Page 89 of High Stakes and Soulmates
I’m thrown from the horse before I even have a chance to recognize what’s happening. My hand had been on her reins, so I tear her head back. She’s so startled she rears, and because I’m tangled up in her reins, she’s thrown off balance and ends up crashing down with me. Thankfully, she doesn’t land on me,and she’s not hurt since she jumps back up as soon as I release my grip on her.
“What the fuck,” I snarl while I try to get up, but Louis kicks me so hard I’m thrown back to the ground where he presses a foot against my throat.
“No, I insist you stay. My guests are hungry,” he says.
“Let me up,” I growl.
“I refuse,” he says, stepping down until the air is cut from my lungs.
I think he believes I’m reaching for his foot in a desperate attempt to push it off, so he doesn’t expect the knife I draw fast and hard across the back of his ankle.
“Fuck,” he yells as he stumbles off me, and I pull up to my feet.
Valley isn’t far away. She’s trained to not run. If I can just get to her?—
Another person slams me against the ground, and I hit hard on my side. I drive my knife into their side, but it’s as though they don’t even care. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I stab, none of it forces them back.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?” I shout.
“Arturo ismine,” Louis snarls as he walks toward me like I hadn’t just sliced his ankle open. There’s no way a person could even walk after I’d cut the tendons. “I’ve let you play your game long enough, but I’m tired of it. He is mine and you are never going to touch him again because you’re not going to be alive to touch him.”
I know Arturo has warned me to stay away from this man again and again, and I have. I’ve turned down any request from Louis to go to his estate, even when he promised me time with Arturo. But why now? Why has he chosen to attack me now? Nothing has changed, has it? Arturo and I have held thisrelationship for a year now… what set him off? Did he realize our dreams of running away together? But we were careful to keep them to ourselves. We’ve never spoken of them where anyone could hear.
Louis moves too fast… inhumanly fast for a man with an ankle slit open. It’s like the wound doesn’t even slow him down. He slams me against a tree so hard the breath is snapped out of me. A gasp escapes me, but I slam the knife into the side of his head. He almost looks bored when he grabs my hand that’s still holding the knife and draws it out. He squeezes hard and I feel the bones in my hand break.
I clench my jaw, watching in disbelief as the blood stops flowing from his head and the wound heals like it was never there at all. Am I dreaming? Is this a dream that I can’t manage to wake up from? Or is he really a monster? No wonder Arturo tried so hard to keep me away from him.
Pain shoots into my hand and up into my wrist as I realize that while I’d been fixated on his wound healing itself, he’s taken my knife and driven it into my thigh. I grit my teeth while I grab for his hand, wanting to keep him from stabbing me somewhere much more vital.
“I’ve changed my mind. I want Arturo to watch,” he says. “I want him to watch me tear you apart.”
I’m fast. My job has always been to kill up close. My skills with swords or other weapons have always been lacking, but up close is how I’ve excelled. He’s so focused on me that he doesn’t see the knife until I’ve rammed it through his back, knowing just where to strike to miss bone and hit vitals, but he seems to have no sense of pain.
Louis slams me to the ground, then in an instant he has me up, hand tight around my throat. I’m afraid he’s going to crush it. He holds me up off the ground like I’m weightless then throws me again. I feel like a fucking rag doll that hasno control over the situation. He pulls the knife out of his back and is on me in an instant. His companions hover around me, looking like they’re enjoying every moment of this as I realize that there’s nothing I can do to stop him. He presses the tip of the knife against my arm, digging it in.
“You don’t need a fucking arm, do you? He’ll still get to enjoy your death whether you have one arm or two.”
I’m absolutely defenseless. I know there’s nothing I can do as my dreams of saving Arturo from this man have become nothing more than that.
“He’ll lose all his blood if you do that,” a woman whines.
“True… very true,” he says before he slides the knife into the band of his pants and grabs my leg. He starts dragging me toward the estate as I hear the sound of hoofbeats.
“Who is this? Can we kill him?” the woman asks as she eyes the rider approaching.
Louis has stopped dragging me, and when I see it’s Lorenzo, I twist, but he holds on so tightly that I can’t even pull free. “No. It’ll be more fun this way.”
“Stop!”
The sound of Arturo’s voice rips through me. I twist hard so I can see him.
“Please. Please don’t. I’ll do anything. I promise, I’ll do anything,” Arturo cries as he runs right for Louis. “Please just let him go.” He slams into Louis who growls, displeased with the whole situation. “Please. They’ll leave. They’ll go. They’ll never be seen again. Please don’t kill him. I’ve been so good. Please. I won’t even see him again.”
“Sit your ass down. I let you play around long enough,” Louis says as he shoves Arturo back. And that’s the moment an arrow from Lorenzo’s crossbow strikes Louis right in the head. He’s flung back, and I don’t know if he was so caught up in Arturo’s struggle that he didn’t see it coming, but it throwshim back into Arturo and they both crash to the ground. I need to get to Arturo, I need to get him away, but Louis is already pulling the bolt out of his head while he growls out in rage.
Lorenzo, still on his horse, races right into the fray, and as I struggle to my feet, he grabs my wrist, dragging me.
“Arturo,” I say, and it’s such a pleading noise. I feel like my heart is breaking when I realize how impossible it really is to take him with me.
