42

“What a night!” said Ling, collapsing in one of the recliners on the Orchid’s foredeck. The area was secluded from the rest of the yacht and little used by the Sterling family, who preferred the more spacious and wind-sheltered living quarters toward the stern.

Lying back in the adjacent recliner, Connor gazed in awe at the galaxy of stars overhead. He’d never seen so many in his life. Unobscured by clouds or light pollution, the sky seemed dusted with glimmering diamonds.

“Well, we survived and both Principals are safe,” he replied, making himself comfortable.

“Yeah, no thanks to Chloe,” muttered Ling. “Look, I’m sorry about what I said to you earlier.”

“Not a problem. I deserved it.” Connor glanced over at Ling. “But Chloe was only enjoying herself.”

Ling tsked. “Well, you would take her side, wouldn’t you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ling rolled her eyes. “Boys! She has you wrapped around her little finger. Oh, Connor, I need your protection,” she mocked in Chloe’s voice, waving a pretend bottle of suntan lotion at him.

Connor brushed off her jibe. “Come on, you must admit you were a little heavy-handed with her tonight.”

Ling huffed. “She shouldn’t have gone off on her own in the first place. But it’s not just that. She’s a huge pain in the neck. She treats me like her personal slave. Expects me to carry her bags, get her drinks, pick up her clothes. And she never listens when I try to give her safety advice. Doesn’t she understand that my job is to protect her, not serve her?”

Connor’s eye caught a shooting star trace its way across the sky. “You should cut Chloe some slack. She’s never had a bodyguard before, so she probably doesn’t know what we’re actually supposed to do.”

“Well, Emily seems to understand. And there’s no reason to be rude or bossy about it. I’m sorry, but I don’t find it easy to sympathize with people who have everything.”

“Don’t forget their mother died in a car crash, one of them’s been kidnapped and their father’s too busy with work, or his fiancée, to spend any time with them. They don’t exactly have an easy life.”

“Well, their life isn’t exactly tough either,” countered Ling, indicating the multimillion-dollar super-yacht.

Connor thought about his own situation. His gran had always said, “Wealth is empty; it’s family that fills the heart.” He looked at Ling. “Money doesn’t necessarily mean happiness.”

“Yeah, but it sure helps,” said Ling, staring hard at Connor. “I’ll tell you what tough is. I grew up as a street kid in Shanghai. It was survival of the strongest and meanest. I had nothing apart from my wits to live on. And as a girl I was at an immediate disadvantage. I used to live in a cardboard box down an alleyway.”

Connor stared at Ling in shock at this sudden revelation.

“The only good thing about it was the kung fu club in a nearby basement. I’d spy on their lessons through a grating in the wall, teaching myself the moves. It wasn’t exactly an easy life. I had stomach cramps on the days I couldn’t scavenge food. But the kung fu kept my mind off it. The shifu used to say, ‘It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.’ I lived by that mantra every miserable day of my life on those streets.”

Connor was speechless. He’d had no clue about Ling’s troubled past. Did anyone else in Alpha team know? At least now he understood what the colonel had meant by her “tough” background, and it partly explained Ling’s constant need to prove herself.

“How did you ever become a guardian?” he asked.

“Colonel Black caught me picking his pocket.”

Connor sat up in surprise. “Doing what?”

Ling knitted her fingers behind her head, grinning at the memory. “Yeah, I almost got away with it too. But at the last second the colonel grabbed my wrist and put me in a lock. Not that it stopped me. I simply spun out of it, kicked him in the knee and ran. But he was with Steve, our combat instructor, at the time. Gee, was he fast! He cornered me in an alley. I thought I’d be beaten within an inch of my life, but rather than punish me or turn me over to the police, the colonel recruited me.”

Connor was stunned. “Why did he do that?”

Ling shrugged. “Said he was impressed with my stealth and fighting spirit. Being streetwise, he thought I had the makings of a bodyguard.” Ling laughed. “Anyway, the colonel arranged a passport and a visa for me, and I ended up at Guardian HQ. The rest is history.”

She looked at Connor and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “I do sometimes wonder, though, whether he let me pick his pocket.”

Recalling his own recruitment, the corner of Connor’s mouth curled into a smile. “Sounds like the colonel’s tactics to me.”