Keeping Me (Spy Chronicles Book 2)(15)

“Serenity and Sebastian Olsen. Siblings,” I say. “We look nothing alike.”

“I look nothing like my real sister either,” he says.

“You have a sister?” I ask.

“Yep. She's younger. She plans on going to med school when she’s older,” he answers, grinning proudly. I can tell he likes his sister. Of course he does. Why wouldn't he? Sebastian isn't the cold guy he pretends to be most of the time.

I read through the papers while I eat. There is nothing too extravagant. Our cover story is that our parents got job offers in South Korea. It was too good to pass up. They let us stay in their apartment to finish college and they're paying our bills. We are both students at St. Charles Community College, where we definitely won't be attending classes, but somebody in our place will. I want to ask questions, but I've been doing this long enough to know that sometimes it's best to just go with it.

“I guess I'm an only child, unless my dad has another kid somewhere that I don't know about,” I say. “I think that's why I like Gage so much. He's like a brother to me.”

Saying his name out loud makes my chest hurt.

I can't help but wonder if he's okay.

“Will I get to see them again?” I ask.

Sebastian doesn't need me to clarify. “Yeah. Soon, I'm sure.”

I nod.

Soon.

Soon, this will all be over.

Soon, I will have a new normal.

Soon, Nolan will...

Be caught?

Die?

No, I don't want him to die. I just want him to disappear and leave me alone. Which will probably never happen.

I don't know what will happen, but whatever it is will change my life forever. Again. I just hope I'm prepared.





Can you hit him for me?





Sebastian is doing something on the computer and I'm sitting in a nearby chair, just watching him, when all the lights in the house go off. Sebastian jumps up, grabs my hand, and we go to my room. I follow him wordlessly, because I know whatever he’s doing he thinks it’s important enough that I need to be with him. It must not be a normal power outage. There is a fuse box in my closet. He checks them all, but none of the fuses are blown.

There is mumbling in the hallway outside our apartment, so we go out to see what's going on. It's then that we learn that the whole building is without power.

“Nolan?” I ask Sebastian, my voice quiet.

“I don't know,” he answers, pulling me closer to him. We walk back inside our apartment and we go back to the computer room. He pulls out a tiny radio from the drawer and switches it on. He flips through the stations for a minute before he finds what he's looking for.

“Massive power failures have been reported across St. Louis. Authorities aren't sure what's going on just yet, but the power company says it's the work of a cyberattack...”

Sebastian switches off the radio.

“It's Nolan. He knows we are in St. Louis,” he says. “But he doesn't know where. He's trying to lure us out.”

There is a knock on the front door. Even in the darkness I can see that Bass is not happy about it.

“Is it Nolan?” I ask, my heart accelerating in fear. “Did he find us?”

He grabs my hand again and pulls me behind him, closer to the living room. When we get to the door, he looks out the peep hole and stays standing there. I hear a voice from the other side.

“Just because you're beautiful and perfect, it's made you conceited,” the voice says.

Not just any voice.

It's Sander.

Bass reaches up and opens the door and Sander steps in to the small apartment. I stare at him in shock, my mouth hanging open.

What is he doing here?

“You didn't think your dad would send you here without me, did you?” Sander asks.

“I... how?”

He wraps his arms around me and squeezes me tight. I have no choice but to embrace him back.

“What was that?” I ask, when we back up. “What you said?”

“Safe... word?” Sander answers. “It's a movie quote from...” he pauses. “Never mind. You've never seen it.”

“So, why are you here?” Bass asks Sander, not sounding too happy about his cousin being here. “And who all is here?”

“All of us,” Sander answers. “Except Gage. Looks like Nolan is in town, too. Guess we're all going to have one big reunion party.”

My heart clinches at Gage’s name. “How is Gage? And my dad.”

“Gage is going to be fine. Eventually. He's awake and talking. Asking for you. It'll take a while for him to recover, and then he has to start training again,” Sander answers. “And your dad is the one who sent me.”

“But when we left there was no hope,” I say.

Sander and Bass both laugh.

“You just don't know your dad that well yet,” Sander says. “He’s the Chuck Norris of our world.”

“Right,” I say, hating being reminded of the fact that I don’t know my father very well. And now, when I finally meet him, I have a crazy guy trying to kill me. Kidnap me. Whatever Nolan plans to do with me.

“You’ll be back with your dad soon, Princess,” Sebastian says.