Page 43 of Forbidden Empire (Sinful Gods #1)

Twenty-Two

A IDON

Our caravan cut through the Nevada desert, kicking up clouds of crimson dust in our wake. Five black SUVs, headlights extinguished, snaked along the back roads of Red Rock Canyon.

Even in darkness, we cast an imposing silhouette against the dusty pink hills. The stars hung overhead by the millions. It was a stark contrast to the artificial glow of the Strip I'd left behind.

Blue Diamond might only be thirty minutes from Vegas, but hugging these rugged mountain foothills under a blanket of stars, we might as well have been on another planet. Every element of our approach had been planned.

Rhea wouldn't see us coming until it was too late.

Her compound was a fortress of technological might. Her security rivaled military installations with motion sensors embedded in the perimeter, thermal imaging that could detect a coyote at five hundred yards, and guards who moved with the precision of former special forces.

We'd decimated her ranks in our last encounter, but I had no illusions. By now, she'd have recruited twice as many men, each one deadlier than the previous. This was Rhea's talent: building impenetrable walls around herself, layer upon calculated layer.

Rhea's compound rose from the desert like a fortress, all steel, silicone, and security systems that would make the Pentagon jealous. She'd escaped us once. That wouldn't happen again.

As we approached, I pictured my hands around her throat, her pulse fluttering beneath my thumbs as realization dawned in her eyes. Her empire would fall tonight, payment for the bodies she'd left scattered behind her.

But I wasn't the only one with a score to settle. We were all sharks in these waters, circling for the kill.

Zeno was a powder keg ready to detonate. The man hadn't slept in days, his eyes bloodshot and wild. Rhea was just the target he needed.

Thal saw this as his chance for glory. Taking down Rhea would cement his reputation and feed that insatiable ego of his.

Then there was Esme. The bruises on her ribs had faded, but I'd caught her wincing when she thought no one was watching.

She'd spent hours in my penthouse gym, learning to throw punches that could break bones. This wasn't her usual game.

She was a chess player, not a boxer, someone who destroyed opponents without ever throwing a punch.

Yet there she'd been in my gym, hammering the heavy bag with such precision that Ares, a man who'd killed with his bare hands, had watched her with newfound respect. The woman who once wielded only words now moved with the lethal intent of someone who'd tasted their own blood.

Nothing was stopping her from disappearing. She had resources, connections, escape routes I'd never be able to trace.

Most people, after what Rhea put her through, would vanish into anonymity to heal. I would have understood that impulse.

Instead, she stayed. That's when I recognized our shared affliction: neither of us could stomach an unpaid debt. We both carried ledgers in our souls, and every entry demanded balance.

Now Esme's eyes held that dangerous gleam I knew too well, the look of someone who wouldn't rest until they'd carved their vengeance into flesh.

My allies were all racing toward Rhea, each for their own reasons.

But watching Esme's profile in the dim light, I wondered which of us would reach her first.

Thal and Zeno were with their men in the other cars, but I’d insisted Esme ride with me. She’d protested, of course, but not for too long or too hard. I was still plagued with the immense need to keep her close to my side.

Even though she’d been hurt, I’d managed to keep her alive last time, and I intended to do better tonight.

“You good?” I asked, reaching over and taking her gloved hand.

She was dressed like a fucking Ninja, with fingerless Kevlar gloves and a bulletproof vest strapped to her chest. Her hair was wrapped up tight in a bun on the back of her head, and her face was void of makeup, her expression somber, focused, and determined.

She’d never looked hotter.

My cock twitched in my pants, and I felt a smirk play on my lips.

Of course, I’d want to fuck her right now. I had half a mind to do it anyway.

“Do you have any idea how fucking sexy you look right now?” I growled.

She smiled and shook her head. “Down, Boy! We have a job to do.”

“We’re still a few miles out,” I protested.

“It would take that long to get me out of this outfit,” she said, raising a brow at me. “And twice as long to get back into it.”

“Fair enough.” I shrugged. “But afterwards you’re mine.”

“You keep saying that.” She winked.

“I mean it,” I said, growing serious and giving her a pointed look. “Every time.”

The future stretched before us like an uncharted desert. I stared at the road ahead, my mind racing past tonight's mission to whatever might come after.

Would there even be an "after" for us?

Some ridiculous part of me imagined driving away from Vegas with her beside me, leaving the blood and bodies behind.

Pathetic fantasy.

Her silence on the subject spoke volumes. A woman who moved like Esme, who calculated three steps ahead of everyone else, surely had plans that didn't include a man like me.

I'd watched her navigate my world with lethal precision, yet I realized I'd never once asked what she wanted beyond survival.

For months, she'd existed in my mind as categories: Zeno's troublesome half-sister, my obsession, my conquest, my weakness.

My throat tightened. I knew the exact pitch of her moans in the darkness.

The way her eyes fluttered closed at climax, but she couldn't name a single thing she treasured. With death potentially waiting at our destination, this felt unforgivable.

What if I never got the chance to know her beyond the battlefield of our bodies?

"Esme, what's something no one knows about you?"

Her head snapped toward me, surprise flashing across her face before dissolving into laughter that echoed against the tinted windows of the SUV.

"Now? With Rhea's compound less than a mile away?"

"Yes, now," I said. "Humor me."

She studied me for a moment, then sighed. "I love flowers. I used to steal flowers from the botanical gardens when I was broke in college."

"What kind?" I asked, watching her lips part.

"Magnolias," she said, glancing out at the desert darkness. "They reminded me of something unattainable."

I committed this to memory, like coordinates on a map. "I'll remember that."

"Gardenias were what I wanted," she added. "The scent stays with you for hours."

"Planning my next gift already," I said, the corner of my mouth lifting.

"Aidon the romantic," she teased. "Who would have thought?"

"I'm not," I admitted. "I just want to know what matters to you."

"I'm an open book." She shrugged.

I gave her a look.

"What?" Her eyes widened with false innocence.

"You're a locked vault with booby traps."

"Not last night," she whispered, dropping her eyes.

I leaned over, brushing a gentle kiss across her lips.

Even in the dark, I saw the blush bloom across her cheeks. I kissed her again. And again.

Desperate, greedy, drinking her in, her taste, her mouth, her gasps swallowed into mine. This Esme, the one who spread her thighs for me, the one who let me inside, the one who still wouldn’t admit she was opening her heart even as she opened her body, I couldn’t get enough of her. Not ever.

Sure, her fiery side made my cock harder than a rock, but her softer side was going to be my undoing.

She’d changed these last few days. The hard edges of rebellion had softened, her stubbornness melting into something that looked a hell of a lot like partnership.

I’d watched her in those meetings with Zeno, Thal, even Ares, holding her ground with a tenacity that would have sent a lesser woman scrambling for the shadows. She never backed down. Not once.

I kissed her again. Couldn’t help it. She’d gone from a dream in my head to something real, solid, breathing beneath my hands.

Then her palm found my chest, a slow, careful pressure. She pushed me back, not hard, but enough.

My eyes flicked open. She was staring at me, searching, like she wanted to see what was there.

“We need to get our game face on,” she hissed, breathless. “I can’t do that with your tongue down my throat, as much as I’m enjoying it.”

“Fair enough,” I muttered, dragging myself off her.

I tore my eyes away. It was slow, brutal, like peeling flesh from bone, each inch separating with a raw discomfort that felt wrong, unnatural, desperate for more.

Having Esme close had become a habit I couldn’t shake, a need more than a preference. I wondered, not for the first time, what would happen to us when all this ended.

The thought gnawed at me. Not now. I had to stay focused. Anything less, and one of us would bleed for it. That was not fucking happening.

A sigh left me as my phone buzzed in my pocket. I dug it out, thumbed it to life, and Ares’s name flashed on the screen.

He was tailing us, his car close enough I could feel his presence at my back. I answered, quick and sharp, put him on speaker. Esme’s gaze flicked to me, both of us hanging on for every word.

“Boss, we’re just a mile out. Are you suited up?”

“We’re ready,” I said. “Any changes to the plan?”

“None.”

“Good.” My pulse kicked up. “What about our inside source? Rhea still oblivious?”

“She doesn’t have the faintest clue what’s coming for her.”

A low, satisfied hum escaped me. “Perfect. This should be interesting. Stay sharp.”

“Always,” Ares answered. He hesitated, just for a heartbeat, and in the silence I felt everything between us. All the years. All the blood and loyalty. We never said what we meant, not out loud, but it lived in every pause.

“Alright,” I said. “We’ll pull off at the spot and take the back way through the trees. Quiet.”

“Affirmative.”

Ares hung up. No goodbye. No hesitation.

The sense of danger that lingered in the car between me and Esme thickened instantly, rolling in like a storm.

It was suffocating. Heavy. A warning neither of us could ignore.