She snorted. “Focus. We go see Brody and Joey, and then we get some research in. I want to get the dirt on those four victims Dakota was talking about.”
“To be prepared?” Ethan asked.
She smiled.
“No, to show him anyone can Google. For an ex-ranger, and a US Marshal, the man has so much to learn.”
Yeah, Ethan agreed.
Starting with manners.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Broderick’s Father’s
Home
It was hard to watch her husband fall apart. Over the last two weeks, after they’d buried his father, Brody had begun to slip into some isolated shell.
He wouldn’t talk.
He wouldn’t make love.
He wouldn’t laugh.
It was breaking her heart as she watched him self-destruct over his father’s death.
Yes, he and Levi Seaton weren’t on the best terms, but when a parent died, a part of you went with them, and this was exactly what had happened.
Brody was feeling guilty.
He was lost.
By the time they’d gotten to hospice care to see his father, Levi had already been in a coma, and Monica, Johanna’s mother, was long gone.
It wasn’t shocking.
Her mother had ruined another life. She was bad with taking care of anyone but herself, and here was the proof. The man she’d professed love to was left behind.
When the fun ended, Monica bailed.
Always.
Joey had seen this one coming.
In fact, she’d warned Levi.
Monica was a gold digging hussy, who didn’t understand that marriage was sacred. She’d screwed her way through a slew of men, never looking back.
Now Johanna was left to clean up the mess.
Again.
Johanna felt responsible in some way, but she didn’t know how to stop it.
This was one hell of a downward spiral for the man she loved.
Johanna needed help, but she was all alone with this mess. It felt…hopeless.
As she made them both some coffee, she knew her husband was in the room packing up the last of Levi’s things. When he’d found the book with cut outs of his son’s accomplishments, it sent Brody into a deeper funk.
He was heartbroken.
When his mother died, he’d lost stability.
Now that cancer had swallowed his father whole, there was nothing left—in his eyes.
Johanna just had to hang in there.
She had to hope.
At the knock to the door, she headed there. When she opened it, there stood their bosses.
“Elizabeth!”
She hugged the woman.
“Joey! I didn’t know what happened,” she said. “Why didn’t you call me? I would have come.”
She shrugged and invited them in.
“He wouldn’t let me. There was no one there, Elizabeth. He dropped him in a grave, and he went with him.”
She got it.
She remembered burying Charlie. She’d been extra close to the man, and it had really broken her.
“Where is he?”
She pointed up. “He’s cleaning out his father’s things.”
“Where’s your mother?” Callen asked.
“She bailed. When Levi got sick, she took off. My mother doesn’t deal well with adulting. I’m not shocked.”
Elizabeth was horrified.
“She got on the nope train to Fuckthat-ville?”
Johanna nodded. “She left me with a broken husband, a dead father-in-law, and an emotional mess. I’m screwed.”
Well, maybe she could help.
It was the least she could do.
“Can I go talk to him?” she asked.
“Good luck. He won’t even look at me. I think he blames me for it. I think because Monica was my mother, he thinks I’m the reason this happened.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I think I’m going to lose him.”
Callen immediately hugged her, letting Johanna cry all over him. He simply let her mourn, as he patted her gently on the back.
Elizabeth saw they had this under control, so she was going to handle Broderick.
It was time for the ‘Girlfriend Code’ to kick in. Johanna had been there for her, and she was going to do the same.
Heading toward the stairs, she heard him moving around in the room. When she knocked, he dismissed her.
“Go away, Joey. I need time. I don’t want to see you right now.”
Elizabeth pushed the door open anyway.
When he turned, his face was full of anger.
Then he saw her.
“Oh.”
She came in and closed the door. “I’m sorry for your loss, Broderick.”
He shrugged. “In life, there’s death. What are you doing here?”
She knew how to play it.
“I’ve come to take Johanna. She said you’re going to leave her, so we’re cutting out first.”
He was horrified.
His heart started pounding.
“What? I’m not leaving! She can’t leave me! I need her. I’m all alone now!”
She looked around. “It looks like you’ve emotionally checked out already. She said you’re not talking to her, and the way you just told me to pound sand when you thought it was her…that says it all.”
He sat, unable to defend his actions. She was right. He’d been using his wife as a verbal punching bag for weeks.
Brody was defeated.
“I’m so angry.”
Elizabeth copped-a-squat on an egg crate. “Yeah, I can see that. Want to talk about it?”
“I didn’t believe him. He called to tell me he was sick, and I hung up on him. When I was hurt, he came across the country to be near me. Then he moved here to be by me, and I left.”
Ah, here it was.
Guilt.
It always popped in at times like this.
“This is not your fault. Your father loved you, and there was no way he’d want you sitting here like this.”
He looked up, tears in his eyes. “He tricked me to see him on Christmas last year. I was so pissed he’d cried wolf that I shut him out. Only, he really was sick. This time, it wasn’t a lie. He really did need me, and I wouldn’t see him. What kind of person am I?”
She listened.
“Hospice called when he went into the coma. I didn’t get to say goodbye to my own father because I was being a stubborn asshole.”
“Yeah, that sucks. I know that it’s hard.”
He got angry.
“You don’t have a clue.”
Oh, but she really did.
Elizabeth played momma bird for the man. She gave him her past, trusting him with it.
“My father died without me saying goodbye too. My step-mother and half-brother killed him. I lost the last link to my parents and I couldn’t protect him. When I finally found his laptop, he’d been emailing me when he was killed. He’d told me he missed me, and that he wished I’d come help him solve a case. I got it after the fact. That hurt.”
Brody listened.
“It sucked to know he needed me, and I wasn’t there in his last moments. I should have been. So, yes, I know how you feel, Brody.”
“I’m a Fed. I should have…”
She got it.
“You’re not to blame. I can say it over and over again, but you won’t listen until you’re ready. In the meantime, while you’re blaming yourself, you’re taking it out on your wife. She feels responsible too.”
“What? What did she do?”
“It was her mother…”
He sighed. “I’ve fucked this up.”
“Yeah, you have, but you can fix it. Your father is gone, and that hurts, but you don’t want to lose her, right?”
“I’d die.”
“Maybe you can lean on her, and she’ll help you through this, Brody. She’s a good person.”
H
e was aware.
“Joey loves you, and you can tell because she’s here when she could be working.”
Yeah, he’d taken her for granted.
He’d used her as his whipping boy.
He screwed up.
Royally.
“You have two choices. You can mourn him in a way you self-destruct, or you can mourn him in a way that’s constructive. What did he like to do?”
“Gamble, run ponies, and break the law.”
“Okay, maybe not those things.”
Brody laughed. “I needed that. Thank you for that, Elizabeth.”
It was all in a day’s work.
“Know where else you can get those same giggles?” she asked.
“Where?”
She pointed down.
“Hell?”
“You haven’t lost your humor. That’s a good thing,” she offered.
“Joey?”
She nodded.
Brody had to stop the runaway train.
“Thank you for coming,” he said. “I needed this.”
Yeah, agents were like children. She had more than the ones at home.
“It’s not the only reason I’m here.”
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Bonnie is back.”
“Uh oh.”
“Yeah, and she’s left a list. Family is on it, and I don’t know if that means blood, or someone tied to me at the FBI. Her first victim was a man, so watch your back. Better yet, take your wife, head to some undisclosed location, and celebrate your father’s life.”
“Is Joey in danger?”
“I don’t know.”
He got it.
Elizabeth was protecting them.
“I’ll be done tonight. We’ll head out tomorrow. Are you sure you don’t want us to help? I may not be on my game one hundred percent, but I can do research.”
Yeah, no.
That was exactly what she didn’t need.
There was no freaking way she could let someone off their game play against Bonnie.
She wasn’t even one hundred percent on her game. She was just coming back from being separated from Ethan.
“No, go away. Naked, beach, booze, and undisclosed would be the best. As in use cash. I don’t know how she’s tracking people tied to me, but she’s just begun her game, and I want you and your wife out of it.”
He gave her a hug.
“You’ll be careful, right?”
She patted his cheek in a motherly way. “Seaton Squared, I’ll be more than all right. I’m going to take this bitch down.”
She headed to the door and stopped.
“Go make up with your wife, and never forget that each day matters. Do it right and you won’t have regrets.”
“Can you send her up?”
That she could do.
When she arrived downstairs, she didn’t say anything to Johanna.
“Well?”
“He needs to see you.”
“Uh oh.”
Elizabeth gave her a hug. “If you need me, call. I’m around and available.”
“Okay,” she said, walking them to the door. When they were gone, she locked it before heading upstairs.
“Brody?” she called, standing in the doorway.
When he turned, there were tears streaming down his face. It was the first time she’d seen him mourn his father.
“Joey!”
He moved toward her and embraced her.
She melted into his body.
“I’m sorry for being an asshole. I’m sorry I hurt you. I didn’t mean it.”
She didn’t know what Elizabeth had done, but clearly, the woman was a miracle worker.
“We’re getting out of here tomorrow.”
She stared at him like he was possessed. Was this actually her husband?
Could he turn it around so fast?
“Where are we going?”
“I want to take a trip to an island. I want to make love to my wife, and I want to forget all of this. It’s time for me to move on, Joey, and I need you to help me get there.”
She couldn’t believe it.
Brody was coming back.
He was returning to her. This was one hell of a miracle, and she didn’t know what to think.
Instead, her eyes filled with tears too.
“Will you?”
She threw herself against him again. “Oh, Brody, I’d do anything for you. I’d die for you.”
He thought about what Elizabeth had said.
And that was what scared him. They were getting out of Dodge.
Fast.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Washington DC
Dulles International
Airport
Thursday Night
When their flight landed, Bonnie was jazzed and ready to go. As they headed out of the terminal and to the snack area, she knew what she needed to do.
Using the contraband credit card, she made a purchase.
It was the first step in her plan. Oh, she was laying a trail back to DC, and she didn’t doubt that Elizabeth would catch on sooner or later.
The woman was smart.
But she was smarter.
Bonnie already knew how she’d escape, and that would be the woman beside her. Lizzie was a good partner in crime. She’d been part of the plan, and she hadn’t even known it.
When they met, it had been easy to get her involved in her plan.
When she’d convinced her to be hers, it was a piece of cake.
Now it was time to play this how she’d planned. This wasn’t Clyde’s game.
This wasn’t Lizzie’s.
This was Bonnie’s quest.
By the time it was over, there was going to be only one thing the media could say.
‘All hail the queen! Elizabeth Blackhawk is dead!’
Bonnie would win.
Again.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Gabriel Rothschild’s
Office
It was good to be back to work. He’d missed the place in the worst way. Don’t get him wrong, being home with his family was amazing, but he didn’t know how Livy did it.
The place was a nut farm.
All day long, kids ran around, asked questions, and had temper tantrums.
It was bedlam, and he didn’t know how to process it.
How his wife kept them all quiet…it was beyond comprehension.
He’d even woken up after a chemo treatment to three kids and a dog staring at him.
It was…creepy.
Fortunately, Seven weeks went fast, and he was back at the helm of his other baby.
The FBI.
And he was loving it.
The Tsar was back, and he didn’t even mind helping Ethan with his tasks while he was taking some time out of the office.
He earned it.
Besides, the President of the United States was singing his accolades, the Department of Homeland Security loved him, and the Secretary of Defense only spoke highly of him.
Yeah, because she wanted in his Native britches—no doubt. The woman was a freaking power barracuda. Maybe he should have warned Ethan…
Nah.
Blackhawk was a straight arrow. He’d never cheat on his wife. He’d cut out his own heart first. No matter what struggle the Blackhawks were going through, Ethan would never dip his company stick in any other well but Elizabeth’s.
The man loved his wife, even if he was battling his temper, the much bigger demon.
As Gabe was sitting there, there was a knock to his door. It was pretty late in the evening for an agent to need his time, so he figured it was his secretary heading home, or his wife.
“Come in,” he called.
When Olivia strolled in, she was wearing a dress. She looked so beautiful that it stole his breath.
“Hello, gorgeous,” he said, smiling at her. “I’m so happy to see you.”
While he’d
been home for those weeks, recouping, they’d rekindled something that was dormant in their relationship, and it was amazing.
Their partnership was stronger.
They were happier than ever.
It had been perfect.
Coming back to work, in a way, had sucked. He missed seeing her all day long. She’d been his rock. When the chemo made him sick, she’d nursed him back to health. When he was puking his guts out, she held his hand.
When he lost his hair…
She loved him even more.
“I came to have dinner with you,” she said, “if you’re not busy.”
He sighed.
“I know. You probably are, but I figured we could have it here,” she offered, reaching outside the door to grab a basket.
He grinned.
It was nice to see that she got it. Now that he was back, and running the place, it was all hands-on deck.
His hands.
His deck.
“That I can do if you don’t mind me working while I eat,” he offered.
She didn’t.
Truth be told, she was checking on him. Livy wanted to make sure he wasn’t over doing it.
“I’m good with that. We can settle in, have some food, and you can tell me what you’re working on,” she said, dropping the basket on his desk before falling into his lap.
He grinned wickedly. “This is nice.”
She lovingly ran her hands over his bald head. When the chemo had made him lose all his hair, at first, he’d been nervous about it. Gabe once had a sexy mane of thick, salt and pepper gorgeousness that he was proud of since she’d met him.
Now…
He was even hotter.
“It’s better than nice,” she admitted, kissing him with all she had to show him how much she missed him.
His body reacted.
“What are you working on?” Livy said, as soon as their mouths broke apart.
“Bonnie is back.”
She stared at him. “Uh oh.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s an understatement.”
“Is Elizabeth back on duty?” she asked. Livy had tried to see her when she and Ethan had separated, but she wouldn’t let her anywhere near her.
Revenge has Come (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 19) Page 19