Red-Hot Renegade

‘You dishonour me,’ said Jacob finally, in a flat, measured voice.

With a stricken glance for Jianne, Po bolted into the crowd. Jianne stared after him, wishing she could do the same.

‘He’s yours?’ she asked tentatively.

‘After a fashion.’

Not Jacob’s by blood for the boy was wholly Chinese, but there were plenty of other ways a child could become a man’s responsibility. Po’s mother could be dead. Jacob could have been seeing her, living with her even, and then when she died…and in the absence of other relatives…responsibility for Po could have fallen to him. ‘How?’

‘Ask Madeline.’

Hardly a comprehensive answer. ‘Will you punish him?’

Jacob’s lips tightened. ‘He took my wallet and went through it. He deliberately invaded my privacy. You don’t think he should be disciplined for that?’

‘Yes, but…Jacob, he’s just a child.’

‘What? No beating him?’ The deadly edge in Jake’s voice flayed her. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t breathe. Jianne ducked her head and stared blindly at her champagne glass.

‘For heaven’s sake, Jianne, I’ve never raised a hand to either a child or to you and I don’t intend to start now. So why don’t you just drink your champagne and stop behaving as if I’m about to crucify you? I’m not. I won’t. And the sooner you and everyone else watching us realises that, the better.’

Jianne lifted her glass to her lips and sipped. It seemed as good a suggestion as any. Another sip and her champagne half gone while she tried to think of a way to rescue a conversation that had plunged to hell with effortless inevitability.

‘You look well,’ she offered. Nothing but the truth. ‘More formidable than ever.’

‘Was that a compliment?’

‘I meant it as one.’

‘I don’t think it was a compliment.’

More champagne seemed as valid a response as any. ‘Congratulations on your successes,’ she said next. ‘The world titles. The master classes. Madeline tells me students come from all over the world to learn from you.’

‘You hate karate.’

No, she’d hated the time he’d dedicated to karate. She hadn’t realised that, for some, karate was a way of life that bordered on religion or that without it there would have been no way for Jake to restrain the fire that raged inside him. ‘I don’t hate it. I just never quite understood it. There’s a difference.’

‘And do you understand it now?’

‘A little.’ For what it was worth. Nowhere for this topic of conversation to go but downhill so she tried another tack. ‘Madeline and Luke seem well suited.’

‘They are.’

‘And your other brothers…and Hallie…They all seem so civilised now. You did a good job with them.’

‘It wasn’t my doing.’

Well, it certainly hadn’t been hers. She dragged her gaze away from Jake and scanned the room. So many eyes upon them. Not one person inclined to join them.

‘Excuse me,’ she said after an eternity of silence. ‘I think my aunt’s looking for me.’ She started to walk away.

‘Wait,’ he said gruffly.

One word, with nothing to follow, but she stayed her ground and waited. Obedience or curiosity? Courage or self-destruction? She did not know.

‘How are you enjoying Singapore? Are you settling in?’

That was his question? He’d held her back for that? ‘Singapore’s lovely,’ she said warily. ‘And I’m settling in well enough.’

‘Your aunt told Luke that you had an unwanted suitor.’

Her aunt talked too much.

‘She implied that he’s pressuring you into considering his offer of marriage.’

‘Jacob, I really don’t see how this is any of your business.’

‘You don’t? How very blind of you. Wife.’ His voice was soft and measured and fooled her not. Beneath the surface calm Jacob Bennett simmered.

‘Thing is, I’ve only heard from others that you have no interest in marrying this man. Maybe you do want to marry again. Maybe I’m just standing in your way.’ Jacob looked down at her with those arctic eyes. ‘Do you want a divorce?’

‘No!’ Her reply came too fast, too frightened. While the estranged husband she’d never quite managed to cut from her heart watched her through narrowed eyes. ‘I mean…Do you? Po’s mother—’

‘Is a woman I’ve never met and Po never mentions. Po’s a pickpocket, one of Madeline’s strays. She brought him to the dojo so that he’d at least have a roof over his head and a skill to learn.’

‘Oh.’ Po mystery solved, with Jianne none the wiser about Jacob’s current romantic entanglements.

‘Your aunt seems to think that if this man doesn’t get what he wants, he could become a danger to you,’ continued Jake. ‘Madeline thinks the same. They’re concerned for your safety.’

‘They really shouldn’t worry so much.’ Jianne had done enough worrying these past few months for all of them.

‘Has he followed you to Singapore yet?’

‘I haven’t seen him here.’ Yet. No need to burden her husband in name only with the knowledge that Zhi Fu had indeed tracked her down. That the unwanted gifts just kept coming.

‘Jianne, is this man a danger to you?’

‘In all honesty, I don’t know. He never does anything wrong.’ Frustration had crept into her voice, she knew it had, and she tried to bring her demeanour back to even. ‘He plays games, that’s all.’

‘What kind of games?’

But Jianne had said far too much already. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘Mind games?’ Quiet. Lethal.

‘Jacob, this isn’t your fight.’

‘You don’t think that it’s up to me to protect my wife from a stalker?’