Stolen

Chapter One

Natalia

I stand there for a moment, looking at the door of the cell phone store, the door that the Triad just walked through. My heart is racing, pushing the adrenaline through my veins. I haven’t had a panic attack in a long time, and I try not to fight it, to just let the panic pass over me before it can escalate. It seems to work, and after a few minutes, I feel my heart rate start to slow.

“Natalia,” my mom says, motioning me over to where she’s standing. “Come over here and look at this phone.”

I paste a smile on my face and walk over to the counter where she’s talking to a very animated saleswoman with big blonde bangs and a plethora of magenta lipstick.

“This is your daughter?” the saleswoman squeals. “You two could be sisters!”

“Thank you,” my mom says, and blushes. The saleswoman’s looking at me, waiting for me to say something, but I just keep that same fake smile on my face, not trusting myself to speak.
Raine is back, Raine is back, Raine is back.

“I saw you looking at the iPhones,” the salesgirl says. Her nametag says “Janae.”

I nod but still don’t say anything. Janae presses on, undeterred. “Well,” she says. “The iPhone is a very good phone.”

“But doesn’t it have too many unnecessary features?” my mom asks. “She only needs it for texting and calling.”

“Well, it’s a smartphone,” Janae says, and my mom leans over the counter and hangs on her every word, like Janae is the new Steve Jobs or something. I nod and smile in all the right places, my heart pounding in time to the
Raine is back
refrain that’s echoing through my head. I go through the motions, ask a few questions, and in the end, my mom lets me get the iPhone.

While Janae rings up my new phone, I tell my mom I’m going to wait in the car.

But when I get outside, I just stand on the curb for a few seconds, taking deep breaths and trying to clear my head. People are bustling by, their hands filled with shopping bags.

They juggle their cell phones against their ears and hurry on their way, holding coffees, talking, laughing, not a care in the world. I miss Cam. I wish he were here with me right now, so I could talk to him, so he could protect me and tell me what to do.

Tears fill my eyes and threaten to spill down my cheeks. I reach up to wipe them away. And then somewhere deep inside me, I feel anger starting to form, twisting and turning until it’s a ball of fire threatening to explode. Why am I afraid? I’m just as powerful as Raine, maybe even more so.

This whole time I’ve been depending on other people to tell me what’s going on, to tell me what to do, to explain things to me, that I haven’t stopped to think about what it is that I already know. And what I already know is that I’m extremely powerful. I can control people’s thoughts. I’ve fought battles and come out scarred, but alive. And I’m sick of being afraid.

Raine is the one who has made my life a living hell since the day I started at Santa Anna. And I refuse to let her get away with it anymore. I’m not going to scuttle away like a little mouse every time I see her shadow.

Of course, I don’t have my butterfly necklace anymore, and Raine
does
have hers.

Which makes her more powerful than I am, at least for the time being. At some point, I’m going to have to get my necklace back but I have no idea how to do that. According to Cam, the people at the witches’ compound have it.

Without my necklace, I definitely don’t have the power to take Raine on. And then it hits me. What I need to level the playing field. All I have to do is get Raine’s necklace. And then I’ll be able to stop her once and for all.

***

My mom picked out a cute light blue case for my new phone as a surprise for me, and I pretend that I’m really excited about it. But the whole ride home, my mind is racing. Because now that I realized how badly I want Raine’s necklace, I’m determined to get it. The question is
how?
I don’t even know where it is, how often she wears it, where she keeps it. And it’s not like I can just steal it off her neck. I’m going to need help. I’m going to need Brody.

When we get home, I help my mom with dinner. We make chicken parm, coating the chicken breasts in breadcrumbs and then frying them in hot oil until they’re golden brown.

“Thanks for letting me get a new phone,” I say as my mom drops a box of spaghetti into a pot of boiling water. The smell of the sweet and spicy tomato sauce that’s bubbling on the stove is making my mouth water. I don’t know if it’s because I’m excited about my plan or simply that I haven’t eaten all day, but suddenly, I’m starving.

“Of course,” she says. “You need a phone.” There’s music playing from the satellite radio speakers that are built into the walls of our kitchen, and my mom reaches over and turns up the volume. “I love this song.” She sings along, swaying her hips to the music.

“Mom,” I say, rolling my eyes. “This song is for old people.”

“No, it isn’t.” She grabs me and pulls me into her impromptu dance. I giggle, doing an exaggerated move with my hands as she twirls me around the kitchen. For a moment, I’m just a regular teen girl, having a goofy moment with my mom. But as soon as the song’s over, I’m back to thinking about Raine and her necklace. I get quiet and then pull the loaf of Italian bread out of the breadbox and start slicing it.

“You okay?” my mom asks.

“Yeah.” I take a deep breath. “I just…I miss Cam.” It’s the truth. I do miss Cam. But I also have an ulterior motive. I want to be able to go out tonight and see Brody, and in order to do that I’m going to have to make my mom feel sorry for me. “I understand why you don’t want me to see him, Mom.” Lie, lie, lie. I take a deep breath and turn toward her. “But do you think I could at least call him?”

“Natalia,” my mom says, “You know how I feel about what hap – ”

“Yeah,” I say, shaking my head and cutting her off before she can start lecturing me about how horrible Cam is. “Yeah, I know you’re right. But then do you think maybe I could go over to Brody’s for a little bit tonight? I won’t stay out late or anything.”

She frowns, and I’m afraid she’s going to say no, so I put a sad look on my face, hoping to guilt her into it. And it must work, because after a second her face relaxes.

“Fine,” she says. “As long as I drop you off and as long as you’re not out late, I guess it’s okay.”

I envelope her in a hug, and when we’re done with dinner, I do the dishes and wrap up the leftover food without being asked.

“So can I go to Brody’s now?” I ask when the last dish has been loaded into the dishwasher.

“Sure,” my mom says. “Do you think Brody will drive you home if I give you a ride over there?”

“Yes.” It’s another lie, of course. The truth is I don’t know if Brody’s even home. But now that I’ve come up with the idea of getting Raine’s necklace, I need to talk to Brody and come up with a plan.

I go upstairs and change into a pair of jeans and an emerald green sweater, then pull my hair back into a ponytail. I slide my arms into the sleeves of my black puffy jacket and follow my mom out to Jerry the next door neighbor’s car, which apparently she’s still being allowed to use.

It’s getting later now, and the sun’s starting to set. By the time we get to Brody’s, it’s completely dark outside, and it doesn’t look like there are any lights on inside the house. For a moment I’m afraid no one’s home, but then I see Brody stepping out of his car.

My mom pulls in behind him and I reach over and tap lightly on the horn. Brody turns around and when he sees me, his face breaks into a huge smile. I feel relieved that he’s happy to see me, and that he doesn’t care I’m just showing up at his house without being invited.

“What’s up?” he says, walking over to my side of the car.

I open the door and get out. “I came to see you,” I say. “Remember? You’ll drive me home, right?” I let my eyes flick ever so slightly toward my mom, and Brody immediately gets the message.

“Yeah, of course.” He looks through the open car door at my mom then raises his hand in a wave. “Hi, Ms. Moore.”

“Hi, Brody,” my mom says warmly. “You’ll have her home by nine?”

“Absolutely.”

She nods, then puts the car in reverse and pulls out of the driveway.

“Hey,” I say to Brody.

“Hi.” His hair’s wet, like he just got out of the shower. He’s wearing track pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt, and I realize he must just be getting home from football.

“How was practice?”

“Fine.” He’s still looking at me, waiting for me to say something, to explain to him why I’m here. But his eyes are kind, like he knows I need to do it in my own time. I take in a breath of the cool night air and think about that night a few weeks ago, before this whole thing started, when I was at Raine’s house and Brody tried to kiss me. I freaked out, and at the time I thought it was because I just wasn’t ready to get close to anyone. But now I wonder if maybe I had some kind of premonition, that I somehow knew I was about to get involved in something bad.

“What’d you guys do?” I ask now.

“At practice?”

“Yeah.”

“The normal stuff.”

“Tackle each other and run around the field spiking the ball and talking shit?”

He grins. “Something like that.”

“Was Cam there?” I ask before I can help myself.

“No.” If he’s annoyed that I asked the question, he doesn’t show it. “Apparently him and Lancaster got sent home for fighting this morning.”

I nod, not saying anything, keeping myself from asking if he knows anything else, if he knows if Cam’s okay. Because this isn’t about Cam. This is about me.

“Listen,” I say. “I need your help.”

He sucks in a big breath, and for a moment, I’m afraid he’s going to say no, that he’s done enough, that he can’t risk doing any more for me. If he says those things, I won’t blame him. But he doesn’t. “Do you want to come in?” he asks.

I nod, then follow him up the driveway.

“We can go downstairs to the family room,” he says as he opens the front door.

“Maybe order some pizza. Are you hungry?”

I shake my head. “No,” I tell him, “I just ate.”

“Come on, we can share one.” He smiles, his eyes sparkling.

“Share a pizza?”

“Well, I meant share a slice. If you’re going to have more than that, we should probably get two.”

“Two pizzas?” I grin, thankful for the moment of lightness. “Fine,” I say. “But I want pineapple on mine.”

“The lady wants pineapple, the lady gets pineapple,” he says. We’re moving down the hallway now, and then down the stairs of Brody’s split-level house to the lower level. Brody flips the light switch on the wall, but bulb blinks and then pops before going out.

“Shit,” he says. “There’s another light in the family room, but we have to get through the door first.”

He reaches out and takes my hand, wrapping his fingers around mine, guiding me through the darkness. His grip is warm and comforting and for a second, just a second, I wonder what it would be like if this whole thing wasn’t happening, if there was nothing crazy going on, if it was just me and Brody, going down to the den together, alone in the dark.

He opens the door and what happens next is so fast that I don’t even realize what’s going on at first. There’s the sound of shuffling, and then a girl’s voice gives a shriek of surprise. Then the sound of a click as Brody turns the light on.

I blink in the sudden brightness, and my eyes focus on the sofa in the corner. The sofa on the corner where Cam’s lying, Brody’s sister Kaci on top of him.

Chapter Two

Campbell

“What the
hell?”

Kaci and I break off from our kiss and I turn my head to see Natalia and Brody standing in the doorway. Natalia’s face is ashy and her mouth is open in shock. But what’s worse than any of that is her eyes. The look of hurt and disappointment is like a punch to my stomach.

“Natalia…” I can barely get her name out. I search my brain for the words to explain how I ended up here – the chain of events that led me to this exact moment, this horrible betrayal. But before I can figure out what to say, how to explain, she spins and runs out of the room.

I spring off the couch to follow her, but Brody steps in my way. “Cam.” He puts his hand up to my chest. “No.”

“Get out of my way, Brody.” I slap his hand out of the way and stare directly into his eyes. “I don’t want to have to knock you out in your own house.”

He smirks. “Moving in on my little sister? Real classy.”

Kaci’s up and standing next to me now. “Both of you stop. Just
stop.
You’re being idiotic.”

When Brody turns his attention to her, I take the opportunity to push by him and out of the room. As I run up the steps, I can hear him say, “Kaci, what the hell is wrong with you? Are you out of your
mind?”