Rogue Wave (The Water Keepers, Book 2) (30 page)

I tried to sound out the name of the street aloud. “Chau…tau..qua. Um, I’ll just call that one Chihuahua, like the dog. It’ll be easier to remember.” Rayne glanced at me and smiled, apparently amused.

By the time we turned through a few more residential streets, I was full-on chanting under my breath, trying to engrain the directions into my head. “West on Santa Monica, north on PCH, left on Chihuahua, I mean, right on Chihuahua, left on Sunset, right on—
oh
shoot
. What was the name of that one again?”

“Right on Hartzell,” Rayne said, helping me remember.

“Oh, that’s right. It’s the one that’s like a heart and a pretzel mixed together. I keep forgetting that one.”

I pushed my head close to the windshield to read the next street name we were about to turn on. “The Chihuahua one again?” I said, confused. “That’s the same street we were already on, isn’t it? Are you going in circles to mess with my head?”

He laughed. “That would be fun to watch.”

I sent him a glance that said,
you better
be careful what you say next
.

“But I would never really do that,” he added quickly. “It’s one of those streets that splits off down the middle and picks up somewhere else. Don’t worry, you’re doing great. We’re almost there.”

I was relieved when we stayed on the same road the rest of the way. I wasn’t sure I could fit anymore street names into my overloaded brain. After curving higher into the hills, passing mostly houses, Rayne stopped the car. We were at a dead end, idling a few yards away from a solid metal gate.

“Is this it?” I asked. “Are we here?”

My head turned back and forth, trying to get a view of everything around us through the car windows. There wasn’t a whole lot to see, mostly trees surrounded by a bunch of dirt and shrubs. Everything off the street was separated from us by metal fences, and there was a paved section behind one of the fences that split off on the left. It looked like it could be a long driveway of some kind.

“Where does that go?” I asked, pointing at the driveway.

Rayne’s eyes followed my gaze. “That leads up to the highest house on the hill. We use it as a guard station.”

“Are there guards out there right now?”

“Yes, quite a few,” he said. “We shouldn’t stay in this spot for long, but it’s important that you see it. This metal door is the main entrance to an underground parking structure. Do you see that box right there? That’s a keypad. It normally requires an individualized, twelve-digit access code and a fingerprint scan in order to open the gate. Obviously, your prints aren’t in the system, but there is a generic twelve digit code I can teach you which will allow you to call the guard station for help. I’ll have to teach you the code later.”

I tried to stay positive. “Okay. That doesn’t sound too bad. I think I can handle it. Anything else I should remember?”

Rayne reversed and started pulling away from the large metal wall. When we were facing back down the street, he swung his finger in a half-circle across the windshield. “All of these houses are owned by my organization as well.”

“All of them?” I asked, surprised.

“Yes. They own every house on this street, as well as a few other streets in the area.”

I blinked. “Whoa. That’s crazy. What do they need them for? Is it just to keep people from snooping around nearby?”

“That’s part of it,” he said. Rayne rolled the Range Rover down past one of the houses as he spoke. “These ones near the entrance are used as temporary lodging for agents in between missions, but we own properties all over the world that are used more like safe houses. Some of our agents have dangerous jobs where they interact with arms dealers and terrorists. It’s important that they never get tracked back to this location.”

“Are you talking about Scouts?” I said hesitantly.

Rayne’s eyes went wide. “How did you know that?”

“Uh, Ash…told me.”

Rayne’s jaw clenched. He looked like he wanted to swear, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned the car into the driveway of one of the houses on the right side of the street.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“It’s fine,” he said through his teeth. He pulled close to the house and shut off the engine. “Come on. We’re going inside.”

When I moved to open the door, Rayne reached over and touched my arm to stop me. He lifted his finger to his lips, signaling for me not to speak, and then slid his phone out of his pocket. Without speaking, he looked at me intently, as if trying to send me a message. He held the phone up in the air, making sure I got the hint, and placed it carefully inside the storage area of the center console between our seats. I nodded and followed his example, placing my phone inside the console without saying a word.

Rayne locked the car, and I followed him to the front porch without asking questions. At the front door, he punched a code into a keypad next to the knob and led me inside. As soon as we were in the house and the door was shut behind us, Rayne threw his hands up to my shoulders, forcing me to face him.

“What did Ash do to you? I need to know. Did he hurt you? What exactly did he say?”

I blinked, stunned, unable to find the words.

Rayne’s grip loosened. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. But it should be safe to talk about it here. Can you tell me what really happened the other night?”

I had so much to think about on the drive up here, I had completely forgotten we were probably being listened to. “Oh no,” I worried aloud. “Did I say something wrong in the car?”

I hadn’t paid attention to anything I was saying over the last couple of days. I had been completely careless. What if I mentioned something that made Ash angry or gave him a reason to go after my mom?

“I think we’re okay,” Rayne assured me. “I really doubt Ash cares if I tell you about this place or even your father. Ash doesn’t care about much of anything anymore. But he’s obviously up to something. As long as he doesn’t find out we’ve done anything to get in his way or to try to stop him, I think we’ll be fine.”

I felt a sudden release, knowing I could say anything I wanted without feeling scared. I pressed my lips together, holding back tears. “I woke up in the middle of the night, and Ash was there, in my room. He…he was holding a knife to my throat. I guess I saw some stuff in Dr. Jensen’s office that I wasn’t supposed to see. It looked like they were using the Healing Water to do something illegal, and I tried to call you earlier that night, but you didn’t answer. Then Ash came. He threatened my mom. He said if I told you anything…” My voice choked. “He would kill her.”

Rayne hugged me to his chest. “Shhh… Don’t cry.” He stroked his hand down my hair. “She’ll be okay.”

I pressed my cheek against his body as I spoke, not moving from his embrace. “But we don’t even know where she is. If she gets hurt, it will be all my fault.”

Rayne pulled back and placed his hands on my cheeks, his fiery green eyes looking squarely at mine. “The only person at fault here…is
Ash
.” He paused and held his position, making sure his message was clear.

I tried to nod my head within his grip, showing him I was okay, that I understood. He released my face and slid his hands gently down my neck. I pushed out a smile, swallowing my tears.

“I’ll find a way to take care of him,” Rayne assured me.

I nodded again, hoping with all my heart that he was right. This was my mom we were talking about; the one person who had always been there for me, my entire life. She sacrificed so much of herself to take care of me over the years. The thought of her getting hurt, horrified me. And we had fought before she left. She was gone because I had driven her away. If something happened to her, I would never have a chance to make it right again. 

Rayne took my hand. “I think I have something that will cheer you up.”

He led me through a door just a few feet away. It was a garage big enough to probably fit ten cars. Rayne flipped on the light switch, revealing a space filled with all sorts of gear and equipment, as well as a newer-looking, gray SUV parked at the far end.

He retrieved a red gas can from one of the shelves along the wall and said, “What do you say we put a little fresh air in our lungs?”

“Um, okay,” I said, a little unsure what Rayne had in mind. Looking around the concrete room, I could see a myriad of options he might be referring to. Aside from the shelves covered in tools and gadgets, there were several bikes, golf clubs, kayaks, surf boards, dirt bikes, ATV’s, jet skis, and even a speed boat. Pretty much any toy a guy could ever want was in this garage.

“Do Keepers have a lot of free time to use this stuff?” I asked.

Rayne circled around a sleek motorcycle and continued to the corner of the garage. “The people in charge consider our jobs to be mentally draining,” he said over his shoulder. “This is their way of giving us the opportunity to keep our spirits up, you know, clear our heads and everything.”

“Wow. That’s nice of them.”

Rayne stopped and started filling some kind of vehicle with gas, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I wound my way through the room to get a closer look.

“Whoa. What’s that?” I said when I came closer.

I examined the menacing vehicle. There were two red seats surrounded by a maze of black roll bars and six headlights, two at the front and four along the top of the windshield inside a metal rack, and it had wide, thick-treaded tires that seemed like they were made to climb up walls or trees. It basically looked like a jeep’s deformed monster-child.

“Is that, like, a go-kart on steroids or something?” I asked, wide-eyed.

“That’s exactly what it is,” Rayne said. “But this isn’t just any go-kart. This is a Sand Viper.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. I nodded my head slowly. “Sounds…exciting.” I circled around to the passenger side and said, “Sean brought a go-kart on our camping trip last summer. It wasn’t as big or as crazy as this one, but it was pretty fun. Of course, all the guys drove like idiots. It was amazing that nobody crashed.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t go very fast,” he said.

“You could go a little bit fast,” I said, feeling coy. “I don’t think I would mind.”

Rayne smiled and lifted his brow. “Well, then you don’t want to forget your helmet.”

He pulled a couple of helmets off the rack nearby and handed one to me. I had a feeling this was going to be fun, and the perfect thing to keep my mind off of everything else.

After we were geared up and strapped in, Rayne drove the Viper through the large garage door and used a remote to trigger it closed behind us. The house was surrounded by land along the back side with large hills in the distance. We started out slow, winding around the backyard and out through a wooden gate you might see at a ranch. We cruised down along the edge of several houses until we met up with a faint dirt trail covered with patches of grass.

The motor revved loudly, but the Bluetooth feature inside our helmets allowed us to talk to each other through a small microphone and speakers.

“Are you ready?” Rayne asked.

I nodded under the bulk of my helmet. “Totally!” Then he thrust down on the accelerator, sending my head straight back to the seat.

I couldn’t control it. I yelled, “Woohoo!” as we sped up the trail. The wind rushed around us, kicking up dust. My body wanted to bob up and down under the shoulder restraints, and I felt my hand clutch on the metal bar running beside my leg. It was definitely an adrenalin rush.

I could tell Rayne was enjoying himself as he turned the steering wheel vigorously in front of him, but he was fairly calm while he drove. I, on the other hand, couldn’t contain my laughter and sudden outbursts of enjoyment.

At one point in our ride, we came to a small clearing with only a few patches of desert shrubs and bushes. The rest of the area was wide open, covered in dried grass, small rocks, and compacted dirt. Rayne drove even faster in the open territory. Each time he sped up, the engine roared louder. After a few passes back and forth across the field, he spun around in circles, creating figure eights in the dirt. A cloud of dust engulfed us, and I was extra glad I had a helmet covering my face.

“Okay,” I said, laughing through my mic. “You can stop showing off now. We all know you’ve got skills.”

“As long as we’re all on the same page,” Rayne chuckled.

From the clearing, we headed up the side of a hill that didn’t have much of a path. The ride was slower and somewhat bumpy as we crawled through bushes and over rocks.

“Where are we going?” I asked, mostly out of curiosity. I wasn’t too worried.

Rayne pointed forward through the windshield. “Just up over that ridge. There’s a great spot at the top of the next hill. The view is amazing.”

When Rayne finally brought the Viper to a stop, I decided he was wrong. The view wasn’t amazing; it was incredible. I jumped out, patting dust off my pants, mouth open in awe. I had never seen anything like it. We were at the peak of one of the highest hills around, and the entire city of Santa Monica was visible below us. Beyond the city, I could even see the sandy coastline curving around the stunning blue of the ocean.

I walked a few steps toward the edge of the hill. “This is gorgeous,” I said.

Rayne moved up behind me and put his arms around my waist. “So are you,” he whispered in my ear.

My face flushed and I turned to look at him, trying to repress my grin. “I’m serious. This is really amazing. I’m so glad you brought me up here.”

Rayne smiled. “I thought you might like it.”

We stood for a moment and caught our breath, enjoying the breeze and the beautiful view. But it was impossible not to notice the large concrete platform below us, so big it could probably compete with the size of a high school football field. One end was much narrower than the other, causing it to almost resemble a huge teardrop, although the small side was round instead of ending in a point.

It seemed like it was located right around the spot where we had driven earlier, near the entrance to the source of the Healing Water. Curiosity got the better of me.