The Frenchman's Revenge (81 page)

At
that
moment
,
Vivian
Ming
opened her eyes and Bai gasped
in
shock
.
Her eyes were amber
;
no
,
they were bright yellow. He thought to himself,
if he had
n
ever seen a she
-
wolf in the wild
,
he saw o
n
e now.

Bai
looked up at Elena with a
hopeful
smile
.

“
Mon dieu,
but perhaps they will
turn;
become
green or blue
,
oui
?
”

Elena
sat straight up and threw him a fierce look.

“
N
o.
They better stay exactly the
way
they are
.”

There was a knock at
the
door and Wyatt opened it to let in the excited crowd.
With a rush of oohs and aah
s
Lei,
Wan, Nianzu, Alex
,
and the
boys
came rushing over to the bedside.

Bai stood
before
them
,
holding a
baby
in each arm.

He laughed and bowed to them all.

“
M
a
y I present
Joseph
De
wu
and Vivian
Ming?

“
Lei, your first grandchildren
. A
nd Father – well you are in a uni
que
position as you are both their grandfather and
g
reat
g
randfather.

Wan’
s eyes filled with tears
. H
e bowed low to both babies
then
reached for
Elena’s hand
s
and held them
in his
.

“Thank
you
,
Elena.”

She smiled with tears in her eyes and pressed his hands against her cheek.

“You truly are a great grandfather.”

Wan turned to Bai.

“You are a lucky man,
s
on. “

“
Oui
, that I am, Father.”

Joseph Dewu
gurgled and opened his eyes.

Gabriel’s
eyes widened i
n surprise
and he looked up in wonder.

“He looks like
Deshi
.
Look,
Deshi
.
He really does look like you
.
”

Deshi
looked at the baby
then
blushed with pride.

Bai agreed.

“Yes he does
,
Deshi
.
He also looks like
Wyatt
and he has his
mother’s
eyes.”

Jacob
pointed to Vivian
Ming
.

“
L
ook at her.
Her hair looks kinda red like Elena’s
.
”

As if to introduce herself and in contrast to her peaceful brother, Vivian
Ming
took that moment to let out a fierce shriek.

Jacob
jumped
back
in shock
.

“What’s wrong?
Why is she screaming?
What’s wrong with her?”

Bai said protectively, “Nothing! Nothing is wrong. She is
…she is
a woman with something to say
.
”

Elena rolled her eyes
in mock dismay.

“
Good grief,
Father
,
does it happen this fast between a father and a daughter?”

Wyatt shook his head
and chuckled.

“
Hell
,
he was a goner from the minute he laid eyes on her.”

Bai nodded
and shrugged.
“
Mais oui
, what can I say? She is her mother’s daughter.”

At that
moment, Vivian
Ming
opened her
eyes and
they all gave a collective gasp.

Gabriel
spoke first.
“
Uncle Bai,
she
…the baby
’s got
yellow eyes just like you.”

Bai grinned and didn’t try to hide the pride in his voice.

“That she does
,
Gabriel
.
That
she does.”

Afterword

Thank you for reading
The Frenchman’s Revenge
.
I hope you also read
Stuck by Thunder, Race for Redemption
, and
The Frenchman’s Woman
-- the first three books in
The Grandmaster’s Legacy.

The next book in the series is
The Joker is Wild.
Who knew the next Grandmaster would prefer poker? But blood will out and Deshi ultimately claims his legacy.
See the SNEEK PEEK below.

P. S. If you enjoyed
The Frenchman’s Revenge
, do me a favor. Go back where you purchased this book, (
www.Amazon.com
, and please leave an honest review. Authors live and die by their reviews. The few extra minutes it takes really helps us authors out. Thank you!

~~

Acknowledgements

Jennifer – my first reader and constant supporter.
Always there to praise, encourage, cajole, and kick my ass when necessary.

Julia – an old soul who has strengthened my spirit and taught me to fly since the day she was born.

Lisa – who showed me the way to live my dreams and forget the word boundaries.

Barb and Robin – who insisted I could write great books and weren’t afraid to criticize and give me the tools to do so.

Lynn, Susan and Rue – who not only read my books in every stage but eagerly wait for the next one.

David and Joe – always there when they didn’t have to be.

Kevin -- who stayed the course.

A special thanks to Carolyn McCray, my advisor, Amber Scott, my mentor, and Rachel Thompson, founders of IBC, the Indy Book Collective. Three formidable women, who saw the future, claimed it, and are passing it on to writers like me.

Kudos to
Kate Sterling
, who designed my glorious cover art. And to Russell James, my editor and historical consultant, who asked after editing a particularly explicit love scene, “Why can’t you write ‘nicer’ books?” I replied, “What fun would that be?”

~~~

About the Author

My stories are the stories of my heritage. From the residue in my blender of mixed races, cultures and world views, my characters emerge. The penchant to root around in the past is a blessing.
It comforts me to know that while evil slinks in the shadows, the warriors of the world sniff it out – and snuff it out.

Can it be so simple?
Deshi
(The Joker Is Wild
) asks in disbelief, “That’s the goal of the Grandmasters? To stamp out evil?
Sorry, Father, I prefer poker. It has better odds.”

Ah, youth. Fortunately there is love and, yes, it does conquer all, but not without a hell of a fight -- at least for my warrior men and women.

I am as real as the words on the page.
Taylor Lee

~~~

The Grandmaster’s Legacy

by

Taylor Lee

Masters of Love and War --
Passionate in both

Dangerous Men in Dangerous Times

In a time and country marked by corruption, prejudice and evil, the Grandmasters stand apart. Stripped of their guns, knives, and swords their most powerful weapon remains -- their killing machine bodies.

If you like Hot Men and Hotter Women Kicking Up a Storm — you’ll love the Grandmasters

Be Warned:
The language is rough, the sex explicit, and the violence is often gratuitous.

Released: November 2011

Book 1:
Struck By Thunder

Book 2:
Race for Redemption

Released: December 2011

Book 3:
The Frenchman’s Woman

Released:
January 2012

Book 4:
The Frenchman’s Revenge

To be released: February 2012

Book 5:
The Joker is Wild

Book 6:
The White Son

~~~

Copyright Information

The Frenchman’s Revenge

Copyright, 2012 by Taylor Lee

idesire
publications

All rights reserved

This book is a work of fiction.
Characters, incidents, places and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

No portion of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Any inquiries can be made to:
www.taylorleebooks.com
or
[email protected]

~~~

SNEAK PEEK

The Joker is Wild

To be released February 2012

PROLOGUE

She never knew that dreams smelled.
How could they?
Why would they? But hers smelled.
At least her nightmares did.

She learned later that sailors and people who lived by the ocean loved the salty smell of the deep blue water, flavored by sunlight and fresh air.
There was no fresh air in the shallow holds at the bottom of the ship. Nothing to mitigate the odious tang of the brine.
That would explain it. Why even five years later the smell of the ocean revolted her, made her gag.

All of the girls on the ship ate the same swill. She didn’t understand why their vomit smelled different. All they ate was thin gruel with errant grains of rice. Sometimes the cook threw in dried vegetables, or fish bones. The only consistent addition was the roaches and flies that landed in the kettle.
If the insects were smarter they would go for the girls, not the gruel.
The girls were covered with mucous, and blood and excrement.
Surely tastier.
The fleas and lice thought so.
The girls were plastered with both.

She tried to help the sicker girls use the slop buckets. If their dysentery was too advanced they couldn’t crawl or leverage their wasted bodies over the rough hewn buckets and their bloody feces seeped to the floor.
The girls who were still strong enough to lift the buckets lined them up at the entrance to the hold. They exchanged the putrid receptacles for the buckets of gruel the sailors brought.