All the King's Henchmen

by Morgan Kelley

  In a battle of wits, she’d win.

  In a gunfight, she’d win.

  Hell!

  In a fist fight, she’d kick some ass.

  Against the media, forced to lie her ass off for the new President or be honest for the victims, she was torn. If their jobs weren’t on the line, she wouldn’t question it.

  “Stop protecting me,” Ethan stated. “I can hold my own. Let me be your protection. Let me do my job. I’m not going to be your husband out there, Elizabeth, I’m going to be your boss. I can handle them. Let me help you.”

  Callen agreed.

  “We’ll get the autopsy results, and you go in swinging. If I lose my job, I’ll just get richer. I’ll have more time to write. I can support all of us.”

  Ethan smiled.

  “We can lay around, have sex, and watch Callen work. If he’s lucky, we’ll let him play with us.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  She laughed.

  She knew what they were doing.

  “Does my ass look big in this skirt?” she asked. “It’s weird. It’s tight back there.”

  Both men looked lecherously.

  Ethan NEVER got to dress her other than when she’d ask for help with a gown or something for a fancy party. Seeing her today wearing the crisp white shirt, the fitted pencil skirt, the hosiery with the line down the back and the heels?

  Yeah, he’d seen it in his head before he’d picked it out, and that was why he had to have sex with her in the closet.

  Her collar was up.

  She smelled rich.

  He wanted to take his wife on her desk.

  “I feel like it’s there for the world to see.”

  Both men grinned.

  “Nope, it’s perfect,” Callen stated, enjoying the view. He was fixated on the stockings. Oh, there was going to be a sexy pinup girl on his arm, and he wanted her wearing that.

  Screw what was in the drawing. Blue had to make an adjustment for him.

  Ethan sipped his coffee.

  “I agree with Callen. It’s perfect.”

  She sighed.

  “Okay, I can do this.”

  “You have to do it,” Callen stated. “We have two dead women, and while they were helping him get off in some sick voyeur game, they didn’t deserve to die this way.”

  She agreed.

  She took a deep breath.

  “Okay, let’s go talk to Doctor Duncan. I want to know all I can before going in.”

  They followed her to the elevator, and she seemed a little cooler. It was hard not to notice that the men in the hall, as they passed them, were checking out her ass.

  Yeah, Ethan and Callen loved that skirt.

  It was pinup sexy.

  Ethan was going to make sure every damn skirt she owned was replaced with that exact one.

  At the morgue, she used her passcode to access the room, and she found techs working on the trace, and Doctor Duncan behind a table doing her thing.

  “I need an update.”

  The woman stood, grabbed the papers that Chris had filled out last night, and was ready to go.

  “You look nice, Director,” she stated. “I love that skirt. It makes you look…”

  Both Callen and Ethan were behind her drawing their fingers over their throat to shut her up.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Sexy. It makes you look sexy.”

  That one word horrified the hell out of her. That was NOT the look she wanted, and Ethan, the Devil, knew it.

  Oh, she was going to kick his ass.

  She pointed at Ethan.

  “You are NEVER helping me again. Next time, Callen does it. I can trust him. You’re a sneaky sex fiend.”

  He laughed.

  “It’s a gorgeous outfit. I can’t help it if you look all nineteen fifties chic.”

  She sighed.

  She didn’t have time for this jackassery. It was time for her to get down to business.

  “The autopsy is done, right?” she asked.

  “Yes, Doctor Leonard wrapped it about ten thirty last night. Where is he?”

  “He’s home and asleep in bed.”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “He was exhausted. Now, how about you start to give me the details…?”

  She was cut off when the morgue door unlocked, and a harried Chris came in, Ivan behind him.

  “Sorry, I overslept,” he stated, dropping his things.

  “You didn’t have to come in,” she offered. “You could have slept in.”

  From the look on his face, that was the worst thing she could have possibly said.

  “We need to have a talk.”

  He pointed at the room.

  “ALONE.”

  “Give me a minute,” she stated.

  She followed Chris in, and he was pissed. She knew that look on his face. It only happened in few instances, and almost NEVER directed at her.

  Inside, she closed the door.

  “You didn’t wake me!”

  “I wanted…”

  He cut her off.

  “I have a job to do, and if I can’t trust you to wake me up, I’m sleeping in my own bed!”

  She was taken aback.

  “I know I’m sick. I know you’re relegated to babysitting me. Only, stop! Jesus! Stop!”

  It was more than she could take—especially today as so much hung in the balance. She couldn’t fight it.

  Tears filled her eyes.

  Today was not the day.

  She had so much stress on her shoulders. Hers, Ethan’s and Callen’s job were in her hands.

  And so was Gabe’s.

  If they went, Chris would go too. No new director would bend the rules like Gabe had for her.

  She started crying.

  Chris looked horrified.

  She sat on the couch and wept.

  He sat and felt like the biggest asshole in the world. He hadn’t meant to snap at her, and he certainly hadn’t meant to make her cry.

  “God! I’m sorry! Don’t cry! I didn’t mean to take my frustration out on you! I’ve never been late to work. I pride myself on it. I’m sorry!”

  She grabbed tissues.

  “I can’t do this.”

  He didn’t know what to say.

  “I screwed-up. I shouldn’t have used sleeping beside you as a way to get you to do what I wanted. I am all tied up in knots today. Don’t kick me out. I’ll fix my shit.”

  She stared at him.

  “What?”

  “I don’t want to leave your bed. I want to be with my family. I’ll sleep on a couch in there if need be.”

  “I wasn’t talking about that. I can’t do this day. I’m sick over it.”

  He took her hand.

  “First, let’s redo this. You look beautiful. That’s one hell of a classy set of duds, Elizabeth.”

  She wiped her eyes, trying to regain her composure. Well, if she cried now, maybe she wouldn’t cry later.

  Chris continued, “You are going to knock them dead today.”

  “I’m scared.”

  “Let’s talk about it.”

  It was just like when they were younger. If she was freaked-out, he calmed her down.

  “Tell me what’s wrong. Let me help you.”

  “If I lie, I have to live with it. If I tell the truth, I have to risk all of our jobs.”

  “Is that all?”

  She stared at him.

  “Is that all?” she asked.

  “Listen, sweetness, I’m a hot mess. I should probably quit. If you going up there to do the right thing, is going to cost me my job, I’ll live with it. We all will. I would rather you do the right thing. That’s why I love you. You always play by the rules and get justice.”

  “If the now president runs for office and wins, we’re all goners.”

  Oh, he was aware.

  “He can replace Ethan and Gabe, and that means we’re all on the chopping block.”

  “Yeah, and if you don’t sol
ve this, we are anyway. There’s always that element of us losing our jobs. That’s always there. We have performance-based careers. If we fail, we lose our jobs. We didn’t get where we were because we were shitty at our jobs. My faith is in you and your gut.”

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Come in.”

  Ethan and Callen entered, and they saw her having a meltdown.

  “What happened?” Ethan asked.

  “I was being a dick.”

  “Been there done that,” Callen stated. “Is this about the press conference?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll do it,” Callen stated.

  They all looked over at him.

  “If you are so worried, I’ll make the decision, and I’ll carry the blame. If we lose our jobs, it’ll be on me. I can take it. Besides, that might be the best thing that happens to all of us. Look at how you’re feeling.”

  He had a point.

  “Fate, Elizabeth, my love,” Callen said, kneeling in front of her. “It put us on this path, and it drove the bus. Let it keep driving. Don’t think of it as you choosing but think of it as you doing what is already in the plan. We crossed paths so many times.”

  She was aware.

  “Let fate do its job.”

  She nodded.

  “Okay, I can do this.”

  “I am sorry for adding any pressure to you,” Chris offered. “That was a low and dirty blow.”

  Both men stared at him.

  “What did you do?” Callen asked.

  “I threatened her with sleeping in my own bed.”

  Neither spoke.

  “I was pissed I overslept, and angry that I’m not the same person I once was. I lashed out, and I’m sorry. You can send me away.”

  Ethan sighed.

  “You don’t get it.”

  “What?”

  “We can’t send you away. You don’t open your life for someone, and when they make you angry, you get shoved out. That’s not love.”

  “I know. For years, I knew that, and then I got married. Cyra, when we would fight, would use that over me. If I worked too much, or I didn’t pay attention to her, she’d threaten me. I was reconditioned with bad behaviors. I’m trying.”

  They got it.

  It would take time.

  “We’ll help you too.”

  Chris never felt more love than at that moment. This was what a couple was. Yes, sex was nice, but this rallying around one of them when they were weak was what mattered.

  This mattered.

  “Can we work?” she asked.

  They were good with that.

  “I want to talk about this case and get my shit together. I’m going to blow their minds.”

  “You’re telling the truth?”

  She stared at all three of them.

  “Yes. Fate has this. If we get screwed over by the president, we’ll deal with it.”

  Chris grabbed a garment bag.

  He began getting changed.

  “We’ll give you privacy,” Ethan stated.

  “Stay. I’m good. I like being with you. I want to integrate myself into it. I want to retrain myself not to think like I did. When you guys are together, you’re calm. Your energy shows it. I want that. I had it once.”

  They waited.

  When he opened a suit bag, she was confused.

  “Uh, that’s not scrubs. That’s a suit. Are you classing the joint up?” she asked. Elizabeth thought he meant he was putting on scrubs and changing out of his khakis and polo shirt.

  “Did you think I’d let you stand up there alone without me?” he asked. “I did the autopsy. I’m going to stand there with you and back you up.”

  He never did that.

  “Really?”

  He pulled off his shirt and smiled.

  “Yeah, like a couple and a family. You were my partner before all this, and now you really are. I have your back.”

  There was that tranquility.

  Ethan her foundation.

  Callen her levity.

  Chris her calm.

  And for them, she was grateful.

  In the morgue, they got ready. The team was sitting there, and they were getting prepared for the fast-paced question and answering session that they knew was coming.

  When the door opened, Elizabeth walked out, and the three men followed. All were checking out her ass.

  She saw their reflections in all of the stainless steel of the work tables.

  “I am NEVER wearing this skirt again.”

  “It’s the heels,” Chris stated.

  “Nah, it’s those lines up the back of your calves that disappear,” Callen added.

  Ethan just smiled in triumph.

  She snorted.

  “Let’s rock this out. Tell me about Lala Landers.”

  Chris grabbed a remote and hopped onto the counter. While Doctor Duncan needed the paper, he could do his job in his sleep.

  “TOD was right. Again, it was less than two hours before you found her in the dumpster. She had facial trauma, intracranial hemorrhaging, and her COD is blunt force trauma.”

  She listened.

  “Weapon?” she asked.

  “Same as with Ginger Snap or whatever her chosen name was,” Christina stated. “The diameter of the strikes showed the damage was consistent with the same type of weapon.”

  “Okay, so we have a baton-wielding nut bag. That takes us to our suspects—unless there’s anything odd about the dead woman.”

  “She was sick,” Chris stated. “Her blood work has come back,” he said, sending it to the screen. “MATE run a side by side comparison of both women’s blood work.”

  The system responded.

  “Lala had HIV and Wilma had Herpes and a side of other nasty things.”

  “God, that’s sad. She was a walking time bomb,” Doctor Duncan stated. “I feel bad for her.”

  “Why?” Noah asked.

  “That’s a horrible disease.”

  “I have a pretty normal life,” he stated. “Had she cleaned up, she could have too. It’s not a death sentence. It’s not something scary like it used to be. Antivirals and I’m good to go.”

  She still looked horrified.

  Chris was watching them and listening. Honestly, he wished he could just own it.

  He wished he could just tell the world so he could stop hiding.

  “Anyway, that takes us to our suspects. Harmony and Max, what did you find?”

  “We went through all of the women. We have nothing that specifically makes them a target of the president or screams ‘I hired a killer’. We have nothing on them.”

  “And the men?”

  “That’s up first this morning,” she stated. “I’m going to dig in with Noah and Max.”

  “Okay, well, you know who the favorite ponies are in this race, right?”

  Oh, they were aware.

  “Yep. Shake that tree and see what falls out. Plus, I also have a present.”

  They looked confused.

  “Coffee and donuts?” Harmony asked. “I didn’t have breakfast, and it’s the most important meal of the day.”

  She stared at her.

  “Do I look like your momma?”

  Harmony grinned.

  “Well, actually, you look like the woman my momma warned me about if she was hanging around my man.”

  Yes, she was going to kill her husband.

  “I hate this skirt. Ethan Jackson Blackhawk, I am going to kick your Native ass for dressing me like some man’s arm candy on the day I have to do this!”

  “You look more like a wet dream,” Callen stated.

  “No sex for either of you!”

  They didn’t believe that for a second.

  “Anyway, I don’t bring donuts.”

  “You did that one time,” Chrissy stated. “They had all that cream and fluffiness in them. They were so good, and I know that if I had one, I could work twice as fast with all the sugar,” she state
d, trying to get Harmony her donuts.

  Sue her.

  Christina was carrying a baby.

  Elizabeth stared at them.

  “What the hell happened to my life? I was good with everyone fearing me. Now I’m the pastry queen of the cuckoo patrol.”

  They all waited.

  Elizabeth knew what that meant.

  “Jesus. Ethan, can you make donuts appear?” she asked.

  “THOSE donuts,” Chrissy stated.

  She gave him the name of the bakery.

  “I had better get this solved, or that’s all we’ll have. My job is on the line,” she stated. “AND when my job is shaky, you all are next on the chopping block.”

  They got it.

  They were just trying to make her relax. A stressed Elizabeth was a nightmare.

  “Anyway, here’s your gift. We found a stripper’s journal, and in it, she was documenting her presidential escapades. Make notes because one of you has to go through it.”

  Noah raised his hand.

  “I’ll do it. I’m fascinated at why someone would hire a stripper and hooker for sex. All that puss…”

  She stopped him.

  “For Christ's sake! You were in HR. You cannot just drop the pussy word in a room of people.”

  Ethan sighed.

  “You just did.”

  “I know. I’m crazy. Do the right thing, man. Do the right thing.”

  Ethan was glad she was feeling better. That was crystal clear. If she wasn’t pacing and joking around, she was good to go. They were good to go.

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Donuts!” Harmony stated as Chrissy clapped.

  “I didn’t order them yet,” Ethan stated. “So, it’s not going to be baked goods.”

  Noah, who was closest to the door, peeked out.

  “Uh oh,” Noah stated, knowing this was a bad time. “It’s Alex.”

  She didn’t want to do this.

  She shook her head.

  He held up his notebook.

  Damn it!

  If he knew what was missing, she had no choice but to talk to him.

  Elizabeth sighed and headed to the door to unlock it. When he was in, he whistled.

  “That’s a really awesome skirt. It makes your ass look really…”

  She stopped him.

  “I’ll hurt you. What do you want, Agent Bartlett?” she asked, keeping it professional. Elizabeth was pissed.

  “I found what was missing from the notebook.”

  “Okay, and?”

  He handed it to her.

  Alex had been up all-night thinking about it, and he had finally managed to get up the nerve to face her.