Consumed by Wrath: An FBI/Romance Thriller (An FBI/Romance Thriller ~ Book 8) (58 page)

Elizabeth turned her head, only to watch Veronica, their head tech, splashing
headlong into the water.

Exactly where she told her NOT to go.

“She can’t swim!” shouted a tech.

Everyone began running towards the water, but Elizabeth was right there. Without hesitating, she dropped her gun and toed off her boots. Before Ethan or Callen could get to her side, she dove in and went towards the black murky area
where Veronica had just disappeared.

Slicing through the w
ater easily, she went after her. All the memories of her youth returned as she was blinded by the murky darkness. With her hands, she felt around until she found flesh and pulled. It wasn’t easy to fight the current and the debris, but she managed to drag her up. There was so much stuff down there to get caught on. Pushing off the bottom, her arm brushed something large as she fought to get her tech to the surface.

Debris stirred around them wickedly.

Once breaking the water, she saw Callen and Ethan not far from her wading towards them. As soon as they got to her, Callen grabbed Veronica and helped pull her towards the shore.

Blackhawk was finally able to breathe again. “Holy shit! Are you seriously trying to make me have a heart attack?”

“You should be pointing that anger at your head tech, Ethan,” she said, wading towards the shore. Callen already had a shivering Veronica sitting on the bank, and Chris Leonard was at her side, checking her pulse.

“You went right into that sink hole!”
Ethan wasn’t letting it go.

Elizabeth was well aware, but what choice did she have. “Ethan, I was the only on that grew up around this water. It’s like a maze under the surface. She got sucked down and disorientated. I was perfectly fine.”

Callen wandered over and the look on his face said it all. Elizabeth braced for the next person to start on her, and she honestly hoped that it would be quick.

“Angel, here, take my jacket,” he said, pulling it off and wrapping it around her shoulders. “Thank God you’re okay.”

She had to admit that when he didn't start bitching, she was a little surprised. In her mind, Elizabeth expected both men to give her grief.

“Thank you,
Callen.” And she didn't mean just for the dry clothes.

Blackhawk
could feel this anger building and opted to walk away from them. If he didn't, there would be an explosion. Already, he could feel it brewing.

As he left, Callen put his arms around her to warm her up. “I was scared shitless
when you went in.”

Her
teeth began to chatter.

“Maybe you should go sit in the Navigator and try to warm up,” he said, gently stroking her cheek. “I’ll check on Veronica and then see if Ethan’s going to be okay.”

Elizabeth knew he was trying to take the heat. Over the last few months, Ethan’s temper had become something of a dangerous thing, and most of it stemmed around him becoming super overprotective. Since he was abducted, he honestly had a fear that the people he loved could, and would be too. This was just one more parting gift from Patrick Parrish. It touched her that Callen was willing to face him down to keep her out of the line of fire, but she knew Ethan wouldn’t hurt her.

“I’ll check on him.”

Callen took a deep breath, trying to regain his bearings. “Call me if you need me.”

She patted his cheek
, and then went up on her bootless toes to kiss him on the lips, despite the no kiss-y face rule. “I love you, Cal.”

He grinned at her and returned the sentiment. “You’re my
angel.”

Elizabeth watched him walk over to where he had taken off his boots
when he was going to dive in after her. She was lucky to have a man who would give her that little trust and not freak out. Ethan had been like that at one time, now she just needed to stay calm and try to see it from his perspective.

With the erratic emotion
s that he couldn’t rein in, it had to be driving him insane. The man loved control freaking things to death, and he didn't even have the ability to keep it in check.

Her poor Ethan.

Grabbing her boots and his, she wandered over to find him. Wordlessly, she sat beside him and placed his boots there.

“I’m sorry,” he said, trying to find words to express how he felt about the entire thing. “I didn't mean to bark at you, and especially in front of our team.”

Elizabeth wasn’t going to make him jump through hoops to get forgiveness, especially since there was nothing to really apologize for.

“Ethan, I’m not upset with you.”

He looked over at her and his eyes appeared to be tortured. There were demons there, and he didn't hide anything. “I saw you go in, and all I thought was you were going to die. My child was going to die, and then I was going to…”
He swallowed, unable to say anymore.

She ran her hand gently over his wet jeans in reassurance. “I’m not going anywhere. I couldn’t let our tech drown
, and I was the closest and most familiar with the water.”

He nodded and pointed at his head. “In here, I get that, but in here,” he pointed at his heart, “I get really scared
that I’m going to lose you. It wraps around me and suffocates the logic from my body.”

She understood. He was still trying to find his footing, and Elizabeth wasn’t going to give him hell over it. Yeah, late
ly he was over possessive, overprotective, and over the edge, but who wouldn’t be after what he survived. He honestly believed that he was going to lose it all, and there were moments where he dug in and held on a little too tight.

“I hate slipping back there,” he admitted.
“It makes me weak,” Blackhawk admitted.

Taking his hand in hers, she ran her fingers over his wedding band
before placing his hand over her stomach. “I think that you’re fine just the way you are, Ethan. I don’t mind the man you are now. It’s kind of nice to feel that kind of protection. It makes me feel all safe and loved.”

He glanced over at her
, lifting a brow. “Did the real Elizabeth get swapped out somehow?”

She snorted. “When you get all possessive it turns me on,” she offered, trying to ease his self-loathing.

“Really?” He needed the truth, and Ethan trusted her to give him just that.

“I’ll admit this once, and once only. When you’re all territorial, it’s nice. Sometimes, I ge
t tired of having to be bad ass, Elizabeth Blackhawk. There are times when I don’t mind knowing that if I want to coast through the day, you’ll be there to make sure that we’re safe.”

Ethan glanced down at his hand on her belly. “I really like the name Charlie. If we have a girl, she better be just like you.
I’d take twenty little Elizabeths running around.”

“Did you hit your head?” she asked, snickering. Yeah, the storm had passed, and Ethan was back in control. It gave her peace that she
finally had her footing and was learning how to deal with it. Instead of anger, calm understanding was healing them both.

“Don’t tell anyone that I like you bossy. I
t’ll ruin my rep. In fact, don’t tell Callen. It only works for you.”

Grinning, he was about to say something sexual, when they heard their name
s being shouted.

“You have to see this!” called a tech
, racing towards them.

The panic and excitement said it all.

“We were using long rods to probe, and we found something!”

Both Blackhawks followed him. When they got close to the river, Callen looked horrified
. Immediately, he tried to stop her from looking.

That was a bad sign right off the top.

Chief Runningwolf was chanting and praying in his native tongue off in a corner.

Okay, that was even more
distressing.

When they reached the embankment, they stared at the water.
It was punctuated with bobbing clear bags.

Inside,
there appeared to be... faces.

“Are those,” she began, unsure if she was seeing things correctly.
As soon as she saw the dead eyes, staring back from one bag, she turned and buried her face in Callen’s shirt. God, she hated that empty stare.

“
I have you, angel,” reassured Callen, as he watched a tech use one of the poles to push one towards shore.

As it got closer,
Ethan grabbed a pair of gloves a tech held out to him. Carefully reaching into the water, he extricated the bloated bag and stared at it in his hands.

“Well shit, I think we just figured out where the killer has been dumping the heads of the victims
,” he said.

Tony Magnus appeared
beside them. “I can tell that’s Duke Williams. His flesh is remarkably preserved.”

Elizabeth
released her hold on Callen, as soon as the wave of nausea had passed. As she stared at the head, she was just grateful that his eyes were closed.

“I’ll take that,” Chris Leonard said, taking the bag from
their boss’s hands to examine it through the plastic. “Yeah, I concur.”

Elizabeth
scanned the area. “Everyone get ready to retrieve. It looks like I won’t be the only one going for a little swim, but stay the hell away from the damn sinkhole!”

This time, no
one bitched or moaned. They simply got ready for retrieval. It was likely going to be one that no one would forget.

Harper Stanton shrieked
a very un-FBI-like squeal. “Look at the water!”

They all focused on the shoreline. The clearest parts
of water by shore were now tinged red.

A blood red hue.

“We have more than heads here,” stated Blackhawk.

Elizabeth looked over at Tyrell. “Get your divers here ASAP. We’ve found something
that can’t stay down there any longer.”

“This gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, Lyzee,” Tyrell said, pulling out his phone
and doing what she asked of him.

She patted him on his back. “If it didn't,
Ty, I would be worried,” Elizabeth said.

“It’s going to be
ugly, isn’t it?”

She laughed sardonically. “If you had plans for the Spring Fling with your wife and kids, you may need to cancel them.”

It said it all.

They were going to be working on a bunch of meat puzzles.

Who knew what else they were going to be dredging up.

Two hours later

They laid out tarps on the ground and began reconstructing the victims. Doctor Magnus sat there inspecting the pile of remains that were being collected from the river. Some had flesh and some had been stripped clean.

Chris Leonard sat beside him, gathering samples from the victims to be tested. Normally, he would do it in the morgue, but the water and time it was taking to put the bones in order was making him nervous. The samples were cold from the water, and that would slow down their decomp
osition.

Elizabeth had stayed as far away from the remains as possible, and there was a good reason.
The tech chatter had alerted her earlier, and she didn't want to look into the face of the man she loved growing up as a child. Elizabeth knew there ultimately was no choice, but until the last possible moment, she was avoiding it.

Yes, it was cowardly.

It was so unlike her.

Yet, she couldn’t help it.

Once she saw his face, Elizabeth didn't know how she was going to react. Just staring at Duke William’s face was horrifying enough. There was nothing more disturbing than holding a severed head and staring into what once was someone’s face.

It was damn creepy.

Severed skulls ranked up there with her big ick. While dead eyes could make her bolt, like Jefferson Harris’s had, this wasn’t that far behind either. Where Hollywood had made it seem scary enough, it was about a million times worse. She wasn’t sure where the soul resided in a human, but the head was the part that kept everyone alive.

Her stomach rolled.

There were days where she questioned why she was in the FBI, and this was definitely one of them.

Wandering over to Chris,
she decided to bite the bullet.

“Okay, Doc, tell me what we have.”

“The heads show definite signs that they were frozen. I won’t open them here because I don’t want to lose any possible trace evidence. When I get them back to the morgue, we’ll get them ready for autopsy.”

“Okay, so they were
ice cubes. Why did they float to the surface?”

He pointed at
the one empty plastic bag. “I’m guessing the killer put them in the water when they were frozen solid. As they defrosted, the gasses then released, filling up the bag and creating buoyancy. I don’t know if they were contained in anything underwater or if they just began floating up.”