Quinn - Iris Johansen [80]
He nodded. “But yours is very good. I’d like to meet your Hu Chang.”
“He’d be interested to meet you. He appreciates competence.” She soaped her hair, then dipped her head to rinse it. “You’re very good, Gallo.”
“How long have you known this Hu Chang?”
“Since I was fourteen.”
“Not a CIA man?”
She chuckled. “No, he was very upset when I decided to join them. He was sure they’d corrupt my free will.”
“A valid concern.”
She shrugged. “I had to make a decision I could live with. I grew up on the streets of Hong Kong, and I survived by dealing information to whoever would pay the highest fee for it. But I could see where I was going. Then a CIA agent, Venable, offered me a job with the CIA, and I took it. The Agency wasn’t always clean, but they were trying to protect something besides themselves. That was unique in my world.”
“All of this at seventeen.”
“I told you, age doesn’t mean anything.”
“Hu Chang,” he prompted.
“He had a shop that sold unique poisons and drugs. It’s very profitable on the street, and he was targeted by a couple thieves on his way home. I helped him discourage them. But he was hurt, and I took him home and took care of him until he was well enough to take care of himself. We became … close.”
“I suppose I don’t have to ask how you discouraged them.”
“If I hadn’t killed them, they would have come back and targeted me, too,” she said simply. “In Hong Kong, you don’t take chances like that.”
“And Hu Chang was grateful.” He smiled. “And made you soap that smells like rotten leaves.”
“Among other things.” She started to wade back to shore. “I’m done. Give me that shirt on top of my knapsack. I managed to wash that one two days ago.”
“Use my sweatshirt to dry off.” He handed her a dark green shirt. “It’s not that clean, but it will absorb the water.”
She dabbed her body quickly and reached for her shirt. She had felt more comfortable in the water. She was too close to him. “I feel better now.” She swiftly buttoned up the shirt. “In spite of the rotten leaves.”
“I never said I didn’t like the smell of rotten leaves.” He slipped the looped rope around her waist, then took a step back and gazed at her in the shirt, which hit the top of her thighs. “Pity. But I think you’d better put on something else as soon as possible. I’m feeling a problem coming on. I don’t want a demonstration on how you deal with this one.”
She stared him in the eye. “You have me on a rope. I’m helpless.”
“You’re never helpless.”
“You don’t know me well enough to say that.” She started to dress. “I was helpless when you shot that dart into me. Everyone has moments when they’re not totally in control.”
“You’re right. I don’t know you. Why do I feel as if I do?”
Because these last weeks had taught them as much about each other as if they had known each other for years. “I have no idea.”
“Yes, you do. We may have some gigantic holes in the structure, but the foundation is there.”
“Your foundation is with Eve. That’s why I’m here.”
“Eve…” He was tying her to the tree. “Yes, it all goes back to Eve, doesn’t it? She holds all of us. You’ve gone the limit for her in the name of friendship.”
“I’ve gone after a man who has torn her life in pieces.”
“I never meant to do it. We came together like a summer storm. We never realized that it would last for the rest of our lives. I tried to stay away.”
“But you didn’t do it, did you. Why?”
“Bonnie. I would never have interfered with Eve’s life. She was right to put even the thought of me out of her mind. We’d both changed out of all recognition, and she had Quinn.” His lips twisted. “And I was a man who couldn’t even offer her a sound mind.”
Her gaze was probing his expression. “You care about