Consumed by Wrath: An FBI/Romance Thriller (An FBI/Romance Thriller ~ Book 8) (44 page)

“You can always be honest with us,” Callen said, breaking away from the group hug. When he saw Elizabeth’s coffee, he grabbed it and started to drink.

“Come on!” she said, pointing at him.

He simply wiggled his eyebrows and focused on his brother. “What did she say about us all going to therapy with you?”

“When I brought it up, she told me that she knew I was healing, because
that suggestion was a huge step. I want to share what’s living in me with the people who live here.” He touched his heart.

Elizabeth clung to him and squeezed. “I want to be part of that, Ethan. I want us to always be part of each other’s lives. As long as we three hold on, nothing can ever break us. I’ll hold you both up.”

Callen moved closer again. “I’ll help, because I love you both so much,” he promised.

Ethan was touched. “I
now know that I can be weak, and you’ll keep me safe.”

She shook her head. “
You’re never weak, Ethan, even when you believe you are. You’re the spine that always supports us. You give us both strength. Not once have I ever had to worry that you wouldn’t be there to catch me. I trust you with my life.” She laid her hand over her belly. “With our lives.”

He stared at her lovingly. “That means a lot to me.” No, it meant everything to a man
who didn't ever believe that he would be healed.

Once again, he was home, and it felt good.

Damn good!

Before she could say anything more, their moment was interrupted by her cell phone ringing. Staring down, she sighed. “Well boys, the real world calls, and so does Mayor Santana.”

“Well crap,” muttered Callen.

They all knew why he would be calling her this early
, and on his day off. The shit was about to hit the fan.

“Elizabeth Blackhawk,” she said, as she put it on speaker phone.

“I need to see you today,” he said, tersely.

“I figured that you would, Chris.”

“What the hell happened last night? I woke up to the council stirred up, my sheriff in jail, and the media calling me for a quote.”

She glanced down at her watch. “I’ll be at the station in forty five minutes.
We can talk then. Trust me when I say that you’re going to want to do all of this face to face.”

“Is it that bad?” he asked, his voice softening.

“Oh, Chris, you have no idea. Do you remember how you quit the position of sheriff because it soured for you?”

“Yeah.”

She began laughing. “Start googling jobs, my friend. Today is about to be your biggest stress day ever. Grab some antacids too. We’re taking a trip to Ulcerland, population you.”

“Well shit,” he muttered.

“See you at the office,” she said, hanging up.

Blackhawk began laughing. “You just managed to get an angry man to feel like this was all on him, in
just under two minutes. That takes skill.”

Elizabeth grinned. “I learned from the best,” she replied, winking at him. “
I’ve had the pleasure of watching Director Ethan Blackhawk screw with his underlings. Now, we need to head in and get ready for armageddon.”

Callen placed
the absconded mug in the dishwasher. “Do you think it will be that bad?”

“Yeah, I do. If the mayor is being hit with media on a Saturday morning, we’re going to be facing it too. I’ll bet my shiny FBI badge that when we pull up,
the horde is waiting for us.”

“No bets,” stated Blackhawk. “I’ll handle the media. Just let me go get changed. If I’m going to face them down, I need a tie.”

They watched him walk away.

“That’s the first time he’s worn a tie in…” Callen began.

“Yeah, I know,” she said, eyes filling with tears. Even if the men in her life got her nothing for Valentine’s Day, this was enough of a present. Where he would put on a suit and wear a pocket square, he never put the tie back in its place. It was like that last little piece of him was still missing.

Until now.

It was official.

Ethan Blackhawk was back on his game.

             
                  *   *   *

In the car, she bugged the hell out of them about giving her a hint. Finally, Ethan conceded and gave her a clue. It was only because she was making him certifiable with all the questions.
If he wanted to handle the media and not look like an idiot, he needed to silence his wife. Since he couldn’t kiss her and drive, he had only one choice.

A useless clue.

“All I’ll
tell you is that the present isn’t here. I couldn’t bring it with me. When you see it, you’ll be very happy.”

Callen sat in the back, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you caved
in to her. That was her plan the entire time.”

“I can’t believe
that you don’t think, for one second, that I won’t become the ice queen and not put out on Valentine’s Day, Cal,” she retorted, shutting him up pretty fast.

Blackhawk laughed. “Good one,” he said, offering her a fist bump.

Whitefox was about to say something sarcastic, when he changed his mind. Why risk it? Even though he doubted that she would play dirty with sex, he wasn’t willing to take that chance. He had been privy to their Valentine’s Day sex fests. She was notorious for pulling something new out of her bag of tricks every year. For the men in her life, it was like Christmas morning as a kid. You were bound to get something that was right out of your wildest dreams.

“Well, it looks like I was right,” Elizabeth said, pointing at the reporters waiting for them.

“Yeah, well I’m ready for them,” Blackhawk replied. “How’s my tie?” he asked, pulling into the parking lot.

“You look very spiffy, Mr. Blackhawk. In fact, it turns me right on.”

He wiggled his eyebrows lecherously.

“Oh, brother,” muttered Callen. “Ev
en I can wear a tie,” he stated, teasing them both.

Elizabeth looked back at him
in challenge. “Then do it,” she stated.

“One day, I’m going to surprise you both and pull an Ethan. I’m going to go full on stuffy attire for days
, and you’re not going to know what to do with me.”

She ran the tip of her tongue across her lower lip, just to watch him react. “I’ll know what to do with you, Callen.”

All the saliva dried up in his mouth.

Before he could reply, Elizabeth focused on the reporters. “Can you handle them, while I sneak in and deal with the mayor?” she asked.

“Run for cover,” he said, as the smile slowly disappeared, and he prepared to be the Fed running the show.

“I’ll stay with Ethan,” Callen stated, knowing that they both tended to intimidate when they stood side by side. Together, they were a wall of
Native mystery. Plus, he didn't want to leave his brother alone, just in case he needed back up.

Elizabeth waited until the two men headed out into the fray. As soon as they were surrounded by
the question mongers, she made a break for it. Effortlessly, she slipped past the crowd and up the walkway to the station. At the door, she turned and blew the men a kiss. Ethan nodded, acknowledging her token of thanks and Callen simply grinned.

Once inside, it was just as chaotic.

Martha was fielding calls. The one female deputy was trying to book in a drunk, and failing miserably.

Elizabeth debated on assisting her or letting her work it out, until the man pushed back, knocking the deputy on her ass. In seconds, Elizabeth was on him, bending his thumb into a submissive hold, until the deputy could get up.

“You need to always make sure to have your detainee in control,” she said. “I’ve seen drunks seriously hurt people, even while in handcuffs.”

The woman thanked her and resumed the walk to the holding area.

Scanning the bullpen, she found a few of her team wandering around or working at borrowed desks. Immediately, Chris Santana found her.

“We can talk in Tony’s office,” he said, leading the way.
“No one will tell me what’s going on, so I’m guessing you have them scared shitless.”

Elizabeth didn't
have to use fear as a motivating factor. The people who worked there, like Martha and Tyrell, simply respected her and that made all the difference in the world.

Inside the office, w
here she assumed that he would take the seat behind the desk, in a sign of power, he didn't. Instead, he sat on the couch off to the side and waited for her to join him.

“Okay, what happened? Just give it to me straight, so I can begin to do damage control and save all of our asses.”

This was a first. Here was a politician not tossing the Feds to the media beast as a sacrificial offering.

Elizabeth began at the beginning. “I was home minding my own business when my agent called. She and a few techs had stopped in for happy hour
at the bar. They were sitting off to the back, having a beer, when Tony strolled on in. Once he took a seat, the shit-fest began.”

Chris rubbed his eyes
, already knowing where this was heading. “Okay, please continue.”

“
According to my team, Tony started pounding shots of whiskey. You and I both know from working with him, that the one booze that Tony can’t handle, is that crap. Before long, his brain stopped working, but his lips kept going. He was actually telling people that we have a cannibal.”

He stared at her incredulously. “Are you shitting me?”

All formality was gone, and the man before her was back to being one of them. He was a cop and knew what this all meant. Someone who was privy to the details couldn’t be spreading them all over town. It was counterproductive and risked the assignment, the legal case, and most importantly, lives.

He couldn’t believe that Tony had just undermined the case and the FBI. He had to be certifiable.

“Do we have proof?” he asked, hoping that there had been some mistake. It wasn’t like he doubted it. He had seen Tony hopped up on whiskey before. Like right after he found out Elizabeth ran off to marry Ethan Blackhawk. Right after that case had been closed, the man went on a two week downward spiral.

That had been a colossal bender of epic proportions.

“I was called, and when I arrived, I walked in to see him surrounded by fellow revelers, and he was indeed telling them the tales of the killer cannibal. Worse was, he was telling people that Doc had been someone’s snack.”

“Oh boy.”

“Yeah, we may joke around about a lot of things, but you know yourself that sensitivity is key. We don’t know if someone there is friends with a missing person’s family. Sure, we haven’t conclusively proved that the bones are theirs, but you don’t go sharing speculation all over town, like sticks of gum.”

Chris leaned back and closed his eyes.

“It gets worse.”

She had his attention.

“I can’t see it getting any crappier, Elizabeth.”

“That’s just the tip of the Tony clusterfuck iceberg. Who appointed him?”

“I did.”

She shook her head. “Then
, you better hold onto your britches, Chris, because you’re about to go for one hell of a public opinion joyride.”

“Why? What happened?”

She told him about the possible domestic dispute between Jefferson Harris and his wife, and the man genuinely looked surprised. Elizabeth believed that he had no inkling of what was happening around his sheriff’s office and town.

“If I had known, Jefferson would have likely been kicked off the council. We don’t allow shit like that to go on here.
I’m trying to run this town cleanly.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, well, I get that in law
enforcement you can file a report or not, but we all know, when it comes to domestic issues, you always file. At some point, it’s going to come back up again, and someone is going to question why it wasn’t on record before, like a lawyer, judge, or the ME.”

Chris got it. “Okay, so he buried a record. That will get him a little unpaid vacation.”

When he went to stand, she put her hand on his arm. “Yeah, it gets worse still. That wasn’t the most heinous of Tony’s mistakes.”

Now
, he stared at her incredulously. “Seriously? He’s done something worse? Did he try to sell his mother’s soul to Satan?”

Yeah, that wouldn’t be nearly as bad.

Elizabeth broke down the day after the domestic dispute occurred. “Tony was in his office. Mrs. Harris showed up, they went behind closed doors and when she came out, her hair was askew and her shirt was buttoned the wrong way.”

The implications were huge.

“Oh my God,” he muttered. “Not only am I screwed over this, but this whole department is now, too.”

She didn't say anything. What could she
possibly add to it? Right about then, she wanted to say,
‘I’m sorry that the sheriff you picked decided to go out and bone anything with breasts’
. Because the man in front of her was playing fair with them, and was a friend, she kept it to herself.