Chapter Eight
The United States
Heading West
A Very Long Day Already
Thankfully, they’d gotten to the airstrip and into the air without any issues. Not far away from where she was sitting on the luxury plane, there was a body bag with Jet in it, parked on the bench like that wasn’t the craziest thing ever.
For her, it wasn’t.
It was the only option as far as she was concerned.
When they wanted to stuff him in the belly of the plane, she’d nearly had a mental breakdown. The mere idea that a man who had served the country, and her family was relegated to cargo…
That wasn’t happening.
PASS.
He was family, and she would rather him be in the jet taking up the bench seating and have them lower the temperature than put him under them like he was nothing.
So, after tears, Raphael and Uriel carried him onboard, and they placed him not far away. It was a good thing no one was freaked out by dead bodies.
Or this would have been incredibly awkward and weird.
If only Jet was the only dead person on the flight West—because he wasn’t.
Not.
Even.
Close.
Not far away were two big plastic tote containers, where they’d packed the bones from the church. Each one was laden down with the remains, as they transported them back to Damascus, and the two waiting anthropologists.
Whomever they were, they were now flying first class. Because it did weird some of the security guys out, Gideon had covered them with a blanket so they weren’t staring out at them through the side of the container.
It was creepy to feel like you were being watched at ten thousand feet.
This just proved her life was absolute jackassery on a good day, and she was good with that. For the two sets of remains, there were worst things to be transported in than giant tubs like you put your Christmas decorations in.
She thought so, anyway.
Everyone was silent as they flew back to rendezvous with the rest of the family, as she waited to find out where the next set of remains were dropped.
That meant Elizabeth was working.
Then again, when wasn’t she? That was the question most of the time.
After making some calls and arranging some favors in order to get the military to help her set up Von Donore, she had her own work to do.
Across from her on the jet, there was a whiteboard with pictures of the first three victims.
A nun.
And two hookers.
All were mutilated.
All were dead.
Oh, and not in a good way.
Her husband, the profiler, didn’t need to tell her that The Grave Robber was hyper-fixated on her and playing some sick game.
Yeah, he was picking victims to tell a story, and she just needed to figure out what he was saying with the addition of the two skeletons.
Why just bones?
Did they all look like her?
Was it the hair color?
The eye color?
What was it about those three that piqued his attention and made them a target?
Oh, she had so many questions.
The one that she could answer was, what was the outcome going to be?
At some point, he wanted her. He was going to make her the ultimate prize. He’d break her and then end her.
Only, she couldn’t let either of those things happen. If he took one of her loved ones, she’d absolutely hand herself over to him to save them.
She’d carry the burden of this.
Not them.
A part of her wanted him to come at her, and a part didn’t want to do this.
She was tired, and with each victim that he left for her, a piece of her felt guilty that this had happened on her watch.
She’d let him get away, and now, he was reaping havoc all over the United States.
He had countless hidey-holes, and the money to make moving between body dumps possible. She was left to chase him UNTIL he decided to dig in and play with her.
And it pissed her off.
Thinking back to the messages left at the church, she hoped that heading to Damascus, and not Salem, was the right choice. It had been a toss-up.
The only reason she left DC was to be safe in the air. Up here, he couldn’t get to her.
Yeah, there was no doubt she was going to need The Hunters to help her with this at some point. Only, using them risked outing them.
As she sat there, arms crossed, feet up on the table, she was staring at the information she had on the last three victims.
It hurt her heart.
Why?
Everything that had gone down was such a senseless loss of life. As someone who saw death and walked through it day after day, it was foul how people took life so carelessly.
So easily.
There had to be a way to find him.
Tracking him would mean watching each and every step, and she was holding her breath when it came to the next victim.
That would tell her who was in danger in her family.
At some point, Elizabeth knew that she’d have to take this game right to The Grave Robber. That would mean playing dirty.
“You’re worried,” Uriel said, sitting beside her.
She laughed sardonically.
Worried?
That was an understatement.
“Yeah, I’m worried. I don’t think I can catch him,” she admitted. “The shittiest part is I have his name, and I have his face, but… he’s got a few weeks on me. Then, he has a few decades of his father’s planning on his side. I don’t think forensics will help me this time.”
They knew what that meant.
Honestly, he knew she was hesitant to utilize The Hunters, even though she’d been given carte blanche by the president to do so. If he knew Elizabeth, she’d try to do this on her own first.
And that was dangerous.
“Don’t change your mind about using them,” Raphael stated. “The Hunters will handle it. I know you’re worried about the risk of using them, but there’s more issues if you don’t. Pull them even if they aren’t finished overseas. Call them back if it gets sketchy.”
She was aware, but still...
“How do I put the safety of the country beneath my safety, Raph? I’m here to serve and protect, and I’m balancing on the razor’s edge.”
He was aware.
“If you don’t pull the trigger on this, Ethan will,” he said, warning her. “He will call his buddies in the military and get them recalled so damn fast your head will spin. He’s going to save his wife over everyone else.”
Oh, she was aware.
And that would cause issues in itself.
“Tell him don’t do it, Raph. That’s going to be a bad call on his behalf. I can’t handle dealing with marital issues now, too. It’s one thing to go behind my back to The Hunters, it’s another to go behind my back to the US military. It’s taken me years to build this rapport.”
Only, he didn’t think Ethan would listen to anyone. The men were trying to save her life and were willing to take the wrath of Elizabeth being usurped.
And he didn’t blame them.
He’d call the military too and use every ounce of his power to save his spouse.
What wouldn’t he do to protect Emmy and Saint?
Before he could say anything else, Raphael’s phone chimed, and he went to take the call. As he did, Uriel grabbed a sandwich from the galley and returned to sit beside her.
“Eat,” he said.
“I’m not…”
He turned her seat, so that she was facing him. It pulled her feet off the table and made her sit upright.
“I’m going to say this with love, so don’t get bitchy,” he stated. “But if you don’t eat, and get some sleep, he’s definitely going to win. Do you think he’s losing sleep right now? He’s not. You are. We all see how tired you are, and you need to fuel up.”
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, there were tears in them.
“They had lives,” she whispered. “They won’t see their families again, and he mutilated them for a game. He mutilated them because twenty years ago, his father saw me as an up-and-coming agent, and thought I’d be fun to challenge one day.”
Uriel took her face in his big hands. He put away the Archangel, and instead was her friend, Caspian.
“And you have children who need you. He’s fucking with you. I need you to stop feeling guilty and start getting angry. Angry Elizabeth is a force of nature. Guilty Elizabeth is a target.”
She was to the point.
Because everyone around her seemed to forget she wore a goddamn badge.
And she’d earned it.
“If I’m angry, I won’t do this the legal way, Cas.
He makes me angry enough that I want to bend the law until it breaks.
I did it when Ethan’s assaulter returned, and I’ve done it a few times in my life, and it’s never worth the blood.
I want to catch him the right way, and I want him to go to jail. I need to get them legal justice.”
He kissed her on the forehead.
“Mom, sometimes, you have to put evil where it belongs. He’ll get out. Let us handle it. You have a platoon of Marines ready to do the job. Set us free.”
She wouldn’t do that.
Why?
Elizabeth never asked anyone to do anything she wouldn’t do herself. It wasn’t fair, and she promised long ago not to be that kind of boss.
“No,” she said.
He sighed.
Elizabeth was to the point.
“I’m going to get him, and then, I need a break.
This might be the one that takes me down,” she said.
“Not personally, but professionally. I only have two choices, Cas. It’s let him kill, and ignore it, or go under and play the game.
I don’t know who I’ll be when I come back out, but I’m not sure it will be the woman you see now.
She might need to step back for a while to re-find herself. ”
He was honest.
“We’re going to love you no matter what. You just have to…”
He stopped when Raphael approached.
“Everyone’s working on the case,” Raphael stated.
“They received the information you sent over, and they are digging in. The whole team knows you’re returning with our guests,” he said, pointing at the blanket-covered bins.
“They put two and two together, and came up with a personal escort for Jet.”
She figured as much. Tony likely told them that his remains were heading there.
“Any bodies?” she asked. “Has he popped up yet?”
Raphael shook his head.
“Not yet. You might have caught him off guard with that press conference. That might have bought you some time,” he admitted.
Or given him time to move to another city.
She REALLY hoped and prayed that she picked the right city from his cryptic clues.