“No. I don’t have to believe you.”
He choked on a blubbering sob. “Then let me make it up to you. Keep the money—all of it. You can keep it . . . I’ll give you more if that’s what you want.”
“It’s not what I want,” she replied tonelessly, feeling nothing for the man now. Not even hatred. He was nothing to her. Less than nothing. “I thought I wanted slow revenge on you after what you did to my mom. But then what you did to Michael—”
“I’ll confess to it all,” he blurted, desperation climbing as Asher continued to hold him aloft over the lights and noise of the Vegas Strip. He started sobbing in earnest now, his pride completely deserting him. “Please! For the love of God, tell me what you want from me!”
“Nothing.”
She shook her head and walked up closer to him, so he could see her face through the darkness—a face that looked so much like her mother’s—and know that Aiko Sato would live on in her, Narumi, long after Leo Slater and his empire were dust.
“I want nothing from you,” she told him. “And you’ll get nothing from me, either. Least of all, forgiveness.”
A low whine began to build inside him as he stared at her, fury rolling to a swift, hard boil. Spittle flew from his slack lips as he railed at her. “You cunt! You fucking little thief! I should’ve crushed your skull the same night I killed your whore of a mother. Goddamn it, let me go!”
Asher didn’t look to her for permission to see it done. His judgment on Slater was already passed; now all that remained was the sentencing. He tightened his hold and closed his eyes for a long moment.
Naomi realized what that was—that focused moment of hesitation.
He was savoring Slater’s final moments of fright, absorbing every facet of his terror and desperation so he would remember it forever.
Slater struggled frantically, spewing threats and curses. “You fucking bloodsucker. Let me go!”
Asher exhaled calmly and opened his eyes. “Okay.”
Then he dropped Leo Slater over the edge.
“Asher.” Naomi rushed to him, burying herself in his arms. The scent of his blood overwhelmed her. Everywhere she touched him, her fingers came away wet and sticky. “Oh, my God. What have they done to you?”
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m all right. I’ll live. Let’s get Penny and get out of here.”
Penny was just coming to inside the elevator when they returned from the roof. She threw herself into Naomi’s arms, shaking uncontrollably and weeping in relief that the ordeal was over.
It looked like a bomb had gone off in Moda’s lobby. The place was all but cleared out, except for a few shell-shocked stragglers, and numerous dead security personnel who lay in bloody pools where Asher had taken them down. Money and personal effects were strewn all over the floor, dropped by the hundreds of people who’d fled once the gunfire began.
And inside the nearly empty ruined casino, the musical chiming and racket of the slot machines competed with the blare of sirens from the arriving JUSTIS vehicles outside.
With Penny clinging to her, Naomi took her own comfort from the warmth of Asher’s arm draped around her shoulders as the three of them exited the casino.
“Excuse me, sir. Ma’am.” A female officer approached as soon as they stepped outside.
It was the same woman who’d responded to the call at Michael’s house earlier that day, Officer Reynolds. Naomi bristled at the sight of the woman, even though she couldn’t fault her for doing her job.
“Oh, hello. Ms. Fallon, isn’t it?”
At Naomi’s nod, the officer studied her with more than passing curiosity, then she turned her suspicious gaze on Asher. With his fangs extended and his eyes lit like coals, there was no mistaking him for anything other than Breed, but the law enforcement official didn’t even flinch.
“Can either of you tell me what happened in there tonight? From what we understand the machines malfunctioned and it sounds like casino management got a little . . . overzealous in their response to the situation.”
Asher grunted. “More or less.”
The officer looked him up and down. “You don’t look so good. We’ve got an ambulance out here, if you need medical attention. Or an emergency blood Host.”
He shook his head. “I don’t need any of those things.”
“What about you, Ms. Fallon?”
Naomi hugged Asher closer. “I just need to be home.”
