Chapter Two #3
Closing the door, she let this play out partially because she was curious, and also because more times than not, Gabe had it coming.
Douchery was his middle name.
If someone was going to fuck around and find out, it was almost always going to be Gabe. He just couldn’t help but stick his nose where it didn’t belong.
Like in agents’ business.
Gene let him have it because it was a long time coming, and he was not letting it go this time.
“Imagine my surprise when my partner texts me that you’ve threatened to separate us or take his badge!” Gene stated. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?” he asked.
Elizabeth leaned against the door, watching the show go down. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she listened to Gene read Gabe the riot act.
Yep.
What Gene was accusing him of doing was definitely something Gabe would do.
Been there.
Been fucked over by him.
If the crime fit…
Gabe tried to get a word in edgewise, and it wasn’t happening.
“That’s not exactly…”
Gene pointed, shutting him up.
“You are a piece of shit for playing these games. It’s one thing to bust our balls for breaking the rules, but this? This is fucking foul!”
Yowza.
This was the kind of pushback he’d expected from Ethan, but here it was being delivered by the calmer agent. Apparently, they’d switched personalities.
It was time to handle this.
Gabe looked over at Elizabeth.
“Uh, you can go,” he said. “I can handle this.”
Oh, hell, no.
She shook her head.
“Nah, I’m good. We were having a meeting, and frankly, Gene and I are friends. I’m curious what you’ve done. Oh, let me guess…you played king where you had no business treading, and it blew up spectacularly because he won’t put up with your boss-antics either.”
He sighed.
“LaRue…”
Gene stopped him.
Oh, he was going to need someone to testify at his trial that the man had it coming for the shit he did in his downtime. LaRue was as good an alibi as anyone.
Hell!
From the sounds of it, she might hold him down.
“She can stay. I want a witness when I beat your ass bloody for this bullshit.”
He waved his casted arm around like that was going to be the weapon in question.
Gabe opened his mouth, but Gene was off to the races.
“Imagine taking two good agents and tossing them to the wolves out of fucking boredom. Imagine risking the safety and well-being of the citizens we protect because someone has some spare time in his day! Someone needs to get a fucking hobby—or a wife. Something!”
Elizabeth clued him in.
“He has one. Kids, too.”
Gabe gasped.
He kept his personal life out of work for good reason, and Elizabeth knew why. His wife had been HER partner and his subordinate at the FBI.
“LARUE!” Gabe warned.
Only, this was the wrong pony to bet on in this kind of a fight. She was anti-establishment. Anti-boss. Oh, and hell, most of the time, anti-Gabe.
She just shrugged.
“What? I’m just an observer,” she stated, more than happy to be there.
A part of her felt bad for the agent. Gene was a friend, and one of the good agents this agency had.
If Gabe was fucking with him…
Well, she’d help him out.
After all, Gene slipped her information on the DL, and she did the same for him.
Gabe only fucked around with the agents he thought had the most talent. If he was up in Gene and his partner’s business, he was focused because they were good at what they did.
It was sick how Gabe thought, but he gave the good agents more of his attention and let the bad agents burn out.
Only, this wasn’t the time to tell Gene that.
He.
Was.
Pissed.
So, observing this, so he had a witness, was the least she could do.
Besides, she’d been on the receiving end of Gabe’s meddling. If she had a dollar for every time he tried to get up in her business with Chris, she’d be rich.
Okay, maybe not Christopher Leonard rich, but rich enough to keep herself in leather boots.
Gabe focused on the man and had no choice but to do this with an audience. Elizabeth would bust his balls if he even tried to make a stand.
“He broke the rules on his case, and this is the outcome when agents go rogue.”
ROGUE?
ROGUE?
Was he literally ignoring the fact that Ethan shot a dirty agent who was the epitome of the word ROGUE?
Oh.
Hell.
No.
That was all it took.
Gene laid into him.
“He shot a serial killer who was currently using a piece of metal to break my goddamn arm! He was going to kill me, so he shot the man! How is that breaking the rules? How is it breaking the rules when that particular serial killer was going rogue as an FBI agent, himself?”
Gabe stared at him.
This was going to be ugly.
He.
Could.
Tell.
“Do you really want to have this conversation in front of an audience?”
Did that really need a reply?
Yes.
Yes, he did.
Oh, and he knew what Gabe meant. This was going to be about him having sex with his partner.
This was about to be about him being gay, as if Gabe believed he was ashamed of that.
He wasn’t.
So, he cut that off at the pass.
Turning, he focused on Elizabeth.
“He doesn’t want you to know that I’m gay. What he’s talking about is my relationship with my partner, and how I’ve had sex with him.”
Gene wasn’t sure what to expect, but true to form, LaRue didn’t disappoint.
She didn’t flinch.
“And?” she asked. “Does your brain and gun not work when you’re gay?”
Gene would have laughed if he wasn’t so goddamn pissed off, but that was the most LaRue answer she could give.
And he appreciated it.
“No, but his does when he has two gay agents, apparently,” he stated.
She shrugged.
“Oh, does he have a problem with it?” she asked, already knowing he would—not so much the gay part, but the partners sleeping together.
God knew she’d had this conversation with Gabe plenty over her and Chris.
It was exhausting.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t backing down. Gabe liked to play the rules game, while simultaneously breaking all the rules as he played a game.
He was a hypocrite, and she’d call him out while standing beside a damn good agent the FBI couldn’t afford to lose.
Gene wasn’t done.
“Yeah, and as if to make that worse, he’s told my partner, who is the best goddamn partner I’ve ever had, that he’s being transferred. He’s doing it under the guise of him shooting a killer who was going to make the FBI look bad. Make it make sense, LaRue.”
Oh, she couldn’t.
Elizabeth had learned that a long time ago.
Gabe went there.
“That killer was a fellow agent who had the right to a fair trial. We just don’t gun down people in the street and call it justice.”
Gene didn’t give two fucks, a rat’s ass, or a partridge in a pear fucking tree.
“He was in the process of KILLING ME! He wasn’t making me a cup of coffee, and he was shot.
He was breaking all the bones in my arm to make it look like the other victims, and then, he was going to end my life!
I was strapped to a table and couldn’t fight for my life!
Are you out of your goddamn mind?” he asked.
It was rhetorical, and Gene wasn’t done.
“He killed a bunch of people to cover up his gunrunning off of the island. That you’re willing to defend a mass murderer because of me being gay is ridiculous. That it’s the biggest bone of contention says a lot about you! Worse, it’s caused a damn good profiler to leave the FBI!”
Oh, this wasn’t happening.
Gabe wasn’t a homophobe. He could care less who his agents fucked—unless that other person was their partner, their boss, or a literal killer!
Gabe pointed at him.
“I’m your boss. I get to make the decisions, and I gave your partner a choice. He chose to turn in his badge. He could have kept his job, just not near you.”
Gene was red.
And it wasn’t a shade found in nature.
It was clear to Elizabeth that he was about to blow. The last thing they needed was to lose Gene, a damn good agent, or his partner, a profiler. There were only so many profilers in the agency, and they were a commodity.
She often got profiles from agents when her partner, Salem, was not available.
“Gabe,” she said. “Really?”
He didn’t get to answer.
Gene was off to the races.
“Yeah, because you threatened to shove him into a different office to keep us apart as punishment that we opted to break a stupid FBI rule that everyone breaks!”
He sputtered.
“Everyone breaks?” Gabe asked.
Elizabeth just laughed.
Yeah, pretty much.
They worked shit cases and stayed in roach coaches together. Did he not think that a few drinks, some stress, and being alone out in the world wouldn’t lead down the same road?
“Pretty much,” Elizabeth stated when Gabe stared at her. “It’s pretty common. You’re just focused on the wrong people.”
Gene continued.
“Do you think I’m the only person having a relationship with my partner? Oh, it happens. So that makes me believe you’re homophobic. So no, I’m beating your ass!” he stated.
As he tried to get to Gabe, Elizabeth grabbed him by the back of the jeans.
“It’s not worth it,” she said. “You have to hit him where it hurts, and his concrete block head is not it,” she said, knowing how to do it.
Elizabeth focused on their boss.
Well, Gene’s boss because she stopped listening to Gabe about three years ago.
He was an idiot regarding most things.
“Oh, Gabriel.”
He pointed at her.
“Don’t ‘oh, Gabriel’ me, LaRue. This isn’t about you,” he stated.
Gene lowered his voice to a tone just short of menacing. There were only two outcomes.
Gabe got his ass beat, and he got shot by LaRue, or Gabe backed off.
That.
Was.
It.
“Give Ethan his badge back,” he stated. “If you give him his badge back, I’ll walk my ass out there, and head back to Philly like this bullshit never happened. If you don’t, then, you’re going to regret it.”
He laughed.
“Is that a threat? Agent, I don’t deal with terrorists.”
Elizabeth opened her mouth, and Gabe pointed at her.
“Shut up. You’re not a terrorist. You’re the bane of my existence like an intestinal bug. You make me want to shit and vomit at the same time. I do not need two cowboys running amok!”