Chris wanted to lose it—not in a ‘lose your temper’ kind of way, but in a breakdown.
He felt dirty with the way she was leering at him.
On top of that, everyone in the room was curiously watching.
Everyone.
“Are you okay, Doc?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Christina was focused on the situation. She didn’t like the lady, and she was willing to do what she had to do.
This was going to end.
NO ONE hurt the people she loved.
Besides, one tech had overheard what happened, who worked for Doctor Julliard, and word had spread, and none of it good. They were talking trash about her boss and friend.
Christina wasn’t going to let this happen on her watch. If Chris was feeling trapped, she was going to make sure she handled it.
If he’d been raped by that woman…well, then it was no holds barred.
She didn’t like to even think about what she heard. It involved a tawdry tale of sex and a four-hour erection.
Poor Chris.
“I’m sorry, you didn’t seem to mind me bumping into you the other night, or was that you ramming into me.”
Chris glanced over, trying not to be sick. He was thinking about what had happened, and he wanted to run.
Somehow, he dug deep, trying to stay in control.
“Why are you here?”
“This is my lab, and this is my job. If you think I’ll let that hussy get me kicked out…”
Chris tried to be patient.
She lowered her voice. “Plus, admit it. You liked it. You’re a man. You can’t rape a man.”
Chris began feeling like he was going to pass out. The room was getting warm and his hands in the latex gloves were getting clammy.
Christ!
Where was Elizabeth when he needed her?
He had to stay calm. He didn’t want this to be more of a spectacle than it already was. At this point, he just wanted to do his job.
So, he went back to the woman on the table. If he ignored the doctor, maybe he could hold down the fort until Elizabeth came in and scared her away. She would likely be in for an update at some point.
Again, the doctor got a little too close, but instead of arguing, he stayed calm and kept on cutting.
It was when she gave him a full grope through his scrubs while his hands were full of dead woman that he lost it.
“EXCUSE ME!”
She looked at him.
“Sorry, love, but I reached for the wrong tool! I wanted that big handled one.”
Chris went to say something, but he didn’t get a chance. As the doctor turned, Christina ‘accidentally’ spilled a whole bottle of clear liquid.
“Oh, no! That’s acid! Get to the shower. Emergency protocol!” she shouted, setting off the lab alerts.
They all watched as Doctor Julliard raced into the emergency shower as the contamination lights flashed all around them.
Chris lifted a brow.
“Uh, Chrissy, that was rubbing alcohol. We don’t use acid in the lab in a plastic container.”
She laughed, tossing it in the trash.
“Yeah, I know that, and you know that, but Handsy McFeely has no clue, and now she’ll leave you alone for the next thirty minutes as she has to follow contamination protocol.”
“If you weren’t married...”
She laughed. “Everyone loves a geeky girl.”
At that moment, Ethan came in, only to see the other doctor scrubbing down through her clothes, the lights flashing, and Christina giggling outrageously.
This looked like something familiar.
“Um…has my wife been here?” he asked suspiciously. The doctor was cursing, and the team was laughing.
“She groped me through my scrubs while I was doing the autopsy.”
“What?” he asked.
“Yeah, I was working, and she felt me up. I can’t work with someone violating my space or my body. I’m asking to go back to DC. I can’t do this, Ethan. Please send me home.”
Well, now he had to step in.
If Chris left, Elizabeth would flip her angry shit all over the room, the commissioner, and him.
Yeah, this was bad.
Elizabeth had been right, and the shit was going to hit the fan. Once she got word of this, he was riding the couch.
There was no way in hell he could let the man, who had been assaulted by the woman, have to stay in the same room with her.
Ethan would do the right thing. Being the boss? It was going to take a back seat. There was a time to be the deputy director, and there was a time to be a brother.
“Your space? That’s your body. No one has the right to touch it if you say no. I guess I’m going to have to call the commissioner. She’s not coming back.”
Chris relaxed a little.
“Really?” he asked.
“Nope. She’s done. While you asked me not to bring up the earlier incident, I will bring up this one. No one gets to touch another person’s anatomy in here and get away with it.”
“She was trying to intimidate me.”
Christina hugged him even though his hands had dead body on them.
“She’s done.”
“I don’t want to miss anything, Ethan, but it’s getting hard. I’m distracted.”
Chrissy leaned in to whisper in his ear.
“And I almost missed that he’s no longer stringing through the bone, but the flesh. Her foot isn’t anchored.”
“He’s escalating,” Ethan stated. “What else did you almost miss?” he asked, pausing from making that phone call.
“Well, half of the body parts are burned.” He turned over her leg, where it was cut at the hip, and there was a pattern of squares.
“What is that?” Chrissy asked, touching her flesh with a gloved hand.
“It’s scorching.”
Chris moved closer, and then flipped over the other leg and placed them together. “She was on something that had a pattern.”
It took Ethan a second as he began reworking the profile in his head.
Then it hit him.
“Not on. In. She was in a metal cage, and he must have heated the wire so much it cooked her skin. That looks like one of our dog kennel cages. The spacing is enough to get your hand through, but not out.”
Chris stared up.
It just hit him like a ton of bricks.
“Not heated. Electrocuted. I remember seeing in school that inmates after they’d been executed back in the early days of the electric chair had rivets burned into their bodies when the electricity coursed through the metal.”
“There had to be something conductive,” Chrissy said. “Like water.”
Ethan thought about it.
This case was getting weirder and weirder.
Elizabeth had her hands full.
Now he was about to have his full too.
When the other doctor came out of the shower, Ethan met her at the door.
It was time to handle this mess.
“I want to file a complaint!” she blurted. “Your tech dumped a chemical on me.”
“Rubbing alcohol,” everyone stated.
“It doesn’t matter. That was careless and I want her gone from my morgue!”
Oh, he had news for her.
Someone was leaving, but it wasn’t Christina, the wonder tech.
No.
Freaking.
Way.
“You have two choices, Doctor. Leave on your own recognizance, or leave in handcuffs for sexual assault. You groped the doctor in a room full of witnesses, and if he won’t file a report, I will. You’ll never work again.”
“I accidentally…”
No one was buying that.
He knew sexual perversion. He and his brother were the kings of it. Only, there was a time, and there was a place, and it didn’t involve when a man was cutting into a body, or at work. She’d drugged him, abused him, and now she was bullying him.
; When a woman knew her assaulter, it was common that the man who did it would try to intimidate her.
That was exactly what the doctor was doing to Chris.
Well, she was out of luck.
He held up his handcuffs.
The woman flipped him off and walked out.
“I guess that answers my question then,” Ethan stated. The doctor wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Ethan had a call to make.
He was going to make sure she stayed away from that morgue, or she was going to lose her job.
Blackhawk could play hardball.
And he’d win.
As he headed out, the techs got back to work, but Christina stayed close to Chris.
“Wow, she’s insane,” Chrissy stated. “If an ME ever flipped Elizabeth off…?”
Yeah, they knew.
They’d need an autopsy themselves.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Boston Bank
And Trust
Nine A.M
When they rolled up, they had company.
Callen’s security was all over them, and with good reason. Rory placed himself in front of both of them as the crowd headed their way.
Elizabeth was in no mood for any of this.
The media was dropping some serious questions, and this time, not about their relationship, if she and Ethan were divorcing, or if she and Chris were involved in some torrid affair.
No.
They were asking about the dead women.
Four of them.
Four dead women, hacked apart.
Then strung back together again in some sick game.
Basically, they had everything that Elizabeth had on the case, and that was pissing her the hell off.
It appeared that the doctor had been spreading information on their case.
If she saw her, she was going to kick her ass.
As they headed toward the bank to make their fake meeting, the media was still hounding them. In front, there was her least favorite reporter.
Alex O’Malley.
He’d hounded her in the past, and he’d made her life miserable, whenever she showed up in Boston. It appeared that he was gunning for her now. In fact, he was smiling a whole lot, and she knew why.
He had information.
Bogus intel.
Well, it was time to have some fun before she busted his balls. This was going to be good.
Elizabeth came to a stop, Callen had no choice to join her. As they stood there, she faced the media.
“You have two minutes. We have a meeting. Ask.”
The pandemonium exploded.
Finally, she got them to be quiet by refusing to answer any questions.
She pointed at Alex O’Malley, and waited.
“Is it true that the killer is poisoning women in their water bottles?” he asked.
She was shocked. Honestly, she expected the little shit to at least lead into it.
“Nope.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I happen to have information that says otherwise.”
“Yeah, okay,” she said, laughing at him.
“Well, if that’s really how you want to play this,” Alex stated, sending a text. “It looks like my headline catching story is going in the paper.”
See, she’d played this game with him before when they were working that case years ago in Boston. He’d reneged on a deal.
She knew how this would play it out. He’d already written the story. If it was going to be the headline, it had to be to the bosses by nine in the morning.
It was nine.
“You mean you sent in the story?”
“Yes.”
“And it can never be stopped?”
He grinned widely. “Yes. You’ll like my headline too. ‘Elizabeth Blackhawk lies to the press. The truth comes out in secret documents’.”
Callen laughed.
Oh, the man was going to be walking funny after this one. His wife was staring at him like she did dead cow.
Someone was about to be grilled.
“Good, you little ass-kissing, boot-licking weasel. I have a headline for you too. In fact, I have a scoop for your competition.”
He looked confused.
“It’s going to read that ‘You bribed Doctor Julliard for leaked information in this case. I know who your confidential informant is, because we posted fake information to catch a rat’.”
There was a hush that fell over the whole pack of media mongrels.
“What?”
“You, my worst reporter nightmare, were set up. You just posted a fake story!”
He pulled out his phone and tried to call his boss.
“And that is how you get a reporter to leave you alone,” she said. All the reporters were worried.
It was like killing two birds with one stone. She schooled an asshole, and scared the rest of the pack in the process.
Callen laughed. “If I wasn’t married to you, that…that right there, Elizabeth, that would have made me propose.”
She snorted. “You’re a nut. We had a fight and you put a ring on it. Now you want to do it all over again. You might be out of your mind re-marrying me.”
He dropped his arm over her shoulder.
“Yeah, I don’t like to come across as being easy or crazy,” he teased. “Not marrying you would be crazy. I know when I’m the luckiest man in the whole world.”
Rory, his security guy, rolled his eyes.
“Ass kisser,” he said as he coughed.
That made her laugh.
As they headed inside, the woman behind the counter got their names and told them to take a seat.
“What did Ethan tell him?” she asked.
“He told the man we needed a loan to buy a vacation home,” he said.
“Oh.”
“We should,” he stated. “Not the loan part, but we should have a place to go where we feel safe, loved, and with our kids.”
She looked over at him.
“Why won’t you talk about it?” he asked.
“What?”
“How you are devastated that your childhood home was destroyed? Why don’t you want to let us in so we can help you carry this too?”
She turned her head.
He forced her to look at him. “Why won’t you just say it? If you give it wings, it can fly away and stop hurting you. Timothy once told me that.”
“I’m not hurt. I’m glad it’s gone, and I feel horrible. That home…it’s been a lot of heartache. My father moved us to Salem when my mom died. I was hurt then. I didn’t want to like the place. Then my father dies in the house. He was killed there.”
He held her hand.
“Angel.”
“No, you want the truth. I miss him every day. I know how you feel about Timothy. Charlie, he was my everything. When my mom died, I felt responsible. He nursed my shattered heart back together by being my mom and dad. Charlie…God. I wish he could meet you both. I wish he could see you and tell me how lucky I got.”
“He’d tell us that,” he stated. “We are the lucky ones.”
“When I think about it being gone, I’m glad. While that house brought me Ethan, it also brought more pain. I’m free of it. I could have rebuilt, but honestly, it feels cursed.”
He dropped his arm around her shoulders.
“When I was with Avalon there, even she said it was haunted with my past. I don’t want my past to keep recycling through. I want to feel free. I’m not sad it’s gone, Callen James. I’m sad I’m happy about it.”
He hugged her.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
She rested her head on his shoulder. “If you want a vacation home, feel free to buy one. Just don’t make me go back there. I can’t. This is one phoenix that won’t be rising from the ashes. She wants to avoid it.”
He got it.
He wouldn’t push.
Instead, he’d work a home into a plan. He was making a shitload of money, and they c
ould afford one, or maybe two. He only wanted her to be happy.
This was his wife.
“If you were to buy a home, anywhere in the world, where would it be?”
“The reservation and Timothy’s place. It’s the only home I’ve ever felt okay in. The second you walk in there, it’s calm.”
He got that.
“Where else?”
“I like New Orleans. When we were there for that case, it felt like a colorful city that I could enjoy.”
He made notes.
“And?”
“How about an island where no one can get to us except by boat?” she teased.
“You mean a place where you are my sexy captive?”
She laughed.
“Yeah, I think I’d like that one best.”
As he was about to make a suggestion, they were interrupted by a secretary.
“Mr. Elliot will see you now.”
How this was even working astounded her. Normally, she’d head in, kick some ass, and get her interview. Who knew if you pretended to be interested in a business, you could walk right in the door?
Maybe Callen’s money would come in handy—and not only for kids’ educations.
She laughed.
He looked down like she was crazy.
“What?”
“Internal dialog,” she stated. “You wouldn’t want to know.”
He was probably sure he didn’t.
Besides, he had some plans to make. His wife wanted to have a vacation home in New Orleans.
He could make that happen.
As they headed into the man’s office, they took their seats. He didn’t even bother to look up.
“I hear you’re in the market for a second home.”
When he did look up, he stopped.
“Well, fuck.”
She smiled. “Yeah, I get that a lot. We don’t need a loan. Daddy Warbucks here lets little orphan Lyzee spend what she wants. He’s loaded. I’m his gold digger. Now, let’s discuss why you were paying a call girl for sex. You have one minute to spill it, or I spill your guts all over the desk.”
He stared at her, opened his mouth, and …
“Lucy O’Donnell. Don’t lie, don’t make shit up, and stop being an idiot. I’ve been doing this a while.”
You could see him make up his mind. It was clearly written on his face.
Elizabeth couldn’t wait to hear how he played this one out.
“I met her at a party. We headed back to my place, we had some fun, and then she hit me with a fee. I was mad at first, but then I thought about it. She could get me off, there were no strings attached, and I don’t have to marry her.”
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