Blood Shall Run (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 15)

by Morgan Kelley

  Yeah, he must have.

  “We have to find him. He’s going to be tying up loose ends. Who the hell knows who’s next?” Blackhawk stated.

  Callen grabbed his tablet. “We better find him.”

  “Run his cell. Locate him.”

  They had a crazy to catch.

  Elizabeth was going to be pissed she turned off her phone. They finally had a break in the case.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  B&B

  He’d managed to stay coherent, only faking being passed out. Chris’s head hurt so much that he was having a hard time focusing. Chris could taste the blood running down his face.

  When Detective Le Bleu hit him, he’d broken his glasses and cut his face.

  He was a mess.

  When he heard footsteps, he slowed his breathing. With his hands in front of him, he might be able to fight for their lives.

  Maybe.

  It was going to be a long shot.

  “Elizabeth, I’m really sorry I have to do this, but you’re getting too close,” the detective said. “It’s nothing personal. As you’ve figured out, I’m sick. I need the blood and livers to survive. It’s me or them…well, or you.”

  She struggled against her bindings. He’d taped her mouth shut, and she couldn’t even scream.

  Not that it would matter.

  It was nighttime, and it was busy in the street below their room. It was so loud in ‘The Quarter’ that no one would even come looking if she could start yelling.

  She was screwed.

  This was a really bad situation.

  “I wasn’t going to hurt you, since you’re a fellow cop, but you gave me no choice. You’re getting too close. I’ve tried to point you in other directions to save you. I didn’t want to do this. You’re too damn smart. Now you have to die.”

  He ran the knife across her bra to the swell of her breast. As he did, she tried to move away.

  She couldn’t. The bindings were damn tight.

  This was bad.

  In her head, she began praying to Timothy. He’d told her she had a long life and she was counting on that.

  She could swear she heard wind chimes, but she wasn’t sure. It was so damn loud outside. There seemed to be a parade going by.

  Shit!

  Shit!

  Shit!

  “I’m going to have a few sips of you, and then I’ll take your liver too.”

  She shook her head, trying wordlessly to plead with him. Now Elizabeth knew how all the murder victims she’d stood for over the years felt.

  This fear was so powerful that it was making it hard to think. She was trying to recall everything the FBI had taught her, but it was just out of reach.

  The only thing she could think was fight.

  She had to hold on for her husbands and their kids. She couldn’t let CJ, EJ, Cat, Charlie, and Christopher Anthony grow up without her.

  It wasn’t right.

  There had to be a way.

  Then when he began stripping out of his clothes, she started to panic.

  He knew what she was thinking.

  “Don’t worry, Director. Even though you’re beautiful, I don’t get off on this. I need to keep my clothes from getting dirty. When I’m done here, I’m going to call your husband and tell him I arrived here and found you. I’ll set the scene, kick in the door, and play cop.”

  Tears filled her eyes.

  Her poor husbands.

  This would kill them.

  Chris listened to the man from his spot on the floor. With his fingers, he could feel the broken metal of his glasses. With bound hands, he palmed it and slowly curled into the fetal position to reach his feet.

  The detective had screwed up.

  His hands were in front of his body.

  This was going to save them. He recalled all the lessons Elizabeth had taught him fifteen years ago. As they navigated life, as newbies, she’d made sure to instill ways to get out of shitty situations.

  Well, this was one of the worst. There was no way he was watching the woman he loved, his sister, being killed.

  Then dying too.

  Bethe needed him. She’d lost too much.

  This had to work.

  As he sliced away at the duct tape, he kept his eyes on the killer. He was straddling Elizabeth’s body, and Chris knew they didn’t have long.

  He watched in horror as the killer took the knife and ran it from her neck to her breast.

  He could see the red.

  Chris could hear the muffled scream of pain and terror, and he needed to get moving.

  The detective was bleeding her.

  They both watched in horror as he did the unthinkable. Detective Le Bleu began licking her chest, sucking away the blood. Elizabeth fought to buck him off her body.

  His touch was making her sick.

  His mouth on her was even worse.

  As Elizabeth fought, Chris was nearly through the bindings. He only had to…

  The detective lifted his head. “You taste really good. I have to say, I want to spend all day lying on top of you and drinking from you.”

  She started to cry.

  Her body shook as the tears fell.

  Elizabeth was pretty sure this was how she was going to die. They’d come back to the East Coast, and she’d lose her life to this man.

  She thought of her children.

  “Since you’re a cop, I’ll make it quick. I respect you. I won’t make you suffer.”

  He touched the blade of the knife against her throat, and she closed her eyes. She knew that Chris told her once a jugular was cut, you didn’t last long. She’d only live two minutes.

  She prayed he’d not carve her up until she was dead.

  Here it came.

  All those years ago, she knew she’d die in the line of duty, and it was about to happen.

  Granddad had been wrong.

  God!

  He’d been very wrong. He was going to be seeing her really soon. Him waiting gave her no solace.

  She didn’t want to die.

  It wasn’t her time.

  As he began cutting into her neck, she heard it. There was this roar of anger and the bed moved. The detective went tumbling off her body.

  She opened her eyes in time to see Chris up and attacking the man. He swung out, missing.

  Elizabeth began praying. ‘Please let him remember how to fight.’

  Their lives depended on it.

  There was so much rage in him. When Chris saw the man making the cut, he was filled with desperation and fury. If he hit that artery, she was gone. He couldn’t let that happen. With a pull, the duct tape snapped, and his feet were free. Jumping up, he raced at the man, hitting him with all his body weight to get him off Elizabeth.

  That was his only purpose at that moment. He had to save his sister.

  He wasn’t going to lose her too.

  Chris wouldn’t let her go out this way.

  Not now.

  Not ever.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  Morgue

  Ethan was pacing.

  He was waiting for his team to find the detective’s location. They had an advantage. Since the man didn’t know they were onto him, they might be able to sneak up on him, sparing any more women from being hurt.

  Well, if his phone wasn’t off. If it were, then they’d have to ping it for his last location. That would be hit or miss.

  Hopefully, since he was just starting his shift, they could find him.

  Maybe luck would be on their side.

  Again, he called his wife and Chris, and again, no one answered. She was going to be pissed when she missed this takedown.

  Maybe he should have the concierge go to her room…

  He was about to call when he heard a chair scraping across the floor, and his brother’s shout.

  “Oh, shit!” shouted Callen, jumping up. He was grabbing his gear. “Ethan, let’s go!”


  “What?” he asked.

  “I found his cell.” He rattled off the address as he tugged on his vest.

  Ethan’s eyes went big.

  “That’s the B&B.”

  Everyone knew what that meant. The detective was right there with their wife.

  Ethan didn’t hesitate. Their family was in danger.

  He, Callen, Tony, the two agents, and the detective ran for their vehicles.

  It wasn’t a long drive, but with the tourists and parade going on, it was going to take some time.

  Time, he suspected, that he didn’t have.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  B&B

  Chris was fighting for their lives. As Elizabeth struggled to get free, he was doing battle with a maniac. The only good thing was when the detective stripped down, he’d taken off his gun. Had he not, Chris wouldn’t have had a chance.

  The bad part was Chris was fighting blind and against a crazy with a knife.

  “I’ll kill you too,” he hissed. “I’ll feel bad about hurting her. You…not so much. You’re a pain in my ass.”

  Chris wasn’t going down that easy.

  Even though his hands were still taped, he picked up a lamp, swung, and hit the detective with it. He knew what he needed to do.

  He needed to get to the man’s weapon.

  It was the only way.

  Rolland Le Bleu wouldn’t be down for long, and this was his only chance. Diving toward the man’s pants, he grabbed the gun and prayed he could remember how to use it in the heat of the moment. With his finger, he hit the safety.

  As the detective loomed up, raising the knife above the bed to kill Elizabeth, Chris knew it was time.

  One gunshot filled the night.

  Then two.

  Chris watched him stagger back from the bed, his hand going to his now bleeding chest.

  He didn’t hesitate. He always thought he’d have a hard time taking a life, considering what he did for a living, but he didn’t.

  He didn’t care. This man was threatening his family—his sister and best friend.

  He pulled the trigger again and again.

  Three.

  Four.

  Five.

  Then he finally got him in the head.

  Rolland Le Bleu fell back, landing on the floor at Chris’s feet. His brains were all over the wall, and his blood began oozing out of him. Still, he emptied the clip into his lifeless body.

  Just to be sure.

  Then, he didn’t hesitate. Turning, he moved toward Elizabeth on the bed.

  She was a bloody mess. He didn’t get her jugular, but he’d cut deep enough that she was going to need stitches across her chest.

  Yanking the tape from her mouth, he began to set her free. He hated seeing her like this.

  He’d never seen her cry like this.

  “It’s okay, honey. We’re okay,” he said, using the detective’s discarded knife to cut her legs free, and then her arms.

  She sobbed.

  She also didn’t hesitate to move into his body. Chris wrapped his arms around her, and held Elizabeth tightly to his chest.

  That was close.

  “Shhhhh, honey, I have you.”

  He dropped kisses across the top of her head, trying to soothe her.

  That was as close to death as either ever wanted to come again. Both of their hearts were pounding.

  Chris released her a second to pull off his t-shirt. Balling it up, he held it to her chest. She wouldn’t bleed to death, but she was a mess. The second he did, she was back into his arms, burying her face into his chest.

  “I love you,” he said, leaving kisses across her forehead. “I’ve got you now.”

  She kept crying as her best friend held her.

  This had scared her stupid.

  Elizabeth Blackhawk was convinced. She only had six of her nine lives left.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  Downstairs in the lobby, they heard the gunshots. Over the revelers outside, they were distinct to a cop’s ears.

  There were a shitload of them. There wasn’t one, and then silence. It sounded like someone was emptying an entire clip.

  That said a lot.

  It had to be bad. That wasn’t Tex’s style. She only needed one shot to take down a killer. If she wasn’t doing the shooting, and it was Chris, something bad had to happen.

  As they raced up the stairs, both Ethan and Callen were sick over this.

  They’d left her there.

  They’d left Chris alone to watch her.

  Both men were scared shitless.

  When they got to the door, Callen didn’t even unlock it. He used his bulky frame to take it down for his brother. Crashing into it, full speed, it buckled under his weight.

  Together, with the detective and agents behind them, they entered the room- guns drawn, ready for the worst.

  No one knew what they were going to find.

  They suspected it would be two dead family members, but they had to hope. After all, Elizabeth was hard to kill.

  That was their only hope.

  “Elizabeth!” Callen shouted, as they raced in.

  They could hear her crying.

  That didn’t bode well.

  When they entered the bedroom, they both stopped. Elizabeth was a bloody mess, and so was Chris. He was holding her as she wept in his arms. His face was covered in drips of blood as was her entire torso.

  They all stared down.

  The detective was dead.

  From Elizabeth’s half-naked body, to the ropes tied around her wrists and ankles, they knew what had happened. She’d nearly been the next victim.

  Both men wanted to be sick.

  The team behind them started securing the scene. They knew Elizabeth needed a moment.

  Who wouldn’t?

  “He was here when I got here,” Chris said, trying to cue them into what had happened. “When I got back from picking up dinner, he already had her stripped and was going to kill her to take her liver. I shot him.”

  Tony could see they were both in shock. Neither were going to be able to run this. That included Ethan and Callen. He could only imagine what they were feeling.

  “I’ll call Merry,” he said, dialing a phone.

  The agents called for an ambulance.

  “Baby, are you okay?” Ethan asked, sitting beside her on the bed. He wanted to be sick.

  Callen mimicked his position. “Angel,” he whispered, taking the t-shirt from Chris’s hand to see how bad she was injured.

  The slice to her chest was horrifying, simply because the detective had put his hands on her. Thankfully, she was still in her jeans. That meant Chris had been in time.

  While wounded, and rattled, she was only going to need stitches.

  “He was going to kill me,” she said, shaking violently in Chris’s arms. She was so afraid he was going to go down, leaving her the next victim.

  “Shhhhhh,” he whispered.

  Both men noticed they were both shaking. Callen grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around them. While he wanted to hold his wife, she was clinging to Chris as if he was her lifeline.

  The man saved her.

  They’d throw him a bone. If it weren’t for him, they would have lost the mother of their children.

  Both men knew how close they’d come. Right now, Elizabeth and Chris needed to let the adrenaline crash.

  She stared up at Chris. “Thank you for saving me. I get to see my husbands and kids again.”

  He brushed a bloody curl from her cheek. “Don’t thank me. I didn’t want to die. Bethe couldn’t lose me, and besides, I told you I’d have your back.”

  She kissed him on the lips. “You suck at fighting, Chris. You need to get back into the gym. That was a fucking spectacle. You hit him with a lamp.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, well I saw your breasts.”

  She snorted.

  Ethan and Callen weren’t sure whether they sh
ould laugh or cry. This was their worst nightmare, but Chris had come through. When he told Ethan he’d die for her, he wasn’t kidding. What he did today cemented him into their family.

  The worry was gone.

  Chris was one of them. He might not have been born a Blackhawk, but he was badass enough to be given an honorary title.

  “Welcome to the family, Chris. You’re officially our brother,” Callen said.

  Ethan agreed. “You are a Blackhawk for sure.”

  His heart skipped.

  He belonged. That was great, but he’d saved his sister. She didn’t die like Cyra had. He’d beat that demon back, kicked its ass, and was the victor.

  For once, he’d been on time when it mattered.

  “That means a lot to me,” he said. Chris held out his hand to shake theirs.

  They weren’t having that.

  Both brothers knew what needed to be done.

  They hugged them.

  Together, they squeezed Elizabeth and Chris between them, wrapping them protectively in their arms.

  That’s when the adrenaline crash happened.

  The laughter stopped.

  The tears began.

  Chris and Elizabeth were safe, and they let it out. Ethan and Callen just held them, and they would for as long as it would take.

  Family always had your back.

  To the bloody end.

  EPILOGUE

  Saturday Morning

  They’d wrapped the case, Elizabeth had been checked out, and they were on their way home.

  Now that it was time to leave, the team was more than happy to get the hell out of ‘The Big Easy’.

  The place had been anything but in their opinions. They’d had to deal with two killers, one for the case, and one they’d managed to run into along the way.