To demonstrate her point, Nicole shot a criminal hiding behind a human shield.
“Does Lenora know the difference?” Kyle asked her. “She took out the maid, no problem. These light guns, they’re pretty close to the genuine article. Same weight, same grip. It’s a lot less conspicuous practicing shooting at home than at a firing range.”
“Stage cleared,” grated the console voice.
Nicole blew imaginary smoke off her pistol, then and the game. “You’ve fired guns for real. You know it’s not the same thing. It takes hatred to kill somebody, even a psycho bitch like Lenora. It gets to you, doesn’t it? Taking human lives.”
Nicole dropped her light gun, swung her legs up onto Kyle’s lap, and leaned back on her duvet. “Where would you rather be?” she asked sexily, lifting up her skirt. “Safe in my bedroom, or out patrolling the streets? And who would you choose as your partner? Me or Lakeysia?”
“You,” replied Kyle, edging closer. “In a heartbeat.”
He moved his hand up Nicole’s knee, and squeezed her bare thigh. With no forewarning, she grabbed Kyle’s wrist and twisted his forearm. Nicole clamped her legs around his chest, holding him against the duvet cover. A firm, inescapable hold. The girl was much stronger than she looked.
“Relationships require commitment from both parties,” Nicole said. “And I haven’t made up my mind yet. Know why I’m so successful? Because I’ve never let myself be dominated by men. People think they can take advantage of a young woman like me. I enjoy being independent. Is this how you arrest someone, Detective?”
Nicole applied extra torque, bending Kyle’s arm behind his back. She smiled, and opened her legs to release him.
“You can call me Kyle,” he said, shaking off the pain. “What was that shit?”
“Another of my hobbies. We should eat something. Put our games on hold. I hope you like sushi.”
***
Kyle helped himself to another glass of wine while Nicole served dinner. She’d changed into a traditional kimono, a green and white satin dress typically worn by Geisha girls. In true Japanese style, Nicole cooked her guest’s meal in front of him. Bowls of soup, steamed rice and sushi were arranged on a knee-high dining table. The atmosphere inside her dojo was romantic, with incensed candles burning in silver holders and Oriental music playing in the background.
As Nicole prepared the main dish, Kyle studied a portrait, one of several she’d painted in her youth. The theme was Feudal Japan. There wasn’t a single picture that didn’t feature a colorful drawing of some pagoda, training ground or ancient temple. Nicole’s view of the old world was violent and bloody. Buildings burned while hooded ninjas and samurai battled in courtyards. One figure made a recurring appearance: a female dressed in bright green. She wore a face mask, but her smoothly curved body, wide hips and breasts gave away her gender. The woman was as tall as the male warriors and no less deadly. Someone was always pictured dying at her hands, be it by sword, dagger or throwing star.
“This lady seems to feature prominently in your work,” said Kyle.
Nicole poured sauce over her chicken teriyaki, and placed the platter with the other food. “Lady? That’s hardly the word to describe her.”
Kyle sat opposite Nicole. “So, who is the girl in green?”
“Jade Dragon,” Nicole replied, tucking into the meal. “She’s a kunoichi, a lady ninja. Me and the other Cyber Maidens created her. Jade was the star of our best selling videogame.”
Kyle struggled with the chopsticks. He managed to lift a sushi cube twice, but lost his grip both times.
“Here, allow me,” offered Nicole. She licked own her chopsticks clean, and used them to insert the food in Kyle’s mouth. “How did that taste? Would you like some more?”
Nicole bent forward, and collected a sushi cube between her teeth. Kyle leaned across the table, meeting her halfway. Simultaneously, he and Nicole chewed the sushi until their lips touched. The initial contact blossomed into a full-blown kiss. Nicole was so close Kyle could see the girl’s naked body beneath her kimono. She retreated with a seductive smile, swallowed her half of sushi, and poured him a third glass of wine.
Kyle coughed, still taking everything in. He tried to focus on the investigation, but Nicole had stolen his thunder. “You mentioned… Cyber Maidens,” he said.
Nicole sighed, as if talking about her past was an unwanted distraction. “You can ask your partner when she’s feeling in a good mood, assuming there are such moments. I told her my life story this afternoon.”
“You’ll have to excuse Lakeysia. She can be heavy handed. I ought to know.”
“Jade would decapitate the arrogant bitch and be done with it.” Nicole spoke so bluntly Kyle dropped his chopsticks. “But don’t worry. I’m a little more civilized.”
Nicole’s disarming smile put him at ease. “Sounds like somebody pissed this woman off,” he said, finishing his wine.
“Want to know the story?” Nicole stopped eating, and leaned back to recount her tale. “As a child, Jade was forced to watch her parents die. A ninja grand master took her under his care. Jade grew up swearing revenge. When she reached adulthood, she hunted down the murderers one by one. That was the object of the game, to assassinate all those who’d wronged her. Jade had a quirk. Before she took a person’s life, she looked them in the eye, and showed them her face.”
Kyle was intrigued by Jade’s background. “Why do that?”
“To let them know they’d been beaten by an eighteen year old girl. That she was stronger, smarter and more ruthless than they were.”
Nicole tidied up the plates and carried them into a neighboring room.
“Sounds like the present day killer’s a fan of hers,” Kyle said. The connections between this Jade Dragon character and the real life murderess were too strong to dismiss.
“Lenora always was a copycat,” Nicole shouted. “Whatever path I followed, so did she.”
Nicole returned with a photograph and passed it to Kyle. The picture showed two girls in their early teens. Both of them wore karate uniforms, and stood in a martial arts ready stance. The Asian’s belt was black, and the redhead’s brown. The photo was so outdated Kyle didn’t immediately recognize the young, Japanese girl as Nicole.
“You and Lenora were close friends,” he deduced.
Nicole tossed the photograph aside. “Once upon a time, but that’s all in the past.”
“You’re a karate student. I should have guessed.”
Nicole turned her back on him. “Lenora was the student,” she said, unfastening her kimono sash. “I was the master. Would you like to see some of my moves, Kyle?”
She slipped off her gown and kicked it aside. Beads of sweat trickled down Nicole’s bare back, glistening orange in the candlelight. She rubbed the liquid into her smooth brown skin, and spun around to face Kyle.
Nicole was the sexiest girl he’d ever laid eyes on. The Oriental vixen stood on a karate mat five feet away. Her beauty was one hundred percent natural. Nicole was in wonderful shape, muscles toned through regular workouts in her dojo. She pushed her long, dark hair behind her shoulders to expose her breasts. Virtual criminals weren’t the only competition this woman could blow away.
Nicole adopted the same stance as in the photo. She placed one foot forward, bent her knees, and stretched her rear leg. “Let’s see what you can do,” she challenged, rotating her arms to protect her upper body.
Unable to resist her allure, Kyle set down his wine glass, unbuttoned his shirt collar, and discarded his tie. If Nicole wanted to play rough, he was more than ready. Kyle stepped onto the mat, clenched his fists, and mockingly shouted, “Hiyeah!”
Nicole circled around her opponent, eyes focused on his face. She moved elegantly across the floor, distracting Kyle with her naked body. “Do you know what a woman’s most dangerous weapon is?” she asked.
“Lakeysia already told me the answer to that,” Kyle said, glancing downward. “I wouldn’t mind having yours in my arsena
l.”
“Can’t wait to get your hands on me? I’m yours for the taking, assuming you can get close.”
Before Kyle could even try, Nicole stamped on his foot, punched him in the stomach, and knocked him down with a ferocious high kick. “Why do you think Dragonsoft’s marketers wanted me to expand Jade’s breast size?” asked Nicole, squatting inside her knees. “Because most guys will buy a piece of junk if there’s a busty woman on the front cover. The bigger they are, the better.”
“There’s more to it than that.” Kyle sat up, only for Nicole to force him back down with her foot.
“Of course there is. Having a completely naked woman with a nice ass helps too.”
Kyle wasn’t sure where Nicole was going, but he didn’t want her to stop. “Don’t worry,” he assured her. “You qualify on all three counts.”
“That’s why the killer’s got you cops running around in circles,” Nicole said. “Men don’t see women as threats, only sex objects. I told you I’m not as innocent as I look. Girls have to be able to protect themselves. Lenora better not screw around with me, he’ll get more than she bargained for.”
Kyle grabbed Nicole’s thigh. This time, she didn’t resist. “What about me?” he asked. “If I were to screw with you, would the same apply to me?”
“You can tell me in the morning.”
Nicole pulled off Kyle’s shoes, undid his belt, and pulled down his trousers. “To survive in the business world,” she said, “you have to take opportunities when they present themselves. And never look back.”
Kyle’s mobile phone rang. He switched it off without looking at the screen, and removed his jacket and holster. Nicole stacked the clothes in a neat pile.
“I take what I want,” she said. “How about you?”
Nicole sat on Kyle’s waist, reached between her legs, and pulled his boxer shorts down his knees.
“You deserve everything you have,” Kyle said. “Don’t be afraid I won’t treat you seriously.”
“And just… how serious are you?”
Nicole unbuttoned Kyle’s shirt then pressed her body against his exposed chest. He rubbed her back, moving his fingers up her spine. When Kyle reached Nicole’s shoulders, he brought his hands round the front to feel her nipples.
“The wine was an appetizer,” panted Nicole. “This is for saving my life.”
She held Kyle’s head still, and gave him a long, satisfying kiss. The candles cast shadows of the two lovers across the karate mat. They were fully committed, and neither of them held anything back. Nicole was the greatest catch of Kyle’s life: a strong-willed, intelligent, yet enticing woman not afraid of danger. She knew how to make a man happy.
Kyle could spend the rest of his life in the sexy games designer’s arms. If Nicole asked him to travel with her to the far side of the world, he wouldn’t hesitate to buy tickets. The romantic evening hadn’t been a disappointment. Kyle had finally found the woman of his dreams. It was, without doubt, the happiest moment of his life.
He had no inkling the killer was taking pictures.
***
Jade combed her blonde hair while she waited for the images to upload to her hard drive. Her recent file purge had left plenty of space for her kinky snapshots. As a routine precaution, she’d wiped potentially incriminating data from her computer in case the police discovered her hideaway. Jade considered that scenario highly unlikely. If the cops were all as dumb as Detective Kyle Travis, then there was nothing to worry about.
Digital cameras had one crucial advantage over older film models. They were completely silent, and allowed the user to take a picture discretely, even from the same room if so desired. It was essential to Jade’s plan she didn’t tip Travis off when she’d photographed him making love to Nicole. That wasn’t a big problem. Given Travis’ infatuation, he probably wouldn’t have noticed the camera had it been in plain view. As Jade had anticipated, the policeman had fallen in love. A ladykiller like Travis couldn’t resist the wiles of a temptress, especially one so seductive as Nicole. The killer had already thought up a suitable end for the womanizing detective. When the time was right, he’d die in Jade’s arms while she administered the ultimate climax. She was destined to be the last girl Travis ever kissed.
An on-screen message reported the file transfer was complete. Jade tucked her natural hair inside her wig, checked her disguise in the vanity mirror, and sat down at the computer desk. She clicked through the compromising portfolio. Thanks to the camera’s high-powered zoom and pixel resolution, the images were professional quality. It had required stealthy maneuvering on her part to get the angle right, but the faces of the two lovers were clearly identifiable. Travis couldn’t deny he was the man in the photographs, or that he’d made love to Nicole.
The images were explicit, showing Travis drunk and naked. Several photos pictured the detective fondling Nicole’s breasts or squeezing her buttocks. Others showed the two lovers at the height of passion, embracing on the karate mat. One photograph captured a kiss with perfect timing. Newspapers and cable networks would pay a lot of money for evidence a detective was having a steamy affair with Toshigi Tasoto’s daughter, but Jade had other plans for her pornographic album. She would play with Travis first, and drive him to the edge of insanity before she killed him.
The camera’s memory stick was full, containing a hundred images in total. Jade selected the best of the bunch, and sent the files to her color printer. The killer changed into her biker’s leathers while the hard copies were being deposited in the tray. Another bonus of modern cameras was how they eliminated the need for developing and fixing prints in a darkroom. Jade didn’t have the equipment or time for film processing, and involving a third party would have been an unnecessary risk. The advent of the digital age made it easy to produce glossy photos on home computers, and considerably more difficult to trace the pictures back to their source.
Jade sealed the photographs inside a brown envelope. She used her computer to print a single line of black text on the front side, the name of someone certain to be interested in Travis’ off-duty activities. Jade was careful to wear gloves when handling the paper. The package contained no fingerprints, handwriting samples, or any other clues of potential value to the police. Jade would deliver the envelope on the way back. First, she wanted to catch up with two old friends.
Chapter Eleven: Star of the Show
After dark, the bars and nightclubs along Broadway became havens for party-goers and lonely men seeking an escort to drive them home. Pink neon signs plastered the marquees, advertising happy hours, private viewing rooms and so-called dance shows. Tourist guides generally cautioned women against walking through the red light district alone at night, but Jade wasn’t about to let the local riff-raff scare her away. Anyone stupid enough to attack her would be lucky to escape with their life. There were quite a few deserted alleyways to dump a corpse where it wouldn’t be found until morning, and by then she’d be gone.
Jade parked her motorcycle opposite The Exotic Pearl. Despite its posh name, the “gentleman’s club” was no classier than any other strip joint in the area. The night was still young, and there were five hours to go before the dancers finished their routines. Patrons queued along the street, eager to get a glimpse of the girls inside. Most were in their early twenties, with the odd teenage boy hoping to crash the adults only party.
A single bouncer was on duty outside the front door, a heavyweight tank of a man wearing the official club jacket and tie. He carried a radio in his side pocket, but the big black guy could handle trouble by himself. One rude customer limped away holding his bruised jaw. The doorman had dissuaded him from jumping the queue with a right hook to the face. Combined with brass knuckles, it was a brutal but effective tactic that quickly resolved the situation.
Jade decided to try a more subtle approach. She removed her leather jumpsuit and helmet. A group of tattooed female bikers stared at her, not used to seeing a motorcyclist in an evening dress. It was the same, br
ight green outfit Jade had worn for Toshigi’s farewell speech, a formal gown that made men drool at the mouth. Jade smiled at her gawping admirers as she sprayed perfume on her neck. She put on her high heel shoes and a pair of dark glasses, slung a purse over her shoulder, and crossed the street.
“Sorry, miss,” the bouncer grunted, obstructing Jade’s path. “The queue starts over there. Rules are rules.” He pointed at the end of line, some forty or so people back.
Jade tilted up her glasses so the doorman could see her green eyes. “And you can’t make an exception?” she asked, moving closer.
“No exceptions. You go to the back,” he said.
The bouncer’s resistance broke as Jade pressed up against him. She stood on tiptoes and wafted her perfume’s scent up his nose. “That’s too bad,” she said seductively. “Because I have something to offer. Something I think you’d like very much.”
Jade ran her silk-gloved hand up the man’s trouser leg. He stood still, feet rooted to the spot. His breathing became heavier as Jade felt his groin area. She held a folded hundred dollar bill in the doorman’s face, and kissed him on the cheek. Wolf whistles came from the men stood in the queue. Nobody seemed too bothered Jade was using her sex appeal to get ahead.
“So what do you say?” Jade whispered in the bouncer’s ear.
The doorman snatched the bill from her hand. “Enjoy the show,” he said with a gold-toothed grin.
“Oh, believe me. I will.”
Jade replaced her glasses and stepped into the club. The doorman never presented a real obstacle. Brawn was no match for brains, skill and technique. She could have busted the guy’s balls or floored him with a single punch, but seduction and bribery allowed her to keep a low profile. The bouncer had gotten a close look at Jade’s face, but he wasn’t smart enough to remember the details. He’d only recall the color of her wig and what brand of perfume she used, if anything at all.
Jade Dragon (Action Girl Thrillers) Page 13
