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Deception uncovered

Still, my funds would not last forever and there was no way to access my bank accounts. I hadn't even taken my cards with me. Any transaction would indicate exactly where I was, and that was not a risk I was willing to take.

A whisper of guilt washed over me at the thought of home. My father would be apoplectically angry. My brothers would probably be angry, and they would be very amused. But Mery , my poor little sister, feared he would hurt her. What if she met the same fate? What had William decided any Kensington sister would do? I shook the thought out of my head. That thought pattern would bring nothing but pain. While I was too young for William , Mery was almost five years younger than me. Dad would not offer her to him. The age difference would be repugnant. Besides, the consequences of losing me would surely end any truce between them. Another pang of guilt came over me. What if he took it out on my family as he had done before? I had already lost one mother and one brother to William . I didn't want to lose anyone else.

No.

I chided myself for letting guilt rule me again. It wasn't my fault. Nothing was. A life of misery and fear was not something I deserved for being born a woman in a man's world. I deserved happiness. I deserved love.

Yet the guilt kept coming in great waves that made the bubbly wine taste bitter on my tongue. I had fucked Edward . If they had let him get away, I would be furious. I hoped he hadn't been killed or maimed by my escape.

A flutter of excitement ran through me as I remembered his tattooed arms close to my face as his hands twisted in my hair. I wished I had taken him up on his offer to have him touch me. The way he had looked at me as I sucked him off had made me giddy. I had never enjoyed sucking a man off as much as I had with him. Was it just the excitement of my ruse? Was it the attraction I had long felt for him? Or was it simply because he was not at all the kind of man my father would allow me to date?

Whatever it was, I was sad that I couldn't go through with it. A night tangled in the sheets with him would have been a delight, I was sure of it. A tingle made my thighs clench. Maybe I just needed to find a one-night stand here to erase Edward from my mind. If all went well, I hoped I'd never see him again.

Seeing him would mean I'd been caught.

And going back wasn't an option.

Rolling onto my stomach, I let the warmth wash over my back. Soon it would be time to move on. I couldn't stay in one place for long. At least until the funds ran out. Then I would have to use my forged visa and look for work. I had never had a job. I had never needed one. My life was a succession of events, parties, shopping and a lot of boredom. I had been very privileged, but my life had been a gilded cage. A little bird sitting there waiting for the day to come when I would be useful to Dad and marry the second most useful owner. The lifestyle wasn't worth it. Not to me, at least.

I would cling to my freedom with sharp claws.

Another bus, another town.

I looked out the window as the night sky replaced the evening sun. Soon I would have to find a hotel. The bus slowed and stopped.

"Your stop," the driver said in broken English.

Thank you. I picked up my backpack and pulled up my hood. It was very cold." Is there a hotel here?"

"Tavern. At the top of the hill."

I gave him a few euros in my hand before getting off the bus and looking around. The town was pretty, even in the dark. The streets were still warm under my shoes, the large flat stones warmed by the heat of the day. The red roofs glowed in the moonlight over the mud-colored stone buildings, all of unique construction. It was breathtaking. As was the hill, up which my thighs burned as I climbed. The whole town had been built into the side of a hill, and I wasn't used to climbing hills like that.

When I had almost reached the top, my calves protested against another step and my lungs gulped air as if it were scarce. At last I could see the tavern peeking over the crest of the hill. Warm light spilled through the windows, with music playing in the night air. It was lovely. I hoped there was a spare room.

My breath caught when I finally reached the flat part of the hilltop and I smiled at the sight of all the greenery surrounding the outside of the stone walled inn. I couldn't wait to lie down on the bed.

A hand covered my mouth as I was pulled back and I stifled a scream. The hard stones cut my hands and knees as I fell to the ground. Before I could realize what was happening, a series of kicks hit me in the side, shaking my already agitated breathing. I struggled to my knees as the dirty, beer-scented hand bruised my lips. The man was much stronger than me, and the only weapon I had that wasn't proving ineffective was my teeth. I bit down hard on his hand, grinding my teeth until the salty taste of blood filled my mouth.

"Bitch," my assailant said as he pushed me to the ground and delivered a series of punches to my face. Tears blurred my vision as pain welled up from every part of me. More salty blood in my mouth, this time mine. I screamed again as he stood up and delivered more searing kicks to my side, stomach and back.

Through bleary eyes, I saw him get up and grab my bag.

"No," I tried to scream, but the words were barely a whisper as the pain radiated through me. Everything I had in the world was in that bag. Everything.

It spat out of me and a wet globule ran down my chest as I struggled to get up. I couldn't. It hurt too much.

Footsteps sounded as he stepped out of the alley he had thrown me into. Blackness came over me as I surrendered to the pain, welcoming the darkness to block it all out.

EDWARD

Seven days.

It had been seven whole days since Amelia fucked me and I still hadn't tracked her down.

How hard could it be to find a spoiled mob princess? Evidently, much harder than I had originally expected.

She couldn't have just disappeared, but I ran into one dead end after another.

We searched his friends' houses from top to bottom, whether they were willing to help or not. Luca , my hacker friend and technical genius, had been studying hundreds of hours of CCTV footage. We had found enough to know that he had taken a bus near the mansion and was wearing dark, baggy clothes and a baseball cap. It was proving to be a real nightmare tracing his route to find out where he had disappeared to. If he had used the main stations, it would have been much easier, but he must have used smaller bus stops in rural areas that either lacked security cameras or didn't have them. It was a fucking nightmare.

He was in his bedroom, looking at the carnage he had caused in that normally tidy place. He'd trashed the bed, in case he'd hidden something inside the mattress. All the cupboards and drawers were jumbled and their contents had been scattered across the floor in uneven piles. Her passport and purse were there, but her phone had not yet been located. So either she was still in the country, or she was using false documents. Luca had checked the airport security footage, but hadn't found anything.

I ran a hand through my hair and groaned. Kyle's veins were popping more with each passing day, and William was losing his already thin patience.

"Where the fuck was he?"

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