“Use that reputation to your advantage,” Tomas suggested. “Be the piece of shit they think you are. Scare them so bad that no money they’re offered to fuck with your chances is worth it.”
“Huh.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he considered the idea. It wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever heard, but there was one glaring issue with it that he couldn’t get past.
“My girl is watching,” he quietly admitted. “That could scare her.”
If she wasn’t scared off already. She’d looked white as a ghost when he caught her eye in the basement, and she hadn’t even seen him kill a man — just lightly maim one.
Luis never wanted Francesca to see that part of him. One of the reasons he loved chasing her was because she didn’t see him the same as everyone else. In a way, it’d been another role for him to play. One that he now realized he never could’ve maintained, no matter how hard he tried.
That part of him was just that — a singular part. Just as the playboy was a part, and the shrewd businessman, and the man people called when they needed answers from the unwilling.
He put on masks and took them off to suit whatever situation he’d been in, but no single aspect of him could be maintained indefinitely. Even if he wished it could.
“What’s worse: scaring her or losing her?”
His body knew the answer before his mind did. Luis tensed, his claws digging into the freshly washed skin of his neck. In a raspy voice he answered, “Losing her.”
Tomas sniffed. “Then suck it the fuck up.”
“You’re not very nice,” he observed.
The other vampire flashed his fangs in a chilling smile. “I’m a Bowan. We don’t play nice.”
“Noted.” Luis patted his shoulder as he moved to slip out of the room.
Milo waited outside, one boot pressed flat against the wall and his arms crossed. He didn’t even wait for Luis to open his mouth before he informed him, “They brought her into the parlor. Maxine and Easton are with her.”
The hair rose on the back of his neck. The parlor was reserved for the contestants and their proxies, which meant she wouldn’t be shown to the mass of hungry spectators that had shown up. But it still exposed her too much.
Quickening his steps, Luis told his brother, “I need to get her alone.”
Milo, who’d been joined by Tomas, followed him down the hallway. “That’s not going to be easy. If the others see you get a second of private time with her, they’ll all start demanding it. You don’t want her alone with Malachi, do you?”
I’ll kill him first
Luis drew in a deep, calming breath. “Someone has to figure out a distraction, then.”
Behind his back, his companions shared a look.
The air in the parlor was charged. Bloodshed had a way of changing the vibe of a room, as did a healthy dose of alcoholic synth and the potential to win a lot of money — not to mention the presence of coveted prey.
He knew immediately that Francesca was there. The roots of his fangs gave an angry pulse as he spied the cluster of vampiresgathered around the center of the room, where a lounge had been strategically placed for optimum viewing.
Normally, Luis was a fairly easy-going man. Outside of the bedroom, at least.
He didn’t let instincts rule him, and he didn’t particularly care if a woman he was fucking wanted to spend time with another man. Possessive instincts were limited to playing in bed, and if they began to leak out into real life, he was ruthless in cutting off whomever had spawned them.
But when he saw Francesca surrounded by other vampires, the man Luis thought he was disappeared.
The entire reason the Games had been invented was to civilize the instinct to fight for a single anchor. Rules had been agreed upon, and everyone pretended to follow them rather than outright slaughter the competition.
At that moment, Luis didn’t feel like pretending.
The open sides of his shirt flapped as he strode across the room. His world narrowed to the flash of red silk that appeared between shifting bodies. People parted for him as he neared, and those that didn’t got a hard shoulder for their trouble.
When he finally got to the center of the group, he found Francesca seated on the lounge, her hands balled into tight fists in her lap and her expression shut down. Worry punched through him when her eyes, normally so full of warmth, immediately met his.
Help me,they screamed, as a vampire’s heavy hand dropped onto her bare shoulder.