Chapter 7
Kai stoodat the glass and could barely make out what Roberto was saying, he was speaking so low the microphones in the room couldn’t pick up much. She would have to rely on Davis to fill her in when he was done with the interrogation. Dario was agitated. He kept shooting sidelong glances at Cesar, who stood there like a statue watching every move Roberto made. The colonel’s intensity was unnerving, and the undercurrents of something nefarious made every muscle in her body tense.
There could be a million reasons cops got tense. But Cesar’s behavior regarding Roberto was disturbing. She meant it when she said they couldn’t trust anyone, including law enforcement. The fact that Dario had tried to warn her was enough evidence that corruption reached every corner of the country, including and especially the police.
But progress was progress. They at least got some information from Roberto. What their next step would be was uncertain. It was frustrating as hell. It could be that she was distracted…too distracted by Davis to be thinking straight. Maybe coming down here to Ecuador had been a mistake and she should have sent one of her completely grounded, level-headed agents.
She wasn’t sure if her hindsight was 20/20, or if she never even considered assigning someone else to this case because, not only was it personal, but she wanted to work with Davis. She wanted to see him in action, see him clearly and without the fantasy of her daydreaming clouding up the real man with her idealized version of him.
Except she wasn’t seeing much of a difference. He was steadfast, brave, smart, dependable…and charismatic, sexy with a body to die for, and she was struggling to maintain her professional demeanor and keep her hands off him. Not to mention, he seemed to put Roberto at ease, which was good for the case. He turned her upside down and inside out, and the fear that assaulted her whenever she thought about getting close to him returned tenfold. Did she trust him? Yes, she did with this case, with her life but did she trust him with her heart, every fucked-up thing with her? She shoved her trembling hands into the pockets of her jeans, admitting to herself that Davis was the only man, other than Nate, she had ever considered revealing all her secrets and pain.
The fear still lived in her that she could be wrong, that her judgment was tangled up in her body’s response to him, clouding her rationalizations and messing with her clarity. What if he let her down, let her fall, and she also admitted that would be one terrible, awful hard landing, possibly breaking anything that was left intact.
Davis rose from his chair and Roberto grasped his arm tightly, whispering something to him before Davis nodded and exited the room.
When he came back into the observation room, the three of them crowded around him. “Eduardo was supposed to be back yesterday. Roberto doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing, but his catch has been sparse to nonexistent. He worries that his boss found another route or was pressured into?—
“Smuggling,” Dario said.
Davis nodded. “Roberto said that it’s been difficult the last few years due to the restrictions on fishing, and the pressure from foreign countries like China who are fishing near the Galapagos, even in the protected area.”
“That’s not all they have to contend with,” Dario said. “There’s an issue of extortion. If the fishermen don’t pay a fee of protection, the gangs steal their engines.”
“At least ten to twelve engines are stolen each month. Most fishermen pay since the cost of an engine is around ten thousand dollars. We don’t condone it, but it’s understandable why they turn to smuggling to make a living, but it’s come at a high price with a few thousand artisanal fishermen imprisoned in many countries, including the United States.”
“Eduardo’s disappearance coincided with his daughter’s murder and the murder of a whole task force. Regardless of what has happened to Eduardo, the US won’t stop until we find who’s responsible for their deaths. You understand what that means.”
“You’re just the first wave?”
“We are, and we hope to be effective, but Homeland and other agencies lost good members of that team.”
Cesar looked at his watch, then said, “Why don’t you get yourselves some lunch? There’s a great place across the street. We’ll get Roberto and his family into protective custody and drop the charges against him.”
Kai looked at Davis and he nodded. “All right. We’ll be back in an hour.”
As soon as they were comfortably out of earshot of anyone in the police department, Kai said, “Well that went so much better than I thought it would.” They headed toward a round restaurant instead of the one across the street. The name was Round on the Water as it curved around, most of the view facing out to the river.
“Yeah, but we aren’t any closer to finding Eduardo than we were when we landed.” Davis’s jaw hardened.
“Maybe once Roberto and his family are safe, he’ll be more forthcoming.” They went inside and it was beautiful, with wood and bamboo walls, hanging plants, and a living wall of greenery, even a waterfall. The sound of water was soothing.
“He thinks that something bad happened to Eduardo, and I’m inclined to agree. He’s either in deep hiding or dead. I’m on the side of dead.” Davis lowered his voice as he chose a table close to the door.
“That would be unfortunate, but we’ve gotten some good intel.” Kai cut off the conversation when the waitress approached. She handed them the menu and they both chose water to drink. “We know that Los Esmeraldas are most likely involved,” Kai continued. “Which means we can go after them. I bet they have a San Diego arm of the organization, and they’re the ones who carried out the attacks. We have all the resources we need per US Attorney Leigh Waterford.” She looked at the menu and everything looked delicious. “Ooh, sushi.”
Davis smiled, looking up from the menu, his smoky gray eyes soft and dreamy. “Yeah, but I want anyone and everyone who was involved in this murder spree,” he said, his eyes hardening into stone. “They damn well aren’t going to get away with this. Once we find out who the cartel is, it’s open season on them.”
She didn’t blame Davis for his somewhat bloodthirsty view. First off, it was the only language the cartel understood, and secondly, they had personal losses that made this case much more than professional for both of them. When the waitress came back, they both ordered sushi. She got the lemon teriyaki roll, and Davis got spicy crab.
She took a long drink of her water. It was cold and quenched her thirst. “Do you think we were wrong about Cesar?” The waitress dropped off their orders and they both dug in.
“I’m not sure,” Davis said after chewing and wiping his sensual lips with a napkin. “I still think it’s a miracle that Roberto is still alive. I fear for him and his family, Kai.”
She reached out and covered the back of his hand. He turned it over and squeezed her fingers. The sushi was fresh, lemony and so delicious. She ate another two disks, sighing about the food, and the warmth of Davis. He was so caring and kind.
She looked out to the river, and it struck her how peaceful it felt to be with Davis. It occurred to her that maybe her attempts to control what was uncontrollable was the very trait that was holding her back. That maybe trusting herself, her own ability, sense of direction, and intuition were her strong points, something she’d ignored for many years of deep pain and loss that she’d held onto for far too long. She couldn’t imagine her daughter, if she had grown to adulthood, wouldn’t want her mother to lose herself in her grief.
Davis brought her back with a squeeze of her hand. “Hey? You are a million miles away.”
“You are a very decent man, Davis. I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you over the years.” She looked back out to the river. “My only defense is that I fear loss more than I think I fear happiness. I’m not sure I’ll ever overcome it, and you deserve so much more.”
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that? We’re under a lot of stress right now, Kai. It’s probably the worst time to get involved with each other, but I don’t give a damn.”
His unapologetic statement made her smile, and his smile was huge, bright and so sexy. She laughed. “You are something.” She shook her head.
“Am I? I can’t get past you,” he said huskily.
She blushed at his compliment and the way he looked at her, like he saw everything just the way she was and wasn’t intimidated. She missed having a significant relationship with anyone. The fact that Davis could have just slept with her and moved on wasn’t lost on her. He’d resisted when she knew he was as turned on as she was. If she couldn’t tell this man the truth about herself, who could she tell? Keeping secrets pushed people away, and she wasn’t comfortable with that anymore, not with Davis. She trusted him and owed him that much. The man had risked his life for her but bringing him into her past would put the same burden on him. She could barely think about it and had never put it into words.
“You are quite the charmer.”
His face hardened a little, and his shoulders tightened. “I’m not charming you, Kai.”
His sincerity and honesty were other things about him that bowled her over. She realized that she might have hurt his feelings. “I’m sorry,” she said, leaning forward, clasping his hand tighter. “Sometimes I’m an idiot and I don’t know how to take a compliment.”
“I don’t gaslight, snowball, or charm women.” The thread of tension in his tone meant that he was insulted, and she realized it was because he wasn’t sure of her. “I’m not perfect by any means, but I’m completely honest with you. I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
She immediately regretted her stupid knee-jerk reaction. She took his hand in both of hers and leaned forward. Davis was so steadfast, remaining constantly and consistently emotionally connected. To her. It truly humbled her and made her feel even more like a jerk. “Of course you don’t. I know that in my bones, and I knew that the night you refused me. I was so angry that you wouldn’t give me my way, and the memory of hitting you is just reprehensible. I’m truly sorry for saying what I said, and for any other time I was insensitive or just plain mean.”
“Sometimes I bring that out in women,” he said, then grinned, pure mischief and male sexuality sparkling in his eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief at his ability to turn the tables on her.
She gave him a narrow-eyed look. “You keep me on my toes, Davis.”
He grinned again, the laugh lines around his eyes deepened, a sensual gleam appearing in his gaze.
He ran one finger across the back of her hand, his touch stirring and sensitizing, his gaze turning more intimate. “Don’t be so smug. I’m not a pushover.”
He laughed then, threw back his head, and released a loud, rich sound that settled inside her. “And payback is a bitch?”
“Yeah.” She lost the moment to tell him what she’d wanted to tell him as he rose, but unable to go back to work without a moment of sharing, she turned to him, stopping him in his tracks. “Thank you for being so…you. There are things I want to tell you, things difficult for me to say and to think about, but I want to tell you.”
He stared at her with a look that made her pulse falter, the glint in his eyes intensifying to something more real than she was sure she could deal with. Kai suddenly felt shaky inside.
How had she lost herself? When did it happen? Had she used her sense of duty, feelings of accountability, her uncertainty to cease to exist as a woman? She looked at him with a jolt of realization. He was watching her with an odd look in his eyes. He reached out and caught her by the back of the neck, giving her a little shake. “That’s damn brave of you,” he said huskily. “I’ll be all ears.”
She stared at him, suddenly dangerously close to tears. He was making her assess everything in her life, especially all the things she’d lost because she had disappeared from her own life and hadn’t even realized it.
He slipped his arm around her once they exited the restaurant, and that realization haunted her as they made their way back to the precinct. Once inside, he dropped his arm, all business, as they headed toward the interrogation room.
Shots rang out from the room, and everyone froze for half a second, then Davis took off, Kai following closely behind him. He rushed through the closed door, and Kai dreaded what they would find.
Roberto was slumped over the table, a wire around his neck, his glassy eyes fixed and still, a small amount of blood dripping on the table. Cesar was in the corner, his gun lying next to him, a neat hole in his chest, his eyes open and staring, and Dario was on the other side of the room, his gun lying limply in his hand, a telltale red stain on his upper arm, seeping into the tattered edges of his uniform sleeve.
Davis rushed over to him. “What the hell happened?” he demanded, ripping his sleeve to see what kind of damage the bullet had done to his arm. She could see it was a graze. He turned to one of the officers. “Get a first aid kit.”
“I came in and Cesar…I was too late…Roberto was already dead. I pulled my weapon and we fired almost at the same time. He murdered Roberto.” There was a soft murmur throughout the lingering cops. Then Davis stiffened and he rose abruptly.
“Did you send someone to pick up Roberto’s wife and children?”
“Yeah,” Dario said, his breathing harsh from the wound and adrenaline.
He looked at the desk sergeant. “Have you heard from them?”
He looked sick, then shook his head.
Davis brushed past her. “Keys!” he growled, and one of the patrol officers gave them to him, calling out his car number as Davis flew out the door.
Kai went after him, running full out, her frantically beating heart caught in her throat. When she reached the parking lot, he was already peeling out, and her stomach dropped, replacing the tense apprehension. She turned to the first cop and said, “I need your car.”
When she got to Roberto”s address, she saw the empty cruiser parked at an angle against the curb, the driver’s side door open. She pulled her car over and got out, her heart pounding. Pausing momentarily at the sight of the detail Cesar had sent over to pick up and protect Roberto’s family, she took a deep stabilizing breath. Both cops were dead. They never even got out of the car. The reprehensible bastard had sent his own people into an ambush. The shots had been fired through the windshield.
She pulled her weapon, but she was already sure they were too late, her heart sinking, and her anger spiking. She approached the small, modest house, bringing her weapon up in reaction when she saw movement, then lowering it when she realized it was Davis.
The look on his face…pure devastation. He leaned against the doorjamb, his face ashen. She approached, and he said, his voice subdued and low, “Don’t go in there.” He motioned toward the inside. “You don’t want to see what they did to them. It’s stuff of nightmares.” He stared at her across the space that separated them, the muscles in his jaw tightening.
It tore her to shreds knowing that a whole hardworking family had been wiped out, trying but failing to stay numb about those poor children.
She holstered her weapon and went to him, a fierce, protective feeling welling up inside her. His body was rigid and when she touched him, he stiffened. He was in shock, that was clear. Needing to bring him back from the horror, she caught his face and turned his head, her vision blurring. “Davis,” she whispered unevenly, “I’m so sorry.” He stared at her, his gaunt face set like stone, not even a glimmer of response in his stricken eyes. “Davis? This isn’t over,” she said.
Something flickered in his eyes, as if her voice penetrated that frozen feeling.
Davis stared at her for an instant, then he closed his eyes in an expression of immense torment, and Kai grit her teeth against a wrenching surge of emotion as his arms came around her in a desperate, crushing embrace. She knew what he was feeling. It was as if he’d failed Carter all over again. She couldn’t help thinking the same thing about Nate. Holding on to him with every ounce of strength she had, she hugged him back just as fiercely.
The sound of sirens in the distance barely registered.
“You’re right, Kai. This is far from over.”
He wasquiet all the way back to the precinct. There were only a few vehicles parked in front of the police station, but in spite of that, the main street seemed oddly deserted, the steady drizzle that had started up when they left Roberto’s house, compounding the emptiness. Kai parked the cruiser and turned off the ignition, then sat staring at the rain-splattered windshield. They were now at square one. There would be no more information from Roberto, and he and his family had paid the ultimate price for…nothing. Not a goddamn thing.
They would regroup and figure this out.
Davis stirred, then opened his door, glancing at her with hard eyes. “I want answers.” She’d seen that kind of look in a lot of different men when they were going over the deep end, when they were fed up and they had come to the end of their rope. Davis looked like he was going to strangle someone with what little rope he had left.
He strode from the car, and she got out and hurried after him just as her cell rang. She pulled it out muttering about bad timing when she saw the display. It was the director. Damn, really bad timing. She answered. “Yes, sir?”
“What is going on over there, Talbot? I’m getting some reports?—”
“I can’t talk now, sir. I will call you as soon as I can with an update.” By the time she got inside, there was shouting from the interrogation room. Davis was already inside. She pushed through the cops milling around and entered the room just as Davis stepped up to Dario and snarled. “I’m not going to ask again! Did you know?”
“I suspected him. Okay! But I had no proof. I wasn’t sure who to trust. I’m sure that you’re familiar with that feeling!” Dario shouted back, looking sick, his face contorted.
“They butchered his family! Who is behind this!”
“I don’t know!”
Davis pounded his fist against the table, then flipped it over, kicking one of the chairs. “I’m done with this,” he said, turning on his heel and walking toward the door.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re leaving. This has been a colossal waste of our time! We will investigate this our own way.”
“You’re fighting a losing battle!” Dario said, but Davis ignored him as he took her arm and propelled her out of the room and down the hall. Once outside the precinct, she pulled her arm away, but he kept walking. She huffed a hard breath, aware he was hurting, angry, and frustrated, but so was she.
“Davis,” she called, but he didn’t stop. She ran after him and caught his arm, turning him. “Wait.”
He stopped, set his hands on his hips. In all the time she had known him, she’d never seen him act this way. He was always so professional, so calm and collected. What he had seen at that house must have upended him, and part of her couldn’t blame him. They were only human after all, but they still had a job to do, one she wasn’t going to back down from. Not to mention, the director was waiting. Not her boss, but the leader of the whole of NCIS, one step from SECNAV. She couldn’t keep him waiting much longer. “We can’t treat the locals like that.”
“I don’t give a damn. We can’t trust them, Kai. We’ve got more deaths on this case than I think I’ve had in my whole tenure at CGIS. They’re one step ahead of us and I’m not playing that game anymore.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?”
“We’re going to Homeland and the DEA. They have an office here. We can track Eduardo’s boat. We have the technology, and we can bypass all the red tape the locals keep throwing at us.”
She saw the wisdom of that and nodded. “You’re right. We don’t know who we can trust.”
After they made the decision to consult with the DEA, things started to move faster. At their office, they consulted with a Canadian company that was monitoring the fishing fleet in conjunction with Ecuador’s government. Once the signal for Eduardo’s boat had been found, it was discovered he’d turned his vessel monitoring system off.
With his equipment only pinging every two hours, showing him sailing near the Galapagos Islands, they cooled their heels until one of the agents said, “The Canadian company found and identified Mayta’s Gift using optical satellite sensors, compiled by the boat’s on-board navigation system. They lost him in the tributaries but can say with some accuracy that he was headed toward the Manglares Churute Ecological Reserve.”
It wasn’t long after that they took a helicopter to a drug interdiction boat manned by two DEA agents—Kelly and Shaw. After that they were winding their way down narrow, shallow channels with low, muddy banks, the river branching off, each arm reaching into another pocket of wilderness. From the vantage of the chopper, she noted that some of the channels were as wide as rivers, others narrow, like the one they were on now. This place was alive with birds, darting everywhere, flashes of color in the gloom, flitting among the lacework of branches, along with the dark shapes of Howler monkeys, who were eerily calling to each other as they passed, alerting the area of their presence. She was a city girl through and through and being immersed in so much nature unnerved her.
She had to admit to herself that she was shaken, scared as hell after all the death they had found surrounding this one man. But she wasn’t going to let her fear deter her from following through on this case.
Finally, they emerged from the natural grove into an area where the channel grew wider. Agent Kelly maneuvered the boat into a spot near the south bank, positioning them next to Mayta’s Gift, nestled into the small, natural cove and half hidden by trees and bushes.
A chill raced over Kai’s skin, and she looked around, sensing…something. She strained her eyes, staring into the gloom, seeing nothing, but sensing…a presence. The sensation lingered like a dark, intent gaze, and the hair rose on the back of her neck.
“Eduardo?” Davis called.
Silence.
“Eduardo?” he called again, but his inquiry was met again with silence.
They pulled up close to the boat where the agents and Davis went over the side, then offered his hand as she maneuvered off the boat onto Eduardo’s. She didn’t frequent boats, ironic, she knew since she worked for the Navy. She had done her agent afloat service, but that had been on an aircraft carrier.
While they searched, she looked off into the distance and her eye caught something red. She stepped off the boat onto the muddy ground and headed toward the speck of color, careful where she placed her feet on the uneven, shadowed path. She searched the area for that scrap of cloth, not watching where she was going.
She tripped, going down into the brush hard, and when she lifted her head, she saw a red shirt, then huffed in a startled breath when she followed the line of it to…Eduardo. A very dead Eduardo.