Choices will Destroy (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 14) (37 page)

He shrugged. “I don’t hate you. I’m just angry. Give me a couple days to get over it. We’ll move somewhere else, and I’ll forget. For all these years, I’ve wanted to be a doctor. I finally found me, and I chose you. I’ll accept that. It’s easier for me to let it go, than for you to let it go. One of us had to make the sacrifice, and it’s me.”

“That’s not true, Christopher.”

“It has to be or the only other option is that you enjoy fucking with my heart. You made me choose and I did. Now we accept it and move on. I proved how much I love you. That’s what you wanted. Now you have to live with it.”

Her heart twisted in her chest.

That’s exactly what she’d done. In her frustration and loneliness, she’d made him suffer too.

Shit!

When he walked past her to go grab a shower, he didn't even look her in the face. “When Bethe gets up, I’m going to take her to the park. If you want to come, I’ll enjoy your company. I want to take my daughter sleigh riding. She’s all I have left.”

While he invited her, she knew he really didn't want her there.

She’d really screwed this up.

Only, she didn't know how to fix it.

At all.

 
         
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Callen was working when his phone began ringing. When he answered, the tech division was on the line.

“Director, you have a hit on that number. We’re pulling up the details right now.”

“Is it a call or did it just go on?”

“It’s active, but no call has been made yet.”

Callen got excited. That meant they might have some time to stop the killer before the next victim turned up. Now he had to pray it was nowhere near his brother and woman.

“Where is it?” he asked.

The computer geek read off the address as Callen scribbled down some notes.

“Thank you. Keep monitoring it, and if they make a call, let me know.”

“Will do, sir.”

He hung up the phone. “We have an address,” he said to Livy. We need to get ready to head out. I’m calling Lyzee to let her know. I’m betting she’s going to want to start mobilizing as soon as possible.”

Doctor Legend started grabbing his gear. If the agents were heading out, he wouldn’t be that far behind. After all, they’d told him all about this, and it was likely that they were going to have another victim on his table.

This was how fast the killer worked.

Callen pulled out his phone. “Hey, angel,” he said, when she answered.

“We’re on our way in.”

“Don’t bother. Our tech team called me. The killer’s phone is back on again. He might be on the move, and we have a small window. I’m getting Livy and Zane ready to go.”

She got excited.

“Where’s it located?”

He gave her the address.

It took a second to register.

“Are you sure that’s the address?” Elizabeth asked, horror filling her voice.

“Yes, I am. Lyzee, angel, are you okay?”

“Oh, shit!”

This was very bad.

She knew that address. It was very familiar. In fact, the second Ethan heard it, he would be sick over it too.

Shit!

Shit!

Shit!

They’d been there before.

“Get there, but make sure you wait for us before go in, okay?” she asked, glancing over at her husband. All of this was starting to make sense. Already, Elizabeth was beginning to put it all together in her mind.

“I promise, angel. Just be safe and don’t get in an accident getting there,” he warned. “If you get there first…”

Before he could say anything more, she hung up. There were bigger issues, and she was getting sick to her stomach.

This was bad.

Very bad.

Elizabeth knew what Ethan was going to do the second he heard this address.

The freak out was coming.

Unfortunately, she didn't have the luxury of breaking it to him gently. They had one shot, and it was to catch the killer in the act. All of them had to be on their game.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing her trepidation.

“We have the address where the phone was turned on. We have to get there. Hopefully, we won’t be too late.”

Elizabeth prayed she was wrong. Everything in her wanted to recoil in nausea.

“Where is it?”

“Ethan, it’s at your old Brownstone.”

He didn't understand. “I don’t own it anymore. We sold it, moved all of my things out after we were married, and moved to Damascus. What does that have to do with this case?”

Yeah, she was going to have to tell him.

He wasn’t getting it.

Ethan was so twisted up over the profile, and worrying about her, that he wasn’t seeing the obvious.

She had to walk him through it.

Elizabeth touched his arm. “We don’t live there, but who still lives next door?” she asked.

His eyes went big, and that’s when he hit the lights.

They both were thinking about the little old lady they were attached to. She was the tenant next door. Mrs. Feinstein still lived there, and if someone was killing people they knew, she would be an easy target.

“Shit!” Blackhawk muttered. “Not her!”

Elizabeth closed her eyes and prayed she was wrong about all of it.

There was still a chance.

She hoped.

CHAPTER TEN

Georgetown

They drove as if hell had opened up and every demon was now chasing them. In a way, it was the truth. Ethan couldn’t shake that feeling, even as he tried talk himself down from the edge.

This couldn’t he his fault, could it?

He was a Fed, and logically, Mrs. Feinstein should be completely safe from the mess of his world.

Right?

Still, he felt horrible.

His own mom was dead, and for so many years, while living in DC, Kay Feinstein had been his surrogate. He’d attached himself to her because he’d needed that love. It had been missing from his life, and she filled an important role.

She baked him cookies, gave him dating advice, and fell in love with Elizabeth right when he had.

She mattered to him.

Even though they moved, Elizabeth had cupcakes delivered to her. She checked up on the woman weekly, making sure that she didn't need anything.

He knew his wife did it all for him.

Kay mattered.

Now, someone was screwing with them. At first, he thought this entire case was about
‘The Butcher’
, but now he knew better. This was definitely personal, and the killer was out for blood.

All he could hope was that they weren’t too late. There was always the chance that this was a mistake. Who would go after someone’s grandma?

Who was that sick?

After all, Kay was an elderly lady who had lived a good life as she tried to be a decent person. The last thing she needed now was to be tortured like this.

Honestly, Ethan didn't have the stomach for it.

All he could do was cross his fingers and get there as fast as possible. He had to have hope.

It was all that was left.

As they rounded the corner, sirens screaming, they garnered attention. The media was behind them and he knew that the chance of Kay being alive was even slimmer.

He knew that the killer had sicced them on him. The media wasn’t his tail out of pure coincidence.

Like Tristan Case’s home, they’d been alerted.

Shit!

He wanted to make someone bleed.

They were being screwed with, and the sick bastard wanted this on the news. He wanted their faces plastered across the media, so he could reap twisted pleasure.

“Don’t react,” Ethan said, driving like a maniac.

She glanced over, holding on for dear life. “What do you mean?”

“If this is her, the media is behind us. If we show anything, they’re going to see it. He’s going to see it.”

She got it.

They were being set up.

It was all too perfect.

The phone going on, them noticing it, and the race there were all part of the killer’s plan. She knew in that moment that Kay Feinstein was likely already dead.

They didn't have a chance.

She didn't have a chance.

The bile rose up in her gut.

“Okay. I can pull it off.”

He slammed on the breaks outside the building he once lived in. It looked exactly the same as it had five years ago. There was a fine layer of snow covering the sidewalks, and Ethan began taking it all in.

There were no marks in the snow leading to the porch. Nothing was disturbed.

Still, he braced for it.

Pulling his sidearm, he raced up the stairs, banging on the door.

No one answered.

He called out to her. “Mrs. Feinstein, it’s Ethan Blackhawk. Open up!”

Elizabeth saw Callen, Livy, and Gabe not far behind them. They were hauling ass through the media to get to their side. As she turned to watch her husband’s back, Elizabeth saw it.

Blood drops.

“Ethan, look,” she said, pointing toward the concrete going down the steps. The snow had absorbed much of it.

“Callen, Gabe, get the media back. We might have a crime scene,” Ethan shouted.

Elizabeth got into position. Her gun was pulled and she was waiting for Ethan to make the decision.

He nodded.

Livy flanked him, also pulling her gun.

They were going in.

As he booted the door, it wasn’t easy to stay calm. This was a part of his past, and he was pissed. Someone was yanking their chains. There would be no way to stop the killer. They’d crossed paths with thousands of people in six years.

They’d never stop this maniac.

The cold truth settled in.

They were screwed.

The door gave way under his boot. It flew back, crashing into the wall. Once inside, nothing had changed in the time they had been gone.

There were all the doilies, teacups, and memories.

It was all there.

They split up, each clearing a section of the house. Elizabeth took the kitchen and dining room, Ethan the second floor, and Livy made sure the back was secure.

The house was empty.

It was eerily quiet.

As they met back in the room Mrs. Feinstein had called her ‘parlor’, Ethan looked haunted.

This was going to be ugly. Elizabeth could feel it.

“I don’t get it.”

She didn't either.

“Ethan, profile it, and fast. This is personal, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. She should be here. He’s putting the victims where it’s personal. Director Donnelly was in Gabe’s yard, because he was the man’s mentor and friend.”

She looked around as he spoke.

“Agent Case was Livy’s partner. He was placed in his home.”

Livy touched his arm. “You can do this, Ethan. We believe in you.”

He was rattled and his brain was a jumble of information. Everything in his head was going a mile a minute. He wanted to profile, but that fear and grief were doing battle to take control.

He wasn’t sure he could do it.

“Kay was like my mother…”

Elizabeth scanned the room. There had to be something there.

Then, her eyes settled on the picture on the piano.

It was of her and Ethan on their wedding day. Kay wasn’t able to attend the wedding, which they had on the reservation, but they sent her the picture. There was a bloody X across Elizabeth’s face.

She got it.

Kay wasn’t only about Ethan.

This woman’s pain was on her too.

Ethan stared at the picture. “I don’t know what to think,” he said, closing his eyes. “I don’t know where she’d be.”

Elizabeth walked toward the door.

Staring down the street, she saw the sale sign blowing in the snowy breeze.

It was her old Brownstone.

She got it.

“I know where she’s going to be, Ethan. I know what the next move in the game is. He’s going to have put her at my old home. She’s going to be in there.”

Heading outside, Gabe was getting the Capitol police in place. The entire street was closed off, and no one was coming or going.

Ethan followed her.

He trusted her abilities to solve cases. Right now, he couldn’t think. He was numb.

Elizabeth began running, sliding all over the place. She couldn’t let her husband walk into that mess. She knew he was right beside her, but all Elizabeth wanted was to be wrong.

She prayed to be wrong.

As they approached the door, she knew her prayers weren’t going to be answered.

There was blood leaking out from beneath the doorframe, tainting the snow on the stairs.

“Don’t,” she said, bracing her arm across his torso to stop him. “Let me do this for you,” Elizabeth offered. “She’s going to be in there, and she’s going to be destroyed. For once, Ethan, let me protect you the only way I can.”

He stared into her eyes, tears filling his.

“She didn't deserve this, Lyzee. She was a kind, sweet lady. She deserved better. Dying because she knew me is...”

“Stop,” she said, facing him. “You can’t react! Not here! Later, let it take you to your knees. Now you can’t let the killer see that this is hurting you. I need you to dig deep and find that icy chill that you pull out when you’re pissed.”

He listened.

She was right.

“Get mad and run this like you’re a Blackhawk.”

He took a deep breath. “I can do this.”

Elizabeth knew he had no choice. The cameras were rolling all around them.

“Switch with Callen and handle the media. Let me do this, Ethan—for her and for you.”

She was giving him an out.

And he was taking it.

Hugging her, Ethan buried his face in her neck. The scent of cookies assaulted him and there was a little more peace than he’d had the second before.

“Thank you for this. I can’t…”

She touched his cheek. “Go.”

Elizabeth broke it all down to Livy. “If that’s her in there, it’s going to be even worse. This killer is making it personal. All the people I love are being targeted. This killer knew that Gabe mattered to me and that you were part of my heart.”

She got it.

“Now Ethan too. We’re in the middle of a fucking chess game, and I don’t like it.”

“We’ll take the sicko down. We can do this, Lyzee. We’re tougher than this,” Livy promised.

She believed her.

If anything, now she was pissed. An angry Blackhawk was a dangerous one.

Callen jogged up the stairs, gun in his left hand. “I’m ready.”

She pointed at the door. “Boot it for me.”

He did what she asked.

They didn't even have to step into the house. The foyer held the body, and it was Kay.

She was beyond mutilated.

The killer had destroyed her. On the big, white wall that had once held all of Elizabeth’s pictures, there was a message written in blood.

‘Welcome home. Three of Seven. This one was for your husband. Are you having fun yet, Elizabeth? Catch me if you can, or maybe I’ll catch you. Kay begged for her life. You’re the reason this happened. Here’s your payback, one life at a time.’

She let it all go.

Elizabeth couldn’t let it be personal. If she did, the asshole behind this had won.

This killer wanted her rattled and off her game. There was no way that was happening. This maniac wanted her loathing herself, so she’d slip up. Only, this killer did something that would prevent that.

This killer hurt her husband. Now, it was personal, and she wouldn’t stop until this was over. Oh, there would be payback, but it wasn’t going to end quite the way this asshole wanted.

Elizabeth was running this her way.

From here on out, she was taking care of this the way she normally would.

No holds barred.

“Gabe, get me a full tech team. I want this place pulled apart and Mrs. Feinstein’s home too. I want every piece of trace they can find, and I want it done in three hours. The clock is ticking.”

Callen pulled on a pair of booties, so he could walk through the blood to clear the house.

Elizabeth followed. Already, her mind was spinning with possibilities. She was going over every case she’d touched the last couple of years.

Now she needed to figure out if this had anything to do with her life before Ethan, or after.

Was she the only target?

Was this all her fault?

God knew she’d pissed off countless people over the years. There’d been clergy, teachers, nurses…

Hell!

She’d probably pissed off God too.

This was daunting.

“What are you thinking?” Livy asked, getting her attention.

“I’m trying to pull this all together. I need a break. I need to figure out how this is related to me. I need to figure out if it’s all about me, or if it’s all about Ethan.”

“What about us?” she asked.

“I don’t know, Livy. I haven’t a freaking clue. That note is only addressed to me. I need to focus and figure this out.”

“You’re not alone in this. You have your family to watch your back.”

She didn't hear her partner.

Elizabeth was staring outside and directly at her husband.

What was she missing?

It had to be here.

 
                      
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