TIGER LILY- THE BRAVO BOYS [book two]

Chapter TWENTY

River O'riley

After a trip to the supermarket and the best fucking pork chops I've ever had, I put Lovey down to sleep in her cot in the bedroom before Lilly and I settle on the sofa.. I turn on the sports channel while she snips away at the grocery receipt with a pair of kitchen scissors..

She doesn't make a mess, each little snowflake of paper she cuts, she then gathers into the pile on her lap.. The adorable way she bites her tongue between her teeth in deep concentration has me fascinated.. It's comforting to see her so relaxed and enjoying whatever it is she is doing, so much that she doesn't seem to notice that I have completely lost interest in the football match that plays in the background..

I'd rather watch Lilly instead..

She twists and turns the paper in her tiny hands, using only the very tip of the scissors to make incision after incision..

"What're ye' doin' over there, Wallflower?" When I speak, she jerks from her trance to yawp up at me..

"Oh-- Here.." She puts the scissors down and hands me the folded up receipt, moving to collect her little pile of paper, ensuring she hasn't left a speck behind.. "You open."

"Open it?" I ask the unnecessary question even as my fingers carefully pick at the paper she has sissored so intricate and fine that I'm afraid to tear it..
As the receipt uncurls, I almost can't understand how it is possible for her to have carved something so complex.. A jiǎnzhǐ Tiger, as delicate as lace, is made up of strategically placed cuts and geometric holes..

"Lilly-- it's incredible!" I've read about Chinese paper cutting, but I've never actually seen it done.. To witness it mastered with this level of detail, and by hands that had been so shaky a week ago.. I feel like it must be a sign.. Lilly must have a destiny to be great.. Nobody who could create something so beautiful couldn't be made for anything less than praise and adoration..

She smiles.. "Father Xiao taught me how to make jiǎnzhǐ.."

"You must miss him, huh?" I ease her into the subject with a gentle prod..

She nods.. "Oh, yes.. But-- he doesn't want me back, he didn't look.. He didn't find me.."

It's hard to believe she is talking about one of the most powerful men in the Mafia, and almost impossible to imagine the Red Dragon sitting down to cut paper with his little girl.. But as fathers go, I'm sure he loves her just the same as I do Lovey..

I can't help but empathise with the guy.. His only daughter was taken from him by his own deputy.. No wonder he wasn't able to find her.. Li Jun would have been the last person anybody would have ever suspected..That's what makes his decisions so crazy.. It's what made his plan perfect..

Really, if Lilly wasn't as smart as she is, she'd probably never have gotten out of that basement.. Li Jun was never going to let her go..

I have heard stories about how the Red Dragon lost his mind when he lost his daughter.. That he became a different person overnight, filled with vile hatred and a bloodthirsty desire for revenge..

I heard he became a new kind of Dragon dictator that day.. Harsh and unfair.. Bitter and without fear for what might come of his ruthless actions.. It was as though the man had given up on his own humanity..

"Did Li Jun tell you that?"

She doesn't look at me, too shy to meet my eye, instead she picks at her paper pile, tearing tiny pieces into even smaller ones.. "Yes.."

"Lilly.. He was lyin' to you.. I remember seeing Fei Xiao on the news.. He made public appeals for your return.. There was reward money and everythin'.. He exposed himself tryin' to find you-- I really think--"