Page 85 of Forbidden Empire
I watched his shoulders knot up beneath his shirt as he pressed his hands against the window frame.
His knuckles turned white. There was a thin, bright line of blood trailing down from where he'd torn his hand open on the wall. Seeing it made my stomach twist, not satisfaction, not even close.
It was something worse.
My throat tightened, like I was being choked.
I’d seen Aidon angry plenty of times before. I’d watched him shoot a man in the head and not blink. But this wasn’t the usual. This wasn’t even close.
This was raw. And it was about me.
No way would I ever let him know how my pulse hammered when he looked at me like that, like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to strangle me or rip my clothes off.
Even now, with Vegas about to burn to the ground, I was thinking about the weight of him pinning me to his bed, his teeth sinking into my neck, his hands moving everywhere, all at once.
He stared down at the Strip, shoulders shifting with every rough, uneven breath.
Neon glare from the casino signs painted red and blue shadows across his face, turning him into…I wasn’t sure…something carved from stone.
A statue, unmoving. He wouldn’t look at me. Maybe he just couldn’t.
I wondered if he saw in himself what I saw in the mirror.
Someone drowning. Someone fighting the current and losing, arms flailing to stay above water. Someone was afraid of what would happen if they stopped struggling and let themselves sink.
Whatever the hell this was, neither of us had the nerve to be honest or vulnerable about it.
The back-and-forth, the weird little dance, was wearing me out.
If I was honest with myself, I couldn’t even tell who was the cat and who was the mouse anymore.
I’d had more than enough chances to walk away from this mess, but here I was, tangled up in it, neck-deep and nowhere else to go.
I let out a sigh of relief when I heard footsteps coming up behind us.
We both turned, and Ares was standing in the doorway.
He looked at us, and the tension in the room must have been obvious because he hesitated, shifting his weight like he was thinking about turning around and going right back out.
“Boss?” he asked. “You got a second? There’s been another development.”
“Come in,” Aidon said, waving him over and moving away from the window. “What’s up?”
“We got word that Rhea relocated.”
Aidon looked like he was about to lose it. “Again? We were finalizing the plans to invade.”
Ares nodded, his mouth a grim line. “Yeah, I know.”
“Fuck!” Aidon snapped. “Now we have to start over? Is this the worst game of whack-a-mole ever?”
“I know,” Ares said again, like he was agreeing with every word. “But if we move fast, we can still catch up to her.”
“So where is she now?” Aidon asked, and this time he sounded bone-weary.
“She and a small army of men are holed up in Blue Diamond.”
Aidon blinked. “What the fuck is in Blue Diamond?”
