Chapter 10
“We have to get up soon,”she said, sounding all official and in charge. She turned to him. I forgot to ask you. Did you find anything of importance on the boat? Any type of information to who might be behind all this?”
“Nada there, but curiously, there were rose petals.”
“Rose petals? That’s odd.”
He shrugged, still baffled by it. “That’s what I thought.”
They were lying in each other’s arms, and he was enjoying every moment—his body sated for now, his heart still committed, but his mind was in a bit of turmoil. They had some hurdles to jump. “How did you make your way to NCIS?” he asked, curious how she went from teen mother and widow, blinded by heartache, to a supervisory special agent, and marveling at her courage in the face of such consuming tragedy. He always knew there was something like this lurking in her past. Something this devastating. She’d held herself so aloof, cut herself off from relationships and love. He saw the monumental pain, and now finally understood it.
“I gravitated to law enforcement and became an MP after boot camp. It suited me, and I enjoyed the work. I studied for a B.S. in criminal justice online through Purdue, and after I left service, I got a job in West Lafayette, Indiana as a paralegal to attend in person. I mostly did administrative support, legal research and writing, while I worked on my M.S. in criminal justice, again at Purdue. When I finished the degree, I applied to NCIS and attended FLETC.” Every agent had to attend the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
“I was a probie with Chris Vargas, then after a couple of years under my belt, I did a stint with special operations. After Chris transferred to the East Coast to head up his own team, I took over the Pendleton office as supervisory special agent.”
“How does Nate Curran fit in there?”
“He was included on a case with the team, and he took a liking to me, took me under his wing. We just fell into the mentor aspect of our relationship, then we became close friends.”
“Did he know?”
“Yes, I told him. There was a time when he wanted…more, but I didn’t feel the same way.” She turned into him and nuzzled his jaw. “We managed to get past that awkwardness.”
“I’m glad that it didn’t work out.”
“I bet you are.” She laughed softly. “What about you?” she asked. “Do you have any skeletons in the closet?”
He squeezed her hard. “If I did and I told you, I’d have to kill you.” She laughed again and he loved the sound. She pinched his side and he jerked. “Okay, okay, you’ve tortured it out of me.” He rolled to his side and met her eyes. “I wasn’t keen on going to college. It wasn’t like I couldn’t get in. I had good scores, but something about the mundane, follow-along-with-everyone-else didn’t appeal to me. My father inspired me, and I was always proud of him for that.” He brushed at her hair, warmed by the intense interest in her eyes. “The Coast Guard fit my life at the time as well. My mom got breast cancer, and the thought of being away from her for long periods of time didn’t appeal to me. So, I found I had the sea is in my blood, and their missions make a big difference in all our lives. Our country’s economic lifeblood flows through commercial waterways, and we defended our coastlines from threats, protected our environmental resources, and saved people who got into trouble at sea. It was an honor to serve.”
“And CGIS?”
“I wanted to continue my career in the Coast Guard, and I’ve always had a fascination for investigating and questioning. It turned out it was the perfect fit.”
“It’s where you met Carter?”
“Yeah,” he said fondly, his throat constricting. “He was this anal, skinny, young kid who was determined to make a difference. We bonded right away. He was a good man. He didn’t deserve to die like that.”
She nodded. “The same with Nate. He’s left a hole in my heart.”
Davis nodded, thinking about Carter, and it hurt just a tad less. He would have been thrilled that Davis had finally gotten a chance with Kai. Davis was just sad that his budding relationship with Mayta had been cut short…for both of them. But they were getting closer to whoever had perpetuated all these murders, and to think they were drug-related made him sick. He wasn’t going to rest until everyone involved was facing justice.
“Hey, it’s getting late,” he said. “We better get into the shower.” He smacked her with a pillow, shoving it over her head, then rolled out of bed.
“Ooh, you jerk. That’s what I said.” She threw off the pillow, which pushed her disheveled hair off her face.
He was already at the bathroom door. “I hope you find cold showers invigorating. I like mine very hot.”
She stopped sputtering and froze in the bed. Her eyes went over him, and she sighed when she saw how his dick was responding to thoughts of her wet and soapy. “Of course, we can enjoy all that hot, stimulating water…together. You know. For the good of the environment.”
He ducked inside laughing when he heard her call out breathlessly, “Well, if it’s for the good of the environment.”
Thirty minutes later,after she’d thoroughly and enthusiastically wrung him dry, he scraped the last of his stubble off his face, rinsed out his razor, and cleaned off the residual soap from the tap of running water. Her soft hand trailed up the slope of his back, and he smiled at the way she touched him, loving the feel of her affection. When he lifted his head, she offered him a hand towel.
“Hmm, I know that CGIS likes all their guys to look clean-cut, but there’s something to be said for your rough-and-tough look.” Before he could take the towel, she cupped his face with the terry and patted it dry. He slid his hands loosely around her waist and smiled.
“When I’m off duty, I can go for several days without shaving.” He waggled his brows, but you’re going to have to see me outside the office. How about that?”
She made a wry face. “You mean date you or something? Hmm, I don’t know.” Her eyes gleamed with humor, but Davis wasn’t one to take things for granted.
“You know if you decide to put on the brakes, change your mind about me, or want to, God forbid, be friends, I will understand.”
“You would be okay with any of those, huh?”
“Fuck no,” he said fiercely, pulling her closer, looking down into her startled face at his response and reaction. “I wouldn’t, but I would accept it, Kai.”
She looked away, breaking eye contact. “I have so much…baggage. I don’t want to burden?—”
“It’s no goddamned burden, babe. You make me feel alive, and I love your courage, your quick mind, and your passion for your job. The fact that losing your child has affected you this way for so many years shows how much you care. To be so confident and in control, with what you do, and with me. What happened last night between us was magic. It’s what I’ve wanted since we met, that deep connection, and now how you can look at me with such vulnerability and anxiety.”
“You scare the hell out of me,” she said.
“You have the power to crush me. But I trust that you won’t. So, we’re even there.”
“Oh, Davis,” she said, her eyes filling. “I don’t know what to do with you sometimes.”
He waggled his eyebrows again. “I may have some suggestions.”
He got an unsteady laugh as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her face into the hollow of his throat. “We’ll muddle through this together,” she whispered, her face wet against his neck, her voice breaking. “I just don’t know if I can promise you anything right now. I’ve just had a revelation about all of this, and I just can’t seem to see my way through to the other side.”
Tucking her head tighter against him, he savored the silky disorder of her hair. “What revelation?”
Kai’s voice was a little stronger when she responded, laced with bitterness. “My parents let me down, and I felt betrayed by them, disappointed that they broke my trust. As you know, I have trust issues. I don’t know how to get past all of the stuff in my head.”
He eased his hold and lifted her face so he could see her eyes. “Forgiveness,” he said, his voice gentle, knowing the power of that process, but also knowing how hard it was.
Her dark lashes matted, her mouth not quite steady, she looked at him, her eyes so sad and lost. “Forgive them? I’ve tried to do it in my mind, but I can’t seem to let it go.”
“No, not them, Kai, although I think that’s part of the equation, you need to forgive yourself.”
Closing her eyes, she rested her forehead against his jaw, and he could feel her start to tremble. “What?”
Ah, damn. She didn’t realize she was blaming herself. “One of the many normal feelings experienced after a child loss is guilt. It’s completely natural to think that Allison would have lived if you had only done something or not done something differently.”
“Forgive myself?”
He knew that was going to be hard for her to comprehend. Not because she would evade the truth, but because Kai had spent most of her adult life believing she was blaming only her parents when deep down she was berating herself. Catching a handful of hair, he tugged her head back, his gaze dead sober as he looked square into her eyes. “Yeah, you said you were in school. You had no control over that. You had to attend high school, right?”
She looked up at him and bit her lip. “No, actually, I was supposed to be home, but I got asked to go out with a few friends.” Her breath caught. She pressed her palms flat against his chest, her face changing, melting into uncertainty, confusion, then another hard dose of pain. Tightening his jaw against the jolt of awareness, and hit with a rush of emotion, he watched her cycle through something deep and personal—another revelation. “Oh, God,” she whispered, covering her mouth.
Whatever she was experiencing and mulling over, it was heavy and impactful. Realizing she was really struggling, he pulled her into a tight embrace and rested his head against hers. Not sure what they were getting themselves into, or how they would come out of it, he let his breath go. “Kai?”
“I was so busy blaming my parents, that I didn’t realize…I was actually blaming myself. All these years—” Tears filled her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “I just wanted to be a teenager. To be free for an afternoon. I didn’t want her to die. Did that make me a bad mother?”
She looked up at him as he struggled with a thickness deep in his chest. He stroked her back, feelings for her crowding in on him. Sliding his hand higher, he rubbed the back of her neck, and he felt her swallow, then swallow again, and he understood how very raw her emotions were right now. His own throat tightened. “No, Kai. You were so young. It’s natural to want to be a teenager after what you went through. It’s a different kind of loss, but it’s a loss. I can’t imagine any of that was easy,” he said, his tone rough.
She shook her head. “No, it wasn’t, but I loved her, and I wanted to be her mother. I just wanted some time?—”
He cupped her face, determined to make her see that everything she was feeling was all natural. He tightened his hold on her jaw, his tone commanding as he whispered, “Of course you did. But you couldn’t predict what would happen. No one can do that. It was an accident, and you can’t change it. You were a good mother. I’m sure of it.”
The look of gratitude that crossed her face gave him hope that she was convinced of that herself. She knew her own heart. She shook her head in disbelief. “I buried all those feelings,” she said absently, like she was trying to rectify everything all at once. “But I realize now that I felt like I failed Allison by wanting some time away from her. It was just too painful to handle that guilt and shame, I just transferred it to my parents.”
He just held her until he heard voices outside. He let his breath go in a rush of exasperation. He closed his eyes, transitioning to the CGIS agent he was. They had a plane to catch and Los Esmeraldas to interrogate. He withdrew from her, giving her a moment to adjust as the fresh thoughts and emotions whirled around in her head.
“Sounds like our bodyguards are coming.”
She nodded. “Time to go.”
“I wish we had more time to talk, but you’ve got a lot to think about.” He didn’t want to let her go, but the voices that were just outside the door didn’t give them much choice. Muttering another oath, Davis watched as she left the bathroom and opened the door. He leaned against the bathroom’s doorframe as Strekoza and Hummingbird entered the room with a breakfast cart. The petite blonde gave him a once over, her brows lifting, her eyes shining with admiration. “Sorry to bust in, but we thought you’d be hungry, and dining downstairs would be iffy.” She looked at her watch and said, “But tick tock. Wheels up in an hour and we have to get you both to the airport. You’ve got thirty minutes.” She looked at her partner. “Let’s go check the perimeter again, Koz.”
She lifted one of the steel domed coverings and stole a strip of bacon. With a smile, she bit into it, and they left.
“She’s a character,” Kai said, turning to look at him, “but I see what she sees.”
He smiled, headed for his suitcase, and dropped the towel. After stepping into a clean pair of boxer briefs, a pair of jeans, and a red polo shirt, he ran his hands through his hair.
The food got to him, and he and Kai devoured the eggs, toast, ham, and coffee on the cart. She was subdued, but in agent mode, now all business.
As they were ready to leave, she tugged on his wrist. “Thank you for being the man you are.” Her voice was raw with emotion, and a troubled, naked expression in her eyes made his throat contract. She grabbed the back of his neck, drawing him to her. Her mouth connected with his in a kiss filled with so much emotion, an open, tender press of her lips. She didn’t hold back in that kiss, and he felt the passion in her, an all-consuming passion that came from her very soul. It was so overpowering.
A knock on the door blasted them back to reality.
She abruptly jerked her mouth away, her breathing uneven, her hold almost savage, as she turned her face against his neck. He wasn’t sure whose heart was pounding harder, but they had to go. She sucked in a deep breath, then dragged her hand up his back, hugging him hard.
“Come on, lovebirds. We’ve got to go.”
“I’d like to kick her ass about now,” Kai said.
Her forehead resting against the angle of his jaw, he closed his eyes. “Yeah, you’d probably be dealing with both of them. I think they come as a pair.”
“I’d give them a run for their money,” she said through gritted teeth.
He stared down at her for a moment, then grinned. “Well, we come as a pair, too, and I think maybe together we could take them both.
Her laughter got him again right in the heart.
Kai gotinto the back seat of the black SUV and settled next to Davis. Strekoza was driving and Hummingbird was in the passenger seat. They seemed to have this non-verbal shorthand, and she admired how fluid the two of them were, not only back in the jungle, but every step of the way. They had been lucky that the DOJ had anticipated the need for a CIA intervention. When drugs were involved, a cartel had to be behind it all. Now it was NCIS’s job to interrogate the three captured Los Esmeraldas who were in the vehicle behind them, sandwiched between them and another black SUV who brought up the rear. Those were filled with National Police. The machete-wielding guy had been identified as Hector Jaramillo, the one who had let it slip about corrupt government officials was Galo Herrera, and lastly their hollow-eyed leader, Jonny “Z” Zambrano.
She was aware that she, Davis, and the DEA agents were lucky to be alive, though one agent was in critical condition. The vehicles pulled away from the curb and started down the street. Kai tried to relax her shoulders, but she knew that the government in this country was overshadowed by the brutal determination of the cartels and the gangs who served them. After Dario’s betrayal, she didn’t put much stock in the authority here.
She barely had any brain cells to absorb the conversation she’d had with Davis in their hotel room. He had made her look hard at herself, and she wasn’t happy with what she saw and how she’d acted. She’d cut her family out of her life, blaming them for her loss and pain, and now she had to reassess everything she’d thought she knew. Just not right now. Not when their lives were still on the line.
They made good progress toward Guayaquil’s José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport and the CIA private jet that was fueled and ready to take them back to San Diego. But she got a little more nervous when they turned down the main road and rumbled beneath an underpass, the granite blocks holding up the ramp closing them in.
When she turned to look at Davis to get his take on their suddenly claustrophobic route, her heart jumped into her throat as a dump truck barreled toward them. It hit the SUV broadside, jostling her wildly and pushing the SUV a good fifty feet. Windows smashed and the SUV started to roll. It tumbled over and over until it finally landed on its roof.
Her distance from the impact had protected her, but Davis was unconscious, blood at his temple. The groaning from the front of the vehicle told her that both Shadowguards were alive. Immediately, automatic gunfire came from in front and behind them. People were scrambling from the vehicles.
“Koz?” Hummingbird called, dropping down to the roof after cutting her seatbelt.
“I’m okay,” she said, reaching back and grabbing one of the semi-automatics that had been wedged between the back of the driver’s seat and the center console. “Get them out. I’ll cover us.”
Hummingbird cut Strekoza’s seatbelt, then looked in the back, handing Kai the knife. She used it, and as soon as she’d dropped down, she turned to Davis. He was still out.
Hummingbird climbed into the back. “Cut it. I’ll ease him down.”
Kai waited until she had a good hold on Davis before she severed the woven nylon. Davis dropped and Hummingbird eased him down, then kicked out the remnants of the back passenger side window so they could crawl out. Together they pushed and pulled him out, as Strekoza returned gunfire from her position outside the vehicle.
Remaining calm in high-stress situations was just part of the job, and she took a moment to absorb the information around her. The other two SUVs had been cut off from both the front and back, making it a kill box. Machine-gun rounds ripped into all three vehicles from the assailants. She had no doubt they were Los Esmeraldas.
“Let’s pull back in case the vehicle blows,” Hummingbird shouted above the deafening sound of the gunfire. Between them, they managed to drag Davis behind one of the concrete pillars while Strekoza kept them covered. From there, she and Hummingbird joined in the gunfight.
The gun battle continued as she heard sirens in the background. With the imminent arrival of the police, the gang members got bolder and started trying to flank them. Kai hovered over Davis, picking off members who tried to get a clear shot of them.
The sound of a chopper overhead didn’t deter the gang members. They ruthlessly attacked until the police came from behind and rooted them out.
When the dust cleared, Hector and Jonny Z were dead, along with several of the police. The remaining Los Esmeraldas, Galo, was unharmed. Davis came around and received first aid to the gash on his temple, and the five of them boarded the helicopter for the final leg of the journey to the airport.
It wasn’t until they were all situated on the plane and in the air that Kai blew out a breath of relief.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Davis murmured next to her. He was still just a bit addled from getting his head slammed into the window and shortly afterward fell asleep.
No, they weren’t out of it yet, but once on their home turf, she was determined to continue to do her job no matter the threat.
She conducted the interrogation the moment they got back to NCIS, with Davis assisting, temporarily ignoring calls from their US attorney watchdog. She didn’t need another reminder to step up the investigation. God, the woman was a pitbull.
She focused on the job at hand. Galo was terrified, especially after the attack on them, but refused to give them any names. When they showed him the text they had recovered on Mayta’s phone, his mouth compressed, and he shook his head. Galo’s only slip up was that the person behind it was a high-ranking federal political official. That left California’s fifty-two congressmen and two senators in the hot seat.
It was time to delve into all of them to discover who might have sold out the task force and their own country.
Freddy Delgado slippedinto the cell, the bribes she’d used to get to Galo Herrera working like a charm. Galo woke up and shifted back on the bottom bunk when he saw her, his eyes wide.
“I didn’t tell them anything,” he whispered. “I swear.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, her expression taut.
He shrugged, looking away sheepishly. “Well, except that it was a federal official. But no name.”
She smiled reassuringly, wincing inside. That wouldn’t be enough to implicate Finch, but she couldn’t really take any chances now. They would have to find another source for distribution. She was already working out a contingency plan on where she could store the shipment until she found another way to distribute the cartel’s coke. “Okay, Galo.” The handle of the concealed knife was gripped in her hand, but out of Galo’s line of vision. “Did you learn anything from them?”
“They have Mayta’s phone and the text he sent to her and her mom.”
She swore softly, and Galo went pale. Anxiety and dread washed through her. “Have they figured it out?”
He shook his head. “No, they didn’t have a clue what it meant. But that shipment needs to get here, and you should unload fast.”
“Thanks, Galo, for the information.”
“I won’t break,” he assured her. “My lips are sealed.”
She nodded and whipped the knife across his throat. “I’m sure you won’t.” She wiped the blade on his shirt and stepped away from his corpse. The feds didn’t know what they had. A road map right to the cartel’s shipment. If she didn’t deliver—she looked at Galo’s still face—she was going to end up just like him. That wasn’t going to happen.
She was a survivor, and she had a wealth of information to barter. But it wasn’t going to come to that. She was going to succeed. It was just a matter of one day…twenty-four hours, then she’d whisk their product right out from under the noses of everyone, including the feds. She slipped out of the cell and pulled out her mobile. She had plans to make.