All the King's Henchmen

by Morgan Kelley

  It took her a second.

  “Hey!”

  “Normally, name calling is beneath me, but I’m cranky today. I’m not the only one. The deputy director didn’t look so amused when he came from the White House. He had an ass chewing from the president.”

  The woman stared at her.

  “He’s not dead?”

  Well, this one was a sharp one. Elizabeth hadn’t lied. The man who WAS the vice president was now the president. She wasn’t technically lying. If Suri didn’t ask the right questions…she shouldn’t be a reporter.

  “Ethan,” she called, knowing the man was watching.

  The intercom turned on.

  “Yes?”

  “How pissed was the president?” she asked, hoping he’d play around. She needed the information.

  NOW.

  “He wasn’t amused by anything the press was saying. He wants answers.”

  And that was why they worked well together. Her husband played along.

  Suri sighed, clearly believing she’d screwed-up.

  “I received a piece of paper shoved into my mail slot. I found it, and at first, I thought it was bullshit, but then I thought about it. You’ve been quiet. The president has been quiet. I sat outside the White House, and it’s on doubled security. Something was up. I risked it.”

  “Okay.”

  “Your turn.”

  Elizabeth laughed.

  “I don’t believe I said we would be trading tales, Ms. Collins. How long have you known me?”

  “I’ve been here a year. You’ve been here longer. I know that rumor says you’re a crazy bitch who takes no prisoners when you’re working.”

  “Wow. Something legit in the DC rumor mill. I’m astounded.”

  “Can I go?”

  “Not without the note.”

  Suri narrowed her eyes.

  “When the president is killed, the vice president is sworn in to replace him.”

  “You don’t say?” Elizabeth stated.

  “WAIT! He is dead!”

  Elizabeth said nothing.

  “He’s already been sworn in. That’s the man you were talking about! Damian Dean is dead! You wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about the news if he were alive. You wouldn’t have your husband drag me in here.”

  “You’re actually wrong.”

  She waited.

  “I would have my husband drag you in here. That gives me the giggles to watch you locked in my cage,” she said, smiling. “Call me crazy like that.”

  The woman wasn’t giving up.

  Damn her for using her brain.

  “Who was the hooker? Was a metal baton used? How did the person get to the president?”

  Yeah, the fun was up. Elizabeth said nothing during her barrage of questions. She sat there with a blank look on her face.

  “What happened to your face?”

  “Job hazards,” she stated, as the woman finally noticed that she had a split lip and could make out the black eye under her makeup. “I chase lunatics. They tend to lash out when you toss their asses in tiny little rooms like this for long periods of time.”

  “I will give you the paper.”

  Now that surprised her. It was rare a reporter would hand over anything they received in confidentiality. That was not the norm.

  “Really?”

  “Yes,” she said, pulling it out of the inner breast pocket of her suit jacket. It was folded. “Here.”

  Elizabeth was horrified and not surprised. Well, that note was going to give them absolutely nothing now.

  “You realize that if there was any forensics on that, you just jacked it up by rubbing your tits all over it,” she stated in frustration. Now the process just got lengthier. Now they needed Suri’s fingerprints and DNA to eliminate her trace.

  There was NO WAY she was going to hand over either easily.

  Great.

  “How did you get three men to even want to see you naked let alone fall for you? You are the nastiest viper ever.”

  She grinned.

  “Truth?”

  That must have intrigued Suri.

  “Yes.”

  “They dig freckles and cowboy boots. It’s a fetish. They like to stare at them and get off.”

  She sighed.

  “Fine. I gave you the paper. What do you have for me?”

  Elizabeth contemplated it.

  She could keep it quiet or…

  “He had sex with a hooker, and she was killed,” she stated. Leaving it at that wasn’t exactly the truth, but it was enough to get the woman all stirred up.

  “Hot damn!” she muttered. “Let me out of here! I want to make sure I get this in for the nightly update.”

  Yeah, that’s exactly why she didn’t give her anything more than that. The woman wasn’t trustworthy.

  At all.

  Suri went to get up—like she was actually leaving the interrogation room.

  “Sit.”

  “What?”

  “You obstructed my case. Honestly, Ms. Collins, you could have come to see me for verification, but you didn’t. Well, that pisses me off. So, I have some bad news. I do believe I’ve already mentioned this.”

  Oh, she wasn’t under arrest. Elizabeth had learned a long time ago how to really screw with a reporter. If you threatened, they didn’t care. They had their First Amendment rights. So, she had to get creative and sadistic.

  “Oh, come on! You can’t arrest me. I didn’t do anything! You have to let me go!”

  “Again, you had evidence. We didn’t even finish the autopsy and you had the murder weapon confession. Tsk. Tsk. You get to stay at Hotel FBI until I feel like letting you go.”

  “WHAT? I want my lawyer!”

  “Oh, you’ll get him, but I still get to hold you for twenty-four hours to make sure you aren’t the killer. I mean…you cover the presidential news beat, and you knew the weapon. Since you plan on playing the First Amendment card, I’m going to use my right to hold you card.”

  She stared at her in horror.

  “I can’t believe this!”

  “Looks like you and your attorney can discuss that when I’m done here,” she said. “I’m going to sashay my boots and freckles out of here and to my husbands. Your attorney will be in. See you tomorrow at…”

  She glanced at her watch.

  “Twelve oh nine. If you think of anything else, maybe you can get out for good behavior by noon. I hope no one gets the news story before you…”

  The woman was outraged.

  Only, she didn’t care. Elizabeth headed out, meeting her husbands in the hallway.

  They were both amused by what had just gone down. She’d maneuvered around a reporter by not giving her any definites. The woman still had no clear answers other than a hooker was dead.

  That took skill.

  That took years of working an interrogation room.

  “That was so hot,” Callen admitted. “If we were alone, I could put…”

  Ethan cleared his throat as someone headed their way down the hallway. He was pretty sure it was going to be pornographic. This was his brother—after all.

  Only, it didn’t stop him.

  Callen went there.

  “I could put you over my knee and spank you,” Callen teased, getting a horrified look from the woman walking past them.

  Elizabeth laughed.

  “Are you really going to hold her?” Ethan asked, getting them to focus on the case at hand.

  “Yep.”

  “You told her he was with a hooker. While you didn’t confirm his death, that was still a juicy chunk of the story.”

  “Yep.”

  “Why?” he asked. While Ethan profiled, he’d learned at the beginning of their relationship he couldn’t pin her down. Elizabeth was a wild card, and she would do what she wanted—how she wanted—and in her own time frame.

  Like this.

  “Because I’m not an idiot. I know that you’re going to make my life suck big time,” she said, c
atching him off guard.

  He stared at her.

  “What do you mean, Elizabeth?”

  Oh, she’d done this dance before but with Gabe. While her husband, in his spiffy suit, was a distraction, it wasn’t enough of one to know that the shit was coming.

  “When is the press conference?” she asked.

  He found that amusing.

  Yeah, he should know better than to try to pull one over on Elizabeth. His wife had his number.

  “Tomorrow morning at eight.”

  “Well, then since that’s out in the open, you can now be privy to why I’m holding her twenty-four hours.”

  “Why?” Callen asked.

  “She’s going to stew all night, and tomorrow, when she gets out and goes to tell the world of her scoop, I will have already had the conference. She’s double screwed. That’s her punishment for withholding the intel.”

  Ethan gave her a kiss, and she didn’t stop him. It was warm, filled with heat, and made his body tingle. Slowly, he set her mouth free.

  “Yeah, that’s my girl,” Ethan stated. “I should know better,” he stated.

  “I’ll punish you later,” she stated.

  Callen stared at them both.

  “Uh, someone is right here. I had better be included in that one.”

  She laughed.

  That was for later.

  Now it was about work.

  “Where’s my attorney for the DOJ?” she asked, hoping Ethan had him somewhere.

  “He’s in Gabe’s office. You know The Dragon Slayer is going to want to be there when you interview an attorney. He has to control freak it more than me. Plus, he’s going to want an update.”

  “Works for me. Let’s go.”

  She slipped her hands in their back pockets and ignored the looks they got from passing agents.

  “Before you tell me how cheap you feel, I couldn’t help myself. I was thinking about sex,” she stated.

  Callen giggled in glee and rubbed his hands together. “You can feel me up anytime.”

  Typical Callen.

  She found that funny.

  “I didn’t mean our sex lives. I meant our situation with Chris.”

  Both men came to a stop.

  “NO!” they said at the same time.

  She stared at them while keeping a straight face. She wasn’t shocked they went there.

  “You don’t even know where I’m taking this, husbands. Maybe you should listen first before you assume. With me, that gets you in trouble.”

  Callen didn’t care. He’d drawn a line, and he was going to make sure it wasn’t crossed. There would be no sex.

  Period.

  “Elizabeth, he has HIV. It’s not happening. One slip, and you’re sick. I can’t live with that.”

  “I wasn’t referring to intercourse with him. I was thinking something else.”

  “What?”

  “How far is too far?” she asked.

  “SEX!” they both said, and then lowered their voices when people stared.

  This wasn’t going to work here. Ethan knew they needed someplace private to talk. They couldn’t let Chris’s illness out of the bag.

  Ethan pushed open the men’s room door that wasn’t far away. It was empty. He pulled his wife inside as Callen double-checked the stalls.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Holy shit! Look at the lighting you have in here. The ladies’ room is like a cave! You have a wall of mirrors. What are you men doing in here? Are you checking your makeup?” she asked, doing just that.

  “No, we are not checking our makeup. We’re having sensitive conversations, now stop distracting us. Spill it,” Ethan stated.

  She laughed.

  “I never got the whole urinal thing. That’s weird and funky.”

  Callen crossed his arms.

  “No sex.”

  “I wasn’t thinking that. I was thinking maybe some cuddling on the couch and some kissing. Let’s face it. He’s done. He’s never going to use his dick again. I know him. He’ll be petrified, but I was thinking maybe if we cuddled, like we do in bed, and shared some spit…”

  “You just want to see all of us make out,” Ethan stated.

  “God, yes!” she said, entertained by the whole damn thing. She was the only one packing estrogen. Sometimes, she needed a way to lasso the testosterone.

  This was it.

  Immediately, they relaxed. If that was where she was taking it, they were good with it.

  “I’m in. I understand what you’re saying,” Ethan stated. “It’s like Callen. He struggled when he thought he couldn’t be with you.”

  “Yeah, and he really can’t ‘BE’ with me. But he can have some of the perks. Maybe a movie night where he gets some kissing.”

  Callen had yet to say anything.

  “Are you going to freak-out kissing a man who isn’t your brother?” she asked, just as the door opened and some tech tried to use the bathroom.

  The guy stopped.

  “Uh?”

  “Use the ladies’ room,” she stated. “Don’t pee in the sink. We don’t have urinals!” she said as he backed out.

  Ethan laughed in amusement. He’d pictured it in his head. He couldn’t help it. This whole thing was absurd.

  “And this is why people talk about us,” he stated.

  “Callen? Are you in?” she asked.

  He stared at her.

  One of the hardest things about Callen was when he was blank, then he was blank. Elizabeth couldn’t decipher what he was thinking when he didn’t want her to do it.

  “Or am I asking too much?” she asked.

  Callen walked toward her, and he yanked her roughly into his arms. Then he forced her mouth to his by his hand in the back of her hair.

  She didn’t fight.

  Why would she? The kiss was mind-blowing.

  When he set her free, she could barely stand. Elizabeth’s legs felt like jelly.

  “Jesus, that was…”

  She couldn’t even say the words.

  “You can have this. I’m good with it. As long as I can do that to you, I know I’m safe.”

  “Today was a bad day to wear lace panties,” she muttered, getting wet. She’d pictured that kiss and so much more with the two men.

  “You could take them off…,” he offered, grinning at her. The storm had passed. “I’ll guard them for you,” Callen stated, patting his blazer pocket.

  She snorted.

  Of course he’d go there.

  “Are we done?” Ethan asked. “People will say we’re doing it in here. I don’t fornicate in a bathroom.”

  “We do at home.”

  “A public bathroom.”

  “There was that one function…”

  He stopped her.

  “HERE! We don’t fornicate here.”

  She laughed her ass off.

  “Lead the way, Deputy Director Sexy and my special partner, Mr. I Like Panties.”

  Another man was standing in the doorway just as she said it.

  She laughed so hard at the look on Callen’s face. It was priceless. It sounded all kinds of wrong, and sometimes, timing was the key. Before getting back to the office, she’d been pissed. Now, she was calm.

  “Elizabeth!” he hissed as they passed the man to escape the bathroom.

  She giggled even more.

  Even Ethan was laughing all of the way to Gabe’s office. When he knocked and entered, he tried to pull it together.

  It was hard.

  “Uh, what’s funny?” Gabe asked, seeing her. “What did she do now?”

  Clearly, he knew her well.

  Much to Callen’s relief, his brother went with work and not with the whole bathroom debacle.

  “We are possibly detaining a reporter illegally,” he said, getting down to business. “It’s a gray area, and Elizabeth stumbled into it,” Blackhawk stated, taking a seat.

  The attorney for the Department of Justice stared at her in concern.

 
“Uh, is that why I’m here? I know something is going on, but Gabe wouldn't tell me. I’m a little nervous that it involves Elizabeth. That’s never good.”

  Ahhhhh, her reputation was far-reaching. Apparently, the DOJ knew how she rolled.

  Nice.

  She headed into the confines of the room and made herself comfortable by hopping onto the corner of Gabe’s desk.

  “Uh, inappropriate,” he stated.

  “There are no more seats. It’s here or Ethan’s lap. I can…,” she began.

  “Never mind. Sit there.”

  She figured as much.

  “It’s question time, Mr. Carter. This isn’t about me holding a reporter for twenty-four hours. I know the rules.”

  “Okay,” he said, watching her. “What is it about then? I’m really confused.”

  Yeah, she could see that.

  Rutherford Carter wasn’t too young or too old. He was somewhere in his late thirties, early forties. He was older than Hilda Forbes—his girlfriend.

  “What do you need?”

  “This is about Hilda and the ‘situation’,” she stated, phrasing it that way for a reason.

  Immediately, the mood in the room shifted, and his eyes went cold.

  “Yes?” he asked.

  Elizabeth knew right there and then he did know she’d been raped. While his demeanor didn’t change, and he didn’t physically show any response, she saw it in his eyes. They were the window to the soul, and this man was pissed.

  “I interviewed her this morning.”

  He erupted.

  “You didn’t harass her, did you?” he raged. “She’s been through enough!”

  Well, so much for calmly discussing it.

  “Stop,” she stated. “I didn’t harass her. I asked her about what happened at the White House on Friday.”

  The man said nothing.

  Yeah, the only people she hated more than reporters were lawyers—even the ones who worked for them. They were all sneaky to her.

  “She told me everything.”

  He stared at her, his mouth sealed in a long line of disproval. Elizabeth wasn’t sure if that was because she’d spilled it, or because she was confronting him with it.

  Yeah, someone was moving up the ranks of suspect. His outburst was expected. The man loved her, but that didn’t make him innocent.

  “Where is she?” he asked. “Where is my girlfriend?”

  “She went home, and when you’re done here with us, you should go check on her.”

  “I hate him.”