Page 45 of Liaising Kai

Kai unfolded from the driver’s side of her car and stared at the house. She looked at Amber as she joined her on the stone walk. They started up the path, and Kai stopped when they got close to the front door.

“Head around to the back in case she’s home and tries to squirt.” Kai touched Amber on the shoulder to halt her. “Arm yourself. We have every reason to believe this woman to be the head of the very sophisticated Los Esmeraldas and extremely dangerous.”

Amber nodded. “Yes, boss.” She pulled her weapon out of the holster and skirted the side of the house, making a beeline for the backyard.

Kai continued down the walk, which had nicely trimmed hedges alongside the white and light blue house. Once she reached the front door, she knocked and waited.

While she was waiting, she glanced down and realized there was a smear on the side of the doorjamb. She looked closer and stiffened. It was blood.

She knocked again, harder. “Federal agents!” she called out. She heard a noise inside, a kind of shuffling, and then the sound of breaking glass. She left the landing, running to the side of the home to discover a man climbing out of the window. He jumped to the grass, then leaped for the fence. But Amber was there, her gun trained on him.

“Don’t move,” she said, but the guy took one look at Kai and Amber. He didn’t hesitate. He brought his gun around to bear on Amber, and both of them fired. He went down. After entering, they found a dead man in one of the bedrooms.

She bet the slug in his chest would match the gun found at Finch’s house. They searched the rest of the residence but didn’t find any other weapons. But it was clear that Freddy was planning a trip. She had two suitcases on her bed.

Kai left Freddy’s bedroom and went back out to the living room. Amber was bagging her laptop. “Kelly is on her way over to pick up the two bodies. We’re pretty much done here. Let’s head back to the office.”

Before she could even turn, she heard brakes squealing in the quiet air.

Kai looked over her shoulder frowning. If it had been the cops, there would have been sirens blaring, which meant?—

The sudden, instantaneous rising of the hair on the back of her neck had her jumping at Amber.

“Get down,” she shouted as automatic gunfire ripped through the residence and adrenaline flooded her system. They grunted when they hit the floor, staying still. Bullets punctured through the walls, opening holes and streaming sunlight inside. Windows shattered everywhere as the gunmen swept their weapons back and forth.

For several very long minutes, they lay there as their world was filled with whizzing bullets, a wall of deadly lead.

Kai and Amber were ready once the shooting stopped. “I’ll take the back. Call 911.” Releasing Amber, Kai pulled her weapon and crawled on her elbows toward the back of the house, her heart racing but her reflexes honed and ready for anything. Kai glanced back at Amber. With eyes like steel, Amber nodded curtly and pulled out her phone. Kai knew she would have her back, and vice versa.

Kai heard the sound of glass crunching beneath someone’s boot. She gained her feet and, in a crouched run, made it to the extended island with the sliding glass door entrance just behind it. She went to her side so she could get a better look at the situation.

When she peeked out from behind the kitchen counter wedged there on her side, she saw several men moving into the house through the sliding glass doors. She knew she had no choice but to engage them. More would be coming in through the front, but she’d have to leave those to Amber, whom she trusted implicitly. It was her job to take out the ones coming in the back.

She pushed out and took out the first man. He reeled back, hit the small dining table, knocking it back and sending all the chairs tumbling. The second guy blasted at her, but she ducked behind cover just in time, the bullets burying themselves in the plaster and wood.

Typical cartel move—overwhelm your targets with superior firepower and sheer numbers. But that was why she and her agents trained for just this scenario. What they thought they would get away with using brute force, she and Amber would handle with finesse and their own brand of street fighting.

She intended the underdogs to win.

She took a hard breath and went for the second man. He was coming through the door with another man behind him. She got into a crouch and waited until she heard the second crunch of glass. With a mighty push of her thighs, she launched herself from her hiding position, sliding on the floor, she pulled off several shots, both of them hitting dead center of mass, one for each man.

She came to rest against the wall and was up and running to them. She stepped on the man’s wrist and shook her head. The other man wasn’t moving. She pulled out her cuffs and secured him to the frame of the broken sliding glass door, then rolled the other gang member and zip-tied his hands behind his back.

Then she turned and sprinted for the hallway. “Amber?”

“Hiya, boss,” Amber said from behind the couch. Several men were dead at the entrance to the door. In the distance, sirens blared, and she heard the sound of running feet and the squeal of tires, but the thugs were too late as cop cars pulled up and blocked their exit. Several men ran from the vehicles with the cops in pursuit.

Amber rose from behind the couch as two officers came through the door. Kai already had her hands up, and Amber followed suit.

“Federal agents,” she said, showing them the badge clipped to the waistband of her jeans. They lowered their weapons.

After explaining to them what had happened, Kelly showed up with the NCIS van, and they got the seven bodies in the van for Kelly to process. The rest of the suspects in custody were headed over to NCIS for interrogation.

She and Amber got back into their vehicle and headed back to Pendleton, so thankful both of them had gotten out of the kill box unscathed. “You all right, Amber?” The younger woman had always been as tough as nails through her service to NCIS. She and her husband, Tristan, had met during a case of what was thought as friendly fire, but turned into something far worse and had almost taken both her and Tristan’s lives. Thankfully, Tristan had been a seasoned cold-weather Marine instructor at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Pickel Meadows, California.

“Yes. This had to be one of the most deadly and volatile cases we’ve ever had.” She pushed back some of her long blonde hair that had escaped her ponytail. “How about you? You’ve been shot at more in the last three days than in the whole time you’ve been our boss. Can’t be fun to have a target on your back.”

“I’m holding up okay. It has been quite a case, but I think we’re getting to the bottom of it.”

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