Chapter forty-five
The Following Day
The room grows silent as he enters. Previously filled with excited chatter and casual banter, and the clinking of glasses and cutlery against plates, the space is now eerily still as people turn to look. Ever the sophisticate, Tane wears another of his immaculately tailored suits, a navy blue that brings out the untold depths of his eyes.
I have to give it to him, Tane is one handsome dude.
Angel and I are watching him on camera, from the surveillance room on the other side of the building. The camera setup bears the standard offerings you'd expect from a restaurant—eyes on the cash register, the kitchen, the host stand and a general view of the dining room. But ours also offers a more detailed view, and one that gets us close to exactly where we need to be.
Aria flits to his side. "Welcome, Mr. Brown. We're honored you could be here today. We do hope you enjoy our soft opening."
What Tane doesn't realize is that this isn't Aria's official soft opening. This is a very special one, just for him. The other guests are just for show, a curated list of well-behaved influencers who will stick to themselves. And, just to keep them safe from any collateral damage, they all happen to be vegan. We're saving the meat for Tane and his men.
Of course, when Tane received a VIP invite, he didn't question it. As notorious as he is, and with his own network of restaurants around the islands, he's always attending these types of events. Even if his men vettedeverything beforehand, all roads from this restaurant lead back to shell corporations. If they got to the bottom of things, everything is in Aria's name and she's still not well known to them.
Aria winks at the camera as she walks past, on her way to the kitchen where she and I spent close to forty-eight hours over hot grills. At times, the aromas coming out of the kitchen sickened me, but only because I knew what was really at play.
As I realize that this is actually happening, I watch with glee as Tane and his men make their way further inside the colorful space. They each take a champagne flute from a passing server, and take a seat at the communal table which has been reserved just for them.
Tane is positioned next to his current top man, Lawrence, a very large man with a scar running down the side of his face. His head is shaved, the elegant lighting bouncing off his bald pate as he cranes his neck to take everything in. "Wow boss, this place is alright." He nods as he surveys the crowd. "Some really elegant stuff here."
Tane murmurs his assent, preferring to keep to himself.
A server approaches, tray in hand topped with matching small plates. Each is covered with a sticky red sauce, two riblets on each, dotted with a sprig of microcilantro. "This is the smoky glazed ribs. You can expect them to be sticky, unctuous morsels. You will need to use your hands, and these can get messy, but we've provided each seat with its own finger bowl so you can rinse off."
She carefully places a small plate in front of each of the giant men. It's almost comical, her tiny frame dwarfed by these large henchmen that look like… well, henchmen. They all stare at the plates before them, and then at Tane, as if awaiting his permission to eat.
"Oh wow, these are some sticky ribs," the bald guy says, shoving his meaty thumb into his mouth, first to eat out of the group. I try to hide my grimace as a glob of sauce starts to dribble its way languidly down his stubbled chin. "This sauce is to fucking die for."
And some people did.
"Boss, trust me. You gotta check this out," he continues, a testament that the dish at least hasn't been poisoned.
Tane glances over. "I'm cutting down on my red meat at the moment."
"Oh trust me, boss," he insists. "Everyone needs to color outside the lines a little every now and then. It's just a teeny tiny piece of beef, right? One little sliver of red meat isn't going to hurt anyone. And none of us are going to tell your nutritionist team, are we now?"
He glances around the rest of the group exaggeratedly, accompanied by a stage wink.
What an absolute pillock! But I guess not even Tane can be picky with his help when his best men are disappearing all over the islands.
Before I have a chance to get frustrated, Angel catches my eye. She reaches down and squeezes my hand and together we continue to view the live video stream.
Aria's voice is confident, airy, as if she's taking a group of investors through her restaurant. "One of the biggest issues I find these days is that we really don't know what goes into our food. But I can tell you about where each and every item in the plate before you was carefully sourced. 'Intentional cooking', we like to call it."
I hold back a smirk. Oh my god, she isn't. But she is. The words roll off her tongue in an exquisite display of double entendre.
"We grow our protein to be tough, but in the end we find the meat is all the same. We take great care in preparing it. Every life should mean something, right?"
"I, uh—I guess. All I know is I like ribs." Lawrence sucks the sauce off each finger, and my stomach roils seeing his meaty fingers stuffed into his loud, greasy mouth.
Suddenly, Tane speaks up. "You know, this is where you and I appear to differ," Tane smirks at Aria. "Because I'm a firm believer in the circle of life. There's a hierarchy of power and control in the animal kingdom, and at our very core aren't humans just animals, too? Only the strongest survive. Only the ones prepared to do whatever it takes to get what you want. What youdeserve. That's what gets rewarded. Tenacity.Self-belief. None of that generosity and gratitude mumbo jumbo I see spouted all over the place these days. It's about grit. Chutzpah. Something that's severely lacking in most people these days."
"Oh, well I still trust you'll enjoy the dish," says Aria, politely.
We all hold our breaths as Tane picks up a rib with his elegant fingers and glances at it more closely. "It is quite beautifully prepared," he says. "Just the way I like my meat."
"Human and dead?" Angel whispers, and I fight the urge to laugh out loud. She's warped, and it's one of the things I love most about her.