The Trouble with Valentine’s (20 page)

‘I noticed,’ he rumbled, his voice working its usual magic on her skin. ‘Ready to save the day?’

Not yet. But she would be. ‘Sure.’

‘Liar,’ he countered, with a gruffness that spoke of worry. ‘You don’t have to do this, you know. It’s not too late to change your mind. We can find another way. A safer way.’

‘There is no safe way. This is a good plan, Nick. You know it is. I want to give it a try. I want to fix this my way.’

‘Why? So you can prove to your brothers that you can?’

‘No. It’s not that.’ All her life her brothers had fixed her mistakes when she’d made them. They’d done it out of love for her, she knew that. They’d done it because they considered her upbringing their job and they took their work seriously. But hadn’t they seen? Hadn’t they ever looked beneath the protests and seen how they were eroding her confidence and her self-belief? ‘This isn’t about my brothers,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s about me. I need to prove to myself that I can do this.’

Nick sighed heavily, his arms tightening around her. ‘Can’t we just take that as a given?’

‘No.’

‘Damn.’ He turned her in his arms, turned so
that she was facing him, then lifted his hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. ‘How can I help?’ he murmured. ‘What do you need?’

No more questions, no more protest, just simple support and it flew like a shaft, straight and true, to lodge itself in her heart. She’d been walking a tightrope ever since she’d met this man. She’d resisted his warmth and resisted his wit. She’d even resisted his lovemaking for a while. But she couldn’t resist his belief in her. There would be no more balancing on the high wire, not with this man. Silently, willingly, Hallie tumbled into love.

‘What do I need?’ Her lips curved as she wound her hands in his hair and pulled his lips down to meet her own. The answer was obvious.

Right now, right this very minute, she needed him.

‘Y
OU SHOULDN’T BE OUT
here,’ Kai said to her from the shadows of the yellow cassia tree. It wasn’t even dawn, the first slivers of grey had yet to grace the sky, but Jasmine hadn’t been able to sleep and this garden had always been a place of refuge.

She’d known he was there well before she stepped down into the lower garden – Jasmine had a sixth-sense when it came to knowing Kai’s whereabouts, but her eyes confirmed the shadow of him leaning against the tree trunk and his words made his presence unmistakable. ‘It’s not safe.’

‘There’s security everywhere, I’m behind a tree and I’m not the target,’ she said as she too let the shadows cloak her. ‘You simply don’t want me here.’

Kai said nothing but the tension in the air around
them kicked up a notch. ‘Why
are
you here?’ he asked finally.

‘I couldn’t sleep. I was worried for Hallie and for Nick. Hopeful for myself and what the world will bring once I start exploring it. Worried about you.’

‘Why would you worry about me?’

‘Because you’re not free. And you should be.’

‘Your father offered me a senior position on his executive board yesterday,’ Kai said. ‘It’s a generous offer. He seems to think that the key to my future is for me to wield as much legitimate power as possible. And that the next step is for me to have my father bargain on my behalf for immunity from Triad interference.’

‘Would your father do that?’

‘John thinks yes.’

‘What do you think?’

‘I think my father owes me. Whether his indebtedness will stretch that far, I don’t know. We’re not close any more. Not in the way we once were.’

Regret in those softly spoken words, and a weariness that went soul-deep. ‘Kai, this position on my father’s executive board … This further distancing from your family … Is this what you want?’

Kai shifted his weight from one foot to another. ‘Yes.’

‘Then do it,’ she said softly. ‘Make it happen and know that you have my support, now and always, irrespective of any romantic love I might feel for you. I would see you free to do as you please.’

Stillness was Kai’s last retreat; she realised that now. When there was nowhere else to go, when the present held too much pain in it he simply locked down deep inside.

One day – some day – she wanted to shatter that control, she wanted him naked and sweaty against her, lost in her and spinning towards release. Some day up ahead.

‘They haven’t been bad years for me, these past years,’ he said gruffly. ‘There was laughter in them. Pleasure in them. There was you.’

Impossible to untangle, these ties that bound her and Kai together. Maybe they simply needed to be acknowledged and accepted for what they were. ‘I have a gift for you,’ she said. ‘Will you accept it?’

‘I would see it first.’

So careful, she thought. Always looking for the trap. She would see that instinct lessened too – some day, up ahead.

Jasmine dug into the pocket of her sweat pants for the trinket he’d once bought for her, wondering
if he would recognise it. A little plastic turtle hanging from a woven black leather cord. It seemed fitting. It harboured the memory of a thousand fragrant flowers and a gentle, fleeting touch. That was the moment … if such a big feeling could be crammed into so short a time.

That was the moment when she fell.

Jasmine held out her hand and the little turtle rested in her palm. Hard to see it in the darkness. Hard to recognise until Kai’s fingers closed around it and began to learn the shape of it. Heaven and earth; that was what the little turtle symbolised. Heaven on earth was what she wished for this man. From her heart to his hand.

She saw the hesitation in him, felt the ripple of it, and then he separated the leather cord and slipped it over his head and tightened the cord back up until the turtle came to rest just below his throat.

‘I love it,’ he said simply, and leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, chaste and reverent.

The long seduction had its moments. And this was one of them.

Jasmine pulled back reluctantly and leaned against the garden wall, taking care to remain in the deeper shadow of the tree. It would be dawn soon. A new beginning. A gift well received.

Three years. Three years learning everything
she could about the world she lived in and then she would be back for this man and then …

Then they would see.

‘Do you think you’ll be able to cancel the contract Hallie put out on Nick?’ she asked with a tiny grin for the absurdity of the situation.

‘I think so, yes. Contact has already been made. It can be done but I’m going to need help.’

‘Whose help?’

‘Hallie’s.’

‘I hate this,’ said Nick five hours later as everyone gathered in the Teys’ kitchen for a final briefing of the plan. ‘I can’t believe I’m letting you do this.’

‘It’s the only way,’ said John. She’s the only one who can cancel the contract. I’m afraid your accompanying her is out of the question.’

‘Why is it out of the question? You organised this. Surely you can arrange for them to meet with
me
.’

‘No,’ said John firmly. ‘I’m afraid we can’t.’

Nick scowled. The thought of Hallie facing down professional assassins without him ate away at his stomach like acid.

‘I still think I should be going there on my own,’ said Hallie. ‘Completely on my own.’

‘No,’ he said curtly. ‘You are
not
going there alone. If not me, then Kai.’

‘Why drag Kai into it? Or John for that matter? This business has nothing to do with them.’

‘No,’ he repeated. ‘You take Kai or you don’t go at all.’

‘Kai will accompany you,’ said John Tey.

‘He’s very capable,’ said Jasmine earnestly.

Hallie sighed and glared at him, glared at them all. ‘Fine, I’ll take Kai.’

Nick met Kai’s steady gaze and a look of silent understanding passed between them. Kai would do everything in his power to protect her. Everything. He’d better.

‘Stop that,’ Hallie told him sharply.

‘Stop what?’

‘That look. The one that says you’re going to tear strips off Kai’s hide if he lets anything happen to me.’

‘You
know
that look?’

‘I have four brothers,’ she reminded him darkly.

‘And I can honestly say I don’t know how any of them survived your adolescence,’ he snapped.

John Tey smiled. Kai’s cough sounded suspiciously like laughter.

‘I’ve phoned ahead. The meeting is set,’ said John. ‘They’ll be waiting for you at the shop.’

‘Ready?’ Nick asked, quieter now. Quietly concerned.

‘Ready,’ she said with far more confidence than the situation warranted. ‘My negotiating skills are honed and ready to go.’

They ought to be. He, Kai, John, and Jasmine had spent the last two hours firing every conceivable question or objection the bad guys might come up with at her and coaching her on her reply. ‘Stick to the plan,’ he said gruffly. ‘Stay with Kai.’

‘Of course.’ Hallie smiled at him reassuringly.

‘And don’t do anything stupid.’

Her eyes narrowed. Her chin came up. He loved that look. ‘Was there anything else?’ she said, heavy on the sarcasm.

‘Yeah.’ He strode over to where she was standing, took her face in his hands and kissed her with enough heat to light up half the city. ‘Be careful.’ He put his hands in his pockets and took a step back before he grabbed her again. Because if he did he knew he’d never let her go.

‘It’ll take twenty minutes to get there,’ said Kai. ‘Another twenty, perhaps, to complete the negotiation. I’ll call when we’re done.’

Nick nodded and watched in tight-lipped silence as they headed for the door. Watched while his stomach roiled for fear she’d be hurt and his brain
informed him that letting her attempt to cancel the hit out of some crazy desire to prove her worth was undoubtedly the worst decision he’d ever made.

It was going to be the longest forty minutes of his life.

It was early in the day and many of the shops were still closed. Lucky Plaza was closed as well but Kai drove directly to loading bay entrance number five, parked the Mercedes beside the huge corrugated roll-a-door and cut the engine.

‘They’re meeting us here,’ he said, nodding towards a wall-mounted security camera. ‘They’ll have seen us arrive. Are you ready?’

Hallie nodded. Her heart was beating a furious tattoo, her hands were clammy, and her lipstick had doubtless been chewed away completely, but she was ready. ‘Wait!’ Her lipstick. She flipped the sunshield of the car down to reveal the small mirror on the other side, fished her lipstick from her Hermès handbag and carefully applied a fresh coat to her lips
. Now
she was ready.

Kai gave her one of his rare, slow smiles and then the loading bay door opened and two suited sentries stood waiting for them. Hallie took a deep breath and then another before reaching for the door handle. She could do this. Would do this,
dammit, because this little catastrophe was of
her
making and
she
was going to fix it. What’s more, Nick
trusted
her to fix it.

It was time to go do business.

The plaza was deserted and eerily quiet but the door to the little corner shop was open, the lights inside were on, and the young salesman she’d bought the vase from stood waiting by the counter. He wasn’t alone. An older man with greying hair and hard black eyes stood beside him. Whoever he was, and she really wasn’t inclined to ask, he wore authority like a cloak and power like he was born to it. Maybe he was.

‘Thank you for agreeing to see me at such short notice,’ she said politely.

‘We have no quarrel with the Tey Corporation,’ the older man said in heavily clipped English. His cold black gaze shifted from her to Kai. ‘And we certainly have no quarrel with you. I am at your father’s service.’

Kai had a father, thought Hallie. And designer suit clad assassins bowed to him.

Something to remember.

The older man turned his reptilian black gaze back on Hallie. ‘You have business with us?’

‘Business that should have been concluded by now,’ said Hallie, knowing instinctively that this
man would not tolerate weakness. ‘I now find myself in the rather unfortunate position of having to change my plans.’ She smiled, a careful, charming smile. ‘I’m afraid your services are no longer required.’

‘I’m afraid, Mrs Cooper, that we do not renegotiate contracts. Not even with those who place them,’ said the older man with a charming smile of his own. ‘It’s bad for business.’

Nick kept himself occupied by pacing from one end of the Teys’ long living room to the other. Jasmine had made tea, two lots of tea, and thirty minutes had come and gone. The first twenty had been bearable. The first twenty minutes had involved Hallie and Kai getting to where they were going. Now it was different. Now, thought Nick grimly, Hallie was meeting with contract killers, firing them, to be precise, and Nick’s nerves were stretched to breaking point. Any time now, they’d call.

‘Your wife is a very resourceful woman,’ said John. John, who had been a quiet, reassuring presence throughout the entire debacle. ‘I’m confident she’ll succeed. And Kai is with her. They will not dismiss him lightly. Not the man, nor the organisation he represents.’

Nick sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. His primary concern was for Hallie’s safety. Once she was safe he would worry about the next problem, namely that Kai’s presence at the meeting and the implied involvement of the Tey Corporation would have unwanted consequences for the older man. ‘How far will this place you in their debt?’

‘Not that far,’ said John with a slight smile. ‘We are neither enemies nor allies, our two organisations, even though both wield a great deal of power. We co-exist. We are respectful of each other. I do not believe this small transaction will upset that balance.’

Nick didn’t know whether to believe the other man or not. His explanation sounded too simple and far too easy, given what he knew of Chinese culture. ‘I couldn’t let her go alone.’

‘Nor I,’ said John. ‘I am your host. I allowed my daughter to take your wife to Lucky Plaza in the first place. My conscience would not allow it.’

‘Thank you,’ said Nick quietly. He appreciated everything the older man had done for them. He really did.

‘Your wife made a simple mistake,’ said John magnanimously. ‘It could have happened to anyone.’

Nick just stared at him.

‘Okay,’ said John. ‘Maybe not anyone.’

‘Of course you don’t renegotiate contracts,’ said Hallie, deciding it was time to examine a magnificent porcelain vase displayed on a marble pedestal. ‘These really are the most exquisite pieces,’ she said admiringly, and then, on a more businesslike note, ‘I understand your position perfectly, but I’m not here to renegotiate. The delivery was not made in the specified time. Our contract is void. I have no need of another.’ She was politeness itself. Tris would be proud of her. Nick would be amazed. ‘I simply wished to let you know in person that I consider our business complete.’

He wasn’t going to go for it. Hallie held the older man’s gaze, knowing in her bones that he was going to say that he didn’t do this either. That the contract was complete when the delivery was made and not before. That was good business too.

‘This is the first time we have had such a problem,’ said the older man bleakly as he looked to the young salesman. ‘Make it the last.’

The young crime lieutenant nodded respectfully.

The old general studied her thoughtfully before
glancing once more at the silent Kai. ‘So be it,’ he said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. ‘Give my regards to your husband. Our business is complete. My assistant will see to the details.’

‘Thank you,’ said Hallie and bowed her head in acknowledgement because, frankly, it seemed the thing to do. She waited until the older man was gone before straightening and turning towards the salesman who’d sold her the vase in the first place.

‘You’re a very fortunate woman, Mrs Cooper,’ he said dryly. ‘He let you live.’

‘He let you live too,’ said Hallie. ‘Bonus.’