Chapter Three #4
Axelle paused on the phone.
“Sure. What’s up?” she asked.
Elizabeth had to approach this a certain way. The call was already to the point, and clipped, like Axelle was pissed at her for doing something.
It was likely just stress, but she had to go there.
“Are you okay?”
It seemed like an easy question, but it took her friend and boss a few extra seconds to answer.
“Sure, why?” she asked.
Elizabeth wasn’t going into the Duke area. His marriage was his domain, but her team was not the whipping boys. She had to police that part of this.
Elizabeth went there.
“Because I’ve gotten complaints about you.”
It was direct and to the point.
Oh, Ethan cringed.
This was about to be woman-on-woman violence, and Axelle wouldn’t win it.
Call it a hunch.
“I’m sorry, what?” Axelle asked.
Elizabeth went there.
“My team said you’re up in their business, busting balls, being douchey, and making them miserable. What’s going on? Why are you riding ass at eight in the morning when my people answer to me?”
There was a heavy pause, and the tension…oh, it was thick. Like pea soup thick.
“I’m sorry, but when agents aren’t working when they’re supposed to be working, I get to make a comment. It’s kind of my domain as I run this shit show.”
She stopped her.
“Yes, you do run the whole shit show. You get to ride roughshod over all the other agents. You know, Vice, the guns unit, the children’s unit, the sexual crimes unit. The Violent Crimes unit is mine, and that’s my circus and my monkeys. I run it, and for the record, Ax, it’s hands off.”
There was another pause.
Oh, and this could go a myriad of ways.
Finally, Axelle went there.
“I’m your boss.”
She shut that shit down.
“And they are MY UNIT. Most of them work ninety-hour weeks. They work until three in the morning, and yeah, they don’t make it in for eight.
They need to sleep to be able to do their jobs.
They chase killers, not parking violations.
I’m going to ask nicely that you back off of them, and let me run my division.
You don’t see me popping up in the Vice unit to ask them why they weren’t at their desk at eight after pulling a night until three. ”
Oh, Ethan cringed even more.
This was about to blow.
He could hear it.
The tension was palpable.
“I can’t believe you’re saying this to me,” Axelle said. “I run the FBI.”
She shut that shit down.
“WE RUN the FBI. It’s a partnership, and when you’re being a cuntasaurus to my team, that makes more work for me.
I then have to calm them down, taking away from my job here.
I get that you’re angsty. I get that you’re angry about something, but my people are good at what they do. Backoff. Respectfully, of course.”
Axelle wasn’t happy.
Not.
At.
All.
“You’re crossing a line.”
Elizabeth didn’t pull this card often, but if her team was being berated by Axelle, she’d protect them. They worked damn hard, and they deserved to be safe at work.
They weren’t safe in the streets.
They deserved to be safe in the office.
This wasn’t safe.
“I’ll cross a bigger line where I take this to BOTH of our bosses. Don’t make me pull rank, Axelle. If your personal life is in turmoil, that’s an ‘outside of the office’ issue—not an ‘inside the office’ problem.”
She gasped.
Elizabeth stopped her.
“You said that to me once, and put me in check. I’m giving you the same chance to adjust. It’s hard enough for women to have these positions.
Don’t make people complain about us being too emotional, and out of control.
That validates what men think about us. My team is OFF limits.
What you choose to do with your teams, and your staff, is your business.
You once told me we aren’t related in the office, and you would be doing me a disservice for not calling me out to save my job.
Consider this your call out of me saving your job from an HR intervention. ”
There was silence.
The whole time, Ethan held his breath.
Then, Axelle went there.
“Message received.”
Elizabeth hated to make the void bigger between them, but she couldn’t let Axelle use her team as a punching bag.
That wasn’t happening.
She hoped someone would stop her if she was behaving that way. She’d been called out before, and in hindsight, she was grateful.
Axelle might not be happy now, but one day, she would be.
“I’ll get you the report on this case as I work it. I’ll be out of the office,” Elizabeth stated.
Axelle said very little.
“Thank you.”
Then, the call went dead.
When Elizabeth hung up, she sighed.
“Oh, I love my job. Work with your sister-in-law, everyone said, it will be so much fun, they said. It’s not fun, EJ. It’s not fun at all.”
Ethan knew that feeling.
It was why he ran the second he could. He’d been in her position, and it had sucked.
Big-time.
“She’ll get over it.”
Would she?
Elizabeth wasn’t sure.
“She’s pissed over Duke being here, and choosing to be near his mother, and me. I know it. She’s going to blow. It’s only a matter of time before the woman I know she can be shows up to the party, and that’s when it gets spicy.”
Ethan hoped not, but he trusted his wife’s gut.
“Do you think she’ll give Duke an ultimatum?” he asked. “Because that’s shitty.”
Oh, she was aware.
In a marriage, if that shit started, it went downhill, and fast. The bottom line was that there was tension there to begin with.
Duke wasn’t a fan of Archangels up his ass.
He wasn’t a fan of his wife being the boss, either.
That tended to grind a man’s gears. He’d done that with Salem once, too, and the job had come first.
If Axelle pulled that card, there was no doubt Duke would be done.
She knew her brother.
“Duke loves her, but if she does, it’s going to be a bloodbath. He’s a LaRue. Whenever someone gave me or Charlie an ultimatum, we IMMEDIATELY did the opposite.”
Oh, he wasn’t shocked.
“I’m going to reach out to a spider. Maybe he can go make sure she’s okay,” Elizabeth stated. “She might just need to vent. She’s not going to talk to me,” she added. “Not after this. She and Lewis are close friends, or they used to be. He might have more luck.”
Ethan hugged her.
“You did the right thing. Your team is your team, and she shouldn’t be berating people who are salary about when they show up for work. That’s going to get her in trouble with HR. They could have gone there instead, and that would have gone in her file.”
She was aware.
“When Noah is complaining, and Johanna…?”
He understood.
They were the two most laid back on the team. They NEVER complained about anything. The reason they had the closure rate they did was because Elizabeth let them run it how they saw fit.
They never let her down.
Now, she was backing them up.
Hopefully, Axelle would calm down, or Duke would fly home this weekend, they’d have some sex, and everyone would get over it.
“Can you get Callen and Chris? I’m going to call Lewis and see what he’s up to,” she admitted. “I’ll see if he can sit down next to Little Miss Muffet…”
He nodded.
“See you at the car?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Yes, my love.”
That worked for him.
“I’ll have Security pack a bag just in case,” she admitted. “We’re not that far away, but if we get busy, we’ll grab a hotel room.”
He understood that.
“I have that meeting tomorrow morning with Lance,” he began, knowing she’d understand. “I might have to cancel it,” he admitted.
Oh, yeah, no.
“You’re to go to it. Are you taking the role?” she asked. “Definitely?”
He lifted her chin, and stared into her eyes. Oh, he was sure she was amused by his dilated ones, but she said nothing, regardless.
“Yes. Will you support me?”
She framed his face with her hands.
“I’ll always support you. You’re my partner in life. I’m in,” she said.
Softly, he kissed her.
“Thank you, my love. I needed that. I’m definitely taking it. I’m feeling the pull here, and I want to lead so one day, one of our children will take over for me. The reservation needs a Blackhawk here.”
Well, then, they were absolutely staying here. It looked as if she had to get accustomed to that haunted mansion.
Damn.
It.
He was right about the last part, though. One day, one of their children would come home to roost, too.
And she was good with that.
As he set her free, and headed out, she pulled out her phone to make that call. Yeah, and she knew he’d answer.
Lewis always did.
“Yo,” he said.
Elizabeth was to the point.
“I need a favor.”
There was no introduction needed, but there was a pause as he moved to a quiet spot to have this conversation.
“Are we talking a personal favor, or a business favor? I happen to be free. The Hunters are in Europe chasing Von Donore. I had to stay here where there was a chance he’d mobilize.”
She was to the point.
“It’s personal. Ax is off her game. Is there any way that you can head there, and maybe see if she’s okay? I won’t be back until this weekend. I’m stuck here for now or I’d hop a flight.”
He looked at his watch.
“If you can get me a jet there, off the record, I can babysit and stop in to see if she’ll talk to me. I don’t like that she’s off her game. That takes a lot to rattle her.”
Oh, she knew.
Elizabeth appreciated that Lewis would drop everything to check on their friend.
“Thanks, Lewis. I owe you one.”
He laughed.
“LaRue, you owe me twenty, but who’s counting? Ax is my friend. If she’s upset, I want to see if I can help her. Just keep your brother away. He stares at me like I’m a body snatcher.”
She snorted.
“I mean, technically, you are. That is what you do.”
He found that outrageously funny simply because she wasn’t exactly wrong.
Now was she?
Only, they weren’t on an encrypted line, and he wasn’t confirming jack shit.
“Where can I reach you, LaRue?” he asked.
She shared.