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Two weeks ago, as inexplicable as it seemed, she thought she might’ve figured out what it was.
It was one of the rare nights when she left her apartment and didn’t sense his invisible presence; it wasn’t often that she could pick him out of the sky since, as an angel, he could camouflage his body and his wings while in flight, but she always knew when he was there regardless. Polly didn’t sense him out there watching, either.
At least, not at first.
Feeling disappointed and not really wanting to focus too closely on why, she decided she’d stayed away from the Strip long enough. After catching a ride, she was just wondering which tourist trap she wanted to hit that night when she ran into Esther, another high-level con artist well-known in the city. She preferred to bed rich men before bleeding them dry, so while they ran in the same circle, they weren’t competitors—and Polly had been sure of that fact until Esther flashed the silvery edge of a switchblade as she warned Polly to stay away from the Twilight Sphere hotel.
Polly was a thief. She relied on her quick mind, her quicker fingers, and her ability to know when she was in over her head. She only stole from those who could afford it, and she was quick to cut her losses if she had to. These days, it was all a game to her, and she only played when she thought she could win.
She wasn’t violent. If she discovered she was encroaching on someone else’s territory, she backed off. No knives necessary. But before she could tell Esther to put that shit away—or beat a hasty retreat—the moon over their heads seemed to blot out as a dark shadow passed over it.
Only it wasn’t a cloud. It was a man with dark eyes and white wings who suddenly appeared silhouetted against the night’s sky.
With a flap of those pristine wings of his that sent Polly’s curls bouncing in her face and Esther’s long brown hair slapping her across her cheek, Sam appeared like the avenging angel he was. Though he never lost his smile, that made it somehow worse as he pulled his wings back before dropping to the earth about ten feet behind Polly.
Talk about a guardian angel. Sam snapped his back, flaring his wings as he said in a soft voice that echoed with power, “I would think twice about pulling that blade if I were you. This female is under my protection.”
For once, words failed Esther. Polly, too. She just turned and gaped at the angel who had her back.
Next time indeed, right?
Protection…Polly couldn’t break her stare away from him as her lips parted, her heart beating double-time. He was awe-inspiring, that familiar aura caressing her as he let some of his power out, reaching for her. She might be human, but she’d grown up knowing the truth about the factions. No wonder she’d been able to pick up on him watching over her. He wasn’t hiding who—or what—he was.
Under the moonlight, the mysterious angel she met in the security office of his casino had oozed both a protective nature and a possessiveness that had Polly two seconds away from throwing herself at him.
Too bad he flew away before she got the chance.
Rumors ran that Esther was so scared shitless of the angel prince that she decided to trade the City of Sin for the City of Souls, another faction-run city in London. And Polly… she had been trying to draw Sam out again for the last two weeks.
But she hadn’t been able to. Oh, she sensed him hovering somewhere near, and she knew he was still looking out for her, but it seemed as if he was only going to say hi on his terms.
And, yeah. That wasn’t going to work for Polly.
She was drawn to him. Why? No clue. Was she pushing her luck by searching him out herself? Oh, definitely. He was Death, and she was a cheeky thief who couldn’t get that look out of her head weeks later.
It might have been a couple of years since she’d taken a lover, but Polly had lived her whole life in Las Vegas. In the City of Sin. She knew what a man looked like when he wanted a woman and, to her surprise, Sam had looked at Polly like that right after he ran Esther off.
True, he’d eventually torn his hungry stare away from her before launching back up into the sky. He’d been more careful since then, with Polly only getting a few peeks of him. Sometimes he was perched on the building opposite of hers. Sometimes she sensed him somewhere over her head. One night, when she was returning home from an evening out with some of her comrades, she could’ve sworn he was only a block or two behind her.
He was always there, and she was finally ready to call him out on it and find out why.
And if he wasn’t going to come to her, then Polly was going to go to him.
Hey.
She wouldn’t have gotten where she was if she ever played it safe, right?
