“I like my marriage as it is. I’m not willing to give up what we had so we can redo it. We made mistakes, and those errors make us stronger. I won’t remarry you because I’m happily married to a very kind, wonderful man. I cherish our relationship as is. I wouldn’t change it.”
He couldn’t believe what she was saying.
“Seriously? You’re not kidding, right?” he asked.
There was a transformation in her. The butterfly, lying dormant for the last seven weeks, was now leaving that protective cocoon.
She smiled wickedly at him.
And then, Elizabeth did what she wanted to do in her fantasy.
She attacked.
Chapter Two
Outside Damascus
S he was ready to get down and dirty to do the deed. It was time to get this game started, and she couldn’t wait to engage the enemy on this new battleground. With Lizzie by her side, Bonnie knew she couldn’t lose.
Why?
Because they were smarter and trickier than Elizabeth would ever be. While she was in Salem, playing her little games with the men in her life, Bonnie and Lizzie would start the hunt. For now, it was time to lay the groundwork for what was coming, and it was going to be brutal.
Elizabeth was about to be pulled into the web by a much bigger, meaner spider.
It was about to begin.
“Are you ready?” Bonnie asked her new favorite pet. She wanted the woman to be ready to do the deed. This wasn’t about screwing around.
This was about killing to satisfy her needs.
The need to punish Elizabeth Blackhawk.
The petite woman smiled at the question.
“As ready as I’ll ever be. I want to make her bleed, and then we can retire somewhere together,” Lizzie offered.
Bonnie wasn’t going to burst her bubble. If this girl, a child really, wanted to live in a fantasy land, so be it.
She had to focus on the prize, and in it, she wasn’t sharing the outcome.
It was somewhat amusing to her. This woman didn’t realize that she was expendable. Don’t get her wrong. She appreciated a person so sick and twisted that they could rape someone with an ax handle, but…she liked dick, and this was all an act.
A farce.
A means to an end.
She needed someone to sacrifice to the cops if it went bad, and this child was it.
If it took some sex to clear the way, so be it. There was simply no way she was going down for any of this. She wasn’t training a protégé. She was preparing a sacrificial lamb to the altar. If this went bad…
Bye-bye Lizzie.
“Sure thing, pet,” Bonnie offered, simply to assuage her fears. She didn’t have time to play mommy to this grown woman. If she couldn’t see the forest through the trees, that wasn’t her issue.
Sometimes, you had to be responsible.
For Lizzie, that was now.
“Let’s go over this,” she began. “He’s inside. It’s so early in the morning that no one will notice if he’s a little late for work. We have to handle this, and do it right.”
“I understand.”
She hoped she did.
This was the curtain call. The big production was coming, and it would come down to this. If there was one slip up, it would all go downhill.
Fast.
She didn’t want to be on the wrong side of that avalanche. Bonnie knew what she was up against, and it was no joke. Elizabeth Blackhawk was smart—not as smart as she was, but still…that was one dragon you didn’t want to mess with if you weren’t ready.
“Do you have everything?” she asked.
Lizzie patted her bag. Inside it, she’d stashed her tools. There was an ax, a saw, and lots of rope.
“He’s handled. I promise. Let me show you what I can do,” she offered. “We’ve practiced and practiced. I’m ready to contain him on my own. It won’t be hard. I promise.”
Bonnie could smell the bloodlust. If anything, this girl was all about death. She’d had to be taught the artistry of killing. Before her, she was nothing more than a hack.
It was time to let the crazy fly the nest.
“I’ve got your back. We’ve practiced and planned. Follow the outline, and we’re safe.”
Lizzie gave one insane, crazy laugh. “On it, baby,” she stated, as she headed toward the house.
Bonnie held her breath. This was where it was going to count. If the woman failed…yeah, she was getting the hell out of there, and fast.
At the door, Lizzie quickly grabbed something from her kit. She palmed it and got ready for what was coming. It was going to be one hell of a fight, and she knew it.
Then she rang the doorbell.
It took a few minutes for the man to get there, but once he did, he opened for her. The blonde man was standing there in his dress pants with his shirt wide open.
Had she liked men, she might have seduced him into bed before taking him.
“Yes?” he asked, glancing down at his watch.
“Cannon?” she asked, making sure this was the right target. Plus, it put the prey at ease if you used their name. Bonnie had taught her that.
“Uh, yeah, can I help you?” he asked, not recognizing the woman on his porch.
“I have something for you.”
“What?” he asked curiously. This girl couldn’t be over twenty, if that. What was she doing at his door at this time of the morning? There was no way it could be a delivery. It was too damn early in the day for that.
“This,” she said, right before she pulled the trigger of her Taser. The barbs found their way home into his torso.
It was a bull’s-eye.
Cannon stumbled backward, his coffee flying as she sent ten thousand volts through his body. He shook, he relieved himself, and he couldn’t fight as she wouldn’t let up on the trigger.
When she finally moved into his home to stand above him, there was laughter.
“Why?” he whispered.
She didn’t reply.
Instead, she pulled out the ax and smiled down at him. “It’s time to die, Cannon. Goodbye!”
With that, she swung, lopping off his head right there in the middle of his lovely living room. The blood was a beautiful thing as it pooled around his body.
It made her giggle.
When she was done, she went to the door and motioned toward Bonnie.
“All done,” she said, in her sing-song voice as she approached the door.
Bonnie headed in and stared down at the body. He was already decapitated.
“What the hell?” she asked. “What did you do, Lizzie?” There was no way she killed him.
That wasn’t the plan.
At all.
Shit!
Lizzie was clearly confused. “What?”
“You chopped off his head!”
“Yeah, wasn’t I supposed to?” she asked. “That’s what we do.”
Bonnie stared at the pool of blood covering the floor from the arteries in his spine.
“NO! I get to use and abuse them first,” she stated. “Half the fun is torturing them, and now we can’t.”
She pouted. “I wanted to make you smile,” she said, wiping her eyes. “When we practiced, you told me cut off their heads. I was just trying to make you happy.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I wanted you to be proud of me.”
Bonnie sighed. At least this didn’t end with the cops, a blown attempt to take the man out, and Elizabeth Blackhawk catching her. She’d have to accept it.
“It’s okay, Lizzie. You’re just learning. We can still send the message to that Fed bitch. Next time, you incapacitate not decapitate. They are two very different words.”
“I know, Bonnie. I went to college. I’m smart.”
She rolled her eyes.
Yeah, the smartest people had zero common sense. Here was the proof. How the hell did you torture the dead?
“Yes, you’re smart, but I get to do the final killing. I like t
o have fun too,” she stated, trying to get the girl to understand.
Good help was hard to find.
“Okay, Bonnie. I’m sorry. I’ll do better next time. I promise,” she offered.
The woman let it go.
She had to.
“Let’s set the scene, and then we’ll get the hell out of here. I want them to find him, and then call her. This is going to drive her insane,” she stated.
That was her hope.
Driving Elizabeth mad would be enjoyable.
After all, she’d asked for it.
She’d ruined her fun.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Salem
He never saw it coming.
When Elizabeth jumped him, Ethan lost his balance and fell backward off the small patio into a bed of flowers.
Elizabeth came with him, landing on top of his body. Immediately, her mouth found his, and she dove in like a starving person.
Her tongue did battle with his, and he fought so hard to let her have control. What Ethan wanted was to pounce, roll, and take her in the sea of peonies.
Instead, he gave her this moment.
As she drove him wild, Elizabeth noticed something was off. He wasn’t touching her back. He was ramrod stiff beneath her as if her assault wasn’t wanted.
Immediately, she stopped kissing him. Her heart was pounding, but not for the right reasons.
Now she was scared. Had the seven weeks destroyed that chemistry they’d had?
His eyes flickered open.
Hers filled with tears.
“You don’t want me anymore, do you?” she whispered, as she straddled his hips. As Elizabeth tried to get off him, he grabbed her casted arm.
“What?” he asked. “Wait!”
She struggled to move away.
The rejection hurt.
“Elizabeth!”
She stopped moving but couldn’t look him in the eyes.
“I want you more than I want to breathe. I never stopped wanting you.”
“You’re lying there like a corpse. That’s not how Ethan used to react to me. It’s one sided. You don’t want me.”
His heart broke as a tear slid down her cheek. He wanted to lie. Ethan desperately wanted to protect himself.
Instead, he told the truth.
“I wanted to let you be in control. I was afraid to let go. I didn’t know how you’d react,” he said in frustration. “It’s been almost seven weeks.”
She looked over. “I’m afraid I’m not good enough for you,” she admitted. “I’m not gorgeous or important in DC.”
He stopped her.
“We aren’t in DC.”
“The media…”
He stopped her again. “I’d put my sexy wife against that woman any day. Stop thinking about the Secretary of Defense. I’m not dwelling on her. Why should you?”
She could say the same thing to him. “Stop thinking that I have to be in charge. This is about us.”
She had a point.
“I want to roll around, get messy, and take you,” he admitted.
Her heart skipped. “So? Do it. Stop overthinking. That’s what got us here. I need Ethan Blackhawk, the man who married me in four days. I need him. I need you to come back so we can heal this tear in our lives.”
He got it.
Instead of speaking, he pulled her back down, and he rolled. As soon as she was beneath him, he didn’t hesitate to show her what he wanted.
Ethan grabbed the front of her t-shirt and ripped it down the middle until she was bared to him. He then tugged off her shoes and tossed them across the patio.
“I need you naked. It’s been far too long.”
It was said with such raw need that it sent shivers down her spine.
“God! Yes,” she muttered.
He dove back in, his mouth tearing her control to shreds. It had been too many long weeks of fanaticizing about this day, and finally, it was here.
She was here.
With him.
“God! I want you in so many ways. I don’t know where to start first,” he admitted, biting her on the shoulder as hard as he could without breaking the skin.
She moaned at the kiss of pain. It was delicious, wanted, and very welcome.
“Ethan!” she begged, grabbing him by the hair and pulling his mouth back to her. As she kissed him, he began tearing at her shorts. He’d destroyed them as quickly as he ruined her t-shirt. It offended him to have her covered in clothes. For what he needed, she had to be bare.
For him.
When he stared down, she was lovely, even as she was lying in the flowers.
She was the most beautiful one there.
He dove back in, craving the taste of her lips. He wanted to drink her in, satiating that need and craving. Ethan was pretty sure if he didn’t have her, he’d die.
God!
He would cease to exist.
There was no way he could stop now.
Elizabeth pushed him off her, until he was now straddling her bare hips.
He blinked, trying to control the need. It wasn’t easy. He wanted to pull his dick out and take her. He wanted to hear her scream his name over and over again.
He was beyond making love.
He was at the rutting stage. It was man versus beast, and he was trapped somewhere in between.
Blackhawk was giving a new definition to the word horny. Nothing had ever come close to this feeling.
He stared down at her. “Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind.”
Oh, she hadn’t.
She pulled him back down and devoured his mouth. Finally, as she continued to kiss him, she spoke into the kiss. “You’re overdressed,” she admitted. “Let me help you,” she said, and then she ripped his shirt open, buttons flying everywhere.
Elizabeth’s hands slid down his body and right to his erection. He was throbbing and she wanted to set him free.
“Here?” he muttered back. Oh, he was okay with fornicating in a bed full of peonies and pansies.
Hell!
He’d do it on a bed of nails.
Blackhawk wanted his wife back, and he’d do anything she asked of him.
She didn’t reply. She was too busy pulling open his pants. When she opened her eyes, she gasped.
And stopped.
Ethan was breathing heavily as he stared down at her. Her eyes were huge, and her hand had stopped stroking his erection.
This wasn’t a good place to be, and he knew it. His control was fraying, and fast.
“What?”
“What?” she asked. “Seriously?”
Elizabeth pushed him off her and she crawled to her knees in front of him. “What did you do?”
Ethan knew what she was talking about before she said anything else, simply by the direction of her eyes.
His tattoos.
“I got some ink while you were away. I had to fill the time, and...”
And what?
Would she laugh?
Be angry?
Would she get that it was his way of becoming the man he once was? This was all about being impulsive. Now he had to wait to see if Elizabeth got it.
She ran her fingers down his chest.
Elizabeth imagined they looked silly. He was shirtless, she was in her bra and panties, and they were kneeling in peonies and pansies.
“Ethan.”
“I had to fix it in order to go back to where we started,” he offered, when her fingers slid over his raven.
Gone were the scars.
It was poetic.
She got it.
The scars were healed, and he was remaking himself into his former self.
“Well?” he asked.
She admired it. “It’s gorgeous. You had highlights put in it,” she admitted. Her fingers traced the pale silvery lines he’d added to accentuate the feathers.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“I don’t like it,” she said, looking up at him.
Ethan held his breath.
“I love it.”
That was all he needed to hear. This was the same woman who accepted him six years ago. This was the same woman who let him into her home, heart, and life.
His grandfather had always been right. He’d chosen well, and he wanted her to return to him.
So, he told her everything.
“My back is done too.”
To her, this was like some sexy scavenger hunt. She needed to see them all. Getting up, she moved behind him and waited for him to let the shirt fall from his back. As it did, she gently brushed his hair away.
“Oh, Ethan.”
There, on his bare skin, was her name.
Their kids’ names.
And symbols of their love.
On his one set of ribs, she saw it. There was only one color piece on his whole body, and that was it.
“It’s a badge,” he said, as her fingers moved over it.
She could see that.
Only, instead of the ‘FBI’, it said ‘Lyzee’.
“You’re my dream,” he said. “You’re my badge of honor, courage, and strength,” Ethan admitted. “Not my job. I just got lost for a little while. I’m back now. I know what my duty is in life, and it was never to be a Fed. It’s always been to be your husband.”
That stole her breath away.
“Well?” he asked.
She was speechless.
Ethan, for the longest time, hadn’t gotten ink. Well, he’d made up for it.
She tugged him to his feet. “That’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” she admitted.
He stood bare chested before her. “As in you want to roll around naked with your tattooed partner?” he asked.
“My husband. I want to be with my husband. Take me to bed, Ethan. Our bed.”
He never thought he’d hear that again.
“Hop on,” he said, turning around.
Elizabeth giggled like a school girl—not for the piggy back ride, but because her husband was covered in ink. His arms, his back, his chest, and his ribs.
Holy hell!
This was going to be the death of her. This was like Christmas morning in her world.
Oh, she hoped his delicious ass had one too.
Revenge has Come (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 19) Page 7