Page 62 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

“You convinced me. I’ll bring him dinner. Hopefully, you’re right.”

Elizabeth laughed.

All of the security were like her children, with the exception of Ivan. He was just her co-parent when it came to wrangling them.

“I’m right.”

Rayna took a chance.

“Well, I’ll babysit this book and that magnificent dog while you go do whatever it is you plan on doing with your captive father-in-law in the tree.”

She laughed.

When she said it like that, it was weird.

Maybe keeping the man trapped up there was bizarre, but in this case, he was a runner—as he’d proved last week when he headed here.

“Tell my ME I’ll be right back. I need a ‘‘come to Jesus talk’’ with Wyler.”

Yeah, for her, it was time. As she left, Kanje headed toward the cop, and she went outside to do the deed.

Oh, she wasn’t looking forward to it, but she’d handle it.

Because she was a grown-ass adult.

When she reached the tree, Muriel was right behind her. As the woman put the ladder up for her, Elizabeth climbed into the treehouse.

When she got inside, she didn’t look at Wyler. Instead, she focused on Uriel.

“Cut out. You can head to the RV for the night. You’re going to need to get some downtime. I’m going to say everyone is working late tonight, and almost everyone is tied up with duty. You’ll likely be on me in the morning.”

He nodded.

When he went to walk past her, Uriel stopped. He’d been thinking about her while he was babysitting Wyler. When he found out she was safe, he was able to be a little less bitchy.

Honestly, he wanted to go hunt down anyone who hurt her. Elizabeth was their family.

She was the one person who understood the Marines, and kept them afloat when they were sinking fast.

They were loyal to her.

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt. I wanted to go search for you, but I was on duty,” he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

She understood.

“I know. It’s okay. I managed to use all of the skills I’ve learned by being around you guys to get back to everyone. I’ll see you in the morning for duty. I love you, Caspian.”

He winked at her.

“Love you, too, Mom.”

Then, with that, he climbed down, and moved the ladder. Muriel would let them down when Elizabeth was finished. For now, though, Wyler had to face the music.

Oh, and it was going to be a long-ass song.

That was for sure.

When she faced Wyler, he opened his mouth, but she shut him down.

“No. You leaving us in the dark cuts off any chance of you going first,” she said. “It’s my turn. Your actions spoke louder than words, and I’m incredibly hurt and angry with you, Wyler. I’ve never been this angry.”

That was a lie.

She had been this angry with him when he ran off with Maeve because she was pregnant, and married her without letting them be part of his wedding day.

That had stung.

Only, she let it go, but this…

There was no letting this pass without saying her piece to him. Family protected, but it also called you out on your bullshit when you had made a mistake.

Wyler stared at her.

Oh, boy.

She was angry.

Wyler didn’t move from his spot, sitting on the floor of the treehouse.

She needed to get this off of her chest.

“First, I’m sorry your cancer is back. You’ll never know how deeply that news damaged me, since you don’t think of yourself as my father. Clearly.”

Jesus.

That hurt Wyler.

He did think of himself as her father. Wyler would keep saying this to the end of his days. There were no in-laws in his world.

Elizabeth was his daughter, and that she felt she wasn’t…that was not exactly a fun thing to hear.

Then again, he’d done them all dirty.

She continued.

“Next, you hurt all of us. To find out you have cancer from Caryn, only after you flaked on seeing your grandson born, is so goddamn hurtful. I know you are upset, scared, and devastated, but we didn’t deserve to pay for that.

We’re Blackhawks, and Timothy wanted us to stay intact and have each other’s backs.

You’re damn lucky he’s dead, Wyler. If he wasn’t, he’d be kicking your ass. ”

He said nothing.

Why?

She was right.

“The least you could have done was call us. Hell! A text was better than a phone call from Caryn on what was supposed to be a joyous day. It was hella selfish, Wyler. It crushed all of us for so many reasons.”

He was seeing that now.

It hurt his heart.

“Then, to hear you’d tucked yourself away here, not caring about the fallout was atrocious.

We all get you’re scared, but so are we.

I have to figure out a way to tell CJ and EJ, your grandsons, that you’re not going to be here for Christmas.

I have to tell them that this is the last summer they will ever get with you.

How am I supposed to do that, Wyler? How am I supposed to tell them to say goodbye? ”

There was so much emotion in her voice that it made his heart hurt. It was clear she was carrying the weight of this, and that hadn’t been fair to dump on her.

Timothy had been right.

“I’m going to have to explain to the girls that their granddad wasn’t going to be here anymore and that when we pack up and head home, they’ll have to say goodbye. I’m going to have to sign it to TJ that his father was dead now too. Then, tell him he’d been shuffled off onto his uncle.”

She had tears in her eyes.

All that rage bubbled up that she couldn’t save him. Oh, she could save herself from a killer, and get justice for the dead, but she couldn’t make the parents they all loved stay.

Not Catherine, her mother.

Not Charlie, her father.

Not Sam, the man who put her back together again.

Not Timothy, who raised his grandsons.

Not Wyler, the man who bailed a few too many times.

“How shitty is it to first find out your father is dying, and then, that you’re being bequeathed to your uncle like some consolation prize? TJ is old enough to understand, Wyler, and it’s fucking selfish, and I’m so goddamn angry with you.”

He didn’t try to talk.

Instead, he let her get it off of her chest.

Oh, he knew an Elizabeth storm when he saw one. Normally, it was one of his sons at the other end—not him.

“If that’s not bad enough, we uproot everyone. I’m talking the whole family, and get on jets to get here. When we arrive, you’re not even here. You’re off playing Native son in the woods.”

She took a deep breath.

That rage was painful because even in the end, she couldn’t save Wyler. She’d have to kiss him goodbye, and put him in the ground. Then, she’d have to take care of the people who were left behind.

And she wasn’t strong enough anymore.

All the years of this stripping away her soul had made her weaker when it came to losing family.

“Then, I end up working out of a place I hate, and your sons hate. We end up coming back to a location where all of our lives were shattered. Chris had to stare down Cyra’s death, and the time he spent here watching me move on.

Callen had to come back to a place that trapped him for thirty-some years, and a place where he had to endure sexual assault as a child. ”

Now, Wyler had tears. They slipped down his cheeks as he listened to the anger, and accepted it.

She was right.

Elizabeth needed to get it all out. If she was going to get her bearings, and the storm would pass, she’d need to vent and then regroup.

It was the only way.

“Ethan had to come back and face a place where he’d been betrayed by his father, and grandfather.

By a place that allowed him as a teenager to be ripped away from the only home he knew and put in foster care.

To this day, he doesn’t tell anyone what he endured, and we don’t ask because his heart is still damaged over that.

He was taken away and his father never showed up to stop them, Wyler.

You made him, and passed him off like you’re trying to do with TJ. ”

Her lower lip quivered.

Oh, Christ.

She was right.

He was doing that to Ethan, and he’d not even considered it. He was making him raise his brother, when he’d been abandoned himself.

“Then, he has to come back to a place that haunts him. A place where he woke up as a boy and went in to see his mother to touch her cold, dead body ALONE. He had to run to Timothy’s in the snow to tell the man his mother was dead! Are you fucking kidding me?” she asked.

Elizabeth knew security was all over the place. Not far away, Muriel was guarding the base of the tree, but she knew Demeter was around too.

And she didn’t care.

Fuck it.

This needed to be said.

“And now, you abandon ship again.”

Oh, he was aware that what he did hurt them. At the time, no, but now…absolutely.

He really fucked up.

Elizabeth was pacing in the treehouse.

“Then, I have to face down the demons. The very short time I had with Timothy before the BURDEN of this family was dropped on me—instead of the next oldest member. I had to take on fixing EVERYONE.”

That hit him hard.

They had dumped this on her.

It never occurred to Wyler that it leap-frogged over him onto someone who didn’t need the extra burden.

Elizabeth was to the point.

“It wasn’t fair then, and it certainly isn’t fair now.

You ran all of your goddamn life, Wyler, and people cleaned up after you.

Your son who had to collect you at the bar, watch you puke, and save you from your stupidity.

Your other son who had to stay away from here because coming back here reminds him of the day they took him away. ”

She kept going because she was so angry she could spit fire.

“Then, if that’s not enough to anger your family, I find out from the ATTORNEY that you want the same funeral as Timothy. Not you coming to me and saying what you want, but using an intermediary in the coldest, cruelest way possible.”

He felt that to his core.