The convoy was on the road to Las Vegas, with Richard sitting in the passenger seat and Hardy and Ava sitting in the back.

There were four security company elites in a car behind.

Today is December 23rd.

The Flamingo Casino was set to open tomorrow, Christmas Eve, and Siegel's idea was to use Christmas Eve to hold a big party to celebrate the opening of the casino, and then people would go on a gambling spree.

Due to Hardy's relationship with Siegel, Hardy decided to arrive in Las Vegas a day earlier.

When we drove into Las Vegas and arrived at the Flamingo Hotel, we saw a tall neon sign from a distance, with a dozen-story building next to it.

The convoy drove into the parking lot and a staff member came to greet them. "Where is Mr. Siegel?" Hardy asked.

"Mr. Siegel is in the lobby, receiving guests." the waiter replied.

Letting others wait here, Hardy took Ava and Richard into the hall. It was extremely spacious and luxuriously decorated. No wonder Siegel spent so much money on it.

There were already quite a few people in the hall. Hardy had a very good memory and he glanced around and found several familiar faces.

The people from the five major families whom I had met at the old Godfather's house had investments in the Flamingo Casino and were considered shareholders here, so they would naturally come here early.

Among them was a young man in his twenties who also sat in the main seat. The young man glanced at Hardy, then fixed his eyes on Ava. He kept looking at the woman's body and face, very unscrupulously.

When Siegel saw Hardy, he stood up with a smile, came over and gave Hardy a hug, then looked at Ava.

"Miss Ava is so beautiful, especially your singing voice is like heavenly music. I really like your song Scarborough Fair. I wonder when you will release a new song."

"The company is already recording an album for me, and I'll have an interview soon." Ava said with a smile.

"That's great. I'll definitely listen carefully when the time comes."

As he led the two men to the crowd, Siegel looked at the family bosses and said with a smile, "Hardy, let me introduce you. This is Kolobo, the patriarch of the Straci family, and this is Tommy Galliano, the second boss of the Bassini family."

Then he pointed to the young man and said, "This is Bruno, the son of Philip, the patriarch of the Tattaglia family."

Then Siegel looked at these people and said, "You always ask who the other shareholder is. I will now formally introduce him to you. It is him, Jon Hardy. Hardy now owns 18% of the shares of Flamingo Casino."

The eyes of several people looking at Hardy changed. Hardy looked to be in his twenties, very young, but they didn't expect him to be so rich. Each of them contributed 800,000, which only accounted for 13% of the shares. How much did this young man contribute?

And he dares to get involved in the gambling business. Doesn't he know that this is the sphere of influence of the gangs?

Tommy Galliano, the second boss of the Bassini family, suddenly remembered something and asked, "Mr. Hardy, is HD security your business?"

Hardy looked at the middle-aged man with his chin tucked in, and replied with a smile: "Yes, I founded HD Security Company."

HD Security has developed rapidly and now has more than a thousand employees. Its business has spread to San Francisco and it is now the largest security company on the West Coast.

Whoever has the gun has the power. The other party owns a security company, so he is naturally not afraid of the gangs. Now, several people dare not underestimate Hardy.

Buono's eyes suddenly turned unfriendly when he looked at Hardy, and he asked Hardy, "Mr. Hardy, do you still have an HD Films?"

Hardy looked at Bruno. This young man looked a bit frivolous and his eyes were full of provocation when he looked at him.

"Yes, HD Films is mine."

Bruno sneered twice, "Haha, MGM was shooting a movie in New York and my people were injured. Later, the Corrion family came to find me. I always thought that Mayer of MGM was not that capable. Later, I found out that there was another cooperative company called HD Pictures, and the owner of HD Pictures was doing business with Michael Corrion and opened a TV factory. The one who found the Corrion family should be Mr. Hardy, right?"

A phone call prevented him from continuing to blackmail people and caused him to lose tens of thousands of dollars. Naturally, Bruno was upset with Hardy.

Especially since he brought a beautiful woman like Ava with him.

The movie Red Dead Redemption just ended, and Ava's song became a hit, becoming a Hollywood star. Looking at the current situation of Ava and Hardy, Ava must be the woman named Hardy's guy.

They are both young men, but Hardy is more successful in his career and his woman is prettier than his. This makes Bruno even more unhappy with Hardy.

Hardy looked at Bruno seriously and said calmly, "So you are the boss of that film company. It was indeed Mr. Vito that I found. I want to thank you for your kindness."

Bruno heard the sarcasm in Hardy's words and hated Hardy in his heart.

The other family bosses did not focus on Bruno's trivial matter. Tommy Galliano, the second boss of the Bassini family, rolled his eyes and said with a smile:

"Mr. Hardy, I heard that the TV factory is expanding and investing tens of millions of dollars to build a super large enterprise that can produce 400,000 TV sets a year. I wonder if we can invest in it. If we can, we hope to buy some shares of the TV company."

The main purpose of the mafia is to make money, and this has never changed. The mafia will reach out to any area where they can make money.

It was the first time for Siegel to hear this news. He was surprised that Hardy and Mike invested tens of millions to build a factory.

I was indeed optimistic about this young man at first, but I didn't expect him to develop so quickly and create such a large industry in such a short period of time.

"The bank loan is sufficient. We are not accepting investments for the time being. Of course, when the TV is produced, Mr. Tommy can buy one back, which will be considered as support for our business." Hardy said with a smile.

Tommy's face darkened.

Being rejected so bluntly made him feel a little unhappy.

Hardy looked at Tommy with a smile on his face. If the gang wanted to interfere in his business, if it were someone else, he might have some concerns in his heart, but he was a gangster and his partner was Mike from the Corrion family. How could he possibly piss on them?

To be honest, I have a clean record.

When it comes to being black, I am blacker than all of you.

Hardy was not interested in chatting with these mafia members with ulterior motives. He said hello to Siegel and took Ava to show around. After all, he was one of the major shareholders and he needed to understand his own industry.

The casino is ready and can be described as magnificent. There are hundreds of slot machines placed together, which is very shocking. There are dozens of gaming tables with various types of games. Now the staff are still cleaning up and preparing to welcome tomorrow's guests.

The lounge, bar and restaurant were also ready to receive guests. When the two arrived at the hotel, they found that the hotel was luxuriously decorated and definitely up to the standards of a star hotel.

However, apart from these most basic facilities, the various other entertainment projects that Siegel had envisioned were almost unfinished.

This means that people who come here can only gamble.

Hardy could only sigh that it was still too hasty. Those mafia families were all short-sighted. If they were willing to support Siegel, Siegel would definitely succeed.

The next day.

The sky in Las Vegas is a little gloomy.

The temperature dropped to only about five or six degrees.

Siegel looked at the sky with some concern, and said to Virginia, the woman who was with him, "I have arranged a plane to pick us up from Los Angeles. I hope the weather will be good."

Noon time.

Guests came one after another, most of them drove here by themselves, after all, this place is only 4 hours away from Los Angeles.

Among these people were lawyers, accountants, and many celebrities, and Hardy knew many of them. MGM's big boss Mayer and Warner's boss were also there, and Hardy went over to greet them and chat.

Hardy's current status is comparable to Mayer and Warner Bros. Although HD Pictures is not as good as the Big Eight film companies, Hardy's comprehensive strength is not inferior to them.

Meyer and Hardy stood under a tree with glasses of wine in hand and chatted about the movie.

"I'm going to let George Froschel be the director of Over the Top. Four years ago, he directed "House of Cards," which won the Oscar for Best Picture. The style of Over the Top is more suitable for him."

"I plan to let Stanley Donen direct Singin' in the Rain. He has directed musicals before and has experience in musicals. Hardy, do you have any ideas about these two people?" Mayer asked.

Hardy was a little dazed.

Stanley Donen, if he remembers correctly, it seems that Singin' in the Rain from Another World was also directed by Donen.

"I have no objection. I have great faith in the strength of MGM," Hardy said with a smile.

Meyer smiled and said, "I bought a copy of Playboy, Hardy. I have to say that you have a very unique vision. This magazine will definitely be a big hit. This is definitely a good deal that will make money."

“These are small businesses,” Hardy said with a smile.

"It's a small business. Playboy's stock price has risen to $6 now. You own all the shares of the magazine. You can probably earn more than $5 million just from this."

Mayer's tone was full of envy when he spoke. His MGM was such a big business, but he couldn't make that much money even if he worked hard for a year.

The two then talked about "Red Dead Redemption". The box office of "Red Dead Redemption" was fixed at 7.86 million, which has already secured this year's box office champion. However, if you want to get a share of this money, you will have to wait until the middle of next year. This is only the first installment. If you want to get all the money, it will probably take one or two years.

Hardy also had another source of income, which was the documentary "The Los Angeles Bank Robbery", which also grossed over two million dollars.

"Mr. Mayer, how are the Golden Globe Awards and Oscars going this year?" Hardy asked.

Meyer smiled and said, "There are many good films this year, but I think Red Dead Redemption still has a certain advantage in the Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Song."

"What about Oscar?" Hardy asked.

"Haven't you heard that the Golden Globe Awards are a barometer of the Oscars?"

By the afternoon, three to four hundred guests had arrived, and most of them were well-known people.

But this was a little different from what Siegel had expected.

He was still waiting for the flight. Siegel had hired several planes to bring the guests, including the bigwigs he had invited, California congressmen and officials, who would be his opening guests.

I have to say,

Siegel's network of contacts is indeed very wide, and he knows so many important people.

But the weather was not good.

At around three or four o'clock in the afternoon, heavy rain suddenly hit Las Vegas. You have to know that Las Vegas is a dry desert area with very little rainfall and very few heavy rains.

But today, the day when Flamingo opened, there was a rainstorm that happened only once in a decade.

The sky was filled with dark clouds and lightning flashed from time to time.

Sieger stood at the window with an extremely grim expression on his face.