Page 103 of Caution to the Wind

“No,Iput him in jail.Rooster Cavendishput him in jail.Henning Axelsenput himself in jail. He made that choice to take the heat so you could go on and live your life,Mui mui, not so you could waste it by living in the past trying to banish old ghosts.”

“If you had the chance to make Kasper pay for killing Eero, would you?” I whispered.

Jiang went so still that it was as if he was in suspended animation. He didn’t blink or breathe for one long minute.

“I don’t think about that kind of thing,” he finally said stiffly.

“You do,” I bet, my voice a glistening blade sliding between his ribs, performing an autopsy without his consent. “You think about it in bed at night when the space beside you is too cold and empty. You think about it on the anniversary of his death every year and the anniversary of when you two met. You think about it when you look at Kasper out of the corner of your eye when you believe he isn’t looking. You can’t fool me, Jiang, because I know what it is to love in a way that never dies. And if that love is taken from you unjustly, I know what it is to live with revenge as your life’s purpose. You can pretend as long as you’d like that you don’t want to take Kasper down one day for what he did to Eero and what he continues to do to you, but I’ll always know the truth. And if, no,whenthat day comes, I’ll be here to help you take your vengeance. Not because of our deal, but because I know you want that peace for yourself just as much as I do, and I think you deserve it.”

The air between was thick, humming with tension. There was a chance he’d hurt me for saying that, that he’d hit me or choke me out for daring to speak so candidly. But Jiang had never hurt me, and I didn’t think he was capable of it even now when violence simmered in his eyes.

I’d just tapped into a rage that was already there, like sap beneath the bark of a tree.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” he finally responded, the words slow as that same sap, dripping sluggishly in the cold room. “And I’m going to leave now before I do something I regret.”

“Like hurt me?” I asked mildly.

He levelled me with a cool glance. “Like hug you.”

My mouth fell open a little as he took a long slung of his hot tea and then placed it back on the nightstand before getting up to go to the door.

“Lock this behind me,” he ordered, making me roll my eyes. “I’m almost certain I wasn’t followed, but Kasper is paranoid these days. I told him you were on vacation, but if he finds out that vacation is in the home of The Fallen, even I can’t protect you,Mui mui.”

“I know.”

“Call me on the burner when you know what you want to do about the White Snake. Stay safe,” he demanded. “And stay smart. Don’t embarrass yourself with apologies to that great oaf if he won’t listen to the reasons you were forced to hurt him.”

“Yes, Cupid,” I snarked, but Jiang, used to my sarcasm, only gave a beleaguered sigh and then slipped out the door.

A moment later, he knocked on the door, and it was my turn to sigh as I got up to lock it behind him.

Ten minutes later, I’d tidied up my sketches and was lying on my belly in the bed as I looked up the Sea to Sky Highway on Maps to try to figure out where I might be able to ambush White Snake with Jiang’s help, when there was another knock on the door.

I stared at the pink wood for a moment, wondering if I’d heard it correctly over the swell of WILDES on my portable speaker.

Another knock, this one heavier, the side of a fist instead of the knuckles.

I shot up to my knees and lunged for my knife on the nightstand just before the door creaked and banged open two inches, the chain straining to hold against the intruder.

My heart galloped in my chest as I jumped to my feet and assumed a ready position with my knife in my right hand, raised in front of my chest at an angle. I had no idea who could be after me because there weretoomany options.

Kasper Kuan and the Seven Song, the Red Dragons, even The Fallen MC.

A flash of metal appeared between the door and the frame and the chain gave with an anticlimacticclink. The door burst open in the next second, revealing a huge man with deadly intent in his gaze.

“You wanna tell me why Jiang fuckin’ Kuan was cozyin’ up in your room just now?” Axe-Man demanded, his hatchet in hand, chest heaving, brows knitted heavily over enraged eyes.

For the first time in my life, I was actually frightened of Henning Axelsen.

MEI

My heart banged so loudlyin my chest, I was certain Axe-Man could hear it even over the low swell of music. Maybe he could because my momentary silence seemed answer enough to his question. He stalked into the room a few steps before slamming the door shut behind him with a rattle that shook the walls. In his leather Fallen MC jacket, a white tee with Street Ink Tattoo’s skull and tattoo gun emblem on it stretched tight across his prominent pecs, dark denim, and heavy, silver accented motorcycle boots, big hand wrapped around the wooden handle of the axe he’d used to cut through the lock on my door, he looked every inch the biker. Nothing like the off-white knight of my youth and everything like a night-time predator.

A shiver rocked through me so hard it felt as if the hand of fear had ripped my spine out my back.

The smile that curled his mouth in his blond beard was meaner than any glare I’d ever seen. He advanced, and I matched him, moving backward, step for step. When he noticed the tea still steaming slightly on the bedside table, his nostrils flared. He stepped over to pick up the mug, the ceramic so small in his ungainly hand. After sniffing it, he threw it against the wall with a muted roar.

“What the actualfuck, Mei Zhen?” he demanded. “You sleeping with this fucker now?”