“I mean—eight. I knew you were up around there somewhere, but, my goodness, John, that is well done. Very impressive.”

“One day at a time,” Milton said, using the familiar idiom to deflect her praise. It felt awkward; he still didn’t feel that it was earned.

“You feel good for doing it?”

“Maybe,” he conceded. “I’m just not very good at it—standing up and getting everyone’s attention—but I can’t say it doesn’t feel good.”

He had the coin in his hand and he rubbed his finger against the stippled edge that decorated the circumference. He pressed it into his palm and closed his fist around it.

“The meeting was good, too, right?” she said. “You know what I always find? I get an answer to a question I might not have known needed answering.”

Milton looked over at her. It was a knowing comment; she was talking about Lucas’s share.

“What?” he said.

“Making decisions for others? Sound familiar?”

“Sakura? Come on,” he protested. “That’s completely different.”

“Really? I don’t think it is.”

Milton shook his head. “I’m still not going to take advantage of her.”

“Who says you’d be taking advantage? She’s a big girl. She can make decisions for herself.”

“I realise that.”

“And you’re being grandiose if you think you need to decide for her.”

“Give it a rest,” he said curtly.

He knew that she meant well, but, just as had been the case when they knew each other in London, she had a knack for finding his vulnerabilities and then poking and prodding at them until he acknowledged that she was right.

“Sorry,” Victoria said. “I’ll mind my own business.”

Milton was about to apologise for his terseness, but, as he looked over at her, he saw that she was struggling to suppress the smirk that was bending the corners of her mouth upwards. “Piss off,” he said, unable to prevent his own grin.

“Eight years sober and a looker who seems to have fallen for you. Not a bad few days.”

“Piss. Off.”

They walked back to the Jeep.

“What’s next?” Victoria said.

“Back to the hotel. I need to talk to Sakura.”

“About what?”

“About what happens next. I need to get her to Tokyo. She has some issues there that need sorting out.”

“To do with the drugs?”

Milton nodded.

“What about you?”

“I’ll go too. She’ll have no hope if she goes back alone. It’s an old yakuza family—they won’t give her a second chance.”

“And they won’t take kindly to you getting involved in their business.”

“No,” he said. “They won’t. But I think I can make them see the sense in being reasonable.”

“You sure about that?”

“I have to try. She’s finished otherwise.”

They crossed the road, waiting for a gap between two shoals of mopeds.

“How are you going to get there?”