Page 98 of The Stolen Princess
“This is about more than just the bet now. You can have the pine nuts. I don’t even care anymore. We have to figure out what to do next, and the information she’s sitting on is key to that.”
Drake nodded. “I know. Her admitting that she knows where the weapons are is integral to the entire mission. But the bet isn’t over yet. Don’t start eating your pine nuts, because she’s close.”
Pine nuts?
She pushed off of the wood. She didn’t want to listen to anymore. She’d heard enough.
She was a bet.
A bet!
Drake was using her to gain information about the weapons.
Air escaped her chest in one big whoosh.
She was such an idiot. Nothing was real. She shouldn’t have been surprised. Drake had kidnapped her, after all.
She kicked his cot farther away from hers.
“Such a gentleman!” she said in her mocking tone.
She had been stupid enough to fall for the enemy. Classic mistake. Strong-minded women would roll their eyes at her.
Drake
Drake shook his headas he walked toward the shack. Grady and the other men were getting impatient. He’d told them what he thought they wanted to hear, but it was time that Drake start thinking about how he was going to get Myka out of camp safely without the other operatives knowing. She meant too much to him.
He pushed the wood door to the shack open, letting it shut behind him. Even in the soft light of the lantern, Drake could see Myka’s flashing blue eyes.
He paused his steps. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“No!” She bent down and grabbed his basket of things tucked neatly under his cot and began throwing his stuff at him, one item at a time. His pants hit him in the face, then his shirt, then another shirt. When she was down to just a few smaller things, she tipped the basket over, spilling everything out onto the floor.
“What’s going on?” She had been upset about him not sleeping next to her, but he hadn’t thought she would bethisupset.
She chucked the basket at him. “I’m helping you with your stuff.”
“Thanks…I guess.” He started gathering everything up and putting it back into the basket. Meanwhile, crazy Myka was dragging his cot to the door.
“What are you doing?” he said, watching her.
“Moving you out,” she grunted, trying to get the cot through the shack door.
Drake set his basket on the table and went over to her, pulling her arms away from the cot until she stood right in front of him. “Myka, what’s going on?”
“Let go of me!” She struggled against him.
Her chest heaved up and down, and her blue eyes blazed with fury, then the anger in her face melted into something raw and emotional.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
They stared at each other for a long moment as her eyes filled up with tears. “A bet?” her voice cracked. “That’s all I am to you? A wager for a bag of pine nuts?”
Drake’s heart crashed to the floor. She’d heard everything he’d said to Grady. “No.” He shook his head. “I didn’t mean any of that.”
She pulled out of his grasp. “Yeah, I know. You didn’t mean anything you said, and I’m the fool who believed you.”
“No.” He rubbed his hands over his face, trying to find the words. “At first it was a bet”— her eyes hardened—“but not anymore. You have to believe me.”
