Page 41 of Sweet
“And don’t forget to use his mother or his grandmother if you need to.” Imelda kept her voice low. “I’ll call your father if he’s not here in five minutes.”
Two old ladies plotting to outsmart a gang leader. Daisy couldn’t have asked for better allies. “Thanks. Is Mr. Juarez coming too?”
“He and Bill are already on the way here.”
Daisy walked the slice of pie over to Chino’s table and set it down in front of him, taking the seat across the table. “Sorry he’s not here yet. My dad is driving, and he’s a slowpoke.”
Chino was all smiles and good humor. “It’s cool.” He looked around at the tinsel tree in the corner, the holly-leaf garlands behind the register, and the frost-painted window ready to draw in Christmas customers.
“This is fucking good pie.” Chino dug into his second slice.
“Tia Imelda’s special.” Daisy pointed to her aunt, who waved at the gangster in a dark plaid quilted shirt. “She’s teaching me all the family recipes.”
“She should write a book or something.”
“And give away the secrets of Café Maya?” Daisy pretended to be shocked. “No, it’s a Metlin institution. You know how small towns are.”
Chino narrowed his eyes a little. “Yeah. So you’re Spider’s girl, right?”
“Yep.”
“What did he want to talk to me about?” He waved back at Imelda. “Not that I don’t appreciate a good piece of pie, but it’s a three-hour drive.”
Daisy smiled brilliantly. “We’ll have to send you home with some pies for your family. Are you spending the holidays with them?”
Chino squirmed a little. “Uh, yeah. I’ll go over to my mom’s.”
“Big family?”
The man looked confused, but he didn’t hesitate to answer. “Huge family. And that’s not even counting my boys.”
Let’s just gloss over your boys, shall we?“Me too. I mean, I only have one brother, but my mom has, like, five sisters and they all have at least three kids, so I have a million cousins, and that’s not even counting my dad’s cousins and their families. It’s a lot.”
Chino nodded thoughtfully. “And all around the area?”
“Mostly.” Not even a little bit. She saw her father and Spider approaching, saw Spider stop when he realized who was in the café, and then he pushed past her father and through the door without a moment’s hesitation.
“Daisy.” He pulled out the chair next to her and sat down, never taking his eyes off Chino. “Hey.”
“You’re late.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Chino has been enjoying some of Imelda’s apple pie.”
“That reminds me, I need to tell her something real quick.” He held up a finger to Chino. “Give me just one minute, will you?”
Spider rose and grabbed Daisy’s hand, leading her away before Chino could question it as Roberto took a seat at one of the empty tables a few rows back.
Daisy nearly had to run to keep up. “Spider, just let me—”
“Explain.” He bent down and hissed in her ear. “Very quickly, princesa. Because this is very fucked up right now.”
Daisy took him by the front of his jacket and held on tight while she looked in his eyes. “Look around you right now.”
Betsy was carrying the coffeepot to the front tables to offer warm-ups to Chino and Mr. Rivera. Imelda was behind the counter, and Emmie was singing out-of-tune Christmas carols with the radio in the kitchen.
The back door swung open, and Spider looked over her shoulder and frowned. “Is that—”
“Just Bill and Mr. Juarez,” she said quietly. “Coming in the back for their weekly coffee. It’s a little early for it, but they decided to make an exception for today.”
Spider looked around the café, his eyes going wide when he realized who all was there. “Daisy, what did you do?”
