Chapter 19 #2
“And?” I knew his English wasn’t good, but it had started to get annoying having to fish words out of him.
“No one answered.”
“Try something else.” I barked, “call your other team, the team in China, or his mother’s team, what about Jenny’s team, and Lucy’s team? Who else has a team of people watching them? People like them can’t simply be gone right? They are being watched all the time. It’s practically impossible.”
Dave let me finish without interrupting me. As much as I liked that about him, I hated him for losing Kai. “Dr. Bennet.”
“June.” I corrected him.
“Ju–, Dr. Bennet,” I let it go as he clearly couldn’t bring himself to call me by my first name. “I called my sources. They all said, don’t know.”
“So,” I paused. That only meant one thing. “Kai’s in danger.”
* * *
Dave wanted to have me checked out by a doctor, but I refused. So stupid coming from a doctor. I could have suffered a concussion or worse. But I didn’t care.
I felt perfectly fine.
After further questioning, I found out the reason Kai left.
Jenny and Lucy went missing. They were last seen at a Japanese hair salon up town.
Their CCTV showed the two women were escorted into an SUV by four suited Asian men.
Dave recognized one of them, an ex-vet who served in the same unit as him.
These men worked for Jenny’s husband, that much was clear.
There were no bodyguards by their side at the time.
Clare was told to wait in the car. The girls told her that the salon had their own security.
It was an upper-class salon frequented by the rich and famous and they wouldn’t let anything happen to their clients.
Clare wasn’t convinced at first, but she turned giddy when she saw a few of her favorite A list movie stars inside.
Their words were true though. To a certain extent.
They were taken outside the hair salon, as soon as they stepped out of the door. Everything happened so fast. The ladies were supposed to call Clare when they were done, so she could go and pick them up. But they didn’t, they must have forgotten.
Clare and her team chased the car for quite a few blocks, but the kidnappers eventually escaped.
I couldn’t imagine all that happened during my lovely lunch with Kai. I couldn’t help but wonder, if Kai had picked up his phone during lunch, would it have made any difference?
Kai, Clare and a few of his team left for China – the only possible place Jenny’s husband would have wanted her.
“Wait, are you saying after all that happened, there are only you and two other people left in this country?”
He hesitated. “Yes.”
It didn’t make sense, Kai would up security after an event like that. It didn’t quite make sense that it was only Dave plus a van with two other team members.
“What are you hiding from me?” My tone was serious, and that seemed to take Dave by surprise.
“Nothing.” There was half a second delay in his response. He had to be lying.
“Why are you still here?”
“I already said.” Dave said, his face still expressionless.
“Did you plan the kidnapping?” I knew he wouldn’t, but I needed to make him confess.
“No, no, no.” No pause this time.
“Did you plan all this to make Kai disappear? Is he in danger?”
“No, no, no, no, no.”
“Tell me what you are doing here?” Volume control had already left the building, and I was shouting. But I could tell that he was about to break.
“Okay. Okay. Calm down.” He put out both of his hands in front of me. As if they had the power to block off my rage.
“Talk! Now!”
“We had Ander.”
“Ander who?” I shouted the unfamiliar name.
“Mack Ander.”
“Mack…” I covered my mouth.
“Yes, we take care of Ander.” Fuck! They kidnapped Mack.
“What are you doing to him?” I pressed. Though Mack probably deserved whatever they wanted to do to him, kidnapping was illegal. After everything Kai had been through, why would he abduct someone and keep them captive?
“Nothing. We watch him.”
“You guys kept him captive.” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word kidnap.
Dave nodded.
“Thank you for being honest.” My voice went back to its usual volume. “You can tell me the truth. I can handle it.”
Now that made sense, some of Kai’s team must have been sent to make sure that Mack was being supervised. With Mack out of the picture, Dave didn’t need a team of hundreds to watch over me.
The only problem was, they had no idea what they were dealing with.
“Do you know about Mack’s connections?” I felt like it was time I shared.
“No. We got nothing.”
“Of course not. That was a fake name. His other name is Mack Sun, his Chinese name is Ting Yen, which could also be a fake name. He used to work for one of the triads in Hong Kong.”
Dave stared at my face as he heard the word triad . His gaze was intense. And I felt like he was trying to see right through me or burn a hole in my skull.
No one spoke for a few seconds. Dave was clearly thinking as lines showed up between his eyebrows on his expressionless face.
“How you know?”
I chuckled awkwardly. “Well, let’s just say I’m not as innocent as you all think I am. I’ve crossed paths with him.” I had a past that I wasn’t proud of. A past that I had never really shared with anyone. Not even my family.
“You knew the boss?” Dave kept surprising me with his ability to ask straight to the point questions. Language was no barrier to him.
“Yes,” I thought about not saying his name, but what was the harm. “Dannie Wu.”
We stared at each other without saying another word for what felt like a very long minute.
“Dannie. Wu. Dan. Tin.” He spat out each word slowly.
“You know him?”
It was subtle but I knew that both his breathing and heart rate were racing. That was the perk of being a doctor. I could tell these things.
“Mack Ander was Dannie’s guy?” He answered my question with another question.
“I don’t know if Mack still works for Dannie. But based on the fact that he asked me for money a few days ago, I am going to say no. At this very moment, he probably isn’t working for Dannie.”
“Dr. Bennet,” Dave cleared his throat. “I make big mistake.”
“How so?”
“Mack. Dannie. Dangerous.”
“You didn’t know. You did all that to protect me.
” I cut in. I knew why Kai took Mack. That was no excuse for kidnapping someone.
However, I wanted to reserve the shouting and lecturing for Kai.
For when I see Kai face to face. “Listen. At this moment, we don’t know if Kai is missing.
Maybe his phone is on an airplane mode.”
“His plane land last night.” Dave interrupted me for the first time. His face was growing more impatient by the second.
“Please, let me finish. Kai might not be able to contact us for whatever reason. Like you said to me, Jenny and Lucy were taken. So, for all we know, he was on his way to help them. If we find one of them, we’ll find them all.”
“I think we take Mack. Dannie take Mr. Li.”
“I don’t think Dannie would do that.”
“Dannie does take people.” Dave protested.
“I didn’t say he wouldn’t do such a thing as kidnapping.
” Dave’s face changed, “calm down Dave. I don’t think Dannie was stupid enough to take someone like Kai.
One, I don’t think Dannie cares about Mack enough to kidnap someone like Kai just for fun and revenge.
Two, Dannie hates hassle. And kidnapping a high-profile crich asshole like Kai would definitely give him a huge headache.
So, I can say that Dannie had nothing to do with that. ”
To be honest, I was only speculating. I had no idea what Dannie would or wouldn’t do. Saying all that made me feel better. I only hoped that Dave bought into it.
“This is good news.”
“Well, I suppose.” I gave an awkward, small laugh. “But I cannot guarantee that Dannie won't hurt Kai in the future. He sees that as a fun way to pass time. And Kai kidnapping Mack has probably put a target on his back.”
That I knew for sure. Let’s just say that Dannie was an eye for an eye kind of person.
If you ever wronged him, he would make sure that you paid for it.
That thought sent a shiver down my spine.
I hadn’t thought about Dannie in a long time.
Not properly. When Mack showed up, I tried with all my might not to go there.
“Dr. Bennet.” Dave’s already very serious face changed. I didn’t know that his face had another dimension worse than what it already was. This was a someone died face. I stared at him blankly. I couldn’t find any words to say to him.
“Yes, Dave.”
“Forgive me.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I must leave you and go find my boss.”
“Can you take me with you?”
“No. I cannot.” His voice was stern. It had an authoritative tone to it.
“Why not?”
“Dangerous.”
“You can protect me.” If I started talking like him, would he understand me better, or would he think that I was mocking him?
“Dr. Bennet.”
How was I going to convince him to take me? If I ever want to find Kai, he was probably my key to it. “I’m going to go to China to find Kai whether you like it or not. Traveling alone is no strange task to me.”
“You stay here.” His brows curved up ever so slightly – a bit too much emotion to deal with for the poor guy today.
“Look. You want to find Kai, right?”
He nodded.
“And you were told to protect me, right?”
“Yes.”
“If I come with you to China, you could do both. This way, you haven’t broken your promise or assignment about protecting me.” I said with my sale-sy voice, like when I tried to get some new toy funded for my project with the hospital board.
He didn’t answer me.
But the corner of his lip rose ever so slightly.
* * *
Thank you for reading. This is it for June and Kai for now. Find out what happens next in Billionaire’s Cruelty .
* * *
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Emily
“Emily, we’ll be back around nine. Don’t let the kids stay up too late.” Jessi, my sister-in-law, said from the doorway to the living room.