Gina Takes Bangkok (The Femme Vendettas) (6 page)

“That’ll take time, and following a trail of breadcrumbs only invites an ambush. Besides, once you two start hurting them, they’ll say anything they think you want to hear to make the pain stop. Torture doesn’t work. We have to be smarter than that.”

Kannon’s hands tightened into fists, his chest swelling in an effort to intimidate. Gina almost smiled at his bullying. He was so used to others doing what he said that he really didn’t have much of a repertoire when it came to getting people’s cooperation. He added words to his actions. “I have a lot more experience with…extracting information than you do.”

Gina didn’t back down. “And I can sweet talk better than a whore on Wednesday. We don’t need those men as punching bags. We need them as bloodhounds. Get them on our side, and they’ll lead us to Wakai way faster than we could get there on our own.” She wondered where that theory had originated. Probably from Darae’s teachings a lifetime ago. “Anyway, there’s no harm in letting me try, now is there? Not like you can’t kick the snot out of them if I fail.”

“We don’t have time for stupid games.”

“Give me fifteen minutes,” she insisted. “You can spare that.” She got in his face. “You have to spare that.”

“Out of respect for your father I’ll allow it, but Ryota and I will be there with you.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She tugged Ryota’s tie. “Now move, handsome. Clock’s ticking.”

The two men sat in their underwear against the back wall of the hold, their wrists handcuffed to a large concrete block. Their skins were painted with angry welts, and aside from a dish of water and a bedpan, neither looked like they’d been afforded any care whatsoever.

While one had typical Thai features, the younger man was a strange one. His features were sharp and brutish, eyes wide and manic. He pulled his lips back like a wild animal to reveal teeth filed to points. Most disturbing to Gina was the scarified script that had been cut into his forehead, not a word of which she could decipher.

Kannon nodded at the ordinary one. “This one’s Jarun.”

The man turned pleading eyes to Gina. “Please...something to eat.”

Kannon tapped the bedpan with his shoe. “There’s your last meal.”

Gina glared at him, then instructed Ryota, “Go empty it out.”

Ryota looked wide-eyed at his boss, but after a grunt from Kannon, he left with the pan held out at arm’s length.

The prisoners looked warily at her, and Gina appreciated how strange she must look—a white woman in Muslim garb, hair purple and wild. She considered where to begin with the two wretches, acutely aware of Kannon’s eyes on her. She needed to channel more of Darae’s teachings. She straightened and addressed them in Thai.

“My name’s Gina, and I want to know where Alak Montri is being kept,” she began. “I don’t care what role you two played in Wakai’s plot, and I’m not going to allow Kannon here to torture you anymore. Instead I’m going to give you a choice. Either we work out a deal to find Mr. Montri and you go free, or I have you thrown overboard to drown. You want to cooperate or not?”

Jarun eyed Kannon. “You’ll toss us overboard, anyway.”

“It’s not what you know right now that’s of any interest to me. It’s what you can find out when you’re back in Bangkok. I don’t believe either of you have any idea where Mr. Montri is right now, though I’m sure you could find out if you had the opportunity.”

“And what would keep you from killing us as soon as you had him?” Jarun clearly wasn’t the trusting sort.

Gina stepped closer to, causing him to flinch, then kneeled so she was on eye level with him. “Do you know how my father took over so much of Bangkok’s nightlife, so fast?”

Jarun shook his head.

“Because he kept his word. And that’s why people like to deal with him—because they know that when he makes a promise, he keeps it.”

Despite Jarun’s skeptical expression, Gina pressed on. “You and your buddy here are pawns. Henchmen. I’ll happily let you go if it means I can rescue Montri. And I give you my word that if you help us, we’ll set you free. I can’t make a better offer than that.”

Jarun’s jaw clenched, his eyes shifting back and forth between Kannon and Gina. They settled on Kannon. “Before we make any deal, I want talk to Mr. Zaffini himself to—”

With a snarl more animal than human, the younger man lunged forward, knocking Gina aside, an instant away from sinking his shark-like teeth into Jarun’s jugular. Before Gina’s butt could hit the floor, Kannon’s foot connected with the attacker’s jaw.

The man’s head slammed with an audible crack against the back wall, teeth breaking. Jarun scuttled away as far as the handcuffs would let him, at the same time Kannon followed up with an iron grip on the assailant’s throat, cutting off breath.

Gina scrambled to her feet, her eyes wide as she and Jarun exchanged shocked looks.

The door to the hold burst open and there was Ryota, gun in hand.

“Unlock Jarun and get him some food and clothing,” said Kannon impassively as the man in his grip turned a bright red. “Take her with you.”

“And what about...him?” asked Gina, her heart pounding. Were it not for Kannon’s reflexes, Jarun’s throat would have been ripped out in front of her.

Kannon tilted his victim’s head a bit, inspecting him as he thrashed. The redness of his face began to darken to blue, blood and saliva dripping from his mouth. “I don’t think this one’s going to respond to reason.”

Gina placed a hand on Kannon’s shoulder. “We need to keep him alive.” She swallowed. “
I
need him alive.”

Kannon’s grip shifted suddenly from neck to face, and whacking the prisoner’s head into the wall, knocked him unconscious.

Gina supposed that was a fair compromise.

Tucked into his sky lounge chair with Gina and Darae seated on either side of him, Vincenzo smiled thinly at Jarun who was in a short-sleeved red dress shirt and beige shorts, an outfit he’d been partial to in his pre-cancer days, and one, along with dozens of other pieces of clothing, he ordered to be removed. Instead, he now realized, they’d only been removed from his sight. Damn women.

“Jarun, tell us what you know.”

“Wakai and I grew up in the slums. He was always smart. Always a good friend. A natural leader. But his sister, Victoria, she was a psycho. Never played with the other children. Always hung out with weird scum. Street shamans. Back alley abortionists. Old Khmer Rouge war criminals. She was drawn to whatever was twisted—and wrong.”

Vincenzo noticed Gina squirm in her seat. She always did have a hard time with tales of ugliness. “And you’re telling me this why?”

Jarun looked him square in the eye. “Because I know John Wakai. I’m not a member of any gang. Make my living as an independent enforcer. But I’m loyal to him, and I’m not going to betray him no matter what you do to me. His sister, though, that’s another story. I bet you anything she’s behind why John turned on his boss. Kill her and you’ll be doing everyone a favor.”

From the blaze in the man’s eyes, he clearly believed what he said. Vincenzo glanced over at Kannon who stood off to one side with Ryota.

“The phone message Wakai left for Jarun mentioned that a woman named Victoria botched up Tasanee’s kidnapping,” Kannon confirmed.

Interesting. Vincenzo resumed his conversation. “And how close are Wakai and Victoria?”

Jarun twisted his mouth in disgust. “Very close. That’s the problem. She’s had her hooks in him ever since their mother died. He feels responsible for her, and she uses that to manipulate and corrupt him. She’ll know where Mr. Montri is being kept. We can both save our friends.”

“You’re asking me to forgive Wakai?”

“Exile him,” Jarun proposed. “He’s in a wheelchair. A cripple. No friend in the world except me. Isn’t that enough punishment?”

Hardly. It didn’t matter if he pardoned Wakai. His fate would be decided by another. “I can’t promise what Alak will do when he gets free, but tell us where to find Victoria and both you and Wakai will have my mercy, for what it’s worth. That’s the deal we can make. Take one step out of line....”

“I accept, and I swear I’ll do everything I possibly can.” Jarun raised his hands high in a prayer pose and bowed to his waist. “Thank you, Mr. Zaffini.”

Vincenzo’s fingers curled a little more tightly around the head of his cane. “Seeing as we’re now friends, I think we should start with you telling me a little bit about the man in my hold. Strange scars, filed teeth—I’d have thought that I would have heard of any gang like that. Especially one with the muscle to ambush Alak. Tell me what you know about them.”

“When Victoria was a teenager she made friends with that man’s gang,” explained Jarun. “Back then, there were just a few of them in the slums, but their organization extends into the wilderness areas of Cambodia. For years she’s had ties to them, and it was their group that raised a small army to help Wakai. Came across the border to help him take Mr. Montri and kill his inner circle.”

No wonder nobody had seen the plot coming. This was yet another invasion of ruthless foreigners into Bangkok, aided by the treachery of his friend’s most trusted strategist and advisor. Vincenzo suddenly felt tired. Had he and Alak accomplished nothing in life? Could it really all fall to ruin so easily? “And what was your part in the betrayal, Jarun?”

“Nothing. It came from out of the blue. Like I said, John and I are close friends, but it was sudden, and I had no part of it. I swear to you I tried to talk him out of it.”

Vincenzo knew in his gut that the man was telling the truth. In this business, however, you’d been a fool to say it. “I’m not certain you’re as innocent as you claim, Jarun, though in the end I don’t suppose it makes a difference. We have a deal, and I think we’re done here. At least for now.”

Ryota escorted Jarun out, and Kannon made to follow them. Oh, no. Vincenzo wasn’t quite finished with Alak’s man. “Kannon, a word. What did you think of my daughter’s handling of Jarun?”

Kannon didn’t pull punches. “I think he’ll either flee or betray us the moment he gets a chance.”

Gina made an indignant squeak. “And go where? There’s nowhere in the city he could hide from us, and you think Wakai would take him back at this point? Friends or not, he’d assume Jarun betrayed him. The only way our buddy can make it out of this situation is by getting on our good side.”

She looked so put out, so much like she’d been as a teenager, that Vincenzo laughed. “Don’t ride Kannon for telling it as he sees it. Few people left like that. Anyway, I actually approve of your plan, bambina. We’ll see how things go.”

Gina smiled. “So, you’re okay with me helping Kannon then?”

Vincenzo sighed. “Absolutely not.”

“What! You said—”

“I gave you a chance to impress me, and you have. I like how you handled the situation. Like your plan. You’re smart and you’re fearless and you’ve got heart.”

Gina rolled her hand impatiently. “But?”

“But you’re also an undisciplined brat. You’ll be getting in Kannon’s way. I can’t see it working out.”

On a howl of frustration from Gina, Darae spoke up from the other side. “So you plan on living forever?”

He cranked himself awkwardly around in the chair to face her. Damn, it was hard to do anything anymore. “What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean. When you go, are you expecting me to carry on alone?” Her voice hitched on the last word, then swept on. “And then when I’m gone? Who’s going to keep the businesses going and protect the girls? Who’s going to be Tasanee’s friend, and help her keep order if Alak doesn’t make it out of this? Hmm?”

“So you’re saying it should be Gina?” he asked. “She’s still barely more than a girl herself. Just look at her hair.”

Gina scowled. “I’m right here you know.”

Darae didn’t relent. “Then let her grow up, Vincenzo. Give her a chance. I know you don’t want to be the last of the Zaffinis, and if Gina were a son you’d have her involved.”

“It’s nothing to do with that,” he answered, turning away from his wife.

“Then why?”

He closed his eyes wearily. “Because I may have already lost a good friend to Wakai. I’m not losing my daughter to him, too. And besides, I was under the impression Gina didn’t want to live the life of a criminal. She made that abundantly clear when she moved to California.”