Untouchable (The Blankenships Book 8) (7 page)

“I don’t know why he brought me back here,” Alex said between brushing kisses against her lips. “He was interrupted by something. He was in the middle of not-exactly boasting about how he’d already ruined my life in the abstract, and look what he could do if he put his mind to it. He was completely monologuing. And then someone came in and whispered in his shoulder, and suddenly I was being hustled out of the room and back down into the car.”

“Do you think that’s a good sign?” His hand slipped under the hem of the T-shirt, running up her stomach to trace the lower curve of her breast while she sighed into his hand. It felt soft, not demanding, the same sort of careful exploration and reconnection that she had been managing in exploring his mouth with her tongue.

“I don’t know. Tanaka wants us alive, because regardless of what kind of nonsense he and my mother and whoever else might have been pulling with the stockholders, AEGIS is still a family business at the most relevant levels. The Board isn’t allowed to meet without a Blankenship at the helm, so with all of us gone—I don’t know what happens next, Zoey. I don’t think he can keep us here forever, but I don’t know how we get out of this.”

She nodded, taking a deep breath of his warm scent, and then resolving to stick him in the shower at the earliest possible opportunity, because while he did smell like Alex, warm and spicy and strong, he also smelled like stale airplane and travel and nervous sweat. He could do lots better, and it was sounding more and more like they were going to be here for a while.

Plus, there were tempting and delicious things she could do to him, and get him to do to her, in the shower. It sounded promising.

But when she started to suggest the shower to him, there were two sharp cracks out in the hallway, the ugly explosions of pistols. She made a small shrieking sound and found herself dumped on the couch as Alex rushed to stand. “Get out of here,” he said, not looking at her. “Hide.”

“No.”

He tossed a glance at her as she stood. She expected the expression in his eyes to be angry, but no, he was afraid. He was terrified. “Zoey, I’m trying to protect you—”

She nodded as she stepped closer, pushing aside the hand that was outstretched, palm tight, trying to cast a magic spell that would keep her safe. “I know. I promise, I know. But that’s the thing, Alex. I’m not safe. Neither are you. But we are in this together. We can survive this together.”

That was the magic spell. That, right there, the thing she’d been looking for her entire life. He hesitated for one long moment, and then he twisted his fingers through hers—when had she reached out to him, when had she tried to take his hand too?—and pulled her tight against her side. “Whatever comes,” he said.

“We’re together.”

“Okay.”

“I love you.”

“If we survive this?”

She glanced up at him, and that fear was still in his gaze, but there was more there, so very much more. “I am going to spank you for disobeying me.”

Heat flared through her, giving her something to grip that was more than just terror. “Well then we’ll survive,” she said. “No question.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Despite his bravado, turning to face the door with Zoey pressed up against his side was one of the most horrifying things Alex had ever done. He was positive that they were both about to die, and he was fairly sure, no matter what she said, that it would be his fault.

He told himself that it wasn’t some kind of bullshit masculine protective urge. He’d seen more than enough death in the past few weeks, and the thought of more, of this woman he’d come to love dying in front of him, because of him, made everything inside of him twist in agony.

But it was her choice to stand beside him, her right, and to push her away in that moment would be worse than killing her. He wouldn’t see her devalued and made less than, especially if they weren’t going to survive to make it better.

He stared around the room, searching for anything that he might turn into a weapon. A chair, perhaps, but they were nowhere near thick enough to stop bullets. He was no weapons expert, but the roar the guns had made outside the door had been huge and dramatic.

Hiding just meant they’d be dragged out and tortured before they were killed. There was nowhere else to go. If they were going to be killed, it would be on their own terms, close together, even if nothing else went their way.

A heavy fist fell on the door. For some crazy reason, Alex found himself taking a step towards the door before shaking himself. Let the bastards break it down; he wasn’t going to open it and admit his killers.

But the voice that called out—it was one he knew, just as well as he knew Tanaka’s. He knew it from conference calls and meetings and who knew what else.

“Mr. Blankenship,” it called out. “Ms. Gardener. I apologize for disturbing your evening. This is Nicholas Zhu. My men have dispatched the—ah—associates of Mr. Akimoto, but unless you wish to continue to enjoy the comforts of Mr. Akimoto’s attention, perhaps you would be willing to come with me? I assure you that I will see you quickly back to the United States.”

Alex glanced down. Zoey was staring at him with wide eyes. “Is it him?” She asked. He nodded. “You’re positive?”

“Yes. Frying pan or fire?”

“What the hell,” she said. She squeezed his hand, and they walked together to the door.

Nicholas Zhu was standing on the other side, the skin under his eyes discolored and puffy as if he hadn’t slept for some time. He glanced back and forth between Alex and Zoey for a moment, and Alex could almost swear that the man’s expression was relieved.

“I am glad that you are well,” Zhu said in a formal tone. He reached out his hand, and after a moment, Alex clasped it with the hand Zoey wasn’t holding. “Is there anything you need from here?”

Alex glanced back at the luxurious prison that Tanaka had meant to hold them in. There was nothing he needed; God, he’d barely been in the room. He looked at Zoey, who shook her head no. “Thank you, but no. We’d love to be on our way.”

“This way, then,” he said. He led them down a long hallway, moving at a brisk pace. There were several men around them, some Western and some not, all holding handguns that were pointed professionally at the floor. Zhu moved as if he were totally unaware of them.

They were ushered out of what seemed like the more luxurious section of the floor, down towards rooms that Alex guessed would stock linens, toiletries, and the small things they’d use to repair a room after guests had left. They arrived at an elevator much older than the one that had been used to bring him up here in the first place. It was boxier and much larger, more like a cargo elevator than a passenger one. Zhu stepped into it first, standing almost perfectly in the center. Alex followed him, Zoey still holding his hand tightly. The armed men stayed outside as the elevator doors closed. The elevator moved jerkily into motion.

“Where are we going?” Alex asked. Zoey was pressed against his side, and he wanted nothing more than to put his arm around her and tell her that everything would be all right, but every single piece of that felt like the worst sort of lie he could tell.

“Not yet,” Zhu said, shaking his head.

They were silent for the rest of the ride. The elevator deposited them on a loading dock, where two more men had been standing silently, weapons at their sides. Zhu walked past them without acknowledgment, heading towards a car down the alley in front of them. Two more men ghosted out of the shadows, taking up a position in front of them. The men guarding the elevator took up space behind them.

They were ushered into a big SUV in a a deep shade of emerald green. The rear seats had been customized and turned to face each other like they would in a limo. Zhu sat on one side, and Alex took the other, Zoey sitting next to him. The guards took the two front seats, and the men who had been behind them moved into a separate vehicle behind them.

It felt good to be in motion again. Good, but frightening. How was it both at once?

“I cannot apologize enough,” Zhu said, breaking the silence, “for the dishonorable way you were treated by Mr. Akimoto. I hope that you can forgive me for my association with this disaster.”

Something cold washed through Alex. He felt Zoey’s hand tighten in his in a way he interpreted as a warning, but it was too much for him to think through in the moment. “Perhaps you could explain to me exactly what is happening. Why people have died for this and what in the world makes you think that I’ll forgive you.”

Zhu’s expression became a little bit sad, Alex thought. “I told you that I was with you, Mr. Blankenship,” he said, and Alex remembered that meeting they’d had in his office. It seemed like it had been years ago. Things had been so incredibly different then. “Unfortunately, given my own position within Wuxing, and with Hasu at my corporate doorstep—”

“You couldn’t just tell me that you and Tanaka Akimoto had a pact that would end up killing my entire family, of course. Because that would be dishonorable.” Zoey’s hand squeezed so tightly around his that he thought his bones would creak, but he couldn’t make himself stop. “It was easier to kill my mother, my sister, my entire fucking family,than it was to admit to me that you’d been dealing both sides of the Philippines conflict and take what was coming to you.” There was plenty more that he could have said, but there was a black hole in his chest, and it was dragging everything into its gravitational pull, shaking him to pieces and threatening to crush him into a tiny pinpoint. “If you had just told me,” he said, and his voice creaked like the bones in his hand, “if you had told me at that first meeting that something was wrong, that Tanaka was going to hurt the people I loved—”

“I didn’t know,” Zhu said, his voice half conciliatory, half regretful. “I knew very well that Akimoto had no plans to give up the empire that he had built, but I honestly did not take you for the sort of man who would pay enough attention to be a threat to his enterprise.”

“Or to yours.”

“I never intended to be involved in what Akimoto was doing with Hasu.” Zhu shook his head. “You have no reason to believe me. You don’t understand what my family did to maintain Wuxing. From the fall of the empire to the rise of the new economy and the new class, I have those who rely on me, Mr. Blankenship. I have those for whom I am responsible.”

Of all things in the world, Alex found himself thinking of Joseph Crane, sitting across from him at a table in London, quizzing him about what would happen to the factories that AEGIS had taken over in the north of England if they converted their business towards medical processing instead of weapons manufacturing. “That’s how you got Crane on your side,” he said.

Zhu didn’t confirm it. “The introduction of Ms. Gardener, of course, was an unexpected wrinkle in our plan. Her reputation as an up and coming investigative journalist has touched all the corners of the Internet.”

Zoey chuckled next to him, but the sound held no mirth. “That fucking subway flasher,” she muttered. “If I ever see that dude again, I will do horrible things to his anatomy. I’m not even kidding.” He chuckled, and she leaned into him just a little bit harder. “So where are you taking us, Mr. Zhu?”

Zhu’s smile to her was more genuine than any he’d ever shared with Alex. “Do you know where you are right now, Ms. Gardener?”

“Zoey, please,” she said. “And I have no idea.”

Zhu nodded. “Call me Nicholas, then. You are in Osaka. The building we just left is owned by Hasu and Tanaka Akimoto. I assume you did not have legal papers when you left New York City?”

Zoey looked to him again, and he thought for just a moment before he nodded. It would be quite a thing, explaining to the Embassy how they’d gotten where they were. Even if they’d still had the false passports that Leo had acquired for them, he didn’t have access to anything right now. The cash he’d kept in his office for emergencies had been in the bag Zoey had packed them, and that had gone missing somewhere between New York and Osaka. He was fairly sure it was a mess he could dig himself out of—it was only paperwork, after all—but it would be a mess, it would take time, and there was nowhere for them to stay while it got fixed.

He had to accept Zhu’s help. Even if he didn’t trust the man at all. “You’re correct.”

Zhu nodded. “I will of course make sure that you have a place to stay while things are sorted out with your embassy. I will make sure that everything is expedited and that you’re comfortable while you wait.”

“Leo,” Zoey said, sitting up a little bit more. “Is that how you heard what was happening?”

Zhu nodded. “Yes. I heard from both him and a Ms. Helen Maxwell. Once we are in China, Ms. Gardener, I will make sure that you can contact both of them and make sure that they know you are well.”

“And what happens next?” She asked. She glanced up at Alex, a little too fast. Perhaps she thought he was going to tell her to be quiet or to stop making things worse. He had to laugh; she was asking exactly the questions he’d been thinking of asking. Granted, she was asking them a little more bluntly, but Zhu was smiling, his teeth bared in an expression that made Alex nervous, even though it was foolish. He’d said it in the room, and he meant it. They’d had to choose the frying pan or the fire, and without even knowing which one they were facing, there was only so much they could do.

“Are you asking how you will repay me for my services, Ms. Gardener?”

Any other man would have let his eyes glide over Zoey’s body, seen the long lines of her and taken a minute to imagine her pinned under him, her eyes glazed over with lust. Okay, not all men and probably a fair number of women, but Zhu’s gaze stayed firmly planted on Zoey’s face. She didn’t wilt, flush, or draw back from the clear and steady weight of Zhu’s eyes. “Yes,” she said. “I want to know what you’re going to ask from us. Specifically from me, I suppose, but from both of us really.”

Zhu nodded. “I believe that you will rather enjoy my price, in fact.” At that, Alex felt a tiny shiver run through her, and he swore to himself that she would not be forced to do anything she didn’t want to. He’d die in a foreign country before he let her sell herself for their freedom. If she wanted to pay a price, that was her choice, but if she was unwilling—

But Zhu seemed to have something very different in mind. He turned his gaze to Alex. “I want out of the Philippines. My country had no place there and no right to inflame tensions that were none of my business. I was forced into an ugly position because I owed a debt, and now, I will use a debt to extract myself. All I ask is that when you convince your board to move towards medical manufacturing, you make sure that my factories are not shut down.”

If they’d only all told the truth,
Alex thought.
If there’d been fewer lies, Claire would still be alive. My sister—
he pushed the thought away before the lump in his throat could get any bigger. He reached out his hand, and after a moment, Zhu clasped it firmly. “Yes,” he said. “Without question. Your people will be taken care of.”

The smile on Zhu’s face was as much shadow as anything else. Alex wondered what ghosts the man had in his past, what dark alleys and hidden corners had made him who he was.

“Thank you,” Zhu said, and the words had a sort of rumble, a depth and intensity that said something special to Alex. “Now, I hate to impose upon you, but there is at least one more plane trip in your future. Osaka to Hong Kong, and then I will contact my people to begin the process of getting your papers up to date. I will get you both phones. What else do you need?”