Destroying the Prince (Babysitting the Prince book 2)

Chapter 28.

Chapter 28.

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I sat on the edge of the bathtub with my hands gripping it at my sides. I was in the bathroom because my dad had decided to take a few days off since Diego said I couldn't be left alone, he was over-reacting, obviously. The panicking... I was just shocked. I had colleagues die before, I had seen people die before, I figured I just was not expecting what happened to Maximilian. It didn't seem real. Part of me wanted to argue that it was not since they had not found his body but I forced myself to be realistic.

There was no way anyone had survived that crash as the plane split apart as soon as it hit the water and there was no help that far out, in the middle of basically nowhere. Even if they managed to jump out, they had nothing to keep them safe from the ocean.

It had been a couple of days since I woke up, Tony had left and was probably part of the reason my father was in my room right now and I was in the bathroom to get away from him. I didn't want to cry in front of him or anyone else, I didn't want to cry so I had basically blocked Maximilian from my mind for as long as I could until I couldn't anymore which was why I had been in the bathroom for the past fifteen minutes trying to will myself not to cry. This wasn't a place for the weak, and I couldn't spend my first few days back sobbing.

Still, it didn't seem to be up to me anymore as I sat there and tried to calm myself down again while my eyes pounded. I didn't want to think about his death but part of my mind was hell-bent on wondering whether he was afraid when they went down or tried to get out but didn't make it. Or if he did make it but couldn't win against the ocean. I lifted my arm to wipe my eyes with the back of my hand. This calming down thing was really not working, it was harder not to cry or think about him when I was alone.

I knew I wasn't going to see him again once I was back at the agency, but choosing not to see him was much more different than not ever being able to see him. I liked him. It was wrong because I had been with Adrian, I knew it was which was why I had tried to deny it to myself and mostly just pushed the feelings away when they arose or made excuses for them. That realisation didn't matter now because he was gone. I really cared about him, whether as a friend or more, and he was just gone.

If I had stayed there a few days... or if I woke up earlier... Diego had told me that Maximilian tried to hack into our systems after calling him constantly to find out if I was okay. The plane he had been one was heading to the island, so he found the base's location before the system kicked him out. Diego thought it was impressive, I would have thought so too if I could focus on it but all I could think was that if I woke up earlier, if I called him back or gave him some type of indication I was okay, he would not have been trying to find me.

A shaky breath released from my throat as I shut my eyes trying to push him from my mind and focus on something else to stop more tears from leaving my eyes.

I didn't look up when I heard a knock on the door.

"Ari, are you in there?" I was not very surprised hearing Rave's voice despite not knowing he was back at the base. Tony was right, my family really did see me as a baby.

"Washing up." I called back.

"That's funny, I haven't heard any water running." I glared towards the door.

"Maybe don't take so many missions that require explosives." I replied. I heard him chuckle and pushed myself to my feet to look into the mirror. I looked fine, slightly puffy but fine. Opening the door slowly I came face-to-face with my eldest brother and I realised he was the only other person that had really had any contact or interaction with the princes before. Rave frowned down at me.