Page 15 of The Big Fix

“You think of Owen as younger than he is, as the one you saved and then had to step in and save again later on. But you’ve got to let that go and see him as he really is. He’s a man, Jared, and—”

“I know he’s a—”

“I mean, a grown-ass man who could move to the other side of the planet from you and do just great. If you saw him on the street, you’d think he was gorgeous and follow him home if he asked.”

“What?” He was going to give me an aneurysm.

“He’s a man, Jared,” Darius repeated. “You have to stop thinking for him. It’s not fair to either of you.”

“What are you saying?”

“Maybe give this another day before you jet off to Bangkok.”

“You think?” I asked miserably.

“Yeah,” he said with a chuckle. “Wait.”

“But what if he’s in trouble?”

“Is it really that strange for him to be off the grid? That seems like an Owen thing, given the many times you’ve mentioned it to me.”

That was true.

“And,” Darius continued, “to play devil’s advocate for a second, if he was hurt, wouldn’t you know? Intuitively. And I get how that sounds, but…wouldn’t you?”

Any other time in my life when this kind of scenario had played out, I had, in fact, known.

“Also, if he’s in trouble and this is a kidnap-and-ransom situation, I suspect that you, or Aaron Sutter, would know something by now.”

There was that.

“Let’s have dinner someplace good, and you can go tomorrow if there’s still no word.”

It seemed reasonable.

“One more day.”

Just one. What could it hurt?

FOUR

PRESENT DAY, KATHMANDU

I couldn’t sleep. It was useless to think I could. I was awake when we touched down at Tribhuvan International Airport and taxied up to an unmarked Nepalese government hangar near the cargo terminals.

“Did you get any rest at all?” Arden asked, following me as I exited my sleek aircraft and hurried down the mobile stairway.

“No,” I grumbled.

“Not surprising,” Jing commented from where she was walking in front of me, not bothering to put a jacket over her black sweater and shoulder harness. She was in protective mode, as there were only the three of us there.

We walked past two Nepalese ground crewmen, Jing glancing their way and judging them no threat. I agreed with her silent assessment.

A man in a white suit and a gray turtleneck—unmistakably Lee—stepped out from the shadows of the hangar, along with a woman dressed in a smart beige trouser suit and a uniformed Nepalese liaison officer. I could see Lee’s shoulder harness, but more importantly, his signature smirk. Jing stopped, as she hadn’t met him before, but I put a hand on her arm.

“It’s okay,” I told her as Arden came around my left side, flanking me, protecting me as well. “That’s Darius’s second, Lee Tae San.”

“That’s his second?” Jing asked like I was screwing with her. “That guy is a fuckin’ K-pop singer. What can he do?”