Death is Forever

over Cole like hands. He hadn’t introduced Erin to the six other men at the station who were also Chinese. They didn’t understand English—or, if they did, they kept it to themselves.
    Lai knew English. Erin suspected that the Chinese woman also knew Cole Blackburn. Or wanted to.
    Restlessly Erin rolled over on the hard floor, tired but no longer able to sleep despite the exhaustion of her body. The sleeping bag Cole had used was pushed to the side, empty. The door was closed. She looked at the door and wondered if he was with Lai of the hungry eyes and exquisitely fragile body. The thought of him alone with the Chinese beauty made Erin’s mouth flatten and turn down with a jealousy she was too honest to deny.
    Cole’s voice came from the other side of the closed door. “Erin? The helicopter is almost ready.”
    She sat up quickly, then groaned.
    The door opened so fast that it banged against the wall. Cole stood in the opening looking as dangerous as a drawn gun. His gray glance flashed over the room and found nothing but the grim accommodations that Abe had always preferred. Other than the mussed, gritty tank top and shorts Erin was wearing, she seemed fine.
    “What’s wrong?” Cole asked, looking intently at her.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I heard a sound, like you were in pain.”
    She grimaced. “I’m just a little stiff after sleeping on the floor.”
    Slowly he relaxed. “The princess and the pea, huh?”
    “More like a bowling ball.”
    He helped her to her feet, then held her close, giving her a hungry kiss that made her forget all the aches.
    The sound of someone moving just beyond the open door was as startling as a shot. Although Cole’s back was to the doorway, he didn’t have to turn to identify the eavesdropper. He knew that Lai had followed him from the kitchen when he’d come to awaken Erin.
    “What is it, Lai?” he asked without turning around.
    Erin’s eyes widened at the change in Cole. The difference was shocking. The sensual heat and gentleness were gone. In their place was a leashed, violent emotion that could have been anger or something close to raw desire. When she tried to ease away from the intimate embrace, he held her in place as much with his glance as with his hands.
    “Chen Wing has called,” Lai said. “He asks to speak with you.”
    Lai’s voice was hushed, soft, controlled, but her eyes hungrily watched Cole’s body. For just an instant she glanced at Erin as though measuring her for a shroud. Then Lai lowered her eyes and waited with the outwardly patient obedience peculiar to unemancipated women in the traditional Chinese culture.
    Uneasiness moved in waves over Erin’s skin. Any doubt she might have had about the currents running between Cole and Lai was gone. Cole and Lai knew each other.
    Intimately.
    “Tell him I’ll be there in a minute,” Cole said.
    Lai turned and walked away, her high heels clicking on the wooden floor. Her obedience might have been that of a traditional Chinese woman, but her clothes were an elegant synthesis of West and Orient. She wore the traditional black silk slacks, but they weren’t baggy. They fitted with a perfection that only personal tailoring could provide. Her blouse was also silk, also black, and unbuttoned to a fashionable depth that showed the swell of her golden breasts. Her burnished black hair hung in a smooth curtain that came to her hips.
    The photographer in Erin reluctantly concluded that she’d never seen a more attractive female.
    “She’s stunning,” Erin said finally.
    “Yes.”
    The word was like his expression, utterly neutral. Erin had no way of knowing what emotions lay beneath his surface. She knew only that emotions were there, shielded with every bit of his considerable self-control.
    “How long have you known her?” she asked before she could stop herself.
    “Long enough.”
    “For what?”
    “I’ll go talk to Wing. Bring me some coffee, would you? It may take awhile.” He stopped at the door and looked over his shoulder. “In any case, from now on don’t be out of my sight for more than three minutes at a time. And never be out of calling distance. Understand?”
    She blinked. “Don’t you trust Lai and those men?”
    “I don’t trust anybody. That’s why I’m still alive. Stay close to me. Always. If I have to come looking for you, I’ll come ready to kill.”
    He strode through the shambles of the house to the room Wing’s men had gutted and turned into a