by Zoe York
— TWELVE —
Elena took well longer than necessary for her toilette. The story of his parents had all the consequences she assumed he’d wanted. Of course, she saw the parallels there, and yes, their story had a happy ending, but it didn’t mean that hers would.
Vietnam was an eternity ago. A different time. It didn’t mean anything that...“Ow!”
Elena tumbled to the ground, slipping on a patch of unsteady earth and rolling hands over legs down a small hill. She landed with a thud at a small outcropping.
An outcropping with a chain ladder.
Okay.
She ought to call for Kent, but on the off chance she wasn’t alone, she didn’t want to alert anyone else of her presence.
Slowly, as not to make the metal clink, she unfolded the chain ladder. It took a couple of rotations, but her eyes landed on a spot of foliage not quite like the others. Its branches were bent and discolored. Grass packed down. Someone had put it there on purpose.
Ladder in one hand, she peeled away the greenery, revealing a gloomy hole to nowhere. She leaned back, but when no one shot or screamed at the new light, she dangled the ladder inside.
Gun in hand, she put one foot below the other until she hit solid ground in the cavern. The only light came from the hole above, but to her eyes, it looked like a mining cave. A full-scale operation.
That made even less sense. Bhutan didn’t have many minerals to start with, let along precious metals to warrant something like this. She scrambled back up and ran to their campground. Kent was bent over, packing up their things. “Ready?”
“No. Grab the light and follow me.”
Kent’s easy smile dropped. His nostrils flared and he tapped the gun on his hip. At her nod, he grabbed another one from the car. In silence, they ran toward her discovery, squatting by the entrance of the hole. “Shit.”
“This must be how they move the cigarettes.”
“I’m assuming you’ve already been inside.”
“Of course.”
He rolled his eyes and went in. They didn’t speak for several seconds, nor did they turn on the light as they moved further and further away from the entrance. Shrouded in darkness, Kent’s hand was proof that she wasn’t alone in the universe. The darkness was alive down here, moving and swirling around them. There was plenty of air though, and a breeze indicated an air propulsion system. Her mind knew that, yet she gasped for each breath as if the darkness reached down into her lungs to steal it from her.
His light flickered on. Kent turned, and one massive hand came down on her shoulder. “You okay?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Good. Ideas? This thing could go on for miles. Agree that this will lead us directly to Xiàng?”
She nodded. “Agree.”
“Agree that there’s no way we or anyone else can get those amber panels out through this tunnel?”
“No question.” If all of the walls of the Amber Room were here and intact, they were looking at over two tons. That meant a truck and a big one. “I say we follow it anyway to see where it goes. For all we know, it ends in Xiàng’s garage.”
“Let’s find out.” Kent flicked out the light, and the darkness took over once again. After a mile or so, florescent beams blossomed, creeping out from around the bend. Elena and Kent pressed their backs against the damp wall, mirroring each other with guns at the ready.
Kent peered around first and pursed his lips in silent whistle. A second later, she saw the object of his widened eyes.
There had been a sliver of hope—a tiny one—that the amber panels had somehow been hidden down here. No. Not at all. Just a series of bags stuffed and overflowing with Euros.
She went to investigate, but Kent’s arm corded around her waist like a lasso. “Name one good reason someone would leave open bags of cash?”
There wasn’t one. She grabbed the light and waved it around. Nothing. Well...perhaps. She spit in the air and it danced like little diamonds on a wire. “The whole thing’s booby trapped.”
“I imagine the entrance to his compound is on the other side of it. I’ve never seen the spit technique before.”
“Hush.”
“I don’t disapprove—”
Any other smartass thing he was going to say died as voices echoed off the craggy walls.
Elena stepped as far forward as she dared. “Yue dialect. Southern China...West Coast.”
“It fits our boy.” He pulled her back into a small cut away.
They didn’t speak much after that. The voices grew louder and closer by the second until they saw the men pass. No, not pass. Stop.
The men dumped crates so close to their hiding place that dirt flickered onto Elena’s face.
No, not now. She swallowed back a sneeze, letting it out in a peep and whoosh of air.
She froze. Kent froze. And so did the two men.
Some rodent, a mole or shrew, skittered briefly into the light before disappearing into the tunnel and after a shared laugh, the smugglers resumed their low conversation. She listened, greedily taking in what she could. Their speech wasn’t in her area of expertise, but she caught enough.
An Australian buyer had a barge waiting in Haldia, India. More worryingly, at least as far as she was concerned, was that this buyer had a team of drivers waiting to take over the bus in Siliguri tomorrow afternoon.
The voice and footsteps retreated, along with the squeaking wheel of a pull cart. They’d get no better time to escape. “Back to the car,” she whispered.
She and Kent walked backward, soft as cat paws, until he deemed it safe to run. It took too long to see it, but after an eternity, the light and ladder came into view.
Kent climbed up ahead of her. The first thing she saw was his smile. “What?”
“That was way more fun than I thought it’d be.”
“You’re enjoying this.”
He extended his hand and hauled her up, but her feet didn’t touch the ground. Kent held her body tight against his warmth. He rubbed his morning stubble against her cheek. “So are you.”
The man was an unexpected burst of honey, too sweet and yet impossible to reject. His timing, however, left much to be desired. “They’re moving the Amber Room tomorrow.”
“What?”
“C’mon, help me put everything back like it was, and then we’ll talk. We’ve got less than sixteen hours.”
— THIRTEEN —
They settled the car and motorcycle in a copse of trees a few miles away from Xiàng’s walled estate. Another fire this close to the compound was impossible. They couldn’t risk the smoke. Everything they ate was cold and chewy, but neither of them complained.
The closer they got to danger, the more Kent morphed into the machine she’d seen on the bus and by the road. His two natures couldn’t be more different, and yet both sides made the whole of the man who’d done so much for her in such short time. How much would she change if she stayed with him longer?
Who would she be after one year with this man? She closed her eyes, and a vision of a group of people laughing in front of a Christmas tree played in her head. No patch. Just her and him at her side. Together. Smiling. Happy.
Kent dropped another branch over the car’s hood and peered inside. “Day dreaming about me again?”
“Don’t be conceited. I’m checking the terrain. I saved a topographic map of the area. It’ll take some fancy footwork, but the bike can manage it. We’ll run parallel to the road, and when the time comes, take the truck.”
Kent heaved up another branch. The collar of his shirt was dark with sweat, and his neck muscles twitched with exertion. “We need to make the time come. Force a diversion. I can get naked if I need to.”
“I’m sure they’ll hand everything over without a fight.”
“It’s not unlikely.”
His wink was more endearing than before. Or perhaps it’d always been that way, and she’d been too guarded to notice. Rather than figure what she felt and why she felt it, s
he winked back. Just because.
When he bent, she rose to her knees. Just because.
And this time, when he kissed her, she didn’t pull back. She didn’t regret. She enjoyed. Her heart grew in these cold mountains and his arms. She burned like a phoenix —dead and perfectly reborn against his lips.
Kent’s hand captured her neck, holding her in place. Silly man. She had no intention of running anymore. She was owed this. For too long, the universe had taken. Now it was her turn.
She crawled back into the folded-down seat. “One night.”
“Promise me more than that, Elena.”
The shift hadn’t been immediate, but it had now grown impossible to ignore. The question between them danced like players on a field. She could keep the man a secret for as long as it took to get the job and settle in. They’d hide it.
Why not? She was smart. He was too. They were adults. If it didn’t work, fine. But she had to try. “Yes.”
“Yes, Elena? No reservations?”
“Not anymore.” She twisted into the fabric at her cheek and covered her face. “Maybe a little, but not about this. Or you.”
Still, he didn’t come to her. “What if the inimitable Dragon finds out? What will you say then?”
“The truth. I do think we should keep it—whatever this is—private for a while, but I won’t deny you. I was married to my job once. It nearly killed me and almost destroyed who I was. You’ve shown me that I can be so much more. I won’t cheat myself out of that. Try not to look so satisfied with yourself. I might drop you in a week.”
Sinuous as a panther, Kent crawled on top of her, stopping with one knee between her legs. “Then I’ll work hard to make sure you don’t.”
— FOURTEEN —
Kent rotated his knee against the heat of her sex. She boiled through their layers of clothing –wet for him, just the way he dreamed she’d be. Elena moaned, and he couldn’t bite back the chuckle that escaped. “Save your breath, dear. You’ll go hoarse in an hour.”
They removed each other’s clothes in a silence broken only by appreciative huffs of air. Elena was silk in his hands, moving and bending at his word. His touch. And he meant to take his time with her. Taste every inch of her.
Her breasts were beautiful, tanned globes in his hands. He bent for a taste—sweet, her natural flavor, but also the tang of salt from their exertions. The nub in his mouth peaked as he tugged, dragging his teeth along her sugary skin. “I want to fuck you properly in bed they way you deserve.”
He sucked in air when she grabbed a fistful of his hair. “I’ll kill you if you stop.”
“I’d deserve it.” Elena’s skin set fire to his fingertips. He moved them down the valley of her breasts, the dip of her stomach, down to the tuff of hair between her legs. “Open for me.”
His dick jumped against his thigh like an eager dog, desperate to be where his fingers moved. He slid one inside her, then two, never taking his eyes off her face. Elena’s eyelids slammed shut. And fuck everything, but there was nothing better in the world than watching a woman bite into her lip and knowing he caused it.
Tight. Warm. Wet.
His whole body would find peace once his cock was locked tight within her. But he had to do this right. He had to fuck her so thoroughly that even when he pissed her off, she couldn’t drag herself out of bed to walk away.
Surrounded by the darkness of the night and their cover of foliage, he moved by feel and sound. What touches made her gasp? Which ones made her moan? Which ones had her clasping her legs together, even as she scooted up to take his fingers in deeper?
He was drunk off the smell of her sex, long before he withdrew his fingers and brought her juices to his tongue. Good god. Elena was a drug, the kind that hooked you on the first hit. He longed to taste directly from the source, but the car was unwilling to accommodate.
Fine. Later.
For now, he contented himself pinning her knees apart and ramming his cock deep inside her until he heard her heart sing. She clenched and bucked, wrapping her legs around his back and locking him in the sweet prison of her body. Heaven lived inside of her, and he took his share of it stroke by stroke.
“Yes, Kent! Yes!”
His name on her lips was a shot of ambrosia to the heart. “You will scream my name over and over again,” he commanded by her ear, punctuating each word with a thrust of his hips.
And yes, she screamed his name. And yes, he screamed hers, until they collapsed together, in a tangled, breathless, smiling heap.
— FIFTEEN —
Warmth enveloped Elena as she beat back the fog of sleep. She was wrapped in Kent’s gho as much as his embrace. After last night’s lovemaking, she’d fallen dead asleep, only waking once or twice when Kent turned on the motor for some heat.
Elena hadn’t felt the chill at all. She ached from their night, sweet and deep inside her body, a good pain, one that reminded her that she was alive again in every sense of the word.
“Normally I’d thank a woman for the lovely evening and send her on her way.”
“I won’t go,” she mumbled against the inside of his arm.
“I won’t let you go. Whatever happens with this mission and work, we’re going to try.” The wink that turned her heart to mush and curled her toes appeared once more.
“We’re in agreement. I think—” His body turned to a pillar of stone. “Do you hear that?”
The rumbling tearing alongside the mountain was too loud to be anything other than a truck. “Yeah, and if that’s what I think it is, the drop’s happening early.”
“Move out.”
No time for soft words or playful redressing. They threw on their clothes and guns, planning as they shoved on pant legs and shoes.
“You’re going to drive the motorcycle,” Kent said. “I’ll ride behind you and jump off.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“We’re out of options and running out of time. We need to take that truck, contents and all.
“Don’t you dare wink at me, Kent Avery. What you’re planning is—”
“Dangerous?”
“Stupid.”
He grabbed his backpack and tossed her an earpiece. “We’ll be in contact the whole time. Don’t look at me like that. Think of it this way: we complete this mission, and there’s no damned way my brother would want to keep us apart.”
“What the devil does your brother have to do with anything?”
As soon as he winked, she knew she was in trouble. “Well, he’s the Dragon, so, yeah. Kinda everything.”
*****
He had to be lying. Kent would have said anything to get her moving again, but it worked. Here they were barreling down the side of a mountain at breakneck speed to catch a truck and attempt to jump on it.
“You made that up back there, right?”
He chuckled into the earpiece, his arms pulsing around her body. “Nope. I told you. He loves me. But I couldn’t have you think you’d get the job because of me. I’ll keep my mouth shut until you hear news of your new employment yourself. Heads up.”
More, she couldn’t ask. The truck had just come into view. It moved like a lumbering sloth, too huge to do anything other than ride in sixth gear and stick at a solid thirty miles per hour. It wasn’t a semi as they’d expected, but a large cargo truck, with a massive gray canvas, tied around the ends by fraying bamboo rope.
She drove up near the driver’s window. “Two people. I think. Plus two or three in the back.”
“You don’t know that. Stop making stuff up. I’ll be fine.”
“You’d better. Your brother will kill me if anything happens to you.”
“Nah, given any number of people in the room, I’m generally the one whose fault it is.”
“What is?”
“Everything, dear. Now, hold her steady for me, Elena. I’m going.”
She wanted to scream at him to stay put, but she didn’t dare lose her focus on the road. One slip, one bump, and his bra
in would fertilize the gulley.
Oh, keep him safe, she prayed to anyone listening.
Someone heard. Kent didn’t jump, thank goodness, but pulled, heaving himself up by the bamboo rope. Her stomach churned at the thought of his hands, ripping and tearing as he hauled himself up one agonizing inch at a time, his legs dangling by rolling wheels, Biceps popped as he climbed in under the tarp. Then shots rang out behind her.
“Elena!”
“I’ve got this. I’ll catch up.” She wasted precious seconds looking back until he and the truck disappeared around the curve.
She ditched the bike in the road and ran for the gulley alongside it, ducking as the car passed and shooting the tires right from underneath it. The car skidded and swerved.
Kent called her name in the earpiece. She didn’t have time to answer.
Three men poured out of the fishtailing car. The first two drew guns on her. She dropped them both. A third came out with his hands in the air. A long ponytail flickered in the wind. “Xiàng.”
He nodded and responded in crisp Dzongkha. “I don’t think we’ve met. Is there a reason you’ve killed my men?”
“Them shooting at me isn’t sufficient enough a reason?”
His laughter was like cracked glass, and a sliver of fear ran down her spine. “You are not from this place,” he said in English.
“Neither are you.”
“You have honor. I see it in your eyes.”
“Stay back.”
“But I only want to see you up close, Missus?”
Elena fired a warning shot just over his shoulder. “That’s close enough.”
“See, you do have honor. You won’t shoot an unarmed man.”
“Says who?”
— SIXTEEN —
