Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Gina felt weird about spending the night with Wave’s sister in the house, so after Cass headed to her room to take a shower, she stepped closer to Wave.
“I’m going to head home now. I’ll be back early tomorrow.”
Wave met her gaze, then lifted one hand to her cheek, caressing her skin. “I wouldn’t mind if you stayed the night, but I totally understand wanting to head home. Please be careful. Text me when you get home so I know you made it.”
She nodded, wishing she could stay, but knowing it was best for her to go.
They would spend the day together, and seeing him in a different situation would give her more clues about him.
So far, she liked what she’d seen, and he was an excellent lover, but that didn’t mean being with him would be good for her.
With Pete after her, and now this thing with Wave, she had a lot of decisions. Did she want to get involved with someone? It was a lot to think about. She wasn’t sure getting involved was the best thing for her.
Sleep came easily, and she woke early. She was over at Wave’s house on time, excited to spend the day with Wave and Cass. It had been years since she’d ridden a rollercoaster. Honestly, it had been a long time since she’d done anything just for herself.
The front door opened, and Cass waved to her. “Hey, you ready?”
She stepped from the car, her smile wide. “I sure am. I’m ready for some fun.”
“Awesome. Get in here. Aaron wants us to wear matching T-shirts. I told him no because they are too small.”
“My goodness. Tell me he is not.”
“Oh, he is. And it’s awful.”
She walked into the house and saw Wave holding up a tiny shirt, a wide smile on his face.
“What do you think?”
He looked so proud of himself, but she could tell he was joking. There was no way any of them would be able to fit into the shirts. They were for kids.
Gina shook her head. “You aren’t serious, and I know it.”
Laughter spilled from his lips. “I had Cassandra going.”
“No, you didn’t,” Cass said.
“Okay, I have a question. Why are you calling her Cassandra when she clearly has a preference for Cass?”
Cass giggled and shook her head while Wave’s mouth fell open. “Don’t be too hard on him. I never told him I prefer Cass.”
She had another question. “And why do you call him Aaron when he goes by Wave?”
Cass shrugged. “Because he never told us that.”
Wave blew out a breath. “I didn’t want Mom to know. Maybe it was immature, but I didn’t want anything else she could hold over my head.” Wave glanced at his watch. “Time to go. We need to head out if we want to get there early.”
“Okay, let’s go,” Cass said.
They made it to the park about ten minutes before it opened. It wasn’t a weekend or school holiday, so the lines weren’t too bad. The amusement park wasn’t one of the really popular vacation places, so the line to get in wasn’t long.
First, they headed to one of the big roller coasters. She rode with Cass, and Wave was by himself. When they got off the ride, there was lots of laughter as they headed to the next coaster, this one water-based.
Work had loads of stress. Taking care of people who were at the end of their lives could be depressing. This day out with Wave and Cass was the most fun she’d had in ages.
They’d been at the park for a few hours and stopped at a food cart to grab something that resembled lunch. She got a hot dog and chips while Wave ordered a burger and Cass grabbed a slice of pizza.
They were sitting at the back of the dining area near a service entrance and could hear vehicles making deliveries. She guessed they were close to the edge of the park.
Cass wrinkled her nose when the service door swung open, and two guys walked in, pushing carts filled with boxes. “I’ve never been to Disney World or Disneyland, but I wonder if they get deliveries like this in the middle of the day.”
“Living in San Diego, Disneyland isn’t too far away, so I’ve been there a few times. I don’t remember hearing delivery trucks while I was in the parks.”
“Parks? They have multiple parks?” Cass asked.
He nodded. “Yeah. Once you’re settled and I can take a few days off, we’ll go. It will be fun.”
Gina shook her head. “I’ve never been to either. I’m not big into theme parks. I know they have long lines, though.”
Wave nodded. “This place only has short lines today because it’s not a holiday and school is in session. It’s usually busy in the summer.”
“Yeah. I went a few summers ago, and it was packed. So many stinky, sweaty people. I saw one guy pee into the bushes because the line for the bathroom was so long, and that was the men’s bathroom. The line for the women’s restroom was awful.”
“Ew,” Gina said. “That’s disgusting.”
Wave swallowed his bite of burger. “It happens more often than not. There was a cruise I heard about from one of the guys I served with, and there were men peeing off the top decks. You don’t do that shit if there are open decks below you and there were balconies on that ship.”
Gina gasped. “Oh shit, that is disgusting.”
She grabbed a fry off Wave’s plate and popped it into her mouth. They were having a great time, and she wasn’t paying attention to anything else going on when someone came up behind her and grabbed her arm, yanking her up.
The assault was so fast, she stumbled and went down on one knee. Wave yelled at the guy dragging her, but there were more people there, and for some reason, he didn’t move forward to save her.
Then she saw the gun aimed at Wave and Cass.
Of course, Wave didn’t have any weapons on him.
They wouldn’t have allowed him through the gates with a gun strapped to his side.
She glanced around, trying to see who was dragging her, but she didn’t get a good look before someone hit her on the side of her head.
The world tilted, and everything went dark for a moment before she regained consciousness. By then, she was being tossed into the back of a delivery truck.
She tried to get away, tried to get out of the jerk’s hold, but it was no use. The doors to the delivery truck closed, and they were moving. The guy holding onto her shoved her into a corner, sending sparks of pain through her body.
This had to be connected to Pete. The man or one of his goons must have seen her and decided to attack.
She hoped no one had been injured. She hadn’t heard gunfire, but she’d been out of it for a while, and anything could have happened.
She just hoped Cass and Wave were safe, because if anything happened to them because of her, she would never recover.