“Yeah, Patrick, what was I known for when we were partners?” she asked.
“Miss Kitty, the undercover hooker.”
“My husband was going into a motel with me. The media makes up stories. Ignore them.”
Elizabeth knew Jay Melrose wasn’t a fan. She wouldn’t let him work his partner’s murder case. She wasn’t an idiot. The man was way over the line when it came to his control.
“I think you both should be going,” Jay stated. “You’re ruining our day.”
Yeah, she got that a lot too.
“We’ll head out, Patrick,” Elizabeth said, offering her hand. “It was good seeing you. Stop in my office sometime. We can reminisce.”
As they headed out, her phone rang.
“Speaking of hooker buying husbands,” she offered. “Hey, Callen James. What do you need? If it’s to yell at me for ditching you, be glad. The media is all over you today.”
“What?” he asked, glancing out the office window. She was right. There was a shitload of cameras out there. “What did I do now?” he asked.
She told him.
“I hate the news. Our kids watch TV. That’s all I need is for Cat to hear her daddy is buying a hooker.”
She snorted. “I have it worse. I’m the hooker. I told her those were my work britches. I have a lot more explaining to do.”
He laughed.
“What do you need, handsome? I’m sure this isn’t a social call. Are you checking up on me? If so, we have one more interview, and then we’re heading in,” she offered.
“Chris was about to start the autopsy, and he cut himself.”
There was that pause as she processed that.
The magnitude of it hit her all at once.
“Jesus! Was it before or after he cut into the body?” she asked. Elizabeth pretty much already knew the answer. If it was before, this wouldn’t even be a conversation.
“After. He’s on his way to the ER. He wanted you to know the autopsy will be a little delayed.”
“Okay, Callen. Can you do me a favor?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“I’m sending Johanna in. Will you get Brody ready to head out? I want him to do the pimp interview with her. I’ll go check on Chris. In the meantime, can you pull up an agent’s files and scan them? Patrick Singer gave us the go ahead to check out his informants. He’s not sure if FeeFee McFuckme is one of his.”
“Can do. I don’t think I should face the media. I might hurt them.”
She agreed.
Callen and reporters didn’t mix. They were the only people on the planet, beside killers, that riled him up.
“I’ll handle it, angel.”
“Do the normal run. I need anything at this point. Oh, and the license plates from last night…?”
“I have the names. I’ve been productive. I’ll give them to you later, beautiful. Be safe, and we will discuss you ditching me. Make sure you ride back with Chris, and not alone!”
“Don’t be angry. If it makes you feel better, Ethan didn’t call off the security. I have ‘Ivan the Horrible’ behind me. He’s so close I can smell the smoke when he tries to think.”
It did make him feel a million times better.
“I’ll try. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
She hung up. “I need you and Brody to hit up Gavin Weeks. He lost another girl, and we need to see if he saw who picked her up. She was there until I left. The killer likely waited.”
“On it, boss.”
“I’ll give you my ride after we stop at the hospital. I’ll catch a ride back with Chris or one of the pains in the ass following me.”
She snorted.
“Hey, Johanna?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for today. I needed a friend. I'm going to take your advice. When this is over, maybe I’ll take you up on that day out.”
She smiled.
“Elizabeth, any damn time.”
When she pulled into the parking lot, she saw one of the tech vans parked there. She knew he was inside. Getting to him was going to be a different story.
Heading in, she flashed her badge to the charge nurse. “I was told one of my employees was hurt on the job, and he’s here.”
“Name?”
“Doctor Christopher Leonard.”
“He’s in bay four waiting to get a series of shots. He cut his finger while autopsying. He’ll be out in a bit. Have a seat.”
“I need to…”
“Sit.”
Elizabeth sat in the waiting room. The entire time, the woman stared at her. Oh, she was tough, but Elizabeth was a whole different kind of crazy.
“I once heard this hospital let nine people die in one night, and they only had broken bones and some cuts,” she said to no one in particular.
Three people got up and headed for the door.
Apparently, their ER visit wasn’t an emergency.
The nurse pointed at her in warning.
Oh, it was on.
“IS THAT A RAT?” Elizabeth asked, really pushing the battle-ax to her breaking point.
Two more people got up.
It was her and one woman who looked like she did crack for shits and giggles.
“There’s a dealer outside offering freebies. You just have to take your shirt off and walk out like that.”
The woman stood and did it.
The nurse stood.
“I’m contacting your boss.”
“He’s my husband. Deputy Director Ethan Blackhawk is his name, and dealing with my poor behavior is his game. You let me into bay four, and I’m out of your hair. You let me stay here, and I will cause mayhem with each person who walks in. I feel a plague coming on—Bubonic, Black, or…”
“I’ll have you taken up for a psych evaluation.”
“I’ll have homeland security sit outside your house and investigate every move you make. Want to know who my husband and I are having dinner with at the White House next weekend? That’s your only clue.”
The woman pointed at the room.
“Gee, thank you! You’ve been so sweet.”
She growled.
Elizabeth mentally added another notch to her belt. Score another win for the crazy.
At bay four, she pulled back the curtain. There, sitting on the bed was Chris, and he was staring down at his hand.
“Jesus, Christopher. What did you do now? If you wanted to come hang out in the ER, you should have given me a few days to wrap this mess up. You know I’m good for stitches or a gunshot wound at some point.”
He didn’t even laugh.
This was bad.
“Hey, talk to me.”
“What did I do?”
“It’s a little cut. With some antibiotics and the HIV shots, you’ll be good. Don’t freak out.”
“No. I meant with you. I hurt you. I told you that I was leaving right after Livy hurt you. I’m a horrible friend. I basically abandoned you when I swore I’d never do that to you.”
She wasn’t angry with him.
Elizabeth got it.
“You’re an amazing friend. You’ve been by my side for so long, Christopher,” she said, hopping onto the bed beside him. It was just like at the morgue.
“I have something for you.”
She pulled a candy bar out of her pocket. “I swiped it off the charge nurse’s desk when she went around to open the door. She was a total bitch, but I won.”
Chris tried to laugh.
Elizabeth lifted his chin so he was looking into her eyes. “Talk to me. What’s going on in your head?”
“I’m torn. I want to stay, but I know Ethan is going to hate me.”
“Nah. He’s going to hate me. You’ll be okay. When the shit eventually hits the fan, the wife is ALWAYS the bad guy.”
She wished she were teasing.
“I don’t really want to leave.”
“Then don’t.”
He broke the bar in half. “Then we need to be honest
with him. We both base our lives on careers that seek the truth, and here we are, hiding it. We aren’t a couple anymore, we don’t have romantic feelings about each other, so…”
“Well, I have to be honest.”
“About?”
“I am jealous you tried to put a little hooker in you. I used to be your favorite street walker.”
He snorted. “You’ll always be my favorite slut, so thank you. I needed that.”
“Hookers or my sense of humor.”
“Definitely not hookers. Back to what I was saying. If you want me to stay, and I’m really part of the family, then we can’t lie to Ethan.”
“You’re right. As soon as this is solved, we’ll sit him down, you and I, and we’ll be honest.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I hate not telling him. I just can’t do this in the middle of an investigation. I need to be focused, and I’m not. This has me being pulled in two different directions. Every time I see him, I want to tell him. I’m not thinking about those women. I’m thinking about my relationship.”
“Yeah, I’m not focused either—thus my little run in with hooker blood.”
“Is it a deal?” she asked. “You stay, and we’ll own it when we solve it.”
“Yeah.”
Elizabeth leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Are we all better?” she asked.
“Yeah, honey, we are.”
When the doctor came in, carrying the bottle of meds and the needles, Elizabeth held out her hand.
He took it.
“Are you ready, Doctor Leonard?”
“Yeah, I am.”
He smiled at Elizabeth.
“I have my best friend back.”
She rested her head on his shoulder. “You never lost her, Newton. You never lost her.”
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Across Town
Gavin Weeks’s
Place
They knocked and banged on his door until it woke him up. When he came to the door, he looked legitimately worried.
Johanna and Brody flashed their badges.
“FBI. Elizabeth sent us.”
He let them inside his home. It pretty much looked like a pimp’s lair—or whatever you called it. The furniture was all leather, he had a giant box of condoms on the counter, and there was a half-naked woman standing in the hallway.
“Sugar, go back to bed.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
They waited until she was gone.
“Elizabeth wanted to get here to talk to you, but she has some things to handle,” Johanna stated.
“I figured she’d be by at some point,” he offered.
“We’re sorry about your…girl,” offered Brody. He wasn’t sure what to call her.
Was she an employee?
A friend?
A piece of ass?
Clearly, he had no issues sleeping with his hookers. The woman they had just met was definitely one.
“Thank you. I really think someone is targeting me. I feel like they’re out to get me.”
The two agents listened to him vent. Part of being in law enforcement was listening to the people around you.
This man was freaked out.
When he calmed down, they started asking him questions—the ones Elizabeth would have wanted answered.
“Sir, did you see who FeeFee got into the vehicle with?” Johanna asked.
“No. I was looking out for the same black ride that Peaches got into. I didn’t know there was going to be a white one too.”
“The vehicle was white?”
“Yeah, it was.”
“Did you get a plate number, or anything that would tell us what kind of vehicle or driver we’re looking for?” Brody asked, making notes.
“All I know is it was SUV like. You know the ones that are bigger.”
“As big as what we pulled up in?” Johanna asked.
The man looked out the window at the Escalade.
“No. More like one of those hybrid-y SUVs that are supposed to save the world.”
Brody googled it.
When he turned the tablet around, the man pointed. “That’s it. It was just like that but the windows were tinted to black. I hate when people do that. You can’t see what’s waiting inside for you.”
Yeah, that must have made it really hard to sell a woman to a John that way. She wanted to roll her eyes, but she somehow managed to keep it in check.
“Did you get that?” she asked her husband.
“Yep.”
Brody made notes regarding the Audi that Gavin Weeks picked out.
There was one thing for sure.
It looked like their killer had some money. That was a pricey ride.
For shits and giggles, he asked about the black vehicle.
“Describe it.”
He did.
Brody pulled up pictures.
“That one.”
He’d picked another Audi.
Okay, their killer wasn’t hurting—UNLESS, he was stealing them. At this point, they couldn’t tell.
“Did she say anything before she got into the vehicle?” asked Johanna.
“No. She snapped her gum, got in the ride, and was off. After three hours, I thought something was up. I began texting her. She didn’t respond.”
Johanna scanned the list of personal effects that Amir logged.
“No phone.”
“Maybe he tossed it,” the pimp offered.
He likely did.
That was what they’d do if they had a victim’s possessions. Keeping souvenirs got you caught.
“Did any of your girls see the driver?”
“I asked them all. They didn’t. If Elizabeth Blackhawk wants to interview them, she can, but I think it’s a horrible idea. The killer took one of my girls right after she left.”
Yeah, they, and Elizabeth, were aware. This killer was clearly messing with them.
“Thank you, Mr. Weeks. We’ll talk to you later if we find out anything. You really should keep your girls off the street. It’ll be for the best.”
“I’m pulling them for a couple days. I’d rather lose a week’s income, than have to find new girls and retrain them.”
And that was how twisted DC was, that the man had just basically admitted to them that he was pimping.
He was either an idiot, or just didn’t care.
Crime, in DC, did pay.
Here was the proof.
They headed out.
“We better report in to the boss,” Brody stated.
“Yeah, we have two different cars. Our killer is switching it up. That can’t be good.”
Brody knew it wasn’t. This killer was going to be a bitch to catch—even for Elizabeth Blackhawk.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
As she rode to the Hoover building with Chris, her cell was going off nonstop. She didn’t even take it out to look.
“Is it one of your husbands or…?”
“No, it’s actually Livy. I’m dodging her for the time being.”
Chris closed his mouth as he drove. He stared straight ahead and didn’t offer any eye contact whatsoever.
That clued her in that he wasn’t happy. She knew this man inside and out.
“What?”
He glanced over. “What, what?”
“You want to say something,” she stated.
“Nope.”
“That’s total bullshit, and you know it.”
He shook his head.
“I know when you’re lying, Christopher. It’s wrong to lie to anyone you’ve been naked with before. I’ve seen your dick, so, maybe we should be honest here.”
She had a point.
“What aren’t you saying to me?” Elizabeth asked one last time.
“Fine!” he said, exploding in a rage.
She stared at him with big eyes. It was sudden and so unexpected.
“When the hell are you going to stand up for y
ourself? You let Livy run you down all the time. You were ditched by her years ago, she treated you like shit the whole time she was pregnant, and then when SHE wanted you back, SHE took YOU back.”
She couldn’t believe he was this angry.
Chris didn’t get pissed all that often. He was pretty laid back and calm.
Well, not now.
“She uses you. Maybe not for money, but she emotionally uses you to dump her shit all over you. She calls you up, she whines, she cries, you walk her through it, and then she gets mad about something later. Stop being a doormat. Jesus! Wake up and see that she’s toxic!”
“Christopher.”
“I’ve had to watch this for almost two decades. You need to cut the toxic out of your life, grow a spine, and figure out what the hell it is you see in the relationship. I’m sick of her making you cry. I’m sick of watching her break your heart and you taking it. This is a constant thing, and it needs to end!”
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“You’re right.”
He went to continue, but she stopped him in his tracks with her words.
“Wait! What?”
“You’re right. I’m going to talk to her. She’s hurt me more times than I care to admit, and at the beginning, I let it happen because I was so desperate not to be alone. I tolerated it. In the FBI academy, I took it because I wanted a friend. I wanted to be liked.”
Chris listened to her.
“After she was raped, I took it because I felt guilty.”
He couldn’t believe this was happening.
“When she wanted me back, I took it because Gabe mattered to me, and I was trying to salvage that relationship with him. I’ve always been the one who bends because I hate being alone.”
He held her hand with his bandaged finger.
“Really? You’re going to listen to me?”
Chris looked around as if he was searching for a hidden danger or alien.
She laughed. “Stop. I taught you that. You can’t use it on me.”
He snorted. “I can’t believe you’re going to tell her off. That’s so unlike you when it comes to your friends.”
She thought about what Johanna had said.
The woman had been right.
Chris was right.
Dying to Love (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 18) Page 28