I shook my head and swallowed. Saying the “Black Reapers” might as well have been akin to a priest or rabbi having to say “fuck” before a congregation. It burned at my soul and left my tongue with a nasty, bitter feeling. I’d sooner take shots of ground-up spices than have to talk about them much longer.
“Don’t let a man decide where you live,” Talia said. “We always say, don’t move somewhere for a man. Well, I think it’sfair to say, you shouldn’t move from somewhere just because of one man.”
“Easier said than done when it’s not a bunch of bikers,” Bridget said. “Brianna is lucky. Frankly, in a weird way, Sarah, you are lucky. I’m not dismissing the danger. But for as bad as the Black Reapers have been and, I’d argue, still are, there are way, way, way worse motorcycle clubs out there. Most have been smart enough to stay as far away from Vegas and the American Southwest in general, but never put it past a bunch of egotistical dumbasses to try to take territory here.”
Lovely.
I was “lucky” to have the Black Reapers on my trail. If they ruined my father’s career and pushed my family out of town, what would have happened if I’d gotten “unlucky?”
“I agree to an extent with Bridget, although for different reasons,” Delilah said. “I can’t speak for what happened personally between you and Cassius. But the thing about being a journalist, Sarah? We get to see the rich, famous, and powerful up close in ways only their employees might be able to match. We can’t write about everything, because it may not be on the record, or it may not be something we can get corroborating accounts on, but we know their secrets, their dirt, their utterly depraved desires. Cassius is ruthless, he’s cruel, and he can be unbelievably forceful in getting what he wants.”
Yep. That all aligned with what I already knew.
“As far as I know, Sarah, from what I’ve dug into his past, he hasn’t murdered anyone. He hasn’t been in the orbit of anyone who died under mysterious circumstances.”
No, but I have. I was driving the car that got hit and killed Virgil.
And…
I swallowed, even as Delilah continued. Virgil. The one innocent Vale in all of this.
I hadn’t been to his grave since fleeing Las Vegas. I wasn’t sure I owed it to him, but a part of me felt I could not leave Vegas without doing so. Maybe it was just a way to flatter my pride, to make me feel like the bigger person than Cassius. Maybe it genuinely came from a place of sincerity and well intention.
Either way…
“But Cassius is a billionaire, he is powerful, and when pushed, powerful and rich men don’t usually back down. In fact, the only reason I’ve ever seen one do so is because it’s a ploy, an appearance of a maneuver to set something up. So, all this to say, Sarah, I agree with Bridget. I think it’s wise to move.”
I nodded with a grim expression on my face. The waiter came by and took our order; I didn’t even know what to order, I hadn’t looked at the menu. I just asked for the waiter’s favorite scrambled eggs dish, as I couldn’t think any further than that. The waiter left, putting on a veneer of politeness but definitely showing an expression of concern.
“Well, I’m glad the three of us could get together on Black Friday,” I said. “Somehow, it feels more relaxing than storming the malls for deals.”
That brought a polite laugh from those three. I hadn’t delivered the joke with much vigor, and frankly I’d done it more to not totally kill the mood than to get a bunch of laughs. But they were my friends, if nothing else. They’d be as polite as they possibly would be for me.
“What about your art career?” Talia said.
She didn’t speak as if she would do anything to keep me in Las Vegas, but I did appreciate her being here.
“It will go on at a smaller scale,” I said. “I appreciate what Cassius did for me in that regard, but I expect he will destroy me as quickly as he built me up. If he wants nothing to do with me, he’s probably already strippedAllureof my presence. Probably already told?—”
“We should go toAllureafter this,” Delilah suddenly said.
Perplexity draped over my face. Delilah wanted to go back to the heart of Cassius’ casino empire?Shedid?
“Do you trust that you’ll get anything out of the photoshoot you did? Wasn’t that like right before you left for Wyoming? Your Thanksgiving trip?”
The one where we had some of the most mind-blowing sex of my life? The one where I thought all was well, we’d forgiven each other, and we might yet move to something bigger and better?
“Yeah, I think so,” I said, my face belying the wild thoughts of that night. Maybe someday, I could disassociate the intense emotions from the physical pleasure, and I could use it as a memory. But until then… “Why?”
“Everything from that photoshoot will never see the light of day now,” Delilah said. “If it does, consider it a happy accident or a parting gift from Cassius. But I wouldn’t exactly expect that man to give parting gifts.”
I didn’t either. He seemed more capable of giving parting stabs to the back than parting gifts. And even if he did, Delilah made a good point.
“So we need to head back there,” I said with a sigh. “OK. But I don’t want to go today.”
“Why?” Delilah said.
The truth was because the idea, while good, was too raw. We’d only had the breakup yesterday, not two weeks before. The idea of setting foot back inAllureso quickly, even if it was so necessary, was impossible. Truly, I would have rather suffered the career setback than have to face the possibility of Cassius.
