Chapter Nineteen

 

IT LOOKED like every cop in Greater Los Angeles showed up for free donuts and coffee at a strip club and got the address wrong. Throw in some dance kids, some blinking LED pacifiers, and someone scratching some beats, and it would be a full-blown rave.

Seong Ryeowon, however, didn’t look like she was in much of a mood for a party.

We’d hunted David down at the bar. It cost me a bit to get him liberated since he ran a tab, and the large Korean man at the door had explicit instructions not to let him wander off without paying up. I forked over my card and made them give me a receipt. After a few seconds of glaring at me, he shambled off and came back with a strip of paper written in hangul and a total that would have paid my electric bill for a few months.

It took me nearly twenty minutes to get David down from the fourth-floor club and into the car. Pouring him into the back seat, Jae strapped him down with both belts, hoping to keep him from sliding around in the SUV, then we drove to the house Seong Ryeowon rented.

The same house where we found the outdoor rave being thrown by the men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Scarlet spotted us first and hurried over to where we parked. With the cops blocking off the cul-de-sac, I had to find a space a few hundred yards away, and by the time I got the back door open, Scarlet was by the car.

She was dressed the most masculine I’d ever seen her in Converse sneakers, a white T, and jeans. Her face was bare of makeup, and her long black hair was pulled back at the nape of her neck. She looked young, an androgynous man who made heads turn in both admiration and confusion.

The kind of guy who’d get his face kicked in if he was in the wrong neighborhood.

“Hello, musang.” She kissed Jae’s cheek and slid her arm around my waist. “I’m glad you’re both here…. Is that David? Oh God, it’s David! We thought he was missing. Is he okay? What happened?”

“Yeah, no. Not missing. Just really fricking drunk.” I’d gotten the belts off him, and had my hands around his upper thighs to yank him toward me. “Stand back. I think he drank his bones loose. He’s kind of liquid.”

David proved he had more liquid in him than his bones. I’d almost gotten him clear of Jae’s car when he sat up and horfed all over my back. The hot, steaming fluid coursed down my spine and right into the gap between my waist and my jeans. It hit me, the side of the car, some of the seat, and the back seat floor mats. Its reek, however, was as pervasive as a London fog.

Two things happened simultaneously. I screamed blue bloody murder and let loose every fucking swear word I’d ever heard in my lifetime. The second, and more potentially dangerous thing, was my bellowing got the attention of the armed police officers barricading the house.

About half of the horde broke off and headed toward Jae’s car, weapons drawn and shouting for us to drop to the ground. Jae backed away from the car, and Scarlet held her hands up, alarmed at the amount of guns pointing her way. David chose to ignore my shouting, the cops, and the guns, and instead, decided to hose down the front of my jeans before I could get clear of the splash zone.

“Oh, fuck you, you fucking son of a bitch.” I was grabbed from behind and yanked hard. The cop holding me caught one whiff of what I was covered in and gulped, twisting quickly to get away from me. I had a stronger stomach than he did, but he threw me off balance, and I stumbled back. Nearly sliding off the curb, I got clear of the SUV and shook off what I could from my jeans, breathing through my mouth to avoid the fumes.

Most of what David threw up was booze, if not all of it. Judging from the amount he came up with, I’d say the bar pretty much earned what they’d charged him. If someone came near me with a match, I’d probably burst into flames.

I put my hands up, but the cops were much less interested in me now. Scarlet took over, sliding around me in as wide a circle so she could to talk to one of the older policemen. The one who’d grabbed me let Jae and I put our hands down, and grunted either an apology or an order for me to go bathe. I’d have liked the first one, but wouldn’t have said no to a bath.

“Let’s see if we can get the boy into the house,” I muttered, making my second attempt at corralling David. Hooked over my shoulder, he started waving his hand around, and jabbered to everyone around us in Korean. Jae took one look at the inside of his car and sighed heavily, shutting the door on the mess.

“Give me the keys.” Jae held out his hand. “I have a gym bag in the back. There’s a pair of sweats you can wear. Maybe a T-shirt.”

“I’d kiss you, but….” I shrugged as best I could with over a hundred and fifty pounds of drunken David over my shoulders. “Actually, the keys are in my pocket. Can you grab them?”

He gave me a skeptical look. I returned it with a wide-eyed innocent one.

“I can’t reach.” I jiggled David a bit. “You’re going to have to grab them.”

“Pfah,” Jae grumbled, and turned his head to avoid getting close to me.

“Oh, so it’s not that you don’t want to feel me up? It’s that you don’t want to smell me?” His fingers dug into my front pocket and snagged the ring on his keys. He shook himself when he got clear of me. I’d have taken offense, but at that point, I wanted to be as far from me as possible.

“Cole, come.” Scarlet hurried me along. “Let’s get him in the house.”

A portion of the lawn was cordoned off, and I had to make a wide circle to get to the front door. Something dark was on the lawn, but I didn’t stop to take a look. I should have foisted David on one of the many black-suited guys standing near the house, but I was already soaked to the skin in soju and whiskey, so it made little sense to share the misery. Nearby, someone must have had an out of control fireplace flue, because a faint trail of smoke lingered around us, and closer to the house, there was an odd scent to the air, a sour, burnt chemical flavor that stuck to my tongue. I wasn’t sure what was worse: the evening air or David.

A soft-voiced woman greeted me at the door, giving me a deep bow as she asked me to enter. I took a second to kick my Vans off, juggling David as best I could. He moaned and made an urping sound, threatening to douse me again.

“I swear to God, you hairball on me again,” I growled. “I’ll drop you. Right here. Right now.”

I dumped David onto a bed the staff led me to, and asked the officious woman if there was somewhere I could shower and change. Ten minutes later, I emerged from the hot water smelling of citrus soap with a faint undertone of booze. Jae was waiting for me in the guest bedroom where they’d stashed me, perched on a wide, comfortable looking chair. I’d put on the sweat pants and shirt Jae had on him. The pants were a bit short, and the thin cotton T-shirt was ridiculously tight across my chest and back. I felt like I was a twink trolling for a good time. My own clothes were nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s my stuff?” I looked around, and he handed me a pair of fluffy house slippers. “What’s this?”

“Put them on. It’s considered polite to provide guests with footwear for the house. And your stuff’s in the wash.” Jae sniffed at me experimentally. “You still smell a bit… alcoholy… but not a lot.”

“Yeah, I smell like a Harvey Wallbanger.”

“That sounds… dirty.” Jae eyed me. “Did you make that up? What is that?”

“It’s a drink. Do enough of them, and you’ll be banging the walls, trying to walk,” I replied, sliding my feet into the slippers. They strained to accommodate my feet, but surrendered admirably. My heels stuck out over the end of them. “If I trip in these, don’t try to catch me. Save yourself.”

“Are you done?” He shook his head and headed to the door. “One of the detectives wants to talk to us about David.”

The detective in question was Wong, whom I’d already spoken to. He was a pleasant-faced Chinese man who looked like he could break a tree in half with his bare hands. This theory was confirmed when we shook hands, and I was left with the feeling he was being careful with my wee, delicate little body. Like my brother, his barber set the haircut razor for Hedgehog #4. Unlike Mike, he was quite concerned about my adventures in carrying David back to his lair.

“Please, sit down,” Wong said, gesturing to one of the many chairs in the long formal parlor. “I feel like I’m going to break someone or something if I move around too much.”

There was a coffee set on the heavily carved wooden table set up near a pair of French looking davenports. A silver urn steamed a fragrant promise of nicely roasted and brewed beans, while a tempting array of dainty cakes glistened on a plate nearby.

Poking at one of the frothy concoctions with a fork, I asked, “If I eat one of these, I won’t suddenly shoot up into the chimney, and have to kick a lizard named Bill to get out of here, right?”

“Please excuse Cole. He’s missed dinner. It makes him cranky.” Jae gave Wong a look that would have done a basset hound proud, and sat down. He poured a cup of coffee for himself and lifted the urn slightly toward Wong. “Coffee?”

“Please,” he smiled. “Thanks.”

I didn’t like his smile.

To be fair, I’d had great sex with my lover, then gone to rescue the Seong Prince errant only to have him chuck up his drinking binge down my boxers, and now a Chinese guy with a wedding ring was smiling at my boyfriend. And yes, I’d missed dinner. That tended to make me cranky, but I was mollified when Jae passed the full coffee cup over to me, then poured himself and Wong one.

I was easily mollified. Jae’s wicked side smirk at me didn’t hurt.

“What was all the police action for? David wasn’t gone twenty-four hours yet.” I picked at a piece of cake. It was green and had some sort of nut shaving on top. I waited until Wong was taking a sip of his coffee before I pecked at a bit of it and put it on my tongue. It was not too sweet, and kind of creamy.

I had no fucking clue what flavor it was supposed to be. So I handed it to Jae and went for something brown. In most worlds, brown meant chocolate. Maybe coffee. So my odds were good it was something I’d recognize.

“Mrs. Seong informed me you know about her son’s relationship with a South Korean officer named Choi.” Wong flipped through his notepad.

“Choi Yong-Kun,” I confirmed. “David told Jae-Min… that’s a lot of hearsay. He should probably tell you himself.”

“Why don’t you both start with where you were from about three this afternoon to when you arrived here at eight?” Wong suggested.

“Um, we were at the office running down some contacts,” I started, tracing our movements from the florist to the hospital and then back home. Jae frowned a little when I said we were hanging out while he was making dinner, but I kept it clean enough for Wong’s purposes.

“That’s when Park called you?” he asked. “You, specifically, Mr. McGinnis?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “But he sounded drunk, and I don’t speak Korean, so I handed the phone to Jae.”

Jae relayed what David told him over the phone about being forbidden to attend his fiancée’s funeral service, and then the discovery of Choi’s body. Jae looked perplexed. “He seemed to think that everything was over now, but it didn’t make sense, because from what David-sshi told me, it sounded like Choi Yoon-Kun was murdered.”

“He was,” Wong confirmed. “A patrolman was alerted to the presence of Choi’s body and immediately shut down the area where his car was found. I don’t have anyone able to place David Park in the area, but four hours ago, his family contacted us with concerns about his safety following a conversation he had with a Mr. Sang-Min Kwon, his fiancée’s father.”

“Yeah, I know Kwon.” I rumbled. “Kind of an asshole.”

“Unfortunately, that isn’t enough of a reason to kill someone these days.” Wong clucked in concern as I choked on the piece of cake in my mouth.

“What about Kwon?” Jae sat forward, cocking his head at Wong. “What happened to Kwon?”

“Around two hours ago, Sang-Min Kwon was found staked to the front lawn of this residence. At the time of discovery, he was still mostly engulfed in flames, most likely fueled by an accelerant of some sort. So I’m going to have to ask both of you, where were you two hours ago, and can you help confirm David Park’s whereabouts for that time? Or are we going to all be taking a trip down to the station?”

 

 

“FUCK me,” I whispered under my breath, and Jae sighed, resigned to my coarse, uncouth ways. He pursed his lips when I looked his way. “What?”

“I forgot to feed the cat,” Jae grumbled at me. “And it’s stupid that I’m worried about that right now.”

“It’s not stupid,” I argued. “The cat’s evil. She could be having Thai food delivered right now and charging it to my card. Kwon’s dead, and so is Choi. Who the hell are we going to blame this crap on now?”

“I don’t know,” Scarlet replied softly. “I just want this all to stop.”

We’d been moved from the overly pretentious formal room to a more breathable family space. Scarlet joined us, and the cakes were replaced with a heartier offering of sandwich triangles. They were only heartier if someone were Scarlet’s size. Even in Jae’s long fingered, slender hands, they looked like play food made by a three-year-old.

I ate four of them and tried not to look like I wanted to graze over the rest like some mad cow.

Scarlet picked up another two and put them on my plate, and patted my knee consolingly. “Eat. You’re starting to lose your color.”

I took my time chewing, trying to make the tidbits last longer. Jae sacrificed two of his triangles to me, and I tried to be manly, refusing them with a shake of my head. He leaned over to kiss me and shoved them into my mouth.

“What happened to being careful about someone seeing us?” I mumbled through the crumbly cheddar.

“No one’s here,” Jae said, but he and Scarlet exchanged a look. “And right now, I’m too tired to care.”

I slid over to his side of the couch, reaching behind him to rub between his shoulders. “Hey, they’ll let us out of here soon. We’ll go home. I’ll get us some real food, and we can just chill.”

“Someone set him on fucking fire, Cole,” he ground out. “The same guy who probably shot at you set Kwon on fire. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

“I’m going to leave you two to talk this out.” Scarlet was a master at subtle exits. Picking up the dirty dishes, she was out of the room before either one of us could blink. She shut the door behind her, and we were alone.

“Great, now I’ve chased nuna away. Fuck,” Jae swore, and threw himself back into the couch. Grabbing a small bolster, he winged it full force into the wall, saying something in Korean that needed very little translating.

“You didn’t chase her away,” I said. “She loves you.”

The room faced the backyard, a gloomy affair of hedges, classic marble statues, and overgrown roses. There was no light on outside, and the soft illumination from the lamp on the table next to us gave us enough light to see one another. I pulled myself closer, mindful of any more flying pillows. I reached for his hand, but he wavered, refusing to let me touch him. Finally, I grabbed him, wrapping fingers around his.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said slowly. “I’m not going to let myself be set on fire, and I’m not going to let myself get shot to death.”

“Yeah, like you’ve been good at that so far?” he snapped back. “You’ve been shot more times than anyone else I know. Aish! Can’t you dodge at least one of them? How many more people need to die around us? Who’s next? Scarlet? Bobby? Mike?”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” I countered. “We didn’t cause any of this, and I sure as hell didn’t ask to get shot.”

“Cole, you can’t even avoid vomit,” Jae sighed.

“Babe, if I’d known he was going to throw up, I’d have tossed him right out of the car before we even got here. We’re going to have to ride home in that car. Did you think I wanted to smell that all the way back?”

“When is this going to stop?” He didn’t sound angry, more resigned to the nonsense around us.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Soon? Maybe? I don’t know, Jae.”

“Is it always like this around you?” He waved his hand in the air. I could have pretended not to understand him, but I knew he meant the chaos that seemed to follow me everywhere I went. “Does it have to be so crazy?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Life gets shitty sometimes.” Pressing in, I maneuvered him against the couch arm, reminding him of the hour we’d spent before David imploded our evening. He shifted a bit, uncomfortably so, and I grinned, knowing he could still feel the stretch of me on his body. Leaning forward, I ghosted a kiss over his lips. “But it’s good too, right?”

He returned my kiss with a hotter intent, sucking my lower lip into his mouth and tugging on it. Taking one last nibble, he whispered, “Sometimes.”

I carded my fingers through his soft hair and pulled his head closer until our foreheads touched. “I’ll take care of this, Jae. We’ll see this through, and it’ll be fine. It’s just… a bit crazy right now, but it can’t be this way forever.”

“What happens when the crazy stops, and all you’re left with is me?” His tongue darted across his upper lip, and I chased it with my mouth, catching the tip before it disappeared again.

“If all I’m left with is you,” I murmured. “Then I’m going to die a happy man.”

“Just die an old, happy man,” he grumbled, and bit the end of my nose. “Or I’m just going to finish you off myself with a pillow.”

“Ah, you frighten me,” I teased.

“You should be scared.” Jae smirked. “I’m going to fill your mouth with kim chee paste and duct tape it shut, then smother you with a pillow.”

“So you’ve thought about this?”

“No, that’s off the top of my head,” Jae replied airily. “Imagine what I could come up with if I had time to think about it.”

“Very frightening,” I asserted. I slid my hand down to the back of his neck, cupping him lightly. “Bring it, baby.”

We kissed.

It was sweet and slow. In the dark of a single light with the world raining down around us, it was a promise of a starry night once the clouds cleared.

Damn, I wanted a lifetime of those kisses.

“I’ll wait for this, you know,” I whispered when we came up for air. My mouth was barely on his, and our lips touched then broke apart as I spoke. “For this. For you.”

“Suppose it’s too long?” He closed his eyes and turned his head, resting his temple on my forehead. “Suppose….”

“I intend to die a happy old man, remember.” I stroked at his nape, making him sigh. “I’m not sure I’m going to be as happy waiting for you as I’m going to be actually having you, but I’m willing to find out, jagiya.”

His eyes flew open, and he stared at me in mild shock. “Who taught you that word?”

“Huh.” I pursed my lips and stood, pulling him up with me. “Guess I know a little bit more Korean than you thought.”