Restless (Element Preservers, #4) (18 page)

"No," Lily said. "We should wait a couple of hours to see what the government will do. It's possible the news slipped under their radar, so they might try to do some damage control. Of course, there's always the option that they are involved in the whole thing somehow."

"But why would they want a protest against their favorite new law? It doesn't make sense." I put my hand on Kayla's shoulder to stop elements from assaulting my consciousness.

"Well, I have some ideas." Lily sighed. "Maybe they hope not many people will show up because they won't trust you, so the protest will be doomed to fail, which would discourage others from trying to organize another one. The second option is that they're trying to fool us into believing this is a free country, but they're in fact planning to take pictures and try to track down all the carriers who come to the protest. I'm not sure that would work, but they might be able to catch sloppy carriers."

"Awesome," I said dryly. "But finding Paula is our priority."

"I know. I already sent a team. We'll find her."

I wanted Lily to promise me that her team would find Paula, but I knew she couldn't do that. A tear slid down my cheek as I slipped my phone back into my pocket. Paula had always been there for me when I needed her and she'd forgiven me for all the horrible things I'd done to her. I could never live with myself if I didn't do everything to find her. I had to be strong for her. I had to.

Chapter 22

My heart did a little jump in my chest when Adrian and Alan walked through the main door. Bruises covered Adrian’s handsome face and there were dark circles under his gray-blue eyes. I wanted to run to him and throw myself in his arms, but the hall wasn’t empty, so I caught his eyes and jerked my head in the direction of my room.

Kayla had to come with me to my room, and she held her hand on my back so I wouldn’t lose control of myself. When Adrian finally came, Kayla turned her head to give us some privacy, even though having privacy was impossible when she couldn’t break her contact with me. That didn’t stop me from pulling Adrian into my arms, making him wince. I stepped back and lifted his shirt up, revealing a map of dark bruises.

“Are you alright?” I couldn’t keep the worry out of my voice. If I ever found out who had done that to him, they wouldn’t get to live long.

“I’ve had worse.” A smile quirked his lips.

“Did you at least freeze those guys to death and show them not to mess with a carrier?”

“No, because that was what they expected so they could file charges against me for the assault of police officers.” Amusement flickered in his eyes. “They didn’t know who they were dealing with, so they had to let me go.” He tipped my chin up and gently pressed his lips against mine, then stared into my eyes, cocking his head. “What’s wrong?”

“Paula is missing.” I started retelling him everything I knew about Paula’s disappearance.

“That son of a bitch! He has to know more about what happened to her.” Adrian’s eyes darkened and I had to put my hand on his shoulder to stop him from going after Ethan.

“I sent Sinclair to follow him. If Ethan is hiding Paula somewhere, he’ll lead us straight to her,” I said, pleading him with my eyes to stay with me. “And I don’t think you should pay another visit to the police soon, so leave Ethan alone.”

“You’re right.” He licked his lips, the tension leaving his shoulders. “We need to find Paula. Let’s hope they aren’t keeping her in an element-proof room.”

My phone vibrated and a message from Lily flashed on the screen. “The scientists in the lab aren’t answering Lily’s calls.” I frowned.

“That’s strange,” Adrian said. “Someone should be working at this hour.”

“Yeah, and there are at least a dozen of them who could pick up the phone.” I chewed on my lip, wondering how to put all the recent events together. “Someone actually announced a protest against the new law in my name and now this happens. Do you think it could be connected?”

“Do you think there is a group of carriers like Lily’s group? Maybe they don’t know about Lily and they realized the scientists are investigating the disease, so they decided to find out who those scientists are and what they’re doing.”

“I don’t know. Maybe one of the carriers needs an element donation or someone doesn’t want the scientists to research the disease. There are too many people who would want to either stop us or figure out what we know.” My phone vibrated again, announcing a call from an unknown number.

“Ria,” a distorted voice said, reminding me of a computer.

“Who’s that?” Anxiety clutched its fingers around my throat.

“The president of the country, my dear.”

“You don’t sound like him at all.” The president’s annoying voice had cut itself into my memory and he definitely didn’t sound like a robot. But why would someone want to impersonate the president? And why would someone think I’d fall for it?

“Of course I don’t. This conversation needs to stay private, so I made sure you can’t record this and use it against me one day.”

I really didn’t like where this was going. “Why should I trust you?”

“Because I have your friends under my supervision.”

“What do you mean?” I squeezed the phone in my hand, afraid to breathe. Even if this guy wasn’t the president, he had Paula and the others. It had to be him.

“Didn’t you notice your scientists were missing?”

“If you’re really the president, you can’t simply kidnap people for no good reason!” I took a deep breath to calm myself. “What did you do to them?”

“Don’t worry. They’ll be safe as long as you do what I tell you to.”

“What do you want me to do?” I didn’t believe a word this guy was saying, but I wanted to know what his intentions were.

“I’m sure you heard about the protest tomorrow. I want you to go there and hold a speech.”

“What? Are you insane? The president would never ask me to do such a thing.”

“You don’t believe me? Fine. Come to meet me in person in an hour. Someone will come to pick you up. But don’t even try to bring any weapons or eavesdropping devices with you because my security will find them all and destroy them. You won’t even be able to prove we had a meeting. Be ready.” The line went dead.

“Did you hear that?” I looked at Adrian, my eyes wide.

He nodded. “I think it’s really the president. Anyone else wouldn’t have bothered to impersonate him since they already have the scientists and Paula.”

“We can’t be sure that he has Paula.” I didn’t know whether the scientists had been taken from their homes or from the lab, but Paula clearly hadn’t been nowhere near the lab when she was taken.

“We can’t, but it would make sense that he took someone close to you.” Adrian took my hand in his and traced comforting circles on my palm.

“But why is he doing this? Why does he want me to hold a speech at the protest? Why doesn’t he stop the protest?” We had too many questions and few answers.

“I don’t know. Call Lily. She’ll know what to do.”

As I dialed Lily’s number, I tried to figure out what game the government was playing. Maybe Lily could help me make sense out of it. The only good news was that Paula and the others were probably alive. For now.

Chapter 23

A tall man in a black suit came to the university, his eyes hidden under opaque shades, and I immediately knew he was from the government.

“You should come with me,” he said, his face devoid of any emotion. He was here only to take me to the president and nothing else. My guards appeared behind my back in an instant, but the man waved them off. “Miss Milanez will be safe with me.”

“Yeah, right,” I mumbled, and turned to my guards. “It’s ok. Stay here.”

They nodded, but their eyes were wary. It didn’t surprise me that they didn’t trust the man. As I followed my mysterious new guard down the hall, I heard whispers and felt everyone’s eyes on me. Oh yeah, I was a nice source of amusement for everyone, especially now that probably everyone knew about the drama that had happened with Ethan.

Lily had managed to visit me earlier and told me to try to remember as many details as possible about the place where the president would meet with me. I even had weapons and a tracking device hidden on me, and Lily hoped at least one of those would pass undetected. The chances that the president was in the same place as the hostages were slim, but I had to be ready for anything.

As I got in the back seat of a black Audi, I hoped I’d be able to stay in control. Touching Kayla had helped me, but my wandering thoughts could easily upset me. It was impossibly hard to stop thinking about the worst. Once again, I assured myself that Paula would be fine, but the fear I would lose her still gripped my insides.

The car stopped in front of a hotel and I was ushered into the lobby. The president was waiting for me in the VIP area, which was heavily guarded. Two of his guards stepped forward and ordered me to stop so they could pat me down for weapons. It didn’t take them long to find the gun tucked inside of my left boot, but they found the knife too, even though the knife was hidden in the special sheath that could be barely felt and couldn’t be detected with any device. Lily had hoped they’d stop looking after they found the gun, but I wasn’t so lucky.

Despite my protests, one of the guards slipped his hand under my shirt and found the tracking device under the clasp of my bra. It was hard to keep still and wait for them to finish because I just wanted them to stop touching me. Their elements were buried deep inside of them, but they bugged me nevertheless. After they were done, they brought some sort of device and scanned me with it. God, they were good. Too good. One of the guards took my arm and placed an element-blocking bracelet around my wrist. Only then was I allowed to approach the president.

“Hello, Ria.” The president was seated in a big leather chair. His grayish hair was carefully combed and his black suit was impeccable as if he was about to have a press conference. His merciless green eyes gleamed with smugness. He had me right where he wanted me and that pissed me off. “Please, take a seat.”

I sat down on a big cream couch, opposite from him. The guards stood near the door, their eyes trained on the wall in front of them, which meant that the president trusted them not only with his life, but with his secrets too. I had three elements, so breaking through the bracelet wouldn’t be a problem, but I doubted I could win against the president’s guards, let alone get the president to confess where he was keeping Paula.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked. Obviously, the president was the one behind Paula’s kidnapping, and not an impostor.

“I found out about your allegiance with those filthy carriers,” he sneered.

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I frowned, hoping I was convincing enough.

He raised his finger in the air to shush me. “Don’t bother. I know about Lily.”

I kept my face blank and rested my hands in my lap. “I have no idea who that is.”

“Really, Ria? You can’t keep denying that you know what I’m talking about. My men have seen her with you.”

“Then, please, point her out to me. I’d never trust a carrier, so clearly someone is trying to trick me.” I willed him to believe me. No matter who had seen Lily and me, they couldn’t prove we were working together against the government. Unless the president showed me the proof, I’d never admit anything.

“You’re not a good liar.” He pressed his lips together, an angry tick starting in his jaw. I was pissing him off. Good. Did he really think I’d break so easily and confess everything? Any carrier could have told him about Lily, so there was no need for me to jump to conclusions and assume he knew all about her.

“Fine. You don’t have to help me. I’ll find this Lily myself.” I crossed my legs, leaning back. “Why don’t you let the scientists go? I’ll hold the damn speech if you want me to. But those people whose lives you’re threatening work for you, actually. There’s no point in holding them somewhere against their will.”

“No, Ria, they don’t work for me. They were supposed to work on the newest device to detect carriers, but we found evidence in the lab that they were researching magic disease instead.”

So the scientists had been taken from the lab, not from their homes. “What evidence? I don’t know anything about science, but don’t you think they should study magic disease if they want to create a device for detecting carriers?”

He laughed, no doubt trying to unnerve me.

“What am I supposed to say to the protesters? Do you have the whole speech written and printed out for me?” I said after a long moment of silence.

He waved his hand at me. “Whatever you want as long as they listen to you.”

Huh. That didn’t make any sense. Wouldn’t he want to stop me from speaking up against him or he thought I wouldn’t do anything stupid while my friends were in danger? “When will you let the scientists go?”

“After it’s all over.” An unidentifiable feeling flashed in his eyes.

“After what is over?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“The protest, of course.” The corners of his lips went up.

“I really don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve with the protest. Are you trying to ensure the protest is a failure? Who organized it in the first place? You?” Even the smallest detail could help me figure out what he planned to do, but he wasn’t exactly forthcoming.