recalling watching him at the graveside. “I had to stay at a distance, but I saw.”
“Why?” he asked with bewilderment. “Why did you not simply come and join us?”
“Because your men were everywhere, hunting me.”
“They would not have harmed you. They had orders not to harm you,” he assured her.
“Well, I didn’t know that. I thought you—” Ildaria stopped abruptly and scowled at him. She still couldn’t believe that he hadn’t wanted to hurt her for what she had done to him. Or that he wasn’t the monster in her story. Mouth twisting, she asked, “What of your jacking up the price of blood to force immortals along the shore off their property so you could have it?”
“It is not what you think,” he said, and explained, “Three times in the last twenty years my men almost caught you near the shoreline.”
“Si, and each time I managed to escape,” she snapped triumphantly.
“Si,” he agreed, sounding a bit snappish himself for the first time. “But only because they were under strict orders not to harm you. My men took grievous wounds trying not to harm you while trying to capture you.”
Ildaria straightened, offended at the suggestion that her escaping had been purely because he’d refused to allow his men to hurt her. She was a good fighter, dammit.
“But were you good enough to take on three or four trained Enforcers and escape?” Lucian asked, apparently in her thoughts.
Ildaria frowned at the question, not wanting to acknowledge that she’d been more than a little lucky a time or two. She’d always escaped unscathed. Her hunters had not always been so lucky. She had caused more than a few grievous wounds. Not wanting to think about that, she said, “You still haven’t explained the price of blood and taking people’s land.”
“I had concluded that you had someplace on the shore where you lived. But a check of the land registry did not turn up your name, or anything close to it. Either you had used a different name, or someone there must be hiding you. My only hope was to force you out of hiding there. To do that, I needed to force the other immortals out. Perhaps then—” He paused abruptly, his lips compressing, and then said, “I was becoming desperate, Angelina. I have been searching for two hundred years. It was the only thing I could think to do.”
“So you ruined all those immortals.”
“No one was ruined,” he assured her quietly. “I know the rumors say I got the land cheap from desperate immortals, but I spread those rumors on purpose. The truth is, I paid more than fair market prices for the properties, and then moved them to properties I own by the shore down by La Romana. Properties I gave them for free. All they had to do was show up to sign the contracts, where I could read them to see if they knew of you, or had even unknowingly seen you. After that, I made them agree never to tell anyone, and never to return to Punta Cana. Every one of them was happy to agree. They got the new land plus payment for their old property. And it is nicer there, less developed.” His mouth tightened. “I had no desire to ruin poorer immortals, I was just trying to flush you out by taking away your hiding place.”
“But Vasco . . .”
“Vasco has no idea what I have been doing. None of my children do. They all believe the rumors and stories they hear. I have not spoken personally to any of them but Ana since the night you were attacked. And I only saw Ana once or twice afterward. Fortunately, she was newly mated as well, easily read and either unable or too distracted to bother reading me.”
Ildaria frowned. Vasco had said his father had been distant the last two centuries, but he’d never said he hadn’t seen him at all. “Why wouldn’t you see your own children?”
“Because I am ashamed,” he confessed unhappily. “I attacked you like an animal. Drugs be damned, I should have been stronger than those blasted drugs. I should have resisted the rage. I should have protected you from myself. I will not have my children know I am such a weak, disgusting animal.” Closing his eyes, he ran a weary hand through his hair. “I needed to find you first and make it right with you before I could face them.”