Donovans 02 - Jade Island

give her another kiss, a kiss he meant to be as casual as the one she had given him. But something happened along the way. It was the tip of his tongue rather than his lips that met her smile, traced it, caressed it until she made a ragged sound and let him in. His arms locked around her, lifting her, holding her so tightly that neither one of them could breathe. Their tongues mated in a hungry, stabbing dance.
    Kyle didn’t know how long the kiss lasted. He knew only that when the impatient honking of the taxi finally got through the red haze of lust that passed for his brain, he was crushing Lianne between the elevator wall and his urgent body, and she was fighting to get even closer to him, making throaty whimpering sounds that begged him to strip her naked and fuck her blind.
    “Jesus,” he said, letting her slide slowly down his body, feeling every female inch of her. “Sweet Jesus Christ.”
    Her feet hit the elevator floor, her knees buckled. Hereyes were wide, dark, dazed. She made a ragged sound that could have been a laugh or a curse. Then she shook her head, trying to clear the overwhelming thunder of her heartbeat from her ears.
    “What happened?” she asked shakily.
    Before Kyle could answer, she twisted free of his arms and ran to the taxi.
    “Tomorrow,” he called after Lianne. “I’ll pick you up at ten and we’ll drive to Anacortes.”
    “No. Honor gave me your Anacortes address. I’ll meet you there. Two o’clock.”
    The taxi door slammed. Red taillights surged into the night, blended with other city lights, vanished.
    The service elevator chimed softly. The doors opened and Archer stepped out. He didn’t have the look of a happy man.
    “What’s wrong?” Kyle asked.
    “I was going to ask you the same. Did the elevator jam?”
    “What do you think?”
    Archer’s steel-gray eyes went from Kyle’s finger-combed hair to his kiss-reddened mouth and then to the blunt bulge in his crotch. “I think you need a cold shower.”
    “Why don’t we do a little one-on-one in the downstairs gym instead?”
    “Don’t tempt me.”
    “Why not? You’ve been looking for something to thump on since you walked into the condo. And it wasn’t just the rock on Faith’s hand that set you off, was it?”
    “Lianne’s shadow was government,” Archer said curtly.
    “No surprise there. We knew Uncle was interested.”
    “So am I. I had a little chat with the tail. He made a call, gave me a number, and I made a call.”
    Kyle’s eyebrows went up. “Why do I feel you’re leaving something out? Like how the guy felt about making the call in the first place.”
    “He wanted his face. I wanted a telephone number. How either of us felt about it wasn’t on the table.”
    “How long had he been following her?”
    “He didn’t say. It doesn’t matter.” Archer lifted his hand, cutting off Kyle’s attempt to speak. “He saw her come and go several times from the city of Vancouver and the Tang family fortress with trunkloads of jade.”
    “So what? She handled the Jade Trader exhibit last night. Stands to reason she would be shuttling back and forth with jade in her trunk.”
    “Some of what she handled stayed in her trunk. She’s about one step away from being arrested.”
    “What does that mean?” Kyle demanded.
    “Just what it sounds like,” Archer said flatly. “Uncle has a wire into the Tang family. Some stuff has gone missing from the Vancouver vault.”
    “Too bad, how sad, shit happens. Has anyone seen Lianne with the missing stuff? Has anyone bought it from her?”
    “Yes to the first. They’re still looking for the second.”
    “Pretty thin. What makes them think Lianne is so stupid that she would steal pieces that were certain to be missed?”
    “Not stupid. Very, very shrewd. She’s been creaming old man Wen’s collection, selling it, and substituting inferior goods so that no one noticed the holes.”
    “It doesn’t fly. Wen would have noticed.”
    “A few years ago, yes. Things change. Wen’s eyes and hands sure did. The substitutions were clever. Good, but not as high a quality, not as rare, not as aesthetic, not as old, whatever. The sort of things only an expert would notice, but they have a hell of an impact on the bottom line.”
    Kyle thought of Wen’s gnarled hands and cloudy eyes. Then he thought of Lianne’s clear eyes and sensitive fingertips. “I don’t like it.”
    “Did someone ask you to? She never would have beencaught if one of her half