“Yes, you did.” Chen Lu chuckled. “My gardeners were stunned when they saw what my roses were doing a week later.” She pulled Catherine to the bench. “Sit down and enjoy the scents. You look as if you need to just relax for a while.” She turned to Luke. “Would you run and tell the cook we’ll be ready to eat in an hour and a half?”

He nodded and took off down the path toward the palace.

Chen Lu watched him affectionately. “What a sweet lad. It’s good to have him back. I’ve missed him.”

“So have I.” Catherine smiled. “And you can’t have him back for more than a week or so, Chen Lu.”

“We’ll see. Something’s brewing, or Hu Chang wouldn’t have brought him to me.” She tilted her head. “I don’t suppose you’d like to tell me what it is?”

“I’m not sure.”

“And you’re not talking. That’s fine. I’ll find out eventually.” She was silent. “I remember that a man visited you when you were last here. John Gallo. He didn’t come with you?”

“There was no reason for Gallo to come. He has his life, I have mine.”

“Ah, and he was becoming too possessive?”

“It hadn’t gotten that far. I have enough problems without dealing with a relationship.”

“That might interfere with your independence.” Chen Lu laughed. “Well, there’s no threat here. You can relax. You need to just sit here and let all the tension kind of … unkink. You have thirty minutes before you have to go to your room and dress for dinner.” Her lips curved in a mischievous smile. “I’ll even be quiet, and you know what a chore that is for me.”

“A terrible burden,” Catherine agreed. “But I can go to my room now, Chen Lu. The same one?”

“Yes, but in thirty minutes.” She closed her eyes. “Now, hush, and breathe deep. Let all these glorious scents soothe you. Are they not wonderful?”

“Magic.” A thousand aromas, all potent and delicious and intoxicating. She made her mind go blank. Thirty minutes. Then she’d start to think about Luke and Hu Chang.

And Erin Sullivan …

DAKSHA PALACE

TIBET

Pain.

“Where is he, Erin?” Kadmus whispered. “All the agony will stop if you just tell me.”

“Go to hell.”

“Now is that a fitting way for you to speak to me? All those peasants who think you’re such a boon to humanity would be so disappointed in you. You’re supposed to be everything angelic and serene.”

“Take these handcuffs off me, and I’ll show you serene.”

“I’m tempted, but you made me quite angry before I decided they were necessary. I don’t want to kill you before I get the information I need.” He frowned. “You should have broken long before this. I’m getting very impatient, Erin.”

“I can’t tell you what I don’t know. I told you where I got the damn necklace.”

“But it wasn’t the answer I wanted. I thought you’d be more cooperative after I shot that stupid kid. Oh, well, I’ll get there.” He looked objectively at her naked body. “The right breast this time, I think…”

She tensed as she saw the flame come closer. She could bear this. At least he wasn’t using the ropes.

Relax.

Close out the pain.

Go to the place where there is no pain.

She could feel the heat of the flame as it came slowly nearer to her nipple.

Close it out.

Help me, Cameron.

The flame touched her.

Searing pain.

Cameron!

CHAPTER

3

HONG KONG

Catherine slammed the door of the elegant suite Chen Lu had assigned her. The young servant girl jumped to her feet and smiled at her. “I’m Susan Mei. How may I—”

“I don’t need help.” She had forgotten that Chen Lu always supplied her guests with servants. She had to get rid of her quickly. She only had forty-five minutes before dinner. “Thank you. You may go. I’ll tell Chen Lu that you did everything splendidly.”

The girl’s smile faded. “Perhaps I could run your bath? I’ve already laid out your caftan. I thought that ivory with the gold would be—”

“That will be fine.” Chen Lu always supplied her guests with what she deemed suitable evening clothes. “No, nothing more.” She smiled. “Perhaps another time.” She opened the door. “I’ll ask for you if I need you.”

The girl reluctantly left the room, and Catherine closed the door.

The next moment, she had pulled out her phone and was dialing.

“How is Chen Lu?” Venable asked when he answered. “A delightful woman. I always wondered if she and Hu Chang were—”

“How do you know I’m at the Golden Palace? Did you have me followed?”

“No, I had Hu Chang followed. You’re bound to be with him, and that’s where he took the boy today.” He paused. “Why are you calling? Let me guess. You’ve found that Hu Chang is going after Erin Sullivan. Tell me, did you persuade him to let you go with him?”

“No,” she said curtly. “You know better than that. Hu Chang doesn’t change his mind.”

“That’s right, and you have no intention of going on this mission anyway, do you? You made that clear.”

“Stop being smug. I’m mad as hell. You’re using Hu Chang and Luke to back me in a corner.”

“No, I have nothing to do with that happening. Those chess pieces were all on the board before Erin Sullivan was taken. I just recognized an opportunity. I needed you, and you were vulnerable.”

And she couldn’t deny that was true no matter how frustrating it was to her. “This isn’t what I wanted. I may still refuse the damn mission.” She paused. “But I need to know details, so that I can judge my chances of coming out of it alive and the amount of time I’d have to be away from Luke.”

He was silent. “Details are sketchy.”

“Which means I could end up dead.”

“I have faith in you.”

“Bullshit. Give me what you have. Who took Erin Sullivan?”

“We believe she’s being held by a mercenary by the name of Paul Kadmus. He has over fifty men under his command and runs roughshod in the villages in the interior. Actually, he calls himself General Paul Kadmus. If he could get away with the title of emperor, he would. He has a gargantuan ego and a king complex. He’s been operating in the mountains of Tibet since Vietnam and thinks he owns them.”

“Vietnam?” She stared at him in shock. “That’s been over for something like forty years.”

“It takes a long time to establish a dynasty for the emperor,” Venable said sarcastically. “Kadmus was only a kid when he was captured by the North Vietnamese. He was in prison for over two years and became very bitter against the U.S. When he finally got out, he went to Tibet and set himself up to run his own show. Theft, murder, torture. Governments came, governments went, but as long as they paid him, he got the job done.”

“And no one sent soldiers into the mountains to capture him?”

“They found it economically and militarily disastrous. No one knows those mountains like Kadmus. They decided to pay tribute instead. He has fingers in several pies around the country, both criminal and legitimate. He’s become one rich bastard.”

“You could have sent a hit man in to get him.”

“Yes.”

“But he made you an offer you couldn’t refuse.”

“Several offers. Tibet is a difficult country, and Kadmus was useful on occasion.”

“Until he snatched Erin Sullivan. The publicity probably made him too hot for you to handle.”

“It wasn’t the publicity. She’s an American citizen. No one can be allowed to victimize an American citizen.”

And he believed every word he was saying, she realized. He was both cynical and a master manipulator, but he had a code, and he stuck by it. It was the only reason she had been able to work with him all these years. “And is he victimizing her? Why did he kidnap her?”

“We don’t know.” He paused. “We believe she has something he wants. Is he victimizing her? Yes, there have been reports of torture.”