Because It Is My Blood (Birthright #2)(52)

I was wearing Simon Green’s coat and also his pants and his shirt, but there wasn’t time for me to change.

We raced down the stairs and then we were in a car. At reasonably great expense, Simon Green had borrowed one in the wake of the shootings so that Natty and I could avoid public transportation.

“Do you think there’ll be paparazzi?” I asked him.

He said he hoped not but he wasn’t sure.

“Do you think I’ll be sent immediately to Liberty?”

“No. Mr. Kipling arranged with the Sinclair people for you to be under house arrest at least until Imogen’s funeral.”

“Okay.” I leaned back in the seat.

Simon Green patted me on the knee. “Don’t be scared, Annie.”

I wasn’t. I felt a certain sense of relief knowing that I wouldn’t have to hide anymore.

The DA’s office was in a part of downtown that I and everyone else in my family avoided—the whole area was dedicated to law enforcement. There weren’t any press on the steps, but a legalize-cacao rally was going on in front of the district attorney’s office. It was only about twelve people, but they were noisy enough.

“There’ve been a lot of these lately,” Simon Green commented as he pulled up to the curb in front of Hogan Place. “I’ll drop you here. Mr. Kipling’s waiting for you in the lobby.”

I pulled up the hood of Simon Green’s coat. “Why have there been a lot of pro-cacao rallies lately?”

Simon Green shrugged. “Times change. And people are tired of chocolate being so scarce. Your cousin Mickey isn’t doing his job right. His dad’s sick, and he’s distracted. Good luck in there, Anya.” Simon Green reached over me to open the car door, and I got out.

I pushed my way through the rally. “Take one,” said a girl with braids. She handed me a pamphlet. “Did you know that cacao has health benefits? The real reason it was banned was because of the cost of production.”

I told her I had heard something about that.

“If we didn’t have to rely on unscrupulous mobsters to supply us with chocolate, there would be no risks at all!”

“Cacao now. Cacao now. Cacao now,” the throng chanted, and pumped their fists.

I, the spawn of the unscrupulous mobsters, pushed my way through the madding crowd and into the lobby where Mr. Kipling was indeed waiting for me.

“Quite a scene out there,” he said. He pulled down my hood, then kissed me on the forehead. We hadn’t seen each other since Liberty. “Annie, how are you, my dear?”

I didn’t want to dwell on how I was because nothing good could come of that. “I’m eager to be through with this meeting. I’m eager to get on with things.”

“Good,” Mr. Kipling said. “Let’s go in.”

We gave our names at the desk, then took the elevator to the tenth floor. We gave our names again, then waited for what felt like forever in a nondescript lobby. Finally, an assistant escorted us into the office.

Bertha Sinclair was alone. She was in her late forties and shorter than me. She had metal braces on her legs and they squeaked as she maneuvered across the room to shake my hand. “Anya Balanchine, fugitive—welcome,” she greeted me. “And you must be the persistent Mr. Kipling. Please, friends, have a seat.”

She returned to her chair. Her knees didn’t bend very well, so she had to fall backward into it. I wondered what had happened to Bertha Sinclair.

“So, prodigal daughter, your sister’s nanny is dead, your brother has disappeared, and you have returned to the Isle of Mannahatta and laid yourself at my door. Whatever shall I do with you? Your lawyer thinks you should be given probation and time served. What do you think, Anya? Wouldn’t that be a touch soft for a girl who shot someone and executed a jailbreak?”

“In my opinion,” Mr. Kipling said, “Charles Delacroix had no right to return Anya to Liberty when he did. He was thinking of his campaign, not of what was in the public’s best interest. Although Anya was wrong to escape, she escaped from a situation that was essentially unjust.”

Bertha Sinclair massaged her knee. “Yes,” she said. “I can’t say I disagree with you if what you’re essentially saying is that Charles Delacroix is an ambitious, arrogant prick.

“Really,” Bertha Sinclair continued, “I should thank you, Anya. The luck of you being on that bus! My campaign staff and I beat that Anya-and-the-DA’s-son story until it was dead, dead, dead. The irony is, I doubt the public cared nearly as much as Charles Delacroix thought they cared. And, in my opinion, it wasn’t you but his misjudgment that cost him the election. Or, to put it another way, handed it to me.” Bertha Sinclair laughed. “So, here’s how I see it, friends. I don’t care about chocolate. I don’t care about Anya. I certainly don’t care about Charles Delacroix’s son.”

“What do you care about?” I asked.

“Good question. The child doesn’t speak much, but she does speak well. I care about my people and about doing what’s right for them.”

That seemed terribly broad to me.

“I care about getting reelected. And getting reelected takes many resources, Mr. Kipling.”

Mr. Kipling nodded.

“The Balanchines were good friends of this office once. And I imagine that they could be again.” At that moment, Bertha Sinclair took a tiny notepad out of her desk and scribbled something on it. She handed the note to Mr. Kipling. He looked at the paper. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that it was a number with at least four zeros, maybe more.