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“It was for your own good. He was only using you. The man’s a liar and a cheat, just like his father. Have you forgotten those texts?”
“No,” I said woodenly. “I know he only pretended to be interested in me so the Krals would have an edge in the negotiations.”
I’d seen the proof myself on the phone Étan had taken from Rafe. Texts from Rafe to his father, where he’d boasted that I was falling for him:I’ve got her so hot for me, she can’t think straight.
To have Étan see the texts had been the final humiliation. I’d wondered if Victorine had done that deliberately, to grind the broken glass of Rafe’s deception deeper into my heart.
“See that you remember that,” Victorine said. “And Zoe?” Cool fingers touched my cheek. “Choose a mate,ma fille. Or I will choose him for you.”
She glided from the suite as noiselessly as she’d entered.
4
RAFE
On Tuesday I moved out of my apartment as soon as the sun was high enough to send all but the most powerful vampires to their day sleep. This time, I chose a place thirty minutes north of the city.
I pulled my motorcycle into the driveway, killed the engine—and threw back my head and laughed aloud. My new digs were like something out of a 1950s sitcom: a small red brick house with green shutters and a white picket fence. Pink geraniums sprang from big copper pots on the stoop.
The last place anyone would look for Rafe Kral.
Even better, I was only five miles from Midnight Island.
I unstrapped my luggage from the back of the bike and carried it inside before heading out to the nearest Walmart, where I paid cash for groceries and a half-dozen new SIM cards. Back at the house, I switched out the card in my phone with a new card, disabled the GPS tracking, and used an alias to sign up for a new number. A Canadian number.
Now I’d be damn near untraceable by anyone in the Kral Syndicate, even the inner circle. The flipside was no one—not even my brothers—would be able to contact me.
But Gabriel would guess why I’d gone dark, and if necessary, pass it along to Father and Tomas. And Zaq wouldn’t be contacting anyone.
My hand fisted around the phone.
It should be me in that Paris cell.
Zaq was the good brother, big-hearted, laid-back. The Kral who’d emptied his trust fund to aid homeless humans and who volunteered in war zones helping refugees from the humans’ endless conflicts.
The only glimmer of hope was that he hadn’t been staked right off. They wanted him alive for something—to extort a huge ransom from my father, or perhaps as bait, because Father had flown to Paris to rescue him. Whatever the reason, it bought him some time.
I passed a hand over my face. I’d been up for close to twenty-four hours, and I was exhausted, and hungrier than ever. A bloody steak helped take the edge off, but I needed to feed, and soon.
I crawled into bed and sprawled on my stomach.
Two more days until the Crimson Ball.
I rolled onto my side. The hours were going to crawl by.
Tomas’s words niggled at me.“You must work twice as hard if you are to be worthy of your father.”
Me and my brothers had spent hours each day in physical training, and the vampire spawn had still beat on us at coven gatherings until we’d gotten big and crafty enough to fight them off. Still, Gabriel and Zaq couldn’t be everywhere.
Eventually, I’d stumbled on a strategy that worked: Always do the unexpected.
If another spawn came at me with fists, I kicked him in the balls. If he looked for me on the ground, I dropped onto him from the roof. If he tried to make me cry, I laughed in his face.
My scrappiness had earned me a grudging respect, and eventually, the abuse had stopped. But you don’t forget something like that.
I hadn’t trusted another young vampire until Zoe—and look where that had gotten me.
My mouth twisted. I flopped onto my back and stilled.
