by Fritz Galt
Brad picked up his shirt. It was stiff and caked with dust, dried blood and perspiration. The reek was nearly unbearable. “That’s it.”
“What’s it?” Sullivan said urgently. “You’ll come?”
“Sure,” Brad said and hung up.
Okay, so he got the message. His dad needed him. But what the world needed more was for him to take a shower.
Chapter 17
May soaked in the hot tub trying to avoid the moves of two attentive young men. The taller one in a blue Speedo sidled closer to her. He had blond hair, faint eyebrows, raw-cut features and a scar on his chin. She contemplated using the same knee to the groin maneuver that had worked so well on the man at the bar in San Francisco.
But she had presented herself as too receptive to put that move on Mr. Speedo. She had smiled at him when he skied past in his cowboy hat. She had allowed him to pat all the snow off of her after she fell. And she had let him slide into the tub where he could rest his arm around her.
She looked to her friend for guidance. Jade’s feline demeanor was a study in composure. She was the kind of girl who didn’t reveal her emotions easily. But May knew better. Jade’s calm exterior masked a tendency to rely on snap judgments and first impressions.
The guy seated above Jade had taken his eyes off her revealing bikini top. He slid all the way into the water beside her. From the way Jade relaxed further and allowed her body to float upward in the sudsy water, May gathered that she was encouraging him. Then Jade drifted toward the center of the tub and stood up. Outwardly indifferent, she held her hair out of the water and pinned it to the top of her head, thus exposing her neck and toned biceps and pleasantly bulging bikini, all clearly meant to further entice the man.
The pantomime in the rising steam began to make May uncomfortable. After all, where did Earl Skitowsky fit into all this? Here Jade bobbed in a ski resort in the middle of Earl’s own country, a position she would not be in without him, and here she was clearly seducing a young man without inhibition.
“I have to go,” May decided abruptly.
Jade’s eyes flashed up. May was breaking the spell that she had been casting.
“Ah, will we hook up later?” the guy beside her asked.
May looked directly at him for the first time. His face didn’t match his body. Now that she could study the finer details, his cheeks were pitted and his nose curved upward unattractively. However, his body said something entirely different with its muscles rippling just below the surface. “I am sorry,” she said, and signaled her girlfriend that it was time to leave.
Jade grudgingly complied and climbed out of the hot tub, but not before pivoting her muscular derriere into the face of the guy beside her. “We were thinking of going out for a drink,” she said.
“How about meeting up at Burke and Riley’s,” her man offered.
Jade shook her head uncomprehendingly.
“It’s a pub on South Main Street. See you there?”
May had already turned to leave.
“Okay. Burke’s,” Jade said, and hurried to catch up with May.
May waited for her at the elevator lobby, then lit into her friend. “What was that all about? You can’t feed a bull when you milk the cow.”
“I thought you were over Brad,” Jade said.
“Over Brad? I’m on a mission to find my father. I’m not running away from Brad.”
“Your body was saying something entirely different just a few minutes ago.”
May wasn’t a prude, but it was Jade who had exuded all the sensuality. For the sake of their friendship, she bit her tongue.
“Come on,” Jade said. “It’s Saturday night. We will go out for drinks.”
May had to admit that Jade was good enough to help her look for her dad. She had to give her friend some time off. “Drinks are fine. But we’ll choose our own place.”
Still woozy from the long soak in the hot tub, May felt flushed and sweaty as she stepped with Jade out into the frigid night air. She followed Jade on Main Street and kept a lookout for that elusive white Ford Escort.
She saw oversized American vehicles—pickups, sports utility vehicles, campers and minivans. There were also plenty of late model Mercedes and BMWs, but no Fords in sight. Her father was a Ford kind of guy. She could see the white-haired scientist riding complacently in the back seat of a common sedan. But she had a hard time picturing Liang in one.
“Hats!” Jade screamed.
May was tugged into an outfitter, whereupon Jade began trying cowgirl hats on.
“That’s it!” Jade jumped up and down and put a ten-gallon hat on her. “I like them big!” She pulled out her credit card. “Charge them both.”
Then Jade’s attention strayed to a wall of cowboy boots.
“May, quick. Try these on.”
Several minutes later, the soles of their new leather boots crunched against the ice on the sidewalk. May pulled the brim of her tan cowgirl hat down low and tried to keep the brisk wind out of her face.
The street was crawling with the weekend crowd. A woman in knee-high boots pranced past and into a photo gallery. Male college students strolled in front of them. The phrase “Breckenridge is my Bitch” was stenciled on one of their sweatshirts. It was definitely not her father’s kind of place.
“Oh. There’s Burke and Riley’s,” Jade said.
“I said ‘no’ to that place.”
Jade checked out the multi-generational crowd hanging around the pub.
May averted her eyes and dove into the nearest store. Inside the bright place, customers were grooving to a reggae beat.
“Welcome to Breckenridge Body Art,” a bald man said. The tattoo of a snake ran Gorbachev-style down his forehead. “Make yourself at home. Look around. We’ve got lots of quality jewelry. It’s hand-carved. We have wood, bone, acrylic, stainless steel.”
The man’s attempts to figure her out were mildly amusing. She wasn’t there to shop. In fact, she’d never been to such a place before. It was a far cry from the pearl market in Beijing. But her eyes were drawn to the man’s forehead with the multi-colored serpent artistically inscribed in his skin.
“You make body art?” she shouted above the pounding music.
He nodded.
“I’d like one of those.” She pointed to his head.
“One of these?” He bent down and pointed to the crown of his head. It gave her a full view of the artwork that trailed over his scalp and down his neck to somewhere under his shirt collar.
“Yes.”
“May!” came Jade’s alarmed cry.
“What?”
Jade had just thrown the door open and stood there speechless. She grabbed May by the elbow and tried to draw her outside. “Are you out of your mind?”
“How about a rainbow?” the man said, clearly worried about losing a serious customer. Then the door chime sounded again and he brightened up at the sight of more customers. “Excuse me, ladies.”
Jade relaxed her grip on May’s arm and turned to the newcomers. “Hi, guys.”
It was the two studs from the pool. May’s would-be male escort removed his cowboy hat. “You found us.”
What an eel. The two men had been looking for them.
“I’m here for a tutu,” she said above the drumbeat. Maybe that would send them away.
But the cowboy was nodding to the rhythm. “Dig it, mon. I can wait.” He squatted in a seat by the door and grabbed the nearest magazine.
“I’ll see you at Burke’s,” Jade called over her shoulder. She left with a reproving glance and a bounce in her step.
Who was Jade to scold her? May would go through with this. “Give me one of those.” She pointed to the man’s bald spot. “But not where you have it. I want it where nobody can see it.”
“No problem, my lady.” The man slipped into a Marley impersonation that was crude even to a Chinese ear. “I have a special room in the back of the parlor.”
He guided her off the shop floor and behin
d a curtain. There she found a storage room that doubled as a bathroom. Beside that was a second room outfitted with a lamp and medical examination table.
“If you’ll step in here,” he said, and handed her a white robe. “Our guest artist from Th’ink Tank will perform the honors.”
The door closed, and May turned around. She was all alone. What did he mean by a think tank? And what did he mean by honors?
It didn’t feel right to strip off her clothes. She set her ski jacket and hat aside and folded her white blouse and pants, but stopped at her panties to examine her body. Where did she want the design to go? And what design did she want? Even more importantly, how long was that young buck going to sit out there and subject himself to that music?
Just then she heard a short knock on the door. She grabbed the robe and quickly put it on. A plump woman entered and threw her a reassuring smile.
“Take this,” she said and handed over an iPod. May tried to identify the accent. Perhaps it was Spanish. “The música drives me loco.”
May was alarmed by the rings in the woman’s nose. But the large, sweet face and broken English put her at ease. It was comforting to meet another newcomer to America. So she slipped the lanyard around her neck.
“If you drop it, no worry. It no break,” the woman assured her. “Now what we are talking about tonight? A little stud, a little ring? I can do the tongue, the ear, the nose, the nipple and the you-know-what.”
“No. Not tonight,” May found herself saying.
“Ho-kay, no jewelry tonight. So a tattoo. Where?”
May felt a confidential smile creep across her lips, and she slowly removed her robe.
A full hour in the pub, and Jade was getting antsy. Her new friend had bought her plenty of the local brew, but May still hadn’t shown up. Maybe she had returned to the condo on her own.
Jade slipped off the bar stool and signaled for the cowhand to follow her outside. She was mildly surprised to find May’s chaperone still perched in the same chair at the tattoo parlor. His head still bobbed to the beat.
“Where’s May?”
“Oh,” he said with a cough. “So that’s her name.”
“I am coming.” It was May’s voice from the back of the shop.
A moment later, her petite friend appeared. May’s hat was firmly crammed down on her head and ears.
“So show us,” Jade said. “Where’s your snake?”
“I no get snake.”
Jade looked at her. “Where did you get that accent?”
May shrugged.
She whipped May’s hat off, and the long black hair was still in place. Well, at least May hadn’t gotten a snake permanently tattooed to her scalp. That would be a hard one to explain in polite company.
“So what did you get?” the guy by the door wanted to know.
“I can no show you.” May didn’t have a coy bone in her body.
“So, later then,” the guy said, and hoisted himself out of his seat.
A generously proportioned woman emerged from behind the curtain. May removed a music player that was hanging around her neck and handed it to the woman. Then she pulled several ten-dollar bills out of her pocket and paid her.
“I will no forget this,” May said, as if they were sharing a secret. “Gracias.”
“De nada,” the woman replied with a wink.
May turned briskly to leave. “No Burke, please.”
What had that woman done to May’s speech? Her voice was rising and falling like a Chinese yoyo.
“Show me your tongue,” Jade said.
May opened her mouth. No stud there. Still, something awfully weird had happened in that room.
“I just want some música. More música. Good música.”
Jade looked at May’s male companion for help.
“Well, there’s Cecelia’s,” he ventured.
“Is good,” May said, apparently determined to stay one step ahead of the rest. “Which way?”
A few minutes later, they were walking into a red and pink establishment called Cecelia’s. The floor palpably throbbed with the bass beat of the latest Shania Twain dance mix. Jade had never seen such a retro interior, but it seemed to satisfy May. So she decided to relax and enjoy it.
No sooner had a hostess taken them to a seat, than their companions were all over them asking them to dance. Jade accepted. May did not.
As she boogied on the black-and-white checkered dance floor, Jade watched her best friend tip her hat back and down an orange-colored martini in a single gulp.
Jade’s dance partner was busy exploring her body, and his tobacco-stained teeth were beginning to repulse her. The room was awash in bobbing dancers. Lights swiped over their faces and revealed a painted eyebrow here, a bracelet there, a pierced chin somewhere else. By the end of the song, she was ready to leave the establishment.
Suddenly, May came rushing toward her with her boy in tow. “Keep dancing,” May shouted in her ear. She flung her body into the arms of her partner.
It wasn’t all that good a song, but Jade complied. Other dancers momentarily separated the two couples. When May eventually squirmed and twisted her way back, her face was as white and shiny as an oyster.
“What’s the matter?” Jade shouted over the shrieking vocals.
“Liang is here!”
Prickles of fear covered every centimeter of Jade’s body. She came to a complete stop.
“Did he see you?”
“I don’t think so,” May replied.
Jade felt her arm wrenched away, and suddenly she was crushed up against the chest of a gorgeous Asian man. His gave her a mesmerizing smile and the room seemed to fall silent. Then his lips curled into a familiar, ruthless grin. Some of his features had been altered, but the predatory smile was unmistakable. It was Liang.
Jade’s fantasy world came crashing down around her. She had let her impulses unseat her judgment. And now she was in the arms of the enemy.
The music came back louder and wilder. She began to float to the rhythm under Liang’s masterful touch. She had once had a big-time crush on him. The CIA had exploited that fact and had once assigned her to undermine his efforts at bringing down the Chinese government. Bringing him down to the sheets had seemed like a noble cause, until she learned what a repugnant personality he had.
Now with his return from the dead, she was falling back into old habits, wheedling her way back into his heart.
“Where did you get that ugly face?” she said in Chinese.
He grinned and was clearly secure with his new look. “How did you recognize me?”
The music transformed into a slow dance that drew them close together. She reached out and fingered his shoulders. “It was your eyes,” she lied. She tilted her head back so that she could study him from under her hat. He still had that reckless, seductive charm. “And your body,” she went on, her voice dropping to a lower register.
He seemed to like that and pressed her more tightly against him. The silk shirt was barely there, and she imagined herself lying against his hairless chest and bulging pectoral muscles.
“I see someone else with the same hat,” he mentioned casually.
Jade’s heart dropped.
“Could I invite you both to my table?” He indicated a table at the edge of the dance floor. Three full martini glasses already stood there. One was a pale pink, one violet, and the other lime green.
“I suppose I could use a drink.” If she were going to remain his close friend, she would have to let him take the lead.
When the song ended, she followed him off the floor. Far across the room, she made out the figure of her former dance partner rifling through a wad of bills.
A geeky DJ with Buddy Holly glasses peered over the dance floor. He breathed into his mike and put in a plug for the cigar parlor. The lull in music cleared the floor, and Liang reached out to grab May.
She spun around. Her long hair tangled in her eyes. But the look on her face was that of sickening dread.
Jade felt sorry for her in a way that she hadn’t before. She could have sympathized with May over Liang’s manipulation of Dr. Yu and his psychotic dependency on her. But the dread came from her former intimacy with Liang and her past years of devotion to him that may not have completely worn off. May was even more mixed up than she was.
“Where’s my father?” May said harshly. She was clearly fighting off whatever vestiges of a hold Liang had on her.
Where was May’s dance partner? Jade looked around and found him joining his buddy. They began divvying up the cash that Liang must have handed out to get rid of them. Boy, she should have been grateful to Liang. Those two losers would have been a real mistake.
Liang indicated where the two ladies should place themselves, one on either side of him on a plush couch. They slowly scooted before the pink and green drinks. Liang raised his glass. The martini reflected a deep violet in his face. “Here I am with the two cutest yak girls in the West,” he boasted in Chinese.
Jade preferred the term “cowgirls,” but let it go.
“Let’s drink to old times.”
There was so much to ask, to accuse, to have explained. Instead, Jade let violent events that still gave her nightmares wash under the bridge. If Liang preferred that the past never happened, she would play along.
But May was not so easily pacified. She stared down into her pink liquid and refused to react to his overtures.
Liang was studying the pair with approval. “Sexy ladies,” he said in English, as if his remark could arouse their desires.
May twisted away with disgust.
Liang was still holding his glass up. “Ganbei,” he said. Bottoms up.
Such a toast was tantamount to an order in Chinese. One could not refuse to drink without the other losing face.
Jade lifted the icy boomerang martini to her lips and inhaled the tart kiwi smell. She nudged May’s glass toward her while Liang waited.
At last, May tilted her hat back, threw her hair out of her eyes, and lifted her glass to her lips. While glaring daggers at Liang, she drained her glass with a single gulp. If Liang wanted to tangle with her, she would show no mercy.
