RYAN WHITMORE paced in front of the reception desk.
“Take a walk with me?” I said without preamble, more of a demand than a pleasantry.
He jumped at my voice. “Lucky? What are you doing here?”
“Surprised to see me?” I grabbed his arm. “Let’s go for that walk, okay?”
He fell into step although he didn’t look happy about it. “What’s this about?”
I moved him across the lobby toward the front door. “We can do this inside, here in front of everyone. Or you can go quietly.”
He jerked his arm loose from my grip with a last-ditch effort at righteous indignation. “What are you talking about?”
“Okay, your choice.” I leveled a smile. “You’re fired.”
“What?” He gave me a snort and smirk—hard to do together, but he pulled it off. “You can’t fire me.”
“You think I’m afraid of our important friends? Guess again.” I glanced through the glass doors in time to see Lieutenant Uendo ease his car to the curb. “Your ride is here.”
“It’ll never stick.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You provided a service for Mr. Cho and his friends. You were the hired help, nothing more. And, as such, you are expendable. They’ll find someone else.”
The truth of my words hit home. I could see it in his eyes. And I was ready when he turned to run. My elbow caught him in the nose. He sagged to the floor, his hands cupped to catch the blood that gushed down his face. “You don’t know anything,” he growled, but he couldn’t pull off the menace part.
“I know everything.”
Uendo joined me, and we both stared down at Whitmore. Thankfully the lobby was fairly empty so we didn’t have much of an audience. “You do make your presence known around here,” Uendo said with what I thought might pass for a smile. “Good thing for Mr. Whitmore here I was next door. Given more time, I’m sure you would do more damage.”
He was closer to right than I’d realized. Still itching to shed more of Whitmore’s blood, it was clear my self-control had got up and went. “This is my hotel, and I take care of my own.” Bowing to him, I continued, “With the help of the local constabulary.”
He looked at me with new appreciation, then he reached down and grabbed Whitmore by the elbow, tugging him to his feet. “You’ll get us an amount that he stole?”
“May take a few days.”
“Not to worry. We have a nice cell for him, so take your time.”
I watched him lead Whitmore through the doors, then stuff him in the back of his car. Whitmore hung his head as the door closed. He didn’t glare at me; he didn’t dare.
Cindy Liu rushed to my side as Uendo pulled away from the curb, then disappeared from sight. “Was that Ryan?”
Before answering, I turned and looked at her.
She seemed to wilt under my stare. “You don’t understand.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I understand all too well. We’ve all loved the wrong man.”
“I didn’t know, not at first.”
“I believe you. But it’s what you didn’t do when you found out that worries me.”
She bowed her head and wouldn’t look at me. “I know I have done wrong, but I am the one who called Minnie. We needed help. She sent it.”
“She did?”
Cindy looked up, holding my gaze. “She sent you.”
As I waited for Miss P in the restaurant, I contemplated what to do with Cindy Liu. What would I have done in her shoes? Women needed to learn their power—she was no exception. And she needed to develop a keener eye for good men, but she hadn’t let Whitmore compromise her position. Actually, she’d reached out for help she could trust, even knowing Whitmore would get caught in the crossfire.
All qualities I could live with.
Miss P pulled out a chair and plopped into it as she graced me with an odd smile. “Normally, I can think of no better dining companion, but tonight, the two of us, this whole thing has the feel of a last supper.”
I offered her a menu. “Well, then, I’d order the most expensive thing on the menu. The Big Boss owes us that much.”
And so we did: Kobe steak for me, Abalone for her. No matter how much I tried to expand my palate, sea snails just didn’t qualify as food. We washed it down with a lovely Laurent-Perrier rosé Champagne.
We took our time and I tried not to think of Miss P’s characterization of our fine repast. She regaled me with stories of her honeymoon, leaving out the good parts.
When she’d wound down and our plates had been cleared but dessert had yet to arrive, I asked her, “What would you do about Cindy Liu?” And I told her what Cindy had told me.
“If it were my choice, I’d give her Ryan Whitmore’s job.”
I raised my glass. “Exactly my thinking.”
Waddling like the pigs we were, Miss P and I wandered back to the owner’s suite. “Here we are,” I said as I strode into my suite, using the front door this time. “In case anyone was wondering.”
I expected Romeo to answer, but it was Jeremy who replied. “Sinjin and Romeo are going through things now. The cameras go down and we trigger the looped feed in ten minutes.”
He sat where I’d left Romeo a short time ago, keyboard in his lap, hunched in front of the screens. One screen looked like before with lines of code marching down it. The other held the camera feeds from the exhibition room divided into ten quadrants, each showing a single feed.
I grabbed a chair and nestled in close. “You guys tested the earpiece?”
“Romeo can hear us.” He showed me a small device that had been sitting on the table between us. “We can talk to him using this. He can’t reply, but we should be able to see him soon.”
“Sinjin won’t be able to see the earpiece.”
“It fits in the ear canal like a tiny hearing aid. State-of-the-art.”
Miss P pulled a chair in next to mine. She set a glass of red wine in front of me and another in front of Jeremy. “To settle nerves.”
Grateful, I took a couple of sips, but no more.
The feeds Sinjin wanted looped stayed on screen a few seconds, then rotated so we had several angles of each watch in its case.
“We’ll see the real feed, but Security will see the loop?” I knew the answer, but I needed to hear it from Jeremy.
“Yeah. If your buddy Chip has tapped into the right wires at the right places.”
I tried not to think about that. “Some of the young women helping us will be wandering near the exhibit, others on the lobby floor near the escalators up to the exhibition level. They will alert us if the feeds are looped properly and Security is heading that way.”
“With this much at stake, Sinjin and Romeo will have seconds to run.”
“Sinjin and I worked that through. There’s really only one protected escape route. They’ll have to go out that way regardless.” I didn’t tell Jeremy I had one hundred million U.S. riding on it. Romeo knew that, and he knew what to do.
The three of us fell silent as we focused on the screens. Dark, the lighting on the watches casting an eerie glow, the room looked empty. I scanned across the feeds. “Which one will be looped?”
“This one, the main feed from the exhibition.” Jeremy pointed to the top left quadrant.
Turning the small transmitter over in my hand, I asked Jeremy, “If I punch this, Romeo can hear me?” My thumb hovered above a small button.
“Yeah. Don’t shout. Whispering would be best. They’ll be close together and in a very quiet place.”
He didn’t need to clarify. “Got it.” I pressed the button. Lowering my voice, I brought Romeo up to speed. “We can’t see you yet.” I glanced at the timer on the screen. “Thirty more seconds. Ming said the package is in place. If, for some reason, you take a different route out of the building, we’ll see that and make sure you are intercepted.”
Jeremy shot me a sideways glance. “What are you up to?”
“Covering my ass. But there are so many moving parts, so many unknowns, that it’s anybody’s guess whether this will work.”
“Tell me. I can help.”
I pointed at the screen as the timer click to five. “We’re almost on.”
Without blinking, I stared at the monitor, relaxing, waiting. The clock hit zero. An almost imperceptible flicker, then the image continued as before. “Did you see it?”
“Yeah, it switched.” Jeremy nodded, his nose inches from the screen.
I pointed to a feed at the bottom—a hallway, one I knew. I’d used it to get out of the hotel when I went to meet Sinjin for the first time. “That one did, too.”
Jeremy flicked a hard glance my way, the golden flecks in his eyes turning to ice. “You sure?”
“Yep. I was watching for it. I didn’t know which one, but I figured he had a plan he wasn’t telling us about.”
“The bastard.”
“Well, at least we know how he plans on leaving the hotel.” I laid a hand on his arm. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.” Kim’s voice echoed in my empty head. No one is who they seem.
My phone vibrated in my lap, making me jump only slightly. I’d put it on silent—my nerves were completely shot, and I didn’t need the cattle prod of its siren call to flat-line my heart rate.
“Mother. And right on time, too.”
“You haven’t called your father. It’s important.”
“Not now, Mother.”
Thankfully, she didn’t argue. “Here’s Chip.”
Before I answered I texted Jerry back at the Babylon. Everything good?
His answer was almost immediate. We’re seeing what he’s seeing. Money starting to come in. Five installments so far, each ten million. Running a back trace now.
“Chip? What do you see?”
He told me exactly what Jerry had said. So far so good. “Are you tracing the funds back to their origin?”
“Hold.” In the background, he asked Mona for some paper and a pen.
The simplest things are often overlooked. I tried for patience while I waited for Mother to deliver and I worried about what I had overlooked. Soon I heard scrambling and Chip came back on the line. “I got five of them. More are coming in. You ready?”
I put him on speaker and pulled up the message function on my iPhone. Before I responded, I found Stokes’s number and started a new message to him. “Fire away.” I typed in names and addresses, double-checking them, then hit send. “And you’ve taken down the alarms, right? And nobody is the wiser?”
“Child’s play.”
“Stokes is ready, right?” I asked Jeremy.
He answered with a nod, his eyes never leaving the screen. We both were riveted, and I sensed Miss P’s attention next to me—hard to miss, she’d practically crawled into my lap to get a better view.
“Chip?”
“Yo.”
“Take the fifty mil and route it through Irv Gittings’ account then wire it where I told you. You got it?”
“On it.”
“Make sure no one can touch a cent of that money or I’ll cut it out of your hide a dollar at a time.”
“You might be surprised, but it’s fun to use my skills for the forces of good.”
“I’ll make a white hat out of you yet.” I didn’t remind him he was helping me steal more money than either of us would see in a lifetime from some very bad men. His complicity was hidden; mine, not so much, leaving me to suffer a severely damaged chance at longevity. I could live with that. “Call me back when all the money is there.” My phone fell silent. I texted Jerry. Still good?
You’ll be the first to know if something goes sideways.
My heart pounded as I watched Sinjin and Romeo as they slithered through the exhibition hall, stopping at the display of the Patek Phillipe. Of course, they’d pick the most expensive to pinch first.
In fact, I was counting on it. Another smile. Yes, the line between good and evil was very thin indeed. How easy to erase part of it and peer through.
Romeo set the bag, one with a dragon logo on the side, on the floor. I smiled.
I had the answer to another question.
He and Sinjin both grabbed the glass enclosure, each taking two sides. I could see Sinjin counting, then they both lifted.
The glass came away from the pedestal.
“Anything?” I asked.
Jeremy rotated through the other feeds. “No alarms. Chip is good.”
I started to breathe again, although shallowly. “This sitting here with nothing to do is a killer.”
Sweat beaded on Jeremy’s brow. “Done this before. Never liked it.”
“I’m with you.”
“Me, too,” Miss P whispered.
I’d even led my North Star of Virtue astray. Not good. I’d counted on her to save my sorry soul.
Sinjin lifted the watch with gloved hands, passing it off to Romeo. Romeo pulled a box out of the hatch in the pedestal, secured the watch in its silk nest, then placed the box in the bag.
All going according to plan.
They did two more watches. Only eight more to go.
My phone vibrated, and I practically leapt out of my skin, elbowing Miss P in the process. “Sorry.”
Miss P shot me a sympathetic smile as one of her hands fluttered to cover her heart.
Expecting Chip, I was surprised to see an unfamiliar number.
“Miss Lucky?” A breathy, female voice.
“Yes.”
“This is Pei. The bad man?” She stumbled over the words as if afraid to say them.
“Yes?” My heart hammered.
Irv Gittings—the one big unknown in all of this. I’d sort of counted on him running from the brick-wielding man in Mr. Cho’s employ about now. Apparently, that hadn’t happened.
“The bad man, he took Teddie.”
“What? Where?”
“We are watching. He took him from the junket room. They are on the moving stairs to the bottom now.” I looked at the screens, at Romeo and Sinjin stealing the watches, at the money moving, at Jerry watching Chip, and me watching it all. “Fuck. On my way.”
I handed the transmitter to Romeo to Miss P. “If he gets in trouble…”
She looked at me with wide eyes. “Make it up. Jeremy can help you.” Turning to Jeremy, I said, “When the info on the next fifty mil comes in, send it to Stokes and light a fire under his ass to go round up the previous owners of the money.” I rattled off Mona’s phone number. “Call Mother, tell her what’s happened. She’ll convince Chip to give you the goods.” I sounded a bit more convincing than I felt.
“Where are you going?”
“To take care of Ol’ Irv for good.”
I guess they both saw murder in my eyes as Miss P paled and Jeremy half rose. “I’m going with you.”
I motioned to the screen as I stood and pushed him back down. “You can’t.”
“Lucky.” Worry weighted Miss P’s one word.
“My fight.”
“Where are they now?” I barked into the phone as I tried to suffer through the slow ride to the lobby. Someone with cloying cologne exuberantly applied had recently ridden in the thing, and the cloud that lingered added nausea to my list of woes.
“Going to the front door. He has a gun.”
So did I. I’d pulled it from my purse and stuffed it back into the waistband of my pants—probably wouldn’t be helpful to run through the lobby with it in my hand, terrifying the locals.
When the opening of the elevator doors was barely wide enough, I arrowed myself through sideways then took off at a run, startling many of the folks lingering in the lobby who parted like the Red Sea. I hit the front door and burst through in time to see Irv stuffing Teddie in a black sedan.
“Stop them!”
That froze everyone as they looked at me then swiveled around looking for what I was talking about—not that anyone understood English. Apparently, they understood anger and panic, as they scurried away from me.
I pushed through the few remaining who were immobilized by the sight of an angry Amazon shouting in a foreign tongue.
Too late I skidded in behind the car as it accelerated down the driveway. Irv Gittings’ face mooned me through the back window. I didn’t see Teddie, but I knew he was there, and I prayed he was all right.
Why was it always a black sedan? Did people unwittingly buy cars that match the color of their soul? Mine was red. Okay, it really wasn’t mine, but I liked the red.
Red. The Chinese loved red—the color was everywhere. Something about fire and joy and good fortune, I couldn’t remember.
As long as Irv Gittings didn’t have what he wanted, Teddie would live.
And, I’d be willing to bet, what Ol’ Irv wanted was me.
It wasn’t an ego thing, just a reality thing. I’d messed with his magic and he wanted to punish me for it. I glanced around. I had to follow them; I couldn’t let them get away. Of course, if my theory was right, they’d wait. They’d make it easy.
Setting a trap, if I’d just take the bait.
Okay. I’ll bite.
An unfortunate man wheeled into the curb in front of me on a new Ducati.
A Ducati…a red Ducati.
I took it as a sign.
As he stepped off, I threw a leg over, turned the key, and was gone before he even got his helmet off. Laying low over the handlebars, I followed the red taillights blinking in the distance. Slowing for a curve, the driver accelerated when I closed half the distance between us.
Game on.
We wound through town, climbing gently, the streets deserted, the roar of the bike echoing off the dark apartments lining the streets. Content to follow, I stayed far enough back, using corners and delivery trucks to shield myself so that, if they wanted to shoot, I’d present a bit of a challenge at least.
The streets narrowed, the complexion changed. Restaurants and small commercial stalls lined the streets with apartments above. I slowed, the bike thrumming with energy under me. Around the next corner, I skidded to a stop. A delivery truck backed across the road in front of me. Yelling and waving, I finally got the driver’s attention and he pulled forward just enough to let me wiggle the nimble bike behind him. But I’d lost minutes—a lifetime.
No taillights in front of me.
I’d lost them.
Fuck.
And then it hit me: this could be a great ruse to pull me off what was going down at the Tigris. I didn’t know and I couldn’t think about it. Romeo, Jeremy, even Chip and Mona, had to do their part.
I had to trust them. For once, I had to make a choice, to count on others. Romeo had saved my bacon before—he wouldn’t let me down. Not if he could help it. Jeremy, too.
I imagined my phone vibrating with messages, but I couldn’t look at it. Winding through the narrow streets, I looked for the car. A late-model luxury sedan. Not too many in this neighborhood.
My heart pounded and my palms were sweaty. I tried not to think about what would happen if I didn’t find them…if I didn’t find Teddie. Truly I didn’t know, but I knew Irv was capable of anything.
Finally, after several lifetimes, I saw the car, doors open, at the foot of Senado Square, the center of Macau. The wavy tiled pattern alternating black and white was as iconic as the neo-Mediterranean buildings, leftovers from the colonial occupation.
Now I knew where they were going, the ruins of St. Paul’s. Once the largest Catholic church in Asia, now, after several fires, all that remained was the very grand façade, lit at night as a beacon. A beacon to whom and for what, I didn’t know, but it loomed above me, calling.
Just the sort of place Irv Gittings would pick for a showdown.
God, I hated the melodramatic.
Cars weren’t allowed in the square, and I decided to leave the bike. Going on foot would be a little more stealthy. Once I killed the engine, the night and its smothering quiet tucked in around me.
I kept to the shadows, occasionally stepping into the moonlight to get my bearings. Once, I thought heard footsteps behind me. Stopping, I waited, but they didn’t continue.
My imagination playing tricks.
Of course, the blood pounding in my ears didn’t help.
When I started again, I picked up the pace.
Finally, I reached the steps leading up to the cathedral. And I’d been right.
Irv Gittings, standing in the light of the floods that illuminated the structure, stood at the top step, Teddie clutched to his side, a gun to his head. “I know you’re there, Lucky. Step out where I can see you.”
Teddie flinched away as Irv pressed the gun to his temple.
Irv pulled him in front, using Teddie as a human shield.
My gun in my hand and ready to fire, I stayed in the shadows as I eased around to my right.
Where was the driver? Irv and Teddie had been in the back seat, so, unless Google was making great strides with a driverless car in Asia, there had to be a third person.
Darkness shrouded the fronts of the buildings around me. The columns and the doorways sheltered me as I tried to figure a way to even the odds a bit.
“Lucky? Show yourself.” He lowered his gun and pulled the trigger.
Teddie yelled and sagged.
My heart leapt into my throat.
Teddie held a hand over his thigh above his knee.
Irv had shot him! An eternity in hell roasting on a spit over an open fire was too good for him.
“Don’t do it, Lucky. Go back. Irv’s a dead man. I am, too.” That last part he said through gritted teeth. He didn’t know about Minnie and Frank and what they knew. Irv probably did, but, in case I was wrong, I didn’t enlighten him.
“Another one for the other knee, Lucky.”
I had nothing. Taking a deep breath, then another, I steadied my nerves.
Now or never, I was all in.
I stepped out of the shadows, my hands held high, my gun showing in my palm facing outward. “I’m here. You got me. Let Teddie go.” Staying to the left, I started up the stairs toward them.
The driver stepped out of the shadows across from me, an evil smile slashing across dead features. I recognized him from the paper, and his two shiners and broken nose that I’d inflicted. The brick guy. The man who killed Kim’s law partner.
And things had been going so well.
“Stop there, Lucky. Throw your gun away.”
I weighed my options. Not many. Take a shot. Teddie and I could die. If I don’t, we die anyway. “Okay, okay.” I dipped like I was going to kneel to put my gun on the ground.
Irv didn’t give an inch. He knew me well.
In one motion, I raised my gun and squeezed.
Teddie yelled.
I pivoted and fired off two more rounds. The brick guy dropped to his knees, his hands pressed on his chest. His eyes caught mine as blood oozed between his fingers. Then he toppled over face first.
All over in a second, although it seemed like a lifetime.
Turning, I bolted toward the top of the stairs. Irv had staggered back. Teddie, a heavy weight in his arms, worked against him. A red stain bloomed on Irv’s right shoulder. His arm fell limp. He struggled to raise it, to point the gun. He couldn’t.
I had a clear shot. Slowing, taking the stairs two at a time, I sighted on his chest.
He dropped Teddie, who crabbed away from him, dragging his leg. The bullet I’d fired had gouged his upper arm, then buried itself in Irv’s chest.
Millimeters.
Irv raised his arm, slowly. I could see his hesitation, and I knew what he was thinking. Fast and quick? Or slow, waiting for the bullet?
Enjoying this, I increased pressure on the trigger. “Your choice, asshole.”
Something below and behind me yanked his gaze away.
I didn’t turn. I was close now, so close I could smell his fear. And I wouldn’t fall for his cheap attempt at distracting me.
Something whizzed by my ear.
Irv’s eyes widened. His gun clattered to the stairs. His hands found the hilt of a knife that protruded from his chest.
An ivory-handled knife.
Irv crumpled, then rolled down the few steps between us, coming to rest at my feet. On his back, for a moment he was there, looking up at me. Then his eyes went blank and he was gone. I expected angels to sing and the Devil’s minions to swoop in and gather him up and cart him off to eternal damnation.
None of that happened, damn it.
I lowered my gun and took a step back, as a man stepped in next to me.
“You beat me to it, Frank. How’d you find us?”
“That was my Ducati you stole.” We traded smiles, and I could tell we both were thinking the same thing: Kim was watching over us.
Teddie had pushed himself to his feet. Standing above us, favoring his right leg as blood oozed down it, he stared at us, then at Irv. “It’s over.”
To Teddie, Irv had been his only hope, the only one left who could exonerate him. Killing Irv had just sentenced him to a life on the run.
“It may be over, but not in the way you think. This man here,” I put a hand on Frank’s shoulder as I fought the urge to kiss him, which would’ve embarrassed us both, “he’s got a story to tell. Don’t you, Frank?”
“Have you done what you promised Minnie?”
“I promised her I would risk everything to do as she asked. I could not promise I would succeed.”
“So, you don’t know?” He seemed surprised by that.
“No. This was more important.”
He glanced between Teddie and I, then gave me a small bow. “Indeed. I will tell your friend my story while I take him to the hospital.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to steal your bike again.”
“Be my guest. I have one of the hotel limos.”