Donovans 02 - Jade Island

asked.
    “The usual. Prostitutes, gambling, drugs, loan-sharking, trafficking in parts of endangered species.”
    Kyle looked blank at the last category.
    “Asian medicine,” Archer explained. “The Chinese will pay a lot for potions made out of bear gallbladder, tiger penis, that sort of thing.”
    “It’s too early in the morning for this discussion.”
    “Stop whining. I’ve been up all night.”
    “Why?”
    “A game of Twenty Questions with Uncle.”
    “Who was asking and who was answering?”
    “We traded off,” Archer said.
    “And?”
    “You want an omelet before we talk?”
    “That bad?” Kyle asked.
    Archer didn’t answer. He just started cooking.
    After a few minutes Kyle made toast and more coffee. The brothers sat down together just in time for sunlight to slide through the east window and across the breakfast nook that was positioned to take advantage of dawn.
    “You keep trying to butter me up and I’m going to get fat,” Kyle said, diving into a plate heaped with cottage fries and a Spanish omelet.
    “Just stay alive and I won’t complain.”
    Kyle’s fork hesitated. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
    “Who said anything about liking?”
    Archer went through his breakfast like a man who knew it could be a long time before he had another decent meal. When he was finished, he poured himself the last of the coffee and started talking. He focused on Kyle as though force of will alone would make his brother understand that getting emotionally involved with Lianne Blakely was a mistake of potentially lethal proportions.
    “The so-called mugger is a lieutenant in the Red Phoenix triad,” Archer said. “He’s part of an informal cultural-exchange program. Uncle Sam locks up or deports one triad man and they send two to take his place.”
    Kyle dripped honey onto the last piece of toast and listened, knowing he wasn’t going to like what he heard.
    “The particular snake you tangled with is a triad terminator,” Archer said. “Need someone killed? When the next flight out of China or Hong Kong or Singapore lands in Seattle, off comes the bad-luck man. He kills the target and is on a plane out of the city before anyone knows what happened.”
    “Not this time.”
    “You were pig-lucky,” Archer said flatly. “Qiang Qin—your bad-luck man—isn’t a virgin. He’s been dropping bodies for the Red Phoenix triad all over the Pacific Rim countries. Six in Hong Kong alone, and that was a slow year.”
    “Busy boy,” Kyle said casually. But even with honey, the toast suddenly tasted like sawdust. The thought of Lianne alone in that hallway with a triad hit man made Kyle sick. “How did you find out about him?”
    “How do you think?”
    “Either you took off our tail’s face or Uncle decided to be friendly.”
    “Friendly it is.”
    “Shit. Better you had taken off the guy’s face. When Uncle gets friendly, I get nervous. What does our dear government want from us now?”
    “Same thing it did before—inside the Tang family.”
    “So why are you complaining that I brought Lianne home?”
    “Because,” Lianne said from just beyond the doorway, “Archer wishes Qiang Qin had done his job and killed me.”
    Archer and Kyle spun toward the door with identical looks of surprise and anger on their faces. Lianne would have laughed, but she was too hurt and much too angry.She had been so pathetically grateful when Kyle helped her out.
    Now she knew why he had. The knowledge stuck in her throat like a jagged piece of ice.
    She had been so easy.
    So stupid.
    She had believed that a man like Kyle Donovan might be interested in a woman with no family, no money, no connections, nothing but a knack for jade and the stubbornness to pursue it no matter what life threw at her.
    “That’s not true,” Archer said calmly. “I don’t want you dead.”
    “Yet,” Lianne shot back, her voice as even as his. “Not until I act as a Judas goat and lead my family off to slaughter.”
    “Your family?” Archer asked, his eyes narrow. “Funny, when the chips were down, it was the Donovan family that came to your rescue. The Tangs were hot on your heels, baying like hounds closing in for the kill.”
    Lianne’s chin came up subtly. She didn’t like hearing the truth, especially from a man who disliked her, but she wouldn’t deny it. She was a survivor. Survivors accepted the truth even when it came at them like a sword.
    “Back off,” Kyle told Archer. “Lianne doesn’t owe