Consumed by Wrath: An FBI/Romance Thriller (An FBI/Romance Thriller ~ Book 8) (31 page)

Cyra opted to be positive. “We can do this. We’ve all worked harder cases before, and we can take care of it.”

Yeah, except they had Elizabeth on the whiteboard at the helm, and now they didn't. This was her area of expertise, and it might take all of them to fill her shoes.

“I’ll start
adding in details on the board,” Ethan said. “I’ll also start working on a baseline profile.”

Callen glanced over at him to make sure that he was
going to be alright with doing that. “Do you need any help?”

“
Yes,” he replied. “You can be my secretary and fill in the details if you like,” Ethan stated. “I’ll even let you pick what color marker you like best.”

That made him laugh
, uproariously. “I’m not falling for that one. When Lyzee shows up at work, she’s going to skin the Native that dared touch her sacred lover, the whiteboard. You’re on your own with this one.”

“Chicken.”

This time, he wasn’t afraid to admit it. “I am, plus I like getting laid. It’s not happening. As kids, you could talk me into felonious acts of hotwiring, but I know better now.”

Blackhawk snickered, especially at the looks on Chris and Cyra’s face. It was true
. He and his brother were bad boys before they became the law.

Who would have
seen that one coming?

Chris shook his head. “I
’m afraid to ask, but that’s never stopped me before. Are you talking about theft or is this some boss code that I’m never going to understand?”

The men only laughed.

“Never mind. If you want me to play secretary, I’ll do it.”

Ethan patted him on the back. “You’re a damn brave soul.”

They all knew that it was absolutely the truth.

                                *   *   *

Sheriff Tony Morell sat in his office as his people rushed around like chickens with their heads cut off. Martha was making coffee, and she had even made cookies. Now, she was getting supplies out to make the Feds’ lives easy.

What the hell?

Even Tyrell had gone to the dark side. He was sitting in the conference room, on his morning off, trying to help anyway he could. If anything, Elizabeth’s words came back to him from yesterday, and he was becoming more and more stirred up.

He contemplated removing his blow up
ball, his beer sign, and the sexy calendar, but then it occurred to him.

Elizabeth Blackhawk wasn’t his damn mother.

OR his boss
.

As far as he was concerned, she could kiss his…

Before he could continue that train of thought, there was a knock on his door. Glancing up, he found his only female deputy there. “What do you need, Jess?”

She waited for him to
acknowledge her. If anything, Jessica Silverman was polite. Her momma raised her to be that way. “Tyrell said the FBI just pulled into the parking lot. They’re coming in, and he wanted to remind you about the meeting.” She leaned against the door and licked her pouty lips.

Lord have mercy
.

He prayed for control.

“Boss?”

Yeah, he was ready. “You need to head out on patrol. We need to have someone from this department out on the street
s. I’ll take really good notes, and tell you all about it, honey.”

The woman
batted her eyelashes and flounced out of there. As she left, his eyes were firmly rooted on one of her best assets. Yes, she may be a little fluff brained, but she made the office a whole lot more titillating. If the girl wasn’t almost half his age, and he wasn’t in charge, he would be all over her. She just made him want to do stupid things. Unfortunately, if Elizabeth even got wind of that, there’d be another lecture.

Honestly, he didn't give a shit, or want to hear it
, but still it felt wrong messing around with a woman who could technically be his daughter.

That thought alone put a damper on his mood
and anatomy.

Great. Now he
was feeling old.

Heading out to the conference room, he found six feds, but not Elizabeth. Maybe this was his lucky day
after all.

“I’m ready,” he said, taking his seat.

When Ethan uncapped the marker, he looked around the room. “Elizabeth is busy this morning, so we’re going to start without her. She’ll be in soon, I’m sure.”

Yeah, like a bat out of hell
and pistols blazing.

“Sheriff,
how many missing person reports did you pull for us?” he asked, focusing in the man.

Tony pushed them across the table. “There are ten.”

Ethan and Callen flipped them open and quickly scanned them. When Blackhawk glanced up, he tried to remain calm. “You had three people go missing each year since Elizabeth left?” he asked.

“Yeah, just about that.”

“And that wasn’t odd?”

The man simply shrugged.

When they came to the last file, again, they were caught off guard. “This is dated yesterday. You had someone go missing last night?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah
, we did. I figured that I would give you that one too. I assumed that you would want all of them, or you’d think I was incompetent.”

Oh, Chris Leonard actually wished Elizabeth was there for the scathing response. It would be fun to see.
When neither director made a comment, he went back to comparing the medical records with the final remains that they had found.

“Did you send anyone out to interview the family
and find out her whereabouts before she disappeared?”

The waited for his reply.

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

Tony leaned back in his chair and stared the agents right in the eyes. “Technically, that person isn’t missing.”

To say that they were confused would be an understatement.

“She hasn’t been gone forty eight hours yet. I’m just being proactive. You know, like I was told to be by the director. Her husband called it in last night when she never made it home after a meeting. It’s the policy here, one that I believe Elizabeth would insist that I stick too. Far be it for me to assume anything and break any rules. I know what a stickler she is for procedures being followed to the letter of the law.”

Ethan bit his tongue to not say anything snide
and nasty. It was fine, because he would wait until Elizabeth showed up at work. Surely, she would take care of that in a heartbeat. If Tony couldn’t distinguish between circumstances that overrode policy, and procedure, there was nothing that he could do to make the man get a clue.

There was going to be
an ass kicking, and he was well aware of whose boot was going to be embedded in the man’s posterior. It wasn’t going to be his. If it were Christmas, this could have been an early present to his wife. He was pretty sure that she was going to enjoy it.

“I figured you could handle it this morning, since this is your case and all.”

Now, he was playing with fire.

Tony Morell knew damn well that they needed everyone’s cooperation on this in order to quickly find the person taking the citizens of Salem.

Blackhawk rolled his neck, the tension already filling his body. When there was the audible crack of bone, the silence in the room was even more deafening.

Callen jumped in
, since he was forever trying to be the peacemaker and keep people calm. “How about we go through all these missing person files, and start locating them? Maybe some have turned up and no one updated them in your computer system.”

Tony pointed at the
documents. “We don’t have a system. That’s as good as it’s going to get. Welcome to Salem, oh wise and powerful FBI Gods.”

Then
, it occurred to Ethan. Part of him wanted to believe that his wife had planned this. She had to know that Tony was going to be a pain in the ass, and she didn't want to lose her mind.

That had to be it.

There was no doubt.

This had to be a test of his sanity.

This was just one more
trial he was going to fail...

~ Chapter Nine ~

As the shadow of sleep left her, she could distinctly hear the chirping of birds in the distance. The confusion came, as she fought to remember what had happened.

Oh yeah, she lost her damn mind and had a breakdown.

Shit
!

If there was one thing that pissed her off, more than anything, it was being weak
. She understood that sometimes you had to lean on someone, but it didn't mean that she liked implementing a full blown meltdown. To her, it was too…wussy, and that wasn’t how she rolled. There was a job to do, and she was practically hiding out in bed like some sniveling little girl.

Screw this.

Sitting up, she looked around. The men had vacated, and she couldn’t blame them. Hopefully, they didn't stay home to babysit her. They had an assignment to start working, and right now, she wasn’t helping them. The last thing that she needed to be, to either of them, was a hindrance.

Hopping out of bed, she stripped out of her clothes and opted to take a shower. Her shoulder was a little sore from sleeping on it, and some hot water would work the kinks from her body. As she placed her hand over her belly, she spoke to her child.

“If you’re a girl, PLEASE don’t take this as an open invitation to be a crybaby like you just witnessed. You’re a Blackhawk, and you’re made of tougher stuff than that, little one.”

Heading into the shower, Elizabeth replayed the morning
over again in her head. Although her heart was still broken, she owed Samuel Trudeaux more than this.

She owed him justice.

There would be no doubt that she would take this assignment, close it, and give the man’s spirit peace. This was Salem, and while it may hold a few bad memories, she wasn’t going to let someone taint this sanctuary for her or the family.

As of that second, the mourning had to be done.

She had to be brave.

It was time to get her ass moving and stop letting some bumps in the road
hinder her from getting to her goal of healing her life and family.

As she stepped out of the water and dried herself off, she spoke out loud to the room. “If you can hear me, Doc, I will find out what happened. I will get this taken care of, and I will put you to rest. I promise.
The wackjob that hurt you isn’t going to get away with it.”

Immediately, she felt better and m
ore in control.

Granted, she wasn’t one hundred percent sure on paper that Doc was dead,
but she was still letting her instinct lead the way. If he were out fishing, the man would be home by now, especially since he had opened her home up for her. Certainly, he would have popped in for a visit.

In her mind, bad shit had gone down.

Finally!

This was the old Elizabeth, back in the saddle and ready to take on the day. Dressing, she strapped her gun to her hip
, alongside her FBI badge. As she stared in the mirror, she took in the simple button down plaid shirt, the beat up jeans, and the cowboy boots.

To her, she looked the same as she did almost four years ago. All that had changed was the shorn hair and a few crow’s feet around her eyes, and those she was damn proud of too.
Time may have passed, but she was still the same woman who walked away from the FBI in disgrace. Now, there would be no hiding, and instead she would fight hard against the demons chasing her. Now, she wasn’t alone.

True
, she had battle scars, and she was proud of them.

Elizabeth had
earned them being a mother, and as she fought for justice for those who no longer had a voice of their own.

Yeah, she
was back, and whoever was snacking on the residents of Salem was in trouble. There was a mission, and she was leading the charge.

Heading downstairs, she prayed
that they had left her a vehicle to get to work in, or it was going to be one hell of a walk to town. As she stared out the front door, she found one rental waiting for her and Elizabeth had to grin. Okay, they knew her pretty damn well. On the counter was a note, a granola bar, and the keys to the Navigator.

Lyzee our love,

When you wake up,
we know that you’ll be yourself

again.
  In fact, we’d bet hard cash on it. Nothing can keep

you
down. You’re tough, you’re smart, and you’re going

to do this. If you can’t pull this off, we have your

           back.

We
love you.

(Eat something for our child.)

Forever,

Callen & Ethan.

She loved that they had faith in her, and weren’t making her feel broken and un-repairable. Now, she got why Ethan had struggled to recover. They didn't give him the option to be himself. They simply assumed that he couldn’t do it.

Man, had
she been wrong and made a huge tactical error. This was a lesson learned. At least the men in her life were a little quicker on the draw and wiser.

Heading out the door, she hopped up into the big black Navigator and headed into town. She was going to get this show on the road. Valentine’s Day was coming, and she had two sexy
Native men to celebrate with.

Death may have her attention, but Elizabeth knew where her priorit
ies in life lay.

With love…

When she strolled into the sheriff’s station, Martha looked up at her. She must have had some sort of scowl on her face warning her, because the woman simply pointed towards the conference room.

Elizabeth nodded and headed that way. She didn't know what to expect, but it wasn’t what she saw.

Ethan and Callen were doing her job.

Or at least trying.

It would
be fun to silently observe. Standing in the doorway, she remained unnoticed as the men were working on breaking it down and leading the troops. Inside sat Agents Austin and Stanton, both her doctors, and even the sheriff and Tyrell Donnell.

They weren’t the only proud ones, because her heart overflowed with the same emotion for them
.

Blackhawk spoke, drawing everyone’s attention to the
whiteboard. “We’ve gone through the ten files, and I think we have a pretty good base to start working. With the files that I had, I was able to eliminate both of them. The missing persons were located, and we can cross them off the list as runaway teens.” He glanced over at his agents and waited. “Next?”

Cyra spoke up, “Harper and I were able to get through three files. I think we have two possible victims,” she answered.

Ethan uncapped his marker. “What do you have, Agent?”

Cyra
continued, “Our first file is for a man by the name of Jefferson Harris. He’s been missing for almost a year. He disappeared right around this same time.”

Blackhawk scribbled his name on the board and stayed facing it as the woman gave him more details.

“He was forty three when he went missing. His wife called it in when he never came home from a meeting. The notes in the file state that the interview was done over the phone. Apparently, he was a business man and very active in the community.”

The sheriff agreed. “
His wife wasn’t sure if he was missing or ran off with a woman. All that we were able to determine was that the meeting was related to the Spring Fling. We searched for him, but it was like he disappeared from the face of the earth.”

Ethan made note of it on the board. “Okay, this is a decent place to start. I want Agent Stanton to see if he really
vanished. Run his name and information through all the databases. Maybe he just disappeared from this town, and his wife. We’ll see if he’s used his social security number or filed taxes since going missing. Generally, a wife has a good suspicion if her husband ran off with some side action.”

Harper nodded and began furiously typing on her table
t.

Callen
motioned to Cyra. “What else do you have?” he asked.

She opened
the next file and picked up the paper that she had made notes on to read it to them.

“Our next one was a bust. It seems that
a college kid had gone away for spring break and the parents freaked out. We can eliminate that one, but the third file is a possible hit. We have a man by the name of Duke Williams, and he’s been missing for almost nine months. He was a pig farmer on the outskirts of town, not far from the river. It seems that, according to the wife, he went out to feed the hogs and hours went by, and he never returned. She called it in, and there was a brief investigation.”

Yeah,
as in barely any at all.

“What happened?” Ethan asked, glancing over at Tony Morell.

“We were called out, and we checked out her story. The entire farm was searched. Duke never took his keys or truck, so we stayed on the farm. Our conclusion was that he fell into his pig pen, and they ate him. Hogs will devour just about anything if they’re hungry enough.”