Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
A ghost of a smile haunted his lips at that fleeting thought of his lover. Jin was still with him, even if he wasn’t there physically. He could do this. For Jin. For both of them.
With a small motion from Shen Xiao Dan, the guard opened the door and West followed him into the large private room. The walls were a soft, calming blue, and someone had pulled back the curtains to reveal a skyline of dark-green pine trees against a clear sky. A wide assortment of flowers in vases rested on some simple wood furniture to help make the space more pleasant, but there was no escaping that this was a hospital room. A large bed dominated the area, and it was surrounded by a variety of machines that monitored all the emperor’s vitals.
The emperor was a stouter man than West had been expecting. He’d reviewed a few pictures, but they were fleeting glimpses. He was more broad chested and square jawed than either of the princes, which meant they must both take after their mother in their lean, angular appearances. Gray threaded the emperor’s long hair as a braid slithered down his right shoulder. Dressed in a robe with intricate gold stitching, he still had a regal appearance, despite his poor pallor and the machines beeping around him.
While Jin might not look much like his father, they both possessed the same sharp, dark eyes that missed nothing.
Shen Xiao Dan took up a position on the emperor’s right side as if he’d been standing in that spot his entire life. West walked to the foot of the bed and bowed to the emperor, trying to remember everything Qin had drilled into his brain about posture, depth, and length of time for the bow.
“Do you understand our language?” the emperor demanded.
“Some, Your Majesty. I am still working to become fluent,” West replied as succinctly as he could manage while still being respectful.
Jin’s father grunted, not sounding pleased or displeased. “You may rise.”
West straightened but kept his eyes lowered. That was the correct thing to do, right? He didn’t know any longer.
“Well, Mr. Westin St. James, since the crown prince has taken to hiding things from us, why don’t you tell us who you are and why you are suddenly involved in our son’s life when someone is trying to kill him?”
West’s gaze snapped up to meet the emperor’s smug and very shrewd expression. Despite being stuck in the hospital, the emperor still had ample contacts who were keeping him in the loop regarding what was happening in his kingdom. And right now, West appeared very fucking suspicious. This wasn’t just about never seeing Jin again. He now wondered if he was going to make it out of the hospital alive.
Without another second of hesitation, West bowed his head and dropped to his knees on the hard, white tile.
“My name is Westin St. James, a former US Marine sniper and former CIA agent,” he began in a steady voice. There was nothing to be gained by hiding the truth. He prayed the emperor would believe him. “I was disavowed after a mission went south on my team, and I have been working as a freelance mercenary for the past three years, specializing in helping innocent people who have been wronged by thieves, murderers, and liars. Approximately three weeks ago, I stumbled across an assassination contract that someone put on the head of Crown Prince Jin Long Wei. I traveled to Gaoxing to investigate the reason for the contract. I thought…I thought I would inform the crown prince of the contract and leave it to his people to deal with the threat.” West paused and swallowed hard. “But when I spoke to the crown prince, I discovered…he…he was the one to issue the contract on himself. His goal was to use the life insurance money to save his country from financial ruin.”
A loud gasping and choking noise jerked West from his tale. The emperor’s face went from pale to red as he coughed, struggling to catch his breath. West lurched to his feet, but Shen Xiao Dan was already acting, moving the slender tube from under the emperor’s nose and putting an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. West’s heart hammered as he watched the various readings on the monitors spike.
He stood frozen. Should he call for a doctor?
But after a few deep breaths, everything seemed to even out.
“Continue your story,” Shen Xiao Dan ordered.
West began to kneel, but a grunt from the emperor stopped him.
“Remain standing,” Shen Xiao Dan snapped. “It’s too difficult for him to see you when you’re kneeling there.”
With his hands folded in front of him, West lowered his head. “After speaking with the crown prince—and stopping two assassination attempts—I convinced him to close the contract. My intention was to remain in the royal city for a couple of days to ensure the crown prince was safe from future assassination attempts. But within twenty-four hours of the contract being closed, someone posted a new one with a fifteen-million-euro bounty on the crown prince’s head. That contract is still active. The rest of my team and I have been working to protect the crown prince and to locate the person who has issued the contract.”