The Jade Garden (The Barrington Patch Book 2) by Emmy Ellis (reading diary txt) 📗

to pay. The intruder would disappear, just like Lenny would want, except Cassie would mess him up first in a way Lenny never would have. She had a sadistic side, did Cassie, enjoying the power she wielded.

Li Jun thought she had something to prove, that her violence came from needing folks to know she wasn’t a female who’d wither under pressure.

His phone rang, and he glanced at the screen, thinking it’d be Nuwa asking when he’d be home. Their sons had gone up into the flat above the Jade to tell her about Jiang and look after her while Li Jun was out, but she’d panic, convincing herself he’d been followed by someone involved in the robbery and wouldn’t return.

It wasn’t his wife but Cassie.

He dreaded what she had to say. He wasn’t sure he could take much more this side of bedtime. Guilt pricked at him that he’d brought his brother, Zhang Wei, over from China, and years later his son had been killed, all because of the side business at the Jade. All because Li Jun had stepped over the line into bad territory.

Zhang Wei had agreed to all the terms and had worked for Li Jun to start with, but seeing how well the Jade had done, even without drug sales, Zhang Wei had opened his own takeaway years later on another estate. Jiang could have worked for his father but had chosen Li Jun as his boss—he preferred to keep his job separate from his immediate family.

If only he’d opted for The Golden Dragon instead, he’d still be here.

He sensed Mei staring at him expectantly, the ringing going on and on, jarring in the silence and brushing against his nerves.

He got up and shuffled to the kitchen, closing the door. Swiped the screen. “Yes?”

“I’ve found who it was, and he’s disappeared,” Cassie said, the sound of a car engine bumper to bumper with her words.

His stomach rolled over. “Who was it?”

“Brett Davis.”

So Li Jun had been right, the beef curry and egg fried rice giving the man away. Such a simple slip-up had sealed Brett’s fate. He didn’t want to know how she’d killed him. “I am glad he has vanished.”

“I’m on my way to see his aunt, Helen. You know, the woman who runs the laundrette. She may be involved, and if she is, she’ll disappear an’ all.”

“Thank you.”

“Have you seen Mei yet?”

“I am here now, and I have to go to Zhang Wei soon. We have not told him or his wife anything so far.”

“Okay. I’ll update you, all right?”

“Thank you again.”

The line went dead, and Li Jun sagged against the door, the handle digging into his side. Brett? What a shame the lad had turned out the way he had. A regular at the Jade, confused by drugs for the most part, but he’d been pleasant enough. He’d bought his goods from Li Jun along with his food order but had never given him reason to believe he knew about the fridge. He would have seen Li Jun going into the office to collect what he needed, but how was Brett to know the drugs weren’t stored in a safe?

As Cassie said, someone had told him.

He sighed and left the kitchen, returning to Mei in the lounge. “It was Cassie. The man has been caught. He will not trouble anybody again.”

She blinked, her wet lashes clumped together. “Who…?”

Forgive me for lying. “I do not know, but she said he is gone. Permanently.”

Mei nodded, all her tears dried up, and she rose to hug him. Li Jun held her close, allowing a few tears to fall, then he stuffed his spine with courage and pulled away.

“I must go to see Zhang Wei now. Will you be okay?”

She nodded.

“If you need to come and stay at the flat, Nuwa will look after you and the children for as long as you need.”

“I know.”

He walked out, despondent, the fire of anger going out now Brett had been killed. All he wanted to do was go home to his wife and have her smooth away the hurt, but he couldn’t. It was his responsibility to report to his brother, and he would do so no matter how much he mourned his beloved nephew.

He drove to the other estate, parking around the back of The Golden Dragon, beneath the large kitchen window. Light spilt out, and Zhang Wei cleaned up inside, wiping the steel surfaces. Li Jun’s chest constricted, and he took a deep breath then got out. At the door, he knocked his usual pattern to let his brother know it was him. Arriving past midnight wasn’t the norm, and he didn’t want Zhang Wei worrying he was about to be robbed.

Zhang Wei opened up, his great big smile creating a piercing pain inside Li Jun. That smile would dissolve into a mask of anguish soon, and he didn’t delight in putting it there.

“Ah, Li Jun, I was just thinking about you. I have a proposition to put to you.” Zhang Wei stepped back to let him in. “We would need to pool our money, but you will get yours back quickly, I promise.”

Li Jun entered and waited for Zhang Wei to close the door and lock it. He’d allow his sibling to say what he had to say, a delay tactic on Li Jun’s part, a cowardly move but one he couldn’t help but employ at the moment. Telling Mei had been harrowing, but giving Zhang Wei the news would be more so, crippling, bringing Li Jun to his emotional knees along with his brother. A parent losing his child—it didn’t bear thinking about—yet here they were, in this terrible situation, and there was nothing that could change what had happened.

There was no bringing Jiang back.

“I want to open a takeaway