Saving Rain

by Karen-Anne Stewart

  “Come, this is where you deliver the girls. We will let you know where we will have the bid tomorrow.”

  Kas quickly scans the area, memorizing the layout as he is led inside. The machines that once ran the factory are still there, old and rusted. Kas listens carefully, trying to determine where the girls are being held. A large rat scurries across the floor, and Victor kicks at it.

  “I hate rats,” Victor states, shuddering as he pulls out his gun in case an unlucky one scurries out to be used as target practice.

  Kas hears nothing but isn’t concerned, he knows the girls are typically forced to remain silent. Their footsteps echo as they continue south through the darkness, the only light spilling in is from the holes in the dingy windows near the roof. He hears a radio in the distance and his blood starts pumping, wondering how many guards are watching the girls. The radio gets louder as they round a corner and enter an area that looks like it once held the factory’s offices.

  Kas counts three guards at an old dusty desk playing some kind of card game. One of the guards is apparently loosing badly. He witnesses the ill-tempered guard smack the propped-up feet of another one, knocking his feet to the floor before throwing down a couple of large bills. One additional guard is smoking in the hallway on the other side. The card game is immediately halted when the guards spot the boss. The burly guard with the cigarette doesn’t seem fazed by his presence as he stares at them passively, taking a long draw on his nicotine stick.

  “Tony, these will be the men watching your girls, they like it when you bring them smokes and whiskey,” Victor begins, “it helps them pass the time.”

  “I would’ve had them pegged more as Vodka drinkers.”

  “If you have any pures, you need to let them know which ones they are, so they don’t touch them.”

  Kas bites back his contempt. “Is that a guarantee? I get triple, sometimes more, for those.”

  The cold business side of Victor emerges, “They know the rules, they taint the pure ones, they die.”

  “I can have the girls delivered by dark. I have men who can stay if the four of them can’t handle the extras.”

  “The boss doesn’t like outsiders, have them drop the girls off and leave.”

  From the size of the outside of the factory, Kas figures that the girls are being held in the area behind the offices, but he can’t be sure. He has to confirm the girls are in this building and soon. “I would like to see the product before I make the call. We have a reputation to uphold.” Kas sees the indignation in Artyom’s eyes, and Victor’s feathers get all ruffled.

  “We had a deal,” Victor spouts out angrily.

  “I’m sure we still do, but every good businessman tests the product before selling it to his customers.”

  The room is deathly quiet. Kas’ gaze on the boss remains steady and emotionless as seconds tick by before Arytom’s arrogant laughter breaks the silent standoff, the callousness in his eyes gleaming wretchedly. “Come, let’s see what satisfies your tastes.”

  Kas’ body goes into raid mode, his senses sharpening and his mind planning as he follows the boss and Victor to two large padlocked doors. Victor removes the locks and slides the heavy metal doors open, revealing one large open room with at least sixty trembling, terrified girls cramped inside. Kas fights nausea when he sees a few that can’t be any older than twelve or thirteen.

  “They will look even better when they’re all cleaned and dressed-up for tomorrow night,” the boss continues, his obvious regard for the girls being nothing more than little dolls to be played with and discarded until they are wanted again. “See any you would like to sample?”

  Kas forces his face to be neutral as the eyes of the petrified girls turn away from him, each terror-stricken face heartbreakingly pleading that she is not the one chosen to be subjected to hell again. He chooses one of the younger ones, knowing that he can get at least one of the children away from them when the team advances. “I don’t like an audience,” he barks gruffly.

  Victor grabs the trembling girl as one of the older girls screams for him to let her go and tries to grab her, only to be knocked to the ground by the back of Victor’s hand. The girl is sobbing as Victor roughly hands her over, and it’s all Kas can do to not cradle the child in his arms and swear to her that no one will ever hurt her again. Instead, Kas grabs the girl’s arm and follows Victor to a small storage room behind the offices. Kas leads the crying, scared girl inside and closes the door before immediately releasing her, grabbing a chair and placing it securely underneath the door knob.

  “I’m not going to hurt you, honey, we’re going to get you out of here,” he whispers to the girl huddled on the floor, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees as the tears stream down her young, dirty face. He raises his watch, bringing it closer to his mouth as he commands, “The girls are on the far south side, I’m in a storage room approximately forty feet north east, go now!” Kas turns back to the scared child, “It’s getting ready to get very loud in here in a minute, cover your ears, honey.”

  Raina paces the small confinement of the van. Frustration rips through her as Erik continues to refuse to allow her to listen to what’s going on, due to Kas’ strict orders forbidding it. Her heart rate accelerates rapidly as she sees the men from the other van exiting the vehicle, guns in hand. She watches as they run, as if in slow motion, spreading out in the direction the tracker on the Escalade indicates. She looks at Erik pleadingly, but he ignores her, too busy monitoring the equipment. She’s ready to steal the headphones directly off of Erik’s head as she chews nervously on her lower lip. She sees Erik grimace and pull the headphones away from his ears momentarily, and she panics, “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s just the flash bangs, crap they’re loud!”

  Raina’s heart feels like it’s going to explode from the intensity of her palpations.

  Erik carefully listens, trying to drown out the background noises and screams from the girls.

  “One down,” he hears Derrick’s voice after two loud shots.

  “I’ve got Victor,” Austin’s voice rings out above the deafening noise.

  Raina leans on the tiny table, her palms sweating and pressing against the hard metal as she stares at Erik, praying to somehow be able to read his mind and hear what he’s hearing.

  Erik listens to Kas’ deafening voice yelling for Jake to throw him a gun, then more gun fire rings out. Erik is struggling to keep up with the chaos assaulting his ears. He hears more screams and then Luis’ voice shouting he got one, then Kas’ voice confirming he’s secured Arytom. Erik does a mental count, coming up with three men left, two guards and the bodyguard that accompanied the boss.

  Raina bites her lip so hard it breaks the skin as she prays everyone will make it out alive.

  Erik presses the headphones to his ears, not able to tell if it was Russo or Mack that confirmed another is down. Erik hears a rapid series of gun fire and Derrick yelling Kas’ name, screaming at him to get down, before he hears the deafening sounds of several high-powered rounds blasting in his ears. Erik’s face goes ghastly white as he hears Derrick scream, “Agent down! Agent down!”

  Raina sees Erik’s blanched face and panic widened eyes. She turns to him, her eyes desperately pleading, “What happened?”

  Erik just stares at her. She continues to beg him for information, “Erik, please!” His eyes say it all, and Raina screams, “Nooo!” She bursts out the back of the van doors, and races down the road. Images of Kas flash through her mind, the day they first met, his tenderness when he examined her cut lip, the way his eyes looked when he told her that he loved her, their first kiss, and she runs faster, her need to get to him pushing her beyond her physical limitations, making her go even faster.

  Seeing the warehouse, Raina ignores the fiery burn in her muscles as her body screams to move. She sees Michael but barely registers his presence leading the girls outside to safety as she races past him, frantic to find Kas. She feels hands grabbing her, pulling
her backwards as she screams to be released. She kicks, elbows, and claws to get away, her only focus is to get to Kas. The hands restrain her, and she lets out a heart-wrenching scream as she fights with all her might.

  Another set of hands are on her, pulling her even further backwards as she thrashes and rages like a wild animal to free herself so she can reach Kas. The hands are stronger than her, and they bring her down, the voices behind them trying to comfort and calm her, but she doesn’t hear them. She doesn’t hear anything anymore, just the memories of Kas’ tender words whispering in her mind.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Raina absently smells the flowers in her hand, her mind anywhere but in the present. Her body’s internal coping mechanism takes over as her emotions shut down. She stands next to Dexter as she stares at all the sad faces looking down at what she can’t bear to see. Dexter’s hand wraps over the top of her shoulder, trying to comfort her, but she can’t feel the offered solace. She wants to drop to her knees and weep, but the tears won’t come.

  Her hands tighten around the roses. A thorn pricks her finger, causing a drop of blood to run slowly down her hand. She watches the red trickle roll down, and she is overcome with how quickly life can be taken away without giving you a chance to say what needs to be said. She closes her eyes, no longer able to witness the anguish in front of her.

  Raina feels a hand take the flowers from her and gently wipe the blood away as she tries to drown out the noises from the machines beeping all around the room. She feels strong arms pulling her into a warm embrace. “Everything will be alright, sweetheart, he’s a fighter,” she hears Kas’ words whispering to her reassuringly.

  Opening her eyes, she forces herself to look at Frank. She can’t believe that the motionless body lying in front of her is that of the jovial, vibrant man that has made her laugh so many times and has helped to save countless girls and women from the depths of hell on earth. She stares at his pale, ashen face and wishes he would wake up and crack some joke that he has just learned from Austin.

  Raina turns to Kas, her heart breaking at the sadness in his eyes. “Is there anything I can do to help you through this?” she asks. She can’t imagine what he’s feeling right now, seeing his friend gunned down and hanging in the balance of life and death.

  “You being here with me, that’s what I need right now,” Kas pulls her closer into him, and Raina sinks into his warmth, trying to absorb some of his strength.

  “Promise me he will be okay,” she whispers.

  Kas kisses her forehead, “I promise that, if Frank has any say so in the matter, he will be back on his feet, aggravating all of us in no time, baby.”

  Raina holds onto that promise as Kas leads her out the door and to the elevator of the ICU. He carefully watches her as they ride to the parking deck. He doesn’t know what to do to help her, to comfort her. He wishes he could promise that Frank will come out of this, that the gunshot wounds will heal, and he will awaken from his coma very soon, but he can’t. He doesn’t know what will happen, and that scares him to the core. Frank is more than just an agent on his team, he’s a friend, a good friend, and he’s just as scared as she is that he might lose him. Kas has already called Chase, knowing how Chase can help to ease her mind, and he’s waiting on them at home.

  The ride is silent until they pull into their drive, and Raina looks at Kas, the raw emotions in her eyes devastating him. “I thought that was you Kas, I thought you were the one who was shot, and when I found out it wasn’t you, I was so relieved,” she admits. The relief is evident in her eyes, but so is the guilt that her relief didn’t help Frank. “I don’t know what I would do without you. My whole world just ended when I thought it was you.”

  Kas rips the seatbelt off of her and yanks her into his arms, cradling her as he delivers a reassuring kiss to her forehead.

  “I was so happy when I saw you leave that warehouse, I didn’t think of anything else.” The guilt chokes her as she thinks of Frank lying so close to death in the ICU.

  He wraps his arms around her, trying to give her the strength and security she needs right now, “I would have thought the same about you, Raina, you didn’t do anything wrong, baby girl.”

  She stays wrapped in the protection of his strong, loving arms a few minutes longer as he assures her she has nothing to feel guilty about before they go inside.

  Chase meets them at the door, his gaze studying Kas’, trying to assess how his friend is handling the situation, “Has there been any change?”

  Kas shakes his head somberly, and Chase squeezes his shoulder reassuringly as he wraps his arm around Raina, “I brought pizza, I figured you haven’t eaten yet.”

  Neither of them are hungry, but they eat to make Chase feel better. Chase carefully watches Raina, worry filling him, wondering if she will regress and pull her emotions tightly back inside herself. He studies Kas and knows that he’s dealing with it the best way he knows how, planning the next move, the next step to bringing the Ghost down. He knows that this is Kas’ coping mechanism, his way of dealing with the stress. He knows Kas’ need to fix things, to take control, is how he manages to get through the tough times like this.

  Chase has gone all out to prepare his best profile of the Ghost, hoping and praying it will at least somehow help to get them closer to him. He knows the disappointment all of them felt when they found out Arytom isn’t Prizrak. He stays with Kas and Raina until late into the evening, talking with them some about Frank, sharing stories and laughing about his crazy antics to keep themselves from breaking down and weeping. “Call me if you, or if Rain, need anything,” he insists.

  “Thanks for everything. I really need your help on this case,” Kas pauses before looking at Chase, his emotions raw on his face, “I have to take him down, Chase.” The look in his eyes show just how strong that need is.

  “I’ll help anyway I can,” he assures him, although no words were necessary for that. Kas knows Chase is there for him, he always has been.

  Kas slides out of bed, careful not to awaken Raina. He quietly slips into jeans and a t-shirt before scribbling a quick note in case she wakes up in the middle of the night and finds him gone. Half an hour later, he’s sitting next to Frank, a vigil by his side until dawn starts to break with its hazy red hues breathing life to the early morning sky. He rubs his weary eyes and says another prayer for Frank, giving one last dismal look at his comatose state before heading home.

  The next few days pass without any change in Frank’s prognosis. The team has rotated their visits, and one of them is staying faithfully by his side. Raina insisted on being included in the rotation, feeling as if Frank is a part of her family now, and she wants to give the others some much needed rest. The time when they aren’t standing vigil, they are burning the candle at both ends, trying to track down the Ghost.

  A little over a week after the raid, Kas comes home from a long day at work, after being up most of the previous night at the hospital. He is beyond exhausted and is teetering on the edge of his ability to hold it all together without much needed sleep.

  Raina stops what she’s doing when she hears Kas walk through the door. She lays down the files she has been re-reading, making sure she didn’t miss anything in translation that could give them a clue about Prizrak. She kisses him before grabbing his plate, heating his dinner, and then sitting next to him as he eats. She has been missing his company lately. “I’m going to go take another look at the recovered computers after you go to bed.”

  Kas shakes his head, almost too exhausted to move, “I don’t want you out alone so late at night.”

  “I’ll go straight there and come straight back when I’m done,” she assures him.

  “I said no, Raina!” Kas barks at her.

  Raina remains quiet for a moment before responding, not wanting to argue and cause him any more stress. “I know you’re really tired and under a lot of pressure right now, I just want to help,” she explains, her voice soft as her eyes implore him to understand
.

  “Will you just do as I say for once and not push the issue, Raina?”

  She bites the inside of her cheek, not wanting to shoot back a biting remark, knowing he’s not been his usual self the past few days. She busies herself putting his plate in the sink, not wanting to speak before she knows she can respond calmly. She hears him sigh as he comes up behind her.

  Wrapping his arms around her waist, Kas pulls her close to him, “I didn’t mean to snap at you, Rain.”

  Raina leans back into him, missing his touch and the feel of her body wrapped up in his. “I know, but you don’t have to act like my father,” she tells him gently.

  Kas’ frayed edges snap at her remark, mistaking her meaning. He backs away from her, anger boiling at her words, “Your father! If I were acting like your father, you would be lying in the floor right about now, Raina.” Regret immediately engulfs him, striking his heart like a flash of lightening as he hears his own words and how they came out all wrong. The look in her eyes twists into him like a sharp knife as she grabs her purse and heads straight for the door.

  “Oh, hell, baby, I’m sorry,” Kas calls out to her, wishing he could turn back time and take the words back.

  Raina ignores him, seething with hurt and anger, as she marches towards the door.

  “Raina, stop,” he calls out after her, and she spins around, fury spitting embers from her blazing jade eyes.

  “Is that a request, or an order?” she snaps back bitterly.

  Kas rakes his hand through his hair. “I deserved that,” he concedes, owning up to his asinine attitude. “I’m asking for you to stay. Please, don’t go, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I’m just so tired, Rain, my brain isn’t functioning correctly right now.” He closes the distance between them and takes her hand in his, “I need you here with me tonight.”