Chapter 30
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PRESENT DAY...
Rayden (27)
Climbing out of my Porsche, I stared at the building in front of me then glanced away as my cousin, Trent, approached me after locking his car. Until a week ago, I hadn’t seen him in three months, and we came together in a quick embrace. He’d asked me to meet him, to offer me help.
“What the fuck is Incognito?” I asked. Grinning, he gestured for me to follow him. Inside, I took in the classy décor, deciding we stood in a club of sorts.
When we stepped out of the elevator and into an office, a potent smell of leather, lavender and something sweet hit my nostrils, reminding me of the expensive cigars an uncle smoked. I glanced around the open-plan space. A floor-to-ceiling window overlooked the club below. Dark sofas beneath impressive paintings arced around a large table in the center of the room with a stylish bar at its rear.
I looked at my cousin then noticed another man in the room. Dressed in all black and by the cut of his suit, he had lavish tastes. With one hand in his pants pocket, the other elbow resting on the counter and a glass in his hand, he looked like a man who could creep up on you unannounced. It was his eyes, however, that would have a person second guessing their intention to question his appearance. Light brown, sharp, intense and almost foreboding. He made no move to acknowledge my presence and continued to sip his drink.
Frowning, I took a step toward Trent. “What are we doing here?”
Trent gave me one of his smug smiles but didn’t introduce his friend. “How did that message pan out?”
Shaking my head, I dropped into one of the couches and raked a hand through my hair. A week and a half ago, my cousin called me with what he called a cryptic message from Zena. Coming to terms with finding out my dead girlfriend was alive, had taken its toll on me. I’d spent the last four months trying everything I could, to trace a call I’d received from her then the message from Trent.
“I got there but she was being driven away and by the time I caught up with her, she was being air-lifted in a chopper.”
“Where exactly isthere?” he asked.
Confused, I looked at him then remembered I hadn’t explained Zena’s message.
“Where the mountain meets the seas and trees bloom orange against the night, he might find me there. Once.”
As soon as he relayed it, I’d raced out of the restaurant without telling him the significance behind it. Cupping my nape, I rolled my neck to ease the tension that had knotted since that first phone call telling me she was alive.
“The first time Zena and I had sex, it was on her birthday. I’d taken her to Sunset Point. It’s a mountain plateau that overlooks the sea and an hour’s drive from home. The sunset view is so strong, the shadows cast over the trees give them an orange glow. Since then, we’d gone there every year on her birthday. That afternoon she left the message, I had to hurry because her birthday was the next day and I was afraid I’d miss her if I delayed.” My shoulders sagged with having missed her because of an accident thirty minutes out. I’d expected her to wait a little longer after sunset then I figured she probably couldn’t, judging by the black-suited men that escorted her to the chopper.
“Did you get a good look, though? Was it her?”
Immediately my hackles rose. “Yes,” I snapped. I might’ve only caught a glimpse of her rear from my viewpoint but every gut instinct I possessed told me it was her.
“Hey, I’m just trying to help, remember?” He lowered his tall frame to the seat next to me.
He was right. “Sorry,” I mumbled, annoyed that I was growing impatient with each day. “So far, I’ve done well at holding off on checking myself into a mental institution for sleep depravity borne out of frustration. I’m going insane, Trent.” My cousin and I were close. We shared practically everything, and he never hesitated to call me out on my actions. I was considered brash at times and he always knew how to get me to calm the fuck down and listen.
“What if I said he could help?”
I looked up to see his friend approach and frowned. “How?”
Trent’s gaze shifted between the two of us and my curiosity grew. “He knows where Zena is.”
At this I sat up straight and looked at the other man who still made no move to acknowledge me. “I’ve had several friends from the FBI try to find her, how could this man,” I pointed to him, “know where she is?”
