"You like it, don't you?"
"What?" I managed to breathe.
"The fear, Miss Night," he mused, "you crave it."
_______________________________________
Sabina Night owes Antonio Marafi her life.
But when he asks her to spy on the Russo crime family, Sabin...
Ups! Ten obraz nie jest zgodny z naszymi wytycznymi. Aby kontynuować, spróbuj go usunąć lub użyć innego.
I was supposed to reach out to Marafi the moment I uncovered anything about the Russo Family or their companies. As well as report immediately on anything I could find out about Giovanni or his deals.
What Marafi didn't tell me and what I had no idea how to do was how the hell I was supposed to get close to Giovanni Russo. If I was supposed to work in his bar or in his club, how the hell would I find out information from him? About him? About the other Russo companies?
It's true that at APEX, along with serving drinks, I returned information from drunk patrons to my boss. Powerful people drank in these clubs, and they liked to tell their secrets to pretty girls who poured their cocktails. But the pretty girls listen and they don't forget.
Antonio Marafi was one of the most well-informed men in Vegas.
Perhaps Giovanni Russo wanted me to be his little bird too. And just like Marafi, he'd probably keep me in a cage.
But as I stepped into Elysium's lobby— what a beautiful cage it would be.
The marble floor was decorated with an ornate eggshell pattern with floor to ceiling pillars of the same color marble. Crystal chandeliers, one large one in the center, and smaller ones surrounding it, dangled from the ceiling in drops of flickering light.
Thick rugs of red and gold tassels felt expensive under my tennis shoes. I had to walk half a mile and take a bus to get here, and already I felt out of place. A slight sheen of sweat sat on my forehead from the Nevada summer, but it chilled on my body while I looked around the lobby.
While everything in APEX was nice, Elysium was a display of opulent grandiosity. Even as I gaped at the chandeliers, I was pretty sure a famous pop star walked past me to check out.
"Sabina?"
I whirled around at the sound of my name to face a blonde woman, about my age, approaching with a wide and welcoming smile on her face. Just as I was about to reach out my hand, she pulled me into a hug. For a brief awkward moment, I hung there limply in her arms.
"I'm Lane! It's so nice to meet you," she spoke quickly and with a lot of excitement. "I can't wait to work together! I'm here to show you to where you can set up and give you a tour. Don't hesitate to ask any dumb questions, because I promise I've asked them before too."
I laughed a little, feeling slightly comforted at the fact that this girl hadn't lost any of her pep. If this place couldn't kill Lane's joy, then maybe it wouldn't kill me.
She took me on a tour of the resort, showing me first around the hotel portion which boasted a slew of high end designer stores, one five star restaurant, and a private spa. Then down to the sprawling casino where, even at 4 in the afternoon, hundreds of people sat hoping for a bit of luck.
If the house always wins in normal casinos, then the house probably dominated at a Russo-owned casino.
Lane took me next to the two nightclubs. Similar to APEX, one of the nightclubs was meant for the kind of sweaty dancing that one could only do in the comfort of dark neon lights. The other, a VIP lounge, was for a more discrete and relaxed clientele. The ones who could pay to get in to it.
