come out. They waited and then Sonny yelled again. She saw him nod at Carlo, and they moved together with the ram held between them. Then the door opened and Lok stood there in jeans and a Burberry shirt. Sonny reached for him, grabbing him by the shirt collar, and took him back into the room.
It took a minute for the alarm to stop its deafening screech.
Sonny bounded down the stairs and came over to Ava. “He’s cuffed.”
“I don’t think I can walk. You’ll have to carry me up.”
“Put your pants back on,” he said.
She stood up and bent over to reach for them, and the pain shot down her leg. It felt as if every nerve ending were on fire. She grimaced as she slid her pants back up.
“Better,” Sonny said.
“Now carry me.”
He picked her up, cradling her against his chest. As he climbed the stairs she could see Andy standing at the entrance to the wing, yelling. “You have five minutes to surrender,” he said. “If you come out with your hands over your heads, you live. If we have to come in and get you, we’ll be firing.” He waited and then repeated the same message. Don’t be stupid, she thought. Come out.
Sonny and Carlo had put Lok on his bed, his wrist attached to the bedpost. Ava looked around the room. There was a big-screen television tucked into a corner with a floral-patterned easy chair in front of it. To the side there was a desk, covered in paper. Next to the door was a card table with four wooden chairs around it. “I’ll sit in the easy chair,” she said.
Sonny put her down as gently as he could, but there was no escaping the pain. “Put him on one of those wooden chairs and then turn it to face me,” she said.
Carlo undid the cuffs attached to the bed, grabbed Lok by the nape of his neck, shoved him over to the chair, and locked the cuffs to it.
Lok stared at her. There was an initial hint of confusion in his eyes that quickly turned to rage. Ava felt sweat gathering inside the balaclava, and she decided to peel it off. Carlo and Sonny followed suit. “You bitch,” Lok said.
“Where is Simon To?” she asked.
“You did all this for that stupid fucker?” Lok snapped.
“Where is he? You know there’s no point in not telling me.”
He stayed silent, glaring at her. “The room next door,” he finally said.
“Is it locked?”
“No.”
“Carlo, go check,” she said.
They waited, Sonny standing alongside Lok, aching for any excuse to do him harm. Lok kept his attention on Ava, who was trying to find a position that would minimize the pain in her thigh.
Carlo hurled himself back into Lok’s bedroom. “He’s there. Taped hand and foot, and he’s pissed himself more than once. Otherwise he’s fine.”
“Did you cut the tape?”
“Not yet.”
“Geez, Carlo, do it now.”
“Yes, boss.”
After Carlo left, Ava said to Lok, “Wu is dead, and your other men are either dead or will be if they don’t come out of their wing.”
“Fuck you,” he said.
“And the police aren’t coming.”
His face showed no reaction but she saw a shadow move across his eyes as he began to calculate the truth of her words. Then the rage in them returned, and she knew he didn’t believe her. “The alarm has been disconnected at the police station,” she said. “They have no idea we’re here. So no one is going to come to your rescue.”
He shook his head from side to side.
“I’ll tell you what,” Ava said. “We’ll wait another ten or fifteen minutes, or however long you want. The thing is, I want you to co-operate with me, and I think you’re smart enough to do that if you know help isn’t on the way. I mean, if it’s just you, me, and Sonny, alone and intimate for the next hour or so, you know you’re going to do what I want anyway. But I don’t want to waste time, and I don’t particularly want to watch Sonny crush your balls and cut off your cock.”
“Ava?”
She turned and looked at the door. Carlo had his arms around Simon To, helping him walk. To was shaking, tears running down his cheeks. His face was drawn, pale, fear still dancing in his eyes. Even from a distance she could smell him. “Hey, Simon,” she said.
Carlo started to lead him across the room to her chair. “Let’s not do this now,” Ava said. “Carlo, take him