Chapter Nine #2
While Slater would be grounded, he’d definitely come for her. There was no doubt this took it to even more dangerous territory.
“Give her a company worth millions, he said. It will be fine, he said. When it isn’t fine because she’s using that money to point the nut at her!” Gene said, trying to lighten the mood.
Instead, Chris laid back down and closed his eyes.
“I’m going to have a stroke. When I do, please tell my wife this stunt was what did it.”
Yeah, they all were.
Sadly.
Muting it, there was a knock on the door. When Demeter stuck his head in, he smiled.
“You’ve got company,” he said, as Ethan and Callen headed in, both of them looking about as happy as they were. It was clear they all heard the news.
Once inside the room, Blackhawk saw the TV on, and knew they didn’t have to give them a heads-up.
They already saw it.
“Anyone need blood pressure meds?” he asked. “I came to ask Chris to write me a prescription.”
Callen laughed when both Chris and Gene raised their hands. Yeah, they were all in the same boat.
CLEARLY.
“Please tell me there’s not more bad news,” Chris said, pointing at the TV. “I’m at my max for it today with our wife nearly dying last night, and losing Jet. The only highlight is I don’t have to autopsy him when she arrives.”
Yeah, thank God for that.
“Well, we have shit news, but not related to this case,” Callen said. “Apparently, Jet wanted to be buried somewhere full of nature, and not Arlington.”
Gene waited.
“And?” Chris asked.
Callen continued.
“He wants to be buried with the family.”
Chris glanced over.
“Uh, we’re all being cremated and put in the reservations burial ground in one plot as we share a big urn. You know…cremains orgy.”
Oh, Callen was aware.
That had taken finagling as it was, but getting some Marine planted there…
That was going to be a hard sell, and he knew it.
Lance RunningWolf was NOT going to do this out of the kindness of his heart.
He tolerated them because Wyler saved his ass from the previous Chief, who happened to be eating people on the solstice. They’d mended their decades-long tiff over Ethan’s mother, but older Natives tended to be…what was the word?
Oh, yeah.
Racist as fuck.
That didn’t make him like having a bunch of non-Natives on the rez, in his face. That was a touchy subject—so much so, that Wyler and his wife were the ones staying in the cabin, and they’d moved their whole menagerie to the baron’s mansion.
BEFORE Devon Slater happened.
“Yeah, so I have to talk him into it. We might be having a Marine buried with us, or we’re going to have to get clever—if I can talk him into it.”
Gene laughed.
“I’m glad I won’t be there for that conversation. You’re taking lots of security, right?” he asked. “Because this could go sideways on that front too.”
Callen was aware.
“Yeah, I’m taking Ethan. I’ll toss him to the killer and run for it.”
Gene did NOT like that.
Not.
At.
All.
“Like hell you are,” he stated. “I just got him as husband. It took almost twenty years to make that happen, my dude. You’re not losing him to a killer.”
Ethan laughed.
“I would like to point out that I haven’t been abducted in a VERY long time.”
Gene gasped.
“You just challenged the universe, EJ! That’s like saying it’s been quiet today! You know better!”
Now, Chris gasped.
“GENE!” he said. “What did you just do?” he asked.
It was funny because Chris was a man of science, but apparently, every time someone said, ‘it was quiet’, it went to Hell in a handbasket all around them.
“Oh, shit,” Gene stated.
He just said it, didn’t he?
Well, shit.
Callen reassured them.
“I’m taking security, and we’re going because the way Ethan’s mother was allowed to have a grave was the Shaman did his thing, and made it happen. I’m taking the Shaman with me.”
“Yay!” Ethan stated, sarcastically. “I love arguing with the Chief over something that I already know he’s absolutely not going to let happen. Then, having to tell my wife it’s not happening, as she grabs a shovel and digs the grave all by herself.”
Well, that sounded like her.
Yeah, Callen suspected that was what was going to happen too, but they had to try, and honestly, they were going stir crazy in the office. It would be good to get out and touch grass.
Literally.
“I’ll come with you,” Gene offered.
Ethan shut that down.
“You’re on babysitting duty.”
As soon as he said it, they all looked over at Chris.
“Uh, I’m right here. Maybe insult me behind my back,” he suggested.
Ethan was to the point.
“All the clues that Elizabeth got at the Corpus Christi scene made her think you’re the target.
That means you stay with one of us, and some security—just in case.
Sorry, my love. Plus, if we have to make a break for it into the Rez woods, Callen and I are the best equipped.
We grew up there, and Marines like playing hide-and-seek. ”
He didn’t take it personally.
Honestly, the idea of getting taken, tortured, and used to lure Elizabeth in didn’t sit well with him. That was a chance he was NOT willing to take.
He knew his wife, and she would absolutely slip away to give herself over to Slater to save him. There was no way he’d be able to live with the knowledge that she sacrificed herself for him to live.
PASS.
Chris was getting too old for this shit.
“I am aware that I’m the weakest link and the potential outcome. Why do you think I’m sleeping in here with Gene ten feet away?” he asked. “He has a gun.”
Gene was still not thrilled.
He didn’t exactly want his love muffin playing tag with a killer in Rez woods either. One shot to the back, and Ethan was going down.
It would be more like crawling through the woods.
That made him irrational.
“Do you really have to do this now? It’s not like Jet is going anywhere,” he said, and then paused. “That was horrible. I didn’t mean it to sound like that,” he stated.
All three men got it.
This was exasperating as fuck for them, and they’d be lying if they didn’t admit they thought the same thing.
They were all just…tired.
“No offense taken,” Callen said. “We thought it too, but we also thought it would help Elizabeth feel better if, when she arrived, it was handled. She loves her Marines, and her heart has to be hurting.”
Oh, there was no doubt there.
“We’ll take coverage,” he said. “The Navigator is downstairs, and we’ll use it.”
That helped.
Elizabeth rolled around in a bulletproof vehicle for a reason. They got sick of her being in danger while on the road, and that had been the solution.
There were two of them.
The one here.
The one in DC.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t been in it when Jet was killed. That was something that their wife undoubtedly carried on her soul too.
They all did.
Before they could make plans, there was a knock on the door, and again, Demeter peeked his head in.
“Company.”
Gene stared at him.
“You don’t have to guard the door, D. If it’s someone we work with or know, you can send them in. This is getting weird.”
He shrugged.
“Ivan said to make sure you bitches were locked down. I’m literal. Sue me.”
Chris just laughed.
“I mean, he’s not wrong. He is very literal.”
As they’d learned.
Demeter told them who was there.
“Anyway, it’s Vivian. Can she come in?”
Gene motioned for him to let her in. Elizabeth’s personal secretary had been in and out all day. She’d been bringing him coffee, and cookies.
Everyone was trying to help them through this, and that was greatly appreciated.
As she headed in, she was carrying a big bouquet of flowers. They were blood-red roses, and not the cheap kind. They could smell the hothouse scent from the doorway.
They had to be amazing smelling because Vivian was face-deep in them, taking in the scent as she walked.
“Uh, what’s that?” Gene asked.
She smiled as she sniffed the flowers.
“These came for the boss. They are the good roses, too. You know the kind that smell like heaven. Someone loves her. It says ‘from your husband’ on the card front.”
Immediately, they all went on alert.
Collectively, they stared at them.
First, Elizabeth wasn’t there, and they weren’t sure when she would be, so why would they send her flowers? Secondly, while they tended to give her gifts, they wouldn’t during this melee.
Right?
“When did they arrive?” Gene asked, as she put them on the desk, and continued to fix them and smell them.
“Oh, not that long ago. You guys are so sweet. Which one of you made her angry and had to apologize—because I know ‘I’m sorry’ flowers when I see them. Is she heading here, and you wanted to butter her up?”
They all look at each other.
Then, at the ONLY one who had an argument—of sorts—with Elizabeth.
He shook his head.
“I didn’t send roses,” Ethan said, knowing he was the one who probably should be sending roses.
Truth be told, his wife didn’t like cut flowers. She liked German Shepherd puppies and rose bushes. The last time they inundated her with cut roses, she told them to say it with spa gift cards.
So, they wouldn’t get her flowers.
Callen got her jewelry, and Chris gave her a company as the last gift.
Flowers weren’t their vibe.
“I don’t like this,” Chris said, immediately. “Were they cleared?” he asked.
Vivian laughed.
“Why would we clear roses? They go through the metal detector, and they were from one of you. They weren’t going to blow up!”
When Gene went to grab the card, Chris was beside him and grabbed his wrist.
“Evidence,” he said. “It might be a clue for her from him,” he offered.
Oh, and they all knew who ‘him’ would be.
Already, they’d have to exclude Vivian’s. She was all over the flowers, and the vase.
Yeah, what was she thinking?
Everyone had been warned about what Devon might do once he figured out they were locked down there.
He was a sick fuck like that.
From his pocket, Gene pulled out gloves, and picked the card from the long card pick that was holding it in place.
And he did it very carefully.
“They won’t bite,” Vivian said, laughing. “They are roses. They aren’t ticking.”
She didn’t seem to see how dangerous this could be.