Breaking the Limits: Rafe & Nicole Book 2 (20 page)

Chapter 23

As requested, Dao waited for Rafe at her office in Bangkok. With almost as many contacts as Carlos, she knew why; monkish now that he was engaged, Rafe wanted their meeting to be strictly business. His new abstinence surprised her, although perhaps it shouldn’t have. Rafe had been doing exactly as he pleased for years, long before his father died.

The fact that she happened to own the hotel where Maso had died indulging his auto-erotic tastes was unfortunate, not intentional. He’d merely reserved the penthouse in the most exclusive luxury hotel in Bangkok. Whether he’d been alone in the penthouse at the time of his death was a question the police had chosen not to ask; it saved hours of manpower and paperwork. The Royal Thai Police preferred the less time-consuming ‘accidental death by asphyxiation’ as the cause of death. Gora had come for the body.

Dao’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her office door and, looking up, she smiled as her houseboy announced Rafe. He’d come alone. She hadn’t been sure with all the plans in train.

‘You’re looking beautiful, as ever, Dao,’ Rafe said, striding into the large room overlooking her garden.

She gave him a quick assessing glance as he approached her desk. ‘You’re one of the few men who do justice to the word as well, darling.’ Even casually dressed in jeans and a grey T-shirt, his long, dark hair tumbled on his shoulders, he was breathtaking. She waved him to a chair. ‘Would you like tea, a drink, some food?’

‘No thanks. I had something on the plane.’ He sat opposite her, waited for her to send the houseboy away and for the door to close. Then he leaned forward slightly, his eyes alight. ‘Zou’s actually on the road. Am I lucky or what?’

She laughed and sat back in her desk chair. ‘You’ve always been lucky.’

‘With a little help from you, on occasion, don’t forget.’

‘How could I? You gave me the seed money for all this and more.’ She swept her arm in a slow circuit that took in the splendid room and estate outside the window.

‘You helped me, I helped you.’ Rafe leaned back. ‘We both managed to survive.’

Forced against his will to take part in his first orgy at fifteen, Rafe had been stubbornly resisting and so furious with rage at his father’s goading that Dao had worried about possible carnage on her white carpets or, worse, a dead body. She’d just opened the posh ‘massage’ parlor, and was mortgaged to the hilt to the kind of men who expected their payments on time. Also, the bribes she was paying the police were already too high. She couldn’t afford a murder investigation.

So she’d taken Maso aside, convinced him to let her school his boy privately, promised him videos in the morning. Then she and Rafe had spent the night together, talking – her early life as unhappy as his. By morning, Maso was so wasted by drugs, he couldn’t remember where he was, let alone a bargain he’d made with Dao. She and Rafe had been friends ever since, occasional business partners and, even more infrequently, lovers.

Dao smiled. ‘We’re both long past mere survival, aren’t we? You look happy. Considering the circumstances, I assume it’s because of your fiancée. Tell me about her. I’m curious. Do you mind?’

‘No. She’s wonderful.’ Rafe gave her a wry smile. ‘I have no idea why. She just is. I didn’t want to let her go so I’m keeping her.’

A delicate lift of her brows. ‘Love?’

‘Oh yeah.’ He did a little flicker of his brows. ‘That too. I have no idea where that came from either. Although thousands of poets have written about love in a thousand different ways, so I’m guessing that’s what hit me.’ He smiled again. ‘It’s mind-boggling – in a very good way,’ he added softly.

‘I can tell. Congratulations.’

He gave her a glance from under his lashes. ‘Have you ever been blown away by love or shouldn’t I ask? It’s just such a great feeling,’ he said with a deprecating little shrug. ‘Brilliant, urgent.’ He grinned. ‘Never enough.’

‘A true convert.’

‘Fuck yeah. So? You? Am I overstepping?’ Dao had a son at boarding school in Hong Kong. Had the father been someone she cared for?

‘No, darling, you’re not overstepping. You’ve just never thought to ask. But then you’ve never been in love before. You’ve met my son, Charlie. His father lives in London. He loves me as much as he can in his position and I love him more.’

‘A wife then, I’m assuming.’

She nodded. ‘And three other children, almost grown now.’

‘A possible divorce later?’

She shook her head. ‘He’s in government.’

‘Now I feel bad. I shouldn’t have asked. Forgive me.’ He suddenly sat up straighter. ‘Want me to find you someone loveable? I’m sure I could.’ Dao was stunningly beautiful, at most thirty-five, wealthy, educated now that she’d made her fortune. He grimaced. ‘Oh hell, you’ll have to wait until I’m finished with Zou.’

‘I’m content. If and when I’m interested in a permanent substitute for Charlie’s father, I’ll let you know.’

‘No you won’t.’

She laughed. ‘No I won’t. Now, for the business at hand, let me bring you up to date on Zou. I received a report earlier today from the men I have inside the compound. One’s a mechanic, the other serves Zou and his closest advisors their meals, the third is selling them small arms. Their information is quite good.’

Rafe listened, asked questions about Zou’s journey south to Bangkok. Dao brought out a map and traced the possible routes. All three of her spies were travelling with Zou’s troops and would relay additional information as they could.

‘Does anyone know whether he’s taking a stand here or simply using Bangkok for a staging area? Ganz is tapping his phone as we speak so we should have ears on him soon. Zou has to know by now that he lost three assault teams on my island along with his signal. The cunt was using Bao Yu’s little girl’s earrings he’d given her as transmitters; he figured no one would toss diamonds that large.’

‘He was right. Zou’s sharp and, in case you forgot, surrounded by personal bodyguards. You have your work cut out for you.’

‘Ganz emptied Zou’s department account and blasted his operation to dust. I’m hoping Zou has other soft spots too. In the meantime, give me those reports and we’ll keep adjusting our plans as needed.’

‘You’re at your place?’

‘Yup, in fact I’m walking back.’ Rafe had a small house in the expensive, leafy area of Embassy Row. A walled estate like most of the residences there.

‘Do you think that’s wise?’

‘Carlos complained too. I’ll be fine. I’m going the back way.’

‘You’re crazy.’

He grinned. ‘Yeah, crazy in love.’ Coming to his feet, he swept up the pile of reports, folded them and shoved them in his back pocket. ‘I have no intention of dying today or anytime in the next fifty years. You’ll have to come to the wedding.’

‘Send me an invitation.’ His fiancée might have other ideas.

‘You got it.’ He blew her a kiss and walked out.

Dao picked up her desk phone the second Rafe left, talked to her security director and ordered him to see that Rafe arrived home alive.

Rafe had just reached Dao’s garden gate when he turned back, smiled at the six men standing ten yards behind him and spoke to them in the Bangkok dialect standard for the country. ‘I suppose you’d better come or she’ll dock your pay, right?’

‘Or worse,’ the leader said with a grin.

Rafe waited for them to catch up. ‘You’ve been with Dao a long time.’ He recognized the man from Dao’s original massage parlor.

‘We’re both from the same hill tribe. We grew up together.’

‘All of you?’ Rafe indicated the rest of his crew as they approached.

The man nodded. ‘Dao’s the village patroness. Built a new school last year, a hospital the year before, set up two businesses in the village so people have jobs.’

‘Dao helped me out years ago too. She has a big heart.’

‘She lives up to her name. Now, are you going to let me look out the gate first in case there’s trouble waiting for you?’

Rafe laughed. ‘Do I have a choice?’

‘She’s watching so, if you don’t mind, I’d better do the looking.’

‘Jesus.’ Rafe turned, grinned at Dao in the second floor window, gave her the finger. She gave it right back. ‘What the hell,’ Rafe said with a chuckle. ‘Be my guest or she’ll come down and smack us around.’ Dao had been a dominatrix in her early career.

‘No doubt. Stand back.’

As Rafe expected, his five-minute walk home was uneventful. Zou had a lot more on his plate than keeping tabs on all of Rafe’s homes. After thanking his escort, Rafe entered his property through
his
garden gate and smiled at the two guards pointing assault rifles at him. ‘Just me. Christ, I can hear Henny banging pots from here. Did he mention what was on the menu?’

‘Something with chillis. Along with fish. We’re in Bangkok, he said.’

‘Sounds good. Zou’s on his way south. He shouldn’t be here for another day or so, but in case he has scouts out, heads up, okay?’

A huge smile from the larger of the two men. ‘Finally some action.’

‘Anyone who uses a little kid for bait,’ the other man said, ‘deserves what he gets.’

‘True enough. Carlos in?’

‘Upstairs. Staying out of Henny’s way. I’m locking this gate now that you’re in. We’re doing two-hour rotations so everyone stays alert.’

‘Sounds like a plan. Zou’s bringing down a fucking armada. We’ll just have to see how motivated his troops are.’

A few minutes later, Rafe walked into his study on the second floor where Carlos, Simon and Leo were going over maps while Webster and Sasha were setting up more monitors for their security system. Gina and Basil were seated on the floor playing chess. ‘You heard. Zou’s on his way. A day or two before he gets into town. Here are Dao’s reports.’ Rafe handed them to Carlos. ‘She has three men inside. How’s Ganz doing with the phone tap?’

‘Almost there, he said not too long ago,’ Carlos replied. ‘He’s next door in your bedroom. He likes to be alone when he works, he says. What he really means is he can do lines without anyone giving him a hard time. But he’s starting to get tremors. It’s been too long this time.’

‘Yeah, Zou’s been pushing hard for awhile.’ Rafe sighed. ‘We better check on Ganz if it gets too quiet in there. And make sure he eats something when Henny brings us food. But till then, listen up everyone. I thought it might be simpler if we could bring Zou to us rather than we go after him. If the logistics can be managed, I’d like him to get an invitation to an exclusive party when he arrives in the city. Something so bloody tempting he can’t refuse; celebrities, intimate venue, lots of women, gambling.’ Dropping into a chair, Rafe stretched out his legs. ‘What do you think? We could use one of Dao’s boutique hotels. Or if that’s too close a connection, we could rent one of the smaller embassies for the night. There’s probably a couple that wouldn’t turn down a few mil for a social event.’

Webster turned, a terminal cable in his hand. ‘I suggest a party host from Dubai, preferably a banker. There’s time to fly someone in. My friend in Dubai has lists on top of lists of money-laundering financiers available for a price. And since we haven’t been able to crack Zou’s accounts in Dubai, he’d be more inclined to trust an invitation from an Emirate banker.’

‘Call your friend,’ Rafe said. ‘Tell him we’ll charter a plane. But whomever he commissions has to have serious credentials; a major bank, major position, right client list, smooth and glib would be helpful. The banker can name his price. Your friend can name his price. We’ll have an intimate little party; good music, flashy women, roulette and a super-clean hit with only a few people involved. Fucking nirvana.’

‘If Zou takes the bait,’ Carlos murmured.

‘We could add some celebrity pussy to our guest list. A singer, film star, fucking tennis or golf star. There must be someone who gives Zou a hard on. Find out and book them for the party.’

‘Let me check with a contact in Macau,’ Leo said. ‘Every major celebrity plays there. Someone might remember whether Zou has lusted after any particular lady.’

‘Whomever we book only has to sing or look pretty, smile, whatever. We just need her as enticement. She might have to send a couple extra smiles Zou’s way once he gets there, but that’s it. She’d have protection, handlers, bodyguards. Jesus fucking Christ,’ Rafe said, sitting upright in his chair. ‘I’m getting super-hyped. We might be able to do this with a minimum of bloodshed.’

‘And you’d get to fly to San Francisco sooner rather than later,’ Simon said.

Rafe smiled. ‘Yeah, wouldn’t that be grand?’

Henny’s heavy tread could be heard coming down the hall and, a moment later, he threw open the door and bellowed, ‘First course! Ganz, get your ass in here!’ He waved in four young men, three carrying trays of food, one balancing a large ice bucket of bottled beer on his head.

Everyone sat on the floor and helped themselves to stir-fried chicken with cardamom, tiny krill simmered with coconut and crabmeat and a jungle curry with peppercorns. All the dishes were dominated by a fierce, perfumed, heart-thumping chilli heat that left them sweating and swigging beer to soak up some of the visceral fire.

In the aftermath, while their tongues stopped throbbing and the sweat dried on their faces, they finalized the details for Zou’s party: the venue, caterers, illegal casino operator, music.

Stretched out on the floor, Henny flexed his fingers above his head and squinted at his friends. ‘Remember the time we were jumped on that moonless night in St Moritz,’ he murmured. ‘We were what – fourteen, fifteen? I’m in the same kind of mood. I feel like strangling someone.’

‘You’re lucky we dragged you off before the guy croaked,’ Basil said. ‘And we were fourteen. That was the winter my mother forgot Christmas.’

Henny snorted. ‘Did she ever remember? Mine didn’t.’

‘Hey, kids, we had our own Christmases after that so chill,’ Rafe said with a grin. ‘And, Henny, sweetheart,’ he added, softly, ‘I hate to shut down all your fun, but the point of this party is for all of us to go home. So no one’s gonna get close enough to strangle anyone.’

Henny gave him a wicked smile. ‘Maybe you can’t stop me.’