Heartless Prince by Brook Wilder
Chapter 42
Lucas
“Xiao Lu!”
I turned around and saw the familiar shape of a small Asian woman in her seventies hurrying toward me. She was dressed in an absurdly traditionalred qipao that looked faded with age. She told me years ago that she felt powerful any time she put the garment on, and I imagined she must’ve had a closetful of the dresses in every color because I had never seen her in anything else.
“Ruhua,” I answered in Cantonese, watching as Leda’s eyebrows shot up. “It’s good to see you.”
“Baoshan!” she shouted, even though the old man in question was literally standing only a few steps away. “Look who it is!”
“I see him,” he replied in Cantonese as he approached us, his weathered face wearing the same haughty look from my past. “And I can hear you just fine.”
“He’s going deaf,” Ruhua said, shaking her head. The tiny gold coins hanging from the comb in her gray hair tinkled as she did so, and I bit back a grin. The Wongs had been married for over fifty years, running the restaurant for forty of those years. While their food might not be the best the city had to offer, it was the people that brought me here.
“Leda, this is Wong Baoshan and his wife Li Ruhua,” I explained to Leda, who was watching the exchange with some surprise. “They own this restaurant.”
“I, um, nice to meet you.” Leda extended her head.
“Who is this?” Ruhua asked in Cantonese, giving me the appraising glance of a questioning mother. “She’s pretty. Too pretty for you. You never brought a woman here before.”
She was right. I had never brought anyone here save Rocco. “This is Leda,” I said instead, ignoring her question. “She wants to eat.”
“Well!” Baoshan exclaimed, his smile wide. “I’ll fix you a plate.”
Leda looked at me and suppressed a laugh as the small old man shuffled off, leaving Ruhua to entertain us.
“How is business?” I tore my gaze from Leda and asked Ruhua.
Ruhua’s smile dimmed. “Not good. Times have been tough, but what else could we do? De Blasio shut down the city last year and we were left to fend for ourselves.”
I couldn’t even begin to think how much their business had been hurt by the pandemic.
The worst kept secret of New York was that Chinatown was the poorest neighborhood in the entire city. More than a third of its inhabitants lived below the poverty line. In normal times, its close proximity to the courthouses and the Financial District meant a constant flow of people getting lunch and dinner.
Then the pandemic hit, and what little money flowed into the community evaporated overnight. Restaurants and shops that had been around for generations shut down, and owners who had been the pillars of the community fell into even deeper poverty and ruin.
I had invested in the Wongs’ restaurant a long time ago, buying the building so they didn’t have to bother with rent. It hadn’t been easy. Most of Chinatown’s real estate was split between a number of different benevolent associations and other collective financial schemes. As the years went by, families split their share of ownership among more and more children.
Hell, just finding the sixty-odd owners for this single building took me more time than I’d liked. But it was something I was determined to do for the Wongs. They were the only ones who really ever looked out for me and asked for nothing in return.
And though I hadn’t told them, I suspected they knew why they were no longer being hounded for rent each month.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a roll of bills I had. “Here,” I told her, pushing them Ruhua’s way. “Take it.”
Ruhua’s eyes hardened. “We don’t take handouts,” she argued, shaking her head. “Not from you, not from anyone.”
“Then take it to get Baoshan some better hearing aid,” I urged, knowing that Leda was watching the exchange. “You know I have plenty. Don’t be stubborn.”
“Take the money!” Baoshan called from the kitchen. He knew what I was doing, and while he liked to pretend he would put up the same fight, Ruhua was where their pride came in.
She frowned before grabbing the wad of cash. “All right, fine, but you get to eat here for free all year.”
I grinned, unable to help it. The amount of money I had given her would keep this place running for a few months without problem. It was worth more than a few free meals, but I didn’t want anything from them.
Hell, they had a soft spot in my heart. Likely the only fucking soft spot that had existed before Leda.
“Come!” Baoshan stated, wiping his hands on his apron. “Sit. Eat!”
Leda looked over at me and smiled before she made her way to one of the small tables in the place.
“Girlfriend?” Ruhua asked, never switching from Cantonese.
I watched Leda interact with Baoshan, my jaw clenching. “No, not my girlfriend.”
Ruhua would likely beat me over the head with her frying pan if she knew how Leda and I met. The Wongs knew enough about who I was, but they didn’t know the full extent of it. And if they did, they sure as hell wouldn’t condone the things I did.
“She seems like a nice girl,” Ruhua replied softly, patting me on the arm. “Good for you, Xiao Lu. Good for your future and even better to forget about your past.”
That part they did know, and not once had she or Baoshan ever judged me for it. We all did what we needed to do to survive. Ruhua had told me all those years ago. They had left their home, their families, and everything they knew in China when the Communists took over. They knew what suffering was.
“I don’t know,” I said softly as Baoshan tried to get Leda to try one dish after another. She was laughing with him, and nothing she did felt forced.
That was Leda. She wore her fucking heart on her sleeve, and I didn’t think she had an enemy to save her life.
“I do,” Ruhua replied. “Your future is all that you have to live for, Xiao Lu. Don’t you ever let it or let her get away.” She moved away from me, and I contemplated her words. Leda was supposed to be a wife before I snatched her away to become my property.
Could she be my future?
I hadn’t given much thought to my future like this. As a Don, I was required to make certain there would be another generation to pick up where I left off. It meant I would have to eventually marry and have kids someday. I just hadn’t realized that having a future could be this soon.
Or that I would find someone that I could picture having that future with.
Realizing I was just staring, I forced myself to move over to the table and sat down as the Wongs fussed over Leda. Once they had put enough food on the table for half of New York City, they left us in peace.
“Well,” Leda remarked, chopsticks in hand. “This is a complete surprise, Lucas. Thank you.”
“I was going to take you somewhere else,” I told her.
“No need,” she answered, her eyes sparkling in the low light of the restaurant. “This is better.”
I didn’t want to go into that with her right now. I wanted to—hell, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but it would be with Leda. That I was sure of. “Eat,” I said, picking up my own chopsticks. “We can talk later.”
To my surprise, Leda reached across the table and laid her hand on my thigh. “I saw what you did. That was really nice of you. You’re a better person than you think, Lucas.”
I didn’t respond, and shoved a piece of broccoli in my mouth instead. She still thought I was worth saving.
I was a bastard and a monster, one that Leda should stay far away from.
The problem was, every time I was around her, I just wanted to keep pulling her in even closer.
