Beautiful Lies (Breaking Belles #2) - Alta Hensley Page 0,30
find. I had been part of these hunts before as a boy and knew exactly what they did. I knew she needed the advice on how to beat these limp dicks at their own game. I had considered just outright telling her myself, but I doubted she would trust or listen to me. But a letter from a fellow belle… well, I had just hoped she’d be smart enough to take the instructions to heart.
I shrugged in answer, hoping she wouldn’t push it more. It was important that she feel empowered as much as possible right now with all things considered, and I wanted her to feel as if she had the power alone to outrun and outsmart the hunters.
“So, what does this mean now?” she asked, moving on to another question.
“I’ve won the hunt,” I said. “Free drinks for a year, it seems.” I waited for one of her classic smart replies, but when I got nothing but a shivering and frightened girl, I realized it wasn’t the time to jest. “Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” she snapped. She lifted her arms and spun in a circle. “I mean… look at me. Don’t I look perfectly all right?” She took hold of the tail and pulled it out of her ass with a grimace, tossing it to the corner of the room. “I’m sick of this place. I’m so over the Trials. This isn’t worth it. I can’t keep going and doing awful stuff like this hunt. For what?”
“I understand. I’m sick of it too,” I said softly. “But we have to stay focused. It’s easy to walk away. Trust me. I’ve considered it more times than I can count. But at the same time, it means those fucks won. It also means that everything we’ve gone through”—I motioned at her wet and dirty body—“everything you have gone through up to this point would be for nothing if we both leave here empty-handed. We deserve something for what we’ve already endured.”
“Oh, so now I’m not the gold-digging whore anymore?” she asked on a huff.
“Not any more than the rest of the world.”
Her eyes seemed sad, and her small frame appeared dwarfed in my jacket. This wasn’t the spitfire I was used to standing before me. The hunt had clearly taken its toll.
“I’m losing myself,” she said. “I don’t even know who I am anymore. I have absolutely no control over anything and—” She sighed loudly. “I feel like I’m selling my soul to the devil… or devils in this case.”
“You are.” I nodded in agreement. “No way to sugarcoat that fact. We both are.”
“Which is why I’m considering telling the Elders to go fuck themselves. I have sisters at home who need me.” She stopped speaking and looked down at the floor. “I just don’t know how much more of this sick, twisted madness I can tolerate.”
“Try to remind yourself why you accepted the invitation in the first place. It helps me when I want to storm out the front doors and never look back.” When I saw she didn’t seem to be getting any warmer with my coat, I closed the distance between us and wrapped her in my arms to offer some body heat. “The cellar is too cold. Let’s get you out of here.”
“What about the hunt?” she asked as she nuzzled herself into me.
“I won. It’s over.”
“What about the others? The dogs? I can still hear them looking for me.”
“Let them hunt. Frankly, let’s keep the fuckers out all night searching for you. When they find us, I’ll already have you in my possession. I’m sure they thought this would be easy. Well… let’s make the shitheads work for it.”
“I like that idea.”
Picking her up and cradling her in my arms, I said, “I want to take you to a place I went as a boy with my friends. It’ll take them a bit to find us there since I know we already covered the rocky ridge earlier hunting for you. It would require them doubling back which will really piss them off.”
“I can walk,” she said, but she didn’t try to resist or wiggle out of my arms.
“They’ll be looking for your tracks. Not mine. I’m going to ditch the horse too, just to be extra safe.” I nodded at the lantern. “You can hold that and light our way.”
“What about the tail?” She scowled in the direction of the corner it was tossed in.