Bled Dry (Vegas Vampires #3)(19)
Author: Erin McCarthy

He had given her a baby, for which she was truly grateful.

If he did decide to pop back up out of nowhere, she would be more guarded this time, not so easily coaxed into anything. Like bed. And in the meantime, she had to buy some maternity clothes, since her pants were pinching, keep swallowing those horse-sized vitamins, and register at Babies “R” Us. That ought to keep her busy.

“I guess it’s a moot point anyway, isn’t it? He’s not here, nor is he beating down my door. So I just need to get over that.” Brittany touched her hair. She still couldn’t believe how strange it felt. In a moment of impulse—big surprise—she’d gone and had it all hacked off. It now came only to her chin in a modified shag. It was meant to be easier to take care of when the baby was born, and she had to admit, while it was different, she liked it. It made her feel more grown up, edgier.

“Has anyone heard from Kelsey?” she asked. That was another mystery. Kelsey had vanished. Again. And no one had heard from her in close to two months.

“No,” Alexis said. “And I’m sure she’s with Ringo, so I doubt she’ll be coming back. He knows he is basically on the run since he was under house arrest for shooting Ethan.”

Cara frowned. “What I don’t understand is why he took off. I mean, I know he’s not the kind of guy to enjoy imprisonment, but you think if he was looking to escape, he’d go it alone.”

“Yeah, but he needed Kelsey to get him past the guard. You know he’s not above using her like that.” Now Alexis was the one pacing. “What I can’t figure out is why she hasn’t resurfaced. I would have thought Ringo would ditch her the first chance he got after they left.”

“Maybe he really likes her,” Brittany said, hoping that was the case. For Kelsey, and for herself. When she had first heard that Ringo and Kelsey were missing, she had remembered the look he’d given her, the fact that he knew she was having Corbin’s baby. She’d been worried about Ringo telling someone and had wanted to discuss it with Corbin, but had no way to actually get ahold of him. Cell phones were not in his vocabulary, and when she had tried to mentally call him, he hadn’t answered. No advice there. But it didn’t seem like anyone in the vampire world knew Corbin was the father of her baby, and with this first step in the election over and done with, she had enough things to worry about without caring that Ringo knew the truth.

Eventually everyone was going to know she and Corbin had procreated anyway.

Alexis rolled her eyes. “He’s using her.”

“You don’t know that.” Brittany wasn’t sure why she was arguing. It wasn’t like she knew Ringo at all, and the one time she’d met him, he had given her the heebies. But it bothered her that Alexis always had to assume the worst. “You should give Kelsey more credit than that. She wouldn’t have gone with him if he was just using her.”

“Brittany Anne, I swear, you can’t really be this nice. Or this naпve.”

Brittany bristled. She was not a child, she was having a child, and she wasn’t naпve, she was optimistic. There was a big difference. One was dangerous, the other was zen. “Just because I don’t walk around looking for the worst in people doesn’t make me stupid.”

“I never called you stupid!”

“This sounds like my cue to head back in,” Cara said, standing up and adjusting the strap on her dress. “Seamus is probably wondering where I am.”

“Absolutely,” Brittany said, distracted from her sister’s patronizing behavior. “I’m sorry I kept you out here for so long. Here you are just back from Ireland, you probably want to visit with everyone.”

“Not me. I really don’t know anyone but you two since we left for Ireland so soon after I was turned, but I think Seamus is enjoying seeing everyone. He won’t admit it, but he misses the action of politics.”

Alexis winced. “And don’t tell him this either, because it will spoil the mutual disdain in our relationship, but I actually miss Seamus. Ethan can’t keep his head straight from his ass without him, and if he asks me to show him how to create a spreadsheet one more time, I’ll scream.”

“Maybe you should move back,” Brittany suggested. She wasn’t sure she could live in the Irish countryside either. Where would she go to buy sexy underwear and lattes? Growing up in Vegas meant she had access to everything she could ever want, all the time. If you could afford it.

Cara leaned forward and whispered, “I think I actually like Ireland more than Seamus does. The dogs have all this freedom and everyone has been very nice to me. But Seamus just broods and he’s now addicted to Free Cell on his laptop. It’s pitiful.”

“Speaking of pitiful.” Alexis rolled her eyes and tilted her head to the left. “Brittany, I think you have company.”

Brittany turned and looked past Cara, heart suddenly racing. There he was. Corbin. Lounging on the railing of the balcony next to them in a suit, feet dangling into open air, obviously not the least concerned that he could slip off and fall. The beauty of being undead—no need to exercise caution even when you were twenty stories high.

He looked crabby. Melancholy. His expression was black, eyebrows drawn toward each other, shoulders tense.

Brittany felt her compassion stir. She started toward him as Alex and Cara went in, wondering if Corbin even realized she was there. He didn’t seem to be looking at her.

“I am well aware zat you are here,” he said, his accent more pronounced than the last time she’d been with him. She noticed it seemed to thicken in direct relation to his level of irritation.

Now her own rose to match his, stomping on the concern she’d just been feeling. “Were you going to speak to me or should I just go back in and pretend like I never saw you?”

He turned and locked eyes with her. Without answering her question, he shook his head as he studied her, his expression horrified. “Mon Dieu , what the hell have you done to your hair?”

Given the look on Brittany’s face and the loud gasp she gave, perhaps that wasn’t the wisest thing to say. But Corbin had missed her most painfully, spent many, many sleepless days staring at the ceiling remembering the feel of her body beneath his, her thick long hair wrapped around his fingers, and he had broken his own vow to stay away from her by coming here tonight, just to catch a simple, secret glimpse. And he found her hair gone. Chopped. Shorn. She looked like his little brother Edgar after his nurse had given him a bath.