Page 35 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

Slowly, I sit up and look around to see what spooked him.

Although… if it was scary enough to run off, he wouldn’t have left me alone with it.

Did he forget to do something and needed to get back in time to finish it?

But… was it so urgent he had to rush off like that?

I pick up the book and flatten the bent pages before holding it to my chest. I’d much rather hold him, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

Uneasy, I head into the trees to retrieve Valley, who is consuming as much grass as possible.

She’s reluctant to leave her patch, but lets me lead her back to her saddle.

I saddle her quickly and put her bridle on, hoping that if I’m fast enough, I can catch up to Arturo and give him a ride back.

But even though I take the main path back, I never come across him.

The whole thing makes me feel troubled, and I hate that it’ll be days before I see him again.

I’m grooming Valley when Stefano walks up. It’s already been a day since I’ve seen Arturo, and my unease hasn’t dissipated. “I was told Lorenzo needed you. I guess you’re supposed to meet him at that fork that breaks off to the port.”

I look at him in confusion. “Why? I thought we were done for the night?”

“I have no idea. I’m just relaying the information I got,” he says.

Irritated that my brother said I could have the night off and then changed his mind, I head over to Valley’s tack.

I throw it on her and tighten her girth before getting on.

I head down the road, taking my time in the light of the moon, really feeling like he could have just told me what was going on if he wanted me out here.

And partly because I feel like being a stubborn ass, and partly because I don’t want to do whatever he has in mind for me, I don’t speed up Valley.

Instead, I think about how Arturo is doing and wonder if he’s allowed to enjoy any of the party.

It sounds like they’re a bunch of rich assholes, so I’m not quite sure what he might find to enjoy.

But more than anything, I find myself wondering if he is going to talk to the man who might get us away from this hell.

When I reach the fork, Lorenzo is nowhere to be seen.

“Well… did he get bored of waiting for me?” I ask Valley.

I turn the mare while my eyes scan the darkness.

Her ears perk up, telling me she hears an animal, and before long, I see one of Louis’s servants coming down the path that leads to the estate.

He’s driving a donkey that brays the moment it sees my horse.

“Evening,” he says.

“Evening.”

“You looking for that brother of yours?”

“I am. He asked me to meet him here and it looks like he’s wandered off.”

“I just passed him,” he says as he points down the road. “Seemed to be in a hurry about something. If you’re quick, you might catch up.”

He clicks the donkey on, and I turn Valley toward the path leading up to the estate.

“Something feels wrong,” I tell my mare, but I don’t know what to do. Did my brother get caught up in something? Arturo warned me again and again to stay away from Louis… but suddenly, Lorenzo wants to meet me in the dark and picked the path leading to Louis’s estate of all places?

But Louis has countless people heading to his estate; it’s not like he’s going to do something to me right in the middle of all of these people, right? If he wanted to do something to me, wouldn’t he have picked a day with fewer witnesses?

I rub Valley’s neck as I look back toward the town. My brother’s horse was gone when I went to saddle Valley, so I know he is out… Louis wouldn’t have done something to him, right? Used him as a way to get to me?

Valley is reading my anxiety. She turns in a tight circle while I try to think about what to do.

If I push her into a run, I could check the area leading up to the estate before going back.

If Lorenzo is involved in something, I can stop him before anything happens and then quickly get back to the safety of the town.

I squeeze my legs and Valley bolts, kicking up dirt and stone. At a run, she covers a lot of ground, racing us down the path and toward the estate that seems to glow like some kind of beacon in the night.

It makes me apprehensive, but I can’t let my brother unknowingly place himself in danger. When I get close enough that I can see the estate and still don’t see Lorenzo, I slow Valley. He could have ridden beyond it, but the path past the estate only leads to a cliff overlooking the port.

Turning Valley, she starts and even I jump as I discover that there are seven people blocking my path. I’d never even heard them and sure as fuck hadn’t seen them. Even Valley hadn’t heard them walk up.

“Evening,” I say, feeling uneasy. “Lovely night.”

“It is,” a woman responds with a smile.

“Sorry to bother you, but have you seen a lone man on a horse? I’m searching for my brother.”

“Your brother?” a voice behind me asks.

I twist around and see Louis standing behind me. When the fuck did he arrive? I was just looking at the estate and never saw him once.

“I never saw your brother. Why don’t you join us?” he asks.

I shake my head. “That is quite generous of you, but I’m afraid something’s wrong with my brother, so I need to find him. I hope you all have a wonderful evening.”

Valley’s entire body is tense. It’s not like she’s never been around people before, but as she snorts, I know something is wrong. She doesn’t like them, but I don’t know why. Is it just because they spooked her?

“Excuse me, I must head out,” I say as I turn Valley and squeeze her through a gap between the seven people and Louis. “Enjoy your lovely evening ? —”

I’m thrown from the horse before I even have a chance to recognize what’s happening.

My hand had been on her reins, so I tear her head back.

She’s so startled she rears, and because I’m tangled up in her reins, she’s thrown off balance and ends up crashing down with me.

Thankfully, she doesn’t land on me, and she’s not hurt since she jumps back up as soon as I release my grip on her.

“What the fuck,” I snarl while I try to get up, but Louis kicks me so hard I’m thrown back to the ground where he presses a foot against my throat.

“No, I insist you stay. My guests are hungry,” he says.

“Let me up,” I growl.

“I refuse,” he says, stepping down until the air is cut from my lungs.

I think he believes I’m reaching for his foot in a desperate attempt to push it off, so he doesn’t expect the knife I draw fast and hard across the back of his ankle.

“Fuck,” he yells as he stumbles off me, and I pull up to my feet.

Valley isn’t far away. She’s trained to not run. If I can just get to her ? —

Another person slams me against the ground, and I hit hard on my side. I drive my knife into their side, but it’s as though they don’t even care. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I stab, none of it forces them back.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?” I shout.

“Arturo is mine ,” Louis snarls as he walks toward me like I hadn’t just sliced his ankle open.

There’s no way a person could even walk after I’d cut the tendons.

“I’ve let you play your game long enough, but I’m tired of it.

He is mine and you are never going to touch him again because you’re not going to be alive to touch him. ”

I know Arturo has warned me to stay away from this man again and again, and I have.

I’ve turned down any request from Louis to go to his estate, even when he promised me time with Arturo.

But why now? Why has he chosen to attack me now?

Nothing has changed, has it? Arturo and I have held this relationship for a year now…

what set him off? Did he realize our dreams of running away together?

But we were careful to keep them to ourselves.

We’ve never spoken of them where anyone could hear.

Louis moves too fast… inhumanly fast for a man with an ankle slit open.

It’s like the wound doesn’t even slow him down.

He slams me against a tree so hard the breath is snapped out of me.

A gasp escapes me, but I slam the knife into the side of his head.

He almost looks bored when he grabs my hand that’s still holding the knife and draws it out.

He squeezes hard and I feel the bones in my hand break.

I clench my jaw, watching in disbelief as the blood stops flowing from his head and the wound heals like it was never there at all. Am I dreaming? Is this a dream that I can’t manage to wake up from? Or is he really a monster? No wonder Arturo tried so hard to keep me away from him.

Pain shoots into my hand and up into my wrist as I realize that while I’d been fixated on his wound healing itself, he’s taken my knife and driven it into my thigh. I grit my teeth while I grab for his hand, wanting to keep him from stabbing me somewhere much more vital.

“I’ve changed my mind. I want Arturo to watch,” he says. “I want him to watch me tear you apart.”

I’m fast. My job has always been to kill up close.

My skills with swords or other weapons have always been lacking, but up close is how I’ve excelled.

He’s so focused on me that he doesn’t see the knife until I’ve rammed it through his back, knowing just where to strike to miss bone and hit vitals, but he seems to have no sense of pain.