Chapter 10
Kai
My phone buzzed again. Another update telling me my stress levels were high. I could feel it in my body—the restless tapping of my fingers against the desk.
The strange thing was, part of me missed it.
The stress. The constant need to watch over my shoulder, anticipate what might go wrong, and have multiple backup plans ready before a problem even occured.
That had been my life for as long as I could remember.
Last year had been different. Calm.
And boring.
My business. My family. Everything had been under control. Even my mother had been behaving herself, mostly because Lucy had somehow become the one person who could get through to her without turning every conversation into a war.
My life was quiet. Easy.
Even peaceful.
And then June came back.
Everything I had spent the past year building seemed to unravel within days. The pressure returned, along with the danger and uncertainty.
At least Lucy and Huan Huan were back in Shanghai, where I didn’t have to worry about them becoming another target.
At least for now.
The door opened behind me. The soft click of heels crossed the polished floor. I recognized the rhythm before I turned.
“Any updates?” I asked, keeping my eyes fixed on the city outside.
From this high up, Hong Kong looked deceptively peaceful, completely unaware of the mess unfolding below. But I knew better than to mistake distance for safety.
“Yes, Mr. Li.”
I turned and immediately knew I’d made the right decision. Calling Andy had been a last-minute choice. I’d changed my mind on the plane and decided I needed someone I trusted—someone who could handle what I was about to hear without panicking.
“That’s good.”
I started toward her, then paused when I really looked at her. She seemed different. Not dramatically, just enough to notice the extra weight she’d gained since I’d last seen her. Healthy weight. Happy weight.
“You look great,” I said. “And I’m sorry for cutting your maternity leave short.”
She smiled. “Thanks. I had a great nine months’ rest.”
There was enough amusement in her voice to make me smile back. She crossed the room and handed me her phone.
“I brought what you asked for. CCTV footage from one of my sources.”
I took the phone and studied the footage carefully. The image was small but clear enough. Who was there. Who wasn’t. Where everyone had been standing.
I watched it again. Then a third time.
Something was there. I could feel it, even if I couldn’t yet see it.
“Can we enhance it?” I handed the phone back to Andy.
She glanced at the screen, then at me. “Erm… I’m afraid—”
“Of course not.” I scoffed. This wasn’t some Bourne movie where a blurry face could magically become crystal clear. Still, I’d hoped technology had caught up enough to give me something. A face. A number plate. Anything.
Andy was already tapping on her phone. “But you know what…”
A soft chime sounded. The large screen mounted on the far wall came to life, filling the room with a pale blue glow. A familiar logo appeared before the footage replaced it.
I looked toward the screen.
“We might be able to catch something on the larger screen,” she explained.
I was already moving toward it, like a moth drawn toward a flame. “Play it again.”
“Sure.” She tapped the screen, and the footage started from the beginning. I watched without blinking, tracking every movement, every person, every vehicle, and every shadow crossing the edge of the frame.
“Do you want to see the other footage from outside the shop?”
I turned sharply. “We have that?”
“Yes.” She lifted her phone. “I just got it a few seconds ago.”
“Send it to the big screen.”
A few taps later, the footage changed. This time, I watched the street outside the egg tart shop, then switched back to the footage from inside. Outside. Inside. Back and forth. Something about the pattern bothered me.
“It was obvious someone had been following her from the beginning,” Andy said quietly.
I stopped pacing. “Yes.”
She was right, and somehow, that made me feel worse. I shook my head.
“This shouldn’t have happened in the first place. We were careless.”
Andy didn’t answer. Her gaze dropped toward the floor. It wasn’t her fault. The responsibility belonged to me.
I’d told myself I was protecting her, that I knew what was best for her, and that if I controlled the situation tightly enough, I could keep her safe.
But June and I hadn’t reached this point overnight.
It had taken years of secrets, mistrust, and me making decisions for her while expecting her to accept that I was doing it for her own good.
I’d abused whatever trust she’d once given me until there was nothing left. Now she barely trusted me enough to breathe the same air, and I couldn’t blame her.
“I could arrange for more people if you like,” Andy offered carefully. “Perhaps Mrs. Li could spare Clare for a while. Just for this operation.”
I looked at her. She had read my mind.
Clare was exactly the kind of person I could use right now.
Street-smart, quick-thinking, and someone who didn’t freeze when things went wrong.
She hadn’t always followed my orders, but that had never been what mattered most with Clare.
When things went bad, she reacted. She thought on her feet, and more often than not, she did what was best for the team.
I could use someone like that. Especially now.
But I shook my head. “No. Clare stays.”
I didn’t really know what to do in a situation like this. This wasn’t a share price collapsing on the stock market, a hostile takeover, or a negotiation with some seasoned dealmaker who could smell weakness before you realised you’d shown it.
Those were problems I understood. Problems I could solve with numbers, information, leverage, and, when necessary, money. Whatever business school had taught me, none of it had prepared me for this.
This was different.
We were talking about Hong Kong’s triads.
“But we do need more people,” I murmured.
A soft knock interrupted my thoughts. One of the security men appeared in the doorway with a tablet in his hand.
“Mario is here to see you.”
“Let him in.”
A few moments later, the elevator doors opened, and Mario strolled into the penthouse as though he owned the place. His broad shoulders filled out a floral shirt that looked more appropriate for a beach resort than a Hong Kong safe house.
“Ni hao!” His voice was bright and cheerful, completely out of place with the tension hanging over the room.
“Where have you been?”
“Bali.” He spread his hands as if the answer explained everything. “I couldn’t stay too far away from you, boss. In case you needed me.”
I glanced down at his shirt. “Of course.”
He looked down at himself and laughed. “That obvious?”
“Just a little.”
He had clearly embraced the tourist experience completely. But beneath the ridiculous shirt and easy smile was a man I’d trusted with my life more than once.
I gestured toward the screen. “Take a look at this.”
Mario’s expression changed as soon as he saw the footage. The smile remained, but his eyes sharpened.
Andy picked up her phone and replayed the footage on the large screen while I began pacing again.
This time, I grabbed a sweet iced coffee for myself and a beer for Mario.
I couldn’t afford to lose my focus tonight.
Mario, on the other hand, seemed to function better with a little help from his favourite stimulant.
“What do you think?”
He took the beer and, with the same ridiculous party trick I’d seen countless times before, popped the cap off with his teeth. I watched it fly across the room and, without thinking, caught it.
Mario grinned.
“That,” he said, nodding toward the screen, “isn’t like you, boss.”
I sighed. “We don’t operate the way we used to.”
Mario took a long sip, his gaze fixed on the footage. “Maybe that’s the problem.” He shrugged. “People get comfortable when the boss gets too relaxed.”
I glanced back at the screen. And I hated that he might be right.
I’d gone soft.
After I learned that nobody had wanted to kidnap me—that the target had always been Dannie—the fear I’d carried for years slowly slipped away.
Then I started dialing down the security. My team shrank. I stopped having undercover men protecting me twenty-four hours a day.
At first, Jenny and Lucy refused to let me fire the men.
They didn’t want people losing their jobs simply because I’d decided the life I’d built around fear was no longer necessary.
So the people stayed. Their jobs changed.
Some ran errands for me and my family. Some helped around the house. Others found themselves doing things that had nothing to do with security.
I liked walking into a restaurant without counting the exits. I liked not having someone standing five feet behind me every second of the day. I liked being able to breathe.
Which was why calling Mario now felt like admitting I’d made a mistake.
I flipped the bottle cap between my fingers. Mario had always been my secret weapon. He wasn’t part of my regular security team—not really. He was something I kept hidden until I needed him.
An illegal gun in a locked drawer.
“Why am I here?” Mario asked.
I looked at him. “We need to take over a triad.”
The words hung in the room. For a moment, nobody moved.
Mario wasn’t the only one who did a double take. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andy stop what she was doing and slowly turn toward me.
Then Mario nodded. “Yes, boss.”
That was one of the reasons I liked him. He didn’t waste time asking whether I’d lost my mind. He simply waited for the instructions.
He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, taking a long drag before letting the smoke drift between his teeth. “Which one?”
“Dannie Wu’s.”
“Oh…” Mario’s mouth twisted. Then a slow, almost amused smile appeared. “Bcause he stole your woman?”
I laughed.
For a moment, the tension in the room disappeared. Mario laughed with me, louder than necessary, his shoulders shaking as he leaned back against the sofa.
“I like it, boss. That’s nuts.”