Chapter Eleven #2
Her motion was smooth, efficient, and just as fast as normal. She’d gotten lucky, too.
She was fine.
“The vest held up,” she said. “I have padding back there, so it just knocked the wind out of me,” she admitted. “Like being kicked in the balls, I imagine.”
All the men laughed.
Nothing was like being booted in the balls.
NOTHING.
“You’re cleared. Protect that head of yours. Despite the crazy that runs around in it, I love it.”
She touched his cheek.
“Ditto, Orion.”
With a sigh, he went to the worst one.
“Ivan, it’s definitely crooked,” he said, meaning his nose. “We have to realign it. When we get home, you should see a plastic surgeon. You might need your septum fixed. That tends to deviate with any nose trauma”
He laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
“If this was my first broken nose, maybe, but my septum has seen as much action as Elizabeth.”
She was amused by her Marine bodyguard.
“Oh, well, you know what they say about things with two holes…” she teased.
Grabbing his nose, he jerked it to the side, and put it back into place, much to Chris’ horror.
The sound was horrific, and there was no way it felt good either.
Chris protested.
“Uh, doctor right here. They pay me the big bucks because I actually went to med school.”
He shrugged.
“And let you have all the fun?” he asked.
The man laughed.
“You’re all a bunch of nuts,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t know how we get through the day.”
Callen shrugged.
“I mean, Gene and I are good,” he admitted. “We didn’t get hurt,” he added.
And Gene gasped.
“What the fuck, CJ?” he asked. “You just jinxed us. You know what happens when someone says shit like that, and puts it out into the universe!”
Callen just laughed.
“We’re in a hotel room, what could go wrong?”
The second he said it, Gene’s phone rang, and he stared at the man as if someone had just opened the doorway to Hell, and they were going to fall into the pit.
Even Elizabeth shook her head.
Out of all of them, she and Gene were the most superstitious ones when it came to shit like that. They were also the most religious, so that was wild in itself.
“Oh, here we go,” she said. “CJ, I swear to God…”
Gene relaxed when he saw who it was. He doubted the world was falling, or Chicken, not-so-little, would be banging on the door, not calling.
“It’s only Corbin. He’s likely checking in over his interviews with Alex. We’re good.”
They all relaxed.
And they shouldn’t have.
That had been their first mistake. The shit was hitting the fan, and on a much more personal note for Corbin.
Answering, he greeted the man, and it went downhill from there.
“What’s up, Corby? We’re checked in, and then we’re going to meet you guys for dinner.”
Gene listened as Corbin spoke.
“I had a dream. It was about Will. I’m not okay,” he whispered. “I am not okay. Help me.”
Uh-oh.
Yowza.
Gene heard the tone.
The man didn’t sound good, and they’d been to that rodeo before. It was always a bumpy ride, and one where they had to mitigate the situation as quickly as possible.
Yeah, they had to talk him down off of the ledge.
“Come up to room five-seventy-two,” he said. “In the business section of the hotel.”
That was all he needed to hear.
“Thank you,” he said, and then, Corbin hung up.
When they were all looking at him, Gene explained what had just gone down.
“We have a situation.”
Oh, boy.
“What happened?” Elizabeth asked.
It had been too quiet with the people she worked with. Of course, something was going to go haywire. She wasn’t shocked in the least.
Gene explained.
“Corbin is struggling. He said he returned to the hotel and took a nap.”
Elizabeth lifted a brow.
That sounded harmless. She was well aware they’d just come off a case, so they had to be tired. As long as they did their work, she didn’t care if he went nude skydiving.
If that was his kink, whatever.
“Uh, okay. Well, they worked a case, so I’m okay with that. What’s the issue?”
He shared.
“He said he had a dream. I’m going to bet that it was about Will, and he’s rattled. We’re going to have to talk him off the ledge. When this happens, he gets super emotional, and needs to lean.”
Yowza.
The only thing she was good with was that they had plenty of people on this case. If she had to send Corbin back to Damascus, they had plenty of help.
The last thing they needed was investigators on the edge.
Now, she was worried about his well-being.
“Is he okay?” she asked.
Corbin was a good egg, and they liked him a lot. In the short time that he’d worked for her, she realized he was an asset to the team, and important in Ethan’s and Gene’s lives.
They all came into this marriage with attachments.
Or baggage.
“He will be,” Gene admitted. “We just need to let him talk it out.”
Well, then, they’d do what they could.
As Chris was packing up his kit, she stopped him.
“I know that your people have to have something for me,” she said. “They’re too afraid I’ll lose my goddamn mind. So give me something.”
He actually laughed.
Well, he wasn’t shocked.
If anything, Elizabeth was consistent. It appeared that he was going to have to be the one lectured now.
“I have very little,” he admitted. “The autopsy of the vet is done. You have that. We’ve been off the crime scene for four hours, Elizabeth. DNA discovery, while quicker with our equipment, it still takes time.”
She was staring at him.
“We don’t have elves who magically make it happen.”
Oh, well, she had bad news for him.
“Then, you better make sure that the elves you do have get their asses moving. I need something. Tony said the skulls were boiled. I need DNA. If I don’t get DNA, I won’t be able to start digging into this in the morning. Open up a tooth, de-goo an eyeball. Just find me something.”
Gene tried to save Chris.
An angsty Elizabeth focused on work, was a bitch to deal with, even on a good day.
“We have the list of recent dead. That’s forwarded over to Chris’ team, and they can use that to run DNA a little faster,” he said.
She stared at him.
And laid down the law—despite him being her family, and someone she loved.
“I need the information as quickly as possible, and I’m not playing.
Ethan and I believe this person is either digging up recent deaths to get his jollies off with, taking their heads and eyes as souvenirs, or is killing them and then going back for trophies to avoid the police.
From the quantity of eyes, he’s been successful up to this moment. ”
Uh-oh.
Chris knew what that meant.
And it was bad.
“If we take a collector’s sexual trophies, or disturb them in any way, it escalates immediately.”
She nodded.
And now, he got the picture.
“Ethan didn’t give me the full profile yet, but this person is smart. They started practicing on graves tucked off into the corner of the cemetery, and when caught, adjusted somehow. I need to know everything as quickly as I can. Our team has to be on their game for this one. Like EVERYONE.”
Okay, this was escalating, and he knew it. There was no way they’d get lucky on this. That meant it was a damn good thing he had Chrissy on her way there.
Smart killers were dangerous.
Granted, this was the rodeo they always went to, but no one liked playing there.
Luckily for him, he had an ace up his sleeve.
He had a new hire for the lab.
Well, he was super grateful he’d thrown money at the problem. Hopefully, his boss, the deputy director, didn’t get cranky about that.
Was it illegal?
Mehhhh.
Was it problematic when rich people bought people to work for them?
It was in a gray area, especially in the FBI, but his family’s well-being depended on it, so he was more than happy with it.
He just hoped that didn’t get out, or there were going to be angry employees, like Ben. He’d yet to tell him that he was being replaced by Chrissy as head tech, and morgue manager.
That wasn’t going to go over well.
He called himself king of the lab, and spoiler…
He.
Was.
Not.
Now, he had to find the right moment to tell Ben.
How could this go wrong?
“Well, then, I’ll get back to the morgue, and I’ll supervise for the night. If you need it ASAP, I’m going to have to work.”
She didn’t like that.
That was the only hesitation he saw from her. Oh, and he knew why, too.
“Elizabeth, you know you can’t have it both ways, right? Until I get a backup ME, I have to do the time when you need it. I’m good. I’ll order dinner in, and I’ll supervise the lab staff. I’m also working on vetting Alexi to offer him a job. None of that is strenuous. I think I’ll be okay.”
He said nothing about Chrissy.
That was going to be a surprise for his wife in the morning.
“I’ll grab some sleep there. If need be, tomorrow, I’ll come back to the hotel and rest.”
She was good with him making accommodations, and she knew he was well aware of his own limitations.
Yeah, they were all super protective of each other, but that was life.
When there was a knock at the door, Gene headed there. They knew who it would be.
“Okay, my love, go,” she said. “Be safe, and get me the information as you get it.”
He could do that.
Kissing her, he would leave them to deal with Corbin and that situation. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help the man, but he had to get the team working.
And he knew what was coming.
A storm.
Only, not the one everyone expected. The techs were about to be given a masterclass by the pro.
As Gene opened the door, Corbin came in, and he immediately went into the man’s arms and hid.
It was very reminiscent of years ago, when he’d been hurt, and when he lost Will. Gene was more than a mentor to him. He was someone who always kept him safe.
“I need a minute,” he whispered.
Chris walked past them, and he gently patted Corbin on the back.
“We’ve got you, Corby,” he said, reassuringly, and then, he headed out, Saint with him.
When the door was closed, Gene continued holding the man like he needed.
“What happened?” he asked, as Elizabeth and Callen headed their way.