Heart of the Dragon (17 page)

Rebecca looked up at him steadily. He was evading the question. In a matter-of-fact tone she said, “Because your father was American?”

“Yes. He was an army intelligence officer. Hell, for all I know, he might have worked for the CIA. He was one of the advisers who came to Vietnam about 1960. He was killed a few years later. That’s all I learned about him.”

“Tell me about your childhood. You said to me once that you spent it fighting and stealing, to survive.”

“That’s right. My mother died when I was about five.
Audubon discovered me a few years later. He was a soldier, one of those idealistic college boys who’d come to Vietnam to save the world. He couldn’t save the world, but he saved me.”

Abruptly Kash dropped his arm from around her, brought her hand to his mouth for a hard kiss, then announced, “End of story. I came to the shrine today to burn incense on the anniversary of my mother’s death. The Vietnamese place a lot of importance on honoring ancestors. I perform this ceremony every year to remember the small part of me that’s Vietnamese. And for my mother.”

Tell me the rest. You have to tell me
, she implored silently. He looked down at her as if reading her mind. “That’s all, Becca.”

“Please talk to me.”

“I’ve told you all that’s important about that part of my life.”

“Except what makes you so different from every other man I’ve known. Except what makes it impossible for you to believe I love you.”

He inhaled sharply and raised a hand. “Don’t ever say that to me again. I certainly won’t say it to you.”

“I thought we’d gotten beyond that barrier in the past few days.”

“No, we’ve danced close to it, that’s all.”

“You said I’d leave you. You didn’t mention that I’d leave you only because you’d
force
me to.”

“Listen to me. ” He swiveled to face her and took her by both shoulders in a rough grip. “My work keeps me on the move most of the time. This month I’m in Thailand. Next month I may be in Europe. The month after that I could be in South America. I have a home near my father’s in Virginia, but I’m hardly ever there. What are you going to do—sit in Iowa and wait for me to breeze by for an occasional visit?”

“You’re putting up smoke screens.”

“I’m never going to come home from work each day
and sit in a lounge chair watching my wife make needlepoint finger towels for the church bazaar while the kids do their homework and the dog snores. I wouldn’t know how to fit in.”

“I wouldn’t either, since I don’t do needlepoint, have no kids and no dog, snoring or otherwise. I thought the whole point of making a life with someone was to start from the ground up, then work out something special and unique. If you were a cartoonist, I’d tell you that your characters are stick people, and you’ve got no imagination. You’re trying to draw the punch line before you’ve sketched the first panel.”

“I’m painting the picture the only way I can see it.”

“Did I ask you to marry me?” she asked angrily, getting to her knees. “Did I ask you to trade in any part of your life for part of mine?
No
. So why are you forcing this discussion? I’m not going to beat my chest and tear out my hair when you leave me. Oh, yes, you’ll leave me, because you’ll never admit that you hate being alone.”

She grabbed a fresh stick of incense, held it against the burning ones, and when it began to smoke, laid it at the shrine’s base. Looking up into Quan-Am’s smiling face, Rebecca held out her hands in supplication. “Please, give Kash some compassion for himself.”

“Stop it,” Kash ordered.

“And please let him understand that I didn’t fall in love with him to change what he is, or what he comes from.”

“I said stop,” he repeated, getting up and pulling her with him. Half crying now, she twisted in his harsh embrace and looked up at him bitterly. “What happened to you when you were a child? You have to trust me enough to tell me. Please, Kash. Please.”

“Mr. Kash, Mr. Kash,” a nervous male voice called from the direction of the house. The person was hidden by trees and shrubs along the winding path. “Where are you? Come quick!”

He stepped back and released her. “I have to go.”

“You have to hide.”

“Call it hiding, if you want to.”

“I’ll be in my room,” she told him wearily. “I shouldn’t have come here this morning. Your ceremony shouldn’t have been ruined with a pointless argument.”

“The ceremony’s over. It’s time to get back to real life. You’re my only concern. I’ve got to get this Vatan mess settled and get you out of here.”

And out of your life
, she thought. His words stung so much that she didn’t ask him to elaborate. Again the servant’s voice cut through the morning. “Please, Mr. Kash, come quick! And bring Miss Brown with you! It’s an emergency!”

Frowning, Kash took her hand. They ran back to the house. A manservant was waiting at the top of the path, wringing his hands. He made a jerky
wai
in greeting. “The police are here, sir!”

“They want to see me?”

“They want to see Miss Brown! They say Madame Piathip sent them!”

Rebecca felt Kash’s hand tighten possessively on her own. He frowned in bewilderment. “Did Madame return from Bangkok last night?”

“No, she’s still at her house in the city.”

Kash turned toward Rebecca. She looked up at him with strangled anxiety. “What does she intend to do—have me deported?”

“Whatever it is, don’t worry. The problem can be fixed with talk or money.”

But the stern police captain who waited for them with several of his officers in the house’s front hall didn’t look interested in negotiating. “Miss Brown, you’re accused of stealing jewelry,” he said in crisp, formal English. “You’ll have to come with us.”

Rebecca shook her head numbly. “Jewelry? What jewelry?” Kash stepped between her and the police officer, his face fierce with restraint, his body as taut as a shield. “Madame has made a mistake. Please, let’s
discuss this privately. You and I can determine where the mistake was made, I’m sure.”

“No discussion,” the captain retorted. “Madame Vatan accuses this woman of stealing a jade earring inscribed to her dead sister.” To Rebecca he said, “You will give me this earring, please.”

Rebecca slipped past Kash and faced the man firmly. “I sent that earring to Madame Vatan to prove my relationship to her family. She returned the earring to me when I came here as her guest.”

“I was in charge of the arrangement,” Kash added. “There was no theft.”

The captain only scowled. “Madam Vatan says the earring was stolen from her many years ago. She’s taken the past few days to decide whether to press charges. Now she has.”

Rebecca trembled with anger. “But that’s not true! The earring belonged to my father! It was a keepsake! I inherited it.”

Kash angled in front of her again. “Miss Brown had nothing to do with any theft.”

The captain unyielding stance became stiffer. “That will be determined later. She must come with us. She’ll be held in jail until this is resolved.”

Rebecca’s imagination went into overdrive. She pictured a dungeon with large roaches and sadistic lady wardens, like a bad drive-in movie she’d once seen, only with Thai actors instead of Americans. Her knees turned weak, and she leaned suddenly against Kash, gasping for breath. He caught her around the shoulders as she righted herself. His chest moved roughly under the hand she wound into his shirtfront. “I’ll go with her,” he said. “There’s no point in putting her in jail. I’ll vouch for her.”

“Who are you? Just an American who thinks he’s one of us because he’s mixed-blood. Just a mongrel. You have no authority here.”

“You’re not taking her to jail,” Kash said evenly.

Rebecca realized that he was on the verge of violence, and she sensed that the situation was only going to get worse unless she changed it. She forced herself to smile and patted Kash’s chest. “Hey, cool it.” He looked down at her with grim surprise. She smiled wider, though her stomach was jumping with nervousness. “I came here for adventure, you know? To boldly go where no cartoonist has gone before. I’ve already been kidnapped and shot at. Going to jail is the logical next step.”

As he searched her eyes, she made herself nod reassuringly. “It’ll be interesting. Really. We’re not getting anything accomplished this way, so let’s stop arguing and head for the pokey. The slammer. The old hoosegow. I’ll visit with the other inmates while you work on getting me out.”

Kash didn’t look convinced. The captain interjected, “If you don’t cooperate, I’ll arrest you, too, and then you won’t be much help to Miss Brown.”

Kash looked at if he wanted to tear someone apart. Rebecca’s thoughts churned with fear, confusion, and devotion. He was the ultimate protector, and she loved him more wildly than ever. But in a small, desolate part of her mind was the knowledge that none of this meant anything, that the words he’d spoken at the shrine only minutes earlier had been serious. He might protect and save her a thousand times, but in the end he would push her away.

“Let me go,” she said in a soft, broken voice. “I’ll be fine.”

He released her by inches, his jaw clenched and eyes black with fury as he gazed past her at the captain. “I’ll follow in a separate car.”

“Do whatever you wish,” the captain answered, and shrugged. He took Rebecca’s arm. “You’re officially under arrest, Miss Brown.”

Madame Piathip sat in her modern offices high above Bangkok, looking masterful in a blue business suit, a silver-haired tyrant with her own sincere but frustrating reasons for what she’d done. “How else could I show her that my family will never believe her father’s story?” Madame asked plaintively. “Her father must have stolen the earring when he lived here. I’ve been thinking about her story for days. I’m convinced that explains how he acquired the earring.”

Kash paced the floor, too furious to sit down as he should have, too worried about Rebecca to care about politeness. “But you know that Rebecca didn’t steal it.”

“But she did! She inherited it! It’s the same thing!”

Kash halted and faced her formally. “You’ve made your point. Now please use your connections to have her released.”

“No. Let a judge hear her case. Let her stay in an unpleasant jail cell until then, and meditate about her mistakes.”

“There’s no evidence against her.”

Madame shrugged. “I know, but maybe she’ll be so tired of bothering us that she’ll go home as soon as she’s released.”

“It could be weeks or even months before her case is heard.”

Madame smiled impishly. “She’ll learn patience, then.”

Kash boiled with anger. Through gritted teeth he said as calmly as he could, “If you’ll have her released, I’ll guarantee that she won’t pursue her story about being Mayura’s half sister.”

“Oh? How will you do that?”

He bowed ironically. “I have a certain amount of control over her.”

“Hmmph. I don’t trust you anymore. You’ve fallen in love with her!”

“No.”

“Yes! It shows in everything you say and do concerning her!” Madame Piathip leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. “I will not drop my charge against her. She stays in jail.”

“Then consider this the end of my work for you. I’ll call my people in Switzerland immediately. I suggest you find someone else to take care of Mayura there and to negotiate with the Nalinats here.”

“You can’t do this! My old friend Audubon won’t desert me! He’ll insist that you stay!”

“My father was your husband’s friend, not yours. Don’t expect him to approve of your revenge against an innocent person.”

“You’d leave my niece unprotected in a foreign country just to impress that clumsy, boring American woman? Where is your honor?”

“Rebecca has been thrown into a Bangkok jail. She’s the one who needs protection at the moment. Don’t ever forget, Madame, that I can be ruthless when it’s needed. That’s one reason you hired me.”

“The truth is, you can be ruthless because you’ve betrayed our contract! I didn’t hire you to fall in love with that woman!”

“That has nothing to do with this argument. I’ll never stand by and let an innocent person be abused.”

“You love her, admit it! What a fool you are! Do you think a respectable woman could ever love
you
?”

“I didn’t ask her to love me. Her problem isn’t personal to me. I wouldn’t sanction your tactics or your lack of decency against any innocent person, not just Rebecca. I don’t understand your motives, and I’ve begun to suspect them. I have doubts about everything you’ve told me. I’m going to get some truthful answers.”

“There are no hidden motives here except your own! Your own blind belief that you can impress that woman so much that she won’t care what you are!” Madame Piathip lowered her voice and hissed, “I
know
what you are! The son of a whore, and yourself a—”

“Good afternoon.” He bowed and made a respectful
wai
to her. Inside he was deadly calm. His ability to shut off his emotions had come into play for self-preservation. Now he could proceed with his plans to help Rebecca. “Whatever else I am, I’m now the man you should fear most.”

Her stunned silence followed him as he left the office.

Shoo
, Rebecca ordered silently, then clutched the edge of the bamboo mat on which she lay and watched a rat scurry through the bars of the cell. Dim light filtered in from a ceiling fixture out in the hall, making the rat look shadowy and sinister. This wasn’t a fat small-town rat, minding its own business, this was a hungry urban rat. She pictured a cartoon rodent with tattoos and tiny little brass knuckles and a bad attitude. At that moment her real live rat headed toward the other five women in the small cell, sniffing at their bare feet. Rebecca lurched upright. “Shoo! Scat!”

It halted, raised up on its hind legs, and bared its teeth at her. The other women stirred quickly, looked around, and kicked at the rat, which leisurely crawled
out of the cell. “You worry too much,” one of them said to her, not unkindly. The young woman wore a tight, short dress, now stained with dirt and sweat. Her long black hair was tangled, and her face was dirty. But it was a delicate, intelligent face with beautiful eyes. She was the only Thai cellmate who spoke English. In the two days since Rebecca’s arrival, the girl had watched her warily but said very little.