There was another moment of lingering silence while I searched for the right combination of words that could alleviate the awkwardness between us.

But who was I kidding. The man had fingered me into an o.r.g.a.s.m while I was on top of an antique piano. The awkwardness was going to last for quite a while.

"You look tired," I said.

"I'm exhausted."

"You should go to sleep."

"Are you going to watch over me?" Lincoln smiled. "Sleep is when we're the most vulnerable after all."

No. We were most vulnerable when we were in love.

Chapter Twenty-Six.

Shadow Reiko opened the door of her condo and took a long, hard look at our mangled faces. "Rough night?" she asked.

Cairo and I walked past her and collapsed on the couch in the living room. I was exhausted, and fairly confident that I had five years of my life beaten out of me over the past two nights.

"You both look terrible," she said, glaring at us. "I guess it's too much to ask for you two to return home without looking like you've been catching bricks with your faces?"

Cairo smirked as he leaned back and stretched his arms out, taking up most of the couch. He was encroaching in my personal s.p.a.ce.

"Do you mind?" I asked. "I'm sitting on this thing too you know."

"My couch," he said.

"My couch," Reiko stated matter-of-factly. She sat in the love seat facing us.

"Did you manage to get anything out of Elena?"

I shook my head. "Shot dead just as she was about to spill the beans."

Reiko raised her brow.

"By who?" she asked.

I shrugged my shoulder. "Some guy named Duckface," I replied.

"The psycho nerd," Cairo added. "This guy was an absolute lunatic. I hit him with a few solid punches that could knock out a cow, but he stood there and took them with this goofy grin on his face."

"Was it an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt?" Reiko asked.

I nodded. "He had a chance to kill both Cairo and I, but he seemed content on handing our a.s.ses to us instead. He packed light in terms of ammo-one bullet, one body."

Reiko frowned. "Do you think it was Nathan or Calisto that hired this guy?"

"I tried to get a read on Nathan, but from what I could tell, it didn't look like he was in on it," I said. "Nathan is very strategic when it comes to making a play this big. It would have to benefit either him or the Triad. Having the daughter of Yuen Xi Zhao murdered in his restaurant makes no strategic sense."

"Nathan seemed to hate her," Cairo pointed out.

"He doesn't seem like the type that would put his emotions before logic," I said. "I don't think it was Nathan."

"Calisto then," Reiko said.

"That's the safer bet," I agreed.

Reiko pursed her lips. "I still find it hard to believe that she would murder her closest ally and risk facing the wrath of her father's empire. He may be retired from the business, but he's still one of the most dangerous men alive."

"Calisto's a crazy b.i.t.c.h," Cairo said. "Who knows what the h.e.l.l she's thinking. Maybe she thinks it'll be fun waking up that psycho dragon man." He turned and looked at me. "Good job smearing s.h.i.t all over the Zhao name during your birthday ceremony by the way."

"File it under lessons learned," I sighed.

I pulled Elena's cellphone out from my pocket and tossed it over to Reiko. She caught it effortlessly with one hand.

"Elena's cell," I said. "I believe the last person she called was Calisto. When I checked the caller log, she's identified as unknown."

Reiko nodded. "I'll see if I can pull some information out of this first thing tomorrow." She looked at Cairo. "Come on black Pikachu, let's go f.u.c.k."

Black Pikachu?

I should have rented a hotel.

"Aww baby, I'm sore all over tonight," he whimpered. "Maybe we can just cuddle instead?"

Reiko glared at him, as if he were a piece of meat, too rare for her liking. "I'm not giving you a choice," she said.

I thought I'd point out the obvious. "I'm sitting right here guys."

"There's chicken in the fridge," Reiko said, her eyes still focused on Cairo. "Help yourself Shadow."

"Don't I get to eat as well?" Cairo asked.

"Yes," she said. "I'll give you something to eat. Now stop whining and get in the bed room."

The last thing I wanted was to hear another one of their apocalyptic s.e.x sessions.

"I think I'm going to get some fresh air," I said as I headed for the balcony. I stepped outside and took in a deep breath of the cool spring air. I closed the sliding gla.s.s door behind me.

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed her number.

She answered on the third ring.

"h.e.l.lo," she said. The liquid warmth in her voice told me she was drinking.

"I'm done here in Hong Kong."

"Oh?" she asked.

There was a brief, awkward pause.

"Elena Zhao is dead."

"Shadow..." Leah began, in a tone that told me I was about to get scolded. "...what the h.e.l.l?"

"I didn't kill her," I stated.

"I never said you did," Leah sighed. "But seriously, I'm starting to wonder if you're the harbinger of death. Everywhere you go, you leave bodies in your wake."

I held my tongue.

"So if you didn't kill her, who did?" Leah asked.

"Some guy Nathan Tse identified as Duckface."

"Hold on, you just dropped two bombs in a single sentence," she said. From the tone of her voice, I could tell she was caught off guard by my statement. "I guess I'll address the first one. Did you just say Nathan Tse?"

"Yes."

"The Hong Kong police have been investigating him for a while. Nathan Tse is a hot topic."

"He's the current leader of the Triad," I stated. "Tsung's nothing more than a smoke screen."

"We're well aware of that," Leah said. "The Hong Kong police had a mole within the Triad's organization that's been feeding intel back to them."

"Had?" I asked, knowing full well what Leah's next response would be.

"A few months ago, the mole disappeared," she replied, "Vanished without a trace."

"Nathan got to him," I stated.

"The Hong Kong police think so."

"Nathan's a cunning b.a.s.t.a.r.d," I said. "He's also unpredictable. He'll smile and pat you on the back with one hand while stabbing you with a shiv in the other."

"What was your interaction with him?" Leah asked.

"Luckily I got the pat on the back," I replied. "He was the one who helped me get a face-to-face with Elena."

"There's a good chance he was the one who had Elena a.s.sa.s.sinated," Leah pointed out.

"I don't think so."

"How do you know for sure?"

"I read his body language."

There was a brief pause from the other end of the phone. I could hear her swallowing something, which I envisioned was a vintage Beaujoulais red. It had always been her drink of choice.

"You read his body language?" she repeated.

"Yes."

"Well, I sure hope you've gotten better at it. Calisto gave you the run around for the better part of thirteen years."

Low blow Leah. Low blow. She never was one to hold back.

"What did you give him in exchange for Elena?" Leah asked. "Nathan doesn't seem like someone that grants favors at a whim."

"I gave him his own empire," I replied. "Nathan is now a dog with no leash. The Triads belong to neither the Midnight Society, nor the Revenants."

"Jesus Christ Shadow." Leah wasn't pleased. "You might as well give Satan the b.l.o.o.d.y keys to heaven."

"It's not that bad," I said.

"It's pretty bad."

"I'll deal with it then," I said. "But for now Calisto is the greater threat."

"I think you just tripled the workload of everyone who was investigating him," Leah sighed. "Everywhere you go, you're altering the landscape. You're a hurricane."

"Moving on..." I continued, annoyed with the lecture I was getting, "...tell me about this Duckface psychopath."

"I don't even know where to begin," Leah said. "Just be happy that you weren't the one being targeted."

"We traded a few blows."

"And?"

"I got my a.s.s kicked."

"I wouldn't have expected anything less," Leah said. "Duckface Duncan is currently the most sought after a.s.sa.s.sin, after the demise of the Crow brothers. There's no doubt in my mind that he's far more dangerous than both of them combined."

"He had a little girl with him," I said. "It was the strangest thing."

"Hmm, so I guess all the stories are true then," Leah said. "There's a tale surrounding Duckface. Word on the street was that a couple of years back, Anthony Pellegro-ruthless mafia boss-had murdered his own consigliore, on the account that he was having an affair with his wife. There was only one witness to this murder-the consigliore's daughter. After witnessing the death of her father, the girl ran and went into hiding. Pellegro was freaked that the cops would get to her first and she'd testify in a court. Pellegro hired Duckface-the meanest b.a.s.t.a.r.d the mafia had-to find her and kill her.

"Well, Duckface did find her, but he didn't kill her. Instead he turned the gun on Pellegro and the rest of the mafia. Single handily, he annihilated the same organization that hired him in the first place-all to protect this little girl."