Rayne squinted and shook his head. “Why would that make me happy?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure you didn’t want me to come in the first place.”
He let out a loud breath in exasperation. “That’s not true. Why would you say that?”
“I don’t know,” I said tiredly. “Just, never mind, forget I brought it up.”
We both went quiet again. I stared out the window wondering how we had come to this point. Rayne was my everything... the love of my life. Yet now, we could barely carry a civil conversation with each other.
It felt like my own fault. Why was I pushing him so far away?
The fact that I was being sent home soon didn’t help my mood. Seeing Heather felt so good, but was it worth it? Would finding Voss’s hotel room be enough for Ash and the team to capture him without me? Without my abilities?
The agent driving our car pulled to the side of the street to park and wait, while the other team members drove a little closer to the restaurant where the meet would take place.
I closed my eyes discreetly. I wanted to see if Voss was still located in his hotel room. I just barely caught a glimpse of him sitting in his car, when I felt Rayne’s firm grip on my arm.
“Save your strength,” he whispered. “We can’t react now anyway. It would be better to wait until we’re done here.”
How could he tell I was looking for Voss? It seemed like no matter what I did, Rayne always knew exactly what I was doing.
I opened my eyes. “Yeah, okay. I guess that makes sense.”
I leaned my head back against the seat. At this point, all I could do was sit and wait.
23. ASH MEETS HIS CONTACT
Ash smiled coolly as Jax parked the car down the street from the restaurant. This meet would bring him one step closer to giving his father exactly what he deserved.
“I’m going in radio-silent,” he told them. “This guy is always a little skittish. I don’t want to scare him off. They’ll most likely have a way to scan for bugs.”
Ash opened the car door. “Give me fifteen minutes. If you don’t hear back from me, come in and check things out. Just keep a low profile until you get a visual on me.”
“Sounds good,” Honeycutt said. “Have fun in there.”
Jax gave Ash a firm slap on the shoulder. “No worries, man. We’ve got your back.”
Ash glanced from one side of the street to the other as he crossed. He could already see Orion and his men taking their places, positioned carefully around the perimeter of the building, blending in to the bustle of Los Angeles residents moving about near the exterior of the restaurant.
He scanned the restaurant’s outdoor patio carefully, knowing this was the designated area where he would soon meet his contact, Krupin. It was usually Ash’s father who would meet with this particular man, but Voss did send Ash once before on his behalf, so Ash was familiar with the protocol. He had already done the hard part of going through the process of setting up the meet, now he just needed to request a seat on the patio and place a yellow flower at the edge of the table as a signal to Krupin’s men that Ash was the one waiting to meet him.
After the hostess seated Ash out on the patio, he placed the yellow flower on the table and waited. Within seconds, two large men in suits approached and stood close by Ash’s sides.
“Krupin has requested that you follow us inside,” the first man said in a thick Russian accent.
Ash tensed. This wasn’t the way things played out last time they met. He stood warily, but followed them just the same. Perhaps Krupin was taking extra precautions since Ash wasn’t one of his regular contacts. Ash was on his guard either way.
Ash followed inside as the first man led the way, while the second man followed closely behind him. They made their way to the back part of the restaurant until they came to a table positioned in the far corner of the room, out of range for Orion’s men to keep any sort of watch on him.
There was a man with dark, silver-streaked hair sitting with his back to them, with two more large men positioned by his sides.
The man leading the way held out his hand in front of his boss, motioning for Ash to take the seat facing him.
Ash moved forward carefully and was just about to sit when every muscle in his body went tight.
His jaw clenched. Krupin was nowhere in sight.
“Father!” Ash sneered. He reached out in wild anger and gripped his father’s neck, like his hands were a vise.
The two men on Voss’s sides instantly drew their guns. Ash was unarmed.
He squeezed his father’s neck even harder. He wanted him dead. He wanted him gone, no matter the price.
A hard blow struck Ash’s head as the brunt of a gun hit from the side, forcing his grip to release.
Voss rubbed at his neck for only a second then arranged his neck tie back into place.
“Nice to see you too,” Voss said coolly.
Ash’s lip curled. “I’m taking you in. You’re going to have to pay for what you’ve done.”
Voss leaned back and crossed his legs. “I see you’re letting your emotions rule your actions again. You never were good at controlling your weakness.”
His father’s composure only angered Ash more. “Why don’t you send away your guns,” Ash snarled, “and we can duke this out right here, man to man.”
His father smiled shrewdly. “What would be the point? We already know what the outcome would be.”
Without another thought, Ash lunged forward and punched Voss in the face.
Voss’s men stepped forward, aiming their guns. Voss held up his hand, motioning them to wait.
His father barely blinked. Instead, he reached for the cloth napkin on the table and dabbed at the blood leaking from his nose.
“I’m impressed,” Voss said dryly. “That’s probably the most confidence I’ve ever seen you display. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Like you care,” Ash countered. “You never even believed I was really your son.”
“Believe what you like,” Voss said, “but I’m actually here as a courtesy to you.”
“Right,” Ash said with a scoff. “Well maybe I don’t want it.”
His father ignored him and continued. “This is simply a small reminder that you cannot gain the upper hand on me. I will always be two steps ahead.” Voss leaned forward, staring Ash directly in the eyes. “This is a courtesy warning as your father... turn around and go home or your little band of friends are going to get hurt.”
With that, Voss stood from his chair and turned to walk away. His men followed slowly, keeping their guns aimed.
Ash’s anger boiled inside him. “This isn’t over,” he yelled.
His father turned one last time. “Remember,” he said, “I warned you.” Then he lifted a phone to his ear and in a commanding tone said, “Do it.”
In less than a second, the sound of screams came from the dining room patio.
“What did you do?” Ash yelled after his father, but Voss was already out the door and gone.
Ash tore through the restaurant to push his way outside.
Jax was already running towards him. “Are you okay?” he said in a rush.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ash answered. “What happened out here?”
“Snipers,” Jax explained. “They shot down five of our men.”
“It was my father,” Ash said. “He was here.”
Jax nodded in understanding. “Come on,” he urged. “We need to grab our wounded men and get them to some Healing Water.”
Ash agreed and rushed across the street to one of the fallen agents, hoisting him up on his shoulder.
Ash kicked himself all the way as he ran the man to the car. How could he be so stupid? How could he not see this coming? The whole thing was just a trap from the start.
He set the agent down in the back seat and ran out to the street, searching for any other wounded agents.
He would make his father pay for this. Voss deserved to suffer for e
very vile, malicious thing he had ever done.
24. CHASE
Orion’s agent in the front seat suddenly turned on the car. “I’m on my way,” he said urgently, and then he peeled away from the curb and raced down the street.
“What’s happening?” I asked Rayne.
Rayne had his hand up to his ear, covering his earpiece. “It sounds like shots were fired. Some of our men were hit.”
“Oh my gosh,” I said in alarm. “I need to help them.”
Rayne took my hand. “We have Healing Water. You don’t need to worry.”
“But I’m right here,” I protested.
I just wanted to help. I wanted a chance to use my abilities.
Rayne looked me straight in the eyes, keeping his voice low. “You need to save your strength for other important things. Think about it... this might be your last chance to help us find you-know-who before you’re sent home.”
I hadn’t thought of that. Rayne had a good point.
I was about to tell him I agreed, when Rayne suddenly squeezed my hand, continuing to listen intently to his earpiece.
“What?” I asked. “What is it?”
“He was here,” Rayne said. “Voss—he was here.”
“Voss?” I repeated.
“Sounds like this thing was a set-up,” Rayne explained.
The car came to an abrupt stop.
“Stevens,” our driver said to Rayne, “give me a hand.”
The next thing I knew, the two of them were hoisting one of Orion’s men into the seat next to me. The agent had blood pooling over his chest. Rayne took a small metal bottle and dripped Healing Water onto the man’s wound.
The agent who had been driving returned and quickly took his seat. “All of our men have been accounted for,” he said to Rayne. “Time to go.”
Rayne made sure the man was situated in the seat then ran around the front of the car to sit in the passenger seat.
As we zoomed away, I couldn’t help but stare with concern at the injured man propped up next to me. His eyes were glazed over. He barely seemed conscious. Strangely though, I could sense from his being that he wasn’t the least bit scared. He was in pain, there was no doubt, but there wasn’t any fear. I was the one who still felt on edge.
Only five or ten minutes had passed when the man started to move. His eyes became clear and his strength almost completely returned. Healing on Ambrosia took effect almost instantly, but here on Earth it took a little longer. Still, ten minutes or less to heal from a gunshot wound, seemed like nothing at all. It was no wonder the man hadn’t been scared.
Once the man was fine again, I was finally able to relax. Then, I remembered that Rayne said Voss had been right there at the restaurant. He had caught us all completely off-guard.
My first thought was to use my locating skills to find Voss right now. He couldn’t be that far away yet. If we knew where he was headed maybe we could all take our vehicles and surround him. He would have nowhere to go.
But then I realized, half the point of Ash going to his meet today was supposed to create a cover for where he was getting his information. Orion was supposed to believe that it was Ash’s contact that told him where Voss was staying. If I located Voss now, we would somehow have to explain how we knew where he went.
The thought of telling Orion there was more to my abilities than just healing made me uneasy. But, finding Voss was huge. Nothing would make me happier than to see him behind bars.
Maybe it would be worth it to tell. Maybe that would be a reason Orion would allow me to stay.
But then I thought it through a little further. Couldn’t Ash still have found out where Voss was staying? Even though his contact didn’t show, Ash still could have somehow figured it out when he saw Voss. He probably wouldn’t even have to give Orion an explanation. If Ash said he now knew where his father was staying, why would Orion have any reason to doubt it?
As soon as we were back at the house where we were staying near the border, I pulled Ash aside and explained to him my reasoning. Luckily, he didn’t see any reason to disagree. I also had first taken a moment privately in my room to locate Voss. For all we knew, he wasn’t anywhere near his hotel room. He could have been off in some unknown location orchestrating more evil plans with his men.
He was there though... Voss was actually at the hotel. I could hardly believe it.
“I’ll tell Orion right now,” Ash said when I told him the news. “Now that we know my father is aware that we’re here, there’s a good chance he’ll change locations. We need to act fast.”
After Ash explained to Orion what he knew, the entire team congregated in the front room to discuss possible plans for attack.
The team was down a man. They were able to save four of Orion’s injured men with the Healing Water, but one of them the team wasn’t able to get to in time. I wanted to use my abilities to heal him myself, but Rayne and Orion both agreed that it was already too late. If only they would have let me stay close to the action, maybe I could have been there to help.
Due to the circumstances and the need to act quickly, Orion decided that my return to Banya would have to be postponed. I certainly wasn’t going to argue with that.
After the team’s plans had been solidified, we all gathered back into the same cars from before and drove to Beverly Hills near the hotel where Voss was staying.
Once we arrived, nothing about my instructions had changed in any way. I was to do nothing except sit in the car and wait. It was infuriating. All I wanted was a chance to contribute in some way.
This time, Rayne was told to join the team to go inside. The agent who drove us stayed with me in the car. The whole time we were there, the guy didn’t say a word to me. I could tell he wasn’t thrilled to be stuck on babysitting duty while all his buddies went on a raid.
Despite being commanded to sit and do nothing, I decided to find my own way to help out the team. Since my babysitter was pretty much ignoring me, I figured he wouldn’t notice if I closed my eyes and used my locating abilities to make sure Voss was still here.
After only a few seconds, my eyes bolted open. Voss was nowhere near his room. He was driving in his car again. Right this very minute he was probably getting away.
I closed my eyes again, searching deeper. Maybe he was still nearby. Maybe it wasn’t too late.
I concentrated my focus outside of Voss’s car. He wasn’t going very fast. He was stopped at a red light. I pushed the vision out to the street until I found a street sign. It said Wilshire Boulevard. My eyes popped open again. That was the street the hotel was on. Voss couldn’t be far away.
Without even thinking, I cried out, “He’s getting away.”
The agent in the front seat jerked his head to look back at me.
“Voss is getting away!” I said again.
Just then, he held his hand up to his earpiece. “The room is empty?” he questioned, as if the team had just discovered what I already knew.
“He’s on Wilshire Boulevard,” I called out. “In a black sports car.”
The next thing I knew, our car was peeling away from the curb.
The agent drove speedily down the street to pull out on Wilshire Boulevard. Just as we neared the intersection, a sleek black blur of a car zoomed past.
“There he is!” I screamed.
Our car skidded around the corner as we began our pursuit, zipping in and out of lanes trying to catch up with the black car.
Voss must have noticed he was being chased. He sped up to lightning speed and peeled around a corner out of sight.
“He went that way!” I yelled as I pointed to the right. Our car zoomed around the curb to follow. We were just in time to see Voss turn to the left.
I clutched the seat in front of me. “Can’t you go any faster?”
The agent driving was too focused to respond. He yanked the steering wheel to the left, just in time to hit the bumper of an oncoming car and turn around another corner.
No matter wh
at he did, the agent couldn’t seem to catch up. We sped right and left, peeled in and out of traffic, even weaved through cars on the wrong side of the road, but Voss’s black car always pulled out ahead.
Voss hit an open stretch on the road and started to zoom out of sight.
“You can’t let him get away,” I urged.
The agent punched his foot on the gas. We sped forward until our bumper was touching the back of Voss’s car. The agent yanked the wheel to the right, ramming the front wheel into Voss’s side. The hit caused Voss to swerve across the road just as a car pulled into the intersection.
The other car screeched and spun until it hit a nearby pole, but Voss managed to bounce back and continue his getaway.
We veered around a truck moving slowly in the right lane and sped back up until we were right behind Voss’s bumper. Voss swerved suddenly to the left, and the next thing I saw was a car stopped right in front of us. There was no time to react. Instantly we hit the back of the stopped car straight on.
We flew through the air. Everything spun like a whirlwind around me. In a second, we smashed back to the ground upside down, skidding rapidly across the asphalt.
The skidding finally stopped. My head pounded as I tried to make sense of what just happened.
I could only see the back of the agent in the front seat.
“Are you okay?” he called back to me.
“I think so,” I replied.
I was just about to take a sigh of relief when a massive blow crashed into us again. My stomach heaved. My vision blurred. The spinning was ten times worse than before. Everything whirled in my head like a flash, colors and flickers and blurs all around.
With a final jolt the car stopped. I gasped for air as my brain tried to make sense. Another car must have hit us after we flipped.
I could hardly believe I was conscious. My breaths came in rapid spurts.
I tried to move, but I was stuck. I fumbled for the seatbelt, trying frantically to press the release, but the strap across my lap wouldn’t budge.
Flood Rising (The Water Keepers, Book 4) Page 20