Ethan explained, “If you were out banging someone other than me, yes.”
“Uh, Callen.”
He laughed. “I meant that we weren’t married and just friends with benefits. Better?”
“Yes.”
“If we were having sex and I knew you were riding someone else, I’d be furious.”
“Even if we were simply friends?”
“Men don’t often repeat bone women they don’t have some interest in. If it’s a one night stand, we move on. If it’s a friend, we build attachments.”
She got that.
“So maybe he did do this.”
“Maybe.”
She didn’t know. “He also pointed me at old employees. He was being really helpful, and he wasn’t really mourning.”
“Where are Seaton and Madden?” Ethan asked, returning to sit beside her.
“They’re in the doctors’ lounge working.”
“They’ll find something. Let me help.”
What choice did she have?
She was batting a big fat zero.
“Okay, Cowboy. Welcome to our slum.”
He laughed. “Uh, your slum has about a million dollars’ worth of equipment in it, and more so than the other morgues in the building.”
She snorted.
“I can’t help it. You know me. It’s like the men in my life. I can’t have just one. Now I have three.”
He looked up.
She ignored him.
“Elizabeth, you should probably explain,” he stated.
She didn’t.
He stared at her. “ELIZABETH!”
Her only reply was to laugh.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Leslie Jefferson
Promotions
When Callen got there, he wished they had met in town at the coffee shop he loved. It might have made this easier.
Honestly, he hated hurting people.
He knew how it felt.
A part of him knew Leslie and her team weren’t to blame for the whole mess, or so he hoped. Leslie had done her best, but it wasn’t good enough.
Plus, he was angry.
He was outed, and that was putting pressure on his personal life. His kids were no longer safe, and he heard the tone in Elizabeth’s voice when she told him about the women.
Callen couldn’t blame her for being worried.
He’d be the same way if the shoe was on the other foot. Now he had to punish someone, and until they figured out who stole his book and released his identity, it was going to have to be the people in charge of protecting it.
He couldn’t fail at his job.
They shouldn’t fail at theirs. The agency was being paid a good chunk of money to keep him at the top of the lists, but not by the way it had.
To him, this was the worst case scenario, and Callen wanted off the crazy train.
Opening the door to the building, he followed it all the way down the hall to her personal office. There weren’t many businesses in there, and he noted how quiet it was for that time of the day.
People should be coming and going, but it was…dead.
Callen found that odd, but he was too worried about what was coming. He hoped she didn’t cry. He hated dealing with tears from women.
His wife was one thing, but everyone else made him uncomfortable.
Opening the door to her office, he headed in.
“Leslie! It’s Callen.”
“We’re back here,” one of Leslie’s assistants called. “We’re getting ready for your meeting. Grab some coffee and come on back. We have something to show you.”
He did what he was told, and he headed back. When he entered the room, he stopped.
Something was wrong.
The smell was off.
He knew that scent anywhere, and it horrified him. His gut started warning him that this was bad.
Then he realized why.
There were two dead people, and a gun pointed at his face. Yeah, this was going to be the worst break up in the history of his life.
That was for damn sure.
It looked like he was going to die.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
The team was still working.
As they sat there, Elizabeth picked up the theater program again. There was something bugging her about it, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
So she started studying it. Blowing through the pages, she saw the smiling faces of the entire troupe. There were little write-ups on all of them.
She read each one and studied the words as if this was a final exam and a matter of life or death.
When she was on the final page, she flipped it over. That’s when she saw the emblem.
“Wait!”
Ethan looked up.
“I think I have something.”
“What?”
Elizabeth hopped down off the table. “Who here has Callen’s book with them?” she asked.
No one raised their hands.
“It’s life or death!”
That worried Ethan.
“I have it on my tablet. I don’t have a paperback copy,” Jaxon offered. “Will that do?”
Elizabeth took the tablet and was excited. “YES! That’s fine! It’ll be in there too.” She began flipping through the pages of Callen’s book, until she reached the end. By his bio, just beneath the information was exactly what she needed.
On the last page, there was an emblem. It was the same one on the back of the program.
It couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Baby?” Ethan asked.
She handed him both the tablet and the program.
“What do you see?”
He stared at it.
Honestly, it took a minute.
Then Ethan got it.
“Leslie Jefferson sponsored the theater troupe, and she also promoted Callen’s book.”
“Yes, she did.”
Ethan let her talk it out.
“We have someone who is pulling Shakespearean like murders, Callen’s book gets stolen, his ID is released, and we’re playing this sick game with someone.”
“You think it’s them?”
“It can’t be a coincidence.”
Elizabeth raced to the lounge. “I need you both,” she said to Seaton and Madden.
They didn’t hesitate.
“What’s up, boss?”
“I want a list of Leslie Jefferson’s employees,” she stated. “I need to see if one of them was ever an actor for Selma Roth.”
They each took a tablet and got to work.
“We thought this was about the troupe of actors, but what if this one hits a little closer to home?”
“Look at Callen’s bio in the back.”
‘Jackson James, a lover of all things written. He fancies himself an expert at old Shakespearean literature, a collector of books, and a true believer that life is nothing but a story waiting to be told.’
“I don’t think this is about the troupe of crazies. I think this is about Callen. Someone’s writing a story for us, and we’re playing along.”
Ethan got it.
“Like one of Callen’s mysteries?”
She nodded. “We have murder, mayhem, and a whole lot of killing that’s stumping the lead investigators. Then the little detail that no one knew these books were based on old cases, except for Leslie and her team. She knew Callen used our jobs as a point of reference.”
She had a point.
“I think we’re being played. I really think Callen’s been played too.”
Ethan wasn’t happy.
The tablets began beeping, and Elizabeth knew her two agents had something.
“What did you find?”
“We have Logan Hutchinson, Leslie Jefferson, and Jewel Lamont,” Johanna stated. “Leslie opened the business five years ago, according to the IRS, and she hired on Logan two years afterward to help run the place. Jewel has only been there for a
bout eleven months.”
She stared at Brody. “Run them. I want to know all of their hobbies, and what they studied in school.”
He did.
It didn’t take long.
“We have one hit, and you’re not going to be happy at all, boss,” Brody warned. One sure fire way to set her off was to screw with her men.
This was one of those instances.
He handed her the tablet.
Elizabeth scanned it, and she was glad they figured it out, but she was also scared shitless.
Callen was the target.
“Son of a bitch. This killer has definitely been playing us. It’s not about us. It’s not about the National Theater. It’s been about Callen the whole time—or better yet, Jackson James. We didn’t see it because the case started before his identity was out. Only the people who had his identity knew.”
She handed her husband the tablet.
His face said it all. He was pissed. Someone had screwed with his family, and that was unacceptable.
“He went to meet with them. Callen is in danger.”
Ethan was sick and freaked out. They’d missed this because they never would have thought it was about Callen’s other job.
“We have to get to him.”
She pointed at her agents. “Let’s go. You’ll have to suit up in the Escalade. I have a sick feeling this killer is going to tie up the loose ends, and Jackson James is the main one.”
Yeah, this was bad.
Very, very bad.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Callen stared down the nose of the Sig, and he wanted to be sick. Logan Hutchinson had killed Leslie and Jewel, and now he was sitting there the next to die.
He had to keep him talking.
Callen had to either find a moment where he could fight the man for his life, or that his wife was going to ride in and save his ass.
Yeah, he was screwed.
Elizabeth didn’t have a clue about this one. They’d overlooked it being about one of them. How were they to know? He trusted these people to keep him safe.
Yeah, they were definitely fired.
“Why are you doing this, Logan? I don’t get it. What did I ever do to you?”
“You told Leslie you were going to stop writing, and I’d worked so damn hard on giving you a mystery for one of your books. I know your cases are what inspire you, and I wanted to make sure you kept writing.”
Callen was horrified.
“You simply wanted to make yourself famous?”
He laughed. “Well, maybe some revenge was involved, but mostly, yes. Honestly, I didn’t think you’d solve this. I really banked on the fact that you’d use it but make up an ending. I never wanted to be outed.”
“But you knew we were onto you.”
“Yes, last night, I realized that you were asking all the right questions. I was right there, and no one saw me.”
Shit!
They’d screwed up.
“I knew from your books and your bio that you love Shakespeare as much as I do. I knew you’d be intrigued. This was my gift to you.”
“You shouldn’t have.”
Really.
He could have done fine without this mess.
“Why did you kill Richard Goodwin?” Callen asked, stalling for time. “Was he just some random person?”
“Well, here’s where the revenge plays out. Yes, I wanted to give you a book to write, since you’re my idol and favorite writer.”
Yeah, he could do without that too.
Stalkers were insane.
This was why being outed sucked.
“Do you want to explain?” he asked, stalling.
“Richard Goodwin’s side piece of ass, Marta Jones, worked with me. She got me fired. She went to Selma Roth and told her I couldn’t act my way out of a paper bag. Well, I obviously can. Here we are, and she’s mourning the loss of her sugar daddy.”
Well, that explained Selma and Richard.
“You outed me, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I broke into the office, I ransacked it, and I slipped your name to the media. I had to slow you down, Jackson.”
“Callen,” he corrected.
“No, you need to live as Jackson. I’m making up one hell of a life for you. Honestly, you should be thankful.”
Yeah, no.
Callen knew this guy wasn’t playing with a full deck. What was next? Abduction so he’d be his own private storyteller?
Hell no!
“What about Fern?” Callen asked, trying to keep the twitchy man from losing it.
“I slept with her. She told me she’d make me a star, and then she laughed at my performance and still dumped me. She was a horrible woman. I hope you don’t end up with someone like that, Jackson. You deserve to be happy.”
“It’s Callen, and I’m married,” he offered, lifting his left hand to show Logan his ring. “I have a wife.”
He laughed.
“You’re funny, Jackson. That’s why I like you.”
Jesus!
This was bad. Callen was running out of options. This guy was losing his grasp with reality. He was borderline schizophrenic.
“What did Roman Conley do to you?”
“Jasper was a dick. He told me he’d help me practice lines, and instead, he got me drunk, and he took advantage of me. I woke up raped and angry.”
Apparently, angry was an understatement.
Logan was a fuse waiting to go off, and Callen was the target. This was not helping him fall back into love with writing.
At all.
“I figured he’d be the perfect victim for your book, Jackson. He was creepy, bad, and deserved to be dead.”
Callen had to try and neutralize the situation. The odds were looking worse and worse as time went on. Logan wasn’t firmly rooted in sanity.
He was on the edge of crazy, peering down into the abyss.
“We can file rape charges. There’s no statute of limitations. If you put down the gun, we can work on setting this right, Logan. You don’t have to do this. We can make it better.”
Logan shot a round into the ceiling.
Okay, or not.
Callen was screwed.
“I don’t want him in jail. I wanted him to suffer. In the process, I wanted to give you one hell of a book plot so you could keep writing.”
“You knew I’d investigate. You knew Elizabeth would be on the job, right?”
“Elizabeth? Oh! You mean Jasmine Carter-Archer. She’s one hell of an investigator. I knew she’d team up with you, Jackson. I knew she’d work hard on it. I wanted to beat her at it, proving that I’m not worthless. I could write a book.”
Yeah, the book of crazy.
“Only you and that cunt started getting too close. Jasmine was smarter than I thought.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call her that,” Callen stated. “Her name is Elizabeth, and she’s the mother of my children.”
He laughed.
“Why do you care?”
“It’s disrespectful, and it pisses me off.”
He started pacing. “Oh, okay. Sorry, Mr. James, but you’re not really in a position to tell me what to do. You had one job, and that was to write this book. I wanted to see how it ended!”
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”
“Since I know my fate is sealed, I’m going to kill you too. I’ll get my notoriety that way. It’s all I have left. I’ve killed too many people.”
He would agree with that, but for now, he needed to keep Logan talking until he could figure out a way to save himself.
“What about Jeanne and William Cochran?”
“I went to school with Peter. He was a spoiled little baby then, and he’s still one. Did you know Selma offered him a position on the staff as soon as he graduated? Him? Really? It was all about his daddy’s money. The rich are privileged, and the rest of us are left to clean up their mess.”
Yeah, they’d really never seen t
his one coming.
While they thought it was a killer, they never figured it was personal, and now Callen was going to pay with his life.
This sucked.
“Well, Jackson James, would you like to write something down before I end your life?”
Callen looked at the fountain pen, and he saw it as his only shot at a weapon.
This was a long shot.
He needed to get lucky.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
When they got there, all four Feds raced toward the building.
“Around back,” Elizabeth ordered, sending Madden and Seaton on their way. If they were right, they didn’t want Logan Hutchinson making a break for it.
“Tell me he’s going to be okay,” Elizabeth stated, hoping Ethan felt better about this mess than she did. Honestly, she couldn’t handle another ‘husband in the hospital’ episode.
She was going to lose it.
“He’s going to be fine.”
Ethan prayed he wasn’t lying.
Their family needed all of them to function. They were an integral part of each other’s lives.
At the first gunshot, she wanted to be sick.
They both stopped in their tracks, waiting to see if there would be more. As they cleared the rooms going down the hall, trying to find the source, both were praying for a miracle.
They were praying for their spouse.
Then there was an ungodly scream. It sounded like someone was being tortured. Then there was one more shot, and they both went running toward it.
When Ethan kicked in the door, they raced in to see Callen covered in blood.
He was holding a pen, and there was a dead man on the ground.
Logan Hutchinson had seen better days.
Elizabeth holstered her gun and raced toward him. She didn’t hesitate to jump into his arms.
“OH GOD!”
He hugged her tightly to his body, burying his face in her hair. Callen was shaky, but he was okay.
It was going to be fine. Callen had to keep saying that to believe it.
“It’s okay, angel. I’m okay,” he said, as they both shook. He knew how close they’d come.
Act of Blood (An FBI/Romance Thriller ~ Book 16) Page 51