Donovans 02 - Jade Island

needed it.
    This is one you don’t have to do alone.
    When the ungiving leather and steel of Kyle’s shoulder holster registered on Lianne’s senses, she simply tightened her grip on him. Whatever happened tomorrow or the day after, she had to get through this day, this evening, the next hour. That came first. Everything else came last.
    “Tea?” Anna asked, looking from Kyle to Lianne with a mother’s sad, hopeful eyes.
    “Sure,” Kyle said. “Oolong, if you have it.”
    Anna smiled approvingly. “Lianne’s favorite. Of course I have it. Johnny?”
    “Brandy,” he said. “I had enough Chinese tea on the flight back to last me a lifetime.”
    “Tea is good for you,” Anna said, looking at the dark circles under his eyes and the brackets of fatigue on either side of his full mouth. For once, her lover showed every one of his years.
    “Brandy is better.” Johnny sat down on one of the low couches, leaned back against the silk cushion, closed his eyes, and said, “What the hell is going on, Lianne?”
    “We were hoping you could tell us,” Kyle said before Lianne could open her mouth.
    She started to speak anyway, only to have Kyle’s hand close with painful demand over her shoulder.
    “Let your father talk,” Kyle said calmly.
    There was a crash from the open kitchen area as Anna dropped a brandy snifter.
    Lianne jerked, but not because of the broken snifter. She wasn’t used to hearing Johnny referred to as her father. Not out loud. Certainly not in Anna’s presence, much less in Johnny’s
    “Sorry,” Kyle said sardonically. “Did I point out that there’s a lump the size of the Empire State Building under this fine Chinese rug?”
    For the first time, Lianne realized that beneath his relaxed exterior, Kyle was furious. And the focus of his anger was Johnny Tang.
    “Make that brandy a double,” Johnny said. “Looks like Lianne has finally brought home a man who doesn’t give a damn about the Tang Consortium.”
    “Oh, I care,” Kyle said. “I need information. Tangs have it. One way or another, I’m going to get it.”
    Though Johnny’s eyes were still closed, he sensed Anna leaning over the couch, a glass of brandy in her hand. He took the glass and a fast, healthy swallow. Then he opened his eyes, murmured something in Cantonese, and smiled gently when Anna flushed like a girl.
    “Information from the Tangs,” Johnny said idly. “Why? So Donovan International can get a leg up on Asian markets?”
    “Fuck the markets. I want Lianne off the playing field. The only way I can do that is to get the truth about how Dick Farmer ended up with Wen Zhi Tang’s jade shroud.”
    Johnny sat bolt upright, shock on his handsome face. “Jade shroud? What the hell are you talking about?”
    For ten seconds Kyle stared. Then he muttered, “Shit Marie. Nothing about this is going to be easy, is it?”

Chapter 22
    “ S o someone has been taking jade out of the Tang vaults, selling it, and substituting junk in its place?” Johnny asked tiredly. As he spoke, he looked at his watch, hardly able to believe that less than half an hour had passed since Kyle had shattered precedent and named Lianne as Johnny Tang’s daughter.
    “That’s one explanation,” Lianne said. She reached for her second cup of tea. “Another is that Wen needs cash for some reason and is selling off jade to get it.”
    “He’d sooner sell his second and third sons,” Johnny said. “And I mean that literally.”
    “What about his first son?” Kyle asked.
    “Only an American would ask,” Johnny said.
    “Wen would sooner die than lose Joe,” Lianne said in a calm voice. “The Chinese much prefer sons over daughters. First sons are greatly preferred over other sons, second sons are more valued than third, and so on. Correct, Johnny?”
    Johnny shrugged. He had absorbed and accepted the consequences of sex and birth order long before he had words to describe any of it. For him, the cultural preference he had been raised in was as unremarkable, if sometimes as inconvenient, as getting older each year.
    “Quit pacing, Anna,” Johnny said. “Sit by me. The scent of your perfume helps me forget I’ve been awake for thirty-two hours.”
    Anna gave Lianne a searching glance and settled by Johnny’s side. When he took her hand between his own, she couldn’t conceal her surprise. For all his fluency in America’s language and customs, Johnny had an old-fashioned Chinese reserve about touching Anna in