Donovans 02 - Jade Island

room. She wasn’t the wife of Number Two Son, but she was ruling the roost tonight.
    And the bracelet she wore was worth a good deal more than Anna Blakely’s ring. But then, Johnny was only Number Three Son. His mistress would naturally have less costly jewelry than the woman who belonged to Harry.
    “It isn’t unusual for wealthy men to have mistresses,” Lianne said neutrally. “Before the revolution, it was expected. And before Christianity, a Chinese man had a wife and as many concubines as he could afford. As for the women, there was more prestige in being a wife than a concubine, but often the concubine had more actual power.”
    “Yeah, you grab a man by his dumb handle and he’ll follow you anywhere.”
    When Lianne understood what Kyle meant, she barely managed to swallow a mouthful of garlic chicken without choking. “Dumb handle,” she said, clearing her throat. “I’ve never heard it called that.”
    “What do they call it in Chinese?”
    “Oh, many things. Reverent things. ‘Jade stem’ is a favorite. ‘Jade flute,’ sometimes.”
    “Jade, huh? The Stone of Heaven.”
    “Um. Perhaps.” She tried not to snicker, but the lightin Kyle’s eyes made it difficult. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
    “What did you think the jade in ‘jade stem’ referred to?” he asked dryly.
    “Texture and, ah, rigidity.”
    “Are you saying a man’s best buddy isn’t heavenly and immortal?”
    Lianne gave up trying to eat and laughed openly again, not caring that she drew glances from various Tang men. Smiling, Kyle slid his empty plate under hers, took both in one hand, and began eating. By the time she had subsided into snickers, her plate was nearly clean.
    “You’re amazing,” Lianne said, looking at the few crumbs that remained of her food.
    “Just eating for two.”
    “You and who else? Me?”
    “Nope, my buddy. Be amazed how much energy it takes to keep him up to expectations.”
    Shaking her head, trying not to add to the wicked light in Kyle’s eyes, Lianne handed her half-drunk beer to a passing hostess and glanced around the room once more.
    A torrent of Chinese burst out of a corner where two older men sat eating salted nuts.
    “Another difference of opinion?” Kyle asked.
    “No, they’re unanimous. SunCo has to be kept from getting any more leverage in America.”
    “That could prove difficult.”
    Lianne looked at Kyle. He was studying the room, his unusual gold-and-green eyes taking in faces and body language.
    “Why do you say that?” she asked.
    “SunCo and Dick Farmer are rumored to be cutting a trade deal that would benefit both China and America.”
    “I’ll bet it benefits SunCo and Dick Farmer more.”
    “That’s like betting that the sun will come up in the east,” Kyle said. “So who’s third in the pecking order here?”
    “Johnny Tang. He’s Number Three Son. Joe Tang, theNumber One Son, isn’t here tonight. I think Harry said something about Joe going to Shanghai on family business.”
    Without appearing to, Kyle watched Lianne as she talked. If he hadn’t already known that Johnny was her father, nothing in her actions—or in Johnny’s, certainly—would have given away the relationship. It was the same when Lianne talked about her uncles. If there was anything filial in anyone’s feelings, it didn’t show on the surface.
    “After Johnny, the order of precedence begins to blur,” Lianne said. “The older men are cousins or brothers-in-law who are employed by the Tang Consortium. The younger males are sons and nephews of the Tang brothers.”
    Kyle looked at the well-dressed young men and tried to pick out which ones were Lianne’s cousins and which were her half brothers. He was tempted to ask her, if only to break the professional mask that she had pulled so seamlessly over her feelings when he started asking questions about her secret family. But the thought of seeing her without defenses in this den of Tangs stopped him.
    “Finished eating?” he asked.
    “I never started.”
    “Want to?”
    Lianne shook her head. “I’m not hungry. Nerves, I guess.”
    “The Jade Emperor?”
    She flinched subtly. “Among other things.”
    “Was the auction that important to you?”
    “It was an honor to be chosen to select the Jade Trader’s display,” she said. What she didn’t say was that she had spent her entire lifetime working toward being accepted into her father’s family. “One way or another, most honors are