She was older now, but she still had trouble meeting his eye as she set an empty cup down in front of him. Which was silly when you think about it.
A guy like Wayne wasn’t checking for her in the slightest. She was no longer a twenty-year-old with big perky breasts and a bright smile. And in her experience, men without wedding rings in their 50s weren’t looking for women close to their age. Wayne probably had some twenty-year-old girl stashed away at his place that giggled a lot and called him “daddy” when he gave her gifts.
And even if he didn’t, he was still an extortionist, Chinese mafia scum. No better than the Italians who had come prior to him before they got taken out in the big statewide crackdown.
He probably didn’t remember what happened behind the diner; it was so long ago. She poured him his coffee and told herself that she needed to forget it too. It had been one night. A few moments. No need to rehash it, just because she had returned to Rhode Island.
“You’re back.”
Those two words brought her head up again. Wayne was eyeing her with something that looked a lot like curiosity.
But before she could answer, three guys came through the door. They were all wearing fine suits like they were going to church or the office on a Saturday. But Rhonda didn’t think that was the case. They were young and speaking in Chinese. And one of them was huge, with a visible snake tattoo winding up his neck.
Mafia, she suspected, especially after she glanced at Wayne and saw that he’d gone very, very still.
“Friends of yours?” she asked him.
“No,” Wayne answered tersely.
The young Chinese guys sat down and immediately fell into what looked like a very tense conversation.
Well, two of them were talking. The one sitting closest to the window was speaking in sign language. Weird, Rhonda thought as she bustled around the counter with three cups and her fresh pot of coffee. A young maybe-criminal signing to communicate. That wasn’t something she’d ever seen before.
“Coffee?” Rhonda asked after coming around the counter to hand them some menus.
They nodded for coffee. But there was no need for menus. The biggest one put in an order for all three of them in completely unaccented English.
Okay, well…Rhonda hadn’t wanted to speak to Wayne any more than she had to in order to get him served and out the door. But when she came back to the counter, she dropped her voice to ask, “Do you understand what they’re saying?”
“The two guys are trying to convince the guy who can’t speak that he shouldn’t marry a girl,” Wayne answered, his voice a gruff whisper. “They’re saying he should pretend to marry her so that if the boss they’re working with wants him to tie the knot with his daughter, he can easily get freed. The big guy knows a judge in Providence who will do a fake ceremony for him no problem.”
Rhonda goggled at Wayne, who just took another bored sip of coffee. That was way, way more than she’d been expecting. “And what is the signing guy saying about all that?”
Wayne shrugged, “Don’t know. I don’t speak his language.”
Rhonda narrowed her eyes at her father’s long-time extortionist. “You sure these guys aren’t friends of yours?”
“Nope,” Wayne answered. “They aren’t.”
At the same time, the big guy broke off from his conversation and squinted at Wayne.
Rhonda’s eyes widened. “What’s he saying now?”
Wayne’s jaw worked. Nonetheless, he answered, “He’s telling the other two that he recognizes me. That I used to be in the Boston Red Diamond.”
“Used to be?” Rhonda shook her head, not understanding. “Are you trying to tell me you’ve been taking money from my dad, but you’re not affiliated with the Red Diamond gang anymore?”
Before he can answer that question, the big guy rose from the booth and came over. “Wayne, man,” he said in English. “Is that you?”
4
DAWN
10 Years Later
“Wow! You’re supersmart, like Mom!” Daniella, Luca’s and Amber’s six-year-old daughter, tells me after I show her the flipbook I made of her bouncing a ball with her baby brother, Luca Jr.—or Lucky, as everybody calls him.
Technically, little Daniella is actually Amber’s niece, and Lucky is her cousin. But as Daniella told me over lunch, “None of that will matter soon because Mom and Dad told me they want to adopt me forever on the same day you came to live with us.”
After hearing her crazy adoption story, I understand why she puts extra emphasis on mom and dad whenever she speaks of her parents. She, Luca, and Amber earned their family status for sure. And I would never put myself in the same company as her seriously heroic mother.
“I wouldn’t say I’m as smart as your mom,” I hedge.
Especially not today when she’s confronting Victor about our not actually being married.