Page 20 of Rapunzel Is Losing It

“You put on weight,” she mused, patting my sides. It wasn’t meant as an insult. My body had always been up for discussion in this house.

“You carry a gun,” I replied.

“Weird how things change, huh?”

“Not always for the better it seems.”

She shrugged and pulled away from me to look over the paperwork on the table. “So you really are back?”

“Weird how things stay the same, huh?”

Luka slid some of the papers out of reach from Irina. “If you two are quite done with your reunion…”

“I’m not done actually.” Irina rolled her eyes and angled herself between Luka and me, demonstratively looking only at me.

“So, you’re not in school. What are you doing these days?” I asked, willing to see how much Luka would let us push him around.

“Oh, you know…”

“Irina, we have a lot of stuff to get through today,” he grumbled.

“Luka chill the fuck out,” she hissed over her shoulder.

“I don’t know, actually,” I said, completely ignoring Luka.

“What are we all doing? We work for the family.”

The fact that she didn’t specify what exactly she was doing for her father told me more than if she had made up some innocent busywork. With Luka off the wheel, Petya was drawing his kids into his inner circle.

“Not all of us,” I replied in a dry tone, as if I wasn’t fishing for information, “I heard Nat was getting married.”

Irina rolled her eyes at me. “Not for love, for the family.”

For the family.Three words that cracked through me like a lightning bolt. Fuck composure. Fuck playing things cool. I shot a dark look at Luka, who didn’t meet my eyes. He suddenly seemed very interested in stacking the paperwork into one neat pile.

“Are you serious?" I asked.

“You don’t get to come back and judge us.” His voice was so calm and collected, my hands automatically balled to fists by my sides. If Irina hadn’t stood between us, he would have caught one in the face.

“I can’t believe you’re letting him do this to her.” An arranged fucking marriage. Petya had joked about it a couple of times, and we’d always brushed it off. It was one thing to train us to perform like circus animals, but now he was marrying off his daughter like some fucking prize mare. “She’s your sister.”

“Go touch grass, Victor. I didn’tlethim do anything. He’s controlling all of us. You included.”

Irina turned slightly, just enough to be out of range if fists did start flying.

I stayed still.

“Do you really think I could’ve stopped him?” Luka challenged with his chin tilted high. “Nat is pretty, but she has two left hands and dropped out of school before she could learn to code as much as a website. This is as good as it was ever going to get for her. I made sure the guy’s not triple her age. I made sure she’s not marrying a fucking sadist.”

“Shit,” I gritted out through clenched teeth.

“He’s okay,” Irina whispered. She wrapped her arms around her middle and dropped back against the table, deflating. “He’s in politics, but too conservative to be openly gay. Nat will have a nice house, get the dog she always wanted, and for what it’s worth, he’s never going to lay a hand on her.”

“It’s the best I could do for her,” Luka added.

I should be staying out of this. I only came here to do exactly as I was told, for however long they needed me. I only had to follow orders to keep Cordelia safe. I couldn’t get mixed up in any of their family issues, even if the idea of Nat marrying a dirty politician felt like a bare-knuckle punch to my spine.

Luka, Irina and Natalia all had a future they could fight for, and they all acted like their lives were already forfeit. Maybe they were. Wasn’t I the textbook example of being unable to outrun this family? Worse, not only did I come back, I’d come back with something to lose. It wasn’t just my life on the line if I tried to run this time.

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