Chapter Thirteen #2
Ethan was above her, counting as Gene held compression right below his hands. They kept going, trying to hold the woman from going over the edge to death.
As the crowd moved, someone got down beside them to assist.
It was one of the detectives.
“What the hell?” he asked.
Ethan was counting, doing compressions, and breathing for the woman to get air into her body.
Gene kept his voice low, as more cops arrived, and saw that Ethan had a gun on his hip, with a gold badge beside it. When they moved toward him, Detective Pezzimente waved them back, flashing his own badge.
“He’s a Fed,” he stated.
That seemed to work.
As Ethan did his thing, fighting for the woman, Gene answered him.
“Someone took shots at me when I was coming out of the copy shop. There were five, and they got damn close. She was behind me,” he stated.
They’d both exited the shop around the same time.
In front of them, Ethan was counting and breaking into a sweat.
As the ambulance pulled up, he glanced over.
“Get the media out of here,” he said, as he kept pumping away at her chest until one of the EMTs could assess the situation.
Dannie whistled, and the beat cops did what the Fed had asked.
They moved the people back and blocked the media from getting any film. This woman had a family, somewhere, and they didn’t need to see this without warning.
“Jesus Christ! You guys draw trouble,” Dannie stated.
Yeah, tell them about it.
“See if the media that was hanging out got anything on camera, or pictures,” Gene said, as a paramedic touched his arm, and he backed up from the body.
“How long has she been down?” the paramedic asked.
Gene glanced at his watch and his bloody hands.
“Five minutes,” he said.
The other paramedic stopped Ethan and touched the woman’s neck. The puddle of blood she was lying in was already starting to coagulate around her body.
“There’s too much blood,” the one paramedic said, rolling the woman to her side to check her wounds.
Through her back, there was a giant hole where the bullet went through her chest and exited out of her back. It did massive damage to her spine.
“She’s not coming back,” he stated. “Her cord is severed.”
Well, shit.
This sucked.
As Ethan stood there, he was angry. Oh, he was so goddamn angry at this whole thing. This could have been Gene, and all because he came here.
How could he not blame himself for this? Some innocent woman, who was just going about her day had paid the price.
That enraged him.
“Tag it as a crime scene for the FBI,” Gene said to Dannie.
“This was aimed at me,” he stated, quietly.
“I was the target. Our serial killer knows we’re on the ground thanks to those clowns plastering our faces on the TV screen.
They got footage of us leaving the high school where they ambushed us. ”
Dannie was curious.
“How do you know you were the target? Maybe this was about her,” he said, also keeping his voice low.
To answer his question, Gene held up his casted arm, and right in the side of the cast, there was a bullet lodged in it.
“I ducked and covered my head with my arm. Now, I’m walking evidence. We have to get that bullet out of my cast and to the FBI forensics team,” he stated.
Well, that was pretty convincing evidence.
Instead of saying anything more, Dannie simply did what the Fed asked.
He pulled out his phone and began the process of getting the scene secured until the FBI could handle it.
Because he needed to talk to him, Gene pulled Ethan aside. He’d been wiping his hands off with some alcohol and sheets from the ambulance.
“I have to get to the hospital,” he stated. “I need this removed and a new one put on. He gave us something. This might have DNA or…”
Ethan said nothing.
Yeah, and Gene knew why.
So, he went there.
“You’re going to blow,” he said. “Aren’t you?” he asked his partner.
Oh, he could say that.
The whole run down the street had been done as he held his breath. In that race to get to this, his heart hung in limbo. Ethan really believed he’d lost Gene.
“I thought it was you,” he whispered, staring at Gene. “I heard it, and then…”
Gene kept his voice down, and he couldn’t hold Ethan, or comfort him because the assholes with cameras were not far away.
Yeah, they were likely being filmed, and he knew they could only stay together as a team if they kept it on the DL. What he wanted and what he could do were two different things.
It would have to wait.
This crash-out would have to be put on hold.
Gene took control.
“I want you to go back to the room,” he said. “We have to keep going. We’ve pissed this nut off, and right now, we have a little time to regroup.”
Ethan let him talk.
“The media has us all over the place, and they are clueing him in as to where we are each step of our day. If he’s a collector, and we took his collection, he’s going to get wild. This is our proof. You nailed it. He’s going to lash out at us.”
And he had.
It made Ethan sick to his stomach.
Gene kept talking.
“I’m going to get to the hospital to get out of this cast and into a new one. Then, I’ll get our techs to analyze this bullet. I need you to hold it together until I can get back to you, Baby. I need you to be strong because if you break, I’m breaking.”
Ethan let him lead because he was ready to commit homicide himself.
This killer had crossed a line.
Not.
His.
Man.
There was no fucking way he was letting Gene leave him. If he did, he was done.
“You’re not going alone,” he stated. “Fuck that, Gene,” he whispered.
Gene got it.
“I’ll get the detective to get me there. This nut is going to put distance between us and him now, so he doesn’t get spotted. The media won’t let up, and that will give him access to us later, and he knows it.”
Ethan was barely holding it together. That rage had him by the balls at what could have happened.
At what had happened.
Gene stared into his midnight-blue eyes and got him to focus on him.
“Go research. I’ll get back to the hotel as quickly as I can. We’ll crash then. Hold it together for me,” he begged. “Please, Baby.”
Ethan was to the point.
“Fine, but you keep that detective with you at the hospital, and to bring you back. Don’t be out there without someone, Gene. We made a mistake thinking he wouldn’t come for us like any other collector would. This person didn’t shoot at me. He shot at you.”
Gene knew why.
When they’d been assaulted by the media at the school, Gene put himself in front of Ethan to scare the media off of them. It was all on tape, and the killer likely thought he was in charge.
Add to that convenience, and Gene had been screwed over this.
“Only because I was out in the streets and an easy target. I have to get a gun to protect myself. If not, I’m a sitting duck,” he said, not bringing up the first part.
That’s all he had to hear.
Blackhawk hadn’t turned in his backup piece when he’d given Gabe his gun. Instead, he’d packed it in his suitcase when he’d flown to DC. Because he’d flown as an agent to get to DC, his bag wasn’t checked when he’d boarded to head there.
He needed to keep his official gun, but he could give Gene his personal piece.
Pulling up his pantleg, he slipped the holster off of his ankle. Then, he passed it to Gene, making sure to do it on the DL.
Just.
In.
Case.
Then again, fuck Gabe and desk duty. Gene had been walking a fingerprint to a store to fax it and had nearly died.
You didn’t get more desk duty than that.
Honestly, Ethan would take the heat if Gene had to fire his gun. Screw that. He’d rather be in trouble than Gene in a morgue somewhere.
What was Gabe going to do?
Fire him?
Well, fuck that too. Losing Gene would be worse than losing his job, and he knew that now.
Gratefully, Gene took the gun.
“I’ll be okay, Baby,” Gene said. “I love you, and I wasn’t paying attention before. I am now. That was a screw-up by me. I’m wide-fucking awake now. Trust and believe that.”
Gene put his hand on Ethan’s arm and squeezed it.
“We have this. As your boyfriend, I’m telling you that we’re good. Breathe.”
All he could do was listen.
“Don’t lose it!”
Ethan knew Gene was right. It wasn’t so much tears he wanted to let fall, but rage that he wanted to let out.
So, he took a deep breath.
Then, he reassured him.
“Okay. I’m in control. I’ll go back and research while you get that handled. I need to figure out how this went so wrong.”
On that, he agreed.
“We’ll stick together for now.”
Oh, trust and believe they would be.
Gene was going to walk him back to the café, so he could get his things. Then, he was going to strong-arm the detective into being his taxi driver.
The man wanted to help, well…
He was getting his wish.
For.
Now.
They heard Dannie shout something to a cop, and Ethan glanced over at the detective handling the scene.
“Gene?”
He was watching the cop too.
“Yeah?”
Blackhawk went there.
“I don’t like that the cop was still outside the café after talking to us. We saw him, and a good twenty minutes went by before you left. Then, you were gone thirty minutes before nearly getting shot,” Ethan whispered.
That hung there.
“What if he’s somehow involved?”
Gene laughed.
“Well, then, I guess we’ll figure that out when I’m skinned and don’t make it to the hospital.”
He’d meant it to be a joke.
Only, Ethan’s lower lip was quivering.
Oh, shit.
The problem with Gene was he used inappropriate humor when he was stressed the fuck out.
At that moment, he was that times ten.
So, he warned him again.
“EJ, we’re being watched, and if we get outed, we’re definitely done as partners. Gabe said he’d let us as long as we solved shit and didn’t flaunt it. Fight for us.”
That snapped him out of it.
“Okay. I’m good,” he whispered. “We’re good.”
Thank God.
“I love you, Baby,” Gene whispered.
Ethan touched his arm, the un-casted one, connecting them even more.
“I love you too.”
Well, now, he needed to get shit done.
Gene waved his casted arm and got the detective’s attention.