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The vamp's hand tightened around the fork, and her eyes darkened like she was wishing she could shove the silverware into Elliot Slater's jugular. I admired her spirit, if not her practicality. Roslyn would have been much better off using a butter knife, if death by silverware was going to be her modus operandi.
I filled Roslyn in on what had really happened last night. How Finn and I had been following Elliot Slater when we'd seen him get the order from Mab, get his goons together, and go after Bria.
Roslyn frowned. "Why do you care if Elliot kills some new cop in town? Why interfere?"
I wasn't about to confess my familial connection to Bria to the vamp, so I gave her a flip answer. "I thought I could take him out right then and there and let the cop take credit for things. It worked once before, you know. "
Roslyn grimaced. She knew what I was referring to-the night a couple of months ago when I'd killed Alexis James in the Ashland Rock Quarry. Roslyn had been there as one of Alexis's hostages, along with Finn. Roslyn was the one who'd backed up Donovan Caine's claim that he'd killed the Air elemental, instead of me.
I thought about what Roslyn had said. So Elliot Slater thought I'd been there to off him last night, not to save Bria from getting dead. Not surprising. Like Mab Monroe, Slater didn't strike me as someone who thought about other people-except what he wanted to take from them. Still, Finn had been right. Slater would be on his guard now, which would make him that much tougher to kill.
"Anyway, whatever you did, Slater was worried about me. It was all I could do to convince him not to come over to the club and check on me right then. " Roslyn shuddered. "Xavier was at the club with me. If Slater had come over, the mood he was in, he would have killed Xavier just for being there. "
Finn and I nodded. We both knew that I'd pissed off Slater by killing his men last night, and he would have taken his anger out on Xavier-maybe even Roslyn too. Hell, the giant could do that at any time. Beat the vampire to death with his fists the way he'd almost done to me at the community college. That's the kind of sick bastard he was. And why he needed to get dead as soon as possible.
"So how did you keep Slater from coming over?" Finn asked.
Roslyn grimaced again. "I told him that I'd go out with him tonight. Some charity gambling tournament on the Delta Queen. " She closed her eyes. "He said he wants to take me back to his place afterward. So we can finally. . . be together the way we should. "
A shiver of fear rippled through the vamp's body, and her hands trembled against the countertop. Roslyn didn't have to tell me that the thought of seeing Elliot Slater, much less playing the part of his doting girlfriend, was enough to turn her stomach. Just the idea of the giant putting his hands on her or anyone else made me want to vomit. Not to mention what would happen when Slater got Roslyn back to his house-alone. The vicious ways he would brutalize her all night long.
It wasn't going to happen, I vowed. Elliot Slater wasn't going to hurt Roslyn ever again. No matter what I had to do or who saw me do it.
"Don't worry," I said. "You're not going to have to go back to Slater's place tonight. "
Roslyn's eyes snapped open.
I looked at Finn. "We needed an opening. "
He frowned. "You can't be serious, Gin. You can't kill Elliot Slater on the Delta Queen in front of who knows how many witnesses. It's a fucking riverboat, or have you forgotten?"
"I haven't forgotten, but it's a place like any other," I replied. "Don't make it a challenge. You know how much I like those. "
Finn rubbed his chest like he had a sudden case of heartburn. I didn't think it was caused by the onions and grease he'd just eaten. The Delta Queen was something of an Ashland institution-a riverboat casino that slowly trolled up and down the muddy waters of the Aneirin River. A big, white behemoth straight out of, well, the Mark Twain novel I was reading.
"Come on, Gin, think about it. Elliot's sure to have some of his men with him," Finn said. "And this tournament? It's a big deal. Or at least the party of the month. All my clients at the bank are going, and all the other Ashland bigwigs are sure to be in attendance. "
I sighed. "Look, I know it's going to be tricky. I'm not denying that. But doing Slater on the riverboat does have some advantages. "
"Name one," Finn dared.
"One, it's a public place, which will be easier to get into than his heavily fortified mansion. Two, it will be crowded. Three, there will be alcohol on the premises, which means lots of people will be getting their load on. Drunks tend to be lousy witnesses. Four, and perhaps most important, I can dump Slater's body over the side when I'm finished with him instead of trying to stuff him in a closet somewhere. " I ticked the points off on my fingers. "Shall I go on?"
Finn rubbed his chest again. "Everything you say is true, but it's still dangerous, Gin. Slater could scream or get away from you before you finish him off. And if he does, if his men or the casino guards hear him, you're the one who won't get off the boat alive. "
"I know all that. But those are the same risks I would have with any job. "
"So why are you so eager to take those chances?" he asked. "Why now that you've retired?"
"Because I don't want Roslyn to have to go home with that bastard," I said in a quiet voice. "Understand?"
I didn't mention that it was because the whole situation was my fault to begin with. That Roslyn had suffered so much already because of me and that I wasn't going to let her be hurt anymore.
Finn could easily see the guilt in my eyes.
Then his green gaze cut to Roslyn and the obvious strain in her eyes and face and clenched fists. Right now, the vamp resembled a life-size porcelain doll-one that would shatter if you so much as breathed on her. Finn realized what I had-that the vamp was on the edge. That she couldn't take another night of being Elliot Slater's plaything. Not again. Not without cracking and screaming and fighting back with everything she had-and then getting dead because of her defiance.
"All right," Finn said in a low voice. "All right. We'll do it. But how are you going to get close to him? Like I said before, Slater's sure to be on the lookout for any strange woman approaching him after what happened at Bria's house last night. More important, the giant already knows you, Gin. Slater knows who you are, what you look like, and that you have a grudge against him. You won't be able to sweet-talk him and get him alone like you did Tobias Dawson. "
