Protection for Hire (11 page)

Tessa eyed the money, then looked up at Charles, her dark eyes unreadable. But he thought he saw a flash of green in their depths.

Elizabeth cooed and picked up the envelope. She winked at Charles. “Pardon me while I step out to Union Square …”

“You need a babysitter, not a bodyguard,” he teased her.

And the rest of the meal went smoothly; the tension dissipated, at least on the surface. He convinced them both to try the cannoli for dessert, and Elizabeth declared she’d found a new love.

Tessa didn’t smile at him again.

T
his is all your fault!” was the first thing Alicia said when Tessa picked up the phone.

The accusation was like a glass of lemonade thrown in her face — startling and stinging. “What’s my fault?” she demanded.

Tessa’s voice made Elizabeth look up from where she was playing with Daniel on the living room floor.

“Everything!” The crack of hysteria in her voice clued Tessa in to the fact that Alicia was even more high-strung than normal.

When she listened closely, she could hear Paisley sobbing in the background. Tightness gathered just under her breastbone. “What happened?” Her tone was still tense but she tried to soften it by speaking low and slowly.

Alicia didn’t answer, which always drove Tessa stark raving
nuts.
She listened to the symphony of Paisley crying and Alicia wailing for a full two minutes while Elizabeth alternated between playing Slasher-the-valiant-pink-dragon with Daniel and shooting Tessa what-in-the-world-is-going-on looks. Tessa gave her I-don’t-know looks back.

Suddenly in the background she heard an aggravated voice shout, “What you do, lady?
Aiee,
poor
didi
…”

Alicia raised her voice to shriek, “What did
I
do? This is a hazard! You should be sued!”

The slam of a car door, then the sounds of two voices arguing over each other with fighting words like, “You hit my
didi
” and “Your stupid monstrosity” and “You in big trouble” and “You don’t know what trouble is, mister.”

Finally she heard Paisley say, “Mom, give me the phone…. Hello? Aunt Tessa?” She sounded small, but her voice didn’t wobble.

“Paisley, what happened? Are you two all right?”

“We’re …” She took a deep breath, and her voice was steadier as she continued, “We’re fine. Mom got into a car accident.”

“Is anyone hurt?”

“No, we’re fine. Mom hit a …” She gulped.

An 18-wheeler? A tractor? A dump truck?

“… a Fat Burger Boy.”

Tessa rattled a finger in her ear. “What did you say?”

“You know, those big Plexiglas boys in front of the Fat Burger restaurant, the ones wearing a sombrero and a kimono and wooden shoes.”

Oh, that’s right.

Elizabeth tugged at Tessa’s sleeve, and Tessa mouthed, “Auto accident,” and gave her a thumbs-up to show they were okay. Elizabeth nodded and sighed in relief.

The argument in the background had ended, and Tessa could hear Alicia’s heaving sobs that sounded more frustrated than traumatized, punctuated by an occasional, “It’s all her fault!” She also heard what sounded like a solid kick to a piece of Plexiglas, followed by an “Ow!”

Tessa relaxed a little. Alicia must be okay if she was attacking shattered Fat Boys. “How’s the car?” she asked Paisley.

“The front bumper looks like it’s frowning, but other than that I think the Fat Boy got the last fry in the Happy Meal.”

“I don’t think he’s happy with you mentioning his competition.”

“He can’t be happy anymore about anything,” Paisley said dryly. “His entire head is gone.”

“Did your mom call her auto insurance adjustor?”

“No, she called you first.”

“Check in her wallet for her insurance card.”

She could hear all the gigantic brass buckles clanking as Paisley rummaged through Alicia’s purse — Alicia had a neurotic thing for buckles.

“I got it.”

“Call the number on it and let them know what happened. You’re probably also going to have to get the car towed. Does she have AAA?”

“I don’t see a AAA card,” Paisley said.

“Oh.” Tessa didn’t have AAA anymore.

Then Elizabeth tugged on her sleeve again. “I have AAA,” she said.

And they were flush with cash. “Paisley, where are you?” She took down the address then told her, “Call the insurance adjustor. Elizabeth and I will come as soon as we can to pick you up and help you get the car towed.”

Tessa called a cab company and had the driver pick them up a few blocks from her mom’s house. Within twenty minutes, they were being dropped off at Fat Burger. Luckily, Alicia had chosen to assault a fast food restaurant nearby their home as opposed to across the Bay Area.

“What took you so long?” Alicia demanded, tottering toward them on her pumps. “It’s all your fault!”

Tessa knew Alicia had just been through something terrible, she was probably worried about Paisley, she didn’t handle stress well — a gross understatement — and Alicia worried about the money to fix the car and the Fat Boy now that she had started divorce proceedings. But Alicia’s habit of always accusing Tessa was wearing her down, and Tessa found herself responding the way she usually did.

“Brilliant driving, Dale Earnhardt.”

Alicia’s eyes were jade spikes. “What are you talking about? And
this
—” she swung her arms in wide circles to encompass the headless Fat Boy “ — is all your fault.”

“Excuse me, but
this
—” Tessa swung her arms in identical circles at the Fat Boy “ — was caused by
this
—” She swung her arms to include Alicia’s dented SUV “ — which was driven by
this
—” she swung her arms in a giant circle to frame the picture of Alicia’s figure.

Only then did it register to Tessa that her sister was in a business suit. She dressed up just to pick up her daughter from school?

“I knew you’d be completely insensitive,” Alicia said. “You’re making jokes while your niece is in hysterics.” She flung a hand out toward Paisley, who was leaning against the car and braiding a lock of her straight brown hair.

“Yes,” said Tessa. “I can see she’s practically incoherent.”

“I talked to the insurance adjustor, Aunt Tessa,” Paisley said without looking up from her braiding. “Her name was Linda Teng and she was really nice. She talked to the restaurant owner and got his information. She says it shouldn’t be a problem to cover the cost of
didi
, here.” She jerked her head toward the headless statue.

“Didi?”

“The restaurant owner’s name is Bobby Wong. He calls the Fat Boy
didi
, which Linda told me means ‘younger brother.’”

“Well, that’s appropriate.”

“Are we done talking about statue nicknames?” Alicia said acerbically. “Where’s the tow truck?”

Elizabeth handed Daniel over to Paisley, who promptly showed him Fat Boy’s head on the ground and got him to start bopping him on the nose, while she called AAA and got a tow truck.

“It’s all your fault,” Alicia said to Tessa while they waited.

Okay, this repetition was going beyond Alicia’s typical It’s-Tessa’s-fault-just-for-existing sort of rant. “What do you mean, it’s my fault?” Tessa braced herself — after all, she was asking for it just vocalizing the question.

“If stupid
you
hadn’t been doing all those stupid jobs for Uncle Teruo, stupid Duane wouldn’t have had any grounds to sue for custody.”

Tessa clenched her teeth at the excessive use of the word
stupid
, but by judicious intake of oxygen, let it slide. “How can he sue for custody?”

“He said that since I was living with my sister, who had been accused of murder and gone to jail, I was an unfit mother to expose my child to such a questionable influence.”

“So him living with his stripper girlfriend is a better influence?”

“Your memory is like a strainer — he left the stripper already. He’s with an airline attendant now.”

“So it’s better to expose a thirteen-year-old to a stewardess dressed in whipped cream?”

“Rather than an ex-convict?” Alicia snapped. “What do you think?”

What could she say to that? Despite Alicia’s normal level of unreasonableness, Tessa couldn’t deny that her conviction had deeply impacted so many more people than just herself.

“He’s only doing this to annoy me,” Alicia said. “His girlfriend can’t stand Paisley.”

“That’s ’cause the last time she left her bra hanging in the bathroom, I punctured her water cups,” Paisley called from Fat Boy’s head.

Tessa and Elizabeth both stifled their laughter.

“You’re not supposed to be listening,” Alicia shot back.

“Then stop talking like I’m not here,” Paisley retorted.

“You muzzle that attitude, missy, or you’re grounded,” Alicia said.

Paisley pouted, but kept her mouth shut.

“I was driving, but I was so upset when I got the phone call, it was like I went blind,” Alicia said, and her voice cracked.

That twist in her sister’s voice caused a twisting in Tessa’s gut. Regardless of Alicia’s complete lack of common manners toward Tessa, Alicia really did love her daughter, and Duane wouldn’t have had a leg to stand on in this custody battle if not for Tessa’s past involvement with the yakuza and her incarceration.

“And that stupid statue jumped in front of me,” Alicia said. “The next thing I knew, I had some Chinese man yelling at me that I hurt his poor
didi.
How am I supposed to know what
didi
is? At first I thought he was upset I had disrupted the place’s
feng shui.
”

Tessa eyed Fat Boy’s sombrero, dented on one edge, which rolled near his wooden shoes. “I don’t think Fat Burger cares much about
feng shui.
”

“And now I’ll have to pay the insurance deductible. How am I supposed to raise a daughter while dealing with Duane the moron and trying to pay a deductible with money I don’t have?”

“You might get that job you interviewed for today, Mom,” Paisley said.

Hence the business suit. Tessa should have guessed. “You went for an interview today?”

“Do you think I dressed like this just to pick Paisley up from school? Of course I had an interview,” Alicia snapped, but then she rubbed her forehead with her fingers. “I can’t even apply for a ground-level biologist position. I’ll be lucky to get a lab cleaner position that pays absolute dregs.”

Tessa wanted to say, “Trust in God to take care of you,” but the words glued her mouth shut like a lump of saltwater taffy. On second thought, her atheist sister’s raging temper might make her spit the words right back at her.

But Tessa did send a quick prayer heavenward.
Jesus, please help my sister find a good job. Please take care of her and Paisley.

And she heard a weird, strange answer in her head:
Don’t I always?

Somehow, that voice calmed her and enabled her to say, “I can pick Paisley up from school for you, if that’ll help with your interviews and any job you might land.”

“Fine.” Alicia crossed her arms and didn’t look at Tessa.

Her gratitude was truly overwhelming.

Then again, she hadn’t expected it. Knowing how Alicia typically treated her, if she’d said, “Thank you,” Tessa would have been more likely to faint dead away.

But Paisley caught her eye and gave her a grin. Things had been awkward between them for the first three months after Tessa got out, since her last memory of the girl had been of a rowdy six-year-old, but she was starting to like her niece, who seemed to have Tessa’s adventurous spirit and the determination of a nicer version of Alicia.

She hadn’t been very Christlike in her interactions with her sister, and of all her family, she didn’t want Paisley to get the wrong impression of how Tessa’s new faith had changed her — or not changed her, as the case might seem. This might give her a chance to connect with her niece better and also start exercising that love she seemed to be utterly and completely lacking when it came to her family. She had pink cloud-framed visions of explaining the gospel to her niece and having Paisley come to Christ amidst a choir of angels singing in the background.

Okay, well, maybe not.

But she could at least become a good enough aunt that Paisley wouldn’t be ashamed to bring her to school for Aunty Day. Did they even have Aunty Day?

Oh, and all this while protecting Elizabeth and Daniel from a man who might or might not have hidden motives for tracking them down.

No sweat. She could multitask.

F
or
Tessa, finding a good safe house was like finding a good man — she was just too picky. “You didn’t like any of the seven places you visited?” Elizabeth asked as they got off the train in Menlo Park. “No, Daniel,” she said as her son tried to hop back into the train.

“Slasher wants to ride again.” He shook the polka-dotted dog so that it became a pink blur in his hand.

“Slasher doesn’t want to go on the slide?” Elizabeth said.

He pondered this earth-shaking decision before saying, “Slide first, then train.”

Tessa casually looked at all the people who had exited the train, but she was reasonably sure they hadn’t been followed. She’d had them exit one of the light-rail trams at a station partially hidden from the street so they could take the next train, and she had kept a close eye on all the passengers and passing cars. She had basically looked for people doing what she would have done if she had to tail someone. “It’s a short walk to the park,” she said.

“Good. He’s antsy after being on the train for so long. So what was wrong with all of the houses?” Elizabeth asked as they started walking.

“One place had a nosy neighbor who looked out her window and called no less than four people while I was looking at the house. The woman must know half the Bay Area. All I need is for her to tell the wrong person about her new neighbors and Heath would find us.”

“Okay, and what about the others?”

“Three of them didn’t have good escape routes — it would be too easy for a couple men to trap us in the house. That’s the reason I don’t like hotel rooms or apartments — all you need is one man on the fire escape and one on the elevator and your only other option is jumping out the window.”

“He’d probably like that.” Elizabeth raised a sardonic brow at Daniel, who was doing running long jumps alongside them.

“The other places weren’t in safe enough neighborhoods. I also don’t know what kinds of connections Heath has, or whatever private investigator he’d hire would have, and seedy neighborhoods attract snitches.”

“I wish we could stay at your mom’s house,” Elizabeth said. “It doesn’t seem like such a bad place to hide.”

“It’s actually not bad. Mom and Alicia both don’t have many visitors at home, it’s a quiet neighborhood, and it’s completely unrelated to anyone you knew in San Francisco.”

“But we’re putting your family in danger,” Elizabeth finished her thought for her.

“I just worry that eventually Heath will track down who your mysterious friend is, find out my mom lives in San Jose, and connect the dots.”

“How would he find out? Wings wouldn’t tell him about you, would they?”

“No, they have a strict policy about that. They certainly don’t give out information about women who stay there, but they also
don’t even give out the names of staff or volunteers because some of them also came from abusive relationships. Still, he only has to get a picture of me and show it to the right person to get my name.”

“You didn’t tell Charles you’re looking for a new safe house for us,” Elizabeth said.

Tessa blinked. “It didn’t really occur to me that I should. I mean, I don’t think he could really help us.”

“I guess not. I wouldn’t think he has lots of shady connections he can ping.”

“I wouldn’t really need him to ask shady connections. I just need options.”

They made it to the park and Daniel went crazy on the Tots playground while Elizabeth watched him and Tessa watched everyone else.

Then Elizabeth’s new disposable cell phone chirped. “Oh, it’s Charles.”

A second later, Tessa’s new disposable cell phone also rang. She recognized the number. “Itchy, finally. I called you three hours ago.”

“I didn’t know it was you, because you called me from a different phone number,” her cousin said. “Usually I have Darth Vader as your ringtone.”

“Haha, very funny —”

“I wasn’t kidding.”

“Listen, I need to borrow the car again.”

“Now? I’m watching the Giants game,” he whined.

“I told Alicia I’d pick Paisley up at school today, so I need the car.”

“Can’t it wait? It’s top of the ninth, tied game.”

“If you’d called me back earlier, you could have gotten me the car and been back in front of the game by now.”

“You’re my little pita bread, you know that?”

“I know that’s not a compliment, Itchy.”

“Where are you anyway?”

“I’m at Burgess Park in Menlo Park. It’s going to take you at least forty-five minutes to get here.”

“Sixty minutes — this is the Corolla, remember?”

“Which means you need to get your butt off the couch now.”

“Aw, Tessa …”

“Fine. Do
you
want to explain to Alicia why I couldn’t pick her daughter up on time?”

Tessa could almost see Itchy’s mouth puckering. “Fine, fine.” He hung up without saying goodbye.

Elizabeth also hung up her phone call and said, “Charles is coming.”

At the same time, Tessa said, “Itchy’s coming.”

They stared at each other for a beat.

Tessa’s heart rate jumped to marathon pace. “Charles is coming here?”

Elizabeth squeaked, “Itchy’s coming here?”

“Well, it might not be a bad thing …” Tessa said.

“Think about this. Your old gang mate yakuza cousin meeting straight-laced Charles.”

It would be Tessa’s luck that Itchy would start talking about someone he whacked last week. “You’re right. They can’t meet each other.”

Elizabeth winced. “Charles is bringing my godmother too.”

“What?”

“I haven’t seen Aunt Vivian yet, and she said she wanted to meet you.”

Tessa covered her eyes with her hands. “This is getting worse and worse.” Tessa’s old gang mate, yakuza cousin meeting straight-laced
Charles
and
his straight-laced mama — it would be like matter and anti-matter. Kaboom!

“When are they getting here?”

“When is he getting here?”

Tessa checked her watch. “He’ll probably stay to watch the end of the Giants game.”

“Charles said they’re in Palo Alto, so they’ll be here in only twenty or thirty minutes.”

“Maybe they’ll miss each other.”

Tessa whipped out her phone. “I’ll tell Itchy he can finish watching the game.” But Itchy’s phone rang and rang, and then went to voicemail. “He’s not picking up.” He was probably tired of talking to Tessa and figured it wasn’t important. Tessa sent a text message but again, Itchy may not read it, especially if he was either watching the game or on his way.

A part of her was curious to meet Charles’s mother. Considering the enigma that Charles was, she wondered what his mom was like to have raised someone like him.

At the same time, she wasn’t stupid enough to let hotheaded Ichiro anywhere near Charles or his mother. Talk about oil and water. Or more like honey and wasabi.

She waited with Elizabeth, dutifully keeping an eye out to protect her client, but feeling antsy. Then Elizabeth started waving at a silver sports car entering the parking lot.

And Tessa fell in love.

She wouldn’t stop staring at his car.

Charles would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a little flattered by the starry-eyed look in Tessa’s eyes as she circled his
car, running her hands over the silver lines, catching her fingers in the four intertwined circles of the Audi logo. It was only an R8, not the most popular sports car model, and certainly not the most expensive, but he loved the look, the lines, and how it handled — it fit him.

And it apparently caused car-lust in Tessa. She was practically drooling on his windshield.

“She certainly appreciates her cars,” Mama said from the passenger seat as he opened her door and leaned down to unbuckle her seatbelt. “I like her already.”

“That’s Tessa, Elizabeth’s bodyguard,” Charles said.

“I know that,” Mama said. “Elizabeth told me all about her.”

“
All
about her?”

Mama stood up. “All. She sounds nice and spicy.”

“Mama, she’s not a bowl of etouffee.”

“No, she’s wasabi.”

“What? That sinus-clearing green stuff you fed us that one time?”

“Yes. She’s perfect to liven up …” His mama slid a glance toward him, “cold fish.”

Mama must be talking about one of her exotic dishes that Charles could do without. What happened to the days of baked ham and cornbread stuffing?

“You certainly like your cars,” he heard Mama say in a louder voice, as she put out her hand to shake Tessa’s. “I’m Vivian Britton.”

Tessa tore her eyes away from the Audi to shake Mama’s hand, and her face broke into a wide smile. She had a faint dimple on the left corner of her mouth that made his kidneys turn to jelly. “I’m Tessa, Elizabeth’s bodyguard. My cousins loved their cars, and since I hung around them, I started appreciating nice cars too.”

“Charles does like this sports car,” Mama said.

Tessa’s gaze flickered from her to Charles, since he was standing beside his mama, and something she saw in his face made a faint flush rise to her cheeks. Then she blinked and returned her attention to Mama.

“Goodness, you’re so pretty,” Mama said. “You don’t look like you could squash a spider, much less defend yourself against a two-hundred-pound man. Is it all that kung fu?”

Tessa laughed. “I don’t know kung fu. I do mixed martial arts.”

“Mixed martial arts? You certainly don’t look very Asian.”

Charles was ready to sink into the ground. Then again, there weren’t that many Asians in Louisiana, so maybe she was indulging in curiosity.

Tessa took it in stride. “I’m only half Asian. I’m half Japanese.”

“Oh, that’s right, what with your uncle and all. What was your father? German?”

“English, Scottish, and a little Italian.” There was a slight tightening around her mouth as she talked about her father’s ethnicities.

Charles knew Wayne Lancaster had left the family when she was ten, but he had never thought about how that might have affected her. He’d been focused only on what she’d done after he left — becoming more deeply involved in her uncle’s business, hanging out with her cousin Ichiro and other yakuza.

“You’re certainly a pot of gumbo,” Mama said with a warm smile.

And Charles witnessed Tessa unfolding like a flower to the sunlight under his mama’s smile. Lots of people melted under Mama’s charm, but he never thought someone like Tessa would respond to her that way.

“So I hear your uncle is Teruo Ota, the yakuza mob boss,”
Mama said with bright, inquisitive eyes. “What was it like, working for him? What kinds of things did you do for him?”

Good gravy, because Mama was so transparent about her own life, she assumed everyone else would be too. Tessa had stiffened in shock, and a red haze of embarrassment was rising from her neck.

“Mama, I’m sure Tessa doesn’t want to answer that.” Charles reached out to take his mama’s hand from where it still clasped Tessa’s, and his fingers brushed Tessa’s.

He didn’t feel any jolt of electricity or bolt of lightning, but boy did his head spin for a second like a perfectly thrown football.

“Charles, that’s very presumptuous of you,” Mama protested. She pulled her hand away from him, breaking his contact with Tessa’s fingers too, and he dropped his arms to his sides. The spinning sensation faded away.

“I didn’t mean to be,” he said, “but Mama, I’m pretty sure Tessa doesn’t want to get in trouble with her uncle by telling you things she shouldn’t.”

Tessa gave him a look full of gratitude, and that spinning started again with his head. Must be an inner ear infection or something.

“Oh.” Mama’s blue eyes grew wide. “I didn’t realize that. I’m so sorry, darling.” She raised a hand to touch Tessa’s cheek.

Tessa froze at his mother’s touch, but for some reason, it reminded him of when he and Eddie had been fishing at a stream and a fawn had stumbled out of the woods only a few feet away from them. They hadn’t breathed, hadn’t moved a muscle, their eyes riveted to the soft golden body, the slender feet picking their way through the rocks, the delicate muzzle bending to drink.

Then Mama’s hand fell away — the fawn nimbly leaped back into the thick trees — and the moment was gone.

Elizabeth had gathered Daniel from the playground and now stood nearby waiting to greet her godmother. Mama opened her arms wide to enfold both of them. “Elizabeth, you’ve grown so beautiful! And this is your little boy?”

There was an awkward minute of silence between him and Tessa. He wasn’t about to apologize for his mama — he loved her exactly how she was, and he’d give his life to protect her. But she was … Mama.

He had opened his mouth to say something inane when Tessa suddenly stiffened. To Charles’s eyes, she seemed to grow taller and wider even as she stood there, glaring at a truly decrepit Toyota Corolla that had entered the parking lot.

No, she wasn’t looking at the Corolla, she was looking at the sleek Lexus that followed behind it. A tall, handsome Asian man sat behind the wheel, wearing expensive sunglasses.

And suddenly he realized who it was. One of the yakuza.

He went on high alert. Why were they here? Had Tessa called them to come? Was she still working for her uncle despite her newfound faith?