chapter 8

the vegas trip had been planned for months, by now it was 2 weeks away, and kyle was getting ansious.he knew i was skint, and was worried i was gonna ruin it for him, he kept pestering me, saying jimmy d would take my place, do a name change, ffs kyle i'm on it. it really was crunch time though, the holiday was paid for, just needed spends. my mum was the last option, she was allways good for a couple of ton. as the date approached, kyle became increasingly annoying, ringin every day, some time twice a day. teadious, kyle was in his late 20s, and by now i was 40+ but he looked up to me, and i think deep, down he knew i would not let him down, (to be honest, i,m surprised she let him come, they are expecting their first child in two months, maybe its his last blast.) but imagine my rage when "just in case, as a back up" he invited jimmy fuckin denton.

jimmy was a big time dealer(or so he thought) to be fair, he was making big bucks out of dealing coke. he had moved on from selling £30 grams, and was now dealing in ounces, maybe even kilos. i disliked him because he let everyone know he was the man. the idiot did not have a job, yet he was driving round in a range rover sport and a 3 series bm. any time soon he was gonna get lifted, and i did not wanna be around. unlike other bruisers i know, their was no mutual respect, i was me, and he was he, i fuckin hate pretense

i was lookin forward to vegas, so stuff it, i'll be playing poker most of the time. we all made our own way to the airport, a direct flight into mccarran, before i had had my first pint, kyle had asked 3 times how much i was carrying. i took him to one side and told him $900 and that was it. we were only there for five days, so i figured it would have to do. kyle had $3k plus plastic, jimmy had about £10k from what i could gather, none of it changed to dollars(muppet) sitting at the bar in the airport, we made plans, and more plans. the one thing i will tell you now boys and dont forget, what goes on in vegas, stays in vegas..... agreed? i reiterated on the plane

the trip over, was uneventful, i had popped two tomazipans, and had four lagers at the airport, so all i remember is kyle waking me so i could see the hoover dam, oh and the grand canyon, wow, sight seeing is not my cuppa. but we were 15 mins from landing(i think i come a little) the excitement grew. we landed and to be fair the US customs sailed us through, jimmy was shitting it, he had not declared all his offences(shopplifting in his early days) exit the airport.

we had arrived at 11am in US money, and the taxis were lined up, jimmy went right to the front and started haggling with the cabbie, it was time i stepped in, jimmy, just get the fuck in the car, lee.... i aint bein ripped off, i'll fuckin pay, i said, just get in, he gave me a dirty look, and obeyed, concider it marking my territory, afterall, he was gatecrashing my party.

this was my first trip to what gamblers refer to as the holy grail, and i was excited(not that you would know) kyle had booked a cheap down town hotel, famous for its poker, the binions horseshoe. the taxi was a 20 minute ride, and on arrival, we were told we could not get in our room until 2pm, no worries we left our bags and went for a wander. we all put our names down for a $1 $2 no limit cash game, and our name's were soon called, me and kyle on one table, our neandathol friend on another. things went badly, within thirty minutes, i had lost $300, and kyle was not amused. fuck me mate, how much have you got letf them? knowing full well the answer was $600, look do not worry, its $120 per day, i'll be fine. meanwhile jimmy d had done a bag of sand,(thats 1k english) and was in a bad mood.

i was first back to reception, and i used some of my magic to procure the room keys an hour early, of course i had an ulterior motive, i wanted the best bed. room 837 was our destination on floor 8(thats easy to remember) and i had kept all the keys to make sure i was first through the door. i let the door slip back on jimmy as i barged in, thinking,hmmm, i want the bed nearest the window, to my horror, it was one single ane one double. once again i marked my territoty, jimmy was fumin, the dummy was out the pram, after losing £1k english and finding he had to sleep with kyle, well, he aint an happy chappy. kyle appollogised and said he no idea, jimmy left his bags and stormed out............

20 minutes later he came back, froffing at the mouth, saying he had booked another room on the penthouse, at $390 and that we should chip in????? i said,as long as we swopped the sleeping arrangements so we could all sample the high life, i would agree, he soon changed his tune, thank god, it was a crap hole, but it was his crap hole.

kyle still had that worried look on his face, but things were about to change we all showered and met in the bar, we decided to play the sahara $65 game which i cashed in, $380 happy days i'm back on track, in fact, in the next 48 hours i cashed in the next 5 poker games i played. i now had $7900 in my back sack, and it was time to party. i rate myself highly as a poker player, so it was never in question(at least from my point of view) if i'm a ten, kyle would be a five and a half, jimmy a two, (who thinks hes an eleven) the results shown this, as kyle was up $1500 and jimmy was down £4k

i was just about recovering from the jet lag, thats right, jet lag is real, WOW, it was wednesday in the AM i think, the three of us were walkin down the strip, when our thoughts turned to fun, well mine turned to food but plans were being hatched. gangster number 1, aka jimmy had been bustin our asses to get some coke, i had been to busy playing poker, anyhow, with a poket full of money i dragged them into a clothes shop, even with a pocket full of dosh the clothes were a bit pricey for what they were. at 8am the shop had just opened and was very quiet, so i got talkin to the guy who appeared to be the proprioter, chatting away i realised sergio was on my wavelenth. we soon got on the subject of coke, he explained he had access to certain amounts.............
the conversation went like this.............
i beckoned the boys over for a bit of moral(support) entray de la maison(i think thats french for get your asses over here) they got the gist. sergio explained he was so sorry, but if we had come in yesterday he had some91% proof ... unfortunatly he only had 76% stuff, and it was $90 a gram. the boys wanted to shop around, my philosophy was, a bird in the hand, ok i said gimme 7, for $500, bit of haggling, deal done

befor i had got out of the shop, jimmy was asking for a sample, come on, i'll tell you how good it is, my shits better than this. we decided against popping in to planet hollywood, and got a taxi back down town. now i've done some shit in my time, and i'd like to think back home, i had access to columbia's finest, however, that was not until we had met serg, fuck me, i had had 10 out of ten before, but we all agreed this stuff was the rolls royce of cocaine, and am i glad we didnt get there a day before ,91% would have killed us, but wadda way to die. my thoughts were, what do i have to go home for? maybe i'll stay. nothing doin in the uk.

we stayed in the room for sevelar hours, ordering room service, doing most of the coke in. we intimated dial a hooker was on the horizon, i rounded the troops and decided it was time to get out on the town, play some cash, maybe eat some food. we packed jimmy off to the penthouse and agreed to rendevou at 830pm at the bar. we made a corperate decision that we needed to eat (really), i decided tony romas was the place to eat, a taxi ride yes, but i'd heard good things. boy oh boy were they right, the ribs the staek the potatoes, all tasted exquisit, none of us finish their meal. we left more than we ate. our thoughts turned to coke, once more.also,
our thoughts turned to fun, with a capitol F, we headed down to the strip.we headed to the belagio for a cash game, it was clear to me, that i was in no fit state to do battle with these guys, they could see we were wired and picked our pockets, with consumate ease. it was here were jimmy and kyle turned into amature coke takers. it seemed every 5 minutes they were badgering me for a line. we only had one gram left, and i had paid for it, so possesion is nine tenths. i told them to get more, so off they trundled down to sergios, leaving me at the bar $500 lighter thanks to the cowboys on table 12. i was knocking them back, but felt impervious to tennasees finest, mr double jack daniels had little effect on me.

a full hour had passed, paranoia was setting in, i was alone in vegas, hmmmmmmm i decided to go look for them, but to no avail. when i got to sergios, the shop assistant told me what she had probably told kyle and jimmy, segio finish work at 6pm and would not be back until the morn. they were obviously on the hunt for more. i happened upon a srip club, why not. before i had got to the bar, i had been propositions by two of americas finest pieces off ass. play it cool lee. i was battin them off with a shitty stick for a least 20 mins, before i surcomed to the charms of natalia and trinity.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................., ,



checking myself to see if it was real, it was, and i'd come out the other end, alive.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


...only a day and a half left, just keep out of trouble,just keep out of trouble, yea