“Well, I have the note, and I know the woman’s ID, so Callen and I are first going to head to Michael O’Banion’s place. It looks like Howard Flint needs to own up to how he knew Mariah Hart.”
“Will you be safe?” Blackhawk asked. Callen was already hovering all over her, and that made him nervous. She’d pissed off the crazy by calling the helper below average intelligence.
That wasn’t what he’d meant when he said use his ego to catch him.
Then again, why was he surprised? She’d pointed the nut job right at her.
“I’m safe. I have Callen, Ivan, and Heath. I’m safe as long as someone is literally watching my back, so I don’t get shanked in the neck.”
That horrified them.
Elizabeth actually laughed.
“Uh, not funny,” he stated.
Then it hit him.
“You’re calm. Why?” Blackhawk asked. “Normally, by now, you’d be all stirred up and raging around like a demon escaping Hell.”
“That’s a lovely image,” she teased.
But he was right.
“Spill it.”
“Like I told Callen, I have a contingency plan. My gut is saying one thing, and this case is leading a different way. In my place, what would you do?” she asked.
“Follow my gut. It’s how I do a profile.”
Yeah, that was what she thought.
“I need you to trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
Still, she didn’t share.
That freaked them the hell out.
“You need to wrap this up,” Ethan stated. “The pressure is on all of us.”
“And you’re not leaving until this case is done, right?” she asked him. “I can’t stop now. The show is about to start.”
He laughed.
“I’m not leaving you here now after you just poked Carl’s helper.”
She smiled.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll wrap this up, and we’ll take a little trip together, but I forgot one thing.”
“What?” they both said together.
“Chris’s birthday is in a few days. We have to come back for a couple hours.”
Ethan lifted a brow.
“Why?”
“We’re jumping out of a plane.”
Callen stared at her.
“I really hope you don’t mean that WE are ALL participating in that kind of stupid. I may have a stroke.”
She smiled.
“WE are ALL jumping. It’s on his bucket list, and Callen, I need a huge favor.”
He lifted a brow.
“What?”
“I need you to find something.”
“What?” he asked. He couldn’t imagine where this was going.
When she told him, he wasn’t sure if she was serious or not.
“I’m going to assume that’s a gift?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“If I do this, Godfather, I need to be excluded from the jump,” he said, in his best wise guy voice.
She snorted.
“That alone gets you out of it.”
“HEY!” Ethan said. “What the hell? Why do I have to jump? This is so not right.”
She found that funny as hell.
“Because you don’t have a fear of heights. He does.”
Blackhawk realized that had been her plan all along. She played them both.
“You’re an evil genius.”
She smiled.
“Oh, darlin’, give me some time and buckle up. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
And that was exactly why he was going to stick close. Someone had to keep his wife from doing something crazy.
The husbands were up to bat.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
When he got the call, he was walking back to his car. He’d made sure to be there for the whole press conference since it was all about him.
He was proud.
This was the notoriety that he always wanted in his life, and now it looked like he was going to get it.
Welcome to the big time.
He was on his way.
So that’s why he was so pissed when he answered his cell and the man, who was training him, was on the other end, and he was not happy.
He was cursing.
Screaming.
Tearing him three new ones.
“You don’t rape the ones I give you!” he barked. “If you want to kill other people, not picked by me, that’s your choice! But not these women!”
He laughed.
“I couldn’t help it. She was sweet in that little skirt. I’ve been doing your dirty work for days. I needed to get off. I’m calmer today. Tonight, I’ll do better.”
“NO! The heat is on. We are done. I’ll need to figure out something else.”
He laughed.
“Oh, I can’t do that. I’m about to make myself even more famous. Carl Fitzpatrick was then. I am the now.”
“Don’t do this!” he warned.
Only, it was too late.
His apprentice hung up the phone.
He was going to do what he wanted when he wanted, and how he wanted.
Pulling the list out of his pocket, he looked at the last name.
Yeah, no, he wasn’t taking her life.
He wanted to take someone else, who the man mentioned, to switch it up, and he was going to make sure they went out screaming.
That was for damn sure.
It was time to make a name for himself, and he was going to do it right.
This was his time to shine.
She said he was less than intelligent.
Well, it was time to show the world that she was wrong, and he was going to do just that.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Apartment Building
Michael O’Banion’s
Home
On the ride to the ex-mobster’s home, Ivan stopped and got them coffee. It had been a long night for all three of them, and he was feeling a tad bit guilty.
He’d slept.
As a Marine, that didn’t work for him. You all went down together, and he’d been given a reprieve, so he’d make amends—even if they weren’t upset about it.
Part of watching Elizabeth was also making sure she didn’t drive herself into the ground.
Ethan wanted her security to ensure she was safe, happy, and not a zombie.
That could get her killed.
On top of a killer running amuck, Ethan was out in the field for a couple hours, and that was a hot mess too.
Ivan knew what was at stake.
This threesome might be the death of him.
“You’re quiet, and that freaks me the hell out,” Ivan admitted. “What are you planning, Brunhilda?” he asked.
She laughed.
“That’s for me to know, and you to watch and find out,” she stated.
Ivan didn’t like that.
At all.
He glanced up in the mirror at Ethan. He was on the phone with Marcus Hunter, and he didn’t look happy. From the part of the conversation he was hearing, something bad was brewing.
When he hung up, he looked…exhausted.
There were fine threads of gray starting to pepper his raven black hair. The job was beginning to take its toll.
Ivan saw it with so many high ranked military people. Stress began to age you.
When he picked up his wife’s hand and kissed her on the knuckles, Ivan knew the shit was about to hit the fan.
“You look gorgeous today, my love,” Blackhawk offered.
She looked over at him.
“Uh oh.”
Elizabeth heard part of the conversation with Marcus, and she hoped that Dakota and his merry mercenaries hadn’t burned their home to the ground.
“What happened?” she asked.
He continued without sharing.
“You do look gorgeous, honey.”
“Did you just reverse ‘honey’ me?” she
asked. She knew for sure something was up.
They all did.
“Well, Ethan Jackson Blackhawk?” she asked.
All the men knew it was going to get ugly. A wife had just dropped a husband’s full name.
“Just tell me. Rip the bandage off. I can handle it,” she stated, hoping this wouldn’t suck.
Callen didn’t like this.
“The marshals are pulling the babysitter outside of O’Banion’s home. Since you’re no closer to finding the killer, and no one’s actually taken a shot at him, Marcus doesn’t have the budget to do it.”
“Jesus,” Callen muttered.
He knew why.
Here it came.
The shit storm was about to blow in and kill them all as soon as Elizabeth told him what Gabe wanted her to do. Ethan was going to lose it.
“That’s okay,” she stated.
He stared at her like she was talking in tongues.
“Pardon?”
Elizabeth knew it was going to be bad.
“We can’t protect him anyway.”
“Uh, wasn’t that the plan? When did I pass out and miss the part where we were supposed to sit back and let Carl get him?” he asked.
Yeah, exactly.
“About that,” she stated. She told Callen the truth, and now it was time to level with Ethan—the more volatile one. She only hoped that in the end, the means justified the ends.
“I love you, honey.”
Now he looked just as freaked out by that as the switch-up in the plan.
“What?”
Callen wouldn’t look him in the eyes, and he knew this was not going to be a good conversation.
It couldn’t possibly be.
“Just tell me.”
And she did.
She told him about the whole conversation with Gabe, and how they had to clean up the mess left behind by him, the FBI, and the Justice Department from all those years ago.
“But it’ll be fine. Oh, and I also got three new agents for the department, well, I think two so far. I haven’t asked Alex yet.”
Her changing the subject didn’t help.
It only made it worse.
Callen braced for his brother to lose it. While he’d been working on his temper, he was to the point where he was about to crack.
They could see it.
The president pissed him off.
This case was irritating him.
Now toss in a mob man and some hired killers…
It was going to be bad.
As predicted, Ethan closed his eyes and took a very deep breath.
They didn’t move.
Together, his spouses tracked Ethan’s fingers as they went to the obsidian bracelet tucked under his dress shirt. He ran his fingers over the beads.
No one spoke for a few minutes.
Finally, he broke the silence.
“Okay. I’m good. So, the plan is that O’Banion can’t let anything come to light, so we don’t need to worry about him having someone sit outside his place. Peachy.”
Yeah, and this was EXACTLY why she was keeping her contingency plan to herself. If either man got wind of what she was planning, they’d shit themselves, and then lock her in a cage.
That would ruin her plan. She hoped they wouldn’t be pissed when it all went down.
“So, you’re okay with that?” she asked cautiously.
“No, but it’s the cleanest way to kill two birds with one stone. Carl will take care of O’Banion, and then we take down Carl Fitzpatrick and his merry helper.”
Elizabeth knew it wasn’t going to be that easy, but at this point, it was about biding her time. She knew she couldn’t let her husband freak out over this.
Ethan had enough shit on his plate.
They agreed not to lie, but she wasn’t really doing that. She was simply preparing for what her gut said was coming.
War.
“Will this press conference escalate the killing? Will this push whoever is doing the deed over the edge? I need to know what I’m up against.”
He laughed.
“Uh, yes. You just poked the hive. If they were gunning for O’Banion before, they are really going to be gunning for him. You tossed out some things that they aren’t going to want to hear. It was genius to go with the black pubic hair. That should scare someone big time.”
Well, it looked like she had her bait.
This would be how she caught them. Then her backup plan would be what saved her in the mess of it all.
“This killer is going to be watching her, isn’t he?” Callen asked.
“Yes.”
Perfect.
That was exactly what she wanted, and she kept that to herself. She didn’t need to poke this hive too.
“You have that look on your face, Elizabeth, and I don’t like it,” Ethan admitted.
She gave them the least amount of her plan as she possibly could without giving it away.
This was a careful tap dance, and she couldn't let it slip. What this killer didn’t realize was she’d done this for years. She knew how to catch a rat, and she was going to do just that.
“Since his protection duty is pulled off, I’m going to be sitting outside his apartment. I’m going to do what I should have done earlier. Instead of protecting Michael O’Banion, I’ve shaken the tree, and I’m going to see what falls out of it. I have a hunch, and I’m going to play it.”
All three men in the car were NOT amused by that option. That was putting herself there as a sitting duck.
Ethan hated this.
If the killer followed her to O’Banion, yes, he’d be dead, but Ethan didn’t doubt she’d save him. Elizabeth wasn’t the type of person who would bend the law for anyone.
She’d broken it once.
And paid for it with a life of guilt.
“Do me a favor,” he said, staring into the rearview mirror at Ivan.
“You’re on round the clock duty. I want you to make sure that if my wife goes to the ladies’ room, you follow her in and stand outside the stall.”
She laughed.
“Awkward. I always knew you were going to excel at your best skills, Ivan.”
“Uh, what?”
“Peeping.”
He didn’t even make a comment. In his mind, he was bracing for a myriad of things that could come his way. He was bracing for Elizabeth and her normal antics.
She was wearing that bull’s-eye.
There was no way this was going down.
No.
Freaking.
Way.
He wasn’t letting a Blackhawk go down on his watch.
If he did, he’d retire.
There’d be nothing left for him then.
Chapter Fifteen
Morgue
T ony was confused by what he was seeing. It was off, and he couldn’t figure out why. They were coming up with some odd results when they checked the bones, and that was worrisome.
Had they made a mistake?
Had his team screwed this up when he wasn’t paying attention? Yes, he’d been distracted lately, but he’d like to think that being an anthropologist was something he could do inside out and upside down.
It was who he was.
Crap!
This was bad.
“That can’t be right,” he muttered, over and over again as he looked at the bones.
Jaxon heard her husband, as he was leaning over the eighth body that they’d pulled from the ground. It was the last one to be analyzed, and the one that had been the first one excavated.
This male was the last one buried in the hole.
He was toiling away, but he had that look on his face. It was the one they all got when they were struggling with something.
So, she headed his way.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“The bones…they are pulling a chemical result,” he said, running the meter over them.
It beeped.
“That’s weird,” she said
, agreeing with him. The other bones didn’t have that. Time had stripped them of their flesh and identity.
Why did skeleton number eight have that response?
“We have to retest them,” he said, “but I want to use a different test. I don’t trust this meter. We’ll have to test each one, and then compare the results. This one anomaly might help us, or it might just be a false reading.”
She understood.
“I’m done with the skull,” she offered. “The markers are on, and Blue can finish it.”
He was glad.
“I can stay and help.”
He looked down at her belly, and then the bones.
It would take all day to do it with two of them. Two days alone.
But his wife was pregnant…
God!
What to do?
Jaxon touched his cheek and then gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. She could tell he was struggling with this.
She understood.
“I promise that after today, I’ll stay at home and rest. I’m already here, so why not use me? It won’t take much energy to zip around on the stool and help you.”
Here was his wife, the mother of their child, and his soulmate. He couldn’t love her more if he tried.
He gave her a kiss.
“I love you. Thank you.”
She was aware of his feelings for her. Tony had always been there for her—even that first day they’d met over a grave on the reservation.
They were a match, and she’d help him.
Always.
Besides, helping her husband made her forget two things. All the shit about her father, and the fact that when she talked to Jagger, he couldn’t get there to see her.
She was bummed.
And scared.
“Okay, let me get started,” she said, taking a seat by skeleton number one.
It was going to be a long day.
But at least she worked with her husband, and together, they’d achieve what they’d set out to do.
Get justice for these poor, innocent victims.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
O’Banion’s
Dead are Forgotten Page 51
