Dead Shall Speak (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 10) (35 page)

He called back to her as he drove himself into her body with one final thrust.

“Lyzee, my love!”

Together, they fell into the abyss, wrapped around each other. Ethan protectively keeping his woman and child safe, and Elizabeth promising the powers that be, that they wouldn’t be taking him or Callen.

If today was just the beginning of what was to come, she’d do anything to keep them safe.

The killer couldn’t have them.

Not on her watch.

Not now, and not even if hell froze over.

They had to go through her first, and despite what they would say about her acting like a shield, she didn't care. Elizabeth would do it all over again.

In a damn heartbeat.

                                 *    *    *

When Callen arrived, he was ready for the fight. Walking into their room, carrying the whiteboard, he was a little caught off guard that the place wasn’t torn up.

The way his brother looked when he left, he was pretty sure there would be a massive fight between them.

Yet, it was quiet.

Peaceful.

Oddly silent.

When he set up the board, Elizabeth walked in to greet him. Well, there it was. Now he knew why the place was still standing. Instead of doing battle, they’d had sex.

And that pissed him off.

Not because they were sharing a woman, but because this situation needed resolution. Sex would only push it to the side. She’d nearly gotten herself killed, and it wasn’t acceptable.

“I see you two kissed and made up,” he stated tersely.

Elizabeth could tell by the tone in his voice that he wasn’t happy. With Callen, that wasn’t the norm. His picture, if you looked it up, was generally right under the word ‘pleasant’ in the dictionary.

“Yes, we did. Is there a problem with that?” she asked. Behind her, she could feel Ethan’s presence. There was tension there too. Never had there ever been a problem with sharing time with her and sex. Elizabeth hoped that wasn’t coming to an end now.

They didn't need the distraction or an even bigger mess to work out.

“Yes, I have a big issue with a lot of things today.”

Elizabeth braced for the fight. “Callen, I know…”

He cut her right off, his face covered in a mask of rage. “You shouldn’t have pulled me out of the way! I would have willingly taken that bullet for you, Elizabeth. In fact, I would have died for either you or Ethan. You have to stop risking yourself for my sake. I’m not a fucking wounded child who needs to be babysat and wrapped in a cocoon.”

She couldn’t look away. This was such an unexpected outburst, it was like watching a train wreck happening. There was emotional carnage everywhere.

“I deserve the right to keep my woman and brother safe!”

Ethan understood why he was upset. He didn't know if he should let it all play out, or intervene.

This was something that she didn't expect. “Callen, I…”

He pushed on while the anger rode him. “Are you insane? The chances were that bullet would have hit me in the Kevlar. You risked yourself and a baby for what?”

It was probably a good thing that she and Ethan had made love, because they were now really calm. They’d both need to help Callen work through this. It was obviously more than just the bullet.

This appeared to run so much deeper than just that.

“I’ve been called crazy before, so maybe.”

He ignored her attempt at levity. “You could have died. Do you get that? You are much smaller than I am. If you weren’t turned just the right way, that bullet would have went in under your shoulder and killed you instead of me. This isn't a joke. You would have lost your life, and Charlie’s too!”

Ethan didn't speak. He knew Callen well enough to know that the man needed to lighten the load on his chest. While he didn't relish the idea of anyone speaking to Elizabeth like this, he knew that Callen had to be slipping to go this far.

He’d earned the chance to vent.

Here it was.

“For once in my fucking life, let me be strong enough to protect you. Stop putting yourself in front of me like some shield. Ethan spent his whole childhood keeping me safe, and now you spend our marriage doing the same. How about one of you trust me to be able to keep the people I love protected? I was well aware that I was in front of you, Elizabeth. There was a reason. For once, I wanted to protect what I hold sacred. I wanted to keep the woman I love safe.”

She moved closer to him.

“I’m the weak one. I get it. I bring nothing to this team but the need for a full-fledged babysitter. Knowing that hurts.”

“That’s not true,” she objected.

“It is. I know I’m wounded, but how am I ever going to heal when I know I’ll never get the chance to stand up and be a man? You shouldn’t have risked yourself. If you or Charlie died, it would have killed him. Ethan would have fallen with you. Then what?” he raged. “Then how do I go on? For once, let me keep you safe. Let me grow a set and protect my partners. I’m not a child. I’m a grown man and supposed to be one third of this relationship.”

This had obviously rattled Callen. If he thought she’d ever accept him taking a bullet instead of her, he was missing the big picture. In the FBI, you had your partner’s back. When Ray, her partner, had died, she’d taken a few bullets for him, and she wasn’t even in love with the man.

For Callen, she’d take on a firing squad.

“You’re not weak, Cal. You’re the one carrying the most on our team. I’ve been away a month. Who watched over our kids while Ethan was working late to do the paperwork at FBI West?”

He didn't speak, even though he was the one who cuddled them all until they fell asleep each night. Callen was the one who held each child as they asked for their momma.

“Who was the one who carried us when Ethan was damaged from the abduction?” she continued.

He did, and from that day on, he hated paying bills and was glad Ethan was back. Yet, he did what he had to do for them.

“When I would break down and weep over what we’d potentially lost, who held me up? Who did I run to?”

Callen recalled those moments. Often, he found the woman he loved broken and in tears over losing Ethan.

“You’re far from weak, Callen James. If anything, you’re the most important part of us. You keep our team in balance and do more than one job in this relationship. You fill in for both of us. I can’t do Ethan’s part, but you can. Ethan can’t do mine, but you have. You’re not weak, Callen. You’re the strongest one here. You were broken as a child and survived that. We didn't. I couldn’t come back from what you did. I ran after watching my partner die. You’ve carried so much more on your strong shoulders than anyone else. Where you see weakness, we see unfathomable strength.”

“She’s right, bro. You’re not weak. I had a decent childhood and made a break for it over a woman. You stayed and fought the demons that haunted you. That’s the ultimate strength. What Elizabeth did was stupid, but wouldn’t you do the same thing? It’s instinctual. Of course she’s going to save us. Would you not make the same choices if the roles were reversed?”

The calm covered him.

As their words sunk in, Callen found that slipping control. He held onto it once more, knowing everything would be okay.

“You’re right. I’m sorry I jumped down your throat, Elizabeth. I’m so sorry I was angry and came in here with a chip on my shoulder, only to take it out on you two.”

“You’re so strong, Callen. This is proof. Ethan has been bullying me for four years, and I still don’t think he’s had the balls to admit what you just did.”

“Hey!” he exclaimed, laughing when his wife winked at him. “Seriously? I’m standing right here.”

Callen grinned. “I needed that laugh.”

“You’re not lost or weak, Cal. You’re right where you need to be in this moment in time. I’m proud of both of the men in my life. I couldn’t be who I am without you two. There is no Lyzee without Ethan and Callen.”

Blackhawk continued, “There is no Ethan without Callen and Lyzee.”

He sighed. “There’s no Callen without Lyzee and Ethan. I get it now.”

Deep down, he was glad that was true.

She went into his arms and nuzzled herself against his body. The familiar scent mingled with the cologne on Ethan’s shirt.

Now, it was perfect. While awesome separately, together was the best thing in the world. It was family.

“Since you got naked for Ethan, is it my turn now?” he teased, kissing her on the lips. The taste of her called to him, waking his body.

When she broke away, Elizabeth was grinning—
almost wickedly
.

Everything in him became wary. He’d seen that look before, and it didn't look like he was getting naked time with his babe.

“That’s tempting, but you made one big mistake,” she admitted.

He was confused, hoping the fight didn't screw up his chances of alone time with her. “What?”

Ethan knew where she was going with it, so he pointed at the offering that he’d picked up for her. “You just brought her something she can’t help but be attracted to. That’s her real love in life.”

Elizabeth laughed. “I am a sucker for smelly markers and a whiteboard.”

“Well, damn it to hell! I should have known better and left it in the car.”

They all laughed, and then did what they did best.

The team got to work.

~ Chapter Ten ~

This was one of Elizabeth’s favorite parts of the job. Whenever she could sit down with Ethan to watch him do his profiler thing, she was enthralled.

Maybe it was because he’d almost lost that edge, or maybe because playing in the minds of madmen was an admirable trait. Sometimes, she didn't know how the hell he did it. That one job had to be terrifyingly difficult. While holding the team on her shoulders as she struggled to find the killer was brutal, she wouldn’t trade him.

Not in this lifetime or the next one.

Sitting there, she watched him get out his notes and compose himself before getting ready to begin. When he glanced up, their eyes met, and so much passed between them.

“I’m ready when you are, Cowboy,” she stated.

He grinned wickedly at the nickname, handing back the one he used on their very first case together. It brought back so many great memories, giving him strength. “On it, Sheriff.”

Callen loved watching them work together.

“Our killer is a copycat,” Ethan stated.

Elizabeth headed toward the board to make notes for later when she’d need to review the board.

“I thought the killer was related to Tony,” stated Callen, a little confused.

Ethan grabbed a bottle of water from the table to take a sip. “Profiling is fifty percent knowledge and fifty percent intuition. Since this killer has Tony’s DNA, we know he’s related, but we’re not sure if it’s by his mother or father. What I feel is that the killer who murdered the original victims had a protégé—possibly his own child.”

It made sense to Elizabeth, and yet, it also creeped her out. “So you think that he’s abducting women to have children, all because his mentor did the same thing?”

That was really sick. Elizabeth ran her hand over her stomach in horror.

Ethan couldn’t be one hundred percent sure, but his gut was telling him that was the way to go. “We know that the victims are abused and discarded. Until we find out more, I can’t be sure. It just feels off to me. The entire thing feels like it’s pointing that way.”

“They all look the same,” Callen stated.

Elizabeth glanced over. “Pardon?”

He pulled out his phone, so he could clarify. “After you left to return to the hotel, I stopped in to see Jaxon. She had just finished the third fleshy victim’s skull. They’re running it now, but what do you notice?”

He handed her the picture of Ruth Hildebrant, Jacey Durante’s driver’s license, and the skull of their unknown victim. Callen picked up on it immediately, and he was sure so would they. After all, he’d learned from the best.

“Holy shit,” muttered Elizabeth.

Callen had been absolutely right. They all had black hair and blue eyes. In fact, they looked like…her.

Ethan stared at the pictures and the wheels were turning. Then, he glanced up at his wife. It was obvious now what else had Callen stirred up. That same terrible feeling was beginning to fill him at the possibilities.

She cut him off before he could even point out the obvious.

“Ethan, I’ll be okay.”

He closed his eyes. “If I had a dollar for every time you’ve said that in the last four years, and been wrong, I’d be on my way to retirement.”

Callen spoke up, “See why I’m freaked out? Our pregnant wife fits the killer’s preferred type of woman, and if you’re right about the impregnation thing…well, we helped him out there too.”

She shook her head. “Don’t do this. If you both let this rattle you, then you’re going to make mistakes. I’m fine. Charlie is fine. We don’t know that he’s trying to knock up his victims. Don’t put the cart in front of the horse.”

Both men stared at her. When they opened their mouths to object, she cut them off.

“Really. Don’t. The last time we got tangled up in this emotionally, we nearly lost you, Ethan. We can’t make this personal.”

“Even if it is?” Callen asked.

“Especially then, Cal. When you let personal emotions get in the way, you’re going to have big issues.”

“This time, I happen to agree,” Ethan offered.

Well, at least she managed to get one of the men to her side on this. It was a start.

“Let’s stick to the facts, and we can worry about me being in danger later,” she stated. “I’m well protected. The next woman won’t be, because we have a watcher. That’s going to put us at a major disadvantage right from the start.”

It was the worst kind of stalker. The person doing this would have studied the victims prior to making his move. They could guarantee that the next victim didn't even have a clue.

“He’s going to be a relatively young white male. All his victims are Caucasian, and he’s going to stick to his ethnicity.”

She made a note on the whiteboard alongside the killer’s preference in victims.

“Here’s the tricky part,” Ethan began. “If the killer is Tony’s sibling from his missing mother, he’s going to be younger. Our anthro was twelve when his mom went missing. If she was taken, and the killer immediately used her to have kids, he’s going to be at the max, thirty years old. If this is all via his father’s DNA, then he could be as old as Tony. You said the man deposited his sperm and ran, right?”

Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah. From what Tony has told me, he knocked her up, and then freaked out at the idea of being a dad. He didn't even stick around to see him born.”

It was incredibly sad. Neither man would ever leave one of their children. And not be there to see them born? Yeah, it wouldn’t happen.

Callen had an idea. “I think I know how we can tell,” he stated, pulling out his tablet. He began working quickly, first accessing Tony’s personnel files for the data. “His mother’s name was Tawny Magnus.”

Elizabeth wrote it down.

Callen continued typing, digging into anything he could find on the woman or her abduction. After a few minutes, he grinned triumphantly.

“What did you find, handsome?” Elizabeth asked. Callen was grinning like he’d just won the lottery.

“I think I can answer one of our major questions, or at least point us in the right direction.”

“Which one would that be?” Ethan asked.

“I can answer the question why,” stated Callen.

Turning the tablet around, he showed them the driver’s license from the old DMV database. “Tawny Magnus had black hair and blue eyes. This isn't going to be a fluke.”

Well, that said a lot.

Ethan began rethinking his profile. It was still going to be apropos, but now it needed a little tweaking.

“That’s freaking creepy,” she stated. “So, the killer is just like his father. He likes the same kind of women.”

Blackhawk interjected. “He might be recreating something that he’s missing. If as a young boy, he watched her die, this is going to mean that the trauma bent him, twisting his mind to something far more sinister.”

Elizabeth hated when they came across a fruit loop. It generally meant someone was going to get hurt. She looked down at the covered wounds on her arms.

Yeah, AGAIN.

“So, he’s got a fetish for his mommy. Jesus, this is a slippery slope. Callen, I need you to lock that photo up in a protected file. The last thing I need is Tony perusing the data and finding that. He’ll lose his mind right before he starts asking really uncomfortable questions that I don’t really want to answer yet.”

Whitefox did as she asked.

“What else do we have?” Elizabeth inquired.

“He’s going to be shy. More than likely, he’s going to want to blend in as he watches everything. He’s going to make ‘seeing’ his specialty. We won’t even suspect him because he’s going to be practically invisible.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky, and he’ll look like Tony. If we see a look-a-like roaming around, we can just arrest him,” Callen teased, trying to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, the defense attorney and judge will love that one.”

“I don’t get why he shot at us,” Callen stated. “Unless it was because you resemble the victims. In which case, I feel a major panic attack coming.”

Blackhawk did too. Over his dead body would anyone be touching his woman and child. He’d go shit nuts on the first person who even approached her.

“Yeah, lucky me. Unfortunately for him, you two giants guard the castle where the woman remains locked up.”

Ethan couldn’t help but laugh. “Maybe he was trying to confuse the hell out of us. By switching up the method, it makes me have to rethink everything.”

She thought about it.

“What if it wasn’t him, but someone else? Let’s face it. We pissed off deputies, the sheriff, townsfolk, and probably countless others. It wouldn’t be the first time someone wanted to take a shot at us.”

“This makes it that much harder. Now we have to babysit the team, watch our backs, keep Tony in the dark, and find a killer,” Callen stated. “Great. What’s next? Killer clowns who like juggling fire?”

Yeah, this was a damn circus in the making.

“It could be the killer,” Ethan offered. “We did disturb not only his graves, but the ones of his mentor.”

“I hate when we have so little to work with,” Elizabeth stated. “Has our team dug anything up? I mean, other than the original bodies.”

Callen shook his head. We’re still waiting on the report back from Merry on a geographical location, and Agents Madden and Seaton are still searching through tons of missing person reports.”

“Have them look for any Caucasian women with black hair and blue eyes,” Ethan suggested. “We may get lucky. If anything, it’ll narrow the search down a little.”

Elizabeth agreed.

“We also know that a missing person report was called in for Magdalene Monroe,” stated Ethan. “Callen, can you pull up her driver’s license for us?”

He began typing.

They knew what he found before he turned the tablet around. It was clearly on his face.

“She has black hair and blue eyes, doesn’t she?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yeah, she does.”

Shit!

Well, it looked like this was less and less likely a coincidence. Tony’s mother fit the description, and so did the last three remains, and their newly missing person.

“He’s got her. Now the clock starts ticking,” stated Elizabeth. She stared at the whiteboard, trying to scan the data to find anything.

Ethan hated to point this out, but as profiler, he needed to. “He’s also escalating when he terminates them. If you look at the last victims, he’s getting more brutal.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Maybe they aren’t pleasing him. It could be that they’re trying to get away, or each one of them might have been flawed in some way.”

Callen wanted to be sick. “So, he’s looking for the perfect woman. Christ! I hate lunatics.”

“What’s our next step, Tex?” Ethan asked, completely agreeing with his brother on that last thought.

“We’re going to interview the Monroe family tomorrow. We can’t wait for the sheriff to play nice. If we’re lucky, we’ll slip in, do the interview, and get out before Douglas Carlton knows what’s going on.”

“That’s ballsy,” Callen stated. “If he finds out, we’re opening a big ugly can of worms.” As the mediator, Whitefox knew how bad that would be between the two law enforcement departments.

There was no going back.

“Cal, you look worried,” stated Elizabeth, as she placed her warm palm on his cheek.

“I feel like we’re about to get blindsided,” Callen admitted.

Yeah, so did Elizabeth and Ethan, only they were used to it. If it didn't happen, it would be odd.

“It’ll piss the sheriff off, but what choice do we have? Magdalene Monroe comes first, whether he likes it or not.”

With that, they made their plans.

Tomorrow was a new day, and they’d make the most of it.

Hopefully.

                               *    *    *

It had been a long day, and her ass was sore from sitting at a desk trying to find the victims.

Johanna Madden wanted to dig up a lead for Elizabeth Blackhawk in the worst way. After the last case, she felt bad about their huge screw up. There was only one way to make it up to the woman, and that was by finding her something she could use.

Yet, it wasn’t happening.

She and her partner had exhausted every possible search and nothing seemed to pop. They couldn’t find that third fleshy victim, even with a face.

Damn it!

It was frustrating as hell.

What they needed at that point, was a small miracle.

Just as she’d stripped out of her blazer and shirt, standing there in a tank top and pants, there was a knock on her door. Going to the peep hole, she saw the last person she wanted to see.

Broderick Seaton.

God! What she wouldn’t give to get away from him. While she loved working with Brody, they were getting tangled up. For months, he’d been trying to break her down, getting Johanna to date him.