Hupotasso (Vampire Bachelor Games #2)

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61

I turn to Yin, wide-eyed with surprise.

The so-called ‘woodland hut’ that she has in the mountains is a beautiful, well-appointed and spacious retreat situated on the top of a mountain surrounded by hundreds of acres of forest.

“What do you think?” She smiles as she walks to the back of the jeep, our latest and last car, and opens the boot.

“I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything less from someone so rich,” I shake my head. “But I’d pictured a little hillbilly one-bedroom shack, and pigs. I would have been equally as happy in just that, now that I’m away from the castle and Viper.”

“I told you I’ve had years to prepare my safe houses,” she laughs as I move to follow her to help carry our bags.

She takes both bags and refuses to give me one.

“No way, lady. You’re, as Tamara would have said, ‘up the duff’ — no heavy lifting for you.”

“Tamara,” I sigh, “I think both of us have a technicolour vernacular thanks to that crazy Aussie.”

“No family for you to visit was sad, though,” Yin says as we reach the front door. “I waited for something, anything when I was watching your grand tour.”

“Yeah, well, like she said when we were in The Games, after her father died her mother died of a broken heart. She was an only child and didn’t know of any other relatives. I asked Showman, the wanker, but he said they hadn’t found anyone, not even friends, who could, or would, appear on the show.”

“It must have been tough for you talking to all the parents,” she murmurs as we enter the huge living area and she dumps our bags.

“You have no idea,” I sigh, “all those bereaved moms and dads. It just makes me more determined to see an end to those disgusting games.”

“And my father?” She spins and cocks her head to the side. “What did he have to say for himself off-camera?”

“You know him well,” I snort. “He asked me if I knew where you were.”

“Prick,” she growls.

“Don’t worry, I told him I’d burn in Hell before I told a pig like him a single thing. Now that I know how truly evil he is I wish I’d punched him in the balls for you too.”

“I’d have paid to see that,” she laughs.

“Can you imagine Showman’s apoplectic fit if I’d done something like that?” I giggle. “Or Caroline’s? Christ, she might have actually fanged me.”

“I doubt she would have lasted long if she’d disciplined you,” Yin murmurs, “your vampire husband seems to have cornered the market on that.”

I blush at her reference to Falcon spanking me.

“You know the Japanese Samurai have an answer for monsters like him,” she smiles, trying to lighten the mood. “We believe the only solution for violent people are good people more skilled in violence. You just happen to have one of those on your side. Believe me, Falcon will regret beating you.”

“I know he will,” I mutter, “but what he did to me was nothing compared to what I suffered at the hands of his brother. Falcon never raped me, he only ever spanked me if I pushed him too far. He never tortured me. Only one vampire did that.”

“And we still don’t know why,” Yin says now as she picks up my bag and leads me to my bedroom on the first floor, “but we need to figure this out if we’re to defeat him — we’re smart, I know we’ll find the solution. We just need to think it through and unravel the knot one strand at a time.”

I nod and survey the room she’s led me to.

“Oh, Yin, it’s beautiful. The views across the forest through these huge windows, the open fireplace. I love it.”

“We’ll be safe here,” she nods. “And as you requested, you were blindfolded for the entire trip pretty much, so you don’t know exactly where we are. No one does.”

I nod. I’d asked her to hide the whereabouts of her cabin from me, because if Viper catches me and takes control of my mind again he might make me tell him where I was hiding during my pregnancy. I don’t want that information in my brain. It’s bad enough that I know the mountain region we’re in.

“Have a spa,” Yin says now, coming to stand beside me to look at the view, “then meet me in the lounge. I need to know every single thing you know about vampires, and then some.”