Protection for Hire Read online

  Back then, she’d been tough, mysterious. Favoring all black leather like Ichiro, she’d seemed more male than female. People had said she was even more ruthless than her cousin, more subtle, definitely smarter.

  But now, even her appearance had changed. She seemed softer, although there was that edge and wildness to her that seven years in prison — and her new faith — hadn’t quite rubbed away. She seemed more feminine. More appealing — although his mind shied away from the admission.

  She’d agreed to help Elizabeth even when she wasn’t able to be paid. She’d kept her cousin away from Elizabeth too, and she was giving him an out now, when she could have just taken advantage of his mama’s generosity.

  Her integrity stared him in the face even as her amber eyes met his. So far, she hadn’t given him a reason not to trust her …

  Yet.

  “Why don’t you come by today to see the house?” he said. “You can decide if it’ll work for you.”

  She betrayed herself with a flicker of her dark eyelashes. He had surprised her.

  “All right. I need to pick my niece up from school in an hour, but after that, we can look at your house.”

  Doing soccer mom duty? Tessa continued to throw him for a loop.

  “What time works for you?” she asked.

  “I took the afternoon off to take Mama to a doctor’s appointment.”

  “She’s okay?” Her cheeks became rounder, younger, with her concern.

  “She’s fine — she said she wanted to meet her new doctor here in California before she had to come to her for any type of emergency. I think she just wanted a good gossip with the doc. Then she dragged me to a new restaurant at the Stanford Shopping Center.”

  Tessa’s smile was small, but it made him want to reach out and touch her jaw, her lip, the way Kenta had. He closed his fingers into a fist, then released them.

  “How do we get to your house?” she asked.

  He gave her directions. One insane side of him wondered what she’d think of his house. The other side of him felt like he was letting a wild tiger into his home.

  Chapter 14

  All for the sake of a pink dog named Slasher.

  Tessa walked into the front door of her mom’s house to find Mom sifting through a dusty box.

  “Oh, I’m glad you’re here,” Mom said. “After you all left, I found some old clothes. Do you think Elizabeth would want these for Daniel?” She held up a powder blue shirt with a fuchsia and lime-green flower in the center.

  “Uh …”

  Tessa tried not to grimace at the shirt, but Mom must have read her expression, because she pursed her lips together and dropped the shirt back in the box. “Well, I’m only trying to be helpful. I don’t know why I kept all these old children’s clothes in the first place. Although these are so cute.” She picked up a pair of tiny jeans.

  Trying to be helpful, Tessa began to say, “Now those might …”

  But then Mom flipped them over and exposed the embroidered sparkly yellow and green fairy on the pants pocket.

  Scratch that.

  “Do you have a box of my old children’s clothes? There might be stuff that would, uh, fit Daniel better than Alicia’s old clothes.”

  “Oh, I didn’t keep any of those. Most of them had holes all over the place. You were so hard on your clothes, Tessa.”

  Tessa turned away before her face betrayed her feelings. True, she’d been a typical tomboy and she’d run her clothes to shreds, but somehow Mom’s choice of not keeping any of her things while keeping Alicia’s clothes pricked at her. She wasn’t competitive with Alicia in that sense, but it seemed her family took pains to point out how different she was from them.

  And different had always been lonely for her.

  “You all certainly packed up quickly,” Mom remarked. “I barely had time to say goodbye to Elizabeth and Daniel before you hustled them out the door.”

  “I wanted to get them into the new house so you’d have more space here.” Tessa had purposefully neglected to mention being tailed a couple times … and attacked outside of Wings … and in possible danger. She didn’t really want to think how Mom would have responded to that information, and it didn’t matter now that Elizabeth and Daniel were moved out.

  “Well.” Mom paused, then said, “That’s very thoughtful of you, Tessa.”

  Tessa savored the echo of the words for a moment before she replied, “Thanks, Mom.”

  “I didn’t really mind having them here,” Mom said.

  “Yes, well, Alicia did.”

  Mom looked up from the box and met Tessa’s eyes squarely. “Well, it’s not her house, is it?”

  Tessa blinked. “I guess not.”

  Mom went back to idly sorting through the box. “It was nice having you here too.”

  A tingling passed all over Tessa’s skin. She wasn’t sure what to say. How to react. How to feel.

  “Are you sure you need to stay with her?” Mom asked.

  “It’s only until Elizabeth has her money and is safe from Heath.”

  Mom looked thoughtful. “I think I’ll still get those room-darkening shades for the sunroom. Then you can move in there and I’ll use your room for a craft room.”

  And just like that, the world righted itself and went back to normal. It was as if the surreal moment hadn’t happened.

  “Mom, did you see Slasher?”

  Mom frowned. “I don’t watch those horror movies.”

  “No, I mean Daniel’s pink dog. He calls it Slasher. Elizabeth thinks he left it here this morning.”

  “Oh, that was a dog? It looked like a six-legged cow.”

  Yeah, Slasher was looking a little ratty.

  “I saw it in the spare bathroom.”

  Tessa found Slasher twisted in a floppy heap beside the toilet. Hmm, maybe she should have Elizabeth wash him. She put him in a plastic grocery bag and headed out the door. “See you, Mom.”

  She was glad Alicia was out somewhere. Her sister had tried to command the move this morning like a brigadier general, which was a bit hard considering Mom kept hustling here and there with things to give to Elizabeth — an extra toothbrush, a few of those Japanese candies Daniel liked, a pair of quilted house slippers in case where she was going had cold floors.

  Tessa was only about eight blocks from Mom’s house when she saw the gray Nissan Sentra driving toward her.

  Same deal — no license plate on front, Caucasian man with dark full beard driving. Except this time he had two other men in the car with him — in fact, the same two men who had been with Heath outside of Wings.

  The car passed Tessa going in the opposite direction. She tried to look away quickly, but the driver saw her.

  And pulled a fast three-point turn in the narrow residential street.

  Tessa downshifted and tried to speed up, but Gramps wasn’t having any of it. The engine roared, but the speedometer only wavered up by a few lines.

  Wham! The entire car jumped forward as the Sentra rammed her from behind. Her head knocked into the steering wheel as the force threw her forward and the seatbelt dug into her belly painfully, but Gramps kept going. Her pursuers couldn’t hit her much harder because they didn’t have enough room to accelerate and really ram her good.

  Wham! Another hit. Gramps started gagging.

  She needed to make it to a heavier traffic street so the Sentra wouldn’t have as much room to maneuver. Only another block …

  The gray car loomed large in her rearview mirror for a moment, then disappeared toward her left blind spot.

  He was going to do a PIT maneuver.

  “Oh, no you don’t.” She started swerving back and forth so that he wouldn’t be able to get into the right position to hit her left rear corner and send her spinning out.

  Bam! The contact sent her body skidding sideways on the seat, her abdomen sliced by the seatbelt. The street in front of her windshield jumped sideways as the car began to spin out.

  She hit the brakes and cran
ked the wheel to the side to try to perform a J-turn and combat the spin out, but she wasn’t a stunt driver. The car skidded out of control and crashed sideways into a tree planted on the edge of the street.

  Her head rang with the rattling the impact had done on her brain. She fumbled with the seat belt, then the door handle. They would come for her. She had to get out of the car.

  She had barely gotten to her feet when a fist collided with her cheek.

  Owowowowow!

  “That’s for the last time we met,” a deep voice growled.

  She opened a bleary eye and recognized Pants-Too-Long. His jaw was still discolored from the kick she’d sent into it.

  “Hey!” a distant voice cried out.

  “Stay back!” Pants-Too-Long warned the bystander.

  Stay back, she repeated in her head. She didn’t want to have to try to protect any innocents. No collateral damage.

  But the person’s interference gave the throbbing in her face a few precious seconds to subside, and she could see and think more clearly when Pants-Too-Long looked back at her.

  Two other men ranged around them, but not too close — the driver stood to her left, a rangy man who only looked large and intimidating because of his full, dark beard, but who was actually a bit scrawny up close. The other man she also recognized from the incident at Wings, and again, his gray suit jacket was too tight across his shoulders, which would constrict his arm movements.

  She sagged back against Gramps, dropping a little lower to the ground so that Pants-Too-Long had to bend down toward her.

  Off balance.

  Her hands darted upward to the back of his head, her forearms resting against his collar bones, and she snapped his head downward just as she brought her knee up. His jaw collided with her femur in a soft crack, and his unconscious body slid downward.

  She didn’t wait for him to hit the ground. Since Beard Papa was so close to her, she turned toward him and aimed a hook at his liver, just under his ribs. He gave a soft, “Oof!” and curled inward. Then she sent an uppercut elbow to his jaw. He staggered back.

  Jacket-Too-Tight came in with a wide, wild swing that was a little slow. She stepped into him so his fist landed in the air behind her shoulder and wrapped both arms around him in a grappling embrace that brought him off balance. She did an underarm hook take down to drop them both to the asphalt.

  He threw a few elbows at the air around her head, and she scrambled to get behind his body. She sliced the blade of her forearm under his chin, closing off his carotid arteries in a rear naked choke. He tried to twist out of her grip but she had locked her legs around his upper thighs. In four seconds flat, he had passed out.

  In the long breath she took after he had gone limp in her arms, she noticed that her heart pulsed against her breastbone, but wasn’t racing. Good to know she wasn’t completely out of shape from her street fighting days.

  She jumped to her feet. Pants-Too-Long was out cold, and Beard Papa wasn’t unconscious, but he was rolling and groaning in pain on the ground.

  “Are you okay?” A tall blonde-haired woman came running up to her.

  “I’m fine.” Speaking was painful because of the swelling already rushing into her cheek. “I’m sorry about your tree.”

  The woman gave it a look of utter distaste. “It’s not my tree, and when I petitioned the city to remove it, they refused, so I really couldn’t care less.”

  Jacket-Too-Tight gave a soft moan.

  “Go get in your house,” Tessa told the woman urgently. “Lock yourself in. Don’t talk to these guys.”

  The woman was already backing up. “I’m calling the cops. You better get out of here too.”

  And Tessa suddenly realized — they had been coming to find Elizabeth at Mom’s house. Was Mom okay?

  She staggered to Gramps and got in. Before she turned the key, she sent God a short prayer. Please, Lord, please let it start.

  The engine coughed, sputtered, groaned … and started chugging.

  Thank you, Lord!

  She eased forward. The wheel alignment was hopelessly off and the car pulled to the left, but she drove it back to her mom’s house, checking for a tail and eyeing all the cars she passed on the street.

  “Mom!” She fumbled with the front door but it was locked. That was a good sign, right? She unlocked it and stumbled into the house.

  “Did you lose your ke — Oh my goodness, what happened?” Mom had been making her way to the front door but now halted at the sight of Tessa’s face.

  “You’re okay?”

  “Of course I’m okay. Why?” Then she gasped. “Whoever did that to you was looking for Elizabeth, weren’t they?”

  “Is that Tessa?” Alicia’s voice came from the back of the house.

  Oh, no.

  Her sister’s annoyed face — really, what other expression did she have in her repertoire? — appeared from the back hallway and grew even more annoyed as she saw Tessa. “You were brawling again?”

  “No, I wondered what it would feel like to slam my head into a lamppost. What do you think?”

  “You couldn’t stay out of trouble even if you tried.”

  “Whoa, Aunt Tessa, can I touch it?” Paisley’s expression was alight with curiosity and maybe admiration.

  “Paisley!” her mother said.

  Paisley hunched her shoulders but still snuck awe-struck looks at Tessa.

  “I need you all to go to Uncle Gordon’s just for a few days,” Tessa said.

  “Absolutely not,” Alicia said.

  “Ooh, I like Uncle Gordon’s house,” Paisley said.

  Mom pouted. “But I’ve got the TiVo set to record Man vs. Wild, and Gordon doesn’t have cable.”

  Both Tessa and Alicia stared at their mother. “Mom, really?” Alicia said. “Tessa’s telling us to uproot and all you can talk about is reality TV?”

  “But Bear Grylls is a hottie.”

  Paisley coughed but Tessa thought she stifled a giggle.

  “It’s only for a few days,” Tessa repeated. “Mom, Uncle Gordon’s house is even closer to your work.”

  “And how do you know they won’t try to hurt her at work?” Alicia said.

  Tessa leveled her a look. “I doubt only the most stupid thugs will try to attack Mom at her brother’s Japanese restaurant.”

  “And what about us? Of course you wouldn’t spare a thought for your sister and niece.”

  Tessa was about to retort that her sister never spared a thought for her, but Mom interjected with, “Alicia, your name isn’t on the title so they don’t even know you’re living here.”

  Both sisters were shocked into silence by their mother’s uncharacteristic reply. Usually it was Tessa or Alicia trying to be logical to their emotional parent.

  Tessa recovered first. “You want to make sure Paisley will be safe, right?”

  “Uncle Gordon’s dog Scratch is a Boxer so he at least looks mean,” Paisley said, “even if he is kind of a marshmallow.”

  Alicia frowned at Tessa, but she told Paisley, “Go pack your overnight bag.”

  “Cool.” She headed back to her room.

  “It’s just like you to bring danger to your family,” Alicia spat, then turned toward her own bedroom to pack.

  Tessa expected some similar vitriol response from her mom, but she only said, “Elizabeth and Daniel are okay?”

  “They’re fine.”

  Mom nodded and laid a hand on Tessa’s arm. “She’s your client, so she’s your responsibility.” Her mother’s hand was heavy and yet soft at the same time.

  “I’ll keep them safe, Mom.”

  “I know you will.” Mom looked away, as if she couldn’t say the words directly to Tessa’s face. “I married your father to escape your uncle’s world, not to have my younger daughter be fully embroiled in it from the age of sixteen. But even though I didn’t like what you were doing, you were always responsible with what your uncle gave you to do.”

  Tessa didn’t know what to say. She k
new her mom never liked the choices she’d made, but she also never knew her mom saw anything remotely admirable in her younger daughter.

  “I’ll go pack,” Mom said, but then she turned back and grabbed Tessa’s hand. She drew her daughter in close and said in a deep, serious voice, “Will you please make sure my TiVo doesn’t erase Man vs. Wild?”

  “Oh my goodness!” Vivian exclaimed.

  “Tessa, are you all right?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I hope the other guy looks worse,” Charles said.

  Tessa walked into Charles’s house and handed Slasher to Daniel, who was the only one who didn’t notice the shiner over her right eye.

  “Let’s get some ice on that,” Vivian said.

  “Oh, and you’re bleeding a little too,” Elizabeth added.

  “So did you fight off all fifty of them with just your pinky?” Charles asked.

  To be honest, Elizabeth’s and Vivian’s fussing made her uncomfortable, and Charles’s quips made her feel more in control of the situation. No one had ever really fluttered over her when she got injured — usually it was from sparring with her cousins or other yakuza, and if she couldn’t patch herself up or walk away with her head high, she’d lose the ounce of respect she’d fought hard for, a woman in their man’s world. And other times, it had been herself sneaking into her mom’s house late at night, or years later, coming home to her empty condo. No gentle fingers probing her cuts or laying a soft, towel-wrapped bag of ice over her eye. She felt awkward, clumsy, and three years old.

  Then again, it wasn’t exactly the worst feeling in the world either.

  “Did they come for us?” A horrified look came over Elizabeth’s face. “Did they come to your mama’s house? Is she all right?”

  “They saw me in my car a few blocks from Mom’s house. We, er … had an altercation and I left them to the tender mercies of a lady dialing the police department.”

  “But they hurt you,” Elizabeth said. “My past keeps hunting me and hurting you.”

  And Tessa realized that she and Elizabeth were more alike than she realized. Elizabeth’s past — Heath — was hunting her just as Tessa’s yakuza past hunted her. “It’s okay. They didn’t hurt me very much, and I didn’t tell them anything.”