[MAX]
"So you know." Any other person may have phrased it as a question, and maybe I should have, but I am not any other person. I fixed Phoenix with a stare that was far from impressed, though we both knew all too well that I wasn't actually mad at her. "And you still chose to come here."
Phoenix's eyes narrowed. She searched my eyes. "I know that I've made an accidental enemy of the Triad's head, yes. Why do I get the feeling that you know something I don't?"
"Because you know me," I said, "and I know things." I paused and glanced back over at where we'd left the twins. They were still in the same relative area, visible in part because they stood several inches higher than those nearest to them.
It was also in part because they were arguably two of the more attractive men in the area. Danny was in a dark suit that was so deep a shade of navy that it was almost black, which he'd protested until I told him it made his eyes stand out. Dylan had tried to argue with me over wearing formal clothes at all when I'd told Xun to put him in a black tux, but after he saw what I was wearing he kept his mouth shut.
They both looked a little James Bond in their own ways.
"And I know that when you get this vague, the things you know are particularly bad," Phoenix said. It was an effort to shift my focus back to her. "Right?"
"Jin Tè has the entire Triad hunting you." It was my turn to gauge her expression. Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth formed a silent 'o,' but I continued before she could speak. "Last I heard, though she'd prefer to deal with you personally, she's not very picky about what state you're in when they bring you to her."
Phoenix's lips pursed. She shifted her expression from shock to placidity with considerable ease, but ridding the fear from her eyes was another matter. She took a beat and calmly — but unnecessarily — smoothed out her dress before she allowed her hands to rest loosely at her sides. "So that's why you put Danny on Jin and the Dus. Because any strike command would come from them."
When I didn't answer right away, Phoenix allowed herself an uncomfortable glance toward Jin Tè. "Why hasn't she made a move yet?"
"Jin may be criminal royalty," I said before my eyes drifted away from Phoenix to skim over the other faces in the room, "but Chen Bohei is the host of this party." My eyes darted back to Phoenix long enough to offer her a canny smile. "And there are very few people in the world who would be so disrespectful and suicidal as to carry out a strike on Chen's grounds. Even the so-called Queen of the Triad knows better than to make an enemy of him."
"So in a way," Phoenix said as a hint of a smug smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, "it's a good thing that I came to the gala."
"No," I said flatly. "It isn't. You may have some kind of temporary immunity, but it's in a room full of people who would just love to know whatever it is that has the Queen of the Triad so rattled." Myself included, if I were to be completely honest. But my motives weren't nefarious. I couldn't say that about everyone else in the room.
"Which is why you have Dylan watching the general populace," Phoenix nodded with a resigned sigh.
I glanced Dylan's way at that and caught his eye for a moment. He winked at me, though he kept his expression neutral otherwise. A smirk twitched at the corners of my mouth before I nodded in response to Phoenix and shifted my focus back to her.
The Triad may have been perceived as something near the equivalent of a giant gang, but when any organization grows to its size, it inevitably takes on a political element. Jin Tè had inherited her position, as her father had before her, but Jin Cong's reign took place in another time. Grand scheme politics were hardly a factor back in his day, much less a daily concern.
