Page 117 of Rapunzel Is Losing It

I didn’t have a gun with me. Even if I did, there was no guarantee Petya’s men wouldn’t put a bullet in my brain milliseconds after I’d shot him. Their loyalty might have just extended to Luka. I was too much of a wildcard.

Shifting my seat back, I closed my eyes as a slow panic crawled through my bones. I needed Cordelia’s brilliant scheming mind to make it out of this alive. But if I called her and told her, chances were she’d shut down again. If I didn’t make it back from Paris, she’d find a way to blame it on herself.I couldn’t keep doing this. I couldn’t keep making her life harder just because mine had been fucked up from the start.

I opened my eyes again to take stock of everyone on the plane.

I’d gone into this deal with my uncle prepared to die for Cordelia. Now I had to figure out how to survive for her.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“Why isyour communications manager calling me of all people? How did she even get my number?” Del stormed into my bedroom, door banging into the dresser behind it. She let out a quiet “Oh.” - probably when she realized that I was hiding under my covers with the curtains shut.

“You’re my emergency contact,” I mumbled, pulling my blanket down just enough to look at her.

“Really? Not Victor?” Del asked as she opened curtains and windows to let in some light and air.

“Well, no. He goes where I go. Usually. So if I was in a car crash, he would have been next to me.” I tried keeping her on the sidelines, but Del was in the loop. She knew where Victor was right now.

“She sounded serious,” Del sighed and knelt down beside my bed.

“Add failure to run charity foundation to my long list of shortcomings.” I wasn’t entirely sure how many meetings I’d missed over the last few days, but I just didn’t have the mental space to deal with all these people and all their emails and all the decisions. Today, I just hadn’t logged in at all. Hadn’t even gotten out of bed after staying up late until I knew Victor’s plane had landed. Not that I would be of much use even if I logged in. No matter what I did, someone always got hurt.

“I’m here to help,” Del plucked a few stray strands from my face, “what do you need right now? Just to make it through the next few hours.”

“I need…” I needed to get out of bed. I needed for the world to stop for a moment and just let me get my bearings. I needed Victor home, happy and healthy. I needed him to be okay. I needed him safe. “I need to talk to someone.”

“I think that’s a great idea. Therapy can be-”

“Have you seen Irina? I have to go.” I struggled against the mountain of blankets as I sat up.

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t you say that Irina needs to lie low?”

“Right. You’re right.” Irina couldn’t take me where I needed to go.

“I’ll take you. Come on.”

“This is where you grew up?”

“Yeah.” My breath lodged in my throat as I got out of the car and let my eyes trail over the house. I hadn’t been back here since I’d moved out, hadn’t even come back when my father was dying. I’d let the lawyers take care of everything afterwards.

When we walked in, the furniture was covered in cloth, the walls were bare, and the rooms just smelled faintly of dust. All the paintings and antiques had gone to museums. The rest, I didn’t really care for.

“It’s huge,” Del whispered into the stillness.

“I hate this place,” I muttered. It was big enough to completely forget there was a girl living in a room somewhere on the third floor. Old enough to forget the many mothers and daughters that had played in the halls.

“Then why do you keep it?”

“This way.” I flipped through my keys while I led her through the house.

It took some force and shoulder strength for the backdoor to spring open and let us outside. The backyard was eerily dead and alive at the same time. The fountain was dry and crumbling, but moss and grass were sprouting through the cracks. The pool house lay dark, and the pool inside empty, but a beehive had formed in the gable. Only a year and nature was reclaiming its space.

“How old is this place?”

“Almost 150 years now,” I replied as I led her around the pool house and down a small pebbled path.