Sucker Bet (Vegas Vampires #4)(33)
Author: Erin McCarthy

"I don’t think I would like being a political wife either."

Alexis laughed. "You could probably really rock a cocktail dress, though."

"Only if it’s black." He grinned. "Hey, do you want a drink or anything? We travel with our own special bar."

"Sure." She could use a little blood. All this worrying about Gwenna and Kelsey was exhausting. "And hey, sorry my friends got up onstage with you. That’s what I get for ditching out on my Secret Service guards." She hated that she had to spend every minute of her life with bodyguards—sometimes a vampire just needed privacy—so she left them behind whenever she could, much to Ethan’s frustration. But it had become a rather amusing game to see how many ways she could trick the guards.

"No big deal." He just shrugged. "We have women doing that all the time. The bouncers usually take care of them. And I knew David knows Kelsey, so it was cool. Who was the other chick, though?"

"That’s my sister-in-law."

Drake called over to the stage manager. "Hey, Pete, what did we do with that cooler full of drinks?"

"I stuck it in a closet. I’ll go find it."

"Thanks, man." He turned back to Alexis. "Your sister-in-law? Like your brother’s sister, or the president’s sister?"

"The president’s sister." Whoops. It hadn’t occurred to her when Gwenna had rushed the stage that Ethan would be none too happy with Alexis or Gwenna for her little stunt. That wild party behavior from his sister and wife would reflect badly on him on the eve of his Inauguration. Shit. She was really a lousy political wife.

"Alexis!" Kelsey called from the couch. "I had the coolest idea and Davey agrees with me."

Uh-oh. "What idea is that?"

"You know how I need a job and stuff now that I’m divorcing Ringo because he’s a total ass**le?"

"Yes."

"Well, I’m going to join the band! I can play tambourine and sing back up."

Alexis almost laughed. "Wow, that’s an… interesting idea."

Given the appalled looks on the other guys’ faces, it wasn’t one they were really digging.

"We don’t need a backup singer," Drake said, shooting David a pointed look.

But David just shrugged and made "let it go" faces at Drake behind Kelsey’s head. "We can at least try it in a rehearsal or something."

Kelsey squealed and gave him a big kiss on the cheek, Davey’s arms wrapping around her. Another second and their lips were locked in a kiss that was about two tongues beyond "we’re just friends." Davey did a thumbs-up toward the guys as Kelsey’s leg entwined with his.

Yeah, someone wanted to get laid.

Drake just snorted. "No shame. He has absolutely no shame."

Alexis was about to suggest that Kelsey fell in the same category, when the stage manager returned, sans a cooler of blood.

"What’s the matter?" Drake asked.

The stage manager looked like he was going to pass out, his skin pasty and beads of sweat on his upper lip. "Dude, in the closet."

"What?"

"There’s a dead guy, man."

Donatelli waited impatiently for Williams to say something. "So? What did you see tonight? Where the hell was Gwenna?" He shuffled a deck of cards forcefully on the dining table in his suite. "She went to a concert with Alexis Carrick and Kelsey Columbia."

"Really?" It was odd that Alexis was hanging around Kelsey again. Carrick couldn’t be thrilled about that. Donatelli didn’t think he was all that enamored with Gwenna in Kelsey’s company either. That girl was a loose cannon, and notorious for partying. Not a good influence on a woman like Gwenna, who was a lady in the truest sense of the word. "What concert?"

"The Impalers."

"Who the hell are they?" He expected Williams to say Celine Dion, Elton John, or a symphony, not someone he’d never heard of.

"They’re a rock group—all the members are vampires and they pretend to be vampires onstage as a gimmick. Mortals love it."

"A rock group?" That didn’t sound like Gwenna. She must not have realized what Kelsey was dragging her into. "Poor Gwenna. What did she do the whole time? She must have been bored."

"Well… she talked to a lot of people actually."

"What people?" Donatelli forgot his cards and glanced up sharply at Williams.

His bodyguard shifted uncomfortably. "Men. She talked to a lot of men. She was, uh, wearing this really pretty dress, and she well, looked good, and guys seemed to want to talk to her."

"Of course she looked good. She always looks good. But that doesn’t mean she should have to tolerate men accosting her. I hope she told them all to go to hell."

"Sometimes. But sometimes, I think actually she was the one who started the conversation. Like the four guys who whipped out their…" Williams gestured to his crotch. "I’m pretty sure she and Kelsey went up to them first."

Donatelli felt the blood drain from his face. "Strange men showed my wife their cocks? In a public place? Why didn’t you stop them?"

"You told me to watch her and tell you everything she did. So that’s what I did. And she was really slinging back the martinis and running all over the place. I had a hard time keeping up with her. Then she jumped up onstage with the band."

Crumpling the card in his hand, Donatelli focused on not losing his temper. Gwenna didn’t drink. None of this made sense. And never in a million years would his wife deign to crawl up onstage at a rock concert and express interest in some longhaired musician. "You can’t be serious."

Williams swallowed audibly. "Yes, sir, I’m sorry to say I am. She went onstage and pretended to be a backup singer until the bouncers hauled her off. Then a mortal guy she seemed to know left with her."

"Where did they go?"

"Well. He put her in a cab, which took her straight back to the Ava. She went in and up to her room."

"Okay, then." That sounded more like Gwenna.

"But…" Williams looked like he was in pain.

"But what?"

"Before he put her in the cab, they, um, you know…" His hands came together, went apart, came together.

"What the f**k are you trying to say?" Like he was going to sit there and play charades. This wasn’t a damn undead dinner party.

"They got, you know, they, well… had sex." Williams’s face was bright red and he was sweating profusely.

The entire world went black in front of Donatelli’s eyes as rage swelled up and consumed him. "How do you know that? Where exactly did this allegedly occur?"