She rested her head on his shoulder and took in the scent of his skin.
“Which place do you want to stay in?” she asked.
“My place is bigger, but if your father comes to DC, we should probably be in your place.”
She agreed. “If you have to go on a case without me…”
“Then I want you to stay in OUR place. You can choose which one, and when I’m home I’ll meet you there.”
She liked that.
“Then when I’m gone?”
“I’ll stay in your place so Tony and I can go through your panty drawer.”
She began laughing.
“Perv.”
“Have you seen the woman that’s letting me be with her? How can I not be curious about every aspect of sex?”
She gave him a kiss, and it was a tangle of tongues. When she was done, she pulled away.
“I’m going to shower. I’m sure Tony will be here shortly. You know how he is.”
He helped her off the counter, and she immediately took off his shirt and hung it on a hook in the bathroom. She dropped her panties on the floor and hit the jets in the shower.
Chris watched her.
Yeah, if she wanted to sleep in a yurt in the middle of the city street, he was up for that.
“Thank you for being mine.”
She peeked out. “I should say the same. Coffee is on. I’ll be done in a few.”
He still watched her as she pulled her hair up and showered. Chris knew how damn lucky he was, and he wasn’t ever going to screw this up.
Heading into the bedroom, he pulled on a pair of khakis and a polo shirt.
When she came out, she was wrapped in a towel.
“I put your things on the bed,” Chris stated.
“Was housekeeping here already?” she asked, as the bed was made and everything was tidy.
He laughed.
“I think you know how it got made. Don’t be coy. I’m a mean, lean, cleaning machine, and we both know it.”
She gave him a kiss.
Then dropped her towel.
Chris actually rubbed his hands together and began pulling off his polo to get naked with her.
There was a knock on the door.
“Dammit. Someone hates me.”
She laughed and picked up her panties from the folded clothes on their bed.
“Promise me you’ll always be like this?” he asked.
“Christopher, a leopard doesn’t change its spots. I don’t plan on changing.”
Thank God for that.
He headed out to open the door for Tony as she continued to dress. When she lifted her bra, Elizabeth saw it.
There was the flower portion of a rose, sitting there with a piece of paper. On it, there was a heart.
Hers skipped.
Yeah, she was going to work extra hard at this relationship. For the first time in her life, she wanted something more than just being a Fed.
She wanted to live.
Elizabeth quickly got dressed and headed into the sitting area of their room. Tony was on the couch, drinking her coffee.
“If that’s mine, I’ll kill you.”
“What? No‘Good morning, sweetheart’ for me?”
She smacked him in the back of the head, and then, Chris handed her his coffee.
“I can make some at the morgue.”
She sipped it and handed it back. That was the benefit of having the same tastes in caffeinated beverage.
As she sat, there was another knock.
“Who is it?” she called, pulling her sidearm.
“It’s your favorite guy in the whole world,” Alex Bartlett said.
Elizabeth headed to the door and peeked out.
When she opened it, he was smiling.
“Did someone order up two Feds for their disposal?” he asked, holding a bag of food. “And I brought breakfast, too, partner.”
“If you’re feeding me, then you know you’re my favorite,” she teased, hugging him.
While they couldn’t be partners, she and Alex were still friends.
That wouldn’t change.
“Hey, Noah,” she said, hugging him too. “Did you guys have a rough flight?”
“He talked nonstop the entire way. I tried to take a nap, but Alex has diarrhea of the mouth.”
“Mmmm, and before breakfast,” she stated. “I can’t wait to eat.”
“LaRue, I once watched you eat a donut over a body. Who are you kidding?” Noah stated.
He had a point.
“Elizabeth, we hear you have a mess,” Alex said. “What have you got yourself into now?”
She laughed as she locked the door behind them.
That said it all.
There were five people in the room, and three of them had sidearms. Yet, she still locked the door.
That said it all.
“You could say that. I have a little mob situation brewing, and Gabe wanted you two chuckleheads to watch my back. Yeah, how could this go bad?”
Alex laughed.
“I’m not shocked you need someone to do it. You get your ass in all kinds of predicaments.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
Heading back in to Tony and Chris, she reintroduced them—in case they hadn’t met.
“Alex, this, as you know, is my favorite ME, Doctor Christopher Leonard, and, Noah, here’s my anthropologist of choice, Doctor Tony Magnus.”
They shook hands.
Alex took over.
“It’s nice seeing you again, Doctors. This is my new partner, Noah Stokes. Gabe wanted us here fast, so it has to be bad. What can we do?” he asked, pulling food out of a bag.
Oh, he had no idea.
“Alex, you and I are going to be in the field, and Noah is going to be playing babysitter in the morgue as he does all the research. This is going to be moving fast. This killer is going to get away if I don’t have some help handling the mob.”
She told them what happened.
They all ate their bagels and listened.
Noah whistled.
“Is that how his face got messed up?”
“Well, it wasn’t me,” Elizabeth said, laughing. “Doc, here, stood up to them to protect me.”
Alex patted him on the back.
“I know how you feel. Working with her is like signing up for hazard duty. You never know where the bullets are coming from.”
She told them about the cop being shot at too.
“Damn, Elizabeth. You have a mess. It’s not like you to have to fight your way out of a mess and get shot at all in a matter of days.”
“Try day. It was all one day.”
Which was worse.
“I also have this,” she said, pulling a gun from the drawer. “The one thug had it on him, and I managed to ‘borrow’ it. If we can run it, even for prints, maybe we can get something on one of O’Banion’s guys and arrest him.”
They could do that.
“If we can pull him in, I can get him to talk. I just need some evidence. O’Banion makes it damn hard. Plus, it would help Detective Bronson.”
She told them about him heading the mob task force on Monday.
From the sound of it, the man was going to need all the help he could get.
Noah took the paper bag and placed the gun in it. “I’ll bring it with me to the morgue and get the team on it. If your friendly neighborhood detective needs evidence, we can pull it.”
She hoped so.
“They normally file down the serial numbers or wipe their guns down before we get them. This was a gift, and I hope Michael O’Banion is shaking in his boots,” Elizabeth stated.
They all did.
“Where are we headed first?” Alex asked.
“Well, I want to talk to a gardener, and then talk to Joy Scott’s mother. After that, we have a hooker to interview. I thought you’d like that one best.”
He snorted.
She knew him so well. “Ah, and that is why I miss you. You’re sexy,
and you know the way to my heart. Noah isn’t pretty to look at.”
Chris wanted to say something but he bit his tongue.
They couldn’t come out to anyone.
Gossip would kill their working relationship.
“Really?” Noah asked. “I have news for you. The view for me sucks equally. I’d rather look at a hooker too.”
She snorted.
“Are we ready?” she asked, shoving the last of her bagel into her mouth. “Oh, and everyone in Kevlar. You, too, Doctors,” she said, pointing at the gear that the two men had brought in with them.
She was not messing around with this one.
Not in the least.
Elizabeth was going casual today. She was in the field, Gabe was NOT around, and she wanted to hide her Kevlar beneath her clothes.
She pulled off her pullover and slipped into the gear. Chris was there to help her.
“Be safe today,” he whispered. “I love you.”
She kept her voice low.
“You too. If you need me or anything happens, you call me. I’ll get to you.”
He Velcro-ed her into her gear.
“Yes, honey.”
When Noah and Alex weren’t looking, she gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “I love you too.”
He grinned.
“Uh, how about me?” Tony asked, holding the Kevlar.
“Chris, help him out,” Elizabeth stated.
He scowled.
She patted him on the back.
“Alex, are you ready to roll?” she asked, tucking her gun and badge onto her hip. They were peeking out from beneath her dark blue pullover.
“My sista from another mista, you know I am. Let’s ride like old times.”
“Uh, you ran from this sista, so…”
“I wanted to live. No offense.”
“None was taken. I would have run too.”
She waved at the men.
“Will she be okay?” Chris asked, as soon as they were gone.
Noah reassured them.
“I’ve heard rumors about her in the field.”
“And?”
“Elizabeth LaRue can hold her own. Alex will have her back. They’re really good friends.”
Chris only hoped.
There went his girl, and she was the one in danger.
And that freaked him the hell out.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Washington D.C.
Gabe wasn’t leaving his team in danger without giving them the help they needed. He knew they were building a case on Michael O’Banion, and he was ready to pull the trigger.
Calling the head of the US Marshalls, he needed a favor. On top of that, he knew the US Justice Department was about ready to take care of business.
In the meeting, he laid it all out on the table for everyone involved.
“How close are we to an indictment on Michael O’Banion?” he asked.
Thomas Jones had been working on this for months. It wasn’t easy to build a case against a mob guy.
“We need a few more things, and then we will be able to pull the trigger on this one.”
That was good.
Only, Gabe needed something sooner rather than later.
“Here’s the deal. He’s ready to strike at my agent. We don’t have a lot of time. He’s threatened her, and we need to lock him down once and for all.”
“Then get me something, and I’ll take him in. If we don’t have something good, Gabe, his attorneys will eat us for dinner and dump our bones on the side of the road.”
Gabe had another idea.
“Do you want him or do you want his hired thugs?” he asked.
That got his attention.
“I’d rather have ten rats than one. What do you propose we do?” he asked.
Gabe pointed at Lewis Jefferson.
“What if we offer O’Banion a deal to roll on his men?”
They both stared at him.
“We catch him, we tag him, and then we make him go under in witness protection?”
“And let him get away with everything?” Thomas asked.
“He’s not really getting away with anything. We give him a job in some menial task, we make him live like a normal guy, and he pays his penance. We take his money, and we spread the word that he’s ratted his guys out. Every mob wannabe will be gunning for him. His life, as he knows it, will be over.”
Thomas and Lewis laughed.
“So, we basically give him a death sentence, but we torture him first,” Thomas said. “That’s sadistic. There’s a good reason why you’re second in command of the FBI.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
And he would.
For now, they had other issues. He needed to get the man off Elizabeth’s trail.
For good.
Thomas thought about it.
“If you can get me enough of his crew, I can talk about rolling him for state’s evidence.”
“If he will,” Lewis stated. “He’s not one to rat.”
“He doesn’t have to,” Thomas said. “If word gets out that one rolled, they all begin to fall like dominos. Once we put him under in witness protection, they will assume he has sung like a canary.”
“And he’s done.”
Gabe grinned.
“Yep, and this would handle our situation. We would clean up Boston, take care of some bad guys, and give Michael O’Banion something to think about until he dies poor, tired, and broken—compliments of the US government. Now that’s justice.”
Thomas held out his hand.
“I’m in. Get me something good, and I’ll find a way to take him down. It won’t be the first time the government played it this way.”
Lewis shook both of their hands.
“I’ll get my marshals to begin prepping a place for him. If you can pull it off, we are golden. I’ll hide him in plain freaking sight.”
Gabe smiled.
And there it was.
Michael O’Banion had screwed with the wrong people.
And he was going to pay.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Police Precinct
Saturday Morning
He called them in, and Levi already knew they were NOT going to be happy with what he had to say.
All he could hope was the one man stayed calm and the other did his job tracking the mob through that precinct.
Enough was enough.
When the two men entered his office, they took a seat.
“I called you here for this meeting to let you know that the FBI has officially removed us from this case.”
“WHAT?” Patty O’Brien exclaimed. “How the hell can they do that?”
“Sit.”
He didn’t.
Well, so much for him staying calm.
It was clear that the man was not happy with that news, and it was about to get worse.
“You’re off that case,” he said to Max. “While Elizabeth appreciated your help, I’ve been asked to convey that you have your hands full with your task force. She suggested you handle that.”
He got it.
Something had happened.
“What bad shit went down?”
“Well, for starters, O’Banion went after the Fed, and it didn’t end well.”
He stood.
“Is she okay? Did he hurt her?” Max asked.
Levi laughed.
“Oh, quite the opposite. She put two bullets in his goons, kicked their asses on her own, and left quite the impression. Now the FBI is heading here, and they didn’t appreciate a citizen of our city screwing with one of their own.”
“I don’t blame them,” Max said. “I’ll start working on my intel. I’m going to be busy. Well, not after the FBI gets done. They are going to clean house.”
Patty was nervous.
He couldn’t let that happen.
He was smack dab in the middle of all of it, and he didn’t want to go down with the
ship.
This was bad.
Very bad.
He had to give O’Banion a heads-up. The shit storm was heading their way.
“Good idea,” Levi stated. “If you need anything, your partner will give you a hand, won’t you, Patty?”
“What? Yes, I mean, yes, I will.”
Well, Max knew that was going to be useless. His partner was bucking for captain bars and that was about it.
He was useless to him.
And the force.
And…
“Thanks, sir,” he said, trying not to smirk. It looked like he was going to be back to riding shotgun with him.
Elizabeth was so much more fun.
“Get to work and leave the FBI alone. If they need us, they will contact us. Michael O’Banion is hands off. Am I clear?”
They both nodded and headed out.
Levi sat in his chair.
Well, that had gone better than he thought. Maybe this wasn’t going to blow up in his face after all.
He was thankful for that.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Professor McGowan’s
Home
Elizabeth wanted to do a walkthrough of the woman’s home and interview Ryan Burch. He was the gardener who didn’t show up for work that morning.
On the morning that his boss died.
Yeah, he definitely needed to have a little visit from them and soon. If they were lucky, he’d be at the house working.
Her fingers were crossed.
Today was about catching up with the investigation. Honestly, she felt like she was lagging on the case. The first night she couldn’t go out without a cop babysitter, and yesterday, they had to lay low when O’Banion made his presence known.
Well, today, it was a new day.
Elizabeth was on the prowl.
Today was looking up. In fact, she didn’t get a call about a new body, so they were batting a thousand on this one.
“LaRue, how’s it really been?” Alex asked.
“Since you bailed on being my partner?”
“Uh, I didn’t disappear into the night. I do believe I told you to your face, and when I told you, you said no hard feelings. You miss me, don’t you?”
Dawn of Evil_FBI Flashback Page 26