Off the Edge (The Associates) (13 page)

No response.

She looked around and spotted a camera above her head. It probably wouldn’t record in the darkness, but she took out a pencil and nudged it up, then moved nearer to the bars. She wished she could see his face. You couldn’t connect with a person’s back.

“I know Rolly probably promised you a goodly sum to turn me over,” she continued. “Probably threatened you to boot.”

Still he didn’t turn around. She grabbed the bars, frowning at his sweat-soaked back. What were the Shinsurins thinking? Keeping a man in a cage wasn’t right. Even a thug of Rolly’s.

Rolly’s.
It still didn’t sit right. How could this man be Rolly’s? It defied her intuition.

“Look,” she said. “I know the Shinsurins made you an offer. And I’m sure they don’t want you down here. And I sure don’t want it. If only you would agree to keep quiet about seeing me. If you care at all...”
Did he?

Silence.

“I have a home here, and a life that’s a little bit worth living. Maybe I should think about moving on, but that takes time.
Please
, if you would just take the money. I can’t go back to him.” Oh, God, she was begging. She’d meant to come in rational. She steadied her voice. “That’s what I’m asking you. Forget you saw me and we can get you out of here.” She looked nervously at the door hoping
Wanida
was enough to keep the guards occupied.

“Don’t worry,” he said, tracking with her somehow. “They’ve only come by twice, and they never bother to come in.”

He shifted there in the dark, finally turning to look at her. His face and shirt were half covered in something dark.
Blood
.

“Oh, my God! Are you okay?”

“Define okay,” he said.

Anger surged through her. This man had been hurt on her behalf? It didn’t matter who he was or what he’d done. “This is wrong.”

“The keys are right there on the wall.”

She swung her gaze around—keys hung from a hook on the wall. She could let him out. “I need to know you won’t tell Rolly where I am. You’ll get out
if and when
we have assurances of that.”

“
If and when
you have assurances,” he repeated. Like that was funny.

“What?”

“You really need to specify both if and when? Once the
if
is handled, the
when
is a permanent state.”

She gripped the bars. “Well, thank you,
Professor
Devilwell, PhD in asshole arrogance.”

“You’re welcome.”

Carrying on so nonchalantly when he was a beaten-up prisoner in the basement of a Bangkok hotel? Was it just another day at the office for him? “How about if you talk normal like a human?”

“Rolly didn’t send me,” Maxwell said. “How’s that?”

She gripped the bars more tightly. She’d needed to hear that. Everything inside her screamed for him not to be Rolly’s. Should she believe it? “Then who sent you? What were you doing copying my files?”

Silence.

“So you have no explanation.”

“Look,” he finally said. “I have nothing to do with this Rolly of yours. Take it or leave it.”

“Why should I? Why should I believe you after all of your lies?”

“Because I’m telling you the truth.”

“I need to understand why else you’d copy stuff off my computer.”

He grunted, watching her with that implacable gaze. Even lying there in defeat, he radiated power, virility. Slowly he sat himself up. She let go of the bars and stepped back, as if he could get her from in the cage.

“Oh, don’t worry.” Chains clanked as he lifted his leg. “I’m attached to the wall by leg irons. I hate to say it, but I’m afraid this type of guest service is going to cost the Bangkok Imperiale Hotel des Roses a half a star. With so many luxury hotels featuring featherbeds these days, leg irons on a concrete floor is something I simply can’t overlook.”

She felt sick.
Leg irons?
Did Rajini know about all this?

He reached behind to grab something. His eyeglasses. They flashed in the darkness as he put them on. “What’s more,” he continued, “providing a rusty metal can instead of proper bathroom facilities simply doesn’t cut mustard with today’s traveler. That will cost the Bangkok Imperiale des Roses yet another half a star.”

“You think this is a time to joke?”

“I’ll take that as a rhetorical question.” Some of his hair fell in his face as he leaned forward and rubbed his ankle under the leg iron. There was blood even in his hair. He was hurt and he covered it by being an asshole.

“I’m trying to talk to you real.”

He lifted his eyes to her and leaned back against the far wall.

“Just don’t tell him where I am,” she said. “I’ll give you money. I have money in the bank I can get at in a few days. I’ll pay you everything I have. Don’t you want to get out?”

“I’m not here on behalf of Rolly.”

“Why else would you copy the recording of my show? And the Shinsurins know you’re not a guest lecturer at the university, so I don’t want a story about that.”

“Ah.”

“Obviously you weren’t there to attack me or rob me. ‘Cause you could’ve, with three guns on you. So much for guns being dullards’ tools. The end of the conversation for somebody who has nothing left to say.”

“Oh, I meant every word. They are dullards’ tools. It’s just that my conversation ended long ago.”

She had a strange thought, suddenly. “You didn’t take my laptop,” she said. “That would’ve been easier.”

“Hindsight’s 20/20.”

This guy, like nothing was serious. Well, screw it—it had been a kindness. “I still believe what you told me about when you were a kid. To have to say goodbye to all the familiar people and places over and over. I know you know what that’s like.” She paused, scuffing her foot, thinking about their connection. “You know what it’s like when you can never go home again.”

He groaned, but she could tell from long years in front of an audience how people listened, where they were in their ups and down. And she always,
always
knew when they were tracking with her.

Maxwell was tracking with her. It was a strange feeling, lording over this wounded lion in a cage. Ironic how he brought the bravery out of her.

“You know what it’s like to have everything ripped away from you, and to be all alone.”

“If you’re not going to let me out, then go away.” He pulled off his shirt to reveal his muscled torso, gleaming with sweat. He bunched it up under his head and lay across the floor, stretched out on his side.

He was kicking her out?

“I’ve had a long day,” he added.

She watched a bright bead of sweat dribble down over the curve of his bicep, pausing at the lowest point to gleam and fatten. Then it plunked down onto his chest. Twinges kicked up in her belly as it continued downward, traversing the muscles of his chest. She had the impulse to go in there, to rest her hand on his hot, slick skin. Good lord, here was this man, like a wild, wounded animal in a cage, and she was all kicked up about him.

A real letch, that’s what she was.

“Maybe it serves me right, you here. I’ve been feeling things are off. Eerie somehow. I didn’t listen to that.” She softened her voice to a whisper, trying to hide the sobby feeling trying to climb her throat. The hell if she’d cry. “If you could hold off on telling him. Give me a few days to get things in order and get a running start, and then you can tell him and collect your money. That would work, right?”

A spell of silence widened out between them. Then he said, “Laney, if you have an instinct to leave, you don’t have a few days. For that matter, if you think I’m Rolly’s guy, why are you here?”

She grabbed the bars. “I know. I don’t know.”

“Have you ever seen those flocks of little brown birds, the way they’ll all fly away at the least disturbance? Most of the time there’s no danger. But that instinct, that’s their protection, and it’s as formidable as claws or teeth. That’s how you need to be on the run. The second the instinct hits, you’re out of there with whatever you’re carrying. You don’t wait until it’s so obvious that a man in a cell in the basement of a tropical hotel has to point it out to you. No, you fly.”

“I’m not ready. I have nothing—”

“If you have two feet you’re ready. And, while I’m giving you advice—really, up in front of audiences every night for two years? It’s a miracle you haven’t been found by this guy and his friends. It really is. If I ever write a book on how not to be on the run, yours would be the color story. How not to be on the run, step one: find a job where you’re performing in front of different people from across the world every night, for maximum exposure. Step two: wear a hat with a face-covering net to announce that you’re in hiding.”

“The hat again?”

“Did the Shinsurins tell you that was a good idea? That hat?”

“It’s a 1940s torch singer look—”

“No. It’s a piss-poor disguise. Your best long-term solution is to fight like hell to get guest worker status somewhere like South Korea or Hong Kong. If I were you, I’d head down to Koh Samui first. You can get off-the-books employment there.” He went on about transport, establishing a guest worker identity. “Whatever you do, get out of here. Change your hair, start over. Guest worker status would let you move around without being at the mercy of others. How long until your fake passport expires?”

She bit her lip. How would he know she had a fake passport?

“Come on. You’re not working under your real name. You’re getting paid in cash. A free room. But that passport could be flagged if it was stolen. And it
will
expire.”

She looked down. “It’s expired, but I’m getting a new one next week.”

“But your gut is telling you to go?”

“Yes.”

He paused, softened his tone. “That means you don’t have a week.”

“I can’t just run off this minute.”

“Yes, you can.”

“I won’t have access to my money until Monday. It’s all in a bank. Anyway, what about the point of view that I’m in more danger when I’m separated from the herd?”

“Separated from the herd?” He laughed his rich laugh.

“It’s not funny.”

“No it’s ridiculous. Even if it weren’t ridiculous, I separated you from the herd pretty easily, didn’t I? The
herd
.” He spat the word out with derision. “Where’d you get that idea?”

“The Shinsurins…”

“Ah, the Shinsurins.” A smirk lit his face. “The
Shinsurins
,” he said with gusto. “Newsflash, Laney. The
Shinsurins
are holding a man in a cell in their basement. In chains. Not always a good sign, as far as trustworthiness goes.”

“I know—I didn’t think—”

“That they’re dangerous?”

“I knew they weren’t…upstanding, but they saved my ass. You don’t know my ex. Not that I condone—”

“Leg shackles? And as long as I’m dispensing advice, Dok Shinsurin is unbalanced. Be careful around him.”

“How about you just make me understand why you were in my computer so I can let you out?”

“I wanted the recording.”

“Why?”

“That’s all you get. Unless you want me to make something up.”

“I want a reason to believe you.” Maybe there were other reasons to want the recording. Maybe he was investigating one of the conventioneers.

He shifted, seemed to move with difficulty.

“You bleeding?”

“No,” he said. “I’ve shifted to the coagulation and infection stage. I’m running them concurrently.”

“That’s not funny.”

“No, it’s precise. Precision is often taken for humor—”

“Stop it. Just shut up,” she whispered. She knew what it was like to be hurt and alone. He had to be a little bit scared. In all this filth and tropical heat, infection really would set in. “Fuck it.” She grabbed the keys off the wall. She wouldn’t have this, not in the name of protecting her. “You’re outta here.”

“What if I’m Rolly’s guy?”

She paused. “If I’m the kind of woman who’s okay with something like this, then I don’t deserve to be free from that son of a bitch.”

She could feel his eyes on her as she unlocked the cell door. With a deep breath she swung the door open and walked in, stood over him. “I don’t want you hurting the Shinsurins over this. Got it? I’m done with the violence. Promise.”

“I will not hurt the Shinsurins.”

She threw down the keys. “Don’t you make me regret this.”

“Thank you.” He flipped through them. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

“Just hurry up,” she snapped. Maybe she was crazy to think he wasn’t with Rolly. She’d come down to play on their connection, but the connection was playing on her.

Well, she was a woman who trusted connections. It had served her with Rajini.

He handed the keys back. “The leg iron key isn’t on there.”

“Shit,” she said. “Niwat probably has it. Or maybe the guards. What do you think it looks like?”

“Oh, no, no, no, don’t you dare try to get it yourself,” he said. “I don’t need a key.”

“Beg to differ,” she said.

He gazed up at her, all brutal beauty, like a god, brought down to earth and chained up. Yeah, even bruised and bloody, he was all that. Her heart pounded, and not from fear. She wanted to sink right down to him, to touch his skin, to feel his heat.

“What?” she breathed. Her voice sounded husky to her ears. Dimly she was aware that he hadn’t said anything at all. Even just sitting there, he spoke to her. “What?” she asked again.

The way he looked at her, it was like he knew. “Come here,” he said.

Her pulse jumped. And like a crazy woman, she knelt down and touched his chest. She imagined she felt a slight tremor in him as she slid her palm over his slickened skin. “You feel hot.” Surely a tropical disease hadn’t set in so fast.

He rose up on his knees and pushed his fingers into her hair. She closed her eyes, enjoying his touch. He kissed her lightly on the lips, and she melted into the soft warmth of him.

“Fuck it.” She grabbed onto his arms and pressed against him, glorying in the feel of his hard cock at her belly, the curves of his muscles under her fingers, and the hungry roughness of his kiss that sent shivers all over her skin.

She gasped as he moved to her neck, soft kisses followed by a harsh stroke of his whiskers.