Page 1 of Gemini Kings
Chapter One
Zara
You haven’t fucking lived till you’ve secretly crashed a casino czar’s X-rated bash at the Double Gemini in Vegas, dressed in a latex Catwoman costume and mask, with your hair dyed green.
Like, for real. You haven’t.
This is actually one adventure I could’ve lived without—and not just because my dad’s literally gonna kill me if he catches me hiding under this catsuit. Since he did take out that seven figure hit on my head.
A hit he apparently never bothered to cancel.
You might be thinking the concept of a psycho fuck like Mick Gemini gunning for my runaway ass would give me a cold chill or something. And it’s not like the situation makes me happy.
But if I’m gonna be honest?
Dear old dad’s been trying to erase me forever. Ever since I took off years ago and (the way he sees it) humiliated him in front of the whole witching world.
What.
Ever.
These days, that whole bounty on my head just pisses me off.
But the ex-lover I’ve been hunting since he betrayed me for a goddamn paycheck came here to my dad’s casino for a reason. And he’s the reasonI’mhere.
I’m here for Xiao.
I’m here because it’s payback time.
I hang back and play it all casual while I track my lying backstabbing shit of an ex-lover through the poker den. The red-carpeted floor vibrates under my platform boots. A chorus of ear-piercing screams spirals over the noisy clatter and ping of the slots.
Xiao lingers for a sec to watch the action, so I park my ass next to the panorama window. There I pretend to appreciate the neon blur of the Gemini’s double corkscrew coaster streaking past the eye-popping flash and sparkle of the Vegas night.
But I’m pretty much the only rat in the joint who even bothers to look.
This costume party’s for the tourists, and a lot of the players here at the Double Gem are regulars. The high rollers stay huddled in total absorption around the poker tables. The identical twin cocktail girls—one of my dad’s signature gimmicks—keep giggling and wiggling their drink trays and their push-upbustiersthrough the handsy joes placing bets on the horse racing.
The rotating bar three floors up? That’s a tourist draw, packed with Gemini showgirls in carnival masks and feathers and not much more, tossing a glittering hail of Mardi Gras beads down to the looky-loos on the casino floor.
Even Xiao strolls over to scope out that scene.
I stroll after him.
Still keeping my distance. But not for long.
I’m itching to take him down.
My ex is dressed for clubbing in a clingy black shirt that shows off his narrow waist and the bulging biceps under that silky skin I used to love marking with my teeth. His dark head keeps swiveling to scan his six, which tells me he’s wary as hell despite his casual clothes.
And under those leather pants he’s rocking, he has an ass that stops traffic and a cock that won’t quit.
Sure, he was always a decent fuck. But he’s dead to me now. He sold me out. He sold me out to my fucking father and almost got me killed by Gemini hitmen in Singapore.
Besides, he’s not the guy I wanna wake up next to.
Not anymore.
Right on cue, Xiao prowls past the craps pit. And there’s practically an orgy going down in the mob scene jostling around the center table. That’s where the hottest guy in the whole damn joint’s getting eye-fucked by all the chicks and half the guys in the house.
