Donovans 02 - Jade Island

Lianne. If not Daniel, who? Who else knows jade, has the combination to the Tang vaults and a reason to wish Lianne a shitload of bad luck?”
    “Daniel respects and loves his grandfather, his uncles, and his father too much to do such a thing.”
    “And Lianne doesn’t?” Kyle shot back.
    “But…” Slowly Johnny sat on the couch again. Jet lag weighed down his brain like melted lead. He made a sound that was more a groan than a sigh. “When I asked Lianne to meet you, I didn’t think it would lead to this.”
    Worried by his sudden pallor, Anna sat next to Johnny and took his hand. It was cold.
    “Which raises another interesting point,” Kyle said smoothly. “Just why did you want Lianne to pick me up? The Tang Consortium’s overtures to the Donovan family were turned down months ago. Did the Tangs think I would be an easier Donovan mark than Archer? Or did you—”
    “Stop bullying him!” Anna interrupted. “Can’t you see that he’s exhausted?”
    Kyle gave her a cutting look. “What I keep seeing is your daughter in handcuffs. Unless your lover can help us, you’ll get to see it, too.”
    Anna flinched as though Kyle had struck her. Johnny’s cool hand touched her cheek.
    “It’s all right,” he said tiredly. Then he turned to Kyle. “I wanted you because the Donovans don’t need anything from the Tangs. Then there was that incident with the Russian amber. I don’t know all the details, but what I found out suggested that you wouldn’t turn and run at the first sign of trouble.” He almost smiled. “I was right, wasn’t I?”
    “Kyle saved my life,” Lianne said. “The assassin would have—”
    “Bull,” Kyle said. “The way I remember it, you saved my life.”
    “I did no such—”
    “Sure you did,” he said, talking over her. “You broke his knife arm. Now my life is yours. You can’t get out of it, sweetheart. Old Chinese rules.”
    Lianne gave him a baffled look, then bent over and sniffed his teacup suspiciously. Nothing but oolong.
    Kyle’s knuckles slid down her cheek to the curve of her neck in a caress that was both casual and so infused with intimacy that her breath caught. She looked up and felt his smile like another gentle touch.
    “No brandy,” he said softly. “Just your perfume going to my head.” But all gentleness left Kyle’s expression when he faced Johnny again. “What were you planning for me and Lianne?”
    “A healthy young man who is good in a fight, a beautiful young woman who might need such a man on her side…” Johnny shrugged. “There was no plan.”
    “What made you think that Lianne might need someone like me?” Kyle asked. His voice was edgy, impatient. He shouldn’t have to drag answers out of Johnny like a copcross-examining a hostile suspect. It was Johnny’s daughter they were trying to help.
    For a long time Johnny didn’t say anything. He simply focused on Anna’s hand lying pale and beautiful on his arm.
    “I am very uneasy about Han Seng,” Johnny admitted finally. “My family…would like to ingratiate themselves with him.”
    Lianne went cold. She stared at her father, hardly able to believe what she was hearing.
    “And Lianne was a little deal sweetener?” Kyle’s tone was neutral. But his whole body tightened.
    “I told Joe that Lianne didn’t like Seng, much less want to become his lover,” Johnny said.
    “What about Wen?” Lianne asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. “Did he expect me to be Seng’s concubine?”
    “He didn’t understand the difference between you being Chin’s lover a while back and being Seng’s now.”
    “Obviously Wen is blind,” Kyle said. “Chin and Seng are both snakes, but Chin is a damned pretty one.”
    Lianne ignored Kyle and spoke directly to her father. “I thought I loved Chin. I thought he loved me. He didn’t. He loved only the family of Tang.”
    “Of course,” Johnny said with faint impatience. “He is Chinese-born, Chinese-raised. Did you really think Chin wanted your body more than your family connections?”
    “Yes.”
    Johnny shook his head. There were aspects of his American daughter that he would never understand. She was intelligent—very intelligent—quite fluent in Chinese art and languages. Yet she couldn’t seem to grasp the fundamental dynamic of the Chinese culture: family. An individual’s desires were as nothing against the needs of his family.
    “So you were nervous about what Seng would do,” Kyle said. “You were