by Katee Robert
She pulled on her short silk robe and considered her options. Three more days until the hunt began. She hadn’t wanted that time when she first arrived here, had desired only to jump straight into the competition and finish what had been started so long ago.
Her bid for freedom.
She laughed softly. The look on Luca’s face when she told him they were engaged. He honestly thought she’d come all this way, was about to engage in a deadly game because she wanted to be married to him that badly. Cami laughed again. Men were strange creatures, but he’d laid the foundation for her lie when he flipped out the second he saw her.
Guilt flared, hot and cloying. She should be here to bring him home. That’s what a good girl would do in this situation. Cleave to the family honor that demanded she follow through on the promise her older brother hadn’t been able to accomplish in the years since he’d retaken the throne.
Retrieve Luca safely.
An impossible feat when he didn’t want to be retrieved.
She’d spent the last five summers working directly under Lady Nibley. She’d heard the story of his disappearance enough times to have it memorized, right down to the tears that sprung into the old woman’s eyes at the thought of never seeing her beloved grandson again before she died. Yael had been fighting to bring Luca home since the day he disappeared, and the failure to do so weighed on her.
Even with that knowledge sitting heavy in her chest, Cami couldn’t ignore the fact that Luca was free here in a way he’d never be back in Thalania. Free in the way Cami wanted to be free. Here, he was one of the four people who could do anything they wanted, who had more money that most countries and the influence to match.
She envied him that.
A ringing brought her back to herself. Her phone. She sighed. It could only be one of three people on the other line—her brother or one of his two Consorts. None of them would have kind words for her, but if she didn’t answer, it would be so much worse.
If I want to be taken seriously, dodging their calls isn’t the way to do it.
Neither is running off to play a real-life version of The Most Dangerous Game, either. Probably.
She’d happily avoid answering, but if she put off her brother, he was more than capable of sending a battalion to retrieve her. Or, worse, sending his head of security and Consort—Galen.
Cami pulled her phone out and cleared her throat. Calm and collected. “Hello?”
“Where the fuck are you?”
Apparently she was the only one interested in being calm and collected. “I left a note. It was a very detailed and concise note.”
She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she could hear Theo grinding his teeth even from here. “The note states, ‘I’ve gone to the Island of Ys.’ That’s the sum of it. That is hardly detailed or concise.”
“I beg to differ.”
“He’s not coming home, Cami. You think I haven’t spent six years trying? Lady Nibley might not believe it, but I expect you to. Luca wants to stay gone. And unlike some, I’m not willing to attempt kidnapping.” Theo sighed. “Come home. Whatever you’re trying to do … There’s a better way. You know damn well I wouldn’t push you into marrying anyone you didn’t want, let alone some half-feral stranger. You care for Lady Nibley, and that’s understandable, but—”
“I’m not coming home.” She spoke slowly, clearly, not letting anything into her voice but confidence. Certainly not the hurt that her brother thought all she cared about was honoring some ancient promise to marry her to a stranger. Did he really think that was all she cared about?
Did everyone think that was all she cared about?
Yes, she wanted to convince Luca to come home long enough to see his grandmother before she died, but Cami had bigger game in mind than securing herself a husband. She was twenty-three. She wasn’t interested in marrying anyone for a very long time. And she certainly wasn’t going to hunt down some angry man whom she’d have to hogtie to get to the altar.
Though the image of Luca hogtied was an attractive one, he’d probably still try to command her obedience. He seemed like the kind of man who couldn’t comprehend people not doing everything he ordered the second he ordered it. He’d been almost flabbergasted when she ignored his threats. She might have laughed if the stakes were anything less than life and death.
Her life.
Her freedom.
Her everything.
“Cami.” Another sigh, world-weary this time. “I know you’re not happy with me right now, but this isn’t the way to go about it.”
Not happy with him.
Cami sank onto the bed. Trust Theo not to circle the subject when he could strike right to the heart of her. “You called me home early from Yael’s country home like a dog. Or a disobedient child. You sent Isaac and Galen to collect me. My very own prison guards.”
“The palace is not a prison.”
“Says you.” Anger bled into her voice, and she had to take several moments to reclaim her control. “You agreed to give me the summers, and then you went back on it the first time something came up.” Her summers were the only time of year she felt both happy and free. Happy soaking up all Yael’s not-inconsiderable knowledge. Everyone in Thalania treated the old woman with respect and no little amount of fear. Cami didn’t want people to fear her, but she wanted the freedom power brought. Freedom Lady Nibley enjoyed.
But it was different for a Head of Family than it was for a princess.
Something she learned the hard way a few short weeks ago.
Another of those sighs. “I needed you back at the palace.” For her brother, it was as simple as that. He needed her there, so it didn’t matter what she wanted. “I—correctly—assumed I’d have to use a crowbar to pry you out of her country estate.”
A crowbar in the form of his husband and Consort, one third of the Royal Triad.
“To dangle me in front of that Saudi mogul like some kind of prize.” If not for Theo pulling rank, she might have put off the Wild Hunt for years yet. But the betrayal cut too deep. He’d promised her a chance to choose a husband for herself. He’d promised her time.
“You treated me like a pawn to move around at whim,” she whispered. That moment of being brought back to the palace like an errant child had slammed her with one undeniable truth.
As long as she was Camilla Fitzcharles, Princess of Thalania, she’d never have a chance to be anything else.
Cami just wanted to be free. Free to choose her own path. Free of the strings threatening to bind her up like a tangled marionette.
“Come home, Cami. That’s an order.”
Just like that, her sadness evaporated in a fury that left her breathless. “Goodbye, Theo.” She hung up and turned her phone off. He might try to send someone for her. Let him come. Somehow, she didn’t think Death would take too kindly to having Thalanian royals screwing around on her territory. Cami had her invitation. There was no going back now.
She pulled the card out of her purse and set it on the pale wood dresser. Letting Luca think she was here to secure him as a husband was more than a little mean, but if he thought she was an empty-headed idiot, he would underestimate her. The others would follow his lead, she was sure of it.
No one would know what she was capable of until she’d secured the first win in the Wild Hunt history.
Cami had to believe it would spin out that way. To do anything else would be the equivalent of shooting herself in the foot before a marathon. She’d prepared. She’d trained. She’d done everything in her power to stack the deck in her favor.
Only time would tell if it was enough.
4
After the party Luca spent two days in Pain dealing with a politician who had tried to rough up one of their people. While sex was one of the things peddled on the island, it was heavily regulated. Every once in a while, they had issues with people thinking that every employee was fair game.
He’d had to make an example of the man, and then he’d needed to sta
y to ensure the girl was okay. The assault was stopped almost as quickly as it had started, but it scared the shit out of her. Understandable, that. He’d given her two weeks’ extra pay and arranged to have her moved to Pleasure until she felt comfortable in Pain again—if she ever did. Ultimately, he left the choice up to her.
He’d almost convinced himself to let this shit with Camilla go. If she wanted to play with the big boys, she’d get smacked down—even hurt—but he couldn’t let it be his problem. He had to keep his focus on the endgame.
Fifteen years, they’d looked for the people responsible and came up with nothing. Their tormentors all wore masks while they were in hell, and no record of that place existed. If there had been, Ryu would have found it by now. The only lead they could scrounge up was with the Bookkeeper, which meant that fucker was the key to everything.
The key to every operation, both aboveboard and dirty, lay in its money. One look at their enemy’s books and they could find the exact pressure point they needed to find out who the bastards responsible were and to bring them to their knees.
To remove them once and for all.
This game had to play out exactly as Amarante planned. For better or worse. He didn’t know why she’d brought Camilla here and, frankly, he didn’t care. The princess was secondary to everything else.
He still didn’t expect Ryu’s call. Luca stared at his phone a long time and finally answered. “Yeah?”
“We need you back here for the dinner tonight. Amarante wants to present a united front.”
Of course she did. Luca didn’t exactly resent her for what she’d put together, but there were times when he wished they could all leave the goddamn past where it lay. Dredging up all those old nightmares—nightmares that had never fully gone away in the first place—meant all four of them would be careening close to the edge until this was over. Their semblance of normal would fall apart, and he didn’t know where they’d land. In the past, they’d always leaned on each other when shit got too dark to see their way through.
Then that’s what we’ll do in the future.
We’ve started this, tipped the first domino.
It’s time to finish it.
Maybe then he could finally get a little slice of that peace he kept hearing about, and the ragged wounds in his chest would finally heal into something smooth and forgiving.
Maybe.
He huffed out a breath. “She go home?”
Ryu didn’t bother to ask who he meant. “You know she didn’t.”
Yeah, he guessed he did. The princess wasn’t leaving unless someone forced the issue. It wasn’t his call to make, but her presence represented a dangerous distraction that none of them could afford. “I’ll be at dinner.”
“Six.”
He glanced at his watch. Plenty of time to make the walk back to Pleasure and change. After two days being cooped up inside, he was ready to stretch his legs some. “See you then.” He hung up and headed for the exit.
When they’d first bought this place, the only thing on this island was an old rotted resort that had gone up sometime in the sixties and promptly failed. They built it back up from the bottom, and turned it into the place it was now. Part paradise, part fantasy island, part something significantly darker. Though there were days when Luca wished they’d let the jungle take this island back the same way they’d let it take the larger island back, that they’d merely carved out a small part of it for them and them alone, he couldn’t quite hate the island itself.
He started down the boardwalk that stretched across the length of the bay, connecting Pleasure and Pain if someone was feeling ambitious enough to walk the distance. Little shops crowded one side of the boardwalk, offering everything from gourmet food to entertainment to cool courtyards to rest in. On the other side lay the beach, the white sand stretching to disappear beneath bright blue water.
It was hot and sticky, and if guests wanted to swim this time of year, they gravitated to pools in both casinos or rented the private villas on the western edge of this island. Sometimes a stray person or two would drunkenly wander into this bay and have to be fished out, but for the most part, they kept off the beach.
Luca kicked off his shoes and walked to the point where sand met water. Right here, right now, he could almost ignore the busy boardwalk to his left.
It didn’t matter.
They didn’t matter. The rich-ass people who came here to get their rocks off. They were only a means to an end, and their selfishness funded a cause greater than their own. It didn’t make him hate them less during the dark of the night, but they served their purpose. Same as him.
Luca kept his pace steady and inhaled the salty sea air. It relaxed the thing coiled tightly in his chest. It might be temporary, but it was better than nothing. He picked his way up the beach, keeping an eye on the buzzing people on the boardwalk, but leaving them to it. Most of them were here to watch and bet on the Wild Hunt, and the air practically crackled with their excitement.
If they only knew.
Up ahead, nearly in the shadow of Pleasure, a series of lounge chairs had been set up. They were mostly used by drunken guests who couldn’t quite make it back to their rooms from the boardwalk, but today a woman reclined in one.
Luca recognized her even from this distance, and he hated himself a little for having that much familiarity. If he had half a goddamn brain, he’d veer up to the boardwalk and avoid her, but his feet didn’t get the memo. Each stride brought him closer to her, details becoming stark in the decreasing distance.
Large sunglasses covering her eyes.
The bikini top that seemed designed to tease, the tiny triangles leaving the curves of her breasts bare and barely held in place with two feeble strings. An inch each way and he’d see what color her nipples were.
The bottoms were no better. They drew his gaze from her belly button down, down, down to the mound they barely kept hidden. If she rolled over, he had no doubt that her tight little ass wouldn’t be covered in the least.
Christ.
He should walk away. He had no business doing anything else. She wasn’t his problem, something he’d congratulated himself on not an hour ago.
Where the hell did a protected little princess get a swimsuit like that?
And why the fuck had her older brothers let her out of their country with it?
Luca stalked closer, until his shadow fell over her pale body. This close, he caught the faint scent of her coconut tanning lotion, and hell if his mouth didn’t start to water. It was all too easy to picture tugging that swimsuit aside and making a mess of her. Of both of them.
He looked away. What the fuck was wrong with him? He didn’t do this shit. He wasn’t a saint, but he didn’t spend time lusting after women who didn’t move in his world, weren’t right there in the dirt with him. Tarnishing something pure wasn’t his kink, and he wasn’t about to start now.
Except he couldn’t stop himself from looking at her again, from dragging his gaze over her cropped dark hair, down that long pale neck, over her perky breasts, and down to where that triangle of red barely covered her pussy. Would she be bare there? Or left natural?
Get a hold of yourself, asshole.
She draped one arm over her head, her breasts straining dangerously against the swimsuit top. “You’re staring.”
“You put that suit on. You wanted men to stare.”
“Maybe.” Her lips curved in something that was almost a smile. “It’s still rude.”
“Little girl, you’re inviting me to do a whole lot more than stare.”
She lifted her sunglasses and squinted at him. “Huh.”
Huh?
Luca found himself leaning forward, drawn to her in a way he couldn’t quite combat. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I know your life hasn’t exactly been easy, but let’s squash the rape-y talk, okay? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not sexy.”
He rocked back on his heels. “What the fuck are you talking
about?”
“Little girl, you’re inviting me to do a whole lot more than stare.” With her voice lowered, she did a passably good impression of him. Camilla raised her eyebrows. “Didn’t those words just come out of your mouth?”
Luca had the insane urge to squirm. Like she’d caught him out at something. “Christ.” He ran his hand over his face. “You’re safe from me, Princess. I only play with women who want it.”
Camilla gave him a long look and dropped her sunglasses back into place, shielding those blue, blue eyes from him. “And if I want it?”
His body gave a resounding fuck yes before he caught himself. Luca narrowed his eyes. “You’re fucking with me.”
There went that little smile again. “You come at every conversation with me like a bull in a china shop. All I have to do is wave a red flag and …” She motioned down at herself, at her bright red suit. “Honestly, it’s too easy. Low hanging fruit and all that.”
That surprised a chuckle out of him. “I thought princesses were supposed to be proper and polite.”
“What gave you that idea?”
He looked at her again, really looked at her. She wasn’t uncomfortable or self-conscious in that suit. She wore it like she’d spent a lot of time waltzing around in next to nothing. Luca tilted his head to the side, studying her. “If you think seduction is going to work, you’re fucked in the head.”
She laughed, the sound light and bell-like. It made her breasts shake, just a little. Just enough to make a man like him wonder how they’d bounce if she was riding his cock. Damn it.
Camilla rolled over and fuck if the back of that bikini covered even less than he’d suspected. It was little more than a thong, leaving the round curves of her ass bare. She motioned a leisurely hand at the striped bag next to her chair. “Be a darling and lotion my back, would you?”
Luca should have walked away right then and there. He knew a trap when he saw it, and this entire situation screamed danger in a way that had his instincts thrumming. Getting the fuck out of there was the only option.
He dug into the bag and grabbed the suntan lotion.