Authors: Bonnie Dee
But he wasn’t the only figure in the room. Huiann’s gaze swept over the huge boulder of a guard and toward the other man. Her recognition faltered. She couldn’t grasp his presence there, but it was Alan.
And he was chained to the wall.
“You see, Chua Huiann, your hero has come for you,” Xie said in Mandarin. “You must be an amazing woman to lure your lover to follow you into death.
What an asset you will be for me, attracting men like bees to pollen. Perhaps you will be as sought after as Madam Teng was in her prime.” Huiann held absolutely still, as if not moving would deflect Xie’s attention from her. She understood how small animals felt, frozen by the gaze of the predator that would end their life.
“Come.” He beckoned her forward. “You see the trouble you’ve caused for this man? Don’t make it worse by exhibiting disobedience. If you follow my demands exactly, he will be released unharmed. This is merely a demonstration for Mr. Sommers’s benefit so he understands there is no hope of him ever taking you from me again.”
His words buzzed in her ears, competing with the blood pounding there, and she feared she might pass Bonnie Dee
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out. She walked stiff-legged toward him, her fingers clenched into fists by her sides. The hook from the wardrobe pressed hard into her wrist.
“Now remove your clothes, Huiann.” With trembling fingers she unbuttoned the bodice of the crumpled red dress and let the gown fall around her feet like a pool of blood. She let the metal hook drop from her wrist into her curled fingers. Her bare arms were chilled, although the air was stuffy in the cavelike room.
“Your undergarments too,” Xie commanded.
Huiann met none of the men’s eyes, especially not Alan’s. If she looked at him she would not be able to hold back tears. This wasn’t the first time Xie had made her strip in front of a man, but the prospective buyers had been nameless, faceless strangers. It had been easy to turn them into ghosts in her mind and let them blow away. Having Alan watch her humiliation made it feel real.
Her cheeks burned as she pulled her chemise over her head and dropped it to the floor. Her bared breasts tingled as air caressed them, her nipples embarrassingly taut. She untied the drawstring of her petticoat and let it fall then stood with her arms straight by her sides, hands still clenched. She was absolutely naked but in her mind she armored herself with invisible steel. The men’s eyes couldn’t touch her, although their hands might. And their physical touch wouldn’t destroy the person she was inside.
“Turn around. Show him the marks of your punishment.”
Huiann at last risked a glance at Alan before obeying Xie’s order. The room was too dark for her to 250
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read his expression, but his posture was rigid, straining against his restraints. He didn’t speak a word, but she heard his ragged breathing from across the room. She slowly turned, presenting her backside. Alan gasped audibly.
She stared at the padded table before her, the cuffs and chains designed to hold a body in place. No doubt Xie planned to degrade her body in front of Alan and perhaps torture her. Whatever happened, he’d never set Alan free after this, no matter what he might promise. Xie couldn’t let him go. He would have to kill him.
The horrifying thought freed her, and Huiann saw what she must do with a clarity that shone like the sun.
She mustn’t fear death, hers or Alan’s, but must fight against Xie. She had to break the frozen tableau in this room and make some attempt to set them both free.
Xie patted her bruised bottom while he spoke to Alan in English. “Now I will show you what happens to those who would set themselves against me.” Huiann knew the next thing he’d do would be to push her down on that table and rape her. There was no more time to wait for the perfect moment to act.
Just then, like a gift from the gods, the sound of the front door crashing open came from down the hall.
The distraction was the perfect opportunity.
Huiann gripped the wardrobe hook in her sweaty palm with its sharpened point protruding between her clenched fingers. She twisted toward Xie and stabbed at his eye. The moment seemed to stretch like a piece of rubber. As if in slow motion she saw his eyes widen in surprise and her own fist driving toward his face.
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knuckles connecting with his eye socket. She let go of the hook and a gush of fluids bathed her hand red.
Xie screamed and staggered backward. Huiann whirled away from the edge of the table and ran past him. In her brief glance around the room, she’d noticed a rack of torture implements on one wall. She grabbed the first to come to hand, a flail of knotted leather. Brandishing the whip, she ran at Liu Dai.
Lunging aside, he drew a gun and pointed it at her.
Huiann braced for the explosion of gunpowder and the feeling of a bullet entering her, but it never came.
Perhaps he was afraid to shoot her without Xie’s permission.
“Stop!” he ordered.
Huiann snapped the flail at his face instead of dropping it. Liu flinched away and his hand jerked as he fired. The crack of the pistol was deafening, but the bullet whizzed past her and hit a wall.
Behind her, Huiann was aware of shouts and punches but she couldn’t spare a glance to find out how Alan fared. She raised her arm high and brought the whip down on Liu’s arm. The lashes coiled around his wrist and he dropped the gun. He yelped and dove to retrieve the weapon. Huiann kicked the gun far away from Liu Dai, drew back and hit him again.
Blow after blow rained down over his head and shoulders. Liu raised an arm to deflect the stinging cracks of the whip, but she was relentless. Bloody welts scored his arms and face.
Huiann’s mind hovered outside of her body, watching the whipping as if she were a stranger. She beat her persecutor until he stopped moving and 252
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cowered with his arms around his head. Even then she continued to lash him.
Suddenly strong arms seized her from behind and pulled her against a solid body. The despicable odor of bay rum assailed her and Xie shouted near her ear,
“Demon bitch! You will die for this.”
Chapter Nineteen
Alan pulled against the bolt in the wall. His arm muscles strained and he shifted his weight back and forth, using the chain threaded through the bolt’s eye to wrench it back and forth. The metal manacles cut into his wrists, but he felt the anchor releasing its grip on the wall by tiny increments. Rage blazed through him, and helplessness at his inability to protect Huiann from humiliation, but he didn’t stop working against his bonds. Things would be much worse for her if he lost focus. Only by freeing himself could he free her.
He pulled again. The bolt loosened. Another few hard tugs and he should be able to jerk it from the wall.
The man’s attention was riveted on Huiann’s nude body. He was paying no heed to a chained prisoner.
Suddenly the noise of the front door slamming open came from down the hallway. Huiann twisted and punched her fist at Xie’s face. The man howled as if he’d been stabbed and leaped backward. Alan gave a mighty tug against the eyebolt and pulled it from the wall. He staggered then regained his balance and whirled toward the guard, who was rushing to help his master. Alan leaped on the man’s back and encircled his neck with the chain.
The guard clutched at the chain, digging into his throat, let out a choked cry and threw himself backward. He drove Alan into the wall, knocking the breath from him. Alan loosened his hold enough that the guard could inhale and slip his fingers between the 254
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chain and his neck. The man tugged at the garrote while pinning Alan against the wall. His ribs were crushed and he gasped for air but only pulled harder, straining his shoulders as he lynched the guard’s thick neck.
Abruptly the man’s body slumped as he lost consciousness. Alan drew a quick breath and dug in even deeper. The chain cut into the man’s throat while wheezing gurgles bubbled from between his lips. The guard dropped to the floor with Alan on his back. Only when Alan was satisfied the guard wouldn’t rise again did he let the chain slip from his numb hands. The guard’s head lolled to the side.
Alan clambered to his feet in time to see Xie Fuhua grab Huiann from behind and hold a knife to her throat.
Half his face was a mask of blood that gushed from his ruined eye. Meanwhile, the skinny man with the moustache was crawling toward a pistol. Alan snatched up the weapon and pointed it at Xie.
“She’ll be dead before you can shoot me.” Xie pressed the blade against Huiann’s throat. “Drop the gun.”
Alan had cocked the pistol. All he had to do was press the trigger. But Xie held her body in front of him like a shield. There was little target except his face, too close to Huiann’s head. Huiann’s dark eyes were focused on his, transmitting a silent message. Alan opened his fingers and let the gun droop in his hand until the barrel pointed at the floor. He offered the weapon to Xie.
“Put it on the floor and back away.” Bonnie Dee
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Alan slowly squatted. At that moment, the door opened and light from the hallway spilled into the darkened room. Xie glanced toward the door.
Alan didn’t. Huiann dropped her head to the side while Alan brought up the pistol and fired a shot straight into Xie’s face. He fell backward, a spray of blood misting from his head. At the same moment, Jeremy fired from the doorway. His bullet tore through the man’s chest and Xie toppled like a tree. Jeremy ducked into the room as a bullet splintered the doorframe beside him.
Alan whirled to deal with the skinny man with the moustache whom Huiann had whipped into submission. His clothes were tattered and his skin shredded. Alan aimed his weapon at the trembling man.
This wasn’t the time to worry about whether he was armed or not. He shot without hesitation. The man’s body slumped to the floor.
Alan turned to Huiann and she rushed toward him, the chain between his wrists impeding their embrace.
Jeremy gestured toward the door. “I’ll hold ’em off.
You run.”
He didn’t wait for an answer, but leaped into the hallway, firing both guns toward the back of the house.
Alan grabbed Huiann’s hand, crouched low and ran with her toward the front. Not knowing in which rooms gunmen might be hidden, he barreled past them all, dragging Huiann toward the door, still wide open from Jeremy’s entrance. Alan glimpsed the frightened face of the hunchbacked man cowering behind a potted fern as they raced past him and outdoors.
Alan searched for more armed men outside the building, but saw only pedestrians running from the 256
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sounds of a gun battle. He shoved Huiann against the wall.
“Wait here.”
Flattening his body against the doorframe, he peered around the corner into the foyer. A stray bullet shattered one of the mirrors, sending shards tinkling onto the carpet. Alan dove into the entry and squatted behind the big fern. The old man who’d been hiding there scurried out the front door. Manacles bit into Alan’s wrists and the chain limited his movement as he raised his weapon and sighted down the hallway.
More shots cracked through the air. A man darted across the hall and Alan shot him. The man dropped without making a sound. Jeremy burst from one of the rooms, shooting behind him over his shoulder as he ran toward Alan. His pistol clicked on an empty chamber.
A man with a rifle appeared on the landing at the top of the stairs. Leaping up, Alan fired. The man dodged back out of sight.
“Go!” Jeremy ran past, and Alan followed him out the door, slamming it closed behind them.
Huiann waited outside. Alan grabbed her hand and they pounded down the street. After turning down an alley, they paused to lean against the wall.
“You were a little early. What happened?” Alan glanced at Jeremy.
Jeremy winced as he removed his coat and gave it to Huiann to cover her naked body. Blood soaked his shirt at the shoulder. “I had a bad feeling. Didn’t seem like there’d be enough time to fetch the police—if they’d even come with me.”
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“I’m glad you didn’t listen to me.” Alan ripped away the fabric to examine the wound. A neat round hole punctured Jeremy’s skin but there was no exit wound on the other side. “You need a doctor. Dong Li’s isn’t far from here. Maybe he can help us.” Alan’s wrists were still manacled and joined together by the bloodstained chain. With no key, he’d be stuck in them for a while. He removed his shoes and gave Huiann his socks so she’d have something covering her bare feet. Just for a moment, he pulled her against him, taking the time to feel her warm body, safe and alive, her strong arms wrapped around him.
He’d come so close to losing her.
After slipping on his shoes, Alan searched for pursuers on the street. No one seemed to be following them. He offered Jeremy his arm to lean on, but the other man shook his head. “I can walk.” They hurried the few blocks to the warehouse and Alan knocked on the door. A few moments later, the slide opened and eyes peered out at him.
“I’m here to see Dong Li.” He didn’t need to give his name. He was a regular customer. The slat closed and the door opened. The servant’s eyes widened as he saw the state they were in. He scurried off to get his boss.
Within minutes, Dong Li entered the waiting area, his heavy eyebrows twisted in a scowl. “Why are you here? What kind of trouble are you in?” Without waiting for Alan’s answer, he forged on. “It’s Xie Fuhua, isn’t it? I told you to not to get involved with him. Now you’ll bring the demon down on my head.”
“He’s dead. Please help us, and we’ll get out of here as soon as possible. We need transportation, some 258
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clothes, and if you could get these off…” Alan held up his wrists, the chains jangling.
“And you thought I’d be the man to help? Have I ever given you the impression we’re friends?”
“I can pay you. Not right now, but I promise to pay you back for your trouble.”
Dong waved a hand. “There’s not enough money to cover this kind of trouble. You’ve put me in danger simply by coming here.”