Page 26 of Liaising Kai

He looked sick, then shook his head.

Davis brushed past her. “Keys!” he growled, and one of the patrol officers gave them to him, calling out his car number as Davis flew out the door.

Kai went after him, running full out, her frantically beating heart caught in her throat. When she reached the parking lot, he was already peeling out, and her stomach dropped, replacing the tense apprehension. She turned to the first cop and said, “I need your car.”

When she got to Roberto's address, she saw the empty cruiser parked at an angle against the curb, the driver’s side door open. She pulled her car over and got out, her heart pounding. Pausing momentarily at the sight of the detail Cesar had sent over to pick up and protect Roberto’s family, she took a deep stabilizing breath. Both cops were dead. They never even got out of the car. The reprehensible bastard had sent his own people into an ambush. The shots had been fired through the windshield.

She pulled her weapon, but she was already sure they were too late, her heart sinking, and her anger spiking. She approached the small, modest house, bringing her weapon up in reaction when she saw movement, then lowering it when she realized it was Davis.

The look on his face…pure devastation. He leaned against the doorjamb, his face ashen. She approached, and he said, his voice subdued and low, “Don’t go in there.” He motioned toward the inside. “You don’t want to see what they did to them. It’s stuff of nightmares.” He stared at her across the space that separated them, the muscles in his jaw tightening.

It tore her to shreds knowing that a whole hardworking family had been wiped out, trying but failing to stay numb about those poor children.

She holstered her weapon and went to him, a fierce, protective feeling welling up inside her. His body was rigid and when she touched him, he stiffened. He was in shock, that was clear. Needing to bring him back from the horror, she caught his face and turned his head, her vision blurring. “Davis,” she whispered unevenly, “I’m so sorry.” He stared at her, his gaunt face set like stone, not even a glimmer of response in his stricken eyes. “Davis? This isn’t over,” she said.

Something flickered in his eyes, as if her voice penetrated that frozen feeling.

Davis stared at her for an instant, then he closed his eyes in an expression of immense torment, and Kai grit her teeth against a wrenching surge of emotion as his arms came around her in a desperate, crushing embrace. She knew what he was feeling. It was as if he’d failed Carter all over again. She couldn’t help thinking the same thing about Nate. Holding on to him with every ounce of strength she had, she hugged him back just as fiercely.

The sound of sirens in the distance barely registered.

“You’re right, Kai. This is far from over.”

He was quiet all the way back to the precinct. There were only a few vehicles parked in front of the police station, but in spite of that, the main street seemed oddly deserted, the steady drizzle that had started up when they left Roberto’s house, compounding the emptiness. Kai parked the cruiser and turned off the ignition, then sat staring at the rain-splattered windshield. They were now at square one. There would be no more information from Roberto, and he and his family had paid the ultimate price for…nothing. Not a goddamn thing.

They would regroup and figure this out.

Davis stirred, then opened his door, glancing at her with hard eyes. “I want answers.” She’d seen that kind of look in a lot of different men when they were going over the deep end, when they were fed up and they had come to the end of their rope. Davis looked like he was going to strangle someone with what little rope he had left.

He strode from the car, and she got out and hurried after him just as her cell rang. She pulled it out muttering about bad timing when she saw the display. It was the director. Damn, really bad timing. She answered. “Yes, sir?”

“What is going on over there, Talbot? I’m getting some reports?—”

“I can’t talk now, sir. I will call you as soon as I can with an update.” By the time she got inside, there was shouting from the interrogation room. Davis was already inside. She pushed through the cops milling around and entered the room just as Davis stepped up to Dario and snarled. “I’m not going to ask again! Did you know?”

“I suspected him. Okay! But I had no proof. I wasn’t sure who to trust. I’m sure that you’re familiar with that feeling!” Dario shouted back, looking sick, his face contorted.

“They butchered his family! Who is behind this!”

“I don’t know!”

Davis pounded his fist against the table, then flipped it over, kicking one of the chairs. “I’m done with this,” he said, turning on his heel and walking toward the door.

“What do you mean?”

“We’re leaving. This has been a colossal waste of our time! We will investigate this our own way.”

“You’re fighting a losing battle!” Dario said, but Davis ignored him as he took her arm and propelled her out of the room and down the hall. Once outside the precinct, she pulled her arm away, but he kept walking. She huffed a hard breath, aware he was hurting, angry, and frustrated, but so was she.

“Davis,” she called, but he didn’t stop. She ran after him and caught his arm, turning him. “Wait.”

He stopped, set his hands on his hips. In all the time she had known him, she’d never seen him act this way. He was always so professional, so calm and collected. What he had seen at that house must have upended him, and part of her couldn’t blame him. They were only human after all, but they still had a job to do, one she wasn’t going to back down from. Not to mention, the director was waiting. Not her boss, but the leader of the whole of NCIS, one step from SECNAV. She couldn’t keep him waiting much longer. “We can’t treat the locals like that.”

“I don’t give a damn. We can’t trust them, Kai. We’ve got more deaths on this case than I think I’ve had in my whole tenure at CGIS. They’re one step ahead of us and I’m not playing that game anymore.”

“Then what do you suggest we do?”

“We’re going to Homeland and the DEA. They have an office here. We can track Eduardo’s boat. We have the technology, and we can bypass all the red tape the locals keep throwing at us.”

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