Page 19 of Fast Fury

Diane drove through the quiet streets back to the motel she was staying at. She couldn’t risk going home yet, in case anyone suspected her. Home was the first place they’d look.

With each passing mile she fought off the instinctive rush of guilt, the terrible knowledge that she’d just taken a human life.

He deserved it. They all did.

One down, so many more to go.

Chapter Six

“You shoot me with that thing, you better be able to outrun me.”

Kai smirked at Freeman’s stark warning and stroked a hand over the barrel of his modified eight-chamber Nerf gun. She was fully loaded, and ready to play. Since their long day of conducting maritime operation training was done, Kai was ready to play too.

And his trigger finger was damn itchy.

“Why so serious,brah? Not butt hurt about being shown up in the water by a Marine, are you?”

The team point man stopped in the middle of peeling off his wetsuit to shoot him a hard look. “In your dreams, jarhead. I’m twice as fast as you on any given day. Everyone knows this except you.” Freeman was a former decorated SEAL. Whenever they assaulted a target, he was the first one through the door. Everybody on the team admired his skill as an operator and his steadiness under pressure, including Kai.

That didn’t mean he got a free pass on the smack talk Kai loved delivering to each and every one of his teammates, however.

Kai raised an eyebrow, anticipation spreading inside him. They had a long-standing friendly rivalry about this. Maybe it was time to settle this for good. “Oh, it’s like that, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s like that.”

He glanced at Prentiss and Khan, who were both getting out of their own wetsuits across the team room, and grinned. Of all the guys he was closest to them, but got along well with everyone on the team. “All right,” he said to Freeman. “Let’s put that to the test, so we can settle this once and for all. Like men.”

Freeman eyed him, a glint of interest in his dark brown eyes. “I’m listening.”

“You and me hit the beach outside right now. There’s a three-quarter-mile stretch between the officer’s housing and the northeast shore we used to swim all the time, back when I was stationed here in the Corps. First one to make it to the other side is king of the water. Rest of the team will stand witness. You game?”

Freeman stripped the wetsuit off his legs, leaving him in just a pair of swim trunks, his gaze locked on Kai. “Yeah, I’m game. Let’s go.” He twisted to the side to hang the wetsuit up to dry.

Kai seized upon the juicy opportunity, raising his weapon and squeezing the trigger. But instead of firing one foam dart, his personal modifications turned the single-shot weapon into a fully automatic one.

Freeman bellowed and threw up his hands as dart after dart pelted him in the back of the head. Laughing, Kai dropped his weapon, got up and ran barefoot out of the room while laughter and shouts of encouragement followed him out into the hall.

Hamilton stopped in the middle of the hallway when he saw Kai barreling toward him and stepped aside, raising his eyebrows. “What’d you do now, Maka?”

“Just gettin’ my boy motivated,” Kai called back as he streaked past his team leader, sprinting for the exit at the far end of the hall. A delighted laugh burst out of him when the team room door exploded open behind him, followed by pounding footsteps in the hall.

“You really did it this time, Maka,” Granger called out behind him, his voice full of glee. “Freeman’s riled up.”

“Good, he’s gonna need it if he wants a prayer at staving off total humiliation,” Kai called back. He glanced over his shoulder as he neared the door, hooted when he saw Freeman bearing down on him, his face a mask of raw determination, their seven other teammates hot on his heels.

Awesome.

He slammed down on the metal release bar and plunged outside into the warm, tropical sunshine. The salty scent of the ocean hit him, along with the muted roar of the waves curling against the beach up ahead.

His smile widened. God, he’d missed the islands. And in just a couple days he’d be home in Maui. Hopefully with Abby. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, about what they could have together if she was willing to put caution aside and step outside the friend zone with him.

Kai reached the edge of the beach. The feel of the hot sand under his feet was bliss, triggering a thousand memories of him and his cousin Hani spending time at the beach when they were kids. Bittersweet memories now. They were different people now than back then, because they had chosen two completely opposite paths.

“You’re getting’ slow, big man,” Freeman shouted. “You forget, I was a star wide receiver in college.”

The voice was way closer than Kai expected it to be. He risked a glance behind him, eyes widening when he saw Freeman fifteen yards away and closing. Kai was fast, but the bastard was faster, his smaller frame an advantage moving over the sand.

Kai ran into the water. Two steps into the surf, calf deep, a heavy weight hit him in the middle of the back and took him down. They hit the water with a huge splash, Freeman on top. Kai rolled, pushed free and surfaced with a laugh just as Freeman popped up too, his grin bright white against his deep brown skin. “Gotcha,” he taunted, giving Kai a smug grin.

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