Page 12 of Liaising Kai

Shockingly, she felt a sudden burn behind her eyes and immediately squeezed them tightly shut to ward off any ridiculous tears that might have formed. What a hopeless case she was. She was the one who had placed Davis out of reach. She still wasn’t sure of her own role in all of this, and whether their lives could entwine, and sex wasn’t enough. She blew out her breath. What little she’d had of it, of him, was already too much. Her thinking was that if he couldn’t be everything, then he had to be nothing.

And now after all this, nothing wasn’t going to cut it.

He stepped back. “We have to get a grip, Kai.” He licked his lips as if savoring the taste of her.

“This is all your fault. It must be exhausting to be such a charming, handsome?—”

“Bastard?”

She knocked the back of her head against the wall. “Yeah,” she said, her voice not much more than a hushed whisper.

After several minutes they exited the conference room, the heat in her cheeks gone, but the fire inside her only banked, and all that was left was that nagging and persistent fear.

It didn’t take long to get back to Pendleton. Davis was in the car behind her with Jason Hollow. He knew something was up, and her sense of Jason’s ability to assess situations and come to conclusions was in full force. There was a reason he was a good investigator.

But she had her own nosy and perceptive man to deal with.

“Everything all right between you and Nishida?”

“Yes, it’s fine, Austin. We’re just handling our working relationship. He knows who is leading and that’s all that matters right now.”

“So, there’s nothing else going on between you?”

“Austin—”

“Because that would be great as long as he doesn’t hurt you. If he does, we might have to find some lime and a shovel.”

She took her eyes off the road in surprise, met his affectionate gaze.

“It would be great like I said. You deserve some happiness,” he said sincerely. She whipped her eyes back to the road. “Being in love and loving someone is a jumbled up, screwed up cluster and goat fuck combined. If you can navigate through that, then I say you’ve won the human race.”

She released a huff of laughter and shook her head. “Okay, duly noted. Can we stop talking about this now?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said decisively, then smirked. “You have to save your energy to rip Special Agent Curran a new one.”

She was hell-bent on finding out why Nate was sandbagging her. So, when she reached his office and was put off by his assistant, she barged into his office anyway. Closing the door, she set her hands flat on the edge of his desk and said, “What the hell is going on? I have a murder case to solve and a missing person to find, something I’m sure you’re aware is time sensitive. How dare you hang up on me? Last time I looked, we were on the same side.”

“Well, hello to you too, Kai.” He released a hard breath. “You can ask me your questions.”

That tone didn’t bode well. But she wasn’t going to back down from getting as much information as she could to solve these crimes. “What did Lennon want?”

“I have no idea. I didn’t speak to him,” he said flatly. One thing she knew. Nate didn’t lie.

“He called you constantly. Why didn’t you call him back?”

“Because, whatever he wanted didn’t matter. Anything I’m working on is classified. You know that I’m on the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force specifically to stem the tide of drugs coming into Pendleton. You’ll have to solve your murder and missing person without me. I can’t help you, Kai.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Davis watched as Kai paced back and forth in the gap between the NCIS team’s desks. He could feel the energy around her as if the constant motion would help move the case forward somehow. Davis was drawn into that energy, unable to do anything but watch her. Not only because she was visibly upset that Curran didn’t have answers for her, but because she was just so beautiful.

He looked over at Austin. “Who is Curran to Kai?”

Austin watched her, too, then said, “He was her mentor.” He tapped on his computer keys. “They’re pretty close, and the fact that he won’t help her is getting to her. He is always there for her.”

Davis sighed, pushed off from the desk, and stood in her path. He hadn’t been there for her last night, and she needed someone last night. “Okay, so we got shot down. That’s never stopped me,” he said. “How about you?”

“Hell, no,” she said, and he smiled.

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