Rogue Wave (The Water Keepers, Book 2) (33 page)

“I don’t know. He called me…at the house. He knows we’re here, and he said he’s been watching my mom. I think he knows everything we’ve been talking about all day. How can he know that?”

Rayne paused as if concentrating, calculating what this all meant. Then an unsettling look crossed his face, breaking his focus. He ran his hand along the back of his neck and down across his shoulders, like he was feeling around hastily, searching for something under the skin.

After a moment, he frowned and pulled gently on my arm. “Here, turn around,” he said.

“What? Why?”

“Just let me check something real quick.” He brushed my hair forward, pushing it out of the way, and pressed his thumb down along the base of my neck. With a small amount of pressure, he continued to push down along my skin until he stopped, focusing on a spot near my right shoulder. He pushed down harder, moving his thumb in a small circular pattern and said, “Do you trust me?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You know I would never purposely hurt you, right? Unless it was absolutely necessary?”

I shook my head. “What are you talking about?” I started to turn my head backward, but he pushed it forward.

“No, don’t look,” he said.

“Why? What’s going on?”

I felt him moving around, pulling something out of his pocket. “I’m sorry. This is going to hurt, but we don’t have another option right now. I have to make an incision in your shoulder. Do you think you can handle that?”

“I don’t know,” I said, voice shaky. “You’re saying you have to cut me open?” I clenched my hands into fists, anticipating the pain, hoping I wouldn’t start to panic. “I don’t understand. Is there something in there?”

“Yes, there is, and we have to get it out…right now. Don’t worry,” he assured me. “I’ve done this before. And I have the Healing Water with me; the pain will be over before you know it.” He put his hand on my waist and leaned his face close to my ear. “I’ll be right here.”

I nodded my head nervously. “Okay. Just do it. Whatever you have to do… just get it over with.”

“You should sit down,” Rayne said. “There’s a chance you might pass out. But if you do, I’ll be right here to catch you, okay?”

I clenched my lips together and nodded, lowering my body to the ground.

Rayne pulled the leather belt from his pants and handed it to me. “Bite down on this. You’re going to want to jump away, but if you can, I need you to try to stay as still as possible.”

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself, and bit down on the leather. Rayne knelt behind me, clamping my hips between his knees on the ground. He secured his left arm around my shoulder, holding my body in place. Then I felt the cold metal tip of his knife touch down on the other side of my body. I squinted my eyes shut and clenched my teeth down harder on the leather.

I heard his voice say, “Remember, I love you.” Then a stabbing pain pierced deep through my skin like a razor. I groaned as the shock took over. I wanted to scream. I clenched my teeth harder on the leather, struggling to control the spasms, my body’s urgent need to escape. Tears stung and blurred my eyes as my body shook beneath Rayne’s grasp.

“I’m sorry,” he winced, as if he felt my pain. “I’m almost done.”

My head felt light, ready to shield itself with the sweet relief of unconsciousness, but just when I thought my mind would give out, the pain began to lift away.

Rayne pulled me back into his body, holding me with both arms. “I’m done,” he said, soothing me. “The Healing Water should fix it any second. It’s over.” He heaved out a breath and held me closer, his body tense. “I’m so sorry. You’re going to be okay.”

Within moments, I felt the pain drift away, but my emotions were rattled. I glanced wearily to look back at him but shuttered when I saw a pair of tweezers lying in the dirt, covered in blood. There was a small, bloody capsule next to them on the ground.

“What is that?” I asked in horror. “Was that inside me?”

Rayne reached over and grabbed a rock the size of a baseball in his palm. Then he drove his hand down with a loud, angry grunt, smashing the capsule into pieces.

“It was a listening device,” he said bitterly. “I don’t know what Ash is up to, but he’s obviously gone to much greater lengths to keep an eye on us than I expected. I underestimated him.”

“How did that even get in there? Ash somehow injected that thing into me without me even knowing it?”

Rayne’s jaw was stiff. “He probably drugged you in your sleep, so you wouldn’t feel it.”

I felt violated in every way. “Do you think there’s anything else?” I asked, still out of breath. “Do you think he’s still listening to us?”

“I already knew the car was bugged, and I’m sure he’s tracking our phones. I left the devices alone before because I wanted to keep up appearances. I didn’t want Ash to think we were up to anything suspicious. That’s not a concern anymore. When we get back to the car, I’ll destroy all of them.”

I swallowed. “Okay, let’s go take care of it then.”

As I attempted to stand, Rayne reached for my hand. I looked down at his strained face as he said, “We probably shouldn’t go home, either.”

My legs stiffened, the severity of our situation sinking in. “What are we going to do?”

“I have plenty of cash,” he said. “We’ll find a place to stay tonight. The last time I spoke to your father, he scheduled a drop to supply us with more Healing Water tomorrow. The reason why we’re so low is because the larger supply I was supposed to pick up at the last drop was stolen. That’s why I was gone the night Ash threatened you. The thief was working under Ash’s direction, and I’m hoping he shows up again tomorrow. I can use him to lead me to Ash.”

I shook my head. “No…you can’t. Even if the thief
does
lead you to Ash, you’ll have to take him on alone. Shouldn’t you wait for back up or something? And I don’t know if you remember in my note, but I really have this terrible feeling that Ash isn’t working alone. The way he talked the other night gave me the sickest feeling that his father is still alive.”

“I don’t know if you’re right, but I guess anything’s possible at this point. But even if Voss is still out there, I’m not sure what else I can do. I already sent a request to your father just moments ago, but I don’t know how he’ll choose to respond. In the meantime, I have to do whatever I can to track Ash down and get some answers. I can’t just sit around and wait for him to make his next move.”

I knew Rayne’s mind was determined, and if my mom was really in danger, I wanted Rayne to find Ash just as much as he did.

I nodded in agreement, and we started our way quickly down the hillside. I followed close behind Rayne as we ran over the dirt and shrubs through the dark, my heart beating erratically out of my chest. We crossed through a backyard and came to a long driveway, one house up from where we were parked.

When we finally reached the Range Rover, Rayne unlocked the door quickly and pulled out our phones. The next thing I knew, both phones were shattered to pieces on the concrete.

Rayne sat quickly in the passenger seat and pulled out his pocket knife, the same one he had used to split open my shoulder up on the hill. I watched just outside the door as he pried the edge of his blade under one of the control knobs below the dashboard. When the knob popped off, he used the tip of the knife to scrape out a tiny, black and silver chip that had been secured inside. Rayne jumped out of the car, placed the object—which I suspected was a listening device—on a patch of hard dirt nearby, and plunged the sharp point of his knife straight through the center.

27. CRASH

The dark road was a blur as we drove down the street away from the Threshold. Aside from the smooth hum of the Range Rover, we drove in absolute silence.

Rayne was probably busy calculating a plan in his head, but I was too drained to even think anymore. There were Thresholds and life on other planets and tiny, bloody microphones under my skin. My mother was in danger, my father was the Ambassador of a place I never even knew existed, and Ash was a relentless jerk, tormenting my every move along the way. It was all too much. Rayne was my only chance at sanity now.

My mind had already shut down by the time we made it out of the winding neighborhoods and onto Pacific Coast Highway. I stared numbly out the car window into the night, not even sure where we were going. Not home; we couldn’t go back there, at least for now. The lights around the street and surrounding buildings danced past my face in streams of color and bright white, leaving me disconnected from reality.

My mind jerked awake at a sudden disruption in the flow of red brake lights ahead of us.

I sat forward in my seat, eyes wide. A flash of white headlights spun and flipped around as a dark sedan lost control in the lane right in front of us. Then it swerved out of the spin and jerked to the right shoulder, heading straight for a brick wall.

The car peeled back to the left so sharply that it crashed down onto its side and bounced with a sickening crunch, skidding sideways across the asphalt until the windshield smashed into the corner of the wall, flipping the car completely upside down. Two moving cars swerved into the left lane, lucky to make it past the scene unaffected. Other cars drove by, slowing to take a look as they rolled past, but Rayne pulled over immediately, parking a few yards away from the crash.

“Oh my gosh,” I cried. “Do you think they’re okay?”

Rayne didn’t answer. He opened his door without hesitation and jumped out to the street.

I wanted to call for help, but neither of us had phones anymore. I got out of the car and followed quickly after him as he ran over to the flipped car. Rayne rushed to the driver’s side window, which was now shattered into pieces, the frame of the car contorted out of shape. Not sure what else to do, I ran over to the passenger side. The window wasn’t broken, but after some yanking, I was able to pull the door open.

When I looked across the upside down seat, Rayne was already pulling the unconscious driver out through the window. “Find a phone to call for help,” he instructed me.

I nodded and moved to step away when I noticed a dark purse lying haphazardly inside the car below the now suspended passenger seat. I reached for the purse and started rifling through the contents in fast forward; wallet, sunglasses, mascara, lip gloss, gum, hair clips…phone.

I clutched the phone in both hands and dialed 911, nerves on edge. With a shaky voice, I gave the operator our location.

“Were you involved in the accident?” the operator asked.

I hurried to the other side of the crashed car as I answered, “No, but we saw it happen.”

The operator continued. “Okay, and how many vehicles were involved?”

I tried to speak, but the words caught in my throat when I saw the accident victim lying lifelessly next to Rayne on the concrete. She was just a girl, probably my age. Blood oozed down the side of her forehead, leaving a dark, sticky mess through her strawberry blonde hair.

“How many vehicles?” the operator asked again.

I swallowed. “Uh, just…one. It’s completely turned upside down. There was a girl driving. She’s unconscious.”

I continued to stare at Rayne as he made an assessment of the girl’s motionless body.

“Is there anybody trapped in the vehicle?” the operator said.

“No, we pulled her out,” I said, my breaths quickening as the reality of the scene sank in. “She was alone.”

Rayne stood up from beside the girl. “Hang up the phone,” he said, moving hastily toward me.

I looked at him confused. The operator’s voice continued in my ear. “Can you see any smoke or fire?”

I hesitated, not sure what to do.

“Ma’am? Hello?” the operator said.

Before I could answer, Rayne took the phone from my hand and ended the call. “We need to go,” he said.

“Wait, we can’t just—”

“The police will be here any minute,” he cut in. “It’s better if we don’t get involved. We need to keep moving. The girl will be okay.”

I shook off his hand that was trying to guide me toward his car and ran over to the girl on the ground.

“Look at her,” I said. “We can’t just leave her here.”

Rayne hurried back beside me. “Sadie, the paramedics will be here any second. They’ll take care of her. We have to go.”

I thought of my own car accident only months before. It didn’t seem fair that this girl should have to suffer through this while I was healed so easily by the Healing Water. She looked so sweet and innocent; I couldn’t understand how Rayne could leave her there. I shook my head insistently. “No, we have to help her. Give me your Healing Water.”

Rayne’s hands came down on my shoulders. “Sadie, listen to me. We don’t have enough water left to help her. There are only a couple drops left, and we need them for
you
. What if something goes wrong tomorrow at the drop? This girl still has a chance to heal on her own, but without the water, you could be choosing your own death. I can’t let you do that.”

“I don’t care,” I said, unwilling to listen to reason. The desire to help the girl overwhelmed me, feeling a strange need to give back to the universe for giving me so many second chances in the past. My lip curled into a quiver as I felt the tears start to form inside me. “Please,” I said, pleading into his troubled green eyes. “Please let me help her.”

Rayne stared down at me in defeat, his expression still begging me to change my mind as he removed the tiny silver bottle from his pocket and placed it in my palm. I took the vial carefully in my hand. Then I moved quickly over the unconscious girl, flipped open the lid, and shook the last two drops of Healing Water directly over her head wound.

Before I could witness any positive effects, sirens sounded faintly in the distance. Rayne pulled me up off the ground, dragging me hastily toward his car. “Come on,” he said. “We have bigger things to worry about right now than talking to the police.”

I glanced back at the girl as I ran, hoping to find some glimpse of her recovery, Rayne’s grip still pulling me forward. When we reached the car and flung the doors open, both of us jumped quickly inside. Rayne had the Range Rover out to the street and blending in with traffic before I could even catch my breath. I stared out the window as we passed the mangled car where the girl still lay unmoving, keeping my head turned back until she was no longer in sight.