Her Singapore Fling (13 page)

And then the boy stood in front of him. Hair singed and filthy. Blistered skin running diagonally across one of his arms. Burnt. Jake registered all these things as he scooped the boy up in his arms and held him close. Burnt while trying to find Jianne. ‘You shouldn't have gone in there,' he said again, and held the boy tighter.

‘You would have.'

‘We need to get that arm of yours looked at.'

‘No.' The boy held him tighter. ‘We need to find her. She'll be here. Somewhere. She will.'

Fear and desolation. Adrenalin and pain.

As they scoured the crowd for a face they couldn't see, hope turned to ash and the ash was everywhere. He called Luke but Luke and Maddy were already scouring the crowd, searching for
them
. They hadn't found Ji.

Jake met up with Luke and Madeline on the corner nearest the place where dojo doors had once stood. No getting any closer to the building now. Not for anyone. Even the firefighters were keeping their distance now as they shot water high into the sky in a futile attempt
to salvage something. Another muted whoosh sounded in Jake's ears as something else came crashing down inside the inferno.

‘Po's arm,' he said hoarsely as the surreal orange glow from the fire burned up his eyes. ‘It needs seeing to.'

‘No,' said the boy and clung to him tighter. ‘Find Jianne.'

Always the way, so many priorities piling in on a man at once but Jake was with the boy on this. Finding Jianne wasn't just a priority. It rated right up there with breathing. ‘We'll go this way,' he muttered.

‘Wait,' said Madeline, her eyes wide and worried but her composure not yet shattered. ‘Po, how about you and I try the ambulance again and they can take a look at that arm while we're there, and we can make it our base? It's the first place Jianne will look for you. It's the first place everyone looks.' Madeline, who hadn't yet stripped down to core needs and instinct. Madeline who could still think.

‘She's right,' said Luke, adding his not inconsiderable influence over the boy to the mix. ‘You and Maddy at the ambulance. Me and Jake circling the block. We'll cover lots of ground that way.'

A new plan. A sane plan, with everyone's major needs met. And Luke went left and Jake turned right, scanning the sea of faces in front of him and putting one foot in front of the other. She'd be here somewhere. She had to be. He'd find her.

But he didn't.

He kept on walking, searching, hoping. As his livelihood and his home burned down behind him.

Just a building, love. He could say that when he found her. It's not important, it's just a building and there was no one in it.

So many different faces, curiosity and concern alike, and never the one he wanted most to see.

He stood there in the end. Just stood and let the crowd flow past him, too shattered to move. Maybe Zhi Fu had Jianne. Zhi Fu could have come and taken her and then set fire to the dojo for good measure. Maybe that was why Jake couldn't find her, why Po hadn't seen her. Better that than dead. She couldn't be dead.

Forward again then. One step and then another. Look, he told himself.
Look.

And then he turned the street corner and he thought he caught a glimpse of a face more beloved than any other, just a glimpse, up ahead and then it was gone. But it gave him hope, such a wild desperate hope, and it gave his legs speed as he surged forward against the flow of the crowd. It felt like eternity before he saw her again, closer to him this time, coming towards him with the crowd.

Jianne.

Battered and filthy, as filthy as Po. Torn shirt and bleeding knees, but walking, and breathing and searching every face in the crowd, just as he'd been doing. She saw him and stopped and he felt the jolt of her recognition punch through him like a fist and following that fist came searing need wrapped in unspeakable relief.

She started towards him, her steps slow and unsteady. His weren't much better.

She'd been in that blaze but death had not taken her. So battered but not broken when she finally stood in front of him. ‘The dojo's gone,' she said.

‘I know.' He lifted his hand to her face and pushed a strand of singed hair out of her eyes. ‘It doesn't matter.' He couldn't hold her—not the way he wanted to. ‘Are you burnt?'

‘I'm not sure,' she said raggedly. ‘A lot of things hurt, but I don't think I'm burnt.'

‘You went out the window,' he murmured. ‘Po said you would.'

‘I did.'

He put his hand to her cheek; that much he could touch without touching on hurt. He stepped in close and took a shuddering breath as the fear he'd held at bay surged up and threatened to overwhelm him. ‘I thought I'd lost you.'

J
ACOB
looked haunted. As if he'd stood at the hell mouth and they'd dragged him inside. He stood there staring at Jianne and he was still inside, caught up somewhere in a reality she couldn't see. She touched him, touched his beloved face, touched her fingers to his lips and he drew a shuddering breath. Her warrior was trembling. Close to breaking.

‘You haven't lost me,' she whispered. ‘I'm right here. See?'

‘I thought I'd failed you.' He closed his eyes. ‘Again.'

‘No,' she said. ‘I brought this madness here, not you. And I wish I'd never come.'

‘Don't say that,' he said. ‘Never say that.' And he opened his eyes and set his lips to hers in a kiss so sweet and reverent that she wept beneath the purity of it. Buildings could be rebuilt. Businesses re-established. And love could heal as well as destroy.

She'd had a plan. Before the fire. Before the world had gone up in flames. A plan to tell this man who'd taken her in and risked everything for her—and lost everything on account of her—exactly what he meant to her.

‘Whatever you want…whatever you need to start over…there's money there to rebuild all this and you damn well better take it.'

But Jacob just shook his head and took her lips again and this time she wrapped her arms around his neck and surrendered completely to his possession.

‘I love you,' she whispered when finally he buried his face in her neck and his arms tightened around her. ‘I love you beyond measure. I always have and I always will. Just so you know.'

 

Zhi Fu found them at the hospital. The hospital the ambulance driver had taken Jianne to—not because she was critically injured, but because it was smart and, no matter how much Jianne protested that she was okay, neither Jacob nor the ambulance crew were taking any chances. She'd cut her hands coming out of the window and she'd grazed them again during her fall to the ground; her hands were a mess and other parts of her weren't much better.

‘I'm okay,' she'd kept telling him. ‘You can stop worrying about me. Worry about something else. Worry about Po.'

But Po was just fine. He'd been patched up already and Maddy and Luke had taken him home to Maddy's where Po would spend the night. Jake was slowly coming to terms with the notion that he didn't always have to take sole responsibility for everything and everyone. There were others he could lean on now if need be. He just had to get used to the idea of relinquishing control every now and then, that was all.

Nothing like a blazing inferno to remind a man how much control he
didn't
have over some things.

Nothing like watching Sun Zhi Fu walking towards them to remind a man of the things he could do, and would do, to protect the woman he loved.

He stilled. Waited. Went to that quiet place deep inside where a beast sat waiting, waiting to be unleashed. Jianne put her bandaged-hand to Jacob's forearm. Two bandage wrapped hands, a scorched throat, soot-scraped eyes and too many cuts and bruises to count. Jacob catalogued her injuries one by one as the other man approached and the beast drank down that information and looked upon the man as prey.

Jianne knew they were in trouble the minute Jacob stilled and she looked up to see Zhi Fu heading their way. Dangerous man with hard agate eyes. Stupid
stupid
man if he thought he could approach Jacob now and come away unscathed.

Zhi Fu's hard black gaze swept her from head to toe, missing nothing, and Jianne could have sworn that just for a moment she saw anguish in his eyes.

‘I didn't do this,' he said, and he said it in English so that Jacob would understand. ‘I am not responsible for this fire.'

‘Then who is?' she said fiercely. ‘This wasn't an accident.' She felt Jacob's tension. She'd made a similar statement to the police but they'd been non-committal. They'd know soon enough how the fire first started, they'd told her. And they would be in touch. ‘Someone torched the dojo deliberately.'

‘Not I.' Zhi Fu's gaze flickered to Jacob and well it should have. Jianne stepped between the two men, her back towards Jacob. Jacob was no threat to her. She could hardly say the same for Zhi Fu.

‘Why should we believe you?' she said. ‘Why should
I
believe you? After all the things you've done.'

‘What have I ever done except show you what I can give you?'

‘You sent a killer after my husband.'

‘To beat him, not kill him.'

‘You asked me if I wanted him
dead
.'

‘To frighten you into giving him up,' said Zhi Fu bleakly. ‘I don't kill. It's the one boundary I've never crossed. It's the only boundary I haven't crossed.'

‘I don't believe you,' said Jianne.

‘I will say it again,' said Zhi Fu. ‘I didn't set this fire or pay someone to do it for me. It's not a risk I was willing to take. I don't kill. And I certainly don't try and kill
you
.'

‘I don't know what you thought to achieve by coming here,' she said with an increasing lack of calm. She'd thought to protect Jacob from rage by stepping in to confront Zhi Fu. She'd forgotten about her own anger, and the number of years it had been building. ‘It's too late for trust, and you can't win my love.'

‘I can try.'

‘You can
stop
trying,' she said. ‘That's all I want from you. It's the
only
thing I want from you.
Can't you understand that?'

They stared at one another in silence. Then Zhi Fu reached into his pocket and held out a business card to Jacob. ‘I had a private investigator watching the dojo,' he said. ‘He has pictures of your arsonist on camera and he's willing to speak to the police. As am I.'

‘You really think you've done nothing wrong?' said Jacob.

‘I courted a woman with the intention of taking her for my wife,' said Zhi Fu smoothly. ‘That's not a crime.'

‘You sent a man to kill me,' said Jacob.

‘Prove it.'

‘You're
stalking
me,' said Jianne.

‘Some would call that looking out for you.'

‘I can look out for myself!'

‘Really?' Zhi Fu looked her up and down again and lifted a cynical brow. ‘Pardon my surprise. I've no intention of going into detail about the way you played me, Jianne. Hot and cold and hot and cold, though I'm sure the police would be sympathetic to my plight. I came here to see how badly you'd been hurt and to assist in the capture of your arsonist. I do this because I have feelings for you. Whether you reciprocate them or not.'

‘Zhi Fu…' Such a slippery, complicated man. Not a good man; of that Jianne had never been more certain, but a man who was nonetheless offering some degree of help. ‘Thank you for your concern and for your assistance. As for my feelings for you, I'm afraid they haven't changed so I'm asking you again—for the benefit of us all—to restructure your life so that I am not a part of it. I don't wish you ill…' Alas, not strictly true. ‘All right, I might wish you
some
degree of ill but mostly I just want you to get on with your life. And let me live mine.'

‘With him,' said Zhi Fu.

‘Yes,' said Jianne, shooting Jacob a searching glance, he'd been largely silent throughout this exchange. So quiet. So chillingly contained. ‘With him, if he'll have me.'

Jacob looked down at her then and hot and primal possession flared in his eyes. ‘I'll have you,' he said quietly, and then turned his attention back to Zhi Fu.

‘You need to leave,' said Jacob, and the deadly intent in his eyes turned Jianne's spine to ice. ‘Go back to Shanghai. Leave my wife alone.'

‘And if I don't?' said Zhi Fu.

‘Then you and I have a problem,' said Jacob. ‘Because I won't let Jianne live the way she's been living. In fear of you. Of what you'll try next. Of how you'll hurt and manipulate the people she loves. You talked of boundaries and the knowing of them. Happens I know mine as well and right or wrong they're a little more fluid than yours. You need to walk away. Now. Before you wind up in prison or you die.'

Zhi Fu and Jacob stared at one another for a very long time.

And then, without even looking at Jianne, Sun Zhi Fu took his leave.

 

Jianne and Jacob walked from the hospital a few minutes later. Jacob shoved his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky. Jianne looked at Jacob and tried not to think too hard on all that had happened tonight. On all the things that Jacob had lost. She stood and she bled for him, just a little, and she rejoiced in him, this beautiful fire-forged man with not a possession in the world but for what was inside him. Honour and protectiveness: a warrior's way, and a heart that guided him true.

‘So…' he said, with the hint of a tired smile. ‘What now? Where to?'

‘I don't know.'

‘Your aunt and uncle will probably want to see you. See for themselves that you're all right.'

‘I know.' But she didn't want to be cosseted by her family right now. ‘I'll call them and tell them I'll see them soon but not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.'

‘You want to go to Madeline and Luke's? See Po?'

‘Yes.' Po the needy who'd burned in search of her. Po, who walked in his sensei's footsteps and had the makings of a man who could change the world. ‘Will he blush if I kiss him, do you think?' she asked lightly. ‘I think I embarrass him.'

‘He likes it,' said Jacob. ‘It's good for him. Embarrass him as much as you want.' Jacob shot her a smile then that would have stolen her heart had it not already been irrevocably his. ‘We could find ourselves a hotel room for the night after that.'

‘We could,' she agreed. ‘Somewhere with an enormous bathtub and a view that runs for ever, and we could lie there in the water and I could try not to get these hands wet, and you could help me wash my hair. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm all for
not
being covered in soot and smelling of fire smoke.'

‘I could help you there,' he said gruffly. ‘We could shower first and then soak in the bath and stare at the view and I could mention—in case you hadn't noticed—how deeply in love I am with my wife.'

‘You could,' she said gravely. ‘Although the bandages would likely get wet after that.'

‘I could always distract you by asking you for your thoughts on what the future might hold for us.' Jacob looked to the stars again. ‘The dojo's gone but so are the limitations that went with it. Clean slate, Ji. A chance to build a life together. Whatever we want, however we want it.'

‘There could be a rooftop garden,' she murmured. On top of the dojo.'

‘Dojo?' he queried with a swift searching glance in her direction.

‘I know what teaching brings to you, sensei,' she said gently. ‘I know what you are. How you're made. And what you bring to others. Do you
not
want to rebuild the dojo?'

He didn't say anything for quite some time after that.

‘There could be underground parking,' he said finally. ‘For cars.'

‘Another floor in between the training hall and the upstairs bedroom,' she said. ‘For the children.'

‘Children?'

‘Mm'm.' She countered another searching glance with a quietly challenging look of her own. ‘Ours. Strays. Nieces and nephews who've come to Singapore to learn karate. I'm in if you are.'

‘I'm in,' he murmured. ‘All the way in.' And after a pause, ‘I liked what you did with the kitchen.'

‘Then we'll do it again,' she said with the beginnings of a grin. ‘There can be tongs.'

‘And bowls that break.'

‘They won't break.'

‘I love you,' he said.

‘I know.' As she stepped in close and Jacob wrapped his arms around her. ‘I love you too. With all of my heart.'