In His Arms

Chapter 30

Crossing the length of the room to take my call, I lean lightly against the windowsill, gazing out the clear glass to the street below as the deep, unchanged voice of Mr Lee Yang comes through the soundpiece.

"小蝴蝶, 我的人通知我你刚刚回到台湾了, (Little butterfly, my people have told me that you just came back to Taiwan)" He chuckles softly, his voice is warm and doting as if I were his favourite grandchild."你今晚有空吗？ 这位老夫想约你吃饭. (Are you free tonight? This old man wants to invite you to eat with him.)

Little butterfly...how nostalgic that nickname is now. I had many nicknames back then.

Mr Lee Yang is one of the three heads of the Triads which is a branch of transnational organized crime syndicate based in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan and sometimes in countries with significant Chinese populations. To name a few, the United States, Canada, Korea, Japan, and all SEA countries.

There are a lot of places but then again in seven years until my escape, I've been to most of these places either with him or another leader of another syndicate as an 'escort' as they would refer to me as if asked.

I do look fairly Chinese if I had to say so myself. I probably got my fair skin and eyes from someone fairly removed from the Higgens Family tree.

I laugh lightly into the receiver as I imagine Mr Lee leaning against his big leather chair with his arms folded across his chest, holding his phone to his ear while he reads over some papers from his men. He must have stepped down by now...I mean he is almost fifty now.

"李先生，十年以来您一点儿都没变 (Mr Lee, it's been ten years and you haven't changed one bit)," I tease, eyeing the darkening sky that signals nightfall. "我今晚才看我有没有空陪您吃饭. 您的儿子就近还好吗? 交出过得好吗? (I'll see tonight if I have any time to accompany you for a meal. How is your son? Did the handover go well?)"

Mr Lee's responding laugh raises the goosebumps on my skin, as he cheerfully replies, "真好. 老夫五点多排人拿给你一些衣服。尤金会跟我们一起吃所以你可以亲职问他你的问题了! (Wonderful. Around five, I will send someone to send you some clothes for you. Eugene will dine with us so you can ask him your questions in person.)"

"李先生! (Mr Lee!)" I exclaim exasperatedly, hearing that he didn't listen to a word I said regarding dining with him tonight; he replaced my words with words of agreement. This old man. "喂? 李先生? (Hello? Mr Lee?)"

The continuous beeps of the dial tone indicate that he's hung up on me. Crabs. Now, what am I going to do? My contemplation of what to do next is cut short as I jump slightly at the sound of the room door opening and closing signalling Alexander's return to the room.

Hurriedly I slide the flip phone on the carpeted floor towards the bedroom and it slides to a stop just below the nightstand by the bed, effectively hiding it as I straighten up to look out the window. Evening out my breathing, his figure appears faintly in the reflection of the window.

"Janette?" He calls out to me softly as he comes closer to me.

Swallowing nervously, I turn around to face him, "Yes?"

"Do you want to hear the agenda for tonight and tomorrow?" Alexander asks, closing the distance between us with six large strides. 

"I would like the hear the plans, "I reply, taking a seat on the sofa, patting the space beside me as an invitation to him to sit down.

Alexander circles his arm around my slanted waist, pulling me closer to him as he sits next to me. Leaning my head on his shoulder, we sit in silence for a while, just taking in each other's company without any interruptions. 

"Answer me something before we get into that," He begins, taking one of my limp hands into his larger, stronger ones, squeezing tightly. "The man Vincent White said was chasing you. Was he the one who scraped your arm?"

My arm? His question throws me off for a second before I remember the bandage on my arm that Jenkins used to wrap my wound from the bullet.

"Oh yeah," I mumble guardedly, having forgotten about the whole incident since Alexander distracted me on the street. "He scratched me while grabbing me."

Jenkins' gun...oh god...where is it? I think frantically, both remembering that he gave me a gun before he left and realising in the next moment that I no longer feel it pressing into my waist, my memory fails me as I try to recall when I lost the feeling. 

"Alright," Alexander murmurs accepting my answer, not indicating whether or not he sees my inner turmoil. "The guys and I will be leaving for the meeting in about half an hour. It's almost six now and according to Wiliam, the meeting will probably bleed into the late night and possibly later. We agreed that it'd be best if you stayed here at the hotel. Tomorrow, we'll be working from morning till evening rearranging the staff and such. At around six tomorrow, there's a function that we've been invited to go to and you'll have to attend with me. On Saturday, our time, your brothers and I have some other business we have to attend to so you can probably follow along if you're up for it. On Sunday, it's a rest day so everyone will be doing their own thing. We'll catch a midnight flight back to Seattle so we'll arrive at around one in the afternoon on Monday. Any questions?"

Sure I do. Have you seen my gun?

Smacking myself internally for even assuming that he's seen the gun, I force myself to come up with something else to ask him, my instincts telling me to keep him here for a while longer just to see if he'll drop a hint if he saw the weapon.

"Alexander...about what you said in Seattle before we went to dinner..." I finally speak, lifting my head off of his shoulder to gaze at him. "Can we discuss it now?"

"Janette, it's really simple," He sighs softly, his usually cold and emotionless grey eyes now molten and kind. "The 'No Attachments' thing wasn't working for me or you. I realised that at Damian Higgens' event."

My cheeks heat up at the memory of us in the back alley of the Palisade. Now's not the time to remember something like that!

"Okay, so the clause wasn't working out for us," I mumble, breaking eye contact with him, embarrassed of the next words that leave my mouth unchecked. "What do you want to do about the growing attraction between us? It's not like we'll go out and fall in love like normal couples. We're getting married in two months for Pete's sake."

"Our relationship started from a contract is that what, as you put it, 'normal couples' do Janette?" He smirks, gently nudging my head up so that my eyes meet his. "From the beginning, our relationship wasn't 'normal' but it's a relationship nonetheless. There is nothing wrong with doing the whole 'falling in love' process backwards. Is this a sufficient answer to your question?"

There is a pang in my heart that makes my vision blur a little at his words, but I give him a small nod in response. He said falling in love process, my inner succubus sighs dreamily as she makes an appearance.

On the other hand, guilt settles like a pit at the bottom of my stomach. There is so much that he does not know about me and he's talking about falling in love. If I told him everything, I wonder if he would still look at me as tenderly. 

"Alexander...if...you had a secret you'd tell me right?" I ask meekly, contemplating telling him everything.

Smirking at my question he shakes his head in amusement before replying, "What brought this on?"

I shrug in the most convincing 'I don't know' way, trying to keep him from thinking it's suspicious that I asked this out of the blue, "I'm just curious...I guess. After all, trust is essential in a relationship."

Kissing me lightly on my lips, he gives me a sheepish smile, "I wouldn't tell you more than you'd need to know."

With our faces mere centimetres apart, I feel the corners of my mouth tilt upwards slightly at his words. A doleful smile if you will.

Not more than you need to know. 

I guess I could live with that.