Page 35 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)

Kat awoke early the next morning after a restless night.

Kaveh and Remi had set up a futon for him in their living room, completely unaware he had snuck Zale into the apartment last night and let the half-kraken moon over Lyric for a few hours.

The control object had emitted a pleased humming noise when Kat brought Zale into the room and turned a blush pink when the half-kraken had stroked the side of the glowing egg.

Kat made a series of phone calls, relieved that the skies above the monstertown were clear of rift storms, and then shooed Zale out with instructions to make himself scarce for now.

When his two friends returned, there was no sign of his treachery. Kat had come up with a plausible excuse for why he needed to leave the monstertown for a few hours the next day, as well as a plan to reassure Kaveh that he would be safe doing so.

A few hours later, after riding out on horseback from the monstertown with Jesse and José, the three of them borrowed Javier’s truck and set off into the city.

Kat was ready and prepared for the next part of his plan—meeting with a catfishing criminal and somehow convincing her to help him.

But first he had to face his family again.

Jesse pulled into his parents’ driveway. Kat’s pick-up truck was still parked there, another reminder of the awful mess he had made of everything with both his family and Lyall.

“We won’t be long, I promise,” Kat said to José. “You’re sure you don’t want to come in?”

Kaveh had agreed to let Kat talk to his parents in person and drive his truck back to the ranch while his mentor checked out Kat’s apartment and picked up clothes and other items for him. His one condition had been Kat traveling with his latest bodyguards, Jesse and José.

Jesse was as human as Kat, but her cadejo husband was one of the monstertown’s best defenders.

For his part, Kat thought Jesse would be more dangerous to Arimanius than her Riftworld partner.

She had been laying out a series of potential legal attacks on the Colony during their ride, while José marveled at various human technology sightings and made an unsuccessful attempt to get them to stop and buy more homebrewing equipment.

“I can smell the cats from here.” José shook his head. “Those kitties will not want to get a whiff of me. Anyway, I know your parents are wigged out about riftpeople. I’ll keep an eye on the house and make sure no ratkind are skulking around.”

Kat wished he could say that his parents would welcome any guests he brought home, but the memory of his recent visit with Lyall was seared into his mind.

“This will be quick. As soon as I reassure them I’m alive and well, we can leave.

Oh, I do need to meet a friend before going back to the ranch at a cafe not far from here.

Maybe I could buy both of you lunch while I’m chatting with her? ”

“Food’s always good for us.” José answered for Jesse, who had been struck by yet another legal strategy to undermine Arimanius and was furiously jotting notes on a pad.

Kat’s dad opened the door again before they even reached it, but with none of his usual buoyant energy.

He let both of them in, then grabbed Kat and held him tight, not saying a word.

All of Kat’s immediate family were there.

Jenny was holding the one-eared rescue cat, her face pale.

Naomi stood toward the back, stiff and awkward, for once not on her phone.

Kat’s mother sat in the center of the room, focusing only on him.

He felt himself tearing up and succeeded in pulling free so he could make rounds of introductions. “This is Jesse, who lives in Cactus Flower Estates. I came with friends to be on the safe side, and as I said on the phone, I’ll be staying with Kaveh and Remi for a while.”

“Is your other friend a monstrous black dog with glowing eyes?” Naomi peered out the window. “Because I’m pretty sure that’s not our neighbor’s goldendoodle.”

“Oh, that’s my husband, Jose′.” Jesse smiled down at the two cats intertwining around her ankles and bent down to stroke one of them. “He didn’t want to alarm your adorable pets. I told him to stay in the car, but he has this thing about squirrels. Don’t worry. He never actually catches them.”

“Where is your other monster dog friend?” Kat’s mother hadn’t taken her eyes off him, and he had to tamp down his rising guilt about lying to her and his family.

Jesse straightened and pulled out her pad and pencil. “Don’t worry, Ms. Nakamura. I’m working on various legal strategies to release Lyall from a contract clearly signed under duress. It also imposes unfair working conditions, such as mandating him to remain in his small Earth canine form.”

“You only told us Paul let you go and that you were okay.” Jenny spoke up, her voice strained. “What happened to Lyall?”

“He agreed to become Arimanius’s indentured servant again, as long as the mafia boss released me.” Kat had to swallow down a lump in his throat to get the words out. “There are a lot of people working on the situation, and I’m going to stay in a safe place and wait to hear more news.”

His family’s atypical restraint broke apart, with everyone trying to talk at once. Naomi, for once, didn’t jump in. Instead, she came over from the window, embraced Kat, and began to cry.

Everyone went quiet.

“I’m sorry.” She pulled back and wiped at her eyes. “This is all my fault. I never should have introduced you to Paul or whatever his name is. And I was so mean to Lyall. He was trying to protect you and I messed everything up.”

“Kat will be safe inside Cactus Flower Estates.” Jesse tucked her pencil behind her ear and dug into her handbag before handing one of the compostable tissues she always carried to Naomi.

“My husband and I are going to take Kat to meet a friend for a lunch and then escort him back. He might not be reachable by phone if we have a rift storm sweep in, but there is a back-up messenger pigeon option. Of course, the Riftworld version doesn’t look quite like the Earth species, and they might eat a squirrel or two. ”

“So, Kat will go to lunch and wait to hear about his monster dog friend.” Winkie’s face and tone were neutral, but her unnatural calm made Kat suspicious. That was silly. There was no way his mother could know what he was planning.

“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.

Giana put her wine glass on the table, her focus now entirely on Winkie. The playful flirting had disappeared. “What do you think I want?”

“You want your son to start speaking with you again.” Winkie leaned forward, as intent as Giana.

“He has a new life, a new partner, and you’re not part of it.

You’re worried he’s not happy or safe with his scary dragon boyfriend, and you didn’t like it when your husband put him in danger.

Kat can’t fix the relationship between you and your son, but he can convince Remi and Kaveh to meet you, and you can take it from there. ”

Giana drew back, biting her lower lip. The femme-fatale mask fell away for only a second before her face smoothed into a confident facade again.

“Well, Kat.” Giana turned to him. “Is that something you can deliver?”

Kat found all this lying exhausting, so he went back to telling the truth.

“I can’t make Remi do anything, but I can ensure you get a chance to talk with him and with Kaveh too if you want.

Lyall always tried to keep Remi safe, even when he wasn’t under this indenture contract.

Remi wants him to be free as much as I do. ”

Giana sat back in her chair, her gaze so arresting Kat couldn’t look away if he tried.

After what seemed like an eternity, Giana Gatti nodded. “All right. We have a deal.”