Wish Read Free Page 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.