Blood Brothers by Dallas Barnes

Author:Dallas Barnes [Barnes, Dallas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781647341886
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Published: 2020-06-23T16:00:00+00:00

15

The Sparrow Falls

"A hawk does not know the day it will fall."

Stonehead—Ute

In Las Vegas, Donald DePalma was back on his perch. It was morning and the ritual was in process. Dressed in a silk robe and cushioned slippers, the Don was on his second-floor balcony of his Lakes estate enjoying a cup of Amaretto, the Wall Street Journal and the TV tuned to Good Morning America. It wasn't wealth that gave the Don his leisurely mornings. It was choice. The self-discipline requiring fourteen to fifteen-hour workdays dictated pacing. Start easy, finish hard was the Don's personal credo. Wealth, he had learned, wasn't the gift of fate; it was the fruit of perseverance and hard work.

The Don checked the Dow averages, NASDAQ and a new offering from Seaborn Gaming. Fuckin' Arabs were in a big push to expand casinos on cruise ships. Assholes! It was fly shit competition, but he knew if they succeeded, the money they made wouldn't be ignored by their ports of call. Soon tie-up gambling would be legalized, then port casinos would follow. Everybody wanted a piece of the action, especially Indians and Arabs. Next the fuckin' Arabs would be dumping money into Indian casinos.

The threats were an irritant, but secretly, he fed on them. They kept him focused, centered on success, driven to maintain his position as top dog. That's what he told himself and others, but in reality, he was a frightened man. A man who lived and traveled with bodyguards and guns. A man who could not shake the fear hammered into a frail fourteen-year-old by a gang of neighborhood toughs who stole his watch, his bicycle, his lunch money and, perhaps most importantly, his pride.

Fear made the Don a dangerous, paranoid opponent and it was about to be fueled. Laying the newspaper aside, he sipped his Amaretto, scratched and adjusted his testicles while thinking of Lana Casner. His wife's suspicions had led to the exile of Lana. He really liked the sultry Lana. It was "style" to have her as an assistant. Hell, people expected him to be with a beautiful woman. Could he make an entrance at the Casa Grande with his three-hundred-pound wife on his arm? If it wasn't for the kids, he'd dump her fat ass.

He turned his attention to an attractive reported on TV. "The emerging theme of the Presidential campaign continues to focus on jobs and the economy," the reporter said as DePalma imagined the comfortable set of Good Morning America as a Las Vegas stage with hot white light and a black background. "With the downsizing of cooperate giants and the shrinking of the defense industry, Americans are finding themselves forced into following opportunity." Maybe, the Don considered, the hook for the act like he imagined could be the girl next door. The reporter had that all-American quality about her.

"Dinah Collins from our affiliate in Phoenix recently visited a remote area of western Arizona. A small town where a miracle in the desert is taking place... Dinah."

The Don made a mental note of the phrase, miracle in the desert.

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