Dying to Love (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 18) Read online

He hated when people talked shit to his wife. He loathed when people assumed she used her girl parts to climb the ladder. It was the furthest from the truth.

  Elizabeth let it go.

  “My ME said you wouldn’t clear him.”

  “I needed to hand this off. Your name is on the scene, and my boss has demanded I give it right to the FBI. They don’t want me messing with it. I tried to tell them I had a better shot at closing it than you did, but hey…”

  She wasn’t going for the bait.

  “I see you invited some of your closest friends to the party,” she offered, pointing at the media.

  “I just mentioned you’d be coming. Apparently, you’re their idol. You always were good at conning people.”

  Callen stared at him. “Introduce me,” he stated. “I’d hate to punch a stranger in the face.”

  She patted his arm. “No worries, Callen. Detective Sheehan was heading out. He’s not fit to work this scene. He gets emotionally attached to dead hookers.”

  It was a low blow, but enough was enough.

  It had the effect she wanted.

  Glenn Sheehan grabbed her by the FBI jacket, and the media went wild.

  “Tag, Glenn. You just crossed the line and on camera. My boss will be calling your boss. You have anger issues. Get the hell off my scene.”

  He dropped her and spun on his heel.

  Chris shook his head. “You’re a menace to yourself. Callen was going to break him into pieces.”

  A girl had to do what a girl had to do.

  “Lyzee…I’m going to put you over my knee and show you what…”

  She laughed.

  She’d rather be playing sexcapades with her Native, but they had a body to deal with first.

  “Okay. Later, sexy.”

  “Wow! That was easy,” Callen offered.

  “I am who I am.”

  Chris snorted. There was nothing easy about Elizabeth, and they all knew it.

  “Shall we visit the scene?” Chris asked.

  They headed under the tape. Callen motioned toward two new cops, and they were on the line, keeping the media from moving in too close.

  As they headed into the abandoned warehouse, they could smell the death.

  Yeah, it was going to be ugly. After this many years, they could tell when it was going to be a dead body, and a REALLY dead, mutilated body.

  “Over here,” a cop yelled.

  They headed his way. “I’m Officer Llewelyn.”

  “Report,” she said, as they all pulled on latex gloves to begin.

  “We got a call that there was a body. A crew was coming to demolish this building today. When they entered, they smelled it. They investigated, puked, and then called us. It turns out there were two bodies, not one.”

  “Did they touch the victims?” Chris asked, pulling on his booties. He could see the puddle of brown blood up ahead, and he knew it was going to get messy.

  That much blood always meant a violent way to die.

  “No. They puked over there,” officer Llewelyn said, pointing at it. “I called in homicide, they moved in and saw the flower, and that’s when they called their bosses. Apparently, Elizabeth Blackhawk has a fan.”

  She raised her hand. “That would be me, and I’m sure I have plenty since I’ve had a long career.”

  “Nice to meet you, ma’am. I’ll let you have at it. Good luck,” he stated, backing away.

  “Did we just meet a cop who didn’t know you?” Chris asked. “That’s shocking.”

  “I think my boots are older than him,” she offered. “He’s a child. If he’s had that badge for a year, I’d be shocked.”

  They moved toward the victims.

  Chris was the first to speak. “We have two women. They definitely look like hookers. They’re dressed for the stroll. Lyzee, don’t you have that skirt?”

  She laughed. “Miss Kitty does.”

  “I love Miss Kitty,” Callen stated. “My mother would have loved her.”

  “Hey!” she said, rolling her eyes. It was good to see Callen joking about his mother. It had taken a shitload of therapy to get him to that point.

  Finally, he wasn’t wishing her a burning damnation.

  Elizabeth still was, but it was her husband who mattered.

  “What killed them, Chris?” she asked.

  He stared over at her. “I haven’t even touched them yet,” he stated.

  Amir headed her way with two bags. Inside them, they could clearly see roses. One was lavender, and had blood all over it, and the other was coral colored.

  “Boss, these are for you.”

  “You shouldn’t have,” she said.

  Amir looked confused.

  “Never mind,” she said, shaking her head. Youth was wasted on the clueless, as was her humor.

  “And here I give you red ones,” Callen stated. “Maybe I should mix it up a bit?”

  Chris was kneeling by the bodies as he listened to their conversation. “They have different meanings,” he offered offhandedly.

  “What?” she asked.

  He was surprised.

  She didn’t know that?

  “How are you even a girl?” he asked. “Rose colors have meaning. I thought every girl knew that.”

  “You used to give me white or red roses,” she stated. “I never thought about what they meant. A rose is a rose.”

  “You’re tough to shop for on a good day,” he teased. “I went with the basic.”

  Callen watched the interplay between them.

  Something was there.

  He could see it.

  This case had opened something up, and he wasn’t sure what it was. Chris and Elizabeth were hiding something. The old detective, their youth, and the way they kept exchanging glances that they didn’t think he noticed.

  Oh, he did.

  “What does white mean?” Callen asked, thinking about what Chris had just said. He’d bought her white roses.

  “Happy love. Peace. Purity,” he offered.

  That sounded about right.

  “And Red?” Callen asked.

  Elizabeth glanced over at him. “We don’t have red roses, or white ones.”

  “Humor me.”

  Chris answered, “Passionate deep romantic love.”

  Callen glanced back and forth between them.

  “And you never knew that?” he asked his wife.

  “Well, in my defense, there are days where I don’t even think I’m a girl,” she teased. “Well, most of the time. Right now, I’m a cranky Fed.”

  Yeah, they could see that.

  “What does lavender and coral mean?” she asked her ME as he did his thing.

  “I don’t know off the top of my head.”

  Callen had his phone out, and he was Googling it.

  “Lavender is love at first sight, and coral is desire,” he stated. For shits and giggles, he looked up white to double check what Chris had said. It meant silence, secrecy, and ‘I am worthy of you’.

  That piqued his curiosity even more. Did Chris know and lie?

  Yeah, something was going on. He could feel it.

  “Do you think he’s trying to tell you something?” Chris asked, picking up the sheet beside the girl. Beneath it, he found some surprises.

  “Jesus,” Callen stated. “Is that hair and eyes?” he asked.

  Chris was rattled.

  “That case, Lyzee…”

  “Eyes,” she stated. “The killer took their eyes and removed their faces.”

  Callen was appalled. “That doesn’t sound good at all. Are you thinking this is connected to your past?”

  She stared down at the women. There had been no roses, no one was scalped, and there was no warehouse.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “No. The only similarity is the hookers and eyes. He didn’t take both sets. Just those,” she said. “What color are they?”

  It was clear she wasn’t looking at them.

  “I can’t tell. They’re c
loudy. I’ll have to remove the lenses…”

  “Stop. I don’t need to hear the details,” she said. This was her big ick, and the less she knew, the better.

  Elizabeth crouched down beside the bodies. She touched the one woman’s arm with her fingers. “She’s ice cold.”

  Chris did the same with the other body. He could feel the heat through his latex glove.

  “Yeah, this one isn’t. It’s not that cold outside. That one has been dead a while—this one not as long.”

  Elizabeth stared at the bodies.

  “Okay, hooker one lost her hair, hooker two lost her eyes. We have two different color roses, and someone wants my attention.”

  “You’re passing this one off, right?” Callen stated. “This one seems a little too stalkerish for you. We don’t need you a target or Ethan losing it, RAVEN.”

  She got it.

  He was hinting at the dream.

  Still…

  Something in her was telling her that this case was going to be important.

  “Elizabeth?”

  “So far, I’m passing it off. The Seatons can handle this. It’s a straightforward wackadoo. I’ve learned when you are called out, sometimes it’s best not to answer the call.”

  Callen relaxed.

  “Let me assess, get my notes down on paper, and let the Seatons sit down with me for a briefing. I might not make lunch, but I will make dinner.”

  That was fine with him. Ethan would sacrifice a lunch date to have his momma bird back in the nest—safe and sound.

  “What do we have, Christopher?” she asked, noticing that Chris was running his hands across their heads.

  His face said it all.

  Nothing.

  Their bodies.

  Nothing.

  Then he touched her neck.

  “What?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I don’t have any noticeable wounds.”

  Elizabeth knew what that meant. “How about bruising?” she asked.

  “Yeah, there’s some around their necks.”

  “Strangled.”

  “I won’t have conclusive evidence of that until I open up her neck,” Chris stated.

  “Okay.”

  He glanced up. “That’s it? You’re giving up?”

  “Yep. This isn’t going to be my case. I’m passing it off to Johanna and Brody. I’ll let them have the pleasure of harassing you on this one.”

  He relaxed.

  “I do have a question,” she offered.

  “What?”

  “Can you tell me if they were dead before the eyes and scalp were removed?”

  That he could do. Chris picked up the hair and inspected the cut marks around the edges. “There’s no pink, so there was likely no blood flow to the wounds.”

  That was good to know.

  “Were they raped?” she asked.

  He stared at her. “Didn’t you ask me that with that first case too?” he inquired.

  “Yes, I do believe I did.”

  “And what did I tell you then?”

  She smiled at him.

  Oh, she knew what she asked him. That was EXACTLY why she asked him again.

  It was a trip down memory lane.

  “I don’t recall…”

  “Seriously?”

  She used her best ME voice, “Jesus Christ, Elizabeth, they’re freaking hookers. How am I supposed to know if they were raped when they have sex all night long? I can look at bruising, but that’s all I can do.”

  He stared at her.

  “How was that?” she asked.

  “It was something like that. For the record, I don’t ever say Jesus Christ.”

  “You just did.”

  He opened and then closed his mouth. “You’re out of control.”

  She grinned. “Yes, I do believe I am aware. Can you just take a peek and let me know?” she asked.

  He mumbled something.

  “What was that, Doctor?”

  “I called you a bossy shrew.”

  She started laughing.

  Callen did too.

  It was fairly accurate, and they all knew it. When it came to a crime scene, she didn’t allow anyone to run it but her.

  “I can look.”

  “Thank you, Newton.”

  Chris stared up at her. “I want a favor first,” he stated, looking right into her eyes.

  “What?” she asked.

  “No matter what Brody and Johanna find, don’t get involved in this case, okay? I have a really bad feeling about this, honey. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Christopher.”

  He reached up and took her gloved hand in his. “Please. I’ll help them. Stay away from it.”

  She listened to what he was saying.

  Callen wanted her to pass.

  Ethan really wanted her to pass.

  Now Chris did too.

  It was going to take something so monumental to make her take this case.

  She didn’t see it happening.

  “I don’t plan on it. Something huge has to happen for me to take this one, and I’m going to be fine, Newton.”

  He squeezed her fingers.

  Callen watched them.

  Yeah, there was something there.

  He was going to get to the bottom of it, and soon. Curiosity was his middle name, and his gut was screaming.

  Chris lifted their skirts.

  “He posed them,” he stated.

  “How do you know?” she asked.

  “They are in exactly the same position. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

  “They’re on their backs,” Callen stated.

  “What position do sluts always take?” Chris asked.

  Elizabeth kept adding details in her mind. She’d point her two agents in the right direction.

  “They were raped,” Chris stated. “Brutally. A normal prostitute from hours of sex wouldn’t have this kind of abuse to her body. There’s tearing at six o’clock, and that’s a sure sign of forced penetration.”

  “Was she alive?” she asked.

  He checked them both. “They were both alive at the time of their rape.”

  “Okay, so two raped hookers, placed in a warehouse. This is new,” she stated.

  “What about that old case?” Callen asked. He wanted to get them talking about the past. Something was definitely there. He knew his wife.

  She wasn’t being completely forthright with something, but he needed to figure out what it was before he approached her with it.

  Elizabeth thought back to the old case. “It wasn’t all that similar.”

  Chris agreed. “I believe he raped the last girl. The rest were fine.”

  “And you caught him?” Callen asked.

  “Yes. He was tried and found cuckoo. He’s in an institution as far as I know,” Elizabeth offered.

  “I want to check,” Callen stated.

  “He was posing as a pimp. He called himself Clayton Frost, but his real name was James Austin. He was the son of a preacher man, and he was trying to clean up DC one dead hooker at a time.”

  “Recycle,” Chris stated, getting liver temperatures. “If you want to clean up DC, recycle.”

  She agreed.

  Now if the crazies would just do the same.

  Callen got the names and walked away. As soon as he was gone, Chris was focused on her. “What do we do?”

  “About?”

  “Elizabeth.”

  She sighed. “Chris, you and I had our relationship. We both agreed it didn’t work. What can I say?”

  “You should tell them.”

  “Why?” she asked. “I don’t ask for the name of every woman Callen stuck his dick into, or who Ethan cuddled up with at night. There are some things that should stay in the past. Talking about people you had sex with is always a bad idea.”

  “Like me.”

  She heard the hurt.

  That wasn’t even close.

  He was the ONLY man she didn’t
regret out of her past. They had a long run together.

  They had something that mattered.

  “I am NOT ashamed that we had a relationship, Christopher. I just know the men in my life. Ethan…he won’t handle it well.”

  “I think you’re not giving them enough credit,” he stated. “I feel bad lying to them. When Ethan asked if I’ve had sex with you, Elizabeth, I lied. I looked him right in the eyes and lied. That sucks. I’m supposed to be his brother, and that’s a big dose of betrayal.”

  “I know you did, but we made a deal, didn’t we? I never told Cyra. Had I, what would have happened?”

  She had a point.

  His, now, deceased wife would have flipped out.

  She would have made him choose between her and Elizabeth.

  Oh wait!

  She did before she even knew.

  Okay, so maybe.

  “Callen…”

  Elizabeth looked around to make sure no one was beside them—especially Callen.

  “Christopher, if I had to tell one of them, it would be him. Callen is calm. Ethan never came all the way back from that abduction. He’s never been the same. If I tell him, he’s going to lose it. Then he’s going to stare at you like you’re trying to screw me at every given chance.”

  “But I’m not. I’ve admitted it to Doctor Gaines,” he stated. “I mean it when I say you’re my sister. We started out as friends with benefits, we moved to a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, and then we broke up. It worked then, but it wouldn’t work now. We work better this way.”

  She was aware.

  Again, she never regretted the years she was with him—not in the least. She still loved Chris, but she couldn’t give him her whole heart.

  Ever.

  She was waiting for the two Native men. She knew that now.

  “Chris, I love you, but if you tell them, I’ll murder you myself. Trust me on this. I know my husbands. They will lose it. Ethan, he’ll divorce my ass so fast, my head will spin.”

  “No, he wouldn’t. He loves you.”

  “He does love me, but he was betrayed by his brother. He didn’t speak to him for over twenty years. Think about that little gem before you say a word.”

  He did.

  Maybe Elizabeth was right.

  She pulled off her glove to gently caress his face. “I love you, but I need you to keep your promise to me. We had fun. We had a relationship that spanned a long time, and it mattered—even to today.”

  “It was over a decade, Elizabeth. We were a couple for years. We lived together.”