She nodded slowly. "I think I may leave town tonight. I'm sick of Vegas, anyhow."
"An excellent idea." Janie glanced at her wristwatch. "It's getting late. The Boss is going to be looking for me.Dammit . I don't want to leave you alone. How am I supposed to know you'll be safe?"
Angela frowned. "Who are you again?"
"I'm your sister!" She let out a groan of frustration.
"You have totally screwed up my night."
"I'll go," Barkley said firmly. "It would be my honor to protect you, Angela. With my very life. I will guard your beautiful body."
Angela eyed him briefly and then looked at Quinn. "I'd ratheryou guard my body."
"Uh…" Quinn glanced at Janie.
Janie bit her bottom lip. "Barkley it is. Congratulations, Barkley. You're my sister's bodyguard. Go to her hotel, get her packed, and go anywhere but here."
"Yes, sir!" Barkley hooked his arm around Angela's waist.
"Be careful," she told her sister.
"Go to hell," Angela called back and kept walking.
Janie nodded. "I think I hate her."
She turned around and couldn't believe that Quinn was smiling.
"I hate you, too," she informed him.
"You're just saying that."
"She was totally hitting on you. Even with amnesia."
"Hey, when you got it, you got it." His smile grew.
A long limousine drove past behind him, and Janie felt a chill go down her spine as if somebody just walked over her grave. Was that the Boss? Did he just get into town?
Angela and Barkley were moving with the rest of the constant Vegas crowd. Everyone else was heading to a club, to a casino or a show. At least Angela was heading somewhere safe. She felt relieved. Not much, but enough for the time being.
She shook her head and turned for a last look at the casino and forced herself to relax as much as she could. "I wonder how long she's been doing the psychic gambling thing?"
Quinn glanced up at the replicaArc deTriomphe to the right. "Probably not very long. She doesn't seem very good at keeping it quiet." He turned his gaze to meet hers. "So now what?"
"A deal's a deal." She chewed her bottom lip for a moment. If that really was the Boss, then that meant things got even trickier now. "We go back to the hotel and you make your wish. I'll give the used Eye to the Boss and cross my fingers that he takes a faulty magical artifact in stride. Soon this will all be over,
one way or the other."
His throat worked as he swallowed. "With any luck you'll be rid of me by tomorrow."
She looked at him for a long moment before turning away.
But what if I don't want to be rid of you? she thought, feeling those now annoying familiar tears prick at the backs of her eyes.
She focused on putting one foot in front of the other to get back across the street to El Diablo. "Then let's get this over with."
After he made his wish to be human again, it would be over between them. He had what he wanted. She had what she wanted.
Everybody would be happy.
She was hoping the happy thing would kick in later, because she sure as hell wasn't feeling it right then.
Quinn decided that he had a few problems to deal with.
He and Janie were currently taking the El Diablo elevator up to the seventeenth floor. The glass walls looked down into the red and orange casino floor. Devil-costumedwaitstaff strode the area delivering complementary drinks to the gamblers. A steady line of what could only be hunters filtered into the Hell's
Gate Theater for the beginning of the hunter awards.
Every single one of Quinn's problems seemed to, he decided, revolve around the beautiful blonde in the sexy red dress standing across from him. The one who had the ability to make his thoughts go a thousand different directions at one time.
He sighed.
To recap his original plans: find the Eye, make the wish, be human again. Move on from there.
It had seemed so simple. The perfect answer to all of his fanged problems.
Nothing seemed simple anymore.
He leaned back against the elevator wall and tried to appear as relaxed as possible. "Can I ask you a question, Janie?"
She tucked an errant strand of long hair behind her ear and then crossed her arms. "What?"
He noted that her fingernails weren't long and sculptured like some of the helpless women he'd known in his life. Janie kept hers short, practical, but a dark, dark red. He was pretty sure he'd heard that color was called "Vamp."
Rather apropos.
He suddenly imagined those nails raking erotically down his naked back.
Yes, thoughts in a thousand different directions. Had to focus.
"What?" she prompted again.
He cleared his throat. "This boss of yours—"
"What about him?"
"I don't understand why you don't quit. If he's so bad. Just leave."