Sucker Bet (26 page)

"You okay?" Connors asked him, moving past with a uniformed officer. "I saw you tossing your guts out back there."

"I think I have the stomach flu or something." He hoped. Because he didn't like the alternative—that Gwenna had drugged him. Which probably proved he'd been in police work too long if he could even consider that a possibility. But either way, he was finding it difficult to concentrate.

"Yeah, well, don't breathe on me. I don't want your fucking flu cooties."

"Thanks for the sympathy." Nate gripped the back of a pool chair when a hot wave of dizziness rolled over him. "Shit the bed, this sucks." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in and out, his stomach churning painfully.

"Give us another thirty minutes and you can head on home. We'll have ourselves a big old sit-down tomorrow with all the medical evidence from our rapidly growing body count. We'll plan a strategy, which will include begging the department for some manpower to assist us. We can't follow up on all three of these by ourselves."

At the moment, just standing felt like a challenge to Nate. And Jim smelled funny to him, sort of sour and sweaty, nauseating. Nate leaned over and threw up again, aiming for the potted plant on the concrete sidewalk.

"Thomas! You're contaminating a crime scene. God, go home." Jim grabbed his arm and pulled him along the pavement. Then jerked him to a halt again.

Nate was stumbling to keep up, concentrating on keeping one foot in front of the other, his eyes on the ground.

"Uh-oh. Here's trouble," Jim muttered. Then louder, "You're not allowed in here. You have to stay behind the tape, miss."

Nate forced his head up. He knew it was Gwenna. He could smell her skin, the strawberry lotion she used on her hands, and he could hear her heart pounding anxiously.

Her heartbeat? Nate shook his head to clear all the sounds, the crazy thoughts. What the fuck was the matter with him? His teeth hurt, right in front. "Gwenna, go back upstairs. I'll call you later."

She reached across the crime-scene tape and ran a cool hand over his forehead. "I'm heading out to run an errand, but I need to talk to you."

Nate pulled away. "Don't touch me, babe, I have the flu. I don't want you to catch it."

"Have a sip of this." Gwenna put a takeout cup with a straw in his hand. "It will make you feel better. Then when you're done here with Gregor, call me so we can chat."

"I don't think I should drink anything. My stomach will just toss it back up." But it did feel cool in his hand, and it smelled sweet. "What is it?"

"It's a British cure-all. Just drink it."

She looked so worried about him that Nate sipped from the cup, sucking hard on the straw. The drink moved over his tongue, immediately soothing his dry mouth. It hit his gut like water on a smoldering fire. "Hey, that's pretty good." He took another sip and realized that he had drained the whole cup in about two seconds.

The burning in his gut abated and his teeth stopped throbbing. "Thanks. That helped."

Taking the empty cup back, Gwenna looked him straight in the eye, leaning over the crime-scene tape, and whispered, "Would it be insane and completely inappropriate to say that I'm falling in love with you?"

Those words were as soothing as her cure-all drink. "No." He squeezed her hand. "It wouldn't be crazy. Because I'm falling in love with you, too."

She kissed him before he could protest she'd catch his germs. "Be safe. I'll see you later."

In his foggy state, Nate realized something as he watched her beautiful figure turn and walk away. She had said she was running an errand. Where the hell was Gwenna going at midnight?

And had she mentioned the victim by name?

Clenching his fists, Nate wiped his sweaty forehead and went to find Jim. They had a big problem.

The woman he was most likely in love with was knee deep in what were potentially mob murders.

That ought to do wonders for his career.

Roberto's bodyguard, the one who had shot Nate, opened the door for her at Roberto's suite.

Gwenna was so furious she reached up and slapped him straight across the face. She had never hit another human being in her life, but it felt pretty damn satisfying.

"Ow," His head snapped back and he glared at her. "What was that for?"

"For strolling up and shooting my boyfriend in cold blood."

"I was just doing what I was told," Smith said sullenly.

"Well, maybe you should try thinking for yourself once in a while."

Smith looked confused as to how to even respond to that, let alone do it. He just stared at her.

But Gwenna shifted her attention to Roberto, who was entering the room with a buxom blonde wearing tight jeans and a tank top, clinging to his arm. "Are you harassing my help?"

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."

That was a rather priceless look on Roberto's face. "What? Explain yourself, Gwenna."

So Gwenna did. She told Roberto about Isabel. About her life. Her death. What she had sounded like, looked like, acted like.

"I wish we'd had photography in those days. I would give anything to have a picture of her," she said, after she'd covered the basics, and was waiting for Roberto to say something. Yell at her. Condemn her. Make her cry.

His face was stricken. And he did something she could never have expected. His voice wobbled and said, "At least you know what she looked like at all. You took even that from me."

"I didn't know where to find you."

"But you could have told me later."

"Yes, I could have." Gwenna hugged her arms to herself. "So we're both flawed."

"And this is good-bye."

"What?" She looked at him in confusion.

"Good-bye, Gwenna. I need you to leave."

Roberto wasn't looking at her. And she realized that this was it. He had made the decision to stop pursuing her.

Immense relief washed over her. There was a sadness, too, for all they had shared, and all the mistakes they had made. But mostly, she felt empowered with knowing that she had told the truth, stood up to Roberto in essence by not fearing his reaction, and had ultimately won her freedom.

"Good-bye," she said, reaching out and touching his arm.

Then she left the Venetian and went to find Kelsey Columbia.