I Unintentionally Became Her Kitten

Chapter 38: History

The next stop for the night was a small Mexican restaurant with Taco Mojado in bright pink letters on its brick wall. It was definitely a far more casual set up as there wasn’t really a lobby, and both a bar and a club area, though the club area was on a second level that was roped off and vacant. This time of night, and perhaps this day of the week, the place wasn't busy, a single bartender and a single waitress being the visible staff.

The waitress smiled at us as we came in. “Hey guys,” she greeted. “Sit wherever you like.”

Alisha nodded and took a seat at a high-top in the corner. Tye and I also sat with her as our waitress hurried over with an order pad at the ready, then her eyes met mine and she turned on her heels to hurry off again.

Alisha sighed and rubbed at her eyes, smudging some mascara and eyeliner under them. It just made her look even more worn out than before.

Our waitress returned and handed me a menu. 

“Would you guys like anything to drink?” she asked.

“A pink martini,” Alisha told her.

I hurriedly combed through their drinks section as Tye ordered a water.

“Uhm… could I get a cola?” I asked.

The waitress nodded and hurried off again.

“Kitten,” Alisha said. “I'm sorry you had to sit through that.”

I shook my head. “You didn't do anything wrong,” I told her.

“But neither did you. My mother is… complicated. I don't think she even understands why she feels the way she does about certain things.”

“It sounded like she thought you weren't capable in your position,” I observed.

“It's not even that,” Alisha sighed. “My father didn’t love her, so when he was alive we had something to bond over, at least to some degree. But our reasons were very different.”

I nodded.

“She married him only after she was pregnant with me. And even then only told him she was pregnant once she started significantly showing. And she told everybody. After I was born, my father paid her to travel the world and stay far away from the family, so I didn't see him much until I was older. Until then it was just my mom and I, kinda living the high life, occasionally having to show up at family gatherings.”

I nodded again as the waitress came back and set our drinks down on the table.

“I'm assuming you two are getting your usual?” she asked Alisha and Tye.

“Yes, please,” Alisha said and Tye nodded.

“And what about for you?” she asked me.

“Uhm…” I panicked a little and looked at the menu quickly. “Flautas,” I decided.

“Mole sauce okay?” she asked.

“Yes, thank you,” I said and handed her the menu.

She scurried off again but I didn't miss a second glance she made at us as she did so.

Tye watched after her and once she was out of earshot, Alisha continued.

“When I became my father’s… second-in-command, I had to make certain decisions. And eventually my father and I were at odds about how things should be run, which is never a good thing in a family like this.”

I nodded again and managed to take a few sips of cola, letting the cold spiced sugar water help soothe my stomach.

Alisha took a deep breath. “There was a decision he made that I found unacceptable so… I… backstabbed him.”

She waited as my thoughts processed. She was being careful with her language. We were still in public even if we were well isolated over here. That meant I had to use some flexible thinking to understand. Rather than meaning she betrayed him, was she saying she had literally stabbed him? Or was it just a metaphor for harming him somehow?

“Did you take over after that?” I asked. “His assets, you know.”

She nodded. So she had killed him herself.

“But if your mom and dad didn’t really love each other, why was your mom so mad?”

“I’m still her daughter. She couldn't stop my father from doing anything but she hoped that when he inevitably passed away, I'd come home. But I couldn't do that. And she took it quite personally. On top of that… her and my father didn't get along but I think there were still feelings there. My father didn't like having the liability but she was still his first choice for sexual relations and she never complained about that.”

“I see.” Alisha's childhood sounded like a convoluted mess. “And so when she talked about you being mean to your family she really was talking about your father.”

Alisha nodded. “It wasn't easy for either of us when he died. She wanted to be free of the–company–I think. And since I took over, her blood still runs in it. She knows way too much to be left alone but is protected by her relationship to me. I can't be sure but I think she believes if she drives a wedge between me and this place, ideally by marrying me off to someone else I can be free of my responsibilities to the company and she can have her daughter back.”

“I see. And she thinks only a man could fill that role?”

Alisha nodded. “She's a bit of the ‘I need a man to do the hard work’ kind of person.”

And Alisha was very much a ‘I don't need a man, I'll do it myself,’ kind of person.

“So is it wise for you to not talk to her?” I asked. “If she is… problematically knowledgeable and you cut ties with her doesn't that send a signal to other people you don't care about her?”

“She's too well connected now. I'm sure she'll complain to Nicco that I stormed out on her and tattle on me about Sergei. But Nicco’s on my payroll, not the other way around so even if he does try to dissuade me, I can just send him away.”

I nodded.

The waitress came back again with a pitcher of water and refilled Tye's barely touched glass. “Can I get you guys anything else?” she asked us, though she was looking at him.

“Uh, I think we're good,” he told her 

She nodded, smiling and scampered off again.

Alisha rubbed her temples.

“Uhm…” I started. “Can I ask… maybe what it was that caused you to… your father?” I asked. It wasn't necessarily important but knowing she had tolerated him abusing her without stabbing him, I was a bit wary of what the cause might have been.

She nodded and drew a napkin from the dispenser on the table to lay it out flat.

“If this napkin is the city,” she said. She got a pen from her purse and drew a long line slanting across it. “This northern part is under our control.” She shaded it in lightly before dividing the bottom half into three pieces. “And then there's the Costellos, the Santos, and the Kovals in the South, West to East.”

I nodded.

“Back in my father's day, it was only the Santos and the Costellos and their border was further East. And they decided to have a territory battle. My father saw this as an opportunity. Taking on both of them wasn't going to be smart until they started to weaken themselves and he wanted to start a war of attrition until they were eliminated so we had the whole napkin, if you know what I mean. The issue is that we would've taken massive losses to do this. It might not’ve been difficult to wear them down until they surrendered or merged with us, but it would still leave us vulnerable. And that's exactly what happened to the Santos. They weren't prepared when the Kovals came in and pushed for their own territory in the East. I was still inexperienced back then but I held our border there and they pushed the Santos back into the Costellos and all three of them are still really bitter about it to this day. But I maintain fairly good relations with all them so when there's a dispute between them, it can typically be resolved peacefully. That's where my father and I differ.”

“I see.” Based on the territory, the Takeno family must’ve been way stronger than any of them individually. But if they banded together, it would be a major problem.

The waitress came back with our food then, the bartender patiently holding a plate of salad as she set Tye's burrito type thing in front of him and then my flautas in front of me.

The bartender finally set the salad in front of Alisha and gave us a smile. “Just let us know if you need anything else,” she said as she started to go off again. I caught the waitress looking back as Tye stared at the burrito with way more focus than he needed to.

Once they dipped around a corner he relaxed a bit.

Alisha stared at him expectantly but he ignored her too.

“You know she's pretty,” she commented.

“Mm,” Tye said affirmatively.

“And I imagine she'd be down for a fling rather than something long term,” Alisha continued.

He turned to stare at her.

Alisha shrugged and sipped her martini. “The choice is yours. If you want to keep your hands to yourself that's your business.”

Was Alisha suggesting Tye hit on the waitress?

I guessed that meant Tye was single. Which was a lonely place to be at… whatever mid-twenties age he was at.

“I’m good,” he grumbled and turned his attention back to food.

I did the same and looked at my plate. There was Mexican rice and black beans on the side while the flautas were neatly rolled into tubes and smothered in a dark brown sauce. The smell was amazing. It had a gentle aroma of Mexican spices carried on the steam as it curled up from the plate.

I was happy to cut into it, finding it crisp and a fresh gush of steam flowed out.

Alisha was smiling at me again and I looked up.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re just very cute,” she said.

“I’m hungry,” I defended and tried to scoop some food into my mouth, finding it scalding hot and ended up dropping it again.

She continued her little smirk as my face heated up.

I felt so much better as Tye drove us back, having dodged the waitress by getting the car as Alisha paid for the food. Which she did by dropping about four hundred dollar bills on the table. I didn’t know if she was being generous or if she had no idea that the average price of a meal here was twenty dollars. Either way we left, Alisha giving the waitress and bartender a respectful ‘thank you,’ as we went.

Tye dropped us off and departed for the night, looking as worn out as I felt.

I went inside with Alisha and she took her shoes off, revealing dark smudges of dirt and mud from walking around in bare feet earlier.

“I’m sorry there was so much tension,” she said.

I shook my head. “I think you really tried with her, I mean, you didn’t want to go in the first place and instead of being grateful you took the time to see her, she kinda threw it in your face.”

She patted my head, finally getting to run her fingers through and pulled some of the styling out. It felt good and I closed my eyes for a moment.

“I’ll make us some tea,” I said. “If you want to shower or anything.”

She looked at her feet and nodded. “That’s a good idea,” she said and headed off to go upstairs. “I’ll be down in a bit,” she told me.

I went into the kitchen and got the electric kettle, stopping as I saw the chocolate bar and cocoa powder I’d gotten a few days ago.

There were still cookies in the freezer, I remembered and hurried to preheat the oven and get some out to bake for her. They smelled as good baking from frozen as they did fresh and I felt accomplished as the vanilla butter scent filled the kitchen. This was the kind of thing I could do for her. I started the hot water in the last couple minutes and dug out the tea bags from the same cabinet she kept her coffee in.

She came down, hair still damp as the tea was finishing steeping and I was fanning the cookies to cool them faster.

“Those smell good,” she sighed and leaned against the counter.

“You want some?” I asked.

She nodded and I grabbed a couple dessert plates to split the cookies between us.

We went to the table and settled down. She sipped at the tea, staring intently at the far wall.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked once I had finished a cookie.

“I said my mother would be safe, but there’s still going to be a fallout for this,” she explained. “I’m probably going to get a furious call from Nicco at some point tonight and I’m not looking forward to it.”

“You’re figuring out what to say to him?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Do you and him get along?”

Her lips thinned in that way I was getting to know all too well. “It’s… complicated. We have a working relationship but that’s about as far as it goes. It doesn’t help I’m pretty sure he and my mother are… getting together,” she explained.

I sipped some tea, washing away the sweet aftertaste from the shortbread. 

“It was the expectation he’d become my underboss but I have no desire to enter the same situation my father was in when I was his,” she explained. “Because he tends to hold my father’s ideals.”

“I see.”

“I try to let him deal with as much of the old family as I can, it helps keep things calmer. But under normal circumstances he would primarily be there to help settle issues between captains and even between families if I wasn’t available.”

“So… he is acting to some degree like your underboss?” I guessed.

“Partially,” she agreed.

I nibbled another cookie as she finally picked one up and took a bite, snapping a corner off in her teeth.

“It’ll be okay,” I told her.

She nodded. “These cookies are really good,” she said.

“I’m glad.”

I made a point not to bring up any more work things as she finished her tea and the cookies. We did our usual routine for the night and even though it took her longer to fall asleep, she did fall asleep, which I would consider a win considering the day we’d had.