Chapter 34: Chapter 34

Chapter 34

ASH

As Lobos tapes the girl's mouth shut with scotch tape, her eyes become big and round.

The expression on her face would have been comical if I didn't know what she was going through. I slide my eyes down to the creased pink dress she's got on, and then to her hands. They're tied tightly behind her back to the chair she's currently seated on. The same goes for her legs which are also tied. Her feet are bare, her flip-flops discarded somewhere in the warehouse. I can already see the red welts forming from the too-tight ropes on her skin.

I slide my eyes back up to her face.

The kid's scared shitless.

Good.

We need to make her think she's really in danger, even though hurting children is not my forte. That, and the fact that she's already suffered enough in the hands of Guilang - her stepfather.

If she believes this is real, she'll definitely act it out naturally. I glance at the camera that is perched on a tripod stand in front of her and set on a two-minute timer, then I catch the eyes of Capo who's on standby to begin recording. The video's going to be put on the darknet and coordinates will be sent to Guilang.

The plan is to make him angry, and unstable, thereby drawing him out of his lair. Intel has it he's in the United States. The question is where. I had devised the idea to capture Jia, his stepdaughter, after foolishly declaring my love to Alicia. The thought had come out of nowhere. Guess the love hormone had increased my penchant for risks because I immediately got Night eyes and Rip with me in my private jet and we went to China.

We had already gone over plans A, b and, and even c. I knew Jia came out onto the verandah to sun herself every morning. I had already studied her routine for two concurrent weeks so I saw no reason why my plan of sending a ladder directly into the veranda wouldn't work. I would like to say I was the one who grabbed her, but I can't take credit for that. Night eyes got her and we were out with twenty minutes to spare.

Plan A successful.

The timer on the camera beeps.

It's time.

A red light flashes and it begins recording. I follow the timer, while intermittently watching Jia squirm with wide eyes. Two track marks of tears run down her cheeks and into the scotch tape over her mouth. She wriggles against the bindings on her wrist and legs, looking uncomfortable.

Once the time hits sixty seconds, I stand in front of the camera and smile. "Come get her. . . if you dare!"

Then the camera shuts off automatically, and Lobos moves into action immediately. He removes the tape from the girl's mouth and unties her while I seek out Joe, the Chinese interpreter, who is lurking in the shadows of the warehouse. I catch his eyes and beckon him over.

As he gets close, I turn to him. "Tell her this is all for show and we will never harm her."

Joe nods and walks over to where Jia is still seated with a scared look on her face. He squats in front of her and she recoils. Joe looks at her, his expression softening as he speaks. He's experienced with this sort of thing, which is why I keep calling him for occasions such as this. I watch as the tenseness in Jia's limbs eases, and she looks up at me. I nod encouragingly, adding a smile for effect.

She looks at me two more times before the tension in her body eases completely. By the time Joe is done, Jia is gifted a baby doll, and she begins to play with it, forgetting she's surrounded by strangers. She's escorted to the panic room where I know she'll have all the conveniences she needs. I hired a mature woman, actually, one of the mothers of one of my men, to look after Jia, and help tide over her stay here.

I walk over to where Koldis is hunched over a laptop, sending the coordinates of the video to Guilang.

"I bet he's going to lose his shit when he sees it," Lobos says as he walks up to us.

"I'm counting on it. After the shit show his men pulled at parched for the night as well as all the other info I know about him using underage girls for his prostitution rings, he's definitely going down."

Lobos nods distractedly, questions swimming in his eyes.

"Ask!" I say with a growl.

"Now, what?" He asks immediately.

"Now," I chuckle darkly. "We wait."

He nods once again but stays silent.

"All done!" Koldis says and lifts his head to look at me.

It's my turn to nod. After checking that Jia is faring nicely and not losing her shit, I drive away from the warehouse, eager to see Alicia. I know she's going to act up because I haven't gotten in touch with her in two weeks, and worse still, sending Night eyes, who's a stranger, to pick her up. Ten minutes later, I'm close to home, but still not close to how I'm going to pacify Alicia when my phone beeps twice.

That can only mean one thing. It's urgent.

I pick up the call, already knowing what to expect.

"We've got trouble," Lobos says tersely. "Ten men just scaled the fence of the warehouse, and they're all wearing black ninja get up."

"Handle it. I'm on my way." I say and turn the car around.

So Guilang thinks he can send assassins to kill me?

My foot is all the way down on the accelerator, so I get to the warehouse in a record time of just five minutes. I don't need a crystal ball to know shit went down while I was away. The faces of my men standing outside are grim looking as I park the car and come down. I nod at their greetings, eager to get inside and see what happened.

I don't have long to wait. As soon as I step inside, I see ten men, all in black, lying on the floor. Their heads and faces are covered with the same black cotton material they're wearing. I turn one of them over, not surprised when I see a tiny emblem of two knives in a crisscross atop each other in red at one corner of his sleeve.

The emblem of Guilang's famous assassins. Foot soldiers that mar and kill in his name. They never fail, but my men must have put up an impressive show for them to have been subdued, and even bound hand and feet.

It means Guilang is close. Closer than I thought.

I look up to see four of my trusted men - Koldis, Lobos, Moro, and Capo, looking at me and waiting for instructions. Lobos and Moro have bruises on their faces, obviously from the fight with the killing machines currently lying at my feet.

I bring out my gun from my waistband and shoot nine of them, watching as they jerk, their blood spilling out from their lifeless bodies and soiling the floor.

"Take him underground." I indicate to the man I left alive. "And get this place cleaned up."

Lobos and Moro immediately get to work, hefting the man up. His hands and feet are tied so they have to drag him. He leaves a trail of blood in his wake. I notice it's coming from one of his legs.

He was probably shot there.

I stalk after them, eager to find out where Guilang is. The man is dragged down the stairs and into a room filled with lots of memories. Bloody one's. The stench of staleness and desolation hang in the air. While his hands and feet are tied to a chair, I remove my tee. Even though it's black, I don't want to get blood all over it. I flex my muscles as I watch them remove the hood from his head as well as the black material from around his face. A man with a bald head and slanted eyes materializes from underneath it.

I turn my back to him and make my way to the table littered with various torture instruments. I ignore every one of them and grab a short knife with a curved edge. In my estimation, it does more damage. I should know because it's been used on me before. I turn round and walk towards the man.

"Leave me alone with him," I say to Lobos and Moro who are standing to the side.

Immediately they leave, a smirk spreads on the man's face. "You can do whatever you want to me, but I won't talk."

I don't doubt it, but at some point, even the most loyal of soldiers will cave. I walk around him, a tactic I normally employ in cases like this. I do it twice, not saying anything, and all the while he chuckles. In the blink of an eye, I lunge and stick the knife into the middle of his back, straight into his spinal cord, and leave it there. I walk to his front and watch as he spasms. It's my turn to chuckle darkly as I watch his face contort weirdly.

His mouth is twisted to one side, the same as his body. I watch as he struggles to speak but isn't able to. I lean close to him, getting into his personal space.

"Let me know when you're ready to talk." I begin to walk away but stop. "Oh, I forgot, you can't. You know why, 'cause my knife is still stuck in your back - your spinal cord, to be precise. You're having a partial stroke. If I leave that knife in there for more than a minute, it'll become permanent. If you don't want that and you're ready to talk, twitch your eye."

I walk back and bend to his eye level. After two heartbeats, his left eyelid twitches.

"You chose well." I stand immediately and go around to his back where a dark stain has already pooled around the knife. I know for a fact that once I remove it, he will bleed to death, so I've got to act quickly.

I slide the knife out slowly, wincing as I hear a gurgle. I walk back in front of him. "Where is Guilang?"

The man swallows loudly. His eyes have begun to lose focus so I slap his cheek.

"He. . . is. . .in. . . L.A."

I already knew that.

"Where?" I grind out heatedly.

"Co. . . de.. X."

His eyes roll to the back of his head as he gurgles and blood flows out of his mouth. His head pitches forward and I know he's gone.

"Fuck!"