Bare Facts (11 page)

“Face is like pride, right?”

“Sort of. I don’t think anyone who’s not Japanese can ever really understand what it means.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

“Daniel, you’re not Japanese.”

She said it delicately and teasingly. If she had to guess, given his coloring and physical attributes, she’d say he was of Italian or Latin heritage.

“In all the ways that count, I am.”

“Were you fostered to a Japanese-American family as a child?” she asked. He’d said he grew up on the streets but this was the United States. No child was left alone like that.

“Not really fostered. But I did rescue a boy from being beaten by a rival gang when I was about eight.”

“How did you rescue him?”

“I was big for my age and I’d been fighting since…well, since I could remember. The kid was small and I almost walked away.”

Charity understood immediately that he was sharing something important from his past. It was the way he spoke. His words quick, the inflection flat.

“Why would you walk away?” she asked.

“Prolonging death is like torturing someone. And if I helped that kid live one day only for him to die the next…what’s the point?”

His life was like nothing she’d ever imagined. She knew that life was tough for some people. She’d always felt blessed and lucky to have been brought up the way she was. But until this moment she hadn’t realized just how lucky she’d been.

“So you rescued him. Then what happened?”

“Um…two really big bad-asses entered the alleyway where we were.”

“Were you afraid?” she asked.

“Probably, but another part of me was just relieved. I’d been waiting every day for that kind of fight.”

“What kind?”

“One I wouldn’t walk away from. I’d lived longer than I expected, and to be honest, in those days life was hard.”

“You must treasure the comforts of your home and your success,” she said.

“Hell, no. They are trappings that could easily be ripped away from me.”

“Oh, so what happened next?”

“The punks were the older brothers of the boy I’d helped out. They took me home with them and gave me food and a place to sleep.”

He didn’t say it, but she suspected they’d also given him a family. A way to belong after he’d been alone for so long.

C
harity was always on the move. Always looking forward so she didn’t have to stop and maybe look back at what she’d become and how she’d changed. Staring into Daniel’s eyes made her realize that she wasn’t alone in that—the two of them had been honed by their pasts. But she didn’t think her life had been anything like his. There was something too raw about Daniel when he spoke of his childhood.

And even the horror of losing her parents the way she had wasn’t the same as what he had endured. She ached for him and wished in some way that she could make up for what that little boy who had been Daniel had lived through.

She wrapped her arm around him because as he’d been talking, he’d stiffened and drawn more into himself and she wanted to hold him. She wanted to let him know that she was here now. And though she knew he’d rebuff her if she promised to make the future…wait a minute. Was she really thinking of the future with him?

Could she be?

No.

Well…

“Charity?”

“Hmm…?”

“Why are you holding onto me?” he asked. He didn’t pull back from her.

She dropped her arm. “I want to comfort the little boy that you were.”

“He wouldn’t have accepted it.”

“You mean
you
wouldn’t have,” she said carefully.

There was something guarded in his eyes and she was surprised he let her glimpse it. He was the most self-contained person she’d ever met. Lord knew, there were times when she wished she had that ability to shut her emotions off. She wondered if he’d teach her how, but would have felt silly asking, so she kept quiet.

He shrugged, then ran his finger down the side of her. She already liked that touch too much. No one touched her the way he did—it made her feel special.

“You don’t have a peachy background, either. Your transition into womanhood was rough,” he said.

She could tell that it mattered to him. “We have that in common, then.”

“Don’t, Charity.”

“Don’t what?” But she knew what he was going to say. She wasn’t an idiot and the man was a loner. It wasn’t just because of the threats he had received—it was something deeper, something ingrained in the very fiber of who he was. Given the way he grew up, it was amazing to her that he had made it off the streets and into the corporate world.

“How did you transition from street kid to CEO?” she asked.

“That’s complicated and really has no bearing on what’s going on here.”

She drew back. “Fine. What else can you tell me about Sekijima?”

“Charity.” There was exasperation in his voice and she hated that.

She wished they weren’t in this cramped room with only a bed. A bed on which she’d just made love to him. And wanted to do so again. Damn, where had all her good sense gone? And what was it about this man that made her forget it?

“What?”

“I’m not the kind of person you want to find things in common with. I’m not a nice man.”

She shook her head. “You are.”

“Don’t let what happened here—”

“I’m not stupid, Daniel. I know that you wanted me and I wanted you, too. I wasn’t talking about sex.”

He seemed shocked and actually pulled back from her. Of course, what had happened between them was on her mind. Her body still pulsed from his possession, and to be perfectly honest, she still wanted him.

“The way you take care of your staff shows me what kind of man you are. You’ve gone out of your way to ensure that everyone who works for you is out of harm’s way while the blackmailer is still out there.”

“Well, they aren’t the intended victims. I don’t like anyone to have to pay the price for my decisions or my mistakes.”

“Me, either,” she said. “And you need to stop treating me like you do your staff. I’m your bodyguard.”

She pushed to her feet, pocketing the pin that she’d found. She would give it to Anna and let the other woman start investigating it. She’d turn up something—Charity was sure of it.

She opened the door, but Daniel reached around her and closed it with the flat of his hand. He pressed up against her, trapping her against the door, his chest resting heavily against her back. He bent his head down to her and spoke directly into her ear.

“Don’t think you’re only my bodyguard.”

“I’m not?”

“I can’t be the man you want to me to be, Charity. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that my life is a mess.”

She grabbed his hand where it rested on her shoulder and bent back until she had enough wiggle room to turn. She knew he’d let her have that room and that irked her because she wasn’t so sure she could best him in a hand-to-hand fight.

“You don’t know what I really want. And I haven’t asked you to be anything other than who you are. I…I don’t sleep with clients normally, and this is the last thing I was prepared for with you.”

He wrapped his arms around her, tucking her against his chest. “I know you don’t sleep around. And I’m not trying to put words in your mouth.”

“How many people have a pin like this?” Anna asked. Daniel was reluctant to talk about anything involving the gang, especially to other people. Old habits ingrained in the giving of his word, his blood, and the tip of his finger were hard to break.

He shrugged. “Exact numbers are never known.”

“More than a hundred?” Justine asked.

He kept silent. Who knew? Gang numbers were private.

“It will help us to narrow down the search if we know what we are dealing with,” Anna said.

“I’ve given Charity the name of the man I think is responsible. Start your search there.”

“Daniel—”

“Ladies, you work for me. I hired you. Do what I’m asking you.”

“We don’t exactly work for you,” Justine said.

Charity bit back a smile as she sank deeper into the leather seat and watched Daniel and her friends interact. He didn’t give up anything. She knew he wouldn’t. He’d give them exactly the information he thought they needed and not a shred more.

He was hiding something. And whatever it was, he’d deemed it unimportant to their investigation.

“Different facts may seem trivial to you, but when we gather them together they might trigger something in one of us. We’re not trying to be nuisances—this is how we operate. And why we’re so successful at closing cases like this one,” Charity said.

“I don’t mind giving you information if I have it. But the exact gang numbers…that’s not even available. I doubt anyone other than the Oyabun would have them.”

“And you think that is Sekijima?” Anna asked.

Her fingers moved over the keyboard of her encrypted laptop. She scarcely looked up at either of them, but when she did, her eyes lingered on Daniel with a curiosity that had nothing to do with the case.

“Excuse me, sir.”

“Yes?” Daniel said, glancing at the flight attendant.

“The pilot asked me to inform you we’ll be landing in thirty minutes.”

“Thank you,” he said, dismissing the girl. She went back to the front of the plane.

Charity had kept an eye on the woman, since she was unknown to her and could be a variable in Sekijima’s plan to take down Daniel.

“We can finish the conversation at my home.”

“Which one?” Justine asked.

“The high-rise.”

“Okay,” Charity said. “Justine, did you secure the vehicle for Daniel to use on this end?”

“I have my own car,” he said. “I don’t like to be driven if I don’t have to be. Charity, you can ride with me. Ladies, I’m afraid it’s only a two-seater.”

“Not a problem—we’ve got our own ride. I want to check your car before you leave,” Justine said.

“Sam sent an operative to do that already.”

Justine trusted no one. Sometimes Charity wondered if the woman even really trusted her and Anna. “He isn’t someone I know. I want to go over it one more time.”

Charity smiled to herself. Justine and Anna felt the same way she did about making sure Daniel stayed alive while they ferreted out his blackmailer and brought him to justice.

“I’m not going to sit somewhere and wait while you—”

“Yes, Daniel, you are. Car bombs are too easy to rig.”

He started to say something but then stopped, gave her a tight nod, and then walked back to his seat in the middle of the plane. He took out his BlackBerry and started answering messages. She knew he was mad, but had no idea why.

With every new thing she learned about this man, it seemed she really knew less about him.

“What happened in the bedroom?” Anna asked softly, her British accent pronounced and proper the way it always was. Charity leaned her head back against the headrest on the chair and closed her eyes.

“We talked. I found that pin. And then I asked him some questions. He’s hiding something.”

“He’s not the only one,” Justine said. “What’s going on between the two of you?”

“I have no idea,” she said, being as honest as she could.

“He’s a client, Charity,” Anna reminded her gently.

“You think I don’t know that?” Charity said. It was all she thought about—well, that and the fact that he still wouldn’t come clean, not only about his past but about Sekijima.

“Don’t jump on her. She’s concerned about you. We need you one hundred percent on the job. Not acting like…well, not yourself.”

“I am one hundred percent, Justine. This thing with Daniel…it’s not something I’m deliberately doing. I can’t explain what it is about that man. He’s so damned frustrating, and yet, there’s something about him.”

Justine leaned down, resting her elbows on her legs, her thick black hair swinging forward around her face. “He’s a man—of course he’s frustrating.”

Anna laughed. “My brother would argue that.”

“Your brother’s a dork,” Justine said.

Angus wasn’t a dork. He was a high-society playboy who was drop-dead gorgeous and lived his life like it was one big party. It was odd to imagine him and Anna coming from the same womb.

Justine and Angus always gave off sparks when they were together. There was something about him that needled her. Charity always enjoyed seeing her friend thrown off guard by the other man.

“That’s neither here nor there. When we land, I’ll secure the plane and keep Daniel here until you have had a chance to make sure his car hasn’t been tampered with.”

Anna typed a few last notes on her computer. “I’ll go ahead to his residence and start going over the security. Want to meet there tonight and figure out the details of his plan to trap the blackmailer?”

“Sounds good.”

Daniel was disgusted with himself as he sat safely on the plane with Charity while her friends made sure it was not dangerous for him to leave. Charity sat near the entrance to the plane. She wasn’t relaxed but hypervigilant in what he was coming to recognize as her work mode.

She had her weapon held lightly in one hand and wore her small earpiece-microphone. Before they’d landed, all three women had changed into slim-fitting black leather pants and jackets.

Being a fighter, he knew they must have chosen the leather for its protective qualities. Being a man, he was instantly hard, looking at the black leather hugging Charity’s curves. Though he’d promised himself the one time he’d had her on this plane would be it, he knew he wasn’t going to keep that promise.

She’d drawn as little in life as he had. Money had been important for a long time because he’d grown up so poor. He’d thought that being wealthy would be a solution to many of his problems but he found that the problems were still there.

His cell phone rang and he glanced at the caller ID. Seeing that it was Tobias, he was glad for the distraction that work and their problems with U.S. Customs would provide.

“Williams.”

“Tobias, here. There was a fire in warehouse number one. The fire department has it under control. The warehouse manager has smoke inhalation.”

Fuck. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Yes. He’s with the EMTs. They are going to take him to the hospital for observation, but he’ll be fine.”

“How much damage is there?”

“They won’t let me in until the fire department has had a chance to finish looking over the site, but from the outside it doesn’t look too bad. It looks like those smoke alarms we installed last month saved our butts.”

“Do they have any idea what caused the fire?”

“Not yet. I told them about the threats to you personally, and they are going to be looking to make sure it’s not arson.”

He wished Tobias had kept his mouth shut, but given the circumstances, he probably had made the correct decision. “Have you called our insurance adjuster?”

“Not yet. Figured I should let you know what was going on before you saw it on the news.”

“The news?”

“CNN and the locals. There were huge black clouds of smoke coming off the building. Since we store mainly empty crates here or the fabric goods we import, they aren’t sure what caused the black clouds. But I overheard one of the firemen say that he suspected it was from some kind of chemical.”

“A chemical that was used on the fabrics?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know yet. I’ll call when I know more.”

“Very good.”

Daniel hung up the phone and saw Charity had come to stand over him.

“What’s the matter?”

“Fire in one of our warehouses.”

“Here in Seattle?”

“No, on the East Coast…New Jersey.”

She nibbled on her lower lip and he could see her turning over this new incident in her mind. “Does he think you are still in D.C.?”

“I doubt it. He’s showing me that he can strike at everything I own. That there’s no place safe from his reach.”

“It could be an accidental fire,” she said. “It’s improbable but we shouldn’t rule it out.”

Daniel knew it wasn’t accidental. Sekijima was coming after him where he lived and worked. Doing his damnedest to tear apart the life that Daniel had built out of the wreckage of his last years with the Dragon Lords. He reached up and rubbed his shoulder, right where the tail of the ornate Japanese dragon tattoo was. That tattoo was the mark of a Dragon Lord and the mark of his one-time friendship with Sekijima.

“Yeah, I don’t believe in coincidence.”

“Me, either. Justine has finished checking the car and we’re good to go.”