Page 6 of Sin and Deception

Still, I longed for the privilege of my old life.

If any of my coworkers knew my real name was Nerine Angelos, the missing Godmother of the Night and Queen of the Angelos Mafia, not one of them would have been able to keep that secret.

Luckily, I’d perfected a demeanor, making the truth an outlandish possibility.

It sounded strange to my ears, too, sometimes.

But that was all in the past. I wasn’t the same woman I had been when I left, and I would never be the old Nerine again. It was best that I remained grateful and humble for that fact.

So, instead of rolling my eyes and pushing the work away, I politely smiled at Sarah and thanked her for the work.

Outside my office windows, the Las Vegas Strip stretched for miles. The daytime view contrasted sharply with the glittering neon chaos I observed from the small apartment I lived in during the evenings. I resided at the Ida Hotel and Casino, owned by my employer, Penny Lykaios’s husband, Hagen. From my bedroom, I had a perfect view straight down the Strip, showcasing the dazzling neon lights and bustling streets.

Thank goodness for blackout curtains, though, or I’d never be able to catch a wink of sleep. I laughed, thinking about how different my life was now.

My friend Penny had been a lifesaver for me, not to mention an inspiration.

She was a brilliant chemist and the founder of SinCity Distillery, a successful woman in her own right. She was also married to one of Las Vegas’s most prominent casino and hotel owners. With the indulgence they offered the public, they were the king and queen of the Las Vegas underworld if such a thing existed.

My dear friends, Nyx Drakos and Devani Patel-King, had recommended me to them. Nyx was Penny’s cousin-in-law, and Devani was my mentor, trainer, and knowledge bearer.Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to call her. By day, she was the Indian precious gems mogul known as the Queen of Diamonds. In her other life, she was the so-called retired director of Solon North America.

Everything was so different now. It was staggering to think about the changes I’d gone through and the stark difference between my lifestyle as the Angelos Godmother and the woman I presented as now.

I drastically changed not only my demeanor but also my appearance. Gone were my cobalt blue eyes concealed behind dull brown contacts. My once-lush raven hair now sported a hue of honey-golden dark blonde, which I achieved through intensive sessions with a hair specialist.

Sometimes, when I looked in the mirror, I couldn’t recognize myself because I appeared so different.

But all in all, I achieved my goal of hiding in plain sight and being remarkably uninteresting.

So far, so good, at least.

I felt confident enough in my façade to move through the office, hotel, and casino unnoticed. But rarely did I venture much farther into the city. It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.

Luckily, I never had any reason to go anywhere.

Everything I needed was in my apartment or nearby. Suppose something came up that I didn’t have. In that case, I’d have it delivered. That was the point of all the new apps and services.

Unfortunately, nothing I built in Las Vegas eased the turmoil at the center of my life.

To escape, I tore my family apart and destroyed my world. The agony of being separated from the men I loved for two years was one thing, but I let them believe someone had kidnapped me, along with my mother and sisters.

It was only half-true, a story concocted to conceal the actual plan, which was to protect everyone I loved. To achieve my goal, I had no choice but to stay as far away from them as possible. The pain of being separated from my mother and sisters was another excruciating part of my reality.

My mother and Fiona hid under fake names in Arizona, and the twins, Ariana and Christina, were in school in Washington and Oregon. I felt utterly closed off from all of them.

We were all spread out across the country, and some days, it seemed as if we’d never sit in the same room together again.

I hated it.

My thoughts wandered to Devani as I gazed out the window at the MGM sign flickering in the distance. Below it, throngs of tourists poured down the elevated sidewalks, resembling an endless army of ants.

Without Devani’s help, I never could have pulled this off. She was invaluable, assisting me in obtaining false identification and paperwork with new names for myself and my family. As the retired director of Solon, a spy agency that operated outside any country’s legal framework, Devani had contacts and resources I could only dream of having.

Certainly, her retirement was just for show. She would never truly relinquish control of Solon. I think everyone behind the scenes understood that all too well.

The idea of going through another year like this, away from my family, was infuriating. I had contemplated our next move for months and needed Devani’s insight.

I reached for the encrypted phone I had stashed away in a secret compartment of my briefcase to call her, but it started ringing just as I grabbed it. I looked down at the caller ID and recognized the number immediately.

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