Unshakeable Pursuit (Christian Romantic Suspense)

Chapter 11a

Maylin ducked her head as the gun went off, but Szu Wen, the gunman who had held his pistol to her side, was struggling with another Chinese man, who was apparently one of Chester Wong's bodyguards.

"Don't move!" shouted Chester's other bodyguard in Cantonese as he aimed his gun at the other man who had captured her, Ying-Chieh.

The bodyguard, who outweighed Szu Wen and Ying-Chieh by at least fifty pounds of muscle, overpowered Szu Wen rather quickly and took away his gun. Szu Wen staggered a few steps away, slapping at his leather jacket in frustration.

"You really thought you could ambush me?" Chester climbed the metal stairs until he was on the second floor of the warehouse with them all. His two bodyguards held both Szu Wen and Ying-Chieh at gunpoint.

"We weren't trying to ambush you," Szu Wen said in Cantonese.

He was lying. They'd called Chester as soon as they'd tied Maylin to the wooden chair she now sat on, saying they had the woman he was after, but they'd only give her to him in person, not to his bodyguards. Then they'd hidden behind the wooden shipping crates dotting the room, so they could fire at Chester as soon as he showed his face. But they'd only gotten one shot off, and Chester's bodyguards had been faster.

Maylin's ears were ringing from the sound of Szu Wen's gun discharging in the vast space. The second floor of the warehouse was the top floor of the building, with exposed metal rafters above. There was a large square hole in the floor near where Maylin sat tied to the chair, with a pulley and crane system to raise and lower heavy objects all the way to the first floor. The Triad were apparently using the warehouse as storage for their illegal import/export business dealings.

Chester approached her, his half-lidded eyes assessing her. "You've been giving my men a great deal of trouble."

"Well, I kind of object to being murdered," she said.

Chester gave a half-smile. "It's your own fault. You saved Frank Chan's life."

"He wasn't driving the car. Your son was."

Chester's face grew stone cold. "Shut up."

"The valet at China White remembers that Frank was the passenger. He had bandages and couldn't drive the stick shift."

"It was his father's car," Chester spat out.

"Frank had seizures. He couldn't get a license."

"He could still drive. And he killed my only son."

"You have two beautiful, brilliant daughters—"

"He was my son!" Chester's voice echoed against the rafters. Then he composed himself again, smoothing his maroon tie. "My daughters will never be able to do what he could have done with my companies. And Cassandra is dead to me. She betrayed me."

"What about Chelsea?" Maylin looked at Szu Wen's ugly face. "These men may have been the ones to try to kidnap her this morning."

"Of course they were."

Maylin choked.

"How did you know about that?" Chester asked. "Oh, Cassandra. Of course."

Maylin finally was able to croak out, "Why would they do that?" And why didn't he care?

"He killed my cousin!" Szu Wen hissed in Cantonese.

Maylin had managed to hide the fact she could understand Chinese, so she put on a confused mask.

"She deserved to die!" Chester shot back at him, also in Cantonese. "Just like her son."

Frank's mother had been related to Triad. It was as they had suspected, and Chester had enraged Szu Wen, causing him to try to enact revenge. He'd wanted to use Maylin as bait for Chester, but it was starting to look like Chester would simply get rid of him.

But would he risk starting a feud with the Triad? From what Szu Wen had said, it sounded like only he and his partner were involved in dealing with Chester, maybe because Frank's mother was only Szu Wen's cousin, not one of the Triad. If Chester killed these two men, however, he'd have to deal with the Triad leaders.

"And I know you can speak Chinese," Chester said to her. "After you and Dr. Whelan escaped my men at your clinic, I looked you two up."

"What?" Szu Wen glared at her.

"Now, you're going to tell me where my daughter is."

"I don't know. We haven't seen her since she warned us."

Chester reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. With a flick, the blade snapped out. He leaned close. "I think you're lying."

"You've been watching too many movies," Maylin said. Then she smashed the hardest part of her skull, her forehead, directly into Chester's nose.

He howled.

She stood up, taking the chair with her since her hands were still tied to the back. She swung around in an arc, slamming the chair hard against Chester. He stumbled and fell.

Szu Wen and Ying-Chieh used the distraction to attack the bodyguards. A gun went off, and she flinched. She heard the sounds of struggling, and the sound of metal impacting flesh.

She needed to break the chair somehow. She looked for something hard to smash it against, but the chair was heavy, and she was awkward on her feet.

Strong arms wrapped around her. One of the bodyguards had come up behind her. She twisted left and right to break his hold. She found herself standing in front of Chester, who had shakily gotten to his feet. His nose was bleeding where she'd slammed her forehead into it.

She leaned back into the bodyguard and brought both legs up, bending her knees. The sudden weight surprised him and his knees buckled, but she quickly kicked out with both legs and caught Chester squarely in his stomach. He coughed and staggered back, and the force of her blow made the bodyguard stagger backward also. They both fell to the ground.

But the impact wasn't enough to break the chair. One of the crossbars on the wooden legs broke when it impacted the bodyguard's bent knee, but nothing else broke loose.

It looked so much easier in the movies.

She rolled to one side to try to get her legs under her, but the bodyguard grabbed the chair back, efficiently snagging her. She tried to kick at him, but couldn't because he was behind her and the chair hampered her. He managed to climb to his feet while she was still lying sideways on the floor, then he hoisted her back up by grabbing the wooden chair.

Szu Wen and Ying-Chieh hadn't been successful, either. The remaining bodyguard aimed a gun at where they both lay on the floor, Ying-Chieh slack and moving slowly, his eyes closed, and Szu Wen groaning, clutching his stomach where the bodyguard must have kicked him.

Chester swore at her and swung a punch. Maylin had already been hit today, and she hadn't thought the pain could be any worse, but this time, there was a sharp pulsing in her cheek. Then she felt liquid trickling slowly down her face. She was bleeding. She looked at Chester and saw that he had a large gold ring on his right hand, the one he'd used to hit her.

He looked down at her with burning eyes. "Forget Cassandra." He turned to his bodyguard. "Kill her."

***

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