Page 39 of Liaising Kai

The pensive look in his eyes softened, and his smile was faint. “I’d have to talk about my dad before I got into all of that,” he said.

“Tell me anything at all, Davis. I’m all ears.”

He didn’t miss the reference to one of his statements when it came to listening to her. He smiled again, nostalgia and strong memories in his eyes.

“My dad, he was a merchant marine, but before that, he was part of a fishing legacy out of Gloucester, Massachusetts…swordfish, and he was eighteen when he boarded the fishing vessel, Maggie May, a few weeks before the storm of the century.” He smiled again and leaned back, the thick muscles in his chest and arms flexing, defined by light and shadows, the column of his throat looking so strong, all the way up to that gorgeous jaw. “My whole family comes from fishing stock, military service, and tough bastards. You could say the sea is in my blood.” The sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore added another dimension to his story, mingling with the hushed sounds of nightfall.

They were safe here on base. The San Diego arm of the Los Esmeraldas would be hard-pressed to find out where they were housed, let alone gain entrance to a US Marine Corps base filled with hard, tested troops.

“Gloucester was a rough town then, most of the populace focused on fishing, and the waterfront bars were clearly not places for tourists, filled with weathered characters acclimated to the sea. My grandfather was one of those men, and he molded my father into a younger version. Even at eighteen, he was tempered.”

He dropped his head, the damp strands of his hair framing his face. As Kai watched him, the earlier feelings of sympathy morphed into a protectiveness that tightened her throat and squeezed her heart.

He glanced at her, a hint of a smile softening his expression as he slipped his arm around her shoulders. His voice was gruff. “I sometimes think that all that grit and strength made my dad understand tenderness and vulnerability when it came to my mom. I had amazing role models. When she was dying, he was so there for her every step of the way. It made me understand marriage and all that goes into it.”

Sliding her arm around his waist, she rested her head against his shoulder, thinking about how important her parents were to her, and despite what had happened in their family, they, too, had been amazing. Not wanting to think about that part of her life, or the things she had to reconcile, she focused on Davis, wanting to be with him now in this moment. “They do sound awesome.”

He nodded, drawing her closer. “Swordfishing is profitable, and my dad had plans to go to the Merchant Marine Academy, so he was going to save for a couple of years, then attend.”

“But that changed?”

“Yeah, drastically. When they were headed home, still several hundred miles from shore, that Perfect Storm hit, and the Maggie May was in trouble. They radioed many maydays, and the Coast Guard picked up the distress calls. They knew what they were getting into. North Atlantic weather can be savage. Whole fleets have been lost—the loss of life steep. Even with modern technology and forecasting, it’s a gamble. But a fisherman could make an easy ten thousand in a month and my dad had a nice amount for the academy after two months on the boat.”

Kai raised her head and looked at him. “His last trip out before school?”

Davis absently slid his thumb back and forth over the skin just below her ear, hesitating briefly before he answered. “Yes.”

“I suspect it’s a good ending, since you’re here.”

He gazed down at her, his expression sober as he gently brushed a tendril off her face. “Yeah, the story ends well with my dad and the crew rescued, but it’s about his reverence of the Coast Guard. He told me that story when I was young, and it resonated with me. My dad’s stories were so vivid and well-told that I felt like I was there with him.”

She smoothed her hand across his back in a reassuring gesture. “So, you enlisted in the Coast Guard because they saved your dad’s life and you wanted to give back?”

“Something like that. He was so damn proud when I chose to enlist.”

“And Carter?”

“I was as wet behind the ears as he was. We were being drilled on everything and I learned crisp teamwork, clear communication, and strict safety protocols. There is no level of error on the sea and especially manning a cutter where immense forces play strongly and one misstep could get someone killed.”

Kai looked at him. Only the outline of his face and the glint in his eyes were discernible in the fading light, but she could tell his expression was serious.

“The US Coast Guard Coral Sea was unlike any other cutter and was berthed at Key West, Florida. Other patrol boats were painted the standard white and orange, but this vessel was stealth black, the deck pure white, the contrast making the ship look cutting-edge and intimidating.”

“I’ll bet it was fast, too,” she murmured.

He chuckled. “Yeah, lightning fast, which was perfect for chasing bad guys. Out on the open sea, whether on calm ocean or choppy, every vessel was met with suspicion. Smugglers knew how to hide and evade. They were experts at it and the Coast Guard was at a disadvantage with hundreds of smugglers operating across millions of square miles of ocean, hunted by a few dozen patrol boats and larger cutters. It had been amateur hour in previous years but was now a business of steely professionals who were adept at completing the smuggling runs and reaping the benefits.

“But we were on a vessel that was built for interdiction. At one hundred and ten feet, Sea Coral wasn’t the biggest of the fleet's cutters, but it was a very interesting ship. She had a broad beam sitting on catamaran hulls, a roomy deck, cambered like a highway. We had a two-story deckhouse forward with tinted dark windows and the structure angled neatly aft. Below were the staterooms. The ship glided on air pumped underneath the hull. She wasn’t as graceful as most ships in the fleet, but she was a powerhouse, a sprinter at thirty knots.” He smiled, his memory obviously giving him joy. “Carter was a mechanical genius.” He chuckled. “The Coast Guard isn’t like the Navy with their overabundance of resources. The Coast Guard is small but mighty. We wore a lot of different hats. There was a never-ending cascade of maintenance, repair, qualification, cleanliness, inspection, safety, and supply functions, all while mentoring us, standing watch, and carrying out law enforcement boardings and other evolutions.” A smile tugged at her mouth at the pride in his voice, and it sounded like it was well-earned. “Carter was endlessly curious about how things worked, loved new tools and tactics, and was continually getting greasy and dirty. He always conducted himself with strong military standards. He was always clear and direct.”

“I see why you bonded.”

“He was a good friend,” he said gruffly. “We were chasing a fishing boat that ended up with tons of cocaine on it. They rammed us, and I lost my balance. I would have been ejected off the deck and down into the churning sea where the fishing boat made contact. I would have been killed, crushed against the hull, but Carter caught me, kept his balance, and saved me. The fishing boat sank, but divers recovered all the cocaine, and it was one of the biggest busts of my career.”

“And that led you to law enforcement.”

He smiled, his eyes locking on hers as he trailed a finger down her cheek, his touch tender and lingering. He hooked his knuckles under her chin and lifted her face. His breath feathered across her lips for an instant before his mouth touched hers with infinite gentleness. His warmth and strength surrounded her, his touch like silk against silk, yet for all that softness, there was an underlying strength, a depth of feeling.

She closed her eyes, an odd ache unfolding in her chest as he slid his hand up the back of her head, into her hair, splaying his fingers against her scalp. He turned her head, his mouth finding hers in a softly searing kiss. His gentleness mesmerized her, binding her to him with threads of sensation, and she moved closer, wanting to comfort him more than she wanted anything else.

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