Page 1 of Rapunzel Is Losing It

CHAPTER ONE

six years ago

Whatever I had expectedto step into, it hadn’t been a cotton candy glittering Barbie fucking dream house. I’d never seen this much pink in one room, and I’d barely made it past the doorstep. Even the damn ceiling had been painted pink, with a pink glass chandelier dangling above the entryway.

“What agency are you with?” the guy in the wrinkle-free gray suit asked, tapping his finger against a tablet. I should have looked at him to give my eyes a break from the pink onslaught, but the whole place was a train wreck. Not even just the color. But this was a nice house. An old house. And that antique-looking side table had to be even older than the house. Some French general was rolling over in his grave, knowing his deskwas now decked out with a glittering pink vase overflowing with pink ruffled flowers. Tasteless.

“No agency,” I finally answered, dragging my eyes away, “I’m freelancing.”

“I’m sorry but I’ll have to ask you to leave. Everyone who walks through this door has undergone extensive background checks.”

I blinked at the man and his receding hairline, then at the door that was firmly shut behind me. I had walked through without a hitch. No wonder this girl needed to beef up her security.

Before I had to phrase a response, the door behind the man opened. An old guy with a sweater vest under his suit jacket, built like an inflatable-noodle-man, walked out. He was closely followed by a young blonde, clad in a shimmery blouse and a fuckingpinkmini skirt. She was tall, but not spindly like the noodle man. The onlylongthings about her were her hair and her legs.

Cordelia Montgomery.

Better at hiding in plain sight than any spy, and exactly the woman I had to talk to. “Thank you, we’ll call you when we’ve made a decision,” she told the noodle man, all the warmth of a rose-colored glacier in her voice. As the dismissed guy shuffled past me, Cordelia’s cool blue eyes landed on me. She didn’t say anything yet, her gaze traveling up and down my body. I was used to being assessed. People usually tried to kick the shit out of me afterwards though. Cordelia just shook her head.

“I’m Victor. I’m here to interview for the-”

“Sorry to have wasted your time, Victor,” she cut me off, “but you’re not getting this job.”

“Has the position already been filled?” I asked, raising my brows at the noodle man exiting the pink nightmare house. If he was anyone’s security detail, they were lucky to still be alive.

“No, you’re just not the right fit.”

I couldn’t leave. Not getting this job wasn’t an option unless I wanted to die, either by my uncle’s hands or the freezing cold. This was one of the few places in Boston where neither could slip through the cracks. “With all due respect, Miss Montgomery-”

She grimaced. “Cordelia.”

“Miss Cordelia, I deserve a chance.”

She sighed and gestured for me to follow her into the room. It was an office space with even more shades of pink. At least the monotone color was somewhat broken up by the piles upon piles of paper on her desk. Maybe she should hire a housekeeper instead of a bodyguard, just to get that mess sorted.

I took the seat across the desk from her. The man with the iPad stood in the door, his stare heavy on the back of my neck. I could glean his reflection in the window behind Cordelia, and made sure to keep one eye on him, while I waited for her to speak.

“I was very specific in what I was looking for and you don’t fit the bill. You’re too young to forfeit your life.”

“Forfeit my life? Do you expect a lot of bullets to come flying your way? If so, I’m probably faster to jump in front of you than Mr. Rogers out there.”

“No, not like that.” She ran her hands through her long hair, twirling the ends around her pinky. “This is an around-the-clock kind of position. You’d spend 70% of your time glued to my side.”

“I don’t need a lot of sleep.”

“I don’t leave my house.”

“Do I get my own room?”

“Yes, but-”

“I can start right now.”

“No.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Victor, you’re too young. You’ll want to take nights off, meet friends, go on dates. You probably want to start a family at some point. I can’t build a trusting relationship with you, only for you to up and leave twelve months from now because this job is too much.”

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