Chapter 5
Five
DANGEROUS OBSERVATIONS
THAL
The elevator doors hadn’t even fully closed before the mask slipped.
I slammed my palm against the mirrored wall, the sound echoing like a gunshot in the small space. My breath was coming too fast, my lungs burning as if I’d just run a marathon instead of standing in a foyer for ten minutes.
Gentleman. The word tasted like ash. I’d walked into her suite to demand an alliance, to reclaim the piece of my soul she’d stolen in Aruba.
Instead, I’d been blindsided by the girl she’d become.
She wasn't just my “little bird” anymore. She was a ghost with teeth. I looked at my hand, still vibrating from the theft of my ring. She’d taken it right off my finger while I was trying to drown in her.
I caught my reflection in the elevator glass, eyes dark, jaw tight, looking like a man who had just realized the prey he was hunting had its sights set on his throat. I hated it. I hated that she was the only variable I couldn't calculate.
She made me want to burn the mission just to feel her pulse under my thumb again. I wasn't a boy in the surf anymore, but God help me, she was still the only thing that could make me bleed.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, the screen illuminating the dark. A message from the syndicate. The sharks are circling.
"Let them circle," I hissed to the empty elevator. Because the only thing more dangerous than a shark was a man who had finally realized he had something to lose.
By the time the doors opened at the executive level, the boy was gone. The Ice King was back.
I walked into my office at the Atlantis, my face a mask of cold stone. James, my lieutenant, was already there, leaning against my mahogany desk. He didn't say a word as I sat down. He knew better than to interrupt the silence I carried with me like a shroud.
I clicked the monitor on, the glow of the high-def screens illuminating the dark room. I rewound the footage of the tournament until the woman in the silver silk sheath appeared.
“Who is she?” I asked, my voice a flat, freezing monotone.
James leaned in, his brow furrowed. “Don’t know yet. But she’s fucking ice cold, isn’t she? She’s playing those high rollers like she’s bored with winning.”
“Look at Zeno,” I corrected, pausing the frame on his face.
My lieutenant fell silent. Zeno’s face was a mask of calculated arrogance, but his pupils were blown wide, a physiological response he couldn't fake. “He isn't just rattled, James. He’s looking at her like a man who just saw his executioner walk into the room. I want to know who has that kind of power over the King of Olympus. Find the blood she has on him. If she’s a ghost from his past, I want to know whose grave she crawled out of.”
“Of course, boss.” He nodded.
I rewound the footage to watch her sit at the table again.
Zeno looked uncomfortable the moment he saw her.
He recovered quickly, but there was a flicker of something in his eyes that I didn’t usually see: doubt.
Zeno was one of the most arrogant bastards I’d ever met, and seeing anything but absolute confidence shining in his eyes at all times was rare and unusual.
He wasn’t the type to be rattled. That alone made this woman warrant closer inspection. And, if I wasn’t mistaken, she also glanced in his direction. Was that a spark of irritation when he appeared not to recognize her?
How intriguing, I thought. There was certainly more to this woman’s story.
“Once you learn her name, run a background check on her. I want to know who she is and if she has a past connection to Zeno.”
“Will do,” James said. “I’ll get right on it. Do you have time to strategize for a bit? I’m hearing rumors that Rhea’s syndicate is growing increasingly aggressive.”
“Is that so? Yes, I’ve got time. Have a seat,” I said, turning away from the monitor and back to my desk. James took a seat across from me, his dark eyes focused intently. “What are you hearing, James?”
“It’s not great news, and I think it’s important we act fast.”
“Tell me.”
“The syndicate operatives plan to infiltrate your networks. Zeno’s networks are also in the crosshairs, as well as Aidon’s. Seems nobody is safe in Rhea’s world.”
“I see.” I nodded. “What else?”
“Rhea’s men were spotted near Daphne’s usual haunts,” James said, his voice dropping an octave.
The air in the room felt as if it had been sucked out. I didn't yell. I didn't clench my jaw. I simply went very, very still. That was the most dangerous version of me, the silence before the strike.
“Surveilling her?” I asked, my voice a flat, lethal vibration.
“Looks like it. Zeno has her out there with no security or protection. She’s walking the Strip like she isn't a target.”
My hand tightened around my whiskey glass until the crystal groaned, a hairline fracture spider webbing through the glass. The thought of Rhea’s filth even looking at Daphne unleashed the monster I’d spent a decade trying to leash.
“Zeno is a fool.” I paced the length of the office, the amber liquid in my glass swirling with my agitated movements.
James leaned back in the heavy leather chair, watching me with a calculated stillness that usually irritated me, but tonight it only fueled the fire in my blood.
“He’s leaving her out as bait, thinking he can control the predators.
He doesn't realize he’s playing with the only thing I’m willing to go to war for. ”
I clenched the glass so tightly that the crystal groaned from the pressure, crushing the remaining ice until the glass shattered against the mahogany. Sharp shards cut into my skin, but I didn't notice the pain.
I looked at the blood on my palm, then met James's eyes. My voice was no longer a roar, but a cold, quiet promise.
“If they touch her. If they even breathe her air, I’m not just dismantling the syndicate.
I’ll turn this city into a mausoleum and bury Rhea at its heart.
James, the neutrality of Atlantis ends tonight.
If the only way to save her is to be the monster they think I am, then I’ll be the one to light the match. ”
My thoughts drifted back to our recent encounter on the rooftop.
She had been so guarded, aloof, and self-contained.
Yet, there was a softness in her, a vulnerability hidden beneath her distant facade.
After our brief time in the Caribbean, I had expected her to greet me with just a little more warmth, a hint of the openness she had shown there.
My thoughts drifted back to the rooftop. She had played the part of the ice-cold ward perfectly, but I’d felt the tremor in her lips when I claimed them. I remembered the Aruba girl, the one who laughed in the sun, but she was a ghost now.
The woman in the silver dress was a survivor.
She hid her soft edges behind a wall of titanium, and part of me wanted to tear that wall down just to see if I was still the only one who could make her melt.
She wasn't withdrawing to protect her heart, but because she knew that if she let me in, she’d never be able to go back to the lie Zeno told her she was.
Daphne was smart and resilient. Her strength was undeniable.
I respected her deeply, even with her tangled history with Zeno.
She hadn’t chosen to be part of his world.
She’d been just a desperate teenager when he took her under his wing.
I couldn’t blame her for clinging to the only semblance of stability she had at the time.
It was clear she no longer needed him. I also held onto hope that, sooner rather than later, she would accept my offer and see me as someone she could trust.
Until then, I was determined to do my best to protect her from all the threats circling around her, whether she knew it or not.
Sure, my offer carried a certain amount of danger itself.
But at least it would get her out of Zeno’s clutches and one step closer to complete independence. She deserved that.
“I’m taking the fight to them, James. I’m not waiting for Rhea to make a mistake. I’m going to make the mistake for her.”
“It’ll jeopardize Atlantis’s neutral standing, boss,” James cautioned, his tone grave. “If we strike first, the other families will see it as a declaration of war.”
I stood and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the glowing neon heartbeat of Vegas.
I didn't care about the casino's standing. I didn't care about the fragile peace I’d spent years maintaining. All I could see was the ghost of Daphne’s reflection in the glass.
“Daphne is worth every risk,” I muttered, a flat promise. I was the man who had promised her a dark alliance. I was the man who had told her the cage door was shut. If I had to get my hands bloody to keep her safe from everyone but me, then I’d paint the city red.
I turned back to James, my eyes locking onto his with lethal clarity. “Find out where Rhea’s primary distributor is hiding. By dawn, I want his operation crippled. We're going to remind this city why staying neutral was a choice I made, not a rule I have to follow.”