Page 1 of Gio

Chapter 1

Harper

It was weird, being back home. Well, technically home adjacent since I wasn’t actually born in Las Vegas but a town right next door, Steel City. It was—and is—as blue collar as it sounded. Not that there was anything wrong with Steel City, it was a perfectly fine mostly middle-class town, but it was a place that was too wrapped up in bad memories for me. It was the place where my mother had left us and then years later where I lost my father. The town for me was filled with loss and abandonment. Sure, there were good memories. My older brother and fierce protector, Cole was there with me every step of the way. He’d even attempted to delay his military service to take care of me, which I refused.

And he left me too.

I know, I know, I told him to leave. Iwantedhim to leave and spread his wings, to stop pressing pause on his life for me. And I was happy he had, but my stupid brain still felt abandoned. Left behind.

So, armed with my high school diploma and a college acceptance letter, I left Steel City, and I never looked back. I never came back to visit because I didn’t have to. With Cole in the military he would simply stop in California to meet up with me for a few days and that was that.

Until now. I was back. For work, not for good, but being back, even this close to Steel City has me on edge. Nothing hadfelt right since the plane touched down on the tarmac, but I shoved those thoughts aside because I had a job to do.

As a junior planner at one of the most successful event planning companies on the West Coast, thank you very much. I’d been with Exquisite Events for nearly three years and all that time I’d been little more than an assistant and gofer for my boss, Nicole. But this job was my first chance to prove that I was a superb planner in my own right, that I could handle the stresses of the job without someone lurking over my shoulder.

I was excited about the opportunity. Really, I was.

“I know you can handle this,” Nicole said over the phone as I wandered the halls that snaked away from the ballroom inside a brand-new casino that didn’t exist when I lived here. “I know it.”

Her words surprised me, and I stopped in my stilettos, looking up and down the hall in search of the joke. “Thank you, Nicole. That means a lot.”

“You’re from Las Vegas so who better to understand the trashy,” she laughed. “I mean, flashy Vegas culture.”

Bitch. “Right.” I ended the call without a word because fuck her. I had better things to do than worry about what she thought. If I kicked ass at this event, and I would, then Nicole would no longer be my boss.So just do a good job.

The charity gala would be a success, of that I had no doubt. The guest list included everybody who was anybody in this town. Well-known, infamous, or anonymous, as long as they had deep pockets they were on the list and would be here at my event to write big fat checks to help out the foster children of Nevada when they aged out of the system.

“I got this,” I whispered to myself and shoved the phone into the back pocket of my jeans. This damn hotel, The Las Vegas Regency, was a labyrinth of halls with no distinguishing features, which made it impossible to navigate. I only had a few days until the event which meant I needed a damn map, which I couldn’t get online because it was a casino and that—apparently—was a major security problem.

“You’re not supposed to be back here lady.” A kid in a bellhop uniform said as he rushed past me. “Employees only.”

“I’m planning an event in the Golden Ballroom. Any idea where I can get a map?”

He shrugged, a sympathetic smile on his face. “Carl Miller is the one who deals with events on the property. He’s around here… somewhere. Good luck,” he called as he slipped through a seemingly invisible door that locked behind him.

I jiggled the handle, but nothing happened. “Dammit.” I turned and headed back the other way and I stopped at an opening. All hallways from the ballroom led to this point, which was helpful to know, or it would’ve been if I had a damn map. I heard voices in the distance, and I headed in that direction.

The voices were both male and the closer I got the more I realized that they were angry. Arguing. And then the words became clear.

“There is no fucking way I’m gonna lug crates of guns into this fucking place with all the cameras everywhere. You think I’m stupid, Carl?”

Carl?Shit, was that the Carl I needed to speak to?

“It’s called a service entrance, Viper.” That exasperated voice that belonged to Carl was crystal clear. “No cameras backhere. Everyone will think you’re vendors to one of the events going on.”

My brows furrowed at what I was hearing. Guns? This sounded like a conversation I definitely shouldn’t not be listening to, so I slowly stepped back, eager to put some distance between me and whatever was going down.

“I’ll bring a sample of the guns. Tell your buyer to have the cash, or else.” The man called Viper didn’t sound harmless, that much was certain.

“He wants to make sure you have the right guns,” Carl insisted but I heard the tremble in his voice.

“That what a fucking sample is, Carl. Proof I have what he fucking ordered. Don’t fuck with me on this or I will make sure your body is never found. Got it?”

That was enough of a threat for my feet to start moving a little faster, only I didn’t have anywhere to go. The doors behind me were locked so there was only one way forward.

“These Asians don’t fuck around,” Carl assured Viper. “If there’s even a whiff that it’s not legit, they’ll walk away. And retaliate.”

Fuck, this is bad. Really bad.

---