“It seemed like the thing to do,” I answered.
“And you’re probably wondering why I didn’t do it?”
Of all the things that had happened last night that was probably on the lower end of the list of questions I had about this man.
“Each to their own.”
“Yes, quite right. It was to scare her. Jia is very strong-headed. Strong willed. In our world that’s the kind of thing that could get a woman killed. Snooping around, sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, or simply being my daughter. She is my weakness.”
I looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Why would you tell me your weakness?”
“Because you need to know that any other task I give you and any other job I ask you to do will come second to protecting her.”
“You want me to babysit your girl?”
He sneered. “It is not babysitting. It’s prioritizing. She is my priority. If we get attacked or something happens, you drop everything and get her away from danger. Is that understood?”
“Understood.” Understood and it sounded like he was preparing for another attack.
“That’s all for tonight.”
“That’s it?” The eagerness to know about the prints was coming out. Of course, I’d expected a heck of a lot more from this meeting.
“Yes. Your job is twofold. Protecting my daughter is your first priority and everything else next. You can start on duty officially tomorrow morning and watch the hotel and casino like everyone else. Armand will show you the ropes and give you the tour.”
I couldn’t believe it, this really was it. I thought we’d at least talk about the fucking blueprints. Dread filled me as it crossed my mind that I might have to figure out where they were being kept if he didn’t tell me.
I’d have to look for the damn things.
Maybe the tour would be where I got more info, or hopefully actually see them.
He put out his hand to shake mine. I took it and shook firmly.
“Thank you.”
“I hope your time with us will be a good one.”
And I hoped to get this job over and done with as quickly as possible.
I needed to find out where he was keeping the prints. That was all. As soon as I knew I’d get them and get out of here.
Hopefully tomorrow would be more fruitful.
“Can you hear me okay?” Wes asked. His voice came across all staticky in my ear piece.
“Fine,” I muttered, doing my best to look inconspicuous on the casino floor.
I was heading to the back offices for my tour with Armand. It wasn’t something I was looking forward to.
“I know you can’t talk buddy. I’m just in your ear,” Wes stated. “See anything interesting yet?”
I got down to a clear corridor where I could answer Wes.
“Nope. It’s all fancy though. This guy sure knows how to do up the place.” I scanned over the cream walls and patent black on the skirting boards. It matched the marble floor and reminded me of the color scheme for a playing card. I was sure that was all done on purpose. Clever.
Wes laughed. “Really Xander? The man is filthy rich. I was looking up his net worth and it’s in the billions. That’s just what we know as listed on Wikipedia.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Anyway. I gotta go.” I was nearly at the end of the corridor. “Meeting the prick in about one minute.” He knew I was talking about Armand.
“Speak later.”
I opened the door at the end of the corridor and there was the prick talking to one of the workers who was pushing a trolley with stacks of money. Money galore.
Jesus, there was an easy million on the cart. Easy.
If anyone got their hands on that they’d have a field day. Set for life.
Armand stopped talking to the worker and focused his attention on me with his fake ass smile. I wished he wouldn’t bother.
The worker moved away and continued down another corridor with the trolley.
“Morning,” Armand said.
“Good morning.”
“Ready to start?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I replied, giving him the same tight-lipped smile.
He turned and I followed him. We walked up to a set of large oak wood automatic doors that opened for us.
Once we got inside I widened my eyes at what I saw.
It was a whole other world apart from the casino.
Below us was an open plan section with rows of desks with workers sitting at them, literally like an office setting. That was practically the whole ground floor and I guessed there were about a hundred people down there.
“This is what we call the back office. Our admin team if you will,” Armand explained. “All paperwork is done here. All business deals filed. Anything to do with the hotel chain and casinos are all managed here. There are separate managers for each department.”
“Wow, I never knew Giovanni had a set up like this,” I stated.
“He sure does. The man is a genius. It’s like a whole ecosystem set to run by itself.”
A whole ecosystem indeed.
It made me realize that the place had different security systems because we hadn’t seen any of this on camera. It was something I could report back and Wes could check out.
“We consider this branch headquarters, although technically the other hotels and casinos on the strip is bigger. It’s just that this was where it all started.”
“Have you been with him for a long time?” I asked because of the admiration with which he spoke.
“Not as long as the others. Six years. Fresh out of college. Our families go back to Italy. I always had a job lined up for me with Giovanni if I chose it.”
“And you chose it,” I filled in.
He chuckled. “Of course. Only an idiot would pass on an opportunity like this. It was down to starting out on a salary of twenty grand a year or six figures. Which would you choose?”
I smiled. “That’s a no-brainer man.”
“Precisely.” He pointed through a door and I followed his gaze. “That’s us over there. There is no surveillance past that point.”
“What’s over there?” I asked.
“The Castle.” He smiled.
“Castle?”
“In case you hadn’t noticed Giovanni is very fond of playing cards. He’s the king, we’re the knights. That is the castle.”
“What of the queen, the joker and the ace?”
“The queen is dead and you don’t ask about her. That would make you the joker who ends up dead. The ace is me, his most trusted.” He made a show of flicking invisible lint off the shoulder of my jacket.
This guy really was a prick. I hated being touched, but I’d let him have that on account of this being a job and me trying to blend in on my first real day.
“Gotcha, Ace.” I smiled.
“You will meet the others now.” He started walking again and I followed.
He proceeded in the direction of the metal doors. Unlike the oak wood doors, these opened when he pressed his fingertip to the panel.
We went inside and I saw straight away that this section was different to everywhere else.
This section was more spacious, yet had further subdivisions that were sealed like vaults. It took me two seconds to guess that if the prints were going to be anywhere it was here. Had to be.
Absolutely fucking had to be. No surveillance so it couldn’t be seen.
It was the best way to keep something hidden.
“What’s down here?” I asked.
“Secrets.” Armand looked at me, giving me a cold stare and stopped to regard me. “It’s curious. Very curious indeed.”
“What is?”
“You. The rest of us had to wait at least a year to venture down here, yet you come along and hey presto, he wants you in on his secrets.”
That was none of my doing and very curious indeed. Last night’s conversation came to my mind. It seemed like I’d made more of an impression on the Vegas mafi
a king than I realized.
“I don’t know what to say. Maybe he likes me a lot.”
“Could be, but you know what’s more curious? Him thinking one of you was enough to replace four people.”
“Well, that says a lot about me now, doesn’t it?” It was my turn to be a prick. I leaned forward and flicked invisible lint off his jacket, smiling at the annoyance that washed over his face.
Armand didn’t answer. He just continued walking and I followed.
The corridor was our final destination.
There were three men standing there, talking and laughing. They looked the part of standard mobster tough guys.
I’d seen them the other night at the recruitment.
“This is Vinny, Frankie and Freddo.” Armand introduced them respectively.
Vinny had a tattoo of a black panther on his neck, Frankie had a nasty looking knife scar on his cheek, Freddo was clean shaven and seemed to be the youngest.
They all looked at me, assessing me.
“Guys,” I said tipping my head for a curt nod.
“New guy,” Vinny answered with raised brows.
“Yup,” I replied straightening up.
Vinny just looked at me. Frankie didn’t say anything. I assumed they were like this for the same reasons Armand had pointed out.
“This is our area. We protect what’s here, all that is inside,” Armand explained pointing to the rows of vault compartments.
“What’s inside?” I asked.
“That’s on a need to know basis,” Frankie answered for him. “That information is classified and if Giovanni sees fit, he will tell you.”
I sensed an edge of anger in his voice.
“He will tell you if the need arises,” Armand added. “The bulk of our time is spent watching over the casino floor by day and the special games that take place at night.”
“What kind of games?”
“High stakes poker games.”
Okay… poker games, the castle with vaults containing secrets I’d be told on a need to know basis. It was clear that the secret I wanted to know was not going to be divulged to me any time soon.
So, maybe I didn’t make that big of an impression after all.
I was going to be watching the area though with them so that was something. I’d gotten this far. it was just annoying as fuck that I really was going to have to figure out where the blueprints were being kept.
Shit, that might take forever… and there was no surveillance in this area. Finding the damn prints was looking like it was going to be more harder than I’d anticipated, and what I’d anticipated was already hard.
Armand moved over to the floor to ceiling glass window and I saw it held the view of the casino below on the lower ground floor. It all came full circle and was definitely quite the set up. Two hundred bedrooms in the world class five star hotel, a renowned casino and this space here. It was all very impressive.
We both stared down below at the crowded floor. It wasn’t even ten yet but the place was busy with life.
Busy with life yet the two of us saw the beautiful blond woman at the same time.
Jia walked by one of the roulette table and stopped to talk to one of the croupiers. She wore another dress that looked like it was made for her. It was a simple black business dress that was supposed to look professional but all I could see was how she made the damn thing look sexy. Her, not the dress.
Feeling eyes boring into me, I looked back to Armand and found him already staring at me.
“Beautiful isn’t she?” he asked in an even tone.
“Yes.” I wasn’t sure what else I was supposed to say.
“You can impress the boss all you want. Jump hurdles and do your fancy card tricks, Xander Cage, but be warned to watch yourself when it comes to Jia Marchesi. She belongs to me. Do not go there.” That fake smile filled his face again. Fake and filled with a warning I should heed.
Do not go there…
Yes, I knew that and I thought I deserved an award for my resistance of the beautiful blond who had looked at me like she wanted me on every interaction I’d had with her.
It was only because it was in my best interest not to go there that I was staying away.
“Easy tiger,” I replied and he walked away from me.
I turned my attention back to the beauty and watched her.
Staying away would be a lot easier if she didn’t appeal to me.
Even now she fueled that spark of curiosity that made me want to know more about her and want her.
Bad idea.
Very bad idea, especially since I wasn’t who she thought I was.
Chapter Nine
Jia
“I think it would look more legit if I came with you,” Anya bubbled, rubbing her bony hands together.
I set my gaze on her and wondered if she was being serious.
She swung herself around in my desk chair in that habitual manner she always did when she got a bright idea. Then the chair creaked as she straightened looking at me with expectancy.
She’d come by earlier, all apologetic for standing me up and not answering my calls and messages the other night. We’d confined ourselves to my room with all the peace offering candy she’d brought.
Apparently, she was no longer with Mike. I was just waiting to see how long she would be able to stay away from him this time.
“You’ll seriously come with me?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.
She tapped away at my computer keyboard and nodded. My very clever best friend had come up with the brilliant idea to go on a cruise to the Mediterranean.
Her plan was for me to take my leave and make my way over to Europe. With my birthday coming up she was sure Pa would be willing to cut me some slack. I wasn’t so sure it would be so easy.
What had happened at the recruitment session pushed me to a place I couldn’t quite describe. I wasn’t talking to Pa. I didn’t know what to say to him.
It was like someone had pulled the wool from over my eyes and I saw the monster within.
The whole situation just made me realize I truly couldn’t stay here and I couldn’t take the time I’d wanted to either to plan. I’d had a very sketchy plan to wait for my birthday in four months but now I felt that was too late. I had to leave sooner.
Last night I looked up flights to Europe and worked out a way to take cash out of my account every week without Pa noticing. Starting this week I’d take out a few hundred dollars and start putting it aside. The type of plan I had brewing would need cash payments. For everything. I was hoping I could maybe make a move in six weeks if I could stick it out that long and if all went okay. A month to six weeks of taking a few hundred dollars out each week could get me close to ten grand. I spent more than that shopping in any one month and Pa spent so much more just on his cars and other vehicles.
So that was it. The goal was ten G’s. Get the cash then split.
That was the first part of the plan.
After the warehouse drama I came home shaking and cried myself to sleep.
It was the first time since Ma’s death that I’d needed to speak to anyone.
Anya was there for me when Ma was killed. When Pa eventually allowed people to see me she was there for me.
What happened the other night was different to that time, however. It was an incident I couldn’t talk about. Couldn’t say anything to anyone, couldn’t share my shock with anyone.
Couldn’t talk about it full stop.
“So what do you think?” She smiled and nodded her head. The blunt ends of her bob brushed the underside of her jaw.
“Anya, I think that realistically, this may be a trip I may have to make on my own. And in the worst case scenario I wouldn’t be able to tell you where I was going.”
That was the reality of it.
Worry filled her eyes. It washed over her pretty face and she moved away from the computer to join me on the edge of the bed.
When she sat next to me I suddenly though
t of us as little girls. She’d always come to my house. That would have been my parents’ mansion.
Anya and I had known each other since we were five.
We met in kindergarten and had been friends ever since.
She knew me and more importantly knew who I was. Not just for the fact of me being Jia Marchesi, but she could fill in the blanks too, and just know if there was something I wasn’t saying or talking about, when it was bad.
Earlier when she’d come by, I’d simply told her what Pa had said about Europe and the shit with Armand. I followed that up by telling her I needed to leave.
I’d never expressly said that before.
“Jia, maybe you should think this through a little more,” she offered.
“Yes, maybe I should but how long is that going to take? Thinking things through and coming to a conclusion? Especially when my father seems to be doing all the thinking for me.”
She sighed and pursed her lips together. “Jia, I just don’t want you to do something to make the situation worse.”
“I don’t think it can be any worse than it is. This is me being careful Anya. I have to do something. Whatever that something is… it gives me hope. The cruise won’t work. There’s been too much talk of Europe and angst over Armand. Pa will suspect something.”
“So what would you do? Just disappear one day?”
I smirked without the humor and blew out a ragged breath. That was actually the plan.
She glared at me when I didn’t answer. “Jia, you can’t. I’ll be worried sick. I’d worry so much over you. You can’t just disappear on me.”
“I think I’ll have to.”
“How will you do it though? If it’s not your Pa watching you like a hawk, it’s his men.”
I couldn’t help but think of Xander as she said that. It was the reference to the hawk. Of anyone I’d ever heard being compared to that saying he definitely fit the bill in every essence with his keen eyes.
Unfortunately, eyes that were not on me.
The man told me he was off limits to me. That was really a new one.
“What is that smile for?” She grinned. “I can’t keep up. You’re smiling like you’re thinking about a man.”
Game of Love : A Mafia Romance Page 8
