Chapter 28 Leo
Leo
The grand ballroom of the Olympus Royale had never looked more spectacular.
Frank had outdone himself. The Neon Elysium theme glowed to life around us—deep indigo walls accented with rose-gold lighting, ice sculptures gleaming under programmable LEDs that shifted through constellation patterns, and video displays that created the illusion of standing beneath an infinite star field.
The stage where we’d make our announcement looked like a doorway to the cosmos itself.
It was perfect.
It was packed with Vegas elite, media, influencers, and curious onlookers who’d managed to score invitations. And somewhere above us, Marcus Talbor was planning to drop a bomb through a vent shaft.
I stood near the ballroom entrance with Orion, Ares, and Tashi, watching guests arrive in their designer gowns and tailored tuxedos, champagne flowing, the string quartet playing something elegant and atmospheric. Everyone was smiling, laughing, and taking photos for social media.
None of them knew.
Ares’s phone buzzed. He stepped away from us, pressing it to his ear. “Status?”
I couldn’t hear Neville’s response, but I watched my brother’s face tighten.
“Keep me informed,” Ares said grimly, hanging up. “Nothing yet.”
Tashi looked at him, her gold sequined gown catching the light with every breath. “You want to go up there, don’t you?”
“I need to stay here—” Ares started.
“Go, if you want to,” she interrupted gently. “We’ll hold the fort here.”
Ares hesitated, looking between the three of us. Then he kissed Tashi’s cheek, squeezed Orion’s shoulder, and headed toward the service elevators.
To the roof.
Where Marcus would arrive.
I watched him disappear into the crowd, my stomach churning with anxiety.
“He’ll be fine,” Orion said quietly, reading my expression. “Ares knows what he’s doing.”
“I know.” I forced a smile and offered Tashi my arm. “Shall we work the room?”
She slipped her hand through my elbow, and Orion took her other side. Together, we moved into the crowd—a unified front, the four of us minus one temporarily.
The reactions were immediate.
“Tashi! You look stunning!”
“Leo, the design work in here is incredible!”
Compliments flowed freely, but I could see the questions in people’s eyes. The curiosity. The judgment. The whispers trailed behind us as we moved forward.
“Is it true? All three of them?”
“How does that even work?”
“She’s brave, I’ll give her that.”
I smiled through it all, shaking hands, making small talk, pretending my heart wasn’t racing and my mind wasn’t screaming, Where the hell is Marcus?
Tashi handled it with grace I didn’t know how she summoned. She laughed at jokes, complimented dresses, and asked about people’s businesses with genuine interest. If she was terrified—and she had to be—she didn’t show it.
“When is he going to call us?” I muttered to Orion during a brief lull.
“Don’t,” Tashi said, squeezing my arm. “I’m nervous enough for all of us.”
“Maybe Marcus is waiting for when we make the announcement,” Orion said quietly. “Maximum impact. Maximum casualties.”
Tashi stopped walking.
I watched the realization cross her face—the calculation, the decision forming in real time.
“You’re right,” she said. “Which means we control the timing.”
“Tashi, what are you—”
She was already moving, marching toward the stage where the band was playing their set. Before I could stop her, she’d climbed the steps and was gesturing to the bandleader.
The music stopped.
“Quiet, everyone,” Tashi said into the microphone, her voice carrying across the ballroom.
Conversations died. Heads turned. Every eye in the room focused on her—this woman in gold who’d somehow captured the attention of three billionaire brothers and wasn’t apologizing for it.
“I know you’re all here for the big announcement,” she continued, her smile bright and genuine. “And we’ll get to that. But first, I want to talk about the Kolykos brothers.”
My throat tightened.
“Orion, Leo, Ares—” She gestured to where Orion and I stood. “These three men have built something extraordinary. The Olympus Royale isn’t just a hotel. It’s a vision. A commitment to excellence, innovation, and guest experience that no one else in Vegas can match.”
The crowd murmured approval.
“But more than that,” Tashi continued, her voice strengthening, “these men are fighters. They’ve faced conspiracy, sabotage, and attacks on their reputation.
They’ve been accused of impropriety, corruption, and worse.
And through it all, they’ve stood together.
Unbreakable. Honest. True to their vision and their values. ”
She looked directly at me, then at Orion.
“Don’t count them out,” she said. “Don’t believe the rumors or the speculation or the people who want to see them fail. The Kolykos brothers are here to stay. And anyone who thinks otherwise—”
“Don’t do it, Tashi!”
The shout cut through the ballroom like a gunshot.
Everyone turned.
Daniel Wilder pushed through the crowd near the entrance, his expensive suit rumpled, his face flushed with alcohol or desperation, or both. He stumbled toward the stage, ignoring the security guards already moving to intercept him.
“Come home with me!” he shouted.
Tashi’s face went white. “What are you doing here?”
“I love you!” Daniel kept coming, pushing past guests who scattered out of his way. “I want to marry you! Please, Tashi, just listen—”
Orion and I were already moving, cutting through the crowd to intercept him before he reached the stage.
“You need to leave, Daniel,” Tashi said into the microphone, her voice shaking but firm. “Now.”
“I can fix this!” Daniel stopped at the base of the stage, looking up at her with wild eyes. “Come with me and I’ll get my father to drop the charges against the Kolykos brothers. We can go back to New York. Start over. Forget all this—”
Both Orion and I held our breath.
The entire ballroom had gone silent.
“You’re out of your mind,” Tashi said quietly. “Leave and don’t come back.”
“Tashi, please—”
“I don’t love you anymore,” she interrupted, and I heard the finality in her voice. “You blew your chance with me when you walked away. Security, escort him out.”
Two guards grabbed Daniel’s arms.
“You’ll be sorry!” he shouted as they dragged him backward. “My dad will ensure that the Kolykos brothers are driven out of this town! You think you’ve won? You’ve won nothing!”
“Don’t be too sure about that,” Orion said coldly, stepping forward. “Let me show you the door.” He followed the guards, Daniel still shouting threats and promises as they hauled him toward the exit.
I climbed onto the stage and moved to Tashi’s side. “You okay?”
“No.” She was trembling. “But I will be.”
The crowd was buzzing now—phones out, recording everything, posting in real time. Daniel’s meltdown was already going viral.
And then a murmur ran through the crowd as uniformed members of the Las Vegas Police Department ran through the room and out again.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” I said into the microphone, trying to salvage the moment. “I apologize for that interruption. Our friends of the Las Vegas Police Department are taking care of a little problem for us.”
“What’s going on, Leo?” someone called out.
“Don’t say anything,” Tashi said.
Orion stepped onto the stage with us.
“Should we evacuate?” Tashi asked. “People are leaving through the doors.”
“It’s safer if we keep the guests calm and contained,” Orion said. “The moment we pull the fire alarm, it’s chaos. Stampedes. Panic. People get hurt. We control this by controlling them.”
She took a breath, her hands steadying on the microphone. “I think we trust Ares.”
“Then we make our announcement,” Orion said. “Let’s finish this.”
“We were supposed to do this with Ares,” protested Tashi.
“We should do this now and get everyone’s attention,” I said.
Tashi blew out a breath and squeezed my hand once, then stepped back to the microphone. “Thank you all for being here tonight,” she said, her voice clear and steady despite everything. “I want to tell you all a story.”
My phone buzzed again.
I glanced down.
Ares: Marcus just arrived.
My heart stopped.
“Tashi—” I started.
She saw my face and understood immediately. “Is he—?”
“With Marcus. Right now.”
Orion’s jaw clenched, but he kept his voice steady. “We finish this. We trust Ares knows what he’s doing.”
The ballroom felt too bright, too loud, and too exposed. Every instinct screamed to run upstairs, to help my brother, to do something other than stand here pretending everything was fine.
But Tashi squeezed my hand, grounding me.
“The four of us have chosen each other,” she continued into the microphone, her voice unwavering.
“Not because it’s easy. Not because it’s conventional.
But because what we have together is stronger, deeper, and more honest than anything we could have separately. ”
Orion stepped forward. “My brothers and I grew up together. Built this hotel together. Survived our parents’ death together.
We’ve always been a unit—three against the world.
And when Tashi walked into our lives, we didn’t see that as something to divide us.
We saw it as something that made us stronger. ”
He looked at me, offering the microphone.
I took it, forcing myself to focus on the crowd, on this moment, on what we were building here instead of what might be happening on that roof.
“I’ve spent my life creating things,” I said. “Designing experiences, building brands, telling stories. But I’ve never created anything as beautiful as what the four of us have together. It’s messy. It’s complicated. It defies every social convention I was raised to respect.”
I looked at Tashi, at her gold dress catching the light, at her courage holding us all together.
“But it’s ours,” I continued. “And it’s real. And anyone who can’t accept that—well, that’s their loss, not ours.”
Applause erupted. Not universal—I could see disapproving faces, people already typing negative comments—but enough. Enough to tell us we weren’t alone.
My phone buzzed.
Ares: Situation resolved. Coming down.
Relief flooded through me so suddenly that I almost staggered.
“He’s okay,” I whispered to Orion. “Ares is okay.”
Orion’s eyes closed briefly. “Thank God.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Tashi said, her voice brightening as she read the same message on her phone. “Thank you for being here tonight. For witnessing this moment. For being part of our story.”
The ballroom doors opened.
Ares walked in—tuxedo slightly disheveled but whole, safe, and alive. Neville followed behind him, along with LVPD escorting a dark-haired man in handcuffs.
But it wasn’t Marcus Talbor.
The crowd turned, murmurs rising as they realized what they were seeing.
Ares made his way through the ballroom, ignoring the stares, the phones recording, and the shocked whispers. He climbed onto the stage and took his place beside Tashi.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said into the microphone. “Had to take out the trash.”
Laughter rippled through the crowd—nervous, but genuine.
“My brothers and I have spent the last few months fighting to protect what we’ve built.
This hotel. Our reputation. Our family. And tonight, we won.
Not just by stopping a threat, but by standing here together and refusing to hide who we are.
Together we’ve uncovered a threat not just to us but to the Olympus Royale and our guests.
While we can’t comment on an ongoing police investigation, we can confidently say we have enough evidence to prove that the charges of malfeasance against us and Tashi were manufactured for one reason only—to gain control of the Olympus Royale.
We successfully neutralized that threat tonight without any casualties.
And now, I invite you all to enjoy the hospitality of the Kolykos brothers and the woman we love, Tashi George. ”
Silence.
Our guests stared at us like we were crazy. But then Neville clapped, and then Marta, who now stood next to him, and soon the room broke out in thunderous applause.
Tashi wrapped her arms around Ares, and Orion and I joined them—the four of us standing together on that stage while cameras flashed and the crowd cheered and our unconventional family became public, permanent, and real. And when she spoke, I couldn’t have been prouder.
“I know there’s been speculation about my relationship with Orion, Leo, and Ares Kolykos. I know people have questions. Judgments. Opinions about whether what we have is real or appropriate or even possible.”
The ballroom had gone completely silent again.
“I’m here to tell you that it’s all of those things,” Tashi continued. “It’s real. It’s ours. And we’re not apologizing for it. I love you,” she said, looking at each of us in turn, loud enough for the microphone to catch. “All three of you.”
“We love you too,” we answered in unison.
After the audience applauded once again, Tashi leaned into Ares, away from the microphone.
“Where’s Marcus?”
Ares’s face grew dark. “He wasn’t on the roof. I can only assume he decided not to join the party after he found out I was alive.”
Tashi sighed, and suddenly she looked exhausted. “Okay, then. Let’s party.”
“No,” I said. “You need a rest. Let’s go home.”
Orion nodded. “I second that.”
“Are we really going to make decisions by committee now? Because, if that’s true, I’m outnumbered,” Tashi said.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. We know we need to keep you happy,” I murmured in her ear. “Let’s go home.”
Because tomorrow we would face another gauntlet—the Gaming Commission hearing.