Bit the Jackpot (Vegas Vampires #2)(62)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Seamus followed the sound, moving south down the building, until he reached the window of the room he was certain she was in. It was actually open, and not only could he hear her voice, he could feel her presence, smell her floral shampoo. Pushing the window open wider, he climbed in.

"Seamus?" Cara asked as she turned. She clearly knew it was him, because she didn’t look the least bit startled.

"It’s me." He put his feet on the floor and looked around the room. It was small and sparse, with a typical nursing home setup. Cara was curled up in an easy chair, and in the hospital bed a tiny Asian woman was lying, looking up at him quizzically.

The room was dim, just the lights under the cabinet lit, and the eerie green lights from a heart monitor.

"Are you okay?" he asked Cara.

"I’m fine."

She pulled her legs up in front of her, chin resting on her knees. Her hair was still done up in twists and knots, reminding him of how Donatelli had forced her to dance, perform. It made him sick all over again.

"Seamus, this is my grandmother, Kin Zan Kim. Grandmother, this is my boyfriend, Seamus Fox."

"It’s a pleasure to meet you," Seamus said, reaching over and touching the older woman’s thin, featherlight hand. She was tiny, the size of an American ten-year-old child, and her eyes were opaque, confused. But her skin was smooth, her hair still thick and black with gray shot through it.

She spoke in Korean, a quick torrent of words that sounded clear and cognizant to Seamus. He smiled at her and turned to Cara. "What did she say?"

"I don’t know. My Korean sucks." Cara gave a small smile. "But I guess she approves of you. When I brought Marcus to visit her, she threw her tissue box at him."

So the prick had a name."Smart lady."

"Yeah."Cara didn’t move.

Seamus leaned against the windowsill. "I was worried about you." Terrified, actually, but he was trying to play it cool. She obviously had needed some space.

"I’m sorry. I just needed to see her."

"I understand." Seamus reached out, touching the twists in her hair, undoing them. He couldn’t see them up like that anymore. It wasn’t Cara. "Why did he put your hair up this?" he asked in frustration, horror, guilt. It was a stupid, inane thing to say, but it was brutalizing him to think he hadn’t been there for her.

Cara frowned at her kneeds . "Why did you put my hair up like this?"

" Donatelli."He fingered the strands, undoing all the twists.

After a second, she gave a small laugh. " Donatellididn’t do my hair. He’s evil, not a hairdresser. It was Kelsey who did my hair. She was just playing around with it."

"Oh." Somehowthat made him feel better.Though Kelsey shouldn’t quit her day job. Cara’s hair had looked rather ridiculous. "Cara I’m sorry about Donatelli . It’s my fault. If Ethan and I hadn’t run off and gotten drunk because I was mad at you, none of this would have happened. Cara, babe, I’m so damn sorry he hurt you." He didn’t know how to make that right.

She looked over her shoulder, up at him for the first time. "It’s okay. And I don’t want to put blame on anyone—we’re both responsible^ for everything that has happened between us. We’renot responsible for Donatelli or Ringo’s actions.

Her fingers reached out, laced through his. "You told me that you don’t know how to take care of anyone, don’t know how to nurture because you haven’t had a lot of relationships, but Seamus, I disagree. The way you care for others, assume responsibility you don’t have to, that’s one of your best qualities. You’re a good guy, and you take good care of me."

He hadn’t realized how much he needed to hear that. "But I wasn’t there "

She put her fingers to his lips, shushing him, and he felt pain, down inside him, swelling and burning. He couldn’t live without Cara, without her love.

"That’s okay. I can take care of myself. I don’t care about what happened in there you know. Donatelli meant to humiliate me, and he did, but I’d do it all over again to save Alexis and Kelsey."

"You’re an amazing woman." He couldn’t prevent himself from kissing the top of her head.

"I think my mom was an amazing woman." She glanced over at her grandmother. "She was a blackjackdealer, did I ever tell you that? And I don’t think I ever gave her enough credit for her loyalty. My dad ran off, but my mom kept things going. She took care of me and my grandmother, who is really my great-grandmother, and totally unrelated to my mother. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated how amazing that was for her to do that."

Seamus looked at her great-grandmother, who appeared to be sleeping. "I think together they did a damn fine job raising you."

"You’re a wonderful man, did you know that?" she asked, tears suddenly in her eyes.

"I resigned," he told her, because she needed to know. It hurt to say the words out loud, but it was important to him that hedo the right thing.

"I’m sorry," she said, voice anguished, hand squeezing his. "That must have been hard for you."

"It was. But I’ve done two hundred years of public vampire service. Maybe I need a break, some time to focus on my personal life."

Her expression was unreadable."Yeah? What will you do with all your free time if you’re not Ethan’s campaign manager?"

"Well, I was thinking of doing some political consulting and analyzing. Or taking Ethan up on his offer, and running the day-to-day operations of the Ava to give him time to focus exclusively on the presidency now that Donatelli has resigned and Ethan’s a shoo-in for reelection."

"Sounds good."

"What about you?" He had no idea what she was thinking.

"I’m going to finish veterinarian school and see if I can work in an all-night emergency animal hospital. I’m going to give my two weeks’ notice at the club and live off my gambling win."

That didn’t tell him what he wanted to know. Did she want to be with him or not?

Then Seamus realized he couldn’t wait for her to tell him what she wanted. He had to be man enough to lay it all out there, take the risk,let her know she was important enough to him to risk humiliation, rejection.

Seamus brushed her hair off her face and looked down at her, ready. "Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?"

"Seamus " Her eyes dropped down to her knees. Even with the dim light, he could clearly see her long, delicate hands clasping her jeans tightly, desperately.

"I love you, Cara."

"I love you, too," she said to her knees.

He didn’t think her knee caps were going to answer, so he was going to just keep going.