I am jerked upward as West pulls the parachute. I wasn’t expecting it yet, so I flinch a little, my heart racing.
“Told you I knew what I was doing,” West yells.
I don’t bother with responding.
West didn’t kill me, yet. But it looks like there will be a lot of opportunity for him to do so.
This is going to be an actual nightmare. We are going to have to find food and water while we’re in the forest. We’re going to have to sleep in the forest. All while trying not to murder one another. It’s like Lord of the Flies: Spy School Edition. I can see the headlines now: What was meant to be a therapy session ended in tragedy.
Ugh, extreme therapy in the woods—just what every Spy School team needs.
I’m a little worried as we float down to the earth—there are a lot of trees. But I see a field off in the distance. The guys are gliding toward the field and I feel West and me doing the same.
Okay, maybe I overreacted a little bit. I can trust West, even when we’re sky diving. I just don’t like to trust him. But even I have to admit, he’s good at what he’s doing.
Maybe this experience won’t be so bad after all. If I’m going to be trapped in the woods with anybody, I am glad to have these four guys on my side. If we can all put aside our differences and work together, it’ll be awesome.
If not...
Lord of the Flies, here we come.
Pain killers.
We hit the ground hard and the only thing that keeps me from tumbling forward is West’s hands on my waist to steady me. I know the only reason he kept me from falling is because he’s attached to me, so if I fall, he falls. If I had landed on my own and fallen, the guys would’ve had a great laugh about it.
I’ve never had a perfect landing when I skydive. I always end up falling or tripping, something. A few times I’ve given myself black eyes from hitting my face on the ground. The one time my landing is perfect, I can’t even claim it because it was all West.
I find myself looking around to make sure the rest of the guys are okay and they’re doing the same.
Even when we hate each other, we still care for one another.
We’re complicated.
Everybody takes their parachutes off and we walk to meet one another in the center of the clearing.
West has a backpack that I hadn’t noticed before now, but other than that one backpack that looks suspiciously empty, we have nothing but the clothes on our backs and I am nervous. I hug my arms around my waist.
“So... Michael Sinclair dumped us in the middle of a forest.” Alek runs his fingers through his hair, looking up at the tall trees. Even though the sun is coming up, it’s still very dark in here. I have a feeling it’ll be dark even when the sun is high in the sky. I look past the clearing where we’re standing and it’s practically pitch black.
Kal points at West’s backpack. “What’s in the bag?”
West shrugs the backpack off, unzipping it. We all crowd around him to get a better look. He pulls out a canister, handing it to me. Then he hands one to Alek, West, and Kal, keeping one for himself.
Well, at least we have somewhere to put water. When we find water, that is. Because the canister is empty right now.
There are a few other things inside, but there is a note inside, so West pulls that out first and reads it out loud to us.
“Inside this pack are five things that could be useful to you—a knife, a string and a hook, rope, aspirin, and a compass. West will decide how everything is handed out. While trying to find your way out of the woods, you will each have to depend on one another and work together to get out. Good luck.” West frowns, dropping the letter at his side. “And it’s signed by Michael Sinclair.”
“Is the compass at least a digital one?” Ian asks, hopeful.
West opens up the bag, looking inside again. He shakes his head. “Nope.”
Ian’s shoulders sag forward. “Just great.”
“Who gets the knife?” I ask.
“Anybody but Roxy,” Ian says. “She’d probably accidentally cut her finger off.”
He’s probably right, but I still glare at him.
“I will choose.” West holds a hand between Ian and me.
“That means you’ll get the knife,” I complain.
West holds the knife toward Alek. “Alek, I think you should be in charge of the knife.”
Alek grins, grabbing it from him. He looks way too smug about having the knife.
He gets all the power.
“I will keep the string and hook,” West says, pulling it from the bag. “Maybe we can find that stream I saw on the way down, then we can have food and water.”
Oh, fishing would be a good way to get food—and it’s definitely better than eating a bunny.
West pulls out the rope and hands it to Kal. Then he pulls out a bottle of aspirin and holds it for a second, then he hands it to me.
I clutch the bottle in my hand. “I have a feeling I’m going to need these.”
I already have a headache from the guys.
Last, West pulls out the compass and hands it to Ian. It’s a really old school kind of compass—I guess Michael Sinclair felt Ian would be able to cheat us out of here if he had an electronic GPS—if only, but no. We’re stuck in here.
Ian looks at the compass, sighing. “What now?”
We all turn to West for direction. He frowns for a second, but he quickly masks it. “We just have to survive. I guess we should head to lower ground and find that river. We won’t last long without water.”
I look at the sky. Pink, orange, and purple paints the sky from the rising sun. It’s then that I realize it’s going to be a very long day.
We take off trekking through the woods down the hill, toward where West thinks the stream is.
I stuff the aspirin into the pocket of my jacket and hook the canister onto the belt hook of my jeans.
Michael Sinclair definitely made it so we can’t split up with the way things are distributed, which is smart. Maybe he thinks this will really help us get along, but I can’t imagine anything would happen that would make us all magically start getting along.
“This sucks,” Ian grumbles.
Ian is definitely in a bad mood this morning. Usually he is the cheerful one, so this is strange. He probably thinks it’s my fault we’re in this situation to begin with.
I can’t help but think about the conversation we had yesterday in the gym. He told me he was mad at me for what I did with West. My chest aches, so I rub at it, hoping the pain will go away. I’m just so mad at myself for hurting Ian.
Nearly three months is how long it took to get Ian to like me, and I ruined it all in one afternoon. One stupid decision—a decision that I kind of regret now.
If West and I hadn’t done what we did, we wouldn’t be here right now. We’d be back in Florida, probably training. Everything would be good. Ian and Kal wouldn’t hate me. West and Alek would still hate me, but I was used to that.
It was a good kiss.
I roll my eyes at myself.
West really isn’t that great. I mean, sure his body looks like it was sculpted by a prized artist and I could get lost in his blue, blue, blue eyes. But his attitude is atrocious.
I’m officially one of those stupid girls I used to make fun of at Spy School—the girl who falls for the unattainable bad boy and gets her heart broken. It’s what I get for laughing at them—karma has bitten me in the butt and I’m stuck with all these stupid feelings for this stupid boy.
Stupid, stupid boy.
But I’m trying not to think about all that right now. Right now, I am just trying not to stare at how good Kal’s behind looks in his jeans as I walk behind him.
I trip over the root of a tree.
Alek grabs onto my arm to keep me from toppling over.
“Careful,” he scolds. “If you fall and break your ankle, I’m going to be stuck carrying you.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose.” Though maybe I
was distracted by Kal.
Yeah, it’s definitely Kal’s fault.
I turn forward and nearly trip over another branch. This time, I can’t blame it on Kal.
“Can you not freaking walk?” Alek grabs onto my hand. He doesn’t let go when he steadies me.
I look at our intertwined hands and give him a questioning look.
“I’ll keep you from falling,” he says.
Still.
Holding hands with Alek feels… strangely comfortable considering I hate the guy.
Or do I hate him?
I don’t know anymore, but I refuse to let my brain go there.
Friends. I mean, enemies. We’re enemies. And I am definitely not attracted to the angry Russian guy. Nope. Not at all.
Ian glances over at Alek and my intertwined hands and he grunts, walking ahead of us.
Of course, me holding hands with Alek angers him more. Everything makes Ian mad lately.
West leads us through the thick woods with Ian and Kal behind him. Alek and I stay in the back. The guys all keep plenty of distance between them. I guess they don’t want to talk to each other either.
At least it’s not just me they hate.
“You look sad,” Alek says.
I shrug. “I guess I kind of am. It took me almost three months to get Ian to like me and now I feel like I’m back at square one with him. It sucks.”
He nods. “Yeah, Ian is a tough one to crack. But give him time. You broke his heart.”
I narrow my eyes glancing at him. “What do you mean I broke his heart?”
“Cause you and West,” he explains.
“Me and West are nothing.”
“West basically claimed you when you two kissed.”
Is that what the guys think?
Is that why West kissed me? To claim me?
My body tenses up and my face grows warm.
“I am going to murder West. Will you help me bury his body out here? Nobody would ever find him.”
Alek chuckles. “Sorry, Roxy. We can’t kill West.”
Darn.
Still, as we hike through the woods, I contemplate all the ways I could kill him and it cheers me up.
You all voted for me.
I am mad at West. The more I think about what Alek said, about West ‘claiming’ me, the more upset I get. I didn’t agree to him claiming me, and I didn’t claim him, so it doesn’t seem fair that he gets to claim me.
But which boy would I want to claim me? I don’t even know.
Wait—none of them. I can’t date any of them. They’re my teammates. That is it.
My hand is clammy and gross from where Alek is holding it. We’ve been holding hands and walking forward for probably an hour now and we still haven’t found the river. I’m starting to get thirsty, but I’m trying not to think about that. I’ll be fine for a while longer.
West and Kal stop ahead. We’re too far back to hear their conversation, but I can tell from the way West clenches his jaw and the way Kal makes dramatic hand movements that they’re arguing.
Lovely.
Yes, drop us off in the woods and we’ll get along and work together to find our way out—or not.
“Here we go,” Alek mumbles as we step forward.
“I’m telling you, we need to go this way.” Kal points.
West points in the opposite direction. “No, I know it’s this way.”
“Shouldn’t Ian be directing us? He’s the one with the compass,” I point out as Alek and I reach them.
Kal, West, and Ian all jerk their heads in my direction, glaring at me.
Kal motions at Alek and my hands. “Are you two a thing now, too?”
I let go of Alek’s hand quickly. “I almost fell.”
“Twice,” Alek says.
I roll my eyes. “Whatever, twice. He just wanted to keep me from falling. But I can hold hands with whoever I want to. What are we? Twelve?”
“Can we focus on getting out of here before the four of you decide to kill one another? I really don’t want to have to explain to Michael Sinclair why five of us came in but only one came out.” West lets out an exasperated breath.
Alek snorts. “As if you would be the sole survivor.”
I laugh. Alek’s probably right. We’d all team up to kill West together, but I sober up when I realize I would be the next they would come after.
West turns his blue eyes to me and they harden as he narrows them. “Whatever, Princess. We didn’t even want you on the team to begin with.”
I take a step closer to him. “I know that you all voted for me, so don’t even pretend like you didn’t want me on your team. I saw your vote, West Newman.”
“How do you know who I voted for?” His eyebrows scrunch together and he looks between the guys. “Wait, we all voted for Roxy?”
All the guys remain silent, which is their way of confessing.
“I hacked into the vote.” I chew on my bottom lip as I confess the truth. “All of you hated me so much and I guess I thought that maybe my parents did something to get me on the team, so I hacked into it. I needed to know who voted for me.”
“How long have you known?” Kal asks.
I shrug, trying to think. “I guess since that conversation with my parents. I was trying so hard to stay hidden so my parents wouldn’t call me out. I didn’t realize you guys knew who my parents were, but you all knew.”
Everybody grows quiet. The four of them share looks between one another, and I know them well enough to know that they’re all stunned.
None of these guys confessed to voting for me. So, this whole time, they thought they were the only one to vote for me. They probably felt guilty for causing animosity in the team.
Kal breaks the quiet by laughing. He laughs so hard that he grabs his stomach and I just look at him, wonder what is so funny.
“It’s not funny.” I smack Kal’s arm. “You made me feel like crap for months. Every single one of you. And I have been so freaking lonely.”
“I still think having you on the team is a mistake,” West says.
I turn to him and I honestly have no idea what propels me forward, but I leap toward him, knocking him off his feet.
If we were training, I know I could never take him in a fight. The only thing I have is the element of surprise. It only takes a split second for him to gain control. He rolls us over so that he is on top of me, but I am not the helpless girl he thinks I am. I kick at him and manage to gain control, but before I even have time to comprehend, the world spins and West is on top again.
I hear somebody yell, but I am focused on West.
No matter how hard I kick or punch, I can’t seem to gain control again.
“West, you idiot.”
I turn when I hear the panic in Kal’s voice.
West gets up and runs down the hill we were standing on top of. I get up, looking in the direction he ran off.
My heart stops when I see Ian at the bottom of the hill, crying out in pain. I take off running, too. I get on my knees beside him.
Alek’s face pales as he looks at Ian’s leg. “His leg is broken.”
Ian grabs my hand, squeezing it. “Don’t cry. I’m okay. Trust me, it’s not the first bone I’ve broken.”
Yeah, but breaking a bone during training is a lot different than breaking a bone during the middle of the woods.
“I’m sorry.” My voice breaks.
It’s my fault. If only I hadn’t attacked West like I did. I was so stupid. Of course, somebody could get hurt out here if we fight like that.
“It’s not your fault.” Ian squeezes my hand tighter. “It’s my fault. I should have told you that I voted for you that first day when we were on that jet, but I was intimidated. You were so pretty and I thought you’d think I was annoying or stupid.”
I shake my head. “God, no. Ian, I would never think that about you.”
Ian squeezes his eyes shut and calls out in pain again.
“We’re going to have to set it.
” West looks down at his leg.
I suck in a breath. “Isn’t that going to hurt?”
Nobody answers, which is the only answer I need.
I pull the aspirin from my pocket and shake the bottle. “I don’t think this is going to be strong enough.”
“It’s better than nothing.” Ian ends his sentence with a groan. “Just do what needs to be done.”
West and Alek share a look and Kal gets on his knees on the other side of Ian, grabbing onto his other hand.
“Squeeze my hand as hard as you need,” Kal tells him.
Ian nods at his friend, but looks at me. “I’m sorry, Roxy.”
He’s sorry?
If anybody should be sorry, it’s me. I’m the one who caused him to fall down a hill. I got his leg broke. I hurt him.
“Three, two—” Alek counts.
Ian screams loudly as Alek and West set his leg. His hand grips mine so tightly that my fingers go numb.
It should be me in pain, not Ian.
“We need to make a splint.” Alek looks around.
“I’ll get something.” Kal jumps up, strolling off into the woods.
Ian breathes heavily.
“Are you okay?” I ask him.
“Just in pain.” His voice is strained.
“Want some aspirin?” I ask.
He laughs, shaking his head. “I don’t want to let go of your hand long enough for you to open the bottle.”
West grabs the bottle from my hand, opens it, and shakes some pills out, shoving four into Ian’s mouth. He hands the bottle back to me.
“West,” I say.
He pauses.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.” He turns back to Alek. The two of them are looking at Ian’s leg with concern.
Sometime between when I got on my knees by Ian and now, they rolled up the bottom of Ian’s jeans. His leg is purple and blue and is swollen so big already. But it definitely could be worse.
My chest aches and my face is wet with tears.
The Unwanted Spy Page 20
