Elizabeth had to stop him. While Ethan was sometimes a powder keg, waiting to go off, he’d never physically hurt her. He wasn’t that kind of man.
“He wouldn’t, but if he verbally crosses that line, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
He touched her cheek. “You’ll do the right thing, and I’ll have your back. Callen will too.”
She wasn’t so sure she’d know how to handle it. She wanted to crawl and beg already. It was going to be interesting when the truth came out. She just had to get to the end of this case, and then she’d sit him down, be honest, and go from there.
He deserved honesty.
“Here are some scrubs. Pull the shirt on, and I’ll stitch up your leg. Notice how I managed not to mention your pretty britches.”
She laughed. “You just did, Newton. You just did.”
He helped her into the shirt. It was huge on her.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t forget. You’re taking a vacation from the FBI, and that means NO CASE. You made a deal. If you find a body on the beach, you walk away.”
She rested on the couch so he could start working on her leg.
“I promise, Newton.”
Now it came down to the shitty part of what he had to do. It was time to stitch up her leg. It was just deep enough that it needed to be sutured. He wished glue would work.
“This is going to hurt.”
“Yeah, it won’t be as bad as the actual cut,” she said. “Now the adrenaline is gone, and it sucks. This whole freaking thing sucks,” she said, holding the ice to her cheek.
He sprayed something on it, and it was cold.
“This is going to sting.”
He threw in the first stitch.
Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. Yeah, she was getting old. Five years ago, she wouldn’t have batted an eye. Now she was weeping like a girl.
“Hang in there, sweetheart. You’ve got this,” Chris offered, hoping it was true.
He wasn’t so sure.
Elizabeth was on burn out.
The crash was coming.
He could tell.
Callen paced outside the morgue as Elizabeth was inside. Ethan was calm, cool, and collected.
“She’s fine.”
“Why are you acting like this?” he asked. “Don’t you care that our woman was used as a punching bag? Normally, you flip your shit when she gets a papercut.”
“I have to stay calm. I’m no longer her partner, Callen. I’m the Deputy Director. If I lose it, I will lose a lot more than my wife. I’ll be shit canned.”
Callen wanted to rage around. When Oscar Lopez hit her with that gun, and she fell, he wanted to kill the man. It took everything in him not to do it.
He’d nearly lost control.
Still, Ethan wasn’t nearly in control as he said. Callen could see the lines around his mouth, and they were the telltale sign that his brother was close to losing it.
“Let’s go in and see if she’s ready. Oscar is in a room, we have some clothes for her, and it’s time to let her kick his ass around the building.”
When they headed into the morgue, they found no one there. That meant they were in the lounge. When they walked in, Chris was on his knees, Elizabeth was lying in the couch, and she was only wearing panties and some scrubs.
Ethan noticed that neither of them seemed bothered by it. Then again, she was never bothered by Chris seeing her naked.
Just now, he’d realized that.
How had he missed it?
At that moment, Chris’s face was a foot from parts of her that Callen and he owned, and she wasn’t even flustered.
Really?
He cleared his throat.
“One more stitch,” Chris said, sliding the suture hook into her skin. She flinched, but he rubbed her leg to ease the pain. “You’re all good, honey. Let me tie this off, slather it in antibacterial cream, and you’ll be good to go.”
“Thank you, Christopher,” she said, moving the ice off her face.
“Well, you’re not swollen,” stated Callen.
She looked over at him, and he could see the misery in her eyes.
“I’m sorry I made you cry,” he said, holding her bag out for her.
“It’s okay, Callen James. I’m just tired, and that was one hell of an adrenaline crash. I’m sorry I broke down.”
Chris pulled out her fresh gear. “Honey, don’t apologize for feeling. You’re entitled.”
She wished that were true. All eyes were on her. Once you went through the glass ceiling, it was all about the haters wanting you to plummet back through and to your death.
“I’ll help you,” Chris offered, as she struggled to pull off the scrub top.
“Uh, maybe you could let us handle this?” Ethan asked. “It’s a little weird with you being in here while she’s nearly naked.”
He got it.
Chris was just the friend. His time had passed.
“Sure. I’ll give you privacy, Elizabeth. Call me if you need me.”
“Chris can stay,” she stated, touching his arm. “He’s a doctor. Besides, he already saw me shirtless. What’s more skin? I look like a morgue visitor anyway,” she muttered, as she struggled into her shirt.
Callen helped her, trying to get her arm into the sleeve.
“You should go home,” Ethan stated. “We can handle this for the rest of the day.”
She shook her head. “This asshole called me out. What will happen if I quit this game?”
He really hated that she was smart. He couldn’t argue the point because he knew what would happen.
“Well?”
“He won’t be happy,” Ethan stated.
“Then I stay. I stick until this is over, and then I’m taking a vacation.”
“What?” the men said together.
“Let’s focus on work, if you don’t mind.”
She glanced over at Chris. “What can you tell me about the woman we found this morning?” she asked, pulling on her jeans.
It was a battle.
She wanted to curl up on the couch and sleep for about a month.
He sent the information from his tablet to the screen in the room. “Her name was Kristen Kowan.”
“That doesn’t sound familiar. Why do I feel like I know her?” she asked. “She looks familiar.”
“You may recognize her face from working the streets.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Chris was proud of himself. While Elizabeth was out, getting the shit kicked out of her, he’d been playing investigator for her. “I did some digging.”
She stared at him. “REALLY?”
He laughed. “It was like old times.”
Yeah, she recalled. He’d been her partner when she was working in the field alone.
“She was a hooker. Only, she married a John, and it was happily ever after for her.”
She stared at her picture. “I can’t place her.”
“Her name on the street was Feisty.”
She glanced over at Callen. “Run her. Crosscheck my cases. It sounds familiar, but I can’t pull it out of my brain. Maybe it’s too worn down.”
He did as she asked.
When the picture popped up on the screen, there was a list of arrests.
Then one name popped out.
Noor Blackburn.
She started laughing because there was a name she never thought she’d see again. They’d crossed paths a few times, and they weren’t even close to being friendly.
Ethan didn’t get what was so funny. Maybe she’d really taken a hit to the face. “Baby, are you feeling okay? Why are you laughing?”
“Lookie who I’ve run into yet again. This is very interesting. Noor Blackburn is back on my screen.”
“The Madame?” Chris asked.
“The one in the same.”
“What am I missing?” Ethan asked, looking back and for the between them. Apparently, they had some secrets that he wasn’t privy to, and that didn’t
sit well at all.
Ethan liked knowing EVERYTHING about his wife and her past. He prided himself on knowing.
It was his job.
“I’d had a few run-ins with Noor Blackburn over the years. The first was when her husband was buying hookers. She wasn’t happy when she found that out.”
Ethan lifted a brow. “No wife is happy about that. Well, no sane wife.”
“She was pissed because he was using some pimp’s girls and not hers. They had an open marriage. It offended her that while she was out running a beginning call girl business, he was dipping his stick in the competition.”
“That’s insane.”
“We agreed back then. We interviewed her husband, Robert, I believe. I thought he was killing hookers, but he wasn’t. He was simply a stay at home dad getting his willie wanked by any woman he fancied.”
“What happened to him?” Ethan asked. “Did she murder him when she found out?”
“Not that I know of,” she admitted. “He kind of just fell away. After that, I’ve dealt with Noor a few times. It was mostly when she was caught up with some sex issues that crossed state lines, or we had a joint task force with Metro. She’s been known to send her girls to other states, and we all know that it’s a big no-no. Noor skirts just South of the rules with pretty much everything she’s ever done.”
Sex trafficking was always bad.
With this information, she was excited again. Another lead was a good way of finding this killer. It could point her in the right direction.
“What else do we know, Christopher?” she asked.
“Kristen was drugged. She had high doses of Special K in her system. It would have taken her down like a horse tranquilizer.”
Callen made notes.
“COD?”
“She was raped, abused, knocked around, cut open, and then strangled.”
“Wait. She was cut open and then strangled?”
Chris nodded. “Here’s the odd thing. Once he cut out her heart, which had to be incredibly painful, and she was dead, he strangled her.”
“How do you know that was the order?” Ethan asked.
“I didn’t until I reexamined everything. I think I solved the puzzle. At first, I was confused. She had a fractured hyoid, but zero bruising. In fact, it was one of the worst breaks in one I’ve ever seen.”
“Okay,” Elizabeth stated, waiting for the rest.
“I was going crazy trying to figure out why there was no bruising. It didn’t fit for me. I couldn’t figure it out. Then I thought about it.”
“There was no blood flow,” she stated.
“Exactly, but when I looked at the wounds around her heart, and cut out ribs, there is pink flesh.”
“There was blood flow to the wounds.”
He nodded.
“That’s pretty sick,” Callen offered. “He cut into her chest, hacked through her ribs, removed her beating heart, and she let him?”
“Was she restrained?” Elizabeth asked.
“We had ligature marks around both wrists and both ankles. So, yes, she absolutely was. It looks like your killer has switched it up all over again.”
Great.
That was the last thing she needed.
Elizabeth thought about it.
“That had to be a bloody mess.”
“Oh, it was,” he stated. “There’s no way the killer cut through the aorta without it spraying blood all over to Hell and back.”
“Gross,” she stated.
“It gets worse.”
They stared at him.
“How is that even possible?” she asked. “What the hell could be worse about someone cutting your heart out while you’re still alive?”
“When I swabbed for semen to do the rape kit, it came back negative, but it did come back positive for one thing.”
“What?”
“Blood.”
“Well, he raped her. Maybe it was from internal injuries.”
“I checked. There was no internal tearing. She had blood inside her body—both cavities.”
“You’re not going to say it oozed in, are you?” she asked, praying that was going to be the explanation.
He shook his head.
Chris only wished that were how it happened.
“Go ahead. Say it.”
He continued, “She was raped after she was dead. He likely had sex with her, and forced the blood inside her body with his.”
She stared at him.
“Cuckoo.”
He agreed.
She looked over at Ethan. “Well, profile that pile of crazy,” she offered. “Good luck.”
“He’s not all there,” Ethan stated, watching his wife. She was holding ice to her face, and Chris was sitting beside her on the couch.
For the first time, he felt uneasy about it, but he didn’t know why. The closeness was giving him a sick feeling in his stomach.
Before, she let him stay while she was dressing.
He was working on her leg with only panties between her and nakedness.
Now he was doting on her.
Something was up.
“Yeah, we can see that. Having sex with a dead ex-hooker, who you lopped out her heart, usually signifies that,” Elizabeth stated.
She noticed his face was a mire of emotions, but she didn’t know why.
“Are you okay, Ethan?”
“Yeah, I was profiling in my head,” he said, lying his ass off.
“You said she married a John?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And she worked for a Madame?”
“Yes.”
He began working it out in his mind. “Oscar Lopez isn’t going to be your man.”
“Why?” she asked. “He is violent enough,” she said, pointing at her face.
“One, he’s not white. This is going to be a white male. Two, it’s not the same crime. He’s violent. This guy is calculating, stalking prey, and ready to kill. Had Oscar been the one, he would have taken you out in the field, not in his business.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Callen stated.
Elizabeth got up and went to sit in Callen’s lap. He held her tightly against him, afraid he’d lose her.
“I’m okay,” she whispered in his ear. She could see the look on his face. “I promise.”
It helped him relax, and it also helped remind him that she wasn’t angry at him because he’d made her cry.
That was the more important part.
“I suppose you’ll want to search her house and talk to the husband,” Ethan offered.
“Did he call in a missing person report?” she asked.
Ethan did a search.
“Yeah, he did.” He scanned the information, so he could give her something more. “He states that she went grocery shopping, and she never came home.”
“Well, off to interview this douchebag,” she said, pointing at her face. “Oscar pissed me off. He’s going to jail for a long time.”
“I’m sitting in there with you,” Callen stated.
“I can’t,” Ethan said. “If I do, I’ll kill him. I have to stay calm.”
He was saying that a lot lately, and he could feel it getting harder and harder to do. The match was lit, and it was moving closer to the fuse and powder keg.
“Good idea.”
Yeah, besides, he wanted to learn everything he could about the man who touched his wife. He was pulling the files.
“Then we’ll do the notify,” stated Elizabeth. “I’m betting her husband would like to know where his wife is now. By the way, what’s his name?” she asked.
“Robert,” Callen stated.
“Well, Robert will have a rough night, especially since I’m going to tear his home apart.”
“That’s kinda mean,” Chris stated. “His wife just died. Maybe you can cut him a break.”
The two men waited for the eruption.
Only…their wife didn’t bat an eyelash.
What was this sorcery?
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll be nice. Maybe it’ll clean up my shitty karma. I’ll ask his permission.”
Chris smiled. “That’s a little less heartless.”
Ethan didn’t know what to think. “This is the end of the world. She’s mellowing. That hit to the skull had to rattle her brain.”
She snorted. “Let’s just go do the interview. I have an asshole to bother.”
If that was what she wanted, they were more than happy to accommodate.
After all, Elizabeth was running this.
Hopefully, she was going to be on her game.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Seaton
Brownstone
They were done fornicating, taking a nap, and it was time to run through what the searches had pulled. They were able to pull out two names that were tied to three of the hookers. The fourth one, which Chris had kindly sent over, didn’t pull anything.
“What do we have?” Brody asked.
“We have a guy who two of the four hookers filed PFA’s against, and we have one guy who was caught peeping in Sharon, Jody, and Elizabeth’s homes. All three women filed restraining orders.”
“That should make the boss happy,” Brody said. “Want to go in and deliver the good news?” he asked, grinning wickedly.
“If you keep smiling like that, they’ll know you got lucky,” she stated, touching his cheek.
“They’re going to know anyway.”
“How?” she asked.
“You have a hickey, and it’s one of my finest—may I add,” he stated.
“Brody!”
He started laughing. “What?”
She shook her head.
“You’re out of control tonight.”
“Whose fault is that?” he asked.
She was well aware.
It was all the naughty schoolgirl’s fault, and they both knew it.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Hoover Building
Interview One
When she walked in, Callen behind her, Oscar Lopez lunged for her. Callen immediately slammed his face off the table with very little effort.
“If you touch her again, I’ll take you apart in little pieces. Do you hear me?”
Dying to Love (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 18) Page 37