Act of Blood (An FBI/Romance Thriller ~ Book 16)

by Kelley, Morgan

  She couldn’t live without him.

  Now she had to hope that they’d both be fine.

  She had to pray.

  And inside, she already was.

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

  All the way back to the Hoover building, Callen was silent. Elizabeth didn’t know what was going on in his head, but it couldn’t be good. As they pulled into the parking garage and found their spot, he finally erupted.

  Only it wasn’t in anger.

  Callen hit the release of her seatbelt and dragged her to his body. When his mouth found hers, she fell into the heat of the kiss. His hands wandered, and his lips plundered.

  He was out of control, and she loved every damn second of it.

  There was nothing hotter than a stirred up Native.

  Well, maybe two stirred up Natives.

  “I need you,” he whispered into their mating mouths. “I need you now. I’m going to die if I can’t have my woman.”

  She didn’t think he was exaggerating.

  His eyes were wild with need, his mouth was hungrily devouring hers, and his hands…they had two big handfuls of her ass.

  “Callen,” she whispered, barely able to breathe. Everything from her neck down was tingling with lust. The man drove her insane the second he touched her.

  He pulled away.

  “I know this is so very wrong, but I have to take this minute with you.”

  She understood.

  Normally, her men were calm, laid back, and let her be herself. They didn’t bat an eyelash when she did her job or acted the part of badass Elizabeth Blackhawk.

  Then…

  Sometimes, when a line was crossed, they needed to be themselves too. This was one of those times. Obviously, Callen, knowing she’d been attacked, had gone over the edge.

  It had happened before.

  She wasn’t surprised.

  Now he was waiting, begging for permission to steal this moment with her.

  “Anything for you, my love.”

  And she meant it too.

  His heart skipped at the term of endearment. Whenever she used it, he wanted to do truly wild things to make sure she never stopped feeling that way.

  He stared at the blood on her lip, and before he could stop himself, his mouth covered hers again. The copper taste was shared between them. It seemed to make them both wilder.

  It was raw.

  It was primal.

  It was how they always came together.

  Callen pushed her off his body, and the deep gravely tone said it all. “In the back. NOW!”

  She didn’t argue.

  Elizabeth wasn’t insane.

  Why would she?

  Callen climbed into the back and had his pants open before she even got there. When she climbed between the seats, he was already hard, throbbing, and ready.

  He needed his wife to take away that craving for her. He needed something to satiate that ache he felt when he couldn’t touch her.

  “We have to be fast.”

  “Then hurry.”

  She did what he said, pulling down her dress pants and straddling his hips. Elizabeth knew how dangerous this was. For them, getting caught would be the end of both of their jobs, but Callen was her chaos.

  He was the one who pulled her into the storm. Once there, she was always helpless to it.

  “Ride my dick,” he ordered, barely giving her a chance to catch her breath. With her panties tugged aside, Callen buried himself in her body.

  Then everything ceased but that moment.

  They both moaned as Elizabeth began the ridiculously hard ride. Callen was driving her down, impaling her on his erection. It was as if he was trying to beat back the demons with each and every thrust into her body.

  The look on his face said it all.

  It was this or a fight over her acting as bait to piss a potential killer off.

  She’d take this any day.

  As he buried his fingers in the pale flesh of her hips, Callen loved watching her face. Before Elizabeth, he always had to hide his true self away.

  Now it was all about being a couple and true to themselves. That mattered more than anything.

  This kiss of pain, as she rode him hard, was enough to make him explode.

  “Promise there will always be this.”

  Oh, he needed a promise of his own.

  “Never,” he hissed.

  She gasped at the feeling.

  “Do,” he ordered.

  Elizabeth struggled to hold on.

  “That.”

  She was on the edge.

  “Again!”

  She came so hard that she could barely catch her breath. As her body exploded apart, she could feel Callen rupture beneath her in mind-blowing heat.

  They both needed this.

  They both craved it.

  She wasn’t ever going to deter the connection they had. It fueled their relationship.

  As she rested her head on his shoulder, her breathing regulated itself. She’d just run the Native marathon, and it was so damn hot.

  “You wild man,” she muttered.

  He didn’t laugh.

  When she lifted her head, he was staring at her with chocolate-y brown eyes and they were anything but calm. “If you ever do that again, Elizabeth, this won’t be the outcome. I rarely throw down an ultimatum, and in fact, I think this is the first in our relationship. If you provoke the crazies like that again, wanting him to sucker punch you, I will be pissed, and I’m not the only one.”

  She kissed him on the lips. “He’s hiding something. I needed to get him into interview.”

  “Yeah, he’s a murderer.”

  “He’s not. Something is up, and I needed more time with him to ferret it out. It was the easiest way.”

  He touched her cheek and ran his thumb across her split lip. “I would have taken that shot for you. Next time let me.”

  She smiled. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, but I better get my dick out of you. I’m already thinking about another round.”

  She could tell.

  Callen was still hard.

  “Later?” she asked.

  “Yeah, later.”

  She was good with that.

  As they cleaned up, neither spoke.

  “Would it be wrong of me to insist that if you’re interviewing Marco Deltoro, that you let me sit in there with you?” he asked.

  She glanced over. “Okay, but then Livy gets the son. I have to balance two partners. God knows I can’t play favorites.”

  He was good with that. She was split between two men, so she was the expert at equality.

  “I love you, angel.”

  She zipped up her pants. “I love you too.”

  Callen helped her climb back into the front seat, and then he followed. Thankfully, they parked facing the wall, and the tint on her Escalade would block out the rest.

  Well, except the way the whole thing had been rocking. Somethings, you couldn’t hide.

  “Shall we, Callen?” she asked.

  It was going to be a marathon today—two interviews, then autopsy, and then her agents to get backgrounds on all of the troupe’s actors.

  Yeah, they didn’t pay her enough.

  “Do you think…?” she began.

  “That you need some coffee and you’d like me to get you some before the interview?” he asked, reading her mind as they rode up in the elevator.

  “Yeah, how did you know?”

  “It’s my job to know.”

  Plus, he was starting to drag ass himself. He could use a caffeine boost.

  She went up on her toes and kissed him softly on the lips. “And you’re doing a damn good job too.”

  The doors of the elevator opened, and Livy was standing there. “I’m not surprised. What’s next? Mauling her in the parking garage?”

  She opened her mouth.

  He covered it with his large hand in case she was going to drop some uncens
ored shit for the world to hear.

  With Elizabeth, you never knew.

  “Don’t do it.”

  That made both women laugh.

  “Your interviews are here. Want me to take one?” Livy offered.

  She stared at her. “Uh, baby steps, grasshopper. You’re back on day one. I haven’t let him do an interview yet, and he’s been carrying that badge a few years now.”

  She grinned. “I figured, but a girl has to try. Who’s up first?”

  “I want to talk to the man who admitted to killing them first. I think he’s full of shit, but why is he covering for his bosses?”

  Livy handed her a tablet. “I think I know why, and it’ll help you in interview.”

  At this point, she’d take anything.

  On it, there was a picture of Peter Cochran.

  “Okay, I don’t get it.”

  “I know kids, since I have so many. Look at the mother and father,” stated Livy, flipping to another screen to show Elizabeth their driver’s license photos.

  They were both blonde and had fair complexions.

  “Now look at their son, Peter. What do you notice right off the bat?” she asked.

  Elizabeth studied the photos.

  Immediately, she noticed the obvious. He was dark-haired and had an olive complexion.

  And there it was.

  Now she clearly saw it.

  That one photo answered all of her questions regarding why Marco Deltoro was playing guard dog over the boy.

  He had been banging the missus, and that was his kid. She’d bet big money on it.

  Sex was a good reason to off someone you loved—or at least the people she chased thought so.

  Livy grinned. “Not bad for day one, huh? I guess it’s like riding a bike. You never forget how to do this job.”

  She headed toward interrogation.

  There was an amused look on her face.

  “Yeah, it’s like riding a bike if the ground is covered in sharp pointy sticks that have been coated in some toxic, venomous poison.”

  “You’re totally a bitch,” Livy said laughing. “You won’t throw me a bone today, will you?”

  “Yeah, never on day one. You’ll get cocky, arrogant, and start to make mistakes.”

  “Day two?”

  Callen laughed. “I’m on like day fifteen hundred, and I haven’t gotten that bone yet.”

  She looked at him. “You get boned plenty, Callen James. Oh, and your fly is down.”

  He looked and was appalled.

  Livy laughed.

  And Elizabeth simply kept walking.

  She may be working, but there was always time to torment one of her men.

  Always.

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

  Across the

  Hoover Building

  Surprisingly, in his chaotic day, Ethan found some spare time.

  While he had a break before the next set of meetings, he opted to head down to interrogation to watch his wife in action. It was always fun to see her dragging a suspect over the coals.

  Besides, he could do it secretly, and no one would be any the wiser. That was the beauty of interrogation rooms. No one ever knew who was hiding behind the glass.

  When he stepped into the recording room, Gabe was already there.

  It seems they had the same idea.

  Only Livy wasn’t in there. It looked like this was only going to be the ‘Elizabeth show’.

  Lucky him.

  “You and I think alike,” Gabriel Rothschild said. They were the same kind of man—dominant, bossy, and a control freak—just cut from different cloth. It was probably why he wanted to train Ethan to run the FBI when he eventually retired.

  This was what the job needed.

  “Yeah, I just like watching her in action. It gets me all hot and bothered.”

  The agent in the corner snickered. “She is hot,” he muttered.

  Ethan stared at him.

  Gabe tried not to laugh.

  “You’re dismissed and if you ever say that that outside this room, you’re going to be hot under the collar as you’re searching for a new job,” Ethan promised.

  The threat hit its mark.

  The man took off as if his life depended on it.

  “Who is she interviewing?” Ethan asked.

  Gabe had gotten the email update from his wife a few minutes before he arrived in the room. So he shared it with his co-director.

  “He confessed?”

  “You don’t buy it, oh great profiler?”

  “No. Not in this case. A killer isn’t going to set all of this up, play a role, and then suddenly confess in the middle of the game.”

  “What would the killer do if cornered?” Gabe asked.

  “He’d turn on the players—not give up.”

  Gabriel Rothschild stared at him. “Well, a heads up of that before Livy hit the field would have been handy. So what you’re telling me is this killer could go after them?”

  Ethan had bad news for the man.

  “They always end up going after the team.”

  Gabe didn’t like this at all.

  When Elizabeth turned, to stare blankly into the glass, it was time to begin. She tapped the window, and it was her cue for the recording to be turned on and the interview to start.

  Now they had to watch and wait.

  Both men were excited but for two different reasons. Gabe had been out of the field for a very long time and missed this part of it, and Ethan was going to watch the sexiest Fed he knew break down a potential criminal.

  Yeah, it was so damn hot.

  It was worth repeating.

  She took a seat, straddling her chair. For the first minute, she simply stared at him as if she was measuring up the competition, and she was.

  This was important. She was going to get one shot at the interview, and then he’d likely lawyer up.

  Elizabeth had to make it count.

  As she watched him, she could tell that he was nervous, and she got it.

  Marco Deltoro really believed that his biological child had done it. That was fascinating. Actually, the whole thing was beyond that. For some reason, this man had fathered a child with his boss, he was worked up over their deaths, and he was living in their home.

  Did William Cochran know?

  Was the affair beneath his nose?

  She had to wonder if the head of the household would turn a blind eye to something that had been years and years in the making. It wasn’t as if the kid was a baby.

  He had to have his suspicions.

  It was time to find out.

  “What kind of man was William Cochran?” she asked, moving toward the target one step at a time. She needed background information, and it was time to get it.

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Was he kind?”

  “Yes. He loved his wife very much.”

  “Was he strict?” she countered.

  “Yes, with his son, he wanted him to have the best but to earn it.”

  Fascinating.

  “Was he the boss?”

  “Absolutely. He ran his home with an iron fist. We called him a tyrant, but in a loving way. He’d do anything for his family.”

  Then this made no sense.

  There was no way that the man didn’t know his child wasn’t biologically his. She pictured Ethan. He was smart, he was the boss, and he was pretty territorial. If Elizabeth had a baby, that didn’t look like either man, Ethan would be suspicious. If she came home with a blonde baby, after birth, the shit would hit the fan.

  How could it not?

  “What about Jeanne Cochran? What kind of woman was she?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Why do you need to know?” he asked.

  “Because people don’t get murdered in their own homes randomly. If this wasn’t a burglary, then it had something to do with them.”

  “I told you that I…”

  She held up her hand. “We’ll get
to that. I need to know about them.”

  “She was kind.”

  “Was she a good mother?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Yes, she was.”

  “Did she and William fight?”

  “Rarely. They had that gentle kind of relationship where he doted on her, and she was his other half.”

  Elizabeth got that since she had that same relationship with her husbands. They did the same thing with her.

  She was ready.

  It was time to get down to it.

  “So, my friend, you killed William and Jeanne Cochran. Why?”

  He actually looked relieved.

  “I did. I was angry.”

  “So you snuck into their bedroom, strangled her in bed after striking him on the back of the head with that brick? Was that how it went down? It’s the only way since she was found in bed and he wasn’t. Did he try to stop you? Did he hear you coming?”

  There was a pause while he processed it.

  She saw him making up his lie before it even came out of his mouth. Unlike Livy, this wasn’t her first day on the job. She’d interviewed countless suspects, and she knew how they reacted when questioned.

  This man didn’t realize what he was getting into with this interview. He saw breasts and thought she was shitty at her job.

  Well, she was about to show him how she rolled.

  He nodded. “It was a momentary lapse. Maybe I was sleepwalking. I want a lawyer.”

  She laughed. “Oh, you don’t need a lawyer,” she stated.

  “I do so he can get me out on bail. That’s how it works, right?”

  “Well, normally, but this is a serial killer case. There’s no bail for that. You’re going to stay in jail…for the rest of your life, Marco.”

  He didn’t flinch.

  “But you really don’t need a lawyer. I’m not arresting you for this crime.”

  “Why? I did it!”

  “You didn’t commit it, simply because you didn’t know how they were killed. Newsflash, my lying friend, they weren’t bludgeoned or strangled.”

  He looked worried.

  That fear was back.

  Before it had been about going to jail, but now it was about Peter going there.