Here is the continuation of the alternate ending.

Chapter 16 (Alternate Ending)

Two months had passed since the shootout. As expected, the police chalked it up to a fight between the aliens and street gangs. The papers had been conspicuously quiet about the whole affair. Nova could only guess that Nick Fury was behind the suppression of the stories. Luckily, nobody had connected any of it to her and her people.

They had regrouped at the Fire Bird afterwards and gone over their stories just in case the police did come asking. Loki and the other Asgardians had left them at the warehouse after ensuring her wounds were superficial, but only after he threatened her men if they let anything else happen to her before he returned.

Nova's days had been full ever since. The next day she had started the process of putting her empire back to rights. Juaquin and Las Zelas picked up the reigns from the triad and were her primary supplier for heroin now. She would still have to deal with the remnants of the triad, but that could wait until she had her house back in order. Despite their reputation for being unpredictable and chaotic, Las Zelas had been solid in their backing and levelheaded in their dealings with Barak and her so far. Only time would tell if it was just the honeymoon period of their relationship.

Viktor had cleaned house on his end and almost a half-dozen of his employees suddenly had to leave town. He had picked a new second last week; surprisingly it was woman, Lorna Olegovna. Nova had met her once but didn't know enough about her to have an opinion, so she decided to trust Viktor. Between the two of them, the new arrangement with the B-Streeters was working out well, if not completely smoothly. The Norteños had lost a large portion of their territory in L.A. to the other gang and were off licking their wounds and reorganizing. When they returned in force, which they would in time, Nova and her people would be there to back up the B-Streeters.

She had sent Lev back to his family on the east coast as soon as he could travel, despite his protests. She told him family was more important and that he was released from all other obligations to her. She would miss him, but she had leaned on him as a crutch for too long. Before he left, he had given her a few recommendations for his replacement at her security manager. She had met with each of them and had selected a retired Israeli soldier, Ari Basch. He had started three weeks ago and had already upset several people in her organization, including herself. Ari had hired her an all new contingent of bodyguards, mostly Israeli. She now had a rotation of six men and three women that watched over her in groups of three 24/7, even when she went to the bathroom. Her former bodyguards were disbursed among Viktor and Barak.

She had even hired a personal assistant to help her keep up with everything. She had discovered that one of the strippers at the Grey Goose had a master's degree in business and finance. It seemed a shame for it to be wasted on dancing naked for a bunch of horny men.

The only part of her life not going smoothly was the personal side of it. Loki had not made a reappearance and she refused to drive herself to distraction by hoping for his return. She threw herself into the business and politics and worked late into each night before finally going to bed and falling into an exhausted but restless sleep. It was hard not to miss him, though. Especially since, when she arrived back at her penthouse, she had found Nibbler sitting in the middle of her bed, eating her feather pillow. Endearing as the little creature was, he was a constant reminder of the Asgardian.

After treating Nibbler with caution the first couple of weeks, the creature soon became kind of a mascot to her people. They had even made a game out of bringing things for it to eat. One of her bartenders at the Fire Bird had even fed it her engagement ring after she caught her fiancé cheating on her. Viktor had joked that they could feed it any of their competitors that they took out so that the body would never be found.

"Lisa are you sure about these numbers?" she asked the young woman sitting at her own desk in the office at the Fire Bird.

"I checked them three times, so yeah, I'm sure."

Nova nodded absently, "get me Viktor on the line."

Lisa didn't respond, she just dialed Viktor's number. When he answered she routed the call to Nova.

"Have you seen the numbers for last month?" Nova asked without preamble.

"Yes, Gospozha. They are good, no?"

"They are up 18% from before. That's very good. Almost too good."

"It seems that the Norteños used quite a bit of the product themselves," Viktor informed her. "So, it's probably going to go up even more in the next two months before it levels off."

"That's interesting. Just keep a close eye on it. I don't know if I'm completely convinced."

"Yes, Gospozha. I will."

After the call, Nova leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment. It was late and time to call it the night.

"Call the car around. Let's go home."

One of her new bodyguards, David was dispatched to bring the car around to the door in the alley. They no longer let her come and go through the club during business hours, so she came and went through the back entrance now.

Gathering up the papers she had been reading and locking them in the security cabinet, Nova felt the urge to do something different tonight. "Lisa, can you call Thea and Megan and see if they are available tonight?"

Lisa looked up from her desk in surprise. She knew about Nova's proclivity for sleeping with some of her employees, but she hadn't shown any interest in anyone since the attempted coup. Her boss had been a lot more standoffish since then. Maybe she was feeling more like her old self, Lisa thought as she picked up the phone to call backstage at the Grey Goose.

Sometime after midnight, Nova woke up. Not sure what exactly had awakened her, she checked Thea laying beside her, but the blonde was still sound asleep and from the sound of Megan's breathing so was she. She frowned as she realized that she could see Thea in the low-level light. Her room was normally pitch black at night; it was an interior room with no windows, and she didn't have any nightlights or illuminated clocks. She shouldn't have been able to see at all.

She gently moved Megan's arm that was draped across her middle and sat up to look around. The light was coming from her tablet balanced on Loki's knee as he read.

Letting out her breath in a hiss, she said, "so you decided to come back finally."

He looked up from his reading as if just noticing she was awake and gave her a cocky grin, "it looks like you had a fun evening."

Ignoring his comment about her sex life, she threw the covers back and crawled out of bed, careful not to awake the two women. Naked, she looked around trying to locate her robe in the dim light. A polite cough from Loki got her attention. He was holding it up for her. She snatched it out of his hand and pulled it on as she walked out of the room leaving him to follow her. Out in the main part of the apartment, it was quiet.

"Where are my men?" she asked him as he joined her, shutting the bedroom door behind him.

He grinned at her again, "they are probably still chasing you down on the street below."

"Chasing me?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, they think they're chasing you," he shrugged.

"I should just fucking shoot you." She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, then went to the bar to poor herself a drink. "What do you want?"

His cocky grin faltered, "what do you mean?"

"You're kidding, right?" She spun back to him; her eyes wide. "You disappear for two months without a single word. Hell, you barely said goodbye, you were in such a big hurry to leave!" She stepped up to him and snarled up at him. "Now you just show back up like nothing is wrong and start fucking with my staff again. What are you expecting? Me to welcome you back with open arms?"

Loki didn't back down at her ferocity, instead he snarled back, "woman, don't take that tone with me. I came back as soon as I could!"

His response pushed her temper over the edge, and she raised a hand to slap him, her eyes flashing. Before her hand could make contact, he easily caught it and pulled her into his body. Fisting a handful of her hair, he held her still and kissed her hard. She put her free hand against his chest and tried to push him back, but it was like pushing on a wall. She struggled against him for a brief moment, before giving in to his demanding kiss, her hand snaking up around his neck and pulling him towards her instead.

A sound behind him made them break the kiss.

"Don't mind us," Thea smiled as she and Megan walked out of the bedroom and towards the entrance of the apartment.

Nova looked around Loki, "if you see my bodyguards, tell them that they are a bunch of idiots."

Megan giggled and Thea nodded, then they left.

She took advantage of the distraction to step away from Loki, but he still held her hand and didn't let her get far.

"I'm still mad at you."

His bright green eyes twinkled down at her, "I wouldn't expect anything else from you." He tugged her hand, "come, let's talk."

She walked with him outside into the cool air of the early morning. The moon was full and bright and there wasn't any haze to dim its light, so they easily found their way to chairs at the side of the pool.

"What kept you?" she asked.

"Fury. He thinks I'm one of his damned Avengers now."

She snorted a very un-ladylike laugh, "I wonder what gave him that idea?"

He joined her laughing. "Apparently, he's under the delusion that I'm one of the good guys."

"Idiot."

"Yeah."

Their laughter died down and they sat in companionable silence for a while.

Finally, Nova said in a quiet voice, "I'm not good at this."

Loki understood what she meant. "Neither am I. I guess we are going to have to figure it out together."

She looked at him with her eyebrows raised, "you're willing to try?"

Bright mischievous green eyes met cool blue eyes, "are you?"

Both of them grinned and she got up and held out her hand to him, "come on. I'll let you make up to me."

"Make up to you?" he laughed. "I think you need to thank me for saving you and your business!"

"Saving me? If I recall correctly, me and my men shot the fucker and killed it."

"Ah, no, it was already dead before you started firing!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

Their laughter filled the night as they bickered on their way back into the penthouse. Left on the patio by itself, Nibbler chirped and started chewing on a chair leg.