In the Age of Love and Chocolate (Birthright #3)(65)
My cheeks grew warm. I suddenly felt like we weren’t talking about the play anymore. “To whom have you been speaking?”
“To whom do you think? You don’t imagine I could play Juliet without asking Romeo a couple of questions first?” Scarlet asked.
“We aren’t together yet, Scarlet.”
“But you will be,” she said. “I know it. I’ve known it all along.”
* * *
The club’s expansion had continued without me. There were decisions I might not have approved (locations I did not agree with, hires I might not have made), but I was almost disappointed to note how little an effect my absence had left. Theo said it was testimony to what a good infrastructure I had built that the business had run so smoothly without me. As that sentiment will no doubt indicate, he wasn’t angry with me anymore. He had a girlfriend—Lucy, the mixologist. They seemed happy, but what did I know of happiness? I suppose what I mean is that he seemed charmed by that woman and also to have forgotten that he had ever loved me at all.
Mouse had heard very little from the Russians. Perhaps killing Fats had been enough of a statement or perhaps it was out of respect for my incapacitation or perhaps they had other problems with which to deal or perhaps the thought of taking on two crime families at once was too much for them (as Yuji had hoped). We made plans to begin production and distribution of our own line of cacao “candy” bars.
I flew around the country to check the progress on our other locations. My final stop was in San Francisco to see Leo and Noriko. I had not seen my brother since I’d been hurt, and I had even missed the opening of the San Francisco club last October. In its first eleven months of business, receipts had been strong, and we were considering opening a second San Francisco location. By any standard, Leo, Noriko, and Simon Green had been a good team.
Leo held me to him. “Noriko can’t wait to see you, and I can’t wait for you to see the club,” he said.
We rode a ferry to an island off the coast of San Francisco. The ferry reminded me a bit of the trip to Liberty, but I tried to push such associations from my mind and enjoy the breeze on my face. This was the new Zen Anya.
We got off the boat and walked up a set of stairs that led to the rocky island. “What did this place use to be again?” I asked Leo.
“It was a prison,” he said. “And then a tourist attraction. And now it’s a nightclub. So life is funny, right?”
Inside the club, Noriko and Simon were waiting.
“Anya,” Noriko said, “we are so glad to see that you are well again.”
I wasn’t 100 percent. I still had a cane and felt I moved at a glacial pace. But I wasn’t in much pain anymore, and it wasn’t as if I had to go through life in a bathing suit.
Simon shook my hand. “Let’s give her the tour,” he said.
Alcatraz was truly the strangest place for a nightclub. There were private tables in little rooms that used to be jail cells. Silver curtains had been hung over the bars, and the cells were painted bright white. The main bar and the dance floor were in a former prison cafeteria. They’d hung crystal-and-chrome chandeliers from the ceilings, and everything was so gleaming and sparkling that it was easy to forget you were in a former prison. I was beyond impressed with what they had done. Honestly, my hopes had not been particularly high when I’d sent Leo and Noriko to San Francisco. I’d made the decision not from logic but from love and loyalty. I’d thought that maybe in a year I’d have to hire someone new to run or revamp the club. But my brother and his wife had surprised me. I hugged Leo. “Leo, this is wonderful! Well done, you.”
He gestured toward Simon and Noriko, who were grinning like crazy. “You really like it?”
“I do. I thought it was weird when I heard that you wanted to open it in a prison, but I decided to wait and see what happened”—and also I’d been sort of totally incapacitated, but that was neither here nor there—“and what happened is brilliant. You’ve turned a prison, a dark place, into something fun and cheerful, and I’m so proud of you all. I know I keep saying it. I can’t seem to stop.”
“Simon thought it was a good metaphor for what you had done with the first club. Take something illegal and make it legal,” Noriko said.
“From darkness, light,” Simon said shyly. “Isn’t that what they say?”
* * *
Leo and I went to lunch by ourselves at a noodle shop back on the mainland. “I’ve been thinking of you a lot this past year,” I said to my brother.
“That’s nice,” he said.
“Since I was hurt,” I said, “I’ve wanted to say I was sorry.”
“Sorry?” Leo asked. “For what?”
“When you were recovering from your accident, I don’t know that I was always as patient with you as I should have been. I didn’t understand what it was to be seriously injured or how long it took to get back to normal.”
“Annie,” Leo said, “don’t apologize to me ever. You are the best sister in the world. You’ve done everything for me.”
“I’ve tried, but…”
“No, you have done everything. You protected me from the Family. You got me out of the country. You went to jail for me. You trusted me with this job. And that’s not counting the little deeds you did for me every day. Do you see my life, Annie? I run a nightclub where I am important and people listen to me! I have a beautiful and smart wife who is going to have a baby! I have friends and love and everything a person could possibly want. I have two great sisters, who have both achieved so much. I am the luckiest person on the whole planet, Annie. And I have the most amazing little sister that anyone ever had.” He grabbed my head with both his hands and kissed me on the forehead. “Please don’t ever doubt it.”