Page 54 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

As she jumped higher, she was able to reach a root of some sort. It was sturdy enough to hold her, but it wasn’t long enough to climb.

This was going to be about dead lifting her whole body up and out of that hole.

Thank Freaking God she worked out.

If not, she’d be stuck in there for who knew how long until they came back.

As she pulled herself up, she was able to get the toe of her boot onto the opening of the ledge, and give her enough leverage to wiggle toward it.

Just as she got her ass to safety, the root snapped, and fell to the ground, nearly taking her with it.

Elizabeth knew how close that had been.

Today, apparently, was her lucky and unlucky day. Hopefully, it was only good luck from here on out.

Lying there, she caught her breath as the cold summer rain hit her.

What she’d like to do was wait it out, but what she was going to do was put on her big girl panties and walk back toward the site.

AFTER she got the deer head up to her. There was no way she was leaving that behind.

PASS.

Slowly, she pulled on the vine, and the skull moved up toward her. When she could grab it by the antler, she pulled it through the mouth of the cave and onto her lap.

She.

Was.

Out.

Holy shit but she wanted to weep.

That had been terrifying.

At some point, the adrenaline would crash, and she’d need to break down. Oh, it was most definitely coming, and coming fast.

Only, for now, she wasn’t done.

This was the next hardest part.

She had to keep moving.

There was no way she’d be safe here. There were two of them, and she wasn’t going to do hand-to-hand with anyone armed and cuckoo.

They had her gun, after all.

Screw that.

As she made the trek back to the site, MATE had the topographic hologram up, and she was making her way toward the location.

Halfway there, MATE warned her.

“I’m shutting down, Mother. Power levels are too low to keep…”

And she was gone.

Well, that was damn good timing. At least MATE held on long enough to get her pointed in the correct direction.

As she moved through the trees, Elizabeth was acutely aware of the space around her. She kept herself moving, even when she was tired, wet, and cold.

Now, it was about fighting for her kids and spouses.

Walking about fifteen minutes, it was when, off in the distance, she heard her name being called.

Then, nothing.

Had they given up?

Or were they hopefully securing the evidence on the scene so that they could find whoever was behind this?

Following along the cave, but outside of it, she ran parallel with the rocky hill that was actually a mountain. From the look of it, no one had been messing around with it.

Did no one know the cave was there?

The entrance she’d escaped from was pretty well hidden between the trees and another wall of stone.

Well, they would be going back.

At some point.

As she trudged along, the hair on the back of her neck was standing up, and she didn’t think it was the cooler rain giving her goosebumps.

Yeah, she was being watched.

There was no doubt in her mind.

They were out here.

Oh, and she was easy prey without her gun or backup. For now, she focused on her surroundings.

She needed to be bagged for evidence, and then to break down and cry.

Only, she wasn’t sure in which order.

And that was problematic.

* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *

The Clearing

That Exact

Same Time

Finally, the rain was slowing down, and they had backup coming to help them.

Unfortunately, the Blackhawks knew that they couldn’t trust anyone from the reservation to help search for Elizabeth.

Ethan knew that it could be anyone doing this, specifically since the deaths were once a year.

The only tribe member allowed to assist was Rayna. She’d been with them at the time when Elizabeth had disappeared, and they figured she could be trusted.

As for the techs, they were packed up, and stuck there. They couldn’t risk losing any of the Marines to escort them back to their vehicles to return to the office. They also couldn’t let them help search.

All they needed was to lose another person, and Axelle would lose her nut when she found out.

Fortunately, they had equipment coming, so the Marines could go back into the trees when the weather cleared a bit.

There was some blue sky heading their way, that they could see, and that would be optimal searching weather.

The Marines didn’t want to risk stomping on the ground and muddying up the tracks.

On top of that, they were waiting on reinforcements to show up.

Basically, more agents.

Their agents.

When they radioed back, Ethan had called Alex and Duke, wanting them to show up. They would need help searching.

Axl was also on the way.

For them, the bottom line was that the more boots on the ground, the better.

As the men were standing there, Ivan was pacing. He was feeling guilty.

Oh, they knew why too.

Immediately, Callen tried to calm him down. While they were all scared, they needed Ivan focused. He had been Marine special forces. If anyone could find Elizabeth, he could.

“You were watching three people, and someone tried to shoot you both with arrows. It’s not your fault.”

Ivan didn’t believe that.

“If we can’t find her, I don’t think I’m going to be okay. I know I won’t be. She’s a pain in the ass, but she’s mine. She’s my sister, and I love her.”

They knew.

There was no doubt there. What crazies did in their chaos sprees wasn’t any of their faults.

That’s why they weren’t angry with the man. Security could only do so much, and they’d made them all leave their lives behind to head to Damascus.

If Callen was pointing the finger, it was going to be at his father.

Or them.

“I have to find her. I can’t do this,” Ivan admitted. “I’ll risk the muddy tracks. The sooner I get out there, the sooner we have answers.”

That’s when someone cleared their throat.

“How is it that I can be married to three men, shacked up with a boyfriend, and have half a platoon of Marines at my beck and call, and still have to schlep shit back in a rainstorm after an abduction?” she asked. “Can anyone answer that?”

They all turned, and saw her.

Oh, and she was a mess.

Elizabeth was down to her tank top, carrying a deer head, and muddy as hell.

“Miss me?” she asked, getting all of them to head her way.

They.

Hauled.

Ass.

All of them moved at her and she had to stop them in there tracks.

“NO!” she said. “I’m walking evidence. Don’t touch me,” she warned. “We need what the rain didn’t decimate to test for DNA.

They stopped.

Thankfully.

“I need to be transported back to the house where my things are collected,” she said.

All four of the men she was in a relationship with looked about ready to weep.

“How?” Callen asked.

She laughed sardonically, still amped up on adrenaline. With each step closer to them, she wanted to run faster and faster. At some point, she was going to crash, and she didn’t want to be here.

This was way too close for her peace of mind.

“It’s a long story,” she admitted. “A long, annoying, pain-in-my-ass story.”

Checking her out without touching her, Chris didn’t like the gash on her forehead by her temple.

Not.

At.

All.

“Before you start diagnosing me,” she began, whistling for a tech.

When none came, she rolled her eyes.

“Benjamin, when I whistle, holding evidence, that’s your signal that I want to unload said evidence! I’m not starting to get ready to sing a tune!”

At that, he hurried her way and looked both in awe that she’d gotten away from this killer, and annoyed that his evidence was a mess.

And that’s what made a tech good.

They could multitask.

“You look like shit,” he admitted.

That made her snort.

“Well, I feel like shit, so thanks. A girl loves it when you compliment her. I’m going to say you’re single?” she asked.

All he did was nod, and she handed him the deer head for evidence.

And then, she untied her shirt, setting her blazer free.

“Open it,” she said, now that the rain was almost stopped.

Tony did, since he was the one wearing gloves and wouldn’t contaminate it further.

As he opened it, he gasped.

Inside, he found a knife, bindings, and something covered in blood.

“Did you kill the dude and take his things as a trophy?” he asked, never so happy to see her than at that moment.

Elizabeth clued him in.

“I wish, but I’m telling you right now that they are watching us. I feel off, and I can tell they are studying us. This might have been a test to see what we can do.”

Oh, well, her family didn’t like that. If that were the case, there might be another attempt at someone.

Maybe her.

It was rare that anyone could get within five feet of her, but unfortunately, they were running with less than half staff here in Damascus.

All of the Marines were assessing the situation. If need be, there was no doubt in her mind that they’d piggyback her out of here.

“THEY?” Gene asked, picking up that not-so-subtle clue.

Elizabeth nodded.

Because she knew the men needed it, she went to Chris and kissed him softly on the lips without touching him.

Then, Ethan, and then Callen. Finally, she kissed Gene.

“You’re going to be grounded so long,” Gene whispered, warning her. “Ivan is about ten seconds from a stroke. You really pushed his blood pressure pills to the limit today.”

Oh, she could tell.

Turing, she looked at Toady.

And warned him.

“This is NOT your fault. There are two of them,” she said, kissing Ivan on the forehead. “Like I just said. We aren’t looking for one nut job. We’re tracking two.”

They were all just standing there, so she explained.

For now, she was safe.

Later, who knew?

“We were chasing the one, and I was hit so hard, it slammed me into a tree that was downed. It damaged MATE and my watch. The arrow didn’t help either. I couldn’t communicate with any of you, or I would have made contact. They got my gun, badge, and phone.”

Oh, they were aware.

Ivan had them all.

Ethan was staring into her eyes, and she was freaked out. Never let it be said he didn’t know his wife.