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attend a reception afterward featuring the two of them, along with a host of other celebrities and dignitaries.
    Michael was still eyeing Segura warily, when the cage door opened and Kim and a second Tyrant Girl named Tess escorted famed ring announcer Michael Duffer inside, microphone in hand.
    â€œLadies and gentlemen,” Duffer said, moving to center ring. “For the thousands in attendance tonight and the millions who’ll be watching tomorrow … let’s get ready to raise moneeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyy !”
    The crowd went crazy, bobbing up and down on their feet, nothing more than dark opaque shapes to Michael. From here, the script was clear. Segura was to chase Duffer from the cage, slam the door closed, and grab either Tyrant girl, Kim or Tess. Hoist her overhead, while he paraded around the ring accepting the cheers and accolades fitting for a world champion. Michael would make a show of pulling the woman away, usher her to safety and then engage in a one-round spirited exhibition with only light blows exchanged by the combatants.
    â€œIn the black corner, our challenger, with as much money as muscle and a mean streak that ensures what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Ladies and gentlemen, Michael ‘the Tyrant’ Tirannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnno!”
    Michael was conscious of the roaring applause, but even more conscious of the Executioner’s stare from across the ring.
    â€œAnd in the red corner, weighing in at two hundred and sixty pounds of rock-hard muscle, standing all of six feet six inches tall. He is known and feared as the most dangerous man in the world. The undefeated and untied MMA champion of the world, Dorado ‘the Executioner’ Segurrrrrrrrrrrra!”
    Across the ring, Segura began parading about with hands raised triumphantly in the air, intense gaze rooted on Michael as he chased Duffer from the cage and slammed the door just as planned. Then, also as planned, he chased down the Tyrant girl named Kim and hoisted her effortlessly over his head. For some reason, the sight made Michael think of King Kong clutching the actress Fay Wray atop the Empire State Building, Kim looking like a toy in his grasp.
    Until Segura threw her headlong through the air. Kim crashed hard into the steel cage directly over the entry door and fell hard to the canvas. She was bleeding from the nose, her eyes dimming as she clung to consciousness, pinning the sole access point to the ring closed.
    Michael glimpsed Seven Sins security, led by Alexander, charge the ring. Saw Segura’s entourage moving to intercept them. Saw the Executioner himself moving to corner Tess, the second Tyrant girl, who hadn’t followed Duffer from the ring as she was supposed to.
    Michael felt something snap inside him. His focus intensified, his vision sharpened. The awareness that this had stopped being a game in that single, violent instant struck him hard and fast. He didn’t welcome or not welcome it, didn’t really think anything in that moment that seemed to freeze in time. There was only the hulking Segura moving toward Tess who was trapped in the cage.
    Trapped …
    It’s just him and me, Michael thought.
    His ears hummed with the assortment of crowd sounds, those gathered at ringside roaring and cheering Michael on in the belief this was all part of the show, the staging. The chants of “Tyrant, Tyrant, Tyrant!” resumed amid a sea of bright cell phone screens recording the scene and dotting the darkness with light, as Michael lurched into motion.

 
    SEVEN
    L AS V EGAS, N EVADA
    â€œSir? Your passport. Mr. Devereaux?”
    Edward Devereaux finally swung back toward the polished mahogany desk inside the private VIP check-in lounge at the Seven Sins Resort and Casino, forgetting for a moment the guise he had taken for this trip.
    â€œ Merci ,” he said, taking his passport in hand.
    â€œWould you like me to show you to your suite now, sir, or escort you to the