Last Resort (46 page)

Lei Leen offered.

"You like brandy or whisky?"

"No, thank you,"

Penny answered.

Lei Leen hesitated, then said, Tse Dong send driver for boss. He be here soon."

Penny nodded.

"You like I stay and keep you company?"

Lei Leen said.

"Not unless you want to tell me what all that was about,"

Penny challenged quietly, turning to face her.

Lei Leen was silent for a moment; then, shaking her head, she said,

"Ma'am I not know what it was about. Maybe they not shooting at us. Maybe they shooting at someone else. Mongkok is dangerous place. Lots of gangs."

"But if they were shooting at us, why would they have been?"

Lei Leen bowed her head.

"Lei Leen, please,"

Penny implored.

"Why would anyone want to shoot at us?"

"I not know, ma'am/ she answered. Then, shrugging, she added, The boss, he very rich man, maybe someone try kidnap you."

"Oh God,"

Penny groaned, covering her face with her hands.

"Where's Christian now?"

"He forget take phone. Tse Dong send driver for him/

Penny felt the weariness creep through her limbs. She might just as well be speaking to the dour-faced, handcarved statues of Chinese attendants standing either side

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of the Jacuzzi.

"I'd like to be alone for a while, Lei Leen/ she said.

"I mean totally alone. I don't care if you wait outside the door, but please, just give me some space at least until Christian gets here/

Lei Leen bowed her head meekly and left.

After she'd showered and washed her hair Penny wrapped herself in a voluminous bathrobe and wandered through to the dining room. The lights were low, casting a soft, dreamy glow over the eclectic splendour of Chinese antiques and plush, modern sofas and carpets. As she padded up the steps to the sitting room, trailing a hand over the Tang horse and highly polished teak banister on which it sat, she could smell the lingering traces of Christian's cologne in the air. She wondered how long it would take him to get there and prayed that it wouldn't be too soon. This was the first time she had been alone in over a week and she needed the time to decide what she was going to do.

A quick stab of unease pierced her heart as she recalled how the geomancer had closed her hand. Had he really lost the sight, or had he just not wanted to tell her what he had seen? Maybe there had been nothing there to see; maybe she was never going to get away from this place where each day brought a fresh madness and each night a demand for pretence she no longer knew if she could sustain.

What she did know, though, was that she could no longer close her eyes to what was going on around her. The snatches of English she had overheard these past few days were generally numbers, names or total non sequiturs, but it was the numbers that had first aroused her suspicions about those with whom Christian was doing business. They were always made up of three figures, usually in the four hundreds, and each number was divisible by three. She wasn't too sure how she knew, but how wasn't important; the fact was that 357

someone had once told her, or maybe she had read it somewhere, that all Triad members were assigned a number divisible by three - and those in the four hundreds were the higher-ranking officials. Though she knew little else about the Chinese mafia she did know that their level of corruption and barbaric methods of killing, coupled with their infiltration of governments, banks and worldwide organizations, gave them the kind of power and omnipresence that made their Sicilian and Columbian counterparts seem as threatening as measles in comparison. And when she added to that where in the world they were, so close to the Golden Triangle, in a city that was littered with heroin refineries and which boasted a customs service that was as notoriously corrupt as it was overworked, she'd have to be a first-class fool to believe that Christian's seemingly inexhaustible fortune came only from the trafficking of marijuana.

A wave of misery swept through her as she recalled how David had tried to warn her. It was the same day that he had told her he cared for her. But caring for her wasn't loving her and she knew that, no matter how strong his affection might be, it wouldn't, couldn't, support the way she had walked out on him.

The thought of David had brought fresh tears to her eyes and a painful tightness to her heart. Her suspicions had taken such frightening twists and turns since the call from Gabriella, but still she couldn't make herself believe that David and his wife were involved in all this. Apart from that one phone call there was no evidence at all to link them to Christian - and even if the call had come from Gabriella and not Gabriel, what was there to say that it was Gabriella Villers?

Her head was spinning and feeling claustrophobic in her gilded prison she pulled back a curtain, and sliding open the glass door she stepped out on to the terrace to gaze down at the glittering, perpetually moving lights of 358

Victoria Harbour. It was a city as filled with secrets as her mind was filled with the fragments of doubt and suspicion. The roar of traffic rose up from the streets as the ferry-terminal clock chimed out the hour. Christian would be back soon and she was no closer now to deciding what she should do than she had been since she'd arrived. She swallowed hard and screwed up her eyes in an effort to hold herself together, for in her heart she knew that there was nothing she could do. Christian was never going to let her go and as long as they stayed here she knew she would never get away. If she were being honest with herself she didn't even know if she wanted to leave, for she could hardly bear to contemplate how much it would hurt Christian if she left without a word, and she knew she didn't have the courage to face the pain and betrayal in his eyes if she told him she wanted to go. The perversity of that didn't escape her, but it wasn't easy to imagine him as a gangster when he never treated her with anything but love and kindness and such overwhelming generosity it could almost split her heart in two to think of it. She wondered if she should be afraid of him, but when she considered to what lengths he was going to protect her the very idea seemed absurd.

Sighing, she turned back inside and closed the terrace door. She was thinking of Sammy now and when, if ever, she would see her again. Christian had assured her she would, but what if Sammy needed her now? Grief and longing swelled in her chest as she thought of how much she needed Sammy, how much she would give to see her now. Was she worried, afraid, did she even know that Penny was no longer in France?

As she walked past the desk her foot knocked against something and looking down, she saw her computer. She stooped to pick it up and was about to lay it on the desk, when her head fell forward as a great, choking sob tore itself from her heart. It seemed crazy that it should 359

be this cold, inanimate object that had finally brought her to tears, but as all the pain and guilt, shame and desperation, engulfed her she hugged it to her chest and wept as though her heart would break. It was all she had now of her past. All her clothes, all her possessions were back at the villa, left for someone else to clear up, as was the mess she had left at the office. Dear God, how could she have treated people who had cared for her so much with such callous disregard? Between them, David and Sylvia had given her their trust, their support, their friendship and affection - and how had she repaid them?

By throwing everything back in their faces. What kind of woman was she? What must they think of her now? How she longed to pick up the phone and call Sylvia, to tell her how sorry she was, how desperately she wanted to turn back the clock and pretend that none of this had happened; that the thousands upon thousands of dollar bills she had seen pass through this very room this past week were no more than a figment of her imagination; that Christian's connections with one of the world's most brutal organizations were nothing more than the farfetched deductions of a panicked mind.

Stopping to catch her breath, she wiped a hand over her face and tried to calm herself. Should she trust her instincts now? she wondered, as she placed the cornputer on the desk and sank into the chair. Should she believe that Christian loved her and that were it not for her he'd have taken the DA's deal? She didn't want to believe it: if she didn't, it would make things so much easier. Maybe then she could go and never have to deal with the guilt the way she was having to deal with the other guilt that now tormented her - at having turned her back on David.

She gave a short, bitter laugh. What a pathetic fool she was! What had happened to her mettle and courage now when she needed it most? She surely wasn't just going to let this continue as though she had no say in her life?

If

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Christian really was dealing in heroin, then she owed him nothing, nothing at all. But how could she find out? It was madness to think he'd tell her himself and, even if he did, all it would prove was that he had lied to her. It still wouldn't gain her her freedom.

She started as the telephone rang. For a moment she was tempted to answer it; but then, guessing that it was Christian calling to tell her he was on his way, she just let it ring. When it stopped, she got up from the chair and wandered into the bedroom. She couldn't cave in now, she just couldn't. It was foolish to keep thinking of David this way, to wonder what he would tell her to do if she called him. It was all very well to imagine him sorting this out for her, for she'd never yet seen him fazed by anything, but the reality was that they had the barrier of the law between them now and she doubted that even he could overcome that. No, she had to forget about David and accept that she was on her own, that she had to face the consequences of her actions and somehow try to find out what she was really up against here. Then if, when, she did, she would have to decide how she was going to deal with it.

As the telephone rang again her head fell back and, biting hard on her lips to stop herself crying, she hugged herself tightly. She hated this weakness that was making her repeatedly turn to David, that was sweeping through her with such hopelessness and sapping her inner strength. But this was the last time, she swore to herself. After tonight she was never again going to indulge herself in the torment of loving him or believing she could depend on him. She had to accept that there was nothing he could do and, even if there was, why would he? She had got herself into this mess, it was for her to get herself out of it. But even as her resolve gathered it began to fracture and unable to stop herself, she fell to her knees beside the bed and sobbed his name.

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As Christian sprinted up the steps into the crowded, black marble lobby of the Mandarin and moved swiftly towards the elevators, Lei Leen watched him pass Pierre, who was making his way back from the house phone. Neither man noticed the other; both were too intent on their own thoughts.

"What did she say?"

Lei Leen asked as Pierre joined

her.

"She didn't answer,"

he said, his face strained with the frustration of being so near to Penny yet so powerless to get closer when Tse Dong was right outside her door. Lei Leen lowered her eyes.

"What are you going to do

now?"

she asked.

"I don't know,"

he answered.

"Call David, I suppose."

Lei Leen nodded, then got up from her chair, walked off across the lobby and disappeared into the lift.

A few minutes later Pierre was dialling David's number in France. It rang only once before he picked up.

"I'm at the Mandarin,"

Pierre said into the receiver.

"Did you see her?"

David asked carefully.

"Did you speak to her?"

"No. I can't get near her."

Pierre paused, knowing how hard it was going to be for David to hear all this.

But now wasn't the time to pull punches and David wouldn't thank him for it if he did.

"I went up to the suite,"

he said,

"but Tse Dong is outside. There's no getting past him."

"Did you speak to Lei Leen?"

David asked.

Tes."

"And?"

Pierre took a breath.

"She says that Penny's where she

wants to be."

There was a long and painful silence, during which Pierre could only imagine David's anguish, and knowing he was about to add to it only made him feel worse.

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There was some kind of shooting in Mongkok tonight/ he said flatly. Tenny was there with Tse Dong and Lei Leen. No one was hurt, but I talked to a character by the name of Benny Lao earlier and, to quote him, Mureau's been pissing a few people off. There's no way of knowing who was behind the shooting or if it had anything to do with the way Mureau's been upsetting people, but the coincidence of Penny being there is ominous. Lei Leen is convinced that if Mureau's enemies wanted to kill or kidnap Penny they'd do just that. Which means that if the shooting was in some way related, then it has to be read as a warning."

It was some time before David answered. When he did, his voice was perfectly steady.

"Where's Penny now?"

he said.

"In the suite. Mureau's just gone up there."

Several seconds ticked by before David spoke again.

"So,"

he said hoarsely,

"where do we go from here?"

Pierre didn't answer. The decision was David's and his alone.

David laughed harshly. Tell me, Pierre,"

he said,

"how the hell do you rescue someone who doesn't want to be rescued, who probably doesn't even know that she needs to be?"

"You don't,"

Pierre told him frankly.

"Not if you're in the position I'm in/ David added bitterly.

Pierre's silence was confirmation enough.

"Does he love her?"

David asked.

"Lei Leen is certain of it."

"And she's where she wants to be?"

"Yes."

Then there's no more we can do, is there?"

he said, and the line went dead.