Sucker Bet (Vegas Vampires #4)(50)
Author: Erin McCarthy

It was a mere shadow of what she felt like doing to Roberto. "I’m just offering Smith my opinion. Who’s your little friend, Roberto?"

"Oh." Roberto glanced at the woman like he’d just realized she existed. "This is Katie. Katie, this is my ex-wife, Gwenna."

But the blonde frowned. "My name’s not Katie. It’s Sarah."

Gwenna rolled her eyes in disgust.

"Are you sure?" Roberto asked, studying Sarah’s face. He even glanced at her backside. "I could have sworn you were… well, never mind. Sarah or Katie, whatever."

"So you get to do this," Gwenna said, waving her hand at Katie-Sarah. "But you couldn’t let me date? Not even after all this time, not after the way I was completely and totally faithful to you. You can screw everything that walks but I’m not entitled to one speck of happiness with another man? You are a selfish, cruel bastard."

"I’m selfish because I want to love you? You know I’d ditch Katie in a second if I thought you’d come back to me. I only want you, and we belong together."

Sarah’s mouth dropped open. "What’s going on here? Maybe I should leave. You promised me we’d have fun and I’m not having fun."

Did Gwenna care? "There’s the door."

With a sniff, Sarah grabbed her purse off the console table and started for the door. But on the way, she intentionally slammed into Gwenna with her shoulder, knocking her off balance.

Gwenna stumbled but recovered and glared at the mortal girl. "Watch it."

"Make me."

Someone obviously had a lot of bar brawling experience. Sarah looked eager to go a round. But little did she know Gwenna was one seriously steamed vampire. She felt capable of outbitching the best of them. "Do not mess with me. I am absolutely not in the mood."

But Sarah couldn’t take a hint. She reached out and shoved Gwenna.

You know, there was really only just so much she could tolerate. Before Sarah could even blink, Gwenna twisted her arm behind her back and marched her to the front door. She opened it with her right hand and shoved Sarah out into the hall with her left. Then slammed the door shut.

Roberto was fighting a grin when she turned back to him. "Don’t smirk at me!" she snapped. "I am only going to ask you once. What was your purpose in having those boys on the loop killed?"

His smiled disappeared. "What loop? I don’t know what you’re talking about."

Knowing Roberto was generally too smug to bother hiding his misdeeds, she wondered why he was denying it. Unless he hadn’t actually ordered Ringo to kill Andrew, Johnny, and Gregor. Roberto did look legitimately confused.

"The boys from the slayers’ loop. And Gregor Chechikov."

"Chechikov is dead ? Who told you that?"

"Alexis. Gregor’s body was found by the pool at the Ava. Are you honestly telling me you didn’t know that?"

"No." Roberto’s face had got pale and still. "That must be why Carrick’s called me three times. I was ignoring his calls because I was, uh, busy."

"Yes, I imagine you were." Gwenna crossed her arms over her chest. "Katie-Sarah looks like a handful."

"Jealous?"

He wished. "Hardly. Now be honest with me, Roberto. Did you have anything to do with Gregor’s death?"

"No, damn it. I had no idea the bastard was dead until you just told me."

She couldn’t fathom why she would ever believe a word that came from his mouth, but after nine hundred years of knowledge of his character, expressions, and body language, she was certain he was telling the truth. "Did you tell Smith to shoot Nate?"

Roberto rammed his hands in his pants pockets and looked at the floor. "Yes."

At least he didn’t look proud of the fact. Though she still felt repelled by his behavior. And so, so sorry that Nate had paid the price for her relationship with Roberto. "Did you introduce Ringo Columbia to drug blood?"

"I offered him a choice. He took the heroin with no encouragement from me."

"Did you have Kelsey shot last year?"

"Not intentionally. She was collateral damage."

Gwenna was disgusted.

"You do realize that I disapprove of all those actions." His chin lifted up. "Yes."

"Which means that inherently we have an entirely different set of beliefs by which we live our lives."

"Possibly."

"And therefore it is impossible for us to coexist in a mutually satisfying and healthy adult relationship."

His arm dropped. "If you would just—"

She cut him off. "Shh. Come now, be honest. You’ve been doing an excellent job of it so far in this conversation."

"Gwenna." Argumentative tone shifted to discouragement as Roberto’s shoulders drooped. "Don’t do this. Come home to me. Let me love you."

Taking a deep breath, she shook her head. "You’re not going to love me when you hear what I’ve kept from you."

"Kept from me?" His disdain was back. "What? A boyfriend before this one? That doesn’t bother me."

"No." Gwenna ran her hands down the front of her dress and forced herself to maintain eye contact with him. This needed to be said and she would not cower. He was entitled to the truth as much as she was. "Do you remember when we met? The first time?"

"Of course. You were playing the harp when I came into the hall." He smiled. "That day changed my life."

"Mine, too. And after that… after we had made love that first time, when you left me…"

"I was coming back," he said, his voice soft. "I was always coming back. I had to go to Italy to claim some property. If Ethan had been home, I would have married you before I left, but I wanted to do the proper thing. I wanted your brother’s permission. Then I came back and was told you had died. No one told me Ethan had turned you until three centuries later when we met again in Italy."

"There was something else you weren’t told. I didn’t die of a fever. I died immediately after childbirth." She waited for that to sink in.

His jaw dropped. "Are you saying you were pregnant when I left? That you died giving birth to our child?"

"Yes. I bled out after our daughter was born and Ethan turned me into a vampire."

"I’m sorry. I had no idea. None."

"I know."

"It was a daughter? She was stillborn?"

Roberto was moving to reach for her, but Gwenna evaded his touch. She wasn’t done. "Yes, a girl. Isabel. And she was not stillborn. In fact, she lived to the age of twenty-five."