The Heart of a Renegade
Luke Stone was alone. And he liked it that way. An ex-bodyguard, sworn never to protect again after his last failure, Luke needed no one. Until he met Jessica Chan. A journalist with a dark past, Jessica had uncovered deadly information that made her a target. And only Luke stood between her and certain death.She was everything he didn't want: a woman who attracted trouble…and attracted him. But as assassins closed in and emotions ran high, Jessica might become everything he needed….
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To my editor—Susan Litman,
for continuing to believe in me.
And to Johnny Onefeather, for the brainstorming.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
Prologue
Jessica Chan scrambled under the drooping boughs of a giant hemlock, her camera bag dragging through needles and loam, heavy wet branches drenching the thin fabric of her blouse.
Shaking from cold and nerves, she huddled tight against the base of the tree and peered through the curtain of branches as two Asian men emerged from the apartment building across the street.
They stopped, looked down the road for her.
Her heart stalled as she saw the glint of steel in one of the men’s hands.
The knife that had just killed her friend Stephanie.
The blade that had been meant for her, not her friend.
For a terrifying moment Jessica thought they’d seen her. She shut her eyes, telling herself it was not possible. The winter night was black as pitch, cloud low, freezing rain falling. There were no lights in the park.
One of the men cursed violently in Chinese and her pulse raced.
There was no doubt in Jessica’s mind—they were members of the Dragon Heads Triad.
And she was certain they would kill her because of what she’d seen—and photographed—in Chinatown that morning, because of the images still undeveloped on the roll of film in her Minolta camera.
She clutched her camera bag against her chest and watched as the men moved down the street, disappearing into the alley where Stephanie’s body lay.
Shivering violently, Jessica remained hidden under the hemlock branches in the park for hours, the image of the men knifing Stephanie rolling in a sickening loop through her brain.
Stephanie Ward had been Jessica’s closest friend, her only friend in this new city. She had invited Jessica to come to Vancouver from the U.K. to start afresh, offering Jessica a job at the small Canadian television station where she worked.
Jessica had been so grateful. Three years after her brutal kidnapping ordeal in China, she had finally abandoned psychotherapy and drug treatments, and her hallucinations hadn’t occurred for a while. She’d thought she was finally getting her life back on track.
Until she’d gone shopping in Chinatown that morning.
Until she’d seen—and photographed—Dragon Heads kingpin Xiang-Li, a wanted man in several countries, along with the unnamed man responsible for the pharmacological torture that had nearly destroyed her in China three years ago. A man Jessica called The Chemist.
Those two men had stolen her life. One of them was a man no one would even admit existed.
Jessica had gone straight to cops. She’d told no one else about her photographs apart from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but somehow the Triad had still been tipped off.
They’d ransacked her apartment, taken the negatives and prints from the one roll she’d already developed, then come for her. Too afraid to return to the police, Jessica had run to Steph’s apartment with the second roll still undeveloped in her camera.
The men must have followed her, been waiting in the dark alley for her to come out. Because of Stephanie’s height and coloring they must have mistaken her for Jessica when she’d borrowed Jessica’s raincoat and nipped out for cheesecake. They’d realized their mistake when they’d pulled the hood back from Steph’s face and looked up to see Jessica standing on the balcony. Watching in horror.
Tears finally filled Jessica’s eyes. Steph was dead.
And it was her fault.
It was well after midnight before Jessica finally dared leave the cover of the hemlock. The temperature was plunging and icy needles of rain stung her face. She was shaking uncontrollably, the first stages of hypothermia setting in, confusing her mind.
She had nowhere to go. No one to trust.
Not even the police.
Her cell phone was in the pocket of her coat—on Stephanie’s body. So was her driver’s license and her keys. The RCMP were going to be looking for her in connection with murder now. And she was being hunted by one of the biggest—and deadliest—Chinese organized crime syndicates.
There was only one person in the world who might be able to help her. Giles Rehnquist, her old colleague in Shanghai, would believe what she’d seen. He’d know what to do. She just had to reach a pay phone and call him in Shanghai.
Before the Triad got to her first.
Chapter 1
Luke Stone hunched over his shopping cart, black wool hat pulled low over his brow, eyes trained on the woman.
A blast of steam roiled from a vent in the sidewalk, disappearing with a white hiss into the frigid February night, but not for one instant did his focus stray from the woman standing alone outside the phone booth.
She was underdressed for these temperatures, shivering as she rubbed bare hands and checked her watch. He noted the heavy camera bag slung over her shoulder.
It was definitely Jessica Chan, ex-BBC foreign correspondent, Shanghai bureau. Here in Gastown at the appointed booth, at the allotted hour. His principal.
