Part 10 (1/2)
Lawson shoves his hand forward, trying to show her the proof that she did, even if she didn't mean to, and she jumps backwards.
Lawson quickly lowers his hand, shocked by her reaction, ”d.a.m.n, Raina, I wasn't going to hit you.”
The lights flood the room, and Erik steps inside, yelling at Lawson to back the h.e.l.l away from her. Lawson doesn't move, seeing the bruises on her face for the first time. ”Raina, what happened to you?” he asks, worry quickly dissipating his earlier anger.
Raina stands up, turning her back to him, ”I really am sorry, Lawson.”
Erik watches, dumbfounded by the gentleness in the perpetually gruff agent as he gently takes Raina's arm, turning her around and brus.h.i.+ng her hair away from her face. Erik sees Raina's cheeks flush as Lawson tenderly tilts her chin, carefully examining her face before brus.h.i.+ng his thumb across her cheek, ”What happened, Raina?” his voice remarkably soft and caring.
Raina stares blankly at Lawson for a few seconds, embarra.s.sed that more and more people are finding out about her life. Erik sees her hesitation, and he steps in, ”She was attacked.”
”Are you alright?” Lawson's rare concern continues.
”I'm fine,” she mutters, grateful for Erik's intervention.
”Did they find who did this to you?”
”Yeah, they got him,” Erik answers for her.
”Good, I hope they fry his a.s.s.”
Raina's gaze drops, conflicting emotions attack her at his comment about her father. ”Did you need me for something?”
Lawson shrugs, ”It can wait.” He turns to go, then turns back around, ”If you need anything, anything at all, Raina, just let me know.”
”Thank you,” Raina responds sincerely as Erik's mouth drapes open slightly, Lawson's offered kindness being too surreal.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
”Erik, look at this,” Raina exclaims excitedly.
He leans back from the computer in front of him, quickly rubbing his blurring eyes as he stands, glancing over Raina's shoulder. Erik watches as the complex algorithm she used last is working, decoding the heavily encrypted words. Quickly, they read through the information popping up on the screen, their excitement reaching soaring heights when they see Prizrak mentioned in an e-mail sent by someone named Gavril Nikitin. The tone of the e-mail is definitely heated, the sender warning the owner of the PC, Alan Beacher, that he better not screw up again, or he's finished.
Erik looks at Raina, ”I guess he screwed up again.”
They continue reading the information, discovering that Prizrak wasn't happy about the few number of girls, or the condition of the girls, when they were delivered to a very important client who is mentioned only as 'Jefferson'. Erik gets to work searching the database for Gavril Nikitin. Raina jots down names, dates, and places, as the information decodes across her screen. She drops her pen when a partial address pops up. ”Looks like this Beacher guy wasn't the smartest of the traffickers in Prizrak's ring, he put a residential address on here, next to the initials G.N., no wonder he ended up dead.”
Erik inputs the partial address and comes up with forty eight addresses in the U.S. with the same street name. He adds Gavril Nikitin, and the Maryland address is highlighted. Raina dials Kas, giving him the information recovered.
”Great work,” he praises their discovery, but then his tone changes slightly, ”why are you still at the office? When I called you a few hours ago, you promised you would stop and rest.”
”I did rest, I took a nap,” she states quickly.
Erik glances at Raina, noticing how she is absently chewing on her bottom lip.
Raina hears how Kas' tone softens even more as he praises their work again, stating they are on the way back into the office, and he will call Derrick to see if they want to a.s.sist on this.
Raina is checking on the progress with the hard drive that she is pretty sure Lawson was wanting an update on before she cold c.o.c.ked him. She sighs in frustration at how slowly the process is going, hoping the damage isn't too extensive. The numerous algorithms they have tried so far haven't worked. She says a quick prayer and runs the same algorithm she just used on Beacher's system. Holding her breath, she watches as characters populate on the screen. At first, they seem meaningless, then she notices a pattern. She is working with Erik, trying to piece together the pattern so they can try to decipher it, when Kas walks in, the heavy smell of smoke lingering on his clothing.
”Hey, you look terrible,” Erik points out the obvious when they see how his clothing is ruined, and his face is smudged with the same soot on the charred laptop.
Kas gives himself a cursory glance, ”Yeah, I know, and this is with the protective suit I was wearing.” He gives Raina a quick kiss on the top of her head, ”They are having to identify the remains by his dental records. The name you guys found should speed that process along.” He turns to Erik, ”Do you mind taking Rain home, I'm going to be here for a while longer.”
Raina stands up, trying to keep her tone calm even though she is starting to get really aggravated at all the attention, ”Kas, I'm fine to stay. I told you that I took a nap.”
Kas slips her hand in his, wis.h.i.+ng he wasn't too filthy to pull her into his arms, ”I want you to go home, Raina. I didn't like the idea of you coming in today in the first place.”
”But we found a pattern on the PC from the warehouse Jioa escaped from, we're trying to decipher it now.”
Kas struggles with the importance of the information, knowing they need as many leads as they can get, but also knowing that Raina will push herself beyond her limits, and she's in no shape for this right now. ”It will be here tomorrow, Rain.”
She opens her mouth to protest, but Kas gives her a toned down warning look, ”I'm not budging on this, Raina.”
Erik grabs her jacket, completely with Kas on this one, especially after witnessing the after-effects of Lawson surprising her. He knows Raina won't freely offer that information to Kas, but he feels it's important. Her having nightmares is normal after the trauma she experienced, but he would feel better Kas knowing, so he can help monitor them. He decides he will call him after he drops her off at home.
She reluctantly allows Erik to help her with her jacket as Kas gently squeezes her hand, knowing he's probably not her favorite person right now.
”I'll be home by 7:30.” He leans in, brus.h.i.+ng a kiss across her cheek, ”I love you.”
”I love you, too,” she whispers.
Raina is almost finished cooking when Kas arrives. He smells the delicious aromas as soon as he walks through the door. He sighs, starving, but frustrated that Raina isn't resting. Stepping into the kitchen, he studies her for a few seconds. He can see that her movements aren't as fluid as usual, or as fast. He knows she is hurting right now, and he wants her to listen to reason, to make her lie down, but she hasn't listened to his pleas so far, and he doesn't want to raise his voice to her.
”You need to rest, I will finish that,” he offers, stepping to the sink to wash his hands.
Raina angrily pushes the chopping board aside, laying down the knife as she spins towards Kas. ”I'm sore, not helpless,” she snaps at him.
Kas pauses, wetting his lips pensively before responding, ”I never said you were, Rain.”
She leans against the counter, grabbing the edge tightly in her hands as she tries to tame her anger, ”I'm sorry.”
”It's okay, you've been through a lot.”
Her gaze shoots to his, her bright eyes full of fire, ”Don't do that! Don't make excuses for me. If I'm being a brat, call me on it, don't treat me with kid gloves, it makes me feel weak.”
Kas shoves his hands in his pockets dejectedly, not knowing how to respond, not meaning, or wanting to make her feel that way.
Raina sees his hooded hurt and sighs. ”That's my issue, Kas, not yours,” she says softly, leaning her head against his chest.
”Your issues are my issues, darlin', don't you know that?” he kisses the top of her head, ”whatever hurts you, hurts me.”
Raina squeezes her eyes shut, not knowing what is wrong with her today, busting Lawson's lip and snapping at Kas when he's only trying to help. ”What did I ever do to deserve you? You are so good to me.”
”You deserve to be treated well.” He tilts her chin, ”And, there's not one weak bone in you, sweetheart, I wish you could see that.” He decides to back off a little, not fussing anymore about her cooking dinner, but he will put his foot down if she doesn't rest after that. ”I'm going to take a quick shower.”