Bitter Winds (25 page)

“Sami—Sami . . .” Li Jin’s voice brought her back to the present and she looked to the door to see who must be the big boss come swaggering through.

Taller than most of the men in the room, the one who had drawn Li Jin’s attention carried himself with an undeniable air of authority. He wore what looked like to Sami a very good copy of a sapphire blue Armani suit. His jet-black hair was longer, barely tickling the collar of the silk shirt peeking from his jacket. If she’d seen him on the street, she might have thought he was a well-respected, handsome man, but experience told her he was probably a twisted soul with a lust for money and power, and he would stop at nothing to get it.

At his appearance, the room quieted and most of his men kept their concentration on whatever was in front of them. Sami sat straighter and squared her shoulders. The leader of the ragtag gang wouldn’t intimidate her. She’d dealt with men just like him and as she’d seen so many times in the past, they were all controlled by their male anatomy and would ultimately do anything it told them to.

He looked at her squarely in the face, and Sami met his gaze with a steely look of her own. First his eyes were some of the hardest she’d ever seen, but then he smirked, almost causing the ashes to fall from the cigarette dangling from his lips. Sami didn’t flinch, but she watched him as he strode right past them and went to sit on a red velvet couch near the far end of the room. He snapped his fingers and one of the men pretending not to watch jumped to his feet and went to him, bending his head to hear his instructions. Then he quickly left the room and Sami could hear him bellowing orders to someone as he pounded down the stairs.

“Is that him?” Li Jin asked.

“
Dui
. His name is Chenzi. And doesn’t he think he is some sort of kingpin.” Sami couldn’t keep the revulsion out of her voice. She thought he’d probably grown up on the streets, collecting favors and growing his gang, one displaced boy at a time, playing the big shot until he finally made his fantasy a reality. Underneath all his pomp and bravado he was probably an insecure little punk.

But still, they needed him. Li Jin needed him. So Sami would play the game. She consciously made an effort to relax. She smiled, crossed her legs, and leaned back on the couch. When Chenzi looked up again, Sami locked eyes with him and this time, she used the feminine wiles she’d spent years perfecting. And of course, he took the bait. His chest suddenly swelled and a creepy leer crept across his face.

“Guo lai
.
”
He waved them to come over.

They stood and Sami led the way across the room, turning heads as she went. Li Jin followed quietly behind her, her wariness almost palpable. Sami hoped she’d pull it together or they’d be kicked out on their cute little asses. These kinds of men didn’t deal with anyone who sent up a signal of alarm. Confidence. It was all about confidence, Sami thought as she sat down on the smaller sofa across from Chenzi and made room for Li Jin beside her.

“
Ni hao,
and thank you for seeing us,” Li Jin said, the shaking in her voice immediately giving away her nervousness.

Sami felt a rush of irritation. Where was the tough girl who used to live on the streets? The one who’d had the gall to pack up and make a new life? Why was Li Jin acting so afraid and for that matter, what was she doing taking over? The shark in front of her would eat her alive and spit her out to have her again for breakfast. And Sami didn’t want the man thinking Li Jin was his customer. Sami didn’t want her exposed that way in case something went wrong. She had to take back control.

“I’m Sami. I spoke to your comrade on the phone and he assured me you were interested in taking me on as a client. I’m in need of some funds and it’s fairly urgent.”

Chenzi nodded but before he could speak the hostess girl returned with a tray that held a steaming bowl. She quickly crossed the room and set the bowl down on the table in front of her boss, as well as a small teapot and a cup. Sami’s stomach turned at the aroma of the spicy tofu and garlic-coated green beans.

He put his cigarette out in the ashtray and Sami couldn’t help but stare at the discolored fingernail on his pinkie finger, grown out so long it looked like a spoon or scoop. She wondered what would possess a man to do that. She’d seen it before and still didn’t understand it, though one time her uncle told her it was a status symbol separating the business men from the working class. Whatever it was, Sami found it disgusting.

One of the other men crossed the room and removed the ashtray, obviously a task he knew to do when Chenzi was ready to eat.

The girl finished arranging the treat for her boss and quickly left the room, looking even more nervous than she had before. Again, Sami felt something for the girl—could it be compassion? She didn’t want to deal with it.

“So? Can we talk?” They didn’t have all night to sit and watch him be waited on like some sort of emperor.

“You said you have a property deed?” Holding the bowl close to his mouth with one hand, he used the other hand to shovel a large clump of tofu into his mouth with his chopsticks.

“
Dui
. It used to be a shoe factory and the land covers two acres. The building itself is twenty-five thousand square feet of space. The family is using it as a home and a shelter for displaced people. They’ve spent a lot of money in renovations; I’m sure increasing the value.”

Li Jin pulled the papers from her bag and laid them on the table. Chenzi put down his bowl and chopsticks.

“Displaced people? You mean homeless beggars. And they stay for free?”

His jaw dropped, making him look more like a boy than the leader he was.

“Dui
.
”

“What a waste. If they were smart, they’d use the building for a hostel and people would pay good money to stay there—even foreigners passing through. Wuxi’s getting a lot more tourists and many can’t afford hotels.”

Sami could tell that ruffled Li Jin’s feathers immediately and before she could answer, Li Jin had to open her mouth.

“We aren’t interested in being rich. My family works in the community to provide relief for people who need it. My father has been rescuing children for decades.”

“Children. Another lucrative business,” he said with a derisive snort.

“Are you saying you’re interested in legitimate enterprises, in addition to loan-sharking, extortion, and whatever else you got going on here?” Sami waved her hand around the room.

Chenzi ignored her baiting. Instead he took a few more bites, then set the bowl down again. Finally he looked up at Sami.

“I’m a businessman. I see potential in the property. You don’t because you don’t use your brain to get ahead—your female heart gets in the way. So yes, I’ll loan you the money. But the terms will be strict and if you don’t meet them, I
will
take your deed. I don’t fall for the whimpering of any fools who claim fate is cruel to them. In my world—it’s thrive or just survive. No handouts.”

Sami held her own tongue and put her hand on Li Jin’s arm, squeezing it to give her a signal to stay silent. They waited as Chenzi picked up his bowl and raked the rest of the food into his mouth, then sat back and pulled a linen cloth from inside his coat. He dabbed at his face, then put it away. Reaching in again, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and shook one loose, then lit it and took a deep drag. Finally, he looked at Sami.

“You said thirty thousand. I’ll loan it to you and hold your deed. You have four months to repay the note. With interest.” He snapped his fingers again and a tank-topped guy came over. “Set them up with thirty.”

With that he stood and left the room, all eyes following him. Sami looked at Li Jin and saw her face fall. Shrugging her shoulders, she leaned over and whispered, “Don’t look so upset. We did it.”

Li Jin should be looking relieved, Sami thought. But she was most likely already thinking about how they were going to pay back the money so they didn’t lose Rose Haven. Sami had helped her solve one problem, but Li Jin still looked as if she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. Sami wished she could feel more compassion, but she’d done what she could and if she was perfectly honest with herself, she didn’t give one little whit about Rose Haven—or Ivy and Sky, for that matter. She only cared for Li Jin. Unless . . . maybe she could find a way to break Li Jin’s infatuation with Sky.

As they waited for Chenzi’s assistant to get them the money and give them their papers, the wheels in Sami’s head began to turn again. Something the boss man had said might have just triggered an idea.

Ivy paced the four corners of the dark room and bit her lip to keep from yelling again. Since she couldn’t hear anything from the other side of the door, she assumed no one could hear her, either, so she saved her energy. She felt as if she’d been dropped onto another planet—a very cold planet—and was the only life-form left.

By now she didn’t even have to use her hands to keep from walking into the opposite walls; she’d memorized the distance. She needed to keep moving to keep her joints from freezing up. She also knew she’d been in there for two days because she’d been fed a boiled egg for each meal, and so far she’d had four eggs. The first night they’d finally brought her an egg, and now she assumed it was night again as she’d had three more eggs, each at different times; breakfast, lunch, and finally dinner.

They’d also taken her to use the bathroom only three times, and the nurse had said she was scheduled for a bathroom break every twelve hours. She’d been given only a tiny bit of water so far, so other than an unquenchable thirst, the lack of bathroom access didn’t bother her. She’d been warned if she soiled her room, there would be consequences, but by the stench around her, Ivy knew others had not heeded the threats.

The first time they’d opened the door and led her out, Ivy had thrown her hands over her eyes to shield the light. She’d shuffled down the hall with the nurse clutching her arm to keep her from running away. As if she would. Where did they think she’d go?

She no longer wore the sunglasses and no one mentioned her blindness. She figured since she’d stopped being treated as human, they’d stopped caring whether her story matched up or not. She’d barely slept, and the times when she did manage to nod off, she was awakened very shortly after by bursts of nightmares. She was exhausted.

She’d begged each nurse to tell her where Mo was, but they’d only shaken their heads and told her to stop talking nonsense. Ivy hoped the girl was being treated better than she was. Being in the dark had stopped being so creepy and now she almost favored the deep black void over the brightly lit hospital hall and bathroom. At least in the dark she could avoid facing what she’d become. With her scraggly hair and rumpled, soiled clothing, she knew she looked like a genuinely deranged mental patient. Now she could see how some people entered the hospital as sane but quickly lost all senses. The staff had a way of breaking your spirit so you no longer felt like yourself. More than once, she’d prayed for Nurse Guo to be assigned to her, for just a moment of kindness. But since she’d switched places with Lily, she’d not seen the woman.

Her stomach growled painfully. It seemed like a long time ago they’d brought her egg; it hadn’t been nearly enough to fill her up. She felt like her belly was eating through itself. She’d even welcome their tasteless congee if they’d only bring her a bowl. But more than anything, the isolation was driving her crazy. She wasn’t used to being alone. All her life she’d had her sister by her side and now the seclusion was crippling. She needed someone to talk to, to lean on—someone to help her get through this nightmare.

She slid down against the wall until she was seated again. Her eyes felt droopy, so maybe it was time to get some sleep? Her hours were so turned around she was really unsure.

Suddenly she heard a slight movement that sounded like someone turning the doorknob. She waited. Were they going to give her an extra bathroom break? It hadn’t been twelve hours, she knew that much.

In the dark she turned to watch the area where she knew the door to be, and slowly she saw a tiny sliver of light. Someone was opening the door. Usually it was snatched open loudly and quickly, but whoever it was this time was being extremely quiet and careful. The sliver of light gradually got bigger until it widened enough for Ivy to see a few inches in the hall. Then the area filled with a body and in stepped her birth mother.

The woman quickly but quietly closed the door behind her, extinguishing the light again until Ivy could no longer see her face.