To Kiss A Man Silly

Chapter 14

We didn't break a stride but walked into the almost deserted restaurant narily blinking an eye. Of course it was unusual that a restaurant this opulent would be so empty... that the waiters were brawny and resembled something out of the monastery for natural arts of defence.

"Shia!"

"Uncle," I greeted mildly leaning into brush my lips against his rough cheek. At thirty five years of age, Anthony had already broken more than his share of hearts. With the same cat green eyes and hair as blond as the sun he will also all sinewy and brawn from his time spent in Bangkok with me. It hadn't been all red light strip joints, sex and booze for him. He had done his share of workouts and martial arts training. Not being an Arachnow, he was not bound to follow my family's footsteps and become an assassin.

Anthony  had created a niche of his own in arms dealing with the Bangkok underworld and trading in the black market.

He had done well for himself. Loosing his sister... my mother, was his only low point as far as I could remember. He had simply vanished completely. All these years and I never saw hin or heard a word of him till he returned.

Returned to order the hit on Claude.

Claude my lover... my not quite lover. I glanced over at him to take in his reaction but he seemed as impassive as ever. I found myself staring at him even as I moved to take the seat uncle Anthony offered me. Claude was nothing but an enigma. I couldn't get a read of him. He appeared utterly at ease to be within the vicinity of so many armed assassins. All of whom were geared to taking out his life.

It dawned on me then... that he simply didn't care. That either way it didn't matter at all if he lived or died. My guess was that he was tired of running. Tired of living.

I looked down at my fingers now twisted in my lap feeling unusually shaken. I hadn't expected this of him. Not after what we shared last night. Had it all meant nothing to him?

For some reason that like nothing else brought anger bubbling up to the surface. With a snap of my head I glared right at him then at Anthony who were both still standing and facing off each other like a pair of proud cocks.

"I'd like to get started with ordering dinner if you please," I said in a tone I didn't recognise. It sounded ghastly and it wasn't only I who thought so. As one both heads jerked down to look at me quizzically.

I threw of my shudder of quiet fear and picked up the menu before me. So what if Claude's family killed all of ours. So what if Anthony wanted him dead... and so what if I was the means to his end. We were here for dinner. So let's just eat already!

Snapping open the menu. I clicked my fingers for the nearest attentive waiter.