Читать книгу Red-Hot Renegade - Kelly Hunter - Страница 7

JIANNE managed her goodbyes to Madeline and Luke well enough. She offered up a wistful smile for a sleeping baby Layla and deftly sidestepped Hallie’s invitation to lunch the next day. She told her aunt and uncle that she was heading home and watched with affection as her uncle phoned his driver and arranged for her collection. Uncle Yi was taking no chances with her safety—not on his watch—and for once she didn’t mind his protectiveness.

A half-grown boy in a carefully pressed suit stood in the shadows cast by hotel towers as Jianne made her way to the waiting car. She slowed her steps until finally she came to a stop beside him. ‘Not a party person?’ she queried gently.

Po shook his head to signal no, his gaze not leaving her face. Looking for something, wanting something from her, but what? She’d never been good with children. Jake’s younger brothers and sister could attest to that. ‘I’m sorry our conversation got you into trouble.’

Anguish flickered briefly in Po’s dark eyes. ‘Me too.’

‘Is this the first time you’ve dishonoured him?’ Him being Jacob, stern sensei and keeper of strays. Would-be protector of the weak.

‘No,’ said Po. ‘When it comes to honour and what it is, sometimes I don’t get it.’

‘What do you get?’

The boy considered her question for a very long time. ‘Need.’

‘Then you and I are more alike than you know.’ Jianne offered up a smile, one needy soul to another. ‘It’s been a pleasure making your acquaintance, Po from the dojo. If ever you have need of me, look me up. Madeline knows where to find me.’

‘What if Jake needs you?’

‘Po…’ How to tell a child something she’d never before put voice to. ‘Jake’s always known where to find me.’

With a dignity born of desperation, Jianne Xang-Bennett took her leave.

Five minutes after Jianne took her leave from the party, Jake took his. Finding Po took some doing for the kid had skipped out of the hotel. Not far. Not Bugis Street or any of the boy’s old haunts. Instead Po had taken refuge in the shadows a few steps beyond the glamorous hotel façade. Tolerated by the hotel doorman because of his smart suit and his shiny black shoes. Mistrusted by the doorman because of those all-seeing eyes.

Hotel staff had fetched Jake’s ride up from the hotel’s underground parking area. Too much horsepower for practical purposes. Too few opportunities here in Singapore to let speed have its way. Two helmets, the smaller one recently purchased. And a boy who watched him through desolate black eyes. ‘You coming?’ he asked and held out the kid’s helmet.

‘Am I still your apprentice?’

‘Do you still want to learn karate?’

The boy nodded jerkily.

‘Then here’s the deal. You steal, you’re gone. You make other mistakes, you get one warning about them. Go through anyone’s private possessions again and you’re gone. Are we clear?’

Another nod.

‘Then get on.’

The boy clung on tightly all the way home. And when Jake hit the training floor around two a.m., unable to sleep and needing to work off the tension that came of dredging up old memories best forgotten, a half-grown shadow joined him.

Brothers were useful at times. Jake hadn’t expected to see Luke at the dojo the day after Luke’s engagement party. He certainly hadn’t expected to see Luke waltzing into the dojo at six-thirty a.m., daisy fresh and whistling cheerfully.

‘What time did the party finish?’ asked Jake.

‘Two-ish.’

‘So you’re here this morning why? Maddy kick you out?’

‘Madeline opted for Tai Chi by way of morning exercise.’ Luke yawned hugely. ‘Me, I’m looking for something with a little more kick. It occurred to me that I knew exactly where to find it. You good for a little one on one?’

Jake smiled, slow and sure. ‘I guess I could indulge you.’ No holding back with brothers the way he held back with students. Blood bond between brothers and unspoken comprehension of intent. A man might spar for exercise or to perfect his warrior’s art. A man might spar to compete and to win. Sometimes a man sparred in order to tame the beast inside him. And sometimes he fought to forget.

This morning, Jake was all about the forgetting.

‘So how’d it go?’ said Luke as he shed his T-shirt and shoes and waited for Jake to do the same. Bare chests, bare fists, black cotton trousers, and neither of them giving a damn about the colour of their belts.

‘How’d what go?’

‘Last night. Seeing Jianne again.’

‘About as well as expected.’

Luke rolled his shoulders. Worked his way into a stretch. ‘You talked for long enough.’

‘You here to fight or to gossip?’

‘Either. Both. Whatever. I’m here for you, precious. Never forget that.’

Jake favoured his brother with a smile a smart man would have been wary of. ‘When’s the wedding, again?’

‘Three weeks.’

‘I’ll try not to mark you up.’ Jake let his fist connect with Luke’s unprotected jaw. ‘Much.’

Luke countered with a knee to Jake’s groin and followed up with an elbow that would have taken a rib out had it connected. Game on, with Luke’s reckless smile signalling that if Jake wanted to play by nobody’s rules, Luke was perfectly happy to comply.

They fought with fury and catlike grace. Jake had the edge when it came to technique but Luke had a knack for delivering the unpredictable. They both had a generous supply of killer instinct. It was exactly the kind of mindless pleasure Jake needed to take his mind off the living, breathing ghost that was Ji.

It was always going to end in bruises. Jake’s meeting with Jianne. This bout with his brother. They hit the floor hard, no mats for the wicked, and Luke groaned and Jake saw stars on the ceiling that he was pretty sure hadn’t been there earlier.

‘Are you going to look out for her?’ asked Luke as he fought free and staggered to his feet.

‘She doesn’t want me to.’ Jake didn’t bother to get up, just kicked out with his leg and took Luke down again with ridiculous ease. ‘Why do you never guard the backs of your knees?’

‘Because I like looking at your ceiling.’ This time Luke did not get up.

‘Hnh.’ Jake attempted to rise and decided against it.

‘I think you should watch out for her,’ said Luke.

‘She doesn’t want me to.’

‘Yeah, like that’s ever stopped you.’

‘You’re family. It was my job.’

‘And Jianne’s not family? So you’ll be divorcing her, then?’

Jake had his knee to Luke’s chest and his hand to Luke’s throat before his brother had time to draw breath.

‘Guess not.’ Luke’s words emerged breathless and strangled.

Jake loosened his grip, and staggered to his feet. He held out his hand to help his brother from the floor. ‘Sorry about that.’

‘It’s fine,’ murmured Luke hoarsely as Jake hauled him to his feet. ‘I’m fine. Are we done yet?’

‘Yes. You staying for breakfast?’

‘Only if it comes with painkillers.’

‘Wimp.’ As they hobbled towards the door.

‘Moron.’

Jake slid his brother a sideways glance. ‘That bruise on your cheek is never going to clear in time for your wedding.’

‘Dimwit,’ muttered Luke. ‘Idiot.’ And after a couple more shuffles towards the door, ‘So you’ll be seeing her again, then. Calling her. Asking her along to some highbrow show or charity do?’

‘She’ll never agree.’

‘Not if you don’t ask. Maybe I’ll get Maddy to call Jianne this morning,’ said Luke as they hobbled towards the kitchen. ‘See if she’s had any unexpected callers. Or gifts. Jianne’s suitor’s big on gifts, according to Maddy. A week ago he sent Ji a wedding dress. Custom made by some fancy fashion house to her exact measurements. She sent it back to him by courier.’

‘He sent her a wedding dress?’

‘It gets better,’ said Luke. ‘The courier company said they couldn’t deliver it because they were told that no one of that name lived at that address. Ji checked with friends in Shanghai. Her gift giver hasn’t moved house. But the dress is back with her because the courier company is no longer willing to deliver it. Ji’s uncle reckons he’s going to hand deliver it. He’s currently debating whether to slice it to pieces first.’

‘What’s to debate?’ rasped Jake. ‘The size of the scissors?’

Luke smiled ever so slightly. Jake scowled and turned to the fixing of breakfast. ‘Jianne doesn’t want my help. Besides, her uncle’s looking out for her. So’s Madeline. And so are you. What more does she need?’

Luke reached for a couple of mismatched coffee cups and the tin of instant coffee. ‘Some would say you.’

Luke headed out of the dojo some time after nine, fully fed and limping only a little. Jake closed up behind him, for the dojo was closed to the public on Sundays. Nothing to do with prayer and everything to do with rest and retreat and time he could call his own. The dojo phone rang not ten minutes later. Hallie trying to organise a Sunday evening meal for the Bennett clan before everyone headed off to their various destinations the following day. Then it was Madeline on the phone arranging an impromptu lunch at her place. When the phone rang for the third time Jake glared at it and almost didn’t pick up, but Tris and Pete were around too and they hadn’t checked in yet this morning and like as not they would.

Jake loved his siblings, unconditionally and always, but when everyone got together it reminded him of days long gone when his first priority had been to keep them together and inevitably his thoughts would turn to Jianne and then the guilt would kick in that he should have done more, that he could have done more to help her fit into the chaos that had been his life.

When he picked up the phone and Jianne said hello he almost dropped it. When she said hello again because he still hadn’t spoken he put his fingers to his temple and summoned a reply. ‘Are you in trouble?’

‘Is that a regular greeting for you?’ came the softly spoken reply.

‘Regular enough.’

‘What’s the usual answer?’

‘It’s usually a variation on “I’ve met this woman and she’s messing with my head.’”

‘Well, I haven’t met this woman,’ said Jianne, and lapsed into silence.

‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘Are you safe?’

‘I’m outside your dojo,’ she said, with a quiet dignity that only Jianne could wield. ‘And I’d like to come in.’

He was at the door within moments, opening it and stepping back to allow her entry, glancing past her to see what trouble might have followed in her wake, but the street was quiet, and the faces on it familiar ones. He shut the door behind her and turned around warily.

She looked breathtaking in a lemon coloured sundress that fell in soft waves to her knees. Her hair had been pulled back from her face with ebony combs, and she clutched her handbag in front of her like a shield.

He gestured for her to precede him through the entrance foyer and on into the training hall, and closed his eyes and prayed for mercy when he saw the length of her hair. She’d kept it long, a glossy rippling river than ran almost to the base of her spine. Once upon a time, Jianne’s hair had framed their lovemaking like a silken shroud. It still would.

His body approved of the notion, even as his mind shied away from it. Surely he’d learned his lesson the last time Jianne had come into his life? Some things were simply too fragile for a man like him to touch.

‘What did he do?’ he said harshly, bringing his thoughts back to now and the possible reasons for Jianne’s visit. ‘Your unwanted beau.’

‘How do you know that’s why I’m here?’ she said as he walked her through the training hall and out into the tiny kitchen area. He didn’t have a sitting room. He didn’t have a rec room either. Just a few sparsely furnished bedrooms out back for occasional guests and visiting students, and a loftlike crib of his own above the training hall.

‘Why else would you be here?’ he countered. ‘Last night you considered my company the greater of two evils. This morning, here you are. The balance has changed and I didn’t tip it. So what did he do?’

‘You always tip the balance, Jacob. It’s what you do.’ She looked at the shabby table and chairs and remained standing.

‘You want to sit?’ he offered, belatedly remembering Jianne’s reliance on protocols and manners and his general lack of them. ‘Something to drink?’

Jianne sat at his shabby Formica table. She decided against refreshment. Jake crossed his arms, leaned against the counter and waited.

‘He’s here,’ she said quietly. ‘Zhi Fu. An invitation arrived from him this morning to his house party here in Singapore.’

‘So he followed you.’ Jake didn’t like this latest development but, given the man’s obsession with Jianne, he wasn’t overly surprised. ‘You had to have known it was a possibility.’

‘I had hoped Zhi’s business ties would prevent it,’ she murmured. ‘I was counting on it.’

‘So what now?’ he asked somewhat more gently.

Jianne shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I was going to refuse his invitation, I always refuse his invitations, but then my uncle suggested that a stronger message might be warranted. He suggested I attend Zhi’s house-warming party. With you.’

‘Aggressive,’ murmured Jake. ‘I like it.’

A tiny smile from Jianne. ‘You would.’

‘Was that a compliment?’ he asked silkily. ‘I don’t think it was.’

‘Suit yourself,’ she murmured. ‘The thing is I find myself in need of a protector. A Shaolin in the purest sense, and I’ve only ever come across one of those in my lifetime. You. Zhi Fu’s here in Singapore. He’s renting the home directly across the road from my aunt and uncle’s house. He’ll be able to monitor my every move, just as he did back in Shanghai.’

Protectiveness kicked in hard, and with it a cold hard rage at the man’s predatory behaviour.

‘My uncle thinks that getting my own place in some other part of Singapore would be unwise,’ continued Jianne. ‘He thinks Zhi Fu would follow.’

‘Your uncle’s probably right.’ Jake eyed her steadily, noting the shadows beneath her eyes, and trying not to notice the curve of her cheek or those crushed rosebud lips. ‘Have you considered taking out a restraining order on him?’

‘He’d have to threaten me before I could do that. As I said last night, he never does anything wrong. Not in the eyes of the law.’ Jianne gave a weary shrug, her expression beyond bleak. ‘You don’t know what he’s like. He’s very very good at winning people over to his way of thinking. He’ll be charming and helpful and invoke guanxi and then they’ll be his. That’s what he does. It’s how he wins. He gives people nowhere else to go but to him.’

‘How long has this been going on?’ She didn’t answer. ‘Jianne?’ he said more gently.

‘Five years,’ she said, with an alarming tremor in her voice. ‘It took a while for me to realise what he was doing and how he was doing it. My father called me crazy at first, and then he too got caught up in Zhi Fu’s web. My father doesn’t think I’m crazy any more, only now there’s nothing he can do about it. I’m so sick of there being nothing anyone can do about it. I want my life back. I want to fight this.’ Her chin rose stubbornly. ‘I want to win.’

‘What do you want from me, Ji? You want me to accompany you to his house party? I’ll do it. What else?’

‘I want him to think we’re in the process of renewing our relationship.’ Hot colour stained Jianne’s cheeks but she held his gaze. ‘I want you to give off signals that we’re…that you’re…’

‘Protective?’ he offered gruffly.

‘That too.’

Jake Bennett had never considered himself a twice-cursed man. Until now. ‘What else?’

‘I can’t stay at my uncle’s any more, knowing Zhi could be watching every move I make. I can’t.’ Twelve years ago Jianne’s calm reserve had seemed to run soul deep. Either she’d come out of her shell somewhat over the intervening years or she was deeply spooked by Zhi Fu’s latest move. ‘I need a place to stay. Somewhere that fits with the overall plan. Somewhere I can feel safe.’

She looked at him then and he knew, he just knew what was coming next. ‘Oh, no,’ he said. ‘No,’ and ran his hands through his hair for good measure. ‘You can’t be thinking of staying here.’

‘Madeline says you have a row of rooms out the back that you put people in.’

‘Yes, but…have you seen them? We’re talking no frills here, Jianne. Not one.’

‘I don’t need much.’

‘No cook, no maid, just me and Po and four or five karate classes a day, starting at six and running through until late. The kid hardly sleeps. Sometimes if I’m awake we’ll train during the night. And this is the kitchen. It’s also the dining room, lounge room, and Po’s study.’

She stared at him steadily.

He couldn’t believe she thought this would work. That they could make it work. Escorting her here and there on occasion was one thing, but this…‘Wait till you see the bathrooms.’

‘If you don’t want me here, just say so,’ she said calmly. ‘It’s a lot to ask of you. An invasion of your privacy that makes going through your wallet look like child’s play. I know that. I will understand if you say no, Jacob.’

‘And if I do say no?’ he countered. ‘Where will you go?’

She had no answer for that.

‘You won’t like it here. There’s no softness here,’ he warned her one last time. ‘It’s sweaty and hot and noisy and raw. The street is two steps away. It’s not a particularly peaceful street.’

‘I’ll manage.’

He couldn’t believe he was even considering her request. Thinking forward to where to put her and how best to protect her. He paced the tiny kitchen with growing agitation. He scowled for good measure. She looked like a fragile fairy-tale princess. Snow White in need of a haven. He, on the other hand, was wearing black track sweats, a ratty grey T-shirt, and he wasn’t wearing shoes. Where the hell were a bunch of pickaxe-toting dwarves when you needed them?

‘Come with me,’ he muttered and led her up a narrow staircase to one side of the training floor, and opened the door to his crib.

It was spacious. Space he had in spades, which was something of a luxury in Singapore. A huge expanse of polished wooden floorboard covering an area the same size as the training hall below. A bed made up with white sheets, a navy-coloured coverlet and a couple of pillows graced the far corner. He’d had a shower and toilet plumbed into the opposite corner, with a half-wall and a makeshift screen providing some semblance of privacy. A highset band of slatted warehouse windows ran the length of both longways walls. He’d covered one of those walls with a row of silk tapestries depicting a battle scene, heavy on the death and destruction. A reading chair, a reading lamp, and a not-quite-straight bookshelf crammed with books completed the tableau. Narrow storage space behind the far wall hid his belongings and his clothes.

‘It’s still not much but it’s better than what’s on offer downstairs,’ he said curtly.

‘But…’ Jianne gazed around her in silence and he gritted his teeth at how sparsely furnished his home no doubt looked to her eyes. ‘This is your space.’

‘I’ll clear out. I can stay downstairs.’

‘No! There’s no need to turn you out of your bed. I never meant to do that. Have me stay downstairs. Whatever’s there, it’ll do.’

‘This is what I’m offering, Jianne. It’s the only offer you’ll get from me when it comes to accommodation. You, up here, out of the way.’

She hesitated.

‘Take it or leave it.’ On this he would not bend.

‘Okay.’ She took a deep breath, as if shoring up her resolve. ‘I’ll take it. I’ll pay rent, of course,’ she added hurriedly, and named a weekly rate that would have kept her in six star luxury, not a warehouse bedsit atop a downtown dojo.

‘Keep your money,’ he grated. ‘I don’t want it.’

Jianne recoiled as if he’d struck her.

Jake gritted his teeth and prayed for mercy. ‘Must you flinch every time I look at you?’

‘Must you glare every time I open my mouth?’ she replied in kind. ‘People pay rent when they live in a place that’s not their own. Why is my offering to do so such an insult to you? Is your pride such an enormous thing that there can be no room for mine?’

Money had been a sore point between them from the moment Jianne had revealed exactly how much of the stuff she had. Tens of millions, probably hundreds of millions by now. A tiny detail she’d waited until six months into their marriage to let slip, when she’d offered to pay for a housekeeper to come in each day and help clean the Bennett family house and prepare healthy meals for a hungry family.

She’d been drowning in household chores she had no idea how to cope with and all Jake had seen was the blow to his pride. The housekeeper hadn’t eventuated. Jianne’s drowning had continued.

Not the Bennett family’s finest moment.

‘Fine,’ he amended. ‘Contribute something to the running of the place if it makes you feel better. A cleaner comes in daily—I can have him do up here too, that’s not a problem. But a couple of hundred Sing a week will cover your stay. If you still don’t think that’s enough, I’ll give you an account you can put some money into. It’s one I’ve set up for Po. Put however much you want in there.’

He thought it a fair compromise, the accepting of her money on Po’s behalf. Never let it be said that Jacob Bennett didn’t learn from his mistakes.

She sent him a long, considering look, before nodding slightly. ‘I’ll do that.’

Jake could move fast when he wanted to. Ask any opponent he’d ever faced in a championship match. Hell, ask Jianne—their courtship had lasted all of five minutes before he’d put a ring on her finger. Ever since then he’d tried to slow down some and think when it came to life-altering decisions. ‘Does your uncle know that you want to move in here?’

‘He does.’

‘And he approves?’ Jake had faced Xang family disapproval before. He knew its power. He needed to know on how many fronts he’d have to fight.

‘He does. Whatever you need, you’ll have his full co-operation.’

‘And your father?’

‘My father can’t help me,’ she said flatly.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to think about this some more?’

‘If I think about it I won’t do it.’

‘Doesn’t this tell you something?’ he said in a last-ditch effort to sway her to another—any other—course of action.

‘Yes.’ A faint smile tilted her luscious lips. ‘Don’t think.’

They agreed, over a scalding-hot cup of tea back in the shabby kitchen, that Jianne would move in later that afternoon. Jake figured, in an ‘if I’m going to be damned I may as well burn’ kind of way, that Jianne had better accompany him on his lunch and dinner rounds. No way was he leaving her here on her own while he went out. Not going to happen. Not until her unwanted paramour had learned the meaning of the word no.

‘I need to go get cleaned up,’ he muttered, running a hand over the stubble on his chin for confirmation. ‘I’m heading over to Maddy’s soon for lunch. You may as well come too. Your uncle can have your belongings delivered there.’

‘Who else is going to be at this lunch?’ she asked warily.

‘Luke and Po. Probably everyone else as well.’

‘Everyone, as in all your siblings and their families?’

Jake nodded. ‘It’s not often we have a chance to get together these days. When we do get the opportunity we take it. Hallie’s booked us in somewhere for dinner too. I’ll get her to change the reservation to include you.’

‘Don’t. Please. I really don’t want to intrude on your family meals.’

Jake smiled bitterly. Everyone had their little crosses to bear. His siblings had always been one of Jianne’s. ‘I know what you think of them, Jianne. That they’re too wilful, too bent on trouble, too unrestrained. But that was then and this is now and I’m proud of them, all of them, and you should know something. In asking for my help, you don’t just get me on side, you get them too. Whatever they can do to protect you, whatever needs doing, they’ll do it, and that’s worth something. You could try being grateful.’

‘I am grateful.’ She squared her shoulders and held his gaze, something she would never have done twelve years ago. ‘But you need to know something too. About your brothers and your sister…and me. There are no unconditional ties of love between us, no bonds of trust or acceptance. If they follow your lead I’ll be grateful, but I’ll never make the mistake of thinking that they’re helping me because they want to. They’ll be doing it for you.’

‘You’re wrong.’

‘No.’ She sent him a careful smile but the shadows in her eyes spoke of deeper, darker, memories. ‘I’m not. I’ll come to Madeline’s for lunch but I’ll not join you all for dinner. I’ll stay at my uncle’s tonight and sort out a few things I need to sort out like transport and the belongings I want to bring with me. I’ll move in tomorrow. That way you can join your family for dinner without thinking you have to be responsible for me, and everyone will be happy.’

The suggestion was quintessentially Jianne and dredged up memories of her making similar suggestions, over and over again during the course of their ill-fated marriage. Forfeiting her needs in an attempt to accommodate his needs and the needs of his siblings. And they’d let her. Every last one of them, Jake included, had let her do it. ‘No,’ he said grimly. ‘Lunch at Madeline’s if you want to, and only if you want to, and then we’ll go to your uncle’s and get your stuff and then we’ll come back here and get you settled. Dinner with my family doesn’t have to happen.’

‘But—’

‘No, Jianne. Just…no,’ he said, and glared at her for good measure, before stalking out of the room and making his way to the dojo showers. He stripped down and stepped beneath a measly drizzle of lukewarm water. The spray from the next showerhead wasn’t any better. Sighing, he added new showerheads and possibly new plumbing to tomorrow’s work list. He shoved his face beneath the spray and rubbed it hard before looking down at his decidedly aroused anatomy.

‘No.’ The ‘no’s were coming thick and fast today. ‘No way.’ He would not give into his desire for his lovely and ever so vulnerable wife no matter how much his body urged differently. Get clean. Get dressed. Get Jianne’s unwanted suitor off her back and get her out of here. That was his plan. And if he could show her in the process that he knew these days how to respond fairly to the needs of those around him, well, so much the better.

This time round Jianne’s needs would not come last.

He wouldn’t let them.