In a Las Vegas rebuilt on Bitcoin and bad intentions, Nicky Marino runs the only club that matters. Aces is where the whales play, the women hustle, and the house always wins--because Nicky makes sure of it. But when one of his oldest friends turns up dead with four aces stuffed in his hand, the message is clear: someone's coming for everything Nicky built. The investigation drags him through a world of stolen encryption tech, Yakuza supply chains, and a fixer who kills as casually as he orders breakfast. And behind all of it--pulling strings from a thousand miles away--is a ghost from Nicky's past. A woman he loved. A woman who put a bullet in him and disappeared with everything he had. She's back. She has a new name. And she wants Nicky on a leash. Aces and Blood is noir with the safety off. If you like your thrillers dark, your antiheroes sharp, and your Vegas soaked in neon and blood--pull up a chair. The game's already started.