“What’s going on, Ivan?”
He didn’t reply.
Well, it was time to put on her ‘mommy britches’ and work on one of their ‘children’. Ethan would shit two tons of bricks if he knew that their one guy was off his game.
“Did someone piss in your cereal this morning?” she asked, waiting.
Nothing.
“Did you and Rory break up?”
Still nothing.
Callen figured she deserved to know.
“We received an email. We have a replacement coming. It seems that you finally pushed Rory over the edge. He quit.”
She stared at him.
Was he kidding?
“Really?”
“Yep. You went MIA, and he went loco. We have a new guy coming.”
“I want Heath. He makes me giggle,” she stated, trying to lighten the mood.
All through the conversation, Ivan said nothing.
So, they pushed on.
“Is it about this detail?” Callen asked.
No reply.
“Is it about Blue?” Elizabeth asked.
He actually growled and put on his sunglasses, signaling that she’d hit the bull’s-eye on this one.
Someone was having woman issues.
Well, that happened to be right up her alley—since she was a woman and all.
“Uh oh, what did you do?” she asked.
He snapped.
“Why is it always the guy’s fault?” he asked, nearly biting their heads off in one miserable snap. “Why can’t it be the woman’s fault too?”
Uh, that was odd.
Ivan was never cranky. He would bust ass or give a look, but he never raised his voice like that.
This was worse than she thought.
Callen fielded this one since he knew a man in distress when he saw it. God knew he’d struggled like this. Ivan was in love, and something was tripping him up.
“The answer to that is simple because we think with our dicks, and as soon as we do,” Callen explained, “we are three days deep in the shit storm. What did you do?”
He clammed up.
“Well, then call Ethan,” Elizabeth stated. “I can’t have some distracted mess watching me.”
That seemed to get his attention.
“You wouldn’t,” he stated.
“Oh, you don’t know me at all. I absolutely would love to make your life hell. Rory quit. You think I’m shocked? I can tell when one of you is fit for duty, and you’re far from it. I’m calling the boss to get you pulled.”
He stared at her, and it was clear that he was measuring if she’d actually do it.
She wouldn’t.
Not in a million years.
Elizabeth was not a tattletale kind of woman. She would handle her own issues, but there was only one-person Ivan worried about pulling him, and it was Ethan.
It was time.
She was back in Cupid mode now that he was struggling. Deep down, she knew that Blue and Ivan were a good match.
She got him.
He got her.
“Fine! She came to Iowa with me. We had two amazing weeks.”
They all waited for the bad part about that sentence.
Did his family kick them out?
Did Blue burn the place down?
What?
“And?” she stated finally when he was hesitating.
“I feel stupid.”
She didn’t make a shitty comment, only because he really was suffering. That wasn’t what would work here. Elizabeth genuinely liked Ivan, and hitting him now would be a low blow.
She went with patience.
“What happened?”
“I’m supposed to have dinner tonight with her parents, to meet them, and I can’t do it.”
She didn’t get this.
Ivan was pretty social. He hung out with them all the time. Agents didn’t faze him, he didn’t get edgy, and he was a people person when he had to be.
“Why not?”
He hesitated.
“Ivan…”
“She’s a freaking doctor. Her father is a neurosurgeon, and her mother is a doctor too. She lives in this big house, and I won’t fit in there. OKAY?”
And there it was.
Ivan let the whole cat out of the bag as he flushed an embarrassed red.
“Why do you think you won’t fit in?” she asked, trying to help him through this. She knew Blue pretty well, and she genuinely loved Ivan.
She saw it when he’d almost died, and she fought to get his heart restarted.
“I’m not like her. I didn’t go to college, I went into the military, and now I play armor for you. I’m not the kind of guy her parents would ever want her seeing. If I go there, they’ll ride her ass over the man she’s picked.”
There.
It was off his chest.
It upset her that he didn’t see the value in himself.
“Uh, Ivan, you have a purple heart, a few bronze stars, and a couple commendation medals. You’re far from just armor. You’re a decorated veteran who served your country. What parent wouldn’t want that for their daughter? She’s three days past safe with you. You’re like Fort Knox, and she’s like the gold bars.”
Only, would that be enough?
“I’m also the guy who isn’t going to impress her parents, and then she’s going to dump my ass and walk away.”
Elizabeth lifted a brow.
Yeah, she had faith in her agent. Elizabeth didn’t have to let Blue on the team. She did because she was a decent human being who loved people. That was the doctor in her. She was gentle.
Ivan needed gentle, despite the way he came across. He was a soldier, his heart was a battered mess, and Blue was a way to heal him—if he stopped this jackassery.
“You don’t give Blue enough credit, Ivan. You’re not allowing her to be that woman you need. You’re inflecting your fears on what you perceive to be your impressions of her nonsensical reaction over this.”
They both looked at her.
“What? I see Callista every week. She’s all shrinky dink for an hour. I’m being brainwashed. You’ll regret it at some point.”
Callen laughed.
She continued, “Why don’t you let Blue decide if you fit in her world? She managed to fit in fine in Iowa, right?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe you’ll surprise yourself. Maybe because it’s Blue’s world, not her parent’s, that you’ll be the last piece to make the picture.”
He wanted that in the worst way.
“She’s pissed at me. She canceled the dinner with me, and she’s having it with her parents. I’ve been uninvited.”
“Then show up,” she stated.
He stared at her like she was crazy.
“Seriously. Go, bring your girl some flowers, smell nice, and don’t be a douchebag. You’re only meeting her parents. You’re not asking to marry her.”
She saw it in his eyes.
“Oh, you are going there.”
“Why is that surprising?” he asked her, knowing she’d be honest. He trusted Elizabeth. She was a soldier. They had the same code. She never left anyone behind either.
“You’re a slow mover. I figured it would take you at least a couple of months to work it out up here,” she said, touching her head.
Yeah, that was him, but with Blue…
He wanted to lock her down for himself.
He wanted to have that happiness.
“She’s the one. Only, I’m not worthy. What do I have to offer her?”
“Your love,” Callen stated.
“You’ll keep her safe,” Elizabeth offered. “Chicks dig being safe. I can handle myself, but I’m not a mere mortal,” she teased.
Callen laughed. “You’re a disaster who has gotten damn lucky,” he said, pointing out the truth.
He was probably right, and that was EXACTLY why she needed Ivan on his game. The odds were not in her favor.
“Ivan, while you have alrea
dy decided this wouldn’t work, shouldn’t you let Blue have some say in it? I’ve seen her watching you on the last case. She looks at you like you’re some treasure. Cut the girl a break.”
He was being hard on her.
Himself.
Her parents.
It was that fear that overwhelmed him, making his whole body tense.
“What’s the worst that can happen?”
“Uh, they can tell her I’m a loser and she could do better?” he suggested.
“I’m willing to bet that if they said that about you, Blue would shit three bricks,” Elizabeth stated. “When you were hurt saving her, she didn’t move from your side. She rode in that ambulance, her lips on your knuckles as she held onto you and prayed. That doesn’t seem like a woman who isn’t going to defend her man.”
His heart skipped.
He loved being her man.
“Don’t let the big house fool you,” Callen stated. “That doesn’t make the person. You’ve seen Ethan and me on a weekend. We live in a big house, but we’re in the backyard building a tipi, or teaching the boys how to make some arrows. Having money is nice, but it’s not always going to taint people and make them cruel.”
“Yeah, arm Elizabeth’s genetic offspring. That’s always wise,” he muttered.
Clearly, Ivan was feeling better.
He was drinking the coffee and making comments.
That was just about right.
“You’re judging her. Knock it off, you thick-skulled pain in the ass,” she stated.
He was judging her.
It was so damn hard.
“If you don’t love her…”
“I do love her. I want to marry her, and if any of you repeat that, I’ll hurt you. I firmly believe the girl should know first—not everyone around her.”
She laughed.
Yeah, Cupid had been right.
“Then do the right thing, Ivan. You know what has to be done.”
Yeah, he really did.
“We’re here,” he stated, signaling the conversation was over.
“Great. Now I get to take a walk down Asshole Lane with a mob man,” she stated. “What a way to start the day. It’s like I’m being punished for something I did in a past life,” she said, pointing at Ivan.
“Yeah, I say the same thing, Hagzilla,” he stated.
They all hopped out, and Ivan began arming himself like he was going into a demilitarized zone for some hand-to-hand combat.
“I think we can lose some weaponry. He’s an ex-mob man, not a terrorist.”
He laughed.
Not on her life.
Ivan read the file on that past case years ago. He wasn’t letting this train derail. He might be focused on his relationship with Blue, but now that he was the only one watching both of them, he wasn’t dropping the ball.
“I’m ready,” he stated, following behind Elizabeth and Callen.
Inside the hotel, they were met with a US Marshal who slipped them a paper and kept on walking. They were trying to keep this one on the DL, and she got it.
She would too.
Elizabeth opened the paper, read the room number, and together, they all headed up.
On the fifth floor, they headed to the room, passing a couple people who were marshals in disguise. Well, at least Ivan wouldn’t have to stand outside the door and guard it. They had coverage out there.
Elizabeth knocked.
The door opened. A US Marshal stood there, making sure it wasn’t some armed attack. Like Ivan, he was in riot gear.
Jesus.
Overkill much?
“Is he here?” she asked, not using his name.
“Yeah, he’s ready for you, Director.”
When he opened, they headed in. Sitting on the couch reading a book was a flash from her past, and time hadn’t been kind to him.
Yeah, he looked the same but just older. It was that kind of age that only a hard life put on a person. He was tan, his hair was going gray, and while Michael O’Banion had to be in his late-fifties, he’d lost that sheen of wealth.
Aww, poor murdering baby.
She wasn’t feeling the least bit sympathetic about it either. He deserved to suffer for being a killer. If she had anything to say about it, he’d spend the rest of his life in a prison wearing dayglow orange.
He was watching her, and the grin said it all.
Yeah, he was going to try and push some buttons to rile her up, but it wouldn’t work. She was running this show. If he tried to piss her off, she’d rip off his lips and shove them up his nose.
“Well, here’s a wonderful reunion. It’s the most beautiful woman in the world, and she’s come to see me.”
Immediately, Callen bristled, and Elizabeth couldn’t blame him.
“Oh, Michael O’Banion, we meet again,” she said, taking a seat on the chair across from him. Callen remained standing behind his wife. Even though Ivan was there, he was going to act as her protection.
He’d heard plenty of shit about this man, and he didn’t trust him. The man was a viper, and that wouldn’t change.
“You haven’t changed,” he said. “Well, that’s a lie. You are even more beautiful. I have missed those sweet freckles. They give you such an innocence.”
Callen cleared his throat.
O’Banion looked up as if just noticing the man behind her. Elizabeth wasn’t shocked. This douchebag wouldn’t notice anything but what he wanted to see.
He was a serial woman collector, and she’d bet that the women in that mass grave were part of his collection at one point—until he got bored.
“I see you brought one of your husbands with you. Had you been mine, you wouldn’t have needed two. I would have been enough man for you.”
Elizabeth knew this was his way of gauging the people in the room. He liked to rile people up. He was accustomed to being important.
“Sorry, Mikey, but you’re not man enough to handle me. That’s why I told you to pound sand all those years ago. You weren’t enough then, and you certainly aren’t man enough now. You got old.”
His face went blank.
“I see no one has taught you any manners since then. I would have handled that too. You always were a tad bit too bossy for your own good.”
She laughed.
“Well, I have news for you, I’m the least of your concerns now.”
He sighed. “Yes, because after being stripped of my rights, abused by your FBI, and put in some shitty witness protection program, there’s something worse out there for me. Is leprosy coming back and I’m to be the test subject for a vaccine? That sounds like something the government would do.”
Oh, she only wished.
She’d love to see him repeatedly stuck with needles, locked in a cage, and used as a test subject. It would only be fair since he’d caused so much pain.
“Don’t do the crime if you can’t handle the time. You made this hell by being a douchebag. That’s on you.”
He sipped the coffee he was holding.
“Why am I here?” he asked. “I have a job, unfortunately, and I’d like to go back to my menial life that I’ve been sentenced to by your boss.”
She pulled out her phone and slid it across the table.
The note left by Carl was on it, and she watched his face.
It went from indignation to that flicker of fear.
“What is this?” he asked, glancing up at her. “This had better be a fucking joke!”
Oh, it was anything but.
“We had a woman’s body show up, and that was with it. In fact, guess who I played ‘kiss me, fuck me’ with while in Boston?”
“Well, unfortunately not me because you’d still be in my bed if you did.”
She laughed.
Oh, he only wished.
“Well, for the record, size matters—just remember that,” she said, pointing at the giant man beside her. O’Banion was small compared to Callen.
Her Native brave could break the older man in ha
lf, and then drop him out the window to the street below. Elizabeth almost wished he would.
That’s how much she disliked this asshole.
“Anyway,” she continued, “Your buddy Joey ‘The Thug’ was carving up Boston—literally. I had to put him down and clean up after you…again. Before he died, he gave us some information.”
The man looked worried.
Good.
She hoped he had nightmares over this. It would only be fair for the shit mess he’d created in his mob man wake.
“What?” he asked.
Elizabeth pointed at the note.
“See that signature?” she asked.
He stared at it.
“That ‘C’ stands for Carl. You recall him, don’t you? He was your left-hand man. Well, he’s back, and they were both pissed that you let them swing for your dirty deeds.”
She saw the bob of his Adam’s apple, and that said it all. He was in panic mode.
It brightened her day.
Before, she didn’t want to even see this scumbag. Now…yeah, she was reveling in it. This made it all worth having to clean up his mess. The man was scared stupid.
Well, she had news for him. She was coming for him after she stopped Carl.
This was far from over.
O’Banion sipped his coffee and steadied himself.
“For the record, they were arrested, and I was ‘blown up’ shortly after. I couldn’t save anyone, including myself. The FBI played dirty, and I paid. I should be the one out there seeking revenge. I’d be after Gabriel Rothschild and you.”
She didn’t feel bad for him.
And she wasn’t scared.
It was too late for any of that.
“Want to tell me about the grave full of bodies?” she asked, picking up her phone. “My anthropologist found eight. Two men and six women.”
He didn’t bat an eye.
Yeah, she wasn’t buying that bullshit.
“Come on, Mikey. Let’s share and talk about the past so I can clean up your mess.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I mentioned to your boss while I was vacationing at that delightful resort you call Gitmo, that Carl and Joey were responsible for that. As you can see, they were, and are, killers. They proved that themselves.”
Oh, she was aware that they were, but they had someone pulling the trigger, and it was him.
No doubt about it.
She’d bet money on it.
“Yeah, you can keep saying that, but we all know the truth.” Well, she did. Elizabeth had studied that file for hours, days, weeks. She was going to make sure he did swing for his crimes, and Carl too.
Dead are Forgotten Page 24
