- Chapter Sixty-Six -

Fishing For Unicorns

Rich as the stained pine of his childhood and vivid as the chocolate cake he had consumed after a victory, the dirt breaking off in his palm was a dark umber. Mud painting the veneer with woodsy tawny and real trail mix, a clump of grass was all that was keeping a bent stalk poking from the side of her head. Personally, he would have preferred it if it were a flower instead. More feminine that way.

Covered head to toe from what he could tell, if it weren't for the new phantom locks brushing her shoulder, he might not have even recognized the catch of the day. "Daniella Adler, we meet again."

Perhaps he was mistaken - maybe there was one other thing about the young heiress that was a dead give away for anyone that had ever seen her parents before.

Filled with that lovely shade of f-e-a-r, her eyes were identical glassy winter storms glossed over by the threat of eternal darkness. Verging on the cusp of popping out of that hard little skull when she saw the identity of the one that had rescued her, he could practically smell the horror caught in the back of her throat. Or maybe that was the unfortunate creature decomposing next to them.

Black as tar and thicker than blood, the instant panic she felt seemed lumped to all sides of the vertical tunnel, congealing into one great choking mass of anxious terror. Petrified into silence, the only noise she made was a high shrieking sound, strangled by pride and sheer emotion. Her bodyguard was some kilometers away, but maybe if the young woman could manage to scream loudly enough, he might hear and come running.

Poor thing, what was a songbird without a voice?

He would have told her to relax as she dangled those final few inches from the surface, however that would have been a waste of breath. Obviously the girl remembered him from their last encounter, at least if the stricken look on her face was any indication. For his own part, there was no love to be lost when there was never any to be had in the first place. All the same, things might be a little easier if they could see things eye-to-eye. If not...

Aware of how many red flags his appearance must have been setting off for the young woman, he would have rathered the situation be different. Less messy. Life was hardly ever so kind as that though; if he'd had his way on the matter, there wouldn't have to be a wedding at all, and he would be back in his cousin's sweet penthouse with his worldly possessions and the Mollies.

As a good son dedicated to the betterment of his family and loyal to the Mountain Master, Ruan Jian was the "lucky" bachelor selected to wed the granddaughter of the Dragon Head. As one of the highest ranked members of the North American branch, it was a privilege just to be considered for the honor. As the younger cousin of the Mountain Deputy, Pan Yahui, there was nothing but pressure to succeed as both a gang leader and a kinsman.

Blood and honor were everything he had been brought up to respect, however as an individual, Jian desired no part of an arranged marriage. In fact, he shunned the very institution on the grounds of age. Still in that golden era of his twenties and basically living the high life ruling a modern kingdom, why should he want to settle?

None of this was new, and something he had already tried to communicate with his just as reluctant bride-to-be. Granted, he could see how the circumstances might have left a poor impression on the girl. Overzealous to say the least, his men had invited the heiress to one of his many bases of operation, and they had gotten a little rough. Masters at their craft, it was fine if they got carried away on the swine, but this, this one was a pearl. No, the silver egg that would hatch his golden goose. That was the saying, yes?

Jian was still learning to speak the language proficiently, however he had come to wrap his head around a good number of American customs. Such as the gratuitous use of brute force. Grip firm so that she didn't go tumbling back down the rabbit hole again, he would sooner die than part from the woman that was to be his wife, yanking her to the rim of the rut.

Quivering all over, the frightened child didn't know what to do with herself, if she should cry out for mommy and daddy to scare away the monster underneath the bed or if she should try and fight. Cute as that routine might have looked (or not, his nose twinging as he remembered how strong she could get when cornered), the gangster had no desire to overstay his welcome. Pulling the heiress topside, his first act was to order silence, pressing his fingers against her cracked lips.

"Shh, shush now." In an earnest effort to bridge the gap between them, he opted for English where he could, however certain things he only knew to express in his native tongue. "I just wanna talk. That'll be easier if it's just the two of us."

Never far from the trail, after the heiress and her companions had slipped out of his sphere of control, Jian had had each tailed from a distance. The problem was pinning the young woman herself - traveling over the sea would do that. Some of his men had grown antsy at losing her scent (even Yahui), however it was hardly rocket surgery to figure out where her bodyguard was taking her. Obviously he would go home, where they were guaranteed room and board, a safe place to lick their wounds and regroup. Learning that it was the niece's birthday had come later, during reconnaissance.

Following the duo to the island where his brother lived, Jian had selected a handful of his best men to escort him to keep an eye on the situation and wait for an opening. Naturally Angel and Ashley had volunteered to come along, but it seemed to the boss that this was a job that required a certain kind of finesse that those two sorely lacked. Again, masters at their craft, but maybe not the people you would want to bring along if you were trying to coax out a unicorn.

Sugar cube in hand, Jian acknowledged the cagey way his bride-to-be's eyes kept darting around the grove, as if she were expecting someone else to pop out from the bushes. If it was her man, she would be sorely disappointed to learn that he had elected to give her some space after their little spat. For about five minutes.

"It's just us." The fisherman might have left it at that, if the sugar-coated carrot didn't require more slack. "Only two of my men are on the island. Ludoviko you can't miss, although you might not guess that he's one of mine. Then there's Zanny. Zan to you, although it's highly unlikely you'll meet him here. Travel does not agree with Zanny, but as he says, I was obligated to bring him."

Pinky finger digging deeper into her jaw than it needed to, it was probably for the best that the young heiress learn what kind of man he was before the nuptials. If his goal had been to ease her overactive imagination, the triad leader could have informed her that Zanny should still be up in his room sleeping. The lazy bastard. The last time he had seen Ludo, the big guy was waiting down the road to bring him to breakfast when they were finished there.

But he wasn't there to look out for the little girl's well-being. Not yet. "By my count, the closest one to us is Drake."

Jump-started like a dead car battery, the little rabbit's heart began to thump wildly in her chest, filling his ears with the sounds of an old lullaby. By the light of day, things were kept fairly low-key and professional, but when the sun set and the liquor was flowing... Well, as the evidence indicated, there was no denying that the Adler girl cared about her bodyguard, perhaps a little more than she should.

Heiress going still as a porcelain mask when she met his dark hazel gaze, Jian surveyed the girl, "Are you going to behave? I would rather have this conversation like two civilized adults, but I'm not above making you listen." Oh, his bride-to-be was going to hear him out, one way or another.

Given one single chance, the young woman hesitated before nodding softly against the flat of his palm. Uneasy about something he had said, the rarest of birds stole another peek around his shoulder, almost as if she didn't trust him at his word. A major goal for the marriage, for now it was just enough that his sweet bride-to-be wasn't sounding the alarm.

Except no, apparently the brat couldn't be trusted to be anything more than a frightened little girl that never ventured further than her mother's skirts. Raising the alarm the moment that he had removed his hand from her face, the glassy surface had cracked and her mouth was no longer a hopeless line but a screaming circlet. Wailing loud enough to awaken the nearby deceased, her cries weren't enough to rouse her faithful vassal it would seem. What a pity.

Reaching into the cinnamon depths of his snazzy stitched ruby blazer, the man ripped out a concealed hand canon and swung it in retribution, catching the young woman just below the eye. Anger only a part of the equation, if he was going to tame his horned mare, he was going to have to show her who was master.

Weary of another, the silver foal shied away from the man when he raised his hand a second time. Bleating out for help that wasn't coming, the golden gander recoiled from the brusque brush of the thumb that smoothed the bright magenta splotch spreading across the side of her face. "Don't you look at me like that. I offered to play nice."

Hope dying slightly in her eyes when no one came running, the heiress scanned the horizon as if there was a chance that they had come further than she thought. No such luck, instead the young woman stupidly went for the aforementioned sixshooter. Scuffle brief and largely one-sided when her heel sharply came down on his instep, it was the little girl that had ended up with the gun. Displaying some level of basic competence, the young filly was apparently better informed than most, knowing to check the safety before pointing the barrel at the thing she wanted dead.

Lacking confidence in the way she held the weapon, due to the heiress' shoddy aim it seemed more likely that she would hurt herself than him. Somehow, that did not seem like it bothered her nearly as much as his butchers. "I'm not going back to Angel and Ashley!"

Mildly surprised to see how much of an impression they had left, he shook his head. "Too loud. They would only attract the wrong attention here, so I commanded them to stay in the city." Technically speaking this island was located in a free zone, however it was close to a territory that was not triad. Smarter than to risk causing an incident, it was not easy convincing them to stay when Ashley suggested going straight for the girl again and slitting anyone's throat that dared get in the way. "So long as I keep them busy, they obey."

Frown deeply troubled, it was clear that she had her doubts about the pair being under anybody's control; impressed by shows of force, it was true that Angel was the only one of the two with the patience for a meeting like this. The wet dream of the Spanish Inquisition, the two were an inseparable pair, so it wouldn't do to try to bring one without the other.

Coming to terms with that much, she wrapped her finger around the trigger and pointed it at Jian, "What did you do to Sam?" Stepping around the hole so that she wasn't blown back inside, despite how beaten she had looked earlier, Daniella was coming dangerously close to embodying the gang's namesake. "Where is he?"

Testing the mettle of the little twit that had been chosen for his bride, the triad leader stepped into the barrel, holding the weapon steady so she had a clean shot. "It's a big park. How should I be expected to know?" Guessing from the dumbfounded look on her face that she hadn't done her homework, he generously supplied a free history lesson for the schoolgirl. "You didn't hear? This place was a hot spot until a string of unsolved murders in the nineties."

Actually true, they never did catch the guy - the murders had just ceased one day without an explanation. The local government hadn't found the killer, so they never re-opened the park officially. Naturally that had attracted shady sorts, but no more than there would have been otherwise. As to why no one was out there now, Jian suspected that the recent storm had something to do with that.

"Unsolved?" There was a crack in her voice that even the tone-deaf could hear.

Nothing easier than taking candy from a baby, while she was distracted with thought, he wrested the weapon away from the heiress before her sweaty palms could ruin the custom tiger eye grip. Waving the revolver in front of her face before sucking in a deep breath through his teeth, Jian showed his bride-to-be restraint. "Try that again, and there'll be one more for the cops."

Taking no more chances, he pressed the cold metal tip up into her ribs. Due to the delicate balance of his standing he couldn't kill her on purpose, but the blanks he had ordered special should do the trick. "Next time, when I give you the chance, you should take it. Although, I must caution you - there are worse than me." Jamming the point against his target's chest for good measure, the groom-to-be spurred her forth. "Now move."

March through the unmarked grove a short one, the insects and rodents were beginning to stir beneath their feet, a bird singing dutifully in its nest to its eggs. Pale brown feathers drifted lightly overhead, molted from the weakling that hadn't yet attracted a mate, and probably never would. A squirrel chattered with a gray kinsmen from two trees away, watching the two passing humans with great big shining eyes that both threatened and pleaded. It's brethren seemed to not notice either lumbering giant.

Redundant to make this a muted trek when the entire point of revealing himself to the heiress was to win her over, the man only gave her long enough to accept that this was happening. Possessively wrapping his scarlet sleeve around the young woman as if she had already agreed, the hand that wasn't steering the girl was keeping the gun trained to her side. One way to teach his bride-to-be manners, the girl had best mind herself if she didn't want him to do what she couldn't. Seriously, her body was busted up enough.

Side-eyeing the young woman as they went, Jian started, "I just wanted you to understand everything that's at stake here. Everyone else is so focused on the bigger picture, they seem to forget that we're the ones everything is happening to."

From the look on her face, Jian presumed that she agreed with his reasoning, so he continued, "This isn't an ideal situation for either of us, but that doesn't mean we can't make the most of it, right? Let me ask, as American royalty, have you ever felt powerful and in charge?" There was a pause, as if she were genuinely considering what he was laying out. "We seldom are ever in control. Some think they are, and some genuinely do have a taste of power at select moments, but in the end, most aren't. This is a better compromise than anyone could hope for."

[Just A Peek]

"Compromise?" It was a word that she knew well enough, being the daughter of business itself.

Where did my courage go? Hoping to find an inner strength that had long ago fled, the heiress grunted as a stray twig swatted her in the face, the jade leaves tickling her cheek and nose and the tan limb scratching everyplace else. So much for chivalry.

Index curling around the ghost trigger that she had so brightly failed to pull, on a good day Daniella could probably have done as Jian had suggested and ended it right then and there. Right between the eyes, she could hear her father's voice as he had threatened some faceless soldier back in Scotland.

Maybe she could have done it, but today wasn't a good day. Not any more, not after the last stars had faded out of the night sky. And as much as she hated to admit it, there was bound to be a list of back-up grooms to take Jian's place on the off chance that things had completely fallen apart. Despite how dark these encounters had ended, at least he had made two separate attempts to speak to her.

"What do you think you have against us that we need to compromise?" Her parents' daughter in the end, the only thing she could think to do was puff out her feathers to hide the damage beneath the down.

[Show's Over]

Amused by this show of bravado, he chuckled at the young foal, "You mean besides having one of the largest gangs in living history? Only information and resources, I'm afraid. Or..." Taking this matter quite seriously after the lecture his cousin had given him, Jian regarded the young woman as thoughtfully as he might an ally with a half-way decent plan.

"You mean personally?" Answering for her, he shook his head, "It's not what I have against you but what I can do for you. Imagine for a moment that we agreed to this production - we would have the power to do whatever we wanted. I can keep managing my men and living my life, and you can do whatever it is you have your heart set on. You want to be a star? Done. You want to kill that kid in third-grade that popped his gum in your hair? Done. You will finally be able to put all the pieces in your life exactly where you want them to be, and the only person we'll have to answer to is on the other side of the world."

Heart racing at the prospect of how close the unattainable gem was to being in his possession, for just a moment Jian thought that he had lured his prize out into the open at last. Rigid set in her shoulders dropping just a hair, the heiress had even gone so far as forgetting the firearm, however, she was far from taking the bait. "I... No, none of that is..."

Quick to remind the mare of who was holding the reigns before she could bolt, Jian stopped them just shy of their destination. "Examples. Fame, money, and vengeance are the biggest motivators I've seen, but if you want something else, we may see." Language barrier more prone to appear when discussing terms, the gamer-gangster took another stab at it, using what he had gleaned thus far. "What about safety?"

Tick subconscious, the girl lightly bobbed her head, telling him that he was getting closer to the mark. Judging solely from her reaction to Ashley and Angel, the heiress wanted very much to be safe, to not have to live in constant terror of the shadows on the walls and what might be lurking below. His bride-to-be had spent more than enough time at the mercy of ghosts, and who better to keep the monsters at bay than the one that employed them in the first place?

"Because I can keep you safe. I won't pretend like I will always be there to catch you when you fall, like some, but I can make it so that no one can ever hurt you again." Hinting to the young woman that he knew all about her little moonlight tryst on the beach, the truth was that Jian still wasn't quite sure how he felt about his betrothed having a built-in lover.

Games the reason why he knew that you had to sweeten deal to get that diamond tiara from the guy curious about a vending machine (of all things), or the ear of the ealdorman for the Crones, Jian had one final way to convince his bride-to-be. "Do you remember when I said that there were worse than me? If this does not happen, they will come for you by any means necessary. I don't enjoy killing, but those guys? My cousin is one of them, and he'll make it so that anyone you've talked to these last five years will suffer."

More naive than that, his bride-to-be wasn't the sort that wanted all of that blood on her hands.

[Dance Rehearsal In The Mind of The Broken]

He wasn't threatening them, but Jian was promising that they very well could be hurt as a consequence. "That teacher of yours that the girls are so fond of. That you were so fond of, once. Your fellow volunteers, the chef and all the groundskeepers, down to your dentist. Even that charming blonde that works at the ice-cream parlor you frequent." Big or small, they were all a target for the Orange Tiger Association. "I don't think I need to go on, do I?"

That Nadine lady was probably on the list, right next to Chloe and Logan and Rafael. Elena, Mr. Drake, Cassie, and... Nodding meekly in understanding, Dells was nearly at her tipping point once more. "No, I get it. We all have targets on our backs right now. You, me, and everyone on this rock."

Like sandpaper and no gloves on the hottest day in July, it was a daunting thought, imaging all those lives on a single scale. All waiting on me to tip it, one way or another. In order to not have to think about that too, the girl focused on something else that he had said. "You've killed before?" Jian didn't have the air of a killer per say, but she could believe it with the kind of demons he kept.

"As have you." Tilting his head as if in whimsy, he gestured to the gun.

[No Solicitors]

Bride-to-be getting the point to keep moving, she abruptly froze when they reached the clearing.

Blue now the dominate shade in the morning sky, the rose gold had been replaced by the color of runny tears and the deeper magenta had turned a watery bluebell. Streaks of ominous gray fingerprints lingered like the marks of a strong lover, domineering the parts of the heavens that weren't cut by the wings of early scavengers in hunt of their worms. Tucked behind a fortress of leftover clouds that warred over the right time to dissipate, the sun was more of a cooper disk than a gold one.

Faint light filling the overgrown spaces between the wooden soldiers, the rain-drenched leaves were finally beginning to dry out. Crisp sage canopy no longer sagging beneath the weight of a thousand glittering droplets, the dead russet carpet was regaining the ability to whistle in the mild breeze that was blowing through the grove. Originating from the sea, even among the corpses of berries ripe enough to explode at the lightest touch and withered oranges just barely clinging to the last vestiges of life, there was the vaguest hint of salt in the air.

Reports all indicating that the only daughter of Adler enjoyed spending her time outside, Jian could tell by the broken twinkle in her eye that the nature wasn't what had caught her attention. Knowing his betrothed as well as he did, the sharply dressed man was willing to bet his own money that she hadn't even noticed the hulking shape in the background. Donning a coat of pinstripes and a silk ascot of solid sea foam green, Ludo was a hard figure to ignore, and yet she seemed to be doing a fine enough job.

Merely knocked unconscious and left where he had fallen, Ludoviko had taken care to leave Drake where the girl could spot him. Unmarked and breathing, the old man was clearly going to be fine when he woke up from his nap, however that hadn't stopped her from finding an untapped reserve of will that had allowed her to rip free from the saddle. Not entirely made up of panic, the heiress threw her future husband to the side like last week's Vera Wang and ran to the other man's side.

It might have been romantic, if it weren't so utterly pathetic.

"Sam!" Relief washing over her features when she saw that his heart was still beating, the heiress curled up so that she could rest his head on her knees. Tender with her thief, when it came to her groom-to-be the woman had leered acid over her shoulder. No doubt feeling the reminder of what he could do, the young woman snapped her head back around to scream at his own man in proxy, "What did you do to him?!"

Look dirtier than any drink and voice packing more venom than any suit could, Jian could hardly blame Ludo for being cowed into answering. Then again, what with his letters the man was known to be on the sentimental side. "Nothing. I just caught him off his guard is all. Think he thought I was somebody else." From the lore of the brothers Drake, he had gotten lucky. Very lucky.

Acting as if they had not been interrupted by the scene at hand, the triad resumed, "Ideally this is all just a business arrangement." Like all marriages were, really, but this one could be fully transparent and without the emotional baggage of a real relationship.

No 'does this dress make me look fat' or yelling at him for planning a spur-of-the-moment 'boy's night'. All the thorny details could be ironed out, such as if his bride-to-be had certain tastes that could not be met in privacy, or alternative arrangements had to be made. Well, he mused as he watched the girl fawning all over the adventurer as if she could somehow protect them both, maybe not all her tastes.

Daniella had spared Jian no courtesy once Drake was in her arms, her eyes saved solely for the thief. She did however know enough about etiquette to parrot back some kind of proof that she was at least listening. "Ideally."

Between himself and Ludo, it was almost painful how easy it would have been to kill them both in that moment. Sure, they could probably do the old man, but that wouldn't go over well with the girl; if there was anything that Jian had learned from the Mollies, it was that you never could predict how a woman might react. Especially one with a questionable family history that was... shall he say, smitten?

"We would only have to see each other for special occasions, such as family holidays and major gatherings." He was almost talking himself into believing that this was a good deal, until he remembered that there would be one potentially awkward stipulation that was demanded of the both of them. "I fear I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that at some point after our wedding, certain things might be required of us, as man and wife."

Oh, they would definitely be required, and with the old man, there was no knowing that the night of the marriage was going to be a private affair between man and wife. On paper, if it were happening to anyone else, Jian could see the logic in making sure that both parties were performing their duty to the contract.

Allowing that to sink in as he found his next point, Jian shook his head with a low sigh, as if he meant to relate to the young foal. "I know it may seem daunting to consider, but I would make it as painless as I could for you." If indeed he was right about the first night of the honeymoon, the triad wasn't entirely sure what all could be done for the girl, but there were a few ideas he had been kicking around.

Although, by that point, who was to say that she hadn't been sufficiently been broken in?

Her mouth had formed a hard little line, indicating to him that she didn't much care to delve into that branch of conversation just yet. Fair enough, with her current lover right there.

"If you don't want to think about that, then think of the family that we already do have." Realizing that it as the one area he had yet to try to exploit, Jian doubled down on the guilt of disobeying the wishes of kin, "Your grandfather could rest easy knowing that the family line will continue. My cousin and your mother can stop micromanaging our lives for a moment. The rest will be content enough."

[Daniella's Special Backstage Pass]

'Content enough'... As comfortable as Jian had made that life sound, the pitch wasn't quite selling the heiress just yet. Although, it was making all of the sense that Sam had turned inside out and threw on its head. Marry Jian like her grandfather wanted, and basically all of this would go away. She would be treated like a queen, kept safer than any secret in the whole world, and it would bring her family honor. Honor that her mother had tainted long ago.

For all his crimes, Daniella couldn't bring herself to blame her father for this. Her mother on the other hand... Ambitious, calculating, and cruel, the woman was as beautiful as she was selfish, choosing to carve out a path that led to her own daughter having to pay for it.

[Jian's Flip Outweighs The Quip]

Run out of valid arguments to make, there was only so much more left for him to say. Watching the pair with stoic eyes, Ludo seemed to have grasped this as well, giving his knuckles a mighty crack before making his exit. Parked just outside the front gates, the antiqued rental would no doubt require a minute to rumble to life - such was the price for getting such a cheap car. Oh well, better than causing a scene and arousing anyone's suspicions.

As alone as they were going to get, Jian looked at his bride-to-be with an unmistakable gravity in his hark hazel eyes. Honest about this above all else, he sincerely hoped that she could say the same when the time came. "We've been speaking about what could happen if you agree to your honorable grandfather's deal, but we have barely touched on what happens if you don't. Even now, I can tell you're thinking about it. Whatever you decide, just let me ask you one thing: what do you fight for?"

Willing herself to not answer, the Adler girl was betrayed by a blue-gray storm blowing through the morning haze for a certain silhouette.

[Da Club Of Da Loonies]

Mind pondering the options before her and trying to see where each road might lead (because the young woman was in such a great place to be making these huge life-altering decisions), she wished that she could press the pause button. Daniella Adler didn't have much of anything for all the money and clout that came with her name, but Dells... In short, there was one answer.

What do I fight for? What *do* I fight for...? A good question, obviously there was a lot to be gained from the bargain (at least on paper, assuming that most of these things weren't lies), but what would she really be leaving behind? Daniella had nothing that she would miss, nothing that she could live without. But Dells? That girl couldn't really claim a thing, yet she was happy where she was.

But was that because of all the people she had met, or was it...? Loathe to think his name even now, pride and vanity had kept the heiress from crying out to her thief in his stolen armor. Then the nightmares were given flesh, and there had been no time to dwell on the sins of the past.

Either way I look at it, this is my mother's fault. Jian, grandfather, and the one path that would prove I did well by my ancestors. Sam.

Dani may have been of two minds about the situation regarding those most important to her, but she knew that if she stayed this course, she could buy that much more time. Time to heal from the scars, time to forgive and more importantly, forget. Time to...

Scarlet-eyed and snake-nosed, that little thing called reason intervened in the fantasy, demanding to know how any part of her could even consider moving forward when he was the reason why her father was dead in the first place. How she could stand to hold him as if nothing had happened. Dad's destiny would have been the same, Sam or no Sam.

Anyways, the man clearly felt bad about it, right? And he cares... Does he though?

He must, a little. Why, because I want him to? Newsflash, no one cares what I want - I'm just a means to an end for all of them. (Sometimes that little voice was just a little too snarky).

Jian's-

Jian is just being upfront about it.

For now.

Fair enough, I'll give me that one.

Rapidly deteriorating, the more that Daniella attempted to sort out the thoughts in her head, there was a counter-argument already lined up and waiting to go. As much as she wanted to keep going along with Sam the way that they were, the heiress wasn't prepared to just drop everything that came with finally learning the truth of that situation. Avery's Millions, Libertalia, call the quest whatever you wanted, she just wasn't there yet.

Confused to say the least, Dells couldn't answer in words.

[At Least Jian Will Dance With The One That Brought Him]

Getting a good grasp on the extent of the relationship his bride-to-be had with that relic of the past if nothing else, Jian followed her line of sight. He had the power to end her misery right there by telling her exactly what was keeping her from him, but with the heiress at breaking point it was better to refrain. At this stage, the gang leader felt confident that she would come to see things his way.

He just had to play his cards right. "You don't have to say anything. It's a long weekend, and there's a party to attend. Go, enjoy yourself."

Jian might not be a master fisher in real life, but he understood the merits of telling her that she didn't have to make up her mind right away. Frustrated by her peers and shown an ingot of compassion from who she perceived to be her enemies, the pony was all but eating out of the palm of his hand.

Hesitating before he left, the man gave her shoulder a bracing squeeze before placing his gun back in its holster. "If not for me, then do yourself a favor and seriously think about who it is you leave this island with."

Author's Note:

Meep. Between being sick (and still questioning if there's something off about a previous chapter), refining this chapter and then re-writing half of it to better reflect the characters and a more realistic turn of events, it's been a time. And you get a cookie if you find the 'American Werewolf In Paris' reference :)