“Have you eaten any local food or have you been surviving on burgers and fries?” he asked, more interested in Alexis than Charley’s assignment that he wasn’t going to take anyway.

  Her lips twitched. “Yes, I had local food. I had a lovely vegetarian soup at this monastery nearby.”

  He shook his head at her joke. “Please don’t leave China without eating something authentic.”

  “I did. No worries. I’ve had noodles and also dumplings.”

  He nodded. “Okay. I’ll accept that.”

  She cut her burger in half and was much more delicate in eating it than he had been shoving the whole thing in his mouth.

  “One more question, when you’re done chewing—”

  Alexis chewed and swallowed, then nodded. “What is it?”

  “Any word from Charley?” he asked.

  Her expression spoke volumes. “Um. No.”

  His eyes widened. “You have your cell powered off again, don’t you?”

  “Um. Maybe.”

  “Tsk. Tsk. What’s Charley going to say?”

  “I guess we’ll find out because as soon as we’re done eating, I’m going to call her.”

  He groaned. “Great. Something to look forward to.”

  Yup. Alexis was definitely right. He was overly fond of sarcasm.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Alexis couldn’t ignore the shake in her hand as she tried to pop the SIM card back into the cell phone.

  What was it about calling Charley that had her nervous?

  She thought about it and realized it was because Charley reminded her of her boss—former boss—at the CIA. Which reminded her of the horror of losing her job. The humiliation of being escorted out by armed guards.

  This wasn’t the CIA and this wasn’t her career. This was a one-time job for which she’d already been paid. And paid well. Keeping that in mind, she steeled her nerves and resolved to stop letting Charley get in her head.

  She glanced at Kane. “Ready?”

  He raised his dark eyes to her. “Are you ready? This is your op, not mine.”

  Scooping up the last of his fries while talking about ops, Kane seemed more SEAL than monk.

  In either persona, he was still all warrior. And she was as much in love with him now as she’d been when she was a teen.

  More so after being with him. Which was why this had to work.

  She had to convince Charley to redeem Kane’s name and reputation. The best way to do that was to figure out who was really behind the camps.

  After a big inhale, she hit the contact listing to make the call, then hit the icon to put the call on speakerphone so Kane could hear.

  Charley took all of four rings to answer, which was about three more than usual. Interesting.

  “Yes.” Charley’s short greeting sounded rushed, almost breathless.

  What was happening there that had the unflappable woman flustered? Had their information turned the mysterious organization upside down?

  Alexis didn’t dare think anything she had found could do that. Then again, what she’d found about the Warner group had turned both her and Kane’s lives upside down.

  “Do you have time to talk about Wei?” Alexis asked.

  “No, but I will. What have you got? Talk.” Gone was the slick salesman who spoke of we and paused for effect.

  This was the real Charley, beneath the sleek façade. Harried. Stressed. Overworked. Just like the rest of them. She was human after all.

  “I’ve been doing some digging to try to figure out who the puppet master might be.”

  “Puppet master?” Charley repeated.

  “Yeah. The person or organization pulling Wei’s strings. That’s what we’ve been calling him.”

  “We?”

  Alexis stumbled at the question before saying, “Kane is here with me.”

  “Really? So late? And at the hotel?” Charley asked with actual interest, or was it amusement in her tone?

  “How the hell do you know where we—never mind.” She shook her head.

  Of course, there was GPS on the phone. It would have kicked in the moment she powered it on so Charley knew exactly where they were. The suspicion of that was why Alexis went to the trouble to dismantle the phone when she didn’t feel like being spied on…and sometimes just to piss off Charley.

  She glanced at Kane, taking note of his frown. He hadn’t liked the comment, or the tone, any more than she did. But there were more important things to discuss.

  “I found a few people who are possible frontrunners. One is pretty high up in the government. Another is involved in the mining company. I have an idea of how we can possibly flush them out.”

  “Do tell,” Charley cooed. Apparently, she’d gotten herself in control. The cool character she liked to portray was back.

  “My idea would probably require some assistance from you—your organization. If that’s possible.”

  “I can’t tell you what is or is not possible until you tell me what you’re talking about.” And the bitch was back.

  Alexis didn’t let that fact intimidate her. “I think we need to… separate Wei from the group. Keep him until whoever is running him gets nervous. Then watch to see who panics and comes looking for him.”

  This was the first time Kane was hearing about her idea as well, and he reacted accordingly.

  “You want to use Wei as bait.” Kane’s brows rose high.

  She shrugged. “Kind of. I figure when he goes missing the puppet master will worry and come looking. If we watch his home. His office. Or whatever Olympic events he was supposed to be at, we could see who panics.”

  “So you’re going to kidnap him.” Kane stared at her wide eyed.

  “Well, not me. I was hoping—”

  “Not me.” Kane shook his head.

  “No. Charley.” Alexis realized the woman in question had been suspiciously quiet during her and Kane’s little debate.

  Charley finally said, “If the goal is to have Wei in our possession, we could just ask him who is forcing him to do their bidding.”

  “But what if he won’t talk?” Alexis pointed out.

  Chances were he’d still be afraid they’d harm his daughter.

  “We’ll get him to talk,” Charley said.

  “Torture?” Alexis squeaked out.

  “No. Persuasion,” Charley returned.

  Brows high, Kane sent a look at Alexis. “Are you sure she’s not CIA?”

  Alexis frowned at the insult since she too had been CIA and she’d never condoned torturing anyone. “Hey.”

  Kane shrugged. “If the waterboard fits…”

  She narrowed her eyes at him and turned her focus back to Charley. "No torture. At least not if you want our help."

  "Fine. We'll do it your way.”

  Charley was one scary chick, but Alexis hoped she could believe her and her promise.

  “But what exactly will you be helping with? My men will be detaining Mister Wei. My men will watch his home and office. What will you do?"

  “Thanks to the monks’ performance, Kane will be on site at the VIP reception in Beijing observing. Seeing if anyone goes looking for Wei there. And I will be on the computers watching my two top suspects’ movements with facial recognition software and hoping to intercept any messages regarding Wei.”

  Charley was silent for a moment. “And how are you intercepting messages? And, for that matter, using the government’s facial recognition?”

  “Um. You probably don’t want to know.” Alexis cringed.

  “To the contrary. I really do,” Charley countered.

  “She’s a hacker,” Kane said loud and clear while reaching for the dessert she’d ordered along with the food in case he wanted a treat.

  “No—” Alexis defended.

  “Yes.” Kane nodded. “Oh, wait. That’s right. It’s your friend who is the hacker.”

  She pouted. “I didn’t lie about that. My computer expert friend exists.”

  What Alexis hadn’t mentioned was that she was almost, but not quite, as good as her friend.

  “Interesting. That particular skill is not in your CIA record,” Charley said.

  Kane shot her an I told you so glance.

  She scowled in return. Just because Charley had access to her records didn’t make her CIA. Maybe she was a hacker herself.

  None of this was moving her plan along. They needed to get going. The Olympics were starting in less than a week. The Shaolin monks would be leaving to travel to Beijing in mere days. “Okay. It doesn’t matter how I do what I do. Charley, what do you think?”

  “I’ll get back to you.” Without even a goodbye, Charley ended the call.

  Alexis raised her gaze to Kane. “What do you think?”

  “I think she has to approve your plan with someone higher up.”

  “And then?” she asked.

  “I think it’s a ninety-ten chance that she kidnaps and tortures Wei.”

  Alexis opened her mouth to protest but then realized he could very well be right. Her once-satisfying food churned precariously in her stomach.

  “But I think there might be a slight possibility she’ll actually adopt your plan,” Kane finished.

  A ten percent chance she wouldn’t torture him. Alexis wouldn’t place a bet with those odds. But sadly, she already had.

  She’d gone all in, betting with Wei’s life when she made him Charley’s prime target once again.

  Shit.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Kane took note of the city glittering against the dark of night outside the hotel window and sighed. “I should go.”

  The food was eaten. The call had been placed to Charley. And the plan, however flimsy, made. There was no reason for him to remain—except that he wanted to.

  Alexis’s eyes met his. “Do you have to go?”

  Did he? Technically, no. He wasn’t a monk, but he was an invited guest at the monastery. Of course, any chores he was responsible for would already be done by this time of night.

  As he fought his guilt over missing chores and considered his options, Alexis stood and headed towards him. “Stay. Please.”

  She reinforced her plea by straddling him where he sat and sliding her hands around his neck. All unfair coercion that worked to bombard his already weakened self-control.

  He slipped his hands around her hips and then lower as she leaned in, hovering just shy of his mouth.

  It was more than any man would be able to take. Even one who hadn’t been living as a monk for a year.

  Pulse racing in anticipation, he nodded. “Okay.”

  He was helpless when it came to this woman.

  Her lips on his were like a drug. Her tongue sliding against his broke something inside him, setting him free.

  Pressing her down on him, he tipped his hips up and met her in the middle. The pressure of her against his hardened length was unbearable. The only thing that would ease the ache would be plunging inside her.

  She must have had the same idea. She fumbled between them, trying and failing to get beneath his top and to the waist of his pants.

  “Let me take this stuff off,” he said.

  Her eyes looking unfocused, she shook her head. “No. Leave it on.”

  It hit him why. She’d said it before. His Wushu pants and top turned her on.

  “Are you having a seducing the monk fantasy?” he asked.

  “Maybe,” she answered, her voice husky with desire.

  “I’m not a monk,” he reminded.

  She ran a hand over his shorn head. “Close enough.”

  He couldn’t help but smile. “All right,” he said.

  Then he tried to ignore that her fantasies made what they were doing seem like even more of a slap in the face to the Shaolin values he was ignoring.

  As she snaked her hand into his pants and grabbed his length, his head fell back against the sofa. His eyes slammed closed as he groaned his approval when she stroked him.

  He silently swore to be extra contrite and dedicated during prayers when he returned. But for now, he was going to enjoy this woman and all her body did to his.

  She slid off the sofa to kneel on the carpet between his knees and somehow managed to gain access to his cock while not removing his pants or top.

  He opened his eyes and would have insisted on taking his clothes off if he still had control of his mind.

  As it was, when she slipped his length between her lips there was no hope for him saying anything.

  He abandoned the idea of stopping her so he could get undressed. He wasn’t going to do anything except push the bottom of the tunic aside so he could have a better view while he watched the beauty of her loving him with her mouth.

  When she opened those ethereal eyes and met his gaze, he knew he wasn’t leaving here anytime soon.

  As he gripped her head between his palms and thrust between her lips, he realized he’d be lucky if he could leave her at all.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It was eight hours by bus to travel from Henan to Beijing, not counting rest stops.

  The trip from the monastery to the Olympic village took Kane and the other performers all day. Hours during which he couldn’t help thinking about Alexis.

  Not the time they spent together in her hotel room. But the fact she was probably sipping champagne in business class during a flight that would take her less than half the time he’d spent on the bus.

  He and the brothers were staying four to a room inside the Olympic bubble with the athletes. There they had to abide by all the restrictions set in place.

  Alexis was staying at a no-doubt fancy hotel in a huge suite somewhere nearby in the city. Just her and her computer equipment, which she had secured in hard, padded, locked boxes for the flight.

  It had probably cost her—or Charley—more to move the equipment than the total expense for the bus to transport the two dozen monks.

  He’d been taught to give up comforts and possessions. Apparently, he’d need a refresher course in selflessness and the evils of envy when he returned to the monastery.

  Right now, what he really needed was to pay attention to what was happening around him at the event in progress.

  As far as he knew, he was the only eyes and ears on the ground. The one in the best position to observe who reacted when Wei turned up missing during Xi Jinping’s VIP reception currently underway.

  The banquet was a small, more intimate event compared to the rest of the ceremonies. Luckily this was where the monks were performing.

  He would have had no hope of observing the VIP section in the Bird’s Nest, the eighty-thousand seat Beijing National Stadium where the opening ceremonies were held.

  Meanwhile amidst all the pageantry, for the Shaolin performers some things were different and some were very much the same.

  There were no chores to do here, but practice happened as usual beginning right after they arrived.

  With practice comes wisdom.

  That kung fu credo had been as strongly instilled in him as the SEAL motto—the only easy day was yesterday—had been drilled into all the candidates at Coronado.

  Practice in Beijing was as hard and as long as it was in Henan. But it had felt good to move after sitting for so long on the bus.

  Felt good too during yesterday’s practice to put the mess with Charley and Wei out of his mind for a while.

  To solely concentrate on the moves he’d performed so many times so he could execute them mindlessly.

  That was the point of the hours of daily training. In battle, muscle memory could take over.

  He’d need to rely on that today at this VIP luncheon event as his concentration was split.

  Now, as they waited in a room off to the side and prepared to take the stage, he was blind. But once the performance started and he was out in front of the world leaders, he’d be on the lookout for who the puppet master, as Alexis called him, might be.

  The joke of it all was that security was less than he’d anticipated.

  Yes, the pandemic protocols were intense and they had all been tested, more than once. But no one looked twice at the box filled with weapons they’d traveled with to use during their performance.

  Real weapons. Not fake stage props.

  Maybe Charley wasn’t as crazy or clueless as he’d assumed for thinking he could have single-handedly assassinated Wei in this environment.

  The battle-axe, dharma cudgel, spear, halberd, sword, dart, dagger, black tiger hammer, plum blossom broadsword, Bodhidharma staff, tiger hooks, saber, deer-horn knives, fork, whip, mace, talon and lance were all here with them, lined up and waiting for the performance.

  Any one of the traditional Kung Fu weapons could be used to kill a man.

  Wei was lucky that Kane was no longer in the killing business. And that Alexis, even after her CIA ousting, was still prone to digging deeper and not blindly following orders.

  Who knew her stubborn reluctance to do as told when she was younger would have been a lifesaver for a Chinese mining executive now?

  Thoughts of Alexis brought to mind one other recent change in his life. Kane was now in possession of his very own signature Charley-provided cell phone. Even equipped with the phoenix logo.

  Apparently, Charley had been so confident she was making him an offer he couldn’t refuse, she’d sent the cell for him along with Alexis’s.

  That phone was currently stashed in a bag in this green room inside the Great Hall where they all waited while in the main room Xi made his opening speech to the guests.

  Kane was sure Charley and Alexis both would prefer he have the cell phone on him, but his Wushu pants and tunic didn’t come equipped with a cell phone pocket.

  With all the fast spins and flips he was about to perform, it was more likely the cell would become a projectile. The cell flying into the audience here at the Great Hall of the People, where someone—anyone—could grab it was not something Charley would approve of.

  Alexis or Charley should be letting him know that Wei had been successfully detained so that his absence at this lunch could be noticed by his comrades. He'd checked it a bit ago and there had been no update. He’d check again after their performance.