His Revenge Baby: 50 Loving States, Washington (15 page)

The restaurant was dim inside, with small table tops and sponge-painted walls that made the place reek of European-style despite being firmly embedded in Japan. It was also completely empty.

Wait, no, not completely, she saw when her eyes adjusted to the light. In the corner, she could see a couple talking quietly over a candlelit dinner.

The pair consisted of a black woman and a bearded man. The woman had long neon green and silver hair and so much face jewelry, it glinted in the candles’ soft light giving her face an oddly beautiful sparkle. The bearded man looked very, very familiar to Lilli.

If she didn’t know better, she’d think it was that billionaire robotics mogul she’d seen on a cover of WIRED magazine over a year or so ago.

Lillie peered again at the couple through the darkness. Hold on…the bearded man
was
that billionaire…Go Gutierrez! The guy who may or may not have co-designed the smart toilet in her bathroom with No, before their falling out.

Her mind whirred, trying to catch up with what was happening here…

Meanwhile, Go Gutierrez stood abruptly, chest thrust out as if he were the sheriff and a known gunslinger had just walked into the saloon.

The pierced black woman immediately followed suit, jumping up from her seat, her semi-crouched stance and angry expression making Lilli think of a lioness with Jem and the Holograms hair defending her pride.

“Oh,
hell no
!” the woman yelled. “I
know
you did
not
have the nerve to come in here and crash our dinner!”

Then she stormed over to where they were standing, stopping directly in front of No with her hands balled into fists. “What the hell do you think you’re doing coming around here after what you did to Go? I should kick your ass right now!”

“Nyla,” said the tall man who had come up behind her, his voice tight with censure.

“You know this isn’t how I handle things.”

The woman glanced over her shoulder at Go. “Yes, and I’m technically still a domestic violence counselor.” She returned her fierce glare to No. ““I realize that. But I still want to punch him. And you can’t convince me that he doesn’t deserve it.”

“Regardless, hitting him would be inadvisable. Japanese jails have low comparatively low survival rates to ours,” her husband answered, his tone oddly flat.

The woman finally tore her glare away from No, her expression one of frustration.

“It’s because of this asshole that you almost died, Go!” The woman’s voice was as heated as his was flat. “And now he’s here, crashing our private dinner!!” She abruptly turned her scathing eyes towards Lilli, “And who the hell are you?”

But before Lilli could answer, the pierced woman’s lip curled in disgust as she shook her head at No. “Seriously, Nakamura? You went and got some random black chick off some escort site so you could trot in here with her and use her to get on Go’s good side?

Like look, we’re both with black girls. Puh-leese. None of your tricks are going to work on me or Go…not after you almost got him
killed
!!”

“Nyla…” Go attempted again.

“You know what Go? You’re right. I’m gonna shut up,” Nyla suddenly agreed, her hate-filled eyes landing back on No. “Because I want to hear what this gigantic douchebag could possibly have to say to you.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at No as if daring him to just try and come up with a story to explain himself.

What followed was a whole lot of silence. Heavy, angry silence.

And then Lilli leaned over to No and whispered, “So I guess you really weren’t planning a threesome. I apologize for accusing you of that.”

Chapter Twenty-One

NOBODY—absolutely nobody—laughed at Ana’s comment, including No.

In fact, Nyla narrowed her eyes at the much smaller woman and asked, “Exactly who are you again?”

“Um...” Ana began, her anime eyes popping.

“She is my girlfriend,” No answered, raising his hand in a stopping motion to prevent any further verbal attacks from Go’s wife. “And she is one of the few people I trust to witness this meeting.”

As usual, Ana made her feelings known to everyone by broadcasting her surprise so clearly upon her face that Go asked No in Japanese, “Did she know that?”

“No,” he answered the taller man, wondering just how much Ana understood of their conversation. “We hadn’t had a chance to discuss these things yet.”

A lie. The smallest one he would tell this evening, as he remembered how good Go had been at reading the body language of other Americans back when they were in grad school. One of many skills on a rather strange talent list.

“You were not part of my plan for this evening,” Go told him, tucking both hands under the armpits of the suit jacket he wore over his hoodie.

“I realize this and I apologize for my unannounced visit.”

Go grunted. “I’m almost used to it by now after being married to Nyla.” Then he frowned, looking around the otherwise empty restaurant. “This was meant to be a private reservation. I assume you had people watching us?”

“I recommend you get a new driver for the remainder of your stay,” No answered.

“He leaked your itinerary.”

“And the leak back in the States? The one that nearly ruined my relationship with Nyla? Do I have your father to thank for that or you?”

Even with the knowledge that his father had hired one of his employees to spy on him, No struggled against his natural instinct to protect Kazuo’s reputation. It was not easy for him to go against decades of cultural and familiar programming to respond with the truth. But he did. “My father.”

Go nodded, not looking the least bit surprised. “Yes, that’s what I thought. So then, why are you here, No? Guilt? Greed?”

No was oddly pleased to see Go hadn’t become any less direct over the years.

“Both,” he answered. “Kazuo is my father. The head of my family and of my family’s company. Nevertheless, I cannot agree with his methods and I would not have had you hurt. For this I must apologize.” No bowed deeply before his former friend.

Go shifted and appeared to become agitated. Finally he turned to his wife and said,

“Nyla, new plan: I need exactly fifteen minutes with No. Then he’ll leave and we’ll eat dessert.”

“IF YOU ASK ME, this new plan is a load of bullshit. Here, you want get in on this?” Nyla extended the unused fork that had obviously been meant for Go toward Lilli.

Normally Lilli would have declined, especially given the circumstances. But the restaurant’s waiter had just popped out long enough to clear the dinner plates and bring out tiramisu. Actual tiramisu.

Any American living for a little too long in a country with much different ideas of what construed a good dessert would fully understand why Lilli took that fork and dug right into the cocoa and mascarpone delight.

“Didn’t your husband say to wait?” Lilli thought to ask—but not until they were halfway through the dish. Again. American in Japan.

“Yeah, he did,” Nyla answered with a naughty grin. “But me ruining his plans is kind of my thing. Although it looks like I’ve got some competition from your boyfriend.”

Damn her open face, because Nyla immediately pointed at Lilli with one long black stiletto nail. “I knew it! I
knew
he wasn’t your boyfriend. Did he hire you? How much?”

“Um…he didn’t really hire me for this,” Lilli answered as best she could with her sub-par lying skills. “We’ve been together for six months. And I don’t know what happened between him and your husband, but whatever it was, I think he’s been feeling guilty about it. I mean, if that’s worth anything to you.”

Nyla harrumphed, but it must have meant something to her because instead of getting angry again, she asked, “So you got any suggestions for what to do in Osaka while you and your one-year-old are waiting for your husband’s boring conference to be over?”

Actually Lilli did.

“Have you tried
yakiniku
yet? Or
okonomiyaki
? Or really any
yaki
whatsoever? It’s all good here. Plus, there’s
bunraku
, kind of a type of Japanese puppet theater that my—

I mean, kids in general love.”

While they finished off the remainder of the dessert, Lilli began to feel a lot like her old self again as she offered Nyla all sorts of suggestions for where to go with her daughter, Marcella, during their time in Osaka.

“You know, I still don’t like your
boyfriend
, but you’re pretty cool,” Nyla informed her after she was done with her list. “Want to meet up with me and Marcella tomorrow? That way I won’t have to worry about getting lost on the way to the puppet theater place.”

God, how much would she love that? Sometimes she actually forgot what city she was in because she’d spent so much of the last six months either getting beauty treatments or waiting for No to come home from work.

But in this case… “Oh! That actually sounds really great and normally I’d love to. But

No and I are leaving for Tokyo tomorrow night and I should…pack.”

A slightly better version of the truth than what she really could have said:
Sorry, but
I can’t because my sex client likes me to be available to him 24/7 and I pretty much never
leave the apartment or hotel unless I’m getting a beauty treatment
.

Luckily for Lilli, before Nyla could argue further, Go stood up from the table where he and No had retreated to chat. Clearly a man of his word, Go ended the men’s conversation with a fifteen-degree bow towards No and returned to the table where Lilli and Nyla sat shoveling the remaining tiramisu into their faces.

Go frowned briefly at the almost empty dessert plate and then called out to the waiter. “New plan, I’d like to order another dessert to finish with my wife now.”

So less than thirty minutes after their arrival, Lilli and No were back in the car and heading to the love flat.

“Go and No, huh?” she asked, unable to bear the suspense for more than a minute or two.

“
Hai
,” No answered with a sideways smile. “We were given these nicknames at grad school.”

“So were you guys able to make up?” she asked, hoping for his sake that they had.

“You could say that. Go is ‘hard to read,’ but he said he would take my proposal under consideration.”

Unfortunately, Lilli didn’t realize until No said “proposal” that the two men had been discussing business. Business of the sort No’s father would certainly expect her to report on when she called him the next week.

She inwardly cursed herself. And Doug. For putting her in this impossible position.

“You seem tired,” No observed when her shoulders sagged with the realization of how truly shitty her situation was.

“I am,” she admitted. “Tonight was kind of intense, and I still haven’t eaten.”

“I understand.” He inclined his head. “I’ll have Riyu send something over for you to eat. She’ll also come by early tomorrow to help you pack for the trip. There is some…

additional finessing I must do in Tokyo and I’ve decided we will leave earlier than originally planned.”

“Oh there’s no need to send Riyu over. I can order takeout and pack myself,” Lilli answered, sooo not wanting to deal with Riyu, especially in the wake of Miyuki’s departure. “She’s already going to have enough on her plate until you find a replacement for Miyuki.”

No considered her words for a moment and to her relief, gave in with a small bow.

“As you wish.”

This is nowhere near what I wish
, she thought as she got out of the car. He had no idea how much she wished she could wish herself right out of this situation. She didn’t want to be like Miyuki, but if she didn’t do what Kazuo Nakamura wanted, Doug wouldn’t get his five years. But if she did…

Lilli shuddered, not even wanting to think about the harsh, ugly look on No’s face when he told her about Miyuki’s betrayal. She didn’t know how she’d be able to bear him turning that look on her.

So by the time she made it up to the love flat, Lilli felt weary to the bone. Her whole body aching as she fell into bed still wearing a face full of make-up.

Chapter Twenty-Two

LILLI WENT to bed feeling so abject and miserable, it took her a moment to realize what was going on when she woke the next morning with a clogged nose and two golf balls where her tonsils should have been. Oh, hell…. She was sick.

Sadly, she was also ridiculously relieved. Getting sick was a clear violation of her terms with No. Which meant she wouldn’t be able to accompany him to Tokyo and would have less opportunity to spy on him. Meaning less information for her to share with his father.

Fumbling for her phone on the nightstand, Lilli started to dial Miyuki’s number only to remember…

Crap. Miyuki was no longer in No’s employ. And she didn’t have No’s number.

Which was how she ended up having to dig up Riyu’s contact info via the company directory. Riyu, who took Lilli’s call and answered in pleasant Japanese until Lilli said,

“Hey Riyu-san, it’s Ana.”

“Nakamura-sama said I not pack you!” she informed Lilli in broken, agitated English.

“No, I am calling because I have a cold,” Lilli answered in just as broken Japanese.

“Sick?” She made a coughing sound to bring home the point, even though coughing wasn’t currently one of her symptoms. At least not yet. This cold had her feeling so weak, she had to wonder if it wasn’t just the beginning of a flu.

A brief, chilly pause from Riyu. Then, “Yes, I tell him you sick. Anything else?”

Lilli hesitated, the nurse in her knew she’d do well to ask for some kind of food delivery that included fluids. But…

“You appear to expend a lot of energy taking care of others. In fact I think it’s safe to
say you’ve organized your life around this,”
her college therapist once said.
“I wonder,
how would it feel if you let someone else take care of you for a change?”

Lilli knew then and there that she’d definitely picked the right field because the thought of asking anyone for anything didn’t just unnerve her, it triggered all sorts of unhappy childhood memories of the mother whose life she’d ruined simply by being born.