Adrian:
Walk it off.Sleep.
Sleep.Right.
Location, Adrian.Now.
He makes me wait almost forty fucking minutes.
Adrian:
Mirage.
Heat kicks through me.
Is she alone?
Adrian:
You wanted distance.I don’t want to hear a single word about it being my fault you’re breaking your own rules.
I’m not breaking any rules.I’m just checking on her.That’s it.
Another lie that tastes pretty close to the truth I want.
Without a second thought, I'm up and shoving into jeans, Harley keys in hand, the earlier weariness replaced with a singular focus.I need to see her, to be near her.It's not just a desire, it’s a necessity, as vital as the air I breathe.I’m just going to make sure she’s fine.I’ll keep my distance.I’ll see her breathing, and then I’ll leave.
I tell myself that again on the way out the door.
The thought of my Lindy girl in a burlesque bar, reignites my purpose, my need to ensure her safety above all else.Atlas has been dealing with the woman I found earlier.No one has had eyes on Melinda for hours.How the fuck could I let this happen?Adrian found her quick.She’s probably fine.I shut my brain up by insisting I need proof.
I make my way back into the heart of Vegas, toward Melinda, I'm driven by a force far stronger than duty or vengeance.A force that, despite all odds, seems to be drawing us inexorably together.I’m following the pull.The universe keeps setting her in my path; the world keeps tilting her toward me.The God I don’t believe in keeps dealing me the same card.If I call it fate, it sounds less like failure.I’m not stupid enough to fold on fate.At least, that’s the lie I can live with tonight.
Mirageis velvet and shadow, a stage that knows how to make a secret feel like a show.I see her immediately.Of course I do.She glows in rooms that don’t want light.The vision of Melinda insideMirageis one of radiant beauty that hits me the same way it did the first night I saw her here.She and the same friend from the first time watch the dancers, laughing, soft as spun sugar.I could watch her, absorbed in the spectacle of the dancers, forever, her eyes alight with wonder and admiration.The beauty of her unguarded moments, the way her laughter mingles with the music.Each time her face lights up it’s a shot of ecstasy straight into my veins.
I’ve been here before for business meetings, never for my own pleasure.People don’t touch me.Any time I’ve had a woman, I paid for the illusion.The first time wasn’t even my choice.Uncle Leven paid, calling it a gift for my thirteenth birthday.You can't kill men and not have fucked women.His exact words.I haven’t had a woman in years.I work.I read.Still, a part of me wonders if Lindy would touch me, or would she flinch away like everyone else?She has me starving for something I was never meant to have.
I’m riding the high of her when the impulse to ownMirage, to make it hers if she wants it, becomes inevitable.The look in her eyes, the joy on her face, I'd do anything to keep it there.OwningMiragealso presents other strategic advantages.It’s a way to keep her safe, a haven under my control.It gives Caleb another avenue to hide money.It gives Atlas another place to offer women with nowhere else to go.
I step away, pulling out my phone to call my cousin Eland.
“I need you to broker a deal.”
“It’s after midnight.”
“And?”
“I was asleep.”
“And?”
“The fuck do you want, Cassius?”
“I want you to be the lawyer your father pays you to be and buyMirage.”
“The bar?Why do you want…she’s there isn’t she?”
“Make it happen, Eland.Mirageis mine,” I tell him, the words sealing a deal that's as much about possession as it is about protection.I’ll never be worthy of her, never truly good enough to keep her, but I’ll do everything in my power to give her all the things Iamcapable of.
