by Joanna Rees
Hud jerked and spasmed on the bed, thrashing against the ties. He was clearly gasping for breath.
But the woman ignored him. She stood up and pulled on a pair of jeans that had been lying on the floor. She didn’t turn round.
Hud’s face was contorted with pain. Veins popped like ropes on his neck. He curled up his legs, his whole body bucking.
Now the woman reached up and untied his wrists, pulling at the silk ties, slowly, tortuously, as if she were enjoying his agony. The second the ties were undone, Hud clasped his chest, rolling on to his side, clawing one hand out towards the woman. But all she did was take the thong from his mouth.
Tears streamed down Savvy’s face. Her father was trying to stand up, but he couldn’t. He was dying. She could see it in his eyes. She knelt in front of the television as her father stared up at the camera, a look of horror and desperation in his eyes.
‘No,’ she sobbed. ‘No.’
She watched as the woman stood to leave, pulling the blonde wig from her head so that her auburn hair tumbled down her back.
Savvy watched her father die. Right there. She saw him, on the tape, take his last breath, his eyes looking directly into the camera.
Behind him, the woman walked out.
And that was when Savvy finally caught a glimpse of the woman’s face. Through her tears, the anguish ripping her apart, this new sight made something inside her freeze.
Because even before she’d paused the tape to check, she’d recognized the familiar sly smile.
It was Paige.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
‘And the winner is . . .’
In the circus ring the industry awards ceremony had reached its conclusion. Again, the lights criss-crossed the auditorium, but all eyes were turned towards Savannah Hudson and Lois Chan on their tables.
As the drum rolled, nobody felt the weight of expectation in the air more acutely than Lois. Beneath the table, her knees were shaking. She hated this attention. She hated this air of expectation. She hated that the focus was on her. She didn’t want to win . . . and yet, she didn’t want not to win. She just wanted the whole thing to be over.
On the stage, Dusty Redfern, the Vegas legend, opened the embossed envelope.
‘The Good Fortune, Shangri-La,’ he announced. ‘What do you know!’
Tristan stood up and punched the air.
Lois put her hand over her mouth as the realization hit her. It was unbelievable that they’d won such a prestigious accolade after the fire had wrecked their opening night. But the industry had nevertheless honoured her . . . them . . . the Good Fortune.
Had Roberto rigged this? she wondered. She glanced across at him. He nodded, grinning.
‘Off you go,’ he told Lois. ‘It’s your casino, not mine.’
The whole of the Enzo Vegas team and the guys she’d brought over from Shangri-La were on their feet as Lois took to the stage, picking up the skirt of her dress.
She felt her heart fluttering with panic. She hadn’t expected to win and she hadn’t prepared an acceptance speech. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to deflect the attention away from herself, before anyone discovered what a huge fraud she was.
‘Thank you,’ she said, leaning forward to talk into the microphone, after kissing Dusty Redfern on his parchment-like cheek. ‘This means a lot.’ She looked at the heavy gold trophy in her hand. ‘The Good Fortune is truly an amazing place. One I am so very proud to have been involved with. But I’d like to accept this on behalf of the whole team at the Good Fortune. They’ve worked as tirelessly in the face of adversity as they have done in the face of success. I guess we all take our work ethic from the man who made it all possible. So I’d like to dedicate this award to my mentor. My hero . . . Roberto Enzo.’
She couldn’t see Roberto’s reaction as she held the trophy aloft. The lights were too blinding. She felt surprisingly emotional as she left the stage to a standing ovation. Flustered, she went back to the table, accepting kisses all round.
Then she leaned forward to talk to the usher, who wanted to direct her through the crowd to the photographers’ area at the back of the tent.
But as she walked between the tables, receiving congratulations from all sides, Savvy Hudson stepped into her path.
These last few months, Lois had got so used to seeing Savannah Hudson on TV, coquettishly flirting with the press, strutting around in her power suits. But standing in front of her now, she looked less like a mogul and more like a kid.
There was a moment of embarrassed, expectant silence. Lois had never realized how piercing her eyes were before.
‘Don’t tell me you’re going to congratulate me?’ Lois said, her voice loaded with sarcasm.
‘Actually, for what it’s worth, you deserved to win that award,’ Savannah said. ‘I wanted to win, but I was thinking back there . . . it was the right decision. The Good Fortune was . . . is . . . an outstanding achievement.’
Lois stared at her. She couldn’t believe she’d just heard right. This girl had tried to sabotage the Good Fortune’s launch. Completely. How dare she pretend to be so gracious in public? When she knew so many people were watching them, wondering where this face-off would lead.
‘My father was very wrong about you, Lois,’ she continued. ‘He should have employed you. Not tried to destroy you.’
What was that? An apology? A job offer? Lois was too flabbergasted to answer.
Then suddenly, to her utter surprise, Savvy stepped forward, as if to kiss her. But instead she leaned in close to Lois’s ear.
‘I need to talk to you,’ she whispered. ‘Please don’t say anything. Just meet me outside in ten minutes. Alone.’ Then she squeezed Lois’s arm tight, just once. ‘Please,’ she urged and Lois suddenly heard the desperation in her voice.
But then she pulled away, smiling, as if nothing had happened.
Outside, Lois sighed in the cool night air and took off her shoes, letting her bare feet sink into the sand. Her head was pounding.
This was ridiculous, she told herself. Why was she out here? What could Savannah Hudson possibly want from her? Why did they need to meet alone?
And yet she hadn’t been able to refuse the request. And now she shivered, looking back at the tents.
The canvas encampment behind her was fake. It had been purpose-built ten kilometres out in the Nevada Desert for tonight’s awards ceremony. The sponsors of the Arabian Nights-themed bash would no doubt hail tonight a glorious success, but Lois couldn’t wait for it to be over.
Hummers and jeeps stretched off as far as the eye could see, along with catering trucks. The massive central marquee poked towards the sky like a wizard’s hat, the lasers from the stage show beaming through. She could hear applause and cheers as the acrobatic show wowed the audience, but Lois was in no mood to enjoy the spectacle.
She took a few steps away from the white flare of the lights, relishing the quiet moment of solitude.
Out here the stars were breathtaking. Millions of them stretched out before her, sinking down to the horizon. It was a beautiful, humbling sight.
She remembered being at Jai Shijai’s island and how Aidan had told her that the stars always gave him a healthy sense of perspective. She’d never believed in fate, but now she marvelled at how a chance meeting like that with Aidan had led all the way to this.
She sighed again, wishing she believed in the power of the stars now. That they could give her the sense of perspective she needed. That she could believe that this whole mess she was embroiled in didn’t matter in the greater scheme of things.
But she couldn’t. And it did.
Lois looked back over her shoulder, knowing that Roberto and the team from the Enzo Vegas would be wondering where she was. In a moment’s time, she’d have to step right back into the lion’s jaws, with a bright, proud Vegas smile so that no one could tell she was dying inside.
The pressure was almost too much to bear. She couldn’t stand lying to Roberto like this, even public
ly lauding him, knowing that by helping Aidan she was actively bringing about his ruination. The future of Shangri-La that Roberto was in there right now claiming was so certain, was anything but.
Again, she felt doubt overwhelming her. Was she doing the right thing? Could she really trust Aidan? Would he do his best to ensure that Roberto wasn’t buried alive in the demolition of Jai Shijai’s house of cards? Because this was her industry, her world, her people. She should be closing rank, not conspiring with an outsider.
And Aidan had lied to her once. And yet . . .
And yet . . .
Again, she remembered his face. And his words echoed in her ears. This was about her trusting him. He’d been right about that.
And she did want to trust him. She wanted to with her whole heart. And she knew that there was a place, right at her core, that knew she already had, despite her doubts, despite her fear. It just seemed that her brain was taking time to catch up.
Aidan was a good guy. And he saw the good in her. What could be so wrong about that? He was a risk she’d have to take. She had no choice.
She knew that she had to look at the bigger picture. If someone didn’t take a stand against criminals like Jai Shijai, if she just turned a blind eye and let him win, then it would be the same as letting Chief Blakeney get away with ruining her career, all over again.
And when it was over? Well, who knew what everything would be like? Perhaps she’d have nothing. But she hoped she’d have one person who’d stick by her after all this heartache. One person who mattered to her more than she dared to admit.
She heard soft footsteps. Turning, she saw the dark silhouette of a woman walking towards her.
So this was it. Savvy Hudson was here.
She was wearing a long white Grecian-style evening dress. It fluttered in the breeze, making her seem skittish, as if any second now she might bolt.
Even so, Lois’s first instinct on seeing her out here alone was wariness. She knew damn well how sneaky and duplicitous this woman could be.
But as Savannah Hudson now stopped in front of her and looked directly into her eyes, Lois felt something else too. Guilt. Guilt over the fact that she’d never returned Savannah’s phone to her. Guilt over the fact that Mario – and now the DEA grunts, God knew how many of them – had sweated for hours over the private recordings her phone had contained.
But Savvy was the one who should feel guilty, Lois corrected herself. Was she out here to confess to arson? She looked as if she had something important to say.
Gone was the camera-bright smile. She seemed exhausted . . . fragile even. Gone too was the magnanimous superiority she’d displayed.
Now Savvy stepped forward so that she stood side by side with Lois. She reached into her small clutch bag and took out a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes and a plastic lighter.
She put a cigarette between her lips and lit it. Her face was illuminated in the glare of the flame.
Lois couldn’t stand it any more. She needed to find out what was going on and get back to her team inside.
‘They said it was an electrical fault that caused the fire at the Good Fortune, but I don’t believe it,’ she said. ‘There’s no one else here. Just the two of us. So you can tell me. Did you do it? Did you start the fire? Did you deliberately ruin my launch night?’
Lois had been around enough poker players to know the tells that gave them away. So now she stared hard at Savannah Hudson as she exhaled a stream of smoke over Lois’s shoulder. But something in the way Savvy Hudson shook her head made Lois realize all at once that she was innocent.
‘You really think I’d do that? That I’d set fire to myself just to rain on your parade? Are you crazy?’
‘But . . . but you were in the spa area, right there when the fire began.’
‘We might be rivals, Lois, but believe me, even I wouldn’t go that far.’
Savannah Hudson sucked on her cigarette and Lois stared at her.
She felt tripped up, caught out. She realized now what a big mistake she’d made. She’d assumed Savannah Hudson was guilty. She’d taken one piece of evidence and jumped to the wrong conclusion. Her personal feelings had so clearly overridden her judgement.
How many times had she railed at the injustice of people assuming her guilt over Billy-Ray’s death? And now she’d proved that she was just as susceptible.
‘So what do you want then?’ Lois asked, trying to recover her composure.
Savvy smoked for a moment longer, then stubbed the cigarette out beneath her toe. Her voice was soft . . . nervous. ‘I need your help.’
‘My help? Why?’
‘Have you ever had the feeling that you’re going mad, because what you’re seeing right in front of your eyes is all lies?’
A sudden memory of Billy-Ray’s funeral flashed into Lois’s head, because the feeling of horror, of betrayal, was something she saw in Savannah Hudson’s eyes now. And that world-weary stoop of her shoulders, as if everything was too much to bear, was something Lois had experienced all evening.
‘The thing is . . . I suspect that my life is in danger,’ Savvy said, and her voice cracked. ‘I need someone I can trust, Lois. Someone that no one in my organization would ever suspect I’d go to. Someone who will do the right thing, no matter what. And I’ve got a feeling you’re that person. I’m counting on you to be that person.’
Lois nodded, too shocked to speak.
‘Can we walk for a while?’ Savannah said, glancing over her shoulder back towards the party. ‘I don’t want anyone to hear this.’
And as they stepped together towards the shadows, Lois knew that the future had just become a whole lot more complicated.
‘Go on,’ Lois said, cautiously.
Those two little words were all it took. Savannah Hudson started to talk. And the more she told her, the more Lois Chan knew she couldn’t turn down her plea for help, in spite of the risks. As Aidan had told her only a week ago, doing the right thing was never the easiest option.
And somehow being trusted, as Savannah Hudson was trusting her now, helped Lois believe in herself again.
She was still here to make the world a better place.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
In the two weeks since the relaunch of the Good Fortune, people had started flocking to Shangri-La. And tonight they had more reason than ever.
Outside the Good Fortune, the crowd swelled in the courtyard, hoping to get a glimpse of the celebrity players in tonight’s inaugural Shangri-La Open Baccarat Championship.
Over the road, the spectacle was even greater as TV crews jammed the sidewalks to film the coloured fountains outside El Palazzo, which was finally on show to the world for the very first time. Helicopters flew overhead, filming from above, the world’s attention focused on these few square miles of Shangri-La, as the lasers and pomp of El Palazzo’s opening ceremony lit up the sky.
Oblivious to the excitement outside, Lois stared at the meeting-room door in the Good Fortune’s hub, knowing that her future was being decided behind it. The mood outside was jubilant – triumphant even – but Lois’s heart felt like lead.
‘Jai Shijai has just left his hotel room. He’s on his way into the casino,’ Mario told Lois, glancing at the screens.
But Lois didn’t have time to look, her attention now snared by the meeting-room door opening. Aidan stepped out on to the walkway. He looked tense, but then he caught Lois’s eye and his face softened. He gave her a solitary nod. His signal.
This was it, then. Tonight it was really going to happen.
The Chinese authorities and the DEA were going to attempt to take Jai Shijai down.
Now Joshua Fernandez stepped through the door too and straightened the jacket of his smart suit. He was just as handsome as Lois remembered him. But he looked older and more serious than before. Lois wondered whether the last six weeks had been as nerve-racking for him as they had been for her.
She’d heard from Aidan that Fernandez had been horrified that Mike Hann
an, his personal friend and long-standing bodyguard, had betrayed him, and even more upset that he’d had no choice but to go along with the deal Aidan had struck.
But it had worked. Tonight Aidan’s team had enough conclusive proof from Mike Hannan to arrest Jai Shijai.
Several more Chinese officials followed Fernandez out of the office. Roberto Enzo was between them. He looked ashen. As if he were being led away to the gallows.
‘Lois . . . the eyes in the sky. Looks like we meet again,’ Fernandez said, walking towards Lois and shaking her hand. He smiled, his eyes so warm that Lois couldn’t help but smile back, despite the seriousness of the situation.
She saw him glance at her neck and the St Christopher that he’d given her.
‘I see you still wear it,’ he said.
She touched the silver pendant. ‘It’s kept me safe,’ she told him. Then she glanced across at Roberto. ‘How did Roberto take it? And how are you going to treat him now? Because you need to know this: I will stand by him. Fall by him, too. Because I trust him. He’s the victim here. He’s done nothing wrong.’
Lois knew she’d just revealed how scared and tense she was, but there was no point in denying it.
‘He understands what has to happen here tonight, Lois,’ Fernandez said, his tone soothing. ‘It helped having the government officials there. This coup is good for them. They’re spinning it well. It’ll herald the start of more open and honest international relations between East and West. We’ll make sure the world knows that Roberto Enzo brought it about. He’ll be standing tall when Jai Shijai falls.’
‘And the Good Fortune? Enzo Vegas?’ Lois had to ask. As insignificant and as selfish as she felt . . . it was still her and Cara’s future on the line tonight.
‘Enzo Vegas will be fine. This place too. You see, the Chinese government realize that shoring up the finances behind the Good Fortune is the least they can do. Either that or watch the whole of Shangri-La flounder and possibly fail. Roberto will get out what he put in and a future percentage share of the profits. Your boss won’t be out of pocket. And in time, I guess, neither will you. The rest of the deal will be refinanced. From legitimate sources this time.’