Page 53 of On A Rift's Edge
“Well, that’s the sensible thing to do.” George moved over to put his arm around Naomi. Jenny was sniffling as well. “Keep us as updated as possible, Kat.”
“Sensible,” his mother agreed, before adding, “I have to do a little shopping anyway. I’ll come with you to lunch to meet your friend.”
An hour later,Kat sat awkwardly at an outside table in the middle of a strip mall with his mom, hoping Giana Gatti wouldn’t show.
Meeting an infamous grifter who had married the mob would have been stressful regardless. Doing it while sitting next to his mom at a monster-themed chain restaurant was excruciating.
As he sipped on a large purple smoothie with paper tentacles attached to the cup (Kraken Kool, the drink was called), his mother chatted with their teenage server, who wore both a dragon hat and a permanently mortified expression.
“Such an interesting place to have a secret meeting.” His mother took a bite of the Phantom Fries she had ordered. They came in an edible paper container shaped like an ice cream cone that was decorated with poor cartoon representations of the deadly Riftworld invertebrates.
“I’m not having a secret meeting.” Kat had repeated the lie so many times he felt it might come true. “My friend is running late and maybe won’t show. I’m going to be staying close to José and Jesse, and I’ll be perfectly safe.”
“Those two can’t keep their hands off each other long enough to help if there’s a crisis.” His mother used a Phantom Fry to point to the cadejo and his wife, who sat at a nearby table and were tongue-kissing again. “Not that your father and I were any better when we went out on dates.”
Kat groaned. He hated when his parents brought up their sex lives even more than when they asked about his. He checked the time again and was going to suggest they should finish up and get going when conversations around them stopped.
A woman made her way to their table, and Kat joined everyone else in the crowd and simply stared.
She had the hip-swaying walk of a runway model, with long dark hair that spilled over a pantsuit clinging to impressive curves. Her every movement signaled she could show off the latest haute couture while walking into the boardroom to carry out a hostile takeover.
Coming to a halt near their table, she struck a pose, one hand on her hip. Manicured red nails closed around gold sunglasses as she dipped them down to reveal a pair of appraising dark-brown eyes.
“Ciao, belo.” Giana Gatti put a purr of sensuality into that phrase that would have made Kat incapable of speech, if not for the amazing power of his gayness. It was a good thing he was only sexually attracted to men, because even he had to admit that Remi’s mom was a lot more than merely aesthetically attractive.
“Kat Nakamura, I presume.” She flicked a glance to Kat’s right. “Are you going to introduce me to your companion?”
“I’m his mother.” Winkie Nakamura gave Giana a respectful incline of her head. “Have a seat. Are you hungry?”
Kat regained enough composure to stand up, bow, and pull out one of the folding chairs at the table for Giana to sit down.
Giana folded her glittering sunglasses and tucked them into a front pocket of her pantsuit. “You brought your mother to this meeting. That’s—an interesting tactic.”
“Yes.” Kat shook his head. “I mean, no, it kind of just happened. Anyway, this is my mom, Winkie. Mom, this is my friend Giana.”
That only got him a dismissive laugh from the woman sitting across from him. “Ms. Nakamura, I hate to tell you this, but your son is lying through his teeth and not doing a good job of it.”
“I’m aware.” Kat’s mother used the tablet on the table to order who knew what from the kitchen. “Call me Winkie, please. You’re Remi Gatti’s mother, and my son set up this meeting so he could rescue his monster boyfriend from your mafia boss husband.”
Kat couldn’t even splutter out a denial at this point. He had imagined a lot of things going wrong with this meeting, but being called out by his own mom hadn’t been one of them.
Giana smiled. “Right to the point. Excellent. So, Ari has managed to trap Lyall again. How does that hellhound keep falling for the same trick?”
“Lyall didn’t get tricked.” Kat was angry, and he didn’t mind showing it. “Ari conned my sisters into setting me up with him on a date. Then he kidnapped me and threatened to keep me hostage unless Lyall agreed to become his servant again.”
Giana turned away to accept a glass of wine from the suddenly eager teenage server and gave Winkie a smile of thanks. “Your son is quite handsome, but I find it difficult to believe that our Lyall fell that hard for a human.”
That was even more annoying. “He’s not your Lyall. He’s mine. And I’m setting him free no matter what it takes.”
Kat’s mother drew in a breath at that but didn’t contradict him. “Could you even help my son if you wanted to? You’re only human yourself, and your husband is the king of this rat mafia, yes?”
Giana took a sip of her wine, the gems set in the multiple rings on her fingers flashing in the sun. “Ari and I have an understanding. We’re not exclusive, of course, and we don’t see eye to eye on everything. Take Lyall, for example. Too angry and dangerous to be worth it. But Ari hates to lose.”
“My sister Naomi has a friend who owns a super yacht.” Kat had thought hard about how to convince Remi’s mother to help him, and this was the best he could come up with. “She could introduce you.”
Winkie made a clucking noise of disapproval. “Where are your manners, Katsuo? This young lady doesn’t want some rich man with a boat. She could get a dozen of those herself.”
Giana couldn’t be that much younger than his mother, but the second part of all that flattery was probably true. Kat didn’t have anything to trade for Giana’s help in releasing Lyall. He was hopelessly out of his depth in this negotiation and wouldn’t have had a chance even if his mother hadn’t butted in.
