Wiser Than Serpents Page 18

  Laughing.

  Nyet. She took another look at herself, and everything inside her went very still. Kwan might think he had lured her here, but here she was, just as she’d planned. And she wasn’t leaving until she had found out where he was hiding Elena.

  Even if she had to get messy.

  She took off her high heels. Hopefully the music that reverberated through the house would cover her footsteps, but just to be on the safe side…

  Flicking off the light, she cracked open the bathroom door, slipping out into the hall and closing the door behind her. She tiptoed into the kitchen. Stainless-steel surfaces around a main island reflected the outside terrace lights. She moved quickly, easing out the drawers until she found a butcher knife.

  Footsteps advancing down the hall made her suck in her breath. She shifted toward the alcove that hid a closet or a pantry.

  Just as she’d hoped, Kwan appeared, filling up the door. He stood there for a moment, then moved to turn on the light.

  Yanna felt an arm snake around her waist and a hand clamp over her mouth. She was yanked into the closet.

  “Don’t move,” a voice whispered directly into her ear.

  She gasped, but the human gag over her mouth, as well as the raucous music, muffled her noise. Yet, she didn’t even dwell on the how or why, because David had followed her, snuck into Kwan’s house and stopped her from doing what she had come to do.

  Because that was what David did.

  “Let me go,” she tried to say, but it came out completely unintelligible.

  Kwan flicked on the light. It didn’t matter, because David had already closed the pantry door, sealing them inside.

  “Don’t…move.”

  Yeah, not with his arm clamped around her like a vise. She still had the knife in her right hand, and for a long moment, she debated using it. As if reading her mind, David’s hand closed around her wrist.

  She stayed there, pulled tight next to him, smelling the rain and sweat on his skin, his whiskers rough against her cheek, his wide chest solid against her back. His heart thumped against her spine and she knew he’d probably saved her life.

  Again.

  He caught the knife before she dropped it.

  “Shh,” he said, softly so only she could hear it. But his lips brushed against her ear, and a ripple of pure electricity went through her.

  Not fair. Didn’t her heart pay any attention to her brain?

  Kwan turned off the light—Yanna saw it flick out from under the door. She relaxed, poised to move out, but David held her tighter. “No, he may be waiting.”

  “He didn’t see me come in,” she said, but David didn’t let her finish, clamping his big hand over her mouth again.

  She pulled it away but stayed quiet. In the pitch darkness, she heard only the swish of her heartbeat.

  Then, after what seemed like forever, she turned in his arms, putting her arms around his waist, whispering directly into his ear, trying to keep emotion from leaking from her voice. “Why did you stop me? I could have made him tell—”

  “Stop.” His voice was so soft, so urgent, it made her heart skip. “Trust me, please.” She felt his lips move against her neck. He smelled like rain and the dampness from his shirt seeped through her dress.

  “He’s right out there,” she whispered. “We could go out there, jump him.”

  “I’m not a superhero. There are three guys in there. Let’s be smart about this—”

  “But he has my sister!” She bit her lip to keep her voice down, but he held her even tighter.

  “I know that, Yanna. C’mon, I haven’t forgotten.” He pulled back and looked at her. Her eyes had adjusted to the light, and she saw his, earnest in hers. He ran his hand down her cheek and it was trembling. “Just trust me. I put a transmitter on his limo. According to the plan. He’s not going anywhere without us knowing it.”

  They heard voices outside the room, shouting.

  “Apparently they’re starting to think that Elvis has left the building.”

  Huh? She frowned at him.

  “They know you’re missing. We need to lie low for a bit. Then I’m getting you back to Taichung.”

  “You’re not listening. I’m not leaving here until I know where Elena is.” She started to turn, but for a nonsuperhero, he sure had superhero arms that were even now tightening around her.

  “I know you want to find her, Yanna, but this is the best way. We can’t go charging in there with three armed men. I did some visual reconnaissance during the performance and those boys have enough hardware on them to defend against an attack from China. So we’re going to trust that God has our backs on this one, and pull back to a safe distance.”

  God had their backs? “David—”

  “Yanna, I know you don’t think this, but I promise, God knows and cares, and He’s going to get both of us, and Elena, home safely. We have to believe that.”

  Confidence, bold and unwavering, thrummed in his voice. It found her bones, her cells, and filled them with hope.

  She put her hands on his chest. “How’d you find me?”

  He paused for a moment, as if thinking about just why he’d had to track her down. She made a little face. “Sorry, by the way.”

  “Yanna, I’m telling you, you’re going to give me a heart attack.”

  She lowered her forehead into his shoulder, her fingers angling into his jacket lapels.

  “I followed the limo out of the parking lot. I nearly lost you out on the road, but thankfully, I picked up the limo right about the time the lights went on in the house. Then, I parked up the road a bit and worked my way through the back gardens, so conveniently lit up like high noon. I didn’t know you were going to sneak into the kitchen and try and serve him up for dinner, but I have to admit, I’m glad it’s you and not one of Kwan’s pals, who came in to get a late-night sandwich.”

  “Me, too.”

  Her voice was so soft, she didn’t think she’d said it. But at her words, she felt him catch his breath, felt his arms tighten around her. “Don’t ever do that again. That took a lot of spine, I’ll give you that, but you…you really scared me.”

  Tears burned her eyes, and she blinked them away, angry. Did he even have an inkling what words like that did to her? The sooner she could get back to Russia and back to a safe chatting distance—like a couple hundred thousand miles, over the Internet—the better. The man’s tenderness was like shrapnel on her heart.

  All she wanted was him to love her. Like she loved him.

  She closed her eyes and, for a moment, let herself be there, in the counterfeit embrace of his arms.

  “Okay, I think it’s safe. Let’s get out of here.”

  But she had to disagree. Safe wasn’t a word she would ever use with David again.

  He didn’t want to tell her how close he’d come to losing it, just breaking down, right there in the closet, overcome with relief.

  Kwan hadn’t killed her. Because again, God had intervened and shown David a door he could easily jimmie open, and given him the perfect hiding place to pull Yanna to safety.

  And not a second too soon. Because David saw the scenario that would have played out. Lights up. Action. Yanna with the knife, then Kwan with a gun, or maybe just his bodyguards rushing to intercept her and—what had she been thinking?

  Maybe she hadn’t. Like David had done when he’d seen her on the boat and every moment since then, Yanna had simply reacted. Panic drove her actions and she’d risked everything she’d come to Taiwan to do.

  It scared him sometimes how much he and Yanna thought alike. No, reacted alike.

  But perhaps she had felt that knee-buckling relief, too, because she clung to him.

  Yanna, oh, Yanna. He’d leaned his head into her hair and let his relief roll over him. Thank You, Lord.

  The house seemed eerily quiet as they stepped out of the closet. Too quiet.

  “Let’s go.” He pulled her back toward the door that entered the kitchen from the gar
den. He’d opened it for her to go through, and flicked off the terrace lights when he heard voices.

  Kwan and another man. Arguing.

  “Do you hear that?” she said, putting a hand on his chest, stopping him from shoving her out the door and to safety.

  He stilled and nodded, but he had more important things on his mind, so he pitched his voice as low as he could. “Get outside and stay down beside that palm tree in the yard. I’m right behind you.”

  He didn’t know why he’d expected her to obey him. Because, as usual, she didn’t. In fact, to make matters worse, she stepped toward the conversation. He clamped a grip on her arm, but she neither shook him away nor moved to his pressure. “Shh…I understand what they’re saying.”

  No, he didn’t want to shush. In fact, everything inside him wanted to throw her over his shoulder and run.

  “They’re talking about me.”

  Of course they were. He gritted his teeth and pulled her toward him, but she yanked her arm out of his grip. Perfect. “C’mon,” he ushered.

  She put a hand on his mouth, not looking at him. “The other guy is mad at Kwan, that he brought me here. And—” she glanced at David, her eyes suddenly big “—they’re expecting you.”

  Him? His hand closed around the knife handle. Maybe Yanna had been correct in her impulse to take out Kwan, here, now…He leaned into the conversation, willing his heart to still.

  “They don’t want you dead—” She was still staring at him, only not at him, but through him, as if trying to see what Kwan might value in him.

  He could name a few things, the framework of his undercover operation being at the top of that list.

  “He says you know the other Serpent.”

  The other Serpent? Perhaps he should be paying more attention. But just as he took a step closer, David winced as he heard a crack, skin against skin.

  That was enough. David took her hand. “We’re outta here—”

  Grabbing Yanna by the hand, he pulled her behind him through the door, keeping low and near the brushes as he sprinted along the house. Outside, he heard more voices, and then heavy thuds along the groomed lawn.

  He pulled her through a sculpted garden and leaped a tiny decorative stream, searching for his scooter. There, hidden under a lush banyan tree. He yanked out the scooter and started it. Yanna was already on the back when he hit the gas.

  They’d have to have a decent head start to outrun the limo.

  Or, maybe—he turned north, away from the complex, away from town. “Hang on!”

  She clamped her hands around his waist and dug her knees into his thighs. He motored up the mountain a mile or less, then cut the engine and pulled the scooter far off the road. Yanna got off and he hunkered down beside her.

  “I have the tracking device on the limo. They’ll give up and leave. And we’ll be on their tail.”

  Crouching beside him, she was breathing hard. “They knew you, knew you’d come after me. And they think you know something.”

  “I have no idea what they’re after,” he said, his mind scrolling through the megabytes of information he’d digested about his op. “And it didn’t sound like whoever was with him was too happy.”

  “He said that you know who the other Serpent is. What is he talking about? What did he mean by the other Serpent?”

  “It’s the other leader, the other Twin Serpent—we don’t have a fix on who that might be.” And he was looking forward to the bonus round of this op, another Kwan for him to hunt down. And after that there’d be another, then another. The world seethed with Kwans and his types.

  David’s adrenaline began to dip, his breathing calming. Yanna’s hair had come down and now wisped about her face. “You know, that means that Kwan wasn’t duped a second by your little disguise.” Some disguise, too. It was hard not to appreciate the way she could still look amazing after a sprint through the garden, the slightest glisten of perspiration at the base of her neck.

  He took off his jacket and put it over her shoulders. He’d kept on the dark jacket, not needing the white shirt to announce his presence as he crept up to Kwan’s estate.

  That’s when he noticed her feet.

  Her bare feet.

  Now cut and bleeding.

  He sat and began to untie his shoes. He didn’t need both wingtips and socks.

  He pulled off one sock and handed it to her. She took it, a strange expression on her face. “What is this?”

  “Your feet. Put it on.”

  “David, they stink.”

  He pulled off his other shoe. “Your feet are bleeding.”

  “Do you know how often Russian women walk around in pain? We live in pain, every day of the year, with our feet jammed into high heels and spike boots.” She wrinkled her nose. “Nyet.”

  He handed her the other sock. “Just put it on. I don’t know how long it’ll be till we get home or get you decent footwear. Humor me.”

  She made a gagging sound as she put on the socks. “I am never telling anyone about this.” She looked up at him. “And you’d better not, either.”

  He supposed it was designed to make him laugh. Except it didn’t, not when those words hung out there, mocking him.

  “Yanna, about what happened back at the Yungs’ when I kissed you…”

  Her smile dimmed. “I told you, I don’t want to talk about it.”

  But he had to talk about it. She had to know. “I haven’t kissed anyone since…well, since you, ten years ago.”

  She blinked at him. Her mouth opened, closed, opened again. “I don’t understand.”

  “I just wanted to let you know that while I might have a sorry habit of just grabbing you and kissing you, that behavior is rather, uh, out of the ordinary for me. And I’m sorry. And I respect you.”

  “I know that.” But she looked away, down, as if she didn’t. As if maybe his words had sunk in. Rattled her.

  “And I don’t want our friendship to be destroyed because I’m stupid. You’re one of the best friends I’ve ever…the truth is, I don’t want to lose your friendship.”

  Suddenly he saw that he’d made it worse. All worse. She clenched her jaw, looked away from him.

  Yet maybe if she understood more…. “And I haven’t even dated anyone—you know that—and I don’t want to, with my job—” Liar, liar, why couldn’t he just tell her the truth? That it wasn’t about his job. Maybe it once had been but now it was only about him knowing that he would be in the way of her seeing God, and that it would just get complicated, and that some things were bigger and more important than what he wanted—

  “Stop, David. I know.” She put her hand on his cheek.

  And just like that, his emotions reached up and grabbed him around the throat, choked him, sucked away his breath. There must be something wrong with him, because he wanted to kiss her again. And it seemed so utterly unfair that he couldn’t take her in his arms and show her, oh, to show her exactly how much he loved her.

  But Roman’s words rushed back to him. Not his assurances that he was a man of integrity, but rather the ones that told him that God hadn’t forsaken them.

  He was with him, even now, watching. Loving Yanna even more than David did.

  So, instead, David swallowed and forced a smile. “Okay,” he said. “Good.” But his voice came out all croaky and raw.

  And of all crazy things, that made her smile. Light even came back into her eyes, the light that had always meant things were sweet and easy between them. She tugged on his stinky socks.

  “For your information, I haven’t dated anyone, either.” She pulled on the other sock. “And not because of my job, although that’s what I tell people.”

  He looked up the road, toward Kwan’s camp. Then back at Yanna although she was hard to look at without laughing, sitting there in that evening dress, his black socks up to her knees, bagging at the heels. But he couldn’t ask why.

  “I never found anyone that believed in me…like you did.”

  Oh.
He wasn’t sure what to say, or why his throat tightened, burned. But suddenly he could hardly breathe.

  “You always listened to me, and made me feel as if I mattered—”

  “You do matter.” He could barely make out his own words, speaking through his sandpaper throat. She touched his arm.

  “I know.” She met his eyes. “Really, I know.”

  He nodded, unable to speak.

  “But I never had anyone that mattered to me—that was family like you and Vicktor and Roman and Mae. When I met you guys, I felt as if I had…I don’t know, siblings, maybe. People that I could count on. And then you walked out of my life—”

  She held up her hand to stop his words.

  “And Elena took that place. She became my world, my best friend. I want to be that person she could count on. I am going to find my sister, David.”

  He got that. He really got that. He put his hand to her face, running his thumb down her perfect, elegant cheek.

  For a moment, she leaned in, a sweetness in her eyes. Then she took his hand away.

  “Listen. I was thinking about what you said, about me being jealous—”

  “I shouldn’t have—”

  “And I was jealous. Am jealous. And not because my sister thought she had found true love. But because she doesn’t have a list of men who betrayed her in her life to tell her that…that there is no such thing as a man who will stay.”

  Please, God, I want to be that man. David ran his hand down her arm, caught her hand in his. Even more, I want her to see that You will stay.

  “But I want to believe that someday I will find that, David.”

  He nodded. “You will,” he said, and it came out barely above a whisper, one that she probably didn’t hear.

  Because, just then, lights flashed from down the road, followed by an engine, and he grabbed Yanna and pulled her with him down into the brush.

  As the car drove by, the phone in his pocket began to beep.

  “I think that’s for me,” Yanna said, as she reached inside his jacket and pulled it out. She smiled up at him. “The tracker. The plan worked like a charm.”

  Oh, yeah, without a hitch.

  Chapter Fifteen