Chapter 29

I tried to focus on my work. But every so often she drifted into my thoughts, making me lose my focus. I had been a heartbeat away from kissing Hana yesterday. I didn’t know how I felt about chickening out at the last second. That was a lie, I knew exactly how I felt about it and I had the urge to kick my own ass. The thing that confused me was the part that came after the kiss. Judging from how she had reacted yesterday, Hana didn’t seem to mind the idea of kissing me. But did she see it as a fun thing? A roll in the bed to move on from her marriage, maybe even a secret revenge on Simon? She didn’t seem like the type to be interested in something like that. So did she want a relationship? Did I want that? I knew it would raise some eyebrows if that is what we went for. I was irritated at myself for caring about such things at my age. Before I could go down the rabbit hole too far, Clair let me know Chef had arrived. It was the distraction I needed.

“Chef,” I greeted the man that walked into my office. He was almost as tall as me, had a worn old cap on his head where locks of his fiery red hair poked out from. His brown eyes held irritation as he crossed his arms, ignored my gesture to sit down and instead remained standing.

“What, boss? Some of us don’t have time to sit on our old ass and do nothing,” he said. I just smiled at him. He was grumpy, it was part of his charm. He more than made up for it with his cooking.

“I guess you have heard that I have been helping out a woman,” I started. Mercenaries were worse than old women when it came to gossip. It was the one thing they could occupy themselves with during stakeouts and transportation. I knew my personal involvement with Hana’s case wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. And the kitchen and dining room were like the grand central station for all gossip.

“Yeah, you're helping some tight little damsel in distress as I hear it. Working on getting some of that, I presume,” he said. For the first time in a long while, Chef’s comments rubbed me the wrong way.

“Carefully,” I warned him. The only change in his demeanour was a raised eyebrow and I knew I had given away more than I had intended.

“What does this have to do with me?” he asked.

“Hana is starting a catering business.” He nodded.

“I heard she made some okay cupcakes according to the men,” he admitted. “Do you want me to start using her for desserts or something?”

“No. I think she can get her business rolling without our business. But I promised her she could use our kitchen when she needed to. Something about not being able to use the kitchen in her apartment,” I said and braised for impact.

“You did fucking what?! You promised a skirt that she could use MY fucking kitchen?” he yelled.

“Watch how you talk about her. And last time I checked it was my and Jason's name on the company, not yours,” I bit back.

“Well, I beg your fucking pardon, boss. I’ll remember that next time we need to do a deep clean. Jason and you can mosey your asses out of those thrones and pick up a rag.” I sighed and rubbed my face with my hands.

“Okay, okay. So it’s your kitchen,” I admitted.

“Fucking right it is.”

“But Hana will still be allowed to use it. It’s not that often and she will use it in the evenings so she won’t get in your way,” I told him.

“She will mess it up. She won’t live up to my standards, she will leave things where they don’t belong and just drive me insane. You know I don’t let anyone into my kitchen,” he muttered.

“I know, I know. But she is almost as big of a neat freak as you. I have seen her kitchen, it’s meticulous. She has been through a fucked up time and she needs a way to get back on her feet and feel good about herself,” I told him. I was playing dirty, but like the rest of us he couldn’t resist a damsel in distress.

“She better not fuck anything up,” he said.

“She won’t. I’ll bring her by later today so you can walk through all the rules and in’s and out’s of the kitchen. We ate some of your chicken casserole yesterday. It was delicious by the way. And she couldn’t stop gushing about how amazing the kitchen was.”

“Of course the casserole was amazing, it’s my chicken casserole. Well, at least she has good taste. That is something to work with. Bring her by and I will talk to her. But I won’t be a fucking wimp and let her off easy,” he said.

“That is fair,” I agreed and made a mental note to warn Hana before we talked to Chef.

“If that was all, I have things to cook,” he said and walked out of the office without waiting for a reply. I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Hana had admitted to being uncomfortable around men she didn’t know. Maybe it was a bad idea to expose her to Chef. I knew he would never do something to harm a woman unless it was to save his own life. But his mouth could be an issue. I could always hang around the kitchen the first times she used it, play defence for her and smooth things over. It would give me an excuse to be around Hana until I figured out what I wanted from her. I sighed and proclaimed myself a coward and a baby. I needed to grow a pair and just make up my mind. My calendar reminded me it was time for my meeting with John and a minute later, Clair announced him. After he had sat down opposite me I took a deep breath to steel myself.

“Is he still living in the same place?” I asked John.

“No, boss. He moved out the morning after you visited him.” I nodded. At least he had some brains. “He has moved in with a Miss Jess Willson,” John added. I had to wreck my brains for a minute before I placed the name Jess. It had been what he called the woman that had been to see him the same time I was. I nodded again.

“Any unusual activities?” I asked. John caught himself before he could squirm in the chair, but he did look uncharacteristically uncomfortable. “Just say it, I don’t have a high opinion of him at the moment,” I told him.

“Well, boss. We noticed that he ordered a lot of pizza. Almost every day there was a delivery from the same pizza place. It felt off, so we investigated and found talk on the street that connects the place with drug dealings,” John said.

“For fuck sake. It’s like he wants Aksakov to find him,” I said in frustration.

“It’s not being run by the Russian mob,” John said. “It belongs to the Chinese.” I just looked at him like he was crazy. To be fair, the crazy one here was my son.

“Simon is involved with the triad?” I asked, just making sure I understood the report correctly.

“We suspect so,” John confirmed.

“Fuck! I’m going to string him up by the balls,” I shouted. John got a little paler.

“We don't know to what extent, boss. He could just be buying drugs for recreational use and being smart about who he buys from,” John told me.

“I never thought there would be a day when my son buying drugs for personal use would be the outcome I was hoping for,” I said with a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry, boss.” I waved my hand at him.

“It’s not your fault. I’m grateful for your meticulous work, just as exceptional as always. Thank you. Is there anything else?” I asked. John had some minor things to report. “Okay, thank you, John. I’m going to keep your team on this. Please let me know what you find. If you see any indication of the triad or any other organisation of that kind, let me know straight away.”

“Yes, boss.” John then stood up and left. The fucking triad. Simon was playing a dangerous game. I needed to figure out how to get him out and I needed to make sure things didn’t spill over to Hana. How the fuck was I’m going to keep her safe in the middle of all of this? I needed to calm down and my brain started to replay the conversation I had with Hana when we went for ice cream the previous day. It did the trick as I found myself smiling. That was when I found a solution to my problem with Hana. I would ask her out on a date, a real one. It was the most obvious answer and I felt like an idiot that it had taken me this long to think of it. That was how you found out if someone liked you. You asked them to spend time with you. You don’t spring unexpected kisses on them or ask if they can see a future with you. I would ask her out, and if she was interested she would say yes. If she turned me down, it would still be salvageable and we could remain friends. But if she said yes, then I could show her how she should be treated. I would buy her flowers, maybe some chocolates with cherry flavour, and I would choose a nice place to take her to. I was getting excited just thinking about it. It had been a long time since I had gone on a real date. The last few years I had a couple of one night stands, but nothing serious. But now I couldn’t wait for work to be done so I could go and see her.