Page 57 of Trapped By Vengeance

I stare at her, the feelings of betrayal still fresh in my soul. Not that I didn’t expect Valda to turn me over to her father— she had every right to. But for her to go from kissing me this morning to trying to eat my heart this evening is too much to bear. And now I’m supposed to just trust that those kisses were enough to change her mind toward me? “Did you forget that I’m the one who abducted you?”

“Only because I let you . . . as part of my hunt.”

“Y-you were huntingmewhile I was huntingyou?” I look down at the perfectly fitted outfit that seems to have been tailored to me.

If I wasn’t in such desperate need of new garments, I’d be horrified.

Valda’s full mouth twists upward. “Yes. The moment you killed on my father’s land, you put a target on your back.”

Sickness churns in my stomach. “Those men were killers.”

“Oh,Vaterisn’t upset about that. He just wanted your werwölfe heart.”

The sickness doesn’t leave.

And Valda just grins. “All this time you thought you were the villain in my story, I was actually the monster in yours.”

My jaw drops.

She cocks her head to one side. “Also, you mutter to yourself a lot when you’re tracking someone. Did you know that?”

I scowl. “And your father— how does he know I won’t use this as an opportunity to take myvengeance against him?”

“He doesn’t even know you have a bone to pick. And I think it’s best we kept it that way.”

“He turned a blind eye during the Night of Broken Walls!”

Valda sighs. “I’m sorry. It’s not that he turned a blind eye; he merely didn’t notice. He is more concerned with the underworld empire he’s built than his baronage.”

I clench my jaw. Losing my family is far more than an inconvenience that their Baron couldn’t be bothered with. “I should turn him in as an estrie.”

Valda quirks one eyebrow. “So we can report you as a werwölfe? Which of us do you think the authorities are more likely to believe?” She sighs. “Stop being stubborn. Just take the money from him and call it even like was your original plan.”

“And if I want my vengeance againstyou?”

She leans closer to me, and I hold my breath to steal a little space between our chests. “You’re not as consumed by vengeance as you’d like to think. Not as much as you are bound to fatherhood. And I know you won’t riskyourdaughter by endangeringhis. Because make no mistake— my father would retaliate cruelly.”

I narrow my eyes. “This is absolutely ludicrous. We are the villains in each other’s stories.”

She taps my chest. “But we can be so much more.”

“Like bodyguard and charge?” I narrow my eyes. “And how much is this alleged pay to be that could possibly be enough to lure me back down that den of bloodsuckers?” Surely, after all I’ve done, the Creator cannot be so willing to give me favor when I expected death.

“I was thinking we’d start by paying off the debt of your lost ship . . . and adding another five hundredguildersto cover the inconveniences of traveling with me.”

My jaw drops as all my money woes disappear in a moment.

Valda grins and then bats her eyes at me, like she expects me to say there is no inconvenience to traveling with her at all.

Instead, I grasp her shoulders and move her to the side. Then I walk back into my bedroom. “I’ll be right back. I have a job to accept.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Konrad

Ipace in front of the dressmaker’s shop. I’m not sure what makes me more nervous— Eloise inside with a bloodthirsty monster with only a seamstress to supervise. Or is it that Eloise, the bloodthirsty monster, and my leather pouch are together with only the seamstress to supervise. And she’s not on my side.

Frowning, I turn to where Sir Pigeon is perched on a shrubbery, also waiting. He just coos and twists his head to one side in confusion over my concerns. Apparently, he does not realize I cannot keep buying him bread if they spend all my coins.

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