Byron ran his hands though his hair. ‘I didn’t lie. I thought it was the Cobra. I really did. Lucy, I’m telling you the truth. I only found out just now that the boss sent someone around to look through your place.’
Lucy frowned. She wasn’t at all convinced.
‘Lucy, please. The guys were told to go through your desk. I don’t know why they turned everything upside down.’
‘So you asked them to go through my desk?’
‘No! I didn’t know it was happening. I had no idea until just now.’
‘Did they find anything interesting?’
‘No, because you had the key in your bag.’
Lucy nodded slowly. ‘Pretty lucky I gave it to you, then. Or you might have rifled through my bag and got it yourself.’
‘Lucy! This is crazy!’
‘No, Byron, standing here listening to your lies – that’s crazy.’ She stalked off, feeling like her heart had been ripped out.
Byron caught her by the hand. ‘I’m not lying. And there’s something else you should know.’ He paused as an acrobat cartwheeled past. He waited until he was out of earshot to continue. ‘Your friend Durban Blackmore …’
‘Durban Blackmore is no friend of mine,’ she snapped.
‘Well, whatever he is – he’s one of the owners of
Hound Dog.
’
Lucy laughed. She couldn’t help it. ‘Durban Blackmore, the world’s most annoying man?’
Byron nodded, his face intent.
‘You’re telling me he’s the
Cobra.
’ She shook her head. ‘Byron, this is too much. You’re losing the plot. Durban’s about as dangerous as Grumpy Cat.
’
Lucy pulled her hand way from him.
‘I didn’t say he was the
Cobra
. But he must be connected. I’m just giving you a heads up.’
Lucy felt her shoulders tense. This was just getting farcical. She was beginning to wonder if anything that Byron had told her was true. He seemed to have nothing concrete at all – even the key that Byron or someone in his office had been so desperate to get their hands on amounted to nothing.
‘Goodbye, Byron.’
She turned to leave, almost walking straight into a stilt guy. By the time he’d shuffled past, a juggler had moved in on her, tossing flaming batons in the air. In the meantime, Byron had slipped away. She could see him through the fog, waiting at the lift, glancing in her direction – on his mobile again.
If he thought she was going to come rushing after him, he had another thing coming. She was tempted to flirt with Yu, just to really piss him off. Maybe then he’d feel a fraction of the rage that she felt. And she might have raced off to find Yu, except Byron waited maybe fifteen seconds, then got into the lift and disappeared, without even waving goodbye.
How infuriating!
Lucy looked around the crowd – the colours were too bright, the fire-eaters looked ridiculous and the jugglers were beyond stupid. She’d totally lost her appetite for the party. Charlotte would be bouncing around until two or three at the earliest, so now she’d have to go home alone.
At least she didn’t have to worry about the Cobra waiting for her in the apartment, because it was some idiots sent by
Under the Wire
that wrecked her place. And if they came back again, she’d be happy to greet them at the door, and then break their necks. She wondered if the Cobra even existed, or if he was another figment of Byron’s imagination dreamt up to scare her into giving him the key. She certainly wouldn’t put it past Byron to do something like that. She went through all the times he’d lied to her, but lost count.
Hardly the basis for a relationship
, she thought.
She stormed towards the lift and banged on the button, huffing loudly as she waited for it to arrive. Why did lifts always take so long when she was in a hurry? It came really quickly when Byron called it, but for her it was taking forever.
Typical. Even the lift is against me.
Lucy fidgeted with the back of her dress while she waited, then tried to pull up the front, while thinking of the best way to get back at Byron.
Spam him with hate texts? No, too juvenile. Rebound sex? That was a tried and tested method. But guaranteed to make everyone feel like shit the next day, according to Charlotte, and sometimes not even that much fun at the time. No, that wasn’t it, either. And then it came to her.
The one sure way to really get back at Byron – the thing that would make him angrier than anything – would be to beat him to his own story. If the Cobra existed, she was going to find him.
‘Going home alone, Miss Yang?’ came a voice from beside her. Lucy snapped out of her thoughts. Yu was standing beside her like a big gold genie. He might have just popped out of a lantern, his timing was so good.
If anyone is going to help me find the Cobra, it’s Yu.
‘Just taking a break from the crowd,’ she smiled.
‘Care to join me somewhere quiet for a drink?’
The lift doors opened. Lucy hesitated for a moment and then walked in. Yu followed her and pressed the ground floor. ‘We could go to my place.’
Lucy shook her head, very aware that to pull this off, she had to maintain a professional distance from Yu. ‘There’s a nice bar in the lobby.’
Yu pulled off his mask and watched Lucy in the mirrored wall as the lift plummeted to the ground floor. ‘How long are you going to keep me guessing?’
Lucy frowned.
‘Are you going to take off your mask?’
Lucy glanced at her reflection, realising that leaving the party might have actually been a mistake – one of many that night. What if she took off her mask and Yu recognised her – from Rusty’s, or TVi? She’d been on camera a lot in the past week. It was actually quite likely that he’d know her face without the mask.
But before Lucy had a chance to come up with a plausible excuse for keeping it on, Yu reached behind her head and undid the ribbons. The mask fell from Lucy’s face. She caught it and kept her face down, but she could feel Yu’s eyes on her. She glanced in the mirror again to check his reaction. His mouth was ajar and he looked slightly stunned. Lucy waited nervously for him to speak.
‘You’re even more beautiful than I thought,’ Yu said eventually, when the lift stopped. He held the door as Lucy walked out. ‘And just as stunning from the back as the front.’
Lucy shivered, uncertain if she really could go through with her plan. She rushed through the lobby to the bar, wondering if someone might have a shawl to throw over her shoulders – anything to cover herself a bit. Even a napkin might do the trick. Yu waved to a waiter as he sat down opposite her.
‘A bottle of champagne. Make it cold and make it expensive.’ He fluffed up his gold cloak. It must have been incredibly hot under there, but perhaps he wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Lucy was sorry she’d thought of it, because now she couldn’t get the image out of her head.
The champagne arrived and Lucy swung the conversation back to antiques. It seemed to go well – well enough for Yu to take her seriously and even offer her a job as his personal buyer on the art scene. Her research on Qing art was certainly playing off. Lucy was feeling a little more confident about her plan to uncover the identity of the Cobra until another problem cropped up. Durban Blackmore was walking into the bar.
Lucy froze mid-sentence. ‘Oh I dropped something.’
She ducked under the table and watched Durban through Yu’s legs. Only when she could see the back of his shoes did she pop up again. Her cover would be blown if Durban spotted her. He’d be straight over with his boring anecdotes and
Lucy Yang reporting.
She still couldn’t believe that Byron had suggested he had organised crime connections, but he could certainly ruin things for Lucy.
‘Miss Yang, are you all right?’ Yu asked.
Lucy fanned herself with a coaster. ‘So hot in here, isn’t it? You think we could go elsewhere?’
Yu raised his eyebrows. ‘Of course. I’ll just call my driver. Do you want to finish your drink first?’
Lucy was already on her feet. ‘No need.’
She walked quickly across the lobby, leaving Yu to sort out the bill and call his driver. She didn’t turn to look for him until she was well clear of the bar and safely behind a pillar. Yu was where she’d left him, talking with Durban. It had been the right move to flee when she did.
Lucy heard a text ping on her mobile and opened her purse – a message from Byron.
Here we go again.
Was it yet another apology or an excuse this time? She opened the text. It was neither.
Be careful. Waiting for you outside your apartment. I promised to stay with you tonight.
Lucy reread the message and almost laughed out loud. Why was he waiting outside her apartment? Had he not noticed what had just happened? He’d lied to her – again. She was hardly going to want to spend the night with him! She ignored the message completely.
‘Sorry to keep you waiting, my lovely songbird.’
Lucy looked up from her phone, startled.
‘My driver’s waiting out front.’
‘Perfect,’ Lucy smiled. She dropped her phone in her clutch and tucked the bag under her arm, regretting another wardrobe mistake. The studs on her clutch had been terrorising her armpit all night – her skin was red raw. But that was the least of her worries right now. She hurried outside and climbed into the back of a shiny maroon Rolls-Royce.
‘I love the smell of new leather, don’t you?’ Yu asked. ‘I know just the place for a drink.’
‘Lovely.’ Lucy shuffled along the seat towards the door, still trying to keep a professional distance. ‘So you think I’d make a good antiques buyer, do you? Is there something you have in mind for your collection?’
Yu was looking out of the window. He seemed distracted. ‘Anything that you love, I would love too,’ he said eventually. ‘What captivates you?’
Lucy spent the next few minutes sharing with Yu everything she knew about Chinese culture, from her recent research, the subjects she’d studied at uni and anything else she’d picked up along the way.
‘But please,’ Lucy said, eventually. ‘I would rather talk about you. Perhaps you could share some of your wisdom on business.’
Yu frowned. ‘Why would I talk business when we could be talking about antiques?’
‘A man of your success must have many interesting stories to tell about the business world, about the people you have met.’
Yu waved the question away. ‘No.’
Lucy tried several times to pry details out of Yu about his business contacts, but he blocked her every time. He was certainly not going to offer up the Cobra on a plate for her; she’d have to work very hard for any scrap of information.
She gazed out the window, trying to come up with a new line of questioning. It wasn’t easy – her brain was fried. It had been an eventful day, to say the least. And it had come on top of a very exhausting week. She wondered if she even had the energy to drag anything out of Yu. He’d gone completely quiet, lost in his own thoughts as the car climbed out of the high-rises and towards the Peak – one of Hong Kong’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.
‘Ah, here we are.’ Yu came to life as the car pulled into a driveway.
Lucy knew the only bar here would be the one inside Yu’s house. She felt a flash of panic. Going home with Yu was exactly what she had been trying to avoid.
‘Yu’s bar will be perfect for you,’ he said, opening the car door for her and leading her into a two-storey villa.
‘Yes, stunning, I’m sure,’ Lucy agreed, although she was unsure whether he had meant it was a perfect place for Lucy or for Yu. She’d never realised how easy it would be to mix up
Yu
with
you
.
Yu led her through a marble-tiled entry hall and into an ornately decorated sitting room filled with antiques. ‘A cognac?’
‘Just a soft drink, thank you. A very fine collection you have here, Mr Yu.’ Lucy’s eyes roamed the room, taking in the glass-fronted cabinets full of Chinese treasures. The walls were covered in paintings, mostly period, but one was definitely contemporary – a massive portrait of Yu, in a traditional pose, sitting on a gilded chair, dressed in an imperial cloak, with a golf club over his shoulder and his Ray-Bans on.
So pretentious!
‘Make yourself at home, Miss Yang,’ Yu said, shaking off his cloak.
Lucy glanced away to look for a place to sit, and was stunned, but also relieved, when she turned again to find Yu dressed only in black running shorts and a matching T-shirt that was stretched over his paunch.
At least he wasn’t really naked under there.
As Yu crossed the room to a drinks cabinet, Lucy made her way to a delicate chaise longue by the window, hoping that it was made for one. Then she pulled out her phone and discreetly texted Charlotte her location. It was something they did for sleepovers. She certainly wasn’t planning to stay the night with Yu, but it didn’t hurt for someone to know where she was. She put her phone away as Yu returned with the drinks. He placed a cognac on a small table next to Lucy, then perched on the chaise beside her.
‘A toast,’ he said, raising his glass, ‘to our friendship.’
Lucy looked at the cognac beside her, hesitated for a moment and then realised she had no choice. She raised the glass to Yu. ‘To a long professional relationship.’
Yu downed his drink, but Lucy barely let it touch her lips before she returned the glass to the side table.
Yu leant so close that she could feel his breath on her neck. ‘So, you like my collection?’
‘Yes, yes,’ Lucy nodded, trying to edge away from Yu, but she was already hanging off the edge of the seat. She knew she had to get right away from him. Soon. The situation was getting way too uncomfortable, and Yu was not giving anything away on the story.
She decided to finish her drink and then make her excuses to leave. Lucy reached for her drink and downed her cognac. She opened her mouth to say farewell to Yu, but he spoke before she had a chance.
‘Let us see how
genuinely
good you are, Miss Yang.’ Yu fixed her with an intense stare. ‘There are two fakes in the room. I am sure someone with your expertise would have no trouble finding them?’
Lucy gulped. Yu was definitely testing her this time. She suddenly regretted downing the drink – she was feeling quite tipsy. Even with a clear head it would be virtually impossible for her to spot a fake among this collection of antiques, but now it would be out of the question. She didn’t know where to start.