Page 51 of Liaising Kai

When he was close enough, he jumped on the running board of the side of the big diesel. The driver adjusted his weapon toward Davis and blew out the window. Glass rained down on him as he ducked below the driver’s view, his face stinging from tiny cuts.

“Pull over!” he shouted, but the guy only triggered another burst of gunfire.

Then Davis heard more breaking glass and the truck veered toward the water. When Davis looked in through the broken window, the truck driver wasn’t moving. A hole in his forehead told him one of the snipers had met his mark. The truck was going way too fast for him to jump off. He turned to look as it neared the end of the dock.

Jason's voice pounded in his ear. “Davis, get off that thing!”

It was too late. His heart beating like a sledgehammer, Davis braced himself for impact.

There was a jolt as the truck reached the edge of the pier, then it was airborne. The truck shuddered violently, engine revving. He held on to the side until the very last minute, then pushed away from the ten tons of careening steel, trying to get his body far away from the plunging truck.

He hit the water, the impact stunning him, pain screaming through his skin as he sank, the pressure from the displaced water churning around him, compressing his chest and forcing out precious air. His lungs strained, pinpoints of light fracturing in his eyes as the disorientation of his position left him wondering which way was up or down.

The water tumbled him around some more, and he felt himself sinking, a rush of bubbles around his head. He experienced a strange softness in his limbs, water quickly replacing his last breath. He sank deeper, his heart slowed, his vision narrowing down to a dark tunnel.

Kai nodded to Amber, Lucy, and Austin. “Let’s go.” She broke cover and fast walked toward Freddy, who was consumed with the current container lowering onto another empty truck bed. There was a commotion at the end of the dock toward where Davis and the other half of the team had headed, but Kai needed to keep her attention on Freddy. The woman was as dangerous as they came.

Freddy looked over her shoulder toward the disruption, then her radio squawked, and she stiffened. She spoke quickly into the radio, and she spied Kai and the team converging on her. Without warning, she bolted, dropping the radio and discarding her hard hat.

“Secure the shipment,” Kai ordered as the team ran toward the scattering crew. Kai rushed after Freddy, realizing that the woman knew these docks better than Kai. She was determined the woman wasn’t going to get away. Kai kept her attention on the woman’s fleeing back as she ran, waving workers back, showing her weapon when they just gawked. She rushed toward the field of containers, ducking to the side once to search for movement and continue.

While seagulls circled overhead, squawking, and crying, she lost sight of Freddy as she ducked into the maze of containers. She moved cautiously now, her eyes darting everywhere, then spotted a shadow move, and she sidled alongside the steel frames.

“Come out with your hands up. There’s nowhere to go, Freddy.”

There was no answer, no movement. The shadow was gone.

Kai stepped forward, heading for the edge of the container, but as she got to a place where she could look around the side of the crate, Freddy struck.

Kai caught the silver flicker before she swiped a blade across Kai’s wrist, forcing her to drop her weapon. She slashed viciously at Kai, who backed up until her back slammed into metal, the sound reverberating against her shoulders. Kai caught Freddy’s wrist to keep her from skewing her in the chest, grappling and pushing her away.

Kai followed, never giving Freddy a chance to strike at her. She jabbed out, hitting her once in the throat, the nose, then a hit under her arm.

Freddy folded, dropping the knife, then hit back three times in another vicious attack that took everything Kai had to fight off. Kai landed a blow under her jaw, and she staggered, collapsed. Kai lurched back, poised to strike, but Freddy recovered and swept her leg, clipping Kai behind the knees.

Kai dropped, her back smacking into the concrete, the breath knocked out of her in a painful rush of air. She tried to catch her breath and roll, but Freddy dropped her weight on Kai. Kai clapped her ears, stunning her, then rolled hard, gripping the bitch’s hair as she went. The woman barely made a sound, and Kai struck her in her carotid artery, then threw her weight on her. She slammed her arm across Freddy’s throat, digging in.

Freddy fought, but Kai didn’t let up. When Freddy went limp, Kai hurriedly rolled the woman to her stomach and handcuffed her. She pushed away and leaned her back against the side of the crate, breathing hard.

“Boss!” Amber called, then she and Lucy came around the container and stopped dead. They looked down at Freddy, then at Kai, who was holding her bloody wrist.

The look in her eyes told her she’d missed something. She had lost her earpiece during the fight.

“What is it?” she asked, struggling to her feet.

“Davis,” Amber said, her explanation making Kai go numb. Without another word, she ran.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Kai ran past people and the DEA SRT. She saw an orange and white helicopter sitting on the pier, and a Coast Guard patrol boat buzzing around the harbor. Two Coast Guard members were hunched over a prone body on the dock. Davis. She ran faster, her throat burning, tears swelling. Jason caught her, his expression killing her. He was soaking wet. He must have gone in after Davis.

“Let them work, Kai,” he said softly. But she fought to get away. She hadn’t been there for Allison. She had drowned, and it was too late to resuscitate her. Jason held onto her firmly, working at not hurting her. “He’s in excellent hands.” He shook her a little, and she realized that he was right. Most of her irrationality had to do with the way she’d lost her child. She couldn’t lose Davis like this. She clutched at Jason, a sob catching in her throat, aware that these men did this for a living. She could only be thankful they had been so close. Her heart still slammed in her chest, the need to panic nearly swamping her common sense.

“Davis, please,” she pleaded, her voice fracturing with the rawness of her dread. One man was pressing a mask over his nose and mouth, squeezing a bag in intervals while another performed CPR. Suddenly, she could barely breathe as the seconds elongated into what seemed like hours, suspending her in a limbo of agony. The thought of losing him left nothing inside of her, nothing but an empty maw. He’d made promises, and she wanted him to keep them. Swallowing against the sudden tightness in her throat, Kai clutched Jason tighter, feeling as if her insides had turned to lead, dread overwhelming her. She couldn’t accept it. She wouldn’t. He was going to pull through. He had to.

Suddenly, Davis spit up water, and one of his rescuers pushed him to the side as he vomited, gasping for air. His body convulsed with violent coughing, but they were already moving as an ambulance showed up. Davis was transported onto the gurney, then wheeled quickly away as one of the EMTs covered him with a blanket and placed an oxygen mask over his face. She wanted to go with him, but she expected pushback from the EMTs, and she didn’t want to distract them from attending to Davis.

Jason rushed her to the hospital as Derrick took over managing the aftermath of taking down the Los Esmeraldas. She dismissed any thoughts about them, too focused on getting to Davis. Jason bullied someone until they took a look at her wrist, gave her stitches, bandaged it, and injected her with an antibiotic. She was so worried about Davis, she barely felt it.

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