Dying to Love (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 18)

by Morgan Kelley

  What made it worse was backup was outside, but they might as well be in another state.

  Since Ethan’s arms were up in the air, he couldn’t get to the pin on his watch. Without turning on his tracker, no one would know he was in danger. If he moved, he was afraid Oscar would shoot his wife.

  At that moment, he was pointing the gun at her head, not her chest and the Kevlar. There was no way in hell she would survive.

  “You have some nerve, Chica. Unless you came here to ride the bull,” he said, laughing and pointing at his groin. “If that’s the case, then I’ll forgive you.”

  He was moving closer to her.

  If he would just get within arm’s reach, she’d be able to disarm him. That was the best-case scenario. Then they could pull their guns, regain control, and thank their lucky stars they didn’t die.

  Igor wouldn’t be such a pain in the ass right at that moment.

  “Oh, Oscar, you missed me. I can tell by that tiny weenie bulge in your drawers,” she drawled.

  “You’re funny, Chica. I’m going to love putting this bullet in your head. Then theirs.”

  She laughed. “Please. I doubt your skills. You did ask me back to your chop shop and you were busted. You’re not the sharpest tool in the shed.”

  He smiled. Then he swung out with the gun, hitting her in the cheek. It took her to her knees.

  Elizabeth saw stars, but she fought to stay composed. This would work. She could make him do exactly what she wanted him to do.

  Both Ethan and Callen went to move.

  “Don’t think about it. If you do, I’ll cap her right in front of you.”

  She was crying on the ground, and they were helpless to get to her.

  “Awww, poor little girl shouldn’t play with the boys,” Oscar said, moving closer. “If that’s going to make you cry, Chica, then you don’t want to know what I have planned for you.”

  Well, she knew what she had planned for him.

  He moved closer.

  That’s when she struck, punching him as hard as she could in the balls.

  He was shocked.

  Then he hit the ground and fought for air.

  She grabbed the gun that fell to the ground, just as his one thug friend was going for it.

  It kicked off the mêlée.

  Ethan and Callen were three days past pissed. When they got that mad, when someone hurt their wife, it was going to be a bloody brawl.

  Ethan took the first thug to his knees. Then he punched the second one in the face. When the first one got back up, he twisted his arm, and dropped his elbow onto it.

  It shattered.

  The man began whimpering in pain.

  He went back to man two, and they began fighting more. It was back and forth, punch for punch. Ethan wasn’t going to lose. This man was screwed.

  Callen was in the same situation. When the one asshole swung at him with a tire iron, just missing his face, he gut kicked the guy in front of him, taking him to his knees.

  He pulled his gun and the tire iron swinging nutbag stopped in his tracks.

  “You think it’s funny he hit a woman?” he asked. “Someone needs to teach you manners.”

  Then Callen swung out, hitting him in the face where Elizabeth had taken the same strike.

  He went down.

  “Asshole.”

  Callen glanced over to check on his wife. She was currently beating the hell out of a chunky man who thought he should throw a punch at her. She bobbed and weaved, and then she took her very pointy cowboy boot and kicked him straight in the balls.

  The man hit the dirt like a ton of bricks.

  She spit blood on the ground, right next to where Oscar was trying to crawl away.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” she said.

  She grabbed him by the back of the shirt, and he swung out, cutting her leg with a blade he’d had hidden in his hand.

  She punched him so hard in the face, she felt it all the way to her shoulder, and into the next week.

  That was going to suck.

  Ethan hit the pin on his watch, and they surveyed the damage.

  They were unmarked. He and Callen had avoided getting any injuries.

  Elizabeth…not so much.

  The doors to the garage flew open, and in ran three security guys with their guns drawn.

  Then they stopped.

  “Holy shit,” Ivan muttered, surveying the damage. “What happened in here?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. We were surrounded without a single security guy in sight,” she offered. “How crazy is that?”

  They all looked at each other.

  “Ma’am, you look like hell.”

  Yeah, she felt like it.

  “Can you get these six back to the FBI? I want to question Oscar.”

  Ethan touched her face. “You are a mess, baby. You need to see a doctor.”

  “Great. We have a morgue. Someone find me aspirin, and I’ll be fine. I’m going to boot his ass all over the interrogation room.”

  “Mrs. Blackhawk, we should transport you to the ER. You’re bleeding.”

  She stared at him. She could feel the blood dripping down her face. “You know what? You probably should, but if this killer sticks to his recent pattern, he’s killing tonight. I can’t blow six hours in the ER. There’s a woman out there taking her last breath tonight, and I can’t play baby.”

  He looked at Ethan, almost expecting him to override that. Well, he didn’t. Blackhawk had learned his lesson.

  “You heard her. Out in the field, she’s the boss. We’ll head back into the Hoover building. I’ll have our ME check her out and patch her up.”

  “Yeah, you should. She looks like death warmed over,” Ivan admitted.

  “I might look more prom ready had our security thought maybe they should check out the noise coming from the chop shop,” she muttered.

  “I was just following YOUR orders to stay back. You can’t have it both ways, MRS. BLACKHAWK.”

  She flipped him off.

  He didn’t bat an eye.

  “These were my favorite jeans too,” she muttered.

  As she started walking toward the door, Ethan was at her side. He scooped her up. “I’ll carry you.”

  She didn’t argue.

  Her face was on fire, she felt like shit, and she was tired. Only, she couldn’t stop.

  The killer was coming.

  He wouldn’t give up.

  If she was next, and somehow, she didn’t believe she was going to be, he’d keep coming whether she took a nap or not. There were lives on the line, and it might just be hers.

  Well, unless they just caught him. Tonight would tell because Oscar was going to lock up…

  For a very long time.

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

  Morgue

  When Ethan and Callen walked into the morgue, the one brother was carrying Elizabeth, and the other looked three days past concerned.

  “OUT!” barked Ethan, and the techs scrambled like tumbleweeds in a storm.

  Even Tony ran for it.

  “Jesus! What happened?” Chris asked, moving toward her. He was staring at her face, and he was pretty sure she’d hit a wall, the floor, or something, with it.

  She was a hot mess.

  “We had a little run in with Oscar Lopez.”

  “That asshole?” Chris asked. “Did he do this to you, Lyzee, honey?”

  She laughed. “Payback was a bitch. He’s in worse shape. Ethan just likes carrying me around.”

  Callen wasn’t saying anything.

  He was pissed.

  “Okay, what hurts, other than your face?”

  “He tried to shank me in the leg. Gee! I wonder where he learned that? Prison perhaps?”

  “This isn’t funny, Elizabeth,” Callen stated. “It’s not amusing in the least.”

  “It’s funnier now than when he was pointing that gun at my head.” Elizabeth knew that if she didn’t make light of this, she was
going to break down. Honestly, she was three days past emotionally battered.

  Now she was physically battered too.

  “I’m getting too old for this.”

  “I don’t think I want to hear any more of this horrible story,” Chris said, running his hands over her face. “Nothing is broken.”

  “My leg needs stitches,” she said. “I can feel the blood in my boot. He nearly got my femoral artery.”

  Callen lost it.

  That was the icing on the whole shitty cupcake.

  He erupted in true crazed Blackhawk fashion.

  “What the hell, Elizabeth? You should be in a hospital bed at the ER, not here. You just got pistol whipped by some angry man, and you’re laughing. This is wrong. I don’t even know what to say to you right now.”

  It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. While she expected Ethan to flip his shit, she never expected Callen to do it. He was her stability when there was a storm.

  Now she felt alone.

  It was more than she could take.

  That’s when she burst into tears.

  Callen stared at her. “I didn’t mean to make her cry,” he stated. The panic took over. Callen knew what she was carrying, and he didn’t want to add to it.

  It scared him.

  “Lyzee, angel,” he offered.

  She kept crying.

  Chris took over. “How about you guys give me forty minutes with her? I’m assuming the person who did this is alive, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, go get them ready for her. Then she’ll go at him in interrogation. If you want to help Elizabeth, start there. Let me do what I do best. I’ll patch her up, and I’ll get her calmed down.”

  Ethan touched her face.

  He wanted to erupt, but he was struggling with that fine line between wife and employee. While Callen could lose it, he had too much on the line.

  Mostly, his marriage.

  He knew the next time he really flipped his shit, he was screwed. He’d taken over Elizabeth’s one case—he had gotten angry and crossed a line in New Orleans. She’d warned him that his temper would destroy them.

  He couldn’t let that happen.

  Strike three and he would be out.

  It took all he had to remain calm, but the well of magnanimous attitude was quickly running dry.

  “Okay, Doc. We’ll be back for her,” he offered, signaling to his brother that they needed to leave.

  Elizabeth wasn’t a weepy person. She didn’t cry on a case, but she needed space. She was, clearly, at her breaking point.

  Ethan led his brother away. When they were gone, Chris pulled her into his arms, and let her cry all over him. He simply held her against his body.

  “Shhhhhh, sweetheart, it’s okay. It’s going to be fine. I have you. It’s all over.”

  It was far from over, and she knew it.

  “I’m so tired. I haven’t been sleeping, I’m stressed to the max about this case, and the secret we’re keeping from Ethan, and now I’m in physical pain. I’m seriously too damn old for this kind of shit.”

  He held her. “Want a cookie and some coffee? I’ll stitch you up while you eat it.”

  She sniffled. “I don’t know when I ate last.”

  “It was dinner, and it was last night at six. It’s been around sixteen hours since you fueled up. Come with me, and I’ll take care of you.”

  It reminded her of their past. When she would run herself ragged, nearly into the ground, Chris would always force her to take a moment. Maybe it was the doctor in him, or the fact that they had something important.

  He took her hand and led her to the doctor’s lounge. Inside his bag, he pulled out a package of cookies. He sat her on the couch and let her eat them.

  “We’re going to do this in here. It’s not sterile, but I have some antibiotics we can give you to make sure you don’t get an infection.”

  “They aren’t yours, are they? You need them. I just have a cut.”

  He smiled at her concern. “No, they’re in the morgue in case we need them, and for the record, you’re far worse than you think.”

  He handed her a shiny metal tray.

  Elizabeth saw her face.

  She started crying again.

  He sat beside her and tucked her beneath his arm. “It’s okay. Some ice and you’ll be back at it again. Do you have a change of clothes in your office? These are destroyed.”

  She nodded.

  “Okay, get naked.”

  She stared at him.

  “I swear that I won’t enjoy it.”

  She snorted. “Liar liar, Newton’s britches are on fire,” Elizabeth teased.

  Slowly, she stood. When she went to pull her shirt off, she whimpered.

  “Your shoulder?”

  She nodded.

  Then she realized what she’d done.

  “Please don’t pull my gun. This is me to someone I had a relationship with—not Fed to doctor. Please, Christopher. He’s coming again tonight.”

  “One condition.”

  “I’ll shoot leftie.”

  “No, I want something else.”

  “What?”

  “When this case is over, I need you to take a vacation, honey. Let Ethan and Callen take you to the beach. Lie in the sun, get tan, build sandcastles with the kids, and don’t think about work for a few weeks.”

  All of a sudden, that sounded like the most amazing thing she’d ever heard of in her entire life.

  A vacation?

  What the hell was that?

  Then it occurred to her. It wouldn’t be the same without him. Chris had to be there too.

  “Will you come with us?”

  He smiled and then kissed her softly on the lips. “Sure, if that’s what it takes to get you to take a few days off to relax.”

  She held out her hand.

  “Besides, I’ll follow you anywhere. Nice bra.”

  She snorted, and it hurt. “Perv.”

  “Hussy.”

  She recalled having that same conversation so many years ago, and it lightened the load.

  “Drop your jeans too.”

  She stared at him.

  “You’re going to look worse in Daisy Dukes when I have to cut the legs off of those jeans. The agents will really talk. Think back to that trek into the swamp in the last pair.”

  He had a point.

  The last time she’d sported them, some tech took a picture and it went viral.

  She dropped them too.

  “Okay, let’s get this done,” he stated. Moving behind her, she rolled her shoulder. “How does it feel?”

  “Like a dumbass, prison asshole’s face was as hard as a brick wall—his balls too.”

  He laughed. “One day, you’ll avoid a fist fight. I would have bet it was coming, but I see that I was wrong.”

  “Remember the first time we had sex in the morgue?” she asked out of the blue.

  He snorted. “You don’t forget shit like that, Elizabeth. It’s still one of my fondest memories. Even after Cyra and I did it, too, it was never the same. You never forget your first.”

  She was aware.

  He rolled her shoulder as he gently probed her arm.

  “Do you regret us?” she asked.

  He stopped moving. “Not for a single second. The only thing I regret was how we ended it. It was amicable, but I know I hurt you. I regret that every day of my life.”

  She laughed. “Amicable? That’s not how I would describe it, Christopher. You cheated on me.”

  He sighed. “I thought you were cheating on me with your partner.”

  “I don’t cheat. Ever.”

  He was aware.

  Now.

  “I was so jealous and in a bad place. Then you hooked up with Ray, and I’d lost you. If I could, I’d go back and redo that moment in time.”

  “You lost me because we were horrible as a couple, but perfect as best friends.”

  “Do you regret us?” he asked out
of curiosity.

  “Never. We had each other, and that mattered. When the whole world was against us, I was able to keep going because I had my best friend. To this day, two husbands later, you’re still that role in my life. I hope I never lose it.”

  “When Ethan finds out about us, and he kicks me out of your life,” he said, trying not to feel lost, “will you at least remember Bethe? She didn’t do any of this. It was us. Please don’t let him make her pay for my sins.”

  She turned around in horror.

  “Christopher!”

  “Let’s face it, honey, it’s coming. I know I’m going to lose you, and possibly my job here. I’ve come to grips with it. I just don’t want Bethe to suffer. She’s come to know all of you as her family. If I get booted, and I will, she does too. That’s what’s worse in all of this.”

  “I won’t let that happen, Christopher. No one is getting kicked out of the family. Yes, Ethan will be upset, but I think he can handle it. I told him about Oscar, but didn’t mention your name. Just a fancy schmancy ride.”

  “I hope I don’t lose you. Now that I may get sick, who do I really have?”

  She touched his cheek. “You’ll always have me. Remember our deal?”

  “Where you go, I go. It’s why I followed you out to FBI West, when you came back to the FBI. I wanted to follow you to Salem, but you wouldn’t let me. Still, I followed you here. You’re my family, Elizabeth,” he said. “You’re all I have. My mother is insane. She’s joined some cult that thinks they’re going to colonize the moon, Cyra’s family wants me dead, and it’s just Bethe. We only have you, and it’s a scary world out there when you’re an orphan.”

  Didn’t she know it?

  That’s why they stuck like glue. Family wasn’t only blood. It was the people you locked to you when the times got so tough that you thought you’d go under in the storm.

  She took the ice pack he handed her, and she placed it on her face.

  “I’ll stick, Christopher. You keep your promise. Jesus, that’s cold.”

  He laughed. “I’ll keep my end of the deal, honey.”

  “Good. I’m not ashamed of my past or our relationship. I’m afraid of Ethan’s temper.”

  He was aware.

  They all heard him in the throes of anger. He said some shitty things to her.

  “If he hurts you...”