She let him purge.
“All these years, I used this as my crutch, my goal, and my strength in life. I let it make me, mold me, and give me a reason to fight on. Now I don’t know what to do. My mother’s dead, and I feel very alone.”
She knew that feeling. When hers had died, she’d said the same thing. Then Oracle told her she’d heard Elizabeth telling her that she loved her. It healed a part of her.
“What would you say to her if she were here?”
His eyes filled with tears. “So damn much.”
“Then say it. Get it off your chest and maybe the door to what’s next will open up.”
He swallowed.
What did he have to lose?
“I’m sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have doubted you. I shouldn’t have thought all those horrible things about you. You didn't leave me. Someone took you. All those times that I wished you were dead for leaving me in the hell of foster care, I didn't mean them. I didn't know you were already gone.”
His voice hitched.
“Keep going, Tony,” she offered, moving forward.
“I never meant any of it. You were a good mother, and I shouldn’t have ever believed that you’d abandon me. I need you to forgive me. I need to know that wherever you are, you’re happy. I hope you didn't suffer.”
Finally, the tears came.
It broke her heart.
“I hope you didn't die alone and scared. In your last minutes, I pray that you believed that you’d be missed by me. I didn't realize it then, but now I know I have missed you. You were the hole in my life all these years. Your love, and losing you, was the reason I’ve been lost.”
How could she not be affected by this? Here, stood a man she called friend, and he was breaking apart before her.
The anger died.
All that remained was the mothering instinct. Granted, they were the same age, but she couldn’t let him be raw and wounded like this.
Going to him, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, hugging him to her. “I’m so sorry, Tony. I wish I was wrong. I didn't want to rip the scab off this wound in your heart. I never wanted this.”
He sobbed.
The simple contact from someone who loved him was enough to uncork the bottle.
He was so emotionally broken that he wasn’t sure he could ever forgive himself for hating a woman who didn't have any choice in her life. His mother wasn’t the horrible person he’d wished her to be.
“I don’t know how I’ll go on,” he whispered, trusting the woman he clung to. While he knew it should be his fiancée, he didn't feel that kind of grief with her earlier.
Now, he did.
Maybe it was because Elizabeth was like a comfortable blanket. She was part of the past and what he’d lived the last twelve years.
“I’m so sorry you hurt, Tony,” she offered, rubbing her hand up and down his back as he wept into her neck. “I’m going to find out what happened. I’m going to heal that scar once more, but this time, it’ll be done the right way. This time, months from now, it won’t reopen. I can promise you that you’ll never feel this empty again. It will get better. We’ll take her home with us when this is over, and together, we’ll bury her. Your family will stand by your side and put her to rest.”
He heard her words and sobbed even more.
“I’ll get her justice. I promise you.”
It was all he had to cling to, other than his friend. “Thank you for being my family, Lyzee. I couldn’t do this without all of you.”
The great part was that he didn't have to.
Family stuck.
Thick.
Thin.
Trouble or not.
They wouldn’t run and leave you alone. At least they didn't in her world, and Tony Magnus was part of that.
Whether he liked it or not.
~ Chapter Fifteen ~
When they arrived back at the hotel, they weren’t quite sure what to expect. As they entered the room, there stood their woman hugging another man.
Instead of pissing them off, they got it.
Elizabeth was being a mother bird to a broken soul. This was something that they knew she would do, not matter what it cost her own heart.
Walking toward them, the men could hear the words, see the tears, and feel the sadness radiating from the man. It made them want to weep for him. They’d lost their mothers too. One was good and one was evil, but at the core, they were still the women who gave them life.
They could understand Tony’s pain.
He heard them approach and tried to pull away from Elizabeth’s strong grip. Only, she wasn’t having it.
“It’s okay, Tony. We have you,” she offered, holding him even tighter. “We have your back.”
The men wrapped themselves around the two people, offering the man some solace.
“We’ll find who did this, Tony,” Ethan Blackhawk promised. “Hand this over to us and let us do our jobs.”
Callen spoke next, “You know she won’t quit until she finds the truth. Elizabeth will chase this long and hard until she gets him.”
She wiped the tears from his face. His aqua eyes were filled with so much pain. Elizabeth knew there was even more to tell him, since they had barely scratched the surface, but now wasn’t the time.
Tony needed to digest what he already had shoved down his throat. Later, they would deliver the rest of the story. She didn't want to break him anymore than he already was.
“I know she will. I’m so sorry I disrespected your wife,” he said to the men. “I was so angry. I didn't mean to call her a bitch.”
Callen laughed, doing what he did best. “Why? She is one.”
Elizabeth’s arms were trapped, so she kicked him in the shin.
“Shit! See?” he said, trying to cheer the doctor up.
Tony laughed. “Thanks for that.”
Ethan released them. Immediately, he patted the man on the back. “Apology is accepted.”
“I don’t want to lose you three as my family,” he admitted. “So, tell me how I can redeem myself.”
Elizabeth knew what to do. “You should head home and let us take care of this. We’ll wrap the dig and take care of the killer.”
He looked appalled. “No way! I’m going to help! That’s my mother.”
She grinned at him. Already, the doctor was on his way back, leaving the grieving man behind. She knew him well enough to know how to play this.
“Well, I don’t know.”
“Please, Lyzee? Give me this.”
Blackhawk tried not to grin. There was no way in hell that she’d tell him no. His wife was predictable if nothing else.
“Okay, you can stay, but you’ll do what I say, right?”
He nodded.
“I want you to head back to the lab. When you get there, you tell your best buddy that I want you to get your mother’s bones. Then, you find what COD was. I want you to spend the rest of today searching for what killed her. If you do your job, I can do mine.”
He was thrilled that she was letting him stay.
Tony was also horrified that he was going to be working on his mother.
It was scary and liberating all together.
“YOU need to give me something. If you want this to heal, so you can move on, then you have to be involved Tony. You’re going to have to drive the destiny bus. If you sit back and let us do it, your mission in life isn't done. Why did you become a forensic anthropologist?”
“To give people their justice,” he said, without even hesitating. “A part of me always knew she was dead. I wanted to find her. I had to find her.”
Elizabeth touched his cheek. “Well, you’ve found her. Now we give back what the killer stripped away. It’s not going to be easy, but you can do this. It’s time to take care of business.”
He took a deep breath. “You’re right. I’ll head back to the lab. I’ll be there if you need me.”
He went to turn, and then stopped. “I know what you just did, Elizabe
th.”
She grinned. “Darlin’, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He kissed her on the forehead. “Liar,” he whispered into her hair before he pulled away and headed toward the door.
When he was gone, Callen grinned. “It looks like the tribe keeps getting bigger and bigger. We’ll be adding another leaf to the table at the holidays.”
She glared at him. “Shut up.”
Both men laughed.
“I keep telling myself I’m not going to let any more people in, but they keep coming at me like brain hungry zombies. I can’t seem to escape.”
Ethan loved his wife more than anything.
“What do you want to do now?” he asked.
Elizabeth already had the answer. “Callen, get the whiteboard ready. We have a killer to catch. This time, it’s personal.”
Both men knew that was a lie. When death was there, Elizabeth always took it personally.
It was just how she rolled.
He set up the board and the two men watched her pacing back and forth. She’d indeed been working on it, adding little tidbits along the way.
For now, all the victims’ faces were there, along with as many details as she could dig up.
Which wasn’t a lot.
Was it her, or was it getting harder and harder to catch the lunatics? It was like they were evolving and getting better at being fruit loops.
It didn't matter.
She’d have to evolve then too.
“What did you learn from your bar hop?” she asked, sitting on the arm of the sofa. Callen had his notes on his lap and tablet beside him.
“We found some good details for you, Lyzee,” he offered.
Blackhawk agreed. “It’s funny that Wilfred Monroe’s name keeps coming up in this investigation, but not because his child was killed.”
“So, the father of a victim likes to hire goons to do his dirty work.”
They nodded.
“He was hitting on Magdalene pretty hard. There’s no doubt that he was familiar with the family. Who better for her to head out of there with, than someone she trusts?”
Elizabeth could see it happening that way. Most abductions were by family members or people the victim was familiar with. This made sense.
“He was the man’s hired muscle to kick the shit out of Clarence Rickert. It all screams suspicious to me,” Whitefox stated.
She couldn’t agree more.
This all seemed to point at the father.
“Callen, run him. I want to know what’s hiding in his past. If he’s a thug for hire, I’ll bet that his past is less than stellar.”
Whitefox got down to work.
“We’re going to interview him,” Ethan stated. “Aren’t we?”
She nodded. “Oh, yeah. We’re also going to take another pass at the rich man and his arm floosy.”
“You’re my arm floosy,” he teased.
Callen snickered. “I like bed floosy better.”
“I’m going to be a pain in your ass in a few seconds,” she replied, not even looking away from the board.
The men bumped fists.
Suddenly, Callen’s tablet went crazy. It began beeping like mad.
“Oh, he’s got a past all right.”
Elizabeth glanced over. “Share the details, my love.”
He grinned. To hear her use that nickname, he’d share a kidney.
“Our goon has pops for attempted rape.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Really?”
He nodded.
“Give me the details.”
Callen pulled up the arrest reports. “It seems that two women accused him of putting his hands on parts of their bodies that he wasn’t supposed to. In fact, one even stated that she was offered booze and drugs.”
That caught her attention. “Offered? Please tell me that she was a minor.”
He nodded.
“Hot freaking damn!”
“Why isn't he in jail?” Blackhawk asked, knowing that the type of crime he was accused of would earn him a trip to the penitentiary.
“It seems the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. Then the girls changed their stories.”
Interesting.
“Who investigated? Was it the state police or…”
He gave her a grin. “Oh, it was our least favorite lawman, that’s for sure.”
Elizabeth fumed. How could he let something so heinous slide? It pissed her off, making her want to sashay herself over there to kick his ass.
Damn!
And here they were letting him work with them.
“He’s crooked,” she muttered.
Blackhawk had more details on that. “Well, here’s more proof that’s true,” he said. Ethan then told her all about the bar, the sheriff looking the other way, and the minors being served.
“Well, hell. I really hate him now.”
He wasn’t high up on any of their lists. That was for damn sure.”
“He dropped Clarence Rickert’s investigation, he’s looking the other way at the bar, and now he’s letting a sexual deviant roam the streets. That’s just not going to keep happening.”
Ethan shrugged. “What are you going to do?”
Elizabeth knew exactly what she planned on doing to the man.
“I’m calling him out on it.”
Both men groaned. This was going to be bad.
Pulling out her phone, she called him. Yeah, he was a dead man. When he answered, she put on her most innocent voice. Why tip him off? If she had anything to do with it, the man wasn’t going to be a cop for much longer.
“Hey, Sheriff, how’s it going?”
“I’m working the angle you gave me.”
She got ready to set him up. “I just need to ask you a few questions.”
“Shoot.”
Elizabeth continued, “We never did find out where Magdalene was found. Where exactly did you pull her from the water?”
Ethan lifted an eyebrow.
Sheriff Carlton gave her the details. “Why?”
“We like to be thorough. Tomorrow, my techs are going to scour that area and backtrack it. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find some evidence.”
“I want my team to help.”
Callen wondered how she was going to pull this off.
“Sure, but we should rendezvous first thing in the morning. How about a meeting?”
“Here?”
She wasn’t going into that pit of vipers. “No. How about you meet us around ten at the morgue? I need to give my team their daily duties.”
“I can do that.”
“Good. See you there.”
When she disconnected the call, she wanted to be sick. “I hate assholes.”
Blackhawk laughed. “He’s going to get his ass kicked. You wanted to do it in person, didn't you?”
She snickered. “Hell yeah, I did. What fun is it to make his life hell over the phone?”
“Good point,” stated Callen. “You’re sadistic.”
She leaned over to kiss him. “Yeah, and your point is?”
He grinned wickedly as he got lost in her eyes. “No point. I’m just stating a fact.”
When she went to sucker punch him, he caught her wrist and yanked her into his lap. He grinned wickedly at his victory.
“We have to work.”
“You can do your job sitting right here,” he stated.
Elizabeth quit struggling and decided to just go with it. After all, they were in the privacy of their own room.
“What’s next?” Ethan asked, grinning at his brother.
“Tomorrow, we need to interview the goon, the millionaire, and kick the sheriff’s ass. That’s my trifecta of fun.”
They would be more than happy to be there to see all of that go down.
Elizabeth pointed at the board. “Did either of you find that little tidbit about April Belmont being from Indiana curious?” she asked.
Ethan did. “Not only Indiana, but not far from wh
ere Tony grew up.”
“Do you both think that the killer went there because it was his father’s old hunting grounds?”
“Yep,” they said together.
“That’s too big of a coincidence for me. I’m betting that after taking the first two victims, he became desperate. If he was trained by his own father, then the chances are that he’s aware of where his mother is from.”
They agreed.
“The original killer kept his mother a while. She was there long enough to give him a child.”
Elizabeth thought about it. “She was definitely there for an extended period of time. Now, we just need to figure out if the son had time to get to know his mother.”
Ethan had already thought about it. “Likely. Look at the victims he’s picking. Tony’s mother is an exact match.”
“So, he’s trying to replicate a woman he held to be important in his life?”
He nodded.
“Okay, so that clears up why the black hair and blue eyes. He’s trying to find a woman like his mommy.”
Blackhawk shook his head. “I think he’s trying to find that connection that his father had. He’s trying to have what dear old dad had.”
“That’s sick,” stated Whitefox. “Really, truly sick.”
They wouldn’t disagree there.
When Callen’s phone beeped, he pulled it off his belt to read the message. “It’s Gabe. He’s trying to find you.”
She was well aware.
“Yeah, he left a message at the hotel desk. I didn't get back to him yet.”
That was odd. Whenever their boss called, Elizabeth was all over it.
“Avoiding him?”
“Yeah. Is it obvious?” she teased.
Ethan didn't know why she’d be dodging their boss.
“I haven’t heard back from Jagger yet. I don’t know if he’s safe and if Oracle is hidden. I’m not going to tell Gabe anything until I know. Even when I’m aware, I still may not tell him.”
Ethan knew she didn't trust anyone when it came to Oracle, especially not if they were in the FBI. That leak had yet to be plugged.
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