The Emperor of Vegas

by Ryan Stygar

  “Let’s approach this conflict rationally, Adam. Many of your friends now lay dead in the desert. And for what? Why would Lukas Petrov and his greedy father sacrifice your lives like this?”

  My god, Adam realized, he really thinks I work for the Russians, he thinks I’m on the same boat as Petrov and all those gangsters! Adam knew he needed to do some serious bargaining if he didn’t want to be drowned and hauled away like Jacob.

  There was a long pause, clearly Dimitri Jordan was expecting some sort of answer from him.

  “It was…” Adam croaked. “It was that binder, the one with all the opium information.”

  Jordan nodded. “Your friends are dead. Lukas Petrov is dead. For what? A few phone numbers and some flight schedules. Is any of that really worth dying for?”

  Adam didn’t dare tell him that he was really just a one-time contractor. At that point Jordan was acting as though a captured Russian agent was worth more to him alive than dead, so Adam decided to play the part and hope to get out of there in one piece.

  Adam spoke without looking up. “It’s not worth dying for. You’re right.”

  “Is that why you decided to betray Lukas Petrov at the last moment?” Jordan asked. “Was it because you could finally see the consequences of his greed?”

  Adam muttered a response in the affirmative and nodded solemnly. Jordan raised an eyebrow. “So your allegiance lies with the winner… I believe I now understand who you really are,”

  Adam could feel the thin thread of his life between Jordan’s finger tips. He wanted nothing more than to escape from the gaze of that terrifying man. He wanted to see his little girl again. He wanted to take the cash he had stashed away in his S10 and move her somewhere safe where she could live a happy childhood and he could be the father she deserved. He cursed himself for allowing things to get so out of control. How had it all come to this?

  Adam’s pulse fluttered fearfully. Jordan’s voice grew louder, sterner, and it scared the absolute shit out of him.

  “Lukas Petrov was your leader! An honorable man would have died protecting him. Instead you turned on him to save yourself. You’re an opportunist and a coward, Adam Friend!”

  There was a sting on Adam’s neck. His eyes grew wide with terror when he saw the needle in the guard’s hand. Adam cried out in surprise. A faint, numbing sensation spread from the point of injection.

  “No! Not like this, give me a chance!”

  “You have about five minutes,” Jordan explained. “After that, the poison in your veins will bring your short life to its conclusion. Your only hope is the antidote which I alone possess. So in reality, I have five minutes to decide if your life holds any value for me…”

  “Oh my God!” Adam stuttered. “Please! Please tell me what you want! I’ll do anything!”

  “I don’t doubt it,” Jordan scoffed, picking up a piece of sushi and tossing it into his jaws. “Cowards are motivated only by the base instinct to stay alive. You owed your loyalty to Lukas Petrov, but the moment Jacob put your neck in a noose, you were willing to steal from him. Then, in the heat of battle, right when Lukas needed you most, you turned on him,” Jordan took a long drag from his cigar. “And now look at you. With the poison coursing through your veins, working its way toward your heart, you belong to me. You are a slave to your fear. It’s that simple, isn’t it?”

  “Please! What do you want from me? Please don’t let me die like this!” Adam was acting every bit like the coward Jordan said he was and he didn’t care. “Tell me what you want and I’ll do it, please!”

  Adam fell to his knees to beg but was hoisted up and pinned to his chair by the guards. Time ticked by and an unpleasant sensation formed in Adam’s chest. Whatever was injected into his body was doing something sinister to him, he could feel it.

  “I already have Lukas Petrov’s book,” Jordan said. “All that remains is the systematic elimination of the Russian presence in Las Vegas, then I will become the largest importer of opium in the western United States – right as the demand is climbing to an all-time high. What I need is someone who get close to them, someone who can slip past their defenses and help me destroy what’s left of the Russians. I am seeking a man whom I can command to strike from the shadows at a moment’s notice. Will you agree to this?”

  “Okay! Yes… yes I’ll help!”

  “Will you?”

  “I will!”

  “You sound sincere, but how can I possibly trust you?”

  “I swear it. I’ll stay loyal to you!” Adam felt the numbness growing in his chest. He felt dizzy. The poison was killing him, time was nearly up. “I swear I’ll do whatever you say, please don’t let me die!”

  “Swear loyalty to me again,”

  “I swear.”

  “Louder!”

  “I swear I’ll be loyal!”

  “Very well,” Jordan said.

  Nothing happened.

  “Please, I don’t have much longer! Give it to me!” Adam begged, he panted a few times and tumbled into a fit of tears, certain he was about to pass out and die any second.

  Jordan gazed down at him. “The antidote is… courage.”

  Adam’s red eyes looked up and squinted in confusion. “Courage?”

  “Courage,” Jordan replied with a nod. “You’re not about to die. In fact you aren’t in any danger at all. The ‘poison’ in your veins? A simple saline solution. If anything it only helped to hydrate you on this hot day. If I decide to kill you, you can be certain I won’t be using poison, Mr. Friend.”

  Adam’s face twisted in humiliation. He was a coward, Dimitri Jordan just proved it.

  “It… it wasn’t real?”

  He rubbed the spot on his neck where the needle had sunk into his skin. The imagined symptoms evaporated all at once.

  “The most terrifying things in life rarely are,” Jordan answered. “You capitulated because you thought you were doomed. The mind can be your worst enemy when you allow it to panic. Tell me, did you feel dizzy? Did you feel your heart weaken? Imagination, nothing more. That was no venom in your veins; that was pure cowardice – the deadliest poison of all.”

  Adam sunk in his seat.

  “I’m going to allow you to live today,” Jordan said. “You are going to help me destroy the Petrov Crime Family. You will be loyal to me and me alone. As of this moment, you are my property, Adam Friend. The next time you feel fear, the next time that cowardly instinct to switch sides rears its ugly head, I want you to use the antidote; courage. Remember that in the darkest moments a little courage can take you a long way.”

  “Also…” he added. “Do not forget that my reach is far. There is no place you can hide where I will not find you. If you attempt to betray me I will ensure your final days are filled with unimaginable terror and suffering. Have I made myself clear?”

  Shame tugged Adam’s head downward. Being humbled was nothing new to the impoverished twenty-eight year old. But Jordan had somehow taken degradation to an entirely new level. He was now a slave; Dimitri Jordan owned him.

  Jordan cracked open another lobster shell, his second since their conversation began, and chomped into its pink and white flesh like an apex predator. After devouring the meat he called for Ty Marcus to approach his throne.

  It was the man in the suit who sprang from his place and hurried to Jordan’s side. Each soggy step left a small puddle on the stone surface beneath his ruined leather shoes. Once at Jordan’s side, Ty Marcus wiped his brow and asked what his leader would have him do.

  “Just as many trees must be felled to build a house, so too must many men fall to build an empire,” Jordan began. “Thus the Russians must be destroyed; I want our next move against them to be decisive. Ty, as your first official assignment I want you to assemble a team and determine the best time and place to catch Mikhail Petrov with his guard down. You have my permission to purchase whatever tools you need to do the job. When you have decided on a plan, I want you to use Adam here to help you assassinate him.” />
  He picked up a fork and knife and then set to work carving up a slab of beef on his banquet table.

  Ty nodded for a while, his eyes passing from Jordan, to Adam, then back to Jordan again. Adam thought that Ty looked out of his league. He was just standing there nodding like an idiot while his soaked clothes dripped everywhere. Jordan looked up from his plate of meat and glared impatiently.

  “I meant right now, Ty,” Jordan said, pointing his bloody steak knife toward the door.

  “Yes – yes of course, Sir!” Ty stuttered before whisking around to go. Ty leaned into Adam’s ear, “Follow me,” he whispered. A pair of guards broke away to accompany their new Lieutenant. Ty’s wet footsteps splashed and sloshed the whole way as he and Adam were escorted from Club Nariphon.

  

  The key to a brand new Range Rover from Jordan’s fleet was passed into Ty’s hands. “It’s all yours now,” said the bodyguard.

  “You drive,” Ty said, handing the key back. “I need to make a few calls on the way.”

  “Sure thing, Mr. Marcus,” the guard replied and obediently took the keys.

  “You can just call me Ty.”

  “Mr. Jordan insists that Lieutenants be addressed formally, Sir.”

  “This will take some getting used to…” Ty said with a shrug. Since he was a boy, he had dreamed of being elevated to Dimitri Jordan’s inner circle. Only a few hours ago he had woken up in a run-down studio apartment by the airport. Just like any other morning he ate a cereal breakfast, got dressed, and headed to the Sumatra for another day of running errands for the wealthiest gang in the city. Now, after what felt like the blink of an eye, he was one of the most powerful men in Vegas; a member of the Emperor’s inner circle. It made him dizzy when he thought about it.

  “Stay right beside me,” Ty said quietly to Adam as they walked to the SUV.

  Already he could tell that Ty was cut from a completely different cloth than Jacob. Where Jacob was aggressive, loud and arrogant, Ty was more reserved. He even seemed friendly in a way, opening the door to the Range Rover for Adam and offering him a bottle of drinking water. One of the stern-looking guards shuffled into the driver’s seat and the other took the spot next to Adam. Both the guards adhered to the strict Sumatra dress code which included full suits and ties. Ty laid down a towel to protect the leather seat from his soaked suit and jumped into the vehicle. When he was settled he motioned for his driver to embark.

  “This first part will be easy,” Ty said. “We’ll drop you off wherever you want to go. I don’t know how Mikhail will react when he hears what happened to his son today. Whatever he does, I want you to keep me in the loop,”

  He handed Adam a prepaid phone. “There’s only one number programmed into this; my number. You call me the moment you hear from the Russians. We’ll meet again in a few days,”

  Adam shook his head. The longest day of his life just kept getting longer, and there was nothing he could do about it. He had totally lost control.

  “Adam?” Ty pressed.

  “Yes I understand,” he answered. A guard jabbed him with an elbow. “Yes I understand, Sir,” he finished. The guard nodded approvingly.

  Ty sat erect and pointed out a black Dodge Charger pulling into the Sumatra’s driveway. “Unmarked police car, three o’clock,”

  “Is he trying to follow us?” the driver asked, looking concerned.

  “No… he’s heading for the Sumatra garage,” Ty answered. “Cops aren’t supposed go in there…”

  “Gunfights don’t usually break out on the Strip either, Mr. Marcus,” the guard in the backseat answered. “I suspect we’ll see a lot of unusual things while this business with the Russians gets sorted out,”

  “Still…” Ty said as he flipped open a cell phone “I’ll warn the other Lieutenants that they’ve got a badge snooping around home base,”

  A burning sensation rose up from Adam’s belly as he watched the unmarked police vehicle drive into the garage where he had worked for years. He slumped low in his seat as they passed.

  26

  Sumatra Hotel, Grand Entrance

  S ergeant Adrian Ramirez threw his Dodge Charger into park and took a slow drag from his cigarette. Outside his tinted windshield, he watched the line of cars unload passengers in front of the Sumatra Hotel’s automatic glass doors. Arches carved from stone ran the entire length of the entry way on the right. On the left, dark stone idols peaked out from the forest of broad palms and banana leaves. From where Ramirez was idling his car, he could see the entrance to the Sumatra, the exit from the garage, and the entire valet line – it was a good strategic point to monitor activity.

  His partner, Brett Li, shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat.

  “We shouldn’t be here,” he said for what felt like the hundredth time. “We’re just asking for trouble waiting out here like this,”

  Sergeant Ramirez blew a long cloud of smoke and cracked open a window so he could hear what was happening outside without being seen. “You’re welcome to get out any time,” he said without looking at him.

  “Don’t be an asshole,” Li answered, pulling out a cigarette from his uniform pocket and lighting it. “You said you found a nametag at the Sunset View Motel. That’s fine. You think there’s a connection to Jacob, and I’ll admit you’re probably on to something there. But what are we gonna do if we catch this Adam Friend guy walking around in here? You think we can just throw cuffs on him? I have a wife and a little boy to think about, I’m not about to give these Sumatra pricks a reason to follow me home,”

  “Jesus, Brett,” Adrian huffed, tossing his butt out the window “Are you a cop or not? Six years in the LVMPD and you pick this moment to worry about your family?”

  Brett Li shook his head. “You know what I mean. We are so damned lucky neither of us got killed at Angels. And what about the guys who shot up your house? That wasn’t enough to make you stop and think? Now isn’t a good time to go around looking for trouble,”

  Adrian glanced sideways at him. “We’re just watching. Some asshole named Adam Friend works at this hotel and for some reason he was at the scene of a double homicide. And we know Jacob is hiding something or he wouldn’t have killed our witnesses and then shot at a bunch of cops. With the Russians dead, this Adam guy might be the link we need to get something on Jordan’s gang,”

  “You know… I recall a very loud conversation where Sheriff Wyatt told us to drop this and leave the Sumatra gang alone. Apart from not getting shot, we were also lucky to get out of Angels with our jobs,”

  “I’m done with this conversation, it’s boring,” Ramirez snapped. He turned on the radio and found a country music station.

  Li rolled his eyes. “Charming. It’s miracle you’re still single, you know that?”

  “I get plenty of dates,”

  “Yeah? And how many second dates?”

  Ramirez huffed and turned up the volume on the radio.

  “Yep… that’s what I thought,” Li teased. Ramirez ignored him.

  Li shook his head. Every cop in the LVMPD knew that the Sumatra wasn’t a safe place for police. But Sergeant Ramirez had a hell of a reputation in the department, even if he could be a bit rough around the edges at times. After all, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, maybe he knew what he was doing. Then again, a guy had to be at least a little unhinged to earn that kind of recognition.

  Li tried not to dwell on the idea that maybe Sheriff Wyatt was a little too interested in keeping police away from the Sumatra, even though the evidence seemed to point to something suspicious.

  After twenty minutes spent watching the crowd, Li tapped Ramirez’s shoulder. “One o’clock, by the luggage carts… you see that?”

  “The two black males wearing suits?”

  “Affirm… they’ve been watching us for a while,”

  “Let them watch, we aren’t doing anything –

  A loud tap on Adrian’s window startled them both. A third suit had approached the Ch
arger from behind and was motioning for them to roll the window down.

  “Holy shit,” Li whispered as he inched his hand toward his service pistol. “Recognize him?”

  Ramirez looked up at the man by the window. Long, tightly styled dreadlocks rested just an inch or two past the his shoulder line. Ramirez couldn’t believe that the man he had just arrested, Watson Lafayette, was standing outside his door. “How is he out of jail already?”

  “Something’s not right,” Li said.

  “No shit something’s not right,” Ramirez said. Watson tapped on the window again, more impatiently this time.

  “There’s two standing at twelve o’clock” Li whispered quickly as Ramirez moved to roll down the window. “Plus two more at three and nine, total of four. You see them?”

  Adrian nodded “One left, one right, two dead ahead, got it,” Adrian slipped one hand under the steering wheel and fingered the Glock that was concealed beneath it.

  “Good afternoon!” Adrian beamed as he rolled the window down. Brett Li kept his eyes on the man approaching from the right.

  “Officers,” Watson said without a smile. He adjusted the silver and gold tie around this neck while he peered into the vehicle. “Is there something–

  Watson’s eyes narrowed when he saw the scar on Ramirez’s face. Recognizing the troublesome sergeant, his anger seethed like a cauldron boiling over. “Wait, I recognize you… You’re the one who pulled that little stunt at Angels. You don’t even know how bad you fucked up, do you?”

  Watson pressed his hands against his hips, opening his blazer and revealing the Sig Sauer tucked in his shoulder holster.

  “I don’t know how you aren’t behind bars right now,” Ramirez scowled back at him. “But mark my words it’s not gonna last,”