by Katee Robert
That was it. The whole goal.
This hunt would be over in seven short days. Less time if he could play his cards right.
Luca took another breath, made himself release the rock, and stepped into the trees. Instantly, the sun became half as strong, barely dappling through the heavy growth overhead. He looked around, forcing himself to note the differences between this forest and the one of his nightmares. No snow on the ground. No scent of pine in the air. No freezing air dry enough to cause a nosebleed. It didn’t feel the same, not in any real way.
He could do this.
He kept moving, following signs of Cami’s passing as she turned inland.
An hour later, he went still. There was someone up ahead. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. There were cameras located all over this island—the better to record the competitors and stir the wagers from the audience in the casino into a frenzy. If he found Cami, he had to ensure the cameras didn’t pick up on his true motivations or the whole Hunt would be compromised. It would ruin everything, and it could potentially endanger her further in the process.
No one held grudges like the Bookkeeper and those he associated with.
Luca looked around and ultimately decided that the tree to his right was the best option. He scaled it easily and braced himself between two branches. On the other side of the tree, the ground dipped down into a shallow ravine. In that ravine stood Cami and the Bookkeeper’s woman, Brianna, though he’d bet a significant amount of money that it wasn’t her real name. She had the documents to back up her identity, but that sort of thing could be procured if one knew the right people. She did.
Brianna circled Cami, looking like a tiger playing with its next meal. Because that’s exactly what’s happening. Cami’s backpack was long gone, and she looked particularly small and helpless in comparison to the other woman. She held out shaking hands, her face a mask of terror. “Please. Please don’t. I can pay—”
Brianna charged. Luca tensed, but he was too far away to do anything. He tightened his grip on the branches, ready to launch himself down there, but Cami stepped neatly aside at the last moment. She planted two hands on Brianna’s back and gave her an extra shove. The woman disappeared from view, a metal clang sounding through the clearing.
I’ll be damned.
She just tricked Brianna into one of the many traps littering the island.
Cursing rose as Brianna must have realized her predicament. Cami shook her head sadly. “I did try to warn you.” She walked to a tree half torn from the ground and retrieved her bag from its roots. She … planned this.
Luca narrowed his eyes, seeing her for what felt like the first time. She’d used the woman’s assumptions to get the best of her. No telling if it would work on the others, but she wasn’t nearly as helpless as he’d believed.
Little Cami Fitzcharles held unknown depths and the skills to match.
He considered showing himself, but curiosity got the best of him. Was this just a one-off where she’d got lucky? Even as part of him analyzed the thought process that must have gone into this particular trap—finding the cage without falling victim to it, somehow drawing Brianna to her, baiting her into charging—Luca couldn’t help looking for other explanations. She was capable, sure, but this capable? Surely it was just luck.
Kenzie would have pulled a move like that. She has pulled moves like that in the past.
But Cami and Kenzie couldn’t have been more different. It defied explanation.
I underestimated her.
All that remained was to figure out his next step and how he wanted to play this.
Someone was following her.
Cami didn’t look over her shoulder. She wouldn’t see anything even if she moved quickly. Whoever it was had skills, and they moved nearly silently as they shadowed her steps. But she’d spent too much time training with Yael not to know when someone was hunting her.
She looked up, trying to gauge how long before sunset. By her watch’s time, there should be hours left yet, but the whole area looked distinctly dimmer than it had even an hour ago. The tree are playing tricks. She couldn’t risk moving after dark. Finding that trap earlier had been a gift, but even with actively looking for it, she’d nearly fallen into the thing. If she couldn’t see well? She was just as likely to end up in a cage as to trick someone else into it.
No, better to find somewhere to camp out now while she still had light left.
Cami stopped and looked around slowly. She was relatively familiar with the area after all the research she’d done, but this place was just so different from Thalania. No matter how much preparing she did, a gap still remained from what she was familiar with and what she was experiencing.
Chin up, Cami. There are only six competitors left.
Only.
She almost laughed. She might be able to spin the men’s perception of her enough to trick them … as long as they hadn’t teamed up. Four of those guys had seemed awfully cozy, and even as confident in her abilities as she was, there were limits to what she could accomplish.
Cami turned for the beach again. Everything was so wet in the jungle, she wasn’t sure she could start a fire—or if she even should. At least if she could get a good spot in the rock formations, it would hide the light of her fire from anyone looking. They’d have to all but stumble on her to find her location.
In theory.
So much of what she operated on was theory right now.
Her skin prickled and she shivered. Someone was definitely watching her, and she didn’t think it was the cameras hidden around the island. She’d watched the videos of past years. The camera network was impressive, but hardly exhaustive. It was set up more like game cameras that hunters used—human-sized motion would turn them on and start recording.
No, it wasn’t cameras watching her now.
It was a person.
She feigned tripping and used the motion to slip her knife out of its sheath. It had been over an hour, and if they intended to try to take her, they should have done it by now. Attack, subdue, begin the journey of transporting her to an extraction point.
The fact they stalked her meant …
Nothing good.
Nothing good for her, at least.
Cami kept her movement loose and fluid as she climbed over an intricate root network and considered her options. She hadn’t found another trap, and this person showed no signs of the kind of impulsiveness the woman had displayed earlier. They had to be waiting for the cover of night to attack, which meant she needed her camp set up sooner, rather than later.
They’d come for her with the darkness, and she’d be ready when they did.
8
Luca followed her as far as the beach, but he didn’t leave the trees. The sand and rocks offered little cover for this kind of thing, and he wasn’t interested in being found out yet. The temptation to simply watch over her was strong enough to have him reconsidering his options. If he could find the other competitors and take most of them out, then he could narrow the field extensively. The faster this was over, the better the chance of getting her out of here unscathed.
Or at least avoiding any permanent harm.
Luca waited until she disappeared into the rocks and climbed down from the tree he’d perched in. He knew where they dropped competitors in past games, so there was no reason they’d use different drop points just because he was involved. If anything, Kenzie and Amarante wanted to avoid any accusations of playing favorites. They’d do things exactly as they’d always been done.
In the half day since they’d landed on the island, though, the others could be anywhere. Most of the time they moved inland. Even though the island wasn’t particularly large—about ten miles north to south and fewer than five at its thickest point—that still left a lot of ground to cover.
All the while, Cami would be left on her own.
He rubbed his hand against his sternum. A risk, and not a small one. If he made the wrong call, she’d pay t
he price of it.
Luca shook his head. No, it was better to just keep on his original path. Watch Cami, deal with any competitors that showed up as needed.
It was a shame she’d removed Brianna so neatly. She was the only one of the Bookkeeper’s people that Luca would have wanted to win. At least then it lessened the chance of her attempting some violent act against Cami.
Call it what it is, Luca. Rape. You saw the way some of those men looked at Cami, and you’re scared out of your fucking mind that they’ll try to hurt her like that.
He clenched his fists and tried to focus. Imagining a worst-case scenario wouldn’t do anyone any good. He had to take his chances and approach her now before they got too deep into this game. Offer his protection. Promise to let her win if she’d only let him keep her safe.
Lie.
Luca ran his hands over his face. Better to break her trust than let one of them break her body. Her spirit. She’d get over not winning the game—she wasn’t going to be able to pull it off anyway. That trick she’d managed against Brianna was impressive, but Brianna was the least of the competitors. One of the others would get to her.
He was making the right call, damn it.
No matter how shitty it felt.
Luca waited for full dark before he made his move. The lack of light would impede everyone on the island, and that meant they had a sliver of time before they had to worry about another competitor finding Cami. Best to use it to get this agreement put in place between them.
He stalked out of the trees and climbed up the rocks in the same direction she’d gone. He found her camp quickly, a small fire set up in the space between four of the towering rock formations. Smart. The rocks will hide the flames. She must be exhausted from the events of the day, because she was already in her sleeping bag, her little body curled up toward the top.
Something warm and uncomfortable sprang into Luca’s chest. He rubbed the back of his hand against it, as if he could smooth it away. He should have known better. He cared whether this woman was safe. He wasn’t sure he liked her all that much, but he didn’t want to see her hurt.
It had been so long since he’d had something pure to protect.
Hell, he’d never had something pure to protect.
Everything touched by his world was tainted in its own way. Even him. Especially him. Cami wasn’t scarred and battered and beaten, and he held the dubious honor of being the only thing standing in the way of that. He had to keep her safe.
He climbed down to the camp and hesitated. Would waking her scare her? Sitting here watching her sleep might be satisfying in the extreme, but he didn’t think she’d appreciate that. Luca cursed himself for his sudden indecisive streak and bent down to shake Cami awake.
She chose that moment to strike.
He had half a second to process the fact that the lump in the sleeping back was clothes and then she took him to the ground, attacking from above. He fought back on instinct, striking up to dislodge her, but Cami dodged and shoved her knife against his throat. “Don’t move.”
Luca froze. She wouldn’t cut his throat, would she? Surely not. But then, he hadn’t thought she’d pull off an ambush like this, either.
Clearly, he’d underestimated Princess Cami Fitzcharles.
Again.
He slowly relaxed against the ground, holding his arms wide. “Since when do you know how to fight?”
“You don’t get to ask the questions right now.” Her hair stood half on end, like she’d dragged her fingers through it repeatedly, and her blue eyes held more than a little fury. “What are you doing out here?”
“Trying to wake you up.”
“I know what you were doing right here. I want to know what you’re doing on the island.” She glared. “Does your group always cheat on these games?”
Yes, but he wasn’t about to admit it. “I’m here because they needed another competitor spot filled.” It wasn’t the truth in the strictest sense of the word, but if he admitted that he was worried about her, it would pave the way toward things Luca wasn’t ready to deal with. Expectations. Strings.
He might have misjudged her capabilities, but he hadn’t misjudged that.
Cami was the kind of woman who made a man think settling down thoughts. Marriage. A family. Security of the like that Luca had never known. Impossible things.
What the fuck was he even thinking?
He protected her because she needed protection. End of story. It didn’t matter how sweetly she came against his hand or how the stubborn tilt of her head drove him batshit crazy. When the Hunt ended, he’d ensure she made it back to the safety of her country, and he’d never see her again.
The edge of the knife bit into his skin, just a little. “I asked you a question,” she said mildly.
“I answered.”
“You lied.”
Well, yeah. He raised his brows. “Are you planning on holding that knife on me all night?” Now that the immediate danger had passed, the fact that she straddled him was starting to register. He couldn’t hide his body’s response without moving, and she’d already proven herself willing to cut him.
Instead of getting flustered, she snorted. “Don’t get any kinky ideas, Luca. I want answers, and I want them now. Why are you here?”
He wasn’t getting out of this. If she was the kind of woman to be swayed, they wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with. He huffed out a breath. “You’re going to get your ass killed.”
She blinked. “What?”
“You think this Hunt is a game, and while that’s true in the technical sense of the word, those people out there tracking you aren’t good people. Some of them are better than others, but that’s not saying much. A full half of them would take their sweet time getting you to the extraction point because they’d want to enjoy you as their prize in the meantime.”
Understanding flared in her blue eyes. “You’d allow that.”
“I am not allowing shit. Neither is Amarante, or she wouldn’t have approved me as a late edition to the Hunt.” That, he believed. Amarante always had layers upon layers for doing something, and this situation wouldn’t be the exception. Luca participating in the Hunt meant the competitors were distracted, and it meant she could influence the overall outcome. It also meant Cami wouldn’t see any undo harm in the process.
Later he’d appreciate the nuances of her manipulations.
Maybe.
“You expect me to believe that you’re my protector?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
This hadn’t gone at all like he’d expected. Served him right for making assumptions. “Clearly you’re more than capable of protecting yourself.”
“Clearly.” Her gaze dropped to his mouth and she tensed. “I’ll let you up, but if you move wrong, I’m seriously considering stabbing you.”
“Noted.” He held perfectly still as she eased off him and retreated to her sleeping bag. Only then did Luca sit up and press a hand gingerly to his throat. She hadn’t cut him deep, but she had cut him. “I wasn’t aware that princesses came with this sort of skillset.”
“You weren’t aware of a lot of things.” She methodically cleaned her knife with the ease of someone who’d done it many times before. Luca shifted back to lean against the nearest rock. It put him directly across the fire from her, and hell if the flickering light didn’t make her even more attractive. Or maybe it was her clear ability to kick ass.
Cami replaced the knife in her sheath and looked at him. “Even if I believed you—and I don’t—do you really think the betting pools and other sponsors will allow you to play guardian angel? You have to know they won’t. She has to know they won’t.”
That, at least, he had an answer for. “I know where the cameras are and how to avoid them.”
She didn’t blink. “You have an answer for everything.”
“Just let me help you.”
Cami stared at him for another long moment, her thoughts tucked away where he couldn’t
divine them. Finally, she shook her head. “No.
Cami’s hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
She’d almost killed Luca.
If her fear had gotten the better of her. If her hand had slipped in the tussle. If she hadn’t recognized him in time. If, if, if. So many things could have gone wrong in the space of thirty seconds. She might have used his perceptions of her to get here, but she didn’t want him dead.
Now he sat there and offered her help she desperately wanted to trust him enough to take. The island already felt safer with him sharing her fire, as if his standing between her and danger meant she really could win this Hunt.
She knew better.
Whatever his supposed reasons for being here, he wasn’t telling Cami the full truth. And while she didn’t necessarily think Death had it out for her, the level of supposed manipulation made Cami’s head hurt. No way had the woman dispatched Luca as some kind of misguided guardian angel.
“Leave, please.”
Luca stared at her like she’d grown a second head. “You aren’t serious.”
“I’m afraid so.” It felt so strange to pull on court verbal skills when she was as far from the Thalanian palace as Cami had ever been, both physically and mentally. “I don’t want or need your help. You’re either a dangerous distraction, or you were placed here to ensure Death’s outcome—which couldn’t possibly favor me. Ergo, I don’t want you anywhere close to me.”
He lowered his brows. “I could just take you to the extraction point myself. You might have gotten the drop on me, but you won’t win in a fair fight.”
Something she knew all too well. Which was why Cami had no intention of playing fair. “If that was your plan, we’d be halfway there by now. Spare me your toothless threats.”
“Toothless threats,” he repeated, low enough that she didn’t think he meant her to hear. Luca glared. “For someone who came here to retrieve her betrothed, you have a funny way of showing that you want to marry me.”
She laughed. She couldn’t help it. The disgruntled look on his face was too much. “Luca … Honey.” And, yes, Cami injected a lethal dose of patronizing into her tone. “I have no intention of marrying you. I never did.”
