by Angel Payne
Different phone. Different lanai. Different breathtaking beach view.
Same helpless fury.
“Franz.” Kellan leaned forward, planting elbows on his knees in another attempt to reason with the man. “We’re not saying that we don’t understand—”
“Of course you’re not,” their CO countered. “You’re just saying that neither of you want to understand.”
Tait burst to his feet. “Maybe we have a translation problem here. We’re telling you that Benson is all but sucking Cameron Stock’s dick and that as we speak, they’re drawing up a contract to accept upwards of seventy million dollars from the North Koreans—with Lani tossed in as the signing bonus.”
“Damn it,” the man boomed. “You don’t think I hear you loud and clear, Bommer? And you don’t think that I wish to fuck I was there beside you to deal with this, instead of here with the responsibility of this battalion and these men?” A long pause was filled with his peeved exhalation. “But commit this to that dense gray matter of yours, Sergeant: the logistics of this wouldn’t change even if I was there. This scenario calls for intelligence and deliberation, not impatience and drama. There are only two of you, wanting to stage an operation with little else but that rifle and a couple of knives, on a property twice as big as the Bin Laden compound. There were nearly thirty personnel and a dog on that op.”
Kell shook his head while pitching to his feet. “Psshh. Thirty Navy guys, two Army guys; same difference.”
Franz cut off Tait’s chuckle before he could get it started. “You two aren’t just being impractical; you’re being stupid. For the time being, both those adjectives are deleted from your vocabulary in favor of a fun new concept I have. It’s called safety.”
Kellan stopped and slammed his hands to his waist. Tait let his head fall back. Franz was smart enough to interpret the huffs they attached to the actions. He sent back a commanding grunt, not budging his position.
Tait swung forward again. “The Kails aren’t going to be any safer than a cottage on a missile testing base.”
Franzen gave way to another growl. “I’m talking about your safety, shit-for-brains. I can’t be there but I’m sending the next best thing. The Fifth SFGA had a team ready to launch on a mission that was aborted; they’ve already been reassigned and were airborne forty-five minutes ago. They’ll be landing at the base in about sixteen hours, and you will await then assist them.”
Sixteen hours!
Tait stopped himself from punching out one of the lanai supports only because Kellan expressed their outrage by kicking a chair down the porch. “Captain, with a shit-ton of respect, we don’t have sixteen hours. When Lani and Leo don’t return to the ranch tonight, Stock and Benson will start a hunt without hesitation.”
“Which means they’ll check my place next. You thought about that and left the lights on when you left, right?”
“Affirmative,” Kell put in. “But eventually they’ll connect the dots and realize we’re on to them.”
Tait coiled his hands into fists. “Then they’ll be desperate for a chance to escape. They’ll rush to finalize things with Tan and the Koreans.”
“Which they can’t facilitate without Lani.”
“It’s easy enough to forge her signature on the property docs.”
“But Tan doesn’t just want her signature.” The comeback came from Kellan. With every step he took back toward the table, the storm on his face gave way to resignation. “And T, that means the captain’s right. Our most important duty right now is hunkering down here, making sure Lani and Leo are secure and safe.”
A satisfied huff came from the phone. “At last, the light of common sense shines upon the shores of my native land.”
The urge to smash something to dust blasted once more through Tait’s limbs. He spun to make his way back inside the cottage but was stopped by a stare of luminous silver light, belonging to the woman who stood in tense silence beneath the door frame. Without granting him mercy from her gaze, Lani called toward the phone, “Glad you called, Johnny. Somebody had to pound some sense into these guys.”
“Johnny?” Kell actually grinned, ready to move in for the kill shot on the tease.
Franzen let it slide. “Hoku-hulu-baby!” he cried in delight. “How’re you holding up, kaikuahine? And how’s Leo?”
Her features crumpled a little. Then a lot. Tait’s chest imploded. He hated seeing how frightened she was. He hated watching her fingers tremble as she tucked her hair behind an ear. Most of all, he hated how she stiffened against the arm he tried to wrap around her in comfort. “We’ve—errmm—had better days,” she finally stated with forced brightness. “Leo’s okay, considering the circumstances. He’s retreated to his room with his ear buds and music.”
“A saner plan than what my bullet ninjas were planning.”
“No shit,” she agreed. “Wishing I could follow my kaikaina’s example and do the same, but I think I’m still in shock. Gunter Benson’s douche quotient is bigger than I ever imagined.”
“It won’t be for much longer,” Franz assured. “Some of the Big Green Machine’s finest are on their way. I just got an inbox from our friends with the Navy, as well. Guess they caught wind of the fun you’re all going to have and are trying to round up a few SEALs to help out with the op.”
Kellan gritted his teeth through a fake smile. “Gee, Franz, want to make our night even better by announcing we get poi with dinner?”
Tait laughed as Lani jabbed the guy in honor of their running joke. Personally, he loved the native Hawaiian dish, made of crushed taro root. Kell’s opinion of the stuff ran the exact opposite.
“Enough,” Franz protested. “You’re making me homesick!”
Kellan groaned, which made Lani giggle again. Tait tried to stir some matching humor once more but the feelings waned as Kell signed off with Franz, confirming he’d drop a text as soon as the battalion from the fifth arrived at the base.
This wasn’t right. Every minute they waited was another minute they wasted. And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
Tait turned and headed down the lanai steps. In another dozen strides, he was on the shore itself, pacing hard in an effort to work off his urgent ire.
“T-Bomb.”
He kept walking. Kell would get the point in another second or two and back off. Though only a half-circle in the sky, the moon was brilliant tonight. It turned the beach into something from a goddamn romance movie, pissing him off more. Where was a depressing storm when he needed one? The fuckers happened every five minutes on this island, didn’t they?
“Tait.”
He didn’t stop.
“Bommer, for fuck’s sake!”
He gave the guy a pity stop. Nobody liked watching a man playing needy puppy with another, no matter what the circumstances were. “Not in the mood, Slash-rific. Don’t you have to go look for your misplaced balls, anyway?”
The man jutted his jaw. “You know I don’t like this waiting game any more than you. You know I’d be jumping in the car right next to you, if I thought it made sense. But if you dig deep, you also know that once those assholes get it that we’re on to them, which will be any second now, they won’t leave a pebble of this island unturned to try and find her.”
He pointed to the runway a few thousand feet away. “Hate to repeat the obvious, but this place is a bit fortified. And staffed by people who know a thing or two about defense systems and weapons.”
“And any one of them could also be in Stock’s back pocket. You heard the conversation in the cave as clearly as I did. The guy has bought off most of the local governments on this island and Oahu. Who’s to say he hasn’t found a few folks on the take on the base? That’s before we consider Tan’s influence, as well. The man was in cahoots with that bastard King, who damn near snatched Sage away from Hawk again and had paid minions all over Lewis-McChord. Fruit on the same tree. Just as rotten, just as poisonous, just as important a factor to consider here.”
Tait stabbed his hands into his pockets. His logic heard the words, even agreed with them, but his heart screamed louder. The memories returned, taunting and bitter, of the weeks after Luna’s death. The revenge he’d craved, the fury of knowing Stock still roamed the earth, living like a king off Lor’s payoff money…and the helplessness of accepting he’d likely never be found. It all slapped Tait anew, stinging a hundred times worse now that he’d peeled back the shields on his soul and allowed so many of his scars to be seen—scars that were ripped open all over again. He knew exactly where to find Stock now, yet was leashed from doing a single thing about it. Un-fucking-acceptable.
He stabbed a foot at the sand, sending the shit flying into the water, where it plunked in the foamy shallows. “You promised me we were going to take him down this time.” He didn’t bother to hide the accusation beneath it.
“And we will.” Kell squared his shoulders. “We will, Tait—when we have the support to do it the right way.”
“Sure.” He whipped a glower at the guy. “Because doing it ‘the right way’ helped us so much during the op in LA. You need a refresher on how that panned out, my friend? On how Stock disappeared off the grid less than twenty-four hours after that fun little showdown?”
“This is different and you know it.”
“What? Because you think Stock will stick around for the money?” When Kell’s silence confirmed that, Tait emitted a scoffing snort. “Sticking around for it and staying exposed because of it are two different things. The guy knows how to sever himself from that poison tree faster than you can say ‘Johnny Appleseed.’ Then he’ll hide himself in all the other ugly fruit on the ground. Our window on finding him narrows another inch for every minute we wait. When this shit goes down, the only one taking the bullet will be Benson.”
“And Tan.”
“Yeah. Tan. Who’s really the big fish here, right? Which is the real reason we’re waiting on the fucking fifth. It’s not for Stock, who’s going to waltz free again. Who, less than twelve hours from now, will be sipping something with an umbrella in it while Luna’s ashes still feed the fish in Puget Sound.” Another freezing fist ground into his gut. “It’s not fair. It’s not fucking fair!”
Kellan blew out a heavy breath. “T, don’t do this. You’ve finally started to fly on the right side on the envelope again. Now grab the goddamn stick and correct your angle.”
He wheeled around. While his gut was ice cold, his face burned with fury. “Correct my angle?” He slammed it into hard air quotes. “Seriously? When that filth who calls himself a human wouldn’t recognize ‘correct’ if it chomped off his cock?”
His friend nodded slowly. “I know how you—”
“Don’t.” He surged and grabbed Kellan by the neck of his T-shirt. “Don’t you dare tell me that you know how I feel!”
Kellan’s mien barely changed. His serenity was infuriating. “All right, then let me tell how you how I feel. There’s a lot at stake here. People who are still alive, who need us, people you’re willing to neglect for the sake of chasing an empty revenge.”
His arm shook with rage. He twisted his grip tighter. “Not empty.” The words shook. “Not empty!”
Kell clamped a hand around his forearm. “She told you to move on. Lani’s voice but Luna’s words. She told you to—”
“She died in my arms!” It ripped out of him, a bellow of wrath and grief and frustration. “She used her last fucking breath to kiss me!”
“I know,” Kellan countered. “I know, man.”
“No,” he snarled, “you don’t. You have no goddamn idea what I’m talking about.” He looked down between their bodies to the sand. Why the hell was he clinging on this guy, even in anger? Kellan called him a brother but he wondered if the guy knew what that meant. The very nature of Kell’s job required an emotional detachment that lots of guys struggled with—but never Kell. Made sense now, didn’t it? With a disgusted snort, he shoved away. “Feelings are convenient accessories for you, Kellan, and nothing more. I’d pay for a full fireworks show if you ever let someone in to the point that they terrify you.”
Kellan’s eyes, already dark in the night, descended to the shade of pure pitch. “Fetch your checkbook, dickwad—if you can pull your head out of your self-centered ass long enough to notice.”
Tait snickered. Then sobered. “Lani? Are you kidding me?”
Kellan stood his ground and spread his arms. “Do I look like I’m kidding? Or feeling anything except fear about how those assholes plan to use her?”
Tait studied him. Everything about the guy screamed sincerity, but acknowledging that meant looking in the mirror at how thoroughly the woman had come to fill his heart, too. He fought back by snarling, “I don’t believe you. This is a half-assed ploy to get me to back off going for Stock. You should be ashamed of yourself, Slash-a-drama.”
He’d stomped only a couple of steps back toward the cottage before Kell stopped him short—with a fist to his stomach. “Nah,” the guy growled, “let me show you something I’d really be ashamed of.”
Before Tait could consider a retaliation, Kell slammed a foot against his backside, treating him to a “Kauaˋi kiss,” Barking Sands style. Tait spat dirt and rolled over, tangling his calves around Kell’s ankles, bringing him down, too. The guy grunted while landing flat on his back, a position worth taking immediate advantage of. With fury tearing up his throat, he dug a knee between Kell’s lungs and swung his fist up. “Shiner blue always was your color, asshole.”
Kellan’s hand seemed to come out of nowhere, latching on Tait’s face like a crazed spider. He landed one finger in an eye and another two in Tait’s nostrils. The impromptu sinus cleanse distracted him for the second Kell needed to unseat him, though he wasn’t going tits-up without a fight. Letting his frustration feed the sound, he threw his buddy over with a vicious roar. Kellan echoed the bellow, turning his action into a full barrel roll. They wrestled through three revolutions one way then two the next, before Kellan tried the spider face attack again.
“Honestly?” Tait spat as they both gained their feet again. “You fight like a fucking girl, Slash-arina.”
“No more than you, Beach Fun Gidget.”
“Stop.”
The plea was desperate and sweet but came from so far away, Tait shoved it from his mind. He drove his head into Kell’s chest before grabbing the guy’s thigh. Time to make this takedown stick. “How ‘bout some dirt with your poi for dinner, honey?”
“How ‘bout my fist up your ass, dollface?”
“Stop!” There was no mistaking the scream this time. And its beseeching need. And its underline of tears. “Stop it, both of you!”
Tait stumbled backward, thrown off-balance as he and Kell released each other. Kellan’s stability wasn’t much better. He gave a victorious grunt. The guy was definitely breathing harder than him. They were only eight months apart in age, but he never let that stop him from writing Kell off as the old man.
The “old man” Lani chose to run for first.
Another knot of lead twisted in his stomach—until she rammed a punch into Kell’s shoulder. Tait only got halfway into a laugh before she whirled and repeated the treatment on him.
“He aha no la kou ano? What the hell is wrong with you?” She hit Kell again. “Both of you!”
“He started it.” The protest spilled from them in tandem murmurs.
“I don’t care if Saint Peter himself floated down from Heaven and started it!” She pushed at them with another chuffed word in her language. He got the upshot of it and was certain Kell did, too. “Three hours ago, I was thinking about the future, trying to talk Leo into going to the University of Hawaii. Believe it or not, the kid wanted to talk to the guys at the West Point table. I actually let him! Now, I’ve found out that ‘the future’ may consist of my home, complete with its custom weapons smuggling cave, being sold out from under me to the damn North Koreans. And oh yeah, there’s that part about me being their signing bonus on the packag
e. So where are the two ‘elite soldiers’ who are supposedly helping to prevent this disaster? Here they are, fancying themselves as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Hupos!”
She threw up both arms before whirling to stomp away. Her huffs didn’t stop the wind from carrying her wrenching sobs back to them.
Tait backhanded some sand off his face. “You know that book we keep thinking of writing?” he muttered.
“Yeah?” Kell grumbled.
“I think I have our title.”
“The Idiot’s Guide to Being an Idiot?”
“I was thinking more Fifty Shades of Idiocy, but yours works, too.”
Thankfully, Kell didn’t milk it any further. He did what Tait hoped he would. Went after her. With willing steps but a gut dipped in remorse, he followed.
She tromped back toward the cottage with furious footsteps. He and Kellan maintained a respectful—and careful—distance. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was going to bruise where she’d landed that punch. He greatly preferred dealing the marks, not getting them. With more pleasurable results for all.
Not the time for thoughts like that, Bommer. No matter how luscious her ass looked in that frothy floral skirt or how delicious and demure the pink sweater set that topped it.
She stomped into the cottage without altering her pace. He and Kellan followed but stopped in the living room as Lani proceeded through to the cottage’s second bedroom. All the complex’s three-bedroom cottages were snapped up for the summer, but that had been all right by Kell and him. They’d resolved themselves to swapping nap sprints on the couch tonight, if either of them was even in the mood for sleeping. The probability of that had dropped into the realm of “highly unlikely,” especially now.
When Lani stood in the open doorway to the bedroom, eyeing them both with her iridescent stare, it was clear she shared that mindset. A firm fling of her head, all but decreeing them into the room with her, had Tait gaping in slack-jawed shock—and open-season lust. A glance at Kellan showed the same reactions on his face.
