Chapter 517
Chapter 517:
He reached out. Skye flinched, a reflex she couldn’t suppress.
Lucian paused, then continued. His fingers brushed her waist, tracing the slit Vargo’s knife had made in the silk. His touch was light, almost clinical, but it burned.
“He doesn’t like you,” Lucian observed.
Skye slapped his hand away. “He doesn’t know me. And unlike your previous dogs, this one hasn’t learned to fear me yet p>
Lucian caught her wrist. He didn’t squeeze, but his grip was weaker than before, trembling slightly. “No. He hates you because you are the reason my empire is currently ash. But you are also the only one who can help me rebuild it p>
He released her and turned toward the private elevator at the end of the hall. “Come p>
“Where are we going p>
“To see what remains p>
The elevator ride was silent. There were no buttons. Lucian placed his palm against a scanner, and the car began to descend.
Down.
Past the lobby of the seized Moretti estate.
Past the parking garage.
Past the foundations.
Skye counted the seconds. Ten. Twenty. Thirty.
They were deep underground.
The doors slid open.
Skye blinked against the sudden assault of blue light.
It was a command center. Walls of screens flickered with live feeds, data streams, and financial tickers. But dominating the room was the far wall. It was a massive digital map of Las Vegas.
Lucian walked toward it, his footsteps echoing on the metal grate floor. He gestured grandly, though the movement clearly pained his shoulder.
“The Syndicate’s nervous system,” he said.
The map was dotted with lights. Hundreds of them. Most were red. Some were green.
“The red lights,” Lucian explained, pointing to a cluster around the Strip, “belong to the remnants of the Moretti family. Their casinos, their hotels, their warehouses. The green ones are what I have managed to salvage p>
𝗕𝗋𝗈w𝘴е 𝖻𝗒 𝘤𝖺𝘁𝖾𝗴оr𝗒 𝘰ո 𝖻𝗲.𝘤𝗼𝘮
Skye looked at the map. The red overwhelmed the green. It was a sea of Moretti influence.
“I am going to paint this city green,” Lucian said softly, a delusion of grandeur in his eyes. “Every block. Every slot machine. Every politician. And you are going to help me decode their ledger p>
Skye narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t looking at the colors. She was looking at the coordinates. Her mind, sharpened by her rebirth and her eidetic memory, began to snap pictures.
Warehouse District 4. Coordinates 36.1699, -115.1398.
Private airfield. Coordinates 36.0840, -115.1537.
Underground storage, Sector 7.
She memorized the supply lines. The weak points. The locations labeled “Cash Reserves.” This was why he hadn’t killed her. He needed her brain to crack the Moretti encryption.
“Why show me this?” Skye asked, turning to him. “I could sell this information. I could give it to the Feds. Or Alistair p>
Lucian smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile. It was the smile of a shark that had just scented blood in the water.
“Because you are my prisoner, Skye. And because Liam is currently breathing only because I allow it. A partner needs to know the size of the prey p>
He walked back to the elevator. “And because by the time you figure out how to use it against me, it won’t matter. The map will already have changed p>