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“I don’t feel bad that you’re in here. And I certainly don’t feel bad for being the one who put you here.”
He straightened to his full height, sliding his arms onto different rungs. He stared at the floor for a long time, looking pissed off. “Look, that’s not the whole story.”
“What’s not the whole story?”
He wouldn’t look at me, eyes still on the floor. “When I made the deal with the Teeth, they said they would only use you as leverage then let you go. But when I arrived, they had changed their plans. They would use you as bait to get your father, but you would be dead before he even arrived. And…they would do things to you in the meantime.” After a pause, he lifted his chin and looked at me again. “They still offered me a ship, but on a different coast. I got you out of there because I wasn’t going to let them do that to you.”
My expression remained hard as I stared, but my heart raced with the speed of a galloping horse. My eyes searched his for sincerity, for a sign of the truth or a lie. “You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth—so I would hope so.”
“If this is the truth, why didn’t you say something before?”
“Because.”
“Because what?”
He stared, rubbing his palms together as he gave a loud sigh.
“You’re so full of it—”
“Because I don’t give a fuck about anyone, and I didn’t want to give a fuck about you.” He stepped back from the bars and moved away, looking at the stone wall he’d rested against when I walked in.
“You would rather me think you’re a heartless asshole?”
“Prefer it, actually.” He continued to stare at the back wall, his broad shoulders strong, his back rising and falling with his frustrated breaths. “It was fucked up that I mislead you and took you, and I understand there will be retribution for that, but I did also bring you back, and that fact is important.” He turned back around and looked at me again, but he didn’t approach the bars. “I only have a few days, at most.”
I couldn’t deny the fact that he didn’t look like himself. It was like he hadn’t eaten in weeks.
He waited for me to speak, his eyes intense, visceral.
“Harlow.” He moved back to the bars, his arms resting on the center bar again. “Let me go.”
“You made my family suffer.”
“I didn’t want to.”
“But you did it—”
“Trust me, I had no choice.”
“How? How did you have no choice?”
“Harlow—”
“If you want me to let you go, no more secrets.” I faced him, arms tight around my waist, feeling the attraction I wished would fade. He looked close to the grave, but he was somehow just as sexy as the first time I saw him. “I mean it.”
He bowed his head for a moment, releasing another heavy sigh. Then he straightened his neck and gave me a cold look. “I came to your land because I needed a special venom from the Teeth, a type of venom that would save a lot of people. They agreed to give it to us—but only if I agreed to kidnap the Princess of Delacroix. You don’t know me that well, so you’ll have to take my word for it when I say kidnapping people is not in my regular job description.”
“Why venom?”
“The specifics of the serum are not pertinent to our situation.”
“I want to know everything—”
“Too bad,” he snapped. “I told you everything that directly affects you. Stop being greedy. I don’t pry into your life and your affairs, even though I’ve wanted to. Now you understand why I was in your lands, what I was doing here, and how it relates to you. Let me go—or let me die.”
Our relationship was based on a lie, a malicious deceit, but for some reason, I believed him. I believed that he wasn’t like the Teeth, that he wished me no harm, and that he did have a heart, even though he tried desperately not to.
