Saving Rain

by Karen-Anne Stewart

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  As the weeks pass, they haven’t gotten any closer to finding the Ghost, and the tension is tangible as frustration ripples through the team. Frank is back to work with only a slight limp left from his near-death experience. Raina has been working diligently with Erik and the rest of the geek sheiks, but nothing has been found from the thoroughly-searched computers that were recovered from both Arytom’s and Victor’s homes.

  Kas hates how the intelligence of the traffickers is seemingly increasing as they keep the identity of the ring leader a well-guarded secret. Derrick was making progress with El Diablo before he ended up violently murdered. His death was written off as the result of a gang fight in prison, but Kas’ gut tells him differently. The timing of his death is anything but a coincidence as Derrick was getting closer to cracking him.

  Classes have resumed, and Raina has agreed to lessen her usual exorbitant amount of credit hours, so she’s not overwhelmed with school and her job with the FBI as she works towards attaining her doctorate. With Kas’ encouragement, she has started inviting her study groups to their house. He feels more comfortable knowing she’s at home and will not be coming home so late from the library, even though Sutton has seemed to take the hint and has backed off. He has also enjoyed getting to know her classmates, a couple of them becoming part of their closer circle of friends. Seth and Sara are going out regularly with them and Chase now, and he finds it a bonus that Chase has seemed to take a strong interest in Sara, turning away from his usual rule about only going out with women a few years older than him.

  Fall has flown by, and it is clear that Raina has already been accepted as part of Kas’ family when she met the rest of them over Thanksgiving. His grandparents immediately fell in love with her. They made her promise to have Kas take her to visit them on their farm in Tennessee soon.

  Chase has been dragged to every ring shop in the surrounding area before Kas had finally decided on the perfect one, much to Chase’s relief. Kas hid the ring but keeps pulling it out from time to time, waiting for the day he can finally put it on Raina’s finger. He is forcing himself to wait to ask her to be his wife until after she takes her last final before Christmas break. The wait is killing him, and he’s not sure he will survive another two weeks.

  Despite Kas’ impatience, the first week quickly disappeared as Kas and Derrick’s teams threw themselves into planning when they caught a break when Michael called from New Jersey with a lead on another sub-group. They carefully planned the raid on the group believed to be part of the Ghost’s trafficking ring in New York. It about killed Kas when he refused to allow Raina to go, not wanting her to jeopardize her finals.

  His demanding her to stay led to their biggest argument to date. Their argument was so heated that they were practically in each other’s face as they each screamed their own reasons of why she should or shouldn’t go. When the intensity of their heated discussion began to brew to new blazing heights, Kas had grabbed Raina, effectively silencing her raving when he had conquered her lips with his hot, angry passion.

  Their flaming desire quickly landed them in bed, nearly causing them to succumb to their raging needs before they made themselves stop. Kas’ pride tripled in size as Raina literally whimpered from her need for him, when she forced herself to sleep in her old room. They both knew that no amount of self-control would keep them from making love if they shared a bed that night.

  The next day the combined team headed to New York, where they took down the largest sub-group they’ve raided, rescuing over eighty women and girls. The shape of some of the women left the team scarred after they witnessed their half-starved, abused bodies covered in tract marks littering their arms from the trafficker’s twisted way of subduing them until they were needed again. Even Chase’s usual optimism of emotional recovery floundered for some of the ones who had been subjected to too many years of hell. In the end, they solemnly swore not to give up hope, praying that the girls will push through and survive. Kas’ depression over the horrors he witnessed the past few days finally started to ease with each passing mile as he got closer to home, closer to Raina. He counted down the few days left before her finals.

  Kas slips the text book out from underneath Raina’s arm and holds the coffee tantalizingly under her nose as he kisses her on the forehead, whispering in her ear for her to wake up. He had gotten up early and fixed breakfast, letting her sleep when she would usually be standing next to him as they cooked breakfast together. He wanted to be sure that she is well rested for her last exams today.

  He bites back his excitement, not wanting her to notice his peculiar behavior so he can keep to his plan of surprising her tonight. The coffee does the trick, and she blindly reaches out to grasp it, taking a slow appreciative sip before opening her eyes.

  “Good morning,” Raina smiles sexily at him before taking another welcoming sip.

  Kas stares at her, her natural beauty so wild and tempting in the morning, with her hair cascading down over her shoulders in untamed auburn waves. He feels the bulge in his jeans harden, and he silently tells the impatient, unruly part of him that it won’t be long before they can finally share their love in the most intimate of ways. His need to love her, taste her, possess her, has driven him nearly mad with desire, and he can’t wait until he can make Raina his in every way.

  They share the huge breakfast that Kas cooked before she takes a quick shower. Raina is ready to get her last finals out of the way and finish up in the computer lab before spending the Christmas break with Kas. She’s looking forward to not having to split her time between working with him and going to class.

  She goes over what she wants to buy him for Christmas as she drives to the university and is overwhelmed with excitement as she thinks about their plans of spending Christmas at her cabin. Raina has to force herself to rid her mind of the delicious images of making out with Kas on the living room rug, underneath the branches of the twinkling tree, as she begins her exam.

  Two hours later, she checks her work before handing it to her professor. A huge smile spreads across her lips as she heads downtown to meet Seth and Sara for a quick lunch before their last finals. They decide on a café close to the university and discuss their Christmas plans over lunch.

  Raina is so caught up in her excitement that she doesn’t see the man walking behind her who stops suddenly to turn around, his eyes turning into a glacial frost. The man’s lips twist into a harsh smile as he realizes that the girl, less than two feet away from him, is none other than his wayward daughter, his daughter whom he hasn’t seen in over four years. Anger flames back to life at the memory of how she had almost ruined his career when Henry had threatened to have him thrown in jail after she went running to him after the last time he had punished her.

  William Waterford walks out of the café as memories from the last night he saw Raina flash in his head, and for a second, he thinks to himself that maybe he had gone a little too far. Hot anger runs through his veins as he remembers how she had blackmailed him to have the police check Brian’s computers, exposing their law firm to humiliating publicity. His fist curls into a tight ball at his side when he thinks of how she had threatened to tell Henry about what Brian had done to her that night, and how he had locked her in the attic, if he didn’t persuade Henry to call the authorities on Brian.

  She deserved everything she got, he tells himself as memories of Beth flood through him. His anger reaches threatening heights as he thinks of how he has lost the one thing he has ever loved because of Raina. He never wanted a child. He had never wanted to share his Beth with anyone. When Beth had started talking about having a baby, he had quickly and quietly taken care of his ever being able to father a child.

  He patiently waited for her desire to have a child pass. He had hated how Beth cried month after month when she found out that she still wasn’t pregnant. When her desire for a child never passed, he had given in to her pleas to adopt when he saw that she wanted a baby so badly. After
time, he had even grown a little fond of Raina, until the day Beth was ruthlessly taken away from him because she had to take the little brat to school.

  Raina’s father’s lips press together grimly as the memories of losing his Beth renew the lonely ache inside of him. He glares at Raina bitterly when she leaves the café, thinking of how she had almost cost him his career, as if his losing Beth weren’t enough. He seethes as he sits on the bench down the street, watching his only failure in life walk with her friends and laugh like she doesn’t have a care in the world. He thinks back to how he had raised her, rationalizing that everything he did, he did to better her. He muses to himself at how she probably wouldn’t have ever made it to college if he hadn’t been so strict with her, not ever allowing her to go out, or have friends and if he hadn’t disciplined her like he did.

  His bitterness eats away at him when he thinks of how she has her whole life ahead of her, and he is left with only his career, which means nothing without having Beth to share in his success. His lips curl into a cruel smile as he thinks of how he would be remiss as a father if he didn’t visit his daughter after not seeing her for so long.

  The last exam was the most challenging Raina has taken so far, but she feels confident she did well. With a huge sigh of relief, she lays it down on the professor’s desk, almost jumping up and down with joy that it’s over. As she heads to the computer lab to grab her things, feelings of gratitude warm her, despite the bitter cold outside, when she thinks of Kas’ willingness to open up his house to her study groups, especially how he put up with having them there almost every night the past week. She smiles as she remembers how he had sat outside the bathroom door, calling out questions to her this morning while she took her shower, so she could get in some last minute studying.

  Sweet relief floods through Raina as she enters the deserted computer lab. Quickly grabbing her memory card, she saves her work on the drive, so she can officially start her break. She hears the doors open and close, and she thinks that it’s Seth and Sara coming to meet her after their exams, but when she turns around, her smile quickly fades, and her blood runs ice cold through her veins. The room rapidly spins as her gaze meets the cold, menacing eyes of her father. The pounding of her heart echoes in her ears as her body freezes, her mind screams for her to run, but the neurons in her brain are not responding.

  “Well, well, look how you’ve grown.”

  Raina swallows back raw fear at hearing the contempt in his words and how it reduces her to that terrified child she once was. She knows that only her father can induce such an intense fear and the harsh malignant feelings of self-vacillation in her. She prays for someone to walk into the lab, for Seth and Sara to come to her rescue, but she is hopelessly alone with him.

  All the times he hurt her come rushing back. The memories of the unbelievable pain caused by his hands imprison her. His cold, cruel words of when he had repeatedly called her nothing, mere trash, over the years, slam into her, and she feels lightheaded. She relives the horror of being locked inside the dark attic for days with only water, and how it reduced her mind to such a weakened state, matching the weakness her body was reduced to without its needed sustenance. Her mind treacherously replays the last time he had locked her inside the attic for so long, her body so badly beaten and starved, that she began to believe he was going to leave her in there until she died.

  When Raina remembers her lowest vulnerable moment, when she was at her most broken state that she actually hoped he would just let her die, anger surges through her, giving her back some of the courage that her father has beaten out of her time after time. “What are you doing here?” she manages to ask, so thankful that her voice doesn’t sound as weak as she feels right now.

  “Is that how you’re going to greet your father after all these years?” he mocks her. He lets out a chilling chuckle as he explains, “I’m in town for legislation meetings.” He eyes her coldly, slowly walking around her as he continues to speak, “I ran into one of your friends. I believe he said his name is Seth, and he told me exactly where to find you. I should’ve known you would be in front of some computer.”

  Raina wants to strangle Seth, but she knows that he had no idea to not to tell her own father where he could find her.

  “I couldn’t leave town without taking the time to see my daughter,” his sarcastic words drip with pure contempt.

  Raina forces herself to match her father’s stare, something she never did when she lived with him. She never defied him, never looked him directly in the eye, when his anger flared. She knew too well how severe his punishments were when she never even did anything wrong. For almost eleven years, she didn’t dare do anything that would purposefully anger him. She despises how weak she was, how she obeyed his every word, desperate to avoid his wrath that always came anyway.

  Her mind rushes back to when she had finally mustered up enough courage to pour out his alcohol the last night she saw him, foolishly thinking that if it was gone, she would have a chance to talk with him rationally. He had ruthlessly proven to her that her years of cowering obediently to his every word was the wisest decision. She glares at him, refusing to cower before him ever again. “You really shouldn’t have wasted your time,” Raina retorts, unable to hide the sarcasm in her voice as he toys with her, still circling her like some kind of vulture waiting patiently on his next meal.

  “A few years of you being out on your own and you have developed quite a smart mouth.”

  “What do you want?” she demands, turning slowly, never taking her eyes off of him as he continues to circle her.

  “To see how you have been. I had a nice chat with Seth, and he told me all about you whoring around with an older guy.”

  Heat flushes Raina’s cheeks. “I have to go, my friends are waiting on me,” she tells her father, praying that the knowledge someone will be looking for her makes him nervous, and he will just leave her alone.

  Her words have no effect on him, and he continues to slowly circle, unnerving every part of her.

  “Do you have any idea the trouble you caused me when you left?” he spits out angrily, “I had to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why you weren’t around anymore.”

  Raina juts her chin out in defiance, “That shouldn’t have been too difficult for you. You always were excellent with twisting the truth.”

  Her father grabs her arm, and she forces herself not to cry out from the pain of his familiar bruising grip.

  “You never talked to me like that before, don’t you dare think you have the right to talk to me like that now! I’m still your father!”

  Rationally, she knows she should keep her mouth shut and not provoke him, but she refuses to let him control her any longer. “See, now, that’s the beauty of the legal system,” she begins, refusing to show the pain his grip is causing her, “with just the ink of a little pen, your rights to me were wiped away.”

  “You and that mouth of yours need to be taught a lesson,” he sneers at her.

  “You won’t be the person to teach me, not anymore,” Raina angrily retorts, trying to pull her arm free from his grasp.

  He releases her arm but only to grab the back of her neck as he roughly pulls her closer to him, squeezing viciously. A pained gasp escapes her lips before she can bite it back.

  “You’re pathetic! You honestly think you have made yourself a life here. Do you really think Kas actually wants you?” He laughs cruelly, his eyes showing how pathetic he believes her to be, “No one has ever wanted you, Raina, not even your own birth parents.”

  Years of pent up rage from her imprisoned childhood and from the fear she still has of her father holding her prisoner, even after she’s escaped him, surges through her riotously. She lashes out at him, at his cruelty of how he has repeatedly proven to her that she is unworthy of love. She thinks of her mother, and she remembers that she had loved her.

  “Mom wanted me!” Raina screams at him, the heart-felt knowledge of that truth burning in her eyes. She
immediately realizes that she is on very dangerous ground, remembering in vivid detail the acute severity of the lesson he had taught her so many years ago, as he forbade her of ever mentioning her mother again. She witnesses the familiar hardness in his eyes and knows she is about to taste his punishment again. Before she can do anything, the air is knocked out of her stomach when her father punches her so hard that the blow knocks her to her knees.

  “Your nothing, completely worthless, you always have been and always will be. What’s going to happen when he gets tired of ogling your body and comes to his senses and sees you as the pathetic trash that you are?” He roughly grabs her chin and forces her gaze to meet his, and she gasps for breath, “You taint everything you touch. You will do nothing but ruin his life, just like you ruined mine.”

  He releases her chin just as harshly as he had grabbed it and leans in close to her ear, “Keep your mouth shut about seeing me, or I swear I will destroy his career.” He bestows her one last look of disgust before he leaves her alone, crumpled on her hands and knees, gasping for air.

  Raina tries to rid her mind of her father’s final emotional blow as she tenderly sits back against the desk. His words of how she will only ruin Kas taunt her, and she gives the chair in front of her a ferocious kick, sending it flying across the floor. Laying her head against the desk rim, her head spins as she tries to forget his cruel prognostication.

  Voices echo down the hall, and Raina scrambles to her feet, grabbing her aching side in the process. She hastens the difficult task of composing herself as much as humanly possible and quickly grabs her bag as Seth and Sara walk into the lab. She barely notices how they are sipping sodas and laughing over something Seth had just said.

  Seth’s laughter halts when he takes in Raina’s expression and shallow breathing, “You okay, Raina?”