by Jade Kerrion
Cixi paused at the door. The murmur of voices downstairs was scarcely audible—Shen Long’s smooth voice, Guan Yu’s coarse one, and Zara purring like a fluffy Persian kitten. Cixi stifled a chuckle. Zara wore facades more easily than most, and Danyael saw through them more easily than most.
If he loved Zara nevertheless, then he was probably on to something most people weren’t aware about.
Cixi gritted her teeth. Danyael and Zara’s screwed up, completely non-communicative relationship was the least of her problems. She had her own screwed-up relationship to contend with. Or not. Rio had implied—more than implied—that she was a heartless, money-grubbing bitch. Certainly not in line with his save-the-world mentality.
In fact, as a mercenary, she was probably no better in his worldview than the cartels he had devoted his life to busting.
Asshole.
She didn’t need him anyway.
The locked door of the back room did not respond to the numeric code. Shen Long or Guan Yu had changed it, but to what? The electronic codebreaker she carried could have whirred through millions of possible combinations, but it would take time.
On the other hand, she knew Guan Yu and she knew Shen Long. She had witnessed eighteen months of updated passwords and codes. They moved along certain sequences because the human mind was deeply fallible. Her second attempt—the number she imagined Shen Long might have chosen—didn’t work, but her third one did. She chuckled softly. Guan Yu. Predictable as always.
She entered the room and closed the door behind her before turning on the flat flashlight velcroed to the palm of her gloves. The low beam of light swept across the room. Twenty-two computers. She had her suspicions as to which were not connected to the internet. She would handle those first.
The transmitter Rio had given her looked like a USB drive with a non-protruding end. In fact, once it was secured, she imagined it would be a pain to get out. Here goes.
Cixi held her breath. The transmitter clicked into place. Nothing lit. She heard nothing. Was something supposed to happen?
Maybe not. It wouldn’t be much of a stealth device if it did. Was it working, though?
She pulled out another transmitter and moved to the next computer. A part of her mind mentally counted down the seconds. With luck, she could be done and out of there in under ten minutes. She knelt to insert the next transmitter—
Light suddenly flooded the room.
Cixi blinked and recoiled.
The narrow doorway framed two triad members.
She grabbed her handgun and fired.
“Traitor!” One lunged toward her. Two bullets cut him down but momentum carried his body forward to crumple in front of her. The other triad member was two feet from her when she fired. The bullet punched through his shoulder as he tackled her to the carpet. She flipped the gun in her hand and brought the grip down on the back of his neck.
He jerked, his eyes flaring with pain. Cixi wriggled out from under him, but strong arms grabbed her from behind.
Her heart thumped. She knew the feel of that body pressed against her, the stale breath harsh against the back of her neck. “I’m glad you came back.” Guan Yu’s voice was a low chuckle. “I wasn’t done with you.” He twisted her around and punched his fist into her stomach. A backhanded blow smashed across her face, sending her reeling.
Her gun tumbled out of her fingers and slid across the tiles, out of reach.
Cixi lunged toward it, but Guan Yu grabbed her shoulders and slammed her against the wall. The impact turned her world white for an instant. It wavered back into focus on Guan Yu’s face inches from her own. “I’m going to enjoy this, you little whore.”
She jerked her knee up, but before it could connect with his groin, he slapped her leg away and pinned her against the wall with his body weight. She turned her face away to avoid his alcohol-infused breath as it rasped against her cheek. “I’ve been waiting too long.”
He bit down hard, wrenching a scream of pain from her. Her cheek stung, and a trickle of blood ran down her neck. Guan Yu slowly licked it off, leaving a trail of saliva from her collarbone to her ear. “You’re going to enjoy this—”
He staggered, his sudden dead weight crushing the air from her lungs.
Rio stood over Guan Yu, hefting a wooden chair like a weapon. “Picking on women half your size? Not cool.”
Guan Yu dropped Cixi to the floor as if she were an inconsequential insect before turning to face Rio. “You’ve come back, like a hero,” he sneered. “Don’t you know? Heroes die.”
Rio swung the chair again, but Guan Yu ducked, adroitly avoiding the attack. “Do you want to know what your brother said before he died? Nothing. He was trying to suck air into lungs filling up with blood. The panic and fear in his eyes as he clutched at my hand.” He laughed. “I held him as he died, blood leaking out of his mouth and ears. What you saw in the morgue when you came to claim his body was cold and sterile. I saw his fetid death.”
Rio choked out a single word. “Why?”
“You got in my way! I had the perfect trade setup—the highest grade cocaine from La Marche cartel. Two hundred and fifty million dollars. It was the trade my father had wanted for so long—the trade that would cement my position in the triad—but you ruined it. You found out about it, and the DEA was waiting. They confiscated all the cocaine. The cartel was so furious, they sent hitmen to kill my family. They killed my fiancée. They even killed my father’s little whore, your mother.” He flung a contemptuous glance at Cixi. “You…you have more reason than most to hate this DEA bastard, but what do you do? You choose him over your own family!”
“You’re not my family.” Cixi hurled the words like a curse. “And don’t pretend affection. You have none. All you want is your birthright as leader of the triad. Your fiancée—the daughter of Shen Long’s most trusted lieutenant—was only a means to an end. You wanted to control him too.”
“You know nothing! An Wei and I grew up together. She was the only friend I had, the only person who listened without judging. And she died because of you!” Guan Yu’s attention twisted back to Rio. His upper lip curled. Something flashed in his eyes a split second before he lunged at Rio’s midsection, driving him backward.
Rio’s back smashed against the window. The sharp report of cracking glass was scarcely audible over the tussle as the men wrestled against the window.
Cixi pulled herself to her feet. Rio didn’t stand a chance against Guan Yu, but their close proximity made firing the gun far too dangerous. She grabbed a heavy paperweight and rushed forward.
Guan Yu twisted away seconds before contact. She realized, too late, he had seen her reflection in the mirror. He sneered at her as he swung out with his closed fist. The impact slammed her against the window. Glass splintered.
With a shriek, she tumbled out.
A strong hand grabbed her wrist, nearly yanking her arm out of her socket, but preventing her eight-story plunge to the pavement below. Dangling in midair, she looked up to see Rio gripping the window ledge with his other hand.
Had he jumped out after her to save her?
She had only a moment to gape before Guan Yu appeared at the window. “Hah. Maybe it’s meant to be that you’ll die together. It’s too bad. I would have enjoyed taking you from him the way he took An Wei from me.” The paperweight glinted in his hand. He smashed it down on Rio’s fingers.
Rio screamed.
Cixi’s heart leaped into her throat, but Rio hadn’t let go. She raised her left leg to her chest and pulled her concealed handgun from her combat boot. She aimed it up at Guan Yu, but could not get a clear shot; Rio was in the way.
Guan Yu brought the weight down on Rio’s hand again.
Rio’s face twisted with pain and for a terrifying split second, his grip loosened before tightening again.
Out of time. Out of options.
Rio glanced down at her. He jerked his head to the left. She looked over her shoulder. About eight feet to her left and twenty feet
down was a balcony. His jaw tight with barely concealed pain, Rio swung her like a pendulum, trying to build enough momentum to get her there.
Above them, Guan Yu’s eyes lit with maniacal glee.
Cixi knew they would not make it. Not enough momentum. Not enough time. But if she could take Guan Yu out before he smashed Rio’s hand again, perhaps—
At the height of the swing—with Rio, for a split second, not within her sights—she aimed and fired.
Guan Yu stiffened. His eyes glazed, and he toppled sideways, blood trickling out of a hole in the middle of his forehead.
Rio’s voice caught with pain. “Can you get to the ledge?”
“No.” Her voice sounded like a squeak to her own ears. “It’s too far.”
Rio grimaced, his face contorting with the effort of increasing the range of his live pendulum. “Can’t hold on much longer.”
I know. She saw the trickle of blood run from his fingers, to his wrists, and then down his arm. Her heart wrenching, she deliberately released her grip on his hand.
“No, don’t,” he shouted at her. “Don’t let go. I’ve got you.”
“You can’t hold both of us. Let me go. You can still pull yourself up.”
“I’m not letting you go.” He huffed out each word with each swing of his arm. The arc inched Cixi closer to the balcony. “Almost there.”
Fear lodged like a cold fist in Cixi’s stomach. She was still too high up. For her to actually reach the balcony, Rio would have to perfectly time the release of his grip on the window and his release of his grip on her wrist.
He would have to let go in order to save her.
And he, too, knew it.
Cixi twisted, trying to make him let go of her. She couldn’t let him kill himself to save her.
“Stop.” Rio gritted his teeth. “Don’t make this harder.”
“Just let go of me, damn it.”
“I will, just not yet.”
She could almost hear his unspoken words. Not until I know I can save you.
“Don’t do this, please,” she pleaded with him.
His jaw tightened.
She was out of time. They were both out of time.
At the height of her pendulum swing, with the balcony tantalizingly close, Rio let go.
Cixi screamed as momentum flung her forward. Her knees hit concrete and she rolled forward into a battle crouch. Rio! Her throat clogged with terror, she looked down at the pavement—saw nothing—and then back up at the shattered window.
Rio dangled, his wrist clasped in Zara’s firm grip. The master assassin leaned out the window, her perfect hair slightly mussed; a big fight had probably ensued and most of the people in the house were probably dead. Cixi and Zara’s eyes met across the distance. The edge of Zara’s mouth tugged up into a smile.
Rio would be safe with her.
Cixi scrambled to her feet and fired a single shot into the lock. Bracing against the balcony railing, she kicked the door open and dashed into Shen Long’s apartment, running past unmoving bodies sprawled in growing puddles of blood. A team of hitmen from a cartel might have done more damage than Zara had, but not by much.
She raced up the stairs and to the back room. Rio was clambering over the window. Even in the dim light, he looked ashen. His body shook with bone-deep trembles. Cixi’s breath rushed of her lungs, and she threw her arms around him. “You’re okay.”
Their eyes met, and for the first time, she saw it clearly—his love shining out from beneath the terror of the moment.
He had leaped out of a window for her. He had been willing to die for her.
Suddenly, he sagged in her arms, tumbling to her floor. His eyes glazed. “No!” Cixi wrapped her arms around him. His heart thudded in his chest violently and erratically like a pulsing bomb.
Zara was already reaching for her phone. Dimly, Cixi heard her say, “Danyael, we need you here now,” but she could not respond to Zara. All of her attention was fixed on Rio. Not now. I can’t lose you now.
Chapter 11
Rio heard voices first—sounds, really—drifting like dandelions on the wind, beyond the reach of his grasping fingers. They sounded like something he would understand if only he tried hard enough, but he couldn’t muster enough willpower, let alone the energy to do so.
It would have been easy to let himself drift too, to allow himself to be carried along by the waves that seemed determined to tug him out to sea, but something—a voice—kept him tethered.
He knew that voice.
Cixi.
Fighting his way back was like wading through muck. The effort made his heart pound and his head throb. Never again. The next time Cixi decides to do this secret agent shit, I’m staying home and sending a SEAL team with her instead.
Although I suppose I could tag along, just to be sure they keep her safe.
He dragged his eyes open and the blur slowly resolved into Cixi’s face. Her eyes were still stricken with tatters of near-panic, but she pasted on a tremulous smile as she reached for his hand. “How are you?”
Rio drew a deep breath. His chest didn’t ache, not the way it used to every time he breathed. It felt—he pressed his hand against his lungs; they didn’t tremble. His heart didn’t pound irregularly; the beat was steady, strong. The near-constant migraines, partially a result of the uneven blood flow through his brain, had vanished.
He knew, after all those insane physical exertions, he should be in dire straits, but in truth, he’d never felt better. He squeezed Cixi’s fingers gently. “I’m all right. Quite a bit better than all right, actually.”
Despite her murmured objections, he sat up in bed and looked around the tastefully furnished bedroom. “Where am I?”
“Zara’s townhouse.”
“Huh…” Somehow, the style was a great deal more sedate than he would have attributed to her. “I’m not sure what I was expecting from an assassin’s home.”
“Oh, her grisly trophies? They’re in the basement.”
Cixi’s tone was nonchalant. The dismissive statement sounded like a joke, but Rio wasn’t sure. Somethings, he decided, were better not knowing. “What happened?” he asked. “How did I get here?”
“You saved my life. Do you remember that?”
He did. Adrenaline had made his thoughts extraordinarily clear in what he thought were the final moments of his life when he had timed her momentum and his fall. He had let go, first of the window ledge and then Cixi’s hand, but the downward motion was halted by a sharp jerk.
“Zara.” He frowned. “She was there.”
Cixi nodded. “She was delayed. She had to take out an entire house of triad members before she could come find us. Apparently, the wrong code I’d entered in the office lock triggered a silent alarm. That’s when it all went to hell.”
“I remember getting me back up through the window, but everything’s fuzzy after that.”
“It was too much for you. You passed out just as I reached you. You gave us several minutes of panic before Danyael arrived.”
“Danyael? You didn’t take me to a hospital?”
“Danyael’s better than a hospital.”
“He’s here now?”
“Downstairs with his daughter.”
“He has a daughter?”
“He and Zara have a daughter. Laura. She’s almost a year old. Didn’t you know?”
Rio remembered to shut his mouth. “I…have trouble seeing them together.”
Cixi laughed, a nervous sound that scrubbed like a rough note over his thoughts. “They have trouble seeing themselves together.”
“And do we?” Rio asked quietly, certain that he had untangled the source of Cixi’s quiet distress.
“What do you want from me?” she asked softly.
“A life together. Preferably one that doesn’t involve breaking into people’s houses.” He held her hand between both of his. “I knew one thing when we were both hanging from the window. If the only way to be certain that you lived was for
me to die, then I would do it. It was perfectly clear then. If I was willing to die for you, then it was obvious that I also want to live for you, and with you.”
“It’s not that simple.”
Rio’s brow furrowed. “Guan Yu’s dead. Shen Long’s—”
“Collateral damage.”
“Is that what Zara calls it? How does she not get arrested for this?”
“She makes sure someone else starts it.” Cixi shrugged. “The fact is, Zara has lots of friends in very high places in the government. The information they’re pulling off the computers in Shen Long’s home is going to put a major cramp in the exchange of X-treme and cocaine between the U.S. and Colombia.”
“And the mole in the DEA?”
“They’re still looking for him. If there’s anything in the computers about the mole, she’ll track him down.”
“But did Zara find what she’s looking for—what she went to all the trouble and time to find?”
Cixi sighed. “I don’t know yet. It’s still early. There’s lots of information to go through. Maybe she’ll find it.”
“And if she doesn’t? Will she need your help to find it?”
Cixi tugged her hand out of Rio’s. She straightened, the moment subtly defensive. “I want to help. It matters to Zara only because it involves Danyael. She wouldn’t give a damn otherwise; it’s not her style to care.”
“And Danyael matters to you?” Rio heard the edge in his own voice.
“He’s a friend. A good friend, to both of us.” Cixi chuckled, but it was a sad sound. “There’s no need to be jealous of him. He doesn’t need it or deserve it.”
“But you’d put on hold your life with me to help him.”
“I didn’t say that. I want to help Danyael, but I didn’t say I would. What do you want from me, Rio? You still haven’t told me?”
“Haven’t I?” He frowned. “I want to marry you. I want to live with you. I want to give you all the jewelry from my family’s vault—although some of them are absolutely hideous period pieces that need to be recut. I want—a life together, without lies, without pretenses.”