Page 59 of Kai
I needed to do something different.
Cece mattered to me. It was more than a feeling. It was a conviction, and maybe someday, if I could get over my hangups, I could matter to her. I wanted to get better, to move forward, to be free of the memories. But Cece had stamina. How long could she stay mad at me?
A long, long time, K-man.
I blew out a puff of air. The woman had a rare capacity to drive me insane.
It rankled me that while I wanted us to engage with each other, the distance she put between us gave me a reprieve, or better yet, an excuse not to confront the memories and own my failures. I should talk to her. Explain, maybe. Or maybe not. She didn’t want to talk to me, and what was there to explain? The past was the past. I’d worked on my issues for a long time, and still didn’t know what to say to her.
As I brought up my radars on the screens, the sight of several pulsing red dots spread throughout the sea and the islands caught my attention. I leaned closer to the monitors. A slow smirk stretched my lips.
Oorah. Good news at last.
Tracker Team had not been idle. My teammates had advanced our plan. They had attached covert trackers to a significant number of watercrafts. These trackers marked the boats as participants in the NWO’s search and were only detectable to our systems.
The trackers gave me the ability to monitor the boats and the mercs’ search patterns even more closely. My crew had no doubt gone on some gnarly underwater adventures to achieve our goal. My smirk expanded. I leaned back in my chair and sent a mentalmahaloto my friends.
They were getting up close and personal with our enemies.
Most of the boats on the screen were stationary at this late hour. They were anchored or moored in marinas for the night. One vessel captured my attention. This one was still moving on a heading toward the nearest marina, and yet it pinged at a different frequency.
I pulled up the live satellite image, amplified it, and compared it to the RHIB we’d encountered earlier. Sure enough. It was the same boat, and even in the darkness, I spotted the colossal shape of the Stetson-wearing merc. He was the reason the guys had pinged this boat with a different frequency. To let me know it was the leader’s boat.
My guys were fucking awesome.
Booming Voice had survived Cece and me, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the asshole found himself in a fight for his life soonish, maybe even tonight. I wished I could establish direct comms with the guys, to warn them about the brute’s nine lives. Hell, a little talk with my best friend Goof would do me good just about now. But direct contact risked giving awaySerenity’s position. Silence and stealth were the best protections I could afford Cece, and even if she never spoke to me again, I would always protect her.
Working the keys, I programmed the system to monitor the frequency of the tracker for Booming Voice’s boat. Knowing his location allowed me to monitor him better. The hard-to-kill merc was a threat. I wouldn’t underestimate him. If he came my way again, I’d be ready for him.
Tracker Team’s success helped me get some of my Zen back. It was amazing what a little success could do for a guy’s mood. While I ran a full system check, I reviewed everything I knew about Cece. I questioned my assumptions. What could I do to change this untenable situation?
I had an idea. It offered a strategy, and it soon morphed into a plan. It was too late to implement it tonight, and perhaps a little sneaky on my part, but hell, I was desperate and I wasn’t a quitter. I was gonna get Cece Astor talking to me again. I hadn’t given up on her just yet. Or on myself.
Chapter Twenty
Cece
“Rise and shine, Sorceress.”
A familiar voice woke me up from a troubled sleep filled with nightmares of the dreadful day I found out Nix had died in battle, and my response to the terrible news—denial, ranting, and raging. Snippets of that day mixed with Father’s verbal abuse over the years as he accused me of being angry and unlovable. Kai also appeared in my nightmares, his face blank, his body stiff, and his gaze distant as he turned me down up at the ridge.
“Time to seize the day,” the cheerful voice came again, followed by a set of knocks. “Did I hear a yes, please come in?”
“Um…” Was there an emergency? Had we gotten the all clear? “Come in.”
“Moving in.” The door opened, and Kai stepped in. “Please don’t shoot me.”
I sat up straight in my bed and blinked the sleep from my eyes. I’d put in another late night working on my data. My eyelids rasped like sandpaper. My throat was dry as a desert. I was fairly sure I looked like shit, especially compared to Kai.
He stood at the threshold with a tray in hands, as handsome as ever in a blue rash guard and banana-printed shorts, looking fresh. He flashed me the smile that melted my knees. I was relieved I wasn’t standing and determined not to fall to his charm.
“Are we leaving?” I asked, my voice harsh.
“No, but we’ve got work to do.”
“Work?”
“Have your breakfast and I’ll tell you all about it.”
