Page 51 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

“Sit your asses down!” he barked. Then, he tore into them out of frustration. “I could be helping if I didn’t have to babysit! Just listen to me so I can go help! We need all of the Marines in those trees. This is our domain!”

That seemed to work.

Immediately, they stopped trying to get away from him and into the fray.

When the Ethan and Callen broke into the tree line, he pointed at Gryphen. “Don’t let them leave. I have to start searching!” he said, as he took off running after the Archangels and Saint.

Reaching his mates, Ethan slid to a stop.

In that moment, he was in a panic. Not only was his wife missing, but now, the weather was turning. There was a storm coming in and she was somewhere in the woods.

Or with the killer.

Talk about stressing out.

Rayna went to go into the trees to help, following Ivan, but Gryphen grabbed her arm.

“Stay, please,” Gryphen said. “I need help with them. How good are you with a gun?”

She stared at him.

“I’m a Native. I’m better than you.”

Oh, well, he hoped so.

There were only two of them in the clearing along with the ten techs, the two doctors, and the ME. Gene looked like he was about to make a break for it, and Gryphen had to keep an eye on Elizabeth’s inner circle.

They would be the ones who ignored orders to find her—without a doubt.

“Gene,” Ethan said, getting the man’s attention. Immediately, Gene opened his arms, and Ethan headed his way.

He reassured him.

“She’s okay,” he said. “Elizabeth can hold her own. Breathe. Don’t think about the worst-case scenario. She’s damn good at covering her own ass. She’s got this,” he stated.

Oh, Ethan was trying.

Really.

Only, it was damn difficult with this last week. He’d been knocked down so many times that he wasn’t sure how many more he could get back up.

If anything happened to Elizabeth…

Ethan wasn’t sure he could survive that.

Gryphen was damn good at being a Marine, so he took over, and switched his com over to his earpiece so no one heard anything but him.

Then, Gryphen put Ethan and Gene next to Chris and Callen on the one log to keep them trapped with them. He was on one side of them, and Rayna was on the other.

They had them blocked in.

“What happened?” Gryphen asked.

Chris told them.

“We were working, and attacked. It all happened so fast, Gryph. She saved me, and Ivan saved Gene. Then, they took off running. They must have got separated,” he said, as there was thunder in the distance.

Again, since he was damn good at being a Marine, and anticipating anything, Gryphen grabbed Callen by the back of the blazer when he saw him move.

Oh, not on his goddamn watch.

He’d knock them out if need be. They weren’t losing a second Blackhawk to these woods. If there was something nefarious in the trees, the last thing they needed was to let another be taken.

Elizabeth wouldn’t want that.

“You can’t leave. If you go, you make it more difficult for them. Then, they have to focus on you, Callen. Just stay until we figure this out.”

He was fighting that need to leave.

Callen grew up in these woods, and so did Ethan. Now, what had once been home felt…scary.

Haunted.

Oh, and for a few reasons. They never expected there to be a monster hunting in the woods.

EVER.

“They have to find her,” he said. “If they can’t, we can,” Callen admitted, pointing at his brother. “We ran these woods. We know the layout of the land, and all of its secrets. We can find her!”

Gryphen knew he was likely right, and if they couldn’t find her, they might have no choice but to release them. They’d track the Natives tracking the pretty wife.

“Give them time. Let them try.”

Oh, they were all twitchy.

Gene had his arm around Ethan, and they were trying to get through this. He knew what his man was thinking, and it was nothing good.

That was for sure.

Callen needed to think of anything else but the fact that his woman was missing. He was on the cusp of losing his mind.

“What were you guys working on when it happened?” he asked, thinking maybe the killer wanted them distracted from the task. “Anything that you found? Catch us up to date.”

Chris knew he was trying to keep Ethan calm. The man was on the edge after last week, and this wasn’t helping his mental health.

So, he distracted them.

“We were working. Tony was showing us the words etched into an arm bone,” he said, replaying it all.

The men listened.

“Then, something occurred to me. I told Elizabeth to talk to Ethan about Wendigo Psychosis. Before I knew it, she heard something. You know how she is. She focused on something and one second later, I was being shoved to the ground. The arrow would have killed me had she been a second later.”

Jesus.

Christ.

One thing would stir them all up, and it was someone coming after their family.

Were they shocked that Elizabeth saved him?

No.

She terrified them to their bones. Elizabeth was pretty much always on alert, unless she was distracted.

And coming back here was damn distracting.

Chris continued.

“The arrows came in fast. They were back-to-back. Guys, this nut is eating his victims. Tony found gnaw marks.”

“And the bones were burnt on the edges, like they were roasted or cooked.”

Oh, holy shit.

It got worse.

The panic in each one of them exploded.

Ethan pulled away from Gene and began pacing. He needed to work through this for Elizabeth. With their last case, he’d been so damaged he couldn’t help his wife profile.

Now, he had to.

If they couldn’t find her, he knew that there would only be so much time.

He was going over what he knew about Wendigo Psychosis, and the fact that it was arrows used and not bullets from guns.

That told him two things.

Someone was out of their goddamn mind, likely from consuming flesh, and that it had to be Natives. A gun could mean anyone, but arrows…

It was someone on the reservation.

Heading toward one of the arrows on the ground, Gene was right beside him. They could feel Gryphen watching them like a goddamn hawk to make sure they didn’t run into the trees.

Instead, Gene pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket and put them on. Then, he picked up the arrow for Ethan to get a better look.

It was non-descript.

Most of the time, they were made by the hunter, and these…

They didn’t give too much away. It was as if they chose a simple design to continue playing this game of hide-and-seek.

“Benjamin!” Gene called, and the man headed his way without hesitating.

When he reached him, Gene pointed at the arrow on the ground, and the one in his hand. “Run them. I want to know what they are made of, and if they’d killed anything prior to being used today. Check for DNA, and fingerprints.”

The Goth man nodded.

“I’m sorry about the director,” he admitted.

Yeah, that was great, but Gene didn’t want sorry. He wanted action. If they were going to find Elizabeth, and before she became someone’s snack, they needed to keep focused and do their jobs.

QUICKLY.

“Then figure out who, or what had contact with these arrows. Specifically something that can give us the identity of who shot them.”

The man took them, and headed away to bag them for evidence.

Above them, there was a crash of lightning, and the wind was picking up. Unfortunately for them, the heavens were about to open up. There was evidence still on the ground that they’d not gotten to due to the melee.

For now, Callen had to focus and help Gene get this scene covered.

He was scared stupid, but he knew with Elizabeth not there, they had to make sure they preserved the evidence from the killers and the rain.

It was time to work.

“Gather up as much as you can,” he said.

“We’re about to get rained on. The rest, if you can’t move it, cover it.

We’re going to be trying to protect as much as we can for the Deputy Director’s case.

If we don’t get her back, we’re going to need each piece of evidence.

The killer didn’t expect anyone to dig into this, so he or she might not have taken measures to hide their DNA. ”

Now, Callen’s fingers were crossed that the person behind this had their DNA on file. If not, it wouldn’t matter what was on the arrows.

They’d never get all of the Natives on the rez swabbed and tested.

Never.

All around them, everyone hauled ass.

From where he stood, Ethan was trying to help his wife, wherever she was.

He was also praying.

Again.

There seemed to be a lot of that going on today.

Timothy! You can’t have her yet. Please just bring her back alive. Please.

Raphael chimed Gryphen’s phone in order to get an update on what they were seeing in the trees.

When the only bodyguard on the scene tapped his vest, the Archangel’s voice came over the com.

And they could all hear him.

Everyone held their breath, hoping it was good news, and not the worst-case scenario.

“There’s no sign of her. We found drag marks, and then, nothing. We think she was carried after that. We are coming back. We need to get some equipment to use so that we can track her.”

Callen was serious.

“Let us go help! Ethan and I can track her. We can…,” he began, but was stopped.

“No,” Raphael said. “We don’t know if whoever grabbed her is still here. None of them move. We aren’t playing. This is our job, and we’re good at it. It’s just going to take some time.”

God.

Damn.

It.

That didn’t make the family happy. They didn’t know how much time they had before this lunatic was having a snack.

Know what else pissed them off?

As predicted, and with the worst timing known to mankind, the heavens opened, and the rain began pouring down in a heavy torrential downpour.

Perfect.

This fucked them good, and they knew it.

All around them, the techs tried to protect the scene with the tarps that they had brought with them. Tony was shoving bones into body bags as quickly as he could.

It was a scramble to save as much evidence from the bad weather.

As they worked, the men in Elizabeth’s life just stood there not sure what they could do to help. They felt lost, and that wasn’t helpful.