Liaising Kai

Chapter 11

“Coast Guard Spartan C-27J 2315 to available cutters. Infrared is picking up a live one on the water, a fast-moving contact heading three-five-zero toward South Florida.”

“Copy that Coast Guard Spartan. Coast Guard Sea Coral ready and able to interdict.”

Davis was standing outside the bridge when the call came in. This was his first voyage as a newly minted petty officer. He heard the reply and realized they were going to see some action. He turned to his new friend, Petty Officer Carter Lennon, and grinned. Carter’s eyes ignited as he stared out over the dark ocean. They were both eager to engage with anyone who thought they could slip past them.

“Captain?”

“Intercept at one-eight-zero, speed seventeen knots,” the captain replied.

“The radioman said, “This is Coast Guard cutter Sea Coral. Vessel off our port bow, this is the US Coast Guard. What are your intentions at this time?”

There was no answer, and all they heard were engines revving. The captain, informed of the fast-boat shearing away, ordered pursuit.

A roar echoed from aft of the pilothouse as the lift fans sucked air into the plenum, and within three or four seconds, the Sea Coral’s wet deck pressurized. The cutter rose two feet, and with the reduced drag the officer of the deck gunned the engines, sending the cutter spinning in place in a sweet three-hundred and sixty-degree circle. The under-hull pressure forced out fifty-foot jets of water, in random patterns, misting the air and giving all the drama a young Coast Guard petty officer craved. Bouncing lightly on the bubble of air, the deck beneath them felt weird with a rubbery vibration.

The vessel cut through the waves in pursuit of the escaping boat.

“Well, I guess we know their intentions,” Carter said, and Davis grinned as the salty air blew over the deck. He could see a silhouette not far in front of them, nothing but a dark shadow on the water.

Over the loudspeaker, the booming voice of the captain ordered the vessel to comply with his orders, and it looked like the boat was going to assent as it turned in the water and headed back toward them. Only moments later, Davis realized that the vessel was traveling too fast. A jolt against Sea Coral’s hull sent him forward, and he would have plummeted off the cutter’s deck into the wreckage of the ship below them. But Carter caught him around the waist. Braced against the rail, he held on as the Sea Coral settled. The other boat wasn’t so lucky. As crewmembers jumped from the sinking ship, its hull slipped below the surface and sank from sight.

“Our food is here,” Kai said, and Davis jerked awake from sleep, the dream fading. He blinked at Kai, and she smiled. “Hello there, sleepyhead.”

He took a deep breath and stretched, trying to find his emotional footing after remembering how Carter had saved his life that fateful night so long ago.

Pendleton had put them up in one of their Del Mar beach cottages with a bedroom, kitchenette, dining area, living room, and a sweet patio, the ocean right out their front door. It was part of the Marine Corps recreational facilities open to military and DoD patrons. The director pulled some strings to house them on base until the threat against their lives had been resolved.

He clenched his jaw against the pain and the sorrow that engulfed him as memories of Carter rolled over him. Hauling in a ragged breath, he sat there, coming to terms with the fact that he would never see Carter again and the nagging guilt that he’d been unable to save him from the events put in motion by Eduardo. Emotion caught in his throat and stung his eyes. He blinked several times.

“Davis?” Kai said, setting down the food on the coffee table and settling next to him on the sofa. “What is it?”

“A dream,” he said, his voice thick with unshed tears.

She rubbed his shoulders, and her sympathy made such a big difference, the comfort of her touch soothing the building grief. “About?”

“Carter. The night he saved my life.”

“Aw,” she said, closing her eyes, her throat working, and it was his turn to soothe her memory of Nate. Her loss was as big and empty as his was with Carter.

His throat closed up on him again, and he closed his eyes, a surge of hard emotion cutting through him. Carter had seen Davis at his lowest points in life, especially his feelings for Kai. His friend was the only one who knew how he felt about her. He was going to miss him like hell, and it was suddenly hitting him that Carter was truly gone. It was so fresh, and so devastating—hell, the man hadn’t even been buried yet—that Davis dropped his face in his hands, his chest heaving with the reality of what he’d lost.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, rubbing his back, but the raw feelings wouldn’t go away. He rose and said softly, “I’m going to take a shower.” Her features went tight. He wanted to talk to her, but he couldn’t right now. It was too much of an internal storm. Before he went, he crouched down. “Set out the food, and I’ll be right back.” His voice was uneven, his heart beating hard in his chest, knowing that telling this woman everything he was feeling was all that mattered to him. “We’ll talk. I just need?—”

“I know,” she said, that stiff look on her face fading as she radiated her understanding. “I know exactly what you’re feeling.” She heaved a painful sigh. “I’ll get the food ready. Go.”

Trying to deal with the sudden empty feeling clawing through him, he headed toward the bedroom. Weariness washing over him, he undid the buttons of his shirt with one hand, then pulled it free of his jeans, stripping the shirt off as he entered the room. This case had been so fast-paced. It had only been two days since the death of Carter, Nate, the task force, and all the other deaths that weighed on his soul, especially Roberto and his family. Fresh guilt and remorse made him grit his teeth. It just drove home to him how control was an illusion, a bitter pill to swallow. Hell, they had been to Ecuador and back in such a short span of time, it almost felt unreal, like the dream he’d just had about Carter.

The shower would be quick, but these feelings filling him up were going to linger for some time. That was just the reality of grief.

Kai sat therefor a brief moment, working at not being sensitive to Davis needing time to himself. She truly understood it, and he said he would talk when he returned, which made all the clamoring in her subside. This sharing was as intimate as making love with him, and that experience was hard to forget, even as her body tingled with the memory. The man was so wonderful and knew how to get pleasure and receive pleasure from her body and his own. Maybe that was because he had such an open and giving nature.

Everything after their conversation about Allison, her husband, and her parents had been so intense and crazy, she hadn’t found one moment to unpack all the stuff that Davis had said to her.

All of it was about forgiveness, and maybe that was the true road she needed to travel. Because she had alienated herself from them out of necessity, but how long was too long? Especially after the revelation that she had blamed them to deflect her devastating thoughts that she had been the one to blame. All the memories of how she’d felt washed over her as she removed the square cartons of food from the bag onto the coffee table. She walked to the kitchen and grabbed plates and silverware, thinking back then that she had been a bad mother for wanting to spend an afternoon with her friends, to get back those feelings of being carefree. She set the plates down and sat down, letting the emotions cascade over her. Davis had been right. She hadn’t been a bad mother. She’d done everything she could to care for Alllison, and she and her husband, Travis, were determined to make a life for themselves.

She found the gratitude she had for her parents’ acceptance of their plan and for the way they opened their home and their hearts to Travis and Allison. They had loved that little girl as much as Kai had. She had to chalk up her reaction to it all to her youth and her inability to accept her own role in the tragedy. She’d done nothing wrong.

And neither had her parents.

Davis had once again spoken the truth. It had been an accident.

They had lost so much…their grandchild, their son-in-law, and with a painful catch in her heart…their daughter. Kai had been wrong to cut them out. She saw that now but wasn’t sure how she could make amends. So much time and water had rushed under that bridge…but there was still a bridge there to cross if she had the courage to do it.

She heard the water come on in the shower, and her thoughts shifted to the man who had come into her life and turned it upside down. Her vision blurred, so many emotions breaking loose inside her that she couldn’t distinguish one from another.

It would be so easy to bolt, to deny what she was beginning to believe was possible…that she was in love with him, had been for some time. That her fear of getting involved with him had everything to do with her fear of letting go of what was holding her back, jettisoning the weight of the baggage from her past to clear a path for her future. Something she was beginning to see was not only possible but something she desperately wanted.

She craved to be that person so desperately. If only she could find that level ground she needed to stand on to be worthy of such a gift.

Dealing with the painful grief at the loss of his best friend was a personal matter. She was well aware of that concept because she was dealing with her own loss. But even though they had that in common, she wanted to offer him the comfort that he so generously gave to her, and when he came out of the bedroom dressed in nothing but a soft pair of sweatpants, the look on his face broadcast loud and clear that he was ready for that comfort.

He settled on the sofa next to her, his gaze heavy on her.

“Why don’t you tell me about Carter and your time in the Coast Guard? How that all came about.”

The pensive look in his eyes softened, and his smile was faint. “I’d have to talk about my dad before I got into all of that,” he said.

“Tell me anything at all, Davis. I’m all ears.”

He didn’t miss the reference to one of his statements when it came to listening to her. He smiled again, nostalgia and strong memories in his eyes.

“My dad, he was a merchant marine, but before that, he was part of a fishing legacy out of Gloucester, Massachusetts…swordfish, and he was eighteen when he boarded the fishing vessel, Maggie May, a few weeks before the storm of the century.” He smiled again and leaned back, the thick muscles in his chest and arms flexing, defined by light and shadows, the column of his throat looking so strong, all the way up to that gorgeous jaw. “My whole family comes from fishing stock, military service, and tough bastards. You could say the sea is in my blood.” The sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore added another dimension to his story, mingling with the hushed sounds of nightfall.

They were safe here on base. The San Diego arm of the Los Esmeraldas would be hard-pressed to find out where they were housed, let alone gain entrance to a US Marine Corps base filled with hard, tested troops.

“Gloucester was a rough town then, most of the populace focused on fishing, and the waterfront bars were clearly not places for tourists, filled with weathered characters acclimated to the sea. My grandfather was one of those men, and he molded my father into a younger version. Even at eighteen, he was tempered.”

He dropped his head, the damp strands of his hair framing his face. As Kai watched him, the earlier feelings of sympathy morphed into a protectiveness that tightened her throat and squeezed her heart.

He glanced at her, a hint of a smile softening his expression as he slipped his arm around her shoulders. His voice was gruff. “I sometimes think that all that grit and strength made my dad understand tenderness and vulnerability when it came to my mom. I had amazing role models. When she was dying, he was so there for her every step of the way. It made me understand marriage and all that goes into it.”

Sliding her arm around his waist, she rested her head against his shoulder, thinking about how important her parents were to her, and despite what had happened in their family, they, too, had been amazing. Not wanting to think about that part of her life, or the things she had to reconcile, she focused on Davis, wanting to be with him now in this moment. “They do sound awesome.”

He nodded, drawing her closer. “Swordfishing is profitable, and my dad had plans to go to the Merchant Marine Academy, so he was going to save for a couple of years, then attend.”

“But that changed?”

“Yeah, drastically. When they were headed home, still several hundred miles from shore, that Perfect Storm hit, and the Maggie May was in trouble. They radioed many maydays, and the Coast Guard picked up the distress calls. They knew what they were getting into. North Atlantic weather can be savage. Whole fleets have been lost—the loss of life steep. Even with modern technology and forecasting, it’s a gamble. But a fisherman could make an easy ten thousand in a month and my dad had a nice amount for the academy after two months on the boat.”

Kai raised her head and looked at him. “His last trip out before school?”

Davis absently slid his thumb back and forth over the skin just below her ear, hesitating briefly before he answered. “Yes.”

“I suspect it’s a good ending, since you’re here.”

He gazed down at her, his expression sober as he gently brushed a tendril off her face. “Yeah, the story ends well with my dad and the crew rescued, but it’s about his reverence of the Coast Guard. He told me that story when I was young, and it resonated with me. My dad’s stories were so vivid and well-told that I felt like I was there with him.”

She smoothed her hand across his back in a reassuring gesture. “So, you enlisted in the Coast Guard because they saved your dad’s life and you wanted to give back?”

“Something like that. He was so damn proud when I chose to enlist.”

“And Carter?”

“I was as wet behind the ears as he was. We were being drilled on everything and I learned crisp teamwork, clear communication, and strict safety protocols. There is no level of error on the sea and especially manning a cutter where immense forces play strongly and one misstep could get someone killed.”

Kai looked at him. Only the outline of his face and the glint in his eyes were discernible in the fading light, but she could tell his expression was serious.

“The US Coast Guard Coral Sea was unlike any other cutter and was berthed at Key West, Florida. Other patrol boats were painted the standard white and orange, but this vessel was stealth black, the deck pure white, the contrast making the ship look cutting-edge and intimidating.”

“I’ll bet it was fast, too,” she murmured.

He chuckled. “Yeah, lightning fast, which was perfect for chasing bad guys. Out on the open sea, whether on calm ocean or choppy, every vessel was met with suspicion. Smugglers knew how to hide and evade. They were experts at it and the Coast Guard was at a disadvantage with hundreds of smugglers operating across millions of square miles of ocean, hunted by a few dozen patrol boats and larger cutters. It had been amateur hour in previous years but was now a business of steely professionals who were adept at completing the smuggling runs and reaping the benefits.

“But we were on a vessel that was built for interdiction. At one hundred and ten feet, Sea Coral wasn’t the biggest of the fleet”s cutters, but it was a very interesting ship. She had a broad beam sitting on catamaran hulls, a roomy deck, cambered like a highway. We had a two-story deckhouse forward with tinted dark windows and the structure angled neatly aft. Below were the staterooms. The ship glided on air pumped underneath the hull. She wasn’t as graceful as most ships in the fleet, but she was a powerhouse, a sprinter at thirty knots.” He smiled, his memory obviously giving him joy. “Carter was a mechanical genius.” He chuckled. “The Coast Guard isn’t like the Navy with their overabundance of resources. The Coast Guard is small but mighty. We wore a lot of different hats. There was a never-ending cascade of maintenance, repair, qualification, cleanliness, inspection, safety, and supply functions, all while mentoring us, standing watch, and carrying out law enforcement boardings and other evolutions.” A smile tugged at her mouth at the pride in his voice, and it sounded like it was well-earned. “Carter was endlessly curious about how things worked, loved new tools and tactics, and was continually getting greasy and dirty. He always conducted himself with strong military standards. He was always clear and direct.”

“I see why you bonded.”

“He was a good friend,” he said gruffly. “We were chasing a fishing boat that ended up with tons of cocaine on it. They rammed us, and I lost my balance. I would have been ejected off the deck and down into the churning sea where the fishing boat made contact. I would have been killed, crushed against the hull, but Carter caught me, kept his balance, and saved me. The fishing boat sank, but divers recovered all the cocaine, and it was one of the biggest busts of my career.”

“And that led you to law enforcement.”

He smiled, his eyes locking on hers as he trailed a finger down her cheek, his touch tender and lingering. He hooked his knuckles under her chin and lifted her face. His breath feathered across her lips for an instant before his mouth touched hers with infinite gentleness. His warmth and strength surrounded her, his touch like silk against silk, yet for all that softness, there was an underlying strength, a depth of feeling.

She closed her eyes, an odd ache unfolding in her chest as he slid his hand up the back of her head, into her hair, splaying his fingers against her scalp. He turned her head, his mouth finding hers in a softly searing kiss. His gentleness mesmerized her, binding her to him with threads of sensation, and she moved closer, wanting to comfort him more than she wanted anything else.

It wasn’t about her. It was about his pain and his loss, and for some unexplained reason that eased her own pain, her own loss. To be able to be there for him was wonderful. Tonight, she wanted to fully be with him, be aware of him, give him infinite gentleness in every touch, show him how much she cherished him.

Sliding her hand across his hard chest, she pressed him back, and he caught her head, holding her mouth against his as he yielded to the light pressure. She grasped the waistband of his sweatpants and pulled them off his body, bare with the arousing sight of him getting hard.

“Kai, you don’t?—”

“Shh,” she whispered and shucked her clothes, straddled him, and sank onto his thick, full erection.

His breath caught, his voice so gruff he was barely audible as he whispered against her mouth, “You feel so good.”

His whole body tensed as she slowly settled her weight on him, and on a ragged intake of air, he tightened his arms around her, molding her against him. Aware of every breath, every heartbeat, every movement he made, Kai began to undulate slowly, to immerse him in pleasure so intense it would swamp his senses, and she wanted the full measure of his need.

He whispered her name, his hands on her hips, running up her ribs, over her breasts and back, then again to her hips as he thrust his pelvis upward, driving his shaft into her. She relentlessly fucked him with all the gentleness and emotions rising up in her.

Hauling in a ragged breath, ending on a groan, he released her hips and she settled deeper on him. A tremor coursed through him, and she felt him harden inside her. She experienced a rush of emotion so overwhelming that it left her unsteady, but she forced her body to respond, moving against him, pushing him deeper and deeper into sensations.

His thumb found her clit and he worked her hard, the pleasure swamping her. His other hand caught the back of her neck, and he pulled her down to his tantalizing mouth.

Wanting to give him all she had to give, Kai yielded her mouth fully to him, and he shuddered again and twisted beneath her, his words barely coherent as he ground out, “Kai—fuck?—”

She rose, drawing him with her, and he went rigid beneath her, suspended at the very edge of release. Overwhelmed by all the feelings she had for him, she leaned back, giving him the full depth of her as he arched up, tremors coursing through him as he climaxed deep inside her. She came with him, their cries mingling in the shadowed room.

With protectiveness welling up in her, she cradled his face against her shoulder, holding him with every ounce of comfort she possessed as the aftermath left him shaking.

She held him like that for several moments, feeling so surrounded by him that it was almost as though he had drawn her inside his very soul. And she closed her eyes, soaking up the feeling of his love for her.

The next morningit was back to business as the team worked hard to narrow down the pool of possible cartel collaborators. They eliminated most of the House, and the two senators, focusing on the congressmen who were responsible for the San Diego districts. But they found nothing of interest in their backgrounds.

She went over all their profiles, looking for anything that could possibly stand out to tie them to illegal activity, especially financial records. She pulled up Barlow Finch’s record and her eyes snagged on his family business. Flower wholesalers.

Flowers…

Rose petals on Eduardo’s boat.

She put Ecuador and roses in the search engine, and it returned…Freedom roses. “Oh, my God,” Kai said. “Freedom roses.” She looked at Davis and his brows rose.

“The rose petals on the boat,” Davis said with a glint in his eyes.

“They were smuggling the drugs within the flowers. Freedom. It’s part of the text message,” Austin said.

“That means the other parts of the message must be information about when the shipment is coming in,” Amber said, pulling the message up on the big screen.

“I think it’s about time we had a talk with Senator Finch and find out exactly who’s supplying him with roses from Ecuador,” Kai said. She rose and the rest of the agents followed. Davis’s expression was as hard as granite. This was the first concrete clue they’d gotten, and they would get answers from Barlow Finch regardless of his status and power, especially the answer on treason and how he sold out his own for profit.