He looked at the wound.
“She was alive.”
“Great.”
“She was also raped, and with something. We have burn marks on her chest. I’m going to go with Taser, but I’ll give you a definitive when I get her on the table. If she’s not a hooker, and her prints aren’t in AFIS, we have a huge issue.”
She was aware.
The whole time, Ethan was silent.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
“You’re next.”
They all stared at Elizabeth.
“You got that from a headless hooker?” she asked. “How the hell did you go there? I have a head.”
“Let’s look at this, okay? What did he take first and second?” Ethan asked.
“Hair and eyes.”
“What next?”
“Lips.”
He started pacing. “Then he took the heart. From the beginning, we’ve been thinking he was mimicking cases, but what if he’s telling us what’s coming?”
Elizabeth still wasn’t getting it.
“Ethan, you need to use more words. I can’t read your mind,” she offered.
“After he takes the head, he’ll take the body. Your body, Elizabeth. What does a blue rose mean?” he asked.
Callen Googled it.
The look on his face said it all.
“It means unobtainable or just out of reach.”
“Then he takes the identity away of the next victim. He’s getting ready to have you. You’re next.”
“You can try to put a damper on your enthusiasm,” she offered. “It is me that he wants to kill.”
He stared at her, and he looked appalled. “Is that how that came across?”
Callen nodded.
“I didn’t mean…”
She laughed. “Just tell me where you’re heading with it, and we’ll go from there,” she stated. “I’m just busting your ass. I knew what you meant, Ethan.”
He relaxed.
He hoped she didn’t think he was getting any pleasure out of this. How could he? This nut was crazy and after his and Callen’s wife.
“We know that you’re the ultimate goal, and the removal of her head is his way of removing the victim’s identity. All we have to do is protect you because we’ve bought ourselves some time.”
She stared at her. “Really?”
“There won’t be another victim.”
Well, that added a little spring to her step. At least now, she’d have some damn time to figure out what the hell was going on and to catch this idiot.
“I can work with that.”
She pointed at her team. “Get me her identity. I also want you to run any crimes that happened in this alley. It looks familiar. I don’t know why I’ve been here before, but I’m getting that feeling like I have.”
They all looked around.
And she knew what they were thinking.
It was an alley.
A dirty.
Smelly.
Alley.
It was like every other one in DC where a crime had taken place.
Only, she knew otherwise.
If the killer was playing games, this place was going to matter too.
“I’ll get her back and get started,” Chris offered, getting Amir to unroll the large black bag.
Ethan and Callen crowded her.
“Um, you said I was safe, as long as you watched me. I can’t do my job if you’re actually attached to me.”
They both got it.
They took a step back.
“Thank you, boys. Don’t get me wrong. I do love you on me, but off the clock.”
They had news for their wife. She was under lockdown from now until this was over.
She scanned the dark street. The sun still wasn’t up. There was no way she could go knocking on Kristen Kowan’s door at that time of the day.
She had to wait.
Unfortunately.
“Let’s go grab something to eat, and we’ll head out to do the notify after the sun is up,” she offered.
The men were good with that.
“Christopher, do you want me to pick you up something to eat before we head in for your update on the dead woman?”
He smiled.
“Yes, please! I could use breakfast!”
Yeah, how, after digging in a body, she didn’t have a clue, but she’d pick him up their usual.
She headed toward the tape.
“I hope I don’t run into that asshole detective,” Callen stated, pulling his badge from around his neck to place it back in his pocket.
“I kind of hope we do,” Ethan admitted.
She laughed.
Boys would be boys—especially the Blackhawk boys. They held a grudge and would until the man was forgotten.
“Who’s buying me something to eat?” she asked.
Ethan raised his hand. “I do believe I’m up to bat on that one.”
She didn’t care.
“I’ll give the buyer lots and lots of syrupy kisses,” she admitted.
“Someone is in a good mood,” Callen stated.
She laughed. “I’m just glad there won’t be any more dead hookers. I need to figure out what’s going on, and once I do, I’m going to catch this asshole,” she said, walking through the crowd of onlookers.
The men in her life hoped she was right.
If not, this wouldn’t end well for their family.
The Blackhawks would lose one of their own.
They knew who his ultimate goal was, and that was on them.
They had to protect their woman.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
He was one foot from her.
When she strode through the crowd, she didn’t even see him watching her. He was so close that she brushed against him as she headed to her ride.
Talk about not being aware of your surroundings.
That was going to be bad for her.
He was glad she was smiling. It did upset him that someone had put marks all over her.
She’d been so beautiful.
That was one of the things he loved most about his Elizabeth. His sweet investigator was very photogenic. A part of him couldn’t wait to get her to his home to take lots of pictures of her.
But it wasn’t only beauty.
She was smart.
Funny.
And she was about to be his.
Oh, he loved how she strode onto the crime scene as if she owned it. There was something sexy about a woman who knew what she wanted in life.
Eventually, she’d want him.
With time, she’d see that he was the best choice for her.
The sad part is, years ago, he should have taken her when she was young and not a mother. Had he, she would have given him a houseful of children, and it would have been perfect.
Then they could have had their happy family.
He wanted her.
Now, more than anything.
As she got into her vehicle, with the two apes beside her, he knew what he needed to do.
It was time to set the trap.
She was coming.
There was no doubt in his mind that she’d figure this out.
Then she’d be his.
Forever.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Sunday
Seven A.M
Yes, it was early, but they’d put this off for as long as they possibly could. No one liked doing notifies, but they had to do them in their line of work.
It was the nature of the beast.
As they strolled up the walkway, Elizabeth in the lead, the men were going to let her do her thing.
She was back up to speed, rested, and fed.
That was dangerous.
She was ready to play the game.
As Ethan was working on going back over all the details of the case, trying to find anything to add to his initial profile, Callen was watching their backs.
As she stepped up to the door, she took a deep breath.
“I hate these,” she said, and then knocked.
It took a few seconds for them to hear footsteps.
Then, when the door opened, she was transported back. It was freaking déjà vu.
She’d been here before.
She’d talked to this man before.
She’d lived this moment.
“Robert Donaldson?” she asked. Maybe it wasn’t him. Almost fifteen years had passed, but he was so damn similar, she really thought she was having an out of body experience.
There were even kids running around beside him.
“Oh my God!” he muttered.
She wasn’t sure if it was because she had done this before, or if he recognized her. When she came a knocking, generally, death had been playing in someone’s life.
She couldn't believe this.
“Aren’t you the same man who was married to Noor Blackburn?” she asked.
That had Ethan and Callen’s attention.
“Yes, I was married to her. You interviewed me once before. It was regarding some dead hookers.”
She looked back at her husbands.
The look said it all.
“So you’re the Robert married to Kristen Kowan?” she asked. “Why the hell didn’t she change her name?”
“She’s dead, isn’t she?” he asked, lowering his voice.
“Uh, how about my questions first, Robert? Not many people get me knocking on their doors twice in one lifetime. You have some seriously bad luck.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“Kids, go play in the back yard with the dog. I need to talk to the nice lady.”
They took off.
“Didn’t you have different kids too?” she asked, thinking back to that one interview. He’d been a stay at home dad, he’d been hitting up the hookers to get off, and his wife was running a brothel as a madam.
Yeah, this was one very weird and odd coincidence from her past.
“I’m married to Kristen. She didn’t change her name because she was once owned by someone, and she didn’t want to be anyone but herself.”
Okay, well, that actually was the ONLY thing about this that made any damn sense.
“She’s dead.”
Elizabeth crouched down in front of him as he sat on the step. “Yeah, Robert, she is. I really am sorry.”
He wiped his eyes. “I had a feeling. She went to the grocery store, and she never came back. Every other Saturday, she’d go to buy food, and I’d spend the day with the kids. When she wasn’t home after two hours, I got scared.”
Callen made notes, but he stayed pretty close to his wife. He wasn’t taking any chances.
“What happened next?” she asked.
“I kept calling her. I was a nervous wreck. It wasn’t like her.”
“What did you do?”
“I loaded up the kids, and we headed to the store. I found our car, the door was unlocked, and her purse was inside. I called the police. They came, I filed a report, and they told me I had to be patient. How do you be patient when the woman you love is gone?”
The men hoped they never found that out.
“What do you do for a living, Robert?” she asked. “Are you a stay at home dad again? Are they your kids?”
He nodded. “The kids are ours. Kristen wanted more. I was happy with mine being grown up. They’re all in college or away starting their lives. I don’t stay at home anymore. I work outside the home at the local bank.”
“How do you afford this house?” she asked. “This is a nice neighborhood for a banker.”
“Noor had to pay me off in our divorce. We sold our house, all of our possessions, and her uh…her job got lucrative. The judge gave me custody of our kids, she had to pay child support and alimony.”
That would piss a person off.
He was hesitantly looking at the men behind her.
“They know she’s a madam, so you can cut to the chase. Kristen worked for her, didn’t she?”
“She started with a pimp. Then she went to Noor. She liked that better. That’s how I met her.”
Ethan couldn’t believe any of this. “So you started sleeping with your wife’s prostitute? She was okay with that?”
“My ex-wife doesn’t like men. She did at first, but she turned into this hideous beast who had an appetite for one thing.”
“Pussy?” Elizabeth asked. “There’s only two choices—as far as I know.”
“Money. She exploded, and she became obsessed. To answer your question, she wouldn’t have sex with me, and she freaked out after she found out I visited a competitor’s hooker,” he said, looking at Elizabeth. “Thanks for that.”
She snorted. “It’s my job.”
“No, I really mean thank you. She told me I could use her girls, but no one else’s. I met Kristen and four years later, I realized I was in love. We did everything together while my evil shrew ex-wife built her empire. Then one day, I wanted out.”
“You filed?”
“Yeah, I had her served at her office and the locks changed on our doors.”
“That had to piss her off,” Callen stated. “I know if I came home, my doors were locked, and I couldn’t get in, I’d want to put holes in something.”
He laughed. “She signed on the spot and danced her way to her Mercedes. The woman has no morals. She had children, and she walked away. Our kids don’t even see her.”
“She’s still in town, right?”
He nodded. “I met my wife because of her, and now she’s gone. What do I tell my kids?”
She didn’t have an answer for that. All Elizabeth knew was he had some seriously bad karma going on. Then again, he was buying sex while married.
The fidelity Gods probably frowned upon that.
“Was anyone bothering her?” she asked. “Anyone at all? Did she mention if someone was following her, or if she felt off?”
He shook his head.
“She was buying frozen pizza and was a stay at home mom. That was her happy moment.”
He wiped his eyes.
“Robert, I have to look through her things. We have your wife’s body, and she was murdered.”
He got it.
“When I saw you, knowing what you do, I figured. Did she suffer?” he asked.
“No.”
It was a huge ass lie. Her chest had been cut open, and her heart had been removed. There was no way not to suffer through that.
“When can I see her?”
“You don’t want to, Robert.”
“Why not?”
She didn’t speak.
“Oh. She’s bad, isn’t she?”
“In order to find her killer, she’s evidence. I know that’s cold and cruel, but it’s the truth. We have to take her down to her bones to find everything out about her killer. It’s how we work to get her justice. She wasn’t there anymore when we found her. She was just an empty shell at that point. The woman you love lives in you.”
He wiped his eyes.
“She’d want you to find who hurt her. She’d tell me ‘Robert, I’m free. Keep living and loving our little miracles’.”
“She sounds like she was an amazing woman. I’m glad you found her and had happiness,” she stated.
Both men stared at her.
Was their Elizabeth going mushy?
Really?
“Thank you. Find who did this to her. I want you to find this animal, and for Kristen, make him pay.”
She walked toward the door. “Callen, will you keep the kids out of the house?” she asked. “And if you get a second, call the grocery store and commandeer a copy of any parking lot surveillance they have.”
“Sure thing, angel.”
Ethan followed, patting the man on the shoulder as he went past him.
Upstair
s, they went through Kristen’s things, searching for anything that might help them figure out who had abducted her.
There was nothing remotely kinky in the room.
“I guess when you have sex for a living, when you finally settle down, you want vanilla,” Ethan stated.
“I know I would if I had to be kinky all day long,” she admitted.
“Thank God we don’t have that problem,” he teased.
Elizabeth figured he’d feel that way.
“There’s nothing here,” she said, sitting at the bottom of the made bed.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“That this whole thing is bizarre. I feel like I’m in some weird time warp. It’s all my cases, suspects from my past, cops from my past, and I can’t figure out what I’m being told.”
“Yeah, this is a tough one.”
She stood.
“Hopefully, Callen had a little more luck,” she offered, heading downstairs to the backyard. In it, Callen was chasing around little kids, while they laughed.
It made her smile.
“He’s a good father,” Ethan offered. “A better one than I’ll ever be.”
She glanced over. “Why do you say that?”
“I put work first.”
She got it. “You’re trying, Ethan. That’s what matters. Callen doesn’t have the stress you have on you.”
He laughed. “He’s a bestselling author. He’s plenty stressed.”
She was trying to help.
This was a minefield with Ethan, so she didn’t want to go there. She thought he worked too much. She knew they all came second to the job, but she loved him.
You couldn’t change people. You can only love them for who they were, and Ethan Jackson Blackhawk was a good man and great provider for his family.
“You’re like a soldier,” she finally offered.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re serving your country. When a soldier goes off, he gives everything to the duty. You’re the same way. I can’t begrudge you that. You’re doing your duty, Ethan, and you’re an honorable man.”
Ethan only hoped she’d always see him that way. Men, in his position, lost their wives more often than not. The job consumed them, and the women walked away.
He was aware of the possibility.
Callen noticed them in the back yard.
Dying to Love (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 18) Page 41