Chapter 10 – A Hot Mess

"I don't know, ma'am," said the 911 operator. "I can try to find Detective Deeks and patch you through."

"Hurry!"

"The Fire Department and paramedics are on the way."

Kensi disconnected and relayed the info to Nell. Suddenly, the acrid smell of smoke reached them. Kensi and Nell looked at each other in alarm.

"We gotta move," said Kensi. "Can you manage her?"

"Got it." Nell helped Pattie to her feet and put her arm around the girl's slender waist. "Grab my shoulder."

Kensi untied Antonio's feet and yanked him to an upright position. She jabbed her weapon in his back. "Move. You try anything funny and I'll put a bullet in you. Are we clear?"

When he didn't respond, she poked him harder. "Yes or no."

Finally, he gave a brief nod of understanding.

In the hall, spa guests in various states of undress were scrambling for the exits. A few gasped when they saw Kensi and Nell with Antonio and Pattie in tow and ran faster.

"WE'RE FEDERAL AGENTS. EVERYONE STAY CALM. HELP IS ON THE WAY," yelled Kensi when they reached the terrace outside the dining room. Everyone was talking and shouting at once and several older women were crying. One clutched her chest as if she was having trouble breathing. A couple of men rushed over to help when they saw the girls' IDs around their necks.

"I'm James," said one burly man. "Retired Marine, ma'am. How can I help?"

"I'm an air marshal," said another equally formidable man.

"Keep an eye on this guy. He's a gang member. I'm not sure what he's up to."

James removed his belt and pushed Antonio into a wrought-iron chair and secured him. He looked at Kensi. "What's all this blood from?"

"He stabbed that girl and I shot him in the butt," replied Kensi calmly.

Both men grinned. "I like your style," said James as he cinched the belt tighter. Antonio grunted and tried to squirm. "You're not going anywhere, pal."

Other guests had pulled a chaise lounge over and helped Pattie lie down. One woman was holding her hand and offering reassurance. An obese, but gallant, man removed his bathrobe, revealing red polka-dot boxers, and laid it over Pattie.

WHOOSH! A large fireball erupted into the night sky at the far side of the complex. "The Cherry Blossom wing is on fire!" yelled someone. Shouts and cries of panic increased.

Kensi moved to the edge of the terrace intending to call Deeks. From her peripheral vision, she saw stealthy figures with LAPD on their backs entering the spa. Black balaclavas obscured their heads and faces. One minute they were there, the next they had vanished.

Deeks, are you here?

Deeks and the other agents worked their way room by room and floor by floor clearing the spa. So far, he had not located Kensi and Nell. But as he rounded a corner, he saw two other persons of interest. Judging by their attire, they were J Street Cowboys. They were crouched in front of an office door arguing about how to defeat the lock.

Then his phone vibrated. He ducked back around the corner and whipped it out and sighed.

Kensi. Great. Now she decides to call.

He inched back down the hall. "Hey, Kens. What's up?" he whispered. In the background he heard shouting and sirens.

"What's up? That's what I want to know. Are you here at the spa? I saw a strike team enter the building."

"I am and I could use your help right now. Are you armed?"

"Always."

"My ever-efficient Wonder Woman." He briefly explained what was going down.

"I know where that office is. I'll be there in 60 seconds."

A couple of shots were fired from the direction of the office. "Way to go, man!" said one of the perpetrators.

"Can you make it 30 seconds?" asked Deeks. "Sounds like they breached the lock."

"On it. And Deeks?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful."

"Anything for you, Wonder Woman. I can't wear my Superman underwear for anyone but you."

In spite of herself, Kensi smiled. Leave it to Deeks to diffuse a stressful situation with his goofy humor.

Kensi sprinted over to Nell. "I've found Deeks. Going to help him."

Nell was in the process of climbing up on a table to get the crowd's attention. "Go. I've got this."

"HELLO. I WANT EVERYONE TO MOVE AWAY FROM THE BUILDING SO THE FIRST RESPONDERS HAVE ROOM TO WORK."

The group fell silent at the sight of the petite woman in pin-striped pajamas waving her arms, and gun, and speaking with such authority. They appeared shell-shocked, but followed her instructions and shuffled toward the swimming pool.

"Deeks!" hissed Kensi.

He turned for a split-second and his heart dropped at the sight of blood on her white robe.

"Are you hurt?" He was torn between going after the bad guys and making sure Kensi was okay.

"I'm fine. It's not mine."

The robe was only loosely secured by a tie-belt. This left most of Kensi's long legs and part of her chest exposed. Any other time Deeks would have enjoyed this view.

"Please tell me you're not naked under that."

Kensi smirked. "I thought you wanted to get me naked."

Deeks grinned. "Touché. But we're a little pressed for time right now."

Their eyes held for a beat. "Later then," said Kensi.

"Oh yeah!" confirmed Deeks.

The moment passed. But the heat between them remained, awaiting exploration in the future.

Raised voices were heard around the corner. "Marco, you numbskull. How we gonna open this safe?"

"Hey man, we can shoot it. Like we did the door."

Several loud shots echoed through the hall, followed by much cursing in Spanish and English.

"Guess that didn't work," mumbled Deeks.

"How do you want to play this?" asked Kensi.

Deeks thought for a moment. "You stroll by and distract them with those killer legs, then I'll get the jump on one of them and you can take the second one."

While Kensi didn't always like having to use her body as a distraction, sometimes it was the only thing to do. "Works for me."

"Wait!" said Deeks.

Kensi frowned. "What?"

"For good luck." He pulled her close and gave her a hard, fast kiss.

Kensi blinked in surprise. "Wow. Good luck then." She opened the top of her robe even more and sashayed around the corner. She kept her right hand down and the gun slightly behind her.

Deeks sighed as he watched her go. Is it hot in here or is it just me?

Marco and his equally numbskull companion, Reynaldo, were hunched over the safe and poking at the lock.

Kensi gasped. "Oh my goodness! What . . . what are you doing? Please don't hurt me!" she said in her best hysterical female voice. Her left hand flew to her chest. "My baby Monty needs his mommy."

Deeks was now positioned on the other side of the doorway and trying hard not to laugh.

"Three, two, one," whispered Deeks. He sprang into the room. "LAPD! Get on the floor!"

Before Kensi could raise her gun, a man yelled, "Kensi! Get down!" Suddenly, she was knocked to the floor and her gun flew out of her hand. It was Lars in his white uniform, still looking like he should be on a cruise ship. However, he had accessorized with an assault rifle and a black bulletproof vest emblazoned with ATF on the front. He was followed by three more heavily-armed ATF agents.

He pointed to Deeks. "That's him. Manuel Sosa. Cuff him! You and your J Street Cowboy buds are under arrest for hijacking two truckloads of cigarettes and killing a federal undercover agent and assaulting two other agents. We've known for several months that Antonio the gardener was a J-Streeter. We've been waiting for the gang to make a move."

Kensi hoisted herself to her feet. "Not so fast, Lars. If that's even your real name." Kensi was pissed and her eyes were flashing with anger. "That's Marty Deeks. He's LAPD and he's my partner. I'm NCIS." She pulled at her belt to find her official ID. The agents gasped when her cute little cornflower blue pajamas were revealed.

Deeks was on his belly in handcuffs. "Yeah, and if you don't believe her, you can contact Lt. Bates at LAPD or Hetty Lange at NCIS. Trust me, you do not want to be on the receiving end of a Hetty Lange butt-chewing."

Lars seemed to be in charge of these agents. He looked back and forth between Deeks and Kensi. "Well, which is he, LAPD or NCIS?"

Kensi picked up her gun. She felt like shooting Lars in the foot or maybe somewhere else. "He's both. He's an LAPD detective attached to me, uh, I mean to us at NCIS." She stepped in front of Lars and pushed him in the chest. "How dare you accuse my partner of being a hijacker!"

Lars cracked a grin. "Attached to you. That says it all right there."

By now, members of the LAPD SWAT team crowded into the office after tracing the direction of the shots.

Deeks glanced over at Kensi. "Kens, could you fix your robe?"

She looked down and angrily pulled it together and secured the belt.

Everyone started talking and arguing at once. LAPD accused ATF of infringing on their operation and ATF accused LAPD of the same thing.

"Gotta love interagency non-communication and cooperation," said Kensi.

The SWAT commander looked down at Deeks. "Why is my man trussed up like a common criminal?" he demanded. "Get those damn cuffs off him!" he barked.

Deeks was uncuffed and in the confusion he and Kensi slipped out into the hallway. Firemen ran toward them. "Everything's under control," said the soot-streaked captain. "The fire has been contained. It appears an elderly man was smoking in bed and fell asleep. We don't think it was related to any gang activity."

"What about Pattie, the woman who was stabbed?" asked Kensi.

"She's been transported to the hospital. The paramedics said she was serious, but stable. She'll be going straight to surgery."

"Okay, that's good," sighed Kensi. She explained to Deeks about Pattie's connection to the J-Streeters.

"She's young so hopefully she'll make a full recovery," said Deeks.

SWAT and ATF were marching Marco and Reynaldo down the hall. Jack the Jerk ogled Kensi as they passed by. Deeks pointed at Kensi, then to himself. "Yeah, that's my partner," he said.

Kensi shot him a strange look. "What was that about?"

"It's probably best explained over beer and pizza. Which isn't happening tonight."

They watched until the agents turned the corner. "Right," agreed Kensi. "Let's go find Nell. I left her to do crowd control on the terrace. And I'm gonna need another massage after this is all over. They have the best masseur here. His name is Nigel."

Uh oh. Does she know? Deeks felt a second of panic, but Kensi's face revealed nothing.