All these thoughts ran through the back of her mind as she stood still and let Kai study her with those flat, dark eyes.
“Why are you here?” he finally asked, a hint of menace in his tone. “How did you find me without an escort? And where is the katana?”
Hana smiled a smile that wasn't mirthful. It was meant to taunt him right back. She saw from the flexing of his jaw that it worked. “One, I want to see my son to confirm he's okay. Two, I've retained a goodly amount of my Zen training even if you haven't. The eyes often betray you, so don't use them to the exclusion of all else. Three, the katana is in my custody now. In a safe place. Did you really think I'd bring it to you without confirming Takeo is all right?“
She watched for the play of emotions behind his wall, but found none. Time was when she knew every flicker of eyelash and twitch at his mouth. But now? It was over three months since she'd seen Kai. Was it her imagination, or were there a few lines in that handsome forehead? Kai wasn't even thirty yet, but his lifestyleâto put it mildlyâwas very stressful, chosen or not. And his eyes, once alive with mirth, were dead and flat, like a shark's. Or a snake's.
The charming young man who'd wooed and won her was dead. In his place was a murderous drug dealer, a monster who'd chosen for himself the apt symbol of a snarling dragon. Cold-blooded, rapacious, merciless.
Takeo's father.
The irony didn't escape her, and her own emotions were so heightened she had to force herself to listen to his response.
“I don't believe you have it. It wouldn't be the first time you've lied to me.”
“Or you to me.” Hana had expected this. She pulled her cell phone from a hidden pocket in her bra they'd missed when they searched her. She showed Kai the time stamp on the close-up pictures she'd taken of the blade. The last one displayed the
mon
, or heraldic symbol of her family, the hawk in a circle, engraved on the haft of the blade. “The Travis family had it refurbished. It is . . . gorgeous.”
She handed the phone to Kai when he held out his hand. He avidly paged through the photos, then stuck the phone in his own pocket.
Undeterred, Hana finished: “And it will remain hidden until I see my son. If you refuse to allow me to leave safely, you'll never see it, for no one but I knows where it is.” She glanced at Ernie, who made a good pretense of weakness as he leaned his head back against his chair.
But she knew he'd absorbed every word and that he understood her subtle signal that she'd left the sword in his safe room. “We can do an exchange in a few days. I'd prefer to do it in public, somewhere in Austin, not here.” Hana's heartbeat had accelerated as she steadily met Kai's eyes. If he was to be captured and defanged, it would need to be here, not in public where he could use any number of escape methods and innocents as hostages. Not to mention that her immunity agreement hinged on his safe capture and enough evidence to put him away for life, which also meant they had to take him in his lair. But she knew him well enough to taunt him to overrule her, just so he could display his power.
Sure enough, he scowled. “No. Here. Ten p.m. Three days.”
She held her breath. “And Takeo?”
“I'll have him ready for you and if the blade is all you say, you may take him with you.” He ground the words out as if they were unfamiliar, like disgusting medicine he'd never expected he'd need.
Hana gave him a bigger dose. “And Ernie. I want him to come with me too.”
Kai glanced at Ernie, who seemed to almost be dozing. “That's his decision. He was hired to do a job for me, and he's not finished.”
Ernie roused, his eyelids still half closed. “Sorry, they gave me a painkiller and it's made me sleepy.” Ernie used his uninjured hand to lift his other wrist. It had begun to swell and turn purple. “I just wanted to surprise Takeo with his fixed bike, but I guess I was more tired than I thought. Sorry, Kai, but I may be out of commission for a bit anyway. However, once the exchange is finished, you have my word I'll return to finish the training.”
Kai's smile didn't change his flat, black eyes. “The timing was quite odd, don't you think? For such an adroit man to injure himself like this, so clumsily, just as Hana barges in to negotiate with me?”
Ernie's cheeks flushed with color. He leaned forward to enunciate: “The screwdriver slipped. It happens. I couldn't sleep and I made your son a promise I was keeping. You also gave me permission to fix the bike. You took my cell phone. I had no way of contacting her, or anyone else.”
At the steady beam of those luminous quicksilver eyes, even Kai had to look away. He conceded, “Whether you go or stay is your decision. My men can wait a few days until you heal.”
Hana knew Kai was testing Ernie's loyalty. She looked at her mentor, holding her breath.
Ernie never even glanced at her. He stood, swaying slightly, his uninjured hand on the chair back to support himself. “I don't like to leave a job half-finished. I'll stay. For now, I'll fetch Takeo. Okay?” He looked at Kai for permission.
“It's late,” Kai growled. “He'll be too tired to finish all his lessons if we wake him.”
Hana said simply, “Then take me to him.”
* * *
Outside, hidden in a grouping of brush, Zach cooled his heels as best he could, but he couldn't say the same for his temper. He checked his watch for the umpteenth time. She'd been in there for over thirty minutes now. An eternity in dangerous situations like this. He was tempted to say to hell with it and use that huge oak's overhanging branch to drop down inside the electrical fence, but he knew that would be suicide. They'd have no way of getting back out without the gate code. So he ground his teeth together and stayed put.
He'd seen several guards, wearing night-vision goggles, approach the oak tree and look for any signs of a struggle or why their sentry was missing. He'd stayed low, totally hidden by the brush, and finally they conferred and then went back inside the gate.
He'd listened to the little he could make out of their conversation, hoping he'd at least hear Hana's name mentioned, but he didn't understand a word. Now what? They'd be very suspicious of her with a missing sentry, so she was in more danger than she realized. He knew her well enough by now to hope and pray that she'd gone in there with a plan. Probably to open negotiations on the exchange: her son for the katana. But why hadn't she shared her intent with him? Had he not proved he trusted her just by letting her borrow the blade?
That trust was obviously not reciprocated. His frustration level rising, Zach shifted position and forced himself to wait. But his movement had made the dry leaves rustle slightly. He froze. The next thing he knew, a guard was upon him, rifle raised to use it as a cudgel.
Zach had only half turned over before the rifle butt came down, but he managed to use his free leg to sweep the guard's feet from under him. Then they were fighting, hand-to-hand, the rifle useless in such close combat. The guard tossed it aside and engaged him with wrestling moves.
In college, Zach had made the wrestling team, so he knew many of the choke holds and ways to evade being immobilized. But this guy . . . he was much smaller, but Zach couldn't get a decent grip on him. Every time he almost grabbed an arm, a leg, or jabbed with an elbow, he barely grazed skin because the guard had read his moves and adjusted his position accordingly.
What was he, a pocket sumo?
Zach had struggled hand-to-hand with many different types of combatants, but this gang member had preternatural timing. When Zach grabbed the sentry's wrist, the man foiled his handhold with a twist and jab. When Zach tried to clutch his longer legs around the man's ankles to hold him still in a choke hold, the guy shifted his weight, braced, and whirled them around. Now Zach was on top and had no defense when his opponent's legs came up in a vise around his waist.
However, the guard was obviously not used to battling men of Zach's skill set, either, because from his position of better leverage Zach rammed both his elbows into the sentry's abdomen, winding him. Zach twisted free and jerked off the man's hood. Then he wrenched the man's arms behind his back, finally immobilizing him. He saw panic flare in the dark eyes. The man opened his mouth and Zach knew he was about to call for help. Zach pressed his strong forearm into his throat. The Asian made a garbled sound, but Zach pressed harder. He only intended to wind him, but then he felt something sharp at his rib cage. He pressed down in one motion with all his strength and felt the blade penetration stop. At the same time, he heard the man's neck snap.
His opponent went limp. Breathing heavily, Zach pulled away and tugged up his shirt. A gash between two of his ribs welled with blood and it hurt, but Zach knew it was just a scratch. He unsnapped a pocket in his camo pants and applied a bit of QuikClot and a bandage. Then he looked down to see what he'd been stabbed with.
To his utter consternation, he saw his own Ka-Bar, only the very tip gleaming with blood in the moonlight, lying on the ground next to them. Holy shitâas they grappled, the man had lifted the blade so stealthily from his back sheath that he hadn't felt a thing. Zach shivered a bit, not from the wound, but from comprehension of what they faced. In his experience, sentries were trained well, but they were on the lower echelon of any military group's pecking order. If this man had almost skewered an Army Ranger who'd killed his fair share of special-ops soldiers in hand-to-hand combat, what would Kai and his upper rank be like to face?
And Hana was in there alone.
Zach was climbing the treeâto hell with the consequencesâwhen he heard the quiet purr of a muffled motor. He jumped back the short distance to the ground. He was astonished to see two familiar faces: His father and Ross Sinclair led the way out of a jeep outfitted with huge tires and special mufflers.
* * *
Kai hesitated, then nodded. “He's been asking to see you,” he admitted grudgingly. He moved aside and indicated she precede him out the door.
She'd only taken a few steps into the living area when his most trusted lieutenant hurried in and whispered in his ear. Kai lifted a hand to indicate she halt, but Hana pretended not to see, continuing toward the hallway door and the presumed location of the bedrooms.
Her thoughts were now only on her son, to hold him and reassure him.
Kai's hand caught her arm so harshly she winced.
He swung her to face him. “Another of my men is missing. One coincidence of timing I might overlook, but two? What the hell do you think you're doing? Who's helping you, you traitorous bitch?”
Poised between the door to Takeo's room and the exit, Hana faced Kai. She knew it would do no good to lie. “My lover. He's in security.”
Kai's sneer sounded like a hissing dragon's. “You mean Zachary Travis.”
“However, he didn't know I was going to try to . . . to . . . communicate with you. But he's probably still outside waiting to hear from me. Given who he is, do you want the Texas Rangers, DEA, and everyone else he can contact to show up?” This time, her smile was genuine and one he'd helped teach her, because it was reckless too. “Did you really expect me to come here without backup?”
Kai glared at his lieutenant. “Call in all the sentries. Barricade everything. Go to total lockdown.” The lieutenant disappeared.
While Kai was conferring quietly with his subordinate, Ernie jerked his head at the garage door and made typing motions in the air. Hana knew immediately that central command must be behind that door.
They were both glum and motionless when Kai turned back to them. The lieutenant was busy keying in a code in the exterior panel. Hana lifted her chin and stared Kai down. “If you let me go, I promise to hold them off. You have my word.”
“For how long?” Kai scoffed.
“I can manage three days, for sure. Until I bring you the sword. You'll have time to fortifyâor run.” Her own smile turned nasty.
He slapped her so hard her head flipped to the side. With her cheek bearing his hand imprint, Hana only composed herself and looked at him again. “Pity that. You used to have more finesse.”
“You used to be trustworthy,
kono baita
,” he flung back.
“If I'm a whore, you made me one!” Hana retaliated, finally stung.
This time, he almost wrenched her arm from its socket. His free hand caressed the
tanto
stuck in his belt.
Hana knew he was debating whether to kill her or force her to his dungeon.
Suddenly alert, Ernie tensed on the balls of his feet.
* * *
Outside, as two SWAT guys hauled the dead man into a van and did a quick clean of the site to disguise signs of their struggle, John Travis eyed his son severely. “Where the hell do you think you're going? You didn't have the OK to invade the compound, only to find it.”
Zach nodded. “True enough.”
“If you think being my son allows you to disobey direct ordersâ”
“Hana is in danger,” Zach said simply. “If you want me to resign, I will. But if she doesn't show up in the next five minutes, with or without help I'm going in after her. You in? Or out?”
* * *
In the hallway inside the house, a new arrival came in yawning, his hair standing straight up. Takeo looked at his mother. All his sleepiness gone, he ran to her. She caught him up in her arms, hugging him so hard he winced.
“You're okay, Takeo?”
He nodded reluctantly, tracing the outline of the hand on her cheek. “
Otosan
did this, didn't he?” He turned his head to glare at his father.