Vinnie - Her Italian Billionaire A BWWM - Foxxe Rosa

VINNIE HER ITALIAN BILLIONAIRE A BWWM Billionaire Romance By..

ROSA FOXXE

Summary Tyra was just a normal girl who craved some romance and excitement in her life. Little did she know, she was about to get all that and a hell of a lot more... The moment Tyra met the Billionaire Casino owner Vincent Ambrosiano she was struck by his aura. He was surprisingly young, impossibly good looking and incredibly powerful. The chemistry was electric. The mystery was intriguing. How did a man of his age get so much power? And how is a man as good looking as him still single? There were many questions, but not so many answers.

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Either way, Tyra was about to get mixed up in Vinnie's world and soon she would discover the truth about the man of her dreams. The big question is, could she really handle the truth?

Copyright Notice CJ Howard Vinnie Her Italian Billionaire © 2015, Rosa Foxxe ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

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Contents Chapter1 Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter5 Chapter6 Chapter7 Chapter8 Chapter9

Chapter1 Tyra was in a rut. Every day was the same, or so near to being the same that she was having a hard time telling them apart. She'd get up in the morning and head to the gym like she always did, do the same routine on the same machines and treadmills, even use the same shower when she was done. Then she'd go to work and sit in her cubicle processing insurance claims for one of the bigger firms in the nation. After work she'd return home. Tyra had heard that when people went home from work, they did things that were fun and exciting but Tyra didn't do anything like that. It wasn't that she didn't want to it was just that she had a hard time connecting with many of the people around her. Tyra was very literary, keeping up on all the new poetry coming out while reading the

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new fiction and creative nonfiction. It was something that she could get lost in for hours, something that made her feel more connected to herself and the rest of the world. But at the same time, it wasn't something that she could easily connect with other people about. Tyra lived and worked in Des Moines, Iowa. The favorite pastime of most people in Des Moines was drinking. Tyra would tell her out-of-state friends that the reason she didn't go out was that everyone was such a drunk, they didn't get it, and they thought Tyra was being antisocial or something. Tyra wished that they could come out with her for a night and see how it really was. People in Des Moines put drinking above anything else. The pervasive bar culture turned everyone into barflies, and if you weren't hanging around the bar scene, then,

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for a lot of people, you weren't around at all. What put Tyra off even more was that when she saw people she would have liked to talk to when out and about, in their real lives during the days, they always heartily agreed that everyone could together and hang out, maybe grill out or something. But their intentions didn't matter because Tyra knew that they would be back at the dozen or so hip bars that existed in the Des Moines proper area. They'd be back bellied up to a bar talking to whoever would listen to all their life woes, about how they couldn't make ends meet, couldn't find a significant other, couldn't fend off the boredom of living in the Midwest, couldn't get a decent job or a promotion at the job they had, couldn't do a lot of things. The one thing they wouldn't talk about was how they couldn't stop drinking.

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Because Tyra liked to go out and have a few drinks, and she'd never denied that to anyone. But Tyra wasn't an Iowa native, her work had transferred her there from Philadelphia, and she was accustomed to getting all dressed up -- the kind of dressed up that made men’s jaws drop -- and going out for a few cocktails around midnight or so, and Tyra's hourglass physique and caramel colored skin most definitely had that effect on men’s jaws. Or if she was feeling very social, she might go out for a light meal of sushi around eight or nine, just before closing time. But no one else in Des Moines wanted to have a night out like that. Everyone shuffled to the bar around seven or eight o'clock and started drinking steadily. By the time Tyra was out, those rare times she did, everyone was already sloppy drunk. And not just the kind

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of drunk where friends tell you, “You probably aren't all right to drive home, maybe you should get a cab instead,” but the kind of drink where a person mutters the same thing over and over to anyone who will listen, or where a person words slur so badly they can barely be understood at all. Tyra found it all very depressing. And the night life, or lack thereof, coupled with the way that most Iowans seem to only pay lip service to caring about the arts, made it a pretty bleak existence in Des Moines. It was hard trying to find anyone who wanted to go out for a classy drink or two, much less a guy who caught and held her interest. There was an art center that was pretty good but of course it was always empty because everyone was getting wasted at the bar.

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And as this went on, Tyra found herself less and less likely to drink at a bar or even at home. The whole thing was kind of putting her off drinking, and making her regard it as a very real poison, not just something that could make you throw up or get a hangover. She was starting to think of it as a poison for the mind, something that made people slow and stupid. And she didn't like this change in her thinking. Tyra thought back to when she lived in Philly, how she and her friends would go out for drinks and have fun dancing the night away. What it amounted to was that Des Moines was filled with bitter, washed up drunks; people she and her few friends were going to try to avoid by going to the casino that night. The crowd that hung out there was different from the run of the mill bar crowd in many ways that made the casino a more appealing place.

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First of all, if someone was so drunk they couldn't speak they were escorted out by security. Tyra appreciated that because if she didn't see people stumbling around completely hammered; she didn't have to feel sorry for them and their lives. She didn't have to think about how fucked up things were for those people even when they were sober. That wasn't the only thing that was different, though. People at the casino usually had an upbeat attitude; they were hopeful that tonight would be their lucky night. Even when someone had lost all of their money and left dejected at least they didn't linger around the outside of the place like losers did at the bar. Tyra was excited to hit the casino even more than normal because there would be an entry for a free trip to Vegas. Some casino out there was sponsoring the whole thing. She

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wasn't really sure about any of the details and didn't really care. She just wanted to get out of the Midwest for a few days. The weather outside was turning colder by the hour and the days kept getting shorter and shorter. Sometimes Tyra felt like she was living on the North Pole or some other place where there were incredibly long and dark winters that seemed to wipe out all hope. Tyra typed out one last work email and got ready to leave. She didn't want to keep any of her friends waiting. On her way out the door, she waved at her boss who smiled and waved back. And with that, she was off for the weekend. * The Casino was packed. Tyra and her friends had to carefully navigate the crowd to avoiding bumping into anyone and spilling their drink. It seemed like all of the casino

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regulars were out and dressed to kill. Women walked by wearing gaudy mink coats, and men wore slick tonic suits that had just a little too much sheen to them under the lights. Tyra always thought of nights when people came out en masse to the casino as cheap imitations of Vegas. That's really where everyone wanted to be but because of jobs or kids or school or just life in general, they couldn’t. So they came here for a few hours to feel like they were somewhere else entirely. It was really pretty amazing when you considered that the drive from Des Moines to the casino outside of town was the better part of a half an hour. That meant plenty of time for a cop to see you swerve and pull you over to check how much you've had to drink. But the threat of DUI charges didn't seem to be any kind of deterrent for people that frequented the casino. Inside the giant palace of flashing

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lights and fleeting dreams, everyone felt safe from the outside world. The main floor proved to be too packed, so everyone headed upstairs to one of the smoking sections with blackjack tables. Tyra wasn't sure how the casino worked out with the state that they would be able to have certain places inside the casino that were smoking friendly, but Tyra appreciated it. She had officially quit smoking years ago, but there was something about puffing on a smoke while playing the odds at the blackjack tables that made her feel like she was going to win a million dollars. She wasn't bad at blackjack but she also wasn't exceptionally lucky at it, either. For Tyra it was more about the experience. If she ended up losing fifty bucks while hanging out with her friends and having fun for a few hours, then it was a price she was willing to pay.

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The table Tyra had picked was coming back from being “cooled off” earlier when some college frat boys who didn't know how to play sat down and started betting wildly. It had thrown off the game and scared away most of the players, but eventually the frat boys got tired of throwing money away and moved on to something else. Now the table was heating back up though, and people all around Tyra were hitting blackjack. Though she kept just barely getting beat by the dealer, she kept playing, and eventually, just when she was about to give up and move on to another table, or maybe just go get a drink and sip it while she smoked and watched other people play, she won on a wild bet that garnered her several hundred dollars.

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“You won!” one of her friends cried out, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. Tyra smiled, she'd forgotten how white-girl girl wasted some of her friends got. “I won!” Tyra said back, a note of triumph in her voice. It was good to win every once in a while. Tyra wasn't one of those people who came to the casino to get rich, but that didn't mean that she didn't get a rush when she won a little bit of money. To celebrate the win, Tyra and her friends started drinking with the gusto of those recently graced by luck. Tyra thought that she would only have a few, but they were so cheap at that time of the night that she couldn't help but have a few more than a few. Eventually she blacked out.

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When she woke up she was back home, on her bed, still in the same cocktail dress. Tyra got up and got dressed for the gym, noting that the time was already a quarter past noon. Where had the night gone? The last thing she remembered was winning and then having a few drinks to celebrate. She made a conscious effort to remember as she drove to the small 24-hour workout center just down the street from her. She started to remember in snatches, while she ran on her favorite treadmill, how she'd entered the contest she'd been excited about while she'd been drunk. She hoped that her handwriting was legible and she'd filled everything out correctly. What made her remember was that the contest had been a little strange; after she filled out her submission she was asked to step into a photo booth for a few quick pictures of

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herself. Now Tyra wondered why they had needed her picture as she put on mile after mile on the treadmill’s odometer. * The next week at work started with a more morose feeling than her usual Mondays, and continued to go down from there. The weather outside was getting worse and worse. One thing no one had told Tyra about when she'd transferred to Des Moines was how bad the winter storms got. There were ice storms almost every week when things got bad in the winter, and things were well on their way to being worse than bad. Tyra tried not to think about how long the winters were here, and how much she hated them. She imagined how great it would be to go to Vegas and party instead of spending her weekends trying to walk a fine line between classy fun and getting trashed.

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That was something Tyra was having to deal with as well, the realization that she too was turning into one of those people who got drunk when they wanted to have fun. Sure, it was only once a week, or maybe every other weekend right now. But how long until it was “only” two or three days a week, or even four or five days a week? It was a slippery slope Tyra had watched some of her friends slide down. And once you were drinking that much your brain was wired to drink that much and had a hard time if you didn't. The state of being drunk warped peoples' perception of reality; how else could so many terrible parents go to the bar, get smashed, and then speak fondly of their children? Tyra knew that habitual drunkenness was something that society turned a blind eye to until it was far too late to really right the course of the person’s life. It was like people didn't realize their habits and behaviors had

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an impact and that they could do the kind of damage in a month that took several years to straighten back out. Or maybe it was just that a lot of people around her had given up. Well, that wasn't going to be her, Tyra told herself. She wasn't just going to sit around the little town called Des Moines and wait for things to change. She was going to change things for herself. Without hesitation, she pulled up the casino's website and found out who was running the contest. She read all she could about the man. He was Italian and had plenty of gray hair. Tyra had an idea, something bold that normally she wouldn't even think of doing. She was going to track the Italian man down and convince him that she was the girl who needed to win the contest. She wanted to go to Vegas and see the strip, see the lights and hear the sounds. It was something she needed, she told herself. She deserved a vacation after working so

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hard all the time. Anyone could see that. Even her boss had told her as much the other day, saying that if she won the contest then he'd have no problem signing off on her vacation request. After work that day, Tyra made her way to the Italian borough on Des Moines' south side. The man's address was hard to find, smack dab in the middle of a thriving Italian open air market, or what would have been if the weather allowed it. Tyra looked around for a while, hoping the address would jump out at her, then finally gave up and looked it up on her phone. It happened to be tucked away in the back corner of the public events space. When Tyra walked in she was struck by how nice everything was. Oftentimes the insides of local businesses were run down due to the hard times the local economy was going through. This place wasn't like that at all, though. There were plush curtains

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everywhere, hung up by someone who knew what they were doing so that they weren't offset even a little bit from the window pane. Everything about the place came together very nicely and everything was very Italian. Tyra looked around for a receptionist but couldn't find one. Although there were several offices only one seemed to be used. Tyra stuck her head in the office and found the man who'd she'd seen on the internet; the man who was running the contest. “Hello, I'm sorry to bother you.” Tyra started. “You aren't bothering me.” the man said without looking up from typing on his computer. “Just have a seat in the chair in front of my desk and I'll be right with you in a moment. I'm writing a letter to the mother country and I don't want to accidentally type

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it in English because I'm talking to you, you know what I mean?” The man let out a hardy guffaw before going back to typing. Tyra sat down in front of him and looked around the room. There were pictures of the man with his family, his wife and a few children. There were also pictures of him with men his age in front of a casino in Vegas. The office looked like someone had just moved in and judging from how sparse the furniture was, the man didn't plan on staying for long. “So,” the man said. “I'm done with that and I'm really sorry to make you wait, but sometimes I have to shoot an email back to Italy in a hurry because, well, that's just how being one of the worker bees goes.”

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Tyra nodded, although she wasn't really sure what the man was talking about. “What can I do for a lady as lovely as yourself,” the man said. “My name is Gizmo, or at least it's a nickname that I still carry around with me from childhood.” “Why do people call you Gizmo?” Tyra asked. The man was old, frumpy, and overweight. She wasn't sure why he wouldn't have a nickname indicative of that. “Because I'm clever,” Gizmo said. “I'm good at making things, at breaking things, at planning things, and disrupting things. So back in the day people started calling me Gizmo, saying that I had, 'I gizmo for everything.'” “Oh,” Tyra said. She wasn't sure why the man was telling her all this but she didn't

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mind. It was actually kind of interesting to find a man named Gizmo alone in building full of offices writing an email to Italy. “What happened to everyone else,” Tyra asked. “That works here, anyway.” “Oh there's just me,” Gizmo said. “My bosses, they like me to have privacy because sometimes, well, you know how it is. People are rude sometimes and I'm an old man! There is only so long I can hold my temper.” Tyra raised her eyebrows. “The people that live around here are very nice, though,” Gizmo said with a wave of his hand. “No one really has an attitude beyond being passive aggressive. Where I came from before I had to punch some punk just to get to work every day!” “Where was that?” Tyra asked.

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“Little Italy,” Gizmo said. “The place has kind of gone to hell. The youth don't respect nobody, not even the people who look out for them. Recently we pulled everything out of there and moved it to a much better, nicer place, where people are glad we're around because we bring money and business around.” Tyra was beginning to wonder just what kind of man she was dealing with. “What does your business handle?” Tyra asked. “Casinos, now,” Gizmo said. “But really everything.” He glanced down at his desk.

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“Hey! Holy shit!” Gizmo shouted, his eyes flashing. “I was just about to give you a call. Lady, you just won a trip to Vegas, to one of my bosses’ casinos! How does that sound! It'll be all paid for, too. You won't even have to buy a single drink when you're there. This place, oh boy, you've never seen anything like this place. The casino is like a fucking fortress, with all kinds of ballasts on the outside. Then you go in and it's like some kind of time mish mash of Persian palace and Greek garden to the Gods. It's kind of hard to explain, but that's Vegas for you.” Tyra was stunned. “So I won?” she said. “Oh yeah!” Gizmo said. “You for sure won. The boss took one look at you and said you had to be it! No ifs, ands or buts! That's why I was about to call you and try to convince you that you really should take up the offer because it's a once in a lifetime deal.”

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Suddenly Tyra wasn't so sure what was going on anymore. Why did his boss get to pick who’d win? Wasn't it some kind of drawing? “Am I missing something?” Tyra asked hesitantly. “I was under the impression the contest was some kind of blind drawing.” Gizmo took off his glasses and chewed on one of the ear pieces. “Here's the thing, my boss is a young guy, really good looking, and a fucking billionaire,” Gizmo said. “Pardon my language but I want you to know that I'm serious about it. Well, my boss, he's a nice guy, but he has a hard time meeting women. I guess mostly he is really, really, particular; he doesn't want to shack up with any old broad, you know what I mean? He's one of those classy, romantic

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types who has to really feel it for a girl before he can feel it for a girl if you catch my drift.” Gizmo raised and lowered his eyebrows. When he didn't get a response from Tyra, he kept going. “Not that you have to sleep with the guy or anything, but you'll want to, believe you me,” Gizmo said. “This guy, he's top of the line. They don't make 'em like this anymore. He's a great business man, a hell of a fighter, and one of the most street savvy guys I've ever met. And he also writes poetry, or so I've been told. He keeps a lot of that stuff separate from the family business and I figure he'd rather not have my dumbass reading and commenting on it, so I just don't check it out. But the women love it!” Gizmo stopped and looked embarrassed, like he'd caught himself talking too much.

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“Look, lady,” Gizmo said. “You're going to love this trip. And I'm sorry if I've run my old, fat mouth too much and maybe scared you away. Because don't think there are any expectations. All you have to do is get on the plane and go do as you please. It's simple! Fool proof! There is no way on this planet that you aren't going to have the time of your life! Oh! And there are special things planned that I can't even tell you about! Stuff that will absolutely knock your socks off. You're a cultured girl, right? I thought so. Well some of the stuff you're going to experience will have all of Des Moines’ housewives jealous of you. Seriously. Because there are some things that you just can't get around here, as I'm sure you're aware, and you're about to get all of those things in spades.” Tyra sat, shocked for a few seconds.

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“Are you going to give me some kind of letter or something?” she asked. “No, no,” Gizmo said. “I'm going to send you an email that you can forward to your boss and then it'll be all wrapped up. Just you wait and see. Your boss is going to read the email I'm about to write and want you to go so much that he’ll insist. He'll insist you go and he'll tell you to take a couple of days off otherwise while you're at it.” “How do you know this?” Tyra asked. “Because my company is going to talk to your company at the very same time your boss reads the email you'll forward him. And then bada-bing bada-boom, you’re in Vegas.” Tyra smiled as she stood to leave. She shook Gizmo's hand and wished him well.

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“I'll see you around, I'm sure,” he said with a bow as she left.

Chapter2 Tyra had trouble concentrating at work the next day. She had no idea what kind of contest she'd gotten herself into, but she knew that she had no intention of not going to Vegas to meet whoever the playboy was that had staged the competition in the first place. Now the photos made sense. The playboy had wanted to get a good look at all of the “contestants” before he made his pick. Well, Tyra wasn't new to men wanting her, and wanting her badly enough to fly her across the country. Hell, she'd been flown around the world before, so why should she blanch in this instance. She knew that she would be going out on a limb this time because she had no idea who the mysterious playboy was, or how he was so powerful and rich, but that didn't really

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matter. As long as she wasn't expected to do anything she didn't want to do, she would be just fine going to Vegas to spend time away from Des Moines, Iowa. “Tyra,” it was her boss. “Corporate just OK'd time off that you haven't even asked for yet. Do you want to tell me what's going on? Do you even know?” Tyra's boss, Jim, was a good-enough guy for being as big of a square as he was. Jim was your typical Midwest middle-management kind of guy—balding, overweight, wife he couldn't stand and kids he didn't like. Despite all of that, he was still a fairly nice guy who was easy enough to work for. Tyra didn't plan to be with the company long enough to find out how bitter the years would make Jim, after he realized that things weren't going to change and he was never going to get promoted. Jim would never figure it out

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either, that his unhappiness with the rest of his life bled over into his work. “I was supposed to get an email from a contest I entered,” Tyra said. “To be honest I'm not sure what's going on, except that I was told I've won a trip to Vegas and that my work would be all right with it. I was supposed to get some kind of email that I could forward to you that would explain everything, but obviously that didn't happen, and I didn't want to just bring it up out of nowhere because it's a pretty fantastic story and I didn't think you'd believe me.” Jim shifted from one foot to the other as he looked down at the piece of paper in his hands. He was standing at the entrance to Tyra's cubicle, the iridescent lights reflecting off of his bald spot.

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“Yeah, well, this email from corporate says you are cut from work as of right now and are free to leave at your leisure,” Jim said. “It also says that you should be ready to get a phone call very soon that will explain everything? Again, I'm not privy to as much information as you are, so I'm not really sure what's going on here, but it seems to be legit. I mean, corporate never lets people leave work early.” That much was true, corporate had a thing for never granting unscheduled time off or even scheduled vacations, sometimes. They always hid behind policies that didn't allow for managers to use their own judgment and rewarded those who had worked hard while making the slackers go without. It was one of the reasons that the company had such a high turnover rate. People got sick of missing peoples' birthdays and graduations because the corporate office hundreds of miles away

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didn't think that anyone that worked for them deserved a day off. “So what should I do?” Tyra asked. “Should I close up shop for the day and head out or wait around for someone to ping my email box? I'm not sure what to do. Until this second, I wasn't completely sure that the contest wasn't some kind of scam.” “What kind of contest was it?” “To be completely honest, I entered it when I was blackout drunk at the casino so I really have no idea what kind of contest. I mean, the finer details, anyway. What I do know is that I'm going to Vegas!” Jim laughed at her enthusiasm. “Well, pack up your stuff and close up shop!”

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* At her apartment, Tyra was trying to pack without knowing what she was going to be doing in Vegas. She figured it was safe to assume she would need swimwear, dresses, a nightgown and all the other usual stuff. After thinking about it for a while, she figured it would be best to pack as much as she could since everything was getting paid for anyway, to include the flight over and luggage. It took her longer than she thought it would. Packing was one of those things that Tyra just couldn't do well. It was an art form that always alluded her. Sometimes she would get on YouTube and try to figure out exactly how everyone else seemed to neatly fold and fit everything into their suitcases. Tyra always ended up just throwing everything in and sitting on the suitcase to get it to close. This

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time, though, she was really afraid that she wouldn't have enough room for all the stuff she wanted to bring, even with her extra suitcases. In the middle of packing, her phone rang. “Hello,” Tyra said. “Hey, this is Gizmo. I'm going to be picking you up soon to take you to the airport and all of that. I was calling to make sure that you're ready to go. For some reason, I can't get a hold of you through email. I think it's the God-damn feds snooping around our business again because we're Italians that don't plan on cutting their grass anytime soon, or shining their shoes or anything like that.” Tyra stood silent, unsure of what to say. So Gizmo continued.

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“So, anyway, I was just calling to make sure that you would be ready to go because if you want we can wait until tomorrow. Not that it will be any better going tomorrow over today. I mean you're going to fly first class either way. I just know how women are sometimes and maybe you've got an appointment to tan or get waxed or something. You never know. So I figured it would be best to check with you first and see how things were going to develop.” “Let me call you back on that,” Tyra said. “I haven't thought that far ahead myself.” Gizmo said goodbye and they both hung up. Tyra couldn't help but wonder what kind of people she was dealing with that were so used to women and their needs. Most places wouldn't even think about whether or not she needed to wax her legs or get a tan before she went on vacation. Most places would

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have had the attitude of, “Well aren't you a lucky duck; now get on the plane!” But instead of doing that, Gizmo was being considerate enough to touch bases with her before he decided anything. Tyra wasn't sure if she should get herself waxed or not. She had just gotten one a few days ago but maybe it would pay off to be completely smooth. Also, it couldn't hurt for her to have at least some kind of base for a tan when she touched down in Vegas because as of right now there was no return date. She guessed that she got to come back whenever she felt like it. Or maybe she would just find out later. “Hello, Gizmo,” Tyra said. “I'm going to get a tan and a wax. Is tomorrow still all right? OK, see you then!”

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Tyra finished packing and headed to the local spa. It seemed like the right thing to do, to make sure that she looked as good as she could for whoever was paying all the money to have her flown across the country. Just because she didn't plan on doing anything with the guy, didn't mean she shouldn't look good. And how could she plan on doing something with him anyway, since she didn't have the faintest clue what he looked like? There really wasn't a way to fantasize about someone who you knew nothing about. But somehow, Tyra's mind worked overtime until the mystery man had a body and a face. She thought about the person she'd made up as she lay in the tanning booth after getting her body waxed. It took her awhile to realize that she wasn't imagining an Italian person. Tyra wondered if most Italian guys had a thing for mixed race girls, or if this one was

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special. She wondered how he liked to have sex, and what he liked to eat. Everything she could wonder about, she did. She even wondered if the mystery man was wondering about her. If he was, he sure did have the advantage, considering that he knew what she looked like. And who knew whatever else he knew about her. He for sure knew her name, and that meant that he could run all kind of searches through the internet for her history. She didn't have a criminal record to speak of, but she didn't think that her social networking pages were private. It made her think that the mystery man had used technology to get to know her very well. Then the thought occurred to her that Gizmo might have a camera in his office and whoever was waiting for her in Vegas had watched her walk in his office and talk to him. She had to tell herself that was just her wild imagination acting up again. The tanning booth chimed before she

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was ready, signaling that her session was over. The whole way home, Tyra couldn't help but feel good in her own skin, the best she'd felt in a really long time. She wasn't planning on sleeping with the mystery man by any means, but at the same time she sure wasn't ruling it out. When she got home and crawled into bed, she fell asleep and slept soundly, better than she had in years. * The next morning Gizmo was at her apartment bright and early to take her to the airport. Now, all of a sudden, Tyra felt like she was getting cold feet. What was she thinking, flying all the way across the country to hang out with a rich man that she didn't even know, much less know what he looked like? It was crazy, one of those things that she

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heard about on television. And what happened if the guy ended up being crazy? She didn't know anyone in Vegas. Her closest relatives were in Arizona and she hadn't spoken to them in years. As if sensing her anxiety, Gizmo spoke up. “You've got nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. I know all of this seems a little crazy but it isn't, really. Imagine if you were some rich big shot and all you wanted to find was the girl of your dreams. And you looked and you looked, but you couldn't find her. But every day a bunch of beautiful women, of which there’s no shortage of in Vegas, throw themselves at you in an effort to get some of your money. Eventually you realize, 'Hey, this shit ain't working out!' and you try to figure it out for yourself. Now, the guy you're going to meet, he's a little old school. So instead of doing some

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kind of internet thing he does this live kind of raffle where everyone enters. Did you remember all the guys entering? You do? Good catch. That was because for it to be a 'real' thing it had to abide by some federal laws. And that meant the contest couldn't be, 'Be hot and I'll pick you.'” Tyra wasn't sure if Gizmo was trying to help but he wasn't doing a great job. He didn't seem like the smartest guy, but something about him made Tyra think that he'd gone through his entire life hiding his real intelligence from people. “Maybe I'm doing a bad job at explaining this,” Gizmo said, sensing her standoffishness. “Imagine you've got a heart of gold. A real heart of gold. Not just the kind that poses for pictures and hands out money to little kids

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when the cameras are on you. So anyway, you've got this heart of gold and you are looking for someone else with a heart of gold, but they have to be attractive. I know, I know, it's a terrible day and age we live in where people aren't judged entirely by their insides, but that's how it is. And that's how it's always been. You know that personality can only make up for so much in the looks department.” Gizmo swerved around a car that was slowing down in front of them. “God damn drivers,” Gizmo said. “This fucking town is full of idiots. And I sincerely mean that. I haven't seen such bad driving since I lived in Queens! And you Midwesterners all think you are the bees’ knees! Well let me tell you something! You people don't know how to drive and as beautiful as you

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think this state is, I've seen more beauty in a muddy puddle!” Tyra couldn't help but laugh. Soon Gizmo was laughing with her. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” Gizmo said, sounding like an old man. “I know that my temper, it gets away from me sometimes. But seriously. This place, Iowa, it isn't for me! That much I know for sure now. For a little while I was thinking of moving here. It isn't that bad here, I will admit. But I like to eat out past eight o'clock sometimes. And I don't like people staring at me because I speak with an accent from the motherland.” Gizmo glanced over at her. “I'm sure you feel the same way! How sick do you get of all the white people looking at you funny because you are part black? Eh? It

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wears on you; I know it does. It wears on me and I don't have it half as bad as you!” Tyra smiled. Despite being rough around the edges, Gizmo reminded her of an old man she used to know as a child when she'd been growing up in the ‘hood. The man had been old an Italian like Gizmo. He was nice to all the boys and girls in the neighborhood, no matter their race, creed, or color. But he had a son who wouldn't listen to reason. One day the whole neighborhood heard them yelling. Then they were outside in their lawn. The old Italian man told his son, who was nearly eighteen, that since he thought he was the man of the house, now they were going to box and find out. The young Italian man looked confident, and Tyra remembered thinking that the boy had probably been practicing in secret. Well, the

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fight ended as soon as it started. The boy reared his fist back to strike his father, but not before his father's fist knocked him out cold. The entire neighborhood had looked on in wonder as the old man had left his son to sleep it off in their front yard. It was something that Tyra never forgot. This Gizmo character was servile in nature, and aimed to please. But there was something about him that let Tyra know that in a pinch he'd knock a young man out and leave him sleeping on the pavement. She was glad that Gizmo was on her side. “If I need help in Vegas,” Tyra said. “Can I call you?” “Listen lady,” Gizmo said. “Or Tyra, isn't it? You aren't going to need anything in Vegas. You're going to be so well taken care of you won't know what to do with yourself. Believe

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me when I say that. I know it sounds a little far-fetched but things are going to work out just fine. And don't worry so much about the romance, that's going to happen no matter what.” “Why do you say that?” Tyra asked. They were nearing Des Moines’ small airport. Tyra checked to make sure she still had everything on her person. “I say it because I know it,” Gizmo said. “The both of youse together, it's going to be fireworks and dynamite. This guy, and I'm not just saying this, but this guy is the real deal. Ain't nothing about this guy phony. You're going to wonder how he's even real! And he'll take a liking to you. But don't think you'll be able to skate by on just your good looks, and don't blow it by coming onto him like he's some kind of frat boy. This guy, you've got to

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seduce his mind. You understand me? You've got to get him between the ears first.” “He sounds a lot like me,” Tyra said as Gizmo pulled up to the airport's entrance. He unloaded her things and walked her to her terminal after checking her bags for her. She felt bad having an old man do all the heavy lifting, but Gizmo didn't even break a sweat or breathe heavy. “Just relax, all right, kid?” Gizmo said as he bid her farewell. “And try to soak it all in! Vegas is a hell of a place!” With that, Tyra boarded her plane. Her seat was in first class, and the two seats on either side of her had been purchased so no one would sit by her. She reclined her seat and drifted off to sleep. *

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Tyra had fallen asleep on the plane and now woke during the landing. She hated falling asleep on planes. There was something about waking up in them that she found completely unsettling. First of all, she was completely surrounded by strangers and that wasn't something she found appealing. When Tyra woke up she was always sluggish and a little dimwitted. She felt like she was at a huge disadvantage to people who had stayed awake on the flight. Not that there was any real way to use the advantage, but she didn't like being at a disadvantage, nonetheless. Secondly, falling asleep on a plane meant having a bunch of weird dreams about all kinds of crazy stuff. Before she'd woken this time she'd been dreaming about trying to save her parents from a sinking ship. Now she had to wake up and smile politely at flight attendants while

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the terror of not being able to save her parents was still fresh in her mind. “Please everyone prepare for some chop,” a pilot's voice said over the intercom. “We are going to experience some unusual turbulence.” The intercom clicked off without any further explanation. Great, Tyra thought, I've got to be on the plane that flies through some kind of freak storm. It wasn't a storm, though. The pilots weren't sure what was going on with the weather patterns but some kind of massive updraft was coming up from the desert floor, they could see it by the way it moved clouds around. When the plane hit the wall of rising air it shook violently, but not badly enough that

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any of the staff was worried—when you work on planes for a living you get pretty used to turbulence. Tyra wasn't used to turbulence, though, and she was freaked the fuck out. She grabbed onto the armrests of her first class seat and tried to pretend she was somewhere else. I'm not here, Tyra thought, I'm somewhere far, far away. I'm on a beach in Florida. I'm on the beach and I've just ordered my fourth drink. I'm getting drunk, and I know I should stop drinking, but all the hard bodied boys make me want to forget about how I'm supposed to act. I pick the drink off of the cracked wood of the bar, an old bar that looked like it had existed on the beach for decades. The plane jolted, then shuddered. A few of the children on board started to cry.

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I grab my drink and turn back to the beach. God, does it look good. All the sound out there, stretching from horizon to horizon. The ocean is just right, not too still so that there aren't white caps, but not so choppy that there aren't surfers. I walk down the gangplank toward the little cabana where all my stuff is and set my drink on the nearby table. Everything is completely and totally serene. The plane seemed to bank sharply to the left for a moment, then twist back to the right as the pilot corrected. Some of the overhead luggage that hadn't been secured properly tumbled down into the center aisle of the plane, breaking open to spill their contents everywhere: underwear, books, photos, condoms, and other stuff bloomed out from their cases like strange flowers.

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The air is cool and smells of salt. I recline in my seat and look around the beach for a man who might catch my eye. I see one down the shore a little ways, playing in the water with his children. Children are kind of a deal breaker most of the time, but maybe I'm not looking to marry this guy. Or maybe I am, but just for one night. I don't want to start a life with him or anything like that, hell, I don't know if I even want to start a conversation with him. But maybe he's a really smart guy, one of those cerebral types that always has something smart on his mind. That would be nice, but even if he doesn't, he looks so good that I'd be just fine with someone that doesn't know what to say most of the time. “M’am?” A voice broke into Tyra's imaginary universe. “M’am, are you all right?”

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Tyra opened her eyes to find no one else on the plane. The voice belonged to the flight attendant leaning over her, gently shaking her awake. How embarrassing. Tyra's face burned as she collected her things and headed to the front of the plane to exit. She'd never been the last one off the plane before. As she left, the captain and crew nodded to her and smiled, their eyes gliding over her curves appreciatively. Tyra nodded and smiled back sleepily. Normally she bristled when guys checked her out as openly as what was happening, but after her dream about the beach she was still hot and bothered. Walking out of the airport with her bags, she looked around the street. She had no idea who was going to pick her up, or what they were going to be driving. That was something, she was starting to realize, that she really should have worked out before she

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left Des Moines. Now she was in Vegas, where she knew no one, looking for a man who she couldn't recognize because she didn't know what he looked like, to spend a weekend together that may or may not end up being romantic. “Hello,” a voice from behind her said. “I . . . I think you're the woman I've been looking for. Is your name Tyra?” Tyra turned around to find one of the most handsome men she'd ever seen. He was a dark skinned Italian, the kind that looked like they'd just come in from long weeks of tending to the grape vines of their vineyard. His teeth were as bright as flashing mirrors, his eyebrows and facial hair all neatly trimmed. His hair was black and thick, billowing back from his forehead. He was on the taller side of medium height, with a broad shoulders and muscles. The designer

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Italian suit he wore fit him perfectly, accented nicely by cuff links and wingtip shoes. “And you are?” Tyra asked. “My name is Vincent Ambrosiano,” he said, taking her hand and kissing the back of it. “Please follow me to my car.” Vincent scooped up her things and led her to a very expensive looking foreign car that she didn't know the name of. As they drove away from the airport, Tyra realized that she had no idea where they were headed. What if this wasn't the guy? What if this was some weirdo who figured he'd try his luck when it came to picking up lost looking women at the airport? But surely that was too far-fetched to be true at all. There weren't really people that waited at the airport to pick people and then act out nefarious plots

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and schemes on them, were there? Tyra tried to calm herself. It was hard, though. “So, Vincent,” Tyra said. “Tell me a little bit about yourself.” “Call me Vinnie,” he said. “Everyone that is close to me calls me that. It's a sign of endearment.” He looked over at her and smiled as he pulled out onto the freeway and the car's engine purred as they raced in and out of lanes of traffic. “And I own and operate one of the casinos that is being called by many to be the new flavor of the moment. But what's really happening is that there is a burgeoning Italian community here. I mean, everyone knows that the mob made this place. There is absolutely no denying that. Look at it.”

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Vinnie motioned out the window to his left. “Look at the strip. That's all there is here. And how the fuck does a place like this just rise up out of the sand? It doesn't. People paid off a bunch of politicians to change the laws so that rich people could come here and go on vacation—fuck whores and gamble—while hundreds of natives that live here year round have to take refuge in the gutters under the city at night.” Tyra was taken aback. She had not expected such gritty speech from someone who looked so clean cut and dressed so nicely. “And I don't mean to sound bitter, or anything,” Vinnie continued. “Believe me, I'm making a fucking fortune here. But I'm just telling it like it is, and that's something that the people that run this town don't like to hear. You see, the people here, they are a lot

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like the old Italians back home. They like things a certain way, they like a little respect just because they are old and have been doing things a certain way for a really long time; and just like the people back home they are becoming upset that things aren't as they should be.” Vinnie reached over to the radio and put on music in the background—the lonely wailing of a guitar, so slow and repetitive it sobbed out of the speakers like a trance. “So there is a lot of friction. Because it's been many moons here since someone like me, new money with a bad attitude, came to town and set up shop, started raking in the chips with no intention of sharing any of it. And why should I? Why should the old people here be rewarded simply because they've lived here and had money here? Why

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can't I come in and carve out my own living?” Vinnie looked over at her, catching and holding her eyes for a moment. “There are no answers, I know. These are the questions I face everyday when I'm not dealing with petty bullshit at the casino. People think I give a fuck if some hick from the sticks wins some jackpot at the craps table. Do you have any idea how insured casinos are? For everything? It would take more luck than the universe can muster to bankrupt any casino, but that's what most of the people at the top in this town worry about. They actually concern themselves with trivial amounts of money won by people that aren't a threat to them, like it somehow matters that some hillbilly that hasn't ever had two dollars to stick together just won 150,000 of them. That's nothing.”

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Vinnie made a gesture of dismissal with his hand, one that carried the kind of finality that Tyra hoped was never directed at her. “Let them have what little they can win from me. The real things in this town --this little paradise of neon lights, street walkers, pimps, dopers and degenerates -- the real threats aren't the kind of people that come into my place to gamble. They sit back and wait. And they aren't even concerned with getting me. That's what the other casinos just don't seem to understand. They're like the families back home that seem to want to shoot it out on every single street corner about every dollar and insult. Nothing is too much or too far.” Then Vinnie fell silent. The city swept by them as he navigated the corridors of traffic that lead them north past the strip.

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“Bad day at work?” Tyra asked, hoping to lighten the mood. “Or did you just feel like venting?” Vinnie laughed. “Sorry to unload on you,” he said. “It's been a long day of dealing with people who would rather be the boss of everyone than cooperate and insure that everyone keeps making money.” Vinnie stepped on the gas and they shot past an accident, then up an on-ramp. “We're headed to north Vegas,” he said. “My casino isn't the biggest by any means, but I think it has some obvious charm, whereas so many are little more than mindfucks in the desert, designed to trick people into staying longer than they intended so they spend all their money. I don't really rely on tricks like

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that. While my place stays open all the time, it isn't like we want to trick people into staying. That sounds like some CIA Guantanamo Bay shit that I'm not interested in.” Tyra took in the scenery of the desert town as Vinnie spoke. It had been years since she'd been to Vegas but it didn't look like much had changed. Palm trees, fake grass, and expensive cars were everywhere, as were the poor. “But the people I was dealing with today, no, they don't understand it,” Vinnie said. “To them it's all some kind of game, except the money is real. I guess what I mean to say is that they live like there is never going to be an end or a hard time. Like people aren't ever going to come here and challenge us. And how could they come to this conclusion when I came here and in a few years I'm building my own little empire?”

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Tyra nodded to show she was listening, but didn't really know what to say. This Vinnie character was a lot to take in, but she was into it, that much was certain. “Ah, here we are,” Vinnie said. “Home sweet home. Casino Ambrosia, often times called The Ambrosia, or Ambrosia; pretty clever play off my name, or maybe the obvious one. I don't know.” Vinnie paused as he pulled into a drive that led a little ways away from the main road. The building in front of them was huge, and the architecture, sweeping. “You see, everyone here seems to have forgotten any of the old stories. Or maybe they are too fucked in the head to care, who knows. But I know them and remember. And even though I don't lay it on real thick or

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anything, a lot of the old Greek tropes are present in my casino. I try to harness the old elegance in ways that I know how, with sculpture and theater and things like that. You see, my casino isn't just a casino, although that is the moneymaker and main attraction. I also have a horse racing track, a motorcycle racing track that we are trying to get the city to let us open, a theater for small plays, and sometimes even a circus of sorts. More of a dance group with tigers and elephants than a circus.” Tyra's eyes couldn't get any wider. The amount of money this guy had to have was insane. The casino in front of them looked like something out of an old history book, with a facade that was two wings that swept out and away from the entrance, as if one were looking at a swan from behind. There was a fountain in the middle of a lake, and further away from them was the horse track

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with the beasts making laps around it. There were also many other beautiful and strange structures that caught her eye. “The other casinos, they aren't like this,” Vinnie said. “And not that they aren't big, or open all the time, or that they don't have flashy lights and women everywhere. It's in the way they exist, as strange as that sounds. The main strip is all about the spectacle. And while I understand synergy, this isn't a group activity. I'm not partnered with anyone except the family back in the old country. So I don't need to have a bunch of people help me sell things that sell themselves. You see, people will say that I made this place after I got sick of the strip and longed for Italy, but really I never got sick of the strip. I hated it from the start. What a contraption they have built for themselves. But what they don't realize that it isn't the people

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on the street that are caught in it, it's them. They're the one who can’t leave.” They pulled up to what appeared to be a wall, but quickly revealed itself to be part of Vinnie's private garage as part of the wall pulled up and into itself to allow for the big luxury car to make it in. Casino goers stood with their mouths agape as they watched. “Is that a new one?” Tyra asked. “Because it seemed like some people hadn't seen it before.” Vinnie smiled a little smile that made Tyra think of a Robert DiNiro when he was young and in Taxi Driver. “New?” he said. “Well, maybe. I guess you could call it new. New to them anyway.”

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Tyra's eyes were dazzled by the way the road in front of them kept winding up, around and around, tightly hugging a center pillar of cement. She was getting the feeling that they would end up parking on top of the casino, and she couldn't quite believe it. “News to them, because, unlike many of the idiots in this town, I don't hand out some kind of weird guide to all the little things that make my life tick. The secret driveway is only neat because it's a fucking secret, you know what I mean? It's not cool at all if people expect it.” Daylight broke into the turning tunnel and it was as Tyra expected, they were going to park on the roof. What kind of weekend stay was Tyra on where the guy picking her up parked his enormously expensive luxury car on the roof of his casino? The guy had to be some kind of millionaire, maybe even a

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billionaire. Tyra had no idea how to tell the difference, but she figured that parking high enough off the ground that they could see the downtown strip was indicative of having money. And even if it was new money, like Vinnie had suggested, it made Tyra think that the money was only new to him. It had to have all come from somewhere. And what kind of guy was Vinnie that he was just entrusted with so much. He didn't look much older than her, so maybe thirty at the very most. Who was this guy? “With an entrance like that,” Tyra said. “It'll be easy to eclipse the rest of the evening.” They both got out of the car and Vinnie took Tyra's offered arm and led her inside.

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“I think you Americans have this saying,” Vinnie said. “It goes something like 'You ain't seen nothing yet.'” That's when Tyra realized that Vinnie wasn't a native speaker, or a native to America. She didn't know how it could have slipped past her before, with all the talk of his mother nation, he all but wrote it out for her. Maybe it was because she was used to guys trying so hard to be a weird version of what they thought was cool to really appreciate anyone being different. The more she thought about it the more it made sense that Vinnie wasn't from America. Given the amount of money that he had at his disposal, anyone else would have sent someone to get her. But because he wasn't from America he paid attention to little matters of respect and their nuanced details.

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Vinnie had come to pick her up from the airport himself because it showed her that he wanted to see her and that she mattered to him. He came to pick her up at the airport because he wanted it done just right, so he did it himself instead of delegating it to someone else. The little things like that had died out of American business long ago, hell, out of American culture. Now it was cool to have a bunch of girls on the side, to cheat, to treat women like they didn't matter, like they were as disposable as a tissue. Tyra could tell that wasn't Vinnie's style. She could tell that, although he might have some old fashioned ideas about women, he treated women well. Vinnie was the kind of guy who needed a woman to engage him, or at least try to engage, even when she couldn't really, like during the drive to the casino. Vinnie would need a stunning woman on his arm because it was sign of status, but he'd treat that woman as if

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she were the most expensive diamond in the world. Tyra had a lot on her mind during the walk into the building. The weekend was going to be interesting. She already knew she'd never forget it. * The vast room that she would be sharing with Vinnie for the weekend was so plush she could barely believe that she wasn't in some kind of dream. The furniture looked like a cross between old world Victorian and Italian. The bed was huge, and had a mirror on the ceiling above it. There were a lot of nice touches that Tyra really appreciated—an old school dumb waiter that allowed them to send down plates and glasses and bring up refreshments, a small fountain, and it missed some things that Tyra thought was telling.

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There were no televisions in the room. There was an old radio in one of the corners, but that was it as far as contact with the outside world went, since cell phones didn't work. Security was a huge thing for Vinnie, something Tyra had noticed right away. And he'd been smart about it, instead of being overbearing. He didn't demand that everyone abide by the rules of no photography on some floors, so he installed devices that shut off phones and made it so they couldn't get reception. Vinnie took security and privacy very seriously since his casino was also a hotel in the upper floors with Vinnie himself occupying the master suite. This meant that high profile guests, senators and CEOs, came to philander at will. It was something that Vinnie expressed both distaste and thanks for; on the one hand he found it distasteful, but on the other he was glad they were spending their money at his casino.

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The measures went far beyond Tyra's understanding and she knew it. From what little Vinnie had told her, she understood that in many of the more high profile rooms there was a bunch of brass in the walls so that bugs and other recording devices relying on passive controls from the outside didn't work. He'd said a few other things but then explained that he couldn't go into any greater detail because of security. Tyra nodded and smiled, secretly thankful that he wasn't going into more detail because she already didn't understand what was going on. What little he'd elaborated on had to do with encryption and how the casino used its own cell phone tower to control the flow of everything. Tyra was starting to wonder just how powerful a man had to be to want to go through all of the signals going in and out

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of his casino, but she knew she'd find out as the weekend played itself out. “What are we seeing tonight, Vinnie?” Tyra asked as she clasped a necklace beyond her neck. “I forget the name of it,” Vinnie said as he dressed into more casual evening attire. “It's the circus but it isn't. But not like our circus, which is a lot more to do with mixing traditional dance from cultures around the world with different animal acts. This one is the one with the long pieces of material that come off the ceiling and everyone climbs on. They swing around and dance.” “Cirque du Soleil!” Tyra exclaimed. “Oh my goodness I haven't ever seen it before! I've always wanted to, though. It's just that something has always come up, or I've been busy. Or I don't know, just life.”

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“Well tonight is the night!” Vinnie exclaimed as he dramatically snapped a handkerchief through the air with a flourish of his arm. “And what a night it will be! After the first performance there will be a rave! I'm not so sure how the two will mix, but we're going to give everyone a twenty minute intermission to either go take drugs or leave because the part of the show they came for is over. But I'm excited for both parts! Although I'm not sure if I want to take any drugs. It will be a very unforgettable night, that much is certain!” Tyra was more excited than she'd been in a long time. She couldn't wait for the night to start.

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Chapter3 Tyra wasn't exactly sure when she and Vinnie had started making out, if it had been at the end of the first performance or the start of the second, but it had happened. Now the rave had started and Vinnie had her on all fours on the floor of their private seats far above the general admission, and even farther above than the first tier of private balcony seats. Vinnie hadn't started taking off her clothes yet, instead he kept playfully smacking her ass, first one cheek then the other. Tyra arched her back and moaned as he smacked her a few more times. She loved it when guys got playfully rough with her. She also loved having sex in taboo places. She wasn't necessarily one of those people who had to have

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sex in public, but she was finding what they were doing now to be a huge turn on. The dress she'd worn for the evening had greatly resembled a Greek toga. Vinnie had picked it out for her and insisted she wear it. He'd picked it out because what she'd brought from home had looked garishly out of place in the sleek atmosphere of Vegas, especially considering how upscale Vinnie's casino was. The one stipulation Vinnie made when he bought her the dress, which cost about as much as she made in a month, was that she not wear panties or a bra. The dress was the color of gray silk, accented with white lace. At first glance it looked strange on Tyra's caramel complexion, but upon closer inspection it became obvious that the dress showed off all of her curves. Tyra's ample ass and tits had been on display for everyone to see as she'd gone to the

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theater on Vinnie's arm. She'd loved all the attention she'd received, which wasn't like her at all. But this attention wasn't like what she usually got from people. This kind of attention was the same that sharp minds give great works of art, the same kind of attention that people in power get. Now, as she and Vinnie fooled around as the rave raged beneath them, her tits and ass were on display to him quite literally. Vinnie kept slapping her ass and firmly groping her tits. They started to paw at each other, writhing on the floor like a couple of snakes, until Tyra felt it was best to take off her dress. She stood and let it drop off her shoulders to the floor even though there were those below that turned their faces upward. She was so ready to get fucked by Vinnie, more ready than she'd been to get fucked by someone in years.

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There was so much about him that turned her on. She knew that a lot of it had to do with how much power he had, but what of it? Why shouldn't she be attracted to a man of power? There wasn't anything wrong with that, not the way she saw it. Vinnie had a seat in one of the chairs and smiled up at Tyra as she gave him a lap dance, slowly sliding her hands down his chest to his crotch. She could feel his hard on through his pants. God, I hope it's big, Tyra thought, I hope it's so big. All I want is his cock inside me right now. I better suck on it first to really turn him on, though. God, I want it to be big and veiny. I want him to bend me over the railing and fuck me in front of all these thousands of people. That's all I want, more than anything. Vinnie is such a fucking hot guy, I can't believe he is interested in me at all. I

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wonder what his come tastes like. Oh, God, he's squeezing my nipples as I suck on his dick. I love the way his hands feel on my breasts. Now he's sliding a hand down my back so that he can run his fingers through my slit. And so Tyra's thoughts went as Vinnie ran his hands all over her body as she sucked him off. Finally, when Vinnie had enough of her blowing him, he told her to lay on her back and crouched over her. Tyra thought it was so hot that he was going to keep his clothes on while he fucked her. It made it seem more urgent, like it needed to happen right then. His cock was nice and hard, she had seen to that. She was glad it was so big and throbbing as she felt it hover between her legs. Vinnie kissed her on the mouth as he entered her, slowly sinking his entire cock into her pussy.

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“Oh, fuck, baby,” Tyra said. “You feel so fucking good in my pussy. Oh my fucking God do you feel good inside of my motherfucking pussy. Fuck me baby. I mean, really fuck me. As hard as you can. I want you to wear out my pussy. Your big cock needs to fill me up over and over again. Please fuck me. Don't wait, and don't save it. I don't need you to play nice with me. I'm not one of those fragile kind of girls. Please fuck me hard.” “Oh I'm gonna fuck you,” Vinnie said. “You better fucking believe I'm going to fuck you. I've been waiting for this since I saw you walk out of the airport. You're so fucking hot. God damn, and your pussy is so fucking tight. Just like your hot, wet, little mouth. God you feel so good when I fuck you. Do you like it? Do you like the way my big cock feels in your pussy?”

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Tyra grunted and pulled on Vinnie's hips so that he penetrated her a little differently, on an angle. His tool was big, much bigger than she was used to. She hoped that he would continue to last. There was nothing more disappointing than a man who didn't have the stamina to really satisfy her the way she needed. Tyra could feel that if he was able to go for a while, she would have a thunderous orgasm. It wasn't usual that she was able to so clearly tell, but she could tell for certain. There was just something inside her loins telling her that if her partner was able to keep going there would be a reward like she'd never experienced before. Vinnie’s cock was hard and throbbing, but it wasn't like it was going to come anytime soon, at least from what she could feel.

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“God you feel so hard, baby,” Tyra said. “Do I turn you on? Does fucking a black girl make your big, Italian cock extra hard?” “I fucking love that you're black,” Vinnie said. “Your dark skin and little pink nipples turn me on so much. Oh, baby, you have no fucking idea how turned on I am. And that we're fucking above all of those people.” It really was a huge turn-on that there were so many people far below them with no idea what was going on. Or did they know? But how could they know what was happening so far above them, and with all of the noise from the rave. The bass pulsed through the entire theater like the beat from an enormous drum. Tyra hoped that they knew, somehow. She hoped that far below them there were many people copulating, their bodies writhing together in ecstasy.

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She hoped that the entire rave had become an orgy and everyone was fucking while they were on really hard drugs. Her sexual desire and sensual feeling overwhelmed her body. She wanted the entire universe to reflect how she felt, as if existence could become some kind of mirror just for her. She knew it was impossible but that's what she wanted. Vinnie's body slapped against her with the beat. Tyra didn't know if he was intentionally using the beat to drive his thrusts forward or if it were an accident. Whatever it was she liked it, she liked the way that the music seemed to be controlling Vinnie's body, manifesting itself in his hips and driving his cock forward into her. It was such a great feeling to feel like everyone in the theater was connected by the rhythm. She wanted it to be that way, needed it to be that way. Something about the look in Vinnie's eyes was driving her crazy. She'd never felt like she

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needed fucking more than right now, and she was getting it as hard as her Italian stallion could give it to her. She wanted it harder though, and she wanted more of him. If there had been some way for her to melt him to her as he made love to her, to make it so that they were the same person instead of two people, if that were somehow possible in that moment, and she would have done it. She would have become one with Vinnie as he fucked her, even though he was a complete and total stranger who she knew so little about. But what more did she need to know about him, really? She'd gone steady with a few guys who she never knew more about than their names, their majors, and what they liked to drink. It wasn't like she had a super great track record with guys. But ever since she'd moved to the Midwest she'd really slowed down when it came to the opposite

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sex. It was something she missed, the excitement of not knowing what was going to happen with someone else. The chase was something that she missed dearly, and now she was having it tenfold. It didn't faze her that they were having sex so soon after meeting. Guys like Vinnie wouldn't commit to anything until the other half of the relationship had really proved themselves. As Vinnie's hips bore down on her so that his cock pounded in and out of her pussy with even more force, she thought to herself that she hoped that the chase didn't diminish or end anytime soon. “Oh, baby,” Vinnie said slowing down. “You drive me crazy!” Tyra laughed as she stood up and leaned out over the balcony's ledge. The people below her were entranced by the music. She knew

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that no one was looking up watching them but she wanted to pretend that they were, that all eyes were on her naked breasts hanging over the balcony. She arched her back and wiggled her ass as she waited for Vinnie to approach her. She felt him running his fingers through her slit to make sure she was wet enough; but she was plenty wet and she knew it. Vinnie rubbed the head of his cock against her pussy from behind and reached around to squeeze her tits with his other hand. Tyra was so ready for Vinnie mount her from behind. God, she could barely contain herself. Realizing that anything she said wouldn't be heard by anyone because of the blaring music. “Fuck me!” she screamed. “Vinnie, fuck me, baby. I need you to fuck me. Please, fuck me harder. God I need it so fucking bad. I just

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need it, so give it to me! God damn, I don't know how much more I can wait, baby. Fuck my black ass! Fuck me!” Vinnie slammed his cock home and gave her ass cheeks a few stinging slaps. Tyra loved every second of it. Vinnie pulled her hair as he fucked her from behind. Fucking in public was something she didn't do that often so it seemed like something special that she should expose herself to anyone in the crowd who would happen to glance up. They would get an eyeful of her getting her brains fucked out. Or at least she hoped so. “Do you like that? Do you like it when the whole world watches us fuck?” Vinnie said as he pulled her hair and fucked her from behind. “Oh baby, I love it! I love it so fucking much!” Tyra said. “Don't stop! Please don't

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stop! My God it feels so good! So fucking good! Jesus Christ you are a good fuck! I love your fucking cock so much!” “There's no stopping me now!” Vinnie screamed. “Oh my God, fucking your pussy feels so good!” Tyra knew that he was going to come any moment and could feel herself getting closer and closer to orgasm. Right when she felt Vinnie's cock start to pulse hot jizz inside of her pussy, her body started to convulse with pleasure. Her whole body was rocked with wave after wave of pleasure—she held onto the banister railing for dear life. “Fuck me!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping the people below could hear her. “Harder! Harder! Oh, fuck yes. You feel so fucking good! God, I'm coming so hard right now! Holy shit!”

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Tyra blacked out she came so hard. When she came to Vinnie was holding her and caressing her as they lay on the floor of their private box seats, using their clothes as cushions between them and the ground. She felt good, really good. The afterglow of the orgasm was radiating out from her like she was a small sun putting out her rays. Without a doubt it had been one of the best, and most fantastic, night of her life. She'd never thought that Vinnie would be able to make her feel like this. Not only did she feel good but she felt safe, like there wasn't anything in the world to worry about. It was a feeling that she wasn't used to getting from guys. But Vinnie wasn't like the rest of the guys she'd been with in the past. He was so different. He had a ton of money, but that wasn't really anything to do with how she was feeling. It wasn't like she was

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relieved that Vinnie didn't have to worry about making a house payment. It had to do with intentions and feelings and reality, how they all intersected, and what happened when that intersection occurred. It had to do with being the only girl in the whole world for Vinnie, at least for a little bit. The ceiling of the theater danced with lasers and lights. Vinnie stroked her back as she lay on top of him, her face on his chest. It was strange to think how romantic things were after they'd just been so erotic. But Tyra knew that she could certainly get used to this. If this were the norm for their relationship she wouldn't complain at all. But most likely they would never really get together or date, and she didn't want to let herself even think that maybe they could. At the same time, a part of her couldn't stop thinking about what it would be like if that was exactly what happened.

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What would it be like to be with someone so rich and powerful? Would she feel like a queen strutting around her castle? Would the whole city become her playground? Would they live happily ever after? Or would hard times steal the joy away? Would Vinnie start to look at girls more and more and fuck her less and less? Would they fire turn into a sputtering spark that eventually got put out by a strong draft from the harsh winds of reality? Questions like that swirled around her head as the beat boomed out from the giant speakers and bounced off the walls around them. Tyra didn't want to think about any of that now, though. She was having a good time in Vegas with a man who had no reason to like her except that he genuinely found her attractive and wanted her to be in his company. It all seemed too good to be true, like

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some kind of dream or something like that. Or maybe a fairytale. Yes, a fairy tale was much more like what was going on. People like Vinnie didn't like people like her unless it were some kind of fairytale. Eventually, Tyra felt Vinnie drift off to sleep underneath her, in spite of the music, and she wondered if she'd be able to to sleep or if she'd lay awake in what was seeming more and more an odd situation by the moment. But it was the good kind of odd, not the kind of odd that made her question what she was doing with her life. As she got closer and closer to drifting off, ghostly figures came out from behind the curtain behind their seats -- stage hands all dressed in black, to spread out a blanket over the both of them. Tyra was thankful for this. She wanted to slumber without a care in the world but it was hard to imagine that was possible considering what was happening, but the stage

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hands made it easier to believe that they wouldn't wake up in some kind of embarrassing situation. She was thankful they were there, as she fell asleep. * The next morning Tyra woke up in Vinnie's room. He wasn't there, although she saw some of his clothes scattered about the room. She wondered when he'd woken up and carried her back to his bed and what he'd be up to today. She wasn't sure when exactly she'd be going home, but she figured it was soon. The whole idea of inviting her out and making love in the theater seemed like something that was almost a test. Maybe not a test in the way of right or wrong answers, but a test to see how they meshed and what went on. Tyra figured that since things had gone fairly well, if not really well,

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her stay would probably be wrapped up fairly quickly. If she'd been younger she'd have thought that since things had gone well Vinnie would want her around more, but really it was the opposite. Since the first visit was most likely meant to be a limited visit to test the waters, he'd want to end it on a good note, and things weren't going to get much better than last night. Tyra got up and walked around the room, looking at photos on the wall. There were plenty of pictures of Vinnie back in the old country, surrounded by dozen of men, some of them older, some of them younger than him and carrying machine guns. There were pictures of weddings, dances, fishing trips, people bird hunting, sailing, and other things that Vinnie's family seemed to enjoy very much. There weren’t any pictures of him with a girl, though. Tyra wondered why this was. Vinnie obviously knew his way around

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women, that much was certain. So why the decision to distance himself from them for years, and why did he want to be around Tyra now? She kept walking around the large room, lifting up scraps of paper to read what was on them and investigating other ephemera that had been left strewn out and about on the tops of coffee tables, end tables, and the dining table. Eventually she made her way to the bathroom. On the mirror an envelope had been taped. She carefully pulled it off the mirror and read what it said. “Tyra,” it started, “last night was truly wonderful. I want you to know that it has been years since I've had so much fun with anyone. To think that such a time could be had with a woman I didn't even know. The only problem is that I still don't know you, not really. I want to change that very much. I

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know that we just met, and just had sex, but I can tell that we click very well and that we are very attracted to each other. I hope you don't think me low brow for writing you a pseudo love letter, but I do have my moments of romanticism. You really have touched a special place in my heart Tyra, and your beauty has made a deep impression on me. I can only hope that I have made even half the impression you've made on me on you. Only time will tell, I suppose. But for now, I am gone to take care of business that I could not put off or delegate to someone else. Please do not think that my not being here is some kind of snub or slight, it is just the way things go for a business owner in my kind of business.” Then it ended with, “I'll see you soon.”

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Tyra thought the note was romantic and fun. She couldn't remember the last time a man had written her an actual note on paper about something that didn't have anything to do with groceries or something of that nature. She wondered what Vinnie had to take care of, but then thought better of prying too far into the inner workings of exactly what he did. Running a casino had a lot of sordid implications, she knew, even if Vinnie, and whoever else, liked to church it all up with lights and different glamor. The bottom line was it was a vice based industry, like drinking or weed. People came to Vegas to gamble, and that meant that a lot of people were losing a lot of money. Sure, some of them did so responsibly and knew when to stop. But others didn't. Some people came here and lost everything. Usually the casino was nice enough to buy them plane tickets home, but sometimes people ended up wandering the streets until someone got to town

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who could lend them some money, or until someone wired them some funds. It wasn't that Tyra thought something insidious was going on, it was just that she didn't want to ruin things by being nosey. She hoped that Vinnie would be back soon as she slipped into the tub and started to run a warm bath. The tub was big and ivory white, just like the rest of everything else in the giant wash room. Tyra looked around in wonder at all the expensive things in the small room. There was a big screen TV that at the moment was turned off, several giant mirrors, a drinking fountain, a fridge, and all other manner of luxury. She realized that much of what was around here was there for the sake of being luxurious, but she also knew that meant it was there for the sake of itself. She tried not to think of her mother's words about gluttony that she used to say

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about rich people when Tyra had been growing up. “Rich people,” her mother would say. “They don't know nothing. They think they do because most of them was born rich and that means they call the shots, but really they know less than the common street hustler. At least a man from the street has had to make his bones at some point in his life. Most of the rich people that you see have never done anything but be born with a silver spoon in their mouth. And while I'm not hating them for it, and I'm not suggesting you be bitter about it, I think it's important to know that the rich aren't any better than us and in fact most likely have lived their lives with enormous privilege that has made them lose touch with the real world and how it operates. Most of the rich think they know how the real world

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works but then you meet some of them that have never even made their own pot of coffee. Can you imagine that, girl?” Tyra's mother's words sounded clear as day in her head and made her think of her youth and how she'd been an ugly duckling who'd had trouble getting any of the boys in the neighborhood to pay her any kind of attention whatsoever. That wasn't the case anymore, though. Now she had a rich Italian casino owner very much interested in her, to the point where he was leaving long notes to her taped to the bathroom mirror. She wondered what her mother would think if she saw her now. Her mother was a strange sort that believed in some puritan ideals, but she also had grown up poor so she was very aware of how things worked. The first thing she would do is look around the place, and then come back smiling at her daughter. Her mother would say that even if

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the man didn't want to be serious why not date him or at least see where things went? Tyra could feel herself drifting off to sleep again as the warm water lapped at the cleavage between her breasts. It was so relaxing to not have anything to worry about at all. She'd checked her phone right after getting up and read an email from her work telling her to take her time, to take it easy. Tyra wasn't sure how but Vinnie had spoken with her boss, and then to corporate, and everyone had agreed that the best thing that could happen was whatever she and Vinnie wanted to have happen. Now all she wanted to have happen was to sit in this tub forever. There was something about it that she especially liked, and it wasn't just the way it had golden feet at the end of the legs that met the floor. Maybe what she liked about it had nothing to do with the tub and had everything to do with the situation.

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Maybe that was all right, she decided as she got out of the water. Maybe it was time for her to just enjoy her life and the much deserved turn for the better it had taken.

* Vinnie hadn't come back in an hour. Then another hour passed and Tyra wondered what she was doing sitting around the hotel room, even if it was super nice, when she could be out and about the casino grounds. There was a whole hell of a lot to do, and she hoped to maybe see Vinnie. So Tyra got dressed up in sexy casual attire and headed out to the horse track. There were all manner of people there, from the rich and well to do, to people obviously down on their luck. The track itself was of course, grandiose, so much so that it made Tyra wonder if there wasn't some quaint little flower garden somewhere on the premises for her to hang out, instead of all of these huge structures that seemed to stand like buildings in a bygone era. Were all of these monuments to men really what Vegas was about? Tyra always told

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herself not to look a gift horse in the mouth and this was one of the times she knew that she needed to lay off the critical thinking. She was just bored, she told herself, and needed to occupy her mind with Vinnie. But Vinnie was nowhere to be found, which was a rookie mistake no matter how much money and power the guy had. He was obviously used to women who didn’t do much thinking, if he thought it was a good idea to have sex like they had the night before, and then leave Tyra to her own devices to think it over. Even though it was a bad idea, Tyra started to cast a critical eye on the casino and its grounds. There was a lot to like, that much was certain. Everything had been made to be pleasing to the eye, and even to some of the other senses. The fountain had several swans that swam slow laps. But what would have been a beautiful scene was interrupted by a few signs that cautioned people not to mess

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with the swans. The signs went on to outline that a swan's blow to a human's arm could break bone very easily. Tyra knew that she was nit picking, but if the people that were here to enjoy the swans actually cared about what was going on around them, they wouldn't need to be told not to harass the swan because the animal would hurt them; they would just watch from a safe distance and then continue with what they were doing. Vegas, all of it, not just Vinnie's casino, seemed to be steeped in the notion that none of it was really real. Sure the visitors were real, but they would be there one second and gone the next, forever being replaced by people coming and going. The staff of the businesses in Vegas were real, but only as real as a stripper is real, and people treated the staff just as badly as strippers are

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treated. Tyra didn't know why she couldn't just enjoy everything, but it was hard to miss how most people treated any given thing they were there to do like s. As Tyra watched horses thunder around the track she wondered what it must feel like to be a horse, so beautiful and strong, only to be reduced to running around a track for the amusement of another animal that used to rely on horses for survival. What people would have really loved to see was the old Roman coliseum fights, or a bunch of people fighting ship to ship above waters filled with alligators. Or maybe they'd really like watching a lion rip apart a man. There were all sorts of things that could happen if the law allowed it, and would happen if the law allowed it. Not that Tyra was some kind of puritan, she thought that if two adults wanted to exchange sex for money then that was their

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business and no one should be able to tell them otherwise. Hell, Tyra even felt that most drugs should be legalized, even the ones that were really bad for people. If a person wanted to ingest a drug that would kill them, and they knew what was going on, then who was any person to stop them? Tyra believed that people should be able to make their own mistakes. But she did find it funny that one of the mistakes that history had shown would be made again and again was that man would turn living thing against living thing in an effort to escape boredom. She knew that somewhere close by there would be a boxing match either going on or about to go on, and that there was a good chance that both of the fighters would be black. But if she mentioned to anyone watching how much what was going on resembled

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Mandingo fighting of old, they would look at her like she'd lost her mind. “No, no,” they would say. “This is nothing like that. Nothing like that at all. In fact, this couldn't be further from that. You see, those two boys, until they had boxing, they didn't have anything at all. And because of boxing they get to come to Vegas to fight and you get to watch them fight.” No one would think that when the choices are between boxing and maybe getting out of the ghetto and working at the local gas station, then there really wasn't much of a choice. And that was because most of the people that she was surrounded by right now were very, very rich. Tyra hadn't grown up too hard, or anything like that, but she for sure hadn't grown up swimming in money. So it was hard for her

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to relate to people that were unrelatable now. She thought that the reason that she felt like she could get along with Vinnie was that Vinnie seemed like he had struggled growing up, and if not with not having wealth, than with keeping it or getting it. But everyone else that flocked to this place in the middle of the desert came straight from money, and would go back straight to money. Most of them anyway. And as Tyra thought about this, she started to get lonely, even though she had people all around her betting on horses, laughing and talking, eating and drinking. She felt more alone than she had in a very long time as she watched the small jockeys ride their horses in lightning fast circles around the track. It was more than just not relating to those around her, it was knowing how those around her would relate to her if they knew more about her.

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Most people here wouldn't even talk to her if they passed her on the street back home. Most of the people here wouldn't be able to find “back home,” on a map because right now Tyra lived in Des Moines, Iowa, a place not known for anything, really. Just when Tyra was feeling at her most down, Vinnie appeared. “Sweetheart, what's the matter,” Vinnie said. He sat down next to her and slipped an arm around her neck. “You look like you're pretty down in the dumps,” he said. “What are you thinking about?” “Well, this will sound silly,” she said. “I mean, really silly. I don't even know if I want to tell you. Is there any way I don't have to

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tell you? I mean, can we just forget about the whole thing and go do something fun?” “Forget about it?” Vinnie said. “No, of course not. I want to know how you are feeling and what's going on inside of your head. It doesn't bode well for me that you are sitting here with such a glum look on your face.” They both sat side by side without speaking as the horses thundered around the track in front of them. “Well, I guess I was just thinking that,” she started. “I was just thinking that maybe . . . Vinnie, I don't know. I don't know what to say. I was just thinking about how I don't belong here.” Vinnie nodded gravely without looking over at her and put her hand on her knee.

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“I know what you are feeling,” Vinnie said. “This place is dead. There isn't any soul here. I felt the same way when I first showed up in this God forsaken town. But let me tell you something, it isn't so bad when it works for you, you know what I mean? All of these people are here because their lives are so shallow and meaningless back home. That's really why they come, isn't it? No one comes here to learn about themselves or grow as a person. No one comes here thinking, 'This will be what's best for my little boy as he grows up.' Well, maybe some of the poor do, and then they end up in the gutter.” Vinnie paused again as horses made their way around the track in front of them loud as a train. “Point being is that no one comes here to get better, people come here to let loose and forget,” he said. “And it used to get me down

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too. And I'd feel all alone because everyone around us is from money, and not the kind of money you earn but the kind of money you're born with. This whole town, every last bit of it, was made so some mid management schmuck in some fortune 500 company could come here and get drunk, and cheat on his wife, and maybe catch a fight, then say something like 'What happens here stays here,' then get back on a plane and go back to where the fuck they came from initially. And yes, that is pretty fucking depressing when you think about it. So I try not to.” There was a lull in the circling of horses around the track and Tyra looked at Vinnie. “What do you think about then?” she asked. “I think about the good things,” he said. “About the jobs that I create and the good people that use them to feed their families. I

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think about the charities I give money to so some of the poor people can get relief from their current plight. I think of my family back home who is depending on me to make things go well here. Things can't go poorly, you know. Everything has been given to me, everyone in the family has been put at my disposal. And if I mess it up then that's it, everything that we earned and all the battles we fought and won were for nothing. So that's what I think about. I also try to avoid the horse track because it is especially bad watching these grand beasts circle the track like this. They were meant for so much more. But if not for the track, then how would we know them? Sure, maybe they should have been left to run wild forever, but most of the horses you see were never out in the wild to begin with. Most of them started in captivity, just like their parents and their parents before them.”

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Vinnie stood up and Tyra stood with him. “Come on, let's head back to the casino,” he said. “There is some art I'd like you to see.” * Vinnie and Tyra spent the rest of the day browsing his fairly substantial art gallery. But as the day wore on, Tyra sensed that Vinnie would send her off at the end of it. She wasn't sure how to feel about it, because she also got the feeling that he would use business as an excuse to distance himself from the event. That wasn't the kind of ending Tyra wanted, even though she knew the reason it would end like that was because Vinnie planned on having her back around, which was good.

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But she would rather he come to the airport to see her off, like he came to pick her up. But that was before. Things had changed now; sex changed things. It wasn't in a bad way, it was just that their dynamic was a little different and not yet romantic enough that she could expect him to see her off like she wanted it to be. The whole day she kept thinking about it until finally he brought it up. “You know, I've had a great couple of days with you,” Vinnie said. “And although I wish we could have had more than one night, sometimes fate does not permit us the opportunity to choose how long we spend with each other.” “Will I be leaving tonight?” she said. Vinnie nodded, then kissed her on the cheek.

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“But I'll have you back soon.” Then everything was a blur, and soon enough she was back in Des Moines standing in the airport terminal, hailing a taxi to take her to her place. Had it all been a dream? She wondered, as the cab pulled up, if people actually had dreams long enough and intense enough they actually believed they had been somewhere else doing something else instead of dreaming. Vinnie did seem like a dream now. One that had ended too quickly. Or had it? What good things could have happened if they would have spent another night together? Maybe they could have connected on an even deeper level, but there was the even more likely chance that the newness might have become threadbare and then they'd have seen the flaws in each other.

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Vinnie was a smart guy to cut it short and keep it sweet. It certainly was making her want more of him. How long she'd have to wait, that would be up to him. But she knew it wouldn't be that long. After all, she was what he wanted, and there was only one of her. Vinnie would be content tonight; he'd think about the last two days and one night with a smile. In a few nights he would get lonely, though. He'd think more and more about how nice it had been to have Tyra around, how hot she was, and how good of a lay she was. Tyra knew this as surely as she knew that the sun would rise the next day. So, as she slipped into her own bed she didn't worry at all about Vinnie or Vegas or any of the stuff that had happened while she'd been there with him. She just smiled and drifted off to sleep. She'd

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see Vinnie again, and when she did, sparks were sure to fly.

Chapter4 Tyra felt good to be back home at first. Being away just for a few days had put her in a nostalgic mood. She wondered how she could feel anything for the Midwest when life could be so hard there, or at least seems that way at times. All of the people in her life were very interested in what had gone on during her vacation. Her fellow workers were especially inquisitive. “So what kind of business was this?” her boss asked. His name was Steve and he was just curious in the good-natured way of Midwestern people. He had no idea that the kind of contest she'd entered was anything but a scam. When she'd pointed out that it had kind of been a scam since none of the men had been eligible as far as she knew. He'd conceded

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the point, but didn't seem convinced it was anything short of amazing. “A casino, among other things,” Tyra said. “There were parts of it that were super glamorous—the theater was very impressive, as was the show but of course there were parts that were less than savory as well.” “Prostitution?” Steve asked. Tyra wasn't offended by the probing, especially since she knew that Steve was just interested in the way someone would be if they saw a comet flash by and could ask it questions as it went. “Nothing like that as far as I know. It's just gambling. I don't know. I never thought it would rub me the wrong way. I mean it's a choice just like everything else. Maybe it isn't the act itself, it's just how much some people

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need to stay away from it and can't. And I'm not so sure about the horse races. I mean, how well they really treat the animals?” “I've heard mixed things when it comes to animal rights about those types of situations,” Steve said as he sipped coffee behind his big desk. “The tracks and the circus and the like. I don't know if they treat them right or not. It's hard to parse out the fact from the fiction sometimes, because you know damn well some of those trainers actually care about the animals. But sometimes the show turns into spectacle and that's when things tend to leave the tracks when it comes to ethics and stuff like that. Like that one movie about the water park with the killer whales. I'm sure you've seen it.” Tyra shifted in her chair. She wasn't in a hurry to end the conversation by any means. She'd wanted to talk to Steve before she left for the trip but he hadn't been around.

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Corporate often called him back home to handle special accounts that needed a certain touch. Steve was the kind of guy who made everyone feel comfortable, even when they were about to sign a very serious legal documents. Steve put Tyra at ease to the point where Tyra had started thinking of him as kind of a father figure. He always asked about her life and never hit on her or even showed any interest at all—Steve had been happily married for longer than Tyra had been alive. They talked about all kind of things, sometimes things that were completely ridiculous to talk about in the work place. Steve didn't hesitate to call Tyra in his office to show her pictures of penguins in Africa, or read a quip from a movie review that was poignant. Tyra had never had a boss like Steve before, one that she genuinely trusted and looked forward to talking with.

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“I haven't, actually,” Tyra said after a pause. “I don't think I could handle it. But the animals aren't what's really on my mind as much as the human who invited me out there.” Steve leaned back in his chair and nodded as he looked out the window thoughtfully, taking a long sip of his coffee. Tyra knew that sometimes he had a hard time finding the right words, or knowing if he even needed words because he should really just sit and listen. She'd never talked to him about a man before but she didn't think that it would be a big deal or anything like that. She wasn't going to say anything that wasn't safe to say at work and she didn't plan on breaking down crying. Besides, she really wanted to hear what Steve thought of the whole thing.

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“Should I,” Steve hesitated, “voice my opinion? I mean, you know as well as I do, most of this stuff. I feel like I'll just be telling you things you already know.” There was a storm moving in from the west. They were both studying it out of his office window. Iowa had a lot of storms, and some of them could turn nasty pretty quickly. It had been awhile since they had had a gentle storm, the kind that people write about to each other in letters, trying to capture the peaceful sound of rain pattering on a roof or the serene scene of snow as large as silver dollars slowly wafting down from clouded skies. “Sometimes it's good to hear what I already know,” Tyra said. “You know how things can be when emotions get involved.”

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“Are emotions involved?” Steve asked. That was a good question. As far as emotions went, Tyra would need to know a whole hell of a lot more about the man that had selected her from all the girls before she could put a big word like “love” on what they were doing. “I guess I'm not sure what we're really doing,” Tyra said. “And I know that sounds bad because I obviously slept with him.” Steve splayed his forearms in front of him, careful not to spill his coffee. “Hey, I don't know that,” Steve said. “And to be honest, I didn't even think about it. Not one bit. You know why? Because whenever I'd start to think about it I'd be like, 'Nope! Don't do it! It's none of your business!' And then I just don't think about it and I think about something else instead, like the weather.”

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Steve gestured to the building storm on the horizon. The weather was something that a lot of people from the Midwest like to fall back on when they didn't have anything else to talk about, or so Tyra had always thought. Maybe there were other things the weather was good for, like growing things. Maybe some people spent a good chunk of their lives out on the prairie and just thought of the weather instead of thinking about other peoples' business. Then again, there were plenty of people who only talked about other peoples' business who had spent their whole life in Iowa. “Well, just because you don't think about it, doesn't mean that other people don't think about it,” she said. “I know no one here is mean enough to say anything, and I mean work people, they are all nice to me. And I don't think word will get around town or

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anything like that since you folks are the only people who even know about it. But I'm just saying, that if it did, it would look a little bit sordid to some people.” Tyra finished and sighed a long, heartfelt sigh. She'd been holding in those words for some time, waiting for the right person to listen. “Was it sordid?” Steve asked. “And I don't ask to judge, and I'm not judging, nor do I care to judge. I'm just walking through the doors that you keep opening up in our conversation. First you mention that you slept with him, now you mention that it was sordid. And you are the only one saying these things.” “Well what do you think,” Tyra asked. “And I don't want to hear about the weather, or about how your dog is sick, or how your kids are doing, or anything else that you could

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think of to keep from just telling me what you think. Oh, I also want to know how it looks, not just what you think. Because I think what you'll think will have the intention of not hurting my feelings.” Steve put the coffee mug to his lips and grimaced. The coffee must have been going cold. One of Steve’s very few pet peeves was cold coffee, even lukewarm coffee. It just disgusted him outright. “God, I hate it when the coffee goes cold all of the sudden,” he said. “This mug is insulated with air, so it's supposed to stay hotter longer. You know, it's like hollow. But it seems to get cold really fast when it does get cold.” Steve's eyes ducked down to the desk when he saw Tyra glowering at him.

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“All right, all right,” he said. “I get it. Fine. I'll tell you what you want to know. My actual thoughts, and what other people think. And since you want to know so badly I'll tell you at length what I think and what others think as well.” Steve poured his coffee in the trash, the last little bit, and set his mug down on his desk with an air of finality. Tyra realized she was going to get exactly what she asked for and now she wasn't sure if she really wanted it. What if he said something horrible? What if it was something that he could never take back, no matter how hard he tried? There were a lot of ‘what ifs ‘going through her mind, but she knew that if she didn't give Steve the chance to speak that she would leave his office and spend the rest of her day sulking at her cubicle like some little kid who didn't have the gumption to open a present for fear of getting the wrong thing.

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“Go,” Tyra said. “Before I change my mind. And quit waiting for me to change my mind already!” Steve just dove in head first. “I frankly don't care what you do. At all. You're a good person, a hard worker, and you're smart. That's really all I care about. I hire people like that because I want my entire staff to be like that, that way I can have people in my office talking about all kinds of things. And please, please, don't think that me not caring what you do is me not caring about you.” Steve paused and looked at his nails for a moment. “But I won't steer you wrong on this one. I would care if what you were doing was all kinds of screwed up. Like you were sleeping with bartenders for shots or something. But

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you aren't. And honestly who wouldn't sleep with the guy who owned the casino and flew them across the country to hang out for a few days? Money, power, social status—all of those things have to do with overall attractiveness whether anyone wants to believe they do or not. That's just how life works. And I bet this guy was a real gentleman, too, wasn't he? I bet he opened doors, and pulled out chairs, and in general was just there for you when you needed him. Wasn't he? Not that you really needed him but he wasn't scarce. Or at least I figure. Correct me if I'm wrong, because if he treated you poorly then my mind changes.” Tyra shook her head. “You're on the right track about his behavior,” she said. “He made himself very available. But I got the feeling that it was like a

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vacation for him. But that doesn't mean that he was there all the time. He had to do some stuff, casino stuff, I guess. I don't know what it was but he was occupied a good chunk of the day after. Then that night I took off.” Steve nodded his head, then put his hands together so that the pads of his splayed fingers braced off each other in the age old profile of someone thinking. “Well, like I said, the man runs a pretty big business,” Steve said. “So he'd be gone for a little bit of it.” Tyra nodded. “So, let me guess,” Steve said. “Let me guess one thing. And you don't have to answer if you don't want to. And I honestly don't know. And don't take this the wrong way and freak out or anything.”

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Steve had never prefaced anything he'd said like this to her before. It made her nervous. “It'll be fine,” Steve said hurriedly, like he'd seen panic on her face and was trying to quell her fear. “All I'm guessing is that the guy wasn't from this country, although he's form a western country.” Tyra nodded. She didn't see how that was so relevant. “Why does that matter, though?” she asked. “It just makes the whole contest thing less weird, especially if he's French, Spanish, or Italian,” Steve said. “Listen, I know that I may be born and bred from around here, but I've traveled my fair share. Hell, the company used to send me around the world just to keep me happy. Then I realized I was happier here than gallivanting around the globe.

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But now the home office wants to keep trotting me around the east coast like that's cool or something. I don't even like the east coast.” Steve realized he was going off on a tangent and leaned forward in his chair. “But what I'm getting at is: To other people not of this nation the whole game show thing isn't really that creepy. It's more harmless than anything. But I don't mean games show, I mean whatever contest you entered into. Whatever. It doesn't matter what it was exactly. I'm just saying that to the guy, he just wanted to see if he could get a pretty lady to come out to him.” Tyra's eyes strayed back out to the storm coming in. “I didn't even think about that beyond just a little bit of thought about how the thing was kind of a scam. I guess I was too happy to be

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going out there,” she said. “But why wouldn't he just run the same kind of thing on social media?” “It has to do with making things harder so people don't waste your time,” Steve said. “It's like with grant money: the longer and more tedious the application the more money at stake. If he'd put it on Facebook everyone would have applied, and then been like, 'Eww, a casino,' or whatever else because they weren't actually looking to go to Vegas and have fun for a weekend. Which, in a very roundabout way, brings me to what I think. I think it's great that you got laid and had a blast. I think that's what's supposed to happen. How weird would it have been if you didn't sleep with him? I guess it wouldn't have been that weird, really. But at the same time it would have been a huge let down, wouldn't it?”

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Tyra nodded her head. “I'd probably have regretted it,” she said. “Well there you go,” Steve said. “And I'm with you on that. Now, as far as what other people think, well, they are going to be jealous. Although there will be some people like myself who just think it was all pretty normal, really. I know that you and he probably want to keep a little bit taboo in your heads, and maybe it was a little bit racy, but at the same time I think it was normal. So as far as people think, I think that they'll probably think that you are a very beautiful woman who knows what she wants and how to get it, but also knows how to just have fun.” “I don't know if I like the sound of all that, Steve,” she said. “It sounds like people will think I'm some kind of floozy.”

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“Let's be real, Tyra,” Steve said with a tone of finality. “Most people, and by most I mean like ninety percent, are never even going to know that this happened unless you tell them.” “That's true,” Tyra said. The conversation was winding down and the storm outside was rolling in. Whenever a storm darkened the sky Steve like to sit alone in his office and either work or pretend to work while he read a romance novel. It was one of the things that made Tyra really like Steve, the way he knew how to keep things in a good humor. Life was serious enough without people always trying to make it even more serious, however which way they could think of at that moment.

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“Don't worry about it,” Steve said. “Seriously, I wouldn't put another thought into what anyone else thinks about it. At all. It isn't going to do any good anyway.” Tyra nodded and stood to leave. “And Tyra,” Steve said. “Don't over-think things.

Some

things

are

like

cotton

candy—they are just fun!” * Tyra found that not telling people was a lot harder than she'd anticipated. Not that she told people, she kept it to herself, it was just that such a story seemed like it needed to be told. It didn't seem fair to just leave it deep inside of her. She really wanted to tell people and realized quickly how few real friends she had. She pretty much had just one girlfriend to tell and that was it. So she confided in that

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one friend over Martinis. She had to tell someone, she decided. It was just killing her not to. And who wouldn't tell someone, after such a great time? “Has he called or texted you since?” Roxanne asked. Roxanne was about the only other person in Tyra's life who managed to stay a constant, besides Steve. She'd met Roxanne through bicycling, something they both enjoyed very much when the weather allowed it. Recently, with the seasons teetering between the brink of fall and winter, things hadn't quite been as simple as getting on their bikes and taking off around town like they didn't have a care in the world. And since neither of them were really hardcore riders, they didn’t ride in the snow. Neither of them had to ride like some people

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just had to; although both knew the pleasure people felt when they saw the pavement flying by underneath them. What they both needed right now was to get drunk, and Tyra could feel Roxanne was feeling a little naughty and would either want to talk about her weekend or pick up guys. Maybe both. “No calls or texts,” Tyra answered. “And honestly we didn't really exchange any information.” Roxanne gasped. This somehow upset her delicate sensibilities, while the different guy she took home every weekend didn't. “Oh, so what, you're going to judge me because of it?” Tyra asked. “Nothing like that,” Roxanne said. “I'm just being dramatic, a good listener.”

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“You don't need to be dramatic. This whole thing has enough of that in spades. But no, we didn't exchange any information. I know where he works, you know what I mean?” They both laughed. The talk about Tyra's weekend died off as both women scoped out the bar around them. They were at a hip little bar called The Lift. It was an alright place to drink if one wanted to see other bar goers, just very few of them. The place wasn't big enough to hold even one hundred people but still managed to be fun and engaging, way more so than the surrounding establishments. It was pretty much the place that Tyra and Roxanne went to drink when they wanted to drink alone and not have to worry about other people intruding on their conversation or listening in.

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It was also good for watching boys who were there to impress hip girls, and although Tyra and her friend were excluded from being “hip” by most peoples' definition, they were still young attractive females. “Oh my goodness,” Roxanne said. “Look at that one there.” She pointed with her chin across the bar at a group of frat boys, the leader of which had taken off his dress shirt and now had bulging muscles straining against his undershirt. “You should take him home, girl,” Tyra said. Roxanne was a bombshell blonde, with big tits and an even bigger ass. She wasn't the kind of girl who just picked boys up from the bar, though. She liked a certain kind of boy, the bad boy type that still managed to be intellectual, somehow. Those kinds were the

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hardest to come by, of course, especially around Des Moines, Iowa. Around Des Moines the bad boys had been too busy huffing glue to be concerned with trying to keep their heads on straight enough to retain some culture. Or so Roxanne and Tyra would tell each other often, but not tonight. Tonight, Roxanne really seemed like she wanted to take someone home. Tyra wondered if it had something to do with her trip to Vegas. “I don't know if I can,” Roxanne said. “He's so drunk! Look at him! Even though he's cute I don't think it makes up for that amount of drunk. It's just too much.” “Maybe you're right,” Tyra said. “You'd hate to find out that he's too drunk to fuck after you get home. Which will probably be the

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case considering he just poured half a beer on his crotch and hasn't even felt it yet.” “Oh my God, you're right!” Roxanne said. “Holy fucking shit he did spill on his crotch! It looks like he's wet his pants!” They both had a pretty good chuckle at his expense. Nights like this were why the two girls were such close friends, they could bond over the trivial things that made them laugh behind their beers. “Not to turn tonight to be completely about me,” Tyra said. “But do you think he'll call me? Or whatever. He could very well text me or email me. None of my information is hard to track down at all.” “Oh, baby,” Roxanne said. “The guy is probably just busy. What did you say he did? Ran a fucking casino, for crying out loud? That

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sounds like some pretty serious shit, if you don't mind me saying. I've never dated a guy that's run anything, much less an entire casino.” “Didn't you date that one guy who ran his own pizzeria?” Tyra asked. “That guy was nice, and his pizza was good!” “Speaking of which,” Roxanne said leaning in close toward Tyra, “guess who’s been hitting me up lately? And I lurked his Instagram and he's lost a bunch of weight. But it also makes me wonder if he didn't just come off of some bad break up. You know how people seek validation after a split, not just from the ex but from everyone else.” “You mean how everyone discovers the gym right after they get dumped?” Tyra said. “Yeah, that shit is so annoying. More power to people who want to get in shape, but can we please skip the come to Jesus social

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media posts? It's the God damn gym, for crying out loud.” They kept chatting and Roxanne revealed that her pizza-making heartthrob and she had actually been sending each other various communiques for a few months’ time now. It was just that Roxanne was lonely enough to want to spend some time with him. He was a nice guy, she was the first to admit, and she couldn't ever figure out why things didn't click with him. “It's like I don't want to be happy, you know? As much as I'll go on and on talking about how I want to be happy, really, I don't want to be happy. Really, I want to keep looking and looking for the perfect guy until I find him. And for the single moment, before I cross the bar and realize that he just spilled a cup of beer on his cock, everything in the world will sparkle with possibilities. And that's what I really want, just the world to be right for a single moment. I'm not sure what

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that says about me, though, that it takes some drunk frat boy loser to spill his beer on his crotch for me to realize that my real dreams should probably rest a little bit higher than the fly of some college jock.” Sometimes Roxanne got a little dark of thought when she was drunk, and that usually signaled that not only would she not be taking anyone home, but that she would be going home herself shortly. Tyra drove Roxanne home, glad that she'd only had a couple as she listened to her slur her words as she said the same thing over and over about guys, and about how lonely she was. By the time Tyra dropped her friend off the cold words about men and love had rattled her badly. Who was she to think that anything between her and some stranger in Las Vegas was ever

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going to work out? Who did she think she was, anyway? Those questions wafted through her mind on the voice of her mother, the same voice that could uplift her spirits with a word or dash them with a murmur. Tyra's mother always wondered why Tyra didn't call all that often, preferring to write lengthy letters. It was because on the page there was no room for her mother's voice, there was only her own. But on the phone her mother could interject. But it wasn't that her mother was a bad person, or that she put Tyra down, or made Tyra feel stupid about her life choices—it wasn't anything like that. It was just that when Tyra heard her mother's voice and thought about how it sounded when she was a child and how someday she would never hear her mother's voice again, she nearly staggered

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under the enormity of what it was to be a mother, and what it meant to be a daughter. Both things were taken too lightly by her peers, and Tyra often times wondered what would happen to all the glib, cynical women who ate up Sex in the City but wouldn't give real love a chance when their mothers passed away. What would they write on their mother's headstones? “Jesus, when did I get so negative?” Tyra said to herself as she pulled into her driveway. It must have been the way Roxanne had gotten all down on life. She did that sometimes. But when she did it was usually warranted. There was something about the way the hot frat boy had turned out to be just another wasted jock that had seemed a little bit allegorical, especially for Roxanne. She was

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always chasing after the guy of her dreams only to find out he was a douche bag, and when the guy turned out to be good, even great, she always ran away. Was that what was happening with her and Vinnie? Had he found someone great and in doing so found what he needed to run from? Tyra didn't know for certain, and realized that she might never know at all as she got out of her car and headed into her apartment complex.

Chapter5 Tyra found a voice mail on her cell the next day after work. It was Gizmo. He wanted her to come to his office. When she said she'd see him there shortly, he hurried to tell her that he was at a different office from last time. Tyra copied and pasted the address from the text message into an online search engine and found that the new office wasn't that far from the old one. When she walked in, she found the new office much like the last. Something told her that whoever was putting Gizmo up in these offices was renting the entire place just so the Gizmo had a place to work completely away from prying eyes. From what she remembered, Gizmo had been a nice guy, but that didn't mean that nice guys didn't do bad

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things, weren't capable of doing horrible things. In fact, Tyra knew that it was just the opposite. That the nicest people, or the seemingly nicest people, were oftentimes the ones doing the most nefarious things out of sight and mind. “Well, hello!” Gizmo said when Tyra entered his office. “You're just the person I wanted to see! I guess that's why I texted you and told you that I wanted to see you. Funny how that works.” Tyra had a seat. Gizmo’s new office was a lot like the last, except this time the context was different because she'd seen the last office to compare it to. This office seemed less minimalist than just plain stark—it wasn't so much that Gizmo didn't need or want material things as it was that Gizmo knew he'd only be in the office for a month or so, maybe less, so why hang anything on the walls at all?

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“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Tyra asked. “Well you see, Vinnie really likes you. And I'm not going to lie, I didn't expect that to happen at all. He's just not that way with women most of the time, you know what I'm saying? He's not an asshole or anything, it's just that he really isn't into the whole relationship thing. Most of the time. But this time might be different, so hopefully you are into that.” “What did he say?” “Nothing too crazy, just that he wants to see you again and enjoy your company. I guess that is pretty crazy to hear from him. He also said that you had a good head on your shoulders and he admired your mind because of its empathy? I have no fucking idea

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what that's all about, but maybe you do. There was probably some deep conversation you guys had.” “Oh. I guess we did have a couple.” “Do you remember what you wrote down on your application? You probably don't. I remember you looking pretty drunk from the pictures, not that you didn't look good, though. You just looked wasted. But I wasn't privy to what you wrote down.” “What do you mean?” “There was a little questionnaire that you evidently don't remember filling out. It wasn't important or anything like that, but it showed Vinnie that you had a good head on your shoulders from the start. It's just strange to hear him repeat the head on the shoulders thing. And actually a little creepy

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when you think about heads just resting on shoulders. I mean, what if they fell off!?” Tyra chuckled with Gizmo at this. She eyed his desk, looking for anything that might betray what he really did for Vinnie. She was starting to think there was something going on besides just an effort being made at privacy. Why go to all this trouble to hide what was going on? In all reality no one cared. No one cared that Tyra had flown across the country to Las Vegas and fucked some guy that she barely knew because he was hot and nice and owned a casino. And certainly no one in Las Vegas would care that Vinnie was running a strange dating game. That was, unless something else was going on entirely. “What about Vinnie's family overseas?” Tyra asked.

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Gizmo stopped what he was doing, rifling through papers in one of his desk drawers, and squinted at Tyra. “What about the family?” Tyra felt the room go cold around her. “I was just wondering what they thought of me? Do they know about me?” she said. Gizmo gave her a strange look before going back to what he'd been doing. “I'm not sure if he's told the family. I doubt it, though. But it really isn't my place to think that far into Vinnie's affairs. There isn't any real point in me thinking about what Vinnie does or what the family does because they do what they want and I do what they say. And when I keep things simple like that, then life

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is simple and I just go about doing my job and everyone is happy.” This explanation made Tyra all the more uncomfortable. Why was there the need to put up some strange kind of smoke screen? Why in the world did Gizmo get so defensive about a rich family living in Italy? There were a lot of questions. Luckily they weren't quite red flags yet, Tyra told herself, but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't turn into red flags. Or had she already missed them? Had the red flags come and gone, or had they just been there all along? Tyra was beginning to think that she needed to start doing her own homework on Vinnie and his family, especially since it appeared that Vinnie had taken a genuine interest in her. Up until this point she'd never gotten the idea that anything else was going on than what Vinnie told her was going on, because

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why would he lie to her when he was in the position he was in? Guys like Vinnie, Tyra thought, didn't have to lie because they had it all. Once you have it all you don't have to project your pretenses on other people. Once you have it all, you just go about your life and do what you want. But did Vinnie have it all? When she had been in Vegas, he'd kept referring to some kind of power struggle. And maybe there was a reason that he couldn't pick a mate from the many super attractive women with money in LasVegas. There had to be. But what was it? Something that Tyra hadn't thought about, hadn't even thought to think about, something that she overlooked or missed or ignored. It could be anything, it could even be nothing, but even if the reasoning was null, it was still null enough to something she wanted to know about.

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“Hey, are you listening to me?” Gizmo said. “I'm sorry my mind was elsewhere,” Tyra answered. “What were you saying?” “No need to be sorry,” Gizmo said. “I know you just came from work. It takes time to get your mind back, you know? But I really envy you, and I want you to know that. Even though I'll bet your job sucks a little bit of your soul away each day, or at least drains you, you get to walk away from it. I have to live my job every day. That's the kind of business I'm in, the one that goes on in the waking and sleeping hours. It never really stops.” What was he talking about? As far as Tyra could discern, Gizmo was little more than a weird guy that did strange things for Vinnie. “What exactly do you do for Vinnie again?” she asked.

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Gizmo's eyes averted for a second, but unlike Steve the day prior, there was no storm to entertain them. They were just stuck with each other in a small room, talking. And Tyra was starting to want some real answers. “Vinnie and the family run a bunch of businesses,” Gizmo said. “Here, let me break it down like this. So there is a kind of family estate, but it isn't just one thing, see. It's many things, and in many ways it's just one thing. So the money and power, they are kind of fluid, and although I'm not saying that there aren't banks that we use, what we really invest in is people. We put our trust and faith in people and we hope that it pans out in the long run, even though time and again, people prove to be spineless pieces of shit.”

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Gizmo's beeper went off, and he pulled it off his belt to look at it. Who had a beeper in this day and age, Tyra thought. “Ah, that's Vinnie right now,” Gizmo said. “Just dropping me a line to see how life is going for me out here, and if I've talked to you yet. I'll answer him later. Vinnie is a really great guy to work for, very laid back. But when he needs to be, he's a fighter, a pit bull. And at the same time he's got brand new ideas that the family is wary about but he's pressing forward with his vision and really starting to make a lot of money out there in Las Vegas.” Tyra nodded, pretending to understand. The only thing that was really becoming clear, though, was that she had much to learn yet about Vinnie, and not just what his favorite color is.

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“Anyway,” Gizmo said. “Here. Take this plane ticket. It’s first class like the last time, we don't cram people into coach unless we are really desperate to get them somewhere in a hurry and there is no other way. Plan on spending some time out there. Nothing set, Vinnie hates locking romantic stuff into deadlines and start dates, but maybe a week or something? Don't worry about your work, I sent them an email right as you walked in and I'm sure they'll be very receptive.” Tyra nodded and took the ticket. They exchanged goodbyes and she left, but not before she shot Roxanne a text. She needed someone to talk to. * “So, what? You think this guy is some kind of criminal? Like money laundering?” Roxanne asked.

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They were back at The Lift, but there wasn't a crowd so early in the afternoon. Roxanne had just gotten off of work as well so that made it about four o'clock. Neither of them were really drinking, only sipping a single Martini they would nurse until they both thought they'd talked enough. “Let's look him up,” Roxanne said. “Do you know his first and last name?” “Yeah, but it's long and Italian,” Tyra said. “Here, let me type it in your phone for you. His last name has more letters than the alphabet and sounds Italian for ambrosia.” Tyra handed Roxanne back the phone so she could be the one to hit enter and start the search. When the results came back there seemed to be no focus to any of it, like there were so many different people with the

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name, and so many instances of the word ambrosia. “Let's narrow it down,” Roxanne said. She started tacking words on like criminal, record, crime, and even the words bad guy. “Bad guy?” Tyra said. “He's not a cartoon!” They both laughed. “I found something!” Roxanne said. “Look! Look at this!” Vinnie's family was involved in some very shady deals happening over in Italy, most of them having to do with large amounts of money and politics. At first, Tyra didn't see anything wrong with it; sometimes large, powerful families really, really liked to have things their way, and sometimes their way

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involved putting people in positions of power. But the more she and Roxanne read, the more there was to read, until Tyra got tired of looking over Roxanne’s shoulder and pulled her own phone out. An hour went by, and their Martinis were replaced with new ones. The more Tyra read, the more it became obvious there was a good chance that Vinnie was involved in some things that were much less than legal. Tyra still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, though. Who was she to judge someone else? She hadn't come from a rich and powerful family who had to struggle with the rest of the world. She wondered what it would be like to grow up in that kind of environment, to know that the other people in the same businesses as your family would be doing everything they could to put you and yours in the poor house, post-haste.

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“There was some kind of shoot-out at his father's restaurant,” Roxanne said, her face lit by her phone’s glowing screen. “The headline reads 'Gangland Violence Erupts as Ceasefire Ends.'” Tyra quickly pulled up the article that Roxanne was reading. It was hard to understand because of how poorly the internet translated it to English, but it seemed like some armed thugs had walked into Vinnie's dad's restaurant and lit the place up with machine gun fire. The article went on to describe how Vinnie's family was one of the bigger crime families in Italy, and how they had international aspirations. Which made Vinnie's casino make a lot more sense, and also all of the talking he did about people in Las Vegas wanting to push him out, or not wanting him there at all. And how he wanted to bring new ideas and ways of doing things to Las Vegas. A lot of things started to make sense.

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“Are you going to end it?” Roxanne asked. “Do you think I should?” Tyra retorted. “It's up to you, sweetheart,” Roxanne said. “I can't make that decision for you.” Tyra thought about it for a few seconds, but in her heart the decision was already made up. She liked Vinnie, and didn't care if his family and he were in some shadier business than just running a casino. “I'm going to go back,” Tyra said. “I just got another first class ticket today and I'm going to use it. I can't see why I shouldn't. I get that maybe this isn't the smartest thing to do, but really, who cares if the guy’s family is in the mob half way around the world.” Roxanne raised her glass.

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“Cheers to that, then!” They clinked their glasses together and drank. * The plane ride was worse than the last one. Tyra got seated behind a family with three little children who wouldn't stop jumping around their seats. For a moment she wondered why the staff wouldn't put the little hellions back in coach, but then she realized that without the little shits in front of her, all she would have to do would be to sit and think that maybe she was making a huge mistake by going back to Las Vegas to see Vinnie. After all, even after talking it over with Steve and Roxanne, she wasn't completely sold on everything that had happened and was happening.

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She just wasn't sure how she was going to play it. Would she bring up any of what she'd found out to Vinnie or just pretend like everything was all right? She didn't really have a leg to stand on when it came to telling him how to live his life and run his business, especially since she had no idea how true any of what she had read was. What if she brought it up to him and he turned around and told her she was a fool for believing something that was published on the internet to slander his family’s good name? That would probably sour the trip pretty quickly. And Tyra did want the trip to go well, even though Vinnie wasn't being up front with her about everything. “What's your name?” One of the little boys in front of her asked, peeking over the back of his seat.

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“Baby, leave the nice lady alone,” the boy’s mother said. Tyra smiled at the mom and peered over the child’s seat to get a better look at the parents. Tyra always wondered what it would have been like to have kids and settle down early. She'd opted out of that for a lot of reasons, the biggest being because she felt like she'd be cheating herself out of a lot of great experiences. She still wanted to backpack across Europe, visit China, and do all sorts of things. But as time went by she came to realize more and more that unless you were super rich, those kind of things weren’t always an option. Even with Vinnie there were limitations to his life. He couldn't just do as he pleased. He had to defend his family's business and good name. He had to do things he was told on a daily basis, whereas, Tyra did not. She wondered what it would be like to

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be important enough to have every decision you made matter a very great deal. “Lady,” the boy whispered from in front of her. “What's your name?” “My name is Tyra,” she whispered back. The parents started scolding the little boy again and Tyra drifted off into her head to think about what lay ahead of her while she looked at the window. Not everything would be so easy, and she needed to accept that. So far things had been easy though, she'd done little more than show up to Las Vegas to bask in the adoration of a man who didn’t really know her, but wanted to. Even without all of the turmoil about Vinnie's business, they would face some pretty steep uphill struggles, considering how different they were as people and how different their

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backgrounds were —just the normal couple stuff that tore people apart in the blink of an eye. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she was going to have to stop worrying about the sordid details concerning Vinnie. There just wouldn't be enough time to discuss it the right way, and right now she didn't have enough political capital in the relationship to make Vinnie sit down and tell her every little detail of what was going on. And it wasn't that she even wanted every little detail, in fact she'd rather be left in the dark about a lot of things. But she would like to know the bare bones of what was going on. She didn't like to not know anything. It really stung her that she hadn't been told any part of Vinnie's real life on her first visit. But it was easy to think that when she was mad and on a plane ride. In reality he had gone on in length about his life and some of the

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struggles he faces in Las Vegas, which, she had to remind herself, was not the kind of town that had a reputation for being a warm and fuzzy place. Las Vegas had a reputation for chewing people up and spitting them out, but somehow Vinnie had managed to not only survive but thrive. Tyra didn't want to penalize him for that. Her own family hadn't been model citizens at times while she had been growing up. They hadn't exactly been rich either, in fact they'd been very poor. This had put her parents in positions that were less than savory sometimes. Her mother had always tried to do the right thing no matter what, but her father wasn't above doing something he'd later regret. Tyra couldn't remember the amount of times that her father had spent sitting in the county jail, not far from their home. It hadn't

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been years or anything like that, but she could clearly remember a few holidays when he father hadn't been around because he'd been caught stealing something to make their lives better, or moonlighting at some job without the right certification or something like that. She needed to keep her judgments to herself, she thought. She needed to let Vinnie show her a good time and, like Steve had said, let the fun things be fun. Not everything had to be some kind of internal struggle, some things were just there to be enjoyed. And maybe that's how her relationship with Vinnie needed to be. By the time the plane landed she had talked herself in and out of worrying several times.

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Chapter6 “Vincent Ambrosiano, at your service.” The hand extended was attached to one of the biggest smiles Tyra had ever seen hovering over it. When she reached for Vinnie's hand he drew her up in a hug that made it hard to breathe. “How have you been, eh?” Vinnie said. “Has Iowa been treating you, well? I've been reading up on that place a little bit and some of it is actually rather fascinating.” Vinnie took her luggage from her and they made their way to his car, parked where it had been the first time. “What do you mean?” she said.

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“Well, for starters the weather there is completely out of control. There is flooding in the spring time, droughts in the summer, blizzards in the winter, and tornadoes nearly year round. Then, beyond the apocalyptic weather that rocks your state, the government there has some very real corruption issues.” “Really?” Tyra said. “What do you mean?” Vinnie jumped in the driver’s seat while she got in the passenger side. This time the car was a convertible of some kind. Tyra didn't know what kind because she didn't know anything about cars but it was the kind of vehicle that she heard people routinely refer to as a muscle car. “Well,” Vinnie said as he took them out on the freeway in the direction they'd gone last time. “It's kind of complicated. But not

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really. Nothing about politics is every really that complicated unless the people in charge want it to be that complicated. An easy example of some blatant corruption is that the governor's son killed someone in a drunk driving accident years ago and more or less didn't get in any real trouble.” “What!?” Tyra said. “And that's not all,” Vinnie said. “The state board that controls the state universities keeps giving itself a raise while hiking the tuition amount, and this is amidst, of course, very hard times for everyone else. Including the universities themselves.” “Wow,” Tyra said. “I guess I just didn't know.” “I got really into reading about it one night,” Vinnie said. “American politics are always

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fascinating to me. People here don't really realize what is going on, ever, and somehow the people in charge get away with it. And what I mean by that, because I now you're going to ask, is that I kept reading that Des Moines, and even Ames, the college town to its due north, are considered 'little Chicagos' because they are so corrupt. That got me interested in Chicago politics and I read a little bit about that, but then it became apparent that in order for me to read about all of the fucked up things going on there I'd have to spend several days reading, so I just cut it short.” The day was gorgeous, the sun shining. It wasn't hot out at all because it was winter. The seventy-five degree day felt like heaven after how brisk Iowa had been. Vinnie was quiet for a second as he wove through traffic, and Tyra thought about how strange it was that he would find the goings-on of her little

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town to be something that he wanted to invest his time learning about. Maybe he was just curious. It was funny that while his own possible misdeeds and those of his family had been on her mind during the flight, the corruption of her own state was on his mind now. He had just told her several things that she hadn't known about, and she wondered what else he knew about the state. “So, did you learn anything else about Iowa that you found interesting?” Tyra asked at last. “The water there is very, very dirty. The farmers fertilize with nitrates that get in the water and cause small plant forms in the water to flourish. Oftentimes this causes all the fish in a given body of water to die. Also the water is dirty because the manure from cow lots and pig lots will often wash into other bodies of water.

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Besides that Iowa just isn't doing that well economically. They won't legalize weed because the governor is so against it, so instead of having an easy way to suck a bunch of money out of the surrounding states they just keep barely eking out a living with corn and soybeans.” “What do you mean, that they would suck money out of the surrounding states?” “Just look at the marijuana tourism trade going on in the great state of Colorado to the east! They make a plant legal and millions come to them! But this kind of thing will only happen to states that make the plant like booze, and do so before the other states in this nation's union get the chance.” Vinnie looked over at Tyra at the same time he jerked the car's wheel so that their car

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barely slid around the van in front of them as they passed, doing about thirty over the speed limit. The car's engine roared, then hummed as they slowed down to cruising speed. “How do you know so much about this when you aren't even from here and you have a casino to run?” Tyra asked him incredulously. Vinnie just laughed. “It's all money! And money makes the world go round. Or so some people believe. I tend to think that it's a combination of things. But the way this nation has so many things going on at the same time, things that contradict each other completely, kind of interests me just for the sake of taking it all in. There is much to be learned from this place. My

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nation of Italy, even with all its history, could do to take some lessons from this place.” The rest of the ride they didn't talk, although Tyra couldn't help but throw some sidelong glances at Vinnie. He looked so good in his tight black dress shirt. There was something about how he always dressed in black that reminded Tyra a lot of Johnny Cash. And even though it was the desert, Vinnie had yet to wear anything even close to resembling short sleeves and flip flops. The car they were in this time was powerful, that much was sure, and the dark gloss of the paint job matched Vinnie's black aviators well. The whole thing was an outfit—the car, the clothes, the shades. Was she part of the outfit, or was she an actual person to Vinnie? That was something that she asked herself as they ducked and dodged through traffic, moving through the cars rolling along the interstate like they were racing someone.

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Flashes of light kept going off behind them as Vinnie gunned it up on a ramp and into the lane of traffic that would eventually bring them to his casino. “What are all of those flashes?” Tyra asked. “They keep going off behind us. They don't seem to be set on any regular interval, though.” “Those are the speed cameras,” Vinnie said. “One of this city’s biggest taxes on the rich who like to drive fast. Everyone here just takes it on the chin, like good like boys and girls. No one fights it, no one even steps in court to contest it.” “You do?” Vinnie laughed.

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“No, I don't have time for that. But every few days I put a fresh coat of hairspray on my license plate so that it's nice and shiny. That way when the flash hits it all it picks up is a glare.” “Is that legal?” “I think it's actually very against the law,” Vinnie said. “But how would they prove that it was me putting it on there and not just something that I splashed off the road onto my plates? They'd have to drag me into court, and then they'd have to get me to confess to the whole thing while on the stand. If they were really serious they could charge me with perjury while the trial was still going on. But then I could sue them back for being shitheads. I'm not sure what the legal term here is, but you know what I'm talking about. The thing you do back to people who take

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you to court knowing they can't win. They do it just to waste time.” Tyra nodded. She'd heard of much of this before now. “Anyway, here we are!” The casino was already lit up for the night, but this time instead of just a soft white light there were all kinds of colors splashed across the grand building. Once again they used the secret entrance and everyone that saw gawked as the owner of the casino entered the building through its side to have the wall close up behind him. * That night in Vinnie's master bedroom there were candles burning and food on display. Tyra felt like the most special girl in the

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whole world, knowing that all of it had been done for her. The hotel part of the casino was quiet and she felt like they were the only two on the whole floor. When she mentioned it to Vinnie she got an answer she wasn't expecting. “That's because we are all alone! I made everyone else go somewhere else for the night,” he said. “What?! Where did they all go?” “I gave vouchers to other floors for those that couldn't figure it out, but most people didn't even mind. It's not hard to be out all night in this town. I think most people are going to end up gambling all night like they usually do. You have to keep in mind that this is a hotel, not an apartment complex, so most people aren't really settled in. Most people

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just live out of a suitcase while they are here.” Vinnie popped the cork out of a champagne bottle with a flick of his wrist and watched it bounce off the ceiling before landing in one of the vases filled with flowers. The whole room was filled with flowers. Tyra couldn't believe that Vinnie had gone to all the trouble on the first night. It seemed like something that would be climactic, and since this was night one, she wondered what the rest of the nights would be like. Maybe Vinnie had some very amazing tricks up his sleeve that he'd pull out in the future to dazzle her even more. “What are we doing the rest of the week, baby?” Tyra asked as Vinnie handed her a glass of champagne.

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“We're going out to the desert for a little bit!” Vinnie said. “You know how it is with workers, you always have to be keep after them.” He threw his head back and laughed. “Not really. It isn't their fault and I shouldn't jest as such in case one of them were to hear. I just need to be out there for a day or two in order to make sure that a project of mine goes just as it should. You'll come with and we'll make it a couple of days hiking and camping vacation in the desert out of it! It won't even be like real camping, though. I'm pretty sure there is a mobile home already waiting for us that has air conditioning and very limited supply of running water.” “That sounds fun!” Tyra said as she took some food from a platter and put it on her plate. They both ate without speaking while music played softly in the background. Tyra had

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never heard it before, some kind of classical music, and thought to ask Vinnie about it but didn't want to interrupt the meal or sound uncultured about it. She was trying to take special pains not to annoy Vinnie by asking him to explain every little thing to her, even though there were so many things she was dying to know. Like where had all the flowers come from when they were in the middle of the desert? Who had prepared the food? Was the chef good? And so many other questions that she knew Vinnie would find mundane because this really wasn't a vacation to him, this was just his life, the only one he had. And he was living it the only way he knew how. Tyra realized that she was glad Vinnie had decided that, for at least the week, she got to be a part of his life. She wasn't sure yet if she wanted it to go any further than that, even

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though in the past few days it was all her mind seemed to want to drift to, and she figured that Vinnie didn't know either. Not really. So when he put his arms around her she nuzzled back into him. He felt so good against her. His body was a lot of muscle, even though it didn't bulge or look bulky on his somewhat slim figure. Tyra perked her ass up and wiggled back into Vinnie's crotch as he ran his hands all over her body from behind. It was such a good feeling to feel wanted. She loved the way that Vinnie always seemed to need her right then, with an urgency. It wasn't like with other guys where they were slow or timid. Vinnie was like a man in the desert dying of thirst and she was the oasis. He wanted her so badly, and not just to have her but to experience her in her entirety. The way his hands became frantic as they went from sliding up and down her curvaceous black body to

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groping her large tits, turned her on so much. There wasn't anything like the beginning throes of passion with a man who knew what he was doing, and wanted more than anything to do it. “Oh my God, Tyra, I want you so much. You look so fucking good, baby, I can't help that I want you this much. You aren't upset with me? You don't want me to be like other guys and pretend that I'm scared to touch you, do you? I know you don't, baby. I know you aren't like other girls who like to pretend that they don't want it,” Vinnie said. He started to pull off her clothes, starting with her shirt. Tyra worked as quickly as she could to get her shirt off, trying to be careful not to rip the buttons off. “I like how you want me so bad. I don't want you to be timid like a little boy. I want you to

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be a man and I want you to want me like a man. I want you to act like I'm the only woman in the entire world and you haven't been with another besides me. I want you to make love to me like we're going to die tomorrow. That's what I want,” Tyra said. Vinnie tried working her skirt off, but couldn't manage to undo one of the clasps in the front so Tyra had to help him. She always had to help guys undress her. Since she was curvy there were a lot of clasps and buttons that had to be undone. It wasn't realistic to expect someone who had never worn her clothes before to navigate the maze on their own. When they finally got her naked, Vinnie stripped down faster than anyone she’d ever seen strip in her life. It was like the clothes had just fallen off all on their own, or like they were the breakaway clothes that some people wore to the gym.

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“You like my dick, baby? Do you think I've got a good dick? It's big, but not too big, right?” Vinnie asked. “I love you're fucking dick, baby. It's so big and I love the way it throbs inside of me. You're dick curves just right so it hits all the right spots. I wouldn't have your dick any other way, baby. Now come over here so I can suck on it!” As soon as Vinnie got close, Tyra was on her knees ready to suck his dick. She took it in her hands gently and worked her hand up and down it carefully. She loved how it felt when all of the veins stuck out on it. It was so hard and she could feel his heart beat when she held onto it. She also liked that Vinnie never talked about his dick until it was out and hard. Unlike so many guys who talked about dicks that weren't what they should have been when they pulled them out, dicks

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that didn't live up to the hype that they preached. Vinnie's cock was bigger than he let on. Even when it was out and throbbing in the air in front of him he never exaggerated it. Instead he minimized a little bit, acted like it was as giant as it appeared. But it was just as big as it looked, if not a little bit bigger. It was hard to tell without measuring it, and Tyra didn't care exactly how big it was as long as it made her feel good. And it made her feel good to cram as much of it as she could in her mouth. She wasn't very good at deep throating, never had been. But she really liked to suck dick. She loved it, in fact. But she especially loved it when the cock had a lot of girth, and Vinnie’s dick was very, very thick.

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“Baby, get up and bend over the coach. Yeah, just like that baby. Bend on the coach like that and perk your ass up in the air. Just like that baby. You look so fucking good right now. Jesus fucking Christ do you ever look so fucking good.” “Take me, Vinnie. I'm bent over for you now and I want you to pound my pussy with your giant cock. Please fuck me, baby. I can't wait anymore. I've waited long enough. I need you to fuck me now, right now!” Vinnie slipped his big cock into her from behind. She loved how it felt when he first entered her. Her pussy always strained to accommodate his big tool. Vinnie reached around and squeezed her big, luscious tits hard as he really started to give it to her. “How is it,” Vinnie said, slowing his tempo for a moment. “Is it good? Do you love it?”

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“Oh my God, it feels so good, Vinnie!” Tyra said. “I can't believe how fucking good it feels. When I was back in Iowa all I could think about was your dick and how much I wanted you to fuck me just like this. I used to lay in bed and play with my clit and think about how fun it would be to play with you again. All those days and nights you didn't contact me, I was so afraid I wasn't going to get fucked good again.” She could tell that Vinnie loved hearing her talk dirty to him. Most guys did. She could also tell that Vinnie had been waiting to give it to her. She loved it when guys acted like they'd been saving it up, and Vinnie had probably been saving it up by how hard his cock felt inside of her. It felt like granite in her pussy and it felt so great.

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“Fuck me harder baby,” Tyra said. “I love you, fuck me. I love it when you give it to me hard and fast like that. Just like that. Faster, faster! Oh, you're getting there, you're getting there! I'm so close! Please, keep going! Don't stop! Please don't stop! Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me! I'm going to come! I'M GOING TO COME!” Just then waves of pleasure rocked Tyra's body. She couldn't believe how good she felt all over. Her whole body started to curl up around the couch as Vinnie fucked her from behind, giving her as much as he could of his thrusts. “I'm going breathlessly.

to

come!”

Vinnie

said

Tyra could feel him start to get even harder inside of her. His cock felt like it was almost bouncing up and down it was coming so

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hard. It felt so fucking good and she just couldn't get enough of it. She tried to form words to tell him this but nothing came out. All she could manage was a few strangled moans and groans as her whole body seemed to lock up in the middle of orgasm. It felt so good, so fucking good. Tyra never wanted it to end, ever. When it was over they both lay on the floor cradling each other. The only thing that Tyra could think to compare it to was an out of body experience, or some kind of hard drug. She didn't want to sound like a nerd when she talked about the sex she'd just had with the person she'd just had it with so she just kept her mouth shut. “Oh my God,” Vinnie said. “That was the best sex I've ever had. I think in my entire life. It was really that good, too, I'm not just saying that.”

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“It was pretty amazing,” Tyra said. After ten minutes or so they both dragged themselves into bed and fell into a deep sleep. * The next morning Vinnie got her up early and told her they were headed out to the desert. At first Tyra didn't know what to think, especially since it had been a really long time since she'd been in any kind of desert, much less one of the harsher ones on the planet. Without wasting time, they got in Vinnie's convertible and got on the road. “What do you think we'll see out there,” she asked him. “Animals, I mean. Do you think we'll see any animal at all or do you think it'll just be a barren wasteland of nothing?”

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The sun was high in the sky and the clouds looked like ribbons high above them. It was a beautiful day, a truly beautiful day, the kind that people were lucky to see even once in their lives much less a few times, or even scarcer with a hot casino owner who had just given them the best dick ever the night before. “I'm not sure what we'll see out there,” he said. “But I know what I don't want to see. There is this one kind of turtle, or maybe it's a fucking tortoise, I'm not sure. This isn't exactly my area of knowledge, you know what I mean? So anyway, this rare and very endangered desert turtle or tortoise or what have you, it can't piss or it fucking dies. I shit you not, it dies.” “Like, dead?”

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“Couldn't be deader. If this thing pisses it drops dead from dehydration. And it pisses when it gets really scared. Now, most things don't scare it. After all it pretty much lives in a panic room, so anytime some wild desert creature decides to fuck with it the turtle thing just pulls its head in and that's it.” “For real?” “Yeah,” Vinnie said. “Pretty crazy, I know. You never think of the little guys actually getting fucked with unless you see it on Animal Planet. And even then they just show some bored-as-fuck coyote nipping at the shell. That's not so accurate, the coyotes are smart and will drop them from high places.” “Holy shit!” Vinnie laughed. The wind whipped by them. Tyra smiled. She could tell that Vinnie was having a great time tearing down the road at

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breakneck speed telling her about, of all things, an endangered form of turtle. “Holy shit is right!” Vinnie said. “These fucking desert animals, they might be small, but they are no joke! Anyway, so these turtles that piss themselves and die only do it when humans come around. They are scared shitless of humans, of engines, of gunfire, fireworks, anything like that. They're even scared of little brats that run around the desert and take precious little pictures for their parents' Instagram accounts. The turtles are just a fucking no no. There is no good way to approach them. At all. And if they piss they die. And if they die you are in fucking deep shit.” “How deep of shit?” “The mother fucking government will seriously, and I shit you not, halt any and all

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operations that you think you're going to be doing. And they can also charge you something like 20k—for starters.” “For real? How is this a real thing?” “I'm not really sure myself. And I wish it wasn't. I wish the God damn turtles could hold their mother fucking piss for their entire lives. I wish they didn't die when they fainted. It wouldn't even matter if they were like fainting goats. If they were they'd be preserved forever in petting zoos around the nation.” “So you think we'll see some?” Tyra asked. “Maybe,” Vinnie said. “What I'm most worried about is that the government might already be out there. They do that. Yeah, bet you didn't know that. They'll go out there before and look for the little guys. And that's

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cool, don't get me wrong. That's fucking great. Go save the little turtles. Go out there and gather them all up in your arms and run them to the nearest water source so they can rehydrate and not fucking die. But do it a week or so before my crew goes out there to dig!” “You mean the government waited until the day before to go out there and look for them?” “I mean they waited until the day of, baby! That's why I was in such a rush this morning. I wasn't trying to be a dick or anything and I hope I didn't come across that way. We just have to get out there now. What especially sucks is that you never really know what government agency is going to be out there. Could be cops, could be feds. Could be fucking PETA. Hell, PETA is fucking worse than the God damn government! They'll fun around and throw fake blood on everything

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and it takes forever to get it off and you have to get it off the trucks because flies will lay eggs. And PETA will also try to break the vehicles. But you can't touch PETA, and you sure as shit can't shoot at them or even around them just to scare them. They'll sue to high heaven if you do.” Tyra held her hand outside of the car and cupped the wind in her hand like she had when she was a kid and her dad would take her to the lake. Something about Vinnie's long talk about the turtles reminded her of her father. They used to go fishing together when she was a kid, mostly because it wasn't expensive and if they got something it meant they didn't have to buy food that night, or could save the food they had. She hadn't seen her father in a long time and really missed him. Things hadn't always been the best when she was a kid growing up, but

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her dad and her mom and always done their best. It was just hard for a poor black family who wanted to raise a daughter even somewhat proper. It wasn't like you see in the movies where the dad could just get more money by working longer hours at some made up factory where everyone made a living wage and people don't treat the poor black guy like garbage. Growing up where she had, there hadn't been many jobs, so her dad had had to take on as many odd jobs as he could while her mom the same. There just wasn't enough work to go around. So her mother ended up mending the dresses of the rich white women that lived in the nearby city. Her father ended up mending fences and digging ditches. There wasn't cotton around or they would have ended up picking it and that would have been a pill so

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bitter for her father that it probably would have killed him. But he would have taken the pill and washed it down with images of his baby girl growing up to be somebody and do something besides try to make ends meet. But that was just the kind of man he was, he'd have done anything for her and her mother. And her mother was made of the same mettle, she'd have done whatever it took to survive just like her dad would have, and her mother would have done anything for her little girl. What was funny to Tyra was that it wasn't just her father that Vinnie reminded her of, it was also her mother. It was both of them, because they had the same spark of fight that wouldn't let them quit until there was simply nothing left in them at all. Maybe that was what had attracted her to Vinnie in the first place, all of the fight in his

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voice as he talked about his troubles. How he wasn't going to let anyone or anything stop him. How there would never be an end to his efforts, and how the people in this town would do well to simply accept the change that he was bringing to them because it was never going to end. He was never going to give up or fuck off or turn yellow and run. He was never going to hide and let law men march all over his job site like they owned the entire world. It just wasn't going to happen. What was going to happen instead was that Vinnie did just what he'd done this morning; woken her up and gotten them both out of the door by the time the sun was coming up so the drive wouldn't be hot but they could see, and so they would make it out there just at the same time the digging teams would.

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“What are you thinking about?” Vinnie asked her. “Anything good?” “My parents and how you remind me of them,” she said. Vinnie looked straight ahead to survey the approaching foothills of far off mountains. Where they were going wouldn't get too mountainous, but they would certainly need to watch their step. “How do I remind you of your parents?” Vinnie asked. There was hesitation in his voice. Tyra got the feeling that Vinnie might have grown up hard despite having money and was thinking of his own father and all the ways he would never want anyone he was pursuing romantically to think he reminded them of his old man.

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“Nothing bad at all,” Tyra said. “You only remind me of the good things about my parents. Their will to fight the world, basically.” Vinnie nodded at this and smiled. “Well there has been plenty of that in my life recently. Like I was saying when you first came to this town in the middle of nowhere, there is some very real resistance to things. But this digging operation is supposed to change all of that.” “Really?” Tyra said. “How so?” The sun was rising higher in the sky, and as it rose the heat rose with it. She was starting to sweat even though the wind cooled her skin considerably. She couldn't imagine how it was going to be when they got out of the car and had nothing to do but stand in the

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desert. Hopefully there was fun stuff to do, like exploring the landscape. “You know, and I'm a little embarrassed to say this,” Vinnie said. “But I actually am not really sure what we're going to be digging up. That's something that has been kept from me. So we'll see if there wasn't some kind of plot behind my back. You know how people can be. I'm not sure what to expect. For all I know we'll be out there digging up someone's old septic tank so they can have a laugh that we smell like their shit or something. But what I'm hoping for is that this goes smoothly and then things s in Vegas start to become a little more calm, and then eventually everyone just chills the fuck out and we can all do business together.” It sounded like he was hiding something from her.

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“What do you think we'll be digging up?” she said. “We?” Vinnie laughed. “We will not be digging anything up. My men will be doing that. And honestly, I'm not sure but I do get the feeling that it will be fairly illegal in nature at some point. But not at the start or anything. Or so I hope.” “Vinnie,” Tyra said. “What aren't you telling me?” “This could be a set up,” he said. “More or less. And not the bank robbery kind but the really shitty kind. Or it could be nothing. I don't know because I've not been told not only by the assholes in this town, but also my family. There is something going on a more macro level that I don't know about, but I think I'm about to find out.”

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“Are we going to be safe out there?” she said. “Oh we'll be fine,” Vinnie said. “The amount of fire power we'll have around us will make sure of that. And the law will be sniffing around. Absolutely fucking no one is going to be looking for a fight. It just won't be a good idea with the authorities looking to arrest everyone just so they can blackmail them.” Tyra took a deep breath. “So it'll be a fun trip?” she said. Vinnie looked at her with a smile that looked shone so bright she wondered if he had veneers. “Baby, anywhere with you is going to be a fun time. And we'll have ways to be able to have fun together, I promise.”

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Vinnie took her hand and Tyra couldn't believe how good it felt. He was such a great guy. They had so much in common. She felt like they should have met so many years ago, but had somehow missed each other. Like if they had, they would have hit it off and been high school sweethearts. Tyra closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the seat. Vinnie stepped on the gas and she felt like she was floating through the air. They'd be there before she knew it.

Chapter7 When they got there Vinnie's men were already waiting. So were the authorities. “What is the meaning of this?” Vinnie said indignantly as he hopped out of the car. “You mean to come here and harass my men while they dig, is that it? It's all you clowns know how to do.” “No sir,” a government man wearing black aviators said. “There is no need for this hostility. We are just here to make sure everything happening is above board.” “Oh, is that so?” Vinnie said. “Above board? What board are we talking about because we got all the licenses and agreements way before you assholes showed up to slow my workers down.”

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“Sir,” the man said. “We'll need to do a quick sweep of the surrounding area to make sure that the endangered desert tortoise isn't present. I'm sure you are familiar with the dangers the little creature faces. It isn't easy being that creature out here in this harsh climate.” The sun baked them, and the earth around them. Tyra had never felt such an oppressive heat before in her life. She looked around for the mobile home Vinnie had mentioned the day before but didn't find it. She hoped that she could stand being out in the sun for so long without any water—neither of them brought water. But then she surveyed the digging teams and saw that they had plenty of provisions, and a giant fan that she assumed was for her and Vinnie. It would be weird to watch a bunch

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of other people work from a chair like she was a queen and Vinnie was a king, but she didn't know what else to do. She was completely and totally along for the ride at this point. It wasn't like being back at the casino where she could call a cab for a ride back to the airport. “Yes, yes,” Vinnie said. “I'm very aware of the turtle. Aware enough to know that the range it can crawl a day is so limited that you could have come out yesterday to sweep the area.” “But we didn't,” the man said. “and are here now.” “Well that's great for you,” Vinnie said. “I'm happy for you that you can be here with me, now, out in the desert. But if you want to sweep the area I guess you'd better it do it quick because my men aren't going to wait for you. They'll move slowly and quietly to the sites of excavation not far from here. If

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your men are seriously here to save the God damn turtles then make haste out there and make sure there are none of the little buggers wandering around.” “Sir, I don't think you understand who I am,” the government man started. “I don't give a fuck who you are,” Vinnie said. “You're just another government stooge to me. Everything we are saying now, and everything you've done and said since you've arrived, to include the actions of your men, has been recorded in high definition. So if you want to fuck around and be an idiot that's great. Arrest me and we'll go to court and play this tape to the judge, and then it'll play all over the news. Hell, maybe it'll make national headlines. I can read it now, 'Racist stooge tries to bully Italian man, but it doesn't work and now he looks like an idiot.'

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How does that sound to you? We should work on it together.” “Sir, you are the only one who has brought up race,” the man said. “And you're the only one who came out to harass me,” Vinnie said. “So the burden of proof isn't on me to prove you are racist. Not really. The burden of proof is that you are out here in good faith. Because if you aren't, and if you are out here on some tip from one of my rivals, you are in huge violation of some very serious laws and I'll be suing you and whoever the fuck you think you work for. And I'll find out because all the emails, texts, and phone calls you make are routed through the same satellite that my family happens to own. It floats right about there in the sky.” Vinnie leaned back to jab a finger up at the powder blue vastness above him.

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“And I happen to know that my family keeps a record of years of all the information that goes through the thing because it's used by the government and other agencies that require both high security and a bunch of transparency. I can read the headlines now. 'WOP family bests the government stooges at their own game.' But that doesn't have to be a headline. It could be nothing,” Vinnie said. The man he was dealing with seemed to deflate a little bit. “Listen,” the man said. “I'm just doing my job. I was told by my boss to come out here and shake you down a little bit. So that's what I'm doing. Now that we've for sure gotten off on the wrong foot, please give my men the locations you plan to dig and we'll sweep the area post haste. You'll be able to start digging within the hour.”

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Vinnie started to walk toward his men and their waiting trucks, taking Tyra by the hand. “Hurry!” Vinnie shouted over his shoulder. “I didn't come out here to wait around in the sun with this beautiful women on your account. But please be thorough! I'd hate to do harm to any of the little buggers that wander the desert here like they are lost.” With that Vinnie and Tyra jumped on a four wheeler. Vinnie drove, and pointed the nose of it toward the nearby foothills. He didn't gun this vehicle like he had his car all the way here. He seemed much more cautious. It made sense that he would be, the four wheeler didn't have any air bags or a roll bar or seat belts. It was just a small machine meant to help people travel rough terrain for short distances. Usually it was used as a farm tool, hauling equipment around.

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“What was that all about,” Tyra asked. “You made it seem like the guy was out here to fuck with you, but the guy made it seem like he was just doing his job.” “It's like I said on the way out here. They could have come yesterday, but they chose today. That's not my malfunction. I don't make their schedules and I don't do their jobs.” They road in silence for a while, and eventually got to the foothills after about ten minutes of driving. Vinnie hopped off and helped Tyra down. “Look at the land out here. It's like being on the moon! But there are still things that are pretty. Look at this desert floor, for instance,” Vinnie said.

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He bent down and lightly cupped a small thistle in his hand. “Aren't those weeds?” Tyra asked. “Maybe so,” Vinnie said. “But is it not still wonderful to look at? And so what if it prickles the hand. Does every plant have to be made so that humans can touch it and animals can eat it? I admire the thistle because it's as beautiful as it is simple. The purple lights up in the ultra violet spectrum and attracts bees, while at the same time being a pretty good warning for the rest of the animal kingdom. And feel it? I think it feels good. Not in the way that pain feels good, but the way that all of those little needles balanced against your skin without penetrating feels good.” Tyra felt the thistle. It did feel good to the touch, she just had to be careful not to squeeze it too hard or it would hurt her. But

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squeezing it would also hurt the plant, so wasn't it fair that she not feel pain as well. Vinnie was there watching her reaction to the plant. “It just takes some respect,” he said. “Like the guy from the government needed to know that I would not deal with disrespect lightly. I'm sorry to have lost my temper, but I've dealt with this before. First they say they are just looking for something, this time a turtle, and it will only take a moment. Then the next thing that happens is that you're under arrest and they'll tell you why when they get you down to the station. Then you make it down to the station and all of a sudden it wasn't that you were under arrest they just wanted to talk to you about something minor. Something that didn't even really matter, so it's no big deal and you don't need a lawyer.”

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Tyra felt the tines on the thistle start to dig into her skin and she let it go. “Have they done this to you before?” she asked. “A few times,” Vinnie said. “But let's not speak of it anymore. I'm already sick of it. Let's explore!” The small foothills were mostly just rock and dirt and dust. She and Vinnie crawled over them, looking for anything to investigate. They couldn't find much that was interesting on the side of the small hills that faced his crew of men, so they crossed over the spine of the small ridge of hills and started to explore the other side. That's when Vinnie found a cave and they both made their way inside. It was dark, but Vinnie had brought a flashlight. Tyra

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thought that it was a great surprise that he was so into exploring and nature. It certainly wasn't something that she was expecting from a man as powerful and rich as him. For some reason, she always thought people like that only had fun on big, powerful sports boats, or skiing in private resorts. But Vinnie seemed to be just a regular person who enjoyed getting dirty and sweaty. His light played on the walls and the ceiling of the small cave. High above them, bats rustled. Vinnie was careful to keep the lights off of them so as not to disturb them. Bats,” he said. “Are funny creatures. I don't want to startle them and have to deal with them swirling down on us.” They looked around the cave some more but didn't find any small passages leading to other parts. That's really what both of them were after, some Huckleberry Finn style

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exploring of a cave system. But it wasn't to be and they both realized they'd been gone about an hour and it was time to head back. When they got back the government was waiting for them with a grim look on his face. Vinnie's men looked very cowed, like the government man had caught them all with their hands in some cookie jar in the desert. “I'm sorry,” the government man said. “I realize this is likely a set up, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to arrest you. Please turn around and put your hands behind your back.” “What the fuck!” Vinnie said. “What for? We haven't even started digging yet?!” “I know, sir,” the man said. “This isn't so much about the digging as it was about what you were about to dig up. Now, I now that

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you thought you'd actually be digging into something judging by the amount of men and some of the tools they brought with them. And like I said, I get the feeling you were sent out here to do this, correct?” Vinnie nodded. The sun beat down on them and seemed to be especially harsh now that the law had them in its sights. Tyra didn't know what to think. Maybe Vinnie would be able to talk his way out of it. What did the government have on him anyway? Did they find a turtle already dead out there and decide to blame it on him? “What did you find out there?” Vinnie said. “I just got out here. Whatever was already out here I had nothing to do with. And neither did my men. We are simply here to dig.”

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“We found a few bodies,” the man said. “Some of them fresh and a few of them not so fresh. I suspect that whoever sent you out here just wanted you to see them to send you some kind of message. It doesn't make sense for them to send you out here to do something with them because, as you've said, if it has nothing to do with you, why involve you.” “Holy hell,” Vinnie said. “You have to know that I wouldn't tell you I was coming out to dig if I knew there would be bodies out here. Only a fool wouldn't think that the government would come out here to inspect the ground before we broke it.” “I'm inclined to believe you, but at the same time I'm also bound by duty to arrest you,” the man said. “Once you get down to the station I'm sure you'll lawyer will be waiting and he'll handle everything. Until then, I need to read you your rights.”

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Vinnie was read his rights, cuffed, and then stuffed in the back of an unmarked car. He stared sullenly out the window at the sky above, shaking his head slowly. “You, m’am, will also have to go downtown,” the man said. Tyra felt her blood run cold. What was going to happen to her? She couldn't go to jail. She wasn't a criminal. The most illegal things she'd ever done was stuff like cheat on her taxes or drive drunk. She had nothing to do with whatever they'd found out in the desert. Surely that was obvious to them. There was no way any sane person would actually think that the girl with Vinnie would actually be in on anything. They probably just wanted to grill her for a while to see if she knew anything. If they did

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she'd have to wait for either Vinnie's lawyer or a public defender. But what if they bent the rules and made her talk, or did something like keep her in a room for hours making her tell the story over and over again. “M’am, can you hear me?” Tyra could hear him, but it sounded like his voice was coming from a million miles away. She tried to move her mouth but couldn't. She started to get confused, like she didn't know where she was at for sure anymore. Was she dehydrated? She'd only been like this one other time and it was because she didn't bring enough water on a hike with her and her head started to get goofy half way through because all her body wanted to do was shut down. “M’am, are you all right?”

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Tyra tried to put her hand out to grab something, but there was nothing there. The world spun around her as she fainted. Everything faded to black, the last bit of her vision to hold color was the sky far above her.

Chapter8 Tyra didn't know what to do. She thought she was going to die when they first put the cuffs on her. They closed around each of her wrists with small clicking sounds that would have been infinitesimal. But now that they signaled that Tyra was going to go to jail, they had the utmost significance. As one of the officers led her by the arm to a nearby car, she thought about how it was funny how perspective changed everything. It wasn't like she didn't know that handcuffs clicked before, but now she knew in a way that was more than intellectual. Just like she'd known before that there was some kind of funny business going on with Vinnie, but now she really knew how far things could go.

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What was happening? She kept thinking that, over and over. There was no way this could be real, no way that she was really going to be put in a squad car because of bodies being found in the desert. How could this be her life right now? This had to be some kind of dream. She needed to wake up. But she knew it wasn't really a dream. This was just how life felt when things went wrong and you just couldn't believe it. Vinnie was already seated in the back seat of a squad car. As Tyra passed by it she saw his face in profile. She only looked at him briefly, then moved her eyes quickly away. She didn't want to linger too long because he might look up and see whatever look she had on her face. Tyra wasn't sure how well she was keeping it together, and she didn't want Vinnie to see her like this. Her breath was coming fast and

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she was sweating. She didn't want to get in the car, but knew that there was no way that she was going to get to walk away from this. This is what happened to gangsters and thugs that broke the law. The cops came and shook them down, sometimes they arrested everyone they were with and dragged everyone back to the station for questioning. The police would have many things to ask, she was already thinking of some of the ones she knew she'd hear. The door to the squad car opened and the horizon started to spin. The sun above her seemed so hot. How could this be happening? Tyra tried to steady her breathing, tried not to panic, but there wasn't anything she could do. Her body was reacting to the extreme amount of stress being put on it by the situation around her. It wasn't something that she had planned for, or something she thought about in advance.

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For some reason, as her knees went watery beneath her, she thought about when she was a kid and playing on the playground, sometimes she'd have to run really fast to catch up with her friends, and one time she hit her head on the swing set. Tyra remembered how the horizon had spun then, how everything had seemed to blur in and out of focus. Years ago, after the swing set had rung her bell, she'd staggered a few feet while the world colored itself in nothing but gray scale, and the deep shadows in the trees seemed to rush out and cloud her vision so that her sight was short. She was having a similar experience now. “Are you all right m’am?” the officer asked.

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Tyra sagged heavily against his body, trying to regain her balance. “I don't feel so well,” she said. “I think maybe it's the heat but I'm not sure. Just help me in the car and hopefully it’ll go away.” The officer was kind and gently lowered her into the waiting back seat by her arm, careful that she not hit her head or twist an ankle. Then he got in the driver's seat and blasted the AC. Tyra sat in the back, looking at the cage that had been put up between the backseat and the front seat. It wasn't like a traditional patrol car in the sense that it wasn't real security—someone could probably freak out in the back seat and kick out the plastic grill that hung between the sections of the vehicle. They had probably known she was with him when they came out, she thought, as she

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watched the officers speak among themselves not far from their parked cars. They had probably also known that they wouldn't need the heavy duty patrol cars. This arrest felt more like diplomacy than anything else. Tyra got the feeling that they would most likely be questioned for several hours before Vinnie's lawyers could get them out of there. The officer who had had helped her to the car got in the front seat and turned down the AC. “Are you feeling any better?” he asked with a smile. “Yes, thank you,” she said. “Listen miss,” the plain clothes cop said as he started the car. “This isn't really about you, but now it involves you. I'm just saying that because I don't want you to have some kind

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of mental break down. But I also want you to know that you should be taking this very, very seriously. This is some no shit trouble out here. Multiple dead bodies in various stages of composition. I'm just telling you now because it'll be all over the news tonight, and also so you know what in the hell everyone is talking about when you get to the station.” Tyra nodded, but didn't say anything. She was afraid she would cry. “But keep your head up, because in all reality, the chances of you getting charged with a crime are slim. But it is possible, though. Depending who sits down with you at the interrogation table they might threaten it, and hell, they might even mean it. So don't get the idea that there is no chance of you catching some charges out of all of this. This is a

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very special situation, one that hasn't happened in Las Vegas in a very long time.” The cop gently stepped on the gas and headed back towards the highway, back toward Las Vegas. Tyra watched him from the back seat, wondering what he was thinking; wondering if it would do her any good to talk to him about what exactly was going to happen beyond the vagaries that he'd already proffered. “What is going to happen next,” Tyra asked. “Am I going to be booked? Will I need to wear a jump suit or anything like that?” “Fuck, I don't know,” the cop said. He swerved to miss a pothole in the broken asphalt road, swearing vehemently when the car still lurched, bottoming out as one of the wheels went into a hole.

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“Sorry about that,” he said. “As I was saying, I'm not sure if they'll book you two just yet. I mean, you are under arrest and all of that, but as far as charges, none have been issued. That's the tricky thing about this town, it doesn't make any sense to run around flinging charges at people because so many rich people who that live here and have businesses here, are fiery mother fuckers. They won’t stand for the cops jerking them around. So we don't usually press charges unless we are really sure that's what we want to do.” He looked back at Tyra and she detected pity flickering across his face. They didn't speak during the rest of the drive. The landscape would have been beautiful normally, but going to the police station downtown was all she could think about. So the desert and its harsh, subtle beauty flew by outside mostly

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unnoticed. Tyra could only think about how she'd gotten mixed up with someone who was into something that he hadn't realized could blow up like this. Or maybe he had realized that. He probably had. When they got to the city, the unreality of it all started to slip away and the ugly, hard truth that she might be getting into trouble was all that filled her mind. They entered the station and the officer led her to a small holding area. It held nothing more than a table, a few chairs, and a clock on the wall. There was also a one way mirror below the clock. But besides that, nothing. She was left there to sit in a chair and look at her nails. They hadn't even bothered to take her phone, or so she thought, until a female officer came in and asked her if it would be all right if she looked through Tyra's bag. Tyra consented without a second thought.

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There wasn't anything in her bag or on her phone that could get her in trouble. The female officer asked to briefly flip through her phone to see if there was anything of interest. Tyra again consented and the officer left. About half an hour went by. In that time period, Tyra sat and looked at the table, occasionally picking at her nails. There really wasn't much she could do but sit quietly and hope that everything turned out all right. Playing stupid games on her phone didn't sound appealing at all considering the situation. Also, at some point there would be eyes on the other side of the two-way glass and they'd watch what she did. They were probably studying her right now. Tyra didn't want to seem like an idiot by playing some stupid game on her phone in such a serious situation. But without her

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phone or something in her purse she was left with pretty much nothing. Not that it mattered all that much anyway, she figured. Then two male detectives entered the small room. “Hello,” the first detective said when he walked into the room. He had short blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. “I heard that you let one of our officers go through your things without any attitude. That's really awesome of you. Way to be an adult about this situation. You have no idea how many people would have thrown a fit, asked to see a lawyer, or wanted to hear their rights. Stuff like that. And, don't get me wrong, all of those things can happen but you'll get arrested if any of them do.” Both of the detectives sat down at the table and looked at Tyra sternly.

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“Not that you can't or shouldn't ask for a lawyer,” the blonde man said. “But if you do, we'll have to arrest you because at this point we either arrest you or we ask you some questions and let you go. The questions we're going to ask aren't going to be anything crazy. And to be honest, we aren't really even going to ask you any hard questions considering how little you know about Vinnie. We've been talking to him briefly to see how much you might know. After hearing what he had to say and doing a little bit of follow up, it seems like you probably don't know dick.” The dark haired man nodded. “I'm James, by the way,” the blonde man said. “And this is Brian. We are pretty much the law when it comes to crazy shit like this.” Again the dark haired man nodded.

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“So,” James said. “Let's start from the start. A very good place to start. Or something like that. Right!? Mary Poppins or some shit?” James raised his eyebrows and glanced at Tyra, then at the dark haired man named Brian. When no one smiled or even met his eyes, James looked down at the table. “All right then, no one thinks I'm funny,” James said. “Everyone is in a bad mood. This lady, Tyra, I believe, is mad because some crazy shit is going on. Brian is mad because he got called in on his day off. I'm the only one not mad because this is actually kind of exciting.” Again no one looked at him. Tyra broke the silence. “Just ask me whatever you want and I'll do my best to answer,” she said.

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“All right,” James said. “Do you know anything about the bodies? I think that's the pretty obvious question. And if you don't, which I think might be your answer, then what exactly do you know about Vinnie. I want you to tell us what you know, basically. I don't really expect it to be much, but knowing what you know will at least give us a pretty good idea if our own mental images of what is going on between the two of you and what your role is are correct.” Tyra hadn't been expecting to answer open ended questions. The more she thought about it the more she realized she'd just been expecting to be asked about the bodies over and over by some over-over bearing asshole who wouldn't stop yelling. But now that the cops were here and they were laid back she wasn't sure exactly to do.

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It was a lot harder dealing with all the freedom they were giving her than if they would have come in and started slamming things around and screaming. “I don't really know much about Vinnie,” Tyra said. “To be honest, I met him through some weird game he ran in some casinos. I got really drunk and entered by crawling in a photo booth after filling out my information. Then I got contacted by some guy named Gizmo who works for him in Des Moines. From there I just got told that Vinnie was a nice guy who was rich. It all sounded fun and I came out a few weeks ago. Had a blast. This trip is proving less fun, though.” James nodded his head and looked down at the desk between them. “Yeah, that's what he said,” James said. “And I get completely that you are pretty much in

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the dark about what's going on, so I'm going to just level with you and tell you what you'll find out anyway. Or maybe he wouldn't tell you if I didn't, I don't know. But I feel morally obligated to tell you.” James glanced over at Brian who nodded in agreement. “So Vinnie is part of a powerful international crime syndicate. He's a nice guy, and I admit that freely. The dude is pretty solid. But his family dragged him into a business that is fairly violent. If you googled him at all, you know about how his father's restaurant got shot the fuck up. Well, that was some gangland shit. And low and behold, when Vinnie movies to my formerly quiet little town, more gangland shit starts happening. Go figure.”

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“Not to say that gangland shit didn't happen every once in a while. But it was every once in a great while,” Brian said, speaking for the first time. “But then Vinnie shows up and everyone has something to prove.” “Vinnie comes to town and wants a piece of the pie,” James said. “Or I should say that his family sent him to town and now he wants a piece of the pay. That's probably a lot more accurate to what's going on. And now that he's here, he's opened up a casino, and that's going decently. He's also moved into human trafficking, and then out of human trafficking after we almost pinched him on it.” Brian cleared his throat before speaking. “When he found out how much trouble you get in for bringing girls illegally from Italy to work as prostitutes he backed off that whole scheme REALLY fast,” Brian said.

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Could this be true, or were they just trying to divide them? It was hard to tell with how they were talking about it. Surely, Vinnie wouldn't do anything like that. Or maybe he did because he had to and then he ended it when he felt badly. Or at least that's what she wanted to think it was true. What kind of person could ship another human being across the globe to work in the sex trade? It didn't sound like something Vinnie would do, but the more she was around Vinnie, the more things that she'd never thought would happen, happened. She never thought they would go to the desert and end up getting arrested. She never thought that she'd end up downtown talking to a few detectives about it. She never thought the detectives would be telling her about some of the more immoral crimes that Vinnie was involved in.

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“And you realize that he used to be a foot soldier, right?” James said. “You know that in Italy, he was one of the people who showed up at your place if you fucked around with the wrong made guy. For a long time all he did was collect debts from people. Then there was the war that happened a few years back that fractured all of the families so badly that they had to go into cease fire mode simply because that's how fucked up everything was. You see, in Italy, the mob runs everything. Or pretty much everything. Yeah, sure, they probably aren't out there running street teams that are filling in potholes and stuff like that. They probably aren't in the schools trying to help little kids learn how to do math. You can bet that nothing like that is going on. But everything else, like who can trade with who, who can go where, and how all the money gets spent—that's something that they control.”

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“And the whole bodies in the desert thing,” Brian said. “Is a message to Vinnie. He showed up a little while ago like he was the shit. Well, now I guess it was a few years, but you know what I'm saying. So he shows up and starts to flex a little bit. He's got men and everyone is armed all the time and he wants to act like he's the nice version of the guy in Scarface, and that's all well and good. Everyone likes the good-looking broody Italian guys. Or so it seems in this town, anyway. But this doesn't go over too well with the locals because, in all reality, Vinnie doesn't know what he's fucking with.” James jumped in. Brian gave him an irritated look, like this was something that happened fairly regularly. “The people in power here have been in power here for years. Decades. And they

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don't take kindly to some young pup showing up and wanting to take a big piece of the pie for himself. That just really isn't in the cards, as far as what the people that run this town will tolerate. Maybe if Vinnie was willing to work his way in, or pay his way in, or I don't know what the fuck these people with so much money do, but I'm saying that if he'd gone about it another way then maybe there wouldn't be this need to send everyone out in the middle of the fucking desert to look at some dead bodies.” The room was quiet for a moment, save for the ticking of the clock. The white walls looked like the color of eggshell, now that she'd been in it long enough to see the yellow stains on the ceiling and the way that some of the wallpaper hung down ragged. The building was old and she wasn't the first person to sit in her chair wondering what

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exactly was going to happen and if she'd end up all right, she was sure of that. The detectives were looking at her, gauging her reaction, but she was too tired to have a reaction and she didn't know if they could see that. She wondered what they saw. Could they could tell that she was just ready to be done with all of this, although she didn't know what she was going to do when they let her go. She didn't know anyone in Las Vegas besides Vinnie. That was it. If Vinnie was in jail she'd probably have a hard time doing anything she wanted in the casino. She might not even be able to get back into the place. “M’am,” James said. “I know that you're probably in quite a bit of shock but I do need to know that you are understanding everything we are saying. I mean, at this point we are pretty much here for your benefit. We know that you don't know very much.

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So we're just trying to clue you in to what is going on behind the scenes and all of that. Just so, you know, you don't go any deeper into a relationship that might get you killed at some point. And make no mistake that is a very real possibility. In this town, one of the ways the bigger players touch each other is by snuffing out the women they are fooling around with. It's almost like some sick game they have going, because none of them seem to care when the female ends up dead.” “I'd bet some money that a few of the bodies out in the desert are some of those,” Brian said. “I know that's maybe a little morbid to think about, but I'm just saying that when it comes to bodies this town seems to have a certain way to produce some of them.” James flicked a glance over at Tyra, then a glance over at the two way mirror.

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“You know how people say that you say weird shit during interrogations?” James said. “That was a weird comment.” Brian squinted at James. “How is that weird to say when we just found a bunch of bodies out there just chilling? That really isn't that weird to say at all. How about you, Tyra? Do you think it's weird to make an observation about bodies when we just found a bunch of them where they shouldn't be, out in the desert in a mass grave?” Tyra didn't know what to say. All of this was just too much for her. What was she supposed to do, anyway, engage in witty banter with the police officers about dead people in their town? The idea didn't really appeal to

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her at all. She just didn't think it was something she wanted to talk about. “I, uh, I don't have an opinion,” Tyra said. “But if you did,” Brian said. “Lady, just do me a favor and speak your mind for a second.” “It's not that weird,” Tyra said. “It would be normally, but with everything else it's kind of normal.” “See!” Brian said, turning to James. “And this is a good time to bring up how you always put me down in the interviews! Always trying to look bigger by pointing out some small thing I say like anyone gives a fuck.” “What are you even talking about?” James said.

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“Look!” Brian shouted. “Look! He's smiling! This asshole is fucking smiling! His little fucking smirk. God I just want to fucking hit you sometimes.” “All right, all right,” James said. “I get it. I need to shut the fuck up and let you say weird shit to petrified strangers because you watch too much television and think you are some kind of Magnum fucking PI character or some shit.” “Magnum PI?” Brian said. “That's who you compare me with?” They both looked at each other without speaking for a moment, then turned back to Tyra. “Ma’m,” James said. “All we can do is tell you what we know because you deserve to know who you're spending your time with. I realize this might not be the easiest stuff to hear, but at the same time, wouldn't you rather hear it than not? What if we didn't tell

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you and you had no idea who Vinnie really was and then you went on to marry him or have his kid or something. And I'm not saying you shouldn't do that. I think you should do whatever you want.” “But!” Brian said holding a finger up in the air. “If you think the next time you have to come down here, you won't be getting all dressed up in an orange jump suit before getting booked, then you are sorely mistaken. And once you have an arrest on your record it doesn't go away. In fact, that's what most FBI background checks look for.” “You see,” James said. “There are a lot of people who can beat out the system in court. It's not really that hard to do unless we have a really solid case. And most of the time we don't have a solid case because this is an imperfect world. So people get charged and fight it out and then act like they are the

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baddest dudes on the planet because the court system is either overwhelmed or their lawyers know how to beat out certain charges. So, in order to get a really good idea of what kind of person someone is, the FBI does checks on arrest records.” “And, miss,” Brian said. “We'll be notifying your work that you got arrested. Just to be fair to everyone involved. That's something else we realized a while ago, the whole 'what happens in Las Vegas stays in Vegas,' thing. So believe me when I tell you that what happens here will not stay here when I call your boss and have a lengthy chat with him.” Tyra’s mind was reeling. This was a lot of information to digest at once, and the two cops in front of her, although humorous at times, certainly knew what they were doing. There little back and forth comedy routine of a few minutes before was probably something they

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did often to try to break the ice with people sitting across the table from them. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe that had been an actual thing that had passed between them and she'd been lucky enough to see the detectives be human for a second. In all reality it didn't matter and she didn't really care. What she did care about was all this talk about her being arrested in the future and the way the detectives were talking about calling her boss. What kind of people would call her boss and try to get her fired because she was seeing a guy that she didn't really know, and he happened to be a shady character. And was she even seeing him? She was just hanging out with him at his casino and going out into the desert with him. This trip was the second one, not the third or more advanced number in a series of visits.

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“So what do you guys want from me?” she asked. “Not a whole lot, actually,” James said. “We just want you to be aware of what is going on and what will happen if we pick you up again with this guy.” “Oh! Speaking of what's going on,” Brian said. “The dead bodies’ thing, in the desert. That was a message. One of the old, long-inthe-tooth bastards was sending a message. And what do you think that message was?” Tyra shrugged. “War,” Brian said. “Las Vegas is going to plunge back into the bad old days of the mobsters fighting it out in the streets.” “And although Vinnie has a lot to do with that,” James said. “Let's not give him all the

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credit. Some of the old fuckers living high on top of their casinos are seeing death approach them year by year. And you know what? They don't want to die in bed. They think about how their fathers died, shooting it out in the streets. And they think about how, as death approaches, people forget the legacy of this town and all of the bodies out in the desert. And they want a little bit of that action, you understand? They don't want to just go to sleep and not wake up. They want to die with their boots on, not in some hospital bed.” “So there will be armed conflict again,” Brian said. “And open hostilities. People are going to die in the street like dogs, gunned down by people who don't care about anything but themselves.” “That's the problem with this town,” James said. “The real problem. People don't look at Vegas as their home, or even as a place

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where they live. Vegas to them is a little fiefdom off by itself in America's west and they want to rule it. They don't just want a big slice of the pie, they want the whole pie. They want the whole pie and they want a pot of coffee right by it, and outside they want to see their men shooting it out with other men, and they want people to live in fear. That's what they want. And that's what Vinnie wants as well, even if he does feed you some highfalutin talk about why he's here.” Tyra looked at the table. The talks she'd gotten from Vinnie about his motives and his intentions really hadn't been full of ideals. It had been all business. He wanted to be the best. He wanted to make the rules and run the show. He wanted respect and even fear. “I see he hasn't even had those talks with you,” Brian said. “Well, I'm not judging you at all. Seriously, there is no judgment from

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me or James. As detectives in Vegas, we've seen it all. But seriously, just think about the things we've talked about right here.” They both stood up. “Am I free to go?” Tyra asked. “One more thing,” James said. “I want you to watch something. I think it would be really enlightening for you.” Both of the men left and Tyra sat at the table wondering what the last thing would be. How much longer were they going to chew her ear off? At some point the whole thing was a little bit asinine. She got that Vinnie was in the mob. She knew that now, what she had only the inkling of when she'd first come out here. So Vinnie was in the mob and engaged in some kind of power struggle here in

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Las Vegas and his family was pulling the strings from far away in Italy, maybe. But what else was there to go over? They'd just talked about how they would try to ruin her life if she got picked up again with Vinnie. They'd gone over how her arrest would show up on background checks and stuff like that. There had been a lot that they'd gone over. The room was still as she waited. The kind of stillness she imagined deer felt when they looked across a meadow during hunting season. There was a lot going on that she didn't know about, and she knew that. It was something she'd heard Dick Cheney call a “known unknown.” The detectives had told her some interesting stories, and she had no doubt that all of them were true to some extent.

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But there had to be a lot of untruth as well. There was no way that the two law men she'd just talked to had told her the whole truth. That just wasn't how things worked. The detectives had a job to do, and right now they were trying to create some division between her and Vinnie in hopes that it would rattle Vinnie up until that point would just want to back off the entire thing. The law wanted Vinnie out of the town to prevent some kind of impending gang war, some kind of conflict that would drag the town decades back to when armed men openly ruled the streets and the towering casinos not only filled the skyline but also levitated above the law. Tyra put her head down on the table in exhaustion. She wondered when the cops could be back to get her. And slowly, she drifted off to sleep.

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* It was the kind of dream that Tyra immediately knew she was dreaming. She stood on a hill top in a grassy field. All around her the forest stretched out from the hill’s bald head. Tyra started to turn and look around to get her bearings and found a huge mountain range behind her. On the other side of the hill opposite of the range a flat prairie ran as far as her eye could see. She thought about sitting down and waiting to see what would happen next, but something told her she had to get moving. Just when she started to walk down the trail leading into the forest, away from the mountains, she heard the clap and roll of thunder behind her. Somewhere, deeper in the range, a storm was raging. She tried to see over the mountain tops but couldn't quite make out what was happening. All she could see were the very top of some clouds and a flash like a

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strobe light forming the lightning. Turning her back on the barely visible spectacle, she headed down into the forest. As soon as she entered the forest the sound from the storm became inaudible. The forest was silent. And it wasn't just silent as in the absence of sound, but as in a stifling, smothering presence of non-sound. She stepped lightly down the path, peering into the darkness of the forest. It wasn't long before she was far enough away from the hilltop that the light from the opening into the forest was nothing but a pin prick. Tyra wasn't scared though. When she'd been a kid she'd loved running around the forest and playing with her friends. She'd grown up on the edge of a bad part of town, but luckily the edge she'd inhabited had been the one right next to a bunch of public land that had been annexed by the state because in years

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past, the government had made chemical weapons in a secret base deep in the wooded area. Tyra and her friends knew where to find the abandoned government compound, now ringed with razor wire, but they never went inside. Not because they were scared, but because they knew from some of the sick animals they found dying in gruesome spasms, that the compound still held some kind of vengeful ill will toward the living, as if the chemicals the government had created stood guard’ waiting for interlopers to cross the threshold. The forest she was in now was very different from the wooded area of her youth, though. There were sounds from far off in the trees, sounds that had to be made by someone or something. They sounded like there was more than one, and sometimes the sounds

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would lift up into the trees and travel rapidly through their crowns. Tyra didn't know what to make of all this, but knew she was dreaming, so she wasn't scared. At least not scared enough to worry about her safety. She pressed on into the forest not knowing where the path was leading. Eventually she got tired, though, and started to question if the path was really leading anywhere or if she was in some kind of labyrinth like in the myths of old. If she was, she hoped there was no Centaur waiting for her. She thought about stepping off the trail to get a stick that she could maybe use to defend herself, but the forest was so thick that she would have to crawl, and even then she'd risk having her clothes and skin torn on some of the meaner looking branches. A stick, although certainly not optimal for self-defense, was much better than nothing.

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When she'd been a child there had been many times she'd turned the nose of a charging dog with a brisk swing of a stick. She'd always felt bad for hitting a dog, but she'd learned early on that some dogs were bad. Some dogs just wandered around all day trying to find something to eat or someone to harass. And no matter what you did, there really wasn't much of a chance of making them happy. Their world had been mean to them, so all they wanted to do was take. And there had been packs of dogs in the woods by the poisoned compound, some of them had been large. The packs, she and her friends had agreed, were to be avoided at all costs. Without a stick she was pretty defenseless. But she thought that she might be able to kick a dog if one attacked her. But the things she was heard moving through the trees were not dogs, of that much she was certain. Whatever was moving, could do so very

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quickly, both on the ground and up above, leaping from branch to branch. And there were many of them. There was a part of Tyra that wanted to find out what she was sharing the dark with, but there was another part that knew how reckless it would be to seek out whatever was pacing her progress on the trail alongside her in the woods. Eventually, she figured, whatever the things were would make contact with her. They were probably watching her. After walking for what seemed like forever, she sat down on the only ornament she'd seen along the trail so far—a large rock, big enough for her to sit on comfortably. So she sat down and pulled her knees up to her chest. The forest wasn't cold at all, and she was thankful for that, but it also wasn't warm. There seemed to be a fair amount of wind moving through the trees, but it wasn't ever just in one direction. When the wind

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really got moving it circled round and round and round so fast that the tree tops whipped in frenzied circles. It was crazy how much force the wind had, and scary when some of the trunks of the trees would test, snap, and splinter with a cracking sound so loud that Tyra could feel it in her body. After sitting for a while, listening to the wind and the trees, another sound rose. This sound wasn't harsh, or one of nature. It was the sound of a flute being played. The song was lonely, and seemed to have many parts that wove together. Tyra sat and listened as the wind subsided, wondering what could be out there playing something so beautiful in the dark. Just when she was about to call out many other flutes started, some of them very close to her. This made her hold her tongue as the others joined the lead flute. The story they told together was one without words, one that Tyra saw in visions sometimes brief,

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but sometimes lasting for many minutes. In the vision the creation of the world she was in was retold. Although she could not understand much of it, the gist that she did understand was that once there had been many Gods and all had lived above. They had all gotten along and made music together. But one God had decided to play out of turn, and intentionally caused discord in the heavens. This God was cast out and fell far, far, far below to earth. When he landed he rent the land so badly that mountains rose up from the earth in protest of how the cast out God was behaving. The other Gods knew not what to do, but then the strongest shot a dart down from heaven that poisoned the cast-out God. The poison was not of the flesh though, but rather of the mind. Now the cast-out God wanders the earth like a beggar, not knowing where he is or what he's doing.

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Then suddenly the music stopped and before her sat what appeared to be some kind of humanoid ape, what would have been considered the missing link had she not been dreaming. But it was not the size of a human, and rather was about a quarter of the size of a full grown man. She looked at it for a while without speaking, wondering if it could talk or if it was mute or if it knew not a language beside its own and the flute. Time passed, but at the same time did not pass, as the creature and Tyra stared into each other’s eyes. “You are not safe,” the creature finally said. “You have been parlaying with a man who is very dangerous. Perhaps not to you, but all the same, his capacity for violence is something you know nothing of.”

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Tyra was shocked that these were the words the creature spoke to her. “But what of the cast out God!?” she protested. “Isn't it more important that I know and understand that strange story you played for me than we talk about the guy I'm seeing right now?” The creature laughed. It was a strange laugh, a slow, sad, hooting. The creature rocked back and forward as it hooted, then finally sat still on its haunches. “You humans are always so quick to think that the stories are not already about you,” the creature said. “You see, the cast out God is human ambition. Think of all the things that you humans are capable, think of all that you can do! You have touched your feet on the stained surface of the moon! You've counted the stars and named them, tracked

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their orbits around the sun. You've dammed up mighty rivers to harvest their power. You've created weapons so deadly that they can destroy the very planet that you live on. You've healed disease and in many places put a stop to sickness. But the heart, like the dark side of the moon, forever remains a mystery to you. Because it lays beyond your power and understanding. Surely your people know well how to break men’s' hearts and minds by now, as they have been doing it for so long in the pursuit that you like to call war—a pursuit that is pure self-destruction and folly. But the heart eludes you because of its subtle nuances.” Tyra wasn't sure what to say. It was like she was talking to some sage of old. And maybe she was. Maybe there was some wise man in everyone’s' subconscious.

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“So you'd rather we talk about the guy I'm seeing than everything else you could explain to me, or about me?” Tyra asked. “Are you even anything more than just a part of me?” The creature again hooted slowly, but this time even more sadly. When it held still at the finish it wiped tears from its eyes. Tyra wondered if laughing and crying were any different to these creatures. “I could speak to you about many things,” the creature said. “I could talk to you about your father and how that relationship has affected all the others you've had with men. I could talk to you about your mother and how much she loved you. I could talk to you about your childhood, or about your young adulthood. I could talk to you about your boss. I could talk to you about anything I want. And if I am a mere extension of you, how do I see things with such clarity? How am I able to know what is and is not? If you knew you

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would know already. But I know continually, while you must be made to remember. Are there not some basic truths being exposed by this? Surely you can see this.” The wind was picking up again. Tyra looked around the forest and found many pairs of glowing eyes looking at her. Then the hooting started. It wasn't a frantic hooting, or even a clamor, but a few of the other creatures called out. The one squatting not far from her on the path answered. “What are they saying?” Tyra asked. “Human. They are saying that I am wasting my time talking to you. They are saying that we should go before the winds return and make our movement through the tree tops impossible. They are saying that you know nothing of us and think nothing of us and do not care what happens to us, so we should flee and leave you here; since what happens

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in this world has no bearing on what happens in yours.” “Is something going to happen? Why do you need to flee? Is there something in the woods that wants to hurt me?” The creature hooted again, but did not cry this time. “Human, there is always something in the woods that wants to hurt you. Is that not the nature of things? Does not one thing consume another in order to survive? You, my dear lost human, must decide in your own life who is there to be of virtue to you, and who is there to consume you. Is this man that you are letting into your heart, is he a man who will plant seeds and grow flowers? Or is he a man of conquest, caring more about making his mark in the mind of other humans than being a steward of the heart?

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And no, I don't expect you to answer right now, but I want you to listen! And I want you to think, dear human. I want you to think ahead into your own future, and try to see what it holds. Too often you humans have no concern for anything but the present. How is this fair to yourself? How can you pretend that you care about yourself when you only care about yourself of the present? You so readily abandon the self of the past and neglect the self of the future. It is no wonder you are lost!” The wind whipped the trees so that the cracking sound came from a ways off in the forest. The little creature in front of her cringed when he heard the sound, and made a loathsome face. Tyra knew that he was staying to talk to her against the advice of his peers and against what was best for his own safety.

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She didn't know what was in the forest that wouldn't want to hurt these strange and fascinating little creatures, but she wondered if it was on its way somewhere or in hiding from the storm. Just then, on the other side of a nearby draw, something crashed through the undergrowth. The creatures hooted and the one in front of her blanched in fear. “He has come!” the creature said between hoots. “He has come! We must go. I am sorry I could not help you more, lost human. But be careful! You must know that not all things care about you. That sometimes you must look after yourself first! Goodbye!” The creatures grabbed onto the nearest sturdy branch and heaved themselves upward into the tree tops. Tyra stayed sitting on the rock. She'd decided that if there was something coming she'd sit and wait for it

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just like she'd waited for the strange creatures that had just departed. Whatever it was couldn't hurt her, or so the flute playing humanoids had said. So she trusted in that and saw no reason to run or cower in fear, even though the wind around her had turned into a tempest that was pulling trees from the earth and sending them flying out onto the plain. She wondered what kind of weather formation was going on to muster so much strength from the wind, if it was some kind of tornado or something else entirely. “Tyra!” She turned to look behind her on the trail and there was Vinnie. He was panting and had scratches on his face. It looked like he had tried to leave the path and go through the trees. She wondered how that had worked out for him, and then figured it might be best to not ask considering how

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disheveled he looked. Usually Vinnie was very well kept, but the current situation had not been king to him. “You're here as well?” Tyra asked. “It's funny to see you in my dream.” “Dream?” Vinnie asked. “Is that what this is? I guess you're right! I'd just thought I'd been kidnapped and brought here as some kind of cruel joke. Now that I think about it, I should have known this was a dream from the start.” “Did you leave the path,” Tyra couldn't help but ask. “I tried, but the trees are so thick!” Vinnie said. “I found a place not far from here, though. It's not off the path but on a path that leaves the main path and is really overgrown. That's why you missed it. Follow me!”

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With that Vinnie turned and headed back up the path with a quickness. Tyra followed, not knowing what else to do. The weather was getting so bad that she wouldn't be able to stay put much longer anyway, and if Vinnie had found any kind of shelter she couldn't wait to be inside it. It had been many, many years since she had been out in the forest in weather such as this. It wasn't safe. Anything could happen when the wind moved with such force and the rain pounded down so quickly. Keeping up with Vinnie was a lot harder than she'd thought. He moved with a quickness that she wasn't used to, and she wondered how he kept such sure footing on terrain very uneven and soaked with water. “Vinnie! Vinnie wait!” she called. But he pressed on like he couldn't hear her. And maybe he couldn't. The wind was so loud now that it sounded like a train running

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through the sky not so far above them. Tyra did her best to follow with a determination that didn't waiver or falter. When Vinnie ducked onto a different path she was glad she'd been watching him because if she'd been looking somewhere else it would have been like he'd just disappeared. The trail that he had taken was a side trail like he had described—overgrown and something that she missed because it blended into the forest. Vinnie walked the trail like he had a million times before, his footing was so sure. Tyra followed after him and after a few minutes and saw ahead the entrance to a small cave in the side of a rock face. She was glad that Vinnie had taken the time to try to get off the trail so they had somewhere to hide from whatever was going on. “Welcome!” Vinnie said when she entered.

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Vinnie flourished his arm so that it swept the rest of the small cave. He'd built a fire in the middle, and when she looked up, she followed the smoke with her eyes all the way to the small hole in the ceiling far above them. “What a place!” She said. “We are so lucky that you found this place!” Vinnie sat down with his back to the cave's wall opposite the entrance and motioned that Tyra sit next to him. “I know, right!?” he said. “Without this place we'd be completely fucked right now. And what the fuck is up with the weather in this God damned dream world? I think the cops slipped us something. Did you drink anything they gave you?” Tyra sat down next to Vinnie and leaned up against him.

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“Now that you mention it they did give me something to drink right when I got there,” she said. “Maybe they were just talking a bunch to see if it would kick in. But what do they have to gain from knocking us both out? I mean, they are the cops, after all. We were logged into the station. People know that we are there, it's not like you didn't text your lawyer as soon as shit started to go wrong.” Vinnie's body was tense, but she could also feel the exhaustion in it. She wondered how long he'd been walking the trail, and how much effort he'd put into trying to leave it. It was just like Vinnie to want to leave the trail and find things for himself. Which was one of the things that she really liked about him. If he'd just stuck to the trail like she had then he'd not have found this great little cave and they would both be outside in weather that, from the looks and sounds of it, wasn't a

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place that any living creature would willingly be. She wondered where the strange creatures had gone with their flutes and if they had made it there all right. She also wondered what all of the deer, rabbits, and other animals were doing at the moment. “God damn the weather is bad out there!” Vinnie said. “But at least it's better than being awake in the cop shop. Have they talked to you yet? They haven't even talked to me. I'm just waiting in the room, napping with my feet on the table. And I haven't been a dick or anything! I just told them that I wanted to see my lawyer and they said fine and then I haven't seen them for a few hours.” “They told me some bad stuff about you and your family,” she said. “They say that you are all mobsters. And that you especially are a violent man. I don't know if they are just trying

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to divide us, though. You know what I mean? It's not that tough to put myself in the shoes of a cop. They want to catch you and can lie to do so. So they might just be feeding me a line of shit so that I stay away from you in hopes that doing so would shake you up enough that maybe you'd reconsider whatever it is you are doing that is pissing them off.” Vinnie let out a long sigh and his body sagged into hers. The wind howled over the entrance to the cave like an obnoxious child blowing on an empty bottle. She was so glad that she was in this cave with Vinnie and a fire to keep her warm. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to be out there in the elements. “I'm sure they told you some things you didn't know and some things you already knew,” Vinnie said. “What is important to

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keep in mind is that I've never lied to you. Not once. I've never hid anything from you and I've never minimized anything and I've never embellished anything. Do you really believe that the police can say the same? I mean, sure, me and my family aren't afraid to hurt people. But it's not like we are monsters. The police kill innocent people every single day and get away with it! You watch the news, you know! But whenever it suits them they get on some high horse about violence and doing business. Well consider this! The police have a monopoly on the use of force in this nation. No one can resist what they do or it is a crime, one that will be met with violence ten fold. And if you go to court and try to protest whatever they did, most likely you won't win, and if you do win it's because the media got wind of it and decided to back you on whatever happened.”

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Tyra rubbed Vinnie's back in an effort to calm him. He was all worked up. She figured that he would be when he found out that the police had told her some things that he probably was saving until they'd really gotten to know each other. “This isn't what I wanted for us,” Vinnie said. “I wanted you to be able to get to know the fun me, not the serious part of me. The fun me is a blast. I like to do fun things. I run a casino for crying out loud! But I did plan on telling you about the serious part of me in six months or so. I wanted us to take the commitment part of our relationship slow so it was real, and that way you would really consider if you wanted to stay with me or take off. Because, believe me, when it comes out that I'm part of the mob, most people split. Or they stick around because they are a mob hang-around that lusts after the power and

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the money. Those are the worst kind of people.” “What does it mean to be in the mob?” Tyra asked as she tossed some tinder onto the fire. “So there is the economy and the shadow economy, right?” Vinnie said. “Well, imagine if you merged the two. Imagine if you ran a few legit businesses and rolled over about a quarter of the earnings into the not so legit stuff. You'd be able to run all the smaller rackets right out of town simply because of the amount of capital you're bringing to the table. Then you turn around a quick and hefty profit that you don't have to pay any taxes on, so you keep churning money into the business and skimming the cream off the top. Or at least that's what you do if you aren't greedy. Sometimes the mob gets greedy—not that we are all unified or anything, but you know what I'm getting at—and

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they end up taking out too much. Much of the time when this happens they use violence to squeeze a little more honey out of the underground markets. And that attracts police.” “But what about shootouts,” Tyra said. “Like at your father’s restaurant?” Vinnie drew in a deep sigh and let it out slowly. “Well, imagine that your family isn't the only one that has decided they are going to start bringing in some cash from the underground. Imagine that there are more than a couple families doing this. Now imagine that some of the families gang up on the other families in an effort to force them out. That's when the violence gets bad and things spiral out of control. My family had just repelled an advance from another, and I'd wanted it to stop there, but my father, he wanted more than just to defend. He had me lead some

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men into the vineyard that the other family ran. We destroyed pretty much everything. And when I came back I told him we would regret it. And we still are to this day!” “So what happened exactly?” Tyra asked as she rested her head on Vinnie's shoulder. “They hit us back. That's what always happens. You hit them, they hit you back. So they came to my father's place and shot it up. Some innocent people didn't make it.” Vinnie stopped talking. He peered over the fire into the dark beyond. Tyra wondered what acts of violence were playing over again in his mind; if he were watching the acts of violence again and again. “And that's why I was out in the desert. Because I'd contacted the syndicate of families that run this town and told them that I didn't want to have it be like it was in the old

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country, but it could if that's how they wanted to have it. But please believe me that I was sincere! Please believe that I really wanted peace!” “So what were the bodies about?” “A message that they would have war,” Vinnie said. “They think they are some kind of hard asses because they kill some of their mistresses, or have the mistresses of others killed. They have no idea what will happen if my family gets wind of this.” “What will happen?” she asked. “I'll probably have to leave,” he said. “My father doesn't want me around the fighting anymore. He says it isn't becoming for his son and right hand man to get his hands dirty, and that I've done enough for the family already in that regard. So I'd probably

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have to leave and then they'd send in some of my cousins who want to get promoted. They'd come here and start killing people. It would turn into a blood bath unlike this city has ever seen. And there would be nothing anyone could do. One of the reasons my casino is where it is, is because it is very easily defended. All that would have to happen is a thorough checkpoint be put up at the entrance and the casino would be untouchable. Not just untouchable but safe, something the rest of the casinos can only create as an illusion. So our business would just get better while everyone else's dwindled.” “That sounds scary, Vinnie,” Tyra said. “Are you sure there is no other way?” “My cousins are not reasonable men! They will not listen. They will come here with machine guns and sniper rifles and bombs. They will bring mercenaries and other men

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of war. And they will wreak havoc on this town like some kind of natural disaster. It will be like God himself has brought terror onto the city of Vegas. And all because some old men can't understand that they don't run the show. These old men up in their towers, they think that they are young still! They think that they can still fight the world when even back then they didn't do that. Basically, they have become sick with vanity and want to try to die in a fight that they think becomes them. But they do not know my cousins. They don't know that they'll just die in the streets like dogs, slipping around in their own blood as they try to get up. I've seen what my cousins do to people. They are murderers with no regard for human life!” Vinnie fell silent and Tyra started to nuzzle his neck.

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“Baby, you know that I care about you, right?” she said. “And although I won't lie and tell you that I'm not having any second thoughts considering what I found out today at the police station, I still want to keep seeing you. I just hope that all of this can get sorted out. I mean, how they can even charge us with anything when you had no idea that the bodies were out there!?” Vinnie laughed mirthlessly. “They can't charge us and they know it. They just want to show me that they are the boss. Really, they should be arresting one of the more powerful heads of the syndicate, but they won't because they know he'll just have his lawyer say that he had no idea that there were bodies in the desert. And since they knew the police would find the bodies and arrest us, I doubt any of them will trace back

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to the syndicate. So, in short, the police are just doing what they do. They found a bunch of dead people in the desert so they had to bring some people downtown and question them for a few hours so that their boss wasn't like 'What the fuck am I paying you for?'” “So they just want to look busy, is all?” Tyra said. “Well that explains the weird behavior I saw.” She looked at Vinnie in the firelight. He looked so sad. She tilted his chin towards her and planted a big kiss on his lips. He responded by kissing her back and pulling her closer to him. She nuzzled into him, feeling how warm he was, wanting to feel more of him. Their hands ran over each other like two kids on prom night. Tyra was so turned on besides being tired and wet. All of the excitement was translating into a bunch of

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sexual energy. She could feel that Vinnie was similarly turned on. “I'm so glad that you still want to be around me,” Vinnie said in between kissing her mouth and neck. “So many other women would’ve wanted to run away as soon as they got taken downtown. That's the problem with so many these days, they are so scared of the bullshit police tactics! But not you! I knew that you would not be shaken by their stupidity! And I assure you that's exactly what is going on. They don't have anything on me because I didn't do anything except a favor for someone who bribes the police, so nothing will happen at all.” Tyra reached her hand down to Vinnie's crotch and started to squeeze and rub there until she felt his throbbing cock. She loved it when he got turned on because he had such a big dick. There really wasn't anything in the whole world like a large cock. She loved how

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a big dick felt in her hand. It made her feel like she was attractive and it also made her feel like she wanted to get fucked. Tyra didn't know if she and Vinnie were going to be able to make it long term but she figured they could probably make it for the moment, or at least make it long enough to make love. Or just long enough for him to fuck her brains out. “Oh, God, Vinnie,” she said. “Let me suck your fucking dick. I love the way your cock feels in my mouth. I'm so ready to go down on you. Baby, please, stick your big dick in my mouth please! I need it so fucking bad! You have no idea how turned on I am right now!” Vinnie grunted, stood, and stripped in a hurry while Tyra did the same. They made a bed of their clothes so they didn't have to lay on the cold hard ground of the cave. Tyra got

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on her knees and Vinnie got behind her. She loved it when Vinnie took her from behind. Doggy style was her favorite position and his big cock made it feel even better than usual. Vinnie slipped inside of her and started gently thrusting back and forth while he reached around her body and played with her clit. It felt so good. She couldn't believe how good it felt. Maybe it was because it was a dream and none of it was real, but she started to orgasm right away. “Fuck! I'm coming already! Just keep fucking me baby! Please, please keep fucking me! I need it more than ever right now!” The kind of orgasm that rocked through her body wasn't anything like the orgasms she usually had. It seemed like reality was rending around her. As she came the lightning and thunder came more quickly and loudly,

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the wind howled more fiercely, and the rain drenched them both. “Do you like that, baby?” Vinnie said. “Do you like my fucking dick? Do you like the way I fuck you with my big cock? I know you do. I know you love it when I give it to you hard and fast. Oh, don't you. Yes you do. Look at you! Look at you coming right now! Holy shit!” Tyra's eyes were rolled back in her head and her caramel ass jiggled in the air as Vinnie pounded it. “Oh God, it feels so good!” she said. The thunder outside started to sound like a knocking. Then she was awake and back in the interrogation room. James stood in front of her rapping his knuckles on the table. “Come with me.”

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The Final Chapter James led her to the other side of the twoway mirror that she'd seen so much of her own reflection in while she'd been sitting in the interrogation room. James sat her in a seat and left the room, being sure to lock the door behind him. Then Vinnie was brought into the room and sat down where she had just been minutes earlier. Then in came James and Brian, both of them flushed in the face like they'd just downed another pot of coffee and were ready to berate Vinnie. “Vinnie, Vinnie, Vinnie,” James said. “You know, if I were you, I'd go by Vincent.”

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Vinnie just looked at James like he was something the cat had drug in and didn't say anything. “Anyway,” Brian said. “We all know why you're in here. You came to town trying to flex on some really old money and they conned you into going out into the desert and getting wrapped up in some bullshit with dead bodies. Now, we aren't going to try to hit you with some bullshit charges over the bodies. I think we all know that will not only not work, but could end up backfiring badly, considering who sent you out there. So instead we will hit you with obstruction charges unless you map out why you went out there.” “Hey man,” Vinnie said. “I'm not saying shit. You already know everything anyway. You want to play some fucking games, go play them with each other in some back room in

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this place. I'm not going to sit here and jerk you two off about how you're cops and how I'm so scared because I might get arrested. I'm not going to get arrested, as you just said, and if I do, then whatever, my lawyer has me out in a day’s time. I'm not some shrinking violet pussy, not like so many other wanna be tough guys in this town, who don't know shit about shit, but want to act like they are tough as nails. I've been to jail before. To me, going to jail is like a time out. So if you want to throw me in jail let's go. I'm happy to go to jail. Arrest me, officers!” Vinnie held both of his hands out in front of them, wrists together. At first he held them out to James who didn't move, then he held them out to Brian. “Oh, so neither of you want to arrest me?” Vinnie said. “Well this is a strange predicament to be in, don't you think? Here I am, not under arrest, being held against my own

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will, and the police will not arrest me. You simply refuse. A very strange thing indeed. What is it like to make the rules up as you go?” “You tell us!” James said. “And while you're at it, why don't you tell us in your own words how you ended up in the middle of fucking nowhere with a bunch of heavily armed men and digging equipment?” “Fine,” Vinnie said. “I'll tell you what you already know, fat man. You know who asked me to go out there and fetch something for him. I asked him specifically if it was bodies, and told him that if it was I wasn't about to go around digging the skeletons out of his closet for him. He said that what he wanted was some old loot he'd stashed for a rainy day years and years ago. Like an idiot, I believe this. Well, maybe not like an idiot. I pretty much had no way of telling if he was lying or not. I could either just take it at face

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value or tell him to go and fuck himself, and at that point in the game, I wasn't about to go tell him to go fuck himself.” “I'll bet not,” Brian said. “So I organize some digging equipment and get some guys together to go out there. I had a funny feeling so I had everyone bring guns,” Vinnie said. “But I figured that the hardest time I was going to get would either be from PETA or someone else trying to tell me that I couldn't accidentally kill any of the precious little turtles that wander the desert just waiting to get scared, piss themselves, then die.” Brian laughed at this, but was quickly scowled into silence by James. “That's a cool story, Vinnie,” James said. “I'll have to get a hold of my friend who’s an

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expert on cool stories to really know what I'm dealing with, though.” Vinnie didn't say anything. Instead he put his feet up on the corner of the table and crossed them. “Why don't you tell us about your family back home,” James said. “Why don't you tell us how you ended up over here to begin with? I mean, it's not every day that we are blessed with an emissary of the Italian mafia.” “I'm not sure what racist cop wet dream you are referring to,” Vinnie said. “My family's rise to wealth and power has everything to do with olives and their oil, and nothing to do with whatever dirty little world you two live in. Now, can we talk about something that isn't gibberish right out of your heads or can I be free to go?”

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“You won't go anywhere unless we say!” James shouted. “Do you understand me!? You are not above the law!” “All right, all right,” Vinnie said. “You're so much better than me. Oh high and mighty cop people, will you please look favorably on this poor WOP immigrant and let me go, since you aren't charging me with anything and haven't let me see a lawyer since I walked in here, even though I keep asking? Would that be all right? Or do you want me to go back out and pick some cotton while I call you master and whip me first?” Neither James nor Brian was sure what to say to this. They shifted in their chairs uncomfortably. Tyra wondered what they had hoped to accomplish by sitting Vinnie down and trying to talk with him. Whatever they

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had been trying to do hadn't worked out, that much was obvious to see. “You can go,” James said. And with that, the two cops stood and left.

Chapter 5 “Those fucking assholes!” Vinnie raged as he drove. “How many hours were we in there? Who do they think they are? They treat people like they don't have any rights. So we found some dead people in the desert? So what? You know how many bodies are out there? This town isn't exactly a place where nice people go to hang out. People come here to gamble and fuck call girls, for crying out loud. But they drag us downtown and question us for hours on end. When they moved me into the second room where you watched me, that was after they'd already questioned me!” Tyra couldn't believe how things had turned out, either. Maybe it was because she was used to the Midwest, but out here it sure did seem like the cops thought they could do just about whatever they wanted and get away

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with it. The whole experience of going to the station had ended up being surreal in a weird way, more than anything else. She wondered what else the detectives could have been doing instead of sitting around tables with people that they knew didn't know anything about what was going on out in the desert. Not that there was anything really going on. Vinnie had told her that the corpse that had been dead the least amount of time had an estimated time of death of about five years ago—long before either of them had come to Vegas. “Do you think they were trying to prove a point?” she asked. “Who knows,” Vinnie said. “They were probably just bored or something. It's one of those government jobs where you have to look busy. If nothing is happening you just can't sit at your desk and twiddle your

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thumbs. If you do that, people start to wonder why you even get a paycheck. So cops and detectives will swarm over a single event like flies on a turd just to look busy for the day. Then they go home and don't give a fuck, but call in the next day and tell their boss how hard they'd worked the day before, so of course they need a little time to rest up.” Tyra listened to Vinnie rant as they traveled back to the casino. It sounded like they were going to be spending the night there. Tyra hadn't been sure what was going to happen exactly, considering that Vinnie might need to lay low or something of that nature. He might even need to disappear. But it didn't sound like either of those things were going to happen.

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“So we are just going to go back to your place and hang out like nothing is wrong?” she asked. “You're god damn right we are,” Vinnie said. “And I'm sorry for being so worked up, for real, but I can't stand cops. The best thing for us to do right now is act innocent. If we skip town or do something silly like become ghosts, people are going to think that something is up and the cops might think so as well. But if we go back to my place and just chill out for a little bit it looks like exactly what it was—a bunch of asshole cops being fucking dicks. You know what I'm saying?” Tyra nodded as she watched the street and palm trees fly by them. Vinnie was driving extra fast and aggressive. She guessed he was trying to blow off some steam or something.

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“I'm sorry that all this happened, Vinnie,” Tyra said. “I was looking forward to having some fun out in the desert but I guess that won't be happening. I just want you to know that I feel badly about the whole thing, even though I know that I had nothing to do with it. I just wish things could have been a little bit smoother.” Vinnie slowed the car down and started driving like a normal person. “Things will be better tonight, I promise you! I have some very, very special plans tonight and I think you're going to like them a lot. You like the show you saw last time, correct? Well this time is going to be even better! I can promise you that! And then after we'll try to mingle, but maybe we'll be too tired. That's the thing about this town, after you get into a little spat with the police like we

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just did you have to act like nothing happened or everyone talks.” Tyra didn't like how much Vinnie let appearances frame his actions. It seemed like almost everything he did was for appearances. She could understand that, to a point, but there was also a part of her that didn't really get it, not all the way, and she wondered if she wasn't for appearances. Nothing could bolster a man's appearance more than a stunning, curvy, busty black woman. She kept trying to think positively about the whole thing but Vinnie kept talking so negatively. She tried to keep in mind that it was easy to judge him because it wasn't her casino under attack, and it wasn't her family the police kept bringing under attack. Even so, if it were her family and her property that was coming under scrutiny she imagined that she

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would still try to remain somewhat positive throughout the experience if someone she wanted to date was around. It just didn't make sense to be so negative all the time, unless Vinnie was just so negative all the time. And if he was, then she wasn't sure if she wanted to see him anymore. “What's going through your mind, baby?” Vinnie asked. “To be honest, Vinnie, I'm wondering if we are a good fit,” she said. “I like you, and we get along well, but what you are into and the attitude that it brings out of you aren't things that I'm very fond of so far. And please don't take this as me trying to be a bitch or anything like that. And I'm not saying that it's over. I'm just saying that things need to be more positive. And not just during this car ride but in the overall scheme of things. That would include not getting into shoot outs and not finding dead bodies and not hot

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rodding around the highway like we won't die if we crash.” Vinnie nodded. “Listen, I'm sorry and I understand completely. I'm going to be a lot more positive from here on out, I promise,” Vinnie said. Tyra hoped that he was being honest in his promises. She knew that when a woman put her foot down, a man would say just about anything to make her happy again. And it wasn't that she wasn't happy overall, it was just that she was wary now. She really didn't mind the whole family in the mob thing, that wasn't such a big deal to her. She didn't know why she was so all right with it, but she just was. The thing she wasn't all right with was having her good times wrecked by this nonsense,

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and then having to deal with Vinnie being all wound up about everything. Vinnie was a nice guy normally, but when he got heated it was very hard to get in a word in edgewise. She liked Vinnie when he was normal. She didn't even really mind when he went on and on about things. It was just that when he went on and on about being enraged about the cops, or about dead bodies, or about anything like that, that was when she had a fairly big problem with it. Like right now he was acting fine but just a few minutes before he'd been doing one hundred miles an hour on the freeway, weaving in and out of lanes, doing dumb stuff like that without a second thought. That wasn't the Vinnie that she found attractive, not at all. “Listen, Tyra,” Vinnie said carefully. “I realize that maybe I've been fucking up a little

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bit, but seriously, just give me a chance tonight!” “All right,” Tyra said. Then again. “All right.”

Chapter 6 That night Vinnie's casino was filled with a certain kind of pomp that Tyra didn't know existed in America. Regular people dressed up in elaborate costumes with bright feathers from birds she'd never heard of and came to the casino to see a kind of comedy skit routine from a famous entertainer. Tyra had never heard of the entertainer before but that made sense, considering he was an up and coming talent from the west coast and there was no reason that anyone from the Midwest would have heard his name before—not yet, anyway. Vinnie was in a much better mood and laughed and joked with his staff. Tyra liked this side of Vinnie much more, but she worried that if they continued seeing each other she would just see the old Vinnie, the friendly Vinnie, less and less and the new,

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angrier Vinnie more and more. Eventually the anger would drive her away and they would both end up hurt and confused. She wasn't sure she was willing to risk it, not yet, and she sensed that Vinnie knew that something was wrong, although he couldn't put his finger on what. If he would’ve asked she'd just have said that it was the stuff that he already knew about. The night was in full swing though, and this took Tyra's mind off of her woes for a little bit. She had fun with Vinnie as they waltzed around the casino he owned with smiles on their faces, greeting everyone who wanted to talk to them and chatting with strangers like they were close friends. Then they got to their seats and the show started. Right when the comedian walked on stage, one of Vinnie's staff came and whispered in his ear. Vinnie said he'd be right back. Something about how he said it let her know that

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something was wrong. She didn't know what, not yet, but figured she would know eventually. So she sat and watched the show, silently counting the minutes that Vinnie was gone. When she got to thirty she got up to go find him. The first place Tyra looked was the room, but no one was there. Just when she was about to leave the room and run around the casino looking for him she stopped herself. What was she doing? She either needed to go back to the show or sit in the room and wait. There was a television and she had her phone so it wasn't like she wouldn't be entertained. But at the same time, on the macro level, she wondered what she was doing. For the very first time, despite everything that had happened so far that day, she started to question what she was doing with Vinnie.

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Maybe he just didn't have time for her? It was hard to tell if he was forcing his schedule to make time when he was around her or if it was one of those things that wasn't a big deal. Now that he'd just dipped out on their date that night she was more rattled than she'd been when she'd gotten arrested. And it wasn't like he'd just gotten back to the booth to see the rest of the show and was wondering where she went. If he had he would have texted her to find out where she was and what was going on. But he hadn't because he wasn't back yet. Because there were things in his life way more important than her. That was the real reason that things weren't going well. Vinnie had priorities that were way out of whack with everyone else's because Vinnie's life was way out of whack with everyone else's. He was a

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mobster, and he had mobster things on the brain. If he was a regular guy there was no way he'd have left Tyra alone by herself during the middle of a date. And she'd just told him a few hours earlier how important it was that things go well for the remainder of her stay. It wasn't like he didn't know that she was on shaky ground with the entire thing. It was a lot more like he knew, but it had gotten pushed to the back of his mind somehow. Something had come up. And something would most likely always come up. Tyra was starting to get the feeling if she stuck around until she was important to him that she would be waiting forever. But maybe she was just being hard on him. After all, she had no idea how much time or effort it took to run the casino. She didn't want to be one of those people who judged other people without knowing what was going on. She remembered one time when one

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of her girlfriends had remarked how a doctor didn't spend enough time with his kids, and how the doctor's wife had told her girlfriend to shut the fuck up because her husband was busy working ninety hours a week to save peoples' lives. Tyra slipped into bed. She tried to keep her eyes open. She didn't want to have any more crazy dreams. But she drifted off. Tyra was back in her childhood walking home from the small school she'd gone to for so many years. The neighborhood wasn't a good one, and she had to watch out for stray dogs that became aggressive if they sensed you were afraid or alone. Tyra was alone, though, and sometimes very much afraid. She'd always had a hard time making friends in school, but she wasn't sure why.

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She tried to be nice to everyone that she met but there were always so many issues with everything and everyone. Everyone had their own problems and battles to fight back home. Some kids’ parents drank way too much and never got anything done. Some kids’ parents, like her parents, were just poor and worked way too much. This left Tyra alone a lot, even though she rather enjoyed the company of other people. When she finally got home she knocked on her door. But the knocking was real, and she woke up. “We've got to go!” It was Vinnie. He was near panic. Tyra didn't know what was going on but if it was something that was upsetting Vinnie then she figured it was a safe bet that it would upset her as well. She hated when things went wrong but things had already gone wrong and there was nothing anyone could do

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about it. All either of them could do now was roll with the punches. Tyra got out of bed, still dressed for the night, and looked at Vinnie with wide eyes. “Should I change into something a little more low key?” “Quickly!” They gathered their things, or whatever they thought they would need, and headed to Vinnie's car. “So here's the deal,” he said. “The cops are being huge assholes. They plan on coming here tonight to make arrests. And then, on the way to the station, the car I'm in is going to get hit from five different sides by people with automatic weapons. And no, I'm not making this up or joking around. I know it sounds like something that is completely

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made up, but I swear to you this is for real. Now, this is what we are going to do. Instead of getting caught up in some dumb shit we'll just head to a dive motel on the strip where no one will have any idea who we are, pay with cash, then hang out and watch bad television while we drink wine and talk. I think that sounds like a decent evening, don't you?” “But what about your casino? I thought it was important that you be there?” “It is important that I be there! But not as important as us getting out of there. So I'll have my people say that me and you took off to enjoy the moonlight in the desert and everyone will think that me and you are off gallivanting around. We can only hope that the boys in blue hear about it and run around the desert all night like chickens with their heads pulled off. God damn police.

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I wouldn't hate them so much if they weren't so easily bought. I heard today that they are only getting bribed something like six digits! Can you believe that? I'll bet you some of those overweight, doughnut eating sons of bitches are selling their honor for less than sixty grand a year. Can you believe that? How does anyone sell their honor so cheaply? I guess that's what you get from local law enforcement in Vegas, though.” Tyra didn't know what to say. She was surprised that Vinnie wasn't angrier. His voice was calm and level and he wasn't zipping around the road like he was trying to get them both killed. That was a lot better than what had been happening earlier in the day when he'd been more than just a little bit pissed off at having to go down to the station. He didn't seem mad at all that he was leaving his casino behind to be run by the

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staff on a night that seemed like it was somewhat important. “Aren't you upset that you can't be there tonight?” Tyra asked. “It kind of seemed like a big night.” “Upset? Naw, I don't really give a fuck about any of that when stuff like this comes up. And besides, this is the last thing they'll expect. And what a chance for you and me to get away from it all, don't you think? No more having to walk around like we are king and queen of our own little castle and say hey to people we don't like or talk about things we don't care about. Now we can just kick back and do whatever we want! And the place we are going to is a real roach motel, so we'll get the down and dirty Vegas experience.

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Maybe you aren't down for that, which will make things awkward, I guess. But if you are, you are going to love it. We don't have to do anything like go out if you don't want, but if we do we'll just dress like tourists and blend in with everyone and walk around and more or less fuck off. There are always drugs to buy and do, if you are into that. There are also shows to see and things to waste our time watching. The strip is a trip. Have you been there yet?” “Not yet. I was wondering when you'd take me.” “Well there is no time like the present! I mean, look at us, two attractive people now free of all obligation just heading down to the strip to kick back and relax. When was the last time anything like this presented itself? Never! And you know what the best part is, besides us getting to spend time together, is

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that the mother fuckers who think they are smarter than me, who think they can lay out blue print plans on me without my knowledge, they'll never ever even think that this is what we are doing. You know why? Because all of those people think they are too good to go stay in a motel like we are about to do. All of them are fat and lazy and think they have it made so they don't have to do shit anymore but lounge around and be huge pieces of shit. Well, that's fine, but me and you are going to have fun and make the best of this situation.” Vinnie suddenly fell silent. Tyra decided not to press him on why he was so worked up, but calm at the same time. She watched the lights get brighter around her as they made their way to the strip. When they got there Vinnie parked and they headed into a motel that looked filthy. Vinnie got them a room at

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a discount rate because he was Italian and the owner was as well and carried their things into a small room with tiny TV and stains on the ceiling. Vinnie then pulled a couple of bottles of wine out of the mini fridge, put one on ice, and opened the other. “Here's to us!” he said as he raised his glass and met her's. “Here is to our ability to do what we have to survive. Here's to us not being too good to come down here and hang out and have a few drinks. Here's to us being us! And here's to the rest of the world fucking itself while we have a great time!” Tyra laughed and drank with him. She liked this Vinnie, the one who threw the cares of the world to the wind. This Vinnie, even though he was a little wound up, wasn't bad at all. He didn't seem overly angry, even though he did tend to be a little long winded. Maybe it had just been the police station that

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had had him acting like he had been in the morning. She hoped that was the case. “So what do you want to do tonight?” Vinnie asked. “Do you want to go out and hit the town or stay in? It's kind of up to you. I don't really have any preference considering I live here and this place is pretty much played out to me already. Not that tonight will be super boring though, especially since you're here to keep me company!” The rest of the night sailed by. Tyra had never had so much fun. They went from club to club, looking for any and all fare of spectacles to entertain themselves. It was fun to watch the fire breathers and sword swallowers and other circus freaks that floated around the strip. Everywhere they turned there seemed to be someone offering them drugs. Vinnie wasn't into drugs, and didn't drink that heavily, but they still managed to

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get a little tipsy and ended the night by smoking some pot. When they stumbled back into bed they didn't fuck, but instead made sweet love. “Oh, Vinnie,” Tyra said running her hands up and down his body. “Thanks for taking me out on the town tonight, baby. I really did have a great time. I know that it was probably pretty boring for you but for me it was all new and exciting.” Vinnie looked like he had something on his mind and Tyra wanted to know what it was. “What is it, baby?” she asked. Vinnie sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands. “I'm leaving for Italy tomorrow,” Vinnie said. “My cousins are coming out to crack heads.”

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Tyra didn't know what to say. So she didn't say anything. “I want you to come with me, Tyra.” Tyra didn't know what to say. She’d never had a man ask her for any kind of commitment before, not like this anyway. “I don't know,” she said. “I won't know until the airport.” “What do mean?” Vinnie asked her. “I mean I'm going to see you off regardless, but I might come with you.” Vinnie nodded, then got up and crossed the room. Pulling her close by the hand he gently pressed his lips to hers. Did she ever want this to end? Tyra didn't. But asking her to just run away with

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him was asking so much. But maybe she would. * Tyra didn't cry the whole way to the airport, but when she found out that she couldn't walk him to his terminal she broke down. She hadn't flown in a while, and didn't know that new TSA guidelines meant she wouldn't be able to really see him off. “You can still come with,” Vinnie said. “Back home, I'll probably just run a warehouse or something. It won't be anything like here. I promise.” Tyra didn't know what to do. She tried not to sob too heavily into his shoulder, the suit he wore was expensive and her mascara ran, but he didn't say anything about the stains.

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“Just come,” he said. “We could even smooth it over with your boss so you could come back if you wanted to. Or come back every few months. My family is powerful, and we'll clean up in Vegas even if I have to leave right now. After Vegas we'll have even more; be able to do even more. Come on, what do you think?” Tyra looked into his eyes as she dabbed away the mascara. “Please come,” Vinnie said. “Vinnie--- I don’t even have a passport. How can I get one now!” Vinnie patted his pocket and grinned at her. “Babe, I know people.” “All right,” Tyra cried, “All right, I'll come!!” She jumped into Vinnie's waiting arms and

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he swung her in a circle for a moment before putting her down to spring back to the ticket counters. Tyra couldn't believe she was going to leave the US for the first time, and maybe forever. As she went through security she watched other peoples' faces sour as they were asked to step out of their shoes, or to walk through an x-ray machine. Tyra didn't mind, though. “My God, you look happy,” one of the TSA staff said. “What made you smile so big today?” “I'm moving to Italy with my boyfriend,” Tyra said, beaming. “It's the first time I'm leaving the country. I don't know if I'll be back.” The TSA staffer was an old woman with crow's feet wrinkling out from the corner of

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her eyes and a warm smile. She wrapped Tyra up in a big hug before letting her go through security. On the plane a few of the stewardesses asked the same question. Tyra always gave the same answer, and people were always so excited for her, none more than Vinnie. He smiled the biggest the whole way, he couldn't keep his eyes off her. Whenever they sat together he took her hand in his after kissing it and rubbing away the kiss with his thumb. When they landed in Italy, their new lives started. There was a wedding. Tyra had a huge new family, and eventually added to it with children of her own. Although she never asked for the details, Vinnie's cousins did clean up in Vegas and the family's wealth grew even more immense. And years later, when Tyra's little girl would ask how she and daddy met, Tyra

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would say, “We met through a game, baby. Your daddy loves playing games.”

THE END Hey beautiful! I really hope you enjoyed my novel and I would really love if you could give me a rating on the store at the below link!

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Thanks in advance and I hope to have my next Italian Man Romance out soon!. :) Rosa x x

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