Chapter 354

It wasn’t anywhere near the first time I’d been on a trip and had to come back to work; hell, I’d even taken an entire week off before so that Cass and I could take a trip back home to visit our family.

Badging into the staff entrance from the staff parking lot felt different this time.

The Vasoseh, named after the Farsi term for Temptation, was one of the newest big casinos on the strip; and, to be fair, that was the only reason I really had the position I did. The Persian business conglomerate that had bought the land in Vegas had caused a bit of an uproar for a little bit since they had apparently done some sort of a runaround on the more established ‘financing groups’ who wanted a piece of every major pie in Vegas, but they had just as seemingly endlessly deep pockets and every hurdle was overcome. The Vaso had been built over three years and Cass and I had moved to Vegas three months before it started hiring its entire complement of staff other than the various managers they had brought over from resorts in the UAE and Kuwait.

Every once in a while when someone found out I worked at the Vaso, especially if they were Vegas born and raised and steeped in the history of the casinos like it was mythological lore, I got asked what it was like working for terrorists. My answer was always the same. ‘Pretty good; they pay slightly above market rate, sprung for above average health insurance, and the tips from the oil execs are great. Plus I haven’t been blown up once!’

My bosses were not terrorists, but talking up all the perks usually shut up the racist comments.

The back hallways of the Vaso were generally the same as any other major hotel and casino on the strip - plain and utilitarian. Once I was badged in I walked the back hallways by rote, nodding to some of the friendly faces on the way. Cleaners, maintenance, front desk, kitchen staff for the restaurants, bartenders and waitresses, admin staff, pretty much everyone who did anything behind the scenes other than security and the actual operations folk of the Casino had reasons to be back there in the corridors, break rooms, storage areas and offices. The actual Casino operations had its own, separate back area that had to be accessed through separate doors inside the building.