The Frenchman's Revenge (69 page)

Disconsolate sobs wracked t
he governor
’s body
. Bai released some of the pressure on his neck and held
the
knife back away from his throat.

“Why? Why, Brad? Why did he kill Martin?”

The governor shrieked, “I don’t know.
I don’t know.
And, God, Bai. I think he killed Louie Sinclair.
Oh,
Jesus
. What is
happening?”

“How do you know he killed Sinclair?”

“He said you did.
He was like a crazy man. Said it was you. He said you were evil, taking over the
state
, the country.
Holy Christ, he was insane.
And he killed
Martin
,
just fucking shot him
…
and Louie…Oh my God.”

Bai stood over the sobbing man and exchanged looks with Wyatt and Nianzu.

“
Get
the sheriff in here
. H
ave him take him into
custody
.
We’ll sort this out later.”

At that moment, Quitin rushed in the room followed by three other men.

“Bai, I just saw Greg in the corridor.
Is he dirty or clean?”

“Given that he is our Chameleon
,
I’d say he’s dirty as they come.”

“Oh Christ, Bai.
He’s got Alex.
I should have stopped them
,
but they looked like they were walking and talking to each other
.
I was concerned about Elena…Christ, I’m sorry…”

Bai nodded to Nianzu motioning him to pick up the governor. Nianzu dragged him to his feet and Bai moved up against him. Remembering the blueprints they had studied, he pushed his face up next to the governor.

“Where would he go? Where is the door to the tunnel to the basement? NOW, Brad!”

“It’s around the corridor, the
…
the opposite
way you came.
It
…it
looks like a service door.”

“
Is there another entrance?
”

“
No
. But…but…uh
,
but the tunnel splits
…splits
at the bottom of the stairs.
There are rooms
…rooms
at both ends of the corridor.”

Bai turned to Wyatt and Nianzu.

“Wyatt, you and Nianzu take the left wing.
I’ll take the right.
They won’t kill Alex.
Once they see that we have Elena
,
they will need him to trade.
The rest of you branch out in the hallway and come to whoever yells for you.”

~~~

Bai moved away f
rom
the governor and
pulled Elena with him
.

Elena had seen him angry
. I
n fact
,
she thought she had seen him furious, but she had never seen him like this.
His grip on her ar
m
was so tight his knuckles were white and his fingers left indelible marks
on her skin
. His face was
grim
;
his eyes were hard, cold with a level of anger that shot fear through her
gut
.
He pulled her even closer and
when he
spoke
his voice was a hiss.

“Elena, when we get
home, you
and I will discuss what happens to very naughty girls who d
isregard carefully laid plans
and go off on their own.
Do you hear me,
cherie
?
You could have been killed, you came as close to being killed as you ever have
. A
ll because you refused to follow the plans that you, your father
,
Nianzu
,
and I created to protect you
– especially you.
When we are alone,
Elena,
I will show you how strongly I feel, how angry I am.”

Elena swallowed hard.
She had never seen Bai like this.
A hard shudder hit her.
She knew he wasn’t talking about the erotic spankings th
at
titillated and aroused them both.
No, Bai was furious
--
at an
elemental, primal
level. Still holding her arm in a death gr
ip
, he turned to Quitin.

“Quitin, I want you to take her out to the
ballroom where
there are at least a hundred people milling around
,
including
all of our men.
And
,
g
oddamn you, I want you to
keep
her there.
If you have to tie her to a post, blindfold and gag her,
d
o it!
Do you hear me?
If she follows me
,
so help me God, there will be murder.
And
it
won’t be hers.
I will kill you and send you
r remains
in a box back to your mother with a note telling her how I enjoyed
killing you
.
Do you understand?”

Quitin blanched and nodded.

Bai turned back to Elena.

“Do you understand?”

She whispered “yes” and looked down.

Bai
nodded to the
rest of his men
. W
ith a final glare at Elena and Quitin
,
he turned and followed his men running down the corridor.

~~~

“What a worthless piece of shit you are.
Look at you.
Too frightened to stand up to him, you let him take your sister.
How could you
?
How could you let a Chink, a goddamn
yellow animal
,
take your sister?
Have you no pride? Don’t you care that a fucking Chink has his cock in her cunt?
What kind of a man are you?”

Greg slammed the butt of his gun across Alex’s face and
,
for good measure
,
swung at the other side leaving a matching mark.
Alex slid to the floor
. H
is feet and hands
were
tied
and he was
groggy from the dope
d
gag
a
nd the pain of the beating
.

He tried to turn away when Greg crouched down on his haunches in front of him
,
but Greg held his chin in his hand and spit the words in his face.

“I despise you, Alex.
I despise your weakness.
You could have helped me.
What kind of a fucking white man are you?
The only thing you are good for
now
is bait.
Because no matter what, he will come after you.
He won’t leave you here.
You are family.
And by God
,
when he does, I will have him and the last thing you see before I kill you is me fucking your sister.
Fucking her the way she should be fucked for giving herself to a goddamn Chink!”

Alex watched Greg stride away and heard the door slam after him. From the musty smell
,
he knew he was in a basement or a dungeon of some kind.
Every bone in his body hurt from the beating Greg and his men gave him.
But the physical pain was nothing compared to the shame
swamping him
.
When his father challenged him in the ballroom he
was
furious
,
but as Bai and Wyatt rushed off something snapped and he knew he had to help them find Elena. He
grimaced
,
remembering
his stupidity. He
thought Greg was his friend
when he met him in the hallway. A
nd when
Greg
offered to take him to Elena, he followed
him
like a
fucking
lamb
to slaughter
.

Only when Greg turned on him did Alex understand
the enormity of his mistake. T
hat was when the shame hit him.
Alex shook with anger
,
remembering the hideous things Greg said about Elena.
And, for Christ’s sake
,
about Bai.
The idea that Greg hated Bai because of his race was repugnant to Alex.
Cut him at soul level.
But
Alex knew
Greg
was wrong
.
Bai would never come after him.
Why should he
?
This was a perfect way to let him go, to
allow Alex to
face the
chaos
he created.

Alex
drifted off in his half drugged state and woke when he heard a rustling noise.
He thought it was the guards at the door who were laughing and talking paying no attention to their drugged bound prisoner.
Alex heard a shtick and a large thump like a body hitting the ground.
One of the guards muttered, “What the hell…”
and then another shtick was followed by a similar thump.

To his surprise, Alex felt someone tug on his bindings
, freeing his hands and feet.
He h
eard Bai’s voice low in his ear.

“
Easy, boy.
I’ve got you, boy.
I’ve got you now.
Can you move? I can smell the crap they
used to
drug you.
Can you
stand?”

Alex felt
re
lief
, only his
shame
was stronger
.
Christ, Bai did come for him and was willing to risk his life to save him. He
couldn’t fight the tears flooding his face
and sobbed
out loud
when Bai
put his
arm around him.

“It’s okay, kid.
Understandable. But you have to pull
it
together.
There are at least five of them out in the hallway and they’ll be checking up
on
you
any minute.
Here, lean on me
. T
ry to stand.
Bien
, that’s the way.”

T
he door swung open and light flooded the cellar walls.

“What the fuck? It’s Sammy and Ted.
Christ they’re both dead!” the
first
man in the door shouted to the
m
en behind him.

He took one step
,
but then pitched forward
,
a knife in his throat
,
as did the man behind him.

Bai yelled, “Okay
,
Alex! That’s the end of my knives.
Take the one on the left!”

Alex leapt forward at the sound of Bai’s spirit yell. He caught
his
man’s arm
and
twisted
it
up behind his back
,
hard
. He
smiled when he heard the snap.

“That’s the way, brother,” Bai called out. “That’s a hell of a good sound.
Let’s hear a few more of those!”

Only after he had his man flat on the ground his foot on his back did Alex realize that Bai had taken down two
men,
and
like a good savate fighter
had
ki
cked them both to death
. L
ike Alex
, he
had his foot on the back of a third. He yelled through the doorway and to Alex’s relief Nianzu, Wyatt
,
and four Chinese men rush
ed
in.

Wyatt went straight to Alex and the two men held each other for a long moment
,
neither of them speaking.

Bai pointed to the man he had pinned to the floor and
chortled
“This is Peter, Greg’s key man.
I don’t know who Alex is standing on
,
but we need them both alive.
”