Easier said than done.
“No, I have to do it, but I appreciate you being a team player. Too often, people like to forget that once a line is crossed, you can’t go back. We all have our roles on this team, and that’s how we work.”
“Elizabeth,” Ethan warned.
The agents wanted out of there. It was clearly written on their faces.
“Who are you interviewing, ma’am?” Johanna asked, trying to keep the train on the tracks.
“Yesterday, I visited a Voodoo priestess. She gave me a little trinket,” she said, pulling it out of her bag.
She tossed it to Brody.
“What is it?”
“It’s like a saint medal. You know, like the patron Saint Michael?”
“Okay.”
“This one, from what I’m told, is a protection God.”
They looked confused.
“First, her DNA is on it, and I want it ran to cover our bases. I don’t trust her.”
“Because of a medal?” Ethan asked.
She pointed at the bag. “Let me catch you up to speed. That’s Ogoun, and he’s the God of fire. Twenty minutes later, after she handed that to me, someone tried to blow me up with fire. That gets her a return visit from me.”
He stared at her. “You should have told me,” Ethan stated, pointing at the trinket in the evidence bag.
Elizabeth wasn’t having any of that. “Well, I was a little busy last night. It may have slipped my mind.”
She pointed at the agents. “Get that to the lab. Have our NEW ME get it to the tech staff. I want it gone over with a fine tooth comb.”
“What happened to Chris?” Johanna asked, picking up the ‘new’ part.
“Oh, Deputy Director Blackhawk yanked his credentials and called in a psych evaluation behind my back, and in the middle of our case, but hey! It’s not as if I need an ME in the field. We can just all skip around and do whatever the hell we want, whenever we want. That should solve cases easily.”
He was getting angry.
Ethan didn’t mind her being angry, but she was pushing his magnanimous mood a little too far.
“In my defense, you have an ME—a qualified one. Chris said so himself. He’ll be helpful.”
She wanted to roll her eyes.
“Yeah, and we’ve never had an ME from a town help us, and he ended up being a killer, Right, Deputy Director?”
He tensed.
Yes, she went there.
Elizabeth threw Patrick Parrish into this for two reasons. The first was to remind him that they’d sworn never to trust anyone but their team because a killer hides in plain sight. Secondly, because no one pulled his badge when he’d practically melted down each and every day.
In fact, they’d rallied around him, building that wall of protection until he was strong enough to stand on his own.
Ethan sighed.
He got it.
He’d pulled a Gabe.
Before he could say anything, Elizabeth was back to work.
“What else do you have?” she asked, ignoring the glare she was getting from Ethan.
“The cop said there is a suspect at the morgue. He said the guy gets off on cozying up to bodies. He likes touching and conversing with the dearly departed.”
While odd, she couldn’t arrest a guy for being a creeper. If she could, half the suspects they came across would be in lock up. “What else?”
“Ummm.”
“I tell you what. I take it back. You two can handle it. I want you and Johanna to hunt down the guy and do the interview. What’s his name?”
“Max Howell.”
She added it to the board beneath Officer Clifford DuChamp’s name.
“Okay, drop off the medallion, and then you can do the interview. He’ll be located at another morgue if he’s on duty. If not, get his address and make a personal visit to Casa Creeper.”
They began packing.
She glanced over at Ethan to get his permission to do her job.
“But only if that’s okay with you, Deputy Director. I wouldn’t want to think I can run this on my own. You know how it is with us women.”
Ethan stared at her.
It wasn’t a happy look.
“Uh, we should go,” Brody said, grabbing his bag. They hauled ass out of there.
When the door slammed shut, Elizabeth remained glaring at him.
“We need to talk.”
“I don’t have time. I lost half a day, and I have a feeling that this killer has left me a body. I have to find it. Plus, on top of that, I have to worry about a friend.”
“Yeah, you looked cozy last night all cuddled up with them.”
Seriously?
He was going to throw that out there?
Really?
Did he want to die?
She didn’t bite at his jab.
It wasn’t happening.
She walked away, not even willing to go there. Ethan was trying to piss her off, and she wasn’t going to let him. He knew damn well she’d never do anything to compromise her marriage or their relationship—and especially not with two men she called brothers.
There were lines, and she refused to cross them.
As she headed into the bedroom, she began pulling her clothes off to shower. Her shoulder hurt like a bitch, and she wanted to get some hot water on it to soothe the muscle.
She also wanted to calm down. Elizabeth could feel her temper slipping.
That didn’t bode well at all for the man watching her.
“We need to talk, Elizabeth.”
She wasn’t in the mood.
“I think we should settle this.”
“Well, you think what you want, Deputy Director. Who am I to question you? Maybe you and Gabe can do lunch as you take over the world. I guess being a desk Tzar is tough work.”
He stared at her. “Okay, I definitely deserved that.”
Oh, she wanted to really lay into him.
“Just say it. You’ll feel better.”
She kept her mouth shut.
“Really. Go for it.”
Fine.
She would.
“You deserve a hell of a lot more than a few shitty comments, Ethan. You went behind my back, you booted my ME from the case, and you planned on running this without letting me in on it.”
“I did not.”
“When did you call the ME?”
Okay, she had him there.
This was getting worse and worse.
“Last night.”
“Oh, so, when did you call the doctor?”
“I spoke to Callista yesterday morning.”
“Funny how a woman on maternity leave would drop everything and run here for you, boss man. How cozy.”
He deserved that too.
After all, he’d taken a very similar shot at her when he was backed into a corner.
“I was worried about you, and when I got here, you were a mess. I’m trying to be your partner. I’m trying to support you any way I can.”
“You’re full of shit. You’re trying to be king of the kingdom, and until GABE fires me, I run this. I don’t answer to you, since you’re my husband—lucky me.”
He wasn’t sure if she was directing that last part at them being married, or him not being her boss.
At that point, it was a crapshoot.
“You’re coming dangerously close to crossing a line, Elizabeth. I’m trying to be patient, but you’re not making it easy.”
She had news for him.
There was no way in hell she was going to make it easy for him. He wanted to be boss…well, he got it. She was treating him exactly the same way she would had Gabe stuck his fingers into her investigative pot.
Hell!
He’d done the same thing to Gabe. He pushed back, and she was going to do it too.
This was the burden of wearing the title. It was why she didn’t want to be in charge anymore.
“I mean it.”
“Tough.”
“You’re already across the line, Director Blackhawk. You crossed it when you rode into town and decided that you knew what was best for this team—MY team.”
She pulled off the last of her clothes and headed for the shower. If she didn’t get going, she was going to be late. Late for what…she didn’t know.
Anywhere was better than here, fighting with her husband. Despite what he thought, it hurt her heart.
She hated this.
Ethan followed her, despite the anger emanating from his wife.
He wasn’t done.
This wasn’t over.
“I get that you’re mad. I get that you think I crossed the line, but someone had to do something. You were falling apart. I didn’t think you could handle it.”
He saw the look on her face.
Ethan Blackhawk had just screwed up.
Royally.
“Seriously? You don’t get it, do you? As smart as you are, Ethan, you don’t see what you did.”
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She’d gone to him as his wife. She leaned on him when she needed her husband. Now he was forgetting that they weren’t just that. This relationship—now that they’d moved back to DC—was complicated. Ethan needed to figure out when she was coming to him as a director and when she was there as Elizabeth, the woman he was supposed to love.
“You were imploding as an agent.”
She grabbed the showerhead and sprayed him. “I was hurting as your wife, and you couldn’t tell the damn difference,” she said. “I was Elizabeth, and I needed Ethan. I wasn’t an agent looking for fucking advice on how to run her team. There is a huge difference!”
It gave her great satisfaction to catch him off guard. After all, he’d done the same by taking over.
Ethan sputtered as water drenched his very pricy suit.
He stared at her. “Are you out of your mind?” he asked, shocked at what she’d just done.
“Apparently, I am. Maybe you should call your buddy Doctor Gaines, yank my freaking badge, and mandate me to her babysitting. That’s more your craptastic, heavy handed, overbearing style.”
She saw when she crossed over the line. Up until that moment, she’d been tiptoeing around it.
Now…yeah, she was in trouble.
“That’s it. That’s the last straw,” Ethan muttered, wiping his face with his wet tie.
“What are you going to do? Fire my ass? You aren’t my fucking boss! I don’t answer to you for this exact reason. You’re not my immediate supervisor for a reason.”
He stepped into the shower and grabbed her. “But I am your fucking husband.”
He saw the flash of fear.
Or maybe it was anger. With his wife, it was hard to tell. Instead of continuing the fight, he kissed her.
With Elizabeth and Ethan, there was always that underlying fire. They could bring it out in each other when neither expected it. That fight between them, the tug-o-war, was part of what made them good together. The power struggle only added to the multifaceted layers of their relationship.
When they fought, it often ended in sex.
It was healing.
They were finding their way back to center and through the anger-fueled storm.
Finally, Ethan had enough.
It was done.
He pushed her against the wall, and then pinned her hands above her head. “You won’t disrespect me, Elizabeth. You may not like my position in the FBI, but you won’t tear down our marriage.”
“You already disrespected me and did just that. You couldn’t look at me and tell when I was coming to you because I needed my husband. You immediately played boss. I needed Ethan, the man I love, not Deputy Director Blackhawk, the man who rules the kingdom. On top of all that, you disrespected Chris. You really screwed this up, Ethan, so kiss my ass.”
Oh, he planned to kiss something.
He knew she was right, and he was angry.
Angry at himself.
Angry at her for calling him on it and being right.
Angry for screwing up again and not seeing what she needed from him.
Even after all this time, he still made a mess of it, and he was afraid one day, she’d leave.
He took control, sealing his mouth to hers. At first, there was a battle. He pushed through her defenses, stealing what he wanted. If they were going to solve this, they needed to burn the mad off. Then they could talk it out.
He did know his wife, and this romp would do it.
“No,” she muttered, “I’m pissed at you.”
He didn’t listen. Instead, he let her hands go, giving back her power. If his wife really didn’t want him touching her, she’d push him away.
He kept kissing her, giving Elizabeth time to decide.
Soon, her hands were moving up his chest. He heard the rendering of fabric when she yanked roughly on his shirt.
It tore easily beneath her anger.
Ethan moaned.
Elizabeth ran her nails down his chest.
Their positions flipped. He was against the wall, and she was forcing the kiss on him.
He didn’t mind.
“You crossed a line. You owe me an apology,” she said, yanking his tie free.
Here’s where they began putting it back together again.
“I’m sorry. I was worried about you. I hate seeing you fall apart, and someone tried to blow you up. That makes me irrational.”
She understood.
“No more, Ethan. There have to be boundaries. When you’re in the field with me, in an official capacity, you’re just my profiler.”
He pulled his mouth away from hers. For some reason, it added fuel to his anger. “So, I’m only your profiler?”
“There are boundaries. We have to have them or this mess will happen over and over again.”
He was aware, but he didn’t need her telling him that. He’d figured out his mistake on his own. Like the other times he’d let her down, he’d put work first. Well, that was about to change. He’d put their needs above it.
“Well, let’s cross them.”
She didn’t know what he meant, until he shoved her to her knees. When she looked up at him, he yanked his belt off, and pulled down his fly. Then he grabbed her by the hair. “Now I’ll really cross the lines. Your boss won’t do this, but your husband will.”
He forced his way into his wife’s mouth, only she didn’t stop him. Her hand found him, and it joined her mouth in pleasuring him.
Her touching him was cathartic.
He was able to focus.
“God, I was so scared,” he muttered, watching the woman who owned his heart. “You nearly died, and I was hours away from you. I couldn’t get to you, and that was a hard pill to swallow.”
She worked him hard, scraping her teeth down the length of him.
It wasn’t easy to get all the emotions out, but he was trying to find his way through them.
Hell!
It wasn’t easy to think as his wife was giving him a blowjob.
“If I lose you, I’ll have nothing. If I lose the only woman who owns my heart, how will I go on?”
His words touched her.
This was Ethan’s way of finding his way back through this. Since his abduction, it was always a battle for him. There was that constant fear that some maniac would steal away his family, his wife, his heart.
It strangled him.
She stopped, and he pulled her to her feet. “I was wrong. I admit it, but I can’t help but worry about you. I’m more than your profiler, Elizabeth. I’m your husband. I know the lines get blurred, but you mean everything to me.”
She could have been tender, but instead, she went with wild. They needed to burn off the anger.
They needed to find that common ground.
She jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. When she did
, he slid home. Then he leaned her against the wall and began filling her. With each stroke in, he left little bites across her shoulder.
Her moans of pleasure filled the room.
“More, Ethan.”
He didn’t hold back.
When she yanked him to her mouth roughly by the hair, he moaned too. Then they fell into the mating.
Hands.
Mouths.
Bodies.
As the breathing intensified, they were both close. All the while he pounded into her, he pictured the crypt and fire.
It ate away at him.
He needed to own this moment for his own sake.
“God! Now Ethan!” she begged.
He slammed into her in just the right spot. She erupted around him, and he poured into her body in wave after wave of heat. Sliding to the floor, she held on as he leaned against the wall.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered. “What can I do to get you to forgive me?”
“That was a start.”
Yeah, she wasn’t kidding. He couldn’t feel his feet. They were numb from the pleasure.
“Be serious. What can I do?”
“Don’t pull his badge.”
Why wasn’t he shocked?
“Elizabeth.”
This was a fine line, and he knew it. It really should have been her call. If she was secure enough to work with Christopher Leonard, it wasn’t up to him.
Now Gabe…
He was another story.
“Let him stay in the lab. Give him something to do. He can work alongside Doctor Perette. I trust him, Ethan. I need you to trust my judgment. I want to work with my people. That’s why Gabe let me hand pick my staff. He knew I would pick people who could hold up under this kind of pressure.”
He was aware.
Elizabeth was right. At one time, he trusted her to save his life.
“Okay, but on one condition.”
“What?”
“No, make that two.”
“Ethan!”
“He agrees to see Doctor Gaines when we’re home. He can work, but only if she passes him today.”
Elizabeth thought that was fair.
“Okay.”
“That’s only part one.”
“What’s the second part?” she asked, brushing the wet strands of hair from his face.
“You let me scare the hell out of Tony for sleeping beside my wife because it’s never happening again. Ever.”
She started laughing. “Only if I can watch.”
Blood Shall Run (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 15) Page 29