To Vegas with love

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Earl, I’m going to do this once. Unless there’s a major catastrophe, everything will be kept up the old-fashioned way. The last thing I want to do is spend my time being the village janitor.” I smiled. “That sounds like the opposite of fun.”

  “Village janitor?” McKenzie raised an eyebrow. “I’m not familiar with the term.”

  “He’s referring to video games and the like where you go into a town and wind up doing all sorts of dumb quests for the people there, like fetch a bucket of water for six XP.” Cami waved a hand. “He’s basically saying he’s lazy and doesn’t want to deal with all that stuff here.”

  “Makes sense,” McKenzie mused. “After all, he probably has lots of other businesses.” She nodded fervently. “That’s why you hired me, and Shelly, and …”

  “Exactly.” I stared at her for a long second. “And now for the hard question.”

  “The hard question?” she asked, biting her lip. “What’s that?”

  “I can make you better.” I swept my hands out. “Both of you, actually. I can give you the knowledge to make you know everything about everything. The question is, do you want that? Do you want to be the best in the whole world?”

  “No. I’m happy knowing I have my job.” Earl shook his head. “I worked at this myself, and while I appreciate the offer, I want to do things the old-fashioned way.” He held up his hands. “What you’re proposing is skipping the hard work of the journey, and I find that’s where I learned the most.” He gave me a wry grin. “’Sides, I know everything already.”

  “That, I believe,” I laughed before looking to McKenzie.

  “Would you think less of me if I said I did want it?” She gave Earl a long look before turning her gaze at me, her green eyes sparkling. “But I mostly want to win. I want to show all those assholes who just wanted me to fuck my way to the top that I am just better, and yeah, I could show them that by just doing it, but really? I’d just be hurting myself. I don’t want to be a scrub, and I don’t want to mess this up.” She nodded. “Make me better.” She gave me a wry grin. “It’s what Shelley Vayne would do. Win at any cost.”

  “That she would.” I smiled at her as I pulled out my pen. “Tell me what you need to know.”

  A few minutes later, I’d made McKenzie a master of all things related to treatment plants, permitting, and everything in between. Or, well, as best as I could, anyway.

  “Well, if that’s settled, I want to put that pump back together with Earl,” Cami said, glancing at me over her shoulder. “It’s giving me an idea for a new design I want to work out.”

  “Go forth and conquer,” I said with a laugh as she nodded to me. A moment later, she and Earl were gone, leaving me alone with McKenzie who was staring at the walls around us in disgust. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m an idiot.” She shook her head. “Like I can’t believe I wanted to use a Gatsburg Pumping System when the Daisy all-in-one would be a hundred times better in this application due to the natural acidity of our water in the south set of pipes.” She pointed to another spot. “That design still works, but I’d tweak it differently …”

  “Was the old design really that bad in either case?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

  “No. The new one will just be six percent more efficient, and cost about twelve percent less over the lifetime.” She glowered. “That’s a lot of money.”

  “It is.” I nodded, moving close to her, “but consider that your old design was still really good and that while you were also really good then, you’re the absolute best in the world now.”

  “That’s true.” She sighed. “I’m just embarrassed, I guess.” She turned to look at me. “Thank you for this chance.” She smiled at me. “I won’t let you down.”

  “Of that, I have no doubt.” I grinned at her as my alarm went off, letting me know it was time to head back to the limo so I could make it back for the meeting with Ashley and Jane. “But I have to go.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “You don’t want me to go over a few more things with you?” She moved toward me, much more confident than before, which had nothing to do with my penning. Maybe it was just the knowledge that she really was the best now?

  “Uh, yeah, I have a meeting in about an hour.” I smiled. “But I’ll be happy to check in with you later on? Send me a follow-up email, and we can schedule something …” I frowned, thinking. “Better clear the timeslot with Shelley though. She hates when I add stuff without telling her.”

  “Oh, I’ll do that,” she was nearly to me, and I realized she was almost as tall as I was. “But I was thinking of something else.” She leaned in close, so her words were hot on my ear as she spoke. “I’ve changed my mind.”

  “Changed your mind?”

  “About fucking you.” She kissed me then, and while she wasn’t an expert, she certainly made up for it in enthusiasm. As we broke away, she took a step back, hands going to the buttons of her white blouse. “After all you’ve done, I want to thank you.”

  “I really don’t need you to have sex with me to thank me.”

  She undid the top two buttons, revealing the lacy white bra beneath. “I know that,” she said, shrugging out of the blouse and letting it hit the ground. “But I want to do this because, well, you’re just the most amazing person I ever met.” She smirked. “The moment I saw you, I wanted you.”

  “So why did you say you didn’t want to have sex with me?” I asked as she grabbed me by the waistband of my pants and pulled me toward her.

  “Because I wanted to see what you’d say.” She kissed me again, while her hands pulled at the buttons on my shirt. “I wanted to know if you were a good person. You passed.” She began kissing a trail down my neck. “And now you get your reward.”

  20

  “I’m not late!” I cried as I burst in through the doors to the conference room at the Medallion to find Amy, Shelley, and Skye sitting on one side of the table while Jane and Ashley were on the other side, and from the look of things, they were, in fact waiting for me.

  “Not technically,” Shelley said with a slight frown as she glanced at the wall clock. “You have two minutes. However …”

  “Fifteen minutes early is still late,” I intoned between breaths since I’d just sprinted up several flights of stairs. “In my defense, I was caught up at the treatment plant.”

  “Oh?” Amy asked, suddenly interested enough to look up from her phone. “How did that go? Maggie said you fired the general manager?”

  “I did, dude was trying to make his secretary blow him.” I took a seat at the conference table. “I had to step in.”

  “Right.” Skye gave me an amused look. “And let me guess, she decided she had to just blow someone, so it might as well be you?”

  “A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell,” I said right before Jane guffawed.

  “Why, I knew you seemed the type, but I’m surprised at how open you are about it,” her eyes flicked across the room. “Wait, you’re sleeping with all of them, aren’t you?”

  “Not me,” Shelley crossed her arms over her chest and looked away, cheeks colored.

  “Correct, not her.” Skye elbowed Shelley lightly. “That’s more of a when though, not an if. See, Shelley here needs it to be a big ol’ thing. You know, bear skin rug, fireplace, snow outside with champagne.”

  Shelley turned so red her throat and chest were practically scarlet. “I just think that it should be special.” She wasn’t looking at any of us, most notably me, who was very interested because, well, Shelley hadn’t shown any interest up until this point. “And right now, Roger has all of you.” She sighed. “I’m not trying to say I don’t think I’m pretty, but I want it to be memorable, you know?”

  “I think it would be memorable just because it’s you,” Amy said, squeezing Shelley’s arm. “I bet Roger agrees.”

  “I do,” I said before there was a cough from Jane. She looked amused, but Ashley was beet red. “But let’s table that discussion for later.” I tu
rned to the two women. “So, uh, please begin. Also, sorry I was sorta late.”

  “You weren’t late,” Jane said, patting Ashley on the shoulder and giving the girl an apologetic look. “Though your manager’s advice is sound. Fifteen minutes early is five minutes late in the law world.” She settled herself in the chair, her massive mammaries straining at her blouse, and that’s also when I realized how nicely she was dressed. I mean, okay, I didn’t know much about fashion, but I could tell at a glance her blouse alone cost well over three grand. Her shoes? Double that.

  “Thanks, I think.” I nodded to her. “Please go ahead with the presentation.”

  “So,” Jane said, standing, “I hate PowerPoint. It’s so informal. So mechanical. Like the difference between getting a tug job from a bored girl in a massage parlor and from your wife.” She waited for a beat. “I’ll let you decide which is which.” She gave me a good-natured grin, revealing sparkling white teeth. “I decided I’d just give you this.”

  She slid a folder toward me like she was straight out of a lawyer television drama before circling the table and handing one to each of my girls, making a point of addressing each by name.

  “Darn, I was really looking forward to hacking your PowerPoint,” Skye said, looking up from her laptop long enough to take the folder and flip it open. “I sometimes randomly splice in images from pornos in between slides.”

  “Like in Fight Club,” Amy added, rolling her eyes. “It makes everything so much more difficult when she does that.”

  “Hey, it moves so fast no one can tell it’s a giant cock on the screen.” Skye smirked right before she became serious, her eyes fixed on the page. “Holy shit. Roger, look at this.”

  “Um … okay?” I flipped open the folder to find it filled with several pages, only the first one had only a few lines on it.

  There was a picture of a rundown apartment building with a street address below it. The paper had the building’s cost as well as other facts, like how much each apartment rented for per month, insurance and utility costs, the whole nine yards. It also had an expected sales range.

  Below that it had a short two sentence summary that described the type of clientele, the local schools, all that jazz.

  The thing was, the building wasn’t that expensive, even with the costs of projected repairs to get it to code. Given the average occupancy rates and rents on the sheet, the entire eighty-unit complex would pay for itself in a year or two. There was just one problem. I had no idea why she was showing me it. Nor the sixteen other buildings in the packet.

  “I’m confused.” I looked up at her. “Why are you showing me this?”

  “Let’s take a step back,” Jane said as she unfolded a map of the city and laid it out on the conference table, and that’s when I realized each building was marked with a sticker that corresponded to a sticker on the top right of the page.

  “Okay …” I glanced at my women who looked just as confused. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

  Shelley was the first to get it. “That’s where Lansig wants to build their ‘new strip.’” She made air quotes.

  “I’m not following at all,” Amy said, looking to Shelley. “Who is Lansig, and what do you mean?”

  “Well, property on the strip is really expensive, but go a bit off, and it’s not.” She pointed to the street. “Lansig is a big corporate conglomerate that mostly operates in Monaco and those places.” She pointed at the map. “They’ve been trying to get investment to build a second Vegas strip. The plan is to do all ‘exclusive’ ritzy casinos that cater to a special kind of rich. Keep out the riffraff. That sort of things. Gates, guards, etc.”

  “So, they want to take all the high rollers for themselves, and it’ll be in Vegas, so they can still go slumming if they want to, but most likely, they won’t.” I nodded, understanding. “It seems like a good deal …”

  “There’s just a small wrinkle.” Shelley pointed to the buildings. “The residents. That’s all low-income housing, and they have to vote that it’s all okay.”

  “I somehow doubt they’re gonna vote to have no homes so Lansig can build luxury casinos.”

  “Which is why we’re showing it to you, Roger,” Jane said, breaking into the conversation. “Because Lansig owns the city and state. Or, at least, they will shortly. This will go to a vote soon at the council level and pass.”

  “Even if that is true, the other Casino owners can’t be okay with this,” I said, looking to Shelley. “Or …?”

  “Well …” Shelley looked uncomfortable. “We actually got a pretty great offer from them to let it happen.”

  “Interesting.” I tapped my chin before looking at Jane. “So, what do you expect me to do?”

  “You said you wanted to really help people, right?” Jane turned and gestured at Ashley. “She said you wanted everything.”

  “I did …”

  “Well, Ashley has about three dozen other projects. Everything from better waste management, electrical, grocery, homeless shelters. All that stuff.” Jane looked right at me. “This is something only someone like you can do.”

  “I just don’t understand what you expect me to do.” I shrugged.

  “I know what she wants.” Amy smirked and looked at Jane. “You’re good by the way. I don’t even know how you knew.”

  “I have my ways.” Jane crossed her arms under her massive breasts. “What do you think?”

  “I think it’s up to Roger.” Amy looked right at me. “Tell me, Roger, how much do you want more money?”

  “Honestly? I don’t need money for anything really.” I shrugged, giving her a quizzical look. “You know that. I mean, that’s why we’re gonna do the hospital thing and …” Amy waved me off.

  “Exactly.” Amy uncapped a sharpie and leaned forward over the map on the table. “You own half these buildings already.” She circled several. “And you partially own a few others.” She underlined those ones.

  “Oh.” I nodded. “I get it. You want me to not sell these to Lansig.”

  “At the very least,” Jane said, clearly impressed with Amy. “That alone will put a damper on Lansig’s plans.”

  “Is there an offer for those buildings?” I asked Amy, who nodded.

  “Yeah, it’s for about twenty percent above market too. It’s standing, but we could cancel it.” She smirked. “Pretty easily actually because it’s just a standing offer. It obviously would get signed or would have.”

  “Go ahead and cancel the offer then. We can keep these people in their homes.”

  “Just like that?” Ashley said, speaking for the first time. “You’re going to just give up all that money?”

  “I don’t need it for anything.” I was still looking at the map. “Can we buy the other buildings? Especially the ones we have the controlling interest in?”

  “The ones we have an interest in might be easier. I have to look and see who owns them,” Amy glanced at the map for another second. “The rest, it will depend.”

  “Sure, I get that. Pay whatever.” I waved it away. “I just want them all bought before Lansig knows we smashed their deal to the floor.” I smirked. “It’ll be a lot harder to get them then.”

  “Not necessarily …” Shelley said, tapping her cheek and meeting my eyes. “You could get anyone to sell.”

  “I’d rather not.” Shelley looked like she wanted to argue, but instead nodded.

  “That’s settled, then.” I turned back to Jane and Ashley. “What else have you got?”

  21

  A few hours later we’d managed to get through all the projects Ashley and Jane had for me to look at. Most were good enough that we moved almost immediately to some sort of implementation, while a couple others required more research.

  Thankfully, everyone, including Shelley and Amy somewhat surprisingly, seemed on board with everything. Now, though, as everyone was leaving, I reached out and stopped Skye.

  “Can you hang back a minute?” I asked as she turned and gave m
e a questioning look. “I want to talk about the hospitals.”

  “Do you want me to get Gail, Monique, and Maggie?” Skye asked, shooting a glance toward Amy who gave me the ‘do you want me to stay too’ look. I shook my head.

  “Nah, just want a few minutes to catch up if that’s cool?” I smiled. “You haven’t told me what’s going on, and usually you have a billion updates by now.”

  “Well, the truth is, there isn’t much to tell.” Skye fingerbrushed her hair out of her face before she sat down in the closest seat at the conference table and opened her laptop. “Look.” A moment later she had a giant chart with a ton of different items on it. The thing was, the critical path looked like it was completely stalled.

  “What happened?” I asked, staring at the screen. “I thought we penned through these permits.” I pointed at the screen. “But it looks like we’re waiting on more permits? And we need a city council meeting?”

  “Basically,” Skye huffed, annoyance filling her voice. “When we used your pen to cut through the red tape, I wound up running straight into a fucking brick wall.” Her words were becoming more agitated with each syllable. “Apparently, there’s some Nevada state law from, I dunno, the nineteen fifties? It says that there can’t be more than so many hospitals within so many blocks of each other.” She pulled open a map on her screen. “And Chet’s properties are situated such that no more hospitals can actually be built.”

  “That’s bullshit.” I glared at the screen like that could change things.

  “It is.” She nodded. “Also, really smart. Like he had to have planned this from the beginning.”

  “Can I just write a new or different permit?” I asked even though I was sure that wouldn’t work.

  “Probably not,” Skye fumed. “I’ve been looking for something we could do, but to be honest, what we need to do is change the goddamned law. If you tried to get us a permit with your pen, given the current nature of things, it’d fade long before we got through excavation.”