Discarded by Fate

by Morgan Kelley

  The FBI had been called in, and that meant all hands on deck.

  The second he’d gotten the call from the office, he and Gabe had to get their asses to the Hoover building to ensure that everything was coordinated and handled.

  Once arriving there, the well-oiled FBI machine took over, and they’d finally gotten agents on the ground in Dallas to handle the mess. As they sat in Ethan’s office, they were finally able to take a few minutes to relax.

  Well, if by relax you meant watching the news on his screen.

  This chaos was only one part of their lives, and Ethan wasn’t sure if he could live without it. He loved his job, his partner in the mess, and how the FBI had become part of him.

  Still, he’d leave it for only one person in the world, his wife.

  Thankfully, it looked like she was going to pull through the whole Bonnie mess.

  “How are things at home?” Gabe asked, as Ginny brought them in some breakfast and coffee.

  “Well, I miss my wife, and I really miss Callen. I don’t like when they’re away, and I hate how I have to keep missing the important functions in his life like this book signing and party.”

  “Awwww, how sugary sweet. I almost want to head to the dentist. I think you gave me a cavity.”

  Ethan laughed.

  The man should talk. He’d heard him cooing to his wife the other day like a love-sick dove.

  “I miss cuddling with my wife, and I miss Callen because that divides the kid chaos by two.”

  Yeah, he got that.

  Gabe recalled the days when they were beat down from young children. Thankfully, their youngest was in elementary school, and they didn’t have babies.

  Don’t get him wrong.

  He and his wife made adorable children, but babies…holy hell! They wore your ass down.

  “I thought you were going there with Callen,” Gabe stated.

  “Oh, well, I planned on it, and since you brought it up…I miss cuddling with him, too, but that freaks you out to think about it.”

  “Yes, yes, it does. All those spare man parts in the pile makes me nervous.”

  Ethan laughed as he sipped his coffee. Truthfully, he and Callen were as hetero as they came. During sex, they didn’t really pay attention to the other man’s ‘parts’. There was a naked Elizabeth causing mayhem.

  That was the focus.

  “I feel like I need a shower,” Gabe teased.

  “I always have someone to wash my front and back,” Ethan said, keeping a straight face. Oh, they’d done it many times in the shower, but no one was washing his back.

  “Again, more parts than needed.”

  Ethan grinned.

  “I don’t even notice.”

  “And that says a lot about you, my friend, and way too much about this conversation.”

  Ethan got that most people were confused about their relationship, but Gabe…he should get it by now. They didn’t have any secrets, and since Livy and Elizabeth were back on the mend, they were often spending time together.

  “How’s Beatrice working out?” Gabe asked, referring to their ex-nanny. Livy and he had decided it was time to let her go. With Amy and the other kids ranging from sixteen to seven, the smallest one being Gabriel junior, they didn’t need a nanny.

  Especially since their mother was home fulltime.

  “Oh, Beatrice. She’s a gem. I could kiss you for giving us her name. She’s like a drill instructor and Mary freaking Poppins all at once. I think she’s a saint.”

  He laughed.

  Yeah, when you had a lot of kids, you needed someone who was a little of both.

  It made their life, and yours, easier.

  “And that’s why she’s been with us for seventeen years. When you find that one person, you hold on.”

  Yeah, well, they thought they had him. Until Bonnie rolled into Salem, they never thought they’d lose the one person they trusted with their kids.

  Ethan never expected his father to bail.

  Then again, why not?

  This was, after all, right up his alley.

  Wyler had left him.

  He left Callen.

  And now he’d left Timothy Junior too.

  Well, at least he wasn’t playing favorites. All three of them had been shafted by the man who gave them life. He’d call him a sperm donor, but he got it.

  Wyler had lost his wife.

  Again.

  That was the ONLY reason he wasn’t flipping his shit all over the East Coast. Besides, he had a contingency plan, since this was typical Wyler.

  He didn’t hate him, but Ethan was ashamed of his behavior and what he’d done.

  “How’s the wife doing?” Gabe asked.

  He told him about the previous night meltdown.

  It was the ‘Bro Code’.

  Since they were partners, they shared pretty much everything. Yes, marriage things were private, but this wasn’t just their boss.

  This was their family too.

  Gabe mattered and he’d been really worried about Elizabeth—as they all were.

  “That’s tough. I can’t say I wouldn’t have felt the same,” Gabe admitted. “Elizabeth is a tough woman, but she’s got a huge soft spot.”

  “I know, and that betrayal hit it.”

  “Well, at least she’s communicating with you and Callen. When a woman clams up…”

  Yeah, he knew.

  “I’m shocked she agreed to seeing Doctor Gaines,” Gabe said.

  He laughed. “Yeah, me too. That proves how much she needs to see her.”

  He agreed.

  “If you need anything, Livy and I are here for you. We can babysit, have a sleepover, or whatever.”

  He appreciated that more than the man knew. Knowing that someone had their back mattered to him—and them.

  “You’ve done so much. Thank you.”

  He waved it off.

  “Family is family.”

  “Well, I’m just grateful to Beatrice. She seems to be okay with seven kids all under seven. Thank God for that.”

  “You still have Christopher Leonard copping a squat in your home?”

  “Yes.”

  He stared at him.

  “What?”

  “Uh, is that going to be a permanent thing? Are you adopting people along the way? Who is next? Your driver?” he asked.

  “Well, I do like him…”

  “Ethan, you make your life so much harder when it comes to the media. What was the first thing I told you?”

  “Make sure your fly is up.”

  “No, the other first thing.”

  “Don’t have sex in the office.”

  Gabe laughed. “I meant about the damn media! You’re getting as bad as her!”

  He laughed.

  “Well, you don’t have to be like that,” Ethan stated, before answering him. “You told me to stay under the media radar.”

  “Are you doing that?”

  “Nope.”

  “You have a threesome, which is mostly a lot of kinky, but with your brother.”

  “Well, in my kink’s defense, he’s my half-brother. I like to think from the waste up we’re related, and from the dick…”

  “STOP.”

  He continued laughing.

  “You brought it up. Not me.”

  “Well, then toss in the Marlee Whitaker mess.”

  “Uh, that was the media seeing me with a woman who was not my wife and making shit up. She accosted me in the gym, in the office, and stirred the pot. I did nothing but be handsome.”

  Gabe laughed.

  “Plus, your wife…”

  “That’s her not me. You should know we can’t wrangle that bucking bull. I like to stay on the other side of the horns—thank you very much.”

  He got that.

  A pissed off Lyzee was a bad thing.

  “My father ran off. Bonnie happened. Those are things I can’t control.”

  “Well, that’s my point. You can control the whole Chri
s thing. In last week’s tabloid, you and Callen were gay and Elizabeth was covering for your kinky ways with the dead body guy.”

  “I’m okay with that. Who believes the tabloids anyway? You were having an affair with an alien in Area fifty-one, and that’s why you lost your hair. All that radioactive alien lube.”

  He laughed.

  “I liked that one. It was creative. Kudos to the cuckoo who came up with it.”

  “I’m not booting Chris. He’s like her damn brother.”

  “Who petted her kitty.”

  “Yes, they had sex for quite a few years, and they were close. I trust them both.”

  “Someone really rocked out that therapy.”

  That was amusing.

  “Well, I nearly lost my wife, and that’s never a good thing. I figure if Chris Leonard needs us, we can be there for him. Plus, Bethe pretty much identifies with Elizabeth as her mother. She doesn’t know Cyra, or recall her, so to make him move now—it would hurt Bethe.”

  Gabe ate his yogurt.

  “I never thought this day would come. Ethan Blackhawk is sharing his wife with not only his brother, her career, but with someone who slept with her. If I could have a ten-minute conversation with the cowboy from fifteen years ago…”

  “Hey, it is what it is.”

  “And your father?”

  Ethan tried to keep calm.

  It was still hard.

  “Uh, and that’s what makes you angry?”

  It was because it was a sore point with him. He remembered being a child and being abandoned by his father.

  “I’ve petitioned the court. He’s bailed on his son, so we’re adopting Timothy Junior. As far as I’m concerned, he’s now ours. If Wyler wants to leave, that’s on him—whether I get it or not. I have to put my brother first. TJ needs to be protected from being wounded. Wyler has to make his choices, and I don’t give a shit, but I do care about that little boy.”

  Gabe listened.

  Two decades ago, he wouldn’t have seen Ethan as a family man either, but here he was with six kids in his nest, or seven if you counted Bethe.

  “The child has been through a lot,” Gabe admitted.

  “We all have. My wife had to cut him from his mother’s womb so he didn’t die. If that’s not a labor of love, I don’t know what is. Wyler bailed, so he’s the bad one. We will raise TJ as our own because I won’t have him growing up thinking he wasn’t loved or worth it like Callen and I did. I will protect my brother. I promised my grandfather that I’d keep my brother safe. Well, he may have not seen TJ coming, but he’s here.”

  As if to prove how serious he was, Ethan opened the folder containing the papers.

  “I need a reference from work that states I’m stable, financially able, and in good state of mind to be a father. Would you do it?” he asked.

  “Can I be honest?”

  That made Ethan pause.

  Did Gabe think he wouldn’t be a good father?

  Or was he about to be shit canned?

  With their lives, one never knew.

  “I guess.”

  “I think you’re letting him off too easily. Yes, he ran from you boys, found the bottle, and made his choices, and look at the life it gave you.”

  He was aware.

  He’d grown up angry, Callen had grown up being sexually molested, and Timothy had to carry them all.

  “What are you suggesting?” Ethan asked, valuing his partner’s opinion. He always looked up to Gabe as a mentor, and now they were a team.

  “You have to make your own choice, but I know what I’d do.”

  “What?”

  “I think you should find him, drag his ass back, and for once in his life make him accountable.”

  Ethan thought about it.

  He’d mulled it around in his mind earlier, getting ready a plan B in case he took that route.

  “Isn’t it better to have him want to come back?” Ethan asked. “You know, rather than forcing him?”

  Gabe understood.

  “When CJ broke that window and he hid, what did you do?” Gabe asked.

  “I showed him what his actions had caused and I told him that was unacceptable. When you do something, you own it.”

  “Yeah, and here you are, ready to adopt your father’s child. You’re cleaning up after him, Ethan, and how can you tell your kids to own it when their grandfather is above the rules.”

  He had a point.

  A damn good one.

  “So what should I do? Find him, drug him, and bring him back against his will?”

  “Yes, but you need to do it Blackhawk style.”

  He told him what to do.

  Ethan wasn’t sure it would work. Then again, it might just work. Wyler…he had to be missing those kids and his son.

  “Gabe.”

  “He needs to be schooled, Ethan. Your kids have to wonder where Grandpa is.”

  Yeah, they did, and that was what was making Ethan furious.

  Every single day, they asked about him.

  They cried at night when he would read them a story.

  They begged him to find their grandfather.

  Ethan had written it off as something they would have to get over.

  Well, Gabe brought up a very valid point and gave him a good plan—if he chose to use it.

  But…

  “If I knew where he was, I’d get him,” Ethan said, “but I don’t have time to play ‘find the wayward father’. I’m a little busy here.”

  Gabe figured he’d say that.

  “Here.”

  He pulled something out of his pocket.

  It was an address.

  Oddly, it wasn’t one Ethan had ever seen before. “Where the hell is he?”

  “I’ve been tracking him since you said he’d bailed from Salem. He’s with Bly Cochetta, and he’s hiding out with his booze. I have eyes on him as he tries to commit suicide by bottle.”

  Gabe pulled out his phone.

  Then he showed the man what his team had recorded.

  Ethan watched a video of his father buying copious amounts of booze at some liquor store, and then jewelry for a greedy Bly.

  Oh, that was enough to make him see red.

  The woman had it in for their family, and she was going to try and hurt his father by using his weakness of his wife’s death and alcohol?

  Really?

  It was on.

  There was no way this woman wasn’t trying to damage Wyler. She had wanted him to marry her, and he didn’t. Then he married Maeve. That had to piss her off.

  This wasn’t her being magnanimous. She was spending his money and trying to get him to die from binge drinking.

  It looked like he was going with plan B.

  Now Ethan had someone else to direct his anger towards, instead of his father.

  He was going to get the man away from that gold digging, Native bitch if it was the last thing he ever did.

  “Normally, I wouldn’t give a shit, but this man is related to the Deputy Director of the FBI. He’s recognizable. He can make our agency have to deal with a PR nightmare. That department weeps when they hear Blackhawk. They assume Elizabeth has done something right off the bat.”

  Ethan got it.

  Not only was Gabe telling him to handle it, he was telling him that this could affect all of their jobs.

  Well, he was on it.

  He tucked the address away.

  “I can handle the office in your absence. Why don’t you take a little trip out to FBI West, land there, and then pay your father a visit? No one will suspect anything if word gets out that you’re heading there. Miles Lane is expecting more visits from one of us.”

  “Great, so I can really have a shitty day by seeing him. It’s as if you don’t think this Bly and Wyler thing isn’t bad enough.”

  Gabe laughed.

  “That man wants my job.”

  Oh, he knew.

  It was part of their lives. There were people who wanted his job, to
o—God only knew why. Still, they eyed up his office like it was some glory job.

  It wasn’t.

  Gabe only had one piece of advice for Ethan.

  “Rivalry keeps the wolf hungry,” Gabe stated. “You won’t get sloppy if you know there’s some mongrel nipping at your heels.”

  He had a point.

  “I can go. Are you sure you won’t miss me?” he asked. “We just had this mess with Bonnie and you were stuck here with the crazies in the asylum.”

  Yeah, he was aware.

  That was what he called the place, and it was true.

  Gabe laughed.

  “Son, I appreciate your concern, but I could run this place like I stole it. You have a good week before I need you back for that meeting.”

  “I appreciate it, Gabe. Thank you for keeping an eye on my father.”

  “I don’t mind, Ethan. I did it for your kids. No little one should watch someone they love exit their life.”

  Oh, that was Gabe pointing out the fight he and Elizabeth had had that put their marriage in jeopardy.

  The man liked to work lessons into everything. He was like that sensei at the top of the mountain.

  “Go drag Wyler’s ass home.”

  Yeah, he could do that.

  “Can Beatrice handle it without me? Callen and Elizabeth are coming home, but they’ll likely not be here until later,” he asked. “I’m home because I wanted to make sure they were okay. I don’t want to abandon her as she’s held hostage by my tribe. They can be a challenge.”

  “She can handle just about anything. She told my wife that she’s glad to be needed. As of late, she’s been hanging out at the house bored as sin. She misses little ones. The best thing about Beatrice is she will let you know when she’s in over her head.”

  That was good to know.

  Ethan didn’t have time to micromanage a nanny too. He was running roughshod over enough people.

  His wife.

  His husband.

  His kids.

  His job…

  “Well, we need her.”

  “I figured as much. She’s loyal to a fault, and she’ll stay with you until the end. We broke her in. There’s nothing your kids can do that will surprise her.”

  Well, he wasn’t so sure about that.

  “When you have this mess all straightened out, she’ll stay and keep it under control. Wyler lets them run wild. You need a little control over them. There are more of them than you. That’s an uprising in the making.”