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I thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I was just drawn to it, I guess. Why?”
He grabbed the bottle from my hand and placed it back on the rack. Before I could question him, he rotated it forty-five degrees counterclockwise. I heard a series of clicks before the rack dropped back into the wall about six feet revealing another staircase below. He looked back up at me and smiled. “Good instincts.”
“Holy fuck.”
Nine
I took Leo’s hand to descend the massive staircase. He reached above my head and flicked a switch, which sealed the entrance above and bathed us in a soft light. I paused for a moment to assess my surroundings. The walls were carved out of reddish-orange-colored sandstone, like the kind you would find in the desert but they were smoothed and sealed to perfection. Elegant tapestries hung at even intervals, depicting Old English art with frosted glass sconces in between. Under my feet were stairs made of a thick, golden marble with perfectly polished hand rails on each side.
“Wow,” I said in awe.
He smiled. “Wait until you see the rest.”
You would think being underground would feel cold and confining, and inspire claustrophobia perhaps, but the further down we went, the warmer and more cavernous it became. We finally reached the bottom and were met by a long corridor made of the same smooth stone, lined with iron sconces with small flames casting shadows on the walls. There were several large, dark wooden doors on each side with a wide open arch at the end. The ceiling was at least twenty feet high with a large antique iron chandelier hanging from the center. The floors were made of the same polished marble as the stairs, Persian rugs adding to the opulence.
“My God, Leo, this is amazing,” I exclaimed. “Exactly how rich are you again?”
He laughed. “You can say I am more than comfortable for several immortal lifetimes.”
I released a breath. “How far underground are we anyway?”
“About three hundred feet,” he replied.
“Three hundred?”
He nodded. “Yes. Would you like a tour? You have the honor of being my first official guest.”
I jumped up and down like an excited toddler. “Yes! Omigod, yes!”
He held his hand out with his palm turned upward. “Shall we?” he asked.
I took his hand and saw firsthand exactly what a seemingly endless supply of money could get you.
***** He opened the first door to our left which led to a control room of sorts. There was a giant wall containing dozens of security monitors. On them I saw Leo’s office, every other area of the club, the front and back parking lot, an underground garage filled with fancy cars, an elevator, a large vault, several long tunnels leading to places unknown...Wait, an elevator?
“Where is that elevator located?” I asked.
“It’s a freight elevator.” He pointed to the monitor on the far right. “It runs between my hotel basement and that tunnel right there. I use it to bring items down that won’t fit through the hatch.”
“Like wha---wait a second. Did you say your hotel??”
He grinned. “Yes, my hotel. One of them, anyway.”
My jaw dropped. “You own hotels?!? As in plural?”
He nodded. “Technically, one of my holding companies owns them, but there are several, yes. Two on the Strip, then one each in Tahoe, Rome, London, and Paris.” He pointed to another monitor depicting a beautiful structure with a large lake in front complete with its own captivating fountains. Also known as the hotel in which Pixie Dust was located. “That one,” he began. “Is connected to the tunnels.”
I shook my head in confusion, still reeling from the fact that Leo owned one of the most luxurious hotels in town. “I don’t understand. That’s over three miles away.”
His grin grew wider. “It’s a very long tunnel. You could say I’ve built a city beneath the city.”
I sat down in a chair next to a large control panel that looked like it belonged to NASA. “Omigod.” I looked up at him in shock. “Leo, I had no idea. I mean, I knew you had money, but this is money. You could buy anything you want. Live anywhere you want. Why here? Come to think of it, why do you even show up for work?”
He knelt down in front of me and kissed my hand. “It is meaningless without someone to share it with. And that someone lives here. Besides, I like Vegas. And I like working. My father was an honest, hard-working man and I aspire to be the same. I may have taken some detours over the past five hundred years, but I figured out what mattered eventually.”
“Wow.”
He pulled me into a standing position and started leading me out of the room. “Come, there is something I’ve been dying to show you.”
