Chapter Four
Damascus, UT
The Gold Baron’s Mansion
Same Time
Unfortunately for him, someone was a tough nut to crack, and Ethan Blackhawk was NOT living for it. When his husband got back from going out with Elizabeth, he’d simply handed them a letter and tried not to answer any questions regarding her whereabouts.
Mum was more than the word.
It was his whole game plan, apparently, because NO ONE could get any information out of the man. Gene’s mouth was on lockdown, and nothing any of them said made him budge.
Stubborn and loyalty were winning this one.
Gene refused to share her location, and the only thing he would say was she was safe.
And it was damn annoying.
Because of what went down during her last case, Ethan knew that Elizabeth wasn’t in a good place, and the last thing he wanted was her out in the world, alone, and not doing well.
That scared the hell out of him for MANY reasons.
On top of that, the fact that she didn’t take bodyguards was alarming, and even Ivan agreed. While it was very much an Elizabeth stunt, security wasn’t thrilled.
Still, Gene didn’t back down.
No matter how much Ethan begged, pleaded, or asked, Gene wasn’t telling him where she was.
Oh, and they’d tried looking for her. Elizabeth wasn’t exactly a slouch when it came to playing hide-and-seek, as she was now proving.
She was damn good at it, apparently.
How was she evading them?
Well, maybe because she’d taken off her watch, put it in Gene’s pocket, and wasn’t carrying a badge, gun, or anything that Ivan had managed to geo-tag.
She’d taken them all off of her gear, and tagged random things in order to lead them on a wild-goose chase.
Because she’d been out with The Hunters, taking care of business, they thought nothing about her going out without a tracker—temporarily.
Now, that was biting them in the ass.
Because she was MIA.
Oh, and she wasn’t the only one. Her jet went offline for quite a few hours, much to all of their dismay. It still wasn’t back on, and they had no idea where Jim had taken her. That meant she had help from higher up.
Gabe had given her that little gift as President of the United States.
And now, Ethan was worried.
DEEPLY worried.
First, she’d just come off a brutal case where they lost family, and then, during the midst of it, as if his timing wasn’t absolute shit, they’d had a disagreement over him butting into her world.
They made up, sort of, but before he could really apologize for overstepping his boundaries and saying he was losing faith in her, she was gone.
Yeah, seeing Gene come back to FBI West without her…
It scared him.
For the first time in the fifteen years that they’d been together, she’d never just walked away from him or the world they’d built.
That had always been his MO, and when he’d done it, she’d followed.
She’d fought.
She’d been there.
She’d never given up.
Now, he couldn’t be there for her because he couldn’t fucking find her. His wife had made up her mind, and he was left out in the cold.
There was a way to fight that cold, but the only person who could tell him where she was, wouldn’t.
Oh, and don’t think he didn’t try to find Elizabeth. He’d tried to get it out of Gene, but the man was not breaking.
Hell!
Everyone tried.
Truthfully, Ethan knew that Chris likely suspected where she was, simply because he was likely the one who supplied the pilot with some information, but Ethan couldn’t prove it.
If he learned anything about Christopher Leonard, it was that he didn’t crack under pressure, so there was no point in even trying. Unless he could get him to admit he knew, in their world, you had to have proof, and the ME was also not saying shit.
Unfortunately.
At this point, he and Callen were both climbing the walls, along with Ivan. The man was worried, but even he wasn’t nearly worried enough.
Maybe he also knew.
Blackhawk couldn’t be sure, and that was part of the problem.
Ethan knew that Elizabeth would trust someone, and he suspected it would be her head of security, and clearly, Gene.
That bothered him, but honestly, he’d earned it. When the shit was going down, and she needed support, he’d faltered.
Ivan hadn’t.
Gene hadn’t.
So, this was his self-imposed sentence. He was forced to wait it out, sitting on his hands as he fought the urge to lose his collective shit.
Now, as Gene was in the shower, after they all hit the gym, trying to burn off the worry, he was sitting there on their bed, waiting his turn.
Gene had offered to soap him up, but he wasn’t feeling it. With Elizabeth out there alone, how was he supposed to think about sex at a time like this?
He.
Was.
Worried.
Her phone had to be off, because he had texted her multiple times with no reply. On top of that, if her phone was off, she couldn’t be tracked. There was no doubt that was the plan.
His wife had retained her title as hide-and-seek grand fucking champion.
As he sat there, Gene’s phone chimed from the nightstand, and while he would NEVER violate anyone’s trust, he was anxious.
As soon as the screen lit up, he saw the text preview and a very familiar number.
Oh, and he recognized it immediately because that same number was in his phone.
It was family.
Reading over the text, and while it was only the preview part, he got the gist of it.
He’d fucked up.
‘She landed and is situated. We’re good. I’ll update later. We had a situation with the ghosts. For now, it’s under control. She’s heartbroken over what happened with Ethan more than anything…’
Oh, holy shit.
In that moment, his heart went wild.
Now, he knew where she was, but he also knew that she was suffering because of him. Could this self-imposed exile to Scotland be all because of him? Was he the real reason she was trying to find herself?
Because she lost him?
Yeah, now, he felt it to his bones. Elizabeth had run because he’d inflicted one too many killing blows to her soul.
Deep down, he knew that loving him wasn’t easy. Ethan knew that he was an emotional rollercoaster on a good day, and now, his trauma and issues had caused the strongest person he knew to run.
And that terrified him.
If she was running, what would make her come back? Was there anything out there that could make her return to them?
Not to the job, but to him?
Their whole world was built on the two of them, and there was no denying that for the second time in their relationship, he’d chipped away at the foundation enough that things began falling apart.
His lack of faith in her, and his idiocy of saying it out loud, had caused this.
Well, then, it was time to fix it.
So, as he sat there, Ethan knew what he needed to do. It was time to go get his wife—or at least go be with her as she found herself.
Yeah, he knew this was risky, but…his gut told him that this was the right thing to do.
When someone you loved walked away, you followed. That was a lesson he’d learned personally.
When Gene left him all of those years ago, he’d wanted to follow, but he chose the FBI, and his fears over his person.
And he’d lost him.
This felt vaguely familiar, and like a looming nightmare was coming up hard and fast from the horizon. History did repeat itself, and this time, he was taking control of the situation.
This would not end the same way it had with Gene. He simply couldn’t risk it. Losing Elizabeth was NOT an option, and he had to do something about it.
NOW.
When he got to her, if she wanted space, he’d figure that out then, but he had to go to her.
It was time to handle this.
Grabbing a bag, he tossed some things into it, and he snuck out of the room. This was going to be difficult, but he knew someone who would help him.
If she was using her bestie to escape, well, then, so was he.
All around the house, security was still doing rounds, since there was a Russian spy unaccounted for, so it was only a matter of time.
When luck prevailed, and he saw Raphael walking down the hall, he yanked him into a room, scaring him. That in itself was risky.
You didn’t manhandle an Archangel for shits and giggles. They got punchy.
In this case, he also got lucky on that front. He didn’t get his nose broken, or his teeth punched out.
“Jesus Christ, Ethan!” Winn said, when he saw who had pulled him into the room. The only reason he didn’t start swinging was his husband was known for a hallway accosting.
He hushed him.
“I need a HUGE favor. I’ll give you my kidney,” he whispered.
Winn stared at him like he’d lost his mind. This was NOT the man he wanted to cozy up to in a linen closet while on duty.
“Did you hit your head? What the hell does that mean?” he asked. “I didn’t ask for a kidney.”
Ethan kept his voice low as he tried to get it all out as quickly as possible. He didn’t have much time before Gene was out of the shower, and looking for him. Now, he needed an escape plan, and he needed it fast.
“I know where she is.”
His eyebrow went up.
Oh, boy.
If he had successfully figured out where Elizabeth was, that meant Gene cracked. For that to happen, there had to be torture or gratuitous sex.
Gene didn’t crack easily.
The man was a pro at evading questions.
As for his comment, already, he knew where this was heading. Ethan was about to ask him a HUGE favor—the kind that got you fired because Ivan would do just that when he found out that Raphael, one of the hands of ‘God’, was helping another person escape their home.
On top of it, Elizabeth was going to be pissed at him since she didn’t want to be found. When Ivan fired him, she wouldn’t save his ass on this one.
“No.”
Ethan tried.
It wasn’t like he was shocked that he didn’t want to help him. He’d earned this by being an idiot. The bottom line was that the Marines, despite Winn being his best friend, were loyal to the queen.
And with good reason.
She never let people down.
“Please. My marriage hangs in the balance. She forgave me, but we’re not okay. What if this was Saint? Wouldn’t you do anything to get to him? If you came to me asking to help you get to him, I’d do it in a heartbeat!”
He stared at his best friend.
Jesus.
Christ.