He pulled the pictures out and let her have them. The techs took them and printed them out.
There was no lamp in the pictures.
“They took that too.”
“Yes, they did.”
Great.
“Okay, angry, not premeditated, and they managed to walk right around the Secret Service without drawing any attention.”
“Or they noticed, and this is part of the ‘don’t tell’ issue that the Secret Service seems to have when it comes to rape and anything else attached to the president,” Callen stated.
“Good point.”
“Yeah, it is,” Ethan stated. “And it makes it a bitch to solve if someone saw something and isn’t saying anything about it.”
She was aware.
“Well, by all means, why not be consistent?” she asked. “If they are going to be my nightmare, why not be one all the way to the end?” she asked, laughing. “What more could go wrong?” Elizabeth asked.
Ethan knew it was time.
Unless he, himself, came clean on this one little issue, there was going to be no consistency in his sex life from here on out.
Blackhawk sighed and closed his eyes.
“Uh oh,” Callen stated. “He has those lines around his mouth. He’s going to make everyone miserable. He’s no longer calm. He’s putting on his ‘this is going to hurt’ face. Brace yourself.”
She got up.
“What’s going on?” she asked, staring down at him.
“I need you to sit and be calm.”
“Uh, I was sitting, and I was very calm. Now, I am the exact opposite.”
He was aware.
“We need to talk.”
“About?” she asked, heading to the other side of the desk so she could stand by Callen. She felt a boning coming on, and not the sexy one she liked from both men.
This was going to suck.
“Something was brought to my attention, and we need to have some decorum and discretion when it comes to how you handle it.”
Callen laughed.
“You realize who you are talking to, right?” he asked, taking an elbow to the ribs.
“Shit!”
“That’s my way of handing out decorum.”
“Be serious,” Ethan stated. “This is a huge issue, and it’s going to cause more issues.”
Now they were both worried.
What made it worse?
He was up from his chair and heading to his liquor cabinet that was tucked away so no one would see it. Once there, he poured a glass of whiskey.
“Want a drink?” he asked.
Callen and Elizabeth stared at each other.
This was beyond bad.
“Oh, holy hell! We’re screwed,” Callen stated, watching his brother. This was NOT a going to end well. That was crystal clear.
“What happened?”
“It’s about the First Lady,” he began. “It seems that she wasn’t sleeping with her husband, but she was still having some fun.”
“Okay, so who was giving her the big D?” she asked.
Ethan hated this.
“She, too, was breaking the vows of her marriage,” he stated, trying to find a way to deliver this one.
“Yeah, I know. Gordon was really close and doting on her. She was definitely shagging him.”
Ethan shook his head.
“Not him.”
That was surprising.
“Really?”
“Landry and Gordon Downing go way back. His sister is her best friend. They used to be neighbors, growing up as kids. That’s likely why Damian Dean picked him as his running mate. His wife had some influence.”
Well, that was nice to know, but she was worried about what Ethan wasn’t telling her.
“Okay, well, that explains why he was soothing her like he knew her rather well. So, what are you not telling me? Who was she sleeping with?”
“She didn’t kill her husband. She has an alibi.”
She stared at him.
Since when did Ethan work on confirming alibis on her cases? That was way off base.
“This is going to suck, isn’t it?”
He nodded.
“I’ve been given some information on your case, and I am struggling with it.”
Yeah, this would be bad.
“While her husband was being killed, she was with Marcus Hunter.”
“Yeah, she said,” Elizabeth offered. “When I interviewed her, she used him as her alibi.”
He stared at her.
“Pardon? She admitted it?” Ethan asked, wondering why the hell his wife was so calm about that?
“Yeah, she said they were talking. I was going to ask him to alibi her at some point.”
Oh…talking.
Yeah, that wasn’t all they were doing. His wife only got half the story.
“Honey…”
She hated that one single word. There were few things that freaked her out.
Hell!
She’d stayed calm through Harmony’s confession of being a victim, but honey…that was bad.
“Don’t do it. You’re going to rip the rug out from under me, aren’t you?”
Yes, yes, he was.
Unfortunately.
“Marcus has been having an ongoing affair with Landry Dean. At the time, to phrase it how you did, she was getting a whole lot of big D from him.”
She stared at him.
“Uh, he’s married to Marylou, and he has kids!” she said in horror.
“Yeah, I know. I told him the same thing.”
“Well, that’s bad.”
Oh, he was aware.
“He was there that night when they found the president. He was there because he’d left his wife downstairs and snuck upstairs to have sex with the First Lady.”
She actually stared with her mouth open. That told him everything he needed to know.
Elizabeth really hadn’t seen this one coming.
At all.
Callen shook his head in disgust.
“Well, he’s an asshole,” he stated.
Ethan didn’t disagree.
“Well, that’s really bad for him—besides the whole ‘married’ thing. That puts him at the scene of the crime and gives him an emotional attachment to the victim’s wife.”
Ethan was aware.
“In my profile…”
She stopped him.
“How well do you know me?” she asked. “After all these years, how well do you know how I work?”
“Very well.”
“I didn’t need your profile. I like having it, Ethan, but after working with you for all these years, I know what you’re going to say, and I know what my gut is telling me. I walk the line between. I made up my mind as to this case.”
“And you came up with what?”
She pulled her notebook out and tossed it to him.
“Read the autopsy results, what Chris stated, and then what my impression was of the whole thing.”
He did.
Ethan scanned them.
‘He wasn’t likely killed by a woman. Wounds are far too extensive to be done by the First Lady. It’s likely that if she did know, she had someone do it for her.’
He looked up.
“So, you think she coerced someone into doing it?” Ethan asked.
“Yep. Keep reading. Page two.”
Blackhawk flipped the pages.
‘The VP and FLOTUS are looking awful cozy. Research their relationship. If he’s diddling the woman, she might have used a sob story and sex as a way to ‘motivate’ him to help her off her husband. Find out where they were during the killing. If she was near her husband, she’s at the top of the list with her side action.’
He closed it and handed the notebook back to her. His face said it all.
Elizabeth had already suspected that the First Lady and whoever she was diddling was involved.
Now Marcus was wearing all of the suspicion.
“This puts us in a precario
us position,” she stated. “I like Marcus’s wife. We have dinner with them. Our kids go to the same school. She’s the freaking PTA mom who puts up with my shit when I buy cupcakes because I’m chasing a crazy and can’t bake them myself. How do I not ask her questions regarding a high-profile murder where her husband is now a TOP suspect?” she asked.
“I know.”
“How did you find this out?” she asked. “How did you get this breadcrumb? It had to be a pretty obvious trail. I never saw it being tied to Marcus. I saw her cheating, especially since she admitted their marriage was a sham and over, but Marcus?”
He was aware.
“Marcus owned it this morning. That’s why he wanted to talk to me. He wants me to pull you off of this.”
She began laughing.
“Oh, that doesn’t scream suspicious at all, now does it? And you said?” she asked, waiting.
Ethan lifted a brow.
“And you need to ask me that?” he countered.
She watched his hand go to the bracelet on his wrist as he inadvertently played with the beads.
That was her tell to calm down and back off.
“In the spirit of us sharing everything with each other, that wasn’t me accusing you of anything. I’m curious what you told him.”
“That I wouldn’t do it. That I will not play games for him against my own wife. If he’s guilty, he’s screwed, and if he’s only guilty of an affair, then he’s screwed. You would have found out eventually.”
She relaxed.
“I would. I am tenacious.”
He was aware.
“I appreciate your spirit of complete sharing. I work better that way,” she said, back to being calm.
“This sucks,” Ethan stated.
Callen knew someone wasn’t being completely honest. His wife left out one major part.
“Uh, aren’t you forgetting something?” Callen asked. “You left out a HUGE piece of information on this one.”
Ethan lifted a brow.
“What?” he asked. “What did you leave out?”
Elizabeth gave Callen the look.
“He doesn’t need to know THAT,” she stated, not surprised that the Bro Code won on this one. Elizabeth couldn't even be mad. She expected it.
“I think he does.”
So, Callen dropped the bomb.
“He had planned to lure her up there and rape our wife. Had she gone up there…he was all viagra’d up and raring to go.”
“Traitor,” she muttered.
Callen didn’t care, and he shrugged.
“When it comes to someone raping our wife, I’m on the more violent, angry side with my brother. Keep that in mind. He gets to share in my rage.”
Elizabeth wasn’t shocked at all.
“He’s lucky he’s dead,” Ethan stated.
Oh, Callen was thinking the same thing.
“Really? The two of you think I couldn’t hold my own against a short, fat, aging hornball? Last time in the gym, I kicked both of your asses. He’s got nothing on any of us. I would have killed him.”
She had a point.
“I still am glad he’s dead,” Callen stated. “No love lost for a rapist.”
“Well, not to distract you two killers, but can we focus on this? I have to interview Marcus,” she stated.
They both cringed.
That was NOT going to be pretty. They could tell. By the time she was done…
“Is there any way we can do this quietly? After all, he did ask you to back off of the First Lady.”
She laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
“Oh, that’s funny. Knowing me, that makes me want to put her whole life under a microscope. You can tell the US Marshals aren’t accustomed to solving things. They hunt. I solve. Now I have to solve this on top of everything else.”
“You’re going to make him bleed, aren’t you?”
She smiled.
“I love a cheater. It’s my favorite snack. I liked him too. I genuinely liked the man. Well, that sucks for him.”
“I’ll have him come in for an interview,” Ethan stated, knowing that Marcus wasn’t the only one who was screwed. They all were.
Only, his wife didn’t see it.
“Oh, I’ll do it at his house, tonight,” she corrected. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to inconvenience him and all,” she drawled, the Southern in her voice.
The men knew she was pissed.
“Elizabeth,” Ethan said, trying to find a way to get her to calm down and understand how much was on the line.
“What? If you don’t want to get caught, don’t fuck another man’s wife or cheat on your own. It’s pretty simple.”
They agreed.
Only, Ethan knew that it wasn’t that simple. It never was. This was the man heading the US Marshals. He was the one the FBI called when they needed muscle to take in a fugitive. They were all wrapped up in this.
So, for that, and that alone, Ethan tried to reason with his wife.
“You’ll destroy his…”
She stopped him.
Honestly, she didn’t care. She was done with all of this jackassery in DC. It was a clusterfuck, and she was not playing games. She had a case to solve.
“I’m going back to work,” she said, grabbing her notes from his desk. “I have shit to do.”
Blackhawk was a little caught off guard by her tone, her anger, and how it was directed at him.
“Why are you upset with me?” he asked.
“Because you’re defending him! In a way, you’re trying to get me to take it easy on him without saying ‘take it easy on him’. There are rules, and I’m going to make sure he knows that.”
“Elizabeth.”
“No, Ethan. If he wasn’t our friend, what would you have me do? Baby him? Ignore it? Or go at him hard to find out what’s going on?”
He sighed.
“I’m going to ask a favor.”
She stared at him.
In all of their time together, he’d NEVER done that before, and it unnerved her.
Why?
Because she didn’t know if she could do it when he’d never let her down when she asked.
“Don’t do it,” she warned. “Ethan…”
He had to do it.
The FBI and US Marshals worked in tandem. They were a team. If she burned this bridge…there were ramifications. She may not see them, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t there. He had rules to live by, and a bureau to help run.
“I need you to do it here. For me. I need you to leave his wife out of this and keep it official. FOR ME.”
And there it sat.
It hovered between them like a bomb waiting to go off.
“I can’t do that, Ethan. I can’t bend the game because you ask me to do it. I can’t make it easier for a man who is cheating with my main suspect because you don’t want me to do it.”
“Elizabeth.”
“I’m disappointed,” she stated. “You know my hands are tied. You know I’m screwed on this one, and you’re tying them further. I can have no mercy. Know why I’m as good as I am?” she asked.
He didn’t speak.
“I don’t give up. I fight for them. While I hate that scum-sucking dirtbag, I have to find his killer. He may be disgusting and deserved it, but I can’t let one thread loose. It could mean a whole case unraveling.”
And there it was.
“I see.”
She headed toward the door.
“You have to make your choices. I will make mine. See you at home. I have a case to work. I think you should bump this to a different profiler. I can’t see you being objective—not now.”
The words were like a dagger through his heart. A lot of things had hurt in his life.
His mother’s death.
Callen’s betrayal.
Timothy’s death.
Only, her words hurt more than any of that. She didn’t trust him to do the job.
�
�I’ll see you later.”
Callen watched her slam the door.
“And, of course, we’re going to have a marital argument in the middle of this mess,” Callen stated. “Because we have to test the strength of our marriage and the stubbornness of the people involved in it.”
It appeared his brother was pissed now too.
Great.
“Callen, it’s not always black or white.”
“Ethan, I get that, but she’s doing her best. You have to let her do her job. We get that you’re in a bad place with this, but so are we.”
And there it was.
Et Tu, Callen?
Well, since that was how this was going down, Ethan had no other choice.
“As a heads-up, I won’t be home tonight.”
He lifted a brow.
“Pardon?”
“She’s angry, I’m pissed, and I don’t want to fight. I’m going to a hotel.”
“Alone, I hope,” Callen stated out of fear that they were getting back on that rollercoaster. It had taken its toll and nearly destroyed their marriage. The Secretary of Defense’s little game had nearly destroyed everything.
Callen couldn’t go there again.
“What?”
“You heard me,” he stated.
Ethan was hurt all over again.
The hits kept coming.
“Fuck you,” he stated, but there was that chill in his voice. “First her, and now you? I’d never cheat on either of you. I’d never do that. I don’t want to argue with her. I don’t want to be that albatross around her neck. I’ll give her space so she’s not having to fight two battles on two different fronts. I can control my dick.”
That hung there too.
“Then we’ll see you tomorrow.”
Callen knew there was no point trying to talk him out of it, and there was no point getting angry about it. Ethan was the king of stubborn, followed by the queen of pigheaded—who had left.
Here he was stuck in the middle of the mayhem.
Blackhawk sat behind his desk as his brother left. It hurt that they didn’t see it from his side. It hurt that she didn’t want his profile. It hurt that Callen thought he’d cheat.
All of it hurt.
Ethan shut it down, and he picked up his phone to call the vice president back. Despite it all, he’d clear the way for his wife.
All the King's Henchmen Page 33