Page 126 of Forbidden Empire

“Together.” The word shuddered out of him, ragged, desperate, and real.

My head dipped, lips catching his, the taste of iron between us.

“Yes,” I breathed. “Together, Aidon.”

Twenty-Four

ESME

A WEEK LATER

Everything looked different.

Everything felt different.

I was different.

From the window in Aidon's office in The Underworld, I stared out at the city pulsing beneath us, my thoughts spinning.

It had only been a week since the confrontation with Rhea, the violence, the blood, but I was still here. I hadn't disappeared into the night. I hadn’t shed my identity like a snake and slithered away to some new land, hungry for power.

Instead, I’d spent every day tending Aidon's wounds.

Every night, I ended up in his bed, curled around him.

And fuck, I was happy about it.

I caught sight of my reflection in the glass, and for a moment, I didn’t recognize the woman looking back at me. There was no urge to argue, no compulsion to fight Aidon for control every second. I’d already proven myself, and the confidence that came with that victory let me breathe. Let me be.

For the first time, I didn’t feel like I was barely holding on to my power. I owned it. It was mine. No one could take it from me, not even Rhea and her men, even if they burst through the door with guns drawn and murder in their eyes. I would fight, and I would survive.

I could go to war and walk away with my head high. That knowledge changed everything.

I believed in myself now, truly believed, and the need to prove myself—to anyone, ever again, was just gone. Obliterated.

And it felt fucking incredible.

I knew Rhea would return. Eventually.

But I also knew we wouldn’t see her for a long while, not after the hit we’d just delivered.

We’d crippled her. First, by taking her warehouse, then by crushing her security team, not once, but twice.

Every asset she’d built up, every weapon, every crate, every ledger.

It was all ours now, locked down and out of her reach. And when we finally had time to dig through the warehouse, we found more than guns.

So much more. Heroin. Cocaine. Enough to flood the city and line our pockets tenfold. That was, if we moved it all.

That part? I left it to Aidon and Zeno. The two of them and Thal, too.

They had more skin in the game, more to lose and gain here, than I did. But that didn’t mean I was stepping aside. Not a chance. I wanted my cut, my say, my power.

Vegas had shifted overnight. The balance of control, the money, the muscle, the kind of power only the city’s elite ever tasted, all of it upended and redistributed.

We’d already sent the evidence packet, including manifests, faces, and burns, to Olympus Legal. The receipt notification still lit up Aidon’s monitor.

My phone vibrated across Aidon’s desk. It was an old Olympus number I hadn’t seen in months. I almost let it go to voicemail, then hit the speaker.