Reyes’s Raina

by Dale Mayer

  Raina had heard of other people having passionate and enticing mouths, huge expressive eyes, facial features that twisted and turned with every movement. And she imagined that some potentially Italian- or Mediterranean-born women had those same mannerisms. But Raina hadn’t seen anyone similar to her sister.

  It was exhausting to live with her. At least for Raina. Their mother seemed to flourish in that environment, even though she was more like Raina than her outgoing twin. And Raina again wondered how Reyes had handled that. All the men since Reyes had moved on seemed to be completely blindsided and stood with goofy smiles on their faces whenever Reana had walked past them. And that had been Reyes’s reaction initially too. But that goofiness hadn’t lasted long. He’d settled in with a long-suffering look on his face after a while. Raina had wondered about that. How did one walk away and still retain who you were? Because staying in that abusive relationship and retaining who you were wasn’t an option.

  The phone rang again. She stared down at her mother’s number and groaned. This was the second call tonight.

  But her training—a lifetime of being at her mother’s beck and call—had her reaching for the phone and hitting Talk. “Mom? What’s the matter?”

  “Have you heard from your sister?” Worry was evident in her tone.

  Also a different note of something made Raina sit up and take notice. “No, I haven’t, but then why would I?” she asked. “We rarely talk. You know that.”

  “She’s not answering her cell phone,” her mother said. “You know she lives on that thing.”

  “She might have turned it off,” Raina said. “She might have left it at home. She might have had a fight and left it in a restaurant.” Raina smiled at that. “She’s done that a couple times. Remember?”

  “I know. But nobody is answering. In both those instances somebody at the restaurant answered for her.”

  “True, but you can’t expect other people to do that every time. In this case, it’s possible somebody stole the phone. I don’t know. But I doubt anything is wrong.”

  “You don’t know that,” her mother said, almost with a note of desperation. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”

  Raina pinched the bridge of her nose. She closed the lid on her laptop and turned down the volume on the TV. At least this way she could hear her mother better. “Why? What’s telling you something is wrong?”

  “She was really distraught earlier,” her mother said. “You know that’s not like her.”

  It was all Raina could do to hold back a snort. Her sister was always like that. “Did she tell you why she was upset?”

  “She kept saying, He’s back. He’s back. And how bad that would be for her.”

  Raina’s stomach sank. “Who was she talking about?” Inside she knew though. It had to be Reyes. He was the only person she knew who was suddenly back. Although both sisters had known he was coming. For Raina it had been a good thing, but obviously for her sister it wasn’t. “I presume she meant Reyes, but why should she care?”

  “I asked her that too,” her mother said. “And she just kept saying that I didn’t understand. How I didn’t understand.”

  “Didn’t understand what?”

  Raina hated to think something really dark was between her sister and Reyes. Raina had always really liked him. As much as she had trouble with her sister, Reana was essentially a good person. Mostly. So it didn’t make sense that something was wrong in that corner. But, at the same time, if her sister was truly distraught, then something was going on somewhere.

  “I know. I know,” her mother said. “But she just kept repeating it over and over again.”

  “Any idea why she would be upset that Reyes is back?”

  “Well, they were engaged to be married,” her mother said in exasperation. “Isn’t that enough?”

  “No, it’s not,” Raina said, trying hard not to get upset. She was more than fed up with all this drama. “Even if they were engaged, it’s been two years. You know Reana has had multiple boyfriends since then.”

  “She never got over him, you know?” her mother said quietly. “She told me that. Everybody else was just a substitute. I still don’t like it. I’ll hang up and try her again.”

  Her mother ended the call, leaving Raina sitting here with her phone in her hand. She frowned at it, wondering what was going on now. It was possible her sister had gotten herself into a spot of trouble. It wasn’t that she lived dangerously, but she had made enemies.

  As Raina sat here, she brought up a word document on her laptop and wrote down all the men and the problems in Reana’s life. It was a fairly long list of boyfriends she’d dumped. Some were completely devastated, and some had begged her to take them back. Others had been angry. A couple had even posted pretty nasty things about her on Facebook. But none of them were recent events. So Raina didn’t know what the hell her sister was up to now.

  Instinctively she picked up the phone and dialed her sister’s number. It went to voicemail. Raina left a message. “Hey, it’s me. Mom’s having a fit, thinking you’re in trouble. Do you want to get back to us please?” She hung up.

  When the phone rang ten or fifteen minutes later, she was surprised to see her sister’s phone number on the screen. “Reana?”

  “Yes,” her sister said in a hard voice. “Get Mom off my back, will you? I’m in trouble, and I don’t want to drag her down with me.” And just like that she hung up.

  Raina called her back and again got voicemail. “What kind of trouble? Can I help?”

  This time her sister didn’t return her call. Raina phoned their mom and gave her a sweetened version of the message from her sister, saying, “Look. She answered my voicemail. She’s alive. I don’t know what’s going on. She said she’s in some trouble, but honestly I don’t know that we can do anything to help.”

  “But you heard her voice?” her mother asked in relief. “So she is okay?”

  Raina hemmed and hawed over the term okay because who knew if her sister was okay or not. Her words had been disturbing. Had she meant them that way? She didn’t know how else to be but dramatic.

  “I can only assume that. She didn’t ask for any help, and I did call her back and leave her a message, asking if I could do anything,” Raina said. “Let’s give her a chance to solve whatever is going on. Then we’ll take it from there.”

  “Okay. Good,” her mother cried out in relief. “At least you heard from her.”

  The trouble was, Raina heard from her sister again and again that night. But each time she’d answered the phone, the connection would die, or Reana would hang up. Unnerved, Raina didn’t know what to do. She also didn’t know who to call. Definitely not her mother.

  Either somebody had Reana’s phone and was playing with it, or she was in trouble and whatever call for help she was trying to get out wasn’t working. Finally Raina ended up phoning another old friend.

  When Vince answered, she said, “Hey. I know this is a voice from the past, but I guess I’m looking for advice.”

  Vince chuckled. “You’re lucky you caught me. I just came back from a trip to Thailand.”

  She smiled. “Lucky you,” she said enviously. “And, hey, did you know Reyes is in town?”

  “Holy shit! Is he?” Vince asked in surprise. “Damn. I’ll have to see if I can meet up with him for breakfast or something.”

  “That would be good. He’s not planning on staying long.”

  “He told me how he was working in Texas now, so I’m surprised he is here in California.”

  “His boss is redoing a massive pool, outdoor solarium area, and they came looking for plants.”

  At that, he chuckled. “Trust Reyes. Even though he doesn’t work for the family company anymore, he is still plugging the business.”

  “Yeah. Anyway,” she said quietly, “I’m calling about my sister.”

  “Yeah? What’s that bitch up to?” he asked in a friendly voice.

  She grinned. “You haven’t changed, have
you?”

  “Has she?”

  At that, Raina winced. “No, she hasn’t. The trouble is, she’s being a little difficult right now. I’m not sure if she’s in any serious trouble.” She quickly relayed the series of events that happened tonight.

  “And how many times has she called when you got no voice at the other end?”

  “Three,” she said, “and I have to admit that I’m pretty unnerved by the whole thing.”

  “With good reason,” Vince said. “What’s her number?”

  She gave it to him.

  “Look. I’m not sure what’s going on, and there’s not a whole lot I can do, but let me make some calls.”

  “Will do,” she said. “And thanks, Vince.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “We go way back. And, damn, it’d be good to see Reyes again. How about breakfast, the three of us?”

  She hesitated and then shrugged. “If he’s up for it, I am.”

  “Have you seen him?”

  “Yeah, he came into the store today.”

  “Good,” Vince said. “I’ll give him a shout and set up breakfast. I’ll get back to you.”

  “Sounds good.” And she hung up.

  Now all she had to do was wait. And hope her sister didn’t make any more strange phone calls. And that Vince could get somebody to look into it. But she knew that, from a police perspective, there wasn’t anything to look into. At least not yet.

  *

  Reyes sat in the living room, enjoying a glass of whiskey with Ice and her father. It had been a great evening. Reyes had learned a lot about Ice and her family. It was another plus, working for Levi and Ice. Reyes really did feel like he belonged there.

  When his phone rang, he pulled it out and murmured, “Sorry.” He stood and took a few steps away, realizing it was Vince. “Hey! Where are you?”

  “I’m in San Diego,” Vince said with a chuckle. “I just spoke to Raina. She says you’re in town.”

  “I am. You’ve been doing so much traveling, I wasn’t sure that you’d be here at the same time I was.”

  “It’s not like you gave me any dates to work with.”

  Reyes chuckled. “Since when did dates ever matter to you? You come and go at will.”

  “Well, not any longer,” he said. “Things didn’t work out this last trip, so I’ll be looking for another job again.”

  Reyes winced. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “Since I left the navy, it’s been a lot more difficult to make a living than I expected. I keep thinking people will be out there who I’m willing to work for, but it turns out they end up sucking as humans.”

  Reyes understood. He’d been another of those who preferred to work with honest and trustworthy people. When it came to many big corporations, too often the bosses were the actual corrupt ones and took their team down a path they did not want to go down.

  “How about we meet for breakfast? I’d really like to see you.”

  “I can do breakfast,” Reyes said. “I don’t have any wheels right now though.”

  “I’ll pick you up,” Vince said. “Give me an address.”

  He gave the address to Ice’s father’s house.

  “Wow. Living high on the hog, aren’t you?” Vince asked.

  “Not really. I’m here with Ice. She’s one of the bosses at Legendary Security, and we’re staying with her father.”

  “Nice. How about seven o’clock tomorrow morning?”

  “That works.”

  Vince hesitated. “Hey, I half invited Raina. Do you have a problem if she joins us?”

  “I’m totally okay if she joins us,” Reyes said in surprise. “Is something going on between the two of you?”

  At that, Vince’s laughter pealed out through the phone. “Nope. Not my type. She’s always been a kid sister to me. And her sister is sheer poison. As you found out. That’s why Raina contacted me tonight.” He launched into an explanation of what was going on with Reana.

  Reyes listened to Vince’s monologue for a long moment. “Are we thinking something is seriously wrong?” he asked curiously. “I don’t know who she is anymore, but that doesn’t sound like her.”

  “Raina seems to be worried, and I know their mother is. The trouble is, there’s not a whole lot we can do.”

  “We can triangulate where her cell phone is coming from, and, if she happens to be at home, it’s easy enough to take a quick drive-by to make sure she’s okay.”

  “Good point,” Vince said.

  Reyes turned to look around. His laptop was somewhere nearby. He spotted it and said, “Give me her phone number, will ya?”

  Vince recited it and then waited.

  Reyes typed in the number and then worked on triangulating where the calls had come from. He’d learned a lot of tricks in the military, but working for Legendary had increased his skills and kept him updated in the technology arena.

  He realized he’d caught the attention of Ice and her father.

  Ice stepped toward him, a frown on her face. “Something wrong?” she whispered.

  He looked up with a grimace. “Maybe. Reana …” he said. “She could be in trouble.”

  Ice sat down in the chair beside him and watched as he worked on the laptop.

  “Vince, her phone is on and says she’s at home.”

  “What do you want to bet it’s just her being her old self? What’s her address?”

  Reyes gave him the address per the map. “She’s still in the brownstone condo, I believe.”

  “That’s only a couple blocks from me. Do you want me to run by and make sure she’s okay?”

  “If you wouldn’t mind, that would be good. If I go, and nothing is wrong, it’ll just start World War III,” Reyes said with humor. “But, if you go, it won’t upset her.”

  “Well, stand by. I’m only ten minutes from giving you a callback.” He hung up.

  Reyes slumped in his chair, studying the flashing dot on his laptop.

  “Is that where she lives?” Ice snagged the laptop from him, magnified it larger so she could take a look at how far away the address was from their location. “What exactly is going on?”

  Reyes filled her in. “As difficult as Reana can be, this isn’t normal behavior for her.”

  Ice snorted. “With any woman, it’s hard to understand what their cry for help is all about. You know that her slapping you today was another cry for help. She’s a very unhappy woman.”

  Reyes stared at his boss in surprise. “Reana has always been on top of the world. She would be very angry if you were to tell her that she’s unhappy.”

  Ice shot him a hard look. “I understand women. I understand men too. But I really understand women. And your Reana is a very unhappy woman. And, if something ugly is going on, this could be a cry for help.”

  Chapter 5

  She couldn’t settle. Raina got up, sat down, got up, walked around, sat down again and finally picked up the phone to call her sister once more. This time no answer was followed by no voicemail. Which usually meant the message box was full. Raina walked over to the small Juliet balcony outside her living room and stared in the direction of her sister’s home. “Should I walk over there and make sure you’re okay?”

  She hated to. Her sister would be absolutely furious for Raina’s intrusion if nothing was wrong. For all Raina knew, Reana had a brand-new boyfriend and was playing some weird game. Her sister was into games, in bed and out. She used to laugh at Raina for being a vanilla sexual partner, according to her terminology.

  “You don’t know what you’re missing,” Reana had said with a chuckle. “But maybe, when you get out of your frozen skin, you’ll find out there’s so much more to life.”

  Raina hadn’t risen to the bait. Usually when her sister said stuff like that, she was pushing to get a reaction. But, if this was another game, it was a desperate one. And it was upsetting a lot of people.

  She phoned Vince back. “Sorry. I couldn’t wait.”

  “I’m ap
proaching her house,” Vince said. “I talked to Reyes. He pinged her phone, and it showed it was still at her townhome.”

  “Oh, good,” Raina said. “I hate to think she might be playing games, but …”

  “I’ll call you back when I get there.” He hung up.

  She knew she should have waited. It was her sister after all. She sat back down and waited. And waited. But there was nothing. No call from Vince; no call from Reana. Raina thought about what Vince had said about Reyes and worried.

  And then suddenly Reyes called. “Vince has gone into Reana’s townhome. There was no answer at the door. He picked the lock and went through the whole house, inside and out, but there’s no sign of her. Her phone was sitting on the kitchen counter, but her purse is missing and so are her keys.”

  Raina sagged on the couch, running her fingers through her hair. “Sorry. I should have thought about her leaving the phone behind.” She groaned. “I’m just edgy right now,” she said. “I don’t understand what’s happening.”

  “None of us do,” he said quietly. “And that’s why Vince went in. He shouldn’t have because it was locked. But …”

  “I would have let myself in too,” she said quietly. “Thank you for checking.”

  “He also said how we were set to go for breakfast in the morning. Are you okay with that?”

  “I am if you are.” Her tone was a little divided. “It’s kind of hard to see you again.”

  “It was hard coming back,” Reyes said. “It’s not been easy.”

  “I’m sorry about my sister. That was very uncalled for.”

  He laughed. “Sure, but, if she doesn’t cause a scene, it’s not her, is it?”

  He said it in such a smooth, natural tone that she realized he wasn’t angry anymore. She smiled. “Hey, I’m glad you’re not upset at her for it.”

  “There’s no point now. I took a lot of shit from your sister a long time ago. There’s a reason I walked. She hasn’t changed her opinion of me since then either.”