White Ginger Read Free Page B

him as if to speak in confidence. “From what I hear, she’s kind of an asshole.” The room went silent. “You seem to be following in her footsteps, but it’s not too late to change. As a matter of fact, I’d suggest now would be a good time to start.”
    Jimmy froze. The muscles in his jaw twitched; his eyes narrowed. “I’ll take care of you next,” he announced as he pointed his finger in Lee’s face. “But first, I want you to watch while we show your old lady a good time.” He looked aside at his companions. “Who wants to be first?”
    He threw the question out as he turned back to leer at Bai.
    The smile dropped from her face. “You’re big, and you’re stupid, Jimmy. And you’re about to make a huge mistake.”
    Her words went unheeded as Jimmy lunged at her awkwardly with his arms open wide. Bai’s foot arced swiftly up to catch him squarely in the crotch. His mouth made a silent “O” when her foot connected.
    Everyone watched as Bai’s foot lifted Jimmy off the floor. She shot off the stool as his head came down in response to having his balls kicked up between his ears. Her knee caught his nose and snapped his head back. He stumbled into a skinny kid behind him, knees buckling as he crumpled to the floor.
    Immediately, a fist flew her way—a wild swing, off-balance and wide. Bai stepped in and jabbed the skinny kid in the eye. The fight went out of him as he staggered around holding a hand to his weeping socket.
    The human body has a number of weak spots—eyes, ears, nose, throat, and groin, each being easily accessible. The eyes are sympathetic organs. Poke one and they both tear up. The ears are attached by a thin membrane that’s easily detached and remarkably sensitive to pain. The throat is tricky. Too much force inflicted will result in death.
    The sound of smacking flesh caused Bai to turn around. She saw Lee swing his foot over his head in a move called “whipping the dragon’s tail” to kick a kid in the jaw and slap him to the ground. Another gangster was already lying on the floor. The only Wah Ching left standing was a short kid with a ponytail. He looked at them hesitantly before backing away a step with his hands held up in front of him, palms out.
    It had taken five seconds to subdue the Wah Ching . Bai thought it might have been a new record.
    Lee pulled his thirty-five caliber Tomcat from his jacket and swung it around to cover the girls seated across the room. Bangers would be used to getting rousted. They would let their girlfriends carry their guns rather than take the rap for carrying a concealed weapon.
    It wasn’t likely one of the girls would open fire, but there didn’t seem to be any point in taking chances. Lee walked over to relieve the girls of the hardware before herding the bad boys to the side of the room where their girlfriends waited to console them.
    Bai walked to the front door and locked it before turning the sign around to let people know the café was closed. Jimmy huddled on the ground holding his bloody nose and nursing his aching balls.
    She turned to yell into the back room. “Ling! Up front, pretty please.”
    It was never too late to be polite.
    The girl with the wary eyes shuffled out of the back. She looked at Bai and then over the counter at Jimmy. She smiled when she saw he was hurt.
    Bai spoke to the girl bluntly while nodding down at Jimmy. “Are you his sister?”
    A note of sadness entered the girl’s voice. “’Fraid so.”
    â€œWhere’s your mother?”
    â€œShe gave up and went back to China. She said she was done with us. Left Jimmy in charge of the family. Oldest son, you know the story.”
    â€œHow long ago was this?”
    â€œDay before yesterday.”
    â€œWhere are your siblings?”
    â€œThey’re in school. They don’t get out ’til three.”
    â€œWhere is