Protection for Hire

by Camy Tang

  She moved in front of Karissa. His smile was friendly, but his eyes were merely neutral. That meant either deception or he wanted something from them. Either way, considering the source, she brought up her guard like a Trojan raising his shield.

  “You’re Elizabeth’s friend, right?” he said to her as he approached.

  The only way he could know that was because he saw them together the other day when they had gone to see Charles.

  “You can stop right there.” Tessa kept him several feet away and surreptitiously tried to look around to see if he had any friends with him. Thank goodness for Sunday morning — the streets were empty and she could clearly see two men in business suits trying to blend into the background several yards away. The gray suit of one of them was too tight across his shoulders, constricting his arm movements. The other one’s pant legs were a little long, and he might be induced to trip over them.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” Heath’s smile had a little dimple on the right corner but the left side was higher than the right, and his cheeks remained neutral.

  He was lying.

  Tessa reached back to gently clasp Karissa’s wrist. “What do you want then?”

  “Just give Elizabeth a message for me.”

  “I’m not going to see her anytime soon.”

  Heath’s expression softened to one of condescension. “I know she’s in that domestic violence shelter. I’m assuming that’s where you’re headed?”

  How did he know Elizabeth was at Wings?

  “Please just give her a message.”

  “You can write to her yourself. The address is right on the door.” She casually reached into her pants pocket for her car keys.

  “Tell her I only want to speak to her.”

  When cows turn pink with orange polka dots. “You can call and request to speak to her inside. They allow meetings in their conference room.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to risk being overheard. And I don’t want to hurt her.”

  “No, you just left the imprint of your fist on her cheek.”

  His upper lip tightened for a split second. Then his eyes dropped to the ground, and he clasped his hands in front of him. “I’m sorry about that.”

  No, he wasn’t. “Because of course, I’ve never heard that before.”

  “I really am sorry.” He looked up, held her gaze. “I’m going to a counselor at another church.”

  “That’s great.” You big, fat liar. “Maybe in a few months, then, you can talk to Elizabeth and apologize.”

  “Just tell her I’m sorry. She doesn’t have to see me right now.” His eyes blinked rapidly. “Tell her I’m getting help because I love her so much. That’s all I want you to do.”

  Tessa knew she’d developed a bit of cynicism after volunteering at Wings for the past three months, but she also had always had a sensitive ability to read body language that made her good at the jobs Uncle Teruo asked her to do. She’d further developed that ability when she studied psychology in prison. “You’re in our way. Please move aside.”

  He threw his arms wide in a dramatic gesture. “If she wants to see me, I’ll be right out here. I won’t even come near her.” More rapid blinking. “Please tell her how much I love her.”

  “Get out of our way, please,” Tessa said with a tight jaw.

  “I really mean it,” Heath said. “You have to believe me.”

  “No, I don’t,” she snapped. She held onto Karissa’s wrist and tried to move around Heath.

  She had to admit, she wasn’t really surprised when he grabbed at her arm. She jerked it out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me.”

  “You’re her friend. You can tell her you saw how sincere I am.”

  His complete insincerity made Tessa’s shoulders tense. She wanted to smack the innocent look off his face to reveal the true ugliness underneath. She growled, “You’re about as sincere as the spider to the fly.”

  His upper lip tightened again. “Are you calling me a liar?”

  Tessa didn’t answer — she shouldn’t have even responded with that spider comment. Again, she tried to move around him.

  “You don’t walk away from me.” His hand whipped out and clamped around her neck. Her muscles tensed as his fingers dug into the tendons alongside her throat.

  She slammed him in the nose with the heel of her hand.

  He howled — actually, it sounded more like a honk — and his hand loosened. She grabbed his hand and peeled it off her neck, twisting his wrist and entire arm in the process.

  “Owowowow!” Heath’s body went into acrobatic contortions as he tried to escape the painful torque on his hand and wrist.

  The bodyguards started to approach. “You two stay back,” she said, “or I’ll twist his arm off.” Not that she really could and not with this hold.

  Problem was, they seemed to know that too, because Pants-Too-Long kept walking toward them.

  Tessa twisted Heath’s hand harder, and he shrieked. “Stopstopstopstop!”

  Pants-Too-Long hesitated.

  “Karissa, run,” Tessa told her. The problem was that Heath’s bodyguards were in between them and the shelter.

  Karissa tried to circle around them, but Pants-Too-Long lunged for her.

  Tessa shoved Heath aside and rushed forward. She aimed a jumping downward punch at the bodyguard’s neck and shoulders, which made him flinch. Karissa darted up the street toward the shelter.

  Pants-Too-Long approached her warily, but Tessa just waited for it …

  There. He reached a hand down to tug his pant leg up.

  She stepped into a jiu-jitsu high kick and clipped him in the jaw.

  She didn’t wait around. The street was at an incline — just in case she doubted she was in San Francisco — and her thighs burned as she sprinted up the hill. Just a few more yards and she’d be able to flag down the shelter’s security guards, who sat at a desk in the front room of the shelter and would see her through the bay windows.

  But instead, the door to Wings opened and two of the security personnel rushed out. One of them ran to her and ushered her inside the shelter while the other one landed on the sidewalk and looked mean.

  Karissa was waiting just inside, panting hard. “I told them as soon as I got inside.”

  “Good … girl,” Tessa panted. She thought she was in better shape than this. Since she got out, she hadn’t been working out as diligently as she used to.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t see you guys earlier,” the security guard said. “We try to keep an eye on the street to prevent stuff like that from happening. Not that it happens very often.”

  Tessa shook her head. “Not your fault. We were almost a block away — I don’t know if you’d have even seen us.”

  “You were amazing,” Karissa said. “I wondered if maybe he was telling the truth … until he grabbed you.”

  Heath actually hadn’t been that bad a liar, but Tessa had been able to tell there was an undercurrent of stress making him jittery. It caused him to make bigger gestures than necessary and to lose control of some of his facial features. Maybe he really did love Elizabeth and his emotions made him unstable. Or maybe he feared what would happen if she pressed charges. Maybe he didn’t want her to divorce him for some other unknown reason, and the strain of worrying about it made him antsy.

  “He’s desperate,” Tessa said. “It’s not a good sign.”

  “But the woman he was talking about — Elizabeth? — she’s safe here, right?”

  “She should be,” the guard said, “unless she leaves the shelter for some reason.”

  How long would Elizabeth have to hole up here? Wings wouldn’t force her out, but would Elizabeth slip up and put herself in danger?

  Or would Heath eventually find a way to talk to his wife, convince her he was sincere? Tessa hoped Elizabeth wouldn’t listen to him, but did she still love her husband? Many wives did, despite what had been done to them.

  One thing was certain — Tessa would have
to tell Elizabeth, and she had no idea how Elizabeth would react.

  “How did that scumbag find me?” Elizabeth said.

  Well, scratch that about her still loving him.

  But Elizabeth chewed her lower lip as she wrapped an arm around Daniel. The little boy picked up on his mother’s anxiety and sucked his thumb, clinging close to her. His brown eyes were wide as they looked at Tessa.

  “I’ll find out how he found you,” Tessa said. “Just be careful. You should be safe here with the security personnel — after all, the shelter is designed to protect women from people who want to hurt them.”

  “But not people who want to kill them.” Elizabeth’s lower lip was red.

  This was the second time she mentioned this. “Would Heath really want to kill you? It would only throw him in prison.”

  Elizabeth paused in chewing on her lip.

  Tessa continued, “And then what would happen to Daniel? Heath loves his son, doesn’t he?”

  Elizabeth nodded. “He does. Even though he hit him that one time, it was because Daniel was crying and Heath was angry. Normally, Heath always enjoyed playing with Daniel and spending time with him. He became so light-hearted, like a little kid himself — it reminded me of when we first started dating.”

  “So you two will be safe here,” Tessa said. “I’ll still be around too.”

  But Elizabeth was shaking her head. “We can’t stay here. He’ll find a way to get to me.”

  “You’re strong. You won’t listen to his lies again —”

  “No, Heath will get to me and kill me.” Elizabeth’s eyes were huge and dark in her pale face. “You have to find somewhere else for us to go.”

  “Somewhere else?” But where? Wings had a full security staff and places for the women and children to sleep comfortably. Tessa had a cramped house with a sulky sister, an emo teenager, and a crabby mother — their version of home security consisted of nagging an intruder to death.

  Elizabeth started to cry, and she put both arms around her son, rocking back and forth. “He’ll get to us here. He’ll send in some woman who looks like she’s been hurt, and she’ll come to kill me.”

  Actually, if Heath really was trying to kill Elizabeth, that would be the way to do it. How chilling. Maybe Tessa was watching too much CSI.

  “Please,” Elizabeth said, “now that he knows we’re here, you have to find us somewhere else to stay.”

  Tessa also realized that if she was going to do this, they should do this now. Heath had been chased off by the security guards, who said he went into a black Lexus with the two bodyguards. Unless Heath had set additional, different guards to watch the shelter, no one would see Tessa sneak Elizabeth and Daniel out if they left right now.

  But where? Heath would be watching anyone Elizabeth knew, so she had to find her a place completely unconnected with her old life. That meant a nice hotel was out. A cheap motel had too many prying eyes and only one exit. If only Heath hadn’t somehow discovered Elizabeth was at Wings — it was the perfect place for her, completely un-Elizabeth-like in real estate and company. Tessa needed to find Elizabeth another place that was just like that — a place that had absolutely no connection to a Southern belle, to her private equity firm husband, and to their social circle of other young people with new money, someplace Heath would never think to look.

  Tessa immediately thought of the perfect place. And her mom was going to kill her.

  “Okay, get your stuff,” Tessa said.

  “What stuff?” Elizabeth said. “We came here in the middle of the night from a hotel room, remember?”

  Daniel removed his thumb briefly in order to say, “Slasher.”

  “Oh. Well, we’ll have to ask Evangeline if you can take Slasher with you.”

  “Slasher?” Tessa asked.

  “It’s a pink stuffed dog,” Elizabeth explained.

  Ah. Perfect name.

  “It used to be white, but one of the girls drew pink polka dots on it. Daniel was very upset but he still likes it.”

  “No one messes with Slasher,” Daniel said.

  Of course not. Slasher’s enemies probably thought he had measles.

  They left the shelter in only ten minutes.

  Karissa opted to go with them. “Are you kidding?” she said. “You’re more exciting than a 24 marathon!”

  When asked if they could take Slasher, Evangeline glanced around to see if any of the staff was looking, then shoved the polka-dotted dog into Karissa’s purse.

  Tessa cased the street before letting Elizabeth, Daniel, and Karissa leave the building. There weren’t any loiterers on the sidewalks or anyone sitting in parked cars. They made it to the Corolla without incident.

  But Tessa took the precaution of taking a circuitous route out of San Francisco. And that’s when she saw it.

  The dark blue SUV had been behind them early, just a few stoplights away from Wings. When she’d done four right turns in a row, the SUV had disappeared, going straight on one of the turns.

  But now, on Mission Street, it appeared behind her again.

  Heath had arranged to have the shelter watched. They were being tailed again.

  Worse, it was a team of two or three cars.

  She couldn’t be 100 percent sure. Maybe it was a different SUV. Maybe the driver was lost. Maybe she was being paranoid — that wouldn’t be anything new.

  But she’d rather drive a little crazy than lead some really bad people to her mom’s house. Maybe it had been a good thing that she had gotten so skilled at losing a tail in her yakuza days.

  She turned into a gas station. “Stay in the car,” she said to her passengers.

  Making it look like she was checking the tire pressure, she searched under and around Grandpa’s frame. She didn’t really expect there to be a GPS tracking device, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

  She also used the time to note any cars that passed the station. The blue SUV didn’t make an appearance, but she committed to memory the other cars she saw.

  Once back in traffic again, she spotted a maroon Hyundai, which she thought she’d seen pass the gas station. Inside were two men wearing casual T-shirts and granite-hard expressions.

  She had to lose a multiple car tail in an ancient Corolla.

  She signaled right and got into a right-turn-only lane, but at the last minute, darted left and cut off a businessman in a black convertible who was talking on his cell phone.

  “What are you doing?” Karissa screeched as the businessman laid on his horn.

  Elizabeth, for whom evasive driving maneuvers were becoming old hat, simply dug in and made sure Daniel’s seat belt was tight.

  The maroon Hyundai turned right. One down.

  She spotted the blue SUV a few cars behind her, so she got onto the freeway and moved over into the left lane. The SUV followed.

  Tessa rode on the tail of a gold Mercedes until the owner, a woman with gold earrings and gold bracelets visible where her hands rested on the steering wheel, moved over to the right lane.

  Tessa then downshifted and forced Grandpa, growling and spitting, to speed up toward the next car in front of her in the lane.

  “Tessaaaaa …” Karissa said as they bore down on the white pickup truck.

  She pulled right at the last minute, cutting off a green minivan. Had she seen that minivan pass the gas station too? And actually, the van didn’t lay on the horn when she pulled in front of it. Hmm, tricky … She cut back in front of the pickup truck and zipped along in the fast lane.

  Did the minivan speed up a little too? The blue SUV was by now several cars behind.

  Tessa continued to push Grandpa to new feats of daring driving as she wove in and out of traffic for a mile or two. The green minivan fell further behind.

  Then she cut across two lanes of traffic and exited the freeway amidst honking horns and a few squealing brakes. There was some squealing inside the car too, as Karissa covered her eyes with her hands.

  Daniel giggled.

&nb
sp; Tessa turned left at the light and slowed down as she passed under the freeway, wondering if the green minivan or blue SUV were passing above, watching to see where she turned.

  She might be becoming a bit obsessively neurotic.

  She quickly found the BART station she’d been targeting and screeched into a parking spot. “Everybody out of the car! Hurry!”

  “Here!” Karissa thrust a clipper card into Tessa’s hand. “Take them and go. I’ll drive your car out of here.”

  “No, it’s too dangerous.”

  “It won’t be once you guys are gone.”

  “Watch for a dark blue SUV, a maroon Hyundai, and a green minivan.”

  Karissa rolled her eyes. “Like there aren’t a thousand of those in San Francisco.”

  “Don’t get back on the freeway — if you do, they’ll know you’re a decoy. Drive around and then head back to Wings — don’t go home.”

  Karissa’s eyes sparkled. “This is so Jason Bourne! See ya.”

  Tessa hustled Elizabeth and Daniel toward the rapid transit station and used hers and Karissa’s clipper cards to get them past the fare gates. They nipped into a train just before the doors closed.

  Seven trains later — including transfers from BART to Caltrain to light-rail — they arrived in San Jose Japantown. Tessa checked her watch — maybe Mom would be gone to her job by now. She was a hostess at Oyasumi, one of Uncle Teruo’s restaurants in Palo Alto, and Sundays were busy days for them for both lunch and dinner.

  Just her luck, Mom was about to head out the door when Tessa walked in with Elizabeth and Daniel.

  “Mom! Hi!” Tessa pasted on an exuberant smile and hoped Mom’s sense of Japanese politeness would prevent her from complaining and arguing until later when they were alone. “This is Elizabeth and her son, Daniel. They need a place to stay so I said they could take the sunroom for a few days.”

  Chapter 9

  Mom, it’s only temporary.”

  “When have I heard that before?” Mom groused over the mobile connection.

  Tessa got off the bus near the San Carlos Motel off of Union Street and in the noise of the bus chugging away from the curb, she had to shout into her cell phone, “It’s only until I can find another place to hide them. I want to keep Heath off balance.”