“I’m not good with people.”
She pulled out her phone and flipped to a group of pictures.
“Scroll.”
He did what she asked.
There was Tony playing with her kids. There was ‘UNCLE’ Tony giving them piggyback rides around the living room, two kids at a time.
“You know kids. You’re just worried you’ll be your dad. You’re not a quitter. We’ve been working together for years. I know you.”
He was scared.
“You have this. Had you not, who would have told you so?” she asked.
“You?”
She nodded.
“Me. I know you’re going to be good, and so does Jaxon. She told me she couldn't wait to see you holding your child. She wants the baby to have your eyes, and your smile. Jaxon…she trusts you, and she’s smart. She had a dad, and he was a train wreck. She knows good dads from bad dads.”
He relaxed.
“She does trust me.”
“Yes, she does.”
He took a deep breath.
“So, you go back out there, you focus on the bones, and she goes home. She needs to rest, and you need to work. Having her right here is messing with your perspective.”
Elizabeth was right, and he knew it.
“I needed this.”
She gave him a kiss on the cheek and stared into his eyes. In them, there was calm again. In them, there was the man who had worked hundreds of cases with her.
She trusted his skill.
“If you struggle, you know who to ask. Chris and I are experts. We have this. We will forever have your back. If you get to the point where you’re so tired, and you think you’ll forget the baby or drop that little one, you come find me. I’ll love that little bundle for a couple hours, so you can get a nap.”
He was glad for that.
His friends would never let him down. They’d proved that many times over the years. They wouldn’t bail on him.
He could bet on that.
“Okay. I’m better.”
“Now, head out there, and we’re going to get ready for whatever it is you supposedly missed. You’re going to walk me through it, and you’re going to make sure it’s on target. We can work with whatever happened, but you have to lead by example, and I need you to be a doctor. Daddy time is coming soon enough.”
He took a deep breath, and he nodded.
“I’ve got this. You’re right.”
She didn’t doubt it.
Heading back out, all eyes were on them. So, she decided to mess with all of them for even doubting her. Yes, she was tough, but she wasn’t mean.
“Everyone is fired.”
They all gasped.
Callen laughed at their response. They weren’t expecting it, and that made it all the more fun.
“Just kidding, but that’s what you get for trying to eavesdrop. I heard the silence. It was telling.”
Chris grinned at her.
“Okay, so first off, Jaxon, go home. I think I told you to head out earlier when you were done with the markers.”
“You did.”
“Okay, well, skedaddle. Go grow a baby in the privacy of your home.”
She gathered her things.
Elizabeth pointed at a tech.
“YOU!”
He jumped.
“I know Blue said she’d do it, but she’s on deck with work, so I need you to drive the nice pregnant lady home and buy her lunch on me,” she said, pulling money out of her pocket.
They all stared at her like she was insane.
That was why she did it.
It kept them on their toes.
“Next, Tony, tell me what’s going on, and keep it at my grade level. While I get anatomy, I don’t always get bones. Break it to me easily.”
Tony kissed his wife goodbye, and he got down to business. The entire time, he was focused on Elizabeth and nothing else. Now that Jaxon was headed out, he could focus on the bones.
“We found anomalies.”
“Like?”
“I missed the one first time through, but when I did a chemical scan, the last body, the male, had a reaction.”
She listened.
“I didn’t catch it, and I should have,” he said, apologizing profusely.
“I don’t care about when you caught it, just that you did catch it. Now, tell me what does it means,” she said, glancing over at Chris.
He helped her out.
“The eighth set of bones aren’t as old as the other ones,” Chris said. “The last person killed was chemically stripped of all his flesh. We have it running, but I’m going to say lye and other chemicals are in that cocktail.”
Tony agreed.
“None of the other ones reacted, so I tested the bones, and while the newest ones have been in the ground the shortest time, they are the oldest.”
She let him talk it out.
Then she had to know.
“Okay, so we had a killer who killed them the same way, but cleaned their bones.”
“Yes.”
“What was the other thing you found?” she asked.
“While I was examining those bones, looking for age markers, I saw something off about the COD.”
“What?” she asked.
“It doesn’t match the original entry angles. Remember how we did the whole show and tell thing?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“This one matches the new victims, not the ones that Carl killed.”
She’d like to say she was shocked, but she wasn’t. This whole case was a mess when it came to the evidence.
Chris headed toward the other two fleshless victims who had recently come out of the beetles.
He picked up a trajectory bullet marker and slid it in at an angle.
Tony did the same thing.
They matched.
Then Christina did one with one of the other skeletons, and it was off.
“I’m sorry I missed it, but whoever killed the three women we just found, also killed the last body buried in that grave. They stripped the bones and hoped we wouldn't notice, and I almost didn’t. Had I not run the chemical trace…”
Well, it didn’t matter.
They ran it, and that was all that counted at that point.
“We are going over every inch of last skeleton. If we find anything we’ll let you know.”
That worked for her.
“Find me a way to get that victim’s identity. I need to take this to the office and mull it over before tonight. If anyone needs me, I’ll be upstairs.”
She headed out.
Callen knew it was going to contain a whiteboard and some time away from everyone. His wife was chasing something in her mind, and she would need time to do it.
He checked in with Chris.
“Can I see you for a second?” he asked.
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I have an early birthday present for you, and I figured I’d give it to you now.”
He followed him into the room.
Callen closed the door and began taking off his shirt.
“Uh, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I didn’t ask for that for my birthday.”
Callen laughed and laughed. This was proof that the man was part of their family. He was just as twisted and wrong as the rest of them.
“You’re funny. That’s not what I was doing.”
“Uh, is that wax on your collarbone?” he asked.
“Don’t ask,” he said, flicking it off.
“Come on! That would be a good gift! I love Elizabeth sex stories!”
Callen wasn’t going there.
“This will be better.”
“That’s hard to beat!”
When he took off his shirt and turned around, there was plastic over his new tattoo.
“Peel it off.”
Chris was confused.
He’d never done this before.
Gently, he peeled it off and then stared at it. The tattoo w
as raw, red, but amazing.
“What does it say?” he asked, only recognizing his name but not the symbol. While he’d learned some of their language, he couldn't write it.
“It’s the symbol for brother in our language. Now you ride with Ethan and Lyzee. I officially claim you as my family. You’re mine.”
He was touched.
In fact, he wiped his eyes.
“Callen, that’s amazing. I only wish I could get one for both of you,” he said, hugging him. “No one would tattoo me with a ten-foot pole.”
He was aware.
“I wanted you to feel welcome in our unit, and while you might think it feels weird, it totally is.”
He laughed.
“But then we’re a weird group, and that’s never going to change,” he stated, dropping his arm over the man’s shoulders. “Weird is good. I’ve realized that over the last few years.”
“This is the best gift ever.”
“Elizabeth outdid me, but…she’s Elizabeth, and it’s hard to beat her at her own game. When she loves, she does it fully, and with all of her heart.”
He was aware.
“Thank you, Callen. Thank you so much.”
He didn’t mind.
They were going to be a family, so they might as well act like it.
“You should take a nap,” he said, pulling an apple from his pocket for him.
“An apple a day…”
He laughed.
“Know what?” he asked.
“What?”
“You’re weird.”
Callen lifted a brow.
“I really dig weird. Thank you for being my brother,” Chris stated.
He smiled.
Yeah, weird was really good.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
US Marshal’s
Office
Washington D.C.
She’d already filled out her report and let Marcus Hunter know that the shit had hit the fan on the operation. He’d grilled her, made her sign a few things, and then told her to head home until she had healed.
That was her plan.
Only, she had to get her desk cleared before she headed out. She was taking a couple days off, and that was to regroup.
The wound on her arm had nothing to do with it, but she was obsessively thinking about someone, and it confused the hell out of her.
Harmony Wells, badass supreme, didn’t pine away over men—especially ones who looked like they were fresh out of the academy. She had to be a good half a decade older than him.
Still…
But here she was, thinking about Maximus Chase.
She liked the way his name rolled off her tongue and gave her that giddy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Maximus.
MAXIMUS.
Yeah, she loved the way it sounded.
As she approached her desk, her partner in crime was there, and he was shooting the breeze with another agent.
“Hey, Laramy, get your feet off my damn desk,” she said, knocking them off with her good arm.
“Hey, Harmony, how’s the wing?” he asked.
“Good.”
“We hear you saved a cop. Good one. Did you make him buy you a beer?” he teased. “You know…because you’re Super Girl?”
She flipped him off.
“I don’t make men buy me shit. I can take care of myself. If I had to rely on men like you…”
He grinned at her.
“Marshal Wells!” someone called.
“What?” she asked, standing up to see who was calling her. She saw the security guy from downstairs heading her way, and he was carrying a giant package.
A pink one.
“There’s a delivery for you.”
She looked at her partner.
“If you’re being a dick and playing a prank on me, Laramy, I’ll hurt you…”
He raised his hands.
“Nope. I didn’t do anything,” he said.
She stared at him to see if he was a lying sack of shit, and then she saw his face when the guard placed the gift on her desk.
He was curious.
There were flowers.
Laramy Markett went to reach for the card, and she slapped his hand away.
“Don’t you dare!”
“Touchy! I was just going to read what your momma sent,” he teased.
She began getting goosebumps.
Pulling the card off, she was damn curious. Her mother didn’t send flowers.
Ever.
When she opened it, Harmony began reading it.
‘Miss Harmony Wells,
Thank you for saving my life. Here’s my number…in case you ever want me to save yours—or get a drink.
Maximus.’
Her heart skipped in her chest.
That was totally unexpected, and she didn’t know what to even say.
It was time to see what he’d sent.
Opening the pretty tissue paper covering the flowers, she pulled back the layers and found a ton of pink flowers.
Laramy busted her ass.
“Well, whoever sent you that has no clue. Everyone knows that you don’t get off on girl shit like pink flowers,” he teased. “That person need a refresher course.”
Only, she did.
A lot.
Pink was her favorite color, and that was something that very few people knew about her.
Her bedroom was all pink.
Her steering wheel cover was pink.
When she was a little kid, she wanted to have pink clothes and dye her hair pink too.
That was her big secret.
Out of that office, she loved being a girl, and this…this man had just hit his mark.
Maximus Chase, the detective, had somehow managed to figure that out.
Wow.
Now suddenly felt the need to be saved.
Or maybe get a drink…
Chapter Seventeen
Sunday Afternoon
Violent Crime Unit
VCU Office
A s she stood in her office, she was grateful for the silence to work her way through the whiteboard. On it, she was making a list of all of the people who could possibly have something to do with this.
Sadly, it was a short list.
As she stared at it, there was nothing there that was popping out, and again, she wasn’t surprised. How could she have three dead women, one chemically aged skeleton, and not a freaking clue who was wielding that knife?
Oh, she knew why.
Because the killer was messing with her.
Everything in her said it had been Brian, but he was still in the wind, his mother was in jail, and the timeline didn’t fit. Then it jumped to another suspect, the bartender. Only, she didn’t doubt that with the next victim, he wouldn't work out either.
This was a way to test her.
She could see it.
Was this maniac playing games? She thought back to what Callen had said. If he wanted revenge, this would be it. She had taken down his son, and O’Banion had hired the jail cell hit on him.
Was she marked too?
She didn’t know.
All she did know was that no one was fitting what her gut was screaming.
No one.
Reading over the names, there was a knock on the door, and she spun in her chair.
“Come in,” she said, glancing over to see who was bothering her.
“Hey, LaRue, can we talk?” Alex asked, standing there.
That had her attention.
“Yeah, Alex, come on in,” she said. “Welcome to my kingdom. It’s being upgraded, but until then…oh, and it’s Blackhawk. That makes the men testy.”
He didn’t answer.
“What’s up?” she asked when he looked irritated. She’d worked with him long enough to know when he was stirred up.
“Why didn’t you offer me a job?” he asked after he headed her way, leaving the door open.
“Pardon?”
>
“You offered a job to the detective newbie, and then to Noah. What did I do to piss in your cereal?” he asked. “I thought we were buddies.”
“You were my partner and bailed on me.”
“Oh, Christ. You were on a one-way path to destruction. I was saving my life.”
She laughed.
“But how is that different now?”
“This is the department to be in and you’re the person everyone wants to work with. Had I known you wouldn’t have gotten me killed, I wouldn’t have bailed.”
She pointed at the chair opposite her desk and he took a seat.
“You have a job with cybercrimes.”
“I hate it. It’s like the most boring job in the whole damn world. I sit there and stalk predators online. I wasn’t a desk junkie before, and you know it. Let me come to your team.”
Oh, the irony.
“Well, I don’t know...”
“Come on, LaRue. We were tight. I never told anyone you were bedding down with Doctor Leonard, and there was plenty of chitchat. If anything, I’m trustworthy. That has to account for something, right?”
It did.
She’d saved the best for last, and she was going to ignore that he couldn't get her name straight.
STILL.
She opened her desk.
“I only have so many positions open,” she stated, screwing with him.
He hated this game.
He wanted in.
“What do I have to do?” he asked. “Beg?”
“Remember that first case we worked, and you told me…you’re so pretty. You should be at home having babies.”
He laughed.
“Jesus. We had a few beers in us. You can’t hold that against me. In my defense, you were pretty, now you’re gorgeous, and you had lots of freaking babies. You’re trying to populate the world.”
She tried not to smile.
The reason she wanted HIM on her team was because she trusted Alex. At the beginning, he tried to be her partner. That couldn’t have been easy. Never once did he treat her like she was a failure when ‘The Butcher’ got away.
She was career suicide.
Yes, he bailed, but it was to live another day. That she got and respected.
She pulled two envelopes out of her desk.
They had Detective Chase and Agent Noah Stokes’s names on them.
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