Gina Takes Bangkok (The Femme Vendettas) (24 page)

That was it? That was all she was going to give him, the woman who had answers and hugs for everyone else in the world? “Yeah, I guess you were,” he said. He pushed past her to take the lead. “C’mon. You’ve got another interrogation to conduct.”

The round sex bed was looking a little different than yesterday morning. For one thing, Jarun was on it. Gagged, blindfolded, and his arms and legs bound. Kannon yanked away the gag and the blindfold.

Jarun looked around the room, at Gina, Kannon, and Ryota, his gaze coming to rest on the anatomically correct teddy bear. “Hell of a place to torture a man.”

Kannon turned to Gina. “You’re up.”

It was the time on the boat all over again. Gina had no idea how to begin. She hoped she reflected nothing but cool confidence in order to fool Jarun—and Kannon. “You told us that Victoria was poison. That she’s corrupted Wakai. Yet I find you helping her friends lure my man into a trap.”

Jarun was snaking around on the bed, trying to pull himself upright on the slippery sheets. He looked like a landed fish. Gina felt a twinge of sympathy. She knew what it was like to be on that bed and not able to move. He managed to flop his head onto a pillow. “Your man? He was Alak Montri’s. You and The Pink Stilettos act outraged while you steal his people.”

She didn’t dare look at Kannon. Not that she needed to. She could feel his stiff neutrality like a stone wall. “A temporary arrangement. But you haven’t answered my question.”

“You didn’t ask one.” Jarun looked ridiculous lying there, yet he had the upper hand. Kannon would’ve had him blubbering for his life by now, willing to confess to killing Jesus. She forced herself to sound like someone to be reckoned with. “Why were you dealing with Ek’s people?”

“Wakai asked me to. Thought if he could get his hands on your man he could find out where Montri’s daughter was. To be honest, I was looking forward to paying him back for the beating he gave me. Looks like I’m up for round two.”

“There won’t be any violence here,” Gina said.

Kannon shifted on his feet. A quiet move that communicated deep impatience. She kept talking. “I’m not sure what to make of you, Jarun. You led us to that snuff brothel in 70 Rai, so I have reason to think you’re sincere. On the other hand, you seem happy enough to help the Cambodians. Perhaps you could clarify that for me.”

He didn’t. He didn’t say a word. And nobody did anything because they were all waiting on her, and she hadn’t a freaking clue. Jarun gave a cool, knowing smile.

“This the best you’ve got? Thought the Pink Stilettos were supposed to be more than a dying man and his airhead daughter.” He twisted to face Kannon. “And some washed-up Yakuza thug.”

It was a deliberate goad. And she fully expected Kannon to pistol-whip Jarun. A beat went by, and another. After several more, she realized that Kannon was not going to do anything. That he was willing to let their prisoner demean him in order to give her the chance to prove herself. And from how he stared straight ahead at the garishly painted wall, she knew what this was costing him. She had to find a way to break through.

“A
question
.” She drew breath. “Are you playing Wakai and me off against each other?”

Jarun snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself. And I don’t play games when it comes to my friends. Wakai knows damn well what Alak Montri will do if he gets free, especially with three dozen gangs behind him. That means Wakai needs Tasanee. Without her, he has to keep depending on Victoria’s friends for protection. With her, he won’t need anyone but me.”

Something started to tweak for her. She took a step closer. “So you’re partnering with Wakai, then?”

“No, I’m trying to protect him. From you. From Victoria. Even from himself.”

And there it was. The soft hitch in his voice. Ah. Progress. She took it one more step. She crawled on the bed and laid down beside him.

Kannon was right there, standing over them. Jarun’s body stiffened, though it was hard to tell if it was from her languid proximity or Kannon’s aggressive stance.

Gina propped her head on her hand. “I get it. You and Wakai are…close. You’d like to have him all to yourself.”

Jarun’s lip curled. “It’s not like that between us.”

Nearly word for word what Ryota had said of him and Tasanee. “You want to cheapen it,” he went on. “Make it into something sordid, like it is with you and your Yakuza lapdog.”

Not nearly as sordid as she wanted it. “Believe me, I know what it’s like to want someone you can’t have. So here’s what I propose.” She was winging it. “You tell us where Wakai is, where Montri is, and you
and
Wakai go free.”

Jarun looked at her as if she was the idiot she felt like. “Montri would never allow that.”

“Montri would never have to know,” she ploughed on. “We’d get the two of you out of Thailand with enough money to disappear.”

“And I’m supposed to just trust your word on that? I bet we’d disappear. Right to the bottom of the Gulf.”

Gina’s mind was racing. She needed something to sweeten the deal. Something to gain Jarun’s cooperation. The moments stretched out to an embarrassing length, before it occurred to her. “Even if I set you loose right now you wouldn’t be free. Neither you nor Wakai. So long as Victoria’s alive you’re both going to be bound to her sick whims. I’m not your enemy, Jarun, and you’re not mine. The real enemy is that perverted, sadistic bitch. And with her gone we can all get what we want.”

Jarun hesitated. “What are you saying?”

Later Gina found that the most surprising thing was not what she said, but how easily she said it. “That we’ll kill her. Montri will get the city back. Tasanee can go back to a normal life. And you and Wakai can go start a new life far away from Thailand, exiled together. Everybody wins. Now enough bullshit. Do we have a deal, or do you want to test your claim that Kannon is washed-up?”

And with their heads together on pillows, and Kannon with pointed gun hovering above, Gina and her prisoner chatted.

Kittyjack smiled as she guided her drone high above Bangkok, zooming in on a particular apartment tower. “That, my friends, is the Maharaja Xecutive. Fourteen stories tall, containing eighty-four two-bedroom deluxe suites—and one seriously nice penthouse. Technically, the top floor is still unsold, but seeing as the place was completed seven years ago, that’s a little suspicious. Only way up is by private elevator and an emergency stairwell, both of which are tightly secured.”

In the night-time photo, a lit fountain sprayed up a giant water flower and more halogen lamps coursed white light up the walls. Gina’s apartment was in a similar building in L.A. All very chic and modern—and lifeless. You could live there for years and never know your neighbors. Never know if you even had any. “Very pretty—for a fortress.”

“That’s exactly what it is,” Kannon said. “And in the middle of the city, no less. Try and crack that by force and we’ll have half the cops in Bangkok after us.”

“How do we do it?” Gina asked.

Kannon didn’t answer right away, his eyes locked on the screen. “There is a way, but it’s risky.”

“And what happens once you do?” Dr. Chaiboonma interrupted from behind them, his voice drawing their collective attention.

Oh nice, Gina thought. Dr. Chai was going to take up where he left off, proclaiming her as the prodigal daughter.

“Then the rakshasas are kicked out of Bangkok,” she answered. “Once Alak Montri’s free, you can bet the gangs will line up behind him.”

“And he’ll most certainly win,” said Dr. Chaiboonma. “By attrition, if nothing else. But how long before the next gang shows up? Montri’s already fought seven turf wars in twenty years. This will be his eighth, and the second one against an usurper.”

Gina didn’t want to be dragged into a debate. “That’s the nature of the business.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” replied Dr. Chaiboonma. “At least half those battles could have been avoided by negotiation. The rest could have been discouraged by intimidation. Your boss considers himself a nationalist, and in truth he loves his king like every good Thai. That doesn’t make him any less of a blight on the people of Bangkok. All he’s brought is violence and death to this city and no matter how you cut it, that kind of instability is bad for business. Very bad.”

Gina threw up her hands. “What would you suggest? Letting the rakshasas win? Of all the foreigners that have tried to take over, they have to be the worst.”

“I’m not suggesting we surrender,” Dr. Chaiboonma said. “What I don’t understand is why the gangs of Bangkok only ever seem to be united under a dictator. The muscle to crush the rakshasas exists right now, yet each gang sits in hiding, none of them willing to support the others without someone to give them their marching orders.”

Beside her, Kannon was his usual inscrutable self, which meant that he didn’t like the direction Dr. Chai was taking either. Sure, she’d avoided violence with Jarun, only because she’d promised to get another person killed. And who had she implied would do the job? Yes, she was a hypocrite, telling Kannon to avoid violence, and then practically signing him up for it. “The bottom line is that Montri’s my father’s friend. His daughter is my god-sister. Regardless of what he does after we get him out, those are reasons enough to rescue him. The same would hold true if it was you who’d been kidnapped, Dr. Chai.”

The leader of the Bangkok Blondes softened at that. “You’ve got a good heart, Gina. You should use it for a good purpose.”

She was getting nowhere. Time for him to hear the truth. “Ha!” She turned to Kannon. “Tell him how my good heart is useless when it comes to getting things done. Tell him how I nearly blew it this morning with Jarun.”

Kannon took off his glasses. “She did fine.”

He was being nice because he still felt she was the boss. “No, Kannon. I give you permission. Tell it like it is.”

Kannon’s head listed slightly towards her before adjusting to continue with Dr. Chai. “Her methods are—unorthodox, but she gets the job done.”

Gina felt her jaw drop, actually feel the hinges crack from the sudden release. Did he really approve?

“I agree,” Ryota piped up.

“Thanks a bunch,” Gina snapped, “for your total lack of support during my time of crisis.”

The three men exchanged looks, the kind of gingery glances made around unstable people. Even Kittyjack was staring at her screen as if her life depended on it. None of them understood. She simply didn’t have what it took.

She fastened onto Kannon. “You said there’s a way into Wakai’s penthouse?”

He pointed at the screen to a corner of the building inset with a decorative pattern. “Someone could use those as a series of handholds. See how it runs all the way from the ground floor to the rooftop, and how there’s not much light? If someone went at night, they could climb all the way up unnoticed. An expert climber could do it.”

Kittyjack snorted in disbelief. “That’s about a two hundred foot climb, and even if you’re agile, you sure as hell ain’t light.”

Kannon gave Gina a meaningful look. “It wouldn’t be me that would be doing the climbing.”

Gina’s stomach lurched as the drone passed over the building, giving her a clear perspective of exactly how high fourteen stories really was. “You think she’d be able to do it?”

“The way she climbs, I don’t have any doubt,” Kannon answered. “The real question is if she’s willing to come out of retirement.”