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“What’s going on here?” Jackson asked as he came into the kitchen.
“And you are?” the first officer asked.
“Working on renovating the house with my brothers.” He left it at that and looked at me. “You okay? I thought you were on the phone, but you sounded upset.”
“I’ve never had the police show up at my house before,” I grumbled. “And then I made it sound like I was hiding drugs or something, but I can’t share client information, so you know, that’s it so far.” I ducked my head when he chuckled.
“No one would think you were a drug queenpin, sparkles. One glass of wine and you need to sit down.”
“Tallulah makes good wine,” I agreed, remembering the police. “So I’m sorry, what is going on?”
The second cop finally said something. “I’m sorry to inform you that your mother suffered a heart attack and unfortunately she was driving at the time.”
“Oh,oh,” I whispered, getting that Thora had set it up. I blinked up at Jackson and realized my knees had gone weak and he’d caught me. “She’s gone.”
“I heard. It’s going to be okay.”
“Was anyone else hurt in the accident?” I asked the police, thinking that was an appropriate question to ask.
“Unfortunately, your father and three of their friends were in the vehicle,” that second one answered.
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. “Oh.”
“Hey, hey, no going into shock,” Jackson worried, suddenly in front of me, holding my face. I blinked at him and realized it wasn’t sudden as the police looked concerned too.
“Promise not to tell the papers?” I asked them, leaning against Jackson and waiting until they nodded. “My mother was abusive, and I ran away at sixteen.” I was about to show them the scars, but then I remembered Gaia had been healing them and what would I do later when I just didn’t have scars? “Emotionally mostly. I was PR to her basically and it—body issues and…”
“You don’t have to explain to anyone,” Jackson comforted. “You haven’t spoken to her in sixteen years. They can’t retroactively arrest you for running away.”
“He’s right, and apparently your mother planned to change your not speaking,” the second cop informed me.
“Huh?” I asked, my eyes going wide. “She found me?”
He gave a slow nod. “Apparently. Her private plane landed a few days ago at Kansas City International and the crash happened not far from there in a rental. We would have informed you sooner, but we had no idea you were here or why she was even in town.”
“Oh, I’m so going to hell,” I whispered, keeping with the act. “I’m glad she just didn’t show up here and I had to deal with her crazy, but that’shorribleconsidering what happened.” I looked at the police. “Was one of the men named Randy?”
“Yes, why?” he asked.
I shivered. “She wanted me to marry him when I turned eighteen. He was someone who helped her career I think and he, um, yeah.” I didn’t even have to fake the tears though they were once again in relief. “She was bringing him here after she found me. Yeah, I don’t think it was about reconciling.”
“Hey, no one needs to know about this and if people talk, the press will have a field day,” Jackson reminded me, probably giving them a death look. “And hopefully the police will make sure your address doesn’t get out as you don’t want anything to do with that crazy or your mother’s fame.”
“We will absolutely keep it quiet,” the first promised. “But you are the only family your parents had and there are arrangements you’ll have to make and whatnot. Certainly, for her estate.”
I snorted. “She said I would never see a dime of her money for being genetically faulty when I had her DNA.”
They both blinked at me in horror and I wasn’t even lying. She’d told me that a lot.
Jackson pushed back my hood and took down my hair, cupping my face. “You arestunning, sparkles. Your mother was imbalanced, okay? We’ll call Meave and her attorney will help you bury your parents and whatever other crazy. We got this.”
I nodded, tucking my hair over my shoulder. “Okay, we got this. Wow, they’re really gone.” I looked at the police again. “No one else got hurt though? I mean, did they hit oncoming cars?”
“No, only their vehicle,” the second assured me. “They went off the road and crashed.
“Thank god no one else was hurt,” I muttered, again, thinking that was something I should say. “Does anyone else know she’s gone and here?”
“No, we wanted to notify next of kin first,” he said. “People will probably be able to get the coroner’s report eventually, but it won’t say why she was here. I would suggest your lawyer make a statement before her publicists try to turn this into an even bigger circus to drive up sales or whatever. The media would eat up her finally finding you. I remember when you went missing and they—”
