Bit the Jackpot (Vegas Vampires #2)(23)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Seamus Fox.Stupid and three hundred seventy.

"I’m not falling for Cara." The minute he spoke the words, he knew he was lying. He was. The control he strove for, clung to, was already slipping away from him.

"Come on, Seamus. Maybe if you just let yourself have a relationship, you might enjoy it."

"I don’t want a relationship, and you know why." The very thought of commitment to a woman made him sweat in unpleasant places.

"Because of Marie?"Ethan stood up and tossed the packet of papers onto Seamus’s dining room table. "Come on, Fox. It’s been two hundred years. Marie lied to you, betrayed you. But she’s dead and Cara isn’t Marie. You’ve got to learn to trust another woman sooner or later."

Later worked for him."She didn’t just betray me, Ethan. She had me sent to the guillotine. The only thing that saved me was a dull blade." It had gone only halfway through his neck. Assuming he was dead, they had tossed him in a pile of headless corpses, including two of his vampire comrades.

He touched his neck. His scar had never fully healed.

"I know that. I saw you that night afterward. Marie was a bitch. But you shouldn’t judge Cara by Marie’s betrayal."

"I just met Cara and you’re a lousy shrink. Let it drop. We have more important things to worry about, like your campaign, and who the hell wanted me dead in that alley. I should have taken this more seriously. I should have questioned Kelsey more thoroughly."

Ethan just shook his head. "I’m not sure that would have mattered. And I trust you to be thorough, Seamus."

"I’m sorry about Cara," Seamus said, feeling guilt sit in his gut like a stone. "I shouldn’t have turned her."

"But you did, and maybe you should ask yourself why. Maybe she’s meant to be your mate."

"Marriage has made you obnoxious." Seamus headed to the fridge for a drink. "Not everyone wants your domestic bliss, you know. And I am sorry I ever met Cara in the first place." Maybe if he said it out loud, he’d actually believe it. "She’s not happy, and I really don’t want her to toss controversy onto your campaign."

"I’m sure it won’t be a big deal. We’ll just have to make sure her behavior is discreet. Keep her presence a secret."

Seamus had a suddenly horrible thought. "Then why the hell did we let her run off withyour wife? Alexis wouldn’t know discreet if it bit her in the ass."

Cara was so relieved to be out of Seamus’s apartment, that she would have done anything Alexis suggested for entertainment, whether she wanted to or not. But it was all the better that Alexis had suggested hitting the casino downstairs and gambling a little. They had gone and grabbed Kelsey, who had been reluctant, but wanted the company, and after changing clothes and doing one another’s makeup, they had hit the casino floor.

"All I have is ten dollars," Cara said, digging in her purse. "Where is the money machine?" She needed something to distract her, and mindless gambling entertainment sounded like a perfect way to spend the night.

"Oh, we don’t have to pay." Alexis scoffed and went up to the box office. "My husband owns this joint. Being married to Ethan has its privileges besides great sex. They can give us loaded cards to use."

"Okay. But if I win, I’ll give back the original investment to Ethan." Growing up without a father, her mother dying at twelve, Cara was used to being poor but proud. She didn’t like to take handouts.

"Fair enough."

Alexis went up to the box office, one of the two bodyguards trailing after her. The other stood at a discreet distance from Kelsey and Cara. Cara smiled encouragingly at Kelsey. "So, how do you know Ethan and Seamus?"

"I’m Mr. Carrick’s secretary. I met him in New York in the sixties when I was a brand-new vampire, and he asked me to come to Vegas with him as his secretary. That’s when I met Seamus."

Kelsey darted her eyes around the whole time she was talking, and she crossed her very thin arms over her flat chest. She had long black hair that tumbled over her sharp alabaster cheekbones. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Cara just felt aware, but content.Neither hot nor cold, nor hungry.Just vampiric .

"That bad feeling.That fingers-on-my-spine feeling.There’s someone here."

"There are lots of people here." The floor was packed, despite it being an average Thursday night in September. Time had no relevance in a casino. It could have been any day of the week, any month, any city, morning, noon, or night, and it didn’t matter.

"There’s someone bad here."

Cara didn’t doubt that. If you had that many people in a room, there was bound to be someone nasty in the bunch. "Maybe you’re picking up on someone’s distress. Maybe someone lost a lot of money or something."

"No." Kelsey locked eyes with her."Never mind." She gave a soft smile. "Seamus likes you a lot, you know."

"He could have fooled me."

"Well, men are stupid."

In that, Cara had to totally agree with Kelsey. Just thinking about how he’d ordered her to his room made her hot all over again.And bad hot, not good hot.

"But you can trust Seamus. He’s a good man. He took care of me when I had my accident."

"I’m sure he’s responsible." He did what was expected of him, she could clearly see that. She just didn’t want to be an obligation to Seamus Fox. She didn’t want him to feel sorry for her. She didn’t want him to control her life.

Alexis came back up to them, waving cash cards."Where to first?"

"The Wheel of Fortune machine," Kelseysuggested, a spark of something other than fear in her eyes. The slots didn’t appeal to

Cara at all, but she felt compassion for Kelsey. She had obviously been through something traumatic and the rest of the vampires at the Ava cared about her, worried about her.

If the slots made Kelsey relax, Cara was all for it.

An hour later, Alexis was grumbling that she’d lost her shirt on the slots. "Well, Ethan’s shirt," she said with a grin.

Kelsey was flushed pink in the cheeks and pressing buttons with enthusiasm. "I’m up eighty-seven dollars."

Cara had lost six dollars,then had contented herself with watching the other two. "Do you all mind if I hit the poker table?"

"No." Alexis hopped off her stool. "My ass is numb anyway."

As they walked across the floor, the lights blinking and the machines merrily beeping and chiming, Cara stuck her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and bit her lip. She sensed an ally in Alexis, but she didn’t want to put her on the spot.