by Kaylea Cross
Taking a deep breath, she lifted the lid off the urn and reached out over the side of the catamaran. “I love you, sweetheart. Sleep well and be at peace.” Every time she saw the water from now on, she would think of Bailey.
With trembling hands, she tipped the urn. A stream of white ash spilled from the vessel, falling toward the rippling surface of the water. The wind caught it, spreading it into a fine mist. She reached up and closed the fingers of her right hand around the locket hanging from her neck. The one containing a tiny amount of Bailey’s ashes.
Her mind remained blank as she stared at the film of ash while it settled onto the water and vanished. After a respectful amount of time, footsteps approached behind her.
“Mrs. Whitehead?” the captain asked. “Are you ready to go back now?”
She nodded without turning around, her gaze fixed on the spot where her daughter now rested, mixing with the wind and waves.
The ride back to shore passed in a blur, but as the shoreline became clearer and clearer in front of them, her mind began to whirl. Bailey had been laid to rest. Her suffering was over.
But for the people who had wrought this pain, their suffering was about to begin.
In the parking lot she changed clothes, in the privacy of the shadows alongside the building that the charter boat rides were run out of. There were no security cameras here. The rental car she’d secured under a fake name was nondescript, her outfit of capri jeans and a plain gray T-shirt chosen because they wouldn’t draw attention.
Everything else she needed was already in the trunk.
Funny now, to think that the one positive thing from her childhood—her marksman father teaching her how to shoot—would pay off this way. It had been the one thing they had in common, though she’d done it only to spend time with him. Over the years she’d become an expert shot. Today, that same skill would become her weapon in meting out the justice Bailey had been denied in life. She had nothing left to lose. She was willing to go to jail as long as she could kill at least one monster responsible for this.
Diane had failed her daughter while she was alive. She’d be damned if she’d fail her in death too.
Ten minutes later she pulled into the parking lot of the medical building and parked in a spot off in the corner, closest to the exit. There was only one other car there, a silver Mercedes that belonged to her target.
She’d done her homework carefully over the past several days. Doctor Bradshaw’s last patient was a seventy-one-year-old woman scheduled for seven o’clock. He generally ran behind at the end of the day. His staff left out the front of the building, and he always came out the back, where his Mercedes was parked beside the steel door.
His parking spot was ideal. The security cameras installed on the building had a view of his car, but only the front of it. The trunk, where he always placed his briefcase before climbing behind the wheel, was out of view. And with the trunk up, it gave her the perfect amount of concealment.
Her hand was damp but steady as she gripped her pistol, hidden in her handbag. The plastic, disposable raincoat she wore would keep her free of any splatter.
Movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention. An elderly woman with white hair came out of the rear entrance, leaning heavily on the cane. Dr. Bradshaw’s final patient.
Diane’s heartbeat quickened as she waited, her gaze locked on the steel door. She’d killed pheasants before. An occasional deer. But never a person.
Her conscience pricked at her, but she wrestled it back. This man was a monster. There were no real consequences for people like him, for the people who made and sold and prescribed the drugs that destroyed so many lives. The world would be a better place with him gone.
Minutes later the lights on the second floor turned off. She slid out of her car, careful to remain in the shadows and out of view of the camera, or anyone who came out the back door.
It opened. Heart in her throat, she stared at the opening. The good doctor himself emerged, briefcase in one hand. He didn’t bother looking around as he locked the door behind him and made for his car.
Diane shoved her nerves back and stalked toward him on silent feet, the pistol grip solid in her hand. She was twenty feet away and Bradshaw still hadn’t noticed her. As if in slow motion he hit the button on his keyfob that unlatched the trunk and turned toward it, his back to her.
The moment the trunk swung upward, Diane acted.
“You killed my daughter,” she said in a low voice, raising the pistol. It was like an extension of her hand, the weight and feel of it perfect in her grip.
Bradshaw whirled to face her, his startled expression turning to fear when he saw the weapon pointed at his chest. He jerked his eyes to hers.
It was what she had been waiting for. That moment of recognition.
Grip steady, she fired three fast shots. Each bullet hit their mark, dead center in Bradshaw’s worthless chest.
She barely saw him hit the ground before she whirled and hurried away in the shadows. The shots had been loud, but necessary. People would come to investigate at any moment.
Pausing at her vehicle only long enough to strip off her plastic raincoat, she stuffed everything in the beach bag and drove out of the lot at an unhurried pace even though she was scared to death of being seen. Of being caught on some security camera she didn’t know about.
Her heart hammered in her throat, a queasy sensation roiling in her stomach. If Bradshaw wasn’t already dead, he soon would be.
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 twiste
d 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.
“You’re fast, I’ll give you that. On land,” Kai added, wiping the water from his face. “But water’s what separates the boys from the men.”
Freeman nodded, dark brown eyes sparkling with glee. “True. Let’s do this.”
Enjoying himself immensely, Kai stood and walked back to the edge of the surf. Four of the guys were already there.
“Khan, Granger and Prentiss all headed over to the finish line,” Hamilton said, standing on the beach like he owned it, arms folded across his chest. Colebrook and Rodriguez stood on either side of him, both with their phones at the ready, waiting to record the race. Lockhart’s eyes were hidden beneath his shades, a big grin on the former sniper’s face.
Kai twisted around to see the other three running along the beach to get to the spot that marked the end of the race route. He used arm signals to move them into position, then gave them a raised fist to tell them to stop. “There,” he said to Freeman, lining up beside the other man on the strip of wet sand that marked the edge of the water. “From here to there’s three-quarters of a mile.”
Freeman’s gaze was fixed on the end point. “Less talking. More action.”
Kai smothered a laugh. “Okay. Cap, you count it down,” he said to Hamilton.
“All right. I want a nice, clean swim,” Hamilton instructed. “No choking or drowning your opponent. No wedgies or pantsing. And definitely no biting or hair pulling.” The others chuckled.
“Well that’s no fun,” Kai muttered under his breath. He leaned forward slightly, eyes on the finish line, his muscles tensed, ready to go. Before them lay a quarter mile of rolling ocean, and a bitch of a rip current that would try to pull them out to sea. It was one of the reasons his instructors had loved using this stretch, to tire them out.
“Three,” Hamilton called out in a deep, authoritative voice. “Two. One…Go.”
Kai took four running steps into the water, then dove headfirst into an oncoming wave.
The moment the water closed over his head, it was like coming home. The cool water surrounded him, hugged him as he knifed through it.
He kicked hard, feeling the pull of the rip against his body, and came up for air. Stretched out full length at the surface on his belly, he angled his head to take a breath, and began a punishing front crawl stroke. The water deepened, the sand changing to reef before it dropped away.
Waves broke over him. His muscles began to burn a couple minutes in. He savored it, pushed his body to go faster. Harder.
The next time he surfaced he glimpsed Freeman a few yards off to the right, trailing by a body length. The former SEAL was amazing in the water, but he hadn’t grown up in it like Kai had, and here, Kai’s large size wasn’t an impediment. He propelled himself through the water, shut his mind down and focused on the rhythm of his arms and legs.
Beneath him, the water shallowed as reef appeared again. The muscles in his shoulders and legs were burning like fire, his lungs laboring. But he was almost there, and damned if he would lose to a SEAL here in his element.
Using the last of his energy reserves, Kai shut out the physical discomfort and put on a final burst of speed. The coral gave way to sand. When the water was chest deep, he surged to his feet. Freeman was a few yards back, but it was gonna be close.
Panting, he forced his tired legs to push him the last few yards to the beach where all seven of his remaining teammates were waiting. They were all yelling, some cheering and some trash talking, several recording everything with their phones.
Kai splashed through the water and onto the wet sand, running for the line someone had drawn in it. Splashing footsteps signaled that Freeman was right behind him. And the former SEAL moved way faster here than Kai ever could.
With a final lunge, Kai crossed the line a full second before Freeman did.
Yes!
He doubled over, resting his palms on his thighs as he dragged in gulp after gulp of air.
“Just want you to know, my money was on you all along, big man,” Khan said, scrubbing a hand over Kai’s wet hair affectionately.
“He’s totally lying,” Prentiss said, tossing Kai a towel.
“Whatever, you owe me five bucks,” Khan shot back.
Kai snorted a laugh but couldn’t answer, too busy trying to get his breath back. Made him feel better to see Freeman sucking wind as well.
“That was epic,” Granger said, grinning as he looked at his phone. “Got it all right here on video, too.”
Kai swung his head around to look at Freeman. “For the record, nobody’s ever come that close to beating me.”
Freeman narrowed his deep brown eyes. “Don’t try to make me feel better.” He heaved a breath and straightened. “That rip was a bitch, man.”
Kai grinned. “She always is.” Crossing to Freeman, he clapped a friendly hand on his buddy’s back, then held it out. “Good race.”
Freeman clasped it. Hard. “Yeah. And for the record, I’ve never seen anyone your size as good as you in the water.”
“Oh, God,” Rodriguez moaned. “Now Maka thinks he’s the king of the ocean and lip-syncing.”
Everyone laughed, then Hamilton clapped him on the back. “Guess that means the beer’s on you tonight
.”
Kai grinned, took the shirt Khan held out for him. “Yeah. Guess it does.”
“Here. Brought your phone, too,” his friend said. “I recorded it for you. And you got a text when you were about halfway across.”
“Thanks.” Kai took it, and when he saw Abby’s message, he smiled, excitement flooding him.
Guess who’s coming to Maui in three days?
He was thrilled at the prospect of getting to see her, spend time with her, but even more so that she’d reached out to tell him. He’d been worried that he’d scared her off, that he’d come on too strong, because after the other night, she’d pulled back. Or seemed to have. Only texting him back in response to something, rather than reaching out to him first. Texting instead of answering his calls.
He could never regret that kiss, though. So many times over the past week he’d replayed it over and over again in his mind, recalling every little detail. The look on her face when he’d picked her up and pinned her to the wall, the feel of him against her.
How soft her heavy-lidded eyes had been as she’d gazed up at him after, her porcelain cheeks flushed and her lips pink and shiny.
“Whatever you’re thinking about right now, I don’t wanna know,” Freeman muttered beside him.
“Hot date with your former neighbor?” Khan asked, a knowing glint in his eye. Both he and Prentiss knew how bad things had been with Shelley.
“Nah,” Kai said, downplaying her importance and his eagerness. He wasn’t even sure if this was going anywhere yet. He didn’t want the guys to know just how amped up he was about it, in case it didn’t happen. His relationship with Abby was something to be cherished, and protected.
Looking forward to showing you paradise, he typed back to Abby. In whatever capacity she’d let him.
He couldn’t wait to see her. Couldn’t wait to show her all the places he loved, introduce her to his grandma. He had all kinds of seduction ideas too, but all that would have to wait until she was ready. Until then he would spend as much time as he could with her, prove to her that it was worth giving them a shot.