I made my way to the large multi-story parking garage next to the casino, going down to the level below the main parking garage where all of my casino's vehicles and giveaway cars were parked.
Walking down the rows of pristine cars and limos, my eyes caught sight of a bright red car parked in the far corner.
Making my way over, I recognized the car almost instantly from one of Rosalie's car magazines.
It was a Ferrari 500 Mondial Spider.
Running my hand over the bright red paint, I saw a slight layer of dust covering it.
"What a tragedy," I said, rubbing the dust between my fingers.
Walking to a lockbox close to the entrance, which was connected to the wall, I grabbed the key with the tab for the spider.
Walking back to the car, I got into the driver's seat and started the car.
The roar of the engine was music to my ears, while also somewhat deafening. Worth it.
Running my hands along the polished wooden steering wheel, I smiled.
"You're coming home with me. You don't deserve to be left forgotten in storage collecting dust," I said, putting her in reverse and speeding out of the garage.
I made a quick pit stop at a gas station where I paid the attendant twenty bucks to do a quick wash of my car.
She deserved to look good on such a beautiful day.
It gave me time to think about what I was going to do about these "mobsters."
I hadn't come up with anything yet until a thought entered my mind.
It started off slowly but quickly grew until a smile spread across my face.
Putting my new car into drive, I pulled back onto the road, laughing like a madman.
Later that night, I stood at the foot of Mr. Jimmy "Boots" Russo's bed. He was the man currently running Las Vegas's underworld. He was the top dog of the Chicago outfit.
Clutched in my hands was one of his prized possessions. Or at least one that looked remarkably like one of his.
Apparently, Jimmy loved horses and had a small herd of thoroughbreds.
Slowly lifting the covers of his bed, I slid the horse's head slowly into his bed, a smile still plastered across my face.
Of course, I didn't kill a horse just to scare him, but he wouldn't know that.
I snuck into the racetrack where his horses were and stole the most valuable one he had.
After managing to get it to my bank without being stopped by the police, which was surprisingly easy, I made my way to a factory that I knew used horse meat in their animal food…yeah, some places actually did that.
After bribing an employee, I was able to find an already dead horse that looked almost exactly like the one I had taken.
Pulling the covers back down over the horse's head, I watched Jimmy sleep, wondering what his reaction was going to be.
Too bad I wasn't going to be able to see it firsthand, but I would be seeing the aftereffects.
Leaving the house, I passed the house's security, leaving no trace of me behind besides the horse's head.
Once done with that, I went and got some sleep, excited for tomorrow.
Early the next morning, I got dressed in an immaculately tailored black suit.
As I finished getting dressed, there was a knock on my front door.
Opening the door, I saw it was Jimmy.
"Mornin', James," I said, opening my door to let him in.
"Good morning, sir. I hope you slept well," James said as he stepped in, holding a leather suitcase in one of his hands.
Walking into my suite, James set his suitcase on my kitchen island countertop.
"I hope that is what I think it is?" I asked.
James smiled as he nodded his head, sliding the suitcase over to me.
"It sure is," James said with a smile, "had all of the paperwork processed this morning."
"Good," I said, opening the leather suitcase and looking over the paperwork inside.
Closing it, I gave James a quick smile, "I think by day's end you will have nothing else to worry about."
James looked relieved.
Going down to the casino, I had a valet retrieve the spider from my personal parking space in the employee parking.
As my car pulled in front of the casino, she gleamed brightly under the clear sky's sun, drawing attention from the crowds of people waiting for their own cars. I had her waxed and detailed by the casino's personnel washers.
Smiling, I gave the teenager who retrieved my car a large tip as he gave me my car keys, smiling even wider as I saw his eyes bulge from the wad of 20s he had just received.
Pulling a pair of aviator sunglasses from my inner jacket pocket, I flicked them open, sliding them on as I got into the driver's seat.
Pulling onto the road, I weaved between lanes as I sped through the busy streets, making my way to the All Star.
It was the casino that the Chicago outfit had set up as their headquarters.
In reality, it was a modest casino with nothing to make it stand out among all the others like it.
Parking my car outside in the casino's parking lot since they were too cheap to hire chauffeurs, or simply couldn't afford it.
I made my way inside, almost stopping in my tracks at the amount of cigarette smoke that filled my nose.
It had been nearly twenty years since I had last had one, so I wasn't used to the strong smell.
Sure, you were allowed to smoke in my casino, but we also had a non-smoking section as well as good air circulation, which allowed the cigarette smoke to disperse and be sucked out of the casino floor and released out of air vents outside.
But this casino reminded me of a coffin.
Cramped, dark, and filled with old people.
It looked to me like the place was full of broke or old gamblers that came to die.
'Perfect place to set up a loan shark business,' I thought, looking around, spotting the front desk.
Walking over, I set my briefcase down on the counter, giving the "woman" receptionist a smile as she approached me, cigarette in hand.
"What can I do for you, Hun?" the woman asked, puffing out a mouthful of smoke.
The woman looked to be in her late forties, covered in enough sloppy makeup that she needed a shovel to remove all of it, and like she had never heard the word hygiene before.
"Yes, hello," I said, trying my hardest not to grimace, "I'm here to talk to a Mr. Jimmy 'Boots'." I said, keeping the smile as best I could.
The woman, who I saw from her name tag was named "Dorothy," snorted.
"Do you have an appointment?" Dorothy asked, taking another puff of her cigarette.
"I didn't know loan sharks had secretaries to set those up," I said, trying to make a joke, but failing badly.
Dorothy just stared at me deadpan, her eyes boring into my own.
After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Dorothy slowly turned to point to a door beside her reception desk, "Through there and to the left," she said, turning away from me to look back at the casino floor.
Shrugging my shoulders, I grabbed my suitcase and confidently waltzed through the door.
Once through the door, I turned left down the narrow hallway like I had been told to do.
Walking down the hallway, I could see a solid-looking metal door at the end. A small sliding hatch at eye level.
Reaching the metal door, I knocked rhythmically in an upbeat tempo.
Stepping back a step, I smiled at the eyes of a man who slid open the small hatch to look at me.
"What do you want?" the gruff voice of the man behind the door asked as he looked me up and down.
"I'm here to talk to a Mr. Jimmy," I said, holding the suitcase behind my back with my free hand holding my other hand's wrist as I rocked on my heels, seeming to have no care in the world.
Which I didn't.
The man's eyes narrowed sharply, "He ain't here," the man said angrily before slamming the hatch closed.
Shaking my head, I stepped forward and knocked again, this time with a new upbeat tempo.
It only took the man a few seconds to open the hatch again, "I told you! He ain't here!" the man shouted, about to close the hatch again.
"But doesn't Jimmy want to know who killed his horse?" I asked cheerfully, causing the man to stop abruptly before closing it completely.
Opening the hatch fully, the man stared at me, looking me up and down with narrowed eyes.
"How did you-" the man started, before cutting himself off as a thought clearly entered his mind as he stopped talking, slamming the hatch closed.
I listened as he started walking quickly away from the metal door.
"Boss!" the man said loudly, "There's some guy at the door saying he knows who killed Roxy!"
I could hear a rolling chair abruptly being shoved back as who I presumed to be Jimmy stood up.
"What!" Jimmy shouted angrily.
"A man at the front door is saying—"
"I heard you the first time, damn it!" Jimmy shouted, before I could hear two sets of shoes walking towards the door.
A moment later, the small hatch on the door opened again, revealing the familiar face of Jimmy.
I didn't say anything as I stared back through the hatch, unwilling to be the first to talk.
"How do you know who did it!" Jimmy asked, looking me up and down, unable to remain silent any longer.
I shrugged my shoulders dismissively as I spoke, "Because I'm the one that put it there… Duh."
I watched with interest as Jimmy's eyes widened with rage, his hands unable to move any slower as he started to quickly undo the locks holding the metal door shut.
"Boss, wait," the second man said, trying to stop Jimmy before he could open the door, "This could be a trap!" the man said, trying to block Jimmy from opening the last lock on the door.
But the man's efforts were of no use as Jimmy quickly batted away the man's hands and unlocked the door.
I watched with a small smile as the metal door swung open on well-oiled hinges, and Jimmy stormed towards me, his fists balled up, ready to swing.
I also didn't miss the noticeable bulge under both of his arms where two holstered guns were.
Time slowed for me as Jimmy threw a right jab for my face.
I watched the fist arch towards me.
I smiled as it came close, knowing I could have blocked or dodged it with ease.
But I wasn't here for that; I was here to scare these idiots into line.
I let Jimmy's meaty fist hit my left cheek with a loud thwack and then crunch, as Jimmy broke his wrist and multiple knuckles on my jaw.
I didn't react as his punch landed, but Jimmy, on the other hand, let out an ear-piercing squeal as he clutched his right hand and wrist.
"You broke my fuckin' hand!" Jimmy shouted, as his henchmen pulled out a revolver and leveled it at me, Jimmy stumbling into the wall.
"Uhh, no," I said, chuckling, "You broke your own hand. I didn't tell you to punch me."
By then, two other meatheads were filling the doorway, their guns also drawn.
"You motherfucker!" Jimmy shouted in pain, clutching his hand to his chest.
Turning to the three goons behind Jimmy, I asked, "Did he not break his own hand? You even told him not to come out here, but he didn't listen." I asked the first goon I had met.
He stared between me and his boss, unsure what to do.
Deciding nothing was going to get done any time soon if we continued to just stand around all day, I started to speak, "I'm here on behalf of Edin," I said, grabbing all of their attention instantly, "and am here to give you, their response." I said, quickly bringing my briefcase in front of me and opening it.
I ignored the three goons who leveled their guns at me with my abrupt movements as I pulled out a stack of papers from inside my briefcase.
Licking my lips, I turned to Jimmy, who was still clutching his hands but was no longer screaming.
"These are the response actions from Eden casino," I said, looking down at the stack of papers.
Holding them out to Jimmy, I smiled.
"You should really learn from this experience, Jimmy," I said with a small smile, satisfied by the angry look in Jimmy's eyes.
"Earlier this morning, every single piece of property owned by you or anyone even connected to your organization was bought out. From this very casino to the house your mother lives in," I said with a wide smile, holding up the price paper which was from Gringotts, confirming the purchases.
"That's impossible!" Jimmy shouted, still clutching his hand as he yelled.
I shook my head, "Nothing is impossible, Jimmy. You just have to be smarter. It's your fault for forcing all of these casinos to go public so you could buy half of it without taking full control, allowing me to buy up all the shares from the previous owners who were all too happy to sell to me, giving me a majority. After that, it was simple to flood the market with more shares, devaluing what you had and lessening how much of the casinos you owned," I said happily. "Then I had a good friend of mine buy up what I released into the market, leaving you with a total of around two percent of what you had yesterday."
I flipped through the pages to show Jimmy a graph.
"If you look here, you can see the quick spike then drop," I said, pointing at the rise and fall on the graph.
Jimmy's eyes were ablaze with rage the longer I talked, and I was more than happy to send him over the edge.
"Now like your mother, I'm here to evict you," I said, giving Jimmy an award-winning smile.
Jimmy moved on what I guessed was a reflex, swinging his free non broken hand towards my head.
I didn't let him hit me like before.
Instead, I caught his fist, squeezing just enough for him to drop to a knee.
As he fell, I watched from the corner of my eyes as the three goons, who had lowered their pistols, raised them towards me.
Not needing to think, I yanked on Jimmy's arm, bringing him up and off the floor to face his goons and to use him as a meat shield.
"STOP! STOP!!!" Jimmy shouted, his eyes wide as he looked at the three guns pointed at him. "Drop your guns, you fuckin' idiots," Jimmy shouted.
I watched with satisfaction as they slowly lowered their guns to their sides.
"Good," I said, not letting go of Jimmy's arm, which I had behind his back in a lock so he wouldn't move, "Now I'm going to leave. If all of you aren't gone from all of Eden's new properties within the next 24 hours, you will be forcefully removed. Am I clear?" I asked, putting more pressure on Jimmy's arms.
He let out a grunt of pain before shouting his consent.
"Good," I said, shoving Jimmy at his three goons while I turned and walked my way out of the hall.
I knew this wasn't over just yet.
These weren't the kind of guys that just let things like this slide. They were going to want blood.
Getting back in my car, I smirked at two of the goons who had chased after me, their guns concealed under their suit jackets, but it was clear what they were trying to hide.
Not wanting to cause a scene that could get the police involved, I started my car and screeched out of the parking lot, driving right past the two goons as they lifted their revolvers to shoot.
Thankfully, my car was too fast for them to get me in their sights, allowing me to get out of there without any bullet holes in my car.
After getting a few miles away, I made a quick stop at a payphone to call the Las Vegas Gringotts branch, having them send out some of their guards to watch Jimmy and his men's movements, and for them to call James at Eden if anything was to change.
Done with that, I stopped and bought lunch at a Chinese restaurant before heading back to Eden to tell James what had happened.
He thought it was great and was especially happy to find out Jimmy broke his hand when he tried to punch me, and that Jimmy's mother was currently being evicted from their family home.
I felt sorry for the woman who had nothing to do with anything that was happening here, but her son needed to learn that there are some people you shouldn't mess with.
After our talk, I told him to let me know if any of the guards I had sent out to spy on Jimmy called, before heading out to the casino floor for some fun.
I didn't bother with the slot machines, knowing I would just waste my time on them.
Instead, I played table games.
Poker, blackjack, baccarat, craps, and three-card poker.
I ended up playing on the casino floor instead of going to the high-end tables where there were no limits.
Having just as much fun betting a few hundred dollars as I would betting thousands.
I lost track of time, not realizing hours had passed when James found me.
I must have been a sight, surrounded by a large group of people while tossing a pair of dice at a craps table.
"He doesn't lose!" a drunk man shouted next to me, nearly spilling his drink on the craps table as he cheered.
Ignoring him, I collected the dice from the table while two pretty women pushed their way through the crowd to stand next to me.
I ignored the women, concentrating as I jingled the dice in my hands while everyone placed their bets.
Once that was done, I tossed the dice, smiling as it landed on my point number. Lucky number 5.
The crowd erupted in cheers, people patting me on the back while the dealer pushed a stack of chips to me with a wooden stick.
"Well done, sir," the table dealer said, spotting James from over my shoulder.
"Sir!" James shouted to be heard, "I just got a call! They are on the move!"
Nodding my head, I leaned down, collecting the plastic racks holding all of the chips I had won over the hours, totaling around 10 grand.
"Stay close!" I shouted so James could hear, before tossing my chips up and into the air.
"Enjoy!" I shouted, laughing as everyone scrambled to collect as many of my chips as they could while James and I weaved our way out of the mob.
"You know if anyone other than you did that, they would be getting kicked out, right?" James said with a chuckle.
"If someone was doing as good as me on the table, they would also get kicked out. It's the perks of owning everything. You get to break the rules now and again."
Making our way into the much quieter employee sections away from the casino floor, James started to speak while he lit a cigarette.
"I just got a call ten minutes ago. One of the guards you sent out saw Jimmy and those goons of his leave and meet up with more guys. He's following them now and will call us again when he can, but says from the look of it they are heading towards my home. They probably think if they take me out or get to me, they will have some sort of leverage to get back what they lost."
I nodded, agreeing with him.
"Call the security at your home. Tell them to take the night off. They shouldn't be there when Jimmy arrives."
James nodded, "What's your plan?" he asked, curious as to what I was thinking.
"I'm going to take care of Jimmy and his friends. Send a message to whoever is in Chicago pulling the strings that Las Vegas isn't theirs anymore."
It didn't take me long to reach James's house.
Deciding running there was much faster than driving and dealing with the heavy traffic.
I managed to reach James's house in less than ten minutes, crossing the thirty miles with ease.
Once there, I checked and made sure the security was gone before taking a seat in James's living room, pouring myself a glass of expensive whiskey as I waited.
James's house was a large two-story estate but built in a modern fashion with Nevada staples.
The outside was adobe but had many floor-to-ceiling glass windows throughout the house, giving it a lot of natural lighting for the many plants that filled the inside.
Apparently, James was quite the nature lover.
Plants were strewn throughout the inside, which was designed in an earthy forest design.
Sipping my whiskey, I listened as the sound of cars could be heard pulling up to the large metal gate in front of the house.
Not reacting, I continued to sip my beverage as one of Jimmy's men lifted themselves up and over the fence to open it from the inside.
Swirling my drink around my glass, I downed it in one gulp, savoring the oaky taste.
Setting the glass down on a side table, I stood, figuring it was best to conduct the rest of the night's business outside.
Opening the large metal front door, I stepped out and watched as the gate slowly opened to reveal Jimmy and about twenty others, all with guns in their hands, ranging from pistols to shotguns and Tommy guns.
I suddenly had a strong urge for a cigarette. Not because I actually wanted one, but because it would make me look cooler as I just stood there watching all of them come inside.
Walking down the driveway, Jimmy lead the way.
It didn't take them long to spot me.
"Surprise, cocksuckers!" Jimmy shouted, leveling his pistol at me.
An idea instantly hit me, forcing me to bite my lip as I put my hands up.
"Don't shoot!" I said, sounding as scared as I could, I cowered with my hands in front of me, watching through my arms as Jimmy smiled and walked towards me, an evil smile on his face. His goons must have thought this was funny because a couple of them laughed as they saw me cower back.
"I thought you said this fuck was some sort of hot shot? Walkin' around like he's got the biggest balls in Vegas," one of the new goons asked one of the ones from the All Star that I had seen earlier.
"It looks like he was just acting," the one from earlier said with a chuckle, shouldering his shotgun as he lit a cigarette.
Jimmy walked up to me as I backed up to the metal door behind me, putting the gun to my head.
"You little fuck, didn't think I'd come for you, did you? Thought you could just walk into my place of business and walk all over me?" Jimmy said angrily, bringing up his wrapped hand that he had broken on my face, "Broke my fuckin' hand!"
I abruptly dropped my hands to my side, looking Jimmy, who was now standing right in front of me, in the eyes with a deadpan expression. "You broke your own hand. I didn't tell you to punch me," I said, surprising Jimmy by my sudden shift from afraid and cowering to confident and smirking. "But I guess you're just too damn stupid to comprehend that you're the one at fault."
I saw the flash of anger in Jimmy's eyes just before he started to lift his good hand, which was holding a revolver. I smiled, grabbing his good hand's wrist in an iron grip.
"You should have just left town, Jimmy. Now you will face the consequences of your actions."
I felt a shiver run through Jimmy's body as some part of his undeveloped caveman brain told him how much shit he had stepped in. Reaching over with my free hand, I tore the silver revolver from Jimmy's hand, breaking a couple of his fingers from the force I had used to pull the gun away. Now with the gun in my hand, I tossed a screaming Jimmy to the side as I leveled the revolver at the large group of men who were just beginning to notice something was off.
Pulling back the hammer, I fired at the first person I leveled on. I had never used a gun before in situations like this. For so long, I used my hands or a sword to kill someone. I was so excited to use something new that I barely registered the fact I was about to slaughter all of these men as I pulled the trigger. The recoil of the revolver was nonexistent in my grip, allowing me to turn to the next face I saw and shoot again within the blink of an eye.
By the time I managed to shoot every bullet out of the revolver, Jimmy's men that I hadn't yet killed were already starting to return fire. Too bad for them they thought blind firing as they ran for cover would stop me. Blurring to one of the bodies close by, I picked up his Colt 1911, using that to shoot the fleeing gangsters. I felt the wind get momentarily knocked out of my lungs as a line of bullets raced across my chest, feeling like little ant bites that could punch hit me, stinging for the few seconds it took for them to heal.
Turning my head, I spotted the goon from the metal door earlier this morning trying to hide behind a large cactus as he frantically reloaded the Tommy gun he was holding. Dropping the spent 1911, I blurred in front of him, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him off the ground before he could shoot me again.
"That tickled," I said, pushing him into the cactus, using his body to scrape off all of the thorns from the cactus into his backside. Ignoring his scream, I threw him into the air at a height he surely wouldn't survive as I went old school on the surviving men.
Not wasting any more time, I blurred around James's front yard picking off everyone still breathing, managing to do so before the goon I had thrown into the air slammed back to earth. Ignoring the now man pancake, I walked back to the front door of James's house where I could hear Jimmy groaning, dazed from when I threw him.
Lifting him off the ground, I looked at him with what to him probably looked like dead eyes and a cold expression. "Was it worth it, Jimmy?" I asked, knowing my grip on his neck was too tight for him to speak. But even still, I could see the terror that filled his eyes, knowing he regretted everything he had done. I might have felt bad for him, but I knew what kind of man Jimmy "Boots" Russo was. I had some people look into his past. He first appeared in the criminal rackets back in the mid-30s as a heartless killer. Just as happy to make examples of people's families as he would be if he got his money on time. The numbers aren't exactly known, but estimates are somewhere between thirty to a hundred.
Slowly adding more pressure to my grip, I could feel Jimmy feebly kicking at me with his booted feet. I ignored that, watching as life slowly began to leave his eyes and his kicks grew weaker. Once his eyes had glazed over, I dropped his lifeless body to the ground, not a hint of remorse in my body.
Looking around at all of the bodies, I let out a long sigh, "This is going to be a long night," I said out loud. Not prolonging the night any longer than it had to be, I pulled one of the cars they had arrived in up the driveway, loading all of the bodies up and into it. It was a tight fit, but thankfully the cars they had brought had large trunks, allowing me to fit five bodies in each trunk and the rest in the back seats of each car.
Once all of the bodies were loaded, I drove each car out to the middle of the desert, miles away from anything. After that, I pulled the bodies out and arranged them to look like they had all died in a shootout. I figured that if I just buried them in a large mass grave that would never be found, it wouldn't send the same message as if they all died in one hell of a shootout.
I took my time walking back to James's home, savoring the quiet and dark of the desert. It's surprising how much you could see in the desert. So many stars. Reaching James's house, I cleaned up all the obvious stuff: bullet casings, which i had to bring to the staged shootout area and spread out then used a hose to wash away the blood. All the while wondering why the police were never called. Later I would learn the guard that had been tailing then had gone through the neighborhood while the shooting was happening and cut all the phone lines. He got a large raise after that.
By the time I reached my bed back in the casino, I was exhausted. Forgoing a shower, I flopped face-first into my bed, already falling asleep as I fell. I might have gotten thirty seconds of sleep when the phone on my bed stand rang.
Letting out a groan, I wormed my way up my bed before blindly picking up the phone, not lifting my face from my soft bed.
"What?" I asked, my voice muffled by my sheets.
"Adam!" a familiar voice said from the other side, panicked.
My head shot up on its own, my mind registering who was speaking and then the alarm in their voice, tripping alarms in my brain.
"Rosalie?" I asked, pushing myself up to sit on my bed.
"Adam, there's something wrong with Liam! You need to get here soon!" Rosalie said, her voice strained and panicked.
I felt my stomach drop.
"What happened? What's wrong with him?" I asked, pushing myself off my bed completely as I readied myself to take off at any moment.
"We don't know. He started to run a fever a couple of hours ago. Now Carlisle says he's only getting worse."
"I'm on my way. I'll be there soon," I said, dropping the phone back to the receiver before taking off at full speed.
My body and mind seemed to be on autopilot as I ran. How was this even possible? He's never been sick before?
I didn't even think as I crashed out the door to my suit, taking the stares then ran through the crowd of people on the casino floor at full speed, moving too fast for them to see me, my mind solely thinking of ways to get to Alaska as soon as possible. I figured it out when I remembered planes exist.
Making it to Harry Reid International Airport, the largest airport currently in Nevada and right in Las Vegas. I hopped the large fence that surrounded the airport runway as I looked at the lines of parked airplanes.
My eyes caught sight of a Boeing 707. I watched as the fuel trucks disconnected.
'I guess that one is ready…' I thought, unsure how the hell I was about to steal the plane.