High Stakes (29 page)

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His answer was an eye roll. "It's probable. Good odds, I'd say,if you don't tick me off in the meantime."

But then she smiled, softening her words, and Ethan felt like everycliche ever written. He was in love. He was a CelineDion song waiting to be written.

Seamus made a sound of impatience. "Can we head down now?"

"Absolutely," Alexis said. "Sooner we go down, the sooner we can come back up." And she winked.

Ethan almost groaned. Damn, she was hot. Taking Alexis's arm, he followed Seamus.

"By the way," Seamus said, "we can't get an ID on the shooter. And Kelsey is missing."

"Missing?" Ethan frowned at Seamus, jerked out of his sappy and sexual thoughts.

"Well, no one has seen her since last night. She didn't show up for work today, but then Kelsey is known for late nights and partying. I just thought it was a coincidence since she was with the shooter that night."

They stepped on the elevator. "I don't like the way that sounds," Ethan said. "Kelsey was really frightened by him. I don't think she knows anything about him, but what if he thought she did? I suspect he was just an off-balance gambler, who lost a life savings or something, but would he hurt Kelsey?"

"Wouldn't she call for one of us if she were in trouble?" Sea-musasked.

"True." Kelsey wasn't the best mind reader, but she could certainly project her fear or plea for help to them if she needed to."Speaking of that." He squeezed Alexis's hand. "You need to learn how to call me with your mind if you need me."

"You can't read her thoughts?" Seamus asked in amazement.

"Not at all."

Seamus looked at Alexis with new respect. "You really are his chosen one, aren't you?"

Alexis looked at Seamus like he had serious body odor. Her nose wrinkled. "He may have chosen, but I had to agree to it, too, you know."

"I mean… never mind." Seamus crossed his arms. "You can teach her to project."

"You really should, Alexis. You can train yourself to open up to me only when you want to. That way if you're ever in danger, you can call for me."

"Sure. Like a mental cell phone. That's cool, as long as you don't enter my head without asking first."

Her scowl showed what she thought of that.

"I wouldn't dream of it. Besides, I couldn't without youopening yourself for me."

That made her grin."Sounds kinky."

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Seamus made a disgusted sound. Ethan was starting to think Seamus needed to reinvent his social life.

"Okay, so just think of something that really brings out strong feelings in you. Something you despise."

Ethan led her off the elevator.

"The grocery store."

"You hate the grocery store?" Ethan only went into one on occasion, to buy shaving cream or shampoo, but it didn't look that awful.Neat and tidy. Food was packaged and ready to cook, unlike in his youth when the castle cooks always had dirty fingernails from slaughtering animals.

"I hate it with a passion. It's like physical and mental torture. First you have to carve time out of your schedule to do it,then you walk in and are instantly surrounded by millions of choices. And every single item on every shelf requires you do something with it. Chop it or cook it orsaute it or remove it from gobs of packaging and microwave it. It's either fattening, which makes you feel temptation and guilt simultaneously, or it's good for you and tastes like crap, reminding you that you are five foot two on a tall day with slow metabolism and zero time to work out. Then for the privilege of all this fun, you get to pay outrageous prices for the food that had to be trucked across the desert to the over-air-conditioned grocery store near you, and all hopes of buying a new couch to replace the hideously ugly one you have evaporate in the checkout line."

"Wow." Ethan couldn't have begun to imagine. "Okay, so channel all that energy about the grocery store into one place in your brain."

They were walking down the hall side by side, Seamus in front of them, but that was just as well. She shouldn't really be looking at Ethan when she tried to give him her thoughts. "Now let me see it."

"The grocery store?"

"Yes. Let me see your thoughts, in your head, without talking. Push them at me."

Ethan heard and saw nothing.

Alexis made a funny growling sound. "You're not answering."

"I can't hear anything." Ethan tried to pick through her wall, but he couldn't get past it.

She giggled.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm thinking all kinds of dirty thoughts. I can't help it."

They reached the doorway to the ballroom where the debate was being held. He stopped and tried to give her a stern look. "Behave yourself. Don't try and project perversions to me when I'm in the middle of this debate."

"I wouldn't do that." She gave him a dignified look. "I'm a perfect political girlfriend.A lawyer.Logical.

I'm going to have a really kick-ass pet cause, too. Maybe I'll overhaul campaign finance reform orImpure rights or something. First I'll have to figure out what's what, but rest assured I'll fix something."

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"I look forward to it." He tucked her hand into his arm. "Ready? Smile for the vampires, Alexis."

"I'm ready." She took a deep breath and flashed him her pearly teeth.

Seamus opened the door and they strode into the packed ballroom, applause greeting them. Ethan raised his free hand and waved, smiling, giving the victory sign, and feeling damn proud Alexis was on his arm. This was actually a lot of fun with a partner.

Alexis sat in the front row, heavily guarded on either side by Ethan's security team. Like someone was going to snatch her or something.

Seamus was two seats over from her, and she could practically smell him sweating. She felt a certain amount of guilt over stressing him out. Hey, she lived for her job, or had up until a week ago. She knew what it was like to put your heart and soul and hours of work into something, only to watch it fail.

It sucked. Failure was like physical pain. She was so TypeA it was scary, and she could sympathize with Seamus. Leaning around the brawny henchman on her right, she whispered to Seamus, "I'm sorry for distracting Ethan. I'll do whatever is necessary to help him win the election. Just tell me your strategy…

maybe we can schedule a meeting for tomorrow to get me up to speed."

He stared at her. "I think that's an excellent idea. We can verse you in proper protocol, such as not speaking during a presidential debate."

Tight-ass.Alexis sat back in her seat and studied the stage. She actually couldn't hear them all that well.

"The acoustics in here are lousy," she told her bodyguard.

He glanced down at her, all dark hair and pale skin. "We have better hearing than you. It's not necessary to have it any louder."

"Well." So she would just sit there and admire Ethan's package in that gray suit. His opponent,Donatelli , was a very creepy dude. He wore expensive clothing, but his frame was so lean, he almost looked effeminate. Yet there was nothing gentle about the way he gripped that podium and fired accusations at Ethan.

He pointed fingers at the moderator tugged at his tie, looked exasperated, and cast a cold, hard, arrogant stare across the entire audience. At one point, he said, "With all due respect, Mr. President, that is the most outrageous lie I have ever heard. We don't believe you, do we?" He held his arm out to encompass the audience. "We think it's time you told the truth to us." That got Alexis riled up."Bastard."

"Quiet," Seamus reprimanded her.

Right.She'd forgotten she was in a room with two thousand vampires, all of whom could probably hear her speaking if they tried hard enough. That was vaguely (disturbing, but she'd better get used to it, since she was probably going to be spending a lot of time with this crowd for the next decade.

They all looked very normal.Acted very normal. It was all civilized. Just like an election in any other
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democratic country.

Ethan didn't look annoyed byDonatelli . He just smiled. "The truth is that we have prospered as a nation for the last forty years.

No deaths by mortals, zero poverty, low crime, and a stable source of blood through the banks we've established. I don't have to lie. The facts- speak for themselves.Including your criminal record."

Go, Ethan.

Donatellipounded the podium. "I am not a crook."

Hello, Nixon. Alexis fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"Read my lips."Donatelli turned to the audience. "I stand for your interests. No new laws, no new restrictions. No new taxes.''

Alexis frowned and glanced down at Seamus. Did he notice anything odd here?

"My goal is to see a blood bag in every refrigerator."

The sudden need to giggle overcame her.

"We will bury you, Carrick."

Alexis slapped a hand over her mouth and smothered her snort. NowDonatelli was borrowing from the Cold War Russian dictator ,Kruschev .

Seamus shot her a glare.

Ethan just raised an eyebrow and gaveDonatelli a cool look of dismissal. He turned to the moderator.

"Next question, please."

Thirty minutes later her butt was numb, but she had a whole new respect for her vampire lover, soon-to-be roommate. He handled himself with dignity and intelligence, and an excited Seamus actually smiled at her as Ethan andDonatelli left the stage.

"He didgood ," Seamus said, his shoulders sagging in relief.

She grinned back at him. "That's awesome. I'm sure all the prep you did with him helped quite a bit."

Now he was the one rolling his eyes. "You don't do well as a suck-up."

"Brittany's better at it than me. Maybe because she's sincere and I'm really not," Alexis admitted.

Seamus laughed. "I guess if Ethan finds it necessary to marry a mortal, at least he chose a lawyer. You should understand how to play politics."

"Yes, I do. And my sister's half-vampire. That should count for something."

"It does."

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"Plus I sort of speak Spanish."

"Sort of?"

"Probably more than you," she defended herself.

"I speak English, Gaelic, and French," he said.

"Ooh, la, la." Alexis glanced around the room, noticing everyone was standing up and milling around.

"What now? Can I leave? What's Ethan's schedule for the night?"

"He just needs to get his microphone off and speak to a few political analysts. Then he'll be heading upstairs to rest. We'll go over the results and opinion polls tomorrow night. And it would be smart if you're there so we can discuss your roll."

"Perfect." But tonight her roll was vamp vixen. She had the idea to hot-tail it upstairs and be ready for Ethan when he got back.

The idea of going down on the president had some real appeal. Too bad she hadn't been successful projecting her thoughts to Ethan. She could wing that one his way now that he was offstage.

"Okay, I'm taking off then."

"Take your guards," Seamus said firmly.

"Sure thing."

Donatellithrew down the mike in the dressing room Carrick had provided for him. He hated giving these speeches. He was much more persuasive one on one. And it had thrown him off when Carrick had strolled into the room with the sister of an Impure on his arm, looking very much a couple.

The crowd had lapped that up, and it had thoroughly irritatedDonatelli .

After an early mistake he had never remarried because he'd rather cut his own head off than be latched on to a vampire wife for all of eternity. And mortal women were excellent for affairs, but he'd never enjoyed any of them enough to propose marriage, no matter how short term.

Carrick was a fool, in his opinion, if he intended to chain himself to a mortal. Then again, he'd always thought Carrick a fool.Which was whyDonatelli needed to overthrow him and his concept of government. They were undead. Vampires possessed uncommon speed, skill, and agility. And what did they do? They hid among mortals, imitating their weak democracy.

Donatelliwas going to restore the Vampire Nation to its previous glory, when men trembled in fear at their immortality and power was rightfully theirs. It would be his.All of it.Unless Carrick won the election.

The dressing room was well appointed, with buttery leather sofas and aminifridge stocked with blood bags. Carrick was ever the gracious host.

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Donatelliwondered how gracious he would be when he went upstairs and discovered a corpse in his suite.

The thought of that was the only thing that kept him from flinging the glass coffee table through the wall.

Alexis ditched her bodyguards at the elevator when it stopped on the twenty-fourth floor.

"I know it's your job to escort me, but see, the thing is, I can't have you in Mr. Carrick's room with me."

"But MissBaldizzi , that's what Mr. Fox told us to do. We're supposed to wait with you until Mr.

Carrick returns."

"I know, but Mr. Fox isn't Mr. Carrick, and which do you think Mr. Carrick would prefer when he gets back?Me hanging around playing Scrabble with you guys or just me naked in bed waiting for him?"

Both bodyguards blushed profusely, their jaws dropping open, which was kind of cute. Alexis was getting rather fond of their silent, brawny presence, but she had to draw the line at the elevator door.

"Exactly, boys, just what I thought. Thanks for theride, I'll see you tomorrow night." She waved cheerfully from the hallway, pushing the elevator button so the door closed and it started to descend.

"Good riddance."

Swiping her key card, she entered Ethan's suite. She didn't have time to prep in her room, so she was just going straight for the kill. The minute she was in the door, she unzipped her dress and let it drop to the floor. Retrieving it so Ethan wouldn't trip onit, she gave a sigh of relief. The thing had been cutting her across the armpits all night long.