by Kaylea Cross
Chapter Thirteen
The tension inside the car finally registered when Kai pulled up to a stoplight just outside of Kehei.
He’d put the top up on the convertible before leaving Jonah’s place because it was so early and still cool out, but since then he’d been too lost in his own head to notice Abby’s uneasiness. So deep inside his head he hadn’t realized he’d driven for a solid fifteen minutes without a word to her, leaving her so uncomfortable that she’d had to resort to staring out her window rather than look at or try to speak to him.
Drawing a deep breath, he glanced over at her. Her hands were folded together primly in her lap rather than twined with one of his, and she was doing everything but crawl into the backseat to give him space.
After what they’d shared last night and again this morning, it made him feel like a gigantic asshole. “Sorry for ignoring you, and for what you overheard with Hani.” For his cousin being an asshole to them both.
Abby swiveled her head to look at him. “It’s okay.” She searched his eyes. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
She nodded, and although she didn’t look convinced, she let it go. “Okay.”
He wasn’t fine, it was eating at him from the inside like acid. “Hani’s…changed,” he said finally as he drove, feeling the need to explain. “He never used to be like that.” Kai didn’t even know who the hell that rude punk had been earlier this morning, but that wasn’t his cousin.
Those gorgeous blue eyes filled with empathy. “Can I do anything?”
The gentle offer increased the ache in his chest. “No. Just…sorry I haven’t been good company on the way here.” He reached out to take one of her hands, twined his fingers through hers.
She shrugged. “You’re upset. I’d be the same way.”
At least Abby wasn’t mad at him for the silent treatment bit. Shelley would have been. She would have been angry that he’d shut her out for the past fifteen minutes, and made sure he’d known with hurt, sidelong looks and verbal jabs. Abby hadn’t done any of that.
Trying to put his annoyance aside, Kai changed the subject. “You hungry?”
She gave him a grateful smile that reassured him there were no hard or hurt feelings. “Starved.”
“There’s a bakery I love a couple minutes up the road. We can grab some coffee and pastries and still have you back at the resort in plenty of time to get ready.”
“Sounds good.”
The little roadside bakery made the best caramel-macadamia sticky buns in the universe, fresh every morning. Kai ordered two for himself and one for Abby, a black coffee for him, and a vanilla latte for her. He sipped at his coffee back in the Mustang while she nibbled her bun and sipped at her latte.
“Oh, wow, this is insanely good,” she mumbled around a mouthful of caramel and sticky bun. He wanted to lick it off her lips so bad.
“Best ever.”
She licked her fingers, cast him a curious look. “Can I ask you something?”
Automatically his shoulders tensed, bracing for her to say something uncomfortable. “Yeah.”
“What’s a FAST team?”
The question took him off guard. He’d assumed she’d been about to ask something about him and Hani. Under normal circumstances he would say he couldn’t tell her, for security reasons, but these circumstances weren’t normal, and after this morning he didn’t want secrets like that between them any longer. He trusted her, wanted something real with her. “It means Foreign Advisory and Support Team.”
She watched him steadily, swallowed another mouthful. “I’ve never heard of it.”
He took the turn toward Wailea. “No, most people haven’t.” So how had Hani? That unsettled him almost as much as what Hani had said. He had to tell his commander about it. “There are five teams, all of us tier one units. I’m on FAST Bravo. Each team is responsible for a different geographic area, helping foreign governments and units conduct counter-narcotic and counter-terrorist missions. For us, it’s all over the place, but we do an annual four-month-long tour in Afghanistan in addition to whatever missions we’re given elsewhere.”
Her eyebrows went up and she stopped chewing. “Huh.” She ran her gaze over his shoulders and chest. “That makes a lot of sense, though, and the deployments explain a lot about why you’re sometimes gone for so long. Because I can’t picture you sitting behind a desk.”
He snorted. “Yeah, no. I’d lose my mind.”
“So you guys are all former military? Or maybe…more?”
He loved how quick she was, how she was able to read between the lines. “Yes. Well, most of us. Granger—the guy who was doing a terrible job at lip-syncing to AC/DC—isn’t former military. He was former DEA undercover.”
“You said counter-terrorist missions. So that means the same kinds of things as the SEALs and whoever do too, right?”
A grin tugged at his mouth. Yep, she was quick on the uptake. “That’s right.”
“So you work with those kinds of units, then. Or at least train with them.” At his surprised expression, she added, “I saw a documentary talking about that kind of thing a couple months ago.”
He shook his head, glanced over at her. “Why are you so damn smart?”
Abby cocked her head, gave him an adorable smile. “Just am.”
He stopped at a red light. “Well, since you are, I’ll only say that what I told you is all classified info. Normally we can’t tell our significant others what we do unless we get engaged or married. And even then, there are certain things we can’t talk about.”
She drew her head back in pretend shock, eyes wide. “Whoa, slow down, big guy. We said one day at a time. So that kind of talk is moving way too fast for me.”
A bark of laughter escaped, stunning him. How the hell had she made him laugh when he’d been so damn miserable fifteen minutes earlier? “I needed that, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She leaned across the seat to kiss him, her lips lingering on his for a moment before she settled back against her seat. “And thank you for trusting me. I promise not to tell anyone that you’re a badass DEA operative. But now that I know…” She shook her head ruefully, watching him with an appreciative gleam in her eyes. “Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be any hotter.”
The compliment shouldn’t have inflated his ego to ridiculous proportions, but it did. “Yeah? Hell, if I’d known that, I would have told you earlier,” he joked.
“No, it means more this way.” This time she reached for his hand, twined their fingers together. Kai wished they had more time together right now, but the resort was only a few minutes away.
“How did Hani know?” she asked. “I mean, he kind of flung it out there like he was proving a point and you seemed surprised.”
“That’s a damn good question. Not even my tutu knows what I do.” And he dreaded the answer. Although he had a pretty good idea of what it was.
Abby tightened her fingers around his. “Are you… Is it dangerous for you to be here?”
“Nah, I’m fine,” he said, brushing it off. But the niggling in his gut said otherwise. It was too much of a coincidence that his personal info had been leaked to the cartel several weeks ago, and now his cousin who made his money in a less than respectable way knew Kai was a FAST member.
Which meant Hani was connected or at least in contact with someone within the Veneno cartel. As sickening as that thought was on its own, it also placed Kai in one hell of a moral predicament. Either he had to compromise his professional morals by turning a blind eye to protect his cousin, or he was forced to betray Hani by reporting his cousin and having him investigated. Possibly even arrested.
Although the decision had pretty much been taken out of his hands already. And that weighed heavy as hell on his heart.
Abby kept looking at him with that worried expression. He let go of her hand to slide his around her nape and squeeze gently. “It’s okay, I promise.”
She did
n’t seem convinced, but nodded and changed the subject as he pulled up in front of the hotel’s main entrance. “So what are you going to do today?”
“I’ve gotta talk to my grandmother about Hani. And then I’m gonna have to talk to him as well, see where we go from there.” He was looking forward to that as much as he would having a tooth pulled without any anesthetic. Commander Taggart was absolutely going to want to get to the bottom of this. Depending on what Kai found out, he would likely have to bring Hani in, for his cousin’s protection as much as because Kai was obligated to do it.
She winced in sympathy. “I’m really sorry this is happening.”
“Me too.” He sighed. “Sorry I’m not the best company right now. I’m not sure how long this will take, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to see you tonight.”
A look of irritation flickered across her face. “Kai. Stop,” she said in a firm voice. “I understand. There’s no need to apologize. I get it. You just take care of this, that’s priority one, and I’m working all day anyway. I’ll be here when you’re done. But call me if I can help at all, okay? I’m here for you.”
Her support and understanding floored him, especially with something this ugly in the early stages of their relationship. So this is what a healthy, supportive one feels like. It was a novel experience, for sure. “I appreciate that, thank you.”
She leaned forward, took his face in her hands to give him a gentle smile that warmed him from the inside out. “You’re welcome. Good luck,” she said, brushing her lips over his in a teasing kiss that made him ache for more. “I’ll be thinking about you.”
He’d be thinking about her too, about their time in the tent last night and this morning. Wishing he was with her, rather than dealing with this bullshit.
With a soft growl, Kai pulled her closer, sliding his hand into the back of her hair as he deepened the kiss. She tasted like caramel and melted for him like sugar, warm and sweet on his tongue. When he broke the connection her eyes were dilated, her cheeks flushed, lips shiny. Damn, he didn’t want to go. “I’ll call you later.”
“Okay.” She leaned in for one last kiss, gave him a half-smile and climbed out of the car with her bag.
Once Abby was safely inside the hotel, Kai drove away and called Hamilton, who answered immediately. “Maka. How’s life in paradise while the rest of us are trapped back here on the mainland in paperwork and admin hell?”
“Hey, Cap. Honestly? It could be better.”
“Why, what’s up?” His team leader’s tone was sharp.
Kai expelled a hard breath. He couldn’t ignore this predicament with Hani. It had to be dealt with. “I’ve got an unfolding situation here I might need a hand with.”
****
Diane kept to the shadows as she followed the trafficker’s progress through the most dangerous and impoverished area of Happy Valley. She was down to her last disguise, with a short black wig to complete her new look. Last night she’d managed to get some sleep, but it had been fitful. Bad dreams, guilt, grief, and the look on Dr. Bradshaw’s face when she’d shot him down in cold blood.
She was a murderess.
Her mind rebelled at the idea, refused to believe she’d done it. Killing Bradshaw hadn’t eased her grief at all. Maybe because there were still others she had to eliminate. Only once she was done would she be able to move forward.
For another thirty minutes she followed Hani, the now familiar weight of her pistol at the small of her back giving her a tiny measure of comfort. Twice she felt eyes on her tonight. Both times she found no one watching her. But someone was. Either the police or someone into the drug scene, she wasn’t sure.
Her heart kicked against her ribs, fear mixing with the anxiety. Hurry. Hurry, or they’ll catch you.
So far there hadn’t been a good opportunity to shoot Hani. He’d been in and out of three different houses in the area, always moving fast, and always with people around. Too many witnesses for her to risk attacking here.
She stayed out of sight around the corner of a dilapidated shed on someone’s property as Hani emerged from a run-down house next door and headed to his black pickup. Moving fast, Diane raced around to the alley behind the property, got in her rental and followed him, careful to keep a good distance.
Once she almost lost sight of him when she got stuck at a red light. Luckily, she spotted him again and kept going. Within a mile she realized he was heading home. She knew his address, had been by his luxury townhouse bought by dirty money already so she would know her way around, know where the easiest exits from the complex were.
When she struck, she had to make it fast.
Curling her hands around the steering wheel as he turned into the gated complex, she parked on the side of the road, facing back toward the highway for a quick getaway. She reached up an unsteady hand and curled her fingers around the locket she wore, rage and grief suffusing her.
This piece of shit lowlife lived in one of the most expensive and exclusive places in Kahului, paid for by the suffering of so many vulnerable people who’d become hooked on the poison he pedaled. While her daughter’s ashes lay scattered in the ocean.
Her shoes crunched lightly on the gravel as she approached the gate, slipping through just as it began to swing shut. Hani’s truck was in his driveway. He was still sitting in it. She could shoot him as he got out, then flee.
A prickle at the back of her neck stopped her cold. She froze, whipped her head around to search behind her, sure that someone was following her. Nothing but shadows met her gaze, but a moment later, headlight beams cut through the darkness and headed straight toward her.
She scrambled over to the sidewalk, stood there in the shadows cast by the roofline with her heart in her throat as a cherry red Mustang roared up and parked to the side of the gates. Had the driver seen her?
The driver’s side door popped open.
Cursing, she darted across the small strip of lawn that separated the first two townhomes and ran for Hani’s unit, determined to do this. She would wait for the right time, hopefully get him as he exited his truck, or maybe as he unlocked his front door.
This is for you, baby, she told Bailey silently, pushing past the fear threatening to drown her. One down and a few more to go. I’ll keep going until they stop me.
She couldn’t let anyone stop her. Not until everyone on her list was dead.
Chapter Fourteen
After turning off his truck, Hani expelled a breath and pulled his phone out of his pocket, still buzzing. No surprise, it was Kai again. His cousin had called five times throughout the day, left three texts and one voicemail.
Hani, we need to talk. Call me.
Much as Hani wanted to—much as he would love for this whole thing to blow over and go away, it wasn’t going to happen. The fight this morning had done its job; he’d seen the pain in his cousin’s eyes. But had it been enough? If not, he had one last idea in mind.
Invent a reason that would convince Kai to take Tutu with him when he left, as a precaution. Juan’s seventy-two-hour deadline was mere hours away. Time was running out fast, and Hani’s life was in jeopardy just as much as Kai’s now. The sooner Kai left, the better it would be for all of them.
Phone in hand, he exited the truck, breathing in the scent of grilled steak from somewhere down the street. He started to shut the door, stopped when a large, shadowy figure appeared down the sidewalk from his place. His whole body tensed, ready to either grab his weapon or jump back in the truck and take off. Then the streetlight overhead revealed his cousin.
Shit. Hani braced himself, thinking fast. “What are you doing here?” he called out. Dammit, Kai couldn’t be here. Someone from the cartel was likely watching.
Kai kept coming, stalking toward him like a human heat-seeking missile, his expression hard. “Said I needed to talk to you.”
Hani slammed the truck door shut and shook his head. “I got nothing more to say to you.” Desperate, his mind raced as he tried to come up with a di
rect threat against Tutu. If anything would make Kai leave and take her with him, it was to protect her.
“Well I’ve got a thing or two to say to you,” Kai fired back.
“Whatever.” Turning his back on Kai, he started for his front door, knowing his cousin would follow.
He didn’t even make it to his front steps. Didn’t even hear Kai coming.
Out of nowhere a strong hand gripped his shoulder and jerked him around. Hani grabbed hold of the thick wrist clutching a fistful of his jacket and tried to wrench free but got nowhere.
With a hard glare directed at Kai, Hani planted both hands against his cousin’s chest and shoved. Hard.
Kai let go. They stood there facing off, both breathing faster. The hard set to Kai’s face and the anger in his eyes made Hani feel like shit. “Why are you still here, anyway?” Hani demanded, tugging on the hem of his jacket. Hadn’t anything he’d said earlier made an impact?
“Because it’s a free goddamn country, Hani, and I’m not done with you yet.”
Hani shook his head, his heart beating like a frantic bird against the inside of his ribs. Fuck. “I already said everything I have to say this morning. Just go, Kai, and leave me the hell alone.”
Kai glowered down at him. Hani was only a couple inches shorter than him, but Kai had a presence about him that made him seem at least a foot taller. Yet another way Hani had never measured up to his idol. “I came here, on my own, so we could talk like adults about this.”
He let out an exasperated breath. “About what?” he asked tiredly.
Kai shook his head in frustration, his jaw tightening. “You seriously wanna leave things like this? Huh? It’s killing Tutu.” He glowered at Hani. “And how the hell did you find out the insider info on me?”
Hani flinched inside. “You think this is killing Tutu?” He let out a short, brittle laugh, thinking fast. What kind of threat could he name against her without giving his involvement with the Venenos away? At that moment, he couldn’t think of anything. “It kills her more to keep watching you leave over and over, asshole. You want to stop breaking her heart? Go pack her up and take her back to the mainland with you. The sooner the better.”
