Bai took a seat at the counter to let the angry heat dissipate from her face. She turned to find Lee staring at her.

“What?!”

“You’re an embarrassment,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t be in the same room with Jason for five minutes without either tearing off his head or tearing off his pants. You need to make up your mind. You either love him or you don’t.”

Embarrassed by her reaction to Jason, she turned away. Jason confused her. On the one hand, her rational mind told her it was over between them. Yet, she still loved him, which made her angry . . . which was completely irrational.

“It’s not that simple,” she blurted.

Swiveling around on her stool, Bai found Ling staring at her with a pokerfaced expression. “Where do you find guys like these?”

“They’re pretty,” Bai said, looking aside at Lee, “but, believe me, they’re more trouble than they’re worth.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Ling replied. “You’re beautiful. You have choices.”

“You’re young. When you get older, you’ll realize nothing’s that simple. Everything comes with a price.” She could see that Ling had stopped listening at “when you get older.” She decided to change the subject. “What do we do about you, Ling?”

Ling looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been left with three children and no visible means of support. Do you want to try to find homes for you and your siblings? Do you want to go back to China and find your mother? What is it you want to do?”

“This is our home. My mother ran out on us. Why would I want anything to do with her?”

Bai looked around at the small café. It was dingy, dirty, and run-down.

“I know what you’re thinking,” said Ling, defensively. “The place is a dump. I know that. But it doesn’t have to be. I know how to cook. I’ve been cooking here since my mother took me out of school when I was twelve. I can make it work. I can make a home for my little brother and my sisters. It’s not their fault we have a crappy mother. I just need a chance.”

The girl seemed sincere, but Bai still had doubts. “How old are you, Ling?”

“Eighteen.”

From the hesitation in her voice, Bai surmised that Ling wasn’t really eighteen.

“I’ve always wanted to own a café,” interjected Lee. “Would you be interested in a silent partner, Ling? I could help you fix this place up and maybe lend a hand with the décor.”

Bai turned to look at him. Her face questioned his interference. He ignored her.

Ling looked at Lee warily then turned to Bai. “Can he be trusted?”

Bai shook her head in despair. “Lee’s a man of his word. I trust him with my life. That doesn’t mean he won’t drive you nuts picking out the perfect colors for this place. You have to understand he’s a perfectionist. It’s the only thing keeping him from being perfect.”

“In my own defense,” Lee offered, “you won’t recognize this place when I’m through with it.”

He grinned, a captivating smile with perfect white teeth.

Ling studied him. She looked worried. Her mouth forged into a hard line. With her hands clenched together in front of her, she asked, “You’re tongzhi, aren’t you?”

She’d asked if Lee was homosexual.

The smile slowly drifted from his face. “Why do you ask?”

“The other man, the one who scared away the Wah Ching, he called you ‘pickle licker.’ You didn’t get angry. I’ve seen you fight. You could have made him eat his words.”

Lee took a deep breath before answering. “Does it matter?”

Ling stood silent in thought. “I don’t think so.” She took a small step toward him. “Are you sure you couldn’t like girls—even a little bit?”

Ling’s voice was wistful. Bai had seen the symptoms before. Women were constantly falling for Lee. His charm was like an airborne virus.

“It isn’t that I don’t like women,” he replied. “I love women. I just don’t like having sex with them.”

“We’re a lot alike in that regard,” Bai confided, hoping to change the subject.

He looked aside at her and scowled. She shrugged off the silent reprimand and turned to Ling. “To answer your question, Ling, you have a better chance of scoring Brad Pitt than you have of seducing Lee. Putting all that nonsense aside, do you want him as a business partner? I’ve warned you. He can be a pain in the ass.”

Ling’s brow furrowed, and her hand came up to press against her lips. “It’ll take a lot of money to fix this dump up. What do you want in return?”

“I’d like to be your business partner,” he replied. “I believe in investing in people. You appear to be willing to work hard to succeed. And, to tell the truth, I’m not good at running the day-to-day affairs of a business. I have a short attention span. Partnerships work for me.”

“Fifty-fifty partners?” Ling asked.

He put out his hand. “I’ll have the partnership papers drawn up so you can look them over. My name’s Lee Li, by the way. I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced.”

She took his hand timidly. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Li.”

“Well, that’s settled then,” Bai said. “Now we just have to find Jia and bring her home.”

Ling dropped Lee’s hand reluctantly to turn to Bai. “I didn’t know what Jimmy was up to.” Her voice was full of regret. “Him and his friends came in the middle of the night and just took her. I couldn’t stop them. I should’ve at least tried. Jimmy’s so stupid; he couldn’t see the Wah Ching were just using him.”

Bai fished a business card out of her pocket and handed it to Ling. “If they bother you again, call me.”

Ling looked at Bai’s card. Her mouth moved as she silently sounded out the words. “So you’re the souxun. I’ve heard of you.” She looked up to study Bai. “You’re not at all like I imagined.”

The statement surprised Bai. “What did you imagine I’d be like?”

“More Nancy Drew and less Kelly Hu.”

Bai’s eyebrows flicked up. “I’ll take that as a compliment though I’m not entirely sure it is one.”

“What do we do with Jimmy?” Lee asked, diverting Bai’s attention.

“You can’t trust him,” Ling insisted. “He’s like my mom—mean and stupid.”

Hate glinting off his eyes, Jimmy stared up at Bai. His expression reinforced his sister’s opinion of him. He was a rat.

“I wanna go to China.” Jimmy made the statement with a hint of authority. “I know where my mother is. The guy told me to go.”

Apparently, Jimmy was recovered enough to start backing his way out of the mess he found himself in. But Bai couldn’t trust him to leave town, and she couldn’t have him interfering with her search for his sister. Jimmy would have to go on ice for a few days. She just had to figure out where to stash him until she could find Jia.

Bai grabbed a handful of Jimmy’s hair to pull his head up. She wanted to see his face. “‘Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes.’” She spoke to him as if he were a child. “I think it’s time I introduced you to Uncle Tommy.”

Jimmy looked disappointed. He should have been terrified.

Lee got up from his stool. He nodded to Bai and Ling before turning to walk out the door.

As Shan Chu, Tommy couldn’t be seen with Lee because Lee was tongzhi. The brotherhood had strict prohibitions against its members’ associating with homosexuals.

After the door had closed behind Lee, Ling turned to Bai. “Where’s he going?”

“He can’t accompany me on my next stop.” Her words were a sad commentary. She turned around to see the look of confusion on Ling’s face. “It’s a long story.” She dismissed Ling’s unasked questions with a wave of her hand. “Do you happen to have a picture of Jia?”

“Sure. I have a school picture upstairs. I’ll get it for you.”

While Ling ran to get the photo, Bai tugged the cell phone out of her pocket. As she dialed, Jimmy decided he’d been sitting on the floor long enough and started to get up. Bai swiveled around on her stool and slapped him on the top of his head. “Stay down until I tell you to get up.”

The slap did the trick. He complied while the phone rang. The woman who answered had a pleasant voice. When Bai identified herself, the receptionist put her through to Tommy.

“Bai. It’s good to hear from you!” Tommy sounded jovial. “I’ve been meaning to call. We have some business to discuss. When can we get together?”

“Actually, Tommy, I’m thinking now would be a good time. Could you send a car and driver? I’m at the Far East Café on Grant near Washington. I have an unmanageable package that needs transport.”

The line went silent. Her words were code. Tommy would send soldiers to escort her back to Sun Yee On’s offices.

“I’ll send someone right over. I look forward to hearing about this.” His voice was full of amusement.

“Thanks, Tommy. See you soon.”

She looked down at Jimmy. “You’re about to find out karma’s a bitch. Tai lo.” Be careful.

Jimmy glared at her but said nothing, too stupid to be scared.