All the King's Henchmen

by Morgan Kelley

  Since the honeymoon, when they thought someone had taken her, he’d been extra hover-y. This was something that would freak him out each and every time.

  “I’m not joking. God! I wish I was, but today when they were at the doctor’s office, Ivan was jumped and locked in a trunk. She and Chris were taken. We’re pulling security cameras and trying to figure it out.”

  “Oh, Jesus!”

  That was all he had to hear. Callen raced for the stairs, knocking some guy over.

  “I’ll get there as soon as I can! I’ll get a flight as soon as I get to the airport. God! Keep me updated.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Ethan said, his voice filling with fear and emotion. “I’m sorry!”

  “Ethan, you didn’t take her. Stop! Pull it together. We have to find our wife! We have to find Chris! I’m on my way!”

  “I’ll keep you updated.”

  Callen hung up, called for a cab, and nearly took out two bystanders in the process. He jumped in and began making calls. He wasn’t going to fly a commercial flight home.

  He needed a private Jet.

  He needed to get home.

  NOW!

  When Ivan was done with his dressing down from Gabe, and receiving dirty looks from his team, he entered Ethan’s office with an ice pack, a dinged-up ego, and the disc.

  “Here it is, sir.”

  He was the last person Ethan wanted to see. While he knew deep down that Ivan wasn’t at fault, it was HIS job to keep her safe.

  Without a word to him, Ethan took it and popped it into his laptop. It transmitted the images to the screen across the room.

  “Do we have it?” Gabe asked as he entered the room with more security. They were all on lockdown until they knew who had taken Elizabeth.

  This might be something big, and his guys, and Ethan’s security, were NOT taking any chances.

  “Yeah, it just arrived,” Ethan said, pointing at the screen. Everyone in the room watched the black and white footage.

  “Walk us through it, Mr. Bennet,” Ethan stated.

  The man flinched.

  Oh, he was on someone’s shit list. Well, he had news for Ethan. No one hated him more than he hated himself. He’d failed.

  BIG TIME.

  “There I am, sitting in the ride. She’d just called me to tell me she was on the move.”

  They watched the vehicle, and the two men walking up behind it. Up to that point, they didn’t have any masks on, but their backs were to the cameras.

  Ivan continued, “They distracted me. One tapped on the passenger window, and when I turned my head…”

  There it was.

  The saw him being tasered, pulled from the vehicle, and then disabled. Ivan was tossed in the trunk, and they crouched down behind the vehicle.

  That’s when they were worried about the masks.

  Ethan stopped it.

  “Why were they concerned she’d see them, and not him?” Ethan asked.

  Gabe had no clue.

  “She could recognize them,” Ivan stated. “It had to be someone she’d recognize. You know how she is with her memory. It was likely she saw them before.”

  Well, that didn’t narrow it down at all.

  Ethan pushed play.

  Elizabeth came onto the screen as she and Chris walked out of the building and around the corner to the pickup location.

  It was seconds later.

  “They knew she was coming,” Ethan stated, stopping it again. He was struggling with watching it.

  “Listening devices?” Gabe asked. “Maybe they picked up her call to him?”

  That had to be it.

  That was pretty high tech. This couldn’t be Bonnie. That helped a little. She was a sicko, and at least his wife wasn’t trapped with her.

  He hit play again.

  On the screen, they watched Elizabeth in the exact moment when her cop instinct warned her. They saw when she perceived the imminent danger. Her gut instinct kicked in, and she got into position.

  Chris was shoved behind her.

  Then it moved so fast.

  While his wife was strong and could fight, she was one woman against all those men.

  They watched as she fought off everyone, but when Chris was taken down, she lost focus. She had to worry about him, and the men coming at her.

  She disabled the one by breaking his arm.

  “Callen taught her that,” he said, watching her get down and dirty.

  “I told you he was going to get her hurt,” Gabe muttered.

  “Not now,” Ethan stated. “This isn’t on him, or security. It’s on the people who took her. Why would they take both of them, but leave Ivan?”

  No one knew.

  They watched her take a punch to the face after being tasered. She went down.

  HARD.

  That made them all cringe—Ivan included. A grown-ass man just sucker punched her in the face.

  He was a dead man.

  Ivan would find him.

  “God! She’s been kicked around a lot lately,” Ethan whispered. He hoped she was going to be okay.

  “She took down four of them before the fifth one could get her. They knew she’d go for her gun, and they got it away from her,” Gabe stated. “That was the first move they made.”

  “So, they definitely knew her,” Ethan offered. “That’s why they covered their faces. Who has the power to pull up five men to assault a woman? Who has tech to listen in, and who has been around her so much that they’d want to cover their faces?”

  Ethan and Gabe looked at their team.

  Security looked horrified.

  Maybe that was why Ivan was left behind.

  “Uh, that was NOT us,” Wilcox stated. “We don’t hate her. She’s a pain in our ass, but we’d die for Elizabeth.”

  Saint, the newest member of their team agreed.

  “I don’t know her enough to want to hurt her.”

  Ethan mulled it over.

  “They were with us. They wouldn’t do this.”

  Blackhawk pushed play, and once more, they were focused on Chris and Elizabeth. They were both out cold and on the ground.

  They watched a white van pull up, and then she was tossed into it like a sack of potatoes—Chris right behind her.

  “I’m going to hurt them,” Ethan stated. “For manhandling my wife, and Chris, I’m going to make whoever sanctioned this pay with their lives.”

  No one doubted him.

  NO ONE.

  As the very nondescript van pulled away, Ethan was thinking about the van that they’d seen pull into the White House.

  It was so similar.

  Was that a coincidence?

  They knew there were five men, who she likely knew, they didn’t kill Ivan or take him…and they had tech that could listen in.

  Oh, and they took their tracers. They knew they wore them in their watches. There was someone else who had an electronic tracker on at all times.

  The President of the United States.

  Could it be…?

  “Gabe…,” he began, knowing that this was all too weird. They’d been called to the White House, they knew how much the president had a boner over Elizabeth, and they’d seen that van.

  “I’m thinking it, too, Ethan! Saint! Get me those plates. If this was the president, I’ll go out there right now and tell the world what he’s done. I’m sick of this.”

  Oh, not as sick as Ethan.

  And definitely not as sick as the two people he’d taken.

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

  White House

  Noon

  Monday Morning

  This whole situation was batshit insane.

  That was the only words she could think of that described any of this ridiculous circus. They were being held against their will at the White House while a dead president lay on a makeshift morgue table.

  Only in America.

  “What can you tell us?” the vice president asked as he nervousl
y paced the room.

  “Woah! Slow your roll, Gordon. No one badgers my ME, but me. You don’t get to question him. I’m the one he answers to,” she stated.

  Truthfully, she wanted them focused on her—not Chris. If someone was going to get their ass handed to them, she’d rather it be her. He already looked a little pale, and she knew he was likely worn down.

  Plus, on top of that, he’d yet to take his meds. The doctor had said not to miss them, and the fact he had freaked her the hell out.

  And pissed her off.

  Gordon Downing glared at her.

  “Have some respect. It’s actually acting President of the United States,” he stated.

  She didn’t give a shit.

  If he wanted to call himself Jesus, that was on him. It wasn’t going to negate that they had KIDNAPPED them off a public street.

  “He’s my ME. He’s not your hired monkey to do random autopsies, and someone should tell the ‘acting President of the United States’ that you can’t kidnap the citizens who put your ass in office!”

  “He’s going to do it.”

  “Back off!” she stated, when one of the Secret Service guys moved toward Chris when Gordon motioned toward him. “If you touch him, I’m going to break your fucking arms. When this gets out, your ass is screwed, Gordo,” she said, making sure to be as disrespectful as possible.

  He cringed at that nickname.

  Chris knew he needed to reel this one in. He didn’t want Elizabeth taking another headshot.

  “Where was he killed?” Chris asked, trying to protect her and do what needed to be done. Chris wanted to get them out of there and back home in one piece. “I need the whole picture to do what I do.”

  “Not here,” the vice president stated.

  “So, at the hotel last night?” Chris asked. “Shouldn’t you have cameras all over the place?”

  Elizabeth listened as Chris scrubbed up.

  “He had Secret Service disable them. Damian wanted some private time.”

  Yeah, they knew what for. His dick was lying beside him on the makeshift morgue table. Someone pulled his willie out and it got wacked, all right.

  Elizabeth was appalled.

  They’d dropped the ball, and now two Feds were being held hostage because of it.

  Yeah, no.

  “Smooth move. So, basically, the president went down on their watch, right?” she asked, rubbing salt into the wound. “Then you decided to abduct two people from the FBI to find out why. Well, it doesn’t work that way, Gordo.”

  He sighed.

  “Elizabeth, I get that you’re angry.”

  SERIOUSLY?

  Oh, she was three days past that. At that moment, if she had her gun, she would have shot the ‘acting President of the United States’ in his overly inflated ego.

  “ANGRY? Are you shitting me? You locked my security guy in a trunk, you had your goons kick the hell out of us, and…”

  “You did break three of their arms and two were kneecapped.”

  “Oh, blame the victims for fighting back.”

  “Do you always have to be so damn difficult?” he asked. “Just let your ME do the autopsy, so we can get this on the road! Don’t you see that this is time sensitive?”

  She laughed.

  “NEWSFLASH. He was bludgeoned to death. Look at his meaty remains. Someone beat the hell out of him and then lopped off his very small dick. That’s how he died. You’re done with Chris, so we’re going now. See you later.”

  He pointed at one of the Secret Service guys.

  “What? He doesn’t want his kneecap either? The bigger they are, Gordon, the harder they fall. I’ve proved it a couple times today, and when I get out of here, you’re so screwed it’s not funny. You had us kidnapped! You abused us both, and my security guy might be dead. I used to think HE was an asshole,” she said, pointing at the dead man, “but you have him beat!”

  “Just cooperate! How hard is it for you to shut up, stop being a bitch, and just do your damn job? The reason he rode your ass was you can’t just be a good girl and be demure. You have to prove something!”

  And as long as men wanted her to be ‘a good girl’ or any woman for that matter, she would keep proving it. Elizabeth had daughters, and she wouldn’t raise them to be some man’s verbal punching bag or doormat.

  This was not nineteen fifty. It was a new age, and she wasn’t taking it.

  “All you have to do is your job. Stop being a pain in the ass!”

  She had one thing to say to him.

  “Fuck you. I will NOT comply,” she said, pointing at her face. “I will not bow to you. This is America. This isn’t a kingdom. They may be your servants, but I am NOT!”

  “Elizabeth,” Chris warned.

  It was clear that Gordon was pissed and out of control. He was bright red and ready to lose it.

  The big man behind him cracked his knuckles.

  “Make her comply,” he stated, heading out of the room. “If she won’t do it, force her. We have bigger issues than her being held temporarily to help solve the president’s murder.”

  It was clear he wasn’t thinking straight in his desperation. He’d just ordered someone to physically assault her.

  So be it.

  The man moved toward her.

  She braced for the ass kicking.

  “Heads-up!” Chris called, tossing her a big metal tray. She wielded it like a weapon, taking the man down. Then she kicked the hell out of him while the vice president watched from the camera.

  “NOW!” she said, spitting blood from her split lip. “I suggest you set us free, or I’m going to whip each and everyone’s ass who you send in here! They will comply!”

  Chris handed her a scalpel.

  Clearly, they didn’t think this through.

  They’d given her tools to defend herself. Now, it was life or death.

  Theirs or the Secret Service.

  They weren’t budging.

  “I’m ready to fight,” she stated. “If you shoot me, you have a bigger shitmess to deal with.” Reaching into her bra, she pulled out the tiny little tracker that Ivan told her would be the LAST thing someone took from her. She had forgotten it was there, but now…yeah, thank God personal undergarments were always last.

  They’d missed it.

  She turned it on.

  It was a matter of time.

  Check.

  Mate.

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

  Hoover Building

  Noon

  They were waiting on the cyber tech guy to clean up the picture when Ivan’s tablet began beeping.

  They all looked over.

  “What’s that?” Ethan asked.

  He picked it up and looked at it to make sure it was, indeed, what he thought it was.

  “Holy shit! She activated that secondary tracker. It’s the one I told her to carry in her bra. It was off until just now.”

  Okay, that helped.

  Maybe she’d been unable to get to it until that moment. Thank God he’d given it to her.

  NO.

  Thank God she had the fortitude to keep it on her after the fact.

  He began typing as the GPS locations pulled up on the screen in front of them.

  Ivan shook his head.

  “This can’t be right.”

  “What?”

  “It says she’s at the White House. How is that possible? Why would she be there?”

  Oh, he knew.

  Gabe was done.

  He picked up his phone and called. When the secretary answered, before she could reroute him, he laid down the law in no uncertain terms.

  “We know that Director Elizabeth Blackhawk and Doctor Christopher Leonard were abducted by Secret Service a few hours ago. I have the video recording, and I’m going to play it for the media in front of my building if I don’t get an answer, and immediately. Tell that to your boss!”

  Ethan held his breath.

  Gabe hit the
speakerphone button, and they listened to Muzak as they were on hold.

  Then the line came to life.

  “The vice president will see you in ten minutes. Come without security.”

  Yeah, that wasn’t happening anytime soon, and they knew it. Security was not standing by when Elizabeth was already taken. They had a job to do.

  Ivan?

  Yeah, he was NOT losing her again.

  No.

  Way.

  “Have him ready for us, and he had better not jerk us around. I’m willing to sacrifice my job for this.”

  Gabe slammed down the phone.

  “ONE DAY, THIS COUNTRY WILL ACTUALLY HAVE A FREAKING PRESIDENT WHO ISN’T BATSHIT INSANE!” he raged, standing from behind the desk.

  Yeah, someone was furious.

  Ethan was able to calm down, marginally. Now that he knew his wife wasn’t dead, he was better. Knowing that she was being held by that lecherous asshole?

  He hoped the man hadn’t touched her.

  If he raped his wife, he’d pull his gun and shoot him then and there. He didn’t care.

  Blackhawk had enough of this.

  “Let’s go get her and Doctor Leonard,” Gabe said. “Security, suit up. We are going in.”

  They were glad.

  Enough was enough.

  The crazy had to stop.

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

  The Land Of Cuckoo

  Standoff

  They stood there as the big man was holding them at gunpoint. His priority target was clear as he kept the nose of his gun pointed at Elizabeth.

  Clearly, the Secret Service was done messing around. She’d kicked their asses and proved that she wasn’t someone to be taken lightly. They’d gone from use of physical force to guns.

  It had escalated.

  They were one step away from someone getting shot, and yet, she had no choice. They were unlawfully being held prisoner in the White House.

  Oh.

  The.

  Irony.

  Well, newsflash! She was crazy, too, and she was far from done. Elizabeth Blackhawk had an issue with being abducted off of the street and held hostage.