Nick Escalante. Alias: The Mex. Gambler, bodyguard, avenger. His well-practiced ability to kill with an ashtray and blind with a credit card has earned him a rep as a very lethal man. Now, on his five thousandth morning in the glittering wasteland of Las Vegas, two things stand between Nick and the freedom that will buy him the black beaches and lost cities that have obsessed his dreams. One is a literal turn of the cards, and the other is a bizarre kidnapping of a girl just as mysterious as her captors.