Page 111 of My Dark Horse Prince

“Mirdza?” Danils is wearing his suit, a pair of designer sunglasses, and a half-smile. “Need a ride?”

I might have taken a ride from the devil himself—no. Even in that moment, I’d spit on Martinš before I’d have gotten in his car. But most anyone else? Yep.

The bizarre thing is that there’s no way all the people in the road know who he is, but not a single one of them honks now that he’s gotten out to help me. It takes him thirty seconds to grab all the things that are salvageable from my bags and load them into the back seat of his plush car.

“You have two cars?” I can’t help asking.

“Excuse me?” He opens the passenger door for me.

“I asked whether you have two cars,” I say. “Though it’s a silly question, I guess. Clearly you do.”

“I have four cars,” he says. “It’s a stupid waste, right?”

Not many people in Latvia have cars, and most of the ones that do have old ones. We have the lowest number of cars per thousand people in all of Europe, and the oldest fleet of vehicles, too.

Stupid Danils has four new ones.

Of course he does.

He doesn’t say much on the way to Kristiana’s farm, thankfully. I’m a little surprised he knows the way without my help. “Thanks,” I say when he stops. “I really appreciate it.”

As if he didn’t even hear me, he says, “Your stepdad’s going to make things hard on your mom.”

“What?” My hand was gathering up my bags of groceries, but I freeze.

“He called to tell me that she filed for divorce—your doing, I suppose—and he’s livid.”

That’s no shock. “I don’t care how much he—”

“I can convince him to let her go,” Danils says.

Hope springs up inside of me. I hate how much I want that for my mother. Even so, I can’t quite bring myself to beg for his help.

“I have a confession,” he says. “I was actually driving over here to find you, which is why I knew where you were living. I looked it up.”

“You. . .why?”

“Your stepdad called me about the divorce, but he happened to mention that you broke up with your fiancé.” He meets my eyes, and his are hopeful. “That guy.” His hands tighten on the steering wheel and his gaze shifts toward it. “I hated him, but he was right about one thing.” He still isn’t meeting my eyes. “I don’t think I regret anything in my life as much as losing you.”

“Danils, that was a million years ago,” I say. “We were kids.”

“I’ve regretted it all the same,” he says. “And after that loser hurt you, I brought him into my organization so I could make sure he never did anything but fail.”

What? He did. . . “Martinš works for you because you wanted to punish him?”

“I didn’t realize until recently that hurting him might also be hurting you. . .because of your mom.”

I have no idea what to say to that.

“Will you give me another chance?” he asks. “Now that you’re not dating that other guy.” His hands tighten again and he grits his teeth.

“Danils, I—”

“Can you just think about it?” He finally turns to look at me again. “Just one date?” He sighs. “I wanted to say that you had to let me take you out if you wanted my help, but that feels like the wrong move. I’ll just say this. I’ve left you a gift at your barn. I tried to get Blanka back for you, but Brigita likes her more than I knew. Or she’s angrier with me. Either way, she wouldn’t budge.”

What’s he talking about?

“And I’ll deal with Martinš. He’ll let your mother go quickly. I promise.” He sighs. “But will you just consider that sometimes people are wrong, but they can change? Will you just think about letting me take you out again?”

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