Chapter Two #4
She would have laughed, but Gene was one comment away from shooting Gabe, and Elizabeth would let him.
Seriously.
Did the man have no sense? A man who married an agent who worked UNDER him?
An employee that called him boss?
Someone was the pot calling the kettle black in this room, and it wasn’t the two, underpaid, underappreciated agents.
That was for damn sure.
“It’s a promise, Gabe,” Gene said.
Gabe shrugged.
“A rule is a rule.”
Well, Elizabeth stepped in on that one because he was the king of rule-breaking.
She gave Gene ammo to use against Captain Dumbass. Someone had to right this ship back into the water. Elizabeth couldn’t handle all the serial killer cases alone.
The FBI needed Gene and his partner.
“Isn’t your wife an ex-agent?” she asked. “In fact, wasn’t she under you in our division? Yeah, she was my partner. You married my partner, who you supervised.”
She dropped that bomb at the perfect time.
Immediately, Gene’s head swung over to look at Elizabeth to see if that was accurate.
“Really?”
Gabe was sputtering, but Elizabeth was nodding. That told Gene all he needed to know.
Yep.
Hypocrite.
“Oh, is she?” he asked. “So, he dated one of his employees and married her?”
Elizabeth nodded.
Oh, that’s when Gabe got red.
“LaRue, don’t burn the bridge,” he stated. “Keep in mind that you, too, answer to me, your boss.”
How could she forget?
He shoved that down her throat anytime he wanted to control her. You didn’t control the crazy.
You took it for a ride.
To further help Gene, she pulled out her phone to show him something from her personal life. Honestly, she trusted him, and he clearly trusted her because he came out a few minutes ago.
There was NO WAY she was letting Gabe crucify Gene and his partner when they were getting shit done.
That was their jobs.
That wasn’t happening on her watch. She’d seen too many agents leave because of the management. She was sick of watching that go down.
Elizabeth pulled up a picture of her sitting in Chris’ lap on a boat. They were smiling and on vacation.
She tossed him the phone.
Gene stared at it.
“That’s one of the MEs here!” he said.
Apparently, she wasn’t lying.
“Yep. He works here, and he’s my ME. So, don’t let Gabe yank your chain on this. He knows people are in relationships here. He’s done it, and I’m doing it.”
Gabe stared at her.
Clearly, she’d lost her mind. He told her that if that got out, it was over. Telling ANYONE was a risk for BOTH of them, and she knew it.
“Are you insane?”
She smiled and said one thing.
“Yep.”
Gene was grateful that Elizabeth was trusting him with this. He felt less alone now.
“You are?”
She nodded.
“Yeah, I am. He told me to keep it quiet, or he was going to break us apart, but then Chris saved his ass, and he backed off.”
Gene stared at Gabe.
“So, you play favorites.”
Gabe was not happy.
Oh, he was anything but amused that his one problem agent was now stirring the pot with another problem agent. What was next?
A coup?
“Elizabeth, we’re going to have a long talk about this when he’s fired. You’re going to be out on the unemployment line with him!”
Oh.
Hell.
No.
That wasn’t happening.
To get his attention, Gene slammed his hands down, casted one included, on the desk, making Gabe actually jump.
“Go ahead. Fire me, and her. My next fucking stop is going to be about Daphne Carmichael.”
The second he said it, all of the air felt like it had been sucked out of the room.
Who was now curious even more than she had been?
Oh, how about Elizabeth?
And there was a reason why too.
“What about her?” Elizabeth asked. “I arrested her. She was helping her fucking asshole mob husband kill cops. I brought that bitch in.”
Gene stared at Gabe.
The man began sweating, and Gene knew he had him over the barrel. More importantly, there was something Elizabeth didn’t know about her arrest.
She was a free bird and had been given a badge from the FBI.
“Yeah, I know,” he said, directing that at his boss. “In fact, Greyson knows. Soon, everyone will know. It’s kind of ironic that you didn’t think your agents would smell something off and INVESTIGATE.”
Elizabeth touched his arm.
“I don’t know. How about you tell me since I had to wrangle that nightmare.”
He kept talking.
It was show-and-tell time.
Gene pulled out his phone, pulled up a picture of Sasha Harper, and tossed it to Elizabeth.
“Is that Daphne Carmichael?” he asked.
She nodded.
“It certainly is.”
She narrowed her eyes and stared at her boss.
“What did you do?” she asked.
Gene continued.
“We are more than willing to make knowledge public. Imagine how that will look in the media when the Deputy Director of the FBI has cleared a deal with the Scorpion to work under an alias in a satellite FBI office as an ME—the same job she did to perpetrate her crimes. All to spy on two gay agents.”
Elizabeth gasped.
There was no freaking way.
Gabe was low, but he’d never go that low.
Right?
“What the fuck, Gabriel?” she asked, horrified.
“It took me two weeks working that case for the director and it almost kicked my ass. I almost dropped the ball! You set that bitch free and back into the same job she had? You gave her a badge and the privilege to work for the FBI after she helped hide the deaths of cops?”
Gabe said nothing.
At first.
“That is classified…”
She flipped him off.
“HEY!” he said.
Oh, now, she was the one off to the races. Gene let her take a turn tearing into their boss.
It was fair for her to have a shot too.
This time, Elizabeth moved toward Gabe, and Gene grabbed her by the back of the pants because she was armed and bright red.
“She lied about autopsies, and Chris had to redo ten of them on stinky, rotting corpses. I had to go head-to-head with her douchebag husband. He shot at me! He nearly put a bullet in my noggin! And you gave her a ‘get out of jail free’ card? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Gabe sighed.
“She turned state’s evidence. She got a new life. He forced her to…”
Elizabeth looked at Gene.
“Where is she?”
He ignored Gabe.
What he knew was he got damn lucky with Elizabeth being in here. Everyone knew she was Gabe’s golden child. If she could get Ethan’s badge back, she would.
Gene needed her help.
“Philadelphia. He planted her in the office there, and she’s been spying on us. He was suspicious we were a couple, so he sent the accomplice to a murdering mob man to watch us. He’s fucking sick!”
She gasped.
“Seriously?”
Gene minced no words.
He focused on Gabe.
“My partner gets his badge back, and we get placed in the same office until one of us asks to be set free from the FBI, or I go to the media. I’ll even lie to any investigators who ask me if you fell repeatedly, or Elizabeth beat your face against that desk. Seems you do a lot of people dirty…”
Gabe glared at Elizabeth.
“Your badge is going to go suspiciously missing,” he stated. “As in the paper shredder. I don’t allow myself to be blackmailed, even if it’s someone, I consider family,” he stated. “I’ll have your badge!”
Oh, did he just threaten her job?
Okay, checkmate.
She took her phone back from Gene, handed him his, and pulled up an email. Then, she walked it to her boss for him to swallow his tongue.
There would be no blackmail from him today.
“Read.”
Gabe took her phone and did just that.
‘Special Agent LaRue,
We thank you for the interview with us, and we are excited with the prospect that you might come work for us again.
You did impressive work in Colombia. The CIA could use you at this time.
We promise it will be kept on the DL, and neither director will know we approached you to steal you away. We can’t wait to hear from you.
Director Hawthorne.’
Gabe gasped again.
The CIA was recruiting his best agent out from under him? Seriously?
How had his day gone to shit so fast?
Oh, yeah.
He came to work.
“Are you fucking kidding me? The CIA is trying to steal you away?”
She pointed at Gene.
“He gets what he wants, or not only am I heading out to the CIA to play reindeer games with them, but Chris is leaving too. After he finds out that you played catch and release with Daphne Carmichael, after he had to dig in rotting bodies, and her husband tried to kill him and myself, he’ll bail.
Rich dudes don’t need jobs. I’ll get myself married and stop getting shot at! ”
Gabe stared at her.
“You’d do me dirty like that?”
She nodded.
Oh, she’d be bored out of her mind not working, but she’d have a fantastic tan off the shores of Greece with her hot doctor.
Bet.
On.
It.
“Without hesitating. So, my buddy Gene, here, gets his partner back. His partner gets his badge back, and if he EVER tells me that you’re up in his man-on-man action, I’m tap dancing in front of the media like a circus monkey with rabies. I know all your secrets!”
For the first time today, Gene laughed.
“Sorry. I pictured it. Can I dance with you? Because I’d love to take down his house of cards.”
Gabe stared at him.
And said nothing.
But Elizabeth wasn’t done.
“Oh, and not only am I singing like the slutty canary I am, but I’m heading to the CIA. See, they are DESPERATE to have me work for them. I’m good with switching alphabet agencies. It’s only three letters, and I can memorize them. CIA. CIA. CIA. CIA. CI…”
He stopped her.
“You wouldn’t.”
Oh, she would.
After catch and releasing Daphne Carmichael, that piece of shit, she’d do it in a heartbeat to prove a point. She could play undercover CIA operative while married to a rich man, traveling the world.
Trust.
And.
Believe.
“See, this stupid rule about no relationships with your partner is dumb. Chris and I work better together than apart. I’m betting Gene and his partner are the same.”
Gabe was pissed.
They’d effectively trapped him in his own game.
Still, he was to the point.
“Until it goes south, and then, someone dies. I’m trying to keep that from happening!”
She shook her head.