Saving Rain: The First Novel in The Rain Trilogy (17 page)

A deep voice from inside answers his knock, “Come in.”

Kas steps through the door and sees a middle aged man with salt and pepper hair and wire-framed glasses. Hazel eyes study him over frames that are sitting low on the bridge of his nose. Kas offers his hand as Judge Whitaker stands and takes it in a firm shake.

“My name is Kas Pierce, and I am here to see if you can help me answer some questions about Raina Kapture,” he informs him, flashing his badge.

The look of concerned panic that darkens the judge’s eyes speaks volumes. Kas can tell by his reaction that he not only knows Raina well, he cares about her.

“Has something happened to Raina?”

Kas shakes his head quickly, wanting to ease the judge’s mind. “No, sir, I am Raina’s—Raina is—she is a good friend of mine, sir, and I am worried about her and am looking for some answers that I hope you can provide.”

Judge Whitaker’s taut expression eases, and he motions for Kas to take a seat as he sits down himself. Tilting his head slightly, he studies Kas for a moment before breaking into a warm smile, “So, you’re the one that has captured Raina’s heart, Agent Pierce.”

Kas stares at him quizzically, wondering just how close he and Raina are for him to have any kind of information about him.

“I want to thank you for what you did after that boy attacked her,” his expression returns to his prior concerned state, and his voice is full of gratitude.

Kas’ confusion mounts. “I wish I could have stopped it, sir,” he replies truthfully. He returns the judge’s gaze and frowns, “Forgive me, but I seem to be at a disadvantage here.”

The judge softly chuckles, “Raina hasn’t mentioned me, well, I can’t say that I’m surprised. Don’t take it personally, son, she is a very private young lady.”

Kas lets out a long breath, “Well, that’s one way of putting it.”

Judge Whitaker smiles kindly at the young man sitting in front of him who is obviously in love and up to his ears with worry and frustration from too many unanswered questions that he is sure his relationship with Raina has presented. “Raina and I meet every three months or so to catch up, and we speak on the phone once or twice a month. I’m assuming by you being here looking for answers that you took it upon yourself to delve into her past.” The mixture of determination and a hint of guilt shining in Kas’ eyes confirms his suspicions.

“Obviously, you have discovered that her prior last name is Waterford.” The judge chuckles again, “Kapture was my idea for her current last name. I thought it appropriate due to my heart being captured the second I looked into that baby girl’s eyes when the social worker placed her into her mother’s arms.”

“Raina is adopted?” The news takes Kas by surprise.

“William and Beth tried for a couple of years to have a child the natural way, but it just wasn’t happening. Her mother was a wonderful woman, kind and so full of love that she wanted more than anything to bestow on a child. William adored Beth, he couldn’t stand to see her heart broken month after month, so when she brought up adoption, he agreed. I guess he never thought about not being cut out to be a father.”

Kas notices the shot of anger that ignites in the judge’s eyes when he made that last comment.

“Beth did most of the child-rearing on her own, with William being on the fast-track with his career. When he was around, he spent most of attention on Beth, but I never saw that he was neglectful. After Beth passed, it changed William. He used to be
my best friend, we went to high school together, we were in the same fraternity at college, we even dated and married best friends. William withdrew after Beth died, and I saw that he was distant with Raina, but I thought it was just the initial stages of the grief. He eventually shut me and almost everyone else out of their lives, except for his trips to the bar with his co-workers. I still didn’t see that there was a problem, I never saw him inebriated. Before long, I only saw Raina on birthdays when I stopped by, and I blame myself for that, for not forcing the issue, but I didn’t have any ground to stand on, she’s of no familial relation, I was only Uncle Judge by name.”

Kas smiles encouragingly at the judge, his eyes full of empathy, “I read about her mother’s wreck, I’m sorry about your loss.” He can tell that the judge took his role as Raina’s uncle just as seriously as if there were a blood connection.

The judge’s eyes focus, leaving the reminiscing behind, “Son, why exactly are you here?”

Kas spends the next hour visiting with the judge, answering his questions, telling him the story of how he and Raina met. He tells him how he felt when he saw Chris beating her and when Raina looked at him last night, like she had given up, when she thought he was going to beat her, too. “I have to know what happened to her, sir, I don’t know what to avoid, or how to help her,” Kas admits, the truth burning sorrowfully through his soul.

Judge Whitaker studies him again and softly nods his head. His intuition tells him that Kas is trustworthy and that he truly loves Raina. He could tell by the look in her eyes, when she talked about him at their last visit, that she is in love with him as well. He sighs as he looks at Kas, his hazel eyes darkening from heinous memories. “Son, you will not like what you will see,” he warns him gravely.

Kas’ jaw tightens, and he presses his lips into a grim line, “Yes, sir, I’m positive I won’t, but I have to know. I want to be there for her in all the ways she needs me to be.”

“Call me Henry,” the judge tells him before he gives Kas a stoic nod. He walks to his file cabinet, unlocking the bottom drawer and retrieving a file.

Kas notices how it looks like it pains the judge just to be holding the file as he places it on the desk. He stares at the manila folder lying inches in front of him, containing the mystery of Raina’s past, and his hands suddenly grow stiff. His heart pounds within his chest as he stares at the 8 X 11 file. He forces his hands to move, the dexterity to return to his fingers, as he slides to the edge of his chair, leaning over the desk before flipping open the folder.

He reads the report on the details that granted Raina the termination of her father’s rights, giving her emancipation. The words on the pages blur as he reads the list of contusions and cuts found on her body. He turns the page and almost loses his stomach at the images of the wounds on Raina. Every part of her in the photos is covered with welts and bruises, some so large it took two angles for the pictures to record them. The bruises had started to turn color, and some of the welts had thin scabs around the edges, nauseating Kas at the proof that her father had beaten her so viciously with his belt that he brought blood.

Memories of last night storm his conscience. He thinks of the frightened resignation he witnessed in her eyes, when she saw him holding his belt. He has to lean back in the chair as the realization slams into him that she had momentarily thought that he was just another man in her life that was going to hurt her to satisfy his anger.

Judge Whitaker sees Kas’ blanched face and slumped posture and places his hand gently on his shoulder. He knows it would be foolish to ask if he’s alright, knowing there’s no possible way he could be after witnessing the gruesome photos.

Kas pulls on all his inner resources and forces himself to finish reading the file. Bile churns inside of him, threatening to spill from his mouth when he reads of her father’s business partner being charged with child pornography. Kas’ eyes shoot to the judge, his expression begging for him to tell him that Raina wasn’t involved so far in the depths of depravity. The sad hazel eyes meet his, their own questions and doubts reflecting the judge’s own torment of not knowing all of the answers.

Tears well in the judges eyes as he turns to stare out of the window. A few seconds pass before he can speak, “The images recovered from William’s partner’s computer didn’t include her, that’s all I can tell you on that. She made it clear that night that she either didn’t know about it, or she would never let on like she did. I’m afraid to say that I think it’s the latter.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The drive back home is filled with torturing questions for Kas, darker and more numerous than when he first left this morning. He has to roll the window down to calm the nausea when the images of Raina’s tattered body and the charges against her father’s business partner mercilessly run, unremittingly, in his memory. He calls Chase about midway and divulges the sordid details, for once needing the psycho-babble of his friend to soothe his tortured state.

Pulling into the driveway, Kas stares blankly at the outside walls of his house as he cuts the engine. Raina walks outside and waves at him, her beautiful smile brightening her whole face at his arrival. Fighting back tears, he steps out of the jeep and goes to her. Raina’s smile fades when she sees the worn out, forlorn expression on his face. Kas pulls her into his arms, holding her as if his life depends on her touch. He cradles the back of her head in his hand as he presses his forehead to the top of her head, pulling her even tighter into him. A tear that manages to escape rolls down his cheek, and he swipes it away with the back of his hand.

Raina tries to pull back, scared at what has happened to cause him to look so despairing, but he wraps his arms around her tighter, needing her in his arms a few minutes longer. She senses his need and wraps her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his chest as he cradles her protectively. Minutes or hours pass, neither one knows or cares as they remain tangled in each other’s arms, each giving the other as much as they can give.

Finally, Kas pulls back, knowing that he can’t put off the inevitable any longer. He whispers a silent prayer that he doesn’t lose her, realizing devastatingly that his heart will not survive it if he does. “Rain, there’s something I have to tell you.”

The worry in her eyes kills him as he leads her inside and sits on the couch next to her, his eyes pleading with her before his words even begin. “Please, listen to me before you say or do anything.”

The pounding in Raina’s heart is almost unbearable as she waits on Kas to tell her what’s wrong.

“I checked into your past, sweetheart, I know about your father. I know who you are.”

She stares at him blankly for a second, hearing the words, but her psyche not yet able to handle what he just told her.

“I saw the pictures, and I—”

She leaps off of the couch like it burned her, “You what?”

Kas stands up and goes to pull her into his arms, but she pushes him away, the action stabbing him directly in the heart.

“You promised me, Kas,” she states almost inaudibly, her throat raw from the hurt of his betrayal, “did you use my license to find out?” The emotional pain makes her words ragged as she wonders if he lied about not using that, too.

He shakes his head, “No, baby, I promised you I wouldn’t, and I didn’t—”

Raina cuts him off again, “You also promised to just let it be, Kas.”

He goes to hold her again, but she steps back further this time, the pain in her eyes breaking him. “Sweetheart, I told you last night I had to know.”

“Why? Why did you have to know? What good did it do, what problems did it solve?” she screams at him, the tears burning in the back of her eyes, and she knows she has to get out of there before she can’t control them from erupting. The humiliation and despair from her past ram against her battered barriers, and she bolts, running as fast as she can, out of the house, through the yard, ignoring his pleas for her to come back. She continues to run, concentrating on the feel of her feet hitting the pavement, over and over again, in rapid succession as she forces the tears back, refusing to allow them to come.

Kas wants to run after her, knowing he could catch her, but he knows that she needs time to be alone, time to think. It takes all of his willpower to just stand there and watch her running away from him, her frame getting smaller and smaller until she disappears around the curve. He stands there alone, hoping and praying that she will come back to him.

Kas paces the living room floor and calls Raina for the fifthteenth time, grunting loudly in frustration as her cell goes straight to voicemail again.

Chase watches his friend, wishing he could do something to ease his misery. Pulling out his own cell phone, he walks over to his best friend, “Let me try, Kas.” Chase sends Raina a text message, knowing it will be harder to not peek at that than to simply refuse to check her voice messages. He keeps it simple but imploring, explaining Kas’ current state of worry and asking that she come over to his place and cool off, to at least give Kas peace of mind that she’s safe. He knows that she cares too much for Kas, even in her outraged state, to ignore him and hurt Kas.

Chase closes his phone, knowing that he should feel guilty at deceiving her, but he knows that this calls for drastic measures, and he will do just about anything to stop the pain of his two closest friends. “Be at my place at 6:30, not a minute before,” he instructs Kas as he grabs his keys.

Kas steps in front of him, “What are you planning, Chase?”

“Just trust me. I will see you at 6:30, bring your key, and lock the door behind you as soon as you get inside.”

Kas watches Chase leave, confusion and curiosity clouding his thoughts.

Checking his watch, Chase pulls out of Kas’ drive at 5:50. He has twenty-five minutes to make it to his place before the time he asked Raina to arrive. He goes over what he’s going to say in his head, planning out each possible scenario of her reactions and coming up with the best strategy to intervene. Once his car is parked, he rushes through the garage to the elevators. He makes it inside with five minutes to spare, and he throws off his jacket and tie, dimming the lights slightly, wanting to make it as comforting as possible. When his door bell rings, he takes a deep, steadying breath as he opens the door and invites Raina inside. “Thank you for coming, Rain,” he tells her as he leads her to the couch.

Raina fidgets with her fingers, an obvious internal struggle is raging inside of her. “Is Kas alright?” her voice is barely above a whisper.

Chase pulls a chair closer to her, “Kas is just worried about you, Raina, we both are.”

She meets Chase’s eyes, her emotions again safely tucked away, not surprising him in the least. “I’m fine, I just can’t be around him right now.”

He softens his gaze, “Can’t, or don’t want to be?”

She gives him a startled look before suspicion darkens her jade eyes.

Chase almost chuckles at her astuteness. He’s impressed at her quick wit and her ability to recognize an intervention when he knows good and well she’s never been cared enough about before in her life to have received one, with the exception of Judge Whitaker, from the details Kas gave him. He decides to not to beat around the bush, knowing she’s already on to him. “You can’t run away from this, Raina. You have to talk about it, running will not help anyone,” Chase’s voice is blunt but laced with concern.

“So talking about it is supposed to make the pain go away? It will somehow magically change what happened?” Raina asks with anger rapidly building in her. He looks at her with that infuriating calm shrink expression, and it makes her want to scream.

“Talking about it will help you vent the emotions it caused, help you to release some of the pain, some of the anger. It can help you face what happened.”

She feels her cheeks flush with anger that is anything but pent up right now, “Face what happened? I faced what happened for eleven years, I think that is beyond sufficient!”

“You experienced what happened, facing it, or coming to terms with it, is entirely different.”

“Why is it so important to you and Kas for me to talk about what my father did to me? It’s in the past, It’s already happened, nothing I do or say will ever change that, so stop pushing me!” She runs her hands through her hair, frustration beginning to overwhelm her.

Chase leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees as he cocks his head to one side, studying her carefully before he tells her unfazed, “There are good pushes, and there are bad pushes.”

Raina wants to smack him, do something to make that neutral shrink face show some kind of emotion. She doesn’t like feeling
this angry, feeling too close to losing control. She doesn’t lose control, she does whatever it takes to hold herself together, she has for years, until recently, and now she feels her control slipping away rapidly. She won’t let him push her to lose that control now. She loves Chase, she just doesn’t like him very much at the moment. Exasperated, she throws her hands up and heads toward the door.

He beats her to it and stands in front of it as he studies her again, making her feel like she’s some kind of freaking science experiment.

“It’s locked,” he states simply and so innocently.

Raina stares at him incredibly, thinking that she must have misunderstood him. “It’s locked,” she repeats slowly, as if she can’t quite understand the concept.

He nods his head softly at her.

“So, you’re kidnapping me? Is there a good kind of kidnapping and a bad kind of kidnapping, too?” she asks, knowing full well how much of a brat she sounds like right now.

He represses a smile, at any other time he would find Raina’s sarcasm hilarious, especially since she rarely reduces herself to it, but the circumstances behind it are void of any kind of humor. Chase reaches out and places his hands reassuringly on her shoulders, “I just want to talk with you.”

Shrugging his hands off, she takes a step back, needing some kind of distance from him. However polite he may be, it still feels like an interrogation, except she doesn’t seem to have the option to plead the fifth and wait on a lawyer. “Look, on one level I know what you are trying to do, and I appreciate it, really I do, but on another level, you’re just pissing me off, and I am leaning towards the pissed-off level heavily right now, so I’m just going to go.”

Chase is still standing in front of the door, so she reaches around him to turn the knob, but it really is locked, and she is about to lose it when she hears someone on the other side unlocking it. She gives him her best smug ‘now what are you going to do’ look as he steps out of the way. Her smugness quickly disappears as Kas opens the door then shuts it again, locking it behind him and putting the key in his pocket.

“You have got to be kidding me!” she shrieks, glaring at both of them. “This is illegal, you cannot keep me here! I’m leaving,” she declares, her voice shaking from anger and panic from being cornered like this.

Kas reaches out to her, but she steps back, out of his reach and throws her hands up in front of her. “Don’t, just don’t,” she can barely manage to whisper the words as she tries to breathe, to calm down and regain her composure that is slipping through her fingers like running water.

“Rain, please talk to me,” Kas pleads, looking at her so full of concern, but she wants none of his concern right now, she just wants the stupid key.

Chase pulls a chair up for her, but she just continues to glare at him. “Raina, it’s not healthy to keep your emotions bottled up like this.”

Kas joins in the inquisition, “You have been through so much, and you just shut it out. You keep insisting you are fine.”

“Have you ever considered the possibility that I AM fine?”

“You get nervous when I’m angry. You put yourself in dangerous situations. You keep yourself so busy that you never get enough sleep. You barely eat. You—”

“You are constantly in dangerous situations, I have seen you go days with only getting a few hours of sleep a night,” she shoots back, cutting him off from his list of strikes against her.

Chase calmly steps in between, “Let’s sit down and calmly discuss this.”

Kas gives Chase his annoyed look, and it’s nice to know that the controlled calmness is irritating him just as much as it is her.

“Give. Me. The. Key!” she demands, holding out her hand.

Chase shakes his head, “Raina, I will unlock the door after we talk.”

“Is this how you treat your patients, locking them in a room until they agree to divulge? I’m surprised you aren’t inundated with lawsuits.”

“No, I don’t lock in my patients, but you aren’t my patient, you’re my friend.”

“I would hate to be your enemy, then,” she sulks, knowing that she sounds like a surly pre-teen.

“I need you to talk to me, Raina, I need to know what happened,” Kas pushes.

Raina knows there is no way out of this intervention they have concocted unless she does it underhandedly, which she usually wouldn’t do, but under the circumstances, she doesn’t care about playing nice. She holds her hands up in a surrendering gesture and looks at the floor, knowing that her face will give away her true intentions. “I need a minute, just let me calm down and get some water first,” she offers, hoping she sounds convincing.