The Frenchman's Revenge (24 page)

He stood up
and looked at each of them.

“
Not to be rude
,
gentlemen
,
but I have a wedding to prepare for. I am told my role is somewhat central
. A
lthough I expect to be outshone by the most beautiful woman in the world
,
who
to my everlasting joy
has agreed to be my wife.

“
Your deputies are saddled up and waiting for you at the turnoff to my property.
My men will escort you to them
.”

He nodded to Wan and Wyatt and Alex and said, “Father
, Wyatt, Alex,
shall we?

He turned to the other men
,
who were all staring at him
with
various levels of disbelief.

“
Thank you
all
for coming
.
Nianzu
will show you out.

“
Good Day.”

Without looking back
,
he left the room
,
followed by Wan, Wyatt
,
and Alex.

~~~

Silence filled the room
.

Greg
’s
face
was
red
. H
is eyes
flash
ed
with
anger.

“Am I crazy or did I just hear that insufferable
,
arrogant son of a bitch say that he thinks he can take on the whole fucking mafia?”

Peter York responded coolly
,
“I believe that is precisely what you heard, Greg. However
,
I believe he doesn’t think he can do it, he intends to do it.”

Chapter 10

Alex stumbled out of the room
behind
his father and grandfather.
He was stunned
, overwhelmed by what he had
seen and
heard.
Good
God,
was he the only one who didn’t know that his soon to be brother
-
in
-
law had burned down a San Francisco
b
rothel last night AND killed twenty men?
Damn, not only
killed
them,
but
burned them alive
?
Jesus
Christ
,
he thought with a start,
his father and grandfather and Elena and Lei, for Christ’s sake, had sat calmly at the breakfast table
with a mass murderer
,
joking about Elena’s
risqué
dancing!
He thought with a hard shudder, Christ, this was the man he had challenged to a fucking
k
ung fu
match? And his grandfather and father had let him
?

Alex
followed
Wan and Wyatt
as they headed to Bai’s office
,
but
came to a dead stop
when
W
yatt turned back and said, “Will you join us, Alex?
We are going to discuss
our strategy for dealing with the issues we face.”

He stared at his father as if he was crazy
,
then
stuttered
,
“No, no … I
…I
need to get some air.”

Bai smiled a slight
sympathetic
smile
.

“Sorry you had to hear about last night’s incident this way, Alex, but you are welcome to join us.”

Alex stared at his father and
Bai
in disbelief.
They
were acting a
s though they were in
viting
him
to
discuss a business
opportunity
like
buy
ing
a goddamn bank
or invest
ing
in a
fucking
land deal.
He couldn’t hide his astonishment.
He was still shaky from his injuries and felt a wave of nausea
. He
knew he had to get outside, away f
rom
the three of them. He started to speak
,
then shook his head and
dashed
out to the courtyard.

He
sunk down on one of
the benches in the side courtyard
,
put
his head in his hands
,
and
took
deep breaths
,
pushing down his nausea
.
Goddamn,
it was
like he was in a grotesque house of mirrors, the distorted faces of his family looming up like circus freaks.
Was he the only sane one in the bunch?
Did no one else find it unusual or worthy of comment that Bai calmly c
a
me to his engagement party
last night
and danced with his bride to be a
couple of
hours after he killed a good sized contingent of men, members of the fucking mafia
,
no less?

Hell, he had to admit the guy was
a master
. He
s
trolled
into
that room
like a royal prince deigning to meet with his subjects. Only those subjects were
t
he governor’s chief of staff, the mayor’s main guy
,
a fucking U
nited
S
tates
m
arshal
and the sheriff
,
who had fifteen deputies waiting in the wings
.
And
,
Christ
,
he flat
out taunted the
lieutenant
g
overnor of the S
t
ate of California
,
practically
called him
a
corrupt
asshole
to his face!

As
appalled
as he
was
, Alex had to admit that Bai was a force to be reckoned with. There wasn’t a person in the
room who didn’t know
who was in
command
. It was
the handsome
elegant man at the head of the table
coolly smoking a
cigar that
controlled the room
. Never once did he
raise his
soft spoken
French tinged
voice
.
But, i
t was more than his arrogance, his
wit
, his calm ruthlessness; it was his power. Alex had spent his life watching his father and grandfather intimidate and overpower rooms full of
important
men. He knew remarkable
men;
he
had been
surrounded by them all his life. A
nd
,
goddamn
,
even he had to admit that Bai was one fucking remarkable man.

He looked up to see Elena and Lei coming toward him and he had an overwhelming need to talk to Elena.

Elena’s face lit up when she saw him and she called out as she rushed toward him
.
“Oh, Alex, I’m so glad to see you.
Is the meeting over?
Are they all gone?
”

Alex ignored Lei and grabbed Elena’s hand and pulled her down
on the bench
next to him
.

W
ithout preamble
he
said in a rushed, urgent voice,
“Elena, I have to talk to
you. You
need to tell me
.
I need to understand
. D
o you truly know who
y
ou are marrying
? D
o you
? Do you
understand
who he is? What he is?”

Elena
frowned and pulled back. At first she looked surprised
at his outburst
,
then her face hardened
.
To his dismay
,
Alex saw that she was angry and that she was looking at him in a way she never had
; her expression was
cold
,
closed
.

Elena
pulled her hands away and went to stand by Lei.
She hesitated
,
as though she was going to speak
to him
,
then changed her mind and turned to walk away.

“Elena,
wait! G
oddamn, I
’m
sorry.
I don’t want to make you angry
,
but you need to understand what you are doing.
Do you
know
what happened last night? What Bai did last night?”

Elena and Lei shared a
strained
look and both stepped away from him.
Elena took a deep breath
and said
in a solemn voice, “It just so happens, Alex,
Lei and I are on our way to see the results of what Bai
‘
did
’
last night
.
Perhaps you would like to accompany us.
”

She turned on her heel and grasping
L
ei’s hand
,
the two of them stalked off without a backward glance at Alex.
He shook his head in frustration and tried to stifle his hurt. He had never been estranged from either Elena or Lei, the two women he
deeply
loved
.
All his life
,
they had fussed over him, supported him and made him feel special. But now they were disappointed with him
.
H
ell
,
it was clear they were angry
with him
.
And it was because of th
at
arrogant son of a bitch who had turned all of their lives upside down. Knowing that somehow
he
had to reach his sister before she made the mistake of a lifetime,
Alex
swallowed his pride and followed them to the infirmary.

~~~

Years later
,
Alex would see groups of
innocent
young
children playing together and he would remember th
at day in the infirmary
with
fresh
anguish
.
There were twenty beds in the infirmary and
in
each
of them
was a young Chinese girl, none
more than twelve or thirteen
years old
, many
seemed
younger.
They looked like
dolls
, quiet little
wide-eyed
girls cowering under their blankets
in beds
that dwarfed
them
.
Uniformed aides and healers moved through the room talking softly, occasionally plumping a pillow or hold
ing
a child upright to help them swallow an herbal drink or take medication.

In the dining room next door
,
another thirty girls
were sitting at tables
,
many of them staring blankly at the food in front of them.
Given th
eir ages
and the number of girls
,
at first glance
,
it looked like
a
dining
hall
in
a girl’s school
,
but th
e lack of laughter
and
absence of girlish chatter
was unsettling. What was more unsettling was knowing that
less than twenty four hours earlier
,
a
ll
of these girls had been
prostitutes; their
small
bodies for sale to grown men twice their size and many times their ages
.
Even the Chinese servants waiting on the girls were
silent
,
as if words weren’t enough.