Chapter Three #3
“Will and I are going snorkeling to look at coral and fish. Then, we’re going parasailing.”
That sounded like fun—if you weren’t planning on molesting a Native with a tan. Gene had ulterior motives, and other plans.
He was going to be doing Ethan.
Period.
“But meeting up for lunch and dinner sounds like a good way to spend time together,” Ethan offered, willing to schedule that into their unscheduled time alone.
Corbin smiled.
And that was how you got a bear to compromise.
“Well, meet us in the lobby,” Gene said. “We’ll have dinner together and take a stroll.”
Will got up, and he pulled Corbin up.
“Come on, Corby. Let’s leave the nice family members alone so they can do unmentionable things,” he joked.
“Oh, they’re mentionable,” Gene admitted. “They include an ass vibrator, lube, and nipple clamps.”
That was all Corbin had to hear.
He pulled his boyfriend down the beach and away from there like the place was on fire.
Both men laughed.
“Well, where were we?” Gene asked, as he tugged down the front of Ethan’s scandalous Speedo.
The man moaned as Gene began stroking him.
“We were right here,” he said, as Gene enjoyed the feel of his dick in his hand.
Back to their regularly UNINTERUPTED vacation plans.
Together.
Alone.
* * * Blackhawk & Cantrell * * *
Washington, D.C.
Same Time
Sunday
Someone was angsty, and that wasn’t boding well for her day off.
Just yesterday, Elizabeth had closed a case, and once more, on any upcoming cases she had in the next week, her father wouldn’t be there to help her.
Why?
Well, maybe because the douchebag woman that he’d married, and inadvertently saddled them with a living nightmare when Elizabeth was a child, had called.
And she’d tracked down Charlie to play daddy.
Apparently, Abigale had to go home to see her dying mother, and someone needed to watch Georgie.
Not.
It.
She wasn’t quite sure why her half-brother couldn’t go with her, since he wasn’t a baby, but that wasn’t her problem. Abigale and Charlie would have to work that out.
All she knew was she wasn’t playing second mommy to a seventeen-year-old she rarely saw.
Oh, don’t get her wrong. She loved her half-brother, and didn’t blame him an iota for any of this marital nightmare, but she wasn’t dealing with anything to do with her ex-stepmother.
PASS.
Honestly, when Abigale called her, which was almost never, she had thought that something had happened to George. That was the ONLY thing in Abigale’s life that she loved other than God.
So, she answered the phone, thinking something bad had happened.
Unfortunately, it had been a trap.
How?
Abigale was getting on a flight to DC, and someone had to pick up Georgie at the airport and watch him for a week.
Which brought her to why her father was angsty.
It wasn’t about watching his son. God knew he’d fought hard for any time with Georgie, but it was more about Elizabeth giving him the bad news.
There was no way he could travel with Georgie while she was handling any cases.
The LAST place she needed her half-brother was near a serial killer.
That would be a bad mix.
That would be like putting Abigale next to someone with an addictive personality. She’d have them enrolled in the cuckoo cult she subscribed to back home. Georgie was easily influenced—thus his belief that Abigale was the sun, moon, and stars when she was the cuckoo, the defective, and the nutters.
So, when Charlie heard that he wasn’t traveling to help her, he was pissy.
Because he’d missed out on the cannibal case due to his jackassery with his gallbladder, and now, he knew she’d be likely getting a case any day, he was three days past bitchy to sulky.
“This sucks.”
Elizabeth shrugged.
“I mean, maybe you shouldn’t have stuck your dick in that shriveled up shrew of a Bible-thumping nutbag then,” she said, not even flinching.
He sighed.
“Elizabeth…”
She shut that shit down.
“Nope. You married that mess, and you made that kid. I love Georgie, but he’s not a cop, and he’s not a Fed.
He’s a teenage boy, and you’re going to have to deal with him.
Yes, he’s an older teen, but that’s not going to fly.
You’re not going out on a job with me, and leaving him in a hotel room to his own devices.
I don’t know if you’ve realized it or not, Dad, but this gene pool does questionable things. ”
Charlie didn’t like this.
Not.
At.
All.
“Sorry, Dad.”
When he looked over at Sam, his man shook his head. It was clear he wasn’t having it either.
There was no ally in this fight.
“I’m with Elizabeth, and you shouldn’t have married her. I stand on that. Oh, and if you think I’m watching him—I’m not. Abigale HATES me. She hates me since the day I found out she hurt my Elizabeth, and I read her the riot act.”
Next to his woman, Chris was saying NOTHING about this.
He knew better.
While this was his family, there was no way he was getting stuck babysitting his woman’s half-brother—and Charlie was desperate enough to ask.
And crazy enough too.
“This isn’t fair.”
Elizabeth shut that down.
“Every time I said that as a kid, you told me, and I quote, ‘suck it up, Buttercup. Life isn’t fair. The only thing in life that is fair is that your momma didn’t live to see you be so bold’.”
He stared at her.
“Had I known you’d use that against me at some point, I would have never said it.”
She laughed.
Oh, well, that was a him problem, not a her problem.
“Dad, I love you, and I love George, but you’re not going out with me.”
He actually pouted.
When did the kids become the parents, and the parents become the children? She wasn’t sure, but that’s where they were right about now.
After his stunt with stealing a credit card from Tony, buying a plane ticket, and heading across the country hours after surgery to remove an organ, she wasn’t playing with him.
Her give a damn was in the shop because it was broken.
“So, go to a museum, or see some…I don’t know. What do people who don’t chase criminals do in their downtime?” she asked Chris.
“They eat chocolate in bed after sex,” he said. “There’s some on your cheek.”
She snorted.
Oh, he was a funny, funny man, and very smart not to wade into this.
“I mean, I like to have fun,” she joked.
Only, the big man was confused.
“I don’t know what to do with him,” Charlie admitted.
Charlie hadn’t been around his son in a while. Yes, he bought his ex a house to raise him, but Abigale rarely let him see George.
The boy wasn’t a fan of him. He wasn’t six, he was seventeen.
“Seriously. What should I do?”
Elizabeth didn’t care.
As long as he didn’t take him to a crime scene—specifically one she was on.
“Take him to church. Tell him a story about hookers,” she stated. “I don’t care, but you’re on dad duty. Maybe he wants to see you.”
He lifted a brow.
Oh, he was pretty sure Abigale had poisoned the boy. If all of a sudden he wanted to see him, Charlie would be paranoid as hell.
Sam was on Elizabeth’s side on this one, and frankly, he didn’t want to be around anything Abigale created.
Or spawned.
She was evil to her core, and that was his personal opinion—that he kept to himself.
“Well, I’ll keep you updated as to what Elizabeth is doing,” Sam said.
And she shut that shit down.
FAST.
“Yeah, no. He’ll need help. He’s your responsibility too. Have fun, Mom.”
Sam actually gasped.
“Wait. What?” he asked. “Why is the spawn of Satan, her boy-child, my responsibility?”
Now, Charlie gasped.
“Sammy!”
Yeah, well, she wasn’t listening to them fight on this one, and she was laying down the law.
“Once upon a time, you were on a cruise ship, and you made that obligation. Right?” she asked, letting that hang there.
Both men shut up.
IMMEDIATELY.
Why?
She’d been excluded from their wedding, and found out about it. They knew they did her dirty, and this was payback.
And it worked.
Listen, her momma had used good, old, Catholic guilt, and she could throw that shit around too.
“So, help him deal with his seventeen-year-old child that he had with the blessed virgin harpy.”
Chris just laughed.
“If Hell is a place, Elizabeth, you’re getting a suite,” he offered.
And she was fine with that.
“Good,” she said.
Then, she explained.
“I’m almost to a year,” she admitted. “If I can keep clearing my cases, the asshole director will get off my ass. I can’t drop the ball and lose my job because you can’t wrangle a seventeen-year-old child.
That’s a you problem, Daddy. Not my problem.
I dealt with your choices, and now, you need to deal with them. ”
Charlie was not amused.
“You’re cranky,” he said.
Yeah, she was, but this was the hill she was dying on.
Elizabeth was tired, and she was worn down. She was being held together by fancy britches and a prayer. One wrong move, and she was screwed.
She didn’t trust Abigale’s son not to be the mistake that screwed up her career.
The cannibal case had been a nightmare, and she’d BARELY pulled that one off. If the killer didn’t eat a priest, she wouldn’t have caught her.
EVER.
This was not the time to deal with bullshittery and tomfoolery.
“Sorry, Dad and Mom. I’m out.”
When her phone chimed, she pulled it from her pocket, and was PRAYING it was Gabe. What she really wanted was to go to Colombia again—because it beat being anywhere near Abigale, George, and this clusterfuck week that was heading their way.
“Is it a case?” Charlie asked.
She showed him the text. If she didn’t, he’d hide in the trunk of her car, thinking she was going to one.
‘Hey. Lunch tomorrow? I need to talk to you. Let me know if you’re free. It’s not work related. Livy’s birthday is coming, and I need gift ideas. Xo—G.’
When he saw that, he sighed.
“I was hoping it was a case, and I could call Abigale and tell her to fly to Boston instead with Georgie.”
Well, someone was not doing that.
Charlie was out of luck.
“Sorry, Dad. Now, since you need to head to the airport, Chris and I are going to go to a nice hotel, and stay there until we have to fly out. I’m not telling you the city, or the place we’ll be because you can’t be trusted. You earned that after the gallbladder incident.”
He rolled his eyes.
“You don’t have to leave the place. I won’t dump your brother on you.”
She didn’t care.
“Christopher, want to go get naked at a hotel where they can’t follow or a seventeen-year-old can’t sneak up on us and pray over our fornicating bodies because his momma is a prude?”
He snorted.
“Well, when you put it that way, yes.”
She winked at him.
“Sorry, Dad,” she said, giving him a kiss, and then one for Sam. “You guys got this. Do the OPPOSITE you did with me, Dad.”
And with that, she grabbed her man by the jean pocket by his hip, and took him with her.
FAST.
Once outside, Chris laughed.
“Are we really going to a hotel?” he asked.
She nodded.
“We are staying in the city, so I need you to tell me that one of your jets can fly somewhere and sit there so if he gets sneaky, I’m good. Unfortunately, we taught him how to use the internet. In hindsight, that was probably not a good thing to do.”
He found that amusing.
How could he not?
What started with teaching him how to do a basic internet search on a suspect, was now their own worst enemy. They didn’t see that one coming.
Not.
At.
All.
“You really don’t want to be here to see your step-brother, do you?”
No, she didn’t.
Again, it wasn’t him.
It was his mother.
Elizabeth didn’t want that ick to seep onto her. She had some good luck, and Abigale was a nightmare on a good day.
“It’s a genetic thing. Let’s leave it at that. My brother isn’t bad, but he makes me edgy. I don’t know why, but he does.”
Chris didn’t care.
“I’ll take a night or two at a hotel. You, me, and the dog,” he said.
Yeah, she was definitely not leaving her dog here. That wasn’t happening either. She didn’t plan on finding out he’d been poisoned or something like that.
“Come on, Baby,” she called, whistling, and her German Shepherd bolted after her. “We don’t want to risk Abigale seeing you and trying to hurt you,” she said, as the beast of a dog jumped into her Jeep, and got comfy in the back seat.
And with that, she pulled away, so they could go grab a few things.
She was staying in Dodge, but she was laying low at The Conference Center with her man.
Why?
Her gut said so.
And she always listened to her gut.