I walk to the back of the plane where Tristan is sitting. I let out a sigh as I sink down in the leather seat beside him.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asks.
“Damon said he wants to meet my family,” I tell him.
“Too soon?” he jokes.
“He can’t meet my family,” I say. “My dad wants to kill him. Besides, once he figures out who my family is, he won’t like me anymore. Coming on this trip was a mistake. I can’t get close to Damon. I’ll just end up getting hurt in the end.”
“Katerina, you can’t help who your family is,” Tristan says. “You’re sixteen, so you can’t see it, but you’re a great girl. Damon, of all people, knows that you can’t choose your family. He won’t hate you when he finds out who your dad is. Besides, like I said, you’re sixteen. It’s not like you’re getting married anytime soon.”
“Really?” I ask, feeling hopefully. I ignore his too young for marriage comment. I’ll be old enough in two years. I’m hardly too young to think about marriage.
“Really,” he says.
“Thanks,” I say. “You’re a great bodyguard slash therapist.”
“Apparently I can add teenage romance councilor onto my resume,” he says, shaking his head. “Go sit by Damon. All this romance stuff is rotting my brain.”
I stick my tongue out at him, but go back to sit by Damon. We talk more about my family and a little about his. Before I know it, the plane is landing down in South Carolina, and I get my first glimpse of the Atlantic ocean.
Used to secrets.
Kaiden’s parent’s home is massive. It’s a beautiful, three story home right on the beach. When I look out the back of the house, I see the beautiful Atlantic ocean and a white sandy beach. When I look out the front, I see palm trees. What would make Kaiden want to leave this beautiful place to go to school in New Hope is beyond me.
Their house even has a helipad. His parents helicopter is sitting on top of it, making me feel very insignificant. I’ve never rode in one before.
Damon and I are out on the beach while Savannah, Madox, and Kaiden play video games on a 80-inch television screen. They’re missing the most beautiful sunset so they can play video games. There is something seriously wrong with them.
Tristan and five of Damon’s body guards are checking out the property, and one of them are standing about ten feet away from us. Not close enough to hear our conversation, but close enough to protect Damon if something were to happen.
I really hope nothing happens. Though I don’t think it will. Even Tristan seems to think we’re safe right now.
“This is such a beautiful place,” I tell Damon, watching the soft waves crash onto the beach. “A little extravagant, but nice.”
“What is your home in Russia like?” he asks.
“It’s a simple two story brick home,” I answer. “It’s in the country, but sort of close to the city. Nothing nearly as nice as this, but it’s home. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in the world.”
“I’m surprised you live in a small house.”
“It’s big enough,” I say.
“Yeah, but most people at our school are used to huge homes, usually more than one. They have servants, or if they’re like us, they have bodyguards,” he says. “It’s not like we’re exactly normal.”
I guess I’m not normal.
I’ve always felt normal. I come from a larger than average family—six of us, before Eduard died. But we’ve always lived very normally. To come here and suddenly find out that we’re not normal is kind of a shock to my brain, and I’m still trying to process it.
But I can’t tell him that.
“There are things I wish I could tell you about me,” I say. “But I can’t. And I feel like it’s deceiving you.”
“I understand,” Damon says. “Being the president’s son, I’m used to secrets.”
“But what if you hate me when you find out?” I ask him, letting my insecurities creep back in.
“I won’t,” he says. “Katerina, I—”
His voice cuts short there is a loud shot in distance. It echoes through the air.
His bodyguard that I know as West jumps into action, quickly standing in front of Damon. Damon reaches out and grabs me, pulling me behind him.
“I don’t need protection,” I tell him.
I hear another shot, and this time I can tell the direction it’s coming from. I take off running towards it.
“Katerina!” Damon yells.
I look back to see that his bodyguard has him tackled on the ground. I guess he tried to run after me. But this isn’t about him. Well, it’s sort of about him. But it’s about me and my family.
I see Tristan, running towards me, so I pick up my pace, trying to make sure he doesn’t catch up with me. But running in the sand is much harder than running on dirt and pavement. Right before I am about to jump over the gate, Tristan reaches me and tackles me to the ground.
I fight against him, trying to get away.
“Let me go! What if it’s my dad? I want to get to him!” I yell at Tristan.
“Don’t be stupid, Katerina,” he says.
Another shot rings loud.
“Tristan, please,” I say, my voice breaking.
“It’s just somebody target practicing,” he tells me. “It’s not your dad. We were coming back to tell you guys when the first shot went off. And if it was your dad, I wouldn’t let you anywhere near him.”
I stop fighting, and Tristan gets up.
I lay there a little bit longer, with my face in the sand. I don’t want to roll over, because I don’t want him to see me crying—again.
Over the last week, my whole world has been turn upside down. Really, over the past three months. First with Eduard dying. Then coming to America. And now finding out my dad is a terrorist. I don’t know how to handle it all.
“I just want to go home, Tristan,” I admit, still not looking up. I want to hug my mum. I want to run with Alik. I want to hang out with Dad and Dimitri, like old times.
“We can go home right now,” he says, making me excited. “We will go to the airport right now and go back to New Hope.”
My heart drops. “Not New Hope. I mean home as in Russia,” I say, finally rolling over and looking up at him. “I don’t want to be in America.”
“I’m sorry,” he says. “But you can’t go home. Not right now. Not for a while.”
“Christmas, right?” I ask. “For my brother’s wedding.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“I can’t miss my brother’s wedding. Then they would know something was up. I thought we were going to keep my knowing a secret,” I say.
“We will see,” he says, holding out a hand to help me up.
I accept his hand as he pulls me up without any effort.
I turn away from him, and let a few more tears fall.
“Do you need a hug?” Tristan asks.
I nod, not turning to look at him.
He pats my shoulder. “Let’s go back. I’m sure Damon would be more than happy to hug you.”
I wipe my tears and turn around. I can’t help but laugh at what he said. Tristan is so not a touchy feely kind of guy, which is just fine with me.
“When are you finally going to give in and date that boy?” he asks.
“Later,” I say. “After I’ve known him longer than a week.”
“You’re torturing him, you know,” he says, as we walk back to the house slowly. I’m so not ready to see anybody else yet and I think Tristan knows that.
“It’s kind of fun,” I tell him.
He laughs. “Don’t let him hear you say that.”
Damon, who is still standing where we were sees me walking back with Tristan and runs towards me. And he does what Tristan didn’t do—he hugs me. And it’s pretty much one of the best hugs I’ve ever gotten.
I don’t blame Tristan for not hugging me. It would be awkward. He’s a lot older than me—only one ye
ar younger than Dimitri. But I’m glad Damon doesn’t have a problem with hugging me, because right now, I need this hug.
“I was so worried about you,” he says when I break the embrace. “I can’t believe you just took off like that.”
I shrug, like it’s no big deal.
“Why is there sand in your hair?” he asks, just now noticing.
“That would be Tristan’s fault. He tackled me,” I say, then look at Tristan. “You’re lucky we were running on sand. You never would’ve caught me any other way.”
“Probably not. You’re fast,” Tristan says. “But you can’t do that again. If that would’ve been real…”
He doesn’t finish his sentence, but he doesn’t need to. I know exactly what would’ve happened if it would’ve been real. Now that the situation is over, I realize I responded stupidly. The first thing I should’ve done was run for cover and assess the situation. Find out who the shooter is and where they are and plan my attack. Running at somebody with a gun isn’t exactly a good plan.
Of course, I was also assuming the shooter was my dad. I don’t think he’d shoot me, but then again, this time last week, I thought my dad wasn’t a terrorist and it turns out I was wrong.
Why does my life have to be so complicated?
“Thank you for looking out for her,” Damon tells Tristan.
“It’s my job,” Tristan responds, like it’s just another day at the office.
I want a job like Tristan’s when I graduate. Chasing bad guys is kind of an adrenaline rush.
Though, pretending to be a high school student when I’m twenty one would be lame. I would want to be out on the battle field catching bad guys.
Maybe I should be nicer to Tristan. Having to re-do his senior year must be torture.
SIX
For you.
September quickly fades into October, and I adjust to my life at New Hope Academy pretty quickly.
In the mornings, I train with Tristan. Though our therapy sessions have seemed to stop, he is a great trainer. I’ve learned a lot about defending myself and also that I should never run towards somebody who is shooting at me. I feel like I’ve come a long ways.
Damon is wanting to join us soon. He’s up to running two miles, but he still has a little ways to go. He’s worked hard, and I’ve been running with him some after school. I see him getting stronger every day.
I don’t think Tristan wants me to run with Damon, but he hasn’t said anything. Maybe he’s worried I’m working too hard, but running two miles with Damon is nothing. I just do it so I can spend time with him. I have a feeling that’s why he does it too. Maybe he’s taking what I said to him at the dance to heart… that love is more than a feeling, but an action.
Next weekend is the homecoming dance. Damon hasn’t asked me yet, but I have a feeling that he will. It seems weird that I want to go to a dance, considering everything else that’s going on, but I’m really excited about it. I like dressing up and looking girly. Savannah, on the other hand, is already complaining about having to wear a dress.
Maybe dressing up will distract me from my crazy life.
After class that Friday afternoon, Damon convinces me that we should skip our run that day. He says he has “something else” to do, so I hang out with Savannah and Kaiden in the library. We have a hard math test on Monday that is going to be brutal. My brain doesn’t want to absorb any of the formulas.
“I suck at math,” I say, as Kaiden gets done explaining the formula to me for the second time.
“You just think too logically,” he says. “Don’t try to make sense of the formula. Just do it.”
“What’s the point of learning something that doesn’t make sense? And when am I ever going to use this again?” I ask.
“You might use it,” he says. “What do you want to be when you get older?”
“A spy,” I say, thinking about Tristan. He pretty much has the coolest job. Though, I’m not sure if he’s a “spy”, but I know he does undercover work and he’s an epic fighter. I love training with him. It would be awesome to get paid to do it.
“A Russian spy. That’s hot,” Kaiden says.
Savannah rolls her eyes at him. “And Kaiden here will end up teaching eight grade math. He’ll have five kids and a beer belly.”
“Fine with me,” he says. “If I’ve got a beer belly that means my wife will be a good cook.”
I laugh. “Boys.”
Savannah’s phone vibrates. She looks at it and then stands up. “Guys, that’s all the studying for today. My brain can’t take anymore.”
“Agree,” I say, shutting my book. I stuff it into my bag. “Let’s go put our stuff away before dinner.”
“Okay,” Savannah says. “Bye Kaiden.”
“Later,” he says.
Savannah and I walk back to our dorm room. On the way there, we talk about the math test, which I am really dreading. And we also talk about the dance. Savannah, as always, is going with Kaiden and Madox. I wonder if nobody else asked her, but I don’t want to bring it up. I tell her that I’m not going with anybody yet, because nobody has asked me.
“Damon hasn’t asked you to homecoming yet?” she asks, looking truly surprised.
“No,” I answer, feeling a little sad about it. I figured he would have asked me before now. Maybe he isn’t sure he wants to go with me anymore.
When we get to our dorm, I open it and walk in.
Something bright catches my eye.
There are purple balloons all over the ceiling. When I look around the room, I see there are a dozen vases, each with a dozen purple roses in them, sitting around the room. There is a banner hanging up that says, “Will you go to homecoming with me?”.
I look over at Savannah, who is grinning from ear to ear.
I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn around to see Damon standing there.
“What do you say?” he asks. “Do you want to go to homecoming with me?”
“You did all this?” I ask, still in shock.
“All by myself,” he answers. “For you.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to go to homecoming with you,” he says.
“But why go through all this trouble?” I ask.
“Because you’re worth it,” he says. “Katerina, you’re the only girl who has ever turned me down—ever. My heart can’t take much more rejection. Please, come to homecoming with me.”
He does want to go with me.
Damon Hartley wants to take me to homecoming.
Excited butterflies fill my stomach.
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll go with you.”
“Really?” he asks, sounding surprised.
“Yes, really.”
Damon grabs me around my waist, lifts me up, and spins me around in a circle.
“Put me down,” I say, patting his shoulders.
He doesn’t listen. He just carries me out into the hallway. I dunk so he doesn’t hit my head on the doorframe.
He runs down the hallway yelling. When people come out to see what the noise is, he yells, “I’m taking Katerina Vasin to homecoming!”
My face grows warm with embarrassment.
“I’m starting to second guess my decision,” I say to him, but he doesn’t seem at all fazed.
“What is going on?” I hear somebody yell over the noise.
It’s the prefect for our dorm.
Oops.
“Sorry,” Damon says, putting me down. “I was just excited. Katerina has just agreed to go to homecoming with me.”
“How nice,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. “Now you need to take this somewhere else, because the girls here are trying to study.”
Damon turns to me. “You heard her. Let’s celebrate somewhere else.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to respond. He grabs my hand and drags me out the dorm. And all I can think is, wow. I am going to homecoming with Damon Hartley.
Don’t talk.
By dinner time, everybod
y has heard that Damon and I are going to homecoming together. And they’re all staring. I grab my food quickly and hurry over to our table, hoping that people grow bored.
Why does Damon have to be the president’s son?
Better yet, why can’t these people treat him like he’s normal? Because he is. He’s just like every other kid in here. His dad just happens to be the head of the country. No big deal. But nobody seems to look away.
They’re shameless.
I groan and put my head down on the table with a thunk.
“Are they still staring?” I ask, my voice muffled.
“Yeah,” Savannah answers.
I hear a plate sit on the table, and I lift my head slightly to see Tristan sit down.
“Why is everybody staring?” he asks.
“They’re staring at Katerina,” Savannah answers. “Damon asked her to homecoming. She said yes, and then he yelled it to everybody on our floor in the dorms while he carried her down the hall. It was really cute. There were balloons and flowers and a sign. I am a skeptic when it comes to high school romance, but even I thought it was really sweet. And now I wonder how he’s going to top that when he asks you to marry him.”
“Marry?” I ask, sitting up really quick. “We aren’t even dating. We’re just going to homecoming together.”
“Whatever,” she says. “The boy is clearly in love with you. He’s running to spend more time with you, and if you didn’t know, running for non-athletic people is hard and not at all fun. And all that work he went through just to ask you to homecoming. He’s like the sweetest guy ever. You don’t let go of a guy like that. You two are, like, destined to be together forever.”
Tristan stand up, food in his hand. “I think I’m just going to eat on the go.”
“I’m with you,” Kaiden says.
Him and Madox get up and follow Tristan.
Savannah just shrugs, and continues her girl excited talk about how Damon is in love with me and that we’re going to have two and a half kids, whatever that means. I personally think she’s crazy.
“I think I’m going to get out of here too,” I tell her standing up.
Fate (New Hope Academy Book 1) Page 8
