“That works for me, Christopher.”
“You say that like it’s okay,” he teased. “I can move in if you’re looking for a roommate.”
He was an idiot.
That was far from subtle.
“It is, Christopher. You can crash at my place all you want. I don’t mind. I have a spare room. As for living with me, I do believe I offered that up before you bought your place. You turned me down.”
He’d been an idiot.
The only reason he didn’t take her up on her roommate offer was he didn’t think he could behave. Horny guy living with sexy woman…
Yeah, that wasn’t going to end well.
As for her spare room…that was another story all together. He wasn’t thinking about using it. He wanted to sleep in her room.
Since they’d slept together after ‘The Butcher’, and he’d held her for three days straight, Chris wanted back in there. As of yet, she hadn’t invited him.
Then again, she hadn’t said no.
Chris wondered what she’d do if he headed there. Would she boot him out?
Would she let him stay?
He was like a dog. You couldn’t let them into your bed and then send them back to the kennel. It didn’t work that way. The invitation had been put out there, and he missed it. You hadn’t lived until Elizabeth LaRue woke up sleeping on your chest.
It was amazing.
She liked to cuddle. It was awesome. He loved just being next to her, and for so many reasons.
As he parked his flashy red ride in the lot, she took a deep breath. Elizabeth knew that the walk in was always the worst part. She might as well plaster a scarlet letter on her chest.
A big fat ‘F’.
For failure.
That was what they would be thinking.
“I’ll see you in the morgue,” she offered.
“I’ll walk you in, Elizabeth.” Chris knew what she was going to face. It was the same walk of shame every morning and every night.
He hated it.
He loathed each and every one of them who made her feel bad about herself. If he could stop it, he would.
“It’s okay. I’ll be down. By now, if we have a case, the bodies are already here. Go get ready. I’ll grab the newbie and I’ll meet you there.”
He grabbed her arm before she could escape.
“Look at me.”
She had tears in her eyes. Of course he knew she was on the verge of breaking. It had been a long two hundred and twenty-five days of this shit.
Chris wiped the first one that slid down her cheek. “Honey, you have this.”
She didn’t speak.
“They can’t break you. You’re stronger than each and every one of them. I have your back. We can, and will, take them all on to prove them wrong.”
She rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes. “I just want to do my damn job, Christopher. I wish I could go back and make different choices.”
Elizabeth wished she could tell him what weighed so heavily on her heart. He was her best friend, and she couldn’t burden him with this.
“It will get better. I promise.”
She pulled away and stared at him. “I hope you don’t suffer for being my friend.”
That broke his heart.
“I’d suffer if you weren’t my friend. Remember when no one would talk to me and I was mocked? All because I had a hard time on that scene? You were the only one who would stand by me, Lyzee. You’re my first and only friend. I won’t leave you no matter what. We took a vow, we made a promise, and I intend to keep it. Let me take care of you.”
She touched his cheek. “Thank you, Christopher. I love you.”
At one time, the words had been hard to get out. The last year, he’d made it incredibly easy to mean them.
“I love you too, Lyzee. Now let me walk you in, honey. Let me give you what you gave me all those months ago.”
She hesitated.
“Please.”
Elizabeth knew it had to be important. Christopher Leonard didn’t do battle unless it was huge. He was so non-aggressive that she didn’t think he had it in him.
“Are you sure…?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then let’s go.”
He shut off the engine and grabbed his badge. Once out of the car, he waited for her. It was a blustery day, and he could smell a storm coming. As he stood there, he held out his hand.
She stared at it.
“I won’t bite.”
That wasn’t the issue.
“I don’t want them to treat you like shit too.”
He smiled at her. “Fuck them, LaRue.”
She started laughing. “You used to have a much better vocabulary, Doc. You’ve been slumming it,” she drawled.
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Hell, yeah, and I love every second of it.”
She took his hand.
As they crossed the parking lot, she knew they had eyes all over them. Everyone there thought they had some sordid relationship. They were the talk of the Hoover building.
What astounded her most was Chris didn’t care.
He didn’t flinch when they talked about them. He really didn’t care.
As they headed up the stairs, his hand tightened around hers. He must have known this was the worst part.
Check in at the desk was brutal.
There was one security guy who really loved to ride her ass, and of course, he was working.
At the desk, Chris showed him his badge.
“You’re clear, Doctor Leonard.”
He walked through the metal detector and grabbed his gear.
Elizabeth was up next. She took off her gun and dropped it into a bin to be scanned. She also held up her badge and showed the guard sitting behind the desk.
He’d been in her training class until he couldn’t hack it. She knew what was coming.
“It’s LaRue, boys. Someone help her find her gun. She loses things.”
She wouldn’t let them break her.
The men began laughing.
Chris walked toward the desk, his face set in determination. When he got there, he purposely hit the man’s coffee cup that was sitting on the ledge.
It landed on the desk and splashed into his lap. When he stood, it appeared he had pissed his pants.
“Shit. My bad. It looks like you had an accident, Frank. You’d better clean up. You don’t want people saying shit about you too. You know the karma on that.”
The man fumed.
Elizabeth started laughing as she grabbed her gun and tucked it into the holster. Once past the security checkpoint, she turned and kissed him.
Right there.
Right on the mouth.
“Doc, you’re the best. I’m going to remember that move for the future. Knocking coffee onto someone is slick. I love it.”
He grinned and dropped his arm around her waist. His hand sat on her hip between her gun and side. “Do you mind?” he asked.
She winked at him. “Not in a million years. I’ll remember this moment every time you do that.”
He was glad.
Together, they headed to the elevators. He’d take her to Gabe’s floor, drop her off, and then head to morgue in the lowest level of the building.
She was safe now.
And she was smiling.
Elizabeth’s heart was safe, she wasn’t sad, and the idiots at the desk knew it wasn’t going to be tolerated.
For Doctor Christopher Leonard, that was all that mattered to him.
Chris’s heart skipped.
He knew the truth.
He had to find a way to get over her.
He was in love, and someone was going to get hurt.
Him.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Gabriel Rothschild’s
Office
He was waiting for her.
In the sitting area of his office, he had the new doctor filling out the last of his paperwork. He was goi
ng to brief his agent, and then introduce them.
He hoped she could handle this case.
Gabe was worried.
Was he doing the right thing?
Was he pushing her into a mess?
Would this backfire?
All of these worries were plaguing him. If she collapsed under the weight of it all, he would be to blame. It wasn’t that he thought she was incapable of handling it.
He simply knew that everyone around her was likely hoping she’d fail.
As of that moment, he didn’t have a partner for her. While the FBI frowned upon agents going solo, he didn’t have a choice in the matter. If he pushed the issue, agents promised to quit.
That would draw attention.
That was the last thing he wanted to happen. He was putting all his faith in her, and she was going to either make or break both of their careers.
What Elizabeth needed was one big case to put her on the map, and then the other Feds wouldn’t shy away from her. Gabe knew they’d be lining up to work with her once the true agent was seen by the masses.
He’d bet money on it.
After almost a year, she was still only seen as the woman who bungled ‘The Butcher’ case, and that was only the surface. Elizabeth was deeper than that.
The naysayers were all idiots.
Elizabeth LaRue was smart.
With time, she’d prove it.
At the knock on his door, he called her into his office to have a seat. She looked excited, and he was grateful for that moment.
“What do we have?” she asked.
“Good morning to you, too, Lyzee.”
She laughed.
Her manners sucked when there was a case to be had. She couldn’t help it. This was the first real one in a long time. There was a lot riding on it.
“Sorry, boss man. I’m excited at the prospect of having a new case. I really hope you’re not yanking my damn chain on this one, or I’ll hurt you.”
He handed her a file.
The best thing with Elizabeth was to let her read it first, and her reaction would tell him everything he needed to know.
She scanned it.
“We have three dead hookers that spanned over a period of three months?”
“Yep.”
She kept reading, searching for anything to clue her in on the assignment.
Then she noticed.
“There isn’t a profile.”
He was aware. “If you want one, I can get my golden boy to give you one. He’s just headed out to Damascus now, but I can send the details.”
She glanced up. “Hold up on it. Let me see what else I can shake from the killer tree before you do it. Then you can send it to him.”
“That works for me. Ethan will have his hands full on this one.”
She flipped the paper over. “How do we know victim one is related to victim two and three?” she asked. “They were killed with weeks in between.”
“The city ME thinks the removal of the faces is a dead giveaway.”
Yeah, maybe.
“Or they are dumping and running,” she stated. “You know that the Metro police hate backlog. This wouldn’t be the first case they tried to tie together and call it an FBI case.”
He was aware.
It happened all the time. If they couldn’t solve it, they fudged the paperwork and called for help, knowing the FBI would take over.
Gabe was prepared for the worst.
“That’s why I want our ME and the new anthropologist to check it out. If there is a link, they’ll find it. If it’s BS, we’ll toss it back to the locals.”
She laughed. “Like hell you will. This is the first serial killer case I’ve had in a long time. No one is taking this one away from me. If they aren’t connected, well, hell, I’ll work them both at this point. Finders keepers, losers weepers.”
Gabe leaned back in his chair to study her. While most of his agents would say send it back, not this one. She was all about the challenge. That’s how he knew she’d be an awesome agent and an asset to the FBI.
He only had to get the world to see it.
“You should probably chill out a little. It’s sick when people get excited over death.”
And it was.
Elizabeth was practically bouncing in her seat.
She was well aware.
“Besides, Gabe, even if it’s not connected, we have two garroted women. That has to be the same killer. Their faces were taken off, their eyes removed, and a wire was used. We still have a case. I can exclude victim one later if need be.”
He was aware.
“I’ll focus on victims two and three and try to tie in the first hooker. This has the potential to blow up. We can get in on it early and maybe save some lives.”
“Good idea.”
She stared at him. Something was off.
Then she got it.
“Oh my God! You’re throwing me a bone.”
He looked everywhere but her eyes.
“Gabriel Rothschild!”
“Calm down. No, actually, I’m not. I was going to hand this one off to the other agent, but you insisted on a real case. I was going to have him work it anyway. I’m not throwing you jack shit.”
She stared at him.
“What’s he doing?”
“He’s playing mediator to some Natives. Would you prefer that case? I can have him come back and you take that case. If you’d like, you can go out West and stare at sexy Natives in feathers and war paint.”
While that sounded appealing, give her a case with dead hookers any day of the week. “Maybe another time. As hot as that sounds, I like using my brain instead of my...”
“DON’T say it! If you do, I’ll puke.”
She started laughing. “Okay! Man, you got boring after you shacked up. That’s why I’m not getting married. It kills the fun.”
He rolled his eyes.
She got serious, and fast.
“Thanks, Gabe.”
“For?”
“For giving me this case. I really need it more than you’ll ever know. I doubt me, and that’s a bad thing.”
He was aware.
“I know you can handle it. Plus, I figured you’d rather play in the dead with your creepy ME buddy.”
That pissed her off, especially after what he just did downstairs for her. Chris mattered. She loved him.
“He’s not creepy, Gabe. He’s my only damn friend. If you think back, no one wants to be seen with me, especially your wife.”
“Elizabeth.”
“I’ll take creepy ME with loyalty over people who turn on you in a heartbeat any day.”
He went to object, but she wasn’t wrong. His wife had pushed Elizabeth out of her life. It was as if she was making her pay for what was coming.
Gabe needed time to heal this wound, and soon. The women in his life needed help fixing this.
Okay, his wife needed help.
Elizabeth wanted to focus on the case.
“Get the new doctor in here. I’ll meet him and get moving. I want to hustle and get on this case. I don’t have time to play games. We have two, maybe three, dead, and I want to close this case up as soon as I can.”
He knew he couldn’t force her to talk.
Still…
“I’m your friend.”
“You’re my boss. Let’s leave it at that.” It was true. If he were really her friend, he wouldn’t let his wife kick the shit out of her heart. He would have stepped in and told Livy to knock it off. As far as she was concerned, he was just as bad as his wife.
To keep the peace, she kept her mouth shut.
Gabe saw the storm brewing.
He hated they had a void between them. Tonight, when he got home, he was going to have to talk to Livy. Enough was enough. The two women in his life had to patch this up for his sanity sake, and their hearts’ sake.
“Tell me about him.”
“His name is Doctor Anthony Magnus. You passed him on your way in.
He’s gone to excellent colleges, and the buzz is that he’s smart. The man has universities and other private sectors headhunting for him.”
“And he chose us?” she asked.
Really?
That was a red flag.
Who actually wanted shitty pay, long hours, and no respect from local law enforcement agencies?
She liked him already. He had to be bat shit insane to take this on over private sector work.
“Why exactly did he pick the FBI? Was it the excellent compensation package? The awesome paycheck, or was it the getting shot at part? I know that’s why I picked it.”
“Don’t be a Debbie Downer. When you meet him, if he quits, I’ll shit can your ass just on principle.”
She snorted. “I won’t scare away the newbies. Okay? I know good help is hard to find.”
“Pray you never have to oversee hiring people. It’s a nightmare. I hate it.”
She hoped it never came to that too. Riding a desk wasn’t what she saw in her future.
Ever.
She’d rather be shot at and play in the dead. That she got. Being boss?
No freaking way.
“I’ll play nice with the newbie.”
He hoped so.
“Send him in, Maggie,” he said, buzzing his secretary.
When the door opened, Elizabeth studied the newbie. He was about as tall as her, capping out at six feet. He had dark black hair, and really amazing aqua colored eyes.
He was handsome.
Well, at least she wouldn’t mind looking at the newbie. That was always a perk. Chris was going to be pissy. Normally, he was accustomed to being the one people stared at. Behind his doctor glasses, he was attractive too…if you liked smart, geeky men.
When he smiled at her, his megawatt smile said it all.
Crap!
Elizabeth hoped he wasn’t going to be high maintenance or she’d boot his ass around the room. She didn’t have time for that nonsense.
“Doctor Magnus, this is Special Agent Elizabeth LaRue. She’s going to be your agent on duty for this first case. She’s also going to be evaluating you and reporting back to me.”
He grinned and held out his hand. “I don’t mind being evaluated by a pretty lady.”
Oh, no, he didn’t.
“Pardon? I’m going to beat you down just to watch you bleed on his carpet, and then I’m going to tell everyone I have a bigger set than you, Doctor.”
Stalked by the Past: An FBI Flashback Novel. (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 17) Page 5
