Jack of Hearts

by Diane Capri

  The few facts Kim knew ran through her head like a relay racer from one touch point to the next.

  She might get further along the road to finding Reacher with intel from Eleanor Duncan than she’d ever managed to get from any witness before.

  This woman had been viciously brutalized. She’d gone through hell and found her way back, and Reacher had helped rehabilitate her somehow. He’d headed here again to help her with some kind of serious trouble.

  According to Dr. Landon, Eleanor’s husband had been the world’s worst bastard. Not one person had ever said Seth Duncan, his father, and his uncles had not deserved to die. Even the Nebraska State Police report she’d read didn’t suggest the dead Duncans had been upstanding citizens.

  All of this meant that Eleanor Duncan was more than just another of Reacher’s long list of women. She was no better or worse, but she was as formidable as the others in her own way.

  Yet, Eleanor was different, somehow. A strange quality had drawn Reacher to her, although Kim couldn’t quite put her finger on the precise nature of that trait yet.

  “We need to find Reacher. He was on his way here to see you. Are you saying he never arrived?” Kim said, sensing that Eleanor was too strong. Pussyfooting around with this one would get her nowhere.

  “Is this where you tell me it’s a crime to lie to an FBI agent?” Eleanor smirked, which brought on a bout of coughing.

  “No need to tell you since you already know,” Kim replied.

  Eleanor smiled, which accentuated the odd asymmetries of her face. “Right at the moment, I might enjoy being a guest of Uncle Sam. As you can see, I have nowhere to sleep tonight.”

  “The only people who say things like that have never seen the inside of a federal prison,” Burke said sharply. He’d walked up just in time to hear their last exchange. “Guess that means we don’t have to check your criminal history.”

  Eleanor’s eyes narrowed. She pursed her lips and clammed up again.

  “We could catch you in a lie, which would put you on the wrong side of the law. Then we’d arrest you and take you in for questioning. Or we can do this the easy way. Let’s try that first, shall we?”

  Eleanor stood ramrod straight and glared directly into his eyes.

  “So here’s the truth we already know to save you from trying to lie about it,” Burke pushed on as if he was oblivious to Eleanor’s resistance. “We know Reacher was on his way here. We know he’s traveling with Petey Burns. They’re driving a stolen Audi SUV. What we don’t know is why they came here in the first place. And we don’t know where Reacher is now. Can you shed some light on that?”

  Eleanor’s eyes had narrowed to mere slits and her nostrils flared like an angry bull. Burke was baiting her. She knew it and she didn’t bite, no matter how much she wanted to.

  “As it happens, I’m with you. Your building was torched. Destroyed. Best guess? Reacher is your arsonist. The guy knows his way around accelerants and destruction.” Burke barreled through whatever resistance Eleanor had left. “Question is, did he just do you a favor by getting rid of the place because he’s such a nice guy? Or did you pay him to do it? We’ll check your bank records to confirm. Don’t think we won’t.”

  Eleanor coughed and scowled as Burke talked, and then her expression lightened as he finished. She grinned and shook her head.

  “What’s so funny?” Burke demanded, jamming his hands into his pockets.

  “Have you ever met Reacher?” she asked as if the question contained its own answer.

  “Matter of fact, I have,” Burke replied.

  “Then you must be as thick as a brick if you think Reacher would take money from me to burn down my building with all of us inside.” Eleanor’s grin broadened and she laughed, which brought on yet another bout of coughing.

  “Why do you say that?” Kim asked. Although she privately agreed, she didn’t need an all-out war with Burke’s methods right now, either.

  “When you find him, you can ask him yourself,” Eleanor replied angrily again, staring them down. Her moods seemed to whipsaw faster than her gaze. “If you’ve got evidence that Reacher torched my building, then let’s have it. Call the police over here and I’ll make a full statement. I’ll be more than happy to help you catch him. You won’t have to ask me twice.”

  Her demands were met with belligerent silence from Burke this time.

  “Just as I thought. You let me know when you have answers instead of questions, Agent Burke. Meanwhile, I’ve got to find my tenants a place to sleep tonight.” She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, turned her back, and walked away to make her call, coughing as she went.

  “Nice job, Burke,” Kim said when Eleanor was out of earshot. “Let’s hear your next brilliant idea.”

  “Reacher is here. Somewhere. Either he set this fire or he knows who did,” Burke said stubbornly, with way more certainty than the facts supported. “And he might be smart enough not to get caught. But what about Petey Burns? He’s no brain trust. He’ll make a mistake sooner or later. When he does, we’ll catch him.”

  “So your plan is what? Stomp around the ashes looking under debris until you find them?” Kim replied, making it clear what she thought of such a plan. Which earned her another scowl from Burke. “Makes more sense that Reacher will approach Eleanor again at some point. He came here to help her, according to Doc Landon. He won’t leave before he connects with her again.”

  “Maybe. We’re both reading tea leaves at this point. But since there’re two of us now, you stay with Duncan. She seems to like you. Maybe she’ll give you some actual intel we can use to find Reacher.”

  “And what are you planning to do while I’m babysitting?”

  “Look around, see if I can figure out where Reacher went.” Burke didn’t wait for her answer before he stomped off toward the south end of the burning building.

  Kim watched him go, shaking her head, wondering when he was planning to start performing like a partner instead of a damned prima donna.

  CHAPTER 23

  Wednesday, May 18

  Denver, Colorado

  5:35 a.m.

  Jade had been invited by one of her clients to attend a Muay Thai boxing match in Vegas. He, of course, had paid all expenses. A first-class trip to Las Vegas with a big spender to cover the bills had seemed like an amazing chance. She had not left Colorado since she’d arrived here in the back of that gray van seven years ago.

  Jade’s father had loved Muay Thai. It was a popular sport back home and her big brother, Amarin, was so good at it that he’d been recruited from Vegas to fight in the best matches. Amarin was destined to become a star.

  Her father had beamed with pride when he told the story to everyone in their village.

  Like everything else her father had been promised, the man had lied about the promoter’s plans for Amarin, too.

  Jade felt twinges of nostalgia for her childhood and her homeland as soon as her client offered the trip to Vegas. She hadn’t witnessed a live Muay Thai match since she’d watched her brothers in the backyard in Thailand.

  Emotional baggage, she knew. GiGi told her to stop being foolish. They had much better lives here than anything they might have expected back home, she said.

  Jade agreed. But something pulled her toward the Muay Thai match in Vegas anyway.

  She had paid no attention to the scheduled boxers. The fight was illegal, the gamblers who crowded the venue were criminals, and she didn’t care about any of it. She only wanted to feel like a carefree young girl watching boxing with her father again.

  Her escort was paying a lot of money to show her off as his date, which was really all that mattered to him. Jade was getting paid, and she’d told GiGi that was the most important thing. Even though they both knew it wasn’t only the money that had drawn her.

  The star fighters for the night had been brought into the ring.

  As soon as Jade saw the headliner, Alan Chen, she recognized him as her brother. Amarin was unforgettabl
e. His image had been imprinted on her heart before she was born, and it remained there still.

  She wanted to speak to him. To connect to her old life once more.

  After he won the fight in a quick knockout, the handlers hustled him off the floor. Jade slipped away from her client and followed Amarin through the corridors.

  When her brother’s handlers slipped out of his room, Jade slipped inside. He was lying on a sofa, eyes closed.

  “Amarin,” she said quietly.

  His eyes popped open in surprise. No one had called him that name in years.

  “Ying? Is it you?” Amarin was astonished to see her.

  Like Jade, he’d learned American ways. He jumped off the sofa and hugged her, lifting her into the air as he’d done when they were children.

  He blinked back tears as he held her close. “They said you died on the long journey from Thailand. Gamon and Nan, too.”

  Brother and sister cried, hanging onto each other as if they might vanish at any moment. When Amarin separated for a closer look, he said, “Where is our sister, Gamon? And Nan?”

  Before the conversation could go further, a sharp rap on the door was followed by a harsh command. “Chen! Three minutes!”

  Unlike Jade, Amarin’s life was not his own. He was expected to entertain the gamblers and then to join them for dinner. So they dried their tears and made secret plans to meet at the Hoover Dam the next day.

  Thinking about it now, Jade bowed her head. That meeting had ended in disaster. She’d had no choice but to flee.

  Amarin had killed a man that day. Someone who was connected to his boss. She didn’t know whether her brother had survived or not.

  When she returned from Vegas, she’d told GiGi everything. Neither sister knew what to do about the situation, so they carried on as if the disastrous trip to Vegas had never happened.

  Then GiGi could no longer stand the stress. She told Eleanor about Amarin. Eleanor asked around and learned that the boxer Alan Chen was owned by Roberto “The Elephant” Rossi.

  GiGi researched Rossi and his Muay Thai boxing schemes. Knowing her brother’s boss was the notorious gangster and Moretti, the dead fixer, was one of Rossi’s men was too much for Jade and GiGi to handle.

  Jade’s nerves were at the breaking point when Eleanor Duncan came to her rescue again. Eleanor had friends in high places. Low places too, it turned out. Somehow, Eleanor hired Reacher and that silly man who drove him everywhere, Petey Burns.

  Jade and Eleanor had dinner last night with Reacher and Burns. She had never seen anyone as big as Reacher in her life. Her reaction to him was mixed awe and terror. Added to the anxiety she’d been unable to overcome since Amarin threw that man over the bridge, Jade could barely function.

  At the restaurant last night, Eleanor had explained the situation while Jade twisted her hands in her lap and kept the same stoic expression she wore whenever she was forced to endure situations she could not control.

  Reacher had listened, asked a few questions, and said he could take care of it.

  “What will you do? Rossi’s a gangster. He’ll kill you without a moment’s hesitation,” Jade said, distraught.

  Reacher said nothing.

  Jade wasn’t sure what Reacher had planned, but after all these years of taking care of herself and the others, she was happy to hand off her troubles to such a giant. Surely he was big enough to handle Rossi.

  Reacher exuded absolute confidence, and she wanted to believe him.

  Eleanor, always reliable, assured her that Reacher could take care of everything. Jade chose to believe them both. What alternative did she have?

  That was last night and Jade hadn’t slept at all since the dinner. She had no idea where Reacher was or what he might be doing. She’d canceled her clients last night and stayed home, doors locked, waiting for disaster to strike.

  As the sun peeked above the horizon, Jade heard her cell phone vibrating on the table nearby. She owned several phones, but this was her personal number, which was private and only shared with a limited few.

  The ringing jarred her from her constantly repeating memories of Amarin and the bridge and the man falling swiftly to his death at the bottom of the canyon.

  Jade swept up the phone, thinking the caller was probably her sister. GiGi often awakened early in the morning.

  She raised her eyebrows when she saw Eleanor Duncan’s name displayed on the caller ID. She cleared her throat and tried to speak normally. “Good morning. This is pretty early for you, isn’t it?”

  “We had a fire at the restaurant.” Eleanor paused to cough for a long few moments. The cumulative effect of the smoke and the night air had settled in her lungs.

  Jade blinked as if the meaning of the words escaped her. “What? A fire?”

  Eleanor tried to control her coughing, managing only a quick short sentence before another paroxysm attacked her. “The building is destroyed.”

  “The whole building?” Jade asked, a tremor in her voice. She wrapped a shaky arm around her body for warmth.

  Nighttime fires in rural Thailand were often fatal. Her mother had perished in such a fire years ago. The visceral memory attacked her body with a fit of uncontrollable shaking even as her mind attempted to separate the old horror from the new one.

  “Is everyone…all right?” she said, her voice shaky.

  “Do you have room for us?” Eleanor managed to say between bouts of coughing. “We have nothing. And nowhere else to go. We’ll find another place as soon as we can. But for now…”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Jade said, “Of course. You must come here. Where are you now?”

  Jade had no empty guestrooms, which mattered not. She couldn’t possibly turn Eleanor and the others away.

  Sixteen of them had lived together in a shipping container for weeks once. They could certainly pile into her penthouse suite and sleep on the floors until different arrangements could be made.

  “Thank you,” Eleanor said with a catch in her voice that Jade had never heard before, not even once. Eleanor was never emotional. Yet her gratitude was palpable.

  Jade waved her feelings aside, even though Eleanor couldn’t see the gesture. Given everything Eleanor Duncan had done for her and the others, no refusal or hesitation could possibly be justified.

  “Do you need me to send the van for you?” Jade asked.

  “That would help. Everything we owned was inside our rooms. It’ll take a couple of days to get ourselves together. Hell, we’re all in our pajamas. We have no cash or credit cards…” her voice trailed off into the ether.

  “Where are you?”

  “At the bistro. Outside. Watching the last of the embers die.” Eleanor coughed again as if she’d been standing in the cold and too near the smoke for a while.

  “Okay, I’ll send the van. Text me when you get here and we’ll come down to help you all get to your rooms upstairs,” Jade said. “You can stay here as long as you want, you know that. You’re all closer than sisters to us.”

  Eleanor coughed again, but the cough had a different quality this time. As if she was holding back emotions she didn’t want to release. Jade squeezed tears from her eyes, too.

  When her coughing subsided, her voice even huskier than before, Eleanor said, “Is Reacher with you?”

  “Haven’t seen him since dinner.”

  “We need to find him. He can find out who the son of a bitch was that burned down my restaurant,” Eleanor said angrily as she hung up.

  Arson. Jade’s breath caught in her throat. Her hand flew to cover her mouth.

  Someone burned down the restaurant. But why? Who would want to hurt Eleanor Duncan? She was one of the best souls Jade had ever known.

  Her thoughts swung immediately to Reacher. Whatever the bond he had with Eleanor was, it was strong and solid. Jade had sensed that anyone who harmed Eleanor was surely walking dead already. Reacher would see to that.

  But as quickly as the questions raced through her head, the answers
chased behind like a taser charge through her body.

  Eleanor’s trouble was about Jade. It had to be. No one would want to harm Eleanor otherwise.

  Amarin had killed a man on Sunday because of Jade. A fixer for a Vegas gangster. Rossi.

  She didn’t know much about gangsters, but she’d seen plenty of movies. Even if the movies exaggerated a gangster’s ruthlessness, Amarin’s worried expression when he first saw the fixer coming toward her on the bridge had been all too real.

  Jade looked out toward the sunrise and noticed the bright orb ascending steadily. Daylight. Never a good time for her. She preferred to move under cover of darkness.

  She sensed that Reacher did, too.

  Where had he been last night, if not watching over Eleanor?

  Jade swallowed the big lump that still blocked her breath. Reacher hadn’t been there for Eleanor because she’d hired him to protect Jade, GiGi, and Mika. He’d taken his eye off the real target because Eleanor had asked him to.

  She texted a quick message about the fire and Eleanor’s plight to Petey Burns. He had a phone. Reacher didn’t.

  Tears leaked from Jade’s tightly closed eyes as she called GiGi, who lived in the apartment immediately below with Mika. The others lived on the floor below GiGi, where the clients were entertained seven nights a week.

  GiGi answered with a cheerful “Good morning.”

  “Get dressed,” Jade said shakily, wiping her tears as she walked toward her bedroom closet. “Eleanor and our sisters are in trouble.”

  “Oh, no! What kind of trouble?” GiGi asked as if she suspected the danger was related to them. Which they both knew it absolutely had to be.

  “They’re all terrified. I’m sending the van. They are coming here.” Jade said as she pulled jeans and a sweater and underwear out of her dresser. “They’ve never been here before, so we’ll meet them downstairs and bring them up to their rooms.”

  “We’ll be ready. Call me when they get here. I want to come with you,” GiGi said before she hung up.