Chapter Six #2
“I want to dance with the cuckoo—other than my partner,” he said, busting Alex’s ass. “The change would be nice.”
The man laughed.
“Well, at least he learns fast. I’m good with it. We’re not running point, which is good because we just came off a case. We can absolutely be your research monkeys as you, Callen, and Gene take lead. I’m in. Axelle is going to be gunning for you, not us.”
Yeah, she was aware.
Elizabeth was honest.
“I’m okay with them omitting it, especially if this is going to go nuclear. If Ethan thinks it’s dangerous…”
It was likely dangerous.
Leaving the two cops to handle it wasn’t cool, and she was going to make sure they kept the detectives in a good position.
They moved back toward the detectives, who had been waiting patiently.
“Okay, so we’ve decided. We don’t mention that the eyeballs are embalmed, and we keep working this. Oops.”
Tora wasn’t expecting that.
Not.
At.
All.
“Really?” she asked.
Elizabeth nodded.
“Yeah, we’re in. Don’t put the embalmed part in your report. Just leave that one word out, and we’ll do the same. I’ll talk to my husband about that. He’ll likely play along—since he likes calm during a case, and he’s got a thing for the ME, apparently.”
Callen laughed.
“Oh, girl. He’s not gonna like that, and he’s going to see right through it. He’ll know it’s not about the calm, so be ready to do the dance.”
She was aware.
Only, she’d make sure he understood they needed to help out, if not for his desire to test run an ME, but for Ethan and Gene to reconnect to a woman they had helped years ago. There was more to this than meets the eye.
That was the bottom line.
“We good?” she asked.
The two cops nodded.
Yeah, the detectives were good with that.
The last thing either of them wanted was to be playing games alone with this kind of crazy person. If you were jacking off with a human skull, you were off your goddamn rocker.
“Yes,” Tora said, speaking for herself and her partner.
Then, they were all on the same page.
“Let’s play,” she said, signaling who was coming and who was staying. “EJ, you’re with me and the detectives. I might need you to outthink the man, so we can wrangle this.”
That worked for him.
Callen shared where he would be.
“We’ll go to the morgue. Point the way. I’ll make sure that Chris isn’t ridiculous as he fawns over the ME.”
Both cops looked confused, but they’d hear about how the FBI was napping their ME later.
That was tomorrow Elizabeth’s issue.
Mac Yardley pointed, and the team headed that way, while they went inside.
Now, Elizabeth needed to know what she was up against beforehand.
“Tell me about your homicide captain,” she said, wanting to know so she was ready.
Mac laughed.
“Other than he has a big ol’ boner about my partner, and can’t stop asking her out?” he asked.
Tora elbowed him.
“I can handle a lecherous man, Mac. You know that. I’m accustomed to dealing with them. The Captain is an easy brush-off.”
Ethan lifted a brow.
“I’m sorry, what?” he asked. “Your captain is harassing you in the workplace?”
That made Tora laugh.
“Calm down, Dad. They armed me, and I can say no with the best of them. He asks me out, and I say no. It’s like a game.
I have zero interest in him. I like going home to my apartment and cuddling with my dog.
I’ve done plenty of up-close and personal in my life.
I’m married to my job, and I like it that way. ”
Elizabeth ignored her, and spoke to the other cop. She knew women tended to sugarcoat it to not make a big deal. A boss trying to hitch his cart to one of his employee’s horses was always a problem.
“How bad is he?”
He laughed ridiculously.
Oh, and that said it all. He wanted to punch the guy in the face, and she was playing it down.
Yeah, it was bad.
“Thanks for the heads-up,” she stated.
Well, that told her all she needed to know about the jackass in charge.
As they walked into the bullpen, there were a few detectives there, and all of them looked over.
And at her.
Well, she wasn’t shocked.
Taking off her glasses, she stared into each one of their eyes, making sure they were well aware of who had the biggest set of balls in the room.
Spoiler.
It wasn’t the men there.
Her dick was bigger.
What wasn’t lost on Elizabeth was that Tora worked with all men, and that was damn difficult. That she kept going back told her that she was tough.
Elizabeth liked that in a person.
“His office is over there,” Mac said, pointing.
Elizabeth took the lead, and when she went to walk past one of the detectives, the man made a mistake.
He engaged the enemy.
Oh, and he likely thought it was because they were on his turf. Little did the asshole know that when the FBI showed up, all turf was hers.
Elizabeth liked few things in life.
Making grown men cry.
Whipping them out.
Oh, and fucking the patriarchy.
The only dude she was bending a knee for was Jesus, and his ass was NOT in the room.
“Yes?” she asked, as he blocked her path intentionally.
He smiled at her, and it was the ‘look boys! I’m going to mock the woman, and we can all giggle at it when she gets upset’, grin.
Little did he know that she didn’t roll like that.
So, before he could open his mouth, she went there.
“You’re not young enough, have enough hair, or are charismatic enough to score some witty repartee with me. So unless you’re about to tell me my badge is shiny, my title is awesome, or my boots look comfy, I’d back up like your suspiciously missing hairline.”
His mouth dropped open.
That made all the men who had witnessed that, shut up and stop grinning.
Oh, she was on the offense anymore. It was always fun to make a grown man shake.
Or cry.
Again, fuck the patriarchy.
“Now, if you don’t mind, you’re not the man I’m looking for,” she said, as he moved.
It was when he muttered one thing under his breath that she replied.
If he thought that being called ‘bitch’ offended her, he had another thing coming.
“It’s cunt, and I can spell it for you, my dude, if you’d like.
C-U-N-T. Memorize it, like I’ve memorized your face.
When I sashay my ass back to my ride, I’m about to look you up, and put you on every watchlist from here to DC.
Won’t that be interesting for you if you try to get on a flight?
You’ll know that’s my little gift to you.
You’ll be given a strip search by every TSA in federal employment. ”
He.
Looked.
Horrified.
Oh, and rightfully so.
Twenty years ago, she didn’t have the power to make men cry. Now, she did, and she’d use it for all the masculine audacity that tended to flow in a male-dominant bullpen.
When the man backed way up, Ethan laughed, not even trying to hide it.
For a while, his wife had calmed down, but as of late, she was more than willing to stick her boot up someone’s ass.
Gender didn’t matter.
She was an equal opportunity offender.
Now that the path had been clear, and no one else had anything else to say to her, she went on her merry way.
At the captain’s door, she knocked.
“Come in.”
When she pushed it open, she walked in like she owned the place. It always set the pace. She’d figure out how big of a douche he was on the fly. Already, she wasn’t thrilled with how the cops behaved in his precinct.
Was he just a ‘flirt with the ladies’ douche?
Was he a ‘assert his will over a woman’ douche?
Or was he so down and dirty, she was going to make him wish he never fell out of his mother’s womb all of those years ago?
Time would tell.
Yeah, she was feisty today.
“Director Blackhawk,” he said, standing to shake her hand.
She shook his outstretched hand, giving him the opportunity to prove she wasn’t going to have to be maniacal. Because she would be.
“I’m Captain Frank Volvia. Call me Cap, or Frank,” he said, shaking Ethan’s hand next. “It’s a pleasure.”
Oh, she was betting it wouldn’t be.
But who knew?
“Thank you, Frank. It’s just Elizabeth,” she said. “I’m sure you recognize my profiler, Doctor Blackhawk. He’s Doctor, or…Doctor.”
The man nodded, taking the hint.
“It’s a pleasure, Doctor. Thank you for coming here. I appreciate you getting here as quickly as you did. I hope my detectives have been helpful.”
Oh, they had been.
Only, she didn’t buy the nice guy facade. She’d played the game plenty of times with other men in power, and if it walked like an asshole, and it behaved like an asshole, it was, indeed, an asshole, nine times out of ten.
She didn’t think Tora and Mac were making shit up. Likely, he wouldn’t say shit to her.
Why?
Her reputation preceded her.
Through a door.
Through a room.
Throughout life.
“They’ve been invaluable. Thank you for getting in contact with us. This is going to be a rough one. You did the right thing by getting ahead of it. I can tell that you are a good cop trying to get justice,” she said.
From where he stood, Ethan knew his wife was sugarcoating this shit to keep the case. This was how she did the dance.
Ego stroking.
Immediately, the man smiled.
“Can I offer you guys coffee?” he asked.
Elizabeth nodded.
“Please. Black for him, cream for me,” she said, playing nice.
He glanced over at Tora.
“Can you please handle that, Detective Quinley?” he asked, even though Mac was closer to the coffee pot.
Oh, strike one.
Did he just give a woman a task based on it being more of a chore for them in his gender driven psychosis?
Oh, yeah, she knew Mac and Tora weren’t making it up, at all. She had a raging chauvinist on her hands.
It was when Mac stopped Tora, and he handled it, taking a stand for his partner, that she knew everything she needed to know about the detective.
Now, that was how you behaved as a man.
Her husbands were equal opportunity guys. Whoever was closest to the coffee pot made the coffee.
Or the food.
Or policed the kids.
Someone wasn’t a team player.
From where she sat, Ethan was studying him. From the way his eyes narrowed, his dilated eyes, she knew he was wishing the man bodily harm.
By his own fists.