Page 66 of Forsaking All Others

He gives me a measured look.

“Who is Valentino?”

“Answer my question,” I reply softly, “and I’ll answer yours.”

‘Although I won’t give the whole truth. I can’t.’

“Catriona, don’t play games with me. There’s a dead man lying beside your bed.”

“I told you I have powerful enemies…”

“You did,” he sighs, rubbing his hand over his face before observing the note near the flowers by my bed.

I bite my lip as he raises an eyebrow before switching his attention back to me.

“This is from the cunt chasing you?”

I nod.

“He calls you, Puss?”

I blush and nod.

“Tell me his surname, I’ll make this all go away.”

I shake my head.

‘I can’t.’

“No. He’s my enemy, and I must have my vengeance. When I have your name and immortality, I’ll wreak it.”

He frowns.

“It would seem he’s not trying to kill you.”

“No. He just wants me out of the Game and within his reach. He wants to take his time punishing me. Each attempt has been with that aim.”

“You said you were being hunted because you failed to fulfil an obligation…”

“Yes.”

I clamp my lips shut. After I’d assumed her identity the family had pursued Mirabella to punish her for allowing my death. Since discovering I was alive they’re pursuing me to force me to marry Valentino. I can’t let the bachelor know that, though; too many details could lead him to finding out my true identity.

“He seems hell-bent on getting you back. Three times now. He must know there’s no way my kind would sit back and allow a competitor to be taken. He’s risking powerful enemies. Even if he did get you out of the Game, he’d be hunted to extinction. That’s some kind of obsession.”

“Not the kind any woman wants,” I whisper. “I told you what happened when I was a child.”

He considers me for a long, long moment.

“This is the man?”

I nod, swallowing hard.

“You’re a strong woman, Catriona. You must fear him if you’d risk death on this show rather than confront him.”

‘My nightmares are plagued by him.’

“I’m not planning on dying on this show,” I look him in the eye and avoid his question, “and I’ll do anything I have to do to ensure that. I told you, I’m going to win. I have to win. Now answer my question. Did you bite Daniela and Luo?”