10. Chapter Ten #2
We all migrated from the living room into the kitchen.
Maria had that fancy espresso machine of hers humming in short order, while Heather and Eva stood by on serving duty, not certain to what extent they ought to participate in a serious conversation.
Yukiko took a seat at the kitchen island, her mind already working in CEO’s wife mode after her brief break in haremlit land on the couch.
Sam claimed the stool next to hers, while Lakshmi positioned herself on the opposite side of the counter, ready to serve or to chime in if necessary.
Mona did not sit. She looked around the room and cleared her throat.
“Before I give my thoughts,” she said, “I’d like to take the temperature. Starting with our CEO. Jack?”
I met her eye. “We take the deal,” I said.
Surprised looks filled the room. Yukiko’s wasn’t one of them.
“You’re sure?” Kiki asked, her chin in her hands and her elbows on the table.
I barked out a laugh. “After this morning?” I glanced at Victoria’s card, which Yukiko had set face-down on the kitchen island like the front side was radioactive.
“After that, princess? I don’t see how we have a choice.
Yes, Jessamyn is a snake. But she’s a snake we can get to bite other people.
Right now, I’d like to empty a whole goddamned bag of snakes over Victoria Ruocchio’s head. ”
“Hear hear,” Lakshmi said.
“The enemy of my enemy isn’t my friend,” Mona said. “But they’re sure as hell a resource we can use.”
Every head in the room turned toward Samantha. All of us knew that my babygirl was the one who had the history with Jessamyn. The decision of what to do wasn’t entirely hers, but her word had a hell of a lot more weight than most people’s where this was concerned.
She pursed her lips in thought, her gaze on the note on the kitchen counter. Then she looked up at me.
“I don’t like the thought of us having anything to do with her, Daddy,” she said, her disgust at even thinking about Jessamyn evident in her expression.
I waited.
“If she can hurt Victoria, we use that,” Samantha said. “But I want her on a leash.”
“Same conditions we talked about last night,” Yukiko said, sliding into the conversation like only my second-in-command could. “We pay her. We indemnify her. We get her on tape retracting everything. And she never sets foot in this house again.”
“Agreed on all counts,” Mona said. “Full disclosure, this was the direction I was going to steer the conversation. I’m glad you all did it for me.”
“Sometimes it’s nice not to be a shark for once?” Heather ventured.
The corner of Mona’s mouth curled in a smirk. “Sometimes.”
“And she’ll do the other thing,” I said, thinking about Victoria’s leverage.
Nobody asked what I meant by that. They either knew already, or they knew we would handle it.
“Exactly,” Mona agreed. “I’ll handle it tonight. Personally. I’ve got Saskia on standby; she’ll join us by phone for the signing. It shouldn’t take long.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said.
Mona didn’t argue the point. She actually looked impressed. “Sure.”
“Hey.” Eva raised a hand, her bratty energy replaced with a nervousness that didn’t suit her. “Is there anything Heather and me can do to help?”
Mona looked at the girl like she’d grown a second head.
“Just hold down the fort,” she said, not unkindly.
“Keep an eye on the house for me, since Miss Davis is still watching over our asset. If anything else shows up in the mailbox—or gets dropped on the front porch—I want to know about it within sixty seconds.”
Both girls gave Mona a salute. “You got it, ma’am!” Heather said.
“You can count on us!” Eva added.
Ma’am? From them? It really had been a bad day, hadn’t it?
“When should we do it?” I asked Mona.
She shrugged, handing her thermos to Maria to fill. “As soon as possible,” she said. “I can drive us over there now. I’m sure that after everything that’s happened today, we’d feel better with our chief security officer here watching over the Avery residence than out at some hotel—”
The doorbell rung.
For a moment, everyone froze. The whole kitchen went still.
“Oh Jesus,” Samantha moaned. “Don’t tell me we’ve got another surprise…”
Maria was already at the kitchen door, leaning out to see who was on the porch. “Actually, I think you’re gonna like this one,” she said, grinning. “Kiki, can you get up for a sec, girlie?”
Yukiko was already off the stool. “I think I know what the surprise is,” she said, a dorky grin spreading across her face.
I followed her. Sam followed me, and Heather and Eva followed Sam, making a little parade down the hall.
By the time I made it to the foyer Yukiko and Maria were already at the front door, my princess’s hand at the small of her back the way it was when she’d been moving around either too much or too fast considering her condition.
Kiki opened the door and let out a squeal of delight.
Dr. Yui Tanaka stood on the porch with two suitcases parked at her feet and a covered pie dish held in one arm like a waiter. Her car—not my McLaren, though she wished it was—sat on the curb in front of the house. She set the pie down without taking her eyes off of her daughter.
I did a bit of mental math, knowing Yukiko was doing the same. How long to pack, how long to bake a pie—how long to drive from the Tanaka family house (occupied only by her since Ryuichi moved out) to our place in the Boston suburbs. I arrived at the same answer I knew Kiki had just figured out.
She’d driven all the way here as soon as she heard about Morning Harbor.
“I know I’m early,” she said. “I’m not supposed to move in for two more weeks—”
Yukiko was in her mother’s arms before she could get another word out.
She held her composure for a long moment, then began to sob.
Yui put her hand on the back of Yukiko’s head, stroking it gently. “Oh, dear heart,” Yui murmured. “I’m right here, sweetness…”
“I was hoping you’d come,” Yukiko admitted with a sniff. “I… I wouldn’t have asked. I know it’s childish—”
“There is nothing childish about wanting me here right now,” Yui said, taking her daughter’s hands. “I watched the broadcast this morning and saw what happened. I saw you on that stage, defending your honor in front of an entire city. My beautiful, brave girl.”
Yukiko’s bottom lip trembled. “I wasn’t brave,” she whispered. “Mom, I froze—”
“You were attacked,” Yui said, her voice filled with scorn for those who’d done the attacking. “And then you were loved on national television. Publicly. I have never been prouder of anyone in my entire life.”
Yukiko’s eyes welled with tears. The confident, pragmatic girl she was ninety-nine percent of the time unraveled and for a moment she was a child in her mother’s arms, overwhelmed and stressed and in need of the woman who loved her.
I leaned in and snatched up the suitcases. Heather and Eva grabbed the pie and Yui’s purse.
“You are more than welcome,” I said, nodding at Yui. “Come on in.”
She did. Yui greeted everyone as she made her way into the living room, remembering names and even complimenting Lakshmi on her new haircut. Everyone wanted a piece of her, gathering around and welcoming her like the surrogate mother of the entire harem.
In a way, I guess she was. She’d told Samantha and Marcie directly that she considered them her daughters now almost as much as Yukiko. With how close the rest of the group was with both me and the wives, it only made sense for Yui to feel that way about them, too.
It probably helped that Heather and Eva were still in “best behavior” mode.
Yui sat down on the couch with Yukiko beside her. Then she noticed Mona, who’d followed us all into the foyer with her coffee.
“Miss Isringhausen,” she said with a knowing smile.
Mona nodded at her. “Miss Tanaka.”
The two women regarded each other with something like mutual respect.
“You stayed,” Yui murmured.
“All night,” Mona said, holding up her thermos.
Yui nodded. ‘Thank you.”
A snicker from Mona. “It’s my job.”
“No. We both know it isn’t.” Yui chuckled. “Thank you for going the extra mile, Mona.”
Then, at last, Yui’s eyes turned to me.
And all at once she wasn’t my mother-in-law.
She was Dr. Tanaka.
“Jack,” she said. There were entire paragraphs in that word.
I braced myself. “Yes, Yui?”
She’d once told me I could call her Mom. Only the fact that she was so clearly slipping into therapist mode kept me from doing it. She sensed the irony and smiled.
“I saw you on that stage today,” she said, her eyes sizing me up with therapeutic clarity. “I watched you save my daughter from a truly awful fate, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” She paused. “I also saw what it cost you.”
“It really wasn’t—”
“I saw the official upload, and the alternate angle a member of the audience put on social media right after the story broke,” she said without missing a beat.
“The one that shows you sinking to the floor in the wings, your hand against your throat like you’re trying to force your pulse to slow down. ”
Ah. So Yui had seen that.
“I’m fine,” I insisted.
She nodded. “Now you are. But you very nearly were not.”
I didn’t argue the point.
“Jack.” She leaned over, a hand on my knee, love shining from behind her mask of professionalism. “You don’t have to be fine. You don’t have to pretend to be okay. But we do have to talk about it. In a session. Sometime this week.”
That… that sounded fine, actually. Honestly, I never would have admitted it to Kiki, but I missed my sessions with her mother. Just a bit.
“I can do that,” I said, “Put it on my calendar.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” Yukiko said.
“Of course you will, princess.”
Yui nodded, evidently satisfied. “I brought a pie,” she announced to the group. “I also happen to have the number of an excellent Chinese restaurant that does delivery in this area, and I insist that you allow me to pay.”
“Yui—”
“Meanwhile,” she said, turning to me, “you will be doing whatever it is I can tell Mona is about to drag you off to do. And when you return, the leftovers will be copious.” She grinned. “My daughter and I will work out my sleeping arrangements while you are away.”
I couldn’t help but snicker. “Yes, ma’am.”
“The backyard is big enough for a guest house,” Yukiko murmured. “Now I kind of wish we’d had one put in.”
Yui turned to her daughter, a sly look on her face. “And why is that?”
Suddenly every woman in the house looked awkward.
“Um.” Yukiko wasn’t much for blushing, but her mother managed to bring it out of her. “This house can be noisy at times, okaasan.”
Yui pursed her lips. “Sexual noises?”
Samantha coughed.
“Your husband is married to two other women, dear heart,” Yui said.
“And there are four other women just from what I can see in this room who clearly have romantic entanglements with him, as well. I am aware of what must happen in this house behind closed doors.” She reached into her purse.
“Which is why I have brought several pairs of earbuds.”
The room filled with laughter. The tension eased.
By the time Mona got her coat, most of the group was already in the kitchen.
Maria reheated the pie while Yukiko and her mother sat at the kitchen island, excitedly talking about their plans while Yui thumbed a large order into the Chinese restaurant’s online system.
Heather and Eva had been deputized into clearing the boxes from the dining room and setting up the table, which they went about with so much energy and gravity that it was clear to everyone the pair was trying to prove something. What was anyone’s guess.
“You ready to head out?” Mona asked.
I looked at the tableau, already kind of wishing I’d elected to stay. But I didn’t want Mona walking into that situation alone, in just in case. There was no telling what Victoria might be capable of.
Besides, I wanted to see the look on Jessamyn’s face when we won. If only so I could describe it to Samantha later.
I gave out about a dozen kisses on my way to the door.
Last to meet me there was Yukiko herself, who went up on tiptoe and gave me a doozy that made me want to carry her upstairs and ravish her.
My hand went to her wrist, feeling the cool edge of my Monaco, which was no longer hidden in her pajama shirt but standing out and almost too large for her wrist.
“Be careful,” she whispered. “This has been a rough enough day. Don’t get into any more trouble.”
“I’ll try, princess.”
She turned to Mona. “Bring my husband back in one piece.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I followed Mona to the BMW.
As I climbed inside, I gave the house one last look. Light spilled from the windows, and I could almost hear the laughter that was sure to be happening in that kitchen right now. Kiki, Sam, Maria, Lakshmi, Heather and Eva. Yui.
Our house had taken a blow today.
But it was still standing. In some ways, it was stronger than ever.
We pulled off my street for the second time today, on our way to Jessamyn Fawkes.