Part 7 (1/2)
”How are the girls?”
Kas' laughter ceases, ”They're as good as can be expected.”
”Do I need to translate for anyone?”
”No, they're all Americans.” Kas rakes his hand through his hair, ”The guys are talking with them now.”
Raina softly nods her head, knowing it's taking a toll on him not being able to a.s.sist. She walks towards his desk, running her fingers across the various stacks of files, ”Anymore news on the investigation?”
Kas stands, trying to tame his emotions, ”Not yet.”
Raina glances at him, not quite believing him, ”So, you don't know if my father is behind it yet?”
Kas turns his back to her, shuffling some files around, ”We're still looking into it.”
Raina chews on her bottom lip pensively, deciding to change the subject for now. ”I'm going to work some more on the PC recovered the other day while you finish up. I really hope there's something on there that leads to Prizrak.” She wraps her arms around Kas, who is still busying himself with the files, ”What do you want for dinner tonight, I'll make whatever you want.”
Kas slips his hands over hers, turning to face her, ”I'm taking you out to dinner, to the Silver Orchid, I've already made reservations.”
Raina rewards him with a huge grin, excited on finally going to the popular restaurant, knowing how hard it is to get in, ”What's the occasion?”
”My wife spent the night with another man, I thought I better do something to win her back.”
Raina laughs, smacking him on the arm before he pulls her in for a toe-curling kiss.
Another week goes by, and the investigation isn't showing any signs of wrapping up, but Kas is showing signs of stress, even though he's doing his best to hide it. Raina studies him through her lashes as she sips on her orange juice at breakfast. She hates seeing the dark circles under his eyes. She's awakened more than once the past few days, discovering that he's no longer in bed with her. He has usually been found at the kitchen table, going over the little information they have on Prizrak. He would always smile at her, slip his arms around her waist, and pull her onto his lap when she found him, but she felt the difference, the stress in his touch. She knows he's indicated that her father isn't involved, but she's not buying it.
She can't stand his pain, and she has seen the detrimental effect it's had on the whole team. They are doing their jobs, but it's obvious where their loyalty lies, and they are finding it more difficult with each pa.s.sing day to leave their boss behind. They keep him updated on everything going on, keeping him in the loop, and Raina loves them for that. She knows that if it is her father, he won't allow it to end until he wants it to, which won't be until they have suffered significantly. She has to know the truth.
Raina places her plate in the sink, seeing that Kas has barely touched his food. Cla.s.ses have resumed, and she's back to splitting her time between finis.h.i.+ng up the last semester before she achieves her doctorate and working at the FBI. Walking behind his chair, she leans down, wrapping her arms around him as she kisses his neck. He stands up, giving her a kiss on her forehead before he rakes his barely touched breakfast in the trash, ”I've got to get going, Rain.”
She decides now's as good a time as ever to just ask him directly about her father's involvement. ”Kas, I need to ask you a question, and I need you to tell me the truth,” she states quickly as she follows him to the door.
Kas stiffens slightly before facing her. ”Yes, I really do like that thing you did to me last night,” he winks, grabbing his keys.
”Well, that wasn't hard to figure out on my own, smarty pants, but that's not what I'm talking about.”
Kas looks at her nonchalantly, keeping his face emotionless, even though he knows the words before she says them.
”Does my father have anything to do with the allegations against you? Anything at all?”
”Raina, these investigations just happen sometimes, it has nothing to do with your father. Don't worry, it will be over soon.”
She has picked up on some of Kas' ability to detect lies, and she knows that Kas is flat-out lying to her right now, but she decides to not call him on it, realizing that it won't do any good anyway. Knowing what she has to do, her chest tightens. ”I love you,” the truth behind her words burns brightly in her eyes. She adamantly hopes he will remember that when he finds out about what she is getting ready to do.
Kas smiles, his eyes reflecting the same deep feelings. ”I love you, too. Now, get to cla.s.s before you're late,” he tells her as he playfully smacks her backside.
Raina just nods her head and smiles, realizing that, if she does anything else, his seemingly supernatural ability to read her will spoil what she is planning. She continues to smile and wave as he pulls out of the drive. As soon as he is out of sight, the smile disappears, replaced by anger and determination as she drops her backpack, grabs her purse, and heads to her car to drive to Erik's.
She uses the fifteen minute drive to come up with an excuse as to why she is there so she can get what she needs. Guilt seeps into her, she hates lying, but she can't think of another way to resolve this. Refusing to let Kas continue to suffer for her father's anger towards her, she pushes back the guilt, intent on fixing what her father has caused.
Her white lie goes over easily enough as Erik gives her the earrings with the transmitter inside before she quickly tells him bye as she rushes out his door. She just prays that Erik won't mention seeing her until she has time to finish what needs to be done. Icy p.r.i.c.ks climb up her spine as she slips back into her car, and she tries to ignore the fear accompanying the dreadful chill. Cranking up the heat, she tells herself that it's just the cold wind outside giving her goose b.u.mps. She turns the radio up loudly, starting to sing, desperately needing to get lost in the music to escape the warning bells ringing in her head.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
Raina pulls into the all-too-familiar multi-colored brick driveway, past the matching brick columns, up to the two-story house, beautifully crafted in tri-color stone and elegant caramel brown wood. The eight and a half hour drive was agony, haunting memories kept shooting through her mind, and she is exhausted from her emotional battle of pus.h.i.+ng back the painful memories so she could focus on her plan to clear Kas. She forces herself to concentrate on that plan when her heartbeat rapidly increases as she sits looking at the house where she spent eleven years avidly trying to do anything to avoid her father's cruel punishments.
With unsteady hands, she opens the car door, trying to control her shallow breathing as she steps onto the driveway. She knows she has a little over an hour before her father arrives, if he has stayed true to past routines. Glancing at her watch, she is sure that he is already at the bar with his colleagues. Raina realizes he won't stay there long, just time enough to satisfy his need for the whiskey to run through his body, fueling him enough to be able to face the home he once happily shared with her mother.
Raina takes a moment to steady her nerves. She forces herself to look at the house, to push past her fear. The porch is deceptively welcoming with the elegantly carved railing and warm lighting that turns on at exactly 8:00 p.m. every night. Slowly, she walks down the stone walkway, daunting memories attack her with every step.
Her already erratic breathing nearly stops altogether as she walks past the hazel tree. The vivid memory from the pain of the hazel branch being repeatedly struck against her skin when she was eight years old rushes back to her. She takes another step, trying to rid her mind of the immense pain, even worse than her father's belt, when her father had punished her for letting go of her bike when she fell off, and it had hit his car, leaving a small scratch. The anger on her father's face terrified her when she had mustered up enough courage to go inside and tell him what happened. He had ignored her bleeding, sc.r.a.ped hands and knees and went outside to check his car only to return a minute later with the hazel branch in his hand. Her lip bled from how hard she had bitten it to keep from crying out so he wouldn't punish her more as he repeatedly struck her, the lash of the branch leaving excruciating welts all over her body. She never saw her bike again.
Walking past the scarlet firethorns and the various plants and shrubs lining the walkway, she muses at how they are still pretty, even in the dead of winter. She has to swallow back the fear threatening to smother her as she gazes upstairs at the s.h.i.+ngled A-framed attic. Her gaze doesn't waver as she forces herself to not look away. Staring at the attic, she faces her fears, telling herself that she is no longer a child, no longer under her father's tyranny. Reminding herself why she is here, she gives herself the strength and courage she desperately needs right now. Once her breathing calms, and she has regained some control, she walks back to her car, grabbing her laptop from the back, setting up the connection from the transmitter to the computer, carefully and expertly routing it to Erik's personal laptop.
When she is sure everything will work as expected, she backs out of the driveway and pulls into the nearby park, anxiously waiting and watching for her father's car to pa.s.s. Seventy-two minutes later, Raina watches the sleek black BMW drive by. She slips off her wedding rings and puts in the earrings, doing one more quick check before turning the ignition. Her cell phone rings, and she closes her eyes when she sees that it's Kas calling again. Swallowing her guilt, she pushes back her fear as she ignores the personal ringtone that reminds her so much of him, and pulls the car out of the park.
Raina steadies her trembling hand and knocks on the door, extending herself to her full five-foot-six frame, somehow miraculously pulling off her poker face when she sees the surprised look from her father as he opens the door. His surprise quickly turns to cold, hard anger as he studies his daughter standing on his doorstep. He looks past her, making sure that she is alone.
”I need to talk with you, Dad,” Raina manages, proud of herself for the calmness in her tone that is polar opposite to the near paralyzing fear spurting through her veins.
Her father stands motionless for a few seconds, his glacial glare cutting into her, before he finally pushes the door open just enough for her to pa.s.s through. Raina glances past the entryway and into the living room, swallowing hard when she sees the couch where she suffered many beatings from her father's belt, the same couch where Brian had raped her. Looking away, she swallows harder, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves.
”What do you want?” the arctic chill of her father's voice matches the coldness in his eyes.
Raina turns around, forcing herself to finish this, ”I want you to call off the investigation you started on Kas. You know it's not warranted.”
He looks at her, cruel amus.e.m.e.nt dancing in his eyes, ”I have no idea what you are talking about,” he lies, as his wicked smile speaks the truth.
Raina doesn't waver, sticking to the speech she memorized on the drive here. She expected her father's games, but she knows how to elicit the truth. If she has learned anything from her father, other than to fear him, she has learned how his twisted mind works, and his weaknesses. ”I know you paid someone to send in bogus information to Internal Affairs. There's no need in spending more of your money to fund the investigation, I'm not with Kas any longer.” His heightened amus.e.m.e.nt infuriates her but she reins in her emotions.
”He left you?” he chuckles, ”I told you he would.”
”No, I left him,” she lies, knowing she has to make him believe she left him so her father can think he has forced her into giving up her happiness, allowing him the opportunity to gloat at her pain.
”You left him?” he scoffs, pondering her words as he studies her.
Raina tries to calm her breathing as her father stares at her, studying her to make sure she is telling the truth.
She pa.s.ses his scrutiny, ”When?”
”Almost two weeks ago.”
”Has he tried to get you back?”
She has to make her father believe that Kas really is out of the picture, she lowers her gaze, slowly shaking her head, ”No.”