High Stakes (Vegas Vampires #1)(24)
Author: Erin McCarthy

"We shall see." Ethan dismissed William. "I’ll be in contact. Let me know when you’ve IDed him."

"Absolutely, sir."

William left and Alexis turned to him, crossing her arms over her chest, which prevented him from seeing her ni**les. "Just one question vampire or mortal?"

"William?Vampire. Most of the guards are mortal, but as head of security, he needs access to certain information."

"Well, I hope he figures out who that guy is I mean you can’t just walk into casinos and shoot people. If you have it on tape, my office can prosecute. I don’t normally do homicides, but I can assist the senior prosecutor. I have a ninety-five percent conviction rate, by the way."

Even though she seemed to be handlingall of this quite well, there were obviously some issues she hadn’t thought through. "Alexis, you can’t prosecute. There is no police report, and no victim. I cannot be medically examined by mortals, which is why I had Seamus intercept the EMTs . There is no crime here, according to the mortal world. We want to discover his identity so we can find out if Iwas a direct target, or if it was an accident. Either way, we’ll erase his memory to avoid suspicion." well, that sucks. I wanted to send the bastard to jail." She took the disc out of his hand and headed for the TV. "Will this play in your DVD player or just the computer?"

"The DVD player is fine. And why do I have the feeling you enjoy putting men in prison?" There was true disappointment on her face, which didn’t really blend with her cute blond hair, perky nose, and pink lips. Wearing his sweatpants and a T-shirt, she looked more like an escapee from a local high school gym class, not an attorney.

But that gleam in her eye was allprosecutor .

Alexis pushed Play on his remote control. He liked the way she just made herself at home in his suite. Most women were intimidated by him, and waited for his initiative.Maybe not sexually, but to be involved in his life in any way, yes. He hadn’t had a woman assume she could take charge in his home since his mother.

Maybe there was something to be said for modern aggressive women.

Hekind of liked Alexis’s attitude.

Or maybe that was blood loss talking.

"Okay, what the hell are we looking at?" Alexis frowned at the TV screen.

Ethan studied the image in front of him. A man, in his early thirties, lean, well dressed in an expensive but discreet suit, was walking off the elevator. He leaned to the side, whispering, his hand dangling in midair.

Alexis tilted her head. "He’s talking to himself or something."

"Actually, he’s talking to Kelsey. She took him upstairs, remember?" For which he really should fire her. But Kelsey was not the brightest bulb in the vampire pack, and he had always thought it was better to keep her reasonably contained than to let her loose on her own. She was only thirty years a vampire, and still driven by blood lust. And she had warned him about the attacker, even if she had inadvertently led the guy right to Ethan.

"Oh, my God, I can’t see her. She’s there, but can’t be recorded? That’s so bizarre." Alexis sank down into an easy chair a foot in front of his flat screen.

It was odd watching the man talk to nothing. But Ethan was more interested in his face, not his marionette hands moving up and down in thin air. The image wasn’t perfect, and the room was dim, with just the overnight lights on, but Ethan was certain he’d never seen him before.

So why did this man want him dead? He obviously thought a bullet would do the trick, so he either didn’t know Ethan was a vampire, or didn’t understand what would kill one of hiskind . This man, the way he turned his head, the way he smiled with a healthy dose of disdain, the way he gripped what Ethan guessed was Kelsey’s backside, didn’t point to him being insane, or a self-proclaimed vampire slayer. It wasn’t fire that burned in his eyes. It was despair.Coldness.

This man was a professional killer, Ethan was sure of it.

They heard heavy breathing from the TV as presumably the pair kissed, grinding against each other. Kelsey must have hit the reception desk because there was a thump as the furniture shifted and the phone was shoved.

This is really disturbing. I think I’m being scarred as we speak. It’s like paranormal  p**n ."

Alexis did look a little pale. "Do you want me to turn it off?" No, are you kidding? I have to see what happens. It’s like a car accident, but with tongue. You don’t want to look, but you have to."

Personally, Ethan was finding the combination of heavy breathing from the TV and Alexis next to him wearing his clothes a bit arousing. Her chest heaved as she stared, head tilted, one eye closed. Ethan watched her watching the recording.

"He’s going up her skirt! Oh, man, maybe we should fast-forward."

"How can you tell if you can’t see her?" Ethan redirected his attention to the TV. Okay, so he could see it, too. With a little mental imagery, he had no trouble reconstructing the scene.

"His hand is like jerking upward, like he’s pulling up her skirt." Alexis fell back against the chair arm." Aahh! No, no, please don’t do that. Just stop!" She yelled at the screen, throwing her hands up. "Don’t get out the oh, no, yuck, yuck, yuck, did they have to do that?"

The man, whoever he was, now had unzipped trousers, and a decent-sized erection pointed directly at them. Ethan grimaced. The man gave a tight moan, his hips pumping toward what body part on Kelsey Ethan really didn’t want to know. "Jesus, where’s the remote? I don’t want to see this either."

While he started looking around, a little desperate, Alexis covered her face with a throw pillow and started laughing. Her little snorts were muffled by the plaid fabric, but her shoulders shook.

"What’s so funny?" Ethan found the remote, but somehow managed to freeze the screen, instead of fast-forward.Right in mid-thrust. "Damn it." Seamus was the electronics whiz, not him. He was old, for chrissake , they’d barely had the wheel when he was a kid. He couldn’t be expected to keep up with all this technology.

Alexis peeled the pillow back, watched him pushing every button on the remote frantically, and started laughing again. "I’m sorry, it’s just so weird and gross,you have to laugh. I’m going to die every time I see Kelsey now."

Ethan finally hit the right button and the man’s head snapped back, and eyes rolled upward. Yeah, he was going to have a hard time seeing his receptionist in the same way, too, after catching this little glimpse into her sex life.Especially since he was seeing her feed now.

Even without Kelsey’s image, he knew that’s what was happening. The man’s head tilted, neck elongated, ecstasy over his features. Tiny droplets of blood appeared on his flesh, then immediately disappeared. Then suddenly he was moaning in distress, eyes still closed, body suspended, hovering over the desk.