Page 59 of Brutal Surrender

“They’re locals, but they have advanced automatic weaponry. I don’t think the gangs here pack this kind of heat. Someone supplied them is my guess.”

“Are any of them alive?”

“One of them, but he might be in a permanent vegetative state from the look of it.”

“They were waiting for us.”

“You think they were targeting Elijah?”

“Most of the shots seemed to come into the back of the car,” Cho says.

Elijah is small fry, so it’s hard to imagine such a coordinated attack was meant for him.

We get to the hospital, where Yang Mi and Cho are rushed into the emergency room. Ming and Charlie arrive later.

Cho comes out of the operating room a few hours later. Yang Mi remains in surgery for several more hours. I pace the room where Cho is recovering.

I curse. Who the fuck did this? Who the fuck?

“Charlie, get feelers out and see what you can pick up here,” I command.

“Sure, Boss. You think a local gang didn’t want us in their backyard?”

“Anything’s possible,” I say, though my first instinct doesn’t think so. The organized crime bosses here know it’s best not to take us on.

“I’ll stay to make sure our connection within the police department is solid,” Ming says. “He said the cops are sending people over now.”

The story given to the cops is that Cho and Yang Mi are a newly married couple being given a tour of the area. They were either potential kidnap victims or mistaken by local gangs to be trespassers.

I stay out of the picture while Ming pretends to be Yang Mi’s father. Ming suggests I check into a hotel nearby or even take the jet back to Jamaica. I refuse. I’m not leaving until I see that Yang Mi is going to be okay.

The surgery went well, according to Ming. It went long because there were a lot of bullet fragments, but no organs or major blood vessels were injured.

The following day I get to see Yang Mi in the ICU. Though she’s a petite woman, she carries herself large. And even though she’s pale and weakened and strapped to medical equipment and IVs for fluid, antibiotics, and pain medication, she still exudes strength.

“The doctor said if no complications like infection show up, I will only need minor reconstructive surgery at most,” Yang Mi explains.

“For someone who got shot yesterday, you sound well,” I note.

“Finally got the staff to boil some hot water for her,” Ming says as he pours her a cup. “I can’t believe they expect her to drink cold water after surgery.”

Ming finishes telling me, “The surgeon was astounded at how well she performed under surgery. Her vitals remained remarkably stable the whole time.”

Yang Mi smiles at me. “Probably thanks to all that qigong you had me do.”

“You still practice daily, right?” I ask.

“Till now. You?”

My practice has faltered some due to my headaches, though I have tried to push through the pain. Mostly, I’ve been distracted by a certain omega.

“I’m good,” I reply. “You better recover if you want to head the organization someday.”

“I’m not ceding the position to Charlie so easily. But it’s not like you’re retiring anytime soon. Right, Boss?”

Ming jumps in. “The boss is still young and can lead for decades to come. It will be a blow to the organization when that day comes. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to groom a successor in case anything unexpected happens, but we pray such a thing will not come to pass.”

Thinking back to the hail of gunshots, I say, “Someone’s trying to make it happen.”

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