Carlotta and the Krius Scepter (Carlotta Series Book 1) Read Free

escape. The cassette started when he turned the ignition and nineteen-fifties big-band music blared out from tiny tinny speakers. I should have known.
    “Where are we going?” I asked as he pulled the vehicle out of the alley onto a busy street. He’d wound down his window and I opened mine. The nearest thing to air-con we were going to get. Traffic noise made it difficult to hear his reply.
    “I told you, to see The Don .”
    “And is he at some sleazy nightclub, with his big breasted molls serving him hard liquor while whores dance naked, sliding their oiled bodies against poles?” Okay, I may have said that a trifle sarcastically.
    “It could be you oiled up and using your mouth to earn him a living, if that’s what he wants from you,” King said seriously, if a little breathlessly, because he had to shout over the noise to be heard. “Prostitution, gambling and drugs are his business.”
    I must be some kind of tart because that didn’t frighten me in the slightest. I was beginning to wonder if anything did.
    “We’re going to his casino complex and that’s all above-board since they legalized gambling. He wouldn’t want to give the city commissioners any excuse to revoke his license now that anyone can set up in competition.”
    It seemed his casino was in a more upmarket part of town than we had been in because the streets became wider and classier as Rex drove. Restaurants replaced stripper bars and theatre fronts stood out across the paving, their awnings festooned with the names of famous actors. The people walking the streets looked wealthier too, women in expensive clothing rather than sour faced hookers on the arms of their pimps.
    “Look…” King said and then lapsed into silence. I let it ride. The sights of the city were enough to keep me amused. We were in club-land now, sophisticated places offering entertainment and foreign cuisine that wasn’t limited to a kebab or a Chinese takeaway. We passed hotels with men waiting outside their entrances in fancy uniforms, ready to open any car door that pulled up. I discovered I love that sort of thing. I wanted to stop the car and flirt with a doorman.
    “About my name….”
    “Yes?” That was too good a story to ignore if he was willing to spill.
    “I started the business when I was 21. Nobody wants to hire a PI who looks eighteen and has the name Jimmy Muldoon. I figured that a costume and the name Rex King would get me business.”
    I couldn’t resist asking. “How’s that working out for you, kid?”
    Rex hunched forward in his seat, almost hugging the steering wheel. “I get by.”
    “Sorry.” I patted him on the back encouragingly. He’d been honest with me and I’d put him down. It didn’t seem sporting.
    It looked as though we had left town for some kind of business area. Skyscrapers were lit up like Christmas trees. In the distance was a huge monstrosity of a building with the name ‘Lucky’s Casino and Hotel’ lit up on a sign so large it was almost a building in its own right.
    “Let me guess,” I said nonchalantly. “That has to be The Don’s place. Only a criminal mind could be so tasteless.”
    King pulled over, resulting in the man in the car behind blaring his horn apoplectically. He turned to look at me.
    “I don’t know what you’ve got yourself into, kid. That letter said I wasn’t to tell you, but…”
    I put a finger over his lips. “Then don’t. I must have had a reason to go to all this trouble and don’t you go spoiling it.”
    I kept my finger over his lips until he nodded. When I let go he sighed.
    “ The Don said I should drop you at his private entrance at the rear of the hotel. Someone will be waiting for you there and he said you should follow him. That wax seal, the people who use it are very dangerous, more dangerous than The Don . They saved my life a couple of years ago, so I owe them. I don’t know what their hold is on you, but you take good care of yourself and if you ever need my