Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Only when Qin had them moving through traffic toward the palace did he reply. “A positive article about Gaoxing and the Jin family could help raise awareness and sympathy for our people in the United States.”
Qin snorted. “Most Americans don’t know we exist, and those that do couldn’t find us on a map.”
“That’s unkind, Qin,” he chided. “Gaoxing plays host to many American tourists every year, which supports our economy. That’s another reason this article could be good for us. It could increase tourism.” He paused and stared out the window at the beautiful old buildings and elegant walking paths lined with ancient trees. “Besides, it’s my lunch. I can do what I want with it.”
The brief joy he’d felt at meeting John West and getting his green tea was already fading as they drew closer to the hospital. He needed to check on his father and speak to the doctor. Afterward, there were the meetings. So many meetings about how new threats were cropping up and things were falling apart around him.
Maybe he also wanted this article because it stood to capture Gaoxing and the city of Jin at its peak beauty. There would be pictures and words that marked in time that Gaoxing was once a paradise of happiness, beauty, and peace. That the people of Gaoxing and the Jin family had built something that even the gods had to recognize as perfection.
All before Jin Long Wei destroyed it.
3
WESTIN ST. JAMES
West paced his hotel room while he waited for Kairo to answer his damn phone.
What the hell was taking so long?
He departed the tea shop not long after the prince and attempted to do a little more research, but it was useless. His brain remained locked on what he’d just witnessed, and he needed fucking Kairo on the phone now to help him sort this out.
At the very least, he needed to know that he wasn’t losing his mind.
“Hello.” Kairo’s sleepy voice filled the line.
“What the fuck took you so long?”
“West? What’s wrong? Are you in danger?” The hacker sounded more awake with each word. The sound of rustling sheets and a creaking bed filled the background.
“Danger?” West winced. “No, not in danger. I don’t think so. I—”
“It’s four in the freaking morning. Your ass better be half-dead!” Kairo snarled.
“I need your help,” West pressed on. Kairo was already awake, and he needed to talk this through. He’d just forgotten to do the math. London was eight hours behind him, and it was now noon in Jin.
Kairo growled. Honest-to-God growled at him over the phone.
“Kairo, baby? What’s wrong?” Izzie’s sleep-husky voice was little more than a whisper, and Kairo instantly lost his growl.
“It’s okay. Everything is okay. West wants to ask me something. Go back to sleep. I’ll be in bed soon.”
Izzie replied, but West couldn’t pick out the muffled words. There was more creaking and shuffling before Kairo returned to the phone.
“All right. I’m awake. You sure you’re not in danger? It won’t take me a minute to figure out who’s closest to you.”
West shook his head and then remembered that Kairo couldn’t see that. “No. No one has taken shots at me yet.”
“Good. That means I get to be the first when I see you again,” Kairo grumbled.
West walked over to the one high-back chair in his hotel room and sat, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Where you at?”
“Cambridge.” Kairo made a disgruntled noise. “We’re staying at my mother’s house. I tried to convince Izzie to at least book a hotel, but he said my mother would appreciate it more having me close at hand.” The next sound was something between a groan and a sigh. “I get it. He lost his parents. He wants me to value what I have while I can, but I don’t have the relationship with my mother he had with his parents. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. Where the hell are you? Still in Gaoxing?”
“Yes. In Jin, the capital.”
“You’re not finished with that thing yet? You’ve been there four, five days, right?”
“Five,” he corrected. He stood, only to throw himself into the chair a second time. “Everything is all fucked up and weird here. It’s screwing with my head. I can’t make sense of it.”
“Whoa…whoa…whoa. Just slow down. Deep breath.”
“K—”
“I’m not fucking around here, West. Put me on speakerphone and sit on the floor. Is the room dark?”
West gritted his teeth and held in the bark that wanted to come out, reminding Kairo to mind his own damn business. Except he was the one who’d called Kairo in the first place.
Sliding from the chair to the floor, West crossed his legs in front of him and put the phone on speaker before placing it next to him. His hands palms-up on his knees, he sucked in large gulps of air and released it. He repeated this several times until the panic that had been threatening to choke him receded.