
“Jia, I thought Alicia might stay with you in your room for now, if you don’t mind,” Bai said, changing the subject. “You’re about the same age and the same size. I was hoping you could loan her whatever she needs tonight. Tomorrow, we can go shopping to buy clothes and necessities.”
Jia smiled and walked forward to take the newcomer’s hand. “Having a roommate will be fun,” she said. “Would you like to see our room? It’s really nice.”
Alicia turned to Bai with a questioning look.
“Go ahead and get acquainted. I’ll be here if you need me,” Bai assured her.
Jia led Alicia to the back of the house. Dan looked at her mother in cold appraisal before turning to follow the girls, her gait stiff with tension.
“Will she be staying long?” Elizabeth asked.
“That’s entirely up to her. I hope so,” Bai replied.
Elizabeth took the news gracefully. “I’ll set another place at the table. Dinner will be ready in about an hour. I imagine you’ve had a difficult day. You can fill me in on Lee after you’ve had a chance to catch your breath.”
Bai followed her into the kitchen, where the older woman continued to prepare dinner. Bai filled a crystal tumbler with ice before pouring two fingers of Yamazaki scotch into the glass. She took a stool at the breakfast counter to sip her drink while watching Elizabeth tend to the stove. “Sun Yee On soldiers are keeping an eye on the house.”
“I’m aware,” Elizabeth replied. “Tommy called an hour ago to let me know. He’s just back from Hong Kong. He said to tell you he was sorry to hear about Lee.”
Bai thought of the rift between Tommy and Lee. Lee had been Tommy’s favorite while Jason, Lee, and Bai were growing up. “Men are stupid,” Bai proclaimed, more loudly than intended.
Elizabeth turned to look at her with a smirk. “You’re just figuring that out?”
She waved a finger at Elizabeth. “I’ve always suspected as much. Now it’s confirmed.”
Turning back to tend the stove, Elizabeth ignored the outburst.
“Stupid but indispensable,” Bai continued. “I worry when Jason’s around, then find myself worrying when he’s not around. Someone should start some kind of loaner program where a woman can check out a man then simply return him when he gets on her nerves. That would solve the problem.”
“I imagine men feel the same way about women,” Elizabeth said, busy at the stove. “Relationships are difficult under the best of circumstances.”
“I’m not really sure I have a relationship with Jason.”
“You have a child with him. That’s one relationship that won’t ever go away.”
“True.”
“Tell me about Lee.”
“Someone shot him twice in the back with a small-caliber gun. We don’t know why. He doesn’t have any enemies I know of. That’s why we’re taking all the precautions. We don’t know whether Lee was the target, or if someone wants to hurt me.”
“The chances you and Lee take frighten me. Have you considered finding a safer occupation?”
“I like being a souxun. Lee and I are careful. This is the first time one of us has gotten seriously hurt. The problem is I don’t even know why.”
Elizabeth turned with a look of concern. “Have you given any more thought to dating Howard Kwan?”
Bai’s mind blanked. Howard was the last thing on her mind.
Elizabeth pursued the matter. “Marrying him would put an end to gangsters’ sitting on your doorstep. It’s a chance to lead a respectable life.”
Bai lifted her glass to her lips and sipped scotch as she thought over Elizabeth’s assertion. She let the cold liquor roll over her tongue and warm in her mouth before swallowing. “I always find respectable people suspect,” she replied. “Those who preach the loudest always seem to have the most to hide.”
Elizabeth stared at her with a sad expression.
Bai suffered the stare until she realized Elizabeth wasn’t going to give up. “All right,” she finally relented. “I’ll give him another chance. But if he calls me ‘old’ one more time, I’m going to beat the crap out of him.”
Chapter 20
A reserved atmosphere presided at the dinner table. Alicia ate the Chinese food without comment. Everyone spoke in hushed voices, as though fearful of breaking something fragile. Later, all three girls decided to sleep in the same room to get acquainted. Bai suspected by tomorrow morning she’d be facing three bleary-eyed teenagers.
Later, as she soaked in her much-anticipated bath, the thought of the three brought a smile to her lips. She held an icy tumbler of Yamazaki to the side of her face, the cold glass pressed against her flushed cheeks. Steam from the bath surrounded her while Lee’s condition occupied her mind. He still hadn’t been moved from ICU. A nurse there had informed her he would have to stay in intensive care for an additional twenty-four hours. He’d spiked a temperature, and they feared infection.
The door opened, and Jason stepped into the room. She tilted her head to look at him with a quizzical expression.
“We need to talk,” he explained.
“First, let’s talk about how you got in here.”
He waved her question aside and sat on the edge of the tub to take her drink from her hand. “How is Lee?”
Bai knew Jason was just making conversation, stalling. He could get an update on Lee’s condition as easily as she. His reticence made her curious. “He’s running a temperature, still in intensive care. They’re giving him antibiotics. Why are you here?”
He ignored her question. “I’ll stop by the hospital later tonight and check on him.”
“Don’t you ever sleep?”
“Sleep is a terrible waste of time.”
He slept only one or two hours a day. Working day and night, he personally managed his teams around the world, regardless of the time difference. He drove himself as if he had something to prove.
He took a sip of her scotch. She
considered protesting but didn’t have the energy to rally any righteous indignation, forcing her to acknowledge she was glad to see him. “Fine,” she capitulated. “What do you want to talk about?”
He hesitated before answering. “The Kwan family.”
“What about the Kwan family?”
“Stay away from them.”
“Why?”
“They’re dangerous.”
“You’re talking about your aunt and your cousins.”
“They don’t see me that way, at least not my aunt. I’m her enemy. That makes you and Dan her enemies, by default.”
“She’s asked me to marry Howard.”
“You can’t trust her. I’m telling you, she’s poison.”
She held out her hand and gestured for her drink. He handed the glass back to her, so she could take a sip while contemplating his words.
“What about Howard?” she asked.
Contempt infused his voice. “What about him?”
“Do you think he considers you his enemy?”
“I don’t have any idea. I’ve never come up against him either in business or personally. Jade’s ruled Kwan Industries with an iron fist for thirty years. I imagine she runs her family the same way.”
“He didn’t seem like a bad man. His attitude toward women is a bit jaded, but his having an overbearing mother would explain that.”
“You’re not seriously considering marrying him are you?” His tone suggested he found the thought repulsive.
“I’m not considering anything. I’m just asking questions.”
He stared at her with a contemplative look. “I know you. You’re up to something.”
She smiled and took another drink. The cold scotch and hot bath improved her mood. “What business did you have with Wen Liu?”
She wanted to find out if Jason had had a relationship with the woman. He held out his hand for her glass. She suspected he was stalling and shook her head.
“Stingy,” he quipped.
“If you don’t want to tell me, I’ll just assume you have something to hide.”
“Everyone has something to hide,” he said. “But Wen isn’t one of those things. I bought information from her. We had a business arrangement. That’s all.”
“What kind of information?” she asked.
“She had the names of men who held gambling markers for Samuel Kwan.”
“Samuel would be Howard’s older brother?”
“Yes. He owned a casino in Macau. He likes to gamble and ran up a sizable debt. He’d passed out founders’ shares in his business as collateral. That way he wouldn’t have to tell his mother about his losses. Samuel, as you might guess, is something of an idiot.”
“So what did you do with the information?”
“I bought up the shares. The company is privately held. The individuals holding the markers were more than happy to get cash for stock they couldn’t sell.”
“How much did you pay for the shares?”
“About fifty million dollars.”
“That’s a lot of money.”
He smiled and shrugged. “For fifty million dollars, I ended up with controlling interest in a casino worth five to ten times that amount. I booted Samuel out of the executive offices and sent him running home to Mommy. My management team has turned the business around in less than a month, and we’re seeing a profit that will pay back the initial investment in less than a year.”
“And that’s why Jade Kwan hates you?”
“That’s one reason.”
“What’s the other reason?”
“It gets a little complicated,” he explained. “I wouldn’t have moved on the casino if Jade hadn’t decided to delve into Sun Yee On’s line of business. She fired the first volley.”
“What do you mean?”
“The casino in Macau was being used as a distribution center. She formed an alliance with a consortium of individuals who move heroin out of Afghanistan. Had she not decided to enter the drug trade, I’d have left her alone. The choices were either to take away her distribution center or put a bullet in her head. Tommy was impatient to resolve the problem. If you look at it from my perspective, I saved her life.”
Bai smiled. “I doubt she sees it that way. Who was she in business with?”
“There were a number of people involved. Warlords in Afghanistan grow the product. Government agencies provide transport. Arab investors provide financing. From Macau, the product was supposed to be packaged and flown worldwide on a fleet of private jets used to ferry whales to and from the casino. Transporting the high-rollers was a front. The heroin distribution was a major operation in the making.”
“You probably made a lot of people unhappy.”
“I’m not in business to be popular.”
“You have little to fear in that regard,” she said before changing the subject. “Have you ever had anything to do with Inspector Kelly of the SFPD?”
“Isn’t he the cop who took the report at Dan’s school? Does this have something to do with the drug heist you were looking into?”
“Yes and yes. Kelly’s the cop who approached me. He came to my office and asked for my help on behalf of the police department.”
“I’m surprised you said yes.”
“Kelly told me a Chinese by the name of Daniel Chen was the bag man, and the police take deadly exception to cop killers. I was moved.”
“So you decided to rescue him.”
“Yes. Was I wrong?”
“Not wrong, just predictable.”
“Anyway, this Daniel Chen turned out to be a professor at Berkeley. I went to his office and found two dead Norteños. The police sent Lee and me to his home where we met Wen Liu. Did you know she likes to walk around naked?”
“I wasn’t aware of that. What does that have to do with finding Chen?”
“Nothing. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t know she liked to walk around naked.”
He frowned. “Did you find Chen?”
“Not then. Lee and I followed Wen to the Grand Hotel where she was gunned down in her room.”
“But you eventually found Chen.”
“No. He found me. Wen had obviously called him with my contact information before she was murdered.”
“Where did he find you?” He sounded concerned.
“He showed up around noon at my office.”
“What did he want?”
“He wanted to know who killed Wen.”
“What did you tell him?”
“The truth. I didn’t have a clue. But I did have a copy of the surveillance DVD showing the killer. When he saw the murderer, he seemed to know who the shooter was, which was strange because the killer wore a baseball cap and sunglasses.”
“Do you still have the DVD?”
“It’s at the office.”
He nodded and drew a deep breath. “I’d like to see it tomorrow. Maybe there’s something of interest the police didn’t notice.”
“That’s not a problem. It’s still in my laptop sitting on my desk.” She hesitated before continuing on her train of thought. “Howard and his security detail were at the Grand when Wen was killed. I don’t think he’d have met me there had he planned to have her murdered. I don’t see his doing that.”
Jason eyed her speculatively. “I don’t know what he’s capable of, but I wouldn’t put murder past his mother. Her presence in San Francisco is troubling.”
She shrugged. “I’ll keep that in mind. Is there anything else I should know?”
“You’re beautiful, and I want you.”
His words brought a smile to her lips and heat to her cheeks. She was embarrassed that he could electrify her so easily. She put the cold glass to her cheeks to stop the burning. He smiled, recognizing her condition, and leaned over to kiss her gently. She opened her mouth to accept his tongue as his hand brushed her breast.
She broke the kiss.
“Hand me a towel,” she said, standing to get out of the tub.
“It’s a big bed,” she said.
He smiled and loosened his tie. Disrobing, he placed his clothes neatly on a side chair. He took his time. She watched him, admiring the flat muscles on his stomach and the butterfly effect of his back muscles when he flexed. She counted the scars on his back, shoulders, and stomach from where bullets had ripped into his body or blades had sliced him open.
He walked over to the bed and pulled the sheets aside to reach for her hungrily. She drew his head down as she wrapped her legs around him to tumble him down on top of her. They used their strength against each other like two wrestlers fighting for dominance, their kisses fierce and demanding until he forced her legs apart. Their struggle ended when he entered her; the rhythm of their bodies moving together with familiar ease. Long, lingering kisses accompanied by strong, gentle hands brought her to climax again and again. She was lost as her body responded, mindless and adrift. When sated, they fell asleep in a tangled embrace.
She woke in the middle of the night—alone. No longer tired, she got out of bed. Her closet door stood ajar. When she entered and switched on the light, she could see Jason had left her another present. A long, black coat hung from her dressing chair.
Pulling a clean black tee over her head, she grabbed black jeans off the shelf and slipped them on. Black socks and black trainers completed her outfit. Picking up the coat to inspect it, she found the garment surprisingly light. Kevlar panels padded the chest and back of the coat. A compression holster had been clipped onto the back panel, low near the waist. Two short throwing blades with matte-black finishes were sheathed inside the cuff of each sleeve.
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