Tessa Every week he sits at the same table, half in the shadows, watching me. Raw power rolls off of him in waves, and because of him, I dance better than I ever have before. I only know him as A, the simple signature he uses on every note left for me at the end of each show. But I want to know more. I want to know if his eyes are as dark as they feel, and I want to know if his touch will burn as much as his gaze promises it will. He keeps his distance, though, until the night I need saving, and I'm swept away to his castle in the sky. The moment I lock eyes with him, I feel my world tilt. He brings out a part of me I've kept hidden away, but so desperately need to be. I know I should run in the opposite direction when I find out who he is, but I take a step closer instead. And even when I try to run, he has other plans. Alec Carfano isn't a man to let what's his go easily, and there's no question that I'm his. Alec Tessa Lyons is mine. She became my obsession the moment I saw her. There's a darkness in her that matches my own, hiding just below her cover of innocence. It calls to me, begging me to coax it out of her so she can join me in the shadows where I live. I stayed away as long as I could, not wanting the evils of my world to touch her. But when the evils of hers dares to, I use the opportunity to finally take her. And now that I have her, I refuse to let her go. She doesn't know who I am or what I'm capable of, but she'll soon find out just how far I'll go to keep her safe. No matter the cost, I'll do anything to protect her. Nothing will stop me from keeping the one thing in my life that makes me feel anything good.

The true story behind the Martin Scorsese film: A “riveting . . . account of how organized crime looted the casinos they controlled” (Kirkus Reviews). Focusing on Chicago bookie Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and his partner, Anthony Spilotro, and drawing on extensive, in-depth interviews, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Mafia classic Wiseguy—basis for the film Goodfellas—Nicholas Pileggi reveals how the pair worked together to oversee Las Vegas casino operations for the mob. He unearths how Teamster pension funds were used to take control of the Stardust and Tropicana and how Spilotro simultaneously ran a crew of jewel thieves nicknamed the “Hole in the Wall Gang.” For years, these gangsters kept a stranglehold on Sin City’s brightly lit nightspots, skimming millions in cash for their bosses. But the elaborate scheme began to crumble when Rosenthal’s disproportionate ambitions drove him to make mistakes. Spilotro made an error of his own, falling for his partner’s wife, a troubled showgirl named Geri. It would all lead to betrayal, a wide-ranging FBI investigation, multiple convictions, and the end of the Mafia’s longstanding grip on the multibillion-dollar gaming oasis in the midst of the Nevada desert. Casino is a journey into 1970s Las Vegas and a riveting nonfiction account of the world portrayed in the Martin Scorsese film of the same name, starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone. A story of adultery, murder, infighting, and revenge, this “fascinating true-crime Mob history” is a high-stakes page-turner (Booklist).

In Murder in Vegas, the International Association of Crime Writers and New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly have gathered twenty-two crime and mystery stories about the ultimate playground and what can happen behind the glitz and glamour. Las Vegas. Lost Wages. Sin City. An artificial oasis of pleasure, spectacle, and entertainment, the gambling capital of America has reinvented itself so many times that its doubtful that anyone knows for sure what's real and what isn't in the miles of neon and scorching heat. Las Vegas is considered the ultimate players destination--no matter what your game. Almost anything is available--for a price, mind you, and sometimes losers walk away from the tables with even less than just an empty wallet or purse--sometimes they don't walk away at all. From a gambler who must-win at the roulette table to stay alive to a courier who's only mistake was accepting a package with Las Vegas as the final destination, come to the true city that never sleeps, where fortunes are made and lost every day, and where snake-eyes aren't found just on a pair of dice. Murder in Vegas features stories by: James Swain, S.J. Rozan, Wendy Hornsby, Michael Collins, T.P Keating, J. Madison Davis, Sue Pike, Joan Richter, Libby Hellmann, Tom Savage, Edward Wellen, K.J.A. Wishnia, Linda Kerslake, John Wessel, Lise McClendon, Ronnie Klaskin, Ruth Cavin, A.B. Robbins , Gay Toltl Kinman, Micki Marz, Rick Mofina, Jeremiah Healy At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Organized crime has made millions from legal gambling in the United States, and now it threatens the world's largest gaming markets. Despite the rigorous efforts to regulate the gaming industry after New Jersey legalized casinos in 1976, the Mob still found ways to skim millions of dollars in illegal profit. Even with stringent regulatory oversight of gaming, organized crime managed to reap millions in profits through its control of a network of companies providing gamblers from sixty-five cities in twenty-five states throughout the United States. Their network was ultimately discovered through the efforts of Operation Eagle, a multi-jurisdictional sting operation conducted by the Casino Intelligence Unit of the New Jersey State Police. During the investigation, detectives initiated an investigative effort that uncovered how the Mob was able to control a major portion of the casino's marketing dollars not only in Atlantic City casinos but also in other major gaming venues, including Nevada and the Caribbean. Currently, with more than thirty-eight billion dollars in revenue each year, the largest gaming venue in the world is Macau, China. Asian organized crime has found a way to penetrate the casino industry in Macau, in much the same way organized crime infiltrated legalized casino operations in other parts of the world. The Other Skim tells the story of how organized crime made millions from legal gambling in the United Sates and how it still threatens gaming markets today.

The reckless heir to the Horseshoe Club fortune, fifty-five-year-old Vegas casino boss Ted Binionlived the high life constantly teetering on the edge—surrounding himself with guns, heroin, cash, babes and mobsters. But it was a beautiful ex-stripper and her new lover who gave him the final, fatal push over the side. The gripping true story of the fall of a powerful man that culminated in the most publicized murder in Las Vegas history—an almost perfect crime undone by the unbelievable greed of its perpetrators—Jeff German's Murder in Sin City is a stunning account of human deterioration and depravity, a neon-tinged view of the poisonous rot that festers beneath the Vegas glitter. Check out the original Lifetime movie, Sex and Lies in Sin City, based on the book Murder in Sin City by Jeff German, premiering on October 25, 2008 at 8 p.m. EST.

GAMBLERS, RACKETEERS, CELEBRITIES: MOST HERE DIDN'T PLAY BY THE RULES. THEIR M.O.? SLIPSHOD STRATEGIES AND ILLEGAL MOVES.Their new, nature-inspired hotel stood amid a Northern Nevada township of more trees than people. The raw beauty of that lakeside spot on the cusp of development portended enormous getaway potential. The owners, legitimate businessmen, strove to add a casino, but no one would finance it.Then Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters pension fund wormed its way in. The locals objected to a gambling house in their neighborhood. Shady characters usurped the enterprise. Lives were threatened. State agents witnessed an employed stickman using misspot dice. Felonious crimes occurred on the property, allegedly. Lawsuits by and against a later proprietor crept into the double digits. And those events were just a handful of a mounting pile of troubles.This is the story of a gambling business' journey from concept to stability during the 1960s and '70s, a time when the industry was Mob infiltrated, often volatile, theft and cheating prone, and unpredictably policed.Today, that once fledgling inn is the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa and Casino in Incline Village, Nevada.

The reckless heir to the Horseshoe Club fortune, fifty-five-year-old Vegas casino boss Ted Binionlived the high life constantly teetering on the edge—surrounding himself with guns, heroin, cash, babes and mobsters. But it was a beautiful ex-stripper and her new lover who gave him the final, fatal push over the side. The gripping true story of the fall of a powerful man that culminated in the most publicized murder in Las Vegas history—an almost perfect crime undone by the unbelievable greed of its perpetrators—Jeff German's Murder in Sin City is a stunning account of human deterioration and depravity, a neon-tinged view of the poisonous rot that festers beneath the Vegas glitter. Check out the original Lifetime movie, Sex and Lies in Sin City, based on the book Murder in Sin City by Jeff German, premiering on October 25, 2008 at 8 p.m. EST.