Chapter Seven #4
And now, she’d grounded him. With traffic cameras and people, he’d be spotted.
Touché, Elizabeth.
Now, it was his move.
And he’d bet she wouldn’t like what he was about to do.
At all.
* * * The Blackhawks * * *
Monday Morning
Ten A.M.
Damascus Time
When Ethan found Anthony Magnus, he was checking in with him to make sure he wasn’t creating chaos and instead, he was also working.
Someone had to babysit the anthropologist.
With Elizabeth away, the last thing she needed was him making a mess to stress her out.
Blackhawk had done that plenty.
Going into his lab, he found the man working on something. He had that look on his face, and after working with him for over fifteen years, he knew him well enough.
Something was up.
“I’m here to check on you,” he said to Tony. “Are you behaving?” he asked.
He glanced up.
“Uh, why? What did you hear?” he asked, suspiciously.
Ethan laughed.
If anything, Tony was good for some chuckles and to chill a person out. It was damn difficult not to smile around him.
“Tony, do you want the long list or the short list?” he asked, taking a seat on the counter as the man worked. When he did, he saw the spider crawling on the man’s shoulder.
“Are you trying to stress her out? If she calls and sees that spider, Anthony…”
Tony shrugged.
“Not my first day, Ethan. I put her in the drawer when the com chimes. I’ve been evading Elizabeth for years. She only catches me a small percent of the time. Now, as for your question, give me the short one,” he offered. “You know, since I’m busy,” he added.
What was he busy doing, exactly?
“On what?” he asked.
Tony noticed that Ethan looked incredibly tired. There was no doubt in his mind that he was exhausted by all of this.
They all were.
“Want to talk about it?” Tony asked, ignoring the question. “Because you look stressed.”
Oh, he was.
“No, I’m good.”
Tony pulled some candy from his desk drawer, and rolled closer to the man to share some.
What few people knew was that Ethan loved candy. He was a secret candy junkie. The man ran on sugar and chocolate. When Gene always asked him why he never needed food, the reason was a pocket full of goodies.
Yeah, no one ever saw him eating it, but Tony had been his supplier for years. He slipped him his favorites because a dude had to eat, and worst-case scenario, he could throw it to distract his wife and run the other way to escape.
That’s what Tony did when Elizabeth was around.
Ethan saw the licorice, and he took some.
“Thanks.”
Tony didn’t move.
“Spill it.”
Ethan sighed.
When he’d come in here to see what the nut was up to, maybe he was coming in here to have someone to talk to.
Who was he kidding?
Ethan needed a friend.
As he ate the candy, he shared what was going on in his head.
“I am struggling with this profile. He knows so much about us, and I don’t know how he got all the information. Plus, I know that with any killer, he’s going to escalate. I just don’t know how.”
Tony ate some licorice with him.
“She’s got this,” he said.
Ethan said nothing.
“My dude, she’s the strongest most terrifying person I’ve ever met, and she’s going to be good. You have to have faith in her.”
He actually laughed.
Well, who saw that coming?
“You don’t say?” he asked.
Anthony nodded.
“I’ve seen Elizabeth handle some wild situations. She always comes out on top. I can count on one hand the few that got away from her. She’ll nail it. Give her time.”
Yeah, but did they have time?
That was the question.
“I’m just scared,” he admitted. “She’s my wife, and I know that this could go sideways. He wants to get her so he can hurt her. Everything he does is going to be about that.”
Tony understood that fear.
“Again, Ethan, faith. Neither one of us is religious, but we have to find some faith.”
He stopped him.
“Tony, I’m literally a Shaman. That’s an actual religion. I don’t know what you think I do in a tipi.”
He shrugged.
“So, you’re not doing it just for the peyote? Damn. I didn’t call that one right.”
He laughed.
Okay, well, that was definitely a perk. Now he knew why his grandfather was able to stay so calm.
It took the edge off.
“Am I wrong?” Tony asked.
Yeah, Tony was insane, but he was also a decent person who cared about others. That was why he was part of their family. The man knew how to read the room.
“You’re not wrong.”
Tony grinned.
“Want to share? I’m your candy concessionaire. Want to be my peyote person?” he asked, just trying to make the man laugh.
And it worked.
“Absolutely not. Elizabeth will kill me if I let you get high. You’re out of control enough,” he said, as the spider crawled onto Ethan’s arm, and he wasn’t even bothered by it.
“Give her some of what you’re smoking so she’ll be calm around my girl.”
Ethan knew that there wasn’t a big enough stash of ANYTHING that would make her like spiders or snakes to make that happen.
When the doors opened, in came Callen.
“I was looking for you, Bro. I thought you were asleep in your office.”
Ethan shared.
“I was. I left the door closed while I got some coffee. I slept for shit and needed to check on Tony.”
Oh, he was aware about the first part.
They’d slept in shifts to keep helping with work, as they were utilizing Gabby to find something that would give them Devon Slater.
He missed sleeping next to his family, and especially his wife.
“I spoke to Elizabeth,” Callen said, taking some licorice from Tony before he slid back over to what he was working on. “Uh, get the spider, and you’d better hope she doesn’t call in,” Callen warned.
Rolling his eyes, he did just that before getting back to work.
Ethan perked up when he heard she’d called.
“Is she okay?”
He nodded.
“Yeah, she’s good. It was the middle of the night. Well, a few hours ago.”
Ethan chewed.
“I tried to go to her, but she wouldn’t let me. I feel like I should have.”
Oh, well, no shock there.
Callen had been trying to do that for days, too.
“Yeah, same, EJ. She wouldn’t let me either. Elizabeth said she had this under control. I hope she does.”
From his desk, Tony said one thing.
“Faith.”
Yeah, so he kept saying.
Only, finding it in a free fall was a damn difficult thing to do for anyone. Faith was tested, and Ethan felt like all of this was just that.
One.
Big.
Test.
Now, he had to hope he didn’t fail, because he was pretty sure everything hinged on this case.
Why?
No clue.
It was just there, percolating in his gut.
“Uh, some of us have work,” Tony said, as he was trying to concentrate.
Callen was curious.
“What are you working on?”
“She sent skulls,” Tony said. “Well, holographic ones. They are from the scene.”
That had their attention.
“Did she?” Ethan asked, getting up from the stool he’d been on, and heading toward Tony. “So, she found bodies?”
He showed them.
“Yeah, you both have been out of the loop. Your napping put you behind. She sent me scans of two. A male, and a female. That’s all I know so far. There are signs of fracturing on the one skull.”
Callen was curious.
He made a mental note to call his wife since she’d not checked in with them. Then again, she knew they were likely getting some downtime.
No news was good news in their world.
“Did you check her drive?” Tony asked.
Both men shook their heads.
“No, like I said, I just woke up in my office,” Ethan admitted. “So, the person was hit?” he asked, going back to what Tony had stated.
He nodded.
“That skull fracture is what did her in. The force had to be pretty great, too. Someone clocked that noggin good.”
Ethan began asking questions.
“When?”
He was honest.
“I can’t tell gradient of the skull color from a hologram. I’ll know when I see them in person. They are heading here.”
Before either man could say anything else, or pull out their phones to see what was on Elizabeth’s drive, Ivan came rushing into the room.
And all Hell erupted.
“Your wife is out of her goddamn mind!” he stated, his voice filled with exasperation.
That caught them off guard.
They’d both literally took a short nap. What could have happened, other than finding the remains?
Together, they stared at him.
Uh, what?
What did Elizabeth do now?
“Care to elaborate?” Callen asked. “We’re well aware that everyone in this family is out of their minds. Did she do something on a scene?”
Oh, well, he hoped they were amused when they saw this because it caught him off guard.
And he wasn’t amused.
The security on her was going to be getting one hell of an ass-chewing when he got his hands on a certain two Archangels who were letting her run a little too wild.
“Oh, she did something, and it was AFTER a crime scene!”
Picking up the remote Ivan turned on the big screen on Tony’s wall. That’s when they saw her standing there.
Boots.
Check.
Blazer.
Check.
Determination on her face.
Also Check.
Hearing what the reporter was saying, it was clear that this was previously recorded.
Then, they listened to what she was saying.
Much to their horror, Elizabeth was calling out the citizens of the US on this nut, and to make it worse, she was offering a reward to anyone who gave them credible information.
In the tune of ONE MILLION DOLLARS of their money.
Oh, fuck.
What the hell was she thinking?
This would make Devon Slater go insane, especially the part where she had businesses destroy his legacy.
Crap.
Crap.
Triple crap.
“See?” Ivan asked.
Oh, they saw all right.
“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Callen stated. “Are you shocked she’s taking this route? It’s completely unhinged, and something she’d absolutely do.”
Ivan sputtered.
That was his answer?
Really?
“Where are Raphael, Uriel, and the three other chucklefucks that are supposed to be all over her like cuckoo on clock? Do you see any of them?” he asked.
Yeah, no.
They didn’t.
Ivan continued.
It was clear this was going to be the straw that broke the Marine camel’s back.