Now Elizabeth started laughing. “I can’t wait. Now, let’s get back to work.”
Detective Cyra Austin was confused. She obviously missed something huge. “I don’t get it.”
“You will,” answered Tori. “Trust me, you will.”
Once the crime scenes were rechecked, Callen and Julian grabbed some pizzas and headed back to the office. It was lunch time, and if he knew Elizabeth, she was sitting at her desk, guzzling coffee and starving. When she was on an assignment, often she forgot to take care of herself.
Walking into her office, he was surprised to see the three women working on the whiteboard and drinking bottles of water. Elizabeth was behind her desk, the two women were in chairs and reading tech reports.
“Hey Lyzee,” he said, dropping the pizzas on the desk and a kiss on the top of her head. “I missed you.”
Elizabeth grinned. “I was just about to order lunch from the cafeteria, and no kissy-face in the office,” she admonished, and then laughed when he did it again just to rile her up.
“Okay angel,” he winked, salaciously.
Detective Austin stared at the man, and hoped it wasn’t with her mouth hanging open. She’d just met the husband, and now there was a man kissing Elizabeth. He was another really handsome Native man.
Tori sat beside her and began laughing at the look on the woman’s face, then tried to cover it with a cough.
“Detective Cyra Austin, this is Director Callen Whitefox, and he’s the Liaison to the Native American community.”
Callen walked over to her and held out his hand. “It’s very nice to meet you, Detective. Welcome aboard.”
Cyra stood and shook his hand.
Elizabeth was amused at the look on her face. “The other Native gentleman that just strolled on in is Julian Littlemoon. He’s helping us track the killer and victims. Julian is my husband’s secret weapon on hunting things down.”
“And babysitting women that get into trouble when the husband is away. Ethan often employees me to be a body guard when need be,” he replied, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
What could Elizabeth do but laugh? It was true. Her husband tended to be a little bit overprotective.
“Julian, over my dead body,” stated Callen, returning to Elizabeth’s side, and dropping his left hand on her shoulder, connecting them.
Cyra noticed the matching rings and the way the woman stared up into his eyes. Yeah, there was something there.
Julian stood behind Tori’s chair, wishing he could touch her again. If he even tried it, he believed she’d freak right out. Baby steps were needed right now with her, but Callen had been right about how he watched and wanted her. Even after three months, it didn’t lessen. The need was still there.
“I’m so damn confused,” muttered the detective.
Elizabeth grinned. “You and ninety percent of our staff.”
Whitefox ran his fingers lovingly down her cheek. “How about we have some pizza and then we can talk about the crime scenes, and what you learned from Chris and Tony?”
“Works for me,” said Elizabeth, accepting a slice of pizza and feeling her stomach roll at the smell of the meat on the top. Well shit, this was a huge issue. Apparently, the new growing baby had an aversion to dead animal. How was she going to pull this off? Callen was pretty astute and tossing her cookies would put him on the trail. “I think I’m going to call down to the cafeteria for a salad too. Anyone want one?”
Whitefox looked over at her like she was an abductee of the pod people. “Seriously?” he asked, watching her with his chocolate brown eyes. This didn’t seem right. Did she just offer of her own free will to eat something green? The woman was his pizza eating buddy. Nothing made them happier than a grease filled pizza covered in cow and pig and drenched in cheese.
Elizabeth prayed he’d buy it. “Uh, someone wouldn’t get his ass out of bed this morning and run with me, and my New Year’s resolution is to eat better and exercise daily. I’m sick of Ethan giving me the look and telling me my cholesterol is going to kill me.” Callen must have bought it, he started laughing.
“I’ll pass on the salad,” he said, taking a bite of his pizza. “Tomorrow I’ll run with you, angel.”
Detective Austin raised her hand. “I love salad. Count me in,” she said. Pizza wasn’t one of her favorites. In fact, rarely did she eat meat.
“No thank you,” said Tori. “Me and pepperoni are really good friends,” she stated adamantly. Watching Elizabeth, she knew why her boss wasn’t eating the meat. Agent Christensen assumed it was pregnancy related. “If you want me to eat the pepperoni off your pizza, Elizabeth, I’m your girl.”
She laughed. “Thanks for the offer.” Elizabeth dialed down to the cafeteria and ordered two salads and an apple to be sent up immediately.
“Wow, room service,” snickered Julian. “This director job must be a good gig to get. How do I apply?”
“First you need to be shot a few times, abducted by a wackjob, and then almost blown up,” she stated, noncommittally.
Before Callen could comment on her willingness to allow another person to eat the meat off her pizza and her life always being at risk, there was a knock at the door.
“Come on in,” she said, leaning back in her chair.
Doctor Chris Leonard wandered into the room with a printout in his hand and a smile on his face. “I can come back if I’m interrupting,” he stated, looking from the detective to Elizabeth.
“No need, Chris. Want some pizza?” she offered him her plate. Score! Elizabeth was just saved by her death doctor’s timing.
“Awesome! I’ll trade you pizza for toxicology,” he grinned, handing her the papers. “It just came in and I figured you’d want it ASAP.”
Elizabeth knew why he rushed it up to her office. She was tall, leggy and blonde, and it made her smile. “I appreciate it. What do we have?”
“Other than the women using recreational drugs and booze, there is nothing special. I didn’t find any traces of sedatives in any of their bodies. These ladies weren’t drugged and then abducted.”
There was a second knock on the door, and Ginny wandered in with two salads in containers. “Who wanted salads and an apple,” she said cheerfully.
Elizabeth and Cyra raised their hands.
“Mrs. B, you're eating a salad?” she stated, incredulously. “Are you feeling well?”
Whitefox laughed. See, it wasn’t just him that found this disturbing and out of the ordinary.
“In two days I plan on going on a food bender. I’ll be gorging on anything that doesn’t move. I’m being proactive and nothing more. I have to say that you all are pretty damn paranoid about my eating habits.”
“We learned from the best,” retorted Ginny, handing the women their food. “Bon appetite,” she said, walking back out of the room.
“How about we find out how the crime scenes were, and worry about my food consumption later?”
Callen nodded. “They look pretty clean, but we did find some random things that shouldn’t have been there, Lyzee. The motel that was burned out had a vodka bottle in the debris. The one field had gum wrappers.”
“Not that I don’t trust you both, but I think we need the tech team to revisit each location and do a really thorough sweep,” stated Elizabeth, as she picked up her phone and dialed the tech lab. “Christina?”
“Yes Director?” she said into the phone. She’d just recently returned to her job. On her last assignment in Cypress Grove, she’d been caught in a car explosion and had burns. Christina missed her job and more importantly, she missed her co-workers.
“I’ll email you down the locations of the crime scenes. Get a tech team together and hit them all. I want every piece of evidence pulled, no matter how insignificant.”
“Did the CSI screw it up?” she asked, dropping her voice.
“Yeah, make me a happy camper and find me a stiletto heel in the motel, and anything else that’s going to point me in the direction of a manic.”
“Yes boss!” Christina hung up the phone.
“Okay, that’s handled. Next?”
Julian took over. “I can tell at the field scenes that the killer had to have arrived by car. The trees and grass surrounding the fields aren’t even touched. He didn’t enter and exit that way. We all leave a trail, even if we try to not do it. I did a map search of the locations and there’s nothing close by the sites.”
Elizabeth ate her salad, grateful her stomach wasn’t rebelling. All she needed was to be sick in front of a room full of people. Looking over, she noticed Callen was watching her, and she knew he wasn’t completely buying her story. Unlike Ethan, he’d bide his time and wait for her to slip up or when he couldn’t handle the curiosity any longer. Elizabeth knew it was simply a matter of time.
“I have the tech team searching for the identities now,” stated Chris. “They’re pulling up the missing person database.”
“If these are strippers and hookers, then they aren’t going to be missed. What if we go back even further, and check on missing persons for much younger women that have been missing a longer time? Maybe even back to teenage runaways?” Tori suggested.
Elizabeth got the direction she was heading. “Most girls that end up on the street ran away. If they had parents, then they had someone that missed them at some point. Great idea, Agent!”
Chris made a note on his smartphone. “I’ll have the tech team start there. Right now we’re running DNA, but really that’s not going to lead us anywhere.”
Elizabeth sat back in her chair. “This means we have to start searching the area. How many strip clubs do we have in town?”
Tori picked up Elizabeth’s tablet. “Let me search and find out.”
Julian began rubbing his hands together. “I call dibs on the strip club questioning. Want to join me Callen?”
Whitefox wanted to live longer than the mere thirty seven years he’d been alive. “Nope. I think what’s best is if I let Elizabeth tell me what I want to do and go from there.”
Now she was laughing. “You’re a very smart man, Cal,” she stood, lightly touching his arm, simply to be connected to him. “As for the strip clubs, tomorrow we ladies will start checking them out.”
Callen went to object, and then closed his mouth.
“Very smart indeed,” she said sweetly. “Someone has been taking lessons from Ethan.”
Tori finished her search. “Six strip clubs in the area. If we divide and conquer tomorrow, that will cut back on the street time. Most of them don’t open until two p.m.”
Elizabeth was glad there were only six. Two teams wouldn’t take too long to find the information.
Detective Austin still didn’t get it as she watched the two directors. There had to be some piece of information she was missing. It was as if he was her spouse too, but she knew Elizabeth already had one. “I can head back to the office and talk to vice. Maybe they’ll have some information on the street girls. I’ll work the hooker angle and sees what pops. Maybe a pimp will spill it.”
She appreciated that the detective was being proactive and thinking about the next step. So far, Elizabeth wasn’t second guessing allowing her on the team. “Good idea, Cyra. Let me know what you find out.”
“I’ll go harass the tech teams and light a fire under them,” said Chris Leonard, and then he realized what he just said. “I mean…” Damn! Being this near the detective was dropping his IQ.
“We all got the picture, Chris. Send me anything you get via email. I have to do some paperwork to keep this building afloat for the next few days before I can cut out for the night. Tomorrow we start canvassing and go from there.”
Everyone stood to leave.
“Tomorrow nine in the morning,” she added.
“Can I speak to you alone, Elizabeth?” inquired Callen, watching her.
Everyone scattered at the tone in his voice. It was probably going to get ugly.
When the office door closed, Elizabeth placed her pen down and stood, waiting for the confrontation. “Yes, Callen?”
“Why are you eating salad and an apple?”
It wasn’t the confrontation she expected. For sure she thought he was going to start with the strip club. “Honestly?”
“Yes let’s try that.”
Elizabeth shrugged. “My stomach doesn’t feel well today. I just didn’t want the grease sitting on top of ick. I think I overdid the coffee and my stomach is just stripped. If I said I felt sick, everyone would be all over me trying to make me insane.”
He moved to her side and pulled her against his body, and she relaxed against him. “Okay angel. If you need anything just let me know, okay?”
Elizabeth wrapped her arms around his waist and enjoyed the scent of his cologne. “I will, Callen.” Since her office door was closed, she decided to give him a kiss. It was slow and very calming. Her hands ran up his chest, to his shoulders and found their customary place in his hair.
Whitefox could barely think, as Elizabeth leaned into him, kissing him ridiculously slow. It warmed his body and made him forget. When Elizabeth finally broke away, he buried his face in her throat and left little kisses there. “I love kissing you. I think I could do it all day long and never get bored.”
“Mmmm, that sounds like the perfect way to spend the night. How about we tuck in CJ, send dad to bed, and you and I make out on the couch?”
“Really?” The idea had merit. Elizabeth in his lap and making out with him would be an awesome way to spend the evening. Then he remembered. “We have Julian.”
Elizabeth laughed. “So we send him to bed too, and then meet on the couch.
“Wine and Christmas lights?”
Uh, how to get out of this one now too. “No wine for me, Mr. Whitefox. I plan on being busy with my hands. I won’t have time to hold a glass.” Then she whispered in his ear and his body went hard.
“Oh well if that’s what you're planning, then I’ll definitely skip the wine too.”
Elizabeth grinned.
Callen kissed her again, and this time was more forceful. When he broke away, he gazed down into her eyes. “As for you going to a strip club alone, it’s never happening.”
Elizabeth ran her hands around his back and to his ass. “I wasn’t planning on going alone, Callen. I’m taking you with me.”
Now he lifted his eyebrow. “Really?” This didn’t seem like her. First fruit and vegetable and then she was conceding without a fight.
“I’m dividing the team into two, and then we’ll split up the list and hit them all in half the time. It’s almost Christmas, and the last thing I want to do is spend it in strip clubs.”
Whitefox laughed. “If an outsider heard half the things that you say, they’d think we’re crazy.”
“Detective Austin thinks we’re nuts. You can tell by her face when you called me ‘angel’.” Elizabeth relaxed, laying her head on his shoulder. Her heart was overwhelmed at the love she was feeling for the man.
“I’m not worried about it, because you are my angel,” he replied honestly. Without her, his life wouldn’t have any meaning or feeling. Before Elizabeth he just existed, and now he was living.
“Want to help me finish up the paperwork, and then we can get out of here early?”
Callen grinned down at her wolfishly. “Hell yeah, I do!”
Elizabeth patted him on the ass, pulling away from his body. “Then let’s get to it, Mr. Whitefox. We have making out to do tonight.”
Whitefox couldn’t wait.
Standing out in the lobby, the remaining part of the team was exchanging contact information. Tori gave Cyra her cell and the Blackhawk’s numbers. “If you find anything, shoot the information over to us.”
Detective Austin nodded, pausing in hesitation. “Can I ask you both something?”
Tori and Julian both looked at her, and they already knew where the conversation was heading. “Yeah?”
“Elizabeth is married right?”
Julian wasn�
�t surprised. “Yep. She’s married to Ethan.”
“Then what’s up with the relationship between her and the other director?”
Tori didn’t know how to put it. Just yesterday Elizabeth was thanking her for not gossiping. Yet, this was part of their team, and didn’t she deserve to know that team was stable?
Julian took this one. “Ethan and Callen are brothers.”
“Oh.”
Tori added, “I’m not going to tell you what’s going on, but take it for what you see. It’s not a big mystery.”
“So the three of them are…?”
Both of them shrugged, neither confirming nor denying anything. The Blackhawks were entitled to discuss their lives to whom they wanted. They weren’t going there.
“Okay then.” She thought about it. “Who am I to judge?”
“Exactly,” said Julian, “besides, if you were to look up bad ass and dangerous in the dictionary, you would find Elizabeth’s picture.”
“Good to know,” she turned to walk away. “I’ll let you know if I find anything,” and with that she was in the elevator.
There were a few minutes of uncomfortable silence before Julian took a chance. “Can we talk?” he asked, touching her on her arm. When she didn’t pull away, he relaxed.
“I’d prefer not to at work. This is my job. Whatever you’re going to bring up isn't work related is it?”
Julian cringed at her tone. It was icy and to the point. “No. It’s personal.”
“Then not at work,” she stated, walking back towards her desk in the bull pen.
“Have dinner with me then,” he blurted out, suddenly.
Tori looked at him over her shoulder. “That would be a bad idea.” Her heart was pounding as she prayed her face remained blank.
“I see,” Julian said. “Then I guess we’re going to have this conversation right here where your co-workers will hear about how you slept with me, and then blew me off.” Julian said it loud enough that she actually hissed at him and threw her hand over his mouth.
“Are you insane?”
Since she didn’t move her hand, he nodded. Julian would have pointed out that she looked crazy, standing inches from him with her hand over his mouth in the middle of her workplace.
Fire Burns Hot ((An FBI/ Romance Thriller~ (Book 5))) Page 12