Aces Wild (8 page)

Chao rose from behind his desk to greet him. As always, Gabe was struck by the graceful bearing of the Chinese man. A slight smile softened the stern lines of the older man’s face.

“
Ah, Gabriel, thank you for coming.” Gesturing to the chair in front of his ornate carved desk, he added, “Please, sit.”

Gabe sunk down in the soft leather chair, relieved at the cover it gave his wayward body. Glancing around the room, he noted the tell-tale signs of the man who had become his friend. Tasteful Chinese woolen rugs strategically placed on the marble tiled floor divided the room. The work space was anchored by Chao’s dark ebony desk. A lounging area across the room had an overstuffed leather sofa and several comfortable matching chairs. A low fire burned in the stone flanked fireplace across from the sofa, casting a flickering glow over the room. The furnishings were simple, elegant. Unlike his own father, Chao did not find it necessary to shout out his wealth; Gabe thought with a grimace. Two walls of shelves held what must be over a thousand books. Knowing Chao as he did, Gabe wouldn’t be surprised if four or five languages were housed in the leather bound tomes that graced the shelves.

Chao stood by a glass fronted cabinet and held up a decanter. “May I entice you with a libation? Brandy, cognac, port?”

Gabe grinned. “If that cognac is anything like the one you served me in San Francisco, I will definitely imbibe. There’s only one problem with a liquor that aged, that fine. It can slip up on a man. But, yes, thank you, cognac will be appreciated.”

Chao poured two glasses of the pungent amber liquid and handed one to Gabe. Settling in the chair behind his desk, Chao reached in the humidor in front of him and withdrew two slender cigars with a questioning glance at Gabe.

Gabe nodded, grateful for his host’s courtesies. He took his time clipping the cigar with the silver tiger- headed clipper Chao pushed his way. He lit it, then puffed on it until it was drawing and the aromatic smoke of the fine cigar gave him welcome cover. He needed a moment to clear his head, to erase the sights and smells of the young women he had held in his arms in what seemed like a lifetime ago. Shaking his head as if to erase the visions, he looked up to see Chao gazing at him.

Rather than responding to the unspoken questions in the distinguished man’s eyes, Gabe reverted to his usual method of handling stress, his ready humor.

“
It isn’t necessary to ply me with fine cigars and the best damned cognac I’ve ever drunk, Chao, to get me to do your bidding. Money, a great deal of it, will suffice.”

Chao smiled. “Why not all three, my young friend?”

Gabe struggled against an unwelcome twinge of guilt. Chao was his friend. They had known one another for ten years, since he was a cocky nineteen year old kid. He saved Chao hundreds of thousands of dollars by outing an accomplished gambler who had been stealing Chao blind in a sophisticated undercover operation for an opposing Tong. Not only had Gabe spotted the gambler’s shill game, but took his life in his hands identifying the more than a dozen inside accomplices that Chao thought were loyal gang members.

When Gabe left the marshal service, Chao was his first client. It was Chao who opened Gabe’s eyes to the possibilities of helping wealthy men with issues that no one else would or could touch. In the last four years, Chao called on him for one job after another. The work was dangerous. It required the utmost secrecy and skill. What Chao valued most were the astonishing insights and violent proclivities of the handsome Irishman that enemies and friends alike underestimated at their peril.

Gabe smiled at the Chinaman. He knew the slender man had been misjudged all his life, particularly by the mob leaders and other Tongs. They didn’t understand that his gracious manners and soft voice masked a ferocious intelligence and an innate knack for turning the most humble enterprises into thriving sources of cash. Like Gabe, his enemies learned to fear him and those foolish enough to challenge him knew when he crushed them that they had been taken down by a master.

A knock at the door opened to reveal an angry looking Kai. Chao stood and motioned his son to the chair next to Gabe’s.

“
I’ve asked my son to join us, Gabe. Kai is learning my business and it’s time he sees it through the eyes of the smartest man I know. I’ve told Kai that he can learn more about sharks and rat bellies in an hour with you than he could in a lifetime with me.”

Gabe shook his head and quirked a brow at Chao’s assumed modesty. He knew that underneath Chao’s gracious exterior burned a desire for money as rapacious as his own and a willingness to do what it took to take down anyone who stood in his way. Like Chao, it wasn’t the money that drove Gabe, it was the game. The game in which only the winners stood at the end; a game that neither one of them had ever lost. Some lucky angel or more likely a devil had brought the two men together in an unholy alliance that served both their purposes. In the process, they created a friendship built on trust and admiration. While Gabe never said it out loud, Chao was the father he wished he had. Chao was as constrained as Rory McKenna was rowdy. Both were cunning, worthy adversaries, but Rory’s excesses with women, money, and power made him vulnerable to his enemies in a way that Chao and Gabe never were.

Glancing at the stormy young man bristling with anger, Gabe was struck by the stark differences between the father and son. Both were strikingly handsome. But Kai was a big man: large, muscular, taller by a foot than his father. He carried himself with the certain power of a warrior. Gabe saw that years of kung fu had strengthened this young man’s body, though it clearly hadn’t calmed his spirit. Chao caught Gabe’s eye and they shared a knowing gaze. Gabe was also a warrior, an accomplished killer. But his first love, poker, in combination with the meditative side of kung fu, instilled in him a honed detachment that made him ten times the adversary of the common killers he encountered. Without asking, Gabe understood that Chao hoped Gabe would teach Kai that physical power grew exponentially when married to the power of constraint.

Gabe puffed on his cigar, then leaned forward to refill his glass and Chao’s. In a proprietary gesture, he stood and walked over to the liquor cabinet and retrieved another glass. He filled it and handed it to Kai. The assumptive move was intended to taunt Kai, underscore the relationship Gabe and Chao shared and anger the young man further—all to bring Kai’s useless anger to a boiling point, making him more receptive to the hard lesson Gabe planned to teach him.

Chao’s expression hardened, the lines on his face deepened, revealing stress that he rarely showed. Without prologue, he spoke to the reason he had called for Gabe.

“
As far as I can tell, Gabe, Dominic is our adversary.”

Gabe smiled. “He always is, isn’t he? That asshole will never learn. You’d think the money that is flowing through that brothel of his would not only keep him happy, but also busy.”

“
You would think so,” Chao agreed. “But I have it on good authority that the ‘supplies’ we’ve been missing are turning up in Dominic’s hands.”

Gabe quirked a brow at Chao’s innocent description of the “supplies” that he knew included prostitutes, alcohol, and a hell of a lot of opium. Gabe never questioned the sources of his clients’ money, just ensured that they would have enough left over to pay his astronomical fees. Chao not only paid him what he asked, but often added a bonus.

“
You can get inside that operation like no one can, Gabe. I’m still not sure how you manage to stay on the good side of some very disreputable men.” Chao smiled broadly, “Like myself, for example.”

“
I do what it takes, Chao. You’d be amazed the doors that poker opens. Seems that the richer the guy is the more convinced he is that he should win at everything, including poker. When I take ‘em down, they just come back for more. I guess they think the last ten times or so that I beat them were aberrations. And hell, you’d be amazed how men spill their guts when they are losing their shirt.”

“
Don’t minimize your skill, Gabe. You are the finest poker player I have ever seen. I should know, you’ve cleaned out every one of my gambling establishments whenever you grace us with your presence. I truly believe you have what is known as an eidetic memory, photographic memory. But it is more than that. It is as though you know what everyone has in their hand before a card is played.”

“
Now you’re making me sound like a magician, Chao. But, yeah, I do have a special relationship with cards, especially if a big pot of money is involved.” Gabe winked at his friend. “Don’t forget, I don’t work alone. Couldn’t do what I do without my team. And hell, they are as money grubbing as I am.”

Gabe threw Chao a questioning glance. “I gotta think this is about more than finding out which asshole is stealing your ‘supplies’ and making sure they think twice before they do it again. Hell, Chao, you could have sent me the usual telegram, not brought me out here to tell me that Dominic is getting greedy again.”

“
You’re correct, of course, Gabe. There is something more. The problem is …” Chao hesitated and looked over at the glowering young man poised on the edge of his chair glaring at this father. Chao continued, “It’s as though they’re out to get me personally. And that isn’t the way Dominic works, at least until now.”

“
You’re right about that, Chao. If you were starving that son of a bitch would steal your last piece of bread and chomp it down in front of you. But Dominic is all about money, not revenge.”

“
That’s precisely right, Gabe. Someone is controlling Dominic, but for a reason I can’t discern. It’s as though whoever it is wants to hurt me as much as he can.”

Gabe was quiet, thoughtful. He puffed on his cigar and took occasional sips of cognac.

After several minutes, he looked up at Chao as a shock of understanding hit him.

Chao nodded. “I agree, Gabe, that is what is frightening me.”

Kai scowled. “What the hell, Father? I thought we agreed this was between us?” He glared at Gabe then turned back to his father. “He didn’t say a word, but he knows what’s happening? What you are thinking?”

Gabe remained calm, controlled. “No, Kai. I don’t know what is going on. But your father and I have worked together on one thing or another for five years now and this is the first time her has invited me to his home. It’s the first time I have met you and, yeah, the first time I met your sister.” He looked over at Chao, who gave him an imperceptible nod confirming that Gabe was on the right track. “It doesn’t take a mind reader or hell even a decent poker player to know that Chao is damned worried about something and someone close to home. And hell, Kai, anyone who is out to hurt your father, to take him down, knows his biggest vulnerability. Ten minutes at that dinner tonight would let him know the way to get to Chao Li is through his daughter.”

Chaos nodded in agreement. His face was pale. The tight line lines around his mouth confirmed that Gabe identified his greatest fear.

Kai leapt to his feet. Slamming his big hands on the desk; he leaned over, his face a foot away from his father’s.

“
Jesus Christ, Father, can’t you see what this fucker is doing? He is trying to scare you! Make you think because Ana is in danger he is the one to protect her when all he wants is her.”

He whirled on Gabe, angry red spots flaming his cheeks.

“
I’ll tell you one thing,” looking over his shoulder at his father who regarded him with a patient frown. “Both of you better hear this. No one but me is going to protect my sister. I’m in charge of her.”

Turning back to Gabe, his voice rose to a shrill whine.

“
Who the hell do you think taught her kung fu? Who taught her to shoot? To throw a knife? Some guy who wants to get in her pants?”

He roared, stabbing a finger in his chest, his big frame shaking with anger. “No! It was me, her brother. And you aren’t going to come in here, unwanted, and convince my father that because Ana is in danger you are the only one who can save her. You hear me?”

Gabe leaned back in his chair. He kept his expression calm, unconcerned, but those who knew him would see the tick next to his eye, a sure sign that he was angry. Hell, he was as angry as Kai, but unlike the kid he knew how to control his anger.

He shook his head and said softly. “No question that you do a hell of a good job protecting your sister. But whatever this is, it may be bigger than you can handle, Kai. Your father is a powerful man. Like all powerful men, he has enemies. The people who envy him are also powerful, unscrupulous. Men that are way the hell out of your league, kid. If your father or you or your sister are in trouble, it’s gonna take someone who isn’t involved, who can see beyond his possessive rage.”

“
And that is you? You arrogant asshole! Do you think I’m blind? That I didn’t see what you were doing to her? What she was letting you do?”

Kai hands fisted at his sides. His eyes were roiling with fury. He took a menacing step toward Gabe, but Gabe merely settled back in his chair and took another sip of cognac.

“
Kai. Stop. Now.” Chao’s voice was firm, commanding. “Please. Sit down. Now.”

Kai visibly struggled, then sunk down in his chair with an audible groan.

Looking up from hooded eyes, he appealed to his father. “You don’t understand, Father. You are blind to this man. You didn’t see what I saw. Ana was…she…”

Chao cut him off with a wave of his hand. “No, Kai, I did not. But I am not blind. I have known Gabe for nearly ten years. I am quite aware of who he is. But I have decided. Gabe will be in charge of protecting Ana, and, not incidentally, protecting you.”