Chapter Five #2
Gene felt deflated.
What did a guy have to do to have a freaking break and a vacation?
If it wasn’t Corbin trying to sideline them, it was now a dead body on a beach where they were forced to work the case.
“I can’t believe this,” Gene said. “Holy shit. I cannot believe my freaking luck, and if you say one more word, Corbin,” he warned as the man was moving toward them, dripping wet, “it’s your body they’ll find next.”
Wisely, the man shut up.
Greyson had no choice.
“I’m going to call Gabe to alert him, and to see what we need to do.
I’m going to have to lie to him because he’s going to ask how you two are there when Ethan’s supposed to be in Damascus on a reservation, and you’re supposed to be in the Midwest. So, pray for me. He’s going to be full of questions.”
Uh-oh.
He couldn’t let that happen.
“Don’t tell him Ethan is here. Tell him I found the body. That’s the truth. It was me and Corbin. So I’ll take the heat on this one.”
Greyson waited.
“Gene.”
He pleaded.
“We know he’s sicced his spy on us. I need to protect Ethan. He’ll literally break us apart, and then, I’m quitting the fucking FBI. If you want to lose both of us out of the office, then don’t tell him Ethan is here. Come on, Grey. Please. Just tell him my plans changed, and I came here.”
He pondered it.
“That’s a big ask,” he said.
Oh, Gene was aware.
“I’ll owe you one. You can call me up anytime, and I’ll show up—even if it’s thirty years from now. I’ll show and help your ass out.”
Greyson was about to say something.
Only, the other man chimed in.
“I’ll owe you too,” Ethan offered. “Same deal. Please?” he asked. “You can tell him you’ll see if I’ll fly down there to help. I can be here, technically, from Damascus by morning. I’ll just have to lay low tonight. Gene isn’t kidding. He’s looking for a reason to bust our balls.”
Greyson took the deal, but not because he ever thought he’d need the favor from them, but because they were his friends, and he genuinely owed them one.
Sasha had burned them to Gabe, and he’d brought Sasha to their condo.
So that was on him.
That was something he’d make sure he paid back since he put Gabe on their trail.
“Okay. I’ll call him and get back to you. Give me a few minutes to get the stories straight, and handle this. Keep an eye on the body, and don’t call the cops! I’m sure Gabe will want to handle that since the FBI is taking jurisdiction.”
He clued him in.
“We’re on a private resort beach, and we’re blocking him. He looks a little bloat-y. I’m going to guess he’s been in the water all weekend. He’s not been in there longer than that since nothing ate parts of him.”
That helped the timeline, and Greyson knew it. If he put a report in Friday night, and it was Sunday, they had a narrow window.
“Are all of his bones broken?” he asked.
He touched the man’s leg, and thankfully, he was still in pants.
“Yeah, his legs are too. Maybe he was bashed against the rocks. The surf is a little wild here, but I can see bruising, and we know that only happens when you’re alive. Then again, it’s dark out here. That could be debris or dirt.”
Greyson made notes.
“I’m calling Gabe. I’ll get the ball rolling, and again, I’m sorry, Guys.”
With that, he disconnected the call. Now, he had a whole other set of issues.
It was far worse than just working.
They knew Gabe, and if he even smelled a lie, he got super curious, and would dig in to figure it out. This had the propensity to blow up in their faces.
“I can’t believe we’re working,” Ethan said, sighing in exhaustion.
They’d run themselves ragged, and now, they were not even getting any downtime.
This.
Freaking.
Sucked.
“I’m sorry,” Gene said, wishing they had not gone for a walk after dinner. Had they just stayed in their room like he’d planned...
Ethan sucked it up.
Well, at least they might be able to salvage the rest of their holiday. It didn’t often take them long to solve a case. If they were lucky, this was a boating accident, and nothing more.
They hoped.
“I’ll stay here,” Gene said. “Corbin is staying with me,” he offered. “You go back to the room with Will.”
Corbin lifted a brow.
“Uh, why?”
Gene pointed out the obvious.
“We’re on a gay resort, chuckles. You get to play my freaking boyfriend if whoever else Gabe sends here to help us from the local office shows up.”
He stared at him.
“Why would I do that?”
Ethan knew.
“Because when Greyson calls the FBI office in San Juan, to tell them two agents are working it, they are going to head here immediately, and we’re all on a gay resort. He wouldn’t be here alone looking for love in the ocean.”
Corbin shook his head.
“Couldn’t I be his boyfriend for the night?” he asked, pointing at Ethan.
That was until Will crossed his arms over his chest, and he got the hint that the man he was dating wasn’t exactly thrilled that he had a preference when it came to playing boyfriend.
That wasn’t happening, and he was a little too willing to play that role.
“Never mind,” he said. “Tough audience. I was kidding. Tonight, I love a bear. No one is more shocked at that than me.”
Gene wasn’t happy about any of this. Honestly, it was giving him anxiety. Gabe was an asshole, and he knew the man was just itching to call them out.
“The bottom line is that we can’t let on that Ethan and I are a couple.
Then, Greyson is up the creek along with us.
He’s about to lie to Gabriel Rothschild, our boss.
He gets bitchy when that happens. We have to play this game and successfully pull it off.
Ethan is off of the scene until morning.
I mean, I’ll take Will. If you want to go hide, Corbin, Will and I will stay here, and he can play my boyfriend until my partner is ‘here’. ”
Will was willing to help them out. This was, after all, their fault. Had they not hijacked their vacation, then Gene and Ethan wouldn’t have walked down the beach, and they wouldn’t have found the body.
They owed them.
“I am an attorney,” he offered. “In case anyone gets question-y, I’m more than willing to cozy up to a bear and play boyfriend to make sure you and Ethan are safe.”
Corbin didn’t want his man to have to do that. He would work, and he’d play the role.
It was time to man-up.
“So, bear. Do I get to hold your hand? Make kissy faces at you, or call you cute nicknames?” he teased, trying to be funny. “Oh, I know. We can kiss too.”
Yeah, no.
Someone was JUST as territorial as Gene.
Apparently.
Because once more, Ethan shoved Corbin so hard that he fell back into the surf. The man went under, and when he came up, he was sputtering.
“Will you guys please stop doing that?” he asked. “Seriously! I have sand in my underwear!”
No, Ethan wouldn’t.
“Hands off the bear, and no kissing him. He’s mine,” Ethan warned. “I’m bitchy enough. I’ll flirt with Will. Don’t make me play Top for your man because I’m well-versed in how to do that.”
Oh, Corbin got the picture.
“You’re mean like him. He ruined you.”
Yeah, well, Corbin didn’t know the half of it. Gene had made him nice. That mean was born and bred into him on a reservation.
The man they were discussing helped Corbin out of the water.
“What if there was more than one body, and I landed on it?” Corbin asked. “That’s gross.”
What was really gross?
That their vacation was literally boned because of a moonlight walk on a beach.
But of course it was.
Because that was just their luck.
* * * Blackhawk & Cantrell * * *
Washington D.C
At His Home
With His Daughters
Sunday Night
When his private phone rang, Gabe was ready for it. Honestly, he was with two small children, and his wife was in the bathroom puking up her guts as she cursed his name.
AGAIN.
Apparently, their next child was just as spicy as the rest of them, and that told Gabe all he needed to know about what the gender of this next child was going to be.
It appeared they were having another girl.
Maybe with this one, he’d teach her to play football and run wild like a boy because he was one tea party away from a revolution.
He’d had copious cups of water that was supposed to be tea, and the last pot had been refilled in the toilet.
Yeah, that was the kind of day he was having. Well, at least it had been minor issues, like toilet tea and a dirty diaper.
For now, Amelia was playing with some toys, and Bea was having a bottle in his arms.
The girls were calm, and he knew that wouldn’t last for very long.
Call it a hunch.
“Yes?” he asked, hitting speaker phone to take the incoming call on his work phone.
At the sound of his boss’ voice, Greyson did the dance, and it was going to be a fast one where he didn’t see the fancy footwork to cover their asses.
“Hey, sorry to bother you at home, Gabe, but I was just notified of an issue.”
Uh-oh.
He recognized Greyson’s voice, and that meant the trouble was in Philadelphia. The last time he got a similar call, it was because Blackhawk and Cantrell had gotten pulled away from vacation, and up to their necks in trouble.
Today was supposed to be day one of that vacation, and now Greyson was calling?
Yeah.
No.
“What did Blackhawk do in Damascus? Was he arrested for a pissy attitude and resting bitch face?”
Greyson didn’t understand what the issue was between the men, but Ethan was almost never pissy. In fact, he was calm, laid back, and a decent, friendly guy.
Yes, he was quiet, but that was just his personality—not his attitude.
“Well, it’s not Blackhawk,” he offered. “It’s his partner this time. Ethan isn’t anywhere near this clusterfuck. He’s back home on the reservation.”
Gabe kept feeding his child, but now he was intrigued. Gene was on vacation, and it was rare he got into trouble before being partnered up with Blackhawk. They were in completely different places, so they should be good.
“What happened?”
Here came the lying.