Redemption is Here (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 9) (55 page)

“She was very lucky,” he said. “Plus,
I hear you figured it all out. You must be pretty smart. That was one hell of a hideout. My men came back and told me all about it. Did you find anything?”

“
Well, the FBI thinks I’m passable. We now have his stash of oil and his prep room. We’re hoping he’ll slow down until we can get the name from the supplier. Once we get that, we’ll have a direction.”

“When’s that coming in?”

Ethan spoke up, “Tomorrow. I’ve sent the request for the warrant.”

“Wow! You move fast. Whenever I have
to get a warrant, I have to jump through hoops.”

“Being a Fed means a judge in every area,” he stated.

“Handy.”

Elizabeth finished
her update, and then stood. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go work this out on my whiteboard. You have a good night, sheriff.”

Out in the lobby, they found Callen waiting. “I ordered three with meat and one special.”

“Spam, spinach, and anchovies?” she asked, snapping her gum. If she didn't eat soon, she’d be feeding the fetus gum.

“Yes, God help the world
for even saying those words out loud,” Callen said, shaking his head.

“Hey! Don’t look at me. It’s Charlie. She likes the salty, leafy goodness.”

Ethan grinned. “I can’t wait until the next baby,” he said, dropping his arm around her waist.

“We already discussed this,” she stated
, slipping her hand in the back pocket of Ethan’s jeans and Callen’s dress pants.

“You say that now,” stated
Callen, “but what if I replace all your birth control with Pez?”

She started laughing.

“I’m serious. You won’t know until you get to Tuesday and figure out its cherry flavored.”

Elizabeth found the men in her life to be incredibly funny. Callen was her stress release and Ethan was her rock.

“If you even think about trying anything like that, I will kick that fine Native ass of yours so hard, that you’ll be walking funny for the next five years.”

He grinned. “Another child would be worth a beating,” Callen admitted.

“Yeah, well in those five years, you won’t be touching me either. You, and your buddy the couch, will be getting up close and personal.”

Leaning down, he kissed her.

The champion of his heart wouldn’t do that, and he knew it. If it meant healing him, there was no doubt that Elizabeth would take one for the team and give him another child.

The kiss was deep, powerful and held her captive. Standing out in the parking lot, she leaned against one man, while the other kissed her silly.

Slowly, he broke away. “I love you, Elizabeth,” Callen offered. In his eyes, he let her see every ounce of feeling. It was for what she did last night, today, and what he knew would come in their future.

“I love you too.”

Ethan nuzzled her ear. “How about we go home, get changed, call Wyler, and then have dinner.”

“Perfect.”

“I’ll even eat some of that vile pizza for you, Lyzee, my love,” Ethan promised.

“Not me. I’m not getting up close to anchovies. It’s not happening,” Callen admitted.

“Your loss,” she replied.

Knowing how to get his brother going, he hit him right where it hurts. “Then,
after we eat and work on the whiteboard, we can have sex.”

Callen stared at him. “
Wait a minute. You two are seriously going to fornicate without me? What happened to protect my brother, no matter what?”

Ah, and so they began. Elizabeth knew it was only a matter of time before they began acting like
this.

Ethan boosted her up into the Navigator, laughing the entire time. He loved
Callen and was glad to have him as part of his relationship, but there was nothing like busting his ass as much as possible.

It was a brother thing.

“Can’t I stay and have sex, and then go babysit the two anthropologists?” he practically begged. “I’ll be really fast. Hell, I’ll skip the foreplay and just get down to business if that’s what it takes.”

She started laughing
at his desperation.

“Come on! I even got you a pizza with gross things on it. I was certain I was going to get lucky.”

Turning in her seat to watch him buckle in, she grinned. “One word, my very sexy Native.”

He knew this was going to hurt.

“What?”

“Pez.”

He couldn’t believe it.

“Are you seriously going to hold that against me?” he asked
, as his brother laughed uproariously.

“When will you learn, Callen?”

Apparently, the answer was never.

~ Chapter Fifteen ~

       
Thursday Evening

Back at the cabin, their first priority was to get changed. Elizabeth had so much fun watching the men hurriedly escape the confines of their clothes. Callen was back in a pair of jeans, and this time a t-shirt. It showed off the tattoos on his arm, drawing her attention.

Elizabeth didn't doubt for a second
that he did it to lure her into sex. She knew them both, and this was typical Callen at his best. He was well aware that she couldn’t say no on a normal basis, but throw in some ink and she was lost.

Ethan,
on the other hand, went with a pair of jeans and a simple black shirt, unbuttoned. Since his abduction, they were working on him accepting his body. The tattoos across his chest were no longer perfect, but marred with the scars from a madman. His biggest hang up was how they would be viewed.

Lately, he’d been getting great pleasure
from Elizabeth’s reaction to this body, and she was more than happy to accommodate him. Scarred or not, the raven was still her favorite tattoo, and she wasn’t afraid to show it.

Sitting on the couch, they
beeped Wyler’s tablet. When his face came on the screen, they immediately knew bad shit had gone down.

For the first time in a long time, he looked weary, and there was a red handprint marring his cheek.

“What happened?” Ethan asked, feeling his blood pressure already spiking,

Wyler looked incredibly sad. “I’m sorry,” he said, closing his eyes. “I only wanted to make up for the mess I made for you two boys. I thought if I could prove
that I was a good grandfather, I could erase some of it. Here, I brought Bly into the house, and your children have been feeling the tension.”

Again, Ethan asked. “What happened, Dad?”

He stared at Elizabeth, hoping she had told them what happened. “I was putting Cat down for her nap, and CJ got into trouble. His big fascination is the dogs’ food. Well, he was pretending he was a puppy and drinking out of the water dish.”

While gross, it wasn’t shocking. Kids liked to pretend. CJ was going to be three
, and it was normal.

“It’s okay, Dad. You can tell us,” she said.

“When Bly told him to stop, he started laughing. The mouthful of dog dish water sprayed her in the face. When she yelled at him, he fell and bumped his face.”

All three of them braced for it.

“He cut his mouth and bled for a while.”

Ethan was very protective of his family. His son was his only child until Charlie was born. Yes, Callen shared his, but Callen James was his first born. That little boy was his legacy.

“Is he okay?” Ethan asked, struggling to remain calm.

W
yler turned the tablet around. CJ was sitting beside him, eating a popsicle.

When they saw his swollen cut lip, they weren’t too freaked out. He appeared to be happily sucking away.

“Hey, little man. I miss you,” Ethan said.

The minute the child heard his voice
, he had his focus. “Dadda. I bad.”

And there was what Wyler was upset about.

“No, CJ, you’re not. In fact, you’re one of the best things in my life,” Ethan added. Yeah, Bly was gone. There was no reason that a child should be made to feel like he was bad, and never at two years old.

“I bad. I bad.”

Elizabeth was getting angry. “Baby cakes, you’re not bad. You’re my sweet little love bug,” she stated.

“Momma. I bad.”

“Never, baby boy. You’re just as good as EJ and Kitty Cat.”

He kissed the
tablet with purple, sticky lips.

“Hey, Dad?”
Elizabeth called.

His face came back on the screen
, and he knew what she was going to ask. “After he fell, he wouldn’t let her near him. I was trying to calm him down, and she told him he was B-A-D like his mother.” Wyler spelled it.

Where Elizabeth didn't mind being called
that, she wasn’t going to let any of her brood be hurt by some woman’s words. “Please tell me she’s gone.”

He nodded, eyes filling with tears. “I know you’re going to take them away from me. I’m not parenting material. Thank you for letting me try. It means a lot to me.”

“Whoa,” Ethan said. “Are you quitting after firing our housekeeper?” he asked.

Wyler was confused.
“I had you bring a woman into your home who has your son programmed to think he’s bad.”

CJ started saying it over and over.

Wyler closed his eyes. “See.”

They all knew the man was hurting. In the past four years, he’d more than redeemed himself. He’d
shown that he was loving, sweet, and a good father.

“Well, if you’re quitting, I guess I can fly home to take care of the kids,” Callen offered. “That sucks, since you were doing such a good job.
If you can’t do it anymore, we understand.”

CJ climbed up into his lap and rested his head on his shoulder.

“I love them more than my own life. Once again, I let the wrong part of my anatomy do the thinking.”

Elizabeth laughed. “You think these two always think with their brain?”

Ethan laughed. “Dad, you’re doing a good job. Don’t leave. When you walked out on me as a kid, it hurt.”

“Me too, Dad,” admitted Callen. In that moment, he realized something. They could NEVER tell the man what
had happened to him. If CJ calling himself bad was pushing the man over the edge, finding out that Callen had been molested for a couple years by his mother’s boyfriend would kill him.

“They were born knowing you, Dad. They need you. We need you. Don’t let Bly break up our family,” said Elizabeth.

Wyler wiped his eyes before kissing his grandson.

“If you can hold out
until tomorrow, I can call Ginny and see if she’ll come over and play with the kids. It’ll give you a break, and she loves them.”

“Pat her down before she leaves. She’s always threatening to steal Cat. One day she’s going to pull it off too!”

“What?” Callen said, staring at her.

They laughed
at the look of horror on his face.

Even Wyler joined in. “I love you three. I’m blessed to have all of you in my family.”

They all were.

“Maybe the next housekeeper should be a man. There’s plenty of Natives who would work out
,” Wyler admitted.

Elizabeth squealed in joy just to torment them.

“Hell no! No man is going to be handling our woman’s girly things!” demanded Callen. “It’s never going to happen.”

Ethan agreed with him one hundred percent. “
Our woman has all the Natives that she can handle.

Finally,
with their joking, the sadness was gone from Wyler’s eyes.

“Call us if
you need us, Dad,” Elizabeth said.

“Bye
, CJ. We love you,” Callen called, grinning when the little boy waved and focused on him.

“Wuv you, Cal
-Cal.”

His heart melted.

As soon as the tablet went black, Callen faced them. “Under no circumstance do we tell him about Dean Quinlan. He’ll take
a bridge.”

Ethan didn't doubt that. “Yeah, I’m with you there.”

Even Elizabeth, who didn't like to lie to Wyler, believed it was for the best. “I’ll take it to my grave.”