The Dragon (G.O.N.Y. - Double Dragon) (23 page)

Before Jezebel knew it, Dr. Chen was standing over her, checking her vitals and sounding very pleased. Her pressure was down, and had normalized; there had been no other bleeding. The baby’s vitals were strong too. The doctor wrote another prescription and handed it to Ramsey, who’d been standing just behind her, silent and observant.

“How much longer do I have to stay in bed?” Jezebel asked.

The doctor smiled. “Take a few days, two or three, before walking around the house. Remember, less is more. You’ve been off of your feet for a long time. Take it easy at first…a few minutes walking at first, then rest. No heavy lifting, no sports, and no sex.” Her smile faded and she grew serious. “And if you have any pain, any cramping, strange feelings like fullness or pressure, you have my numbers. Call me immediately.”

Dr. Chen was packing her medical bag, when Jezebel asked, “What about travelling?”

“I’m sorry?”

Jezebel looked at Ramsey, whose face grew shuttered almost instantly. She hated that look, that blasé, I-can’t-be-bothered-to-have-feelings stare that descended on his face when she said something he didn’t like.

“Can I travel? And if so, how soon?”

The doctor stopped loading her bag. “You’re closing in on your sixth month, Jezebel, and about to enter into your third trimester, which is the most risky of the trimesters for obvious reasons. We also have to consider that just a week ago, you had a significant amount of bleeding. I’ve advised most of my patients to refrain from travelling after seven and a half to eight months, but your pregnancy is more…alarming.” She paused and looked over to Ramsey, before she sighed and addressed Jezebel again. “Where do you intend to go?”

“New York.” She broke off and shook her head. That might not be possible considering her ties to Ramsey Stone. “America…somewhere in America.”

“That’s a long flight from South Korea, Jezebel, and although you’re sitting for most it, the hustle and bustle of flying will put a great deal of stress on your body.”

“Is it possible?”

The doctor nodded. “It’s possible, but not without risk. I’ll return in a week to check on both you and the baby, and I’ll have a more fitting recommendation for you then.”

She’d barely closed the door behind her before Ramsey spoke. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Jezebel.”

Shifting to the edge of the bed, she put her feet down and pushed up. It had become more of an effort of late, with her belly now looking more and more like a beach ball. Ramsey moved close, but at her narrow-eyed glare, didn’t attempt to help as she made her way to the bathroom.  She didn’t bother closing the door as she released her bladder. They’d done this routine before countless times over the past week.

As she washed her hands and face, he remained impassive by the door. Finally, she turned to him and muttered, “What?”

“Do you really think the best thing for you and the baby is to get on a plane?”

“I asked a question, Ramsey.” She moved further into the bathroom and grabbed a towel. “And I received an answer.”

“Why?”

She wiped her face and blotted at her neck before making her way to the door, to him. “Why what?”

“Why’d you ask?”

“Because I want to go home.” She paused directly in front of him. “I’d like to have my child in an American hospital, with my sister and my mother, and a doctor and nurses.” The impassive expression never changed. “I’d like to stop worrying that one day or night, someone’s going to break into this house again, take me somewhere, and kill me and my baby because of you.” He inhaled sharply. “I don’t care where I go, once I’m back on American soil, safe, and my family’s close enough.” Ramsey made no move to speak. He just stared down at her. “Excuse me, I’d like to lie down now.”

Getting back onto the bed was more difficult than getting off. The bed wasn’t exactly high, but she usually backed up onto it. Approaching it facing forward wasn’t working. She didn’t protest when Ramsey lifted her and placed her onto the bedding. As he pulled the covers across her belly and legs, he asked, “Are you hungry?”

She’d only had a light breakfast to prepare for the doctor’s visit and she was. Jezebel nodded.

“What would you like?”

Although he seemed unaffected, she knew her words had hurt him, but she wouldn’t apologize for how she felt. She’d been in South Korea for close to a month, and during that time, she’d been kidnapped by two men whose brains had been blown out of their heads, and had come close to losing her baby. She just wanted to go home. “Whatever they’re serving for lunch…and pickles.”

“Pickles?”

“For dessert, I’d like a jar of pickles and a jar of peanut butter.”

His forehead creased but he nodded. “I’ll send someone up with your lunch and…dessert.”

***

She didn’t expect him to come to her that night but he did.

Delilah had turned off the lights when she left and Jezebel was trying to find a comfortable position to go to sleep when the door opened and closed quietly, the lock clicking into place, and footsteps padded over to her bed. In a matter of seconds, he was pressed to her back, his warmth seeping through her pajamas as his citrus and spice scent drowned hers.

“Ramsey,” she began on a sigh. “Why are you here?”

At first, she thought he wouldn’t answer. The silence between them stretched and then stretched some more. “I want to be here.”

“Why?” she whispered.

His hand swept along her side, over her belly. “You know why.”

Jezebel shook her head. “No, I don’t.” She sighed. “I’m much better now. Dr. Chen said I am. You don’t have to stay to make sure the baby’s fine.”

A sound that was a cross between a scoff, a groan, and a hiss left his lips. “You
know
why I’m here, why I’ve been here every night since you were released from the hospital.”

“The baby…” she breathed.

His lips brushed the back of her neck, both tickling and comforting her. “You and the baby.” He caressed her belly with slow, languid strokes. “Pretending I don’t love you won’t make it true.”

She froze. Ramsey kissed her neck again. “Relax, baby. You knew it, you just didn’t want to accept it.” He sighed and pulled her closer to him. “Sleep.”

In the next minutes, his breathing evened and his grip slackened but Jezebel remained awake, thinking about what Ramsey had just said. Had she known?
How could she not?
Did it matter? She shook her head. What future could she have with a mobster, even if she loved him just as much, if not more, than she’d loved the masseuse?

***

“It’s good to see you, cousin.”

William Jackson Seong, known to most as “Jax,” was another of Ramsey’s male cousins. Like Vince, Jax had been raised abroad. It hadn’t been until his mid teens that he’d journeyed to Gwangju to “meet” the family. Jax had grown close to Ramsey during summers and other vacations. When Jax decided to move to South Korea after graduating university, he’d been assigned a job as an understudy to one of his grandfather’s men.

“Is it?” Ramsey wondered with an ease he didn’t feel.

He rose from behind his desk, his actions slow and unrushed. Watching Jax as closely as he did, he saw the other man’s confident stride falter for just a fraction of a second, but he continued coming. His handshake was strong, his dark eyes cool and unreadable. This façade, cool, unruffled and impenetrable, was the reason Ramsey had promoted Jax as he had in the past years.

Ramsey Stone was one man after all, and if he intended to keep the family successful in South Korea, he needed a body to handle things for him in this part of the world. Jax was that body, especially for the last vestige of his grandfather’s reign: weapons distribution. Ramsey had learned early that getting out of the weapons trade was not easy, particularly when said trade was international and powerful men were involved. As such, he’d scaled back gradually and was still doing so.

“It’s always good to see you, Ramsey, regardless of the circumstance.”

Smooth. Jax always knew what to say. He wasn’t known for his charm. No, that wasn’t one of his strengths, but he was quick with his words. He was brilliant at sales, negotiation, and thinking on his feet. Was treachery to be added to the list?

“Do you know Bye Min-Kyu?” There was no point in beating around the bush. This was the only reason he’d ordered Jax from Seoul to Gwangju for this meeting. Ramsey wanted to look the man in the eye as he asked questions about the dead man who’d attempted to kidnap Jezebel. While Jezebel slept, he’d spoken to both Delilah and Sarah about both men, and had learned that the one who spoke English had a British accent, further confirming Chang’s story that his nephew had assisted. Jax had spent almost twenty-one years of his life in England. Coincidence? Ramsey wasn’t one for assumptions anymore. Bye had an inside contact and while Jax hadn’t lived in Gwangju for years, he’d stayed long enough to know the type of security the house had.

Jax shook his head and tried to extract his hand. When Ramsey’s grip only tightened, his lips thinned. “Should I?”

“He went to Oxford.” Jax’s
alma mater
. It didn’t matter that records showed they’d attended at different times. Jax was close to Ramsey’s age, and Bye had barely been twenty-eight. Bye had studied business as well and the university held alumni socials. They could have met then.

“Bye Min-Kyu?” He shrugged. “The name doesn’t sound familiar.”

“He attempted to kidnap Jezebel a week ago.”

Jax tensed, but allowed his body to ease moments later as he nodded. “And you think I had something to do with it?”

“Did you?” Ramsey kept his voice low and neutral as he seethed inside.

“If I told you no, would you believe me?”

“I ask the questions here, Jax, not you.”

“I had nothing to do with it.” When Ramsey only continued to stare at him, Jax added, “I have no intention of usurping you. If I had, I would have tried years ago.” At Ramsey’s scowl, he smirked. “I like the weapons trade. It’s reliable, makes good money, and someone has to do it.”

“Why stop at weapons?”

“Because I don’t intend to be an illegal weapons dealer all my life.” Jax shrugged. “Call me ambitious but I’d like to live an honest life someday in the near future.” He smirked. “Maybe find a Jezebel of my own.”

“And give up the millions you make trading?” Ramsey deadpanned, not for a second swayed from his line of questioning by Jax’s mention of his woman.

“I have a coveted business degree from the oldest university in the world, cousin. I’ll make money wherever I go.”

It was true but that didn’t mean Jax wasn’t ambitious. Although Ramsey split his time between America and South Korea, almost evenly, in this part of the world, Jax was the face of
Ssang Yong Pa
.

Ramsey released his hand and nodded to the seat in front of his desk as he sat down. A brief lift of his gaze showcased Vince leaning against the wall closest to the door.

“I went over the accounting for your last trades…” Ramsey began, moving the conversation over to business for now as he kept his hawkish gaze on his cousin. He was looking for one falter, just a smidgen of fear, of uncertainty from Jax, and that would be enough.

“Was it not up-to-par with the others I’ve done over the last few years?” Jax retorted.

“You sold a shipment to Chang’s people.”

Jax flashed straight, white teeth and shrugged. “I don’t discriminate if the price is right. The old man taught me that. A sale is a sale.”

“Yet you’ve never met his nephew?”

His cousin didn’t answer for long seconds, but slowly, he turned to look behind him. “Vince.” His voice was low and unsurprised. As he turned back to Ramsey, Jax relaxed against the leather chair. “Why don’t you show me a picture of him? I don’t remember the name but perhaps a photo will jog my memory.”

Ramsey ignored the bite of underlying anger he heard in Jax’s words. Pushing the manila folder on the desk towards Jax, he waited. His cousin was quick in going through the numerous photos Vince had pulled, his eyes focused, seemingly concentrating. When he was finished, he closed the folder and pushed it back to Ramsey.

“No.”

“No?”

“I’ve never met him. I’d remember the face.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a unique face...like yours.” He smirked. “Like mine.” Ramsey understood. Bye had been half-Korean, like both he and Jax. Their features stood out because there was something different about them, something mixed into it.

“I told you this once, Jax, and I’ll tell you again―”

“If I betray you, you’ll kill me.” His cousin smirked and seemed to relax even further. “It won’t be pleasant, it’ll be painful and I’ll beg for mercy before succumbing to the cold grip of death.”

At Ramsey’s lifted brow, Jax chuckled dryly. “You’ve never put it so creatively, but I thought to interpret your words of ‘you’ll regret it.’”

“This isn’t a joke, William.”

Jax nodded. “It was never a joke. I don’t know the man and I’d never become involved in a plot against you. That would be stupid and I’ve never been stupid. I was loyal to your grandfather, and I show that same loyalty to you. I’d be offended except I understand that no one is above suspicion when it comes to your woman, and your unborn child.” He looked back to Vince, who lifted a brow. “Even dear cousin Vince.”