We have been all over Moscow, looking at security footage from the airport, and trying to track where they went. It’s harder than I thought it would be. I guess I had hoped that we would find them right when we got to Russia. I am impatient when it comes to Katerina. I can’t let anything happen to her. I want her back. I want her safe.
My own family was torn apart because of this terrorist group. My mom and dad was so close to bringing them down. In the end, knowledge is why they are dead. But I am going to finish their work for them. I am going to bring this to a final end. Maybe then, I can have my family back.
I understand why my siblings don’t want anything to do with me. I chose this lifestyle, even after seeing what happened to our parents, my older brother and younger sister. They made a choice to do nothing. They wanted out of the lifestyle. But I couldn’t do that.
“Got anything?” I ask the guy who has been looking through video footage for the past five hours. He has a couple empty cans of Red Bull sitting in front of him, and I saw him grab a third one just a few minutes ago.
He pushes something on his keyboard and brings up a clip. Katerina and Damon are both being carried and put into the back of a van. They aren’t moving at all.
“We believe they were drugged,” the guy says. “They have to be. They’d be fighting if not.”
“Is that Matthews?” I ask.
I know Matthews well. He’s been Damon’s bodyguard for over a year now. He’s good at what he does and he’s never once done anything to make me question him. This can’t be Matthews.
“Yes and no,” he answers. “That is Gaidar. Born in Moscow. Was recruited to Mikhail’s Vasin’s group right out of high school. His loyalties changed about a year and a half ago. He’s working on taking down Mikhail Vasin. His coverup was a good one. He passed all our security checks.”
“Why would he want to be Damon’s bodyguard? That doesn’t make sense. Katerina wasn’t going to New Hope Academy back then.”
“No. But Dean Bello was there,” he explains.
“Right.” Dean Bello is Elizabeth Vasin’s sister. I let out a sigh. “What are we going to do?”
“We’ve got Gaidar and Rafael’s faces everywhere in Russia. There isn’t a person here who hasn’t seen their face and everybody is looking for them,” the says. “Now, we just wait. They can’t hide forever.”
No, they can’t.
But they can hide a while.
“I don’t like this,” I say, hating that I can’t do anything right now. “I’m going out to help the search parties. I have to do something.”
“All right,” the guy says. “I’m going to keep looking.”
I grab my jacket before heading outside.
I will find Katerina.
TWO
Can’t blame a girl for trying.
Katerina.
I wake up when the sun shines through the small window and right into my eyes. Damon is still asleep. He’s slept a lot. I hope he’s okay. Maybe the medicine just affected him more than it did me. I hope that’s it. I hope they find us soon so a doctor can check him out. I will feel better if a medical expert says he’s okay.
Today, I am feeling almost back to normal. My muscles are sore and I’ve got a headache, but I have a feeling that’s from lack of water. Well, that and sleeping on a concrete floor. My neck is stiff and hurting.
I get up from the floor and walk around the small space, needing to move. I hate being stuck down here. I want to get out and run. Moving helps my stiff muscles a little. I wish there was more room down here.
“Katerina,” I hear Damon say.
“Good morning,” I say to him, as I pace back and forth.
“What are you going?”
“Walking.”
“My body hurts,” he says.
“Me too.”
“I was really hoping they would find us by now,” he says.
I can tell he’s scared.
“Don’t worry, Damon,” I tell him. “They’ll find us. Until then, we just have to make the most of this.”
“How do we make the most of being locked in a basement?” he asks.
I look at the small window. “Do you think I can fit through there?”
“Maybe.”
“Want to give me a boost?” I ask.
“I guess it’s worth a shot.”
Damon gets off the floor and come over to me. He holds on his hands to boost me up and I step into his cupped hands. He lifts me up, but I can feel him wobbling. I don’t feel safe. I put some of my weight against the window frame.
“You’re heavier than you look,” he says, his voice strained.
I laugh, knowing he’s just weak because of the medicine in his system. I unlock the window and it pushes open, and I feel excitement bubble up inside me. Maybe, just maybe we can get out of here.
“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.”
I walk over to him and sit on the floor beside him. I hug my legs against my chest. I rest my cheek on my knee and look at Damon. “I’m kind of scared.” I don’t like to admit this to him, but he’s the only one I can talk to right now.
“Me too,” he says. “I’ve been trained on what to do in different situations, but they’ve always been how to get away from the bad guys. I’ve never been trained in what to do once the bad guy has you. A lot of good that training is doing down here.”
“If we get out of here, I am going to train harder than ever before,” I say. “I don’t want to ever be weak enough to get kidnapped again.”
“I don’t think Tristan will ever let you out of his sight for that to be a problem,” Damon says. “I bet he is going out of his mind trying to find you. If I weren’t here with you, I’d be doing the very same thing.”
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