Just Another Night at the Golden Dragon

It had been a very long day.

Val was used to generally crazy days at the Golden Dragon, but this one had been a real doozy. One line of slot machines had gone completely bonkers, causing three grandmas on side-by-side machines to win jackpots, prompting a near riot of people to looking to get in on the action. One of his best waitresses, Anna, upset with a breakup with her boyfriend had accidentally spilled a drink on one of their whales in the high stakes area. Val had to simultaneously comp and apologize to the customer while trying keep Anna from going off the deep end (good waitresses were hard to find). And that had just been the early evening.

The rest of the night hadn't been any quieter. A well dressed Asian gentleman had come to his station, demanding that he get see Mr. Jann immediately. He had been so insistent that Val had been forced to call Harrison over. He hated feeling like he couldn't handle a situation, but the gentleman refused to take no for an answer. But, of course, random people didn't just get come in and have a meeting with the owner of the casino. And to top the night off, two men had gotten into a knockdown brawl over a blackjack hand. One of them played against basic strategy and the other was convinced that he had cost him a key card that lost him a very big hand. Security had arrived quickly, but Val's job was to handle things until that point. He had ended up with a large cut over one eye and his suit was going to need dry-cleaning.

At this hour, the back ways of the casino were pretty much quiet and empty of other life. Val was almost always one of the last to leave (and first to arrive) and that was the way he liked it. Walking down a hallway towards the employee living area, he noticed the cut on his eye was still dripping blood a little. He didn't want to ruin his suit any more than necessary, so he ducked in into a nearby bathroom to see if he could stop the bleeding. He looked at himself in the mirror as he blotted the cut with a paper towel.

Are you sure this what you want to be doing with your life?

It had been one of those mental rhetorical questions, but he took a minute to give it some serious consideration. But it didn't take long to come to an answer. Even on the rough nights, like this one, he enjoyed what he did. And better than that, he was good at what he did. If he kept at it, someday he might be in Harrison Dean's role, the top guy behind the owner. Not too shabby for a young man with nothing to his name before he had arrived at the Golden Dragon.

The blood had stopped so he splashed a little water on his face. As he left the bathroom, he noticed an odd movement out of the corner of his eye. If the hallways hadn't been so empty, he might not have paid it any mind. But he knew security had been more busy than normal, so he felt some responsibility to make sure nothing untoward was going on. He turned the corner and saw two heavyset men carrying a large bag out of one of the unused storage rooms. It didn't take him long to realize from the way they were awkwardly carrying the bag (and the size) that it had a body in it.

The men, seemingly hearing his approach turned to face him and the bag dropped awkwardly between them. As it did, an arm slipped out of the loosely zipped bag. Val's eyes had always been good and his time on the floor had only honed his attention to detail. So he almost immediately recognized the elaborate tiger tattoo on the wrist of the arm. The last time he had seen it, the man who it belonged to had been yelling for an audience with Mr. Jann.

The men, who Valentine now recognized as part of Mr. Jaan's personal security detail, looked Val up and down briefly. "We weren't here and neither were you. Isn't that right, Mr. Quick?"

Val nodded. He pointed towards the arm dangling out of the bag. "Before we both vanish, you might want to get your cargo together." He said it with all seriousness. His job security, after all, depended on things going smoothly.

They briefly glanced at him as if to check to see whether he was joking with them, but then the man in the back nodded curtly and the man in front tucked the arm back into the bag and zipped it up tightly. They then lifted the bag (the body, he corrected himself) and headed towards a door that opened up on a private parking lot. Val didn't stay to watch, however, instead turning back around the corner into the hallway he had started on.

That man certainly had been killed on direct order from Mr. Jann. Val knew that kind of thing didn't happen without Mr. Jann's knowledge. He had wanted to see the owner...and he had probably gotten his chance. Unfortunately for him.

Val mentally shrugged as he opened the door to his apartment. Time to take a shower and get clean, send his suit to get cleaned up. Just another night at the Golden Dragon.

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