Paradise Burns Read Online Free PDF Page A

much as I like to
get paid for shooting people, sometimes ignorance isn’t bliss. Especially when
I’m dealing with the mob, because for all I know, they could be setting me up
right now.
    I began by looking at what he’d found on
my target. Ted Jackson is a high-ranking employee of a large, multi-national
umbrella corporation called GlobaTech Industries. They had numerous subsidiary
companies who serviced military contracts - be it private security or Research
and Development. They own the land that Jackson was originally going to sell to
Pellaggio.
    In his line of work, I can understand
him being overly cautious. Military contracts are big business. Like, billions
of dollars big. And competition for them and the related research can be fierce
to say the least. But handcuffing his briefcase to his hand, riding around in a
limousine that would make the President jealous, and hiring a very hot and
probably lethal bodyguard still seemed like overkill.
    Having said that, given he’s just
screwed over the biggest mob boss in the state, maybe it’s not such a surprise
that he’s upped his personal security.
    I turned my attention to my employer,
hoping for any detail that would offer an explanation.
    Roberto Pellaggio was a big time mafia
Don, who owned half of Heaven’s Valley. On the surface, he’d opened businesses
all across the city, which had created many jobs and lots of revenue that he’d
re-invested into the local areas. He owned car dealerships, barbershops,
nightclubs and casinos. All big business. All legit.
    Underneath all that respectable
businessman crap, however, was where he earned his real money. Drugs,
prostitution, extortion, you name it. You go down the list of crimes the mob
can commit, and they tick every box. The money they earn is laundered through
their legitimate businesses, and it disappears back into the city. With the
help of some clever accounting, Pellaggio is running a massive,
highly-profitable outfit. Also, given how much of his money was invested back
into the city, he’s got a lot of pull with all the officials - local
government, police, and even some state politicians. On the whole, he was a big
deal. Definitely not someone you’d want as an enemy.
    There was a news report from a couple of
weeks ago that detailed how Pellaggio had tried to purchase a plot of land near
the outskirts of Heaven’s Valley. It detailed how he was looking to expand his
empire by building another casino, like Manhattan had said to me earlier. The
land was ideally situated near the city limits, so it held appeal to people
from neighboring towns and cities, and could, in theory, service all of state’s
gambling needs north of Vegas.
    Then, a few days ago, another report
surfaced in the business section of one of the local papers explaining how the
deal had apparently fallen through. There was a picture of our good friend and
future corpse, Ted Jackson. The news report went on to say how Jackson pulled
out of the deal for undisclosed reasons, allegedly costing Pellaggio hundreds
of millions of dollars in potential earnings.
    I guess that’s why I was called in. No
wonder Pellaggio’s pissed.

 
    SIX
     
    So, on the
surface, it still seems cut and dry: Pellaggio wants to continue his monopoly
of Heaven’s Valley. Jackson unscrupulously got in the way of that. I’m called
in to send a message and help get Pellaggio back on track.
    But something wasn’t quite right about
it. Jackson was also set to make a decent sum of money from selling the land to
Pellaggio. While I’m sure there are lots of reasons why he would pull out of
the deal, he would surely understand that not explaining himself to the likes
of Roberto Pellaggio wouldn’t end well for him.
    I picked up the phone and called Josh.
    ‘Hey, it’s me,’ I said.
    ‘Hey, Cupcake, whaddaya need now?’ he
replied as he answered the phone. I tried to ignore his greeting.
    ‘I’m just thinking out loud here, okay? So,
Jackson approaches