‘You knew about his business?’

‘I knew about a lot of it. I followed him when he wasn’t looking. I saw the people he did his business with. I never knew about the existence of his private club where he kept the girls hostage and used them in those films.’

‘Snuff movies. That’s what they were. That’s how Helen died–in the process of pleasing sick perverts like Chan.’

‘I am sorry for you. Sorry for all of us.’

‘But you chose to stay with him. Why did you never leave him?’

She shook her head sadly. Her eyes drifted away as she thought. ‘It is not the Chinese way, is it?’ she smiled ruefully. ‘I was educated in England. I was brought up to feel like I was just like every other young woman–that the world lay ahead for me; anything I wanted to achieve was possible. But then I returned home. Suddenly I had to conform, put aside all my hopes and dreams. I wanted to be a lawyer. Instead of that I was married off to one. He was handpicked by my father: ruthless, ambitious, an asset to the firm. I was his prize for coming into the Wo Shing Shing fold. I was his guarantee that he would someday be chosen to take over as the Dragon Head. I was his insurance. For years I did as I was told by my father and by my husband. I had no one to seek help from. I made up my own mind on how I would handle it. I shut my feelings away. I stayed out of his way. I planned for the day that I would be released. And then you came along and you did it for me. We have a lot in common, you and I.’

‘No, we don’t and I didn’t do it for you.’

‘No, but that was a happy coincidence for me that you were the other person who hated him as much as I did. You did me a favour. You knew you had at the time. Now let me do something for you. Let me help you become the man you are meant to be.’

Mann walked angrily away. ‘I will die before I become a Triad.’

‘You don’t have to join the ranks. Just look on it as a business deal.’

‘It’s dirty money.’

‘All money is dirty, Mann.’

He picked up the last of the piles of documents and took them into his bedroom. ‘There’s no way I trust you not to pry into my business so I’ll save you the trouble of trying whilst I go for a shower in peace.’ He locked the bedroom door and came back into the lounge with a towel and shut the bathroom door behind him.

Mann was drying himself off when he heard music coming from the lounge. The telly had been switched off. He heard Victoria moving around and then he heard her come to stand outside the bathroom door.

‘You know, Mann, I have never felt so much in common with anyone else as I do with you. I have never spoken to anyone before about my life with Chan. In some strange way I feel I can trust you more than anyone else.’

Mann stopped his towelling and listened. In some awful way he understood but it didn’t make him happy. It scared him that she was right. In some ways they understood one another.

The door opened. She stood in the doorway with a drink in her hand. Her hair was down over her shoulders. Her blouse was open to the third button. ‘Thought you might be thirsty?’ She had a vodka in each hand.

Chapter 96

Ruby sat down against the white tiled wall a few feet away from Sheng and looked across at him. His chest was heaving up and down. All around him the dolls, their dresses and bonnets, their nylon hair, their painted rosy cheeks, were speckled with his blood. Ruby opened and closed her naked legs like windscreen wipers sliding the blood back and forth and along the floor, she watched delighted at the pattern they made. In her hands she held Sheng’s small intestine. It slid through her hands as she pulled it and coiled it between her legs.

Chapter 97

‘I want to show you my visions of the future. The future for both of us. But first let’s eat.’ She had the food out on the elephant table. Mann was stood in his jeans and t-shirt, towelling his hair dry as he watched her serve him. She knew he was watching. She was enjoying it. She kicked off her shoes.

After they’d eaten Mann took the debris into the kitchen. Victoria opened up her laptop and fired it up. The screen came alive with the image of the Leung Corporation. It was a tiny screen. Mann took it from her and sat on the floor to watch it. Victoria moved from the chair to kneel beside him. They watched the screen whilst a virtual tour of the new Mansions started.

‘As you can see, we will keep the basic structure. We would demolish a block at a time – five blocks and the shopping mall beneath. We estimate it will take us six months to complete, working round the clock.’

Mann looked at it. ‘Very impressive. What’s supposed to happen to the residents whilst all the refurb is going on?’

‘I can find alternative accommodation and we can ensure that only one block at a time is demolished. We will minimize disruption. That is, of course, one of the decisions I would expect us to make together.’

‘What about CK? What’s his involvement in all this?’

‘He is, of course, being very supportive, but he has left it to me to make this project work.’

‘You never wonder at CK’s motives, Victoria? You never ask yourself if he isn’t just giving you all the rope you need to hang yourself with?’

She flashed Mann a look and he could tell that the thought had definitely crossed her mind and it irritated her. ‘I am the natural successor to my father’s empire. Yes, he is making me prove myself, as you would expect but, ultimately, I am sure that he wants me to succeed in my ambitions. Why else would he bother?’

‘Why else? Because he is CK Leung and he has got where he is by shafting everyone, including you. It wasn’t so long ago you were forgotten, sold by him to the bright new star on the Triad ladder.’

‘I would have done the same thing if I was him.’

Mann looked at her and realized she was telling the truth.

Victoria turned to face Mann and leaned towards him. Her lips were an inch from his. ‘You like your women tough, don’t you, Mann? You don’t begrudge me getting my hands dirty once in a while?’

‘I like my women dirty, Victoria, but only in the bedroom.’

‘You have no idea how good I could be for you.’ She opened her blouse further and took the tips of his fingers and ran them over her erect nipples.

‘Oh, yes I do. I also know how bad you are.’

‘We are the same type.’

‘No.’

‘Yes. You deny it but we are. I will never want to have your babies, Mann. I will never grow old gracefully. I will be a fighter till the day I die.’ She leaned over him and her lips brushed his. Her cheek touched his as she whispered in his ear: ‘I will keep you on your toes, never be boring. I will seduce you in ways that you didn’t know possible.’ She flicked her warm tongue deep into his ear…‘I will fulfil you completely.’…She moved her mouth to his. She kissed him tenderly at first and then she bit hard into his lower lip and pushed him backwards and straddled him. She undid her buttons and slipped her blouse off her shoulders.

Mann looked over her shoulder at the laptop as he ran his hands up her thighs to the tops of her silk hold-ups. The laptop was still showing its tour and it had now stopped outside the Delhi Grill. ‘Have you made a deal with PJ?’ He ran his hands up her thighs to rest on her hips. He traced the edge of her silk panties with his thumbs as he spoke.

‘Yes,’ she replied, distracted. She closed her eyes at the sensation of Mann’s touch as he brushed her sex lightly with his thumbs. ‘I told you, I will keep a flavour of what it is now. He will be opening up a bigger better restaurant.’ She groaned. ‘Fuck me, Mann.’ She reached beneath her to undo his fly.

‘Who else?’ He held her hand, gently but firmly and went back to touching her. He would not be rushed. ‘What about people like Michelle and the Filipino café? What have you got in mind for her?’ His thumbs slipped beneath the lace.