Hidden Paths: Vampire Revenge

Chapter Twenty

Trey was fine. He was fine and dandy dreaming up ways to murder Max in his sleep. He had promised Isabella he wouldn't try anything and it was driving him nuts. If it was one thing that Max ever taught him was to hold onto anger and to use it in your favor. And that was just what he was planning on doing.

Trey played along being the pleasant obedient guy he always was around Max. He looked at the vineyards in Napa where Max was hoping to expand the business. Their business.

Trey regretted it now. He regretted ever getting involved in anything where Max was concerned. But he had allowed it to happen as he always did.

Max had always had his eye on Trey's mother's vineyard. There was no hiding that. And Trey didn't ever mind as Trey always had intention of taking it from Tony as it was rightfully his. His grandfather had promised it to him when he was of age. His grandfather had even showed Trey where he wrote it down and told him in no uncertain terms that the vineyard would someday be his.

Trey knew it was a mistake allowing Isabella to go find the proof. But her entire life, since she found out about Antonio being her grandfather, had an obsession about wanting to meet Antonio and to get to know him. Trey had thought, when he allowed her to do it, that she would find out what kind of man Antonio really was and that would be the end of it.

Oh, Max had fought them on it. He didn't want Isabella anywhere near Antonio as he had never allowed Trey to be near him either. But he relented as Isabella and Trey told him their plan of getting the will and taking over his mother's vineyard.

Max had thrown in the quest for Isabella to find a knife that he'd given Antonio when they were friends. It wasn't the value of the thing, which was quite substantial these days, but it was the point of it. No pun intended.

Had Trey known what Max had done and what he was planning to do, he would never have allowed Isabella to be a part of it. Now, she was up to her neck in it and there was nothing he could do about it. For now. Until he could figure out what to do. Max was too powerful for Trey to take on his own. Max had him at his back and Trey wasn't stupid. He just needed a plan that they wouldn't see coming.

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"Emily, can I talk to you?" Sam asked her when she finally found her alone.

"Sure. What's up?"

"You're Aurora, aren't you?" Sam asked, studying her. Emily looked at Sam thoughtfully. "It's okay. I wouldn't tell my parents. They wouldn't understand. I'm not sure I would either, but I kind of had the feeling that you were."

"What would you gain if I said yes?" Emily asked suspiciously.

"I wouldn't gain anything! I just would like to know. To understand."

"What would you accomplish by understanding?"

"I don't know," Sam threw her hands up in frustration. "Maybe why my brother is the way he is."

"Your brother is the way he is because he was given a gift. It wasn't by my doing."

"Who's then?"

Emily smiled. "No one knows for sure. Some say God. Some say mother nature. Some say the devil. What do you think?"

"I don't know. I was hoping you knew."

"I don't have the answers for everything. Believe me, I wish I did."

"He looks happy now. It's nice that he has friends that understand him."

"I can't say I understand Jake all the time. But I know what he goes through. The fearful looks from people, always being treated differently."