Sucker Bet
Sucker Bet (Vegas Vampires #4)(26)
Author: Erin McCarthy
"Hell, yes. I imagine it would be more fun f**king a frog than dancing with you."
"How colorful. Hopefully you’ll never have to do either, because I’m not too keen on the concept of waltzing with you either." Donatelli looked casually around. "Where’s your secretary? I need a drink."
Ethan turned to his bodyguard, wanting this little meeting over. God, he was never going to survive forty years of this drivel. "Would you please find Brenda and see if she can find a drink for Mr. Donatelli? Thank you."
"Is Brenda your new secretary? I hope she’s more efficient than that idiotic Kelsey you had previously. While Kelsey is attractive in a vapid, slutty sort of way, she’s distressingly dumb. Though loyal. It’s a beautiful thing to see her clinging to her junkie husband."
It was still a rather sore spot with him that Kelsey had essentially betrayed Ethan after he’d spent the last forty years providing her with gainful employment—despite her questionable secretarial skills. Hearing Donatelli rub it in wasn’t conducive to a stress-free work environment. Nor had it made him the least bit happy to hear from his wife that she intended to spend the night hanging out at a rock concert with Kelsey. That screamed male strippers and possible jail time to him. Kelsey was a magnet for trouble.
"Kelsey left her husband, so just let her be, alright?" Though he had no intention of rehiring her. She had proven herself untrustworthy. "And by the way, you can’t drop by to invite Gwenna to the ball, and have her laugh in your face and say no, because Alexis told me Gwenna has plans tonight."
Ethan paused to make sure he had Donatelli’s full interest.
"Oh, really?" Donatelli didn’t look like he believed him.
"Yes. She has a mortal boyfriend and they’re out tonight." And Donatelli could put that in his f**king pipe and smoke it.
"You don’t have any exciting clothes at all." Kelsey stood in front of Gwenna’s closet, giving every appearance of being in mourning for slut outfits.
Gwenna hated to break it to her, but she wasn’t an exciting woman. It was highly unlikely she would have a secret snappy or stylish dress hiding somewhere. "Sorry. I haven’t needed a lot of going-out clothes living in an old castle by myself."
"But you’re in Vegas now." Kelsey pointed out the obvious as she abandoned searching through Gwenna’s many T-shirts, twin sets, and khaki slacks. "And I brought a few outfits in case we found ourselves in this very situation."
Alexis snorted, lying straight across Gwenna’s bed on her side. "I can’t wait to see this."
Gwenna wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic. "Kelsey, what’s wrong with me just wearing a pair of jeans? It’s just a rock concert, right? Don’t people wear jeans to concerts?" They always did in Disney movies. Gwenna liked the Disney channel because every problem was perfectly wrapped up in under two hours, all while the laugh track went off for every canned and trite joke. It made her happy. Being dressed in Kelsey’s clothes did not make her happy, since Kelsey was five foot ten, weighed ninety pounds, and was notorious for exposing two thirds of her body at any given moment. She liked to tell herself it was because Kelsey had no reflection and couldn’t see exactly what she looked like, but that was probably false hope.
"Sure, it’s a rock concert, but you want to be pimped out a little. You don’t want to look like you’re headed to Wal-Mart. And these guys are vampires, remember, so they’re going to notice us immediately."
She didn’t know they were vampires because no one had bothered to explain that little factoid to her earlier. "No, I actually had no clue they were vampires. Are you telling me the entire band is undead? Is the whole audience full of vampires?"
"No." Kelsey looked at her like that was an idiotic suggestion. "Why would the audience be vampires? They’re a vampire band pretending to be vampires so no one knows they’re really vampires. But since we’re vampires, we know they’re vampires, of course."
Right. She should have guessed that. Gwenna sat down on her bed next to Alexis. "Maybe I should just stay home." She could call Nate and see if he was still available…
"No!" Kelsey shook her finger at her. "You’re cheering me up, so you have to go."
Shit. When put like that, there was no way out of it. Gwenna was very good at feeling guilty. "Okay, fine."
"Thank you!" Kelsey beamed. "Now let me go get my bag. I left it in the other room. I have the cutest blue dress I brought for you to wear."
"Fine. But while you’re getting that, I have an e-mail to send." She turned to her laptop, which she’d brought into the bedroom with her so she wouldn’t forget to send the spreadsheet to Nate. Clicking on her mail, she was surprised to see another e-mail from Slash.
From: [email protected]
Subject: Tonight
Hey Queenie,
Everyone is going to The Impalers concert tonight. If you can get a ticket, meet me there. I’ll find you in the crowd.
Now that was rather an odd coincidence. Yet another one. Slash and "everyone" were going to be at the concert that Kelsey had talked her into attending. And the band members were all vampires.
Plus if Slash was confident he could find her in the crowd, then he knew what she looked like. Which meant he had been at the train station and had seen her, because she’d only previously given him a very generic "short and blond" description of herself. He’d never be able to pick her out of a crowd based on that. She shivered. What if Slash was the killer of poor Buzzdrew? She couldn’t even imagine what the motivation had been for that.
But Andrew had been mortal and vulnerable as such. Gwenna wasn’t. And she was bound and determined to figure out what the hell was going on—especially if true slayers were planning an actual attack. Given the large number of vampires in Vegas for the Inauguration, it would be perfect timing for that sort of large-scale attack, and she had no intention of allowing such a thing to occur.
She clicked Reply.
I should be able to get a ticket. See you there. And don’t stand me up this time.
Queenie
Might as well let him know she hadn’t appreciated his not showing the night before. Then she pulled Nate’s e-mail address out of her pocket and entered it in her address book. She clicked to send him an e-mail, attaching the slayers’ loop spreadsheet. Then she typed quickly.
Hi Nate,
Here’s the info attached as discussed. I also heard from Slash again… we are meeting at a concert tonight, The Impalers. They pretend to be vampires as part of their act. Will give you a description of Slash after I meet him. See you Sunday.