Chapter Fifteen #4
Charlie had mattered to him, and to Elizabeth. When he’d been exhumed, after Elizabeth figured out he’d not died of a regular heart attack, he’d done the autopsy for her and Ethan.
He’d been forced to dig up a man he loved for the woman he’d lost.
Now, he’d been dug up again.
The guy couldn’t rest in peace.
That sucked.
“Seriously, guys. Step out,” Chris ordered, and this time, they listened.
Maybe it was the tone in his voice.
Maybe it was the look Ethan gave them.
Either way, they were backing out.
“Stay in here,” Gryphen stated. “If anyone plays fuck around, my boot is going to make them find out. I’m not playing a game of hide-and-seek with you. I’d like to get to my goddamn wedding and not be a victim to this guy!” he stated.
Since seeing Caspian lose it on Elizabeth, and her giving them the ultimatum, no one wanted to push her. Since she wasn’t here, it had to be about her.
“We won’t,” Callen offered. “Promise.”
That worked.
They went out, and when the door was locked again, Ethan was curious.
“What?” he asked. “What is going on?”
Chris picked up the male skull and held it with reverence as Tony was already packing up the remains, with Chrissy helping him. He, too, was being INCREDIBLY gentle as he had tears in his eyes.
This was hard on him, too. Charlie had been his dad when he didn’t have one.
“He dug up her parents. This is Charlie’s skull.”
That hung there.
“Oh, fuckity,” Gene said. “That’s fucking low and disgusting,” he admitted. “What kind of sick piece of shit…?”
Ethan stopped him.
Why? Chris had told him Elizabeth had done the same thing to Devon, and she had been unsuspecting.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
Chris nodded.
“Yes, we just got ID on Charlie, but the injuries on the female match Catherine.”
Tony had tears in his eyes.
“He dug up our dad and her mom. My dad’s grave has been defiled,” he said, sick to his stomach.
Oh, boy.
They had ninety-nine problems, and Devon Slater was all of them. This might just be what ended her career.
This.
Right.
Here.
Well, holy fuck.
Now, he had a headache. Because of it, Ethan rubbed his temples. This was unraveling, and he knew it. From this, to what she’d said…she was a woman on the edge. In all of his marriage, his wife had NEVER threatened a divorce.
Not once.
That told them she was about to the end of her rope. This would absolutely take her over, just like it was going to take this asshole over when she told Devon she had his parents.
“Holy fuck, he’s sick,” Callen said. “He did this to damage her even more.”
Ethan was profiling it as quickly as he could. There were two categories.
Clues.
Damage.
Everything was falling into one of those two groups, and he knew where this would be.
“Do they know?” Chris asked.
Blackhawk shook his head.
Now, Gene was curious.
“Know what?” he asked.
They didn’t have secrets in their marriage, so Chris shared what Elizabeth had requested.
“She called me from Rayna’s before we found this out. She asked me to get his parents exhumed and moved to that warehouse that Callen just bought to make into apartments.”
That hung there.
“Wait. She did the same thing he did?” Gene asked.
Callen just stood there with wide eyes.
“Oh, boy,” he said.
Yeah, there was a lot of that phrase going around, and with good reason. With Elizabeth, seldom were there coincidences. That she’d done the same thing…
“We need to tell her,” Chris said, “but…this might be the final straw for her.”
Yeah, it could be.
Gene lowered his voice.
“So, your first thought is to call us here so we’re all going to get boned when she finds out we went behind her back? Does no one see how badly that is going to end?”
Well, yeah.
Specifically, Ethan.
So, he went there. He was NOT doing that again, because it nearly damaged them.
“We have to tell her,” Ethan said. “We know that he took them a while ago when he was prepping for this game. He held onto them, and they were his collection. We took his treasure, and then he took hers. If we don’t tell her, this handicaps her.”
Yeah, that was exactly what Chris had been worried about. That was something they couldn’t let happen. They could control what they chose to do, even if they couldn’t with the killer. What their woman needed was their faith.
And trust.
“Any other killer, and I’d say we put them back, and we shut our pieholes,” Ethan admitted. “With this game, we can’t risk it.”
Gene sighed.
In that moment, his heart broke for Elizabeth. If someone dug up his dad, who died years ago, he’d be pissed they defiled his grave.
And he didn’t like his father.
Elizabeth LOVED hers.
“Yep, she’s going to lose it.”
Oh, he was aware.
For the last hour, she’d been locked in her office, alone, and they had NO clue what she was doing. MATE wouldn’t tell them, and they couldn’t access the cameras in there without MATE’S assistance.
She was in locked-down mode for a reason.
Ethan made the decision since this could affect the outcome of this case. That was the ONLY reason why they should.
“We tell her. She needs to know.”
Oh, well, how could this go wrong?
Chris took one for the team.
“I’ll go do it. I suggest everyone vacate,” he said. “Go back to the office, and work. I’ll handle it.”
Gene whistled.
“You want to do that alone?” he asked.
Yes, yes, he did.
Why?
Because he knew his wife. He’d been with her longer than anyone else. Yes, they broke up, but they had a decade before Ethan ever came into her life.
They would do it with him if he wanted, but no one was fighting to die on that hill.
“If she needs us,” Callen began, “call. I don’t want her hurting more. What went down with Caspian was rough enough tonight.”
Chris hadn’t been there.
Now, he was curious.
“What happened?” he asked.
They’d planned on telling him, once he was done with Rayna, and out of the locked-down morgue.
So, now was as good a time as ever.
Gene told him.
“He shoved her twice and put his fist through the drywall by her head. It was touch-and-go. She finally had to control the situation, put him in an arm lock, and then locked herself in her office.”
Chris didn’t like that.
Not.
At.
All.
“Oh, Jesus.”
Oh, but that wasn’t all.
“Then, she told us she’ll divorce us if we try to stop her from going with The Hunters,” Callen stated, finishing up for Gene.
Chris stared.
“She used the D word?” he asked. “Elizabeth ‘I have an infinite well of patience’ Blackhawk said the word divorce and aimed it at us?”
He nodded.
“Oh, boy. She takes our marriages very seriously. She’d never throw that out unless she was about ready to go nuclear.”
Blackhawk was honest, since it was them talking about what had gone down.
“I didn’t like it,” Ethan stated. “I don’t like any of this!”
Yeah, well, join the club.
Because, again, he knew her best, Chris went there.
“She’s protecting everyone. Don’t take it personally. She’d never do it. She’s been on the receiving end of that.”
Ethan knew who that was for, and it was a well-landed barb, whether it was meant to be or not.
“Touché, Doctor.”
Chris let it go.
They were all fraying at the seams, and the last thing they needed was Ethan pissy over this. A fight between them would only make this a bigger clusterfuck.
Instead, he focused on Elizabeth, and what she would want him to do.
“I’ll handle her,” he said. “She’ll let me into the office when I tell her I have ID on the bones.”
Truthfully, they all knew he was probably the best person to do this. Chris had a way of soothing the savage beast—like Gene did with Ethan.
As the men headed out, Chrissy was to the point.
“Uh, are you guys going to be okay, too? That was…tense. You’d have to be dead to not feel the tension.”
They were all tired.
This was the proof.
“We’re good,” he said. “Couples have tense moments all of the time. We’re all struggling with how to help Elizabeth and keep her safe.”
If he said so.
Putting Charlie’s skull on a tray, he put a cover over it, and focused on the people in the room.
“Kill the research and delete the work you’ve done so far. We’re not leaving a paper trail,” he said again. “While we know what happened, no one else will. Tony, get the paperwork to a federal judge, and sign my name. I need Catherine and Charlie’s graves opened…”
But then he paused.
“On second thought, hold on with that. He might be watching the graves. That might give him a clue that we know. I’ll see what she wants to do.
For all we know, he might want us to put them with us, and let the world think they are still in their graves—you know, in case another piece of shit tries this in the future. ”
That was likely for the best.
So, Tony could do that.
Honestly, Tony wanted to mourn a little. He’d been there with Elizabeth the day Charlie had been buried. That had been a hellish day for both of them.
“Okay, Chris. I never thought you’d tell us to delete evidence,” he said. “This is a first.”
Only, it wasn’t the first time.
Or the second.
Yeah, that said it all.
This whole case was a nightmare, and my, how the mighty rule followers had fallen.
From here on out, Chris was never busting Zane’s ass again about speculating. What he was doing was far worse, and he knew it.
As a Fed, he couldn’t believe that he was deleting actual evidence.
Holy.
Hell’s.
Bells.
Heading out of the morgue, Saint was waiting for him to escort him.
“You good, Doc?” he asked.
He laughed like a lunatic, because he truthfully felt like one tonight. Everything was blowing up around them, and for the life of him, Chris didn’t know how to keep their family, and their careers intact.
It was all riding on Elizabeth, and he couldn’t imagine the weight that was on her shoulders.
“No, I’m not good. I’m a man on the edge,” he admitted. “This piece of shit is destroying my family and our careers.”
Saint patted him on the back.
“We’ll all get through this, Doc. Hang in there. We have all of you. No matter what, trust in us. We’ll keep you safe.”
Oh, well, he hoped they did, but now, he was even beginning to wonder if this was what broke the Blackhawks forever.
Because it had the propensity to do just that.
Unfortunately.