[MAX]
"But before we talk — or maybe I should say, before I talk more," my smile was catty, "you're going to want to dismiss those three." I nodded at the men who stood behind Jin and the Dus, and continued before Jin could pin me with another suspicious glare.
"Personally," I put a hand to my chest, "I don't care if they're here. But in light of recent events, I'm under the impression that you want as few people as possible knowing ... well, what Phoenix knows," I said. I tilted my head toward Phoenix.
Tè's eyes darted between Phoenix and I before she did an abrupt about-face. She barked a sharp command at the other three Triad members with a gesture toward a different pathway than the one we had come down. Each of the men gave a short bow of respect before they headed out of the clearing in the direction she'd indicated.
Jin Tè twisted back around, her expression dark. "Speak quickly, before I lose my patience."
"And here I thought it was your patience we'd have to worry about," Danny muttered to me.
Between Phoenix sighing, "Not helping, Daniel," and Dylan physically elbowing him, Danny was temporarily silenced.
"Listen," I said. I ignored the commotion behind me and instead took a few steps closer to Jin Tè. "I'm not here because you summoned me, and I'm definitely not here to grovel. I'm here because you picked a fight with the wrong person, one of my people, and this was the quickest and most painless way to settle everything."
When I stopped I was standing less than a yard away from her, with Dylan, Danny, and Phoenix now several feet behind me. "So do us both a favor, Jin, and don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm here for you. I'm not." I paused and searched her eyes, my own narrowed. Hers were bitter and apprehensive.
The silence stretched between us before I asked, "Do we have an understanding?"
Silence.
That was fine. I'd learned early on that there are a number of ways to get people to talk. Subtle, unassuming ways ... like invading their personal space, or getting comfortable enough with the silence that it's up to the other person to break it. Now, Jin Tè was no back-alley-criminal. I knew that. She was a woman in a place of power, and she wielded it well. But she was still like everyone else in one unavoidable way: she was human.
Her chest fell in an inaudible sigh and her lips pressed firmly together before she spoke. "How did you know we would be here?"
My smile was shrewd. "Why did you come here?"
"We received a tip from one of our member's burner phones," Guang answered for her.
Jin's eyes widened slowly.
I glanced Guang's way. "And you keep track of all of those burner numbers?" I asked lightly.
His response was to furrow his brow and turn to Jin. Her eyes were almost comically wide in comparison to the rest of her face. "They are signed with a specific code ..." Guang sounded uncertain now.
"Which I'm sure couldn't possibly be attained by means other than your distribution," I said. One side of my mouth turned up higher than the other. My own phone buzzed twice in my pocket at that moment, but I ignored it.
"You hacked us," Lanying accused, her typically pretty features harshened by unrestrained anger.
"Well, not me personally," I said. "But for the sake of time, yeah. Pretty much."
"So you knew we were going to be here," Tè realized aloud. "You could have had us killed ... before you even got here ..." Her brows were almost all the way up her forehead. "But you didn't."
