Crissy Chance Read online

  “Take it home,” said an anxious Adam. “But I need you upstairs now.”

  The three went up the stairs between floors four and five to find Noki on the couch, cuffed and gagged.

  “Adam, what the fuck have you done!”

  “Settle down, Serena. This is Nocera Lee of the Yakuza, recently sold by the Triads of Hong Kong and hired to kill me. We had our little fight, but I noticed she was in pain, and ready to pass out. Not very assassin-like. I think she’s been poisoned. I looked on her back for signs of what it might be, but then I saw something else. Something much worse.”

  He turned to Noki.

  “I’m taking out the gag, so you can talk to the doctor and her husband, also a doctor. They are world class experts in burn medicine and all manner of toxicology. Let them see your back and talk to them please. If you don’t, you’ll die anyway.”

  Adam removed the gag.

  “Are the cuffs really necessary?”

  “I’m gonna have to say yes to that. Did I mention she just tried to kill me? She’s lethal.”

  Bob asked, “More or less than you?”

  Serena said, “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing dear,” said Bob. “Let’s have a look.”

  The good doctors moved Noki into position and undid her dress along the zipper line.

  “Adam, do you have a 10x?”

  “Yes. I’ll get it.”

  Serena and Bob spent a half hour or so examining Noki, asking a few questions.

  “What was your diagnosis, Dr. St. James.”

  He looked at Noki, “Computers, not medicine. Still, respect is always appreciated. I’m a chef too.”

  To Serena he said, “Massive childhood abuse using some form of chemical agent, then beaten or struck repeatedly. Explains the scar pattern and probably what’s wrong with her. I think someone was trying to kill her slowly and make it look like natural causes.”

  Serena said, “There’s physical burning too, probably cigarettes or something similar. The damage, I’m guessing, is all over her body. Has she been treated?”

  Adam turned to Noki, “Well, have you? This is no joke. Tell the truth.”

  “Chinese herbal medicine. Salves for the scarring and herbs for the pain. But it’s getting worse. The medicines aren’t working anymore.”

  “They never did. Whoever did this to you used compounds containing mercury. It embedded in your scarification as you healed, but then the mercury started leaking from your scars into your bloodstream. Once mercury gets in the body, it’s hard to it get out. There might have been some asbestos in your wounds too. That might be a result of where you lived. In any event, if you don’t get help, you’re going to die.”

  “Why should I believe you? You don’t know me. And I just tried to kill your friend. Why would you want to help me? Who am I to you?”

  “You’re a patient and I’m a doctor. If there’s a problem between you and Adam, take it up with him. For now, you need help, and Bob and I may be able to give you the treatment you will need. It’s experimental, but it’s been effective.”

  “What is it?”

  “Think of it as a cleanse for mercury and asbestos. But we need to fix your surface body with immediate surgery. The scarification contains the mercury; you need surgery to remove it. It will take time and it will be expensive.”

  “Time like weeks?”

  “No, more like months or even years.”

  “How expensive is expensive?”

  “A lot. Maybe millions before we’re all done. I’m sorry. But these are the facts. I’m going to write down the names of three specialists. I will call them in the morning and you need to go see them. They’ll run tests right away and consult with me. Then we’ll start your treatment.”

  “I can’t possibly pay for any of this. And I have other much more pressing problems.”

  Serena looked down at Noki. “Listen to me dear. Moneybags here will pay for your treatment, and I’m pretty sure he can fix your other problems too. At least if the rumors are true.”

  “You mean the ones about my sexual stamina?”

  “Yeah; those.”

  “We’re going home. Bob, pick up the kids and the toys and meet me downstairs.”

  Bob left.

  “Adam, fix her fucking business problems then get her to her appointments tomorrow. No fucking around.”

  “You know why I love you Serena?”

  “I’m a friend and a great doc?”

  “No, you curse way better than Bob, and he was a Marine.”

  “Ain’t that the shits.”

  “True dat.”

  ***

  When they were alone, Adam said, “It’s just us, all BS aside. What do you want to do?”

  “Nothing. There’s nothing to do. I can never pay for any of this and the Yakuza will kill me as soon as they find me anyway. I have nowhere to go.”

  “Let’s go over to your place and collect a few things. Then we’ll fix the other things one at a time. I’ll call Sandford.”

  “Who?”

  My driver. Just don’t call him Sandford. Call him Miles. He’s sensitive about his first name. Ex- SAS, so you wouldn’t think so, but he is.”

  “Where are we going after that?”

  “Back here. I’ll make up the second bedroom. But you must promise not to try to kill me. If you want to run, then run. If you want me to call you a cab right now, I will. But you can’t run far enough or fast enough to get away from these problems. Stay here with me and I’ll fix what I can and help with the rest.”

  “Why? I tried to kill you tonight?”

  “Ah, baloney. You couldn’t kill me if you had two guns and tried to shoot me while I was asleep. I was on to you right away. Besides, I like you. You’re not boring and it gets quiet around here. You’re a challenge. And exciting!”

  “You’re probably wrong about what you think you know about me. I’m not very nice most of the time, and I kill people for a living.”

  “See. We’re off to a good start. I’m an asshole most of the time, can’t keep a girlfriend, and I kill people too. Like the guys that hired the Yakuza to kill me. I’ll need to have a word with the Yakuza in the morning.”

  Adam paused, “You know, now that I think of it, if I call now I can still catch them. Can I uncuff you or not?”

  “You trust me?”

  “Hell no. But here’s where we start. You stand right here while I call an old friend in Tokyo.”

  Adam called his contact, explained to him how the Triads sold them damaged merchandise and made fools of them. And that he was annoyed that the Yakuza took a contract that was out on him.

  Adam said, “She’s dead no matter what you do and it would have seemed like it was just a medical condition or she died fulfilling her contract. I’ll send you the doctor’s reports to confirm but let me offer you a deal. If I’m lying, you can call off the deal and we all go back to the status quo ante.”

  “I’m listening.” The Yakuza man on the other end was an old friend of Adam’s from college and, though junior in the Yakuza ranks, he was the son of one of the top men in the crime syndicate’s Tokyo organization. If he committed to Adam, things would be fixed.

  “I’ll buy her contract from you. Twice the price you paid. Good for you, good for her. That way, no war with the Triads and no shame for whoever made the deal. And to be clear between old friends, you got took.”

  “What’s your interest in her. Why the generosity over a dead woman?”

  “Thought I’d turn her out for a while see if I can make back my investment. She’s pretty hot, you know.”

  “No.”

  “She’s a financial analyst; she helps me with money management. Balances my check book.”

  “No.”

  “I like her. I want her around. I’ll get her treatment and she may yet still live. You know what an asshole I am. And you’ve seen her. My rep soars and I get laid a lot just having her around. It’s worth a lot to me.”


  The Yakuza man said, “I think you have no idea why you’re helping her. I think you’re a ‘do gooder’ at heart and have billions to spend. You make more money in a day than I will this entire year. I think you want to save someone, some poor soul, and she’s the one you’ve chosen.”

  Adam said, tonelessly, in his best negotiation voice, “A million to you, cash, and one hundred cases of that Scotch you like.”

  “No cops.”

  “Promise. None now, none ever. Besides the FBI never figured out that thing we did. Let’s face it, we’re stuck with each other.”

  “Am I right?”

  “You are. I have a lot to atone for; she does too. Just not if we’re dead.”

  “What about my clients.”

  “They’re missing. Tragic accident about to happen. Keep their money. I’ll clean up the rest. Cash, check or Money Order?”

  “I’ll send you wire instructions for my bank in the Caymans.”

  “Thanks Johnny. You’re the man.”

  “It’s Mr. Yoshimura now. No more western ways.”

  “Yoshi it is.”

  ***

  “Who was that?”

  “An old friend.”

  “You bought my contract?”

  “I did. You work for me now. Yoshi gets an extra million in cash and a lot of Scotch just to let you go.”

  “You’re not going to …”

  “Turn you out? No. I want to turn you around. Like he said, I need to do this for … me. I’ve done bad things and now I need to do some offsetting good things. I think you happening in my life right now is what is supposed to be. For me and for you. But you need to believe that too. This part was easy; now the hard stuff begins. Serena said this treatment will be long and painful. But she thinks you’ll make it. But you can’t give up. You have to try, and try harder than you ever have before.”

  “And what do you get out of all of this?”

  “Penitence and forgiveness.”

  “You don’t strike me as a man who needs either.”

  “You don’t know me. You don’t know what I’ve done. I want to be a better man. I think you can help.”

  “I don’t …”

  “Sleep with men?”

  “Not normally. No.”

  “Not part of the deal. You do treatment and get better; I’ll take care of my shitty love life. I expect you to pimp for me. Tomorrow you have appointments, then I need you to meet Kalindra.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “My ‘work wife’. She handles all business matters, contracts, scheduling. You can help around the office too. Filing, delivering pink slips, collecting past due invoices, that kind of thing. You are a hired killer, aren’t you?”

  “Not funny.”

  Noki looked scared. She said she was afraid the Yakuza in New York City would kill her anyway.

  “You’re going to be fine, and so am I. We can help each other. Tomorrow we go shopping. Everything new. Symbolic of a new life. Out with the old, in with the new. Besides, I’m not sure how safe it is for you to go back to your place right now. Let’s stay here. I’ll make up your room.”

  “Where?”

  “Right next to mine. You can lock your door.”

  “I was going to say the same to you.”

  Chapter 4

  A year ago.

  Two years went by fast, and Noki was making progress on all fronts, both mentally and physically. She had endured many painful operations, experienced the slow healing of many parts of her body, been weakened by medications and physical therapy, and had numerous skins grafts. Much of the work done was experimental; cases like Noki’s were rare and few government dollars came even close to relevant research, much less treatment. Much of what was available came from military sources who were sometimes reluctant to share research with the private sector. Keeping horrifying battlefield injuries away from the public eye seemed to be the priority; the politics of an unpopular set of wars.

  Dr. Tangier asked Noki and Adam to visit her office together for a consult. Adam had been to every doctor’s appointment, surgery and specialist with Noki and made sure she stuck to her diet and took her medications. He could be a tyrant but Noki didn’t mind. She had grown from disbelief and mistrust, to cautious optimism, to believing that Adam could do anything. They were now friends, more than friends, but the line was never crossed.

  Adam loved Noki in his own quirky way; his attraction to her was real and deep. But Noki had warned Adam that she was only attracted to women, so he thought that it was best to go through her recovery without discussing future plans. No pressure. Adam had settled into an amazing daily routine with Noki; he did not want it to end. Whatever would happen would happen after she was better. He wondered whether her feelings for him were real, or just disguised gratitude spiced with tinges of guilt. Noki was quiet, and not always as open as Adam hoped she might be.

  Noki, for her part, was never quite sure of her emotional status with Adam. It wasn’t that he ever refused to discuss his feelings for her; it was just that both Noki and Adam seemed unwilling or unable to bring it up for serious discussion. Each feared the loss of the other, so things were left unsaid. Adam said all the superficially correct things, gave appreciative hugs and kisses but what he felt deep inside for her was still a secret in her mind. He said he loved and worshipped her every day but he did not show much physical passion even when he could; both refused to step over the boundary they each had created in the beginning.

  Noki was also confused about her own feelings; was she just grateful or was there more? She felt attraction for Adam, physical attraction, but was it durable? She felt so much more intense erotic attraction for the women she met than for men; the men she found attractive always fit the same pattern: they reminded her of Adam. She noticed men too, but, still, her contradictory feelings for Adam were terribly confusing.

  Noki knew her physical treatment was nearing its end. What then? What should have been the most joyful of all events in her entire life was turning into panic. She decided she needed to talk to someone; that someone was Serena Tangier. Hence an emergency consult between the three was hastily arranged over lunch. For Serena, this was important for the mental health of her patient and her male friend. They each needed a little prodding to get what troubled them out in the open. And Dr. Tangier would make them talk. She was convinced there was no problem between them, only that they had agreed in the beginning to not cross a line. Discussing it before they were ready could make things worse. But now things had changed; clearly Noki wanted some “line crossing”.

  Adam and Noki sat next to each other as they faced Serena across her desk.

  “I need to speak to you both about some things I’ve had on my mind as we approach the end of Noki’s initial treatment, at least the physical part. And I need you both to be honest with me about some matters that may be difficult to discuss. I know you both, and these are private matters; personal matters. I don’t think either of you have discussed them out of fear for what might be said by the other. We need to do so now.”

  Adam asked, “You said ‘initial treatment’? Is there more treatment that I don’t know about?”

  “Yes and no. Not much more physical therapy; she’s recovered marvellously from all her surgeries and treatments and she’s healing well with her prescription medicines and diet regimen. I’m thinking now more about the future and her emotional recovery. Treating her physical condition did not erase how these conditions arose. Noki has lived in your home for the past two years; you’ve been her emotional support and she has grown … attached to her life with you. I need to know what you two are planning for the future. Is Noki to leave and go out on her own or what arrangements have you discussed? This part is as important as any physical therapy we could ever devise. It matters – to me as her physician and to her and, of course, to you Adam as her benefactor.”

  “Benefactor? Noki is my friend, my confidant, my conscience and anything and everything that matters in my life.
I can’t imagine living without her. If she wants to leave, I would understand. But I love Noki. I guess I never discussed it with her or you because I never thought there was any need. I hope, I mean I want her to stay forever. I would feel empty if she left.”

  “And the physical part? The part you agreed to in the beginning? The part about sexual preferences? How does that factor in?”

  “It doesn’t. Never has. There’s no quid pro quo in our relationship; there’s no sexual reward I want at the end of the line. She owes me nothing; certainly not that, or any relationship other than the one we have now. I can’t believe you would even think otherwise.”

  “I don’t think anything,” said Serena. “But I wanted to hear it from you. Noki needs her support system in place just as it’s been for the past two years. And she wants to stay with you, Adam; she was afraid to say anything thinking you might want her to leave.”

  Adam turned to Noki.

  “Is this true? You thought I would ask you to leave?”

  “I was afraid. Scared. I didn’t know what to think. We’re a couple but not a couple. Not a real couple. Not in every way.”

  “Why didn’t you say something? We talk about everything. We’re honest and you can even yell at me now. That’s progress. There’s nothing you can’t ask, and I guess I just assumed you were staying. That you would always stay. Maybe I should have been clearer; I love you more than I can express. And we are a real couple. What we talked about before was for your recovery and wellbeing. To prove I wasn’t some guy who would wind up hurting you; demanding things from you that you weren’t ready to give, even if you could never give them to me. You’re a part of everything that I am; the better parts of what I have become. It would break my heart if you left. But if that’s what you wanted, I would endure it because I love you.”

  Noki began crying in great sobs; her relief was so immense and her emotional burden so lifted that she could not speak. She just held onto to Adam, her head buried in his chest, her arms around him as if letting go would send her into freefall.

  Noki said, “I’m so sorry. I should have said something. But I was afraid I would have to leave, so I never found the courage to be direct and ask you. You’ve never said or done anything that would make me think otherwise; I just wanted to hear it from you. To know what you felt and to know it was real. I don’t think I could bear to ever be apart from you; to not wake up every morning and have you near. To not have my best friend there to make me feel strong when I feel weak and life is cruel.”