“He’s a friend of Steele Bennett’s. You know him.” Her mom nodded but sat there very still. When she did stand up and started pacing, Vinnie continued. “We met yesterday when I went there to ask him about the lawsuit. He and I touched and the power...I lost control of mine.”
“You lost control?” She nodded. “Not possible, my dear. He drew it from you. I would bet he does that to all vampires. Are you even sure he’s your mate? Perhaps he’s a con, like your father was.” Vinnie wanted to point out that she was as well, but didn’t.
“No. He’s the real thing. I brought him here to make sure he was all right because he was hurt by my magic. And I thought it safer than to leave him with Bennett.” Her mom didn’t speak but continued to pace. “We’ve bonded and mated, in case you didn’t know that.”
“Well, we’ll have to figure something out then.” She asked her what she meant. “You can’t be with a necro, darling. You’re a vampire and he’s...well, he’s what he is. Maybe I can have someone kill him for—”
Vinnie had her mom pinned against the wall so quickly she was shocked to see herself there with her hands around her mother’s throat. Her mom didn’t move, didn’t fight back either, and Vinnie let her down slowly. When she was free, Vinnie watched her mom move to the door and step into the hall. But she turned to look at her when she stopped.
“Does he know of Millicent and your father?” She nodded, then shook her head. “Why does your answer not surprise me? You never were a very smart child, and you’ve grown into a selfish woman too. He can see them then? And does he know what they are to you? To us?”
“No. I don’t think so. Father wasn’t there, he told me, and Millicent...I don’t know what she said to him. But I don’t know if it matters. Mitch is gone too, as I said.” Her mom told her he would be back. “I don’t think he will. I think...he’s not going to want to be with me any more than I want to be with him.”
“Don’t lie to me, Vinnie. You know how much I hate when you lie to me. It’s almost as bad as you cutting me out of funds.” Vinnie decided that no matter what was going on in her mother’s life from now on, Vinnie was not going to give her anything else. “Try your best to keep away from him until I can figure this out. And I will. Then you’re going to owe me. There has to be some way for this to work out so that I don’t have to worry about him killing me as you did your father.”
When her mom left her, Vinnie sat down. She wasn’t really sure what her mom was going to do, but she also knew if she hurt Mitch, Vinnie would end her life as she had her father’s. And that had been about as murderous as she’d ever gotten, killing the man that had essentially brought her into this world and then just left her on her own.
Chapter 2
The ghost kept staring at him. Mitch had asked her twice what her problem was, but all she did was stare at him. Finally in a fit of...whateverness, he moved to the other room to try and work off some of the energy that he’d had since he’d left Vinnie’s big mansion. Christ, he had fucked up royally there. He saw Kari coming toward him and tried to smile. When she stopped suddenly and stared at him too, he felt his temper snap.
“What the fuck, Kari? You come here all friendly and have one look at me and.... You’re staring at me like I have three heads and, frankly, I’m sick to fucking death of it.” She cocked a brow at him, but he ignored it. “We’re working. What is it you want? Or do you plan to just go around acting like you—?”
He backed up as far as he could from the big panther that was suddenly standing there. She was one pissed off cat, and it didn’t take him being told that to see it. He put his hands up when she growled at him. Steele came around the corner of the house just as she sat down.
“You’ve done this up right. Now she’s going to have to be taken home like this. We forgot to pack for such emergencies.” Steele laughed. “Of course, it would make her a good deal happier if she could simply tear your throat out. What did you do to piss her off?”
“I didn’t do anything to her, she just did this on her own.” The cat in front of him snapped her teeth at his groin. “Okay, I might have been a little pissy with her.”
“A little?” Steele laughed again, but it was cut off when something pressed him hard against the wall. Mitch looked over at him to see Vinnie with her hands around his throat and his feet dangling about three feet above the floor. Addie was pacing back and forth behind them both, growling and snarling at them. Mitch knew a new kind of fear when Vinnie hissed at Steele, her fangs down and her eyes as red as blood.