Chapter Twelve
The Morgue Lab
Damascus
That Night
Eight P.M.
When the boss said work on shit, you absolutely were going to do just that. While they all loved their jobs, there was one person who REALLY loved what he did for a living, and thankfully, he was in charge of the bones.
Tony Magnus knew when they could screw around, and when things were dire.
This was not a fuck around and find out time frame, and he was not risking it.
Shit rolled downhill, and when Elizabeth told Chris to manage his people, that meant him.
Especially him.
In front of him, his current workload had him excited.
The two boxes of remains were sitting on his table, and both Tony and Jaxon were about to dig in and start analyzing them. There was no way they could drop the ball on this.
Or would he want to.
This was a mystery, and to be an anthropologist, you had to really love mysteries.
Now, the scans were complete, and Tony knew that unless they figured out who these individuals were, Elizabeth would be flying blind.
That was the last thing she wanted.
Truth be told, everyone was scared.
And with good reason.
If people were dying, while in lockdown, there was no way to protect them from this lunatic. If this killer was smarter than Elizabeth, they were all sitting ducks.
And that was freakout worthy.
Also, they were terrified she’d lose it, and crumble, again, leaving them in danger.
“We have both scans done,” Jaxon said, taking off her gloves to use her tablet to enter information.
“Good,” Tony said.
He was working on the male, and his wife had the female skull. Between the two of them, they should be able to figure out identity.
IF they could access dental records.
It was going to take time, though. That’s why they were running the skulls through one of MATE’S programs. If they could rebuild their faces, they could also run that through the system for a facial match.
The problem?
Even MATE took time.
“Did you see anything other than what Chris told us when he looked at them?” Tony asked his wife.
She shook her head.
“Not really. It’s definitely blunt force trauma that did in the one victim. She definitely died from that,” Jaxon stated. “It won’t be shocking when Chris puts his official stamp on that.”
He was curious.
When he pulled on his micro goggles, Jaxon handed him an arm bone. Then, she explained so he would see what she saw.
“She has a broken arm, and the ribs all on her left side show fractures. It wasn’t just her head that took a hit.
It looks like someone hit all of her. Look at the fracture in her femur.
That’s one hell of an impact. There is no way she survived any of this.
Where that break is in her leg, that’s the location of the femoral artery. ”
He held the woman’s arm in his hand, and examined the cracks.
“It was a left-to-right strike,” Tony said. “It did all of the damage. We can update the search to death by BFT. That might narrow it down. As for age, I’m sticking with my initial assessment. She was in her thirties.”
Jaxon agreed.
“How about yours?” she asked, curiously.
Tony leaned back in his chair.
“Nothing. His are pristine, minus his collarbone. That looks to be remodeled. I’m going to say he broke well, before he died. Remodeling was set before death. That’s all with him. He was a big dude, so maybe sports? I did find residue,” he offered.
Picking up the paper, he handed it to his wife.
As Jaxon read it, she saw what he was seeing, and it said one thing.
“So, he was embalmed. Chances are, she was too. That means he dug them up.”
Tony nodded.
“The solution that was used changed over years. His was the more recent one. That means he died within the last twenty years. Did you find anything on hers?”
She shook her head.
“No, and I swabbed the hell out of her. The only thing I found was the semen inside the skull, but you worked the scenes where Devon Slater was being nasty. That’s normal.”
It was.
As she sat beside him, Jaxon sipped some coffee. Honestly, she was worried.
“This is going to be a tough one,” she admitted. “They’ve been dead a while, Tony. The bones have air oxidation. They were protected, but definitely were in the ground. If their dentals aren’t loaded into the system…”
Yeah, he agreed there.
They might not figure out who they were. The database of dentals and faces wasn’t that old. Maybe it contained around ten to fifteen years of victims.
He’d dedicated his life to giving people their identities back, and that was why he had a bone room back in DC where all of the Jane and John Does were.
Technology hadn’t caught up to the amount of people who died from bad situations.
There was no doubt that Devon Slater was fucking with them, and he knew this would take them time—precious time that would cost someone their life.
“We’ll cross our fingers and hope that Elizabeth figures something out. Until then, start running the skulls in order to get a composite face. MATE, start reconstruction.”
As the system ran, Tony pulled out his phone and held it in his hand.
“While we wait, want to call Merry, and see how our kids are doing?” he asked. “It’s not like staring at MATE working is going to make it go any quicker.”
She grinned.
“Well, Sexy man, you had me at that. Here, I was going to let you get your hands on me in the closet. I was hoping we could sneak into Chris’ office for a few minutes. You know, to organize the scrubs,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
Sue her.
When Tony was working, he was incredibly sexy, and she liked putting her hands, and mouth all over her husband.
He paused.
“Wait. Was that an option?” he asked, lowering his voice so no one heard them.
Jaxon smiled.
“I mean, it’s always an option,” she offered. “My husband is sexy, and I do love a smart man.”
Well, shit.
Glancing at his watch, he looked around. Chris wasn’t in there, and honestly, he was probably off with his partners.
The office…
It was available.
Oh, and so was he.
“Option B,” he said, holding out his hand. When Jaxon put hers in it, she giggled. Sometimes, they were both like children, and that was good with her.
Together, they snuck through the morgue, past Chrissy, and right to Chris’ office. Once there, they slipped inside, and he locked the door.
Then, he opened his arms.
Jaxon didn’t hesitate. Instead, she moved at him, and Tony caught her. As he kissed his wife, her hands went into his hair. Someone was DEFINITELY turned on.
Yeah, and so was he.
Her mouth moved over his neck to the top of his shirt where there was access to his flesh.
One of the things she loved most about her husband was that he was wild, impulsive, and always made her laugh.
Tony was a special kind of wild, and that tickled her fancy.
With the intent to get her man naked, she let hands wander up under his scrub top.
As she did, there was that quiver of his ab muscles, proving that he was absolutely in the mood.
Well, that and she could feel his erection pressing to her hip.
It was like opening the best Christmas present whenever they opted to get naked.
She.
Was.
Giddy.
“We have to hurry,” Tony muttered, as he broke the kiss. “Chris could come back any moment.”
Jaxon understood.
It was time to speed run some sex.
Together, they began yanking clothing off and tossing it nearby. Then, Jaxon jumped up, wrapping her legs around Tony’s hips.
He moaned.
“I love my wife,” he admitted. “There is no one I want to do scandalous things with in the workplace than her.”
She was amused.
If they didn’t want them fornicating at work, they probably shouldn’t let them work together or lock them down in the building for days at a time.
You could only play with bones for so long before you wanted to play with other ‘bones’.
When Jaxon turned those kisses to nips, his body shook. Trapped beneath her on the couch, he was at her mercy, and Tony loved every second of that.
Yeah, it was going to be that kind of speed sex.
Clearly.
“Jaxy,” he hissed as she tormented him with those wicked little nips to his flesh.
Yeah, Tony never wanted this to end, and in that moment, he was damn grateful that he’d chased her down when she’d run all of those years ago.
Because of that, they had a beautiful life together.
“I’m feeling greedy,” she said, and then, with some force, bit him on the neck.
Tony’s body shook.
Normally, he was bossy in bed, but if his sexy Jaxon wanted to manhandle him…
Sign.
Him.
Up.
Jax continued her oral assault, leaving kisses and bites to his flesh. She teased and enjoyed all that this man had to offer her. There was something so sexy about a husband.
He was hers, and no one else’s.
“Jaxy,” he muttered, as her hands and mouth were everywhere.
Yeah, Tony was in Heaven. There was nothing better than staring up at his beautiful wife, and knowing that she was about to rock his world.
When she dropped between his open thighs, going to her knees, his heart started racing in his chest.
Oh, lordy, but his wife was sexy. It was all that red hair, and freckles that made him insane.
When she teased his nipples, Tony shut all thinking down as her hands drove him crazy.
Her mouth was leaving a trail of fire, and his upper brain was not working.
Yeah, Tony wanted to enjoy this moment.
It was time to let his wife do her thing. Hopefully, she’d go much lower.
As her hair tickled his flesh, and his erection throbbed in response, Tony couldn’t get enough of his wife.
It was when she stopped tormenting him, pulled the hair tie off of her wrist, and pulled up her hair that he knew what was about to go down.
Someone was getting one hell of a blowjob.
“Don’t tease, Jaxy. I’ll put you over my knee, and then, I’m going to be bossy.”
Oh, well, she loved him like that.
Bossy was her vibe.
“Oh, no, Anthony. Don’t threaten me with a damn good time,” she warned.
His eyes dilated as he thought of all the sexiness he could pull out of his bag of tricks—if they weren’t in the office.
Damn, but he missed their bedroom.
When she ran her mouth down the scar on his chest, where he’d been shot many years ago, his body anticipated what would be cumming.
HIM.