All the King's Henchmen

by Morgan Kelley

  Ethan said the man had also been hurt, and all he could think of was him standing in front of Elizabeth to keep her safe, and the way he’d had a gun to his forehead.

  He’d fought for her.

  To Callen, that mattered. To him, there was nothing more honorable than protecting your family with your life.

  Ethan did it.

  He did it.

  Now, Chris had too.

  The man had taken a stand in order to protect her, and that said it all to him. He was worthy of being part of their inner circle. While sex was not an option, Callen would love the man with all he had.

  Inside their bathroom, Chris stood under the scalding water, letting it pour over his body. Callen, silently, stood there, checking out the man’s injuries. He had a few bumps and bruises, and his lip was split.

  Fortunately, he wasn’t too badly injured. Their ME would live to fight another day.

  It was clear who they worked over to get her assistance. While Callen hated that, he was glad that Chris had been spared. His life had been rough enough—as of late.

  Callen cleared his throat.

  When Chris turned, he jumped.

  “JESUS!”

  Callen apologized.

  “I wanted to make sure you’re okay,” he said, pointing at the man’s side.

  Chris actually looked down at his hip and saw the bruising for the first time. He’d been showering off the stresses of the day and thinking about Elizabeth.

  “She’s the one who needs your concern. I tucked her in, she had aspirin, and she’ll be okay. Wyler will make her some soup, but she should really rest. I don’t think she has a concussion.”

  Well, that was good.

  “She’ll be good after a nap. That adrenaline crash is a bitch,” he said, smiling. “Oh, and welcome home. We REALLY missed you.”

  Oh, he bet.

  Callen watched the man, and he was nervous. It could be that he was standing feet from him as he was naked in the shower. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen Chris naked.

  As of late, he was seeing a lot of him.

  “Do you need anything for your side?” he asked, pointing at a bruise. “Did you take your meds?”

  Chris was fine.

  “I just need rest. I took the meds five minutes ago before I tucked her into bed.”

  “You weren’t wearing Kevlar, and neither was she, right?” he asked.

  “No. We thought ‘what can happen at the doctor’s appointment’?” he teased, in amusement. “From here on out, I’ll be sleeping in it.”

  Callen laughed.

  “Yeah, you might want to do that. Wherever she is, trouble is sure to make an appearance—bedroom included. Finish up your shower. I’m sorry I scared you.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, sounding tired.

  Callen heard it.

  He was exhausted from the mental anxiety. He could only imagine how tired Chris was.

  Still…

  He’d taken care of her, despite his body being banged-up too. That spoke volumes to how he felt about her, and how he would have taken a bullet for her.

  That was love.

  It was the same love he had for Elizabeth, and Ethan too. It was no different.

  Callen got it.

  That dedication to another person was rare. Look at the president. He was off getting laid left and right, and by who knew? Chris knew sex wasn’t an option, and still, he put Elizabeth first. It was off of the table, and most men would run because of it.

  Not this man.

  He stuck.

  Yeah, Callen loved him.

  Callen really loved him.

  “Hey, Chris?” he asked, moving closer to him in the open, walk-in shower.

  The man turned, rinsing the shampoo from his hair.

  “Yes?”

  Callen caught him off guard. He planted a huge one on his mouth. It was the same kiss he’d give his brother, and the same one he’d give Elizabeth.

  Chris tensed at first, but then he let it happen. It was calming and soothing after a really long day.

  Callen set his mouth free.

  “Uh, thanks?” Chris finally said when the kiss was over. “Awkward?”

  Callen laughed.

  That was the point.

  It wasn’t.

  Not in the least.

  Your heart loved who your heart loved, and this man had wiggled into Callen’s life by way of Elizabeth, and he would always protect him.

  It was the right thing to do.

  “Thank you for having her when they took her. Ethan told me you protected her the best you could, and I saw the video footage on my way home.”

  “Of course I would protect her.”

  “He told me, and I saw that you had a gun to your head. I saw that you were willing to do whatever it took to keep her alive. That’s special, and that tells me that she’s safe with you.”

  Any last worry was gone.

  It had been erased by the man’s dedication.

  Chris shrugged.

  “I love her. I’ve always loved her, Cal. There won’t be a day that goes by that she isn’t forever in my heart and soul. She mothers my daughter, and she gave me two brothers. I’d die for her in a heartbeat.”

  Yes, he would, and that made him theirs.

  Forever.

  “When you’re done, I want you to take a nap. I’ll watch over you both.”

  Chris smiled.

  “Thanks. I need to crash. I feel like I’m coming home from the war. It was rough.”

  Oh, he was aware.

  Now Callen would cater to the man who was part of their relationship. He was fully entrenched in their couple, and always would be. They would grow as old as they could together, and they would forever have this connection.

  From him to Ethan.

  From Ethan to Elizabeth.

  From Elizabeth to Chris.

  From Chris to each of them.

  They were twined together by love, duty, honor, and a family.

  “Let me help you,” Callen stated, grabbing a towel when Chris turned off the water. He wrapped it around him.

  “Thank you, Callen.”

  He smiled, calm for the first time in hours.

  “It’s my pleasure.”

  Chris dried off as Callen went and grabbed him a pair of his drawstring pajama bottoms. They were the ones with beakers and vials on them that Elizabeth had bought him as a joke.

  Newton Boxers, and science-y PJ’s—they went together.

  Chris pulled them on and followed Callen out to bed. When Callen pulled the blanket back, Chris realized that he’d put Elizabeth to bed naked.

  He’d not really thought this one out.

  “Uh, want me to wake her to get her dressed or sleep on the top of the blankets?” he offered.

  Callen didn’t flinch.

  “No, cuddle. You both need it. She’s yours too. You proved it today when you fought to get to her in the parking lot, and you used your body as armor. Hold her and be at peace. I’ve always found that cuddling makes me feel so much better.”

  Tears filled Chris’s eyes.

  “Thank you.”

  Callen hugged him in his big, strong arms.

  “No. Thank you,” he said, setting him free.

  Chris crawled into the big bed, and Elizabeth, immediately, moved into his body. He held her as Callen tucked them into the big, fluffy blankets in the cool air-conditioned room.

  Together.

  As they should be.

  “See you in a little while. I’ll be here if you need me. I promise. Rest with our wife.”

  There were never more beautiful words for him. The word ‘our’ touched him on so many levels. The word ‘wife’ blew his mind.

  The irony was he’d never reached that before them, but with them, he was being given a beautiful gift. They were sharing her heart.

  “I will. Our wife is a menace.”

  Callen smiled.

  He was aware.

 
As Chris closed his eyes, he held Elizabeth. As her breathing offered him calm, he followed her into sleep.

  At peace.

  With no fear, and knowing they were safe.

  At home.

  With Callen standing watch.

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

  Hoover Building

  Ethan Blackhawk’s Office

  Late Afternoon

  Everything, like he promised, was being handled. Ethan had micromanaged the details, and his wife would be good to go in the morning. The president’s body had been re-bagged by the White House, and his identity would be safe.

  For now.

  He was going to be delivered in an unmarked van with guards in tow. For a good ten minutes, Blackhawk tried to talk them out of that, but they insisted, even when he said it was risky.

  Well, they wouldn’t listen.

  In that case, he’d done what he could, and ultimately, the risk was on them.

  He could only control freak so much. How they delivered his body…that was up to them. As long as it was there and ready to go, that was all he cared about.

  His wife would hit the ground running in the morning at the ass crack of dawn.

  He knew her.

  She wouldn’t be down long. This little break would be followed by one hell of a marathon to solve the dead man’s murder.

  Blackhawk knew she’d go nonstop to see it to the finish line, so helping out where he could was the least he could do for her.

  After ensuring the body would be ready, he made sure that Autopsy One was prepped to go. It was supplied, and any possible additional equipment that Chris would need was there and ready for them.

  This case was priority one, and Elizabeth wouldn’t be the only one put in the spotlight. The whole team would be joining her. Since this was a president, anyone who touched this case would be under the magnifying glass at some point in the future.

  Did they do their job?

  Did they make any mistakes?

  Was there a cover-up?

  Those would be the questions asked of their performance for generations to come when people spoke about the night Damian Dean went down.

  God help them all for wading into this storm. While Ethan couldn’t stop the speculation and the talk of conspiracy, that he knew would come, he could give them the tools necessary to do the job to the best of their ability.

  And they would.

  Elizabeth would have the best at her side.

  In the morning, the morgue would be handed off to Chris, and he would have lockdown status in place. No one would be in, or out, and the autopsy results would be restricted the second anything was documented. In fact, Ethan was going to insist paper copies were the only ones used and then locked away each night.

  Would it be suspicious?

  Oh, yeah.

  Would it cut down on leaks?

  Absolutely.

  In the end, that had to be his concern as deputy director. When all was said and done, he had the duty to keep this as quiet as possible.

  Tomorrow, when she arrived, she’d pick her team. It was her choice, and he’d stand by her too. Elizabeth had done this thousands of times, so she’d pick well.

  Ethan didn’t have to worry about that.

  Next, to keep himself busy, he checked-in with Johanna, Brody, and Tony. They were working in Raleigh on another case. A serial killer had popped up there, and they were chasing the crazy. He knew Elizabeth called the other half of her team every day while they were out, but she was not going to be focused on them.

  So, he stepped in to handle it.

  When it was Ethan who called, did they suspect something was going on?

  Nah.

  Why would they? After all, he told them the partial truth. She’d pissed people off and had gotten the hell beaten out of her.

  When Johanna and Brody didn’t even question it, that said it all.

  His wife was a disaster.

  The security team had better up their game and do the right thing from here on out. The president had been offed while under the watchful eye of the Secret Service. If he could go down, she could too.

  That was Ethan’s ultimate fear.

  Oh, not him dying, but the mother of their children going down in the line of duty as a cuckoo put her in the crosshairs. It was a fear he lived with each and every day.

  After checking on her team, Blackhawk filed her reports, and made sure everything was handled. After he was done, there was only one thing on his mind.

  God!

  He needed a drink.

  As he headed toward the liquor cabinet tucked away in one of the old drawers that each deputy director had used before him, he found his stash. While it was a no-no, today, he didn’t give a shit.

  That cigarette and drink might be the things that saved what was left of his sanity.

  After dodging Marcus Hunter’s calls and telling Callen about their wife, his gut was a mess.

  Raw.

  Bitter.

  Angry.

  He poured a drink, grabbed a cigarette, and took a seat in one of his big leather chairs. Once there, he closed his eyes and smoked. The nicotine calmed him as the aged whiskey coated his ravaged, frayed nerves. As he did, he fingered the beaded bracelet on his wrist.

  He calmed.

  “I can do this,” he said to himself. “Granddad, get her through this. Keep her safe.”

  Then he sent the prayer off with some Native words his grandfather would use whenever he wanted The Great Spirit on his side.

  The calm came.

  Whether it was the hard alcohol, the cigarette, or his grandfather, he’d never know.

  That was fine as long as it came.

  At the knock on his door, he was going to say nothing—in hopes they’d go away. Ethan was enjoying the silence, and he needed more of it to work through it.

  He wasn’t ready to deal with anything but the harsh reality that someone had dropped the ball.

  And work?

  Yeah, at that moment, he didn’t want to deal with any of the bullshit that might be going on at the Hoover Building.

  He simply didn’t care.

  Blackhawk was a man on the edge.

  At the second knock, he sighed, realizing he was a trapped rat, and the person outside his office was NOT going to go away anytime soon.

  “Come in,” he said, sitting in that chair as he smoked that contraband cigarette.

  When Ivan stepped in, there went his calm. Ethan knew it wasn’t the man’s fault that today had gone to shit. Only, he couldn’t push back all of the anger.

  In an hour, he’d be in better control. Right now, he was anything but past losing it.

  He took another drag of the smoke.

  “Yes, Mr. Bennet?” he asked, praying the man would head out and not look back. When he didn’t move, Ethan felt that control slipping. “Shouldn’t you be on your post?”

  They both knew who that was.

  Ivan could see the writing on the wall. He’d fallen from the Blackhawk graces. The use of his last name and the chill in Ethan’s voice said it all.

  Welcome to the shit list.

  It was crystal clear that Ethan hated him, and he understood it.

  “I’m just here to turn this in,” he stated.

  “What is it?” Ethan asked, blowing out a long line of that blue-gray smoke.

  “It’s my report, Director.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “And this,” he said, pulling an envelope from his cargo pants pocket. Ivan had thought long and hard about this. He needed to man up and do the right thing.

  He’d screwed-up, and now, it was time to pay the piper. When Elizabeth and Chris had gone inside, he should have been with them. He’d become complacent, trusting that she could handle herself.

  The opposite was true.

  He’d dropped the ball.

  If his time on the job was done, this man would accept his resignation, and he’d know it was goodby
e. Besides, his team was pissed. When one of them dropped the ball, they all went down for it.

  Wilcox.

  Johnny.

  Saint.

  “What is it?” Blackhawk asked, sipping his drink. When he pulled out a pack of cigarettes to chain-smoke another one, his hand shook.

  “Sir, it’s my resignation.”

  That hung there in the air between them, and neither man said anything more.

  Finally, Ethan spoke.

  “Leave it on the desk. I’ll get it later.”

  It stung.

  Ivan had begun to feel like one of them, and this reinforced a lot of things he didn’t want to face. He was simply her armor, and he’d failed.

  This was his goodbye.

  He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting from the man. Ivan had hoped it wouldn’t be accepted, and that he’d be told it would all be okay but that wasn’t the case.

  Clearly.

  Nothing would be okay from here on out, and he knew it. This was on him, and he was the enemy.

  His own worst enemy.

  “If it’s any consolation, I’m sorry. I screwed-up,” Ivan offered, standing there at attention like he had in the Marines. It was the same thing. He was back there, and he was forced to relive it all.

  Ethan listened.

  “I let them go into the building alone, and that is on me. Had I been beside her, I would have seen them coming head-on. I got sloppy, and she paid for it.”

  Ethan really wished the man hadn’t sought him out. That’s exactly why he told him to stay at the house. Until his temper was under control, this was going to be hard.

  Ethan was caught between his job and his genuine like of the man. Ivan was a good person, but as the deputy director, he didn’t have a lot of wiggle room.

  And now that he’d come in and resigned?

  Yeah, it really pissed him off.

  “You lead this security team,” he stated, being blunt. If the man was going to bail, then he was going to hear what was on his mind.

  It was only fair.

  You couldn’t run from life. That was the act of a coward, and he didn’t want that kind of person protecting his wife.

  “I expect more from you. I expect exemplary behavior from all of you, but more from you, Mr. Bennet. You are her eyes when she’s not focused. This job, my job, puts her in danger. She was given security for a reason.”