The Love of Money II

Together, the two of us slinked away from the cabin. As soon as I was sure we weren’t being stalked, we picked up the pace and alternated between a light jog and a brisk walk.

Despite the lack of a marked path, Elena seemed relatively sure of which way to go, which brought me a little comfort. The fog remained on the ground, and lamps hung just close enough to keep the darkness from being too oppressive. Everything had been situated in a way that almost felt calculated to be as theatrical as possible.

We didn’t run across anyone, but there was plenty of evidence of activity. I heard the distant snap of a gunshot. There was the faint scream of a man that ended abruptly.

After we dropped out of our second jog and into a walk, Elena began speaking in a more regular tone, her voice tight with emotion. “I do not understand why father is bringing me here.”

“Your dad probably didn’t know this would happen,” I said, keeping my eyes peeled. “Didn’t he protest when they took you away?”

Elena gave me a sorrowful look. “They asked us to come with them if we had the ... red. They did not say why. I thought we won a prize.”

The jury was still out on whether Juan was a good guy, but bringing your own kids to a party like this without knowing the details didn’t bode well.

“Jesus ... fuck. I’m sorry, Elena.”

Of course, even though I’d been backed into a corner, I’d brought Natalie and Erin. Was I much better?

Then there was Sachiko. Did Astrid give a fuck about what happened to the daughter of such a powerful man? Was she concerned at all about what this might do to their relationship? Maybe not. After all, it was Sachiko’s brother who had nearly gotten Astrid killed.

But what about Lara? Clearly, she and Astrid were close. While giving Astrid the silent treatment, I was getting photos from her nearly every day, and many of them featured Lara.

And Lara seemed fond of Astrid.

It was difficult to believe that she hadn’t known what was coming. Did Astrid not care what happened to Lara?

“I didn’t know about it either,” I continued. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have brought my girlfriend. I’m sure your mom and dad are worried sick, looking for you.”

She gave me a weak smile, but didn’t respond, and we carried on in silence.

Eventually, we found a trail again, similar to the one I’d been heading down before Elena’s scream drew my attention. I couldn’t be sure, but if I had to guess, it was the same path, only further in the direction I’d been headed.

A horn blared in the distance—and then sounded again.

Time was marching on.

“How much further?” I asked Elena.

“Not longer,” she said.

I was starting to get uncomfortable. The second signal had sounded, and I felt no closer to figuring out where Natalie and Erin were. Besides knowing where Natalie started the game—which was a location she wouldn’t be now—the only other clue I had was Astrid’s hint about the glass dome ... and I wasn’t sure I could even trust it.

And I had no way of even knowing if they’d been caught.

As if that wasn’t enough to send my anxiety soaring, I hadn’t seen another hunter or hunted since we left the shack. Realistically, it probably meant that we were spreading out across the island as the minutes went by. But the closer to the end of the game, the fewer of us there would be to run into.

And it stood to reason that the fewer hunters on the field, the less hunted out here, which increased the chances of my girls getting captured.

“Here,” Elena said, stepping into a small clearing about ten feet across. She immediately froze, and then turned away from the sight on the other side of the clearing. A piece of marble wall lay along one edge of the clearing. A blanket was draped over the stone, and a couple lay across it—both naked. The man was on top of the woman, slowly fucking her while she loosely held onto his hips, moaning softly.

Her arms were stretched overhead, causing her large breasts to ride high on her chest while also falling to the sides the way only natural ones did. Her dark skin shimmered with moisture and subtle glitter. Her massive mane of tight curls cascaded down the side of the marble like the towel they fucked on.

The way he was positioned on top of her, slowly pumping a porn-star-sized cock in and out of her, suggested that it was all for our benefit. No one fucked like that unless it was for show.

My preoccupation with finding Natalie and Erin, paired with the distraction of the show, almost made me miss the fact that another hunter was leaning against a nearby tree, watching them. He was wearing a full Roman Centurion’s garb and held his gun out to the side like a spear at rest. The stock of his gun was on the ground and was gripping the barrel, slightly pointing away from him.

As soon as Elena spoke, the man looked over his shoulder at us.

It was Kyle Kilgore.

His dark eyes appraised both of us, and a slow curl lifted one corner of his lips, somehow managing to appear disarming and formidable at the same time.

“She was here,” Elena said, turning away from the explicit scene and blushing so heavily that I could see it in the low lantern light. “With me and four more.”

Ignoring Kyle and the lovers, I scanned the ground, looking for something... anything that could be a clue. “And you guys didn’t leave together? Did she leave with anyone else?”

Elena shook her head. “I left. Fast. I did not see.”

Yeah ... I wasn’t much of a tracker, but even I could see, through the layer of obscuring fog, that the ground had obviously been disturbed enough to confirm Elena’s tale that this had been a point where several people had been at roughly the same time.

“Looking for something?” Kilgore said, turning and taking a couple of lazy steps toward us. His movements were slow and exaggerated, his body language trying to convey harmlessness.

“Someone,” I said, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“Aren’t we all,” he muttered. His eyes slid to Elena.

I stopped my search to give him all my attention.

“She’s one of us,” I lied, gesturing to the gold ribbon wrapped around his arm. “She snagged it on a tree branch while she was running.”

He tipped his head and gave me a thin little smile. He didn’t buy it.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked as I returned to examining the surroundings, trying to decide what to do next.

“Oh,” he glanced back at the couple fucking as if no one else was there. “She’s hot. I’m thinking about asking Wyn what her deal is.”

I looked up in confusion. “What about the hunt?”

“We’ve got time. I’ll find someone.” His eyes shifted to Elena. “Maybe I already have.”

“I told you—”

“I don’t believe you,” he said, sounding almost bored, his lip curling in disbelief.

He eyed Elena as if he were considering doing something about that disbelief.

I didn’t have fucking time for this.

So I stepped between the two of them, moving into his personal space. The man had a couple of inches on me, his jaw was more squared and classically manly than mine ... his shoulders were broad. He probably had at least twenty to thirty pounds on me, and it certainly wasn’t fat.

So, stepping up to him like that wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.

I didn’t care. The clock was ticking.

“This is Elena. Neither of us knew what tonight would be like, and we don’t want to be here. Both my girlfriends also didn’t sign up for this, and I’m afraid of what’s going to happen if they get tagged by an asshole, of which this party has plenty. We also saw a guy get eaten by wolves. So trust me when I say that I don’t have the time or patience to convince you not to shoot this poor girl and drag her back to the castle to rape her.”

His eyebrows climbed at that. “Goddamn ... you didn’t have to call it—”

“Call it whatever makes you feel better,” I said. “The point is, she’s helping me find my people, and I promised her I’d do what I could to keep people from taking advantage of her. I get it. It’s tempting, but she’s off limits. Go find a different one.”

Neither of us said anything ... just stared each other down. It would have been intense if it hadn’t been undermined by the sound of the two paid actors who were rutting like the mythical beings they were pretending to be.

“Marcus, right?” Kyle finally said.

“Yes.”

“Relax. I won’t touch her,” he said, breaking into a grin. “You should look at getting that oar removed from your ass, though.”

“I like it where it is,” I snapped, stepping away so I could get back to work, hoping against hope that Natalie had left me some kind of sign. She was smart. Surely she would do something to help me find her.