May Ling left her shoes by the back door and headed down the hallway as silently as she could. Peeking into the living room, she saw that Cody was where she’d left him. His mouth was slack, and he was breathing slow measured breaths.
His gun sat in its holster in front of him on the coffee table. He had taken it off his belt earlier so that May Ling could snuggle up against him. There was another gun lying beside it. It was a small Beretta that Cody told May Ling to keep handy at all times. Beside the weapons was the note May Ling had left in case Cody had awakened. If he had awakened and read it, she would have told him that she had changed her mind about leaving him.
May Ling was about to step into the room and grab the Beretta when she saw Cody’s eyelids flutter. He hadn’t stirred awake but appeared to be on the verge of doing so.
She tiptoed across a blue shag rug to pick up the note, which she then threw into a decorative thrash receptacle positioned on the side of the sofa. She could have grabbed the gun instead. However, it was one thing to shoot Cody while he was asleep, quite another to chance him awakening and looking at her while she did it.
May Ling wanted him to feel no pain, particularly the torment of betrayal.
She lowered herself next to him. Despite her attempt not to jostle Cody, May Ling’s arm brushed against him. Cody shifted in his sleep, opened his eyes, and yawned. May Ling turned her head and smiled at him.
“How was your nap?”
Cody ran a hand over his face. “How long was I asleep? My neck is stiff.”
“A few hours, and you needed it.”
Surprise lit Cody’s face as he looked up at the clock on the wall to his left.
“I slept that long?”
“We both did, but I woke up a few minutes before you. I just came back from using the powder room.”
After covering another yawn with his fist, Cody stood. “It’s my turn to use the bathroom.”
May Ling watched him grab his gun and put it on his belt. After eyeing the street from a window for a moment, Cody headed for the powder room in the hallway.
May Ling snatched up her gun. The powder room wasn’t much bigger than a closet. If she fired through the door while he was washing his hands, she couldn’t help but hit him.
But no, she didn’t want Cody to suffer, and she knew she couldn’t bear to hear his screams of pain were she to only wound him. May Ling cursed herself silently for not sticking to her original plan by using the poison in his coffee.
Even at the early stages in their relationship she knew she couldn’t bring herself to harm Cody with a weapon. Now, because of her foolish procrastination, that was exactly what she had to do.
May Ling went into the kitchen. After starting the coffeemaker, she reached inside the refrigerator and grabbed one of her wine coolers. There was a scratch on the label.
A few moments later, Cody walked in and smiled as he heard the coffeemaker brewing.
“I could go for some coffee. I feel sluggish after that long nap.”
May Ling was seated at the table; she asked a question.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, are you?”
“Not really, but Spenser stocked the freezer with TV dinners yesterday, or I could cook something if you don’t mind waiting.”
Cody stared at her as May Ling stood to grab a glass and a cup from the cupboard.
Does he suspect something? Or did he notice the blood on my blouse?
May Ling had gotten blood on her as she attacked Spenser. However, the fluid blended well with the red blouse she wore. There was a large dried stain on her right sleeve, near the wrist, but May Ling had rolled her sleeves up to hide it. When Cody turned his back to open the freezer and peer in, May Ling figured that he had just been looking her way while lost in thought.
“A TV dinner is fine. I hope Spenser got one with pasta. I’m in the mood for pasta.”
May Ling picked up her gun from the table.
Her hands shook as she raised it, and tears began blurring her vision. She didn’t need steady hands or clear vision. Her target was standing only eight feet away with his back to her. As Cody moved aside a bag of frozen vegetables to see what the box beneath it held, May Ling spoke.
“Xavier.”
“Yeah?”
“I love you,” May Ling said, and pulled the trigger.
144
The Worst Day Of My Life
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, FEBRUARY 2004
May Ling squeezed the trigger twice more before she understood that the slide was back and that the gun held no rounds. When Cody closed the freezer and turned to look at her, she saw that his eyes held immense sadness.
“I nearly left it loaded,” he said. “I never thought you’d be able to pull that trigger.”
May Ling let the gun slip from her hand. It fell onto the kitchen floor, where it cracked a tile. Her tears increased, and her body quaked with sobs.
“Romeo is alive, May Ling. He stayed conscious long enough to call me and warn me. He wouldn’t allow the doctor to put him under until he reached me. I checked the phone afterwards and saw that I’d slept through nearly a dozen calls today. Whatever you gave me really put me out.”
Despite all he now knew about her, Cody went to May Ling and took her in an embrace. She struggled for a moment, thinking he meant her harm. After realizing that he didn’t, she caressed him back, then let him guide her to sit at the table. May Ling opened her wine cooler and drank right from the bottle. She sought to fortify herself for the conversation that was to follow.
After settling across from her and gazing at her with the saddest of eyes, Cody made a statement.
“You’re Vince Ryker’s daughter.”
“Yes,” May Ling said, as she wiped away tears.
“Is he still alive or did Spenser kill him?”
“Xavier, Spenser is dead by now. When I left the island, he was severely wounded.”
Cody released an involuntary moan at that news and closed his eyes. After a slight shake of his head, he opened them and stared at May Ling.
“I love you.”
“I love you too, and it killed me to pull that trigger.”
“But you did it anyway.”
May Ling reached across the table to caress his cheek.
“I’m glad the truth is out in the open. Now do you see why I wanted us to run away together? And we still can. My father has gotten his revenge for my brother’s murder. If I talk to him, I can convince him that Spenser Hawke’s death was enough vengeance to honor Damon’s memory.”
“Romeo will still want revenge for Spenser’s death.”
“And what about you? Will you try to kill my father?”
“If I did, then you would want to kill me again,” Cody said, followed by a sigh. “This nightmare goes on and on.”
“It doesn’t have to, not for us. We can still leave and start over. Xavier, don’t you see that? Now that there are no secrets between us, we can begin again.”
“Your father and Romeo will still be at war with each other.”
“I know, but I don’t care anymore. I want to spend my life with you.”
“You tried to kill me, May Ling.”
“I… thought I had no other choice.”
“And you knifed Emma to death.”
May Ling said something unintelligible, as her words were part speech and part sob.
As she picked up her wine cooler and drained the bottle, Cody stood and offered his hand.
“Let’s go sit on the sofa.”
* * *
They returned to the living room. Cody pulled May Ling close, then watched as she stifled a yawn.
“I’m so weary all of a sudden.”
“It’s the emotional stress,” Cody said.
May Ling rested her head on his shoulder.
“Why did Garcia attack you at Hutchins’ house? Did he have a falling out with your father?”
“That was a mistake. Garcia still believed I was just your girl
friend.”
Cody stroked her hair. “I’ll talk to Romeo and you talk to your father. Maybe, maybe we can get them to call a truce.”
“Really? And what about us?”
“We’ll go away like you wanted, and we’ll start over.”
May Ling raised her head and kissed Cody. Had she been looking carefully, she might have seen the tears threatening to spill forth from his eyes.
“I want us to go to Europe,” May Ling said in a sleepy voice. Her eyes had closed, while her breathing had slowed.
“May Ling?”
“Yes, baby?”
“I love you, May Ling.”
“And I love you.”
The room grew silent and time passed.
“May Ling?”
She didn’t answer, and when Cody nudged her, she didn’t respond. Her breathing had slowed drastically, but then her body convulsed from involuntary and violent spasms. Cody held her, crushed her to him and waited until she stopped trembling. At no point did May Ling open her eyes.
When Cody could hold his tears in no longer, they rolled down his cheeks and onto May Ling’s pale face. Color had drained from her skin as breath had fled from her body.
After Romeo’s call, Cody had searched their room. He found the poison May Ling had intended for him tucked inside a bright green change purse. It was the type of coin carrier that could be attached to a key chain. The poison was inside a small, sealed glass bottle, was colorless and labeled TTX. Cody recognized it as a neurotoxin derived from pufferfish.
After discovering it unopened, Cody assumed May Ling couldn’t bring herself to use it on him and had opted to drug him to sleep instead. It was the reason he nearly left her gun loaded. When she tried to kill him in the kitchen, Cody had been proven wise to remove the weapon’s rounds.
May Ling might have been capable of killing him in cold blood, but Cody doubted his ability to do the same. Despite knowing the truth about her being Ryker’s daughter and the attempt on Romeo’s life, he wanted her to live.
However, Romeo told him that it was May Ling and not Vivian who had stabbed Emma to death. May Ling had killed an innocent woman who cherished her friendship. Cody groaned upon learning that. In his mind, that placed May Ling beyond redemption. Pulling the trigger on him had only solidified that opinion. It was a truth that rent his soul to shreds.
The poison had been added to May Ling’s wine cooler minutes before she’d returned. Cody nearly shattered the bottle against a wall twice while he waited for her, but ultimately, he used her own poison against her.
Cody checked for a pulse, found none, then listened for a heartbeat. The poison had achieved its insidious aim. May Ling was dead. Her face was a study in peacefulness and she had died feeling no pain.
Cody rose from the sofa. He made it only four steps before grief, regret, and the ache of loss left him unable to stand. Sobs wracked his body, and as he pounded a fist against the floor, a cry of rage echoed throughout the house.
He’d dedicated his life to becoming a man who could face any odds to be able to protect those he cared about. Now, he had been forced to kill the woman he loved. The pain he experienced, the mental anguish, was worse than anything he’d ever known. He would never be the same.
145
No Doubt
ONE-MAN ISLAND, FEBRUARY 2004
While he wasn’t a novice seaman, neither was Cody an expert. That was one reason why it took him two attempts to dock. Another contributing factor was the cold dread he was feeling, for he had spotted Spenser’s still form sprawled beside Vince Ryker’s body.
Seeing Ryker lying dead in a puddle of blood came as no surprise to Cody. Despite May Ling’s assertion that Spenser was severely wounded and at her father’s mercy, Cody never doubted that Spenser had triumphed.
Spenser was a Tanner, Ryker was not. Those facts ensured that there could be only one outcome in a man-to-man battle.
Leaving the boat, Cody rushed to Spenser while keeping watch for an attacker or the flash of reflected sunlight from a hidden rifle scope.
Spenser’s blood loss was nearly as severe as the pints spewed out by Ryker. The cavity where his eye had been shocked Cody. It revealed that at least one of Spenser’s injuries would be of a permanent nature. Cody knew that his mentor was either dead or dying. He whispered a prayer as he checked for signs of life.
Spenser was alive. A faint but steady pulse still throbbed in his neck. Although he knew he was unconscious, Cody patted Spenser on the shoulder and spoke words of comfort to his friend.
“Help is already on the way; you’re going to make it, Spenser.”
Cody left Spenser and moved toward the small house that sat near the center of the island. He found no one, but there were signs in one of the rooms that Vivian had lived there with Ryker. Cody saw clothing in a closet that he remembered her wearing.
Romeo had told him that Vivian was dead, and that she had killed Garcia before dying. That meant that all their enemies were vanquished. It came at such a terrible cost of innocents. Emma was gone along with Roy Hutchins and Bev.
Then, Cody remembered that he didn’t know what fate had befallen the Citadel chief, Jack Begley. If Begley lived, perhaps Cody would have to rectify that situation someday. But not now, now was a time for healing, for grieving, and for starting over.
His identity of Xavier Zane was compromised beyond redemption as was Romeo’s use of the phony surname of Slade. They were both wanted by the police and would be well-advised to leave the west coast.
Cody exited the house and returned to the boat. When he emerged from the cabin, he was carrying May Ling’s body. Cody had wrapped her in a sheet but left her face exposed. Before settling her beside Ryker, he gave her one last kiss, as fresh tears tumbled from his eyes.
A check of Ryker’s body revealed a wallet. Vince Ryker had been using an identity in the name of Gerald Hart, complete with driver’s license, credit cards, and health insurance. There was also a picture in the wallet. It was a photo of May Ling.
Cody kept the photo and transferred the wallet onto Spenser. A moment later, he heard the sound he’d been waiting for. A helicopter flew low over the island and circled back. Its pilot was skilled and managed to land the metal bird on the dock. When the doors opened, Dr. Smith leapt out along with a man dressed like an ambulance driver.
The doctor greeted Cody with a nod, then eyed the bodies of Ryker and May Ling before checking on Spenser. When he saw the wound at the base of Spenser’s back, he shook his head, then spoke loudly to be heard over the noise of the chopper.
“He needs more care than we can provide at the clinic. He’ll have to be taken to a trauma center.”
“I figured that. Tanner has I.D. on him that will pass scrutiny, but how will you explain his injuries?”
“Luckily, there are no gunshot wounds like your other friend. That makes things easier. For a fee, we’ll supply people who will report seeing him attacked by a pair of muggers.”
“That will work, I guess. How is Romeo doing?”
“He was extremely fortunate. He should suffer no permanent damage. You’ll be able to see him when we return to the clinic.”
Spenser was placed on a backboard and transferred to the helicopter. Cody took one last look at May Ling before climbing aboard the chopper. He was gripping Spenser’s hand in his as they lifted off from the dock.
One-Man Island had lived up to its name once more, and the victor in a contest between two men left his adversary on its soil. Cody’s heart lay dead on that island as well, to be buried along with May Ling. He vowed to himself that he would never fall in love again.
As the helicopter flew toward San Francisco, Cody shut his eyes as May Ling’s last words echoed through his mind. Words that had professed her love for him. He didn’t doubt that she truly loved him. And yet, superimposed over those remembered words of love was the sound of a gun clicking on an empty chamber.
Had he not removed the rounds from the magazine, May Ling would h
ave shot him in the back of the head and killed him. That was a fact, one just as real as the love she held in her heart for him.
The hatred Ryker had drilled into May Ling was stronger than the love Cody inspired in her. In truth, they had never had a chance of making things work. She had been damaged beyond redemption when he’d met her. Actions not only spoke louder than words, they often voided them of all meaning.
The helicopter flew toward shore with the sky growing darker, as the sun set on a day Cody would never, nor could ever forget.
146
The Choice Is Made
SAN FRANCISCO, MARCH 2004
A month after the events that had taken place on One-Man Island, Cody and Romeo entered the hospital where Spenser was receiving care.
The spinal injury had been serious. However, the orthopedic surgeon who worked on Spenser was one of the recognized experts in his field. Spenser regained the full use of his hands within days but walking normally again would take longer.
He was ferried around in a wheelchair while using a walker during therapy sessions. Although his progress was rapid, doctors informed him that he might never be back to normal and could walk with a limp the rest of his life.
Spenser ignored such talk and concentrated on getting better. He refused to even entertain any notion that he wouldn’t be at peak physical condition again someday. Of course, that wouldn’t include his left eye.
As far as his being a Tanner, that was over, and Spenser accepted it. Fortunately, he had two protégés who were capable of taking up the mantle of Tanner. Regrettably though, he had to choose between them.
Spenser had been in Florence, Italy when he learned of Emma’s death. At the time, he had recently accepted a contract which had a deadline that was now days away.
It was a difficult hit on a man who was being guarded by trained security personnel. The guards had experience protecting the elite and powerful. One assassin had already failed and paid with his life. Spenser had used the time during his recovery to work out how the hit could be accomplished. And yet, someone else would have to fly to Florence and carry it out.
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