Chapter 6 #2
“What the—” he muttered, frowning as he pulled his flashlight from his utility belt, turning it on and directing the beam towards the gaping hole in the wall left by the plate.
“No!” he shouted, jumping back just as a dirty hand reached out and grasped his forearm.
He yanked his arm away and backed up, eyes riveted on the hand that had just shot out of a hundred-year-old coffin and that was still reaching out for him.
In fascinated horror, everyone watched the filthy hand and arm gradually emerge from the coffin. When a dusty head wearing night vision goggles popped out, Hayes could barely make out the man’s features. Regardless, Hayes could readily identify his partner anywhere, anytime.
“What? Y’all have never seen the dead rise before?” Beckett’s mocking smile was incredibly bright against his dirt-covered features.
Hayes’ feet had been stuck to the floor in shock at Beckett’s sudden appearance, not sure until he’d heard him speak that he was real, and not a mirage. Now, he bulldozed his way through the crowd of law enforcement officers to kneel in front of Beckett.
“Are you alright?” Anxiously, Hayes scanned him for injuries.
“I had to crawl my way up the skeleton of a dead priest—not exactly my idea of a good time,” he replied cheekily, even while his expression revealed stark relief as he gazed back at Hayes.
Hayes gestured for Officer Lavigne to help him.
Cautiously, they supported Beckett’s shoulders and back as he worked himself free of the coffin.
His cargo pants were ripped all to hell, and his t-shirt was gone, having been used as a mask.
Hayes felt his knees weaken with relief at having his partner back safely.
With complete disregard for the rules prohibiting PDAs, Hayes wrapped his arms around Beckett, running his hands possessively up and down the smooth skin of his back.
Beckett chuckled with disbelief at Hayes’ lack of restraint in front of the team.
Hayes had to force himself to step back, reminding himself that all eyes were on them.
“Careful, Daisy, I might get the wrong idea!” Beckett smiled and winked.
“You were being literal, when you said you were knee deep in skeletons.” Hayes frowned, ignoring his teasing comment.
Beckett snorted and nodded. Then he reached back to grab something from the coffin. He held it out for Hayes to see, looking as proud as a Golden Retriever bringing its owner a stick.
“Thanks for giving me a hand with that, by the way!” Clearly only too pleased with his joke, he extended one of the hands from the dead priest’s skeleton with a cocky smile.
Hayes snorted, shook his head, and swallowed a laugh.
“How long have you been waiting to spring that one on me?”
Beckett’s smile widened as he tapped Hayes companionably on the shoulder with the priest’s hand.
Agent Cho was livid. As soon as Beckett had tossed the hand back into the coffin, he could tell she had him in her crosshairs.
He couldn’t care less. After all, he’d done his part.
He saw no further need to help the too-stupid-to-live thieves he left behind in the tunnel.
Let the local LEOs climb back through that damned coffin and find a way to rescue those last two losers and make the arrests.
He’d saved their asses and his mission was complete.
With a dismissive look at Cho, he declared he needed to go up to street level and get some fresh air right away.
Maybe it was his “fuck off” look that quelled any potential arguments.
Beckett was relieved that was all it took to get the hell out of there.
Agent Cho gave a tight nod of agreement and led a contingent of agents ahead of him and Hayes as they left the building and jumped into the back of an SUV to return to the police station.
The short ride there was quiet, apart from the occasional comments Hayes exchanged with a young, good looking police officer who’d smiled and acted as if they were lifelong buddies.
Beckett had bit his tongue, still too lost in his previous chaos to be his usual cock-blocking-asshole self, but he was pretty sure the officer’s presence had done nothing to improve his piss-poor mood.
Especially since, even from the back of the van, Beckett could tell the officer was exceptionally well built and had a beautiful smile.
Upon their arrival at the station, Beckett and Hayes were directed to a conference room and told to wait for a debriefing.
Whatever. As long as he wasn’t trapped in a tunnel or a crypt, Beckett could wait until hell froze over.
Before Beckett even had a chance to prop his feet on the table, Agent Cho had come striding in, looking just as annoyed as ever. Oh, goody.
“If the little thief dies, I cannot be held responsible. I didn’t know we’d get stuck in the tunnels when I shot him!” Beckett exclaimed with a shake of his head.
She bristled with suppressed rage.
“Let me cut right to the chase,” she stated coldly as she sat down on the opposite side of the table. “You are going to write down exactly what happened after you leaped into the tunnel, then you’re going to get the hell out of my precinct, and I never want to see either one of you ever again.”
Now, Beckett was accustomed to occasionally rubbing people the wrong way, but very rarely did people hate him quite so vehemently.
“Odd way to say, ‘thank you for saving my ass’,” he shrugged. “But sure, I can write it all down.” He reached for a pen and pad of paper on the table, eager to get this shit done and get the hell out of Dodge.
“Thank you?!” She snarled, outraged. “You nearly cost us two suspects and several million dollars!”
“Cost you?” Beckett snarled in outrage. “They’d be halfway across the country by now if I hadn’t gone in after them!”
“We were waiting for them at the exit, Agent Thérault! Had you not intervened, and stuck to the goddamned plan, the tunnel probably wouldn’t have collapsed, and we’d have two healthy witnesses, instead of an injured asshole and a belligerent girlfriend who’s threatening to sue for damages!
Three broken ribs and a gunshot wound! That’s all on you! ”
“How the hell am I responsible for the collapse of that fucking tunnel? They’re the ones who decided to dig a new goddamned entrance!” Seething with rage, he wanted nothing more than to leap across the table and rip off her head.
“You fired your weapon! In an enclosed space! You probably upset the structure by—”
“Righttttt, because my 9mm rounds are what upset the structure, and not, you know, a giant fucking hole in a wall created by a gang of dipshit criminals!” Jumping to his feet, he stood with his fists tightly clenched, staring her down.
“Also, spoiler alert!” he said, voice high-pitched and mocking. “They opened fire first!”
She clamped her jaw shut and stared back at him without expression.
Hayes placed a hand on Beckett’s forearm and squeezed gently, a subtle warning to back off before he did end up losing his job for punching a superior officer.
“You’d been instructed to remain in the crypt. You disobeyed a direct order.” Her words were clipped now. Deliberately sticking to the facts so Beckett had little room for argument. “Rest assured that Mr. Forbes will hear from me on these matters and I’ll certainly recommend that you be—”
Hayes’ shoulders tensed at hearing this overt threat to his lover. His grip on Beckett’s arm automatically tightened, silently assuring his partner that he would handle this latest round of autocratic bullshit from Cho.
“Before you suggest that my partner be punished—for whatever it is you mistakenly believe he has done wrong—I’d like to point out a few things for you to take into account.
Whether or not he should have jumped into the tunnel to pursue the two suspects is not worthy of debate since he successfully apprehended them, secured the stolen money, and then found an escape route so that all three successfully survived the collapse of the tunnel.
This was accomplished entirely on his own, without any assistance from any of your team members, who all fell short in coming up with any possible way to assist him and the two suspects.
If it had been left up to your engineers, Beckett and the two remaining suspects with him would still be trapped in that collapsed tunnel.
The injured male suspect might have bled out from a flesh wound he received after opening fire on a federal agent, who was fully justified in returning fire in order to defend himself.
In fact, he was legally obligated to do so when in the presence of an active shooter. ”
Hayes’ cold voice of reason was far more familiar to Beckett than the intensely passionate emotion he’d witnessed earlier when Hayes had hugged him so tightly in front of the task force. It was also incredibly sexy.
“I sure hope your boss knows the true nature of your relationship, Agent Monroe, because I don’t intend on mincing my words when I—”
“Please don’t waste your precious time making any more of your totally ridiculous threats,” Beckett recommended with a sardonic smirk. “Gill is fully aware and we have his approval. Hell, he’s gonna be the flower girl at our big fat gay wedding.”
“Yes—well, we’ll see if he’ll be quite so keen on you after our phone call,” Agent Cho stated coldly, undeterred by Beckett’s comments. As if on cue, her phone began to buzz. She didn’t excuse herself, but simply got up and stalked out the door.
“No wonder she’s such a witch! She has a broom jammed so far up her ass she can barely walk!” Beckett snapped, heaving a sigh of a relief that she was gone.
Hayes sighed as well and grabbed his own pen and a pad of paper.
“Start writing. I want to get out of here as soon as possible,” Hayes growled as his pen fairly flew across the page.
Beckett began writing on his own pad, responding with a heartfelt, “Amen!”