Pledging to Die (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 11) (45 page)

“They drugged her,” stated Brody, finally getting to her side. When he moved, there was an audible wheeze of air from his chest.

“Stop moving,” she ordered. “You have a punctured lung. I can hear it from here.”

She was pissed.

Their agents were a mess.

When Brody ignored her to pull Johanna against his battered frame, Elizabeth saw the needle.

“You’re going to jail,” she stated, turning toward Arman. “When I’m done with you, you’re going to cry.”

The man went to say something, but she was more concerned with her agents.

“We’ll take them out to the car and call the sheriff to hold them until we have time to interrogate them,” Ethan stated. “You stay here with Brody and Johanna.” Blackhawk knew from the look on her face that she was worried.

She pointed at Jason. “You’re staying,” she ordered. “In case that frat boy wakes up, you’re on him.”

He did what his boss asked as Agent Flowers and Elizabeth’s partners escorted the suspects from the area.

The second they were gone, she glared at her agent. “What the hell happened?” she asked, still having a few holes in the story. All she knew was Johanna was taken, and Brody was trying to save her.

She was irritated because Elizabeth knew Ethan had ordered her to stay in her dorm, and Brody never called for backup.

Agent Blaise had no choice but to spill it. When he and Johanna went behind the Blackhawk’s backs, this was a possibility.

Now, they were both screwed.

“She wanted to search their rooms, so she contacted me to be her backup via com, and she went in.”

Brody held her against his body, trying to calm his breathing. Everything hurt. There wasn’t a spot on him that didn't throb in pain. While he lay there listening, he knew he couldn’t let her take the fall.

“It was my idea,” he muttered, knowing Joey couldn’t defend herself. “Fire me. Not her.”

Elizabeth could hear the sirens in the distance. The ambulances were coming. “We’ll deal with this later, and we will be revisiting this. You three are in so much shit, it’s going to take a month to dig out.”

When Ethan heard about this, he was going to go nuts. He specifically told them no, and they did it anyway.

Jesus, it was like kindergarten.

Only more dangerous.

Johanna moaned, struggling to open her eyes.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” murmured Brody as he began coughing, trying to get air. Blood bubbled out of his mouth, and onto her bare arm.

“Shhhhh. Agent, stop moving,” she stated. “Brody, you have to stop moving, or you’re going to drown in your own blood.” Gently, she pulled his head into her lap, and still he wouldn’t let go of Johanna.

He didn't care.

Joey needed him.

The woman he promised to keep safe had nearly died.

He’d sacrifice his life for her.

“They were going to rape her,” he whispered, his bloody fingers slipping off her arm. “I couldn’t let them hurt her.”

Elizabeth wanted to weep and scream at the same time. They’d been stupid, but again, she’d been there before herself. What person in love hadn’t?

“I hear the ambulance crew,” stated Jason Blaise, looking worried.

Elizabeth didn't move until one of them could take over keeping her agent’s head up. Once he was in good hands, she moved out of the way and let them do their job.

Later, she’d do hers.

Someone was going to get their ass handed to them.

Broken ribs or not.

The ride in the ambulance was excruciating.

Brody simply wanted some meds to dull the terrible pain filling his body, but he wouldn’t take them. When they offered morphine, he refused. 

While they poked and prodded him, all he cared about was Joey.

Every time he asked about her, they would shove the oxygen mask back over his face and tell him to stop talking. If he could feel his lower body, he would have crawled into her ambulance, instead of Ethan Blackhawk going with her.

Now, Elizabeth was sitting beside him as the guys worked on him.

“Boss…”

“Shut up,” she ordered, not looking at him. “You’re a hot mess, Agent, and when they put you and your partner back together again, I’m going to enjoy kicking your ass.”

“Please,” he begged, getting her attention. “It’s my fault.”

She didn't want to feel bad for him. Elizabeth wanted to be angry.

He could feel the pain meds being shoved into the IV in his hand. “Please.”

He reached blindly for her hand. When he found her fingers, his closed over them. “Elizabeth, please.”

She stared at him. “What, Agent?”

More blood bubbled out from his nose, so she leaned down to hear him.

“Call my dad. Tell him I’m okay but not to come. Then please get them to put Joey and I together. Please. I fucked up. I’m sorry.”

He closed his eyes, and the heart monitor kept blinking.

“Is he okay?” she asked, fearing the worst.

The medic nodded, “He’s fine, Director. He’s just out from the morphine. He’ll wake up after they fix him up. He’s likely got a collapsed lung. If he’s lucky, it won’t’ be surgery.”

When they parked in the ER bay, they pulled him out fast, rushing him through the doors.

Elizabeth stood there as the second ambulance pulled up, doing the exact same thing with Johanna. She was still out, and the men transporting her looked just as harried.

She wanted to be sick.

When Ethan joined her, they watched the doors close. “Callen is helping the sheriff transport, and Merry is out at the scene gathering any evidence. They have the hypodermic, and by morning, they’ll have fingerprints. Then we can pin this on him.”

She touched his arm. “We need to talk.”

He didn't like the sound of that.

“I’m going to be very mad, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, Cowboy, you are.”

“Just tell me.”

So, she just laid it out for her husband. There was no point softening it, since he couldn’t kill the agents right now either. She told him about Johanna’s plan, Brody taking the blame, and Jason Blaise being their wing man in the stupid mission.

“They went behind my back and did it anyway?” he asked incredulously. “I told them not to do this. No, I ordered them to not do this.”

“Well, they didn't listen.”

“They’re fired.”

She could tell from the look on his face that Ethan wasn’t kidding. There were stress lines around his mouth, and his hair was pulled back. When it came down to running FBI West, he didn't bend the rules as much as she did. If he gave an order, he expected it to be followed. While he used to be cowboy with his own life, he didn't run his shop that way.

The opposite was true.

“I’m so damn mad!”

It occurred to her that he looked so much older tonight, since he was carrying the weight of what happened on his shoulders.

“We’re not firing them, Ethan.”

He stared at her. “What? Who are you? I assumed that you’d have my back on this one. You love a good agent roasting.”

She laughed, and it was the first genuine one she’d had since they arrived at that clearing to find their agents.

“We have the frat boys dead to rights.” Then she told them about how Jason Blaise had recorded the com conversation.  “He’s back at the hotel transcribing the report. If they admitted to doing this, or used each other’s names, we have them. Johanna, while a big idiot, did something right. If you think about it, we put her in this as the bait. She simply took it further than we were comfortable, and now she’s paying for it. Brody too. This ends here and now.”

“We have to punish them, Elizabeth. If we let them off, that’s a sign that we won’t follow through. We can’t let that happen. They have to know when we lay down the law, we mean it.”

She knew it.

“They’re like our children, Ethan. You get mad, and then you get over it. We’ll desk them for a couple weeks, and then give them really shitty assignments like surveillance. If we make them sit in some smelly, piss filled alley, they’ll learn their lesson, and fast.”

Ethan’s cheek twitched.

“They’re good agents. We can’t flush their careers over this. We probably should, since they’re menaces, but don’t they remind you of someone?”

“Yeah, us. That’s what I worry about. You and I don’t listen. Think about how many times we nearly died because of it.”

She kissed him. “Let’s torture them for a while, and then we’ll really have fun.”

He laughed. “I’m glad you love me.”

“Yeah, you should be.”

“I’m still pissed,” he stated. “This was bad.”

Elizabeth knew how to calm him down. “Once upon a time, there was a Native named,” she began, pausing to make up a name, “Bethan Elackhawk.”

He started laughing.

“He was so badass, that he was given the nickname ‘Cowboy’. When his boss asked him to do things, he did the exact opposite.”

“And what happened to this Bethan Elackhawk?” he asked.

“Had he listened to his boss, he never would have found the love of his life in a small backwoods town. Now he and Blizabeth Elackhawk, and Wallen Chitefox live happily ever after.”

“There is something seriously wrong with you.”

“Golly. You just noticed? Here I’ve been putting so much effort into it.”

“Okay. I won’t fire his ass, but you’re handling this. You save them, so you raise them.”

She snorted. “They’re not kittens in a bag that were saved from a river.”

“They might as well be. You’re adopting more family. They’re like kids? Well, congrats! You’re their new momma bird.”

“Shut up.”

He laughed.

“Brody wanted us to call his father, but to tell him not to come,” she stated.

Blackhawk shrugged. “Well, consider this part of his punishment. His father’s been notified and is on his way.”

Just then, her phone rang.

“Yo, Chris. I’m a little busy. What’s up?” she asked.

“We have another body. Campus security just called it in. They found her by a parking lot on the East end of campus.”

She glanced over at her husband. “I’ll send Ethan. You’ll have to divide up the team and get both scenes done.”

“I already have. I’m in route right now. I have Doctor Leape on the way in to help. With the sheer volume of bodies, I need a second set of eyes.”

She heard him.

This was getting crazy.

“Call me when you get time of death,” she stated, on a hunch. “Okay. Will do.”

With that, he hung up.

Ethan watched her. “Where am I going now?”

“I need you to call Callen to pick you up. Chris got a call. We have another victim just outside a parking lot on the school campus.”

He looked at his watch.

“Jesus.”

“Yeah, this killer sucks with the timing.”

Blackhawk pointed out the obvious. “Unless that girl was there for a while, there’s no way any of the frat boys could have killed her. They were too busy kicking the shit out of our agents.”

“They lucked out. They won’t get the chair.”

Blackhawk pulled out his phone and began walking away. “Oh, by the way, Blizabeth Elackhawk,” he called.

“Yes?”

“If you let them off too easy, I’m going to be pissed. At least toss in some psychological torture for me.”

She laughed.

“Yee haw, Cowboy! That’s my favorite kind.”

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

When Callen picked him up, they hightailed it to the crime scene. As they got there, it was hard to miss that there were already a hell of a lot of people gathering. Being that this was right off the parking lot, there was really no way to keep them all back.

When they saw the school reporter standing there, that was the least of their problems. Someone had called a local TV station, and they were desperately trying to get their attention.

Yeah, this was bad.

“Rock, paper, scissors?” Ethan asked, desperately hopping he wouldn’t lose. He didn't want to deal with the media.

“Yup.”

They did it, and Callen patted him on the shoulder, right before heading over to the ME and tech team.

The victory was his.

“What do you have?” he asked, ducking under the yellow crime tape.

“Campus cops called the sheriff, who called the ME, who called me, and we’re neck deep in victims here.”