THE MAFIA'S PRICE
“Come, Alessia. I’ll show you to your room while the men speak business for a moment.”
I followed her down a corridor lined with more shoji screens and low lanterns. She slid open a door to reveal a spacious guest suite: tatami floor, low bed with crisp white linens, a tokonoma alcove displaying a single camellia in a black vase, sliding doors opening onto a private garden of raked gravel and moss-covered stones.
“It’s beautiful,” I breathed.
Sakura smiled. “I hope you’ll be comfortable. If you need anything, tea, extra blankets, anything, tell the maid. Or me.”