Donovans 02 - Jade Island

liked, respected, and could too easily love.
    That would be stupid of her and unfair to him. If she truly cared about Kyle, she would keep him as far away from this mess as possible. He had done nothing to deserve the grief that was coming her way.
    She took a slow breath and put away the temptation to lean on Kyle, and in doing so, drag him down into the mud with her.
    “This is the corner,” Lianne said quietly.
    Kyle turned and waited for a bus to get out of his way.He was frowning, because he was looking at Lianne’s neighborhood with new eyes. What he saw wasn’t good.
    Despite the rich, slanting sunlight and pigeons cooing and crapping everywhere, it wasn’t the kind of place where a good-looking single woman—or man, for that matter—should live. Pioneer Square might be a tourist attraction, but it was also smack in the middle of an area that could most charitably be described as colorful. Panhandlers, the homeless, and the not-so-gently insane lay in wait for marks who believed that a handful of change could turn someone’s life around, or at least make the mark feel like he had done penance for the sin of not being poor.
    “I hope you have good locks,” Kyle said.
    “The rent is cheap, the space is large, and you can’t beat the commute to work. But yes, I have very good locks.”
    “And pepper spray. Don’t forget that.”
    “I left it at home. It’s illegal in Canada.”
    “Ah, yes. The Canadian motto: good government and plenty of it.”
    Lianne surprised both of them by smiling. “Turn into that alley,” she said, pointing. “There’s a cramped little parking area just after the first building.”
    Kyle turned in and parked in the last miserable slot, ignoring the signs that guaranteed towing by the first truck to arrive with a hook. The Ford Taurus stuck with him like a license plate. There was no place to park, so the tail simply backed out and parked across the street, where he could watch Kyle’s car.
    “Why were you carrying your passport with you to Canada?” Kyle asked as Lianne reached for the door handle. Which was a roundabout way of asking her if she had been planning to go overseas from Vancouver, taking the jades with her to one of the best jade markets on earth: Hong Kong.
    “Even with the Pace stickers,” Lianne said, opening her car door, “sometimes I’m stopped by U.S. Immigration officials on the way back into the States.”
    Kyle got out of the car and quickly caught up with her. “Why? Do you have a past violation of some kind?”
    She unlocked a scarred, grubby alley door that led to a gloomy hallway. Curling linoleum and dirt fought for ownership of the floor. She was so accustomed to the uninviting entrance that she no longer noticed it.
    Kyle did.
    “A lot of Asians came to Canada on British passports when Hong Kong changed governments,” Lianne said, turning back to Kyle. “Free access among colonial countries is a perk of the former British Empire. Sometimes the Asians who come to Canada decide to live in the U.S., but don’t want to go through all the tedious immigration formalities.”
    “So they just drive south and stay?”
    “Yes.”
    “And immigration types who can’t tell the difference between Amerasians, Chinese, Vietnamese, or Koreans hassle you.”
    “At first, yes. Now most of them know me, but every time a new one comes on, I get a chance to chat while they check out my accent.”
    “And your eyes,” Kyle said.
    Lianne looked at him. “My eyes?”
    “Yeah. Agents are trained to look for signs of nervousness. A big one is refusal to meet the agent’s eyes.”
    “Is that why one of them asked me to take off my sunglasses?”
    “Probably.”
    “Would you take off yours?”
    “Now?” Kyle asked, surprised.
    She nodded.
    He pulled off his sunglasses and looked curiously at her. “Why?”
    “It makes you less…distant.” Lianne smiled oddly. She stood on tiptoe, bushed a swift kiss along his jaw, and quickly stepped back out of reach. “Thanks for beingmy knight, Kyle Donovan. I’ll let Ms. Mercer know if I think of anything that might be useful.”
    Kyle realized that Lianne was planning to walk into the dingy hallway and out of his life. “Wait,” he said, grabbing her arm. “I’m not through with you.”
    She looked at him out of eyes that were very dark in the dim interior light. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”
    Kyle muttered something under his breath and forced an easy smile onto his lips.