by Kaylea Cross
FAST FURY
Copyright © 2018
by Kaylea Cross
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Cover Art by
Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.
ISBN: 978-1-928044-25-3
Dedication
For Pamela Clare, an online friend who became a real life friend. I’ll never forget the adventures we had together this year! Thank you for helping me brainstorm for this one, and for braving the helo rides. They were totally worth it, weren’t they? xo
Author’s Note
Dear readers,
I’m so excited to bring you this next installment of the DEA FAST Series and tell Kai’s story. He’s such a unique character, who is so proud of his heritage. I have travelled to the Hawaiian Islands every spring break with one side of my family for the past 7 years, and while I’ve set epilogues to stories there, I’ve always wanted to set a book there. This was my chance. I hope you enjoy it.
Happy reading!
Kaylea Cross
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Epilogue
Complete Booklist
About the Author
Chapter One
“Can you see anyone behind you?”
At her best friend’s voice coming through the car’s Bluetooth system, Abby McKinley checked her rearview mirror a second before making the left-hand turn onto the street her building was on. It was a beautiful, early June evening, the sun still hours from setting, the trees lining the street all lush and green. “No. I know I sound like a paranoid freak, but I swear someone’s following me.” She’d called Cindy a few blocks from work, wanting to be on the line with someone in case anything happened.
That damn tingling at the back of her neck was still there, so even though Abby didn’t see anyone following her, she continued past the building and through the next light. A black sedan stayed on her bumper to get through the yellow light, then slowed, giving her space. And it didn’t follow her when she turned right at the next corner.
Abby relaxed a little. Maybe she was wrong about the tail. Maybe it was all in her head.
“How about now?” Cindy asked.
“Still no. I’m going to circle the block one more time, just in case.”
Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel. She could feel someone watching her, dammit. Why couldn’t she see them?
You’re acting crazy. Why would anyone want to follow you?
“How long have you felt this way?” Cindy asked in concern.
“Off and on over the past week or so.” Being a pharmaceutical rep wouldn’t warrant being followed by someone, so this was crazy.
“Has something happened that would make someone follow you?”
“Not that I know of, other than the thing with Kai.” Her Polynesian god of a former neighbor—and also a badass DEA agent of some sort. Kai had been forced to move out of his apartment across the hall from her a few weeks ago. A member of the deadly Veneno drug cartel had somehow gotten hold of his personal information, including his home address and details about his family. Kai had told her about it the day before moving out.
Scary shit she certainly hadn’t expected to hear. She’d been vague with Cindy on the details, for Kai’s sake. But if the cartel could stoop to kidnapping and threatening to kill the nine-year-old daughter of Kai’s teammate to make a statement, then they were capable of anything.
Including following Abby in hopes of finding a lead on Kai.
“God, that whole thing just freaks me out,” Cindy said.
“Yeah, me too.” She might be making something out of nothing, but since Kai had moved out, Abby wasn’t taking any chances with her safety. For all she knew, the cartel had someone monitoring the building.
It worried her that Kai might have a target on his back. He was more than just a neighbor to her; he’d become a friend. Someone she trusted, who looked out for her and did repairs around her place when the superintendent wasn’t available.
If he hadn’t been unavailable the whole time he’d lived across the hall from her, maybe they could have even been more.
With him totally out of your league and both of you with histories of unhealthy relationships? Yeah, that would’ve worked out well.
Abby shook off the thought and checked her mirror again. She would have talked to him about this situation before now, but he’d been out of town for work until late last night. Maybe now he could put her mind at ease about the cartel casing the building theory, so she could stop looking over her shoulder wherever she went.
She turned right at the next corner. Still nothing behind her that tripped her radar more than it already was. Time to go home. “Okay, I think the coast is clear. I’m heading to my building now.” Except the idea that someone might be following her and know where she lived made her skin crawl.
“I’ll stay on the line with you until you get inside.”
“Thanks. This is why I love you—you care about me even though I’m a paranoid freak.”
“That’s the part I love most about you,” Cindy joked.
Abby laughed. “Thank God for that.”
“Are we still getting together tonight?”
“Definitely.” On most Friday nights they met up with a larger group but it would be nice to spend some time just the two of them. She pulled into her parking spot. “I’m here.” Palming her keys, she grabbed her purse and twisted around to reach into the backseat for her briefcase. “Text you once I’m changed and ready to meet up?”
“Sure. Bye.”
Abby climbed out and shut the door, the sound muted by the noise-dampening material sprayed on the concrete ceiling of the parking garage. She rounded the rear bumper and headed for the elevators, then came to an immediate halt when she saw she wasn’t alone.
A woman stood between her and the elevators. Disheveled. Wearing pale gray sweats, her dark hair hanging lank around her shoulders. She was visibly distressed, wringing her hands.
The way she stared at Abby sent a cold shiver up her spine. Wary, Abby started to take a step back.
“Hey,” the woman said softly in greeting.
Abby froze, shock blasting through her as recognition hit. Holy hell, it was Shelley, Kai’s drama-queen ex-girlfriend. Abby’s gaze raked over her from head to toe and back again, hardly able to believe what she was seeing.
Shelley had already been thin before, but now she’d lost so much weight that she looked ill, the sweats hanging from her tiny frame. Her gorgeous dark brown hair lay lank and oily-looking around her slumped shoulders, her face pale and without a hint of the perfect, sophisticated makeup she always wore. A shocking change from the polished, supermodel image Abby
was used to.
Shelley wrapped her arms around her ribs, the picture of utter misery. “Have you seen Kai?”
It took a second for Abby to get over her shock enough to find her voice. “No.”
“Do you know where he is?”
Abby shook her head. “No, I don’t.” Truth. She hadn’t been to Kai’s new place, didn’t even have his address. “He moved out weeks ago.”
Shelley’s face fell. “Do you have his number? I’ve tried calling him so many times. He must have blocked me.”
You think? After how you treated him? He’d gotten a new phone and number after the security leak, but Abby wasn’t going to tell her that. “Sorry.”
When it was clear Abby wasn’t going to be forthcoming with any help where Kai was concerned, Shelley made a distressed sound and dragged her hands through her hair, grabbing handfuls of it at the roots, almost as if she was ready to rip it out of her scalp. Then her dark blue gaze locked on Abby and the pure, wretched grief reflected there was so real that Abby couldn’t look away. Whatever Shelley’s insecurity issues were about, she was in a hell of a lot of emotional pain right now. Adding to her misery would be cruel.
“You don’t know what he’s like,” Shelley rasped out a moment later, tears gleaming in her eyes. “What it’s like to be with him. He’s ruined me for anyone else.” She paused, a sob jerking her too-thin shoulders. “I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. How am I supposed to get over him? Be without him for the rest of my life?”
Maybe you shoulda thought of that before you ranted and raved and pushed him away with your constant suspicion and insecurity?
Shelley looked so distraught, Abby didn’t have the heart to say it aloud, even if it was true. The shocking transformation in the wealthy, high-power ad executive was enough to ignite a spark of sympathy in the hardest heart, and Abby’s wasn’t nearly as hard as she wanted people to think.
“I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it. She might not like Shelley, but seeing her suffer like this was awful.
Shelley sagged, her face crumpling as she dissolved into tears she had valiantly tried to fight. “I need to see him. I can’t go on like this, I…” She sucked in a shuddering breath, wiped at her face before meeting Abby’s gaze once more, her desperation so strong Abby could all but smell it. “If you see or hear from him, will you tell him I miss him, and that I’m sorry? I want to tell him in person so badly.”
Not a chance in hell. As far as Abby was concerned, Shelley didn’t deserve Kai. And Kai sure as hell didn’t deserve the woman’s constant sniping and insecure jealousy.
Abby wasn’t going to open herself up to more of this kind of thing in the future, if Shelley and Kai got back together again. Because if they did, they would absolutely break up again, and probably within a week or two.
Abby sighed. She might have judged Kai for staying in such a turbulent relationship for so long, except that would make her the worst kind of hypocrite. She had the real-life equivalent of a PhD in dysfunctional relationships. It had taken her a damn long time to extricate herself from her previous disaster, so she was in no position to throw stones. “Sure,” she finally muttered.
Those devastated blue eyes held hers for a long moment, as though Shelley was trying to determine whether the offer was sincere or not. Then she nodded once in acknowledgment. “Thank you. I won’t bother you again.” She turned and began walking away, arms wrapped around her ribs, shoulders slumped.
Then her words registered. Wait, again? “Have you been following me?” she called out.
Shelley stopped and looked back at her in confusion. “What?”
The puzzlement seemed genuine. Abby pressed, wanting an answer. “You didn’t follow me in my car on the way here?”
Her dark eyebrows pulled together in a frown, and there was a hint of hurt on her face now. As if she couldn’t believe Abby would think such a thing of her. “No. I was already here waiting when you pulled in.”
Damn, Abby hadn’t even noticed her, she’d been too busy looking over her shoulder and talking to Cindy.
Shelley turned around and walked away.
Abby stayed put until she disappeared from view, the woman’s light footsteps fading on the concrete ramp that led to street level. Glancing around the garage once to make sure she really was alone, Abby rushed for the elevator.
Up in the safety of her apartment with the door locked, she hurried past Kai’s pet Siamese fighting fish, Goliath, swimming alone in his tricked-out tank next to the window. While she and Kai had lived across the hall from one another she’d looked after his fish and grabbed his mail for him whenever he was away, because Kai had considered her more dependable than Shelley. She’d agreed to keep Goliath here until Kai got back from this latest work trip.
At the front window she pulled the blind aside, spotted Shelley climbing into her white Lexus at the curb. Abby made note of the model, squinted to see the license plate clearly and mumbled it to herself to memorize it.
As soon as the Lexus drove out of sight, she let the blind fall back into place and stepped back from the window. Kai and his team had arrived back in town sometime last night. He needed to know about this, might be able to reassure her that no one was following her.
Her gaze slid to Goliath, drifting without a care in the climate-controlled fishy paradise, his elegant purple fins and tail rippling in the false current along with the fake aquarium plants. “I have to call your dad.”
Digging her cell phone out of her purse, she dialed Kai.
****
“You better bring your A-game tonight, man,” Prentiss said.
Kai Maka grinned at his teammate’s words and kept his phone tucked between his head and shoulder as he carried the bags of groceries into his kitchen. “I always bring my A-game, brother. It’s why I’m reigning champ.” He loved hanging with his FAST Bravo brothers when they had downtime, doing things that had nothing to do with work. They played every bit as hard as they trained and operated, and it was the reason their bond was so tight.
“Wish we could be there to see it in person, but Autumn’s got another decade and then some to go before she can get into a bar.”
“Just tell her Uncle Kai’s got something special planned for her tonight. I’ll have Khan video it and send it to you guys.”
A pause. “You’re keeping it PG, right? She’s only ten.”
“G-rated, I promise.”
“Even better. All right. Can’t wait to see what you come up with. See you Monday.”
“Yeah, man. Later.”
Kai paused to stretch out his sore lower back, a low groan of pleasure/pain spilling from his lips. His body had taken a beating at the training school down south this past week-and-a-half. Damn, and he was starving, too.
Shoving a handful of roasted nuts into his mouth, he tossed the last of the sad-looking produce he’d found wilted at the back of his fridge. He’d only been gone nine days this time on a recent training event, but the berries and lettuce had long since given up the ghost. No time to put something together now. He’d grab something at the bar later.
As he shut the fridge door he thought of Abby, his former neighbor he’d lived across the hall from for the better part of two years. Most times when he’d come home after being on the road he’d find something she’d whipped up in her kitchen sitting in his fridge or freezer, with a little note welcoming him home and saying what it was.
Since he’d moved in here, he’d missed her like crazy. And not just because of her insanely awesome cooking. Ever since that day when she’d witnessed that final bit of drama between him and Shelley in his apartment and afterward pointed out that he’d been enabling a toxic relationship pattern, the way he viewed her had begun to change. He’d already liked her as a person and thought she was cute, but somehow after that day…his feelings for her weren’t neighborly at all anymore.
They texted back and forth and she still looked after Goliath for him when he was away, but it wasn’t the same. He hadn’t s
een her since the day he’d moved out of their building, and while he loved his new place, it was a bit lonely without her across the hall.
In so many ways she was a mystery to him. The entire time he’d known her, he’d never seen her with a guy, though he knew she’d dated here and there. She’d hinted that she’d been in a bad relationship before, but it had been a long time ago and Kai would never understand how someone as hot and together as her was still single. Couldn’t be due to lack of male interest. Not with someone like her. Maybe all the guys she’d met since her ex were losers. Or maybe she was super picky since her breakup, and no one had made the cut yet.
Yeah, that had to be it. Made him wonder what it would take to make her cut. And whether or not he might have what it took.
He was in the process of putting boxes of cereal into a cupboard when his cell rang. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Abby’s number on the screen. He could picture her so vividly—her piercing blue eyes and that sassy platinum blond pixie cut. The top of her head barely reached his shoulder. And her firm curves had fit against him perfectly when he’d finally given into temptation and pulled her into that hug the day he’d told her he was moving out.
“Hey, we must have a psychic link. I was just thinking about you,” he said.
“Yeah? Let me see, it’s almost dinnertime. Were you thinking about me, or my lasagna?”
“Both.” It was his favorite dish of hers.
She let out a soft, husky laugh, and heat flared in the pit of his stomach. It had been happening more and more often lately whenever he imagined or heard her voice. If he thought for a moment she was interested in him, he’d jump all over the chance to see where things went between them.
“Well at least you’re honest,” she said.
“Always. So, what’s up? Is Goliath giving you a hard time?”
“No, he’s been a very good boy.” She paused. “When are you taking him home, anyway?”
