They both knew that was bullshit.
She was the last person Olivia Rothschild wanted to see. Whenever Livy looked at her, she burst into tears and Elizabeth had to escape. It was awkward and uncomfortable. Their friendship, and partnership, was DOA. That was the worst part of all of this. When ‘The Butcher’ hurt her, Elizabeth, despite what she did, still lost her one-time best friend. The decision to keep Livy out of the loop was the one that severed their ties.
Forever.
She lost Livy, and it hurt.
“I can’t. I’m going to be busy with this fun new hooker-filled case.”
Gabe heard the emotion.
His wife and Elizabeth were two peas in the same stubborn pod. He hated the rift between them.
“Get into my office. I’ll make the introductions to the new doctor.”
“I’ll be there.”
Elizabeth disconnected the call. She didn’t want to talk about Livy. It was time to escape.
As she tucked her cell back into her pocket, Elizabeth wiped her eyes. She wanted to believe it was sweat, but she knew the truth. It was tears. She still hurt over what had happened.
Well, at least she still had Chris, and this was exactly why she couldn’t cross that line with him.
She couldn’t lose him.
It would suck.
Running across the street, she headed the last half block to her brownstone. She’d shower, get her gear, and finally have a case that she could be proud of in her career.
Elizabeth LaRue was back.
And she was going to own this bitch!
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Ethan was walking out of his home when his phone rang. He stopped on the steps of his brownstone to answer it.
“Yeah, Gabe?” he asked, recognizing the number.
“I have a case for you.”
Ethan was glad he’d be going out again. He was back from a case with his partner Jay Melrose, and they needed something new.
Something exciting to fill his time.
“What is it?” he asked, as he watched a leggy raven-haired woman run down the opposite side of the street. He checked out her ass, and she intrigued him. He’d never seen her before, and he made a mental note to keep his eyes open for the next time.
Gabe cleared his throat. “Uh, Blackhawk, are you listening to me?”
“What? Yeah, sorry. I was digging for my keys. What’s up, Gabe?”
“There’s a situation outside of Damascus, and you’re needed to talk to the council.”
Well, shit.
He hated dealing with Indians.
He really didn’t want to deal with that particular tribe either. That was a little too close to home for him.
Literally.
“Can’t you pass this one off…?”
Gabe cut him off, “I had two agents and two cases, and you’re up to bat. The other one is about to deal with a killer.”
“I want the killer.”
“I want a million bucks, a wife who isn’t cranky because she’s pregnant, and world peace, son. I don’t get what I want, so suck it up, buttercup.”
He sighed.
“What the hell is going on today?” he asked. “Seriously? Are you all insane?”
“What?”
“Did you just sigh at me too?”
“Yeah, why?”
“She did it too. I must be losing my edge.”
Gabe was clearly losing it. In these cases, Ethan knew it was best not to push his luck. If he did and Gabe snapped, he’d find himself tied to some shitty partner, working some pathetic case.
With his luck, he’d be saddled with the agent who bungled ‘The Butcher’ case. God knew Gabe kept trying to get him to dump Jay and take her on.
No.
Freaking.
Way.
“You need to handle this, Ethan. You told me you want to move up the ladder, right?”
He did and in the worst way. Ethan didn’t want to be a profiler or agent for the rest of his life. He wanted to move up the ranks and be someone who mattered in the FBI. He was born to be important.
He knew it.
“I do.”
“Then you have to prove you’re well versed. We need someone to mediate, and this will go in your records as a plus. I hated doing it too. Natives are a pain in the ass. Clearly.”
That made him laugh.
Yeah, he was being difficult. He could handle it. What’s the worst that could happen?
“Okay, Gabe, I’ll take it. Am I going in alone?”
He laughed. “Well, thank you for ‘taking’ it—like you had a damn choice. As for going in, you can take Melrose. Maybe he can scope out the area and let me know what it’s like. The FBI is going to expand one day, and as Deputy Director, I need to find a good location to give to my boss.”
“Okay, Gabe. I’ll head out.”
“Thank you, Ethan. Besides, maybe you can swing in and say hello to your…?”
He cut him off at the pass.
“When Hell freezes over, and I’m the only person on the planet left to melt that iceberg.”
Point taken.
Ethan didn’t want to go home.
“Okay, son. Just keep the Natives from being angry, and play nice. Report in and let me know how it’s going, okay?”
“Sure thing, Gabe,” he stated, turning around to head back into his brownstone.
At least he wasn’t sitting around on his day off doing nothing. He was going to walk down to the bakery to grab a coffee and cookie for breakfast.
It could wait.
He had bigger things to handle.
It looked like Ethan was going home.
Now all he had to do was avoid his past, and he’d be fine. It should be easy.
He hadn’t seen his grandfather and brother in a long time.
He wanted to keep it that way too.
For all of their sakes.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
When she called him to tell him he was going to be her ME on a case, Christopher Leonard offered to pick her up, and she was fine with that. Since she didn’t have a partner, it was easier if Chris had her back.
She trusted him.
When she called, he sounded off, and Elizabeth made a mental note to make sure he was okay. With Chris, he was generally easy to read.
Well, to her.
He was like her boyfriend but without the sex.
It was amusing.
Well, for her. Chris might feel differently. In fact, she was thinking about the beach and his seven-day wood.
Yeah, she was pretty sure he did.
When he pulled up to her brownstone, she tossed her gear into the back of his Mercedes.
“Can I drive?” she asked, as he handed her one of the coffees he had waiting for her. Like always, she tucked money in his shirt pocket.
“Will you stop paying me for buying your coffee?” he asked, accepting the kiss to his cheek.
“Not going to happen, Newton. You aren’t buying my coffee. We aren’t going there.”
It drove him insane, but it was a line that she wouldn’t cross. Chris had one major fear in life. He didn’t want women to like him only for his bank account.
So, in order to keep that from ever being an issue, she didn’t let him pay for anything.
Not coffee.
Not dinner.
And certainly, not presents.
It was all against their ‘rules’.
“It’s only coffee.”
She grinned at him as she sipped from her cup. “First it’s coffee, then dinner, and then you’re paying for sex.”
“WHAT?” he asked, his head nearly swiveling off his shoulders.
“I said, first it’s coffee, then dinner, and then you’re paying for popcorn at the movies too. I can buy my own shit, Christopher.”
His heart was thumping in his chest.
Clearly, he had pussy on the brain.
“So, about me driving…?”
He laughed at her question to cover the furious blush creeping up his body. “I’m prohibited from allowing you to get behind the wheel, Lyzee. My insurance and Gabriel Rothschild have declared you a menace.”
He reached for her hand and squeezed it.
“Blah, blah. You like when I drive your ride. It gets you all hot and bothered when my hands are on your stick.”
He glanced over at her.
Jesus!
His brain was jacked up. It was going to be a long day if everything out of her mouth made him think about her touching his dick.
“You can’t tease a man about touching his stick,” he said, trying not to give anything away. This was how they teased each other.
Elizabeth saw him tense, and a quick glance down told her everything she needed to know.
He was thinking sex.
A part of her was curious. Would he keep it to himself or would, Chris, her best friend, bring it up?
She tested her theory.
“I got lipstick on your face, Newton. Hold still,” she said, running her fingers over his skin.
At the brush of flesh against cheek, he could feel the flush creeping up his body. Chris only hoped it stayed beneath the collar of his starched shirt so she wouldn’t see it. If Elizabeth did, first, she’d bust his ass, and then she’d ask him what was up with it.
That was the part he couldn’t let happen.
How did he tell his best friend he wanted to have wild sex with her?
Badly.
Urgently.
Even though he knew he shouldn’t.
“So, what’s up?” he asked, trying to stay calm.
“We have a case. Gabe called me when I was running, and he wants to see me in his office.”
Chris didn’t say anything.
“It’s a real case,” she added. “He promised it’s not like the last thirty he’s handed me.”
He was happy for her.
While he’d been busy in Autopsy Suite One, trying to handle everything that came up, she was being handed shit cases. It sucked because unless there was a body, they didn’t get to work with each other all that much.
Then he couldn’t protect her.
It was a sad day when he was praying for some poor, dead victim to turn up, so he could spend time with her.
Yes, he was an asshole.
Here was exhibit B.
“I’m so damn excited to have a case. I could do something really stupid, like kiss you.”
He grinned over at her. “I’m game. Pucker up.”
She punched him.
“Christ Almighty, Lyzee! I got you a coffee too!”
She snorted. “I love you, Newton, and you know it. It’s just good to be back on a real case. You don’t know what it’s like.”
And he didn’t.
Chris was moving up the ladder, proving his forensic chops, and Elizabeth was being held back. They moved in two different worlds now.
It was ironic.
When he first started out, he was the outcast, and she was the darling.
Now it was reversed.
Fate was funny like that.
More so, it pissed him off. What he wanted to do was head in to see his boss, tell him to fuck off, and then punch him in the face.
Only he couldn’t.
Elizabeth wouldn’t let him destroy his career. All he could do is act as the same protector she had for him. If it meant letting the world hate him for her, he would.
Chris had her back.
“We’re back in business, Doc,” she said, shifting his gear for him while he sipped his coffee. “He told me to pick my ME, and tag, you’re it, darlin’.”
He was glad.
Chris missed this.
“I can’t wait to see what we pull,” he offered. “Can you shift me again?” he asked, navigating the expressway toward the Hoover building.
She did what he asked.
“I do have bad news though, and I might as well break it to you now.”
“What?” he asked, glancing over at her. Chris didn’t like the sound of that.
“Newbie alert.”
“Oh, shit. You have to be kidding. We’re not getting an agent to babysit, are we?”
Honestly, he hated when that happened—not because he didn’t like people, but because he couldn’t monopolize her time. When she had a partner, Elizabeth had to team up and play the role of Fed. When she was with him, even though it wasn’t out in the field, she was still all his.
Sue him.
He was jealous.
Plus, there was also the work involved with training someone. Chris, a year ago, had been the newbie, and he knew what it was like to have to babysit one.
He’d been Elizabeth’s pet project.
If someone came along, and she got attached, would he be replaced?
Would she take the new person under her wing and shove him out because she didn’t rely on him anymore?
Chris secretly enjoyed the fact that she needed him. As long as that happened, he had a shot with her.
Right?
Yeah, he was an asshole.
This was exhibit C.
In his head, he began praying she wasn’t going to tell him the newbie was an ME.
“We have bones, and Gabe wants us to use the new anthropologist to take him for a test run. I’ll be checking out his anthropological chops, and you’ll be training him on proper morgue protocol.”
Chris relaxed.
He could live with that.
In fact, new anthropologists were a dime a dozen. He was safe for the time being.
“Where’s Doctor Michaels?” he asked. “I can’t imagine her passing up on some bones. Anthropologists are freaks.”
She was aware.
“It’s all about me. Apparently, I’m beneath her, and she’d rather swim with crocodiles than deal with me.”
He heard it in her voice.
Over the last year, he’d had to watch her fight hard to prove to the whole FBI that she wasn’t a failure. It pissed him off.
A few times, he wanted to tell her he knew what she did and that he had her back. Only, he didn’t want to make her go back to that moment in time where she had crossed the line and killed a rapist.
It would die with him.
“Well, screw her, Lyzee. She isn’t worthy of working with us.”
“Me. She’d work with you, Christopher. You’re smart, and you’re turning out to be an asset to the FBI. I’m the liability, and we both know it.”
“You’re not a liability, Lyzee. You’ll turn this around. I know you will.”
“Tell that to my last four partners. They ran for the fucking hills.”
He was aware.
“Who’s up next? Did Gabe give you the new partner?” Chris crossed his fingers and prayed if she got one that it would be a woman.
“I think I’m doing this one alone.”
Chris glanced over at her. Yeah, he didn’t like the sound of that at all. “You’re out in the field alone? That’s dangerous. Can’t he dig you up some female agent to have your back?”
She shrugged.
What did it matter?
At this point, she was pretty sure she was going to die on the job. This was her life, and she’d come to grips with it.
There’d be no children, no marriage, and no big house like Gabe and Livy had. She was an agent, and she’d go down as one too.
She was fine with it. Elizabeth would save as many people as she could and be proud of her life.
“Honey.”
She took his outstretched hand and squeezed it in reassurance. Elizabeth knew he worried about her. When Chris was upset, there was little worry lines etched into his brow.
“I’ll be good, Christopher. I promise. You know I have crazy mad skills. This girl has her own back.”
He wanted to tell her so much, but none of it was appropriate. Elizabeth had told him from the start that they could never be more than this.
It sucked, but t
his was where their relationship stopped. If he got bossy, he might lose what they had built the last year. He loved her, and he was as confused as hell.
But he wouldn’t risk it.
“I’ll help you on the case.”
She kissed him on the cheek again. “I appreciate it, Newton.”
He blushed.
What wouldn’t he give for her to see his boxers and what was in them right now?
Shit!
And there was exhibit D.
D for douchery at its finest.
Chris had to force himself not to think about her checking out his man goods. If he did, there’d be evidence in his lap.
Well, even more evidence.
He’d gotten hard the second she slipped into his ride. It was difficult not to when Elizabeth was around. Curiosity made him create things in his mind.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
No, he wasn’t, but he couldn’t tell her that
Instead, he ran his thumb over hers as he held her hand. “Yeah, honey, I’m good. Are we staying in DC for this one?” he asked.
“As far as I know. He didn’t tell me to pack a bag, so that generally means we’re working out of base.”
“Great! Dinner tonight?” he asked.
“Absolutely.”
“We can work on the case at your place or mine,” he offered. Chris only hoped it didn’t sound like he was trying to get into her panties.
He pictured it.
Shit!
She grinned. “Deal! Has your mother found your place yet?” she asked. “Are we hiding out at mine?”
He laughed. “No, she hasn’t popped up there, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
Yeah, the last thing he wanted was Morganna Leonard finding her witchy way to his new brownstone. His mother was a wack job, and he needed to keep her away from the woman beside him. His mother would try to sabotage it.
She always did.
Don’t get him wrong. He loved his mother, but he didn’t need Elizabeth finding out she was a witch. He’d be horrified.
Some things you kept to yourself.
This was one of them.
“If she finds out, I may need to stay at your place for a few days.”
Naked.
In her bed.
Chris cursed himself silently in his head as he simultaneously prayed for control.
Stalked by the Past: An FBI Flashback Novel. (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 17) Page 4
