Devil Hath Come (an FBI/Romance Thriller ~book 7)

by Kelley, Morgan

  Elizabeth stared at him. “You loved her, but you cheated on her? You think somehow that shows a woman that you cherish and adore her?”

  “Hey, I wasn’t getting laid at home. Our sex life was going downhill. Harmony had lost interest in doing it. I didn't stop caring about her. I only had the affair to take care of my needs. It was a one night stand with no strings attached.”

  There were days that if she could slap someone around, she would certainly do it.

  Ethan picked up where the man was heading. “Generally, if the sex stops in a relationship, there’s a reason. Did you ever try and find out why?”

  He stared at the men like they were crazy. “No, why would I? You’ve never had a dry spell in bed when you were with the same woman for a while?”

  Both men looked over at Elizabeth and then back to the man. “No,” they replied at the same time.

  She almost wanted to laugh.

  “Hey, before you crucify me for cheating on her, she wasn’t exactly innocent in all this. Harmony had some crush on a man she saw around town.”

  Great, this might lead them somewhere.

  “Do you know his name?”

  Stephen Harding rubbed his forehead. “Archie, Allan, Azra,” he began. “I don’t know! It was some weird name. Not a normal one you hear every day.”

  “Ares?” Callen suggested, finding the link and jumping in with it.

  “YEAH! That’s it! How did you know?”

  He shook his head. “It was just a very lucky guess.”

  Elizabeth was fascinated with the coincidence. How likely was it that Ares was heading a coven of witches that were being killed, and one of the victims had been infatuated with him? Maybe, he was tying up loose ends to make it look like a satanic murder and to point it away from them. Now, she was forced to wonder where their victim played into all this.

  “Did she act on it?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t have a clue. I thought it was more of a crush. She mentioned his name a lot, but that’s it.”

  Elizabeth stared at his chest. “I notice you wear a cross. How do you feel about worshipping the devil?”

  Stephen looked appalled at what she was even saying and immediately, he crossed himself as if it would protect him. “Listen here! I’m a good Catholic man. I still go to mass on Sundays.”

  They simply stared at him.

  Yeah, he was a regular saint.

  Ethan dropped his sunglasses on his face. “Stick around, Stephen. We may have more questions for you to answer,” he said, walking away. At the Denali, they regrouped.

  “I find it interesting that a dead victim was infatuated with Ares,” Elizabeth said.

  “Yeah, where’s there’s smoke,” Ethan began.

  “There’s a raging affair where the partner doesn’t know,” Callen added, laughing.

  Elizabeth looked up at him. “I’ll keep that in mind, Cal, in case I ever smell anything burning.”

  He looked mortified! “Wait, I didn't mean…”

  Ethan gave his wife a fist bump. “Sometimes, he makes it too easy.”

  She couldn’t disagree with that. “He certainly does.”

  She found him crawling under a morgue table.

  Although Cyra found that odd, she didn't even let it faze her. Working with the FBI and being in love with an ME weren’t always normal either.

  “Christopher, what are you doing?” she asked, crouching down to stare at him.

  “I’m looking for that evidence before Elizabeth fires me or ships my butt off to Timbuktu. I know things get misplaced, but this is the worst time and place for it to happen.”

  “So, that means you’re too busy now?”

  He stared up at her. “Why? What do you need me to do for you?” he asked, winking.

  Oh, she had plenty of ideas. “I brought us coffee and cookies. I thought we could take a lunch break and maybe spend a few minutes together. It seems that I missed you.”

  His heart skipped at her words. “I can do that,” he stated, heading to the sink to wash his hands. “What kind of cookies?”

  “Your favorite.”

  He grinned at her. “Chocolate chip?”

  Whew, she lucked out on that guess. “Yep.”

  Holding out his hand, he led her to the lounge and the couch in there. “We can sit here for a little while.”

  Cyra parked herself right beside him, and handed him a cup. Delicately, she dropped the bag into his lap. “I got them at the bakery when I took Rex out for a bathroom break.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s sitting upstairs guarding the tablets.”

  Chris found that funny. “Well, at least he’s being an FBI watch dog.”

  Picking out a giant cookie, he broke it in half and shared it with her. Yeah, they each could have had one, but this felt more intimate. When he got back to work, Tony Magnus was going to be jealous. He had a girlfriend that brought him cookies.

  Oh, and was willing to cuddle up in bed with him too.

  “I needed a few minutes away from the tablet. My eyes were starting to cross. It seems staring at financials all day is bad for your health.”

  “Sick of paperwork?”

  “A little bit. Please tell me that not all agents are relegated to desk jockey all the time.”

  Chris thought about it. “I’ve worked with Elizabeth a long time, and I can tell you this, she usually does her own research. She thinks most people are incompetent.”

  Cyra found that funny.

  He warned her during her chuckle. “Don’t underestimate her. She went to an Ivy League school and is super smart. She plays dumb to catch people off guard.”

  She was grateful for the warning. “So making me her paperwork monkey is all part of her master plan?”

  “It means that Elizabeth trusts you to do the backbone part of her job, and that you won’t mess it up. She doesn’t trust easily. Not when it comes to her family or her work.”

  “She told me if we got married, she was your best man. Was she just busting my ass?”

  “No, she wasn’t. Elizabeth in a tux will be fun to watch go down.” He didn't correct her on the ‘if’ part of getting married. It was only a matter of time. Chris was working up to saying the big ‘L’ word and getting hitched would be right behind it.

  She stared at him, loving the little crinkles at the corners of his eyes when he smiled. It was very sexy. “Want to have dinner in the room tonight? Just you and me? I might be able to promise some making out too.”

  “You had me at dinner, but sealed the deal at the kissing part.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip, and then leaned into his body to place her mouth against his. The kiss was slow and easy, and tasted like cookies and coffee. Pulling away, she stared into his eyes. “That’s the pre-evening make out sample.”

  “Yum.”

  When they stood, she ran her finger across his lips. “Think about me?” she asked, as she began walking away.

  Chris simply stared after her.

  How could he not?

  She had just offered him cookies, coffee, making out with a promise of more later. Yeah, this was the best damn week of his life.

  The last place that Elizabeth wanted to be was in the police office building waiting for Gena Lowry to show up. Patience wasn’t her best virtue on a good day, but on one where they had a killer and not many leads, it was testing her patience.

  As they arrived, Clifford Bean was behind his desk, and he was typing and smiling at everyone that passed by him. The man was too damn chipper, and it made her want to beat his head against the wall.

  “Morning, Directors. How can I be of assistance to you today?”

  She was beginning to think that he was a robot. No one was this pleasant. Both of their administrative assistants even failed to compare with Mr. Happy Pants.

  “We need to see your boss. Tell her it’s for an update.”

  He nodded and called up to her office to inform her of their arrival. “She’
s in a meeting right now and needs five minutes. Can I possibly offer you a cup of coffee?”

  They accepted his offer and waited while he joyously went off to get them their drinks.

  “You want to hurt him, don’t you?” Callen asked, lowering his voice.

  “Badly.”

  Ethan took her hand in his and dropped a kiss onto their wedding rings. Their rings sat side by side on her finger. Maybe on paper, they were the only half legally married, but in their hearts it was the opposite.

  They all belonged to each other.

  Callen took her other hand and kissed her palm before letting it go. “Be calm, angel.”

  Shortly after, the man danced his way over. “Here you three go,” he stated, handing them each a package of cookies too. “You may need these in case you need a little snack.” He went to walk away, but stopped. “I just want to tell you that I think you’re a really cute couple,” he stated, pointing at all three of them.

  Gee, she wondered where he had heard about that. Since he had missed their public display of affection, there was only one way the man could know that little tidbit. Chief Lowry strikes again…

  This was even more reason for Elizabeth to despise her.

  Sitting there was a waste of time and so unproductive. As she tapped her fingers on the arm of the chair, both men knew she was ready to blow.

  “So Clifford, how long have you worked here?” Ethan asked, trying to keep Elizabeth calm. He was seriously worried she was going to lose her temper.

  “Two years, three weeks and five days.”

  They all stared at him. He must really love his job.

  “I love working with cops. It’s fun to watch them bring in people in handcuffs. I play ‘guess what they did’ to pass the time.”

  She wanted to laugh. It was obviously a slow crime area in Circle Rock. Just then, the phone buzzed.

  “Yes, Chief?”

  Elizabeth knew they were the topic, since the man stared over at them.

  Once he hung up, he motioned towards the stairs. “She’s ready for you. Have a really great day and enjoy your cookies!” he called after them.

  As they walked away, Callen started laughing. “We need to make Ginny more bouncy like that.”

  She looked over at him. “I’ll slap you senseless if you even think that out loud again.”

  He grinned. “Yee haw.”

  Ethan offered him a fist bump. “You walked right into that one, baby. You’re off your game.”

  Yeah, tell her about it.

  Just as they were walking up the last flight of stairs, Officer Marsh was hustling down them. His face was all flustered. “Hello,” he stated as he rushed past.

  They watched him hurry out of the stairwell and then simply shrugged and headed into the office. When they arrived, Chief Lowry was behind her desk and working on paperwork. She barely looked up.

  “It’s good to see that you left the dog at the morgue where he belongs.”

  Elizabeth would take the dog over some pain in the ass chief of police any day.

  At least the dog was useful.

  “What do you want?” she added, waiting.

  “You wanted an update, well here I am. I came in specifically to mollify, I mean give you what you wanted.”

  The woman stared at her. “Are you this difficult to work with all the time or do you just have it in for me because women don’t get along in the workplace.”

  She looked at the men. “Am I hard to get along with?”

  “Not really,” stated Callen.

  “Nope,” Ethan added, smiling. “Although, come to think of it, I have noticed that when you don’t have your coffee you can be a little testy.”

  She took a sip. “Ahhhh, it looks like I’m good.”

  The woman stared at her. “Yeah, so anyway, what do you really want? You’ve busted my ass since arriving, you’ve called my men incompetent, and you made our ME look like a…” she searched for a word.

  “Jackwagon?” she offered.

  “See? That’s my point. What do you want?”

  Elizabeth really was there for an update. “I think you’ve gotten the wrong impression of me, Chief. I wasn’t intentionally keeping you out of the loop.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “I just didn't have anything to give you. I do now, and if you’d like it, I’m willing to tell you all about it,” she offered.

  The woman seemed to calm down. Leaning back, she crossed her arms.

  Elizabeth gave her everything that they had. She told her about the three women being part of the coven, and how they suspected that the killer was finding them on nights where they had their meetings, picking them off in the darkness.

  The chief listened intently, her face giving away no emotion.

  “Our third victim, Harmony Wilcox, had recently filed a PFA with the police against her then boyfriend, Stephen Harding. During a fight, he pushed her and ran.”

  She didn't look impressed. “Yeah, I know.”

  Elizabeth stared at her. She wasn’t quite sure how the woman knew, since they found out just recently and began working it. “Excuse me?”

  “Had you been more cooperative, I would have told you that we had that information. I was working the night one of my men answered the domestic call. I saw the report as it was filed.”

  It took everything to stay calm.

  Chief Lowry grinned at her. “See what cooperation gets you, Director Blackhawk? Had you just been a little less bitchy and difficult, you would have known that yesterday.”

  Both men put a hand on her leg. This was like dancing around a powder keg with a lit blowtorch. At some point, the spark was going to ignite the wick and people were going to get hurt.

  Callen shook his head. “Yeah, that’s real mature, Chief Lowry.”

  Elizabeth had had just about enough. Yes, she was difficult to work with, but she’d never withhold pertinent information to an assignment.

  “So, to teach me a lesson, you opted to waste my time?” Elizabeth was really appalled.

  Chief Lowry shrugged nonchalantly. “Hopefully it worked.”

  Elizabeth stood and fought to keep her temper in check. What she really wanted to do was grab the woman and slap some sense into her. “We’re done here. I’m not wasting another second of my time dealing with this. I’m just about ready to throw in the towel on this one.”

  She walked from the room, completely fed up.

  It wasn’t lost on her that she was so frustrated, that she was about to do something that she had never done in twelve years as an agent or director.

  Elizabeth Blackhawk was about to give up on an assignment and quit.

  ~ Chapter Fourteen ~

  When they arrived at the Denali, she didn't say a word. Instead, she opted to drive, taking them back to the hotel. Once inside, the men truly believed she was packing her suitcase and grabbing the next stage coach out of town.

  That worried them.

  Elizabeth was many things in life, but a quitter wasn’t one of them. As they followed her up, both men tried to offer some sort of reassurance. Their hope was that one of them could get her to break her silence. Unfortunately, both were having very little luck and failing miserably.

  Once in the room, she moved to her suitcase and dropped it on the bed. “I’m taking a break,” she stated, stripping out of her clothes and pulling on workout gear. “I’ll be in the gym,” she added as she walked out and slammed the door behind her.

  “This isn’t good,” Callen stated.

  Blackhawk had seen it once before. It was reminiscent of when someone had insulted him, and she had to swallow it and say nothing.

  Once more, Elizabeth was at that level of anger, and it meant that someone was going to pay. There was no doubt in his mind that it would be her.

  “Put your workout clothes on, Cal. We’re about to get sweaty.” He immediately began pulling out his shorts and a tank top. “When she gets to the point beyond sarcasm and anger, she’ll hold
it in until she beats it out of herself.”

  Callen hurried and began tying his shoes. They rushed to the door and down to the gym. Inside, on one of the treadmills, they found her, running. Her gaze was fixed straight ahead as she ran to pound the anger from her body. Both men took a treadmill beside her, and the three did what they would do at home.

  They stuck together as a team, side by side.

  At mile two, they were wondering how far she was planning on running. At three, they hoped some of the anger would be dissipating. By five, the pace was starting to get brutal. When they hit the sixth mile and were breaking their normal speed records, Ethan was prepared to step in and intervene. Not so much for her, but for them.

  Suddenly, she hit stop.

  Without saying a word, she walked over to the wall and slid heavily to the floor. As if to block it all out, she closed her eyes and still remained silent.

  Each man joined her and mimicked her actions as they waited for her to break or explode.

  Finally, she spoke, “Do you ever feel like you’re doing it for nothing? That it’s never going to make a difference anyway? We stop one lunatic and a new one pops up.”

  Ethan took her hand in his. “What if no one stopped them? What would the world be like, baby?”

  Callen took her other hand. “I have to believe that what we do matters. You’re giving those women a voice, and someone to care that they didn't died in vain.”

  “What we do matters and you can’t let one person stop you from doing your job. Yeah, she could have told us, but we found out anyway. We’re going to catch him, Elizabeth, and then we’re going to go home, see our kids, and plan for Christmas. It’s coming and we have chaos to spread.”

  The storm was passing in her heart thanks to them. “I love you both.”

  Callen pulled her to her feet.

  “How about showers and then we grab lunch? I’ll text Cyra. I think we need to regroup and start from there. Maybe we’re missing something.”

  Ethan dropped his arm around her shoulder and Callen did the same, as they walked back to their room. People stared, and they simply didn't give a damn.

  When it came down to it, they’d get it done, because the Blackhawks always finished what they started.