Page 40 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

The woman paused, caught off guard, and that amused Elizabeth.

Now, though, Ivan and Uriel were staring at her but for completely different reasons.

“Uh, why is he joining me?” Rayna asked, feeling the flush move up her neck to her tan face.

Thank God for her ethnicity and no one being any the wiser that she was blushing.

Elizabeth was to the point.

“One, I don’t want you walking through the woods without someone with you. That feels…dangerous. You heard my husband. He was warned that if we poked this, it might get mean. We’re playing with its bone collection.”

As Elizabeth spoke, Rayna was trying not to look at the big man behind her.

Oh, and it wasn’t easy.

“Second, Uriel is like my eyes and ears when I’m not around. I don’t know for a fact if your father is involved,” she said.

Then, she stopped her before Rayna could protest.

Oh, she knew what she was going to say.

“Listen. Don’t get offended. If this has been going on for years, that means it’s not going to stop. If people knew this was happening, like the council, I have to suspect them first. It’s my process.”

Rayna got it.

Now, she wasn’t running this, so she had to give in to Elizabeth. Ultimately, she had other problems.

Honestly, she wished the other man was walking her back to her police cruiser. She was hyper-focused on that problem.

The handsome man behind her was making her uneasy—in all of the ways that told her she wanted to sleep with him.

It didn’t happen often, but once in a while, she found a guy who piqued her interest.

And he had.

His green eyes tracked her, and that didn’t make her afraid.

No.

It made her twitchy and for all of the reasons she didn’t want. He smelled really good, and his hands were massive. She had a thing for guys with big hands. They felt amazing on her body.

Damn it.

Of course, she was going to get interested in a guy who was here temporarily. Why was she not shocked that she’d fallen down this rabbit hole in her life?

That was just her luck.

Elizabeth handed her phone back.

“Head out, get what you can, and Uriel will find me at some point, or he’ll go back to the cabin,” she said, knowing that he understood.

Know who didn’t?

Ivan.

He was NOT happy.

Now, he was in the woods, something was howling, and there was something leaving bodies here as she dismissed one of HIS employees when they were already down a team.

This couldn’t get worse for him.

When Uriel walked the Chief of Police back, he had two people to watch.

“Be careful,” Rayna said. “See you later.”

Elizabeth said nothing.

As the cop began walking away, Uriel was waiting for Ivan to give him the go-ahead.

He wasn’t an idiot.

Ivan would chew ass and spit him out in meaty pieces if he didn’t wait. Someone was testy when his team was confiscated by a certain Blackhawk.

Ivan sighed.

“Go,” he said. “I’ll update you with your assignment, after I kill Elizabeth.”

Uriel only nodded before he followed after the woman.

When he was gone, Ivan kept his voice low, but the tone said it all.

He wasn’t amused.

“If that was to play Cupid, I’m going to be bitchy,” he admitted. “You’re in danger. Uriel’s libido can wait. Your life can’t.”

She reassured him.

“Seriously, Ivan. Do you think it’s a good idea to let the woman who dropped this case in my lap, and who has pulled the cover off of years of homicide walk alone through the woods?”

Damn.

She had him there.

Immediately, Ivan backed off. She was right, and he knew it. The cop would be in just as much danger as she would be since she’d opened this can of foul worms.

“Your point is valid,” he muttered. “But I don’t have to like it!”

That made her laugh.

How could it not?

“Besides, Toady, I’m good,” she said.

Was she?

Meh.

She wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t letting Ivan know that. He was stressing plenty right now. The last thing he needed to know was that she was too.

Heading over to Chris, she knew he was uncomfortable out there. He was looking around like he felt the change in the atmosphere too.

“I don’t like the look on your face, my love,” she said, quietly.

Oh, well, neither did he.

“I don’t like this at all. I feel like we’re being watched, and every time I’ve felt like that, we were being watched. It’s like the chase with Sally. I felt it then.”

Yeah, tell her about it. Now, she had to hope it didn’t go south like that one had.

So, she got him to focus.

“What do we have?”

He showed his wife.

“The Chief of Police dug up some of the remains. Normally, I’d bust balls, but honestly, I want to get the hell out of here, sooner rather than later.”

Elizabeth could count on one hand the times he’d said something like that. Only, his feelings were valid. She was feeling the same.

“How about COD?” she asked.

He completely ignored her question, and instead started babbling in unrecognizable words.

From where he stood, nearby, Ivan laughed in amusement.

“Well, you broke Chris. Good job, Elizabeth. Now, you have more problems.”

She was amused.

“Pig Latin?” she asked, making him smile. The crinkles by his eyes told the tale.

Tony, on the other hand, was more than happy to give her some speculation. In fact, he dove in going whole hog.

In the past, that was never good either.

When Tony was giddy, it was going to be a shitshow. The man had questionable motives when it came to being her anthropologist.

“I bet they were delicious,” he said, getting everyone’s attention.

Uh, what?

“What do you mean by that, nut?” she asked.

He held the one bone in his hand, and showed her what he’d seen.

Yeah, that’s when she saw it. There were gnaw marks on the bones, and she’d been to this rodeo more than a few times in her life.

Someone had chewed on the victims.

“Did I mention that some of these bones look to have been heated up? The charring on the tips tells me your killer liked a good barbeque. This guy was consumed, Elizabeth. Your victim has male hip structure, and was definitely someone’s snacky-snack.”

Well, son of a bitch.

The ‘Hollow’ wasn’t just killing someone once a year on the Summer Solstice, they were eating them too.

This just got that much more dangerous.

And creepy.

It appeared Halloween had come early for Elizabeth, and this was definitely going to be a trick.

NOT a treat.