Protection for Hire

by Camy Tang

  Now those were the words she wanted to hear. “Nope.” There was that drool again, right on cue.

  He turned her by the shoulders and pushed her ahead of him toward the kitchen, where Jerry was still blissfully unaware of the almost-fight between the niece and son of the San Francisco yakuza boss.

  Tessa had thought Uncle Teruo’s arrival was something along the lines of a rescue from a fate worse than death, but now she wasn’t so sure. She felt a bit like she’d jumped from a wok into hibachi coals.

  She’d gotten her hug from Jerry — today, more garlic-scented than ginger-scented — and her massive bowl of ramen, which was thankfully very garlic-scented.

  Eating in Jerry’s office with Uncle Teruo sitting across the desk from her … not such a happy place.

  Normally she loved talking with Uncle Teruo. Except not when he asked things like, “How are you feeling?”

  Read: Up for anything more strenuous? Like something that involves beating the stuffing out of somebody?

  “I’m doing fantastic now that I have this.” She indicated her bowl, peering through the steam at the floating bean sprouts. She wanted to say grace, but somehow saying grace in front of her sociopathic cellmates had been easier than saying grace in front of her Buddhist, gangster uncle.

  “You’re still staying with your mom?”

  Read: So I know where to find you if I want you to do something for me, especially anything involving breaking fingers.

  Tessa nodded at the corner of a gigantic cube of tofu peeking out of her soup. “Until I can get a job and move out.” She closed her eyes and bowed her head. Maybe Uncle would get the hint …

  That would be a no.

  “What kind of job are you looking for?”

  Read: I’m delighted you’re willing to return to the workplace, because I have the perfect job for you.

  Inspiration struck for how to neatly avoid the question. “Uncle, hang on a second. I need to say grace.” She jerked her head down.

  DearLordThankyouforthisfoodAmen.

  “Grace? What grace? Who’s grace?” His bushy salt-and-pepper eyebrows lowered over his eyes.

  Read: You don’t tell your uncle to “hang on.”

  “I needed to pray before I could eat.” Tessa picked up her chopstick and the boat-shaped spoon. She took a magical sip of broth, ignoring the stinging heat, rolling the salty, savory goodness on her tongue before letting it slide down her throat, warming as it went down. She didn’t need crack — she had Jerry’s ramen.

  “Are you done eating? I need to discuss things with you.”

  Tessa froze with the noodles on her chopstick only inches from her mouth. She sighed and let them plop back into the soup. So much for the hoped-for casual chat, non-related to the work she’d done for him before getting arrested.

  Uncle reached over and took her hand. “I want to say again, thank you for what you did.”

  It took her a second to realize he was referring to Fred, to inserting herself under suspicion for his son’s crime seven years ago. Despite his humble words, the cool, dry skin of his palm lay heavy over her knuckles. “You’re welcome, Uncle,” she replied.

  He released her and leaned back in Jerry’s chair. “I can give you a job.”

  From anyone else, it would have been a generous, innocent offering. From Uncle Teruo, it carried the weight of a royal statement and deep undercurrents. “Uncle, I already explained this to you.”

  He waved his hand dismissively. “You’re just worried. You’re too smart to get caught again.”

  As opposed to Fred, who was stupid enough to have been wandering around with the bloody knife in his hand when Tessa found him that night. Fred would have folded under police questioning and led to trouble for Uncle if he’d actually been arrested.

  “And I would not ask any more favors from you,” Uncle continued.

  If she’d been eating, she would have snorted ramen noodles. That was a loaded promise. Uncle might not actually voice any requests for Tessa to take the heat for someone’s crime again, but the situation and Japanese sense of duty would compel her to offer to do it or be held in disfavor by the old-fashioned oyabun.

  She wasn’t sure how to put this delicately, so she plunged full-steam ahead. “Uncle, I told you in my letters from prison and when I first saw you after I got out. I am a Christian now, and I’m trying to learn to love people, not break their kneecaps.”

  His frown looked suspiciously like a pout. “I never asked you to break kneecaps.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Unnnncleeeee …” Her exasperation drew the word out into six syllables. “You know what I mean.”

  He lifted a forefinger as a thought came to him. “Your cousin Ichiro became a ‘Christian,’ too, but he still works for me.”

  Tessa rolled her eyes. “Itchy’s girlfriend grew up Episcopalian and has no idea what he does, so he went to church with her so he could get into her pants.”

  He glowered at her. “Are you saying you’re going to church so you can …” His mouth worked silently while red stained his cheeks. “… with some boy?”

  Tessa choked. “What? No.” This was not going the way she’d hoped. “I go to church because I’ve become a different person.” She’d been tempted to say better person, but the way her luck was going, Uncle would think she was insulting him and order a hit on her. Or just send Fred to poison her air space.

  An indulgent smile hovered around his stern mouth. “This is new for you. Don’t be so hasty to make a complete life change until you know this is who you want to be.”

  Three years as a Christian wasn’t long enough? Then again, she’d had only a few months as a Christian outside the prison walls, so maybe he was justified in thinking it might be a temporary thing.

  Except it wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t, with a knowledge deep in her gut, a knowledge deeper than the secret places of her heart. A knowledge that gave her both peace and strength to say, “Uncle, I’m not going to change my mind.”

  “Be reasonable. What kind of job can you get?”

  She mutinously glared at her cooled bowl of ramen. “I got my college degree in prison.” Psychology. It had fascinated her because she’d spent so much of her life reading the emotions and thoughts of the people she talked to on behalf of her uncle. She wasn’t exactly proud of what she could do — knowing when people were lying, what they were feeling, being able to manipulate their emotions — but she wanted to use that skill for helping people rather than making or collecting money for the yakuza.

  Uncle Teruo’s face gentled. “You know that I believe you can do well at anything you set your mind toward, but with only a Bachelor’s in Psychology, there aren’t many jobs available. Plus …” He sighed. “I’m sure you’ve realized by now that there aren’t many people who would hire an ex-convict, especially for any type of psychology job.”

  She had known that even when studying for her degree. She just hadn’t really wanted to admit it to herself because her studies had been so fascinating and she hadn’t wanted to switch to a different degree program.

  “Don’t be stubborn,” he said. “You haven’t had any job offers, have you?”

  Telling her to stop being stubborn did what it usually did — made her completely pigheaded. “I have had offers. I just chose not to take them.”

  “Oh? What?”

  “A woman offered me a job as a bodyguard.”

  “Paying how much?”

  “Er … we didn’t discuss it.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well … her assets are still being held by her husband, whom she ran away from because he was using her as a punching bag.”

  “So she couldn’t pay you?” he said slowly. Uncle’s face had that expression that wondered where his niece’s brains had suddenly dribbled to.

  “She said she’d pay me as soon as she got her money back. She called some family friend who was going to get her a really good lawyer.”

  “I see.” He stared at her for a mome
nt, eyebrows raised, mouth a thin line. “And you turned down this incredibly lucrative business deal because …?”

  She stared down at her soup bowl. “She has a three-year-old son. And I wasn’t sure about the kind of trouble I’d attract, considering what I used to do.”

  “Your ruthlessness is what makes you an Ota,” he said proudly. “But it does collect some enemies.”

  Only her uncle would praise her for her ability to cause physical pain.

  Tessa had been sorely tempted to take Elizabeth up on her offer, especially after talking with Mina about her own bodyguard business, but she realized that it wasn’t fair to Elizabeth to saddle her with an even more dangerous person than her fist-flying husband. Tessa would rather try to find a legitimate job first and prove to the world that she was no longer working for her uncle. Once Tessa was off people’s radar, then she could protect her clients without bringing even more danger to them.

  The old Tessa wouldn’t have cared who she put in harm’s way, but the new Tessa hopefully thought about other people more than she used to.

  “And this is the only job offer you have?” Uncle Teruo asked. He settled back in his chair, the very picture of an uncle indulging his niece’s pipe dreams.

  “I’m interviewing at OWA tomorrow,” she said.

  “Didn’t you already apply to OWA?”

  “Yes.” Twenty-two times. “So?”

  “This is for another salesperson position?”

  “Uh, no. Janitor.”

  His brow darkened. “My niece is not a janitor.”

  She was when even McDonald’s wouldn’t hire her. Maybe they thought she’d kill someone by flipping a burger in their eye. “It’s a foot in the door,” she said. “From there, I can get promoted. Outdoors and Wilderness Adventures is my favorite store.” Just the name made her want to smile.

  He sighed heavily and opened his mouth to protest, but she said softly, “I really want this job, Uncle.” I really want to go legitimate.

  He surprised her by reaching across to grasp her chin between his square fingers. “I miss having you around,” he said.

  Tessa stilled. Uncle Teruo and his wife, Aunt Kayoko, had always given her more affection than Tessa’s own selfish mother and irritable sister. With Aunt Kayoko gone, Teruo was her family. She may not want to do illegal things anymore, but she couldn’t deny his hold on her heart. She knew that as long as she had him, she’d never feel alone.

  “Uncle.” She swallowed. She hated denying him. “Please understand.”

  “I do.” He sighed heavily. “I do. And I owe you a debt I can never repay.”

  “You don’t owe me anything.”

  “I owe you lunch.” He gestured to the soggy noodles in front of her. “Eat. I don’t want to be accused of starving my niece.”

  He stood with stately grace. On his way to the office door, he paused as if suddenly remembering something. “You said you’re still staying with your mother?”

  “Yes.” The tightness of her voice gave her away.

  Uncle Teruo found that vastly amusing. He chuckled as he turned the door handle, he chuckled as he exited the office, and he was still chuckling as he turned in the doorway to lean into the office to tell her, “Six more months.”

  “What?”

  “You’ll come back to me begging for a job so that you can move out, because I know my sister. You won’t be able to live with Ayumi for longer than six more painful months. Have fun!” He shut the door with a soft click.

  Chapter 3

  Tessa should never have brought her mother to OWA, Outdoor and Wilderness Adventures retail store. “And what in the world is that monstrous thing?” Mom pointed to the indoor climbing wall, where a tall, lean man was inching his way up. Tessa could tell he was a novice at rock-climbing, but his movements had the grace of an athlete. An OWA store employee was belaying him — controlling the rope to catch him if he should fall — but the employee seemed a bit distracted by the Kim Kardashian look-alike flirting with him.

  “That’s a climbing wall, Mom.” Tessa steered her away from the giant structure near the front door of the OWA store and toward the main floor.

  “Don’t they know they could get sued? Honestly, Tessa, you say you like this store? It’s full of dangerous things.” Mom held up a headlamp.

  Tessa eyed the Mammut 2-in-1 headlamp/lantern combo. “Um, okay, yeah, you could use that to blind a raccoon.”

  Mom dropped the item back down onto the shelf. “Well, how am I supposed to know what it is? It looked obscene.”

  With a bored expression, Alicia returned from sorting through the workout clothes. “How much time before your interview?”

  “Twenty minutes.”

  “Do you always arrive this freakishly early before your interview?”

  “Only the ones I want.” Which, these days, was all of them.

  “Well, since you brought us here to help, let’s do a lastminute check.” She surveyed Tessa’s crisp white button-down shirt and slim gray skirt with a critical eye. “You have creases on your shirt, your hair is hopeless as always, and you have a panty line.”

  There was something wrong about being accompanied to a job interview by her mother and her sister. Not that they could walk into the back office with Tessa to make sure she wasn’t putting the hiring manager in a choke hold or something equally guaranteed not to get her hired.

  But this was Tessa’s favorite store, and she wasn’t above withstanding her family’s usual criticism on her hair and clothes if it might get her a job here.

  “The crease is from the car seatbelt. I did my hair this morning but it’s just naturally straight and hairspray won’t keep it up for long. And I can’t change my underwear,” Tessa said.

  “Well, fine, if you don’t mind men looking at your rear end.” Mom shook her head and cast her eyes toward the ceiling.

  “Let’s hope the hiring manager will be looking at my face, not my backside.”

  “Try to slouch without looking like you’re slouching,” Mom said. “It’ll make you look shorter.”

  “Men don’t like hiring women they have to look up to,” Alicia said.

  “You shouldn’t have drunk so much milk when you were younger,” Mom said. “It probably boosted the height genes you already had from your father.”

  Tessa didn’t blame her for the disdain in her voice for the man who’d ditched them when she was ten, but she made it seem like it was Tessa’s fault for possessing said genes. “If I slouch, it’ll seem like I’m hiding something.”

  “I don’t know why I bother helping you get a regular job,” Alicia said. “This whole religious thing will wear off in a few months and you’ll be back working for Uncle Teruo.”

  “I became a Christian three years ago while surrounded by convicts. I’m pretty sure this religious thing isn’t going away anytime soon.” A part of her regretted her snippy tone as soon as she said it. If she’d really changed, shouldn’t she be able to relate better to her sister rather than degenerate into their old bickering? She’d been able to bypass the drugs, drinking, and hanging out with her yakuza cousins since she got out of prison, but it was so hard to change old behaviors when it came to her sister and mother, mostly because they’d never understood her or approved of her even before she worked for the yakuza. When they were children, feminine and self-centered Alicia had only been embarrassed by her tomboy younger sister, and Mom had favored her older daughter, leaving Tessa feeling left out and lonely. Was it any wonder she’d hung out with her male yakuza cousins, who liked her feistiness and boldness?

  “Well then, hurry up and move out so I can finally sell my house and move into Mom’s. I would think you’d have done it by now,” Alicia said in an accusatory tone.

  Tessa couldn’t understand why Alicia was still just as hostile toward her as when Tessa had worked for the yakuza, which Alicia had disapproved of. Even though Tessa had been working so hard to change, it was as if she wasn’t good enough, no matter what she di
d. That frustration was making her respond with the same sarcasm as the old Tessa, even though she did her best to control her temper.

  “When I first got out of jail, you were still blissfully ignorant about Duane’s extracurricular activities and there was no reason for me to move out. Maybe I’ll just stay at Mom’s house,” she threatened.

  Alicia’s skin, fairer than Tessa’s, showed all the motley splotches of her irritation. But to Tessa’s surprise, her mother almost smiled. Maybe Mom actually wanted her to stay. Why, she couldn’t fathom. Loneliness? Boredom?

  No, probably the live-in, unpaid maid.

  She squelched a belated niggle of guilt that she was the reason Alicia and her daughter, Paisley, couldn’t move out of her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s house, but it wasn’t Tessa’s fault no one would hire her. And just like stay-at-home-mom Alicia, Tessa couldn’t rent an apartment without a job.

  Mom reached into Tessa’s shirt and started tugging at the cups of her bra.

  “Mom, we’re in public,” Tessa hissed as she tried to squirm out of the way of her hands.

  “Too bad you were so opposed to padding these.”

  “Mom, I hope the hiring manager doesn’t look at my chest.”

  Mom ignored her and reached into her purse. “I know what will help — duct tape.”

  “What?” Tessa couldn’t believe Mom carried a roll with her. Then again, this was Mom.

  Mom pulled out a short length. “Works wonders to lift the bosom.”

  “Mom! No way.” Tessa quick-stepped backward out of range of her mother, who held the piece of duct tape in front of her.

  “Oh, don’t be such a baby. I used this all the time when I was in the Miss Cherry Blossom pageants. We’ll go into the bathroom really quick and —”

  Tessa stumbled and she registered the shift in padding under her feet. Uh-oh, she had walked into the area under the climbing wall. She’d better get out of here, quick. She was surprised the OWA staff worker belaying the climber hadn’t yelled at her to —

  “Edddiiiiieeee!”

  The shouted name came from directly above her, but before she could even react, a sack of potatoes crashed onto her shoulders.