Page 74 of Forsaking All Others

He raises an eyebrow. “So we are talking about the Cosa Nostra?”

‘I wish.’

“Something like that,” I meet his intense stare, my expression hardening when I realise my slip-up. His visit, while a welcome distraction from the boredom of solitary confinement, is also difficult in that there’s so much I can’t tell him, and every question could be dangerous for us both. My time isolated here has given me plenty of opportunity to ponder why my family would again attempt to take me violently rather than just use their powerful connections to extract me from the Game. The answer was glaringly obvious once I hit upon it. If they let the royals know I was in the Game it would reveal that one of us had broken the covenant. God only knows what ramifications that might bring, especially in light of the new information I had about vampire diets.

‘Far better that my kind should just try to recover me secretly.’

I imagine the fake doctor plot was to knock me out and wheel me away quietly. This would have been my father’s plan, because Valentino is more the ‘smash and grab’ kind.

‘And he hadn’t succeeded twice now. Oh, Merda. This can only mean my father has stepped in and taken over the operation. He’s banking on the fact that the producers would never air that a contestant had been kidnapped; they’d just explain away my absence as me having been eliminated. I would return to the family and do as expected. And the royals, even if they got wind of something odd having happened, would never learn who I really was or what had really happened. But the other woman, the other doctor? Had the royals learned what I am? My blood type would have been on that chart she read. Oh, Jesus, if she was a vampire I’m really in deep shit.’

The bachelor leans back in his seat, studying me and obviously misreading my fearful expression as my revelation hits home.

“You don’t need to fear the mafia, Catriona. They’re small fry allowed to swim only at the discretion of the sharks.”

“And the sharks are…?” I leave the word hanging. Once, I would have thought it was the families I was born into. Now I realise I know nothing about how the world really works. Nothing at all. Because it seems whatever deal was made between my kind and vampires all those centuries ago, there’s only one at the top of the food chain — and it isn’t us. “Vampires,” I sigh.

“Yes, we’re the sharks.”

“In which case, you and I are perfect for one another. After all, I was brought up amid violence and wealth, as were you, albeit on a bigger scale. I’ll make a good wife and fit into your society.”

“If you say so,” he shrugs.

“You should choose me.”

“I told you,” he shakes his head, “your fate is your own. If you win, you gain my hand.”

‘Yes, and I will win. Providing I can outsmart all the other competitors, my family and fucking royal vampires!’

I clear my throat and try to change the topic.

“So, how did your group date go?”

“As well as can be expected,” he shrugs, his tone bored. “Evelyn tells me most of the competitors consider you the chief threat in the Game. I apologise if I helped bring that about.”

“I doubt it,” I shrug, “Evelyn already despised me and likes to make shit up.”

“Yes,” he nods, “but you did kill two competitors in cold blood.”

“We’ve already ascertained we both have the capacity for violence. I shouldn’t need to remind you that it’s the nature of this Game, Viscount. Every one of my opponents must die, from the biggest threat to the least, if I’m to win.”

“I’d like you to call me Jaguar.”

“OK. Well, don’t try to make me feel guilty for trying to survive, Jaguar.”

“I’m not trying to do that,” he says quietly, “I’m just trying to better understand you.”

“What’s to understand? I took out someone who’d already assaulted me in the first contest; I was justified in that. Natia, I shot in self-defence and hadn’t anticipated killing, but either way her team was going to come last, so I was responsible for her annihilation in that sense. And I guess since Starlen was the one who sucked the losers to death I, at least, spared her that disgusting end.”

“Yes,” he sighs. “You felt justified in shooting Khutulun, but given our previous discussions I do wonder why you didn’t also eliminate at least one of the Zurich twins.”

I frown. “They haven’t shown their hands yet.”

“One did try to drown you.”

“Pardon?”

“Were you unaware?” He raises his eyebrows. “One of the twins had hold of your leg, preventing Thorun from bringing you to the surface of the river.”