Donovans 02 - Jade Island

out to see where we were going, or he could just have been desperate for a nicotine fix.”
    “So we’re back where we started.”
    “Not quite. You haven’t told me why I bid too much on that blade.”
    “Auction fever.”
    “Try again.”
    “Ignorance.”
    Kyle’s hand closed more firmly around her arm. “Again.”
    “I’m not a mind reader.”
    “Even your own? You wanted that blade, Lianne, and you wanted it bad. Why?”
    Lianne’s only answer was the eloquent angle of her chin. She wasn’t going to say a word.
    At a speed that forced her to stretch her legs, Kyle headed for the front door of the hotel rather than the side. “I can understand why you were climbing walls to get a look at the burial suit,” he said, “but why was that Neolithic blade so important to you?”
    “No,” she said curtly.
    “Are you telling me it isn’t important?”
    “I’m telling you it’s none of your business.”
    He pulled her to a stop just outside the hotel entrance. “Does that blade have anything to do with the man who’s following you?”
    “What makes you think that?” Lianne asked, surprised.
    “You’ve looked frightened over three things tonight. One was the man following you. The other was the blade.”
    She didn’t need to ask what the third thing was.“There’s no connection,” she said hurriedly, not wanting to talk about the jade shroud in any way at all.
    “How can you be so sure?”
    “The Neolithic blade is Tang family business. The man is Caucasian. No connection whatsoever.”
    “There’s you.”
    Lianne’s only answer was silence.
    Kyle’s gut kicked into overdrive. He didn’t know what was wrong, but he had no doubt that something was. His next thought was that, despite the tuxedo, he was underdressed for the occasion. The area under his left armpit was buck naked.
    Without a word he grabbed Lianne and headed for his car.

Chapter 7
    D riving skillfully, Kyle shifted his glance between the car’s various mirrors and the mire of Seattle traffic. The snarl didn’t compare with those in cities like Manhattan, L.A., or even Vancouver, British Columbia, but a simple repair of one lane on First Avenue had backed up cars for six blocks. He looked in the mirror again, yanked on the wheel, and made an illegal left turn in the middle of the block. He shot through a half-full parking lot, went the wrong way down a one-lane alley, and popped out on a side street.
    Nobody made the turn after him.
    He would have felt better if his gut wasn’t telling him that this was the calm before the storm. And it would be a hell of a storm if what Archer had said was true.
    The Chinese just threatened to break off all relations with the U.S. if the Jade Emperor’s treasure turns up on our soil.
    He didn’t know how Lianne was involved in the Jade Emperor mess, but he knew that she was. There had been a lot more than professional curiosity driving her to examine the burial suit. There had been desperation.
    “And I thought Johnny was a bad driver,” Lianne muttered when Kyle executed another illegal turn and shot through another alley.
    “What do you mean, bad? No scraped paint, no ticket, and a clear road ahead of us.”
    “What about lights behind us? The kind that come with sirens.”
    “None of them, either.”
    She let out a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding and settled into the comfortable leather seat. “Lucky man. Where are we going, or are we just wheeling around to get my adrenaline count up?”
    Instead of answering, Kyle asked a question of his own. “Where’s the Tang party?”
    “Back at the hotel we just left. The Tangs rented the penthouse suite.”
    “Same hotel, huh?” he said, thinking quickly. “Am I expected to show up in this monkey suit?”
    “That’s up to you.”
    Kyle didn’t care whether he wore a tux or bib overalls to the party, but changing clothes was the best excuse he could think of to get back to his room. Or better yet, Archer’s. His older brother was sure to have a nine-millimeter in the safe, plus a spare magazine or two.
    Kyle really didn’t like what his gut was trying to tell him, but he didn’t ignore the warnings. The last time he had told himself that he was jumping at shadows like a kindergartner on Halloween, a Lithuanian thug had come within one blow of killing him. The blow that had made the difference was Kyle’s. His attacker had gone head over heels out the cab of the truck and sprawled in the muck by the side of the