Bit the Jackpot (Vegas Vampires #2)(49)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Williams shot him a panicked look, his hair matted to his head, dark circles ringing his watery eyes. The door opened and Ringo heard voices, shouts. He shoved, hard, while Williams scrambled with his feet, trying to find a hold on the wall, the ledge, anything. His arms flailed toward Ringo , desperate to grab on, his hand clasping Ringo’s jacket. Ringo locked eyes with him, broke Williams’s weak hold, and sent him winging out into open air. The guy dropped before Ringo could even blink.

Carrikand Fox were coming at him. He could sense their shock, their malice, but he was ready. Turning around, he reached out and grabbed Kelsey by her thin arm, jerking her in front of him and snaking his arm around her throat. "Back off!" he yelled.

"What the hell are you doing?" Fox demanded as he and Car- rickjerked to a halt five feet in front of him. "Let her go."

"No. She’s coming with me." Ringo bent over without breaking his hold on Kelsey and pulled a knife out of his boot. He put it in front of her throat.

"I don’t think so," Carrick said, his voice arrogant and disdainful. "Neither of you is leaving."

Ringowanted to kick him just to hear him whelp.Bastard. "You can let us leave by the door or we’ll go out the window. Doesn’t matter to me, but we’re leaving."

Kelsey whimpered. Ringo wasn’t sure if it was for effect or if she was really scared. He stroked her back with his free hand so she would remember this was what they had to do.

"Look." Fox held out his hand. "Let Kelsey go. Then we’ll let you leave out the window like your friend did."

Ringowasn’t about to wind up on the ground vulnerable, bones cracked, lying by himself. He was going to let Williams crawl back to Donatelli , and Ringo was going to easehimself off the drug blood, somehow or another. Kelsey was meant to serve as a way for him to get out of the building standing. They had worked it out, and he was not about to let these ass**les get a hand on him.

He started to walk Kelsey around Fox and Carrick when Alexis and the other woman, Fox’s girlfriend, burst into the room.

Chapter Thirteen

Seamus thought he might have an aneurysm when he saw Alexis running into the room, brandishing a sword, for Christ’s sake. Cara was behind her, at least, but it wasn’t at all reassuring.

"Stop!" he yelled at Alexis. She careened to a halt, Cara nearly plowing into her from behind.

"Oh, my God, Kelsey," Cara cried.

"Let her go." Alexis went into her kick-ass sword-swinging stance.

Next to Seamus, Ethan gave a sigh. "She said she’d cut Dona- telli’stesticles off. I thought she was kidding, but clearly she wasn’t."

"Get out of my way," the assassin Kelsey called Ringo said, in a low, calm voice that disturbed Seamus more than anything he’d seen so far. This was a dangerous man.

Seamus stepped in front of Cara, eased her back into a corner. He’d let Ethan disarm his wife. But this guy was serious, and for Kelsey, they needed to play it safe.

"Alright, just let Kelsey go and you can walk out." They’d catch up with him later and get some answers.

Cara tried to move around him, but he held her back. She grappled with him, desperately grabbing and clawing to get free, so he wound up stumbling forward, "Cara, what the hell are you doing? Knock it off, babe."

"Get out of my way, Seamus," she said, her voice growing hysterical. "Look at Kelsey."

The fear in her voice made him turn. Kelsey had been holding the guy’s wrist where he was pressing the dagger to her throat. It had seemed natural, instinctive, for her to try to shield herself, pull the weapon away. Now Ethan realized that she was actuallypushing the knife into her flesh. She was bleeding, torrents of red starting to stream down over her bare skin, racing to her bikini top.

"Kelsey," he said in confusion, as Alexis let out a scream.

Kelsey’s eyes were rolling back, gliding shut, her knees giving out, but she pushed harder, hitting her jugular.

Ringofinally seemed to realize something was wrong and he jerked the dagger back and let it clatter to the floor. Seamus figured he’d bolt, and at the moment he didn’t really give a shit. His concern was Kelsey and all that blood. It was everywhere, arching in a violent spray.

But the guy didn’t leave. He gave an agonized groan. "Kelsey what why " He held on to her even as she went down like a thin rag doll, cradling her in his arms. The look he wore was blank, stunned, confused, as they all saw the blood spilling down the entire length of her: Ringo had blood on his face, chest,arms .

Cara pushed around Seamus, yanking her T-shirt off as she fell to her knees. She pressed the fabric on Kelsey’s neck in a futile effort to stem the flow. "She’ll heal, won’t she, Seamus?"

Her action propelled him forward. "Yes, she’ll heal." Though he couldn’t imagine why the hell she’d done what she did. He took off his own shirt, and laid it over Cara’s back. He didn’t like her sitting there in her bra, regardless of the circumstances. "There is blood in the fridge. She’ll need to drink to replace all this lost blood."

"Got it," Ethan said.

Seamus eased Kelisey out of Ringo’s arms and put her on Cara’s lap, where Cara petted her hair and murmured to her. Keisey had passed out, her fair skin taking on a bluish purple tint. Ethan popped open a blood bag and poured it between her lips.

Which left Seamus to deal with Ringo .The guy sat back, his mouth pressed tightly together. Absently, he wiped blood off his cheek.

"If we’re going to throw punches, can we move to the other side of the room?" Seamus asked cautiously."Away from Keisey ." He was on the balls of his feet, but he was ready for a fight if this guy wanted one. It had to be his fault Keisey had sliced herself, and that pissed Seamus off.

Ringojust shook his head, expression unreadable. "No." He held out his hands. "Shit. Just cuff me. That’s what Kelsey wants." That threw Seamus off. He wasn’t sure how to respond. "How do you know what the hell Kelsey wants?"

"She has a hard time staying out of my head. She wants me to detox . Says you’ll take care of me. That’s why she did it." A finger went across his neck in a slitting motion."Her way of forcing me to stay." He held out his hands again. "Come on. I only have another hour or so before I’m going to be desperate for some drug blood. If I leave here, it doesn’t matter what I tell myself, I’ll go right back to him, right back for another fix. Lock me up now before I change my mind."

Seamus hauled him to his feet by his outstretched wrists. "Who do you work for?"

"You know who." Ringo shook Seamus off and fixed his suit jacket, his expression scornful. " Donatelli,And by now the whole Nation knows that you have a fledgling who is a stripper.Just a little election gossip."