High Stakes Gamble

by Mimi Barbour

  “Fine. We’re cutting it short so let’s move.”

  Within a few minutes, they pulled up to their large warehouse and entered through a side door. Activity all around showed the men preparing for the incoming haul of cocaine. Cells in the back where they kept the girls were empty and waiting and the trucks ready to transport the drugs to different centers were also on the premises.

  A short blast of a horn followed by two others indicated the arrival of their guests and Kai gave the go-ahead for the guys to open the large industrial overhead doors.

  Sure enough, four transport trucks pulled inside followed by one stunning black Hummer van.

  Sonny, standing next to Kai, moved restlessly, whereas Maylene stood full of attitude. Attitude that could get her killed. Kai noticed the gun stuck in the back of her skin-tight pants and wished he’d seen it earlier. Shit! The bitch could be trouble.

  A large Mexican stepped out of the open door of the Hummer and three men surrounded him, AK47s carried by each of them. Andres moved like a man who knew his worth. Haughty from being spoiled with millions, nonetheless his eyes were all-seeing and Kai knew instantly he wasn’t a man to trust… or to deceive.

  Kai waited for Sonny to speak, but he seemed tongue-tied. Not wanting things to go bad, he took the lead. “Señor Andres? Good to meet you. I’d like to present my boss, Sonny Angeli.”

  Taking his cue, Sonny stepped forward along with Maylene. “Hey there. Glad to meetcha.” After her elbow jabbed his side, he added. “This is my girl, Maylene. We have your funds waiting in the office. And we’ll do business once Kai here inspects the merchandise. If you come with me, I also have some drinks we can share while we wait.”

  Perfect! Kai had gone over this part with Sonny and was glad he’d thought to do so. Now to get the girls safely installed in the back and then he’d give the signal.

  Like ants moving in a rhythm they’d learned by rote from working together so many times, the action moved smoothly. As each truck was loaded and left, Kai knew they’d be pulled over as soon as they cleared the vicinity. But not until the raid had happened here in the warehouse.

  Okay, the girls were off loaded and safe, time to push the button on the cell in his pocket. Within a few heartbeats, men in uniform swarmed the place entering through back and side doors conveniently left open. They moved in every direction, calling out that they were LAPD.

  The men who’d entered the office came out with guns blazing only to be taken down by the armed SWAT team.

  One of the officers who knew Kai well recognized him and threw him a salute. Unfortunately Maylene, who’d run from the office, caught the motion and understood. She pulled her gun and shot him in the arm before getting shot herself. Sonny, scuttling toward the side door to escape caught a bullet and screamed for Kai.

  He never knew what possessed him to run through the barrage of bullets to get to the man. Once he started, it was like he was possessed. Skidding finally to where he could lean over Sonny, he heard him sobbing first for his momma and then for Kai.

  “I’m here, Sonny.” Kai saw the large hole in his stomach, blood gushing as fast as the heart pumped.

  Pitiful to the end, Sonny whispered. “D-Don’t leave me Kai. I’m s-scared. Am I gonna die?”

  Kai just couldn’t lie to Sonny anymore. “Fraid so, my man. Anything you want me to tell your mom?”

  “I love her. Tell her that. And Kai, I love you too. You treated me r-ri-ght.” Sonny didn’t leave the world gracefully. But all too soon, he gave up the fight and let go.

  Oh Christ! Kai’s heart slipped for a moment in sympathy for the little kid who’d never had a real friend. Too bad that loss had affected him adversely once he grew up.

  A movement to his right showed that Andres, barricaded up till now in the windowless office, had decided to make a run for it. Instantly, Kai made up his mind. Not on my watch. He pulled his weapon and fired. The man grabbed his thigh and went down, falling against the office door.

  That’s when he saw Maylene. She must have crawled there to hide after she’d taken the bullet. The bitch still had her gun. This time, she aimed for Kai’s heart.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Kai! Baby! Wake up. It’s okay, you’re safe.” Aurora patted his shoulder as she sat next to him, the cuffs dangling from one wrist. She switched on the bed lamp to low.

  The horrendous pain of the bullet ripping through his flesh still burned at him like a red-hot poker and he had to take a moment before speaking. He didn’t want her to hear him whimper. Sweaty, his body soaking, he gently made her shift and heaved himself upright to sit, leaning against the headboard.

  He noticed the cuffs on the hand that held his. “How did you get them off?”

  “You really were zonked. I just unscrewed the post.” Her playful disgust made him smile.

  “Shit!” He thought back and knew he’d been tuckered. But man, he never thought he was stupid.

  “Then how come you didn’t leave?”

  “I passed out. Guess I was more tired than I knew.”

  Aurora inched closer and pushed his hair away from his damp cheeks. He knew he looked like hell but wasn’t much he could do about it. Right now, he couldn’t have moved if his life depended on it. Nor would he want to with the woman he loved perched next to him, a soft light shining in her expressive eyes reminding him of the blue sapphire in a princess’s ring.

  “You were deep into a nightmare, calling my name and then moaning. I knew you were in trouble but I didn’t know how to help you.”

  “You didn’t read the file, did you?”

  Shook her head. “Nope.”

  “How come I knew that?” He couldn’t stop the proud grin from forming and liked it that she grinned back.

  “Guess I can’t blame you.”

  Without conscious intention, his hand lifted to stroke her face. He waited seconds to see if she’d react but she didn’t move, just kept staring at him. So cradling her neck he pulled her closer and met her halfway, his lips craving a taste. She stopped him, pushing against his stomach. Their mouths were within inches. Watching her closely, he knew she had to see his hunger. The wanting clawed at him. God, if he didn’t taste her soon, he’d beg. And he knew it. He inched even closer so their breaths mingled. Now! He’d kiss her now.

  “Would it help if you talked about it? If so, I’ll listen. We have some time before we need to leave.”

  Her words doused him like a keg of cold beer. So instead of romancing her, he settled back and told her why he’d stayed away and hadn’t contacted her. He didn’t go into great detail, left out the final shootout, and glossed over his part.

  Instead he focused on the syndicate and their corruption that needed to be wiped out and how he’d been warned not to jeopardize the mission by breaking cover. How he’d never expected the deal to last as long as it had. She listened, asked pertinent questions and then broke his heart.

  Rising and turning away from him, her voice hard, she said. “I’d have found a way to let you know.”

  “Yeah well, you weren’t there shadowed every minute by a possessive lunatic.” No way could he explain about his embarrassment for treating her the way he had. The decision he’d made that he had to apologize face to face, like a man.

  Then after the first month or so passed, he knew he’d waited too long. He’d have to let her go. Let her get on with her life. Who knew how much longer he’d be undercover? Hardest decision he’d ever made and probably the stupidest, but done with a pure heart and only her best interests.

  Aurora disappeared into the bathroom and he heard the shower start up. Guess it wouldn’t be a good idea to join her. God knew he wanted to. He opened his cell and fingered the page that had kept him sane during all his months away.

  Aurora, in all her beauty, sitting across from him in a bar, a filmy blouse that heightened her sexiness and a brilliant smile she’d shared with him after they’d finished dancing in a particularly suggestive style.

  If o
nly… If only they could go back to those days when they were falling in love. When Aurora sat, staring at him clear-eyed, no secrets, just pure adoration.

  Her passing out when she’d seen his blood at the Rhondo debacle and his knowing then that she truly loved him. God it had felt good! As if he’d been granted something amazingly precious. Dumb shit that he was, he hadn’t known how to cherish it. Instead, he’d put his own feelings in front of her needs. Stupid, stupid…. Arrgh!

  He dropped his head back and looked up at the ceiling as if a savior existed inside the paint. His mind made up, he promised himself—as long as she didn’t have anyone else in her life, for as long as it took, he’d try his luck with her again. He’d take things slow and easy, woo her and subdue his macho attitude, be softer and more understanding.

  Something he’d thought about earlier popped back into his thoughts. What if she’d found someone else? When asked, Cory hadn’t been very forthcoming on that subject; in fact Kai had gotten a bad feeling when his Bud hadn’t looked him in the eye while deviating from answering.

  He shrugged then winced. Hell, he’d made up his mind. What could he lose that he hadn’t already thrown away?

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Set it up, Ham,” Aurora insisted. “I mean it. I’m sick of waiting for a break in the case. So far, that white truck seems to have fallen off the radar. Who knows, since Min Chang was willing to kill for the gang, stands to reason she knows something.” Aurora heard the begging note in her voice and doused it.

  “She’ll go for you again, Aurora. That colleen hates you with a passion. Could be she’ll talk to me or Kai but I don’t trust her with you.”

  Aurora faced Cory and gave him ‘the look’. “Cory, I want this.”

  “Think rationally, Aurora. You’ve beaten her twice. And this time she has nothing to lose. We’ve already got her for attempted murder.”

  “She’ll talk. Not to any man. But she will to me.”

  “What makes you so sure?” Kai had to pose the question the other two hadn’t.

  “Because she wants me. I’ve seen it in her eyes. She wants to subjugate me. It’s about status, being the best. And I’ll let her if it means getting any information about the Chang-Lee brothers and their crowd.”

  Aurora saw the flare of anger in his eyes and her stomach clenched. A glow began low and built—the same spark he’d ignited earlier when he walked into the room. How she could notice him while sick with worry about her baby, she had no idea? Feelings rioted through her she had no control over. Sick with worry on one hand and yet gratitude that he stood beside her on the other. Maybe she needed to see a shrink because she felt loony-bin crazy. Okay, focus here. This had to happen.

  She approached the man who could give her what she wanted. “You know I’m right, Cory. You talked to Sally.”

  “Yeah, I talked to Sally. She says it herself, Aurora. Min Chang is one cold-hearted bitch. She has everyone around her cowering, and seeing as how she’ll be taken to maximum security at Ely as soon as the arraignment is set, no one wants to mess with her.”

  “I do! I want to mess with her until she talks. I want it so bad I can taste it.”

  “Alright!!” Ground out the way only Cory could, the word reverberated. “Just don’t do anything stupid, Rory. Go with her you two, and for heaven’s sake, look after her.”

  ***

  As Aurora headed out the open door and down the hallway, Ham looked at Kai and then at Cory. His girl hadn’t barked at Cory for using her nickname? He shook his head, grabbed his weapon and followed. When the devil rode their Aurora; heaven only knew what they could expect. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I hope you’re all paying attention.

  ***

  Aurora stood ready as Sally escorted a chained Min Chang into the interview room. Sally caught Aurora’s gaze, a warning glint in her knowing eyes. “There’ll be no funny business, got it? You two talk, nothing else.”

  It took every bit of control Aurora had not to go for the throat of the person hooked up with the gang who’d stolen Lily. Instead she uttered words—soft and low. “Fine. We talk. So she doesn’t need to be chained like a dog, does she?”

  For the first time Min raised her head to stare directly at Aurora. Cold hatred blazed from the slanted, narrowed orbs. Daringly, she held out her arms to the assisting guard who hesitated before complying after a nod from Sally.

  Aurora took a second to wink at Ham and Kai. Knowing that Min would see her actions and it would piss her off, she’d purposefully acknowledged them. She’d asked them to stay behind the mirrored wall and it pleased her when they hadn’t argued.

  This was her fight, one that had been fated. Aurora sat down on the edge of the table and motioned the chair to Min. Then she gave the signal for Sally and her girl to leave. Since this had been discussed rather heatedly before they’d even brought Min Chang to the room, Sally shot the inmate a warning look, let the guard precede her and then exited.

  Now Aurora concentrated on the woman before her. Although she had no doubt the Chinese girl was in her mid to late twenties, she looked like a teenager. Flat-chested, she had the wiry build of a male but a face feminine and even strangely beautiful.

  Haunting dark eyes full of distrust vying with temper and hate, Min’s lip curled and she spoke. Her voice completely destroyed the picture she presented of a fierce warrior. She sounded like a spoiled little girl. “What do you want?”

  “Information.”

  “What possible information can I have that you’d want so much you’d take the chance to be here, with me—alone?”

  Aurora’s phony chuckle didn’t come close to sounding real. “Oh, you’re not so scary, Min.” Aurora leaned closer, letting Min see the rage burning her insides. “Seriously? My baby has been kidnapped and I believe a trucker working for the Chang-Lee brothers is hauling her and other captives across the California state line to a ship leaving from L.A. Only thing is, he can’t leave this area. Beside every bus station, train and airport, we’ve secured, we’re also keeping strict surveillance on every border, highway, outlying road and known trails.”

  Min Chang pursed her mouth as if to hold in a smile. Instead she sneered. “So?”

  “So I want to know where or by what other means they might have of getting the merchandise across the border and into California or where they might hold up in the meantime.”

  “And what makes you think I’d know this?”

  “Because you’re a half-sister, aren’t you? A nothing to them. Hell, less than nothing. You’re not a man; therefore they have no use for you.”

  Min’s chair scraped slowly back, the sound blasting through the silence.

  Aurora ignored her and kept battering. “That must have pissed you off? Although your chance came in here. Right? They contacted you to do something for them. Get to Mother Ling, kill her. You had to prove yourself, didn’t you? I might have done the same.” She hesitated then, watching Min’s anger flourish. Seconds later she plunged back in deeper. “Nah! I’d have cut off their balls if they’d treated me like they did you, forcing me to pick pockets for a living. Bah!” Shaking her head and smirking, Aurora showing her disrespect not only in her words but by her actions.

  Min jumped to her feet. “What the fuck do you know?”

  Got her! “I know I’d pay them back. Right now the only way you can bring them down is in the courts by testifying against them. For all their arrogance, they deserve to be brought to justice. And they will be caught, don’t you doubt it. There’s a huge task force working to do that right now. It’s just a matter of time.” Aurora couldn’t help but see a flare of satisfaction in Min’s narrowed gaze. “Maybe, we can make a deal of sorts for your co-operation.”

  Min tried to hide her interest behind her normal disdain, but didn’t succeed. “Before I give you anything, there’s one thing I need to know.”

  Here it comes. Aurora had expected this would happen. Her heart beat faster, adrenalin pumping through her like a blown out wa
ter main.

  “What?”

  “I want to fight you, here—now. I have to know. I’m better, I know am I.”

  “If I do as you want, will you promise to answer our questions?”

  “You might not like the answers.”

  “But I need to hear them. Okay. Deal.” Aurora stood and took off her light jacket, then she slipped out of her high-heeled boots.

  Min Chang rose, moved to the side of the small room and took a fighting stance. Relaxed in her utter belief she would win, she waited with small grin of arrogance.

  Aurora, moving just past the chair, checked one more rule. “No holds barred?”

  Min’s face finally relaxed into a full smile. “Is there any other way?”

  At the last second, she might have sensed that Aurora was about to use the chair like a bludgeon, but she could do nothing to stop it. Downed and pissed, she struggled against the hold Aurora had her in—using the rung of the furniture as an instrument of torture against Min’s neck. “You are one trusting bitch, aren’t you?” Aurora whispered the words.

  As more and more of her airways were cut off, Min’s struggles slowed and eventually stopped. Aurora never broke eye contact and knew when the other had finally accepted her betters. “You going to keep your word?”

  “I don’t lie.” Min spit the words from between clenched teeth. Her look alone could have broken glass.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  As they left the prison, Kai thought about the earlier brief time alone with Ham behind a mirrored window and about their pertinent discussion. He’d learned another lesson about the woman that made his heart beat faster every time he was in the same room with her.

  Speaking from the side of his mouth, the big Irishman had first broken the silence. “Aurora’s working her.”

  “I know. But is she a better fighter?”

  “Oh man, you really don’t know our Rory. She’s the best I’ve ever seen. Cool and methodical, she knows all the moves and practices most days.”