Raife: An Aquadomina Novel Read online

  Raife

  Aquadomina Book One

  By

  Stormy McKnight

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Copyright pending, Stormy McKnight

  Cover Art by Brandi Doane McCann

  Published by Stormy McKnight

  http://www.stormymcknight.com/

  Raife is the first book in the Aquadomina series.

  Raife is a work of fiction and the characters, events and dialogue found within the story are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, either living or deceased, is completely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or shared in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to digital copying, file sharing, audio recording, email and printing without the permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  Raife

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Keep Reading for an excerpt

  Meric

  Other Titles available:

  Chapter One

  Sophie ducked behind some clutter she found on the deck of Alexander The Great and bit into her fist to keep from crying out. Her head was pounding and she could feel the slight trickle of blood down her scalp. She was in serious trouble and frantically thinking of a way out of the mess she found herself in. When she had agreed to fill in for her friend Molly and nanny Alexander and Anna Gray’s two small children on a cruise to the Bahamas, she never imagined this would be the end result.

  The trip had started out peacefully enough. Heading southeast out of Miami, Florida they had nothing but clear sailing. The children were very well behaved, and she had spent most of her time tutoring them. The yacht was very high tech and like most children their age Michael and Bethany enjoyed being on a computer or other device during their free time. This made her job more difficult trying to lure them away from the technology, but it was easier once they had made port in Nassau, Bahamas for a few days. It had given her the opportunity to take the children around the island, and off the yacht since their parents had rented a home for the duration of their stay. It had been three days of learning about Nassau and having fun around the local hot spots. They had gone to The Blue Lagoon to swim with the dolphins. There was also the Segway tour of the beach that the children thought was great, but Sophie had trouble getting the hang of the rolling contraption. After a few crashes into the sand, she had finally figured it out. Thankfully, the tour guides had been very patient. They had filled their time with museums, tours and food. When it was time to depart Nassau the children had been ready to go, and so was she. There was nothing quite like visiting a tropical paradise but it was time for them to head for home.

  Their first night back on the yacht had ended uneventfully. After eating dinner, then watching their favorite movie, a short visit with their parents and it was bedtime. Sophie had tucked the children in their beds, read them a story, and was trying to coax Bethany to sleep. The little girl had fussed that she couldn’t sleep without her “bedtime buddy”. She had just smiled and assured the little girl that she would go find it. The teddy bear had to be on the yacht somewhere, Bethany had definitely packed it in her bag before leaving Nassau. When asked, the last place Bethany remembered seeing it was in her father’s study, so that was where Sophie had started looking.

  Walking swiftly toward the study Sophie was distracted with thoughts of tomorrow’s lessons. She stopped short when she heard voices coming from the room. She didn’t want to interrupt an important meeting but Bethany would stay awake until she got that bear.

  “We need to make sure the nanny won’t find it.” Sophie recognized Alexander Gray’s voice.

  “I will make sure she doesn’t check her bags after the drugs are hidden.” This voice she knew belonged to one of Alexander’s guards. “Once she is in the city we can arrange to get the bag away from her. We could always stage a mugging as we did with the last nanny. We just need to remember to have a last minute meeting and cut her loose early instead of giving her a ride into town.”

  Sophie’s brow furrowed. Her friend had said something about being mugged a few months ago after being on a trip with the Gray’s. What was going on? Moving a little bit closer to the doors she held her breath listening.

  “Who would think to suspect an old granny of being a drug mule? Even if they caught her and looked my direction, I would just say she must be desperate for money and got them in Nassau.” Alexander gave a nasty laugh. “If only she earned money like she eats then she would be rich. I may have to charge her for the food bill if she keeps it up.”

  “Or chase off the pod of Orca that come to claim one of their own.” The guard laughed at his own joke.

  Sophie felt her face flame red and tears burn in her eyes. She wasn’t that old having turned forty-five this year, and she enjoyed food but wouldn’t say she had eaten that much! She could stand to lose some weight, but she didn’t think the Orca joke was called for. How much of her life had she heard these kinds of jokes? How many times had she been told she would be so pretty if she just lost weight? She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard them move closer to the door.

  “She should be lured away from her bags after packing some time tomorrow.” Alexander laughed again, “I will have Chef make a thank-you cake. That should work to get her and the children out of the way.”

  Sophie looked around frantically, the voices were moving toward the door and she needed to get out of the hall. Looking back behind her, she saw a lavatory and just made it inside and closed the door, when she heard the males leaving the study.

  Peeking out of the doorway, she made sure the coast was clear. Hurrying into the study, she found the teddy bear and then rushed back to the children’s room. Her head was reeling with what she had heard. It was only when she saw that Bethany was still awake that she tried to pull herself together. The little girl cried out happily when she saw her bedtime buddy.

  “Here Bethany.” Sophie said softly, “Now you need to get some sleep.” She tucked the girl’s soft curls behind her ear and worried about what to do next. Alexander Gray was a very bad man, and he was going to use her to try to get drugs off the yacht and into Miami. She couldn’t let them get control of her bags. She ran across the hall into her stateroom. Would there be cell coverage out here? Maybe she could get a text to her friend Molly. Grabbing her cell phone, she put a shrug over her tank top and made her way outside on the deck. Waving her hand around she saw that she wasn’t getting any bars. Walking toward the bow, she kept her eye on the coverage. When she got a single bar, she froze. Hurrying to type a message, she warned her friend about Alexander’s activit
ies, and asked that Molly inform the authorities about the drugs. She had just hit send when she heard a voice behind her.

  “What brings you out here?”

  Making sure to close the cell phone, she turned to smile at the guard. “Just getting some air before I turn in.” She slowly moved her hand to put the cell phone into her pocket, and then leaned back into the railing in what she hoped was a casual pose.

  “What were you doing with your cell phone?” The guard asked suspiciously. His beady eyes were narrowed and she could practically see the wheels turning in his head.

  “Oh, just sending out a text to my friend to make sure to pick me up at the dock.” Sophie tried to sound nonchalant but knew she failed when he looked even more suspicious.

  “I thought Mr. Gray was giving you a ride from the dock.” The guard was moving alarmingly close. Then she realized that she had blown it, but did the guard know? The plan was for the Gray’s to take her into town, but she had just overheard this guard and Mr. Gray discussing a fictitious last minute meeting. She wasn’t supposed to know about that yet! What a stupid mistake. She just had to hope the guard didn’t put it together.

  “Yes. I meant I was arranging a ride when they dropped me off.” Sophie tried to cover her blunder.

  “I need to see your cell phone.” The guard held out his beefy hand, the muscles bunching in his forearms. “You signed a non-disclosure agreement and I have the authority to see your phone at any time.”

  “Of course.” Sophie moved her fingers around the cell phone and pulled it out of her pocket. Moving to hand it over she shrugged wildly, the phone flying from her fingers. The guard watched with wide eyes as it arced over the water to disappear. “Oh dear! I have these tics sometimes. It comes with age I guess.” She tried to look contrite, “I am so sorry.”

  “You need to come with me.” The guard went to grab her arm and she stepped to the side to avoid his hand.

  “I don’t know why you are harassing me.” She desperately tried to sound offended instead of afraid, “I am just minding my own business.”

  “Well that remains to be seen doesn’t it.” The guard put his meaty fist around her upper arm and Sophie’s defense training kicked in. She hit him as hard as she could in the solar plexus, then drove her hand into his nose and finished with kneeing him in what she hoped was the groin. Making a grab for the stick at his side, she had just gotten her fingers around it when he hit her over the head. She staggered back and swung with the stick as hard as she could, aiming for his head. She made contact with a loud thwack and the brute of a man went down. Turning away Sophie made a mad dash for the bow and somewhere to hide. Even though she knew it wouldn’t do any good. There wasn’t anywhere they couldn’t find her. Ducking down behind the clutter on the deck she frantically thought of what to do.

  Before she could even calm her breathing, she was viciously hauled from her hiding place by the hair. She had always worn her hair longer, but with his painful hold on her, now she wished she had worn it close shaven.

  “Gotcha!” It was the guard she had hit over the head. She thought he would have been down longer, but she must not have hit him near hard enough. When she saw the gun in his hand, she realized what he had hit her over the head with.

  “That is kind of redundant to say when you obviously have gotten me!” Sophie had always resorted to sarcasm when cornered.

  “What do we do with her?” The guard had been looking beyond her and she wasn’t surprised to hear Alexander answer.

  “We need to find out what she knows.” His cold voice sent chills down her spine, and gave her goose bumps.

  “That is fine with me.” Sophie gasped at the pain in her scalp from being held so tightly and the hit it took earlier. “I was a teacher before I became a nanny. I could talk all night telling you what I know.” She was starting to feel sick and hoped that she would get to puke all over these two jerks before they killed her.

  “I hope you haven’t been teaching my kids to be smart mouths.” Alexander waved the guard to bring her closer. “Now Sophie, tell me what you know.”

  “And what you really did with that cell phone.” The guard added.

  “I wasn’t able to get any coverage on the cell phone.” She lied. The last thing she wanted was to drag Molly into this mess. “I heard you talking in your study, I know about the drugs. I came out here to contact the authorities but I wasn’t able to get cell coverage, I swear it. If I had done anything I would tell you.” Her eyes were burning from the pain of the guards hold on her head. “That is all I know. You are going to kill me no matter what I say, so why not just do it? The Hulkinator here is massaging the handle of his gun as if he wants nothing more than to shoot me. So do it already! You wouldn’t want me to start screaming and wake the children.” She had to hope that Alexander believed her and this could end without her friend dying too.

  “I believe that you didn’t do anything Sophie, I’ll pay a friendly visit to Molly when we get to Miami just in case.” He moved to stand by the railing. “Either way I can’t leave you as a loose end.” He nodded to his guard.

  Sophie tried to run but the guard had too strong of a hold on her head. When she saw him lower his gun, she started screaming. She had never been shot before. The pain stopped her breath for a second, and then she started gagging. The bastard had shot her in the leg! After the initial agony, her mind shut down and she went blessedly numb.

  “The blood will attract any sharks and if those don’t get her the blood loss and hypothermia will. No point in wasting too many bullets.”

  “You bastard!” Sophie gasped, “You won’t get away with this.” She could feel her strength flowing away as fast as the blood down her leg.

  “I already have.” Alexander motioned with his thumb over his shoulder. “Imagine my sorrow at my drunken nanny falling overboard.” He laughed another cold, humorless sound. “Or maybe I can say that aliens abducted you, just another victim to the Bermuda Triangle.”

  The guard picked her up and grunting as he walked to the rail taunted her, “Go on a diet lady! Oh wait, you’ll be dead in a few minutes.”

  “Go to hell!” Her shout ended on a scream as she flew toward the cold Atlantic waters.

  Chapter Two

  As she lay there floating in the frigid water of the Atlantic Ocean, Sophie knew she was going to die. She was surprised at the peaceful feeling she had. Her life didn’t flash before her eyes, as was rumored to happen. She almost wished it would have. There were some things she wouldn’t mind seeing again. The children she had been nanny to over the years. Her childhood spent running around the fields and streets of her hometown. She had been on the move all the time, her younger brother Patrick her constant companion. She felt the tears course down her cheeks at the thought of her brother. It had been during her junior year of college when he was killed. The authorities played down the bar fight, but she heard from some friends that it had been a set up. Her brother had been targeted because he was in love with the sheriff’s son, and some things were still taboo in small town USA.

  Trying to clear her mind of those memories, she landed on the next worse time of her life. Her ten-year marriage to Paul, her college sweetheart. She had been young and reeling from her brother’s death. Paul had promised to love, honor and cherish her and at the time, she had needed the crutch. He had wanted her to work to put him through medical school, then she could work part time and they could have children. She thought that was a fair compromise, so she finished her degree and became a teacher. It all went as planned. Paul had gotten his degree and then his dream job. Then the cracks started in their happy façade. She had not been able to get pregnant right away and asked Paul to seek fertility treatments with her. Her husband didn’t want medical intervention and when she requested therapy to fix their marriage, he had declined that as well. He didn’t want to put any more effort into their relationship. They had just grown too far apart he argued. It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that he had
found someone else. He had stayed with her as long as he could, trying to make it work he insisted. His second wife, who he married before the ink was dry on their divorce, would make him look good at the club. Sophie, being on the rounder side of healthy wouldn’t have she supposed.

  If she had been in love with her husband, it might have mattered to her a bit more. As it was, she had taken the opportunity to change careers from teaching to being a nanny. Because of her experience and ability to act as a qualified teacher as well, she was able to earn more as a nanny. Not only was the money good but she got the chance to travel a lot more, which was something she had always wanted to do.

  None of that mattered now. She just floated there thinking about how pretty the night sky looked and how calm the water seemed. She figured it was shock setting in. She must not have long now before it would be over. Just as she had that thought, there was a sudden warming feeling in the water around her. Her heart rate picked up and she worried she might have a heart attack, which in turn made her burst out laughing. Was she really going to worry about dying of a heart attack when she was seconds away from dying of shock?

  Before she could process that the water was definitely warmer, there was an accompanying glow around her. It was so bright she had to close her eyes. With her eyes squeezed shut, her other senses picked up. She could feel the previously calm water start to swirl and she was moving around with it. She had played in her uncle’s swimming pool one summer and the neighborhood children had run in circles, around and around until there was a swirling vortex. This is what that felt like. She swirled around in the water, with the light still burning against her closed lids. Just as suddenly as it started, everything stopped.

  She felt searing pain shoot through her whole body and it spasmed until she thought her limbs would break from the tension. When the pain reached a pinnacle, her overtaxed mind did the nice thing and shut down. It was lights out and blackness took her.