However, that superior feeling didn't last long. One-upping Kuang Jr. meant he'd be the one talking to the local growers, making arrangements with Golden Circle, that he'd have to stay here for longer than initially planned. Months longer for a deal that big.
"Sorry to leave you in a lurch," he said when he called Phantom the next day. "But I was texting with Victor, and he said it might be a good way to establish another port for The Silent Triad. Plus, I'd get home in time to handle the Delaware deal."
"Yeah, we were talking about it at breakfast," Phantom answered. "And, no worries, man. We're holding it down up here, and I guess I needed to start learning this diplomacy shit. I can't handle that Delaware deal for shit sure. But by the time you get back, maybe I'll have learned to keep my mouth shut in meetings with Victor."
Han highly doubted that. If Han was the grease who kept things running smoothly under the hood of their organization, Phantom was the grumpy garage mechanic you called in to rip out parts and replace them when they refused to perform. They were both playing roles they weren't entirely familiar with right now, but somehow Phantom pretending to be polite seemed like way more difficult of a task than Han ending the lives of anyone who could be the key witness in the case against the 24K.
"By the way, I got a lead on that last package of yours. Turns out it got sent to a Middle Eastern billionaire's house instead. I'll get you all the details before you wake up."
So Phantom had tracked down the last witness, Han translated. How ironic that he should receive a new assignment just as he got the details to close out his original mission.
He didn't necessarily believe in the existence of the Western God, but if there was such a deity, he did believe the part about him laughing in the face of well-laid plans.
True to his word, Han found a message from Phantom waiting when he woke up late in the afternoon. Unreadable, of course, as it was heavily coded.
However, Han didn't rush to translate it. He considered himself a hard man, but the thought of killing an innocent woman still refused to sit right in his stomach. And staying in Hawaii after he did it…
Perhaps he would call the 24K dragon after all. Thank him for his consideration but insist that he was urgently needed back on the East Coast—even if that was the opposite of what Phantom had assured him.
If he did that, he could go back to Rhode Island after this final kill. Rhode Island, a place central to the spider web of deals he was overseeing all over the East Coast.
And, sure, he couldn't help but feel a little charmed by Hawaii's weather, and he'd gotten used to falling asleep to the sound of the ocean. But his whole life was back in Rhode Island, not to mention Victor and Phantom, the only family he truly cared about.
Victor was his chosen brother. And though Phantom wasn't his cousin, either by blood or covenant, they were the closest thing Han had to a family. And weird, but true, this was the longest the three of them had been apart since the founding of their triad.
"Good work," he texted back to Phantom before going to the kitchen to make himself some coffee.
That was another thing that was better about Rhode Island. He shared a coastal mansion there with Victor and Phantom. A personal chef made them whatever breakfast foods they wanted, and one of the maids set out a freshly brewed pot of coffee in a silver carafe for them every morning. Here, he only had a sad little Keurig.
Usually, Han went downstairs to the building's gym to get in a workout after his first coffee of the day. But that late afternoon, he found himself on his lanai, looking out at the gold coast ocean view he'd paid so much for…
Yes, he decided, he'd called the 24K dragon and beg off the assignment. And if he was going to be leaving soon anyway, perhaps he should revisit that plan to seduce Jasmine as opposed to internet stalking her like a sad schoolboy with a crush.
With that new plan in mind, he brought out his phone and texted Jasmine.
It's time for another surfing lesson. You can come to my place this time.
She had answered him in just a few seconds on the last two occasions he contacted her, but this time minutes went by without any answering text.
Then an hour. There still wasn't a message waiting from her after he showered and threw a tank top over some board shorts before eating a Hawaiian BBQ breakfast burrito Chen brought up for him—courtesy of some food truck Chen liked, not their award-winning chef.
