High Society (The High Stakes Saga #3)

“No one believes I’m your fiancée,” I whispered.

“Actually, they do. You’ve followed us before, darling. Or have you forgotten?” he smirked. “It’s my duty to see you home unharmed.”

I didn’t know what game he was playing, but I needed answers. “Why would you care about protecting me?”

A growl rumbled from his chest, vibrating against my back. “Say another word, and I’ll let you find out how well you’d survive without my protection.”

He ordered a burly man to ride in the back of the line and alert them of any threat, while a vampire woman with hair so black it was almost blue took the lead. The others fell in line in front of, beside, and behind us. Asa was cloistered in the center of them all, and for some reason, I was with him as they surrounded us.

During the ride, I had time to think. I remembered a dream I had after landing in the battlefield of discarded corpses. A disturbing dream. A dream that felt so real, it hurt. It replayed over and over in my mind in an incessant loop. It had to be fake.

I remembered my mother. I remembered the store. The beam of sunlight. It felt warm on my skin, until the light began to fade into nothing but a sliver. Only then did the cool touch me. I remembered it. It was real. At least, I thought it was.

Throughout our ride, I kept quiet for hours, waiting as late afternoon faded to evening, and catalogued my long list of discomforts. My ass hurt from riding side-saddle. The gown he’d insisted I wear was too small. My abs ached from sucking them in just to keep from ripping the fabric, and don’t get me started on the painful stays. I thought bras were uncomfortable, but I humbly stand corrected.

“You’re squirming. Stop it,” he growled.

“My ass hurts.”

“My ass hurts, too,” he retorted. “But I manage to keep still.”

“Ride in my lap and see if you can keep still after this many hours.”

He seemed too normal, and I was afraid of that. Enoch hated Asa. He loved him and respected him, but I also knew he harbored an intense hatred for his brother. There had to be a reason for it.

I remembered Terah’s comment on Enoch’s ship; how she had asserted her strength, comparing herself to Asa, when Enoch quipped that although she was as strong, she wasn’t nearly as evil as Asa. Those words kept pounding through my head. Enoch wouldn’t lie to me, and his sibling agreed with his statement about Asa’s character.

Maybe Asa was just acting civil in front of these people, and all bets would be off when we got to wherever we were going. “Did I mention that my ass hurts?” I needled him. It was so hard not to.

He didn’t even acknowledge the complaint.

“Will we meet up with Enoch?”

“When?” he asked.

“When we get wherever we’re going.”

Asa shrugged. “I’m not sure when he’ll be there.”

“Where is Terah?” I need to find Titus.

“She is where we’re going.”

He smiled as I fumed. He was infuriating. “Which is…?”

“A little over an hour away, so stop complaining about your ass.”

Chapter Three

Titus

Chicken feathers floated all around me. The hen house I crash-landed into now had a man-sized skylight. The fat birds clucked and squawked and flapped all around. I wanted so badly to cover my head with my hands, or to move my tongue and lips to get the dust and feathers settling on them the hell off. But I needed a minute. Or sixty.

Internally, I winced, despite the fact that the muscles of my face would not work. My back hurt. While plowing into the ground hurt, plowing into layers of wood and taking them to the ground along with me absolutely sucked.

I couldn’t say the same about chickens, though. They were delicious. I imagined them cooked nine different ways before I could get my body to emerge from the shock that always followed the landing.

My stomach growled in response to my thoughts.