Page 118 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

The End Of

The Case

The End Of

Their Time There

The next twenty-four hours was a blur. Yes, they ended up getting Tom Redbear out of the woods, and to the morgue. When he got there, he was as dead as a doornail.

The cause of death?

He bled out.

Apparently, the Wendigo was NOT pleased with all the chaos he’d done.

In this case, chaos had a name, and it was justice.

As for his two sons, they had a GSW to the noggin, and a knife to the chest.

And they had it coming.

On top of that, Elizabeth was able to give Stephen Redbear, the third, slaughtered brother, his identity back. They had confirmation from a dental match that the two brothers had gnawed on their own family member.

What in the hillbilly bullshit was that about?

Charlie raised her redneck, in a small-ass Southern town, but they weren’t that redneck.

It was love thy neighbor, not eat your brother.

Well, she’d never understand it.

That was for damn sure.

They also found the rest of Thomas Adsila. He was packaged up to be sent home with the two brothers as parting gifts. He was wrapped up in butcher paper—like Sunday’s roast in a chest freezer.

Not far away on a shelf?

The book that The Hollow kept with all of the names. They could have made it more difficult, but they didn’t. That told her they didn’t expect to lose.

Oops.

Her bad.

Wyler had been right. His two friends had been killed, and eaten by Tom Redbear years ago.

Oh, speaking of Wyler…

For the next day, there was hella paperwork for her, and a lecture for Wyler for not staying in the cabin—by Ivan. Every time the Marine saw him, he lectured him.

And he got the point.

The woods were NOT anyone’s friend, really. There were things in there that they couldn’t explain.

Like that howl.

For shits and giggles, Elizabeth asked MATE to figure out what had made it, and she’d come back with a shocking conclusion.

There was nothing in her database that was conclusively matched to that sound.

MATE tagged it unknown, and that just made Elizabeth even happier to get the hell out of there. Like Ivan said…thank God they weren’t going to be there for Halloween. That would be one hell of a nightmare.

Call it a hunch.

Luckily, they would be back in DC with everyone they showed up with.

So, it all worked out.

When she got to work the day after the melee in the trees, to do the paperwork, Ian met her there with everything handled.

One of her Marines was heading out.

She’d called Michael in to sit him down and show him what was going on back home.

Because she didn’t lie to family.

He needed to know how dangerous it was to be there and that Riley Cunningham, a man he’d planned on marrying at one point, was a stalker.

He didn’t hesitate to leave.

Bless him.

She was maxed out with stubborn men, and horrible surprises. One more, and she was seeing Callie’s therapy.

Instead of a fight, they got him flown out immediately after, and Saint Michael of the Blackhawks was on his way to not only heal more in Scotland, but to also heal his heart.

She hoped.

Graham had no idea what was about to walk into that castle, and neither did Michael.

Oops.

Her bad.

And the rest of the people who had been involved in this?

Well, Rayna took her father to the medical center to get him checked out, and she didn’t come back.

Oh, and that freaked Caspian out. At first, she had to talk him off the ledge. Once she explained that the woman likely couldn’t bear seeing him leave, he owned that he’d not told her.

Well, BINGO.

Why were men so difficult?

When Caspian put his faith in her, the smile came back, and Elizabeth knew they’d be okay. Another baby bird, of the Marine kind, was leaving the nest.

God.

She was going to miss him too. Uriel had been their longest Archangel, and someone she’d come to love. Only, as a ‘mother’, you had to let them go.

And she was.

Rayna Running Wolf had better treat him right.

Wasn’t she in for a shock?

Hopefully, it ended well, and Cupid hadn’t missed her mark. She didn’t want two Archangels with broken hearts.

It was too bad they were leaving because Elizabeth wouldn’t be able to watch it all unfold.

Next up was the official paperwork for her son. Elizabeth had signed off on it. Takoda was about to be a Marine working to protect her—on paper.

In actuality, she’d be taking care of him as she imparted all of the years of knowledge into him.

Hell.

MATE couldn’t be the only keeper of the secrets in her head, now could she?

Her son had made up his mind, and he wanted in.

So, she’d give him a way. She’d ride him hard, put him away wet—just like Gabe did to her all of those years ago. In ten years, he’d be able to take up the mantle.

And she’d be able to retire.

Maybe.

Time would tell.

Later that night, they all ate dinner together, and she’d told her family—including the kids, that they were heading home.

There were tears, mostly from Wyler that night. Not because of the going home, but because Wyler was inundated with grandkids.

That was when it happened.

He got to hold his first great-grandchild, and it was poignant. It reminded Elizabeth of the few times that Timothy got to hold CJ before he left the world.

Time kept moving, and one day, she’d look back at all of these memories, likely sitting in this cabin with her Shaman husband, and the other men, reminiscing.

Now, all she could hope was this had a different ending than Timothy’s story.

Wyler had to live.

While everyone was dying at some point, she was going to fight to keep Wyler alive.

Not only for her, but for the grandchildren.

As Callen sat beside his father, and his son, Takoda, Wyler held little Oliver—who wasn’t so little.

And there were tears.

Wyler stared into his baby blue eyes, and made a promise to Oliver.

He was going to teach him how to hunt his first deer. The adults there got it.

That meant he was going to fight.

Oh, and there was nothing more stubborn than a Native man on the mission to show his great-grandson how to take down his first kill to feed his family.

NOTHING.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Callen cried because his life had come so far since being here, and Ethan cried because Elizabeth assumed that the man also saw the poignant moment as special.

As Elizabeth snapped pictures of Great-Granddad Wyler holding his first great-grandson, there was peace.

The Blackhawks had averted another disaster.

A.

Big.

One.

It was a night they’d never forget, but it got even better. When the kids had calmed down, and it was just the adults, Elizabeth shared an important moment with Wyler too.

She told him about the playgrounds and swimming pool that they were going to donate to the reservation.

At first, he didn’t get it, until she told him the name.

Again, for the second or third time, since she lost count, they shed tears over that, and Wyler hugged her so tightly that it would forever be embedded in her mind as a memory.

A precious one.

No matter the outcome in Wyler’s story, she knew there would always be this moment.

And that was all she wanted.

In the morning, they had coffee, and were ready to head to the airport, getting the hell out of Dodge. Only, she’d not seen her one husband or Gene all morning.

She hoped they were okay.

When they finally showed up, she realized they’d camped out in the tree house.

And neither had their luggage with them.

“Hey! Were you guys wandering around?” she asked, carrying her bag over her shoulder as security was loading up the kids and getting ready to transport.

It had been a brutal night for Ethan.

He and Gene had it out in the treehouse, and he hadn’t slept the whole night. There was fear, panic, and anxiety, and Gene had spent it trying to talk some sense into him.

Finally, he did.

“Can we talk?” Ethan asked, touching her arm and then holding her hand in his.

Uh-oh.

She knew something was up. All day yesterday, he’d been quiet, and that was never good with him. He’d been weepy, and watching her.

Most of the time, she believed he was just thinking about how close they came.

But still…

A thinking Ethan was an overthinking one. She fully expected him to be worked up over something, but she wasn’t sure what.

“Sure. What’s going on, EJ? We missed you two in bed last night,” she admitted, assuming it was honeymoon nookie, and not blaming them.

God knew she climbed Mount Callen and Mount Christopher a couple of times to make up for not having time during the case.

And no one complained.

In fact, she got multiple standing ovations—which led to encores.

Watching his wife, Ethan was so scared.

He knew that this…this might be the end. He knew what he was going to say to her, and he knew that it was…goodbye.

After a long night of toiling over this, his mind had been made up.

And this hurt.

It hurt so deeply, that he was sure when she left, he’d never get over this.

Pulling her toward the totem outside the cabin, he stood there and held her hand.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my whole life. Only, this is the pivotal one for me.”

She didn’t know what was going on, but she didn’t like the sound of that.

Behind him, Gene was standing there, a blank expression on his face, and that wasn’t good either.

Gene was her ride or die.

Right?

“EJ? What’s going on?” she asked. “You’re off. It’s scaring me.”

Yeah, well, this scared him too. Only, he knew if he didn’t do this, he’d regret it for the rest of his life. It was time for this raven to fly the nest.

So to speak.

“I’m not going back with you, Elizabeth. I’m not returning to DC.”

He dropped that bomb, and it did some damage. His wife actually gasped, as a million things went through her mind.

Ethan saw them, and for that, he was sorry.

For the fear on her face, he felt…guilty. Only, he had to stand up and speak his soul, and hope she could one day forgive him for putting his needs first.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

Ethan explained.