He’d been worried about her for every second they were apart. Chris was so accustomed to having her there in the autopsy, it was odd to have Gabe there instead.
There was no talking.
No banter.
They were all resolved to be silent and get the job done. When Chris put the last stitch in the man’s chest, closing his Y-incision, only then did they begin talking again.
Gabe only had one thing to say.
He sent him to the hotel to check on Elizabeth, and Chris was glad. He’d been trying to figure out a way to get back to her without blowing their cover.
Only, Gabe made it easy.
As he headed to the room, both agents were, indeed, out in the hall and they were doing searches on everyone she’d interviewed.
“Anything?” he asked.
“No, the BOLO hasn’t located the professor yet,” Alex stated, and we’re trying to pin everyone to the victims. We’re not coming up with anything on that list. Elizabeth might have missed something.”
“Do me a favor,” Chris said, “don’t tell her that right now. She needs to sleep, she needs to rest, and she needs to heal.”
“She needs you,” Alex said.
Chris kept his face neutral.
“I already know, and I won’t say a word. I get it. She told me Gabe will make you work apart, and she happens to work well with you, Doctor Leonard.”
“So she’s the one you’re crazy about,” Noah stated. “Foiled again.”
“Thank you,” Chris said. “I’m going to try and help her through this.”
“We’re going to order dinner. Do you want anything?” Alex asked. “Does she need anything?”
Chris knew his girl.
She wouldn't eat. She was going to need more than food.
“I’ll get her something later. She just watched Max’s head explode. She’s not going to want food.”
“You’re probably right. Tell her we’ll keep digging, and we’ll chase her leads. If she thinks this is all going back to Harvard, then I’ll keep digging.”
“Me too,” Noah stated. “I like her. She’s tough. She’s also fair, and that’s a good trait in a cop. We’ll help her any way we can.”
He was very appreciative.
“Thank you.”
Chris unlocked her door as the two agents headed down the hall and toward their rooms.
Once inside, there was a trail of clothing from the door to the room.
Riot gear.
Boots.
Guns.
It looked like she stripped and headed right to bed. Chris couldn’t hear her, and he hoped she was sleeping.
As he took off his things, he hopped in the shower to wash the stench of death from his body.
He smelled like a morgue, and he didn’t want to remind her where he’d been.
As he toweled off, he headed into the dark room and saw her in bed.
She was lying there, eyes open.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said, heading her way.
She started crying all over again.
Gently, he climbed into bed, and she immediately went into his body and curled around him.
“Shhhh, I have you, Elizabeth. I’ll always have you when you need me.”
She sobbed softly into his shoulder.
“He had a child.”
Chris understood.
This was exactly why she never wanted to get married and have babies. This was a possibility in their lives. They’d both seen people killed.
Agents.
Cops.
Even techs.
It happened, and when you wore that badge, it had to come first.
“He’ll grow up without his father, and that’s on me. I gave them the information, and I was supposed to have his back.”
“You did, sweetheart,” he said, holding her against him. “You went through that door with him. He told you he’d go first not because you were a woman. That was an excuse.”
She didn’t understand.
“What do you mean?”
“If you went first, he had your back, and he wanted that. He didn’t trust anyone else to have his but you. Max was telling you that he knew you’d do the job and weren’t on the take. You were the ONLY person he believed wouldn’t shoot him in the back.”
His words settled her hurt.
“I needed that.”
He gave her a kiss on the forehead.
“Max believed in you, and this is the turning point. You have to finish this for him. Until Michael O’Banion pays for his sins, you have to carry on.”
She would.
For Max Bronson.
For his mission.
For his kid.
“I’ll chase O’Banion until his dying day,” she vowed. “I’ll be his worst enemy, and I’ll make sure he pays for what this scumbag did to a good cop.”
He didn’t doubt it.
“I know you will. My girl is tenacious, and she’s badass to the core.”
Elizabeth rested against him.
“What do you need from me?” Chris asked. “Anything you want?”
“You. I want you, Christopher. Make that hurt go away so I can focus again.”
Well, that he could do.
Sliding down into the soft bedding, he pulled her mouth to his and kissed away her pain. The sorrow was trying to take her down, and he wouldn't let it. While he might not be a warrior, he was still going to help his girlfriend through this.
He was going to love her with all he had.
His hands soothed, they stroked, they offered gentleness. When he broke the kiss, placed her on her back, and worked his way down her body, she sighed in contentment.
This was them.
This was how they connected.
With his mouth, he left kisses across her arm and the bandage there. When he sat her up to tug off her sports bra, she let him have that control.
Chris soothed the wounds—both physical and emotional.
His mouth worked miracles as he traced that long lean line down her body. When he teased her belly button with his tongue, she shivered in pleasure.
Nudging her legs apart, he tossed her panties so they were both naked, both bare to each other, and ready for what was to come.
His mouth found that sensitive little bud, and with sweet, gentle strokes, he drove her up, to the crest, and then over in that first orgasm.
She whispered his name, and he didn’t stop. Elizabeth was battered, bruised, and needed this.
When her hands found his hair, they twined with the strands to keep him going.
She needed this.
She needed him.
She needed more.
Elizabeth desperately wanted to feel anything but that dark sucking hole of pain. Chris was filling it with something more important.
Love.
As he continued to work her into that heated frenzy, she held on for the ride. As she reached the pinnacle, he shoved her off and into the pleasure again.
Elizabeth tumbled through the gentle glow and found herself pressed beneath him.
“More?” he whispered, leaving warm, open-mouthed kisses on the curl of her ear.
“Yes, Christopher, yes.”
He slid into her body, hard, firm, and ready for her. As he began moving, controlling the pleasure, he took his time.
Chris was in no hurry, and he didn’t plan on rushing through it.
As she arched into his body, he took the time to fill her with long, delicious strokes.
She whispered his name, over and over, and he returned the favor as the pleasure threatened to take him too.
“Fall with me,” she whispered.
Oh, he could do that.
Gently driving into her, he felt that tell-tale tightening of her body and his.
Chris waited on the crest for her, holding on until she was ready to tumble.
When her body exploded in orgasm, he allowed himself to follow her over and into the pleasure. Their breathy gasps the sig
n they both succumbed to the pleasure.
The room was silent.
“I needed that,” she whispered, as he stayed over her, protecting her.
While he couldn’t in the field, he could here, where she let down her guard.
“I aim to please,” he said, rolling to his side and taking her with him.
They stayed silent.
Finally, he gave her a kiss and went to get up.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I’m going to order you some soup from the Chinese place, and then I’m going back to my room.”
She watched him in the dark.
“Why?”
“Gabe is right down the hall, Lyzee. If he catches me here, that’s a very bad thing.”
She was aware, but still…
“Please don’t leave me. I need you,” she said. “When I close my eyes, I see it.”
She didn’t have to tell him what it was she saw. Chris had seen it, too, as in the aftermath.
Brain.
Blood.
Bone.
He lived it too.
“I’ll stay,” he said, “but I need to get some food in you. Wonton?” he said, pulling on a pair of jeans from his suitcase on the floor beside their bed.
“Yes, please. Thank you for taking care of me.”
He leaned down and gave her a kiss.
“I don’t mind.”
And he didn’t.
Not at all.
Thirty minutes later, she had her soup, she brushed her teeth, and she crawled into bed—despite it being before six at night. She needed to hide for a good twelve hours.
Tomorrow, she’d be back at it.
Tomorrow, she’d make sure she was ready to do battle, but for now, she was going to fight her own personal war.
She was fighting the demons that chased her. The what-ifs haunted her, and there was no doubt it was going to be a very long night.
No doubt at all.
Chapter Eighteen
Monday Morning
Four A.M.
T hey were awoken by the sound of someone banging on their hotel door. Elizabeth, since it was her ‘room’, grabbed Chris’s shirt and headed there. When she peeked out, it was Gabe, and he was still dressed.
“Another?” she asked.
“Yeah, there’s another body. You had better get moving. I’m joining you. I tried to wake your ME, but he’s either dead or not there. You’ll have to get him moving.”
She knew he was right behind her.
“I have a key to his room. I’ll get him.”
Gabe saluted and headed down the hall, obviously going to meet them downstairs.
Elizabeth closed the door.
“Body,” she said, feeling a little better. Having someone to hold her all night helped.
A lot.
Chris had feared this.
“I need you to stick with the agents and watch your back. O’Banion has to be pissed,” he said.
She hoped he was.
She hoped he was so angry he’d come right at her.
As they dressed, neither spoke.
When they were grabbing their gear, she stopped him. “Thank you for last night. I needed you.”
He kissed her on the forehead with love and adoration. “You don’t have to thank me. You’re my girl. I’ll be there for you until the end of time.”
“This is probably our last night together.”
“What?”
He didn’t like the sound of that.
“You were right. Gabe is here, and we can’t let him find out we’re a couple. We have to split up. I’ll be okay.”
He didn’t like it, but he got it.
“Okay, but if you need me, you have my key. You are welcome in my bed any day.”
She knew it was so much more than that.
“I love you.”
He gave her the words back and they made her heart skip in her chest.
“You have this. Walk on that scene and show them who’s the boss. Own that scene. You have this!”
She slapped him on the ass.
“Yes, own it like that.”
That made her laugh for the first time in hours. Elizabeth needed that, and him. Chris gave her life something it lacked before.
He gave her hope.
They headed out, catching Tony in the hall. As they reached the lobby, Gabe was there on the phone and he motioned toward the car.
He was handling business, and all of it had to do with the corruption in Boston.
He looked like he’d been up all night, and she didn’t doubt why. He was on a freaking tear.
After loading up, he gave her the heads-up.
“Michael O’Banion is on the move. He just left his compound,” Gabe said. “He’s up to something. It’s too damn early in the morning for a mob man. Be ready for it.”
Oh, she was.
Elizabeth had her evening to mourn, and it was time to show him who was the boss.
The FBI.
They were going to own this.
As they reached the scene, there was a shitload of cops there with the intention to bust her chops, but the second they saw Gabe, they backed off.
Smart.
Real.
Freaking.
Smart.
They headed toward the house and were met by two cops she’d never seen before. Immediately, she got ready to defend herself and her actions, but it didn’t happen.
It was a freaking miracle.
They didn’t bust her chops.
Gabe introduced her to both of them.
“This is Williams and this is Bunker. They are cops, but they work for the FBI on the DL,” he said. “We have plants, too, and ours aren’t on the take.”
They shook her hand.
This was all above her pay grade, but she was glad Gabe was ready for the oncoming war with O’Banion. Apparently, he’d seen the shit coming and had planned it out.
Why was she surprised?
“What do we have?” she asked them.
“We have Francesca Jackson. She’s twenty-four, and she’s a college student.”
Elizabeth looked up.
Why did that name sound familiar?
“Harvard?”
“Yep.”
She kicked the chair.
Their only suspect was in the wind, and they had another dead girl.
“She was found by her boyfriend. He normally stays here all weekend, but he and some friends planned a hiking trip for the weekend. He called her all day yesterday, but she never answered her phone. He got worried and came home. He found her.”
Well, this was a twist.
All the other women had no men in their lives, but this one…yeah, she had a boyfriend.
“He’s getting risky. He’s melting down,” Elizabeth stated. “If he’s now going after attached women, he’s playing a dangerous game.”
Their killer was losing it.
“Well, it gets worse.”
Oh, she couldn’t wait to see it.
This should be a nightmare.
“Follow us,” Officer Bunker stated.
They did.
Inside her bedroom, they found her on her bed.
Tied to it.
She was spread eagle, and there was massive bruising around her throat.
“What the hell?” she said.
Chris knew what she was thinking.
“This is not even close to the other victims. This killer is nuts, or this isn’t one of his victims,” she stated.
God!
She hoped this wasn’t a new killer. They didn’t need that at this point.
Less killing would be nice.
“The boyfriend didn’t touch her, but he did puke on the floor, so watch where you stand.”
She watched the techs taking pictures and took in the scene of the crime.
Around her neck was a tie.
Yeah, that was new.
Did he strangle her with it, or was this a message?
“Chris, can you touch her for me?” she asked.
He pulled on his gloves and did just that.
“She’s ice cold. She’s been dead for hours.”
So the boyfriend’s suspicions had been right. His girlfriend had been dead a while.
“I need a TOD before anything else. I know you don’t roll like that…”
He stopped her.
“I’ll do whatever you need me to do. Give me a second and I’ll give you an estimate.”
She was grateful.
Elizabeth checked out the scene. Her clothes were gone, and all she wore was that one tie.
“The tie is new?” Gabe asked. “I’ve read your reports, and I’ve only seen bruising not a tie.”
“Yeah, it’s new, as is the tying them up.”
Gabe thought about it.
“If you need a profile.”
Maybe she did.
Maybe she was out of her league.
Then she thought about it.
“He’s escalating, and I’m going to bet that he wanted more time with her. He tied her up because he wanted to enjoy the process. Mirel McGowan was killed in her home, and we know he knew her. We know he had knowledge of her since she likely let him in. I’m going to bet he knew this one too.”
“Why?”
Elizabeth got closer to the bed once the techs were finished taking the pictures.
“She looks familiar. I’ve seen her somewhere before, but I don’t know where.”
“She was a college student, so on campus?” Chris suggested.
Yeah, it could be.
Gabe looked at her face. It was all puffy, bloated, and starting to decay. She’d been there a good day, and death was not a body’s friend.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it’ll come to me.”
Chris pulled the liver probe from her body and did the math on the calculator attached to his clipboard.
“She’s been dead a while like I suspected. I can put TOD not yesterday, but late Saturday night. I’ll say around eleven at night, give or take an hour. Her boyfriend was right to worry. She was already long gone when he started calling her yesterday.”
Well, now they needed to talk to him. The only thing tying her to this potential case is that she was strangled and went to school at Harvard.
Now it was time to see if this connected.
“And the rape?” Elizabeth asked, assuming it was bad from the blood stain on the sheets between her spread legs.
Chris looked.
Dawn of Evil_FBI Flashback Page 38