Aces Wild (9 page)

Kai snorted. “Like I need him to protect me. Father, wait. Listen to me!”

Chao held up his hand. “That’s enough, Kai. You’re excused. I wish to speak with Gabriel privately.”

Kai reared up then sank back down at the rigid expression on his father’s face.

“
Father, Ana isn’t safe with him. You don’t understand.”

Chao rose to his feet. His commanding presence filled the room. “Go, Kai. Now.”

Kai shoved himself out of his chair. His cheeks were flushed, his harsh breaths audible. He looked at his father, then turned and pinned Gabe with a furious glare. Striding past him, his lips curled in an ugly sneer.

“
This isn’t the end of this, you cocky bastard.”

Gabe tipped his head back and grinned, a smile totally devoid of mirth. “You’re sure as hell right about that, boy.”

A hard slam of the door caused shock waves that reverberated down the hallway.

~~

Chapter 8

Chao walked away from his desk toward the window. He stood without speaking for several minutes, staring out into the darkness beyond. His hands were clasped behind his back, the muscles on his neck visibly straining.

After what seemed like an interminable time to Gabe, Chao spoke. Without turning around, he said, “He’s wrong, Gabe. I do know we have a problem. No one is more attuned to my daughter than I am. And whether you know it or not, I have come to know you well over these past years.”

He turned to face Gabe, resting against the window, his hands braced on the sill.

“
I am not blind, Gabe. “

Gabe swallowed hard, but met his stare in silence.

Chao sighed. A weary frown creased his forehead.

“
You are my most trusted undercover man, Gabe. I trust you with my life. But Ana is young.”

Chao shook his head when Gabe straightened up in his chair with a frown.

He wandered over to the fireplace and rested his hand on the mantle. He looked up at the painting on the wall. Gabe noticed it when he came in, but hadn’t mentioned it, too raw from his experience on the balcony with Ana. A beautiful woman with dark hair and laughing blue eyes gazed at the little girl at her knees. Even at that young age, Ana’s exotic features were apparent, telegraphing the beautiful woman she would become. She was looking up at her mother as though she was an angel. A stern looking Kai stood beside them both, one hand resting protectively on his mother’s shoulder, the other on Ana’s.

Chao continued with a sigh.

“
She’s young, not only in years. She is almost a recluse. She spends most of her days riding in the canyons or burying her nose in a book.”

He glanced up at the painting, then continued, anguish tightening his voice.

“
When Sarah died, Penelope insisted I send Ana away to a finishing school, a boarding school in Boston. She said she needed a woman’s influence to become a proper young lady. It was the biggest mistake I could have made. I wasn’t thinking straight. I..I was blind with grief. Her mother was dead and Ana thought I abandoned her. The school sent her back less than six months later. They said she was unmanageable, unteachable.” He gave a soft laugh and his eyes had a distant, haunted look as if he was remembering something long ago, something painful..

“
Never mind that she had read most every book in my library. Now she reads them all, even the ones written in Latin or Greek. But the experience tore her apart. When she came back, she was damaged, would barely speak. It took me several years to gain her trust again.”

Gabe coughed, “Chao, I know where you are going with this. You can stop.”

Chao shook his head. “No, Gabe, I can’t stop. And you don’t know where this is heading. I need you, Gabe. More than I ever have.” He hesitated, the lines on his face, around his mouth tight, strained. Gabe felt his tension from across the room.

“
Someone is after her, Gabe.”

Gabe reared to his feet. His embarrassment that Chao saw the spark between him and Ana was forgotten.

“
What the hell do you mean by that, Chao. Who’s after her?”

Chao sighed again and pressed his fingers against the deep ridge between his brows. When he spoke, his voice was low, troubled.

“
For the last several months, Ana has been more distant than ever. She often stays in the canyon for hours at a time. A couple of times she stayed away all night.”

At Gabe’s gasp, he shook his head. “No, it wasn’t like that. She was alone, like she always is.”

Gabe couldn’t hide his anger. “Then what the hell. And you let her go? Goddamn, Chao. What the hell are you talking about? How do you know someone is after her?”

Chao met his gaze, didn’t look away although he was clearly upset.

“
Kai found a note. He was as worried about her as I was. The note was ugly, Gabe. It threatened her. Called her a whore.”

Gabe sucked in a breath, wondering where the next one would come from, or if he would ever breathe again.

“
Jesus, Chao.”

Chao shook his head and closed his eyes as if to shut out the memory. When he opened them and looked at Gabe, his distress was apparent.

“
It’s more than that, Gabe. The note was cruel. It said her mother was watching her and was ashamed of her.”

When Gabe tried to interrupt, Chao held up his hand to stop him. He stared at Gabe for a long moment, then took a deep breath. “It also referred to me. It said that she was the devil’s spawn--a yellow devil’s spawn. There was a caricature of me. Let’s just say who ever wrote it doesn’t think much of Chinese.”

Gabe struggled against an overpowering flood of rage. It took every bit of strength to keep his voice calm, his fury suppressed. He had never seen Chao this upset. He knew his anger would only acerbate the situation. He barely trusted his voice. He said simply, “Where’s the note.”

Chao shook his head. “Ana ripped it up. She was furious with both Kai and me. She said Kai had no business going through her things. She wouldn’t talk to him for a week. She…she was mostly angry because she knew the note would hurt me. She castigated poor Kai, saying he should have known better than to show me the note. She insists that she can take care of herself. She said I would do better to focus on protecting me. And Kai.”

“
Damn, Chao. This is serious.” Gabe paced across the room, running his hands through his hair. He mumbled to himself, “But she’s probably right.”

He stopped in front of Chao. His voice was as hard as the grimace he knew was stamped on his face. “It’s you they’re after, Chao. They’re using her to scare you, get to you.”

Chao gave a non-committal shrug. “Perhaps,”

“
No perhaps about it, Chao. They’re after you.”

Chao held his gaze for a long moment, then walked to a painting of a peaceful Chinese garden hanging on the wall across from his desk. Nudging the painting to the left, he revealed a small safe. Twirling the knobs, he waited until the tumblers clicked in place, then opened the safe. He reached in and took out a stack of notes and handed them to Gabe.

“
As usual, you are correct. As you can see, these are addressed to me. They came from various places over the last month. Most of them were sent to my offices in San Francisco or to the warehouse this side of Oakland. I put my most trusted staff on the look out for them.”

Gabe held the stack without looking at them. “Do Ana and Kai know about these?”

Chao shook his head. “I didn’t want to worry them further. When you read them you
will see that their rage—whoever it is – is directed at me. But their threats are getting more explicit, descriptive. They are making it clear that they will go after Ana first and then Kai.”

Gabe grabbed a pen and paper from the desk and pointed to the inkwell.

He elbowed his friend over to his chair. “Here, Chao. Sit. Write down the name of every son of a bitch you’ve bested in the last year. I don’t care how much you made off him, a little or a lot. Put a star by the ones you humiliated in the process.”

When Chao frowned, questioning, Gabe replied, “Think about it, Chao. Most men, especially proud ones, don’t like to be made a fool of. Particularly by…

Chao broke in. “Particularly by a Chink?”

Gabe felt his face heat. “That’s not what I was going to say. But, yes. I’m sorry, that is true. The fact that you are a wildly successful Chinese man sticks in the craw of a hell of a lot of men who envy you and use your race as an excuse to hate you. One more thing: Put an ‘x’ by their name if they are associated with Moses in any way.”

Chao nodded and smiled slightly. “All the men I bested in the last year? Particularly the ones I humiliated in the process? Hmm, I will need more than one sheet of paper, Gabe.”

Shoving down a pained expletive, Gabe snorted out a laugh. “I’ll just bet you do.” He pushed a stack of paper toward Chao, “Start writing.”

Gabe walked over to the liquor cabinet and rummaged through the well-stocked shelves. He grunted when he found the bottle he wanted. Pulling out a bottle of Jameson, he retrieved two tumblers.

“
I’m gonna need something a little less civilized to work my way through these,” he said, pointing to the notes, “Want to join me?”

Without waiting for Chao’ response, Gabe filled the glasses, whiskey sloshing over the brim. He handed one to Chao and set the other on the table beside the desk chair. Settling in the chair, he dragged out his cigarette case and lit up a Duke of Durham, his favorite brand next to the exclusive Turkish cigarettes that had become his trademark. Taking a big swig of whiskey, he sighed and picked up the top note.

Half an hour later, Chao handed him four sheets of paper with names written on both sides.

Gabe guffawed. “Damn, Chao, you don’t play around, do you. Hell, it shouldn’t take us more than a lifetime to work our way through your enemies.” Tucking the notes in his vest pocket, he added with a shrug, “Unfortunately, we don’t have a lifetime. Maybe a few weeks, at the most.”

He gathered up the papers, then slammed down the rest of the whiskey in his glass. Nodding at his friend, he let a slight smile break through and gave him a wink, “I best get started.”

At the door, Gabe turned and faced him.

“
I may be a son of a bitch, Chao. In fact, there isn’t any question about that. We both know it. But I don’t take advantage of innocent young women. However, I do make damn sure no one else will.”

Without looking back, he strode out, slamming the door behind him.

Chao went back to his desk and sunk down in his chair. He moved the untouched glass of whisky to the side. He poured himself another two fingers of cognac and sipped on it. He glanced up at the portrait above the mantle and smiled, then spoke to the empty doorway.

“
That, my friend, was before you met my daughter.”

~~

Chapter 9

“
Damn, Gabe, it will take ten of us to investigate this and weeks of time. We have five days. Why?”

Looking hard at the blond haired giant across from him, Gabe admitted to himself that, as usual, Gunnar had gone to the heart of the problem. This task required the best of them. Only their most trusted partners qualified. That gave them ten to twelve men at the most and would mean taking them off jobs they were currently working.

He nodded in agreement and then shrugged, “We don’t have a choice, Gunnar. From the notes Chao showed me, the threats are ramping up, becoming more explicit. Whoever this fucker is, he’s getting anxious. He’s ready to make a move.”

Gabe waited for Eagle to say something. But the brown-skinned man sitting next to him was silent, methodically going through the notes as if they held secrets only he could unearth. Gabe thought with a grin that may be true. Just as he had a sixth sense that allowed the poker cards to talk to him, Eagle’s strange insights often came out of nowhere, but proved eerily correct.

“
Seeing something in the tea leaves, brother?” he asked with a grin.

Eagle’s black eyes flashed. He met Gabe’s gaze head on then shook his head and drawled, “Not yet.”

Gabe appreciated his friend’s honesty and wasn’t put off by his laconic response. He knew the answer to the identity of the man they were seeking was buried somewhere in those notes and if anyone could eek out the answer, Eagle could.

The saloon was quiet. It was late. Only the slurred voices of the men who had stayed too long wafted over the room. Shorty was winding up. He’d sent his bartender home a couple of hours ago and was looking for somewhat sober friends who could cart out the drunken remnants of his clientele. Acknowledging the three men in the corner table, he raised a bottle of Jameson with a questioning glance. At Gabe’s nod, the big man hauled his three hundred pound plus, six foot ten inch frame across the room. Plunking the bottle down on the table, he scooped up the empties and smiled in appreciation. Risking his life, he turned on Eagle. “Thought you Injuns couldn’t hold your liquor, but hell, man, this is your third bottle and you ain’t even got bloodshot eyes.”

Eagle gave him what passed as a smile that on other men would be considered a grimace. “Did you ever think it could be that the man who imposed himself on my little squaw mother had a drop or two of Irish blood in ‘im? Or, could it be that you’re watering down this fine libation, Shorty?”