Wish (3 page)

“
Push me higher,” I
say.

He does, and I stick my arms and head out the
window, ready to crawl out. I feel something cold on the side of my
head.

“
What do
you think you’re doing
?”

I don’t recognize this voice. It’s not one of
the voices I heard yesterday when I was listening to them talk up
stairs, which means there are more people here than I
thought.

I try to remain calm as I feel the cold metal
of the gun pushed against the side of my head.

“
Can’t
blame a girl for trying,
” I
say.

“
Get back
in
,” he says, his voice harsh. I slowly
lower myself back inside and Damon lowers me to the
floor.

So much for that plan.

“
Don’t
try that again
,” the guy says, looking
down at us. “
I’ll be here waiting if you
do
.”

Yep, definitely not going to do that again,
because I’d rather not die.

Damon looks like he’s about to start having a
panic attack.

“
I don’t like being down here. I
feel trapped,” he says, now starting to walk in circles around the
room.

“
It’ll be fine, Damon,” I say.
“Just relax.”

“I can’t relax. How can I relax
when I’m being held against my will. They’re going to kill me, you
know,” he says. “I’m never going to be seventeen. Or eighteen.
Or
anything
but
sixteen ever again. I’m not going to go to college. I’m never going
to have a girlfriend that lasts longer than one week. I’m never
going to kiss a girl or get married…”

“
I won’t let them kill you,” I
say. “I’ll find a way to get you out of here.”

He stops walking and looks at me. “How?
They’ve got guns.”

“
I don’t know,” I answer. “Just
give me time. I will come up with something.”

Just then, the door opens and I see Salvador
walking down the stairs with another tray of food.

“
That was stupid,” Salvador says
to me. I don’t know why, but I’m surprised he can speak English.
His Russian accent is very thick. “Did you really think you could
just climb out the window and nobody would notice?”

“
I was hoping,” I say.

“
The whole country is looking for
you two,” he says. “Not just you, but Gaidar and Rafael
too.”

“
Gaidar?” I ask.

“
The other bodyguard.”

Matthews. He’s Gaidar.

Why does everybody bad guy have to be
Russian?

“
What about you?” I
ask.

Salvador gives me a confused look. “What about
me?”

“
The Russian government will find
us eventually. Not just Russia. The United States too,” I say. “If
you’re here, won’t you get in trouble for helping?”

“
Maybe,” he says.

“
So why are you helping
them?”

“
Rafael is my father,” he
says.

Huh. I wasn’t expecting that. But now that he
says it, I can see he has his father’s eyes. That is where the
similarities end. Salvador is nothing like his dad. He seems nice.
I feel bad that he’s caught up in this all.

“
Have you always known what he
does?” I ask.

He nods.

“
My father never told me,” I say.
“I found out when I moved to America.”

“
How did the two of you become
friends?” Salvador asks, looking between Damon and me.

“
She’s beautiful,” Damon says,
making my face grow warm. “I wanted to be more than friends. She
didn’t. So we became friends, because being friends with her is
better than nothing. End of story.”

“
Huh,” Salvador says, looking at
me. “Why did you not want to date him? You have another
boyfriend?”

“
No,” I say. It’s the truth.
Tristan won’t date me until I turn seventeen, which might not ever
happen now. “I just don’t feel the same way about him that he does
about me. I mean, I like him, but not that way.”

“
You don’t like American boys?”
Salvador asks, a smile on his face.

I force myself to smile at him. Maybe if I
flirt with him, he will help us find a way out of here. Problem is,
I’m not exactly sure how to flirt.

“
Americans boys are a lot
different than Russian boys,” I say.

“That’s true,” Salvador says, then
switches to Russian. “
That boy is a
wimp.
”

Damon doesn’t look happy.
“
I can understand you, you
know
.”

“
I forgot,” he says, switching
back to English. “But it’s true.”

“
Americans aren’t so bad,” I say,
sticking up for Damon, and the rest of my American friends. “I’ve
made a lot of friends at my school.”

“
What’s it like? Going to school
in America,” Salvador asks.

“
It’s a lot different than going
here,” I answer. “It’s… easy. Teenagers there don’t care as much
about their grades. Sports are a big deal there too. They like to
sneak out after curfew.”

He laughs. “You’ve never snuck out after
curfew?”

“
Not until I moved there,” I
admit.

“
Wow. You’re a good girl,” he
says.

Damon laughs. “She is.”

I roll my eyes. “Can we not talk about me like
I’m not standing here?”

“
Salvador!” I hear Rafael yell
from upstairs.

“
Duty calls,” he says, then runs
up the stairs.

Once he’s up there, I hear yelling. And even
though Salvador is helping the bad guys, I can’t help but feel
sorry for him.

“
Maybe you’re right about him,”
Damon says. “He seems pretty normal for the most part.”

“
Let’s make friends with him,” I
say quietly to Damon. “He might just be our ticket out of
here.”

“
I don’t know. He seems pretty
loyal,” he says.

Maybe he’s right.

But still, maybe he’s wrong.

I will find a way for us to get out of
here.

No matter what.

Tristan.

This is the second day that Katerina and Damon
have been missing.

Two days too long.

If only I wouldn’t have needed space from her.
I shouldn’t have left her with Alik. But I had to. She’s in my
head. Always. And sometimes I need to distance myself from her,
because she is distracting me from my mission.

I like her. Too much. I might even love
her.

My head tells me that she is too young for me.
But really, she’s not that much younger than I am. Four and a half
years. Mentally, she’s just as old. She doesn’t act like the kids
in her class do. No wonder she doesn’t have many
friends.

I can see why her and Damon became friends.
Damon has had a very different life. A lot of people are probably
envious of him, but being the president’s son has got to be hard.
He can’t even go out on a date without being photographed. Though,
I am glad that happened. I know it’s selfish, but I hated seeing
Katerina with him, even if I knew she didn’t like him as more than
a friend.

I told myself, after my parents died and my
siblings decided they didn’t want anything to do with me as long as
I had the job I do, that I wouldn’t fall in love. Love is hard and
messy. But it hasn’t been a problem before Katerina. No girl has
ever made me feel the way she does. She’s changed me without even
trying. She’s the one girl I would give this all up for. All she’d
have to do is ask. But she wouldn’t. She’s the one girl who would
support my crazy job.

I can’t ask her to accept this lifestyle.
After the life she’s had, she deserves normal. As soon as this job
is over, as soon as Katerina and her family are safe, I will walk
away from this and never look back.

“
Found anything?” Alik asks
me.

I’ve been on the computer all
night looking at everything I can find on Rafael and Gaidar. Phone
records, bank accounts—any and everything. We’ve searched their
homes, and can’t find a single clue. But there has to be
something
. There always
is. And I am going to figure it out.

“
Not yet,” I answer.

I’m still mad at Alik for not keeping a closer
eye on his sister. If he would have, we wouldn’t be in the
situation right now.

I swear, when I get Katerina back, I’m never,
ever letting her out of my sight again. And I’m definitely not
trusting Alik to watch her. He gets distracted too
easily.

As I’m looking through medical records, I find
something interesting.

A DNA test.

It’s positive.

Rafael has a son.

Maybe this will get me somewhere.

“
I can’t believe I lost my little
sister,” Alik says. “What kind of a brother does that?”

You, apparently.

But I don’t say it out loud. I’m really,
really mad at him, and if I talk I might end up saying something I
would regret. So, for now, I keep my mouth shut. He feels bad
enough already without me running my mouth.

“
I remember the day Kat was born.
I was only three at the time, but I remember seeing her for the
first time. She was wrapped in this light pink blanket. Her eyes
were so blue. I thought she was cute, though I’d never tell her
that,” he says. “Even though she was bald until she was a year
old.”

I listen, but I don’t stop my search. I
haven’t slept in over forty hours, and I don’t plan on sleeping
until Katerina is safe. I take a drink of my energy drink, not sure
if it’s working or not. I feel like I’m running on adrenaline right
now, but that’s not helping enough.

“
Her and Eduard were so close
growing up,” he says. “Whenever he died, Kat didn’t come out of her
room for two whole weeks. Mum had to force her to eat. It was
awful. We started running, and that helped, but she hasn’t been the
same. She’s happier now than I’ve seen her in a while, but she’s
not the same girl she was. She used to be so bubbly and hyper. Like
a cheerleader on one of those American movies.”

I try to imagine Katerina like that, but I
can’t. That is not the girl I know.

That girl would’ve been perfect for Damon,
though. Maybe that’s why her and him connected. Maybe he reminds
her of who she used to be.

“
I like the girl she is now,” I
say.

“
Me too,” Alik says. “Eduard would
be proud of who she has become.”

Probably.

“
I told Raslan that Kat is
missing,” he says. “He wants to help us find her. He’s going to go
out with the search party later today.”

Raslan is Katerina’s childhood
friend.

“
The more the better,” I
say.

“
Kat used to have the biggest
crush on Raslan,” Alik says. “After Eduard died, she refused to
talk to him. He was heartbroken. I think he secretly liked her too,
but there was no way Eduard would’ve ever let them
date.”

I type faster, not really wanting to hear
about Katerina’s past relationships.

I shouldn’t be jealous. I have no right to be.
Katerina isn’t my girlfriend. I told her we had to wait. And even
if she was my girlfriend, it would be silly to be jealous over a
crush she had in the past. She obviously doesn’t feel the same way
about him anymore. I know how she feels about me. She loves me. And
I know she’s not the kind of girl who says it lightly. She truly
means it.

“
Do you think she’ll be mad that I
called him?” Alik asks.

I turn to look at him.

“
I talk when I’m nervous. I really
just want to find my little sister,” he says.

“
I will find her.” No matter what,
I will.

I turn back to my computer and Alik just
watches me.

I think I liked him better when he hated
me.

Trust.

Katerina.

I pace back and forth in the
basement.

“
Do you have to walk back and
forth like that?” Damon asks. He’s sitting on the hard floor with
his back against the wall. I couldn’t sit there any longer. My butt
is numb. Actually, my whole body is.

“
Yes, I do.”

I hear him let out an annoyed sigh.

He doesn’t realize that being locked in this
basement is about to make me go mad. I can’t take it. I need to
move, because it helps. I hate sitting still.

“
You’re getting on my nerves,
Katerina,” Damon says.

I stop and turn to him. “I can’t sit there.
I’m going stir crazy. We have to get out of here.”

“We will,” he says. Now
he’s
the one
assuring
me
. “I
know that my dad will find us soon. Tristan will find us soon. If I
know him, I bet he hasn’t slept a wink since you went missing. If
we can be found, we will.”