“Lacey, please take Nai Nai and Deelia up to the apartment,” I murmur.
She whips around to look at me, fear in her eyes. “Should I call the police?”
Lei’s deep voice carries cold disdain across the open café. “Let’s not make this a big deal,xiao meimei.”
The affectionate nickname from his lips sends a chill down my spine. He doesn’t have any affection for me, and the nickname is just a way to make me smaller. Lesser. But I am notbelow Lei. Not in muscle, magic, or moral high ground, and I’ll make him regret whatever he’s come here to do.
Nai Nai jumps to her feet. “What are you doing here?”
Lei shrugs out of his suit jacket and a man behind him catches it. A third man with a briefcase is last to enter. He locks the door behind him and my hackles shoot straight up.
Lei smiles a broad, white grin. “I’m here for coffee.”
“You’re not welcome,” Nai Nai declares.
“Lacey, please,” I urge my friend.
She slides off her stool and grabs Nai Nai under the arm. “Let’s go check on Ace.”
Deelia squeezes out of her chair and edges around the three men toward the door. They pay her no mind. She pushes on the door three times and on the last try gives off a panicked yelp.
Lei rolls his eyes and his men snicker. Finally, Deelia realizes the lock is engaged. She twists it with a loud snap and flees.
The stairs creak as Nai Nai and Lacey ascend, punctuating the silence that drags between us as Lei sizes me up. I do the same, noting a new scar beside his left eye and a new tattoo on his right hand. The rest of him is obscured, but he’s bigger than I remember. Growing up and lots of gym time will do that, I suppose. Maybe I don’t have the muscle on him anymore.
We used to spar at the wuguan, and I would always beat him. Three years older than me, and I still kicked his ass all over the place. Pissed Shang off to no end. He claimed my parents were giving him a poorer education than my own. Dickhead was just too stubborn to learn from them.
He pulls out a stool at the bar, making a terrible dragging noise. He grins through it and sits down. “How about that coffee, little sister?”
I grit my teeth and gesture to the chalk menu behind me. “Caramel Corona Crunch? It’s this month’s special.”
He arches an eyebrow. “Just an espresso.”
“Three dollars,” I say.
He pulls out a five and sets it on the counter next to Lacey’s cup. My ribs cinch shut as I consider having to turn my back on him. I should’ve put wards along the bar to prevent people from hopping it. Then again, I didn’t think I’d have hostile customers in a coffee shop.
I take a step back to the machine and cant toward it, keeping one eye on him as I load up the portafilter with fresh grinds. He smiles at me all the while.
The broom is across the room behind the grumpy rubber plant, and that stupid jerk isn’t going to do me any favors. The knife I used to chop up the caramel bits this morning is at the end of the bar back in its block. There’s a bottle of champagne in the fridge under the bar…other than that, I have hot espresso I could splash in his eyes, but that still leaves two burly dudes, one of whom has the metallic sheen of a gun handle poking out from behind his suit jacket.
Lei watches me, smiling knowingly. “Your options look limited from this side of the counter.”
I cross my arms and watch the copper machine from the corner of my eye. Damn thing is taking its time, making thismore awkward than it needs to be. The espresso ekes out of the filter into the cup in spurts. When it finishes, I set the cup and saucer in front of him and take the five to the register.
“I have a proposition,” Lei finally says when I bring back his change.
I step back from the counter, making sure there’s some space between us. “What’s that?”
Lei snaps as he brings the espresso cup to his lips. The man to his left passes him a tablet. Lei winces as he puts the cup down and accepts the device.
“This is really terrible,” he says, pointing into the cup.
Something wild burns through me and I curl my tongue.
I pick up the cup and spit into it. “Try it now.”
He leers. “You are still just as brash as I remember. I don’t know why Father thought you were a good match for me.”
