Imperfect Princess (Modern Princess Collection Book 1)

by Sonya Jesus

  I sigh softly and rest my forehead against her stomach. “I’d do anything for you, you know that, right?”

  She lifts my head up and brings a finger to my lips because the door is still open.

  After planting a kiss on her belly button, I make a mental note to look for a new place, one that can’t be so easily accessible.

  “Can I charge my phone a few minutes?” She disrupts my thoughts and runs her fingers through my damp hair, at the back of my head. An irresistible caress that she pulls away from too fast.

  “Whatever you need, babe.” As long as it gives me time to go confront the Ice Queen.

  Of course, Vanessa’s not at her loft, and her posse won’t let me inside to search for the book in her room. I’m expressly forbidden from entering until Vanessa gives the okay. Maybe I should have brought Thorn, since she technically lives there.

  I call Vanessa six times, drive to the Imperial to pick up my suit and Thorn’s dress, and stop in at the saloon. She isn’t there, so I head back to campus and drop in at the theater, where Corbin and some girls gathered with Thorn to get ready.

  She’s smiling, glowing, and it anchors my heart to the pit of my stomach. Guilt about lying works through me as I slip in and out without Thorn noticing me. I send her a message about where to find the dress and a reminder that I’ll be waiting for her in a little while. I don’t want to face her without having the book in my hand. I blew up at her for lying to me yesterday, now I’m doing the same.

  I search for Vanessa everywhere on campus and call again, but unfortunately, three hours later and I still haven’t gotten a hold of her, which makes me think she was in the damn Loft the whole time.

  I get dressed back in my room with Ledger, and when he leaves to go pick up his date, I call Vanessa one more time.

  If she doesn’t pick up, I’ll give up and tell Thorn the truth and face the consequences. Del Rio won’t be happy, but maybe I can bargain with him or tell the DEA he’s alive and get him running from this place.

  I’ve had a lot of time to think about Vanessa and her involvement with criminals, and as easy as it is to believe, something tells me it’s strange for her to suddenly have mob or cartel ties. I had been with her for a while and she loved her father. She loved everything about her family, and she constantly talked about their vacations.

  Hell, I was on some of those vacations with them, and not once did I get the feeling that something was off. But I guess, the world is full of shitty people.

  Vanessa picks up just when I’m about to hang up. “I hear you’re looking for me,” she purrs into the phone. “Miss me already?”

  I cut to the chase, “Where are you, Vanessa? I need to see you.”

  “Sounds deliciously promising … but I can’t. I’m pulling into campus now.”

  I check the clock. It’s about ninety minutes to the ball, but no one shows up on time. “Want to meet me at Jumping Joe’s? We can grab some coffee.”

  “Nope, I have to help set up something at the castle and then get dressed.”

  “I got your gift,” I say to instigate a reaction.

  “Is that why you called? Used up all your passes with the ghost look-alike? Or are you calling because I took your book? You know, the one that doesn’t belong to you?”

  “Who it belongs to is dead,” I test to see what she knows of Thorn and the people after the book.

  “Well, it wasn’t hers either. You’re welcome, by the way.”

  “You’re welcome?” I growl. “It wasn’t yours to take.”

  “Ah, but I know who it belongs to.”

  “To a dead girl… because her foster father gave it to her.”

  “Maybe…” She enjoys toying with me. “Or maybe her father stole it from someone. Someone dangerous.”

  “What are you talking about?” I feign ignorance. “Del Rio isn’t dangerous anymore. He’s dead.”

  “I’m not talking about him. I’m talking about the guy who he was running from.”

  The cartel. But she doesn’t know he’s alive or that Thorn is alive. I lower my tone and infuse it with as much concern as I can. “Vanessa… what are you talking about?”

  “Look, there’s this whole story behind everything. But you having that book is a bad thing. Give me a minute… I got another call.” I hear the engine of her car die down, and she puts me on hold.

  In the meantime, I make my way out of The Lofts. Destination: castle. I practically run the whole way there with the phone to my ear. By the time she comes back on, I’m nearing the entrance of the castle. “Let’s talk after the ball, okay? I got to go.”

  “It’s just a fairy-tale book,” I convince her to stay on the line as I swing around the castle to the almost vacant parking area. There’s a door that leads to a sublevel, where the janitorial staff lounge is and the garden machinery is stored. A flight of steps would take her to a side entrance near the back of the main hall’s staircase.

  I contemplate turning back around, but then I see her getting out of her car.

  “Let’s talk now,” I ask in an attempt to stall her.

  “Later…” She grabs the book from the trunk of her car and heads to the door. “Trust me when I say you don’t want this book.”

  “You’re talking in circles, Vanessa.” I rush through the parking lot toward the door, praying it’s open. “Tell me what’s going on, and why are you going to the castle?”

  “To help set up.”

  “Bullshit,” I huff out. “Since when do you help set up?”

  “Kai!” she growls. “I’ll explain later. I just have to do something important first.”

  “Or explain now and that can wait.”

  “No. For your safety and my family’s, it can’t.”

  “My safety?”

  “Look, I know you don’t think this is true, but I care about you.”

  “I know,” I keep her talking. The door is propped open, so I swing it wide and nearly collide with the janitor. I hold my palms up in the air in apology and jolt inside, to the left.

  “I’m doing this to keep you safe, Kai.”

  “Vanessa.” I bring the phone down to my chest when I see her near the top.

  She turns around on the step. Her face falls flat at the sight of me. “What are you doing here?”

  “I should ask you the same thing.” I point to the book in her hand. “What the hell, Vanessa? You just come into my room and take my things without even an explanation?”

  Nervously, she glances over her shoulder toward the main hall. “Leave. You shouldn’t be here.”

  “No.” I take the steps two at a time until we are face-to-face. My hand curls around the book, and she hugs it tight against her chest. Through clenched teeth, she hisses out, “Get your hands off.”

  “Vanessa, this is my book.”

  One of her hands lurches forward. Catching me off guard, she shoves me back against the railing. “Stay out of this. You have no idea what these people are capable of.”

  “What people, Vanessa?” I regain my footing and look down the steps and up the last two, expecting someone to emerge from nowhere.

  “Stop acting like you care. You said we were erased.”

  “I was an ass,” I confess, knowing that was going to bite me in the ass someday. “Just because I don’t want to be with you, doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.”

  She shakes her head. “Answer one thing: why do you need this book? Because it’s a memory of her?”

  “Yes,” I lie. “You ripped the only other thing I had of her.”

  “I’m sorry.” This time, it’s sincere. “I didn’t want to lose you.” She rubs her hand over her red eyes. And it’s also when I notice her hair is not done. Neither is her makeup, apart from the day-old mascara under eyes. And she’s wearing sneakers and yoga pants.

  Something is wrong. “Are you in trouble?”

  “This book is trouble.” Then she disappears, shutting the door behind her. In the ten seconds it takes me to rea
ch the door, she locks it.

  Shit. I rush down the steps and run around the building. The fabric of my suit rubs against itself, making strange noises. People don’t normally run in Armani. I throw open the doors, and immediately have security stopping me. “Ticket.”

  Vanessa eyes me with pity and then disappears into the Glass Room, book clutched to her chest. “I have to talk to my girlfriend. She just went into the Glass Room.”

  “Bring me your ticket, and you can go after whoever you want, but right now, you aren’t getting in.”

  “I have his ticket.”

  I whirl around to find Thorn, looking like an angel in blue. The light blue halter dress is skintight with a slit up her thigh and only shows the parts of her that are unscarred, as if it had been chosen with that particular mission. Her supple lips are an icy tone of brownish-red, glistening with icy blue. Completely kissable and distracting.

  Corbin hands three tickets over to the security guard, who reluctantly lets us in.

  “You’re early,” I whisper in Thorn’s ear as she brushes by me. I’m worried about who is waiting for Vanessa in the damn Glass Room. Thorn may be in danger here.

  “Ledger stopped by with these and said you had already left.”

  “He gave you one?” I ask Corbin. He fills out his suit a little too much for a theater major, but he can keep her safe until I figure out where Vanessa went.

  “No, he had his own.” Thorn places a hand on my hand, which Corbin notices and doesn’t bother to hide the disdain on his face. “We came early for a tour.”

  “Okay, go ahead.” I nod as I glance toward the Mirror Room. “I’ll see you later.”

  She furrows her brow but agrees. “Where do we start?”

  “How about in the library?” Corbin asks.

  I bob my head and watch as they head left before slipping inside the Glass Room to find a roomful of mirrors, fireplaces, and a painted ceiling, but no Vanessa.

  “Vanessa?” I growl as I check the other room. Aside from some people setting up and the janitors polishing the ground, it’s empty. No one pays me any attention as I slip back out into the Great Hall, unlock the door she had locked before, and head down the stairs we had been arguing on to check if her car is still there.

  It is. I head back to the Mirror Room. “Where the hell did she go?”

  “Who go?” Thorn asks as she comes up behind me, hooked to Corbin’s arm.

  With a sigh, I glare at their linked arms, but Corbin doesn’t get the hint. “Who are you looking for?” he questions me.

  “Vanessa. She was just in the Mirror Room, and then she disappeared.”

  Thorn scowls as she looks up at her friend. The smug look on his face tells me he enjoys riling me, just like I’d enjoy punching his face in. I bet my balls he isn’t gay. Guys don’t hold girls that close and challenge their boyfriends for the hell of it.

  “Is it that urgent?” Thorn asks me, but Corbin stiffens at the mention of Vanessa disappearing.

  “She took a book I need.” Only those who know what book would understand the innuendo.

  “Excuse me,” she graciously unhooks herself from Corbin’s arm, which I will be bringing up later, and pushes me to the side. “The fairy-tale book?” she whisper-growls.

  I nod in response, eyeing Corbin as he studies the ornate gold trimmings of the mirror above the fireplace.

  “How did she get it?” She’s disappointed, but not lashing out. “When did she take it?”

  “She knew where I kept it hidden.”

  “Damn it.” Thorn glances back at Corbin and exhales through her nose. “That’s why you told me to ask Corbin? You lied to me.”

  “I thought I could get it back before you found it.”

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”

  I rock forward on my toes, my stomach rolling in the process. “You’re seriously going to get mad at me for lying when you lied to me for years?”

  She squints her eyes at me and whispers, “I’m not mad at you, Kai. But we don’t need to keep secrets from each other.”

  We also don’t need to lay them all out on the floor in a day. We had time for that, finding the book on the other hand, not so much.

  Inhaling deeply through her nose, she settles her fingers on my hand. “Let’s find her together. She couldn’t have gone far. If someone finds her with that…”

  She means if Del Rio sees Vanessa with the book, we may be having a Blood Ball instead of a Glass Ball. “We will,” I lie to calm her down.

  “I have to get that book where it needs to be. What did she say?”

  “She locked me on the steps, said the book belonged to someone dangerous and she had to give it to them. Then she went into the Glass Room and—”

  Corbin interrupts us. “And disappeared into the tunnels.”

  Both of us look at him, and he shrugs. “Sorry, you weren’t very whispery at the end. What book are you talking about?”

  No time for unsolicited questions either. “What tunnels?”

  “The ones that lead to the church,” Thorn answers for him.

  How does she know about them when I don’t?

  “Corbin told me about them during our tour, but you said people got lost down there.” She rotates toward him, including him in our private conversation.

  “I know my way around,” Corbin answers, planting his feet wide and asserting his presence. “Most of them were sealed up, but the one here still functions. That’s probably where she went.”

  I still don’t like him. “How do you know all this?”

  “Research for his play,” Thorn answers. “Do you know how to open it?”

  He points to the fireplace with a mirror above it. The white and gray marble around the entrance has a gold filigree plate with a lion. “Getting in is easy. Getting out is the problem.”

  Thorn’s fast-paced stride puts her in front of the mantle.

  Corbin steps behind her, too close, instructing her, “Touch the lion’s mouth. There’s a latch that opens up.”

  Without hesitation, Thorn sticks her finger into the golden mouth, but nothing happens. She steps to the side to allow Corbin to try.

  “Have you ever been down there?” I address Corbin, who steps forward and slides the black metal screen back to reveal a passageway.

  He swipes his hand in the air. “Hurry up before someone sees us.”

  Thorn bends down, nearly to the ground, and goes in dark. I grab my cell, turn the light on, and shove it in my front pocket. To get in, I get on my knees and crawl in after her. Corbin hangs behind to shut the door.

  In less than a minute, we hit a normal-sized space. More than normal-sized. At least three of me fit comfortably walking shoulder to shoulder. The light from my phone catches on the aged cobwebs. It doesn’t look like anyone has been here in decades.

  Thorn shakes the dust from her dress and swats at something in her hair while I shine the light on the ground to find cement, coated with about twenty years of dust.

  Corbin pops up to his feet, his light tucked into the front pocket of his suit. “There are five different ways we can go.”

  Great. How the hell do we know where she went?

  “Footprints.” Thorn coughs and covers her mouth. This much dust irritates the throat. “One set, leading to the right.”

  “Where does that take us?” I ask the tour guide, holding Thorn back. “We don’t know what’s on the other end.”

  “To the Church of Perpetual Sorrows,” Corbin says, as he reaches behind him and pulls out a gun.

  Mother fucker.

  16

  Eternity

  Thorn

  “Relax,” says the guy who pulls out the gun and points it at us. “Reach into my back pocket, Penelope.”

  “I don’t think so,” Kai intervenes, getting in between the gun and me, with his hand shoving me behind him. “I knew I didn’t like you. How do you know her name?”

  “She slipped on the second day. Twice. Still Thorn.�
� He grimaces in my direction. “Penny, Party of One.” Corbin tilts his head to the side. “Did you think the DEA would send you here without having eyes on the inside?”

  I step back and realize the gun isn’t pointed at us, but the hall with the footprints. “I’ve been trying to keep an eye on you without blowing my cover.”

  “So you ask her to live with you?” Kai snorts dismissively and keeps his voice low so it didn’t give away our location, much like Corbin does. “See how I don’t buy your story?”

  At ease soldier. I flatten my palm against Kai’s shoulder. “You don’t actually house sit for anyone?”

  “No,” Corbin answers truthfully. “But the DEA wanted to offer you a different alternative, in case things didn’t go according to plan.”

  “See, I knew the whole gay thing was off!” Kai earns himself a smack to the back with his comment.

  “That doesn’t matter.” I get closer so we can talk without having to whisper-shout at each other. “Why didn’t you all tell me?”

  “I’m FBI. We’re investigating a drug ring that passes through here, so when the DEA reached out to me about the RICO case and you, I agreed to help.”

  Kai puts a hand on my stomach, keeping me back. “I don’t believe you.”

  “My badge is in my pocket,” Corbin adds, a bit annoyed with the situation.

  But I believe him. “They said it was a secure campus. That the cartel wasn’t involved here.”

  “It is secure. I’m not the only one stationed here, and we are all aware of your role.” Corbin’s eyes flash toward Kai harshly. “And yours.”

  I move away from Kai and reach for Corbin’s pocket. The gun remains angled at the hall while I hold the leather wallet up to the light. “So you’re not a playwright who writes about killers?” I’m somewhat offended.

  “I’ve been investigating this particular drug ring for about eight years, and it led me here.” He tilts his head toward Kai. “Want to tell me why we’re chasing a girl down the hidden tunnels?”

  “She has the book,” Kai grits out. “I think she’s going to give it to the cartel.”