Page 99 of The Stolen Princess
“Believe you!” Myka shouted. “Why would I ever believe anything you say?”
Drake grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him. “When I first kidnapped you, I wasn’t sure of our relationship. You said you hated me—”
“I do hate you!” she yelled in his face, something that he probably deserved.
“Grady had this stupid idea that I should use our relationship to try to get you to trust me, open up to me.”
“I’ll never trust you!” She pushed his hands off her shoulders.
Drake combed his fingers through his hair. “There’s something else I need to tell you.” He hadn’t wanted to tell her that her father had died like this, but he didn’t have any other choice. He was sick of all of the lies.
She folded her arms across her chest. “Oh, I can’t wait to hear this,” she sneered.
Drake sucked in a breath. “There was another letter from Tolsten House. One from Commander Stoddard. It came with your father’s letter.”
Myka held still, listening.
His eyes softened. “Your father is dead, Myka.”
Her shoulders curled in. “When?” Her voice wavered as a single tear trickled down her face. “When did he die?”
“A couple of days ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“The other operatives would not let me.”
She let out a harsh laugh as another tear fell. “Right.”
“Myka, Stoddard said that your father told you where the weapons were before we kidnapped you.”
She shook her head. “That’s a lie.”
“I know! I thought so too but—”
“But what?” She glared at him.
“But...” Drake tilted his head. His explanations sounded so bad when they came out of his mouth. “But the other men came up with this stupid plan that I should try to get you to tell me the location by pretending to like you.”
“How lucky for you! The great Drake Vestry gets to lead another woman on just for fun!”
“No.” He shook his head. “I didn’t want to do that to you. You mean too much to me.” He wanted to pull her into him, hug her tightly and kiss her until she understood how much he cared about her.
Myka’s eyes bore into him. “Imean too much to you or the bag ofpine nutsdoes?”
“You.”
She laughed as she began pacing around the room. “Yeah, right.”
Drake followed after her. “I was trying to protect you.”
“You’re such agoodguy,” she mocked.
Right now, Drake felt like anythingbuta good guy.
“So this is how you do it?” she said, turning over her shoulder.
“Do what?” Drake’s brows folded in.
