“Xiao Lu,” she stated, no ounce of fear in her voice. “You came.”
Of course I’d come. They were my family, taking me in and making me a part of their lives without any concern of who I was or what I did.
“Are you all right?” I forced out, glad to see that she wasn’t injured. “What about Baoshan?”
Her mouth twisted. “Come inside.”
I arched a brow. Ruhua seemed far too calm to have been kidnapped, though I shouldn’t be surprised at all. She never buckled under pressure. “Where is he?”
She shook her head, ignoring my questions. “Come inside, Xiao Lu. He wants to talk to you.”
Ruhua disappeared from the doorway before I had a chance to talk to her and I had no choice but to follow her, my hands itching to pull one of my blades, at least. If she was uninjured, I had to think that Adrian wanted something more from me.
I had been around him long enough to know that. Maybe he was here to negotiate a surrender… Wouldn’t that be something?
Still, I wanted to dig my knives into him until he screamed and begged for his life, to make him feel the same sort of pain I knew that Leda had gone through that day on the road. I wanted him to pay for everything he had done to her, but before I could do anything, I needed to ensure that the Wongs would be safe.
So, I refrained from doing so, moving into the dusty building myself. Adrian was standing in the middle of the room, no weapon in sight while Ruhua glared at him like she could fry him up for supper. Given the right context, I felt like she could easily do that.
Her husband sat in a chair in the corner, looking uninjured and pissed off, not at all afraid of what Adrian had done to them. I imagined that he had seen far worse in his day than Adrian.
“You came,” Adrian said flatly.
“Did you think I wouldn’t?” I replied, keeping my arms loosely at my sides.
Adrian was unarmed for now, which meant I could throw a knife and end his life before he even had a chance to think about drawing his weapon, but I was curious to know why he hadn’t injured the couple or attempted to kill me as soon as I entered the building.
“You made a fucking mistake by taking them.”
His eyes widened. “Look, I didn’t harm them. I swear it!” He pointed a finger at Ruhua. “She took a swing at me with her wok, though.”
“You interrupt us in morning!” Ruhua shot back, earning a grin from me. A force to be reckoned with, indeed.
“I apologized, didn’t I?” Adrian said darkly before looking back at me. “What I’m trying to say is that they have been well taken care of. I only needed them to draw you out.”
“Then why come unarmed?”
Adrian swallowed. “Because I have a deal to make with you.”
A deal? I arched a brow. I pulled my gun out and pointed it at his head. “You have thirty seconds to explain before I put a bullet in your brain.”
“I know where D’Agostino—Nico’s—family is.”
I didn’t lower the gun.
Adrian took a step backward, holding up his hands. “I swear it! Look, we know that Carmine wants those kids. And once he has them, well… what use will he have for me?”
I narrowed my eyes. There was no way in hell Adrian would have figured that out by himself. That meant somebody must have told him.
Nico.
“What’s in it for you?”
“Look, all I can assume is that if you’re here, then your squeeze is either sitting somewhere fretting, or she might be doing something stupid. Right now, the old man doesn’t have what he wants. He has what he can break, yes, but not what he wants.”
A chill ran through me, and I swallowed. “What does he plan to do with Leda?” I barked out.
“How should I know?” Adrian replied. “He treats me like a mushroom: keep me in the dark and feed me shit.”