Fire Burns Hot ((An FBI/ Romance Thriller~ (Book 5))) (68 page)

Now it was a matter of seeing the male reaction.
She had two test subjects lying in bed at that very moment. Slipping into a very tiny pair of panties and a tank top, she headed on out to the bed.

When she entered the room, both men glanced over at her.

“We were going to come rescue you any minute,” stated Blackhawk winking.

“I was shaving,” she said
honestly.

“It took you twenty minutes to shave your legs?” asked Callen laughing. “They felt fine today,” he teased.

“No Callen, I had to shave,” she stared at him, waiting for him to get it.

“Oh! That kind of shaving,” he
replied grinning. “Let’s see!” Callen demanded, leering lecherously and attempting to get her to laugh.

“I’m
not just showing you,” she said snickering. “You want in my drawers boys then you know that you have to get me in the mood.”

Blackhawk started laughing. “I’m astounded that my pregnant wife is about to play the role of stripper, and just won’t drop the panties in the privacy of our own bedroom
without us having to work for it.”

Elizabeth hopped up onto the bed and crawled between them. “I do like a little foreplay, gentlemen. Tomorrow I’m the cheap stripper, tonight I’m your very expensive wife.” She pulled Ethan’s mouth down to her for a kiss. It was silky and filled with heat. Pulling away, she turned towards Callen. “I think someone here owes me some foreplay, especially after today’s little office performance
. Plus I need your opinion,” she whispered, right before kissing him too.

It honestly didn’t matter what she shaved. She was still Elizabeth, and all that really mattered was that she was the
ir woman. If she needed an opinion, they sure as hell were going to give it.

Repeatedly!

                                *    *     *

Wednesday Morning

Elizabeth sat in her office signing off on the mountain of paperwork that appeared since the previous day.

At the top of the pile was the paperwork authorizing the hiring of Cyra Austin. Elizabeth smiled to herself. She’d just sent the text message to Jameson yesterday
, and already it was prioritized and ready to go.

Earlier at home, Elizabeth sensed the tension in both the men as they had breakfast together. It was obvious that
they were dreading what was coming later that day. You’d think they’d be thrilled to take a walk on the wild side and head to the strip club, but they were far from pleased. Elizabeth grinned wickedly to herself, she was going to have to torment them a little while they were on duty. How often did a wife get to play sexy stripper for the men she loved? In all honesty, they were the only reason she was going to get through all of this. Tonight her focus would be completely on them, and not the fact that she was pregnant and in the club walking around in what amounted to panties and a bra.

If there was such a thing as ‘
Good cop Karma’
, she’d better be eligible for it. Seriously, this was going above and beyond. Then Elizabeth thought about the dead women and how their lives ended, and again she found it was all worth the humiliation to make sure another human being didn’t die at this crazy’s hand.

At the knock on her door she glanced up to see her husband and Callen standing there.

“Hey guys, come on it. I’m just doing my paperwork,” she answered, signing her name on a paper. At this point she was scanning and signing just to get it done.

“Tox is in on Lulu and Christina thinks she found the weapon that he used to do most of the damage,” stated Blackhawk.

“Can she come here? If I don’t finish this paperwork before eleven you have to do it,” she said laughing. The look on his face said it all.

Ethan had his phone out in two seconds and was sending the text. “I have my own mountain on my desk,” he stated.

“What do you two have on your agenda for today?” she asked, leaning back in her chair. “Once I’m off getting all strippered up.”

Callen snickered
at the terminology, despite himself.

“We’re going to go interview William Thomas, and find out why he was at the club.” Blackhawk took a seat on her couch and crossed his ankle across his knee.

Elizabeth took in his attire and grinned wickedly. “Look at you wearing the tie I bought for you,” she said, standing and crossing to him. “You look all bossy and director-y.” The blue in the tie and pocket square added color to the very expensive tailored suit. Dropping a kiss on his lips, she grinned when he looked surprised.

“What?” she asked.

“Kiss-y face in the office. You are up to something.”

Elizabeth ignored his comment and focused on Callen. He was wearing the boots and belt buckle she’d bought him too. Inside she felt all warm and proprietary that her men were
happy with the items she bought them. Mimicking the same action with Callen, she grinned when he lifted one brow.

“You both are too suspicious. I just wanted to give you both a kiss. Nothing more.”

Ethan still wasn’t buying it. “After we interview Bly Cocheta I plan on hunting down Willie.”

Pointing at Callen, she grinned. “Don’t let him terrorize the woman. Dad likes her, and he’s not one to ever talk about women. Make sure you both cut him a break,” she ordered.
“Or I will make both of your lives miserable.”

The men laughed. “We promise to not pick on our daddy’s girlfriend,” stated Whitefox, entertained by the silliness of that one sentence.

“Make sure, or I’ll boot you both to the couch. Dad should have a little love in his life too, and if this woman wants to bake him pies, so be it.”

Blackhawk wiggled his eyebrows. “I don’t think baking pies is what’s going to be going on between them. Unless that’s our new euphemism for ‘doing it’.”

Elizabeth snorted.

The knock on the door drew all their attention. Christina stood there holding her files and checking out the bosses. There was something wickedly attractive about both men. At one time she had been scared of Elizabeth, and
whenever she checked the boss man, Christina would get scared shitless. Now, Elizabeth just grinned at her. When she’d gotten injured in Cypress Grove, she’d seen a new side of her boss.

Elizabeth had a heart of pure gold.

“Hey Christina, thanks for running up here. I’m buried in paperwork.” Elizabeth noticed the woman checking out the men, and it made her smirk. Then she noticed the new tattoo on her arm, covering the scars from the explosion. Standing she crossed to the little woman. “Let’s see it!” she demanded, pointing to her arm.

There was a
fairly strict rule in the FBI, no tattoos out for the world to see. It was unprofessional, but the Blackhawks were bending the rules for her because of the massive scars across her arms and shoulders. The woman was nearly killed on the job, this was the least they could do.

Christina rolled up her shirt
sleeve and showed her boss.

“Okay, what is it
? I get that it’s some chemical formula.”

“You know that feeling you get when you see someone you love, and you get lightheaded and dizzy?” she asked, watching her boss look at both men.

“Yeah, I do.”

“It’s that chemical reaction and the theory that all humans react to a specific endorphin that makes them attracted to the opposite sex. Scientifically
, that’s the reaction formula.”

Elizabeth started giggling. “And here I just got their names on my back.”

Christina grinned. “You told me I couldn’t get their names,” she said, and then realized how that sounded. “I mean,” now she went bright red.

All three of them laughed.

It wasn’t a secret that Christina had a major case of boss hots for Ethan, with Callen being her back up lust monkey.

“How about you tell us about what you found out in the tox report and the weapon used to bludgeon the woman,” suggested Elizabeth, returning to her chair.

“Sure thing,” she stated. “It was definitely mineral spirits, and I tried to break it down to the manufacturer but the formula is pretty common. Nothing deviates it from the one that we have in our lab or one you can buy at the local hardware store.”

“Okay, so w
e have common mineral spirits. What else?” Ethan asked, leaning forward.

“Tox was clean
, but she did have a few meds in her system. We found traces of pain killers and
Acyclovir sodium IV
.”

“In English for those of us that have no clue,” requested Elizabeth.

“The last victim had a raging herpes infection.”

She thought about that, and hoped in the back of her mind the killer had picked it up. It was petty, but she couldn’t help herself. “Okay, do we have any idea what weapon he used to damage their faces?”

Christina flipped through the pages until she got to the right information. “Doctor Leonard found red flecks inside the wounds
when he got through the burnt flesh. The killer used this,” she said, flipping the file around to show them.

“That’s a fire ax,” stated Blackhawk.

“Yes, and they’re coated in a very specific paint that retards fire. He didn’t use it to cut into the victims, but he held it and used it like a club, hitting them with the flat surface. They’re made of a heavy iron, and did most of the crushing blows. Where we thought he used boots with steel toes, it was most likely the fire ax.”

Callen stared at the board. “This isn't looking so good for Patrick Wells.”

Blackhawk agreed. “No, it’s really not.”

“Thank you, Christina,” Elizabeth said, dismissing the woman. “Really good work
and I appreciate the hustle.”

She nodded
, leaving the office and closing the door behind her.

Once gone
, Elizabeth grabbed the file on her desk on Patrick Wells’ wife. “Here, take a look at this,” she said, passing it to the men. “This makes him look even worse.”

As Ethan read it, Elizabeth told Callen what was in the file. “Patrick Wells was married to Amanda Callister Wells.”

He listened to what she was saying. “Okay. You’re looking at me like that name should mean something. It doesn’t.”

“The Callisters have a
government contract to build Kevlar vests. The ones we wear are made by them. Patrick’s wife was loaded,” she said. “The money he’s living off was likely from her trust fund.”

“I’m with you so far.”

Ethan took over, seeing where she was heading with it. “Amanda Callister Wells was found at the bottom of the family staircase after the fire department put out the fire.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Right now it’s still open as arson, but they’re calling her death an ‘accident’.”

“You’re not buying it?” stated Callen.

“I’m not buying it at all.”

Ethan thought about it. “I wish we could get the medical records for his deceased wife. If we could get our hands on them, Chris could let us know more about how she died.”

Elizabeth pulled
out her phone.

“Who are you calling?” he asked.

She grinned. “I’m calling Captain Gilman. I need those records and I’m planning on cutting out some of the red tape on this one. He owes me for the bullshit I had to tolerate with his Detective.”

The man answered on the third ring.

“Gilman.”

“Captain Gilman, it’s Director Blackhawk. I need some records that are of a sensitive nature.”

There was a pause on the phone line. “What kind of records, Director?”

Elizabeth thought about how to phrase it. She didn’t want the man to know they were looking at his fire inspector as a suspect. “I requested all the arson fires from Patrick Wells.”

“As far as I know, he complied. What more do you need?” he inquired, hesitantly.

“I need to take a look at the death of his wife.”

There was a gasp and then uncomfortable silence.

“Why?”

She blew it off like it was nothing. “Because it’s an arson case and the killer may have targeted his wife.” Elizabeth hoped that sounded nonchalant and made Gilman think they weren’t looking at Wells. "I don’t want to bother him for the records. It may be a sensitive thing for him yet, so I’m coming to you personally. I don’t want to hurt a man who could be mourning his wife still.”

That seemed to make him soften a bit.

“Okay, I can get them sent over to your office. I need to get them from the ME’s and the open case files too. I appreciate that you’re not going to make him relive the entire thing. Pat’s a really good guy. The best fire inspector the local fire department ever had!”

“We rarely like to beat down victims, Captain. We’re just doing our job
and something in that file may close the case for the Wells family.” Or blow it wide open and toss the man in jail for murder, but why go there with him.