Read Online Real Vampires Get Lucky by Gerry Bartlett - Free Book Online Page A

marks. You're going to teach me all that, right?"
    I sighed and sat down across from her. So much for keeping the whammy a secret. "Yes, I'll teach you all that." And what a pain this was going to be. Hey, I'm a woman with a business to run, friends to shop with and a lover to keep happy. And with a million dollars on the line, I was going to do my damnedest to track down a killer wannabe in my spare time.
    "Get dressed and we'll go out. I'll show you around the shop, explain some things."
    "Great!" Lucky jumped up and headed for Flo's bedroom.
    I just hoped I could control her once she got some skills under her belt. I got dressed and transferred my stuff into my new purse, doing a quick strut around the living room for Valdez.
    "It's a purse. What's the biggie? Except that it costs a lot and
    obviously Lucky didn't want to give it up." Valdez lounged next to the door. "That alone makes it a sweet deal."
    "They're hard to come by. And not just expensive. Very expensive." My phone beeped. Text message. I flipped open the phone and sat on the couch. "I NO WHAT U R." I looked up, but Valdez was busy chewing on the end of his tail. I took a shaky breath. Wrong number. Obviously. Then I realized there was a video attached. Oh, shit. There I was, kneeling in a pool of blood, biting Lucky's wrist. How? Who? Valdez was in the picture, peering over my shoulder. Quality wasn't great, but it was definitely me.
    "I NO WHAT U R." The phone beeped again. My stomach cramped, and I headed to the kitchen for a Fangtastic before I checked the new message. How had this messenger gotten my number? I saw my laptop on the breakfast table. Duh. The information was everywhere. I gulped my drink, then sat again. New message.
    "I NO WHAT U R, VAMPIRE. TO KEEP UR SECRET, PAY $500. LEAVE BEHIND DUMPSTER IN ALLEY BEHIND
    UR STORE. 2NITE."
    Money. Blackmail.
    "Glory? You okay? You look a little freaked." Valdez walked up, and I snapped the phone shut.
    "Just a text that I'm over my cell minutes this month. I'm going to have a hell of a bill." I wasn't about to share the text. Not yet anyway. Text message. Fairly small payoff. One of the teenage Goth types who hung around my shop had probably wandered into the alley while Valdez and I had been focused on Lucky and had taken the video with a cell phone. I'd play along for now. Even scrounge up five hundred bucks and follow instructions. A vampire against a kid with black lipstick and spiked hair? What a laugh. All I had to do was catch him or her picking up the cash, and the whammy would take care of this situation. That thought did a lot to calm me down.
    I made a quick call to check on things in the shop. A locksmith had been in and repaired the back-door dead bolts. Lacy wanted me to deduct the cost from her pay. Tempting, but I didn't take her up on it. Hey, she'd been attacked while working for me. Vampire attacks behind my shop and inside it. Could Lucky's killer be the same one who'd tried to take out Lacy?
    I didn't have to go in to work tonight, but now I had to get down there and pull out some cash, somehow get to the Dumpster without Valdez seeing the envelope . . . This was complicated as hell. But if any Goth types were stupid enough to aim a cell phone at me for Vampire at Play, Part Two , I could wrap this up in short order.
    When Lucky met me in the living room dressed head to toe in one of Flo's outfits, I had a new reason for my frown lines. My roomie is a kind and generous person, but when someone pours what I now realized were size-eight hips into her favorite size-six jeans . . .
    Both of us jumped when the hall door opened. Flo and her date, Richard Mainwaring. Lucky took a second to check out Flo then took a minute or more to stare at Richard. He was definitely stare-worthy with his white blond hair and startling blue eyes. Tonight he was especially yummy in a blue sweater that had the look of cashmere. Not that I was lusting for anything more than the sweater. Or having a flashback