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Scalzo could not have envisioned a more perfect setup. The biggest mistake the mob had ever made was letting themselves get pushed out of Las Vegas. No other town in the world had the same kind of action. By partnering with Jasper, Scalzo could run a card game inside a Las Vegas casino without law breathing down his neck. It didn’t get any better than that.
“Rufus Steele is a clown,” Scalzo said. “The real problem is Tony Valentine. He wants to expose Skipper. He has a grudge with me.”
The beer in Jasper’s glass had disappeared, and Guido poured him another.
“You’ve dealt with Valentine before?” Jasper asked.
Scalzo nodded almost imperceptibly.
“Can he be bought off?”
“He used to be a casino cop. They called him the squarest guy in Atlantic City.”
“So, what should we do?”
Scalzo stared across the suite at the picture window on the other side of the room. The curtains were pulled back, allowing him to see the pulsing neon spectacle that was the strip at night. For years he’d run a successful scam in Atlantic City that had made him a small fortune, but this was different. This was Las Vegas, and for as long as he could remember, he’d wanted a piece of it for himself.
“We need to get rid of him,” Scalzo said. “Once Valentine’s gone, Steele will fade into the sunset, and we can go back to business.”
“When you say get rid of him,” Jasper said, “do you mean, run him out of town?”
Scalzo put his snifter down and coldly stared at his guest. Jasper’s face and hands were evenly ta
“I mean kill the bastard,” Scalzo said.
Jasper blinked, and then he blinked again. Making a Madison Avenue decision,Scalzo thought. He put his hand on Jasper’s arm and squeezed the younger man’s biceps.
“We need to do it right now,” Scalzo added.
Deadman’s Pokeris a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Ballantine Books Mass Market Original
Copyright © 2006 by James Swain
Excerpt from Deadman’s Bluffby James Swain copyright © 2006 by James Swain
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming paperback edition of Deadman’s Bluffby James Swain. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.
eISBN-13: 978-0-345-49375-0
eISBN-10: 0-345-49375-3
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