He slept peacefully, like a baby, but I hadn’t found rest. Despite the good news from his doctor, worry gnawed at me. I stayed vigilant, watching him through the long night as I tried to read a novel by his bedside, though the pages barely registered in my distracted mind.
Outside, the city on the verge of waking up roared to life beneath a blanket of glittering lights. The Strip gleamed, its tourist traffic flowing endlessly, showcasing the glitter and glamour of this manufactured paradise.
At one point, I slipped out onto the terrace, leaving Thal deep in sleep, and looked down at the city I called home, a place that had brought me both joy and pain. The people below remained unaware of my silent suffering.
My gaze moved to Zeno’s casino, standing tall at the far end of the Strip with bright lights shining through the night. I wondered what he was up to inside that high fortress. Was he thinking about me? Had he accepted that I was no longer his property? His hold on me appeared to loosen, even if just a bit.
For the first time, I questioned how he genuinely felt about all of this, about us.
I’d spent years believing my rebellion was about my own freedom, but looking at the distant glow of the Olympus, I realized I’d just been a supporting character in Zeno's personal tragedy.
I wasn't his daughter, and I wasn't his ward. I was a living, breathing monument to a fire he couldn't put out ten years ago.
Every diamond he gave me was a bribe to his conscience. Zeno didn't see me when he looked at my face. Instead, he saw the ghost of the woman he’d left in the smoke, and I wasn't his protégé—I was his penance.
I’d seen that same look on Thal’s face, to be fair.
There was so much about this city that the tourists didn’t see. The backroom deals. The double-crossing, back-stabbing actions of the rich and powerful. The undercutting that clueless entrepreneurs learned about as soon as they tried to do business here.
I’ve seen more than one bright-eyed, optimistic business owner have their dreams crushed by Rhea’s syndicate.
The fact that she got away last night was painful.
I was grateful, of course, that we’d managed to make it out alive, but it was frustrating to think she was still out there, plotting, destroying, lurking in the shadows. I had no doubt she’d leave town for a little while, but that didn’t mean she’d disappear.
She was clinging to her power as desperately as someone trying to hold onto the edge of a cliff.
She’d fail, of course.
In time, I was sure I’d have the immense pleasure of witnessing her downfall. A twinge of guilt plagued me all night that I hadn’t been able to force that downfall at my hand.
But with each attack, Rhea grew weaker.
Her power slipped. Her confidence faltered.
Most importantly, her ability to lead her men and foster their confidence in her as their leader had been obliterated. After word of what had happened last night was spread like wildfire amongst the security forces of all the syndicates, Rhea would have an extremely difficult time replacing all the muscle she’d lost.
Nobody wanted to work for someone who couldn’t keep their operations running smoothly enough to avoid nights like last night.
While we may not have completely silenced her, we managed to send a clear message: don’t mess with us.
As I tenderly placed a fresh gauze over Thal’s stitches, he watched me work.
He had several cuts on his torso as well, the sharp result of all the shrapnel from the flying bullets. I cleaned each of them, determined to ensure he healed properly.
I needed Thal in one piece.
I didn’t know how to function if he wasn’t.
He’d become my best friend and my lover, and the urge to protect and nurture him had swollen inside me to uncontrollable levels.
He sighed as I rubbed an alcohol pad across a scratch.
A smile played on the corner of my lips, but I didn’t respond. He could handle a little stinging. He’d taken a fucking bullet, for fuck’s sake.
He would survive, but he’d come close to not being that lucky.
The doctor had told me outside of his room before he’d left that if the bullet had entered his torso just a few inches over, it would have hit a major organ, and he most likely wouldn’t have made it.
