Rogue Wave (The Water Keepers, Book 2) Read Free Page A

shut.
    What was with him lately?
    I stopped at the mailbox in front of my house and pulled out a pile of envelopes and junk mail before getting in the Honda.
    Just as I tossed the pile on the passenger seat, I noticed the slight, icy blue glow from my eyes in the rearview mirror.  Usually that was a good sign. Even though Rayne gave me Healing Water every single day, my body’s reaction to it was never consistent. Some days, like today, it would take effect immediately. Other days it would barely change the color of the Watermark on my wrist. But it didn’t seem to matter either way. I hadn’t experienced a single emotional outburst or fainting episode since the day of the Sadie Hawkins dance several months ago.
    As much as I hated being dependent on the Healing Water to survive, it was nice to know that all the crazy spells and depression I had suffered at the beginning of the year, were nothing more than my body’s physical reaction to my malfunctioning Watermark, and was in no way an indication that I was, in fact, crazy or mentally disturbed in any way.
    Without a second thought, I turned on my car radio, which Rayne had recently fixed for me, and headed across town to Big Belly Deli. Normally, we’d do something a little more exciting than sandwiches for dinner, but my mom had been talking about a craving for their pastrami reuben for weeks now.
    When I placed the sandwich down on the small table in the break room at the hospital, my mom’s face lit up. “Honey, you remembered,” she said.
    I laughed. “You’ve only mentioned it, like, fifty times in the last week. How could I forget?”
    She shrugged happily and took a bite, then added, “Sorry I cancelled our regular girls’ night to plan dinner with Mark.”
    “No problem,” I said. “I’m just as happy to spend our alone time here as I would be anywhere else. And it was about time that you guys finally invited me to come with you for once.” My mom and Dr. Jensen had been dating for months now, and they were pretty much inseparable these days.
    “Oh that reminds me,” Mom said. “Mark arranged to take the entire day off, so we were thinking about moving the time a little earlier on Wednesday. Would six thirty still work okay?”
    “Sure. That should be fine.” A grin grew on my face. “So, are we all going in Dr. J’s Jaguar?”
    She rolled her eyes and laughed at my enthusiasm. “Yes, honey. Mark is going to drive.” Only people who have driven a car as old as mine would understand why this was so exciting to me.
    After Mom went back to work, I walked over to the door which led to the stairwell. I took the stairs every time I came to the hospital now, pretty much ever since the night Rayne brought me up to the hospital roof after my car accident. It felt like such a long time ago, but the stairs still sort of felt like part of our secret little place. Even though Rayne was only pretending to be my boyfriend and our relationship was basically just a front, I liked remembering the mysterious, giddy feeling I had the night he took me alone with him to the roof.
    With romanticized memories still floating through my head, my sandals pattered lightly down a flight of concrete stairs until just before I reached the landing between floors. I held onto the railing, ready to swing myself cheerfully around the corner, when I heard male voices coming from below. That seemed odd. I’d never come across a single person in the stairwell before.
    I stopped with curiosity. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The voices sounded like hushed echoes. Moving forward slowly, I placed my feet down a few steps and lowered my body onto one of the stairs to see if I could get a better look. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to spy, but something about the situation seemed out of place.
    When I poked my head down by the railing, I could see the back of a man’s head on the platform one floor below me.
    One of the men spoke again. It was still a little