“You must stop this casting out for revenge, Kael. It will grant you nothing, save, perhaps, a very temporary respite. Or an ugly death.”

“Maybe that’s all I’m lookin’ for,” the American ground out, sitting up and rubbing at her tingling legs.

“If it is, then we have both wasted our time.”

Looking up, Kael caught the brief expression of disappointment as it darkened her mentor’s eyes. That look drained much of the anger from the taller woman’s body, replacing it with a sort of shame that made her shift uncomfortably on the floor at Lao Ma’s feet. “He betrayed me, Lao Ma!” she repeated, as if saying it yet again would convince the other woman of that simple fact.

Lao Ma nodded. “Of that, I am well aware. However, perhaps this time apart has given him a chance to think on his actions. Perhaps he has come here, hoping for a chance to apologize to you.”

Kael snorted. “Geraldo? Lao Ma, that man wouldn’t apologize to his own mother if someone was pulling his fingernails out by the roots.”

“People change,” the Asian replied simply.

“Not Geraldo.”

“Some would say that it would be easier for a mountain to shed tears of sadness than for Kael Androstos to feel anything other than anger. Is that also true?”

Kael looked at Lao Ma for a long moment, before dropping her eyes back to her still numb legs. “Not anymore,” she mumbled.

“Then perhaps others have it within themselves to change as well.”

“Damnit, Lao Ma! He’s not here to beg forgiveness! It’s a setup! Are you so blind to evil that you can’t see that? He’s nothing more than Ming’s puppy, sent in to do the dirty work. If he finds me here, all our lives are forfeit!”

“I am not nearly as blind to evil as you think, Kael. I am asking you to trust me to handle this. You trusted me to hide you from Ming Dao.”

“I didn’t have a choice then.”

“You have a choice now.” She looked down into the mesmerizing blue eyes. “Will you trust me?”

Kael looked up into the eyes of her teacher. Do I have it within me to trust again? Can it really be so easy as saying ‘yes’? Do I dare run the risk of being betrayed yet again? Can it really end here?

Pushing out all doubts and fears, half astounded at herself for doing so, she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yes,” she said finally. “I’ll trust you.”

Lao Ma’s smile lit up more than her face as she reached down to help Kael from her place on the floor. “Thank you, Kael.”

The American shrugged off her grip. “Yeah, well just don’t take too long down there. I might get a little nervous, and you wouldn’t like me when I’m nervous.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lao Ma replied as she reached for, slipped on, and belted her robe.

*******

Standing just inside the ornate entrance to the Pleasure Palace, Geraldo soothed his nerves by preening slightly before the gaggle of painted beauties who flirted shamelessly with him from their places inside the large sitting room just to the right of the entrance.

That the women were beauties there was no doubt. Exactly the type of nubile, young flesh he had feasted upon before a certain black haired, blue eyed she demon had come into his life, crippled and hooked through the nose on the fruits of his labors.

Geraldo, once, had prided himself on being his father’s son; a man who, it was said from within the shadowed depths of roadside cantinas, had more women than Colombia had cocoa plants. How he could have allowed one woman to capture him so completely—and so effortlessly—was beyond his capacity to guess.

The drug lord was snapped out of his thoughts by the sudden quiet in the house. His gaze was directed to the stairs, where the young messenger was gracefully returning, followed by a truly stunning woman, dressed in formal robes of rose and pink silk.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, the woman walked toward him with such dignity and grace that Geraldo found himself straightening his spine until it fairly crackled with ramrod straightness. He bowed his head in respect before he even realized he was doing so.

The woman smiled. “Welcome to my humble home. My name is Lao Ma. You wished to speak with me?”

“I am sorry for the intrusion, Lao Ma, but I must speak with you. It is very urgent,” Geraldo managed to get out. He could feel the woman’s eyes on him, calmly assessing, and he felt his nervousness return once again, full force, drying up all the moisture in his mouth.

“Very well,” she said after a moment. “Come with me.”

Breathing out a silent, but heartfelt, sigh of relief, Geraldo silently followed behind the woman as she led the way deeper into the building.

Lao Ma ushered Geraldo into her office, gently closing the door behind her. Gesturing to a chair, she continued around to the rear of her large desk and seated herself behind it, folding her hands on the pristine surface. “How may I be of assistance to you?”

“I am looking for a woman, an American, by the name of Kael Androstos. I have reason to believe that she is here, with you, in this place. I must see her.”

Placing her hands flat on the desk, Lao Ma made as if to stand up. “Than I am sorry, Mr. Rodriguez. You have wasted your time.”

Geraldo jumped to his feet. “Please! Wait! I must speak to her! It’s urgent!”

“And what is this urgency, that you must come here in the middle of the night?”

“It’s …difficult to explain,” Geraldo hedged.

“Then, again, you have wasted your time. I can be of no help to you.”

“Please, hear me out. I said it was difficult to explain, not that I wouldn’t explain it.”

Lao Ma looked at him, waiting.

Running a hand through his thick hair, Geraldo sighed. “I …made a deal with Ming Dao. Kael, in exchange for the chance to sell his ‘product’ overseas.” He dropped his eyes. “But I couldn’t go through with it. He gave me a month to find her, and tonight, my time is up.” Raising his eyes again, he looked beseechingly into the serene face of the woman sitting across from him. “Please, I must speak to her. I’ve managed to secure a way out of this country. For the both of us. If she doesn’t leave with me tonight, Ming Dao will surely find her and kill her.”

“And why don’t you just go through with your deal?” Lao Ma asked. “Surely it would be safer for you in the long run. More profitable, as well.”

“I … .” Geraldo’s voice trailed off as his machismo tried one last valiant stand against his heart. He took in a deep breath, his heart winning out. “Because I love her. Because my greed and my anger made me betray her. And because I want to make it right with her.”

Lao Ma looked carefully at Geraldo. His sincerity was rolling off of him in waves. It was obvious that he did love Kael, enough to risk his own life getting her to safety. But I love her as well, she thought, a small twinge of unaccustomed jealousy worming its way into her heart. She fought it down ruthlessly. Kael was not safe in China.

As Geraldo opened his own heart, Lao Ma shut hers down. “Come with me,” she said, simply.

The Latin walked behind the small woman, following her deeper into the voluminous confines of her home. Stepping through a narrow doorway, he stopped, frozen, as Lao Ma stepped aside and the vision of a naked Kael was presented him. His jaw dropped as his eyes took in the strong lines and supple curves of the woman he loved. Lust consumed him, once again drying his mouth.

“Hello, Geraldo,” Kael said, her aura oozing blatant sexuality. The corner of her mouth crooked up in a half-grin as she closed the distance between them, seeming to glide more than walk across the open space. “Didja miss me?”

Geraldo found that his voice had gone wherever his spit had disappeared to. Dumbly, he nodded.

Then the air rushed out of his lungs through the pinhole that had suddenly replaced his throat as a muscled thigh interposed itself between his slightly spread legs and pushed. Hard.

A half-breathed whimper and he was down on his knees, hands cupped—too late—over his genitals.

Coughing out a smirking laugh, Kael lifted her knee again, just as Geraldo was folding forward, connecting with his forehead and sending him sprawling on his back, wheezing.

Lao Ma stepped forward. “Kael … .”

“Stay out of this, Lao Ma,” Kael snarled, reaching down and pulling Geraldo up by the lapels of his suit jacket. “This is between me and the little puppy here.” She grinned into the man’s face. “Isn’t it, Geraldo.”

“Stop this, Kael,” Lao Ma ordered.

“Not a chance,” the tall woman said, grinning evilly. “It’s payback time.”

Releasing one of the lapels, Kael slapped Geraldo across the face, open handed. Then she slapped the other cheek, harder. The Latin’s eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped backward, only Kael’s strong grip keeping him on his feet.

“Pussy,” she spat, releasing him and watching as he dropped bonelessly to the floor. “Worthless piece of shit.”

“Kael, stop!!”

The American rounded on Lao Ma before a scream halted her in her tracks.

Gunfire echoed through the building.

More screams followed.

Completing her turn, Kael threw Lao Ma to the floor before squatting down and grabbing Geraldo’s Sig from its place at his back. “Now the real fun starts,” she purred, grinning darkly, wildly.

More screams, followed by the sound of quickly running footsteps, coming closer.

“Don’t do this, Kael,” Lao Ma warned.

“Just stay outta my way.”

Lao Ma stood her ground as the footsteps came ever closer. Kael raised the weapon, aiming for the doorway. Two men came into view, their faces blank tableaus, upon which murder was ready to be written in blood.

Kael squeezed the trigger and the men fell to the floor, to be replaced quickly by two more. One of the men managed to get off a shot before his head exploded in a fountain of blood.

His partner was smarter, using the dead body as a shield. Pushing the corpse into the room, he waited until the American woman ducked out of the way, then fired.

Kael felt the sting of a bullet as it whizzed by her ear, missing her by a hairsbreadth, at most. Her grin widened. “You couldn’t hit the Great Wall, four eyes,” she taunted, before ending his life with a perfect shot to the heart. The man fell soundlessly, his weapon clattering to the floor.

Three more men advanced, spraying automatic weapons’ fire into the room, chewing through the walls and artwork that had stood in the once pristine room.

Kael managed to get the first two and was drawing a bead on the third, when her wrist was creased by a bullet, causing her arm to go numb. Her next shots went wide of their mark, allowing the third man, followed by a forth, and a fifth, to enter the room, their expressions grim.

The American tried to fire her weapon, but her hand wouldn’t work. She backed up slowly, eyes frantically searching for an escape.

Ming Dao entered at the end of the parade of armed muscle, his seamed face further creased in a mocking smile. “So, Ms. Androstos, we meet again. I had hoped to make your death a little more …painful …but you’ve cost me too many of my men already. The hunt has been fun, but I’m afraid it is time to say goodbye to the prey. Do you have any last words?”

Kael bared her teeth. “Eat shit.”

The drug lord threw back his head and laughed, gesturing for one of his men to finish the job.

He was dead before he’d even stopped laughing. The bodies of his remaining guards quickly joined him on the blood-pooled floor.

Her eyes wide with shock, Kael whirled to face a barely standing Geraldo, his weapon clasped loosely in one limp hand.

“I couldn’t let them kill you,” he gasped, slowly straightening as some color came back to his cheeks.

Kael looked at him for a moment, before turning her head to track down Lao Ma. “You can come out now,” she called. “The bad guys are all gone.”

When there was no answer, Kael dropped her gun and ran behind the bed where Lao Ma was sprawled, face down. Gasping, the tall woman squatted, turning the body over. “No,” she half-sobbed, taking in the shredded and blood soaked gown. “No! Lao Ma! No!!”

Panic stricken, she shook Lao Ma’s unresponsive body, then blindly reached for a pulse.

There was none. Lao Ma’s flesh was already growing chill.

“NO!” Kael screamed, gathering the dead woman into a tight embrace, burying her face in her mentor’s thick hair. “No!!!”

Sirens pierced the now-still air.

Geraldo limped painfully over to where Kael sat rocking Lao Ma in a fevered grip. “Help her,” his lover begged, her eyes sparkling with tears. “Please. I can’t lose her.”