He might have a point.
The world was full of sex.
“That’s reassuring and creepy all at once,” she admitted. “I don’t know if I should know that, and I hope you mean his writing laptop and not his work one.”
“I do, and the point is that we’re all getting old, but that’s the best part. I didn’t get to be with ‘young-fresh out of Quantico’ Elizabeth. I missed that phase, but I get sexy MILF Elizabeth, and I’ll get gracefully aged Elizabeth too. That’s amazing. Two out of three is never bad.”
She was curious.
“Do you ever look at anyone else, Ethan?”
“Never.”
She was staring into his eyes, and he hadn’t lied. “I do.”
That caught him off guard. “You do?”
She pointed at Callen.
He snorted. “You like to rile me up, Elizabeth. I used to take that for granted, but now…I never will again. Tease me. I like it.”
She gave him a kiss.
He liked that too.
“About this case,” he said.
“Uh oh, here come the rules,” she stated. “I knew you were going to go from husband to boss in zero to sixty. If anything, you’re predictable.”
Oh, she might be shocked.
“Lay them on me.”
“Well, there’s only one.”
“And it is?” Elizabeth asked.
“Don’t die.”
She saw he was serious.
“I just got you back, and I can’t do this if you leave me. Those weeks without you nearly killed me. A whole future? I’ll follow. I hate to say it, but I’m not strong enough to do this life without you and Callen. If you go, I’m right behind you.”
She got it. She’d nearly lost herself too.
“I’ll be careful.”
“Can I be honest?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s our new rule, right?”
It was.
“I can’t wait to profile for you. It reminds me of our first cases together. I’m glad to be out of the office. I miss being on the street with you. Watching you work has this level of entertainment I can’t get from the office.”
“That’s not saying much since you sit in budgetary meetings and pick out the new Kevlar,” she admitted.
He grinned at her.
It made her heart skip. When they’d first become a couple, he’d whip out the Blackhawk grin all the time. For a couple of years, she hadn’t seen it.
Now it was back.
She missed it.
“Someone has to carry that burden,” he teased.
“You can quit. There’s no shame in walking away from the job to be an agent again.”
He was aware.
Still…
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Then I’ll be a quitter, and that’s a hard pill to swallow. We’re going to find Bonnie, and I’m going to go back to the tower to play Rapunzel.”
She laughed. “I’ll climb your hair any day,” she promised. “Naked. With spurs on.”
Now he was laughing.
“Are we really okay? After what I did, are we really in a good place? I’m not going to wake up and see you’re gone, am I?” he asked.
“You don’t have to be afraid of that, Ethan. I’m here.”
“I keep feeling like I’m dreaming again, and when the alarm goes off, you’re gone again.”
She was sorry he had that fear, but she got it.
“I’m real.”
Slowly, she tugged his mouth down to hers, and with tongue and teeth, she destroyed his control.
Ethan moaned.
“So good,” he muttered. “You’re not getting old. You’re getting better at making me crazy. With age comes some amazing sexual perks. I can’t wait to experience them all.”
She hoped.
“One thing to consider, handsome. I’ve never been invited to join the ‘Mile High Club’, Ethan. Was that a legit offer?” she asked, waiting for him to decide.
Normally, he wouldn’t do it.
This was a Federal jet, and they weren’t alone. This would have made him uncomfortable on all kinds of levels.
Then, he remembered those weeks without her.
It was time to walk the walk if his mouth was going to talk the talk.
“Yes, it was a legit offer. Want to ride the really friendly skies?” he teased.
She stroked him through his dress pants.
That said it all.
Then, Elizabeth was up. She walked past a sleeping Callen, and toward the bathroom.
Ethan followed.
As he approached Callen, his brother held up his hand for a high five.
Ethan slapped it and laughed.
Yeah, it was good to be back.
It was even better that he wasn’t afraid to live in the now.
With his wife.
With his husband.
With himself.
Ethan Blackhawk was back in the game—and just in time.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Damascus
Following Morning
When Detective Quinn Gaines got the call, he was more than ready to meet them at the house. Elizabeth had asked him to have the cops on guard duty, only because she had a plan to catch a rat.
She was going to cage him in and rattle him to his core.
Dakota Rakin had crossed one hell of a line, and it was time to pay the piper.
Yes, a part of her felt bad.
She wasn’t inhuman.
The man had been taken, abused, and had to watch his partner die. That would make some deep-seated anger grow in her, too, but he was playing a dangerous game.
In all of her career, few had escaped her. She could count them on one hand. Bonnie had eluded them for a reason.
She was insane.
Messing with a crazy viper was one sure way to get yourself bit, and if Dakota wasn’t concerned about his own damn wellbeing, she would be.
Someone had to watch his back.
As they pulled up to a spot within visual sight of the house, Elizabeth could see the detective waiting.
Perfect.
“Callen, can you and Chris wait out here and alert us when Dakota gets to the house?” she asked.
“If I get a kiss.”
“Really, Callen James? Bribing a federal officer for your own kinky pleasure. Someone definitely wants to end up in cuffs.”
He laughed.
Oh, that was more than okay with him. He’d be her plaything any day.
“Really,” he stated, as he pulled her mouth to his. The kiss was slow, warm, and she smelled like Ethan.
It turned his blood molten.
When he broke away, she was breathing heavily, too, and that gave him a great deal of pleasure.
“Later, I think I’m owed some Elizabeth and Ethan time. Someone, who shall remain nameless, has been left out of the reunion sex.”
She could do that.
“Um…” Chris said, raising his hand.
Callen pointed at him. “He may not kick your ass, but I will. My temper is not in question.”
Chris snorted. “Spoilsport. You used to be the fun one. My, my, the times have changed.”
Yeah, they were, but Callen was okay with that. When it came to his wife, he’d play the bad guy at times.
Ethan handed them ear coms. “Watch your back, Callen,” he warned. “Bonnie could be lurking, and she’d love a shot at anyone in this ride with a dick.”
He got it.
The quickest way to take Elizabeth down was through them.
He pulled his Glock and laid it on his lap.
“I’ll be ready. Just be safe.”
They headed out.
Elizabeth met the detective on the front porch. “Thank you, Quinn. You are my hero,” she said, giving him a hug.
“I owed you one for what you did when Maura and Nate had to go under, Elizabeth. You protected what was mine, and I’m g
oing to watch your back.”
“Still my hero,” she said, smiling at him.
“Yeah, Callie says the same thing. It’s tough being me. All these accolades are going to my head. We had better get inside if we want this to work,” he said, pulling off the crime scene tape and letting them in. “I’ll go around back so this looks sealed. Once he breaks it…”
She smiled. “I’ll have me some US Marshals stuck in the trap.”
She certainly would.
“Don’t enjoy this too much,” Ethan said. “You look crazy smiling like that.”
She snorted. “Let’s go.”
They slipped on the booties and headed into the foyer. Ten feet in, there was a puddle of blood and the imprint of a body in it. The liquid had coagulated, giving her a timeline of how long it had been there.
She didn’t even need to confer with Doctor Legend. She’d been doing this long enough to know.
“Almost a day,” she stated.
Ethan agreed.
While she had the information in the car, Elizabeth was big on walking the scene.
“There’s where the head was,” Ethan offered. “There’s more blood, and the techs tagged the spot.”
It was right there, facing the front door.
That was definitely to make a point.
She whistled. “Imagine walking into this house, and seeing that? His poor father. I may not like the Austin clan, but I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”
Yeah, Ethan, as a father, hoped to never experience anything like that. No parent wanted to watch their kids die.
That was a horror story.
They heard the sliding glass door of the kitchen open, and they both reached for their sidearms.
“It’s me,” called Quinn. “In here is where I found the note,” he stated.
They headed back there.
Elizabeth read it over. “Okay, so Bonnie definitely wants to play a game, right, Ethan?”
He nodded. “She’s telling you how many, and calling you out. We know there will be six unlucky people—well, five more.”
“Are you sure it’s her?” Quinn asked. “Could it be a copycat?”
“I’m sure,” Elizabeth stated. “Her and Clyde’s calling card was taking the victims’ heads. The only thing different is I hear Cannon wasn’t tortured.”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen the autopsy report yet.”
“We’re holding it. Dakota Rakin needs it to chase Bonnie, and I need it to neutralize her. He’s not going to be happy not to get his wish. Oh, well, it’s like he doesn’t even know me.”
“By neutralize, you mean kill, right?”
“Let’s just say that Lottie Tipton isn’t the sweet actress everyone saw on the screen. She’s bat shit insane, and she’s getting worse.”
“She has Dissociative Identity Disorder,” Ethan offered. “We know she has at least one other personality other than Lottie.”
“Yeah, she sounds like a bucket of fun,” Quinn offered.
“Oh, she’s a handful. The wheel is spinning, but the hamster is definitely dead.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What?”
“I missed the Elizabeth-isms—that’s all.”
He gave her a really deep kiss.
It caught her off guard.
Holy crap!
When he set her free, she was speechless. This was going to take time to adjust.
“I wish I could help more,” Quinn offered, trying not to laugh at the look of horror on Elizabeth’s face. It was funny to see her get all flustered.
She was tongue tied, and now chewing Ethan’s gum.
“This is helping a lot,” Ethan offered, to cover for his wife. “Let’s just let her do her thing,” he stated.
Elizabeth took that as her cue, and she began moving around the room to check out the scene.
Dakota would show up, and they’d be ready.
“Ethan, she’s going to have left something personally for me, wouldn’t she have?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes. This was a formality,” he stated, pointing at the note written in blood on the wall. “Bonnie is playing a game, and she wants to see if you’re smart enough to keep up with her. If you’re not, she’s going to aim right at you. Then you won’t be worthy as an opponent.”
That was all she had to hear.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Quinn offered. “Maybe she should take a pass at this one. It might be safer. She is wounded.”
Ethan knew the cold, hard truth.
If she didn’t play, she’d die. If she did play, she had a better chance of living. At least it would buy them time. That’s what she needed.
What they needed.
“What’s she doing? The body was that way,” Quinn stated. “Wouldn’t the killer leave the message in there?”
Ethan shook his head. “With the last case, they would torture the victims, and then they would cut off the man’s dick and make it into a smoothie.”
Quinn stared at him. “Seriously?”
“Liquefied dick,” Ethan repeated. “That’s the level of crazy we’re dealing with,” he admitted. “When you say man-hater, she’s the queen of that crowd.”
“Jesus.”
Elizabeth looked around.
“There’s no blender. If this is Bonnie, she would want me to know it’s her. She’d know I would doubt this wasn’t a copycat. It has to be here.”
Blackhawk agreed.
“Ethan, help me. Point me at something,” she said, hoping he would do just that.
“What’s out of place?” he asked. “In this house, what doesn’t fit?”
Elizabeth scanned it.
The knives were all there.
There was nothing in the sink.
The cabinets didn’t look touched.
It looked like a normal kitchen.
Then she stared at the refrigerator. On it, there were a ton of little magnets, and they spelled out words.
“Why would a bachelor, and an educated man, have those magnets on his fridge?”
Quinn stared at her. “Really?”
“That’s out of place.”
They all moved closer. As they approached, Elizabeth searched for words in the mishmash of letters. It didn’t take her long to finally find them. She began pulling the extra letters away to reveal the message.
There it was.
‘E.
Lawyer
Teacher
Doctor
Friend
Enemy
Family
B.’
Quinn couldn’t believe it. “There was a second message, and everyone missed it. Holy shit! She’s giving you a list of who she’s going to kill!”
Yes, yes, she was.
This was exactly what she’d been talking about. If you were going to chase crazy, you either had to be insane yourself, or you hung out with it on a normal basis. Elizabeth had chased killers for years.
She could do this in her sleep.
“That’s her way of seeing if I’m paying attention,” Elizabeth stated.
“I don’t like it,” Callen said over the earpiece. “She’s bad news.”
Elizabeth forgot he’d been listening the whole time. “It’s okay, my love. We got this. I had a vacation. I’m rested and on my game.”
They both hoped so because this was NOT the case you wanted to come back to if you weren’t ready.
Bonnie would eat her alive.
Possibly, quite literally.
“So, she’s telling us that this is her plan,” Ethan said. “She’s gone after a lawyer. Cannon Austin was the first player in her sick game.”
“How is he connected?” Quinn asked. “I’m going to guess it’s not random.”
“With her, nothing is going to be random. Lottie is very smart. She’s also a sociopath. She likes games.”
Elizabeth didn’t care.
She was going down.
“This is Chris Leonard’s brother-in-law.” She di
dn’t tell him about the legal action to get Bethe after Cyra died. Elizabeth left it at that.
Family issues were family issues, and Chris was her family.
Period.
“Shit! That sucks.”
“Yeah, so, she picked him because the second I heard his name, I’d be aware this is personal.”
“Because of what is playing out in the media?” he asked innocently.
“Yeah, they think Chris and I are having a hot and heavy relationship, but we go way back. Like decades.”
He got it.
Callen interrupted. “We have a black rental pulling up. It’s parking down the block opposite of us.”
Inside, they waited.
Callen continued with his report, “We have two people getting out.”
That sounded about right.
“One is a man, and I can’t get visual yet, but there’s a woman with him.”
Elizabeth put her faith in Callen.
“They are heading your way, and it’s Rakin. No ID on the second person. Female. That’s all I have for now.”
That was good enough for her.
“Which way are they headed?” Ethan asked.
“They are both heading toward the front door. Their badges are out. I’m betting they want the neighbors, in case they are seen, to buy that they are part of the investigative team. He’s looking around and trying to be cautious.”
Yeah, because they were breaking into a locked down crime scene without authorization from the detective on duty.
He was screwed.
They had him the second he cut the tape.
Ethan knew what they needed to do to lock this down.
“We need to get into the kitchen. We’ll wait in there. Callen, when they clear the door, we need backup. Head around back and don’t leave Chris alone. Bring him. He’s safer with you.”
“My pleasure.”
“Hide, Quinn,” Elizabeth stated. “Ethan, you get Dakota, and I get the girl. I know you don’t want me manhandling another guy’s junk, and if I go for him, I’m removing it to make myself some pretty testicular necklace.”
Revenge has Come (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 19) Page 14
