Page 158 of Caution to the Wind

“You’re not going to blow the whistle on me?” I whispered, then moaned loudly with Wang when he lost ten grand in one hand.

“You’re not my enemy,” he said, but he did it in a way that implied he had one and I might even know them.

I hummed in response and turned my attention back to the game.

Wang cashed out after losing way too much money, but no one batted an eye at handing over four hundred and fifty thousand dollars of casino washed cash to a man with a fake ID who had a history of performing this exact same thing multiple times a quarter.

The pit boss jerked his chin up at Wang as we left.

“Well,” he said, a happy little smile on his face as we went back to his car in the lot. “I assume you are pleased with our protocol?”

“Oh,” I purred as I followed him into the back seat and slid close to him, moving my hand to his thigh to trail it up his torso to his cheek like I was going to kiss him. His eyes were wide and black with surprise and desire. “I like itverymuch, Mr. Wang Wei.”

I leaned closer, whispering my lips over his soft jawline as Cedar started the car and pulled into the street.

“But I’m surprised you don’t know ‘poverty begins with the pursuit of greed,’” I whispered an inch above his open, panting mouth, quoting Wang Wei himself.

He made a noise of confusion a moment before I was on him, my legs locked around his torso and my arms in a lock around his neck. He scrambled desperately, kicking out his legs, scratching at my arms unsuccessfully through my coat. I held tight, stronger than I looked, much stronger than this small, doughy money pusher.

It only took ten seconds to knock him out in the sleeper choke.

Cedar met my gaze in the rearview mirror without blinking. “What’s your plan now?”

I pulled the knife from my thigh holster below his eyeline and then lunged forward like the strike of a snake to lodge the blade under his throat.

“Be a doll and take me to the drop-off, won’t you, Cedar?”

AXE-MAN

We followedMei’s tracker to Vancouver’s thrivin’ Chinatown to the door of a place I’d never frequented before, but knew of intimately from another time.

A laugh like a cough. “Fuck me.”

The building was called the Golden Door, just as the Inn in Calgary’s Chinatown had been named where I once met Jiang to discuss partnerin’ against our more corrupt leaders.

“You ready for this?” Bat asked me as he adjusted the straps on his flak vest tighter. “Mei’s the point of the spear on this.”

“You think she isn’t capable, then you don’t know her,” I informed him calmly, even though fear lodged like splinters beneath my nails. “Watched her near cut a man in half when she was seventeen. I’m sure eight years has taught her to do much worse.”

“Not what I meant,” Bat corrected. “This is the culmination of years of anger and bloodlust for you. You think you can handle takin’ them down without implicatin’ yourself? You need jail time like you need a bullet in the head.”

“Hey!” Boner protested, knockin’ on wood to null the jinx.

“I’ll be good,” I promised, but I got where he was comin’ from.

I was excited like an Olympic athlete before their event, years of trainin’ and eagerness about to culminate in an episode that would mean either success or failure. Adrenaline burned through me like premium fuel, and I was reminded of myself at eighteen, gettin’ ready to leave the outpost to patrol the local village where insurgents often lay in wait. It was anticipation that made your teeth ache, but if you knew how to harness it, it was powerful as fuck.

Across the street at the red-painted door of the Golden Door Inn, Mei appeared comin’ outta the back seat of a black sedan holdin’ a Louis Vuitton duffle I assumed was filled with clean cash from the casino.

Seconds later, a familiar figure got outta the driver’s seat and strolled around to join Mei on the pavement.

“Fuck me,” I cursed, shocked to see Cedar standin’ there.

Bat stilled beside me like he’d been frozen atom by atom.

“You good?” Dane murmured to him, but Bat didn’t bat an eye.

“What the fuck is he doin’ with the triad?” Zeus asked rhetorically. “Fuck, he hasn’t blown her cover yet.”