Marking Time (WeHo Series Book 4)

by Sherryl D. Hancock

  Raine had her arms wrapped around Natalia, she lay with her eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of closeness of Natalia against her.

  “You know,” Raine said, her voice sounding sated, “I never really thought about being with a man…” she said, her tone puzzled on the last.

  Natalia lifted her head, “So you always knew you were gay?” she asked.

  “No,” Raine said, shaking her head, “I didn’t. I just thought women were beautiful, or sexy, but I never realized it was because I was interested in them.”

  Natalia looked back at her, “That makes sense. Are your parents’ anti-gay? Because that could explain it too…” Her voice trailed off a the odd look that crossed Raine’s face. “What?” she asked then.

  “I really don’t know if my parents are anti-gay.” Raine said, her tone odd.

  “What do you mean? How could you not know? Did it never come up?” Natalia asked.

  Raine bit her lip, her look reticent.

  “Raine?” Natalia queried, not sure what was happening.

  Raine took a deep breath, blowing out as she said, “I never met my father,” she said, “And my mother left me at a park when I was five.”

  “What?” Natalia said, her tone shocked, her eyes blinking, her eyes searched Raine’s for signs that she was kidding. “You were in the system?” she asked when she realized Raine was definitely serious.

  Raine nodded, “For ten years,” she said.

  “And you didn’t tell me,” Natalia said, her tone hurt, “Even when I told you about Julie…”

  Raine looked contrite, but shrugged, “I just don’t really talk about it.”

  “Like Julliard?” Natalia asked.

  Raine didn’t answer, she just looked back at her, her eyes showed her discomfort.

  “Wait, you said ten years,” Natalia said, “What about the other three?” she asked, knowing that kids aged out of the foster system at the age of 18.

  Raine shifted, her shoulder twitching slightly in a half shrug, “I never showed up at the home they tried to shift me to when I was fifteen,” she said, “I kind of got myself lost.”

  “Lost?” Natalia asked her tone pained.

  “I kept going to school,” Raine said, “So no one seemed to notice.”

  “But where did you live? Where did you stay?” Natalia asked then, her look horrified.

  Raine shrugged again, “Wherever.” She said simply.

  “Wherever?” Natalia repeated, disbelieving.

  Raine nodded, blinking a couple of times.

  “But how did you get into Julliard?” Natalia asked.

  “One of the homes I was in was trying to impress Social Services so they put me in a ballet class. I liked it, so even when they quit paying I made a deal with the teacher to clean up and stuff so I could keep taking her class.”

  “How old were you?” Natalia asked.

  “Like nine,” Raine said, sounding very young at that moment.

  “So how did you end up at Julliard?”

  “They had open auditions, anyone could try out. So I did.”

  “And they accepted you,” Natalia said.

  “Yep,” Raine said.

  “How did you pay for it? I imagine Julliard isn’t cheap.”

  “Scholarship,” Raine said.

  Natalia stared back at her for a full minute, her mind trying to assimilate what she was hearing. She’d decided that Raine must have come from parents with money in order to have gone to a school as prestigious as Julliard. Now she was finding out that not only did Raine not come from a stable family, but she had obviously struggled to get where she had.

  “You must be really good for them to have given you a scholarship.” Natalia said.

  Raine shrugged again, “I guess.”

  “You guess?” Natalia repeated, the beginnings of a smile on her face.

  Raine said nothing, just looking back at Natalia, she wasn’t sure if this was the end of the questions, because they were coming close to a very uncomfortable subject, so she was hoping it was the end.

  “So I guess that blows my theory out of the water,” Natalia said.

  “Theory?” Raine asked, surprised by the change in topic, but relieved by it as well.

  “That Julie is messed up because of the system,” Natalia said.

  Raine looked back at her for a long moment, then said, “Julie’s messed up because that’s how Julie is made.”

  Natalia looked at Raine, “And you’re not, because you’re not made that way.”

  “Right,” Raine said, nodding.

  “Will you tell me more about your experiences some time?” Natalia asked, having sensed Raine’s tension around the topic, but happy that she’d at least told her.

  Raine nodded, her look solemn.

  Natalia leaned in kissing Raine’s lips, “Thank you for telling me.” She said softly.

  Then she put her head against Raine’s chest, her hand reaching up to touch a tendril of long curly hair that had come loose from the Raine’s braid. Natalia realized the impact of what Raine had just told her. This woman had been through so much, and yet she’d come out on the other end, strong and still a sweet person. How as that possible?

  Two weeks later the group gathered at Kashena and Sierra’s house once again, this time to help them move in. There was a moving truck and so many boxes. Everyone also had the opportunity to meet Colby, Kashena and Sierra’s 13 year old son. They found that he was very polite and very respectful. Everyone loved him instantly. With his light hair and dark eyes like his mothers’, he was definitely a heart breaker.

  Sebastian was there helping with the heavier stuff. Sierra, ever the organizer, had all the boxes labeled and all the rooms labeled with corresponding numbers. It wasn’t long before half the truck had been unloaded. Kashena called an official break.

  Kashena, Sebastian, Skyler, Jericho and Quinn all stood on the back patio smoking while the rest of the group put together lunch. Colby was tasked with taking beers out to the group outside. He did so with a grin.

  “He’s a sweetie,” Cat commented to Sierra.

  Sierra smiled, “Yes, fortunately nothing like his father, and a lot like Kashena.”

  “What happened to his father?” Natalia asked, “If you don’t mind my asking.”

  “No, it’s okay,” Sierra said, “His father is in prison in Sacramento.”

  “Oh,” Natalia said, looking shocked.

  Sierra grinned at the girls reaction, “He did it to himself,” she said, “First he hit me in front of Kashena, then he made the mistake of trying to attack her.”

  “He hit you?” Devin asked, her look shocked.

  “Yes,” Sierra said, “I was leaving him and he wasn’t happy about it.”

  “Had he hit you before?” Zoey asked.

  “No,” Sierra said, “But he had been different since he’d come back from Iraq,” she said, her look far away.

  “He was in Iraq?” Devin asked, glancing out the window at Skyler.

  “Yes, he was a Marine, like Kashena was,” Sierra said.

  “Oh, I didn’t realize Kashena had been a Marine,” Devin said, “Was Sebastian one also?”

  Sierra smiled, remembering the time Kashena had told her about her and Sebastian’s first meeting.

  “No, Sebastian was an Army Ranger,” Sierra said, “They fought each other the first time they met.”

  “Like knock down drag out?” Xandy asked, looking shocked.

  “Yep,” Sierra said, smiling as she looked out the window at Kashena, “It ended in a draw and they became best friends over a bottle of Jack Daniels.”

  Devin chuckled, “That sounds about right,” she said, grinning.

  There was a ring of the doorbell at that moment, Sierra looked perplexed, “Uh, okay… not expecting anyone else.” She said, then went to answer the door.

  Sierra opened the front door and beamed, “Oh my Gods!!!” she said.

  “I thought you could use some extra hands,” said
Midnight Chevalier.

  Standing behind her was her husband Rick Debenshire, Joe Sinclair, John Machievelli, Randy Sinclair as well as Kana and Palani and their 4 month old baby.

  “Is that my girl…?” Sierra said, cooing at the baby. “Come in. Come in!”

  The group walked in, greeting Sierra with hugs and comments.

  Raine stood staring in awe as the Attorney General for the State of California walked in.

  “You’ve never met, Midnight, have you?” Cat asked, grinning.

  Raine shook her head, her mouth still hanging open.

  Cat laughed, and took Raine’s hand and lead her over to Midnight who was hugging Zoey.

  “Midnight,” Cat said, touching Midnight on the shoulder, “This is Raine Mason she’s a member of my team at LA Impact.”

  Raine suddenly had a pair of gold green eyes trained on her, and she was fairly certain she was going to die.

  Midnight grinned, having gotten used to the way people acted around her, putting out her hand, she touch Raine on the shoulder, “Hi,” she said, smiling.

  “Hello ma’am,” Raine said, her tone very official.

  “Call me Midnight,” Midnight said, her smile warm.

  “I, oh,” Raine stammered, “I don’t think I can…” She said, her tone awed.

  Midnight laughed, “Sure you can, I even got Zoey to stop calling me ma’am,” she said, winking at Zoey.

  “She doesn’t work for you, ma’am.” Raine replied immediately.

  “Jesus, are you scarin’ people again?” Rick said, his sapphire blue eyes twinkling as he walked up, hugging Cat. “How are ya, love?” he asked Cat.

  “I’m good, Rick, you remember Jovina?”

  “I do,” Rick said, smiling at Jovina, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek, then he looked over at Raine and Midnight. “Give it up, Night, these kids are trained in the academy to call you ma’am, gonna have to deal for a bit.”

  Midnight sighed, reaching out to touch Raine on the hand again, “Just know you’re allowed if you choose to, okay?”

  Raine nodded numbly.

  Midnight grinned, and shook her head, then she moved to greet the others in the room, then walked outside.

  “You alright?” Cat asked Raine.

  “They’re legends…” Raine said.

  Cat chuckled, “And you didn’t even grow up in California.”

  “I heard of her in New York,” Raine said, “She’s like famous all over the country. So’s her husband, and is that Joe Sinclair?”

  “Steady,” Cat said, grinning.

  “Hey Cat,” Joe said, walking up and hugging Catalina, his light blue eyes moved to Raine not recognizing her. “Hi, I’m Joe,” he said, smiling, extending his hand to Raine.

  Raine nodded to him, barely remembering to put her hand out. Joe grinned.

  “And you are?” he asked.

  “I’m Raine, Deputy Raine Mason, sir.”

  “I’m retired love, you can’t call me sir anymore,” Joe said, winking.

  “Yes, but,” Raine stammered.

  “No, buts,” Joe said, “It’s Joe or hey you,” he said, grinning.

  Again, Raine nodded, not willing to call him either at that point.

  Outside the comments were flying, and the group was laughing uproariously by the time Sierra told them that food was ready.

  “Are you okay?” Natalia asked Raine, who still looked a bit dazed.

  “Talia, you have no idea who those people are…” Raine said.

  “Sure I do,” Natalia said.

  “Okay, but they’re like rock stars in the law enforcement community.”

  Natalia smiled, she found it extremely endearing that Raine was so awed by these people. She knew that Midnight was the Attorney General and that Rick Debenshire her husband was well known as was Joe Sinclair. She didn’t know a lot about them, but she knew enough to understand Raine’s discomfort.

  During lunch there was a lot of fawning over Kana and Palani’s baby, Anone Akua Sorbinno, the little girl was a beautiful dark haired baby doll. There was also a lot of good natured ribbing about the $1.7 million dollar mansion they were all sitting in at that time.

  “The State is paying entirely too well, here,” Devin said, grinning.

  “Excuse me, miss ‘I don’t get out of bed for less than a hundred thousand’…” Skyler said, grinning.

  “Yeah, how much did that house in Malibu cost, doll?” Quinn asked, grinning.

  “Bite me!” Devin said, grinning.

  “Tell me when and where,” Quinn said, winking.

  “Don’t make me kill you here in front of all these cops,” Skyler said.

  “I can do it for you,” Xandy said, narrowing her lavender blue eyes at her girlfriend.

  “Only kidding love, don’t get yer knickers in a twist,” Quinn said to her girlfriend and winking at Skyler.

  “Army pilots are mean…” Sebastian said, grinning.

  “Hooah,” Skyler intoned.

  “Hooah,” Sebastian replied.

  “Ah crap, I’m out numbered,” Kashena said.

  “Nope, Navy Seal here, close enough, right?” John Machiavelli said, grinning.

  “Oo rah,” Kashena said, grinning.

  “Any port in a storm, huh Marine?” Sebastian said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Die Ranger, just die,” Kashena said, shaking her head.

  “All in good time,” Sebastian said.

  “Okay, you two,” Sierra said, giving her wife a nudge.

  “Uh-oh, wife alert,” Sebastian said.

  “Don’t make me come over there,” Sierra said, narrowing her dark eyes at Sebastian.

  Kashena started to laugh, as Sebastian held his hands up in surrender.

  Later they all got back to unpacking the truck, but by sundown everyone was exhausted. Everyone had been invited to stay at the house, some stayed, others left. Natalia insisted that they stay, since she didn’t feel that it was safe for Raine to ride back down the hill, not only in the dark, but as tired as she was. They ended up in a spare bedroom. It was obvious to Natalia that Raine was exhausted, but she didn’t seem to be able to settle down to sleep.

  “What can I do?” Natalia asked, watching Raine pace like a caged panther.

  Raine looked over at her, Natalia was sitting in the middle of the bed, her hair pulled back from her face with a clip, she wore just a hot pink tank top with the word “work” printed on it in black and a pair of black bikini underwear. Raine still couldn’t believe how beautiful this woman was and that she was lucky enough to be dating her.

  “Nothing, hon,” she told Natalia, “I just can’t seem to relax right now.”

  “Ven aqui,” Natalia said, patting the bed.

  Raine looked back at her, her look cautious. “Why?”

  “Just come here!” Natalia exclaimed, laughing as she did.

  Walking over to the bed, Raine climbed up on it, as Natalia reached out taking Raine’s face in her hands, pulling her close so she could kiss her lips.

  “Now, lay down, on your stomach,” Natalia ordered. “Wait.” she said, “Take this off first.” she said, gesturing to the tank top that Raine was wearing for bed.

  Raine breathed a sigh, then complied and lay down. Natalia moved to straddle her waist and began massaging Raine’s back, slowly, starting from her low back and working her way up slowly. Raine moaned softly, feeling muscles that had been over-worked that day tightening, then slowly loosening up under Natalia’s ministrations.

  When Raine was completely relaxed, Natalia leaned down, kissing Raine’s shoulder, then her shoulder blade, then her other shoulder and that shoulder blade, moving lower and lower kissing every inch of skin. By the time she got to Raine’s lower back, Raine was turning over and pulling her down with her, kissing her lips deeply. They made love then as quietly as possible and lay together afterwards, Raine falling asleep feeling relaxed and completely sated.

  “So how are you feeling about the house?” Sierra asked Kas
hena in their bedroom that night.

  Kashena quirked a grin, “I’m still adjusting,” she said.

  “I know,” Sierra said, “It’s a lot of house.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Kashena said. “Do you still like it?” she asked then.

  “More now, actually,” Sierra said, smiling.

  “Well, then we’re here,” Kashena said, grinning.

  “It was really nice for Midnight to come by,” Sierra said, smiling.

  “It was nice of her to come by with help,” Kashena said grinning.

  “Well, that too,” Sierra said. “Oh, we have to make sure we get Colby registered for school this week,” she said, “Their school year starts here in August.”

  “Yikes, that’s the week after next.”

  “I know!” Sierra said, nodding, “That’s why I’m saying we can’t forget.”

  Kashena nodded, there was a lot to do in a short amount of time. The beginning of the week she was reporting to her new unit. She’d heard a lot about the unit she was taking over and she wasn’t looking forward to dealing with some of the personalities she’d heard about. There were some definite bad apples in the barrel and she needed to weed them out and get some better quality people assigned. Kashena would be running the Covert Operations and Informant Development group. She’d already been informed that the unit was running amok at that point, since they hadn’t had a leader in some time. One member had already decided he was going to be the leader when Kashena was put in charge. Kashena knew she was going to have a problem with that particular member.

  Sierra’s challenge was to get the Los Angeles AG’s office up and running on the newest electronic case management system. All the other offices were utilizing the system, her Deputy Attorney General III in the Criminal Division in Los Angeles had made a series of excuses as to why her office wasn’t using the system. Midnight had finally gotten fed up when one too many cases had slipped through the cracks, causing delays in capital trials, making Midnight’s office look bad. She’d assigned Sierra to take charge of her people in that Division and wanted her to work with the other DAG IVs to get everyone on track. Sierra knew Midnight was counting on her, and she had no intention of letting her boss down.