Page 59 of Bound by Vengeance
“How bad is it?” she asked.
“You’re still beautiful.”
“Now I know you’re lying,” she teased,hoping to coax a smile from him. “I’m pretty, I’ve been consideredcute, and I know I can be downright smoking hot, but beautifulmight be pushing it.”
“Everything about you is beautiful to me,Victoria.”
She inwardly recoiled from him at the sametime another crack raced up what little barriers she still had tokeep her heart from being shattered by this man.
CHAPTER 27
“Don’t you need to blindfold me?” Vickyasked as they wound through a forest. She had no idea how closethey were to the stronghold, but she suspected they weren’t faraway.
“No.”
She turned her attention away from the treescrowding the road and to him. “Nathan—”
“It will be okay.”
“But your people—”
“Won’t know we’re there.”
Vicky glanced at where Jordan lay in the bedof the pickup, buried under tarps and tied to the bumper and cab ofthe truck. How many more snakes slithered inside Nathan’sstronghold?
“Which hunters can you completely trust?”she asked.
“Asher.”
“Is that it?”
He hesitated before answering again. At onetime he would have said Logan too, without question, but Nathandidn’t know what to make of him since Kadence chose Ronan. Did hethink Logan would turn against him and try to sway others againsthim too? No, he didn’t. But was Logan entirely on board for workingwith the vampires? Not at all.
“There are others I trust, others whowouldn’t turn against me, but there’s only a few Icompletelytrust.”
“Would you have considered Jordantrustworthy?”
“Yes,” he reluctantly admitted. “I neverheard him speak out against the alliance, and with only threehundred hunters residing in our stronghold, it’s impossible not toknow everyone. Jordan and I were never what I’d consider friends,but he was an ally.”
“Did you hunt together?”
“Rarely. Jordan’s twenty years older, and wetend to stick with our age groups while on hunts. We all come uptogether in those groups, train together, and the bonds formedduring that time are important in the field.”
“I see,” Vicky murmured.
When he turned onto a bumpy dirt road, thebranches of the trees nearly kissed the side mirrors until hestopped in front of a massive gate. Climbing out of the truck,Nathan walked over to punch in his code and waited for the gates toswing open. He returned to the pickup, drove into the stronghold,and parked in front of the brick house.
“What do you plan to do with Jordan?” Vickyinquired.
“Learn everything I can from him.”
Pulling the emergency brake up, he slid hisphone from his pocket and punched in the number he had memorized.He waited as Kadence’s phone started ringing. He’d consideredcalling Ronan instead, but Kadence knew the location of thestronghold and would have to be woken no matter what to come here;she’d be annoyed when she learned he called Ronan instead ofher.
“Hello?” she asked groggily, not recognizingthe number of his newest burner phone.
“Hey, Kadence,” he greeted.
She gasped, and he pictured her boltingupright as she realized it was three in the morning. “Are youokay?”
