"What are you doing?" Ingersoll practically howled. "I'm your partner!" He started ranting and cursing.
"We shall see," Wing Ko cut into the tirade. "There will be no fire tonight." He held out a hand and crooked a long-nailed finger in a summoning gesture.
Several men came out of the fog, holding a struggling figure between them.
The blood in Cole's veins turned to ice as he saw the angry, frightened face of the woman he loved in the hands of the hatchet men.
Annabel.
Chapter 19
Annabel didn't blame Cole for being upset with her. It had been a foolish, grandstand stunt for her to hurry to the waterfront after him and then let Wing Ko's men capture her. However, if she hadn't, he would be dead now, his body lying in the smoldering ruin of the warehouse Wing Ko and Garrett Ingersoll had planned to have torched tonight. At least for the time being, Cole was still alive, and so was she.
Of course, there was no guarantee how long that situation was going to last . . .
They were prisoners, even though they were sitting on a comfortable divan with brocaded silk upholstery. Two hatchet men with cold, hard eyes and expressionless faces stood flanking the doorway that led from the expensively furnished room. If either she or Cole made a move to try to escape, those boo how doy would react instantly.
This odd room, with its luxurious furnishings and breathtaking silk tapestries, was somewhere inside a ramshackle building in Chinatown. Annabel and Cole had been bundled inside rolls of canvas and loaded into a wagon to be brought here from the waterfront Cole had told her to cooperate and go along with whatever Wing Ko ordered for now, until they saw how things were going to play out. There was really no other choice.
From the end of the canvas roll, she had caught a glimpse of the run-down building as they were being carried inside. Then had come a dizzying maze of twists and turns, and finally the canvas had been unrolled and they had been dumped here in this room, onto a fantastically ornate rug. Wing Ko had entered a moment later, as they were picking themselves up, and said, "Please, make yourself comfortable. For the time being, you are my guests and will be well treated, provided that you do not cause any trouble. I will be back later to speak with you."
Wing Ko had been gone for nearly an hour, and Annabel was growing more worried. "When do you think he's coming back?" she asked Cole.
He shook his head, "He's letting us sweat. I don't know what he has in mind, but you can bet that it won't be good." Cole looked at her and asked again, "Are you sure you're all right?"
"I told you, Wing Ko's men didn't hurt me. They just grabbed me as I was coming along the street, and then one of them ran ahead to talk to Wing Ko."
Cole nodded, frowning in thought. "The boo how doy recognized you. That means they've been keeping an eye on both of us. I suppose we're lucky Wing Ko didn't just have you kidnapped before now, so that he could try to force me to go along with what he wants."
"Do you think that's what he has in mind now?",
"Could be," Cole said with a shrug.
He was putting up a calm, cool front, but Annabel could see panic lurking in his eyes. He wasn't afraid for himself, she was certain of that; Cole Brady was no coward. However, he could be afraid that something would happen to her. The thought that she could come to harm because of him, she figured, was probably driving him crazy.
But it wasn't Cole's fault, Annabel told herself. The only reasons they were here were Wing Ko's ruthless ambition and Garrett Ingersoll's treachery.
She wondered where Ingersoll was. Some of Wing Ko's hatchet men had taken him off down the waterfront street, and that was the last she and Cole had seen of him. She couldn't help but wonder if Wing Ko had double-crossed Ingersoll and had him killed. Even now the man's body could be lying in San Francisco Bay.
That thought made Annabel shiver. She reached over and clasped Cole's hand. His fingers closed around hers and squeezed gently, and his touch made her fear subside slightly. She had faced many dangerous situations in her life and come through them all right, she told herself. This one would be no different
The polished wooden door into the room swung open, and Wing Ko came in. Walking in front of him was a child, a beautiful girl eight or ten years old. With her golden skin, dark, almond-shaped eyes, and long, glossy black hair, she reminded Annabel of a doll. She wore a red silk dress and carried a silver tray with a pot and several small cups on it.
"I have brought tea for us" Wing Ko announced. One of the hatchet men closed the door behind him and the girl. "This is my granddaughter Tsang. Lovely, is she not?"
"Beautiful," Cole muttered.