In the Shade of the Blossom Tree

by Joanna Rees

  ‘Ah yes,’ Jai Shijai said. ‘But I think you will agree that your building project has gone exceptionally smoothly. As well as the extra funds you needed for your . . . ideas.’

  What was he saying? That he’d had a hand in making sure the Good Fortune had opened ahead of schedule?

  But how?

  Even if he’d put pressure on the investors to release extra finance for Roberto, did that really make her beholden to Jai Shijai in some way? Was that what he was implying? That she owed him? That he’d somehow done it all for her and now he was here to claim his prize?

  ‘You and I are alike, Lois,’ he said, his dark eyes glinting. ‘We like to get what we want. And you see, I have admired you for a very long time . . .’

  Admired her as what, exactly? Lois wondered. Not as an equal, if he assumed he could snap his fingers and she’d go to him like an obedient dog. And not as a businesswoman either, if he had the presumption to think that her success was somehow his.

  ‘Jai, I’m very flattered, but I’m afraid my answer is no. And now I’m sorry but I have to go,’ she said.

  ‘I see. Then so long, Lois,’ Jai Shijai said. His tone was icy. Final.

  He turned and marched out of the room. The door swung shut, leaving her alone.

  ‘Fuck,’ Lois said out loud.

  She knew that she’d just caused Jai Shijai to lose face. And if the last hard months had taught her anything, it was to handle Chinese men with delicacy and diplomacy. But it was too late now. She’d rejected him on instinct. Completely. She’d acted as a woman, not as a businesswoman. Because everything inside her had told her that what he was suggesting was wrong.

  You cannot afford to cross Jai Shijai. If you cross him, you’ll make him an enemy for life. Suddenly, Aidan’s warning rang clearly in her head.

  What would the consequences be now? she wondered. Would he withdraw his patronage of the Good Fortune? Or even the Enzo Vegas? Or would his revenge take a more personal form – against her?

  She would just have to wait and see. She would have to see how Jai Shijai played his next hand and keep her wits about her. She wasn’t going to be cowed or intimidated. Not tonight. Not on her night, she thought, walking swiftly to the door to take control of the party once more.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Savvy Hudson was still holding court at the champagne reception in the glass atrium of the Good Fortune. In a sea of black tuxedos, Savvy, with her short blond hair and shimmering green dress, was causing quite a stir.

  Now, late on in the evening, many of the guests had ventured into the ballroom where Ko-Lee Rai was performing her much-anticipated set on stage, to rapturous applause. But the scantily clad Asian sensation wasn’t the only woman getting attention tonight.

  Luc had introduced Savvy to a whole host of people he knew at the party. She had no doubt from their reaction that her It-girl reputation had preceded her – particularly with some of the government officials from Shanghai. Several of the men, on introduction, had looked her up and down as if she was a Shanghai hooker. As if they’d been about to ask her how much. But one by one she’d shot them down and stripped away their preconceptions. Until she’d left them looking at her more like they might have done her father: in awe.

  They weren’t the only ones whose opinion she was actively battling to revise. She’d also relished the opportunity to shine in front of Luc. He clearly hadn’t been expecting her to be so informed about the Good Fortune and its shortcomings, tripping off wittily damning sound-bites for the press. She didn’t waste a single opportunity to plug El Palazzo either. And, as a steady procession of journalists continued to be drawn to her like moths to a flame, they could be forgiven for forgetting that Lois Chan was supposed to be the centre of attention tonight.

  Soon Luc excused himself, winking at her and mouthing that he’d be back in fifteen minutes. Savvy nodded, but stayed where she was. She was busy negotiating the sale of exclusive documentary rights to a film producer interested in profiling Savvy and filming the launch of El Palazzo.

  By the time there was an announcement from the stage and the crowd were invited to move outside to the gardens for the fireworks, Savvy had managed to raise the expectations for El Palazzo ten-fold and create the impression that this launch at the Good Fortune was just a warm-up to the real thing.

  Luc caught up with her in the crowd, walking through the casino towards the doors in the glass wall leading to the gardens. ‘Where have you been?’ she asked.

  ‘Everywhere.’

  ‘So come on then, my fellow spy,’ Savvy said, pleased to hear it. ‘What have you found out?’

  He leaned in close. ‘Lots. This place is not at all as finished as it looks.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘One of the waiters I spoke to said that over half the hotel rooms aren’t habitable yet . . . and that the spa they’ve been making such a fuss about in their brochure is a total dump.’

  ‘So it’s all a smokescreen,’ Savvy said, gratified to discover that El Palazzo wasn’t as far behind as she’d previously assumed. ‘Just like this firework display we’ve been promised. Nothing but pretty lights to stop people focusing on the truth.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Luc said. A wicked glint crept into his eyes. ‘And you know what I think?’

  ‘What?’

  He held up his camera. ‘All we have to do is mail some damning evidence to Paige and she’ll do the rest.’

  Savvy smiled, getting a real buzz now out of the conspiratorial atmosphere that had risen between them.

  They broke away from the crowd and snuck off down a maze of corridors which led to the spa. Savvy ducked under the yellow tape and ‘KEEP OUT’ signs and pushed open the opaque glass double doors with their etched Good Fortune dragon motif.

  She thought immediately that Lois Chan must have been infuriated that the spa wasn’t ready in time for tonight. It was certainly going to be worth showing off. A series of rooms connected to a central pool. The pool lights were on beneath the still blue water. Three channels branched off the main indoor swimming area, running like rivers beneath brick arches, clearly leading outside.

  The pool lights and the emergency lights above shed a soft radiance over everything, as if they were in a moonlit grotto. After being on show in front of all those people upstairs, it was heaven to be somewhere so relaxing and quiet for a moment.

  She walked further into the spa and saw a whole series of treatment rooms, and at the far end a wall which had been made to look like luminescent rock. Savvy could see how much detail had gone into the design. It looked as if a steam room at the end was still being constructed. There was evidence of workmen’s materials and large barrels of paints and sealants. Neat ropes and toxic hazard and flammable liquid signs separated off the unfinished area.

  But despite all that, Savvy could see that this was another clever use of space. Big enough and yet intimate, functional and yet classy, and although Savvy wanted to hate it, her first thought was how lovely it would be to have a treatment and then stretch out on one of the squashy poolside beds.

  ‘Savvy, what are you doing?’ Luc said suddenly. He put his hand out and grabbed her wrist.

  ‘What?’ she asked, looking up at him.

  She was only about to light a cigarette. What was the big deal?

  ‘The sealant,’ he said, pointing back at the barrels, then the walls. ‘Can’t you smell it?’

  ‘No.’ She shrugged.

  But now that he’d mentioned it, yeah, she supposed she could smell it. All around, in fact.

  ‘Thanks,’ she told him, slipping her Lucky Strikes and her lighter back in her bag and getting out her phone. ‘I wouldn’t make much of a spy if I set fire to the joint, now would I?’

  As Luc got to work with his camera, Savvy got out her phone and started to take snapshots. Of the signs and the barrels of chemicals left lying around. Then of the half-finished mosaics on the pillars leading up to the roof. She felt guilty, but justified too. If the Good Fort
une had been her casino she would have opened tonight too, but that wasn’t relevant. Lois Chan was a fool to claim she was ready to open when half her complex was in this state. She’d left herself vulnerable to criticism. And it wasn’t as if she and Luc were going to get caught spying. Savvy could see the surveillance cameras on their perches up above, still waiting to be wired in.

  ‘We can make this look terrible,’ Luc said.

  She smiled. ‘Too right. There’s nothing like a photo to get someone’s attention.’

  She’d said it without thinking and now Luc stared at her, frozen. Did he remember that she’d once taken photos of herself and mailed them to him? She felt her cheeks reddening and looked away quickly.

  But she could still feel him watching her, as she mailed the photos off to Paige. She waited for a moment longer, trying to compose herself. Then she dropped her phone back into her bag before meeting his gaze. Uncertainty filled his beautiful eyes, mixed with something she’d never seen before. Timidity? Doubt?

  Was this it? So soon? Was Luc about to make the declaration she hoped he would? It would have been fun to spin the game out longer.

  She sensed danger too. Because once she rebuffed him, who knew how he’d react? With an ego like his, for all she knew he might freak, flip out, quit and leave her high and dry without a project manager. Or he might be more gentlemanly and take it on the chin for what it was: payback. The settling of a balance once upset, a place they could move forward from, freed from the ghosts of the past.

  But she never found out. There was a thunderous boom, followed by loud crackling, like fire-crackers, as the fireworks exploded outside, breaking the moment.

  ‘Come on,’ Savvy laughed. The noise had made her jump. But she’d seen Luc do the same, only now he was trying to look so cool. ‘Let’s get out of here. I want to see the hotel rooms.’

  ‘OK, but nature calls first,’ he said, smiling bashfully. ‘Wait there, OK?’

  He hurried off down a corridor signposted washrooms. He turned around and pointed at her. ‘Don’t leave me here. I hate fireworks. They make me nervous.’

  She laughed. Not so cool, after all, then. ‘Just get on with it,’ she called after him.

  She forced the smile from her face as he disappeared out of sight.

  This is just a game, she reminded herself. So don’t go falling. Not even a little bit. Because you’re going to come out on top.

  Luc might think they were having a good time, but she was still planning on tricking him, she reminded herself. Getting close to him was just a means of luring him into her trap.

  Wasn’t it?

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Outside in the gardens leading down to the water park, the crowd collectively gasped and cheered as the fireworks exploded against the black canvas of sky.

  Lois picked up a glass of champagne from one of the waiters. She smiled and raised her glass towards Roberto, as a flurry of pink and yellow sparkles briefly illuminated his face. Xan, the pyrotechnic expert she’d hired, had assured her that these fireworks tonight were going to be literally visible from space. She could see that Roberto was already impressed.

  ‘Unfortunately, Jai Shijai has left already,’ he told her, as she made it to his side. ‘I was hoping he’d stay.’

  She flushed, guiltily, as she took a sip of champagne. Should she tell him what had happened earlier? She decided against it. She still didn’t know what the fallout would be. So why bother Roberto with it? Especially on a night like this that was otherwise a runaway success.

  Besides, she knew that Roberto would back the call she’d made. Not only as a friend, but as a businessman too. She needed to see the opening of the Good Fortune through. She needed to be there for her team. Jai Shijai’s suggestion that she should walk out of here with him was unthinkable.

  ‘Hello,’ a loud voice said above the crackling of the fireworks above.

  She turned to see Aidan Bailey standing right beside her. Their eyes locked for a moment and she felt herself grinning at him.

  So he was here after all.

  But he didn’t smile back. His eyes were cold as a shark’s.

  Lois felt disappointment slam into her. She hadn’t exactly expected him to be overjoyed to see her, not after the way they’d said goodbye in Hong Kong . . . the way she’d said goodbye . . . the way she’d left him. But she hadn’t expected this look of almost naked hostility either. Aidan was a man of the world and it wasn’t like she’d led him on. She’d explained how temporary an affair their brief dalliance in Hong Kong was likely to be.

  He could at least have had the courtesy to congratulate her on tonight’s launch, like everyone else had. Or be grateful for the money he’d make as an investor. Or at least tell her that he was having a good time?

  There was a thunderous boom of rockets launching and exploding in the sky. Lois watched Aidan’s lips as they moved.

  ‘What?’ she shouted, cupping her hand around her ear.

  ‘Can we talk?’ he asked, still with no trace of a smile.

  ‘What, now?’

  ‘Right now.’

  ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Inside.’

  She led him back towards the casino.

  ‘Aidan,’ she asked, when they’d broken through the crowd, ‘what’s the matter?’

  ‘Not here.’

  As he took her by the arm, she tried to break free, but he just gripped her more firmly. He steered her through the nearest doorway into the poker hall.

  A few players were still at the tables, but now they were inside, the noise of the fireworks and music was muted.

  ‘Let go of me,’ she hissed. ‘How dare you just—’

  ‘Quiet,’ he told her, his expression suddenly altering.

  All the anger, hostility towards her . . . whatever it was . . . now dissolved. Only for something even more worrying to take its place.

  It was a look she’d seen before. On Billy-Ray’s face at the raid on Lawnton’s lair, on Mike Hannan’s face too at Fight Night in Vegas. It was a look of fear. A look that said some major shit was about to go down.

  ‘Burning,’ he said. ‘Something’s burning. Can you smell it too?’

  But she never got to answer. The boom of the fireworks above was suddenly swamped by the noise of a massive explosion somewhere much closer to the ground.

  Lois stumbled and fell into Aidan’s arms.

  What the hell was happening? An earthquake? She stared into his eyes and saw the terror she felt reflected there.

  Steadying herself, she clamped her hands to her ears, screaming as the ear-splitting noise of the fire alarm filled the air and the sprinkler system kicked in and a cloudburst of cold water rained down.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Savvy opened her eyes, choking and gasping for air. She’d been thrown across the room by the force of the blast.

  Black smoke filled the area.

  Deafening alarms wailed.

  She struggled on to her hands and knees.

  Groping now in the dark for the wall . . . trying to remember the way out.

  Shielding her eyes with her forearm, she looked behind her. Flames leaped into the darkness. The barrels of sealant . . .

  ‘Luc!’ she screamed, then coughed. ‘Luc.’

  Please God . . . Which was the corridor he went down? Please God, let him be safe.

  She got to her feet, lurching towards the double doors she’d come through earlier. The emergency lights were still there – barely visible beyond the smoke. But now a wave of flames leaped up before her, blocking her escape route. She threw her hands up to protect her face.

  She screamed, but her voice was lost in the roar of the fire.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Lois Chan threw the newspapers one by one on to the table. Her team – Mario, Tristan, Susie, LJ, Sven the architect – all flinched in silence as each one landed, as if they’d just received a physical blow.

  The headlines had been universally damning. It was the same on the
net.

  Bad Fortune

  Casino Turns to Water Park

  Washout

  ‘That’s not the worst of it,’ Tristan said.

  ‘So what is?’ she asked, because right now she couldn’t imagine feeling any bleaker. She put her palm on her forehead and paced away from him and Mario, then back again. Her long dress, ash-smeared and ripped, flapped against her leg but she didn’t care. How could this have happened? How could her launch night have turned into this?

  ‘Savvy Hudson and Luc Devereaux were here last night,’ Mario said.

  In all the mayhem, she’d forgotten that they’d even been invited.

  ‘So what?’ Lois said. ‘Don’t tell me that bitch has tried to make capital out of this. Even she wouldn’t stoop that low, surely?’

  ‘The thing is . . . she was nearly killed.’

  Lois stopped still. ‘What? But you told me everyone got out safely from the casino. That no one had been injured.’

  ‘She wasn’t in the casino.’

  ‘Then where the hell was she?’

  ‘The spa,’ Tristan said.

  Lois stared at him, stunned. A chill ran through her.

  ‘But it wasn’t even open to the public.’

  ‘I know. But that didn’t stop her going down to check it out. When I realized everyone else on the guest roster was accounted for, I finally tracked down Luc Devereaux. He was stumbling around in a daze – smoke inhalation or shock, I guess – and he told me he couldn’t find Savannah Hudson. He got kind of hysterical in fact. That’s when he admitted where they’d been. He started crying . . . he was terrified she’d been lost in the fire.’

  Lois shook her head. Luc Devereaux and Savannah Hudson had been in the spa area . . .

  The news put everything – all the headlines – to the back of her mind. Because the Chinese authorities had already returned their unofficial preliminary findings. That an electrical fault was to blame for the explosion and resulting fire in the spa area.

  But Lois trusted the foreman working down there. They’d had a long conversation about how the spa would be out of bounds to the public until it was finished. She knew that the workmen would have left it safe, knowing how many people would be in the casino.