CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“So Jade Vandercamp is banging both of the Wong brothers.” Donovan stroked his chin as he rolled this new bit of information around in his mind. “I’m surprised that none of this information showed up in any of my intel reports on the Wong family.”

“Clearly, you’re not as good as you think you are,” Ethan groused as he slouched in his chair. The desire to knock Donovan’s teeth out had faded somewhat in the wake of Jade’s proposition but the anger he felt over Donovan’s attempt to rope Kira into one of his dangerous plans hadn’t.

Ethan’s testy tone prompted Donovan to pivot away from the spectacular harbor view stretched out in front of him as he decided that it was wise not to turn his back on an angry man, brother or no brother.

“And now she wants to sleep with you,” Donovan noted with amusement as he made his way from the window to the bar. “I guess there really is no accounting for taste. However, this certainly works to our advantage.”

“I’m not sleeping with her,” Ethan said firmly.

Donovan poured three fingers of scotch into a glass. “I didn’t say anything about you sleeping with her.”

Ethan closed his eyes and absently began rubbing his temples. “You were about to.”

Donovan downed his scotch with one gulp and then eyed his brother intently. “Given the nature of her relationship with both Gabriel and Jeremy, Jade is the best source of information about what’s been going on in Gau Lung. I’d bet my last dollar that she knows more about Yi’s murder than she’s letting on.”

“Be that as it may, that’s not going to change my mind.”

Donovan’s eyes narrowed shrewdly. “If you were able to get the information that I need from Jade, I would have no need to go through with the plan I proposed to Ms. St. James.”

Ethan quickly re-opened his eyes to glare at Donovan. “You manipulative bastard.”

Sitting his empty glass down on the bar in front of him, Donovan raised both his hands in the air defensively. “I’m not saying that you have to sleep with Jade. Just string her along long enough to get your hands on the sub-concession. Or until you get enough information out of her to allow us to get the sub-concession some other way. Whichever comes first.”

Ethan jumped angrily to his feet. “I’m not about to ruin whatever chance I have of getting Kira back, no matter how slim, just so you can get a damn gambling sub-concession!”

“This isn’t about a damn gambling sub-concession and you know it!” Donovan fired back. “This is about avenging our mother. You vowed, along with me and Dylan, to do whatever it takes to make Jared pay. Have you changed your mind about that?”

Ethan clenched his fist tightly at his side as he stared at Donovan with muted fury.

Donovan nodded with satisfaction at Ethan’s telling silence before making his way up the staircase, leaving Ethan to continue to silently fume alone.

***

Kira glanced down at her watch. She still had a few minutes before her scheduled meeting with Jade. Reluctantly, she picked her cell phone up from it’s resting place on her desk and flipped through the “missed calls” log, stifling the feeling of disappointment she felt at not finding Ethan’s number listed. She hadn’t heard from him since he’d left her apartment the day before. Perhaps he too had concluded that their relationship was hopeless. Maybe he had even left Hong Kong. The thought caused the knot that was already in the pit of Kira’s stomach to tighten further. Reaching into the inside pocket of the fitted navy blue blazer she wore, she pulled out Donovan Chance’s phone number. She still hadn’t given him an answer to his proposition. Idly, she tapped the card against her desk as she contemplated Donovan’s plan. While the idea of entrapping Jeremy into implicating himself was tempting, Ethan’s parting words about the dangerousness of the plan haunted her, as did the look on his face when he’d told her that he hadn’t walked away from their relationship unscathed.

“Ugh!” Kira groaned to herself as she shoved Donovan’s business card back into her pocket, furious with herself for her inability to get Ethan out of her mind. Rising to her feet, she glanced at her watch again, relieved that it was time to head over to Jade’s office. Although, she had initially been dreading the meeting, she found herself eager for it to begin, grateful for any distraction she could get from the hot mess that passed for her love life.

She was just about to round the corner leading to the hallway where Jade’s office was located when the timbre of a familiar male voice, seductively lowered, caused her to freeze in her tracks. Her heart slammed violently against her ribcage as a feeling of pure dread suddenly filled her. Cautiously, she peeked around the corner with the trepidation of a motorist rubbernecking at a car wreck on the highway, fearful of what she was about to see but unable to resist the morbid curiosity that caused her to look anyway.

“So, you’ll talk to Jeremy today,” Ethan reconfirmed as he placed one hand against the door frame of Jade’s office and leaned in close to her.

“My, aren't you in a hurry,” Jade cooed as she smiled up at Ethan.

Damn right, I’m in a hurry, Ethan griped to himself. He had just agreed to pay Jade handsomely to push through the deal for the sub-concession and had heavily implied he’d give her much more than that in added “perks” so he expected results, pronto. The sooner he wrapped up this unpleasant charade with Jade, the sooner he could start working on getting his relationship with Kira back on track.

“The sooner I get what I want, the sooner you get what you want,” Ethan explained huskily.

Jade gave a quick, subtle glance down the hallway just in time to see Kira peek her head around the corner. Pretending not to notice her, she wrapped her arms possessively around Ethan’s waist. “I can hardly wait.” Suddenly flinging her arms around his neck, she planted her lips to his, unbothered by the stiffness of his response as she watched from the corner of her eye as Kira quickly scurried away.

***

“Ms. St. James, what a pleasant surprise,” Donovan proclaimed as he waved her into his penthouse.

Kira couldn’t help noticing that he didn’t seem at all surprised to see her.

“I'm afraid Ethan's not here at the moment,” Donovan said as he followed her into the living room.

“I'm not here to see Ethan,” Kira replied crisply. “I’m here to see you.”

“In that case, can I assume you’re here to give me an answer to my proposition?”

“Yes, you can.”

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Are you in or out?”

Kira took a deep breath before speaking. “In.”

“Excellent.” Donovan smiled broadly.

“Under one condition,” Kira added.

The smile faded from Donovan’s face. “What condition?”

“I don’t want Ethan involved in this operation in any way. In fact, I don’t want him to know about it at all.”

Donovan sighed deeply. “You ask a lot. Ethan and I are brothers, after all. Keeping him out of the loop could sow the seeds of disharmony in our little family. You saw how angry he got over my going behind his back to make this proposition to you in the first place.”

Kira shot Donovan a withering glare. “Oh, please, spare me the family loyalty routine. You and I both know that you aren't above keeping secrets from your brother.”

“Under ordinary circumstances you would be right, but this is different.”

“How so?”

“Because my brother happens to be in love with you.”

Kira snorted derisively. “Yeah, right.”

“As much as it pains me to admit it, it’s true. Ethan is crazy about you.”

Kira blocked out the mental image of the kiss she'd witnessed between Ethan and Jade. “You and I are just going to have to agree to disagree on that point. But regardless of how your brother may or may not feel about me, I don’t want him involved in this Jeremy sting. I don’t want him around me at all. Those are my terms, take it or leave it. Deal?” Kira extended her hand to Donovan.

Donovan absently rubbed his index finger along the jagged scar on his chin as he contemplated Kira’s terms and the hand she offered him. Finally, he reached out and accepted both. “Deal.”