61
IVAN
We’re still lying in bed a few minutes later when my door bursts open and my sister comes barreling in.
“Where in the hell have you been all day? I’ve been calling and—” She careens to a halt in the middle of the room. Her mouth curves into a dizzying smile. “Oh,” is all she manages. “Oh.”
Cora scrambles to pull the covers over herself. I reach down and grab the comforter, throwing it over her body as I glare at my sister. “Do you fucking mind?”
She crosses her arms and grins. “Not at all.”
The bubble pops, just like that. The cone of silence that has been around my room for most of the last twenty-four hours evaporates. As quickly as it disappeared, all the noise of my life comes racing back in.
I need my phone.
Yasha has probably texted me.
My father will want an update. If I don’t assure him I’m tracking down the people responsible for this, all my plans are for nothing.
And Anya…
My sister is thrilled right now. Which is exactly why she is the last person I wanted to see me like this. As if her delusional hopes weren’t already misplaced, her matchmaking will be insufferable now.
I throw a pillow at her. “Get the fuck out, Anya.”
“You two are really taking this charade seriously,” she teases. “I don’t think you need to pretend even in the bedroom. Unless…you aren’t pretending.”
Cora pulls her knees to her chest and mumbles, “it’s just practice.”
It’s not believable. We dropped any pretense about what this was and what we were doing hours ago. But still, hearing the words…
The fantasy fades.
I didn’t even realize I’d been creating one. But with Cora’s body warming the sheets next to me, my mind began to spin a tale.
A world where she and I could be together. Where assassins weren’t after her every time we left the house. Where my father kept his mouth shut and his nose in his own goddamn business.
A reality where I could wake up next to this woman and fall asleep next to her and I didn’t have to worry about her being ripped out of my grasping fingers in every minute in between.
This could never be my life. It will never be my life.
It’s better to accept that now and focus on what truly matters.
“If you need something, spit it out,” I growl at my sister. “I’d like to put my clothes on.”
Anya wrinkles her nose and shoots her gaze up towards the ceiling. “Neither of you were answering your phones. I’ve been texting you all day.”
“Oh, shit!” Cora pats the bed as if her phone might be hiding under the covers somewhere. “I completely forgot about—”
“About the world beyond that bed, apparently,” Anya mumbles.
Cora flushes. I shift forward to move between her and my sister. “You could have texted Yasha.”
“I did!” she argues. “He told me you were both busy.”
“And yet…” I gesture to her with both arms. “Here you are.”
“Yeah, but only because I have a surprise and it’s timely. I didn’t have time to wait for you to come crawling out of your room whenever it pleased you.”
“I loathe surprises.”
“Which is why it isn’t for you,” Anya says smugly. She leans around me to grin at Cora. “It’s for her.”
“Me?” Cora asks.
“Yep. Unless there’s another woman hiding in that bed somewhere…?”
“If there was, would you leave?” I growl.
She rolls her eyes. “Are you feeling up to it, Cora? I ask, but given what you’ve obviously been doing…” Anya circles a finger around the two of us and the bed, forming a heart shape in the air. “…I’m guessing you’re feeling a lot better than when I left yesterday.”
“Anya…” I warn.
She holds up her hands in silent surrender. “I’ve planned a little night out for me, Cora, and—”
“No.” The word is out of me almost before I can comprehend what Anya is saying. “Cora has left the house twice in the last week and been attacked both times. She isn’t going anywhere.”
Anya’s brows arch nearly to her hairline. “Okaaay. Or we could let me finish what I was going to say before jumping to rash conclusions.”
Cora lays a hand on my shoulder and slides closer to me. Her bare thigh brushes against my hip and my entire body tightens.
I don’t want her leaving this house, but it is painfully clear she has to leave this bed. One of us has to, anyway. All this time with Cora has my head spinning. I need to get back on solid ground immediately.
“I’m not sure I’m up for going out again so soon,” Cora says carefully.
Anya watches me with something like concern in her eyes before she shifts her attention back to Cora. “I completely understand that, but I think you both should hear me out. I’ve taken precautions.”
“I took precautions,” I remind her harshly. “It wasn’t enough.”
Cora’s hand slides from my shoulder to my elbow and squeezes. A silent comfort. An attempt to ease the storm inside of me.
She has no clue she’s only making it worse.
I shift away from her, leaning back against the headboard. She pulls her hand back into her lap.
“Okay,” Anya says, ignoring my protests. “So I set it up at The Coop.”
“The Coop?” I snort. “Abso-fucking-lutely not. That place is massive and—”
“And closed for a private event tonight.” Anya bats her lashes at me rather aggressively. “My private event. But Rooster said he’d double security as a personal favor to our family.”
It’s Cora’s turn to snort. “You guys know someone named Rooster?”
“He’s a really nice guy,” Anya reassures her. “Totally trustworthy. He’s been a friend of ours for years and he’s doing me a huge favor by closing the place down tonight for the event.”
“What kind of event?” Cora asks.
Anya hesitates for only a second and then sags with a groan. “I wanted it to be a surprise, but it’s obvious that is not going to fly.”
“It won’t fly no matter what you tell us.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “I told you I’ve taken precautions. Yasha said he could figure out security in addition to what Rooster has planned. That place is going to be covered, and I won’t take my eyes off of her all night.”
Cora raises her hand. “Hey, hi, hello. Still no clue what you’re talking about over here.”
“Oh, right. Sorry. I’m planning a…” Anya slaps her own thighs in a sloppy drum roll. “Bachelorette party!”
The silence is weighted, expectant. Anya was clearly anticipating more of an enthused response from us.
“Come on!” she urges. “It will be fun. We’ll get ready at my house, have dinner, and then go straight to the club—which will be surrounded by security. Only family and friends allowed inside. It will be perfectly safe.”
Cora sighs. “But we aren’t even getting married.”
“Right, but people are supposed to think that you are.” Anya snaps her fingers. “We’re maintaining a ruse here, leading people astray. Keep up.”
“Who would I even invite? I don’t have any friends here.”
Anya jerks back like she was physically slapped. “First of all, how dare you.”
“I didn’t mean you!” Cora insists in horror.
Anya waves her away, already smiling. “Forgiven, but not forgotten. Second of all, I’m inviting Francia and Jorden. Those gals need to get out of the house, too. They haven’t been nearly as…occupied…as you have been.”
“They also haven’t had a close brush with murder,” I remind her. “Cora hasn’t been on some vacation. If they’re complaining, then they’re ungrateful.”
“I haven’t spoken to either of them in a while,” Cora says softly. “I…forgot about them, honestly. God, I’m a shitty friend.”
“You’ve been preoccupied,” I growl.
“And now, you’re not preoccupied,” Anya bursts in. “You have nothing but time, and I think we should make the most of your continued survival and celebrate a little bit.”
Cora is chewing on her lower lip. I know she’s only mulling it over because she feels bad about ditching Francia and Jorden. And she’s probably worried about not considering Anya a friend, even though my sister is made of much tougher stuff than that. Still, Cora would literally throw herself on a sword for the people in her life.
It’s an admirable quality—even if it makes me want to encircle her in plastic wrap and shove her in a padded room.
She leans in close to me. My body presses back into her on sheer instinct. “Will you come with me?” she whispers.
Before I can even open my mouth, Anya chimes in. “Nuh-uh. No soon-to-be-but-not-really husbands allowed. It’s a bachelorette party. There will be debauchery he should not see. Penis-shaped gummies and such.”
“I’ve seen worse,” I drawl.
Anya sighs. “But how is Cora supposed to flirt with guys and dance with strippers and get free drinks if you’re too busy throwing her over your shoulder like a caveman?”
“No cavemen and no debauchery.” Cora jabs a warning finger in my sister’s direction. “If an unclothed man comes anywhere near me, I’ll punch him in the balls. I mean it.”
“No strippers? Really?” Anya pouts. “Lame.”
There’s a rather large part of me that wants to shove my sister out of the room, lock the door, and stay in here with Cora for the rest of forever. Life would be a lot simpler if nothing beyond this mattered.
But too much shit matters for me to do that. I can’t be distracted, but the longer we spend in here, the more at risk I am of losing focus in a way I may never be able to gain back.
It’s long past time to cut the cord.