Page 91 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

“Oh, that one is different,” he admitted, and then scrunched up his brow as he was considering something.

“What?” she asked.

He said what he was thinking.

“That particular bone shouldn’t make any sound. The width of The Hollowed-out hole is too big.”

She was listening to him.

“Give it a try.”

Was he insane?

That was the LAST thing she planned on doing with some dead person’s bone.

“Anthony, if you think I’m putting my mouth on that bone,” she began.

“That’s what she said,” he offered, grinning.

Elizabeth refused to laugh at the nut, even if she found him ridiculous and amusing most of the time. Once you gave him an inch, he ran wild with it.

Most of the time, if you let him get started, before you knew it, the circus was in full swing.

PASS.

“Christopher?”

He shoved the man away on his rolling stool, and shook his head.

“Transport it. I’ll update you. I’ll also keep Tony from putting it in his mouth. Why have I said that multiple times in all of these years, Elizabeth?”

Probably because Tony was insane.

She sighed and went there. Since they were talking about the team, it seemed right that she at least asked.

Right?

“How was everything when you arrived?” she asked, knowing he’d know what she meant.

And he did.

“Oddly, calm. Benjamin is taking an hour break. He worked all night. Mass Spec is running, and we’ll have DNA and some other testing done within the hour. At some point, head in. Your gun and badge are swabbed and yours again.”

That worked for her.

In fact, that was her plan.

“See you later, Doctor,” she said, not in a hurry. She had the gun that Michael had given her when she and Callen escaped the treehouse.

He blew her a kiss.

And then, he was gone.

Elizabeth stood, and Takoda was bagging up the whistle bone next as Callen helped him fill out the bag correctly.

Since they’d handled that, now she had time to talk to Rayna. There was no doubt in her mind that she was in potential danger so as of that moment, since focus had moved to her, that had to be handled.

It looked like she had a full-time babysitter now too. Uriel was on Native-police-chief duty until they got this handled.

And she knew he wouldn’t mind.

At that very moment, he was watching her, and she could see the look on his face.

That Cupid’s arrow hit the right person.

For.

Sure.

“What time do you think the dog barked?” she asked, thinking about what she’d been told before.

Uriel was to the point.

“Zero two hundred at the latest. It might have been closer to zero one hundred. I wasn’t wearing a watch at the time.”

Hell!

He hadn’t been wearing much of anything but a sexy Native woman’s hair on his bare flesh.

Instead of going there, since she didn’t need details, Elizabeth focused on the woman.

“You’re stuck with him,” she said, pointing at Uriel. “It’s a safe bet since you brought this to my attention yesterday, that you’re now going to be one of the people targeted by The Hollow. We know there are two, so they can, and might, divide and conquer.”

Well, that sucked and didn’t suck for obvious reasons.

“As for the time, it was close to when we heard the whistling in the woods too. Something is trying to freak us all out. To me, this just proves there’s double the crazy going on with two people.”

“I mean, unless the Wendigo is real,” Callen said, off-handedly.

Elizabeth actually stared at him.

“Callen James. Have you lost your damn mind? Has all that handsome finally made your brain mushy?”

He laughed.

“When on the rez, Angel…”

She just shook her head.

As for the Chief of Police, Rayna didn’t mind the babysitter.

He was sexy.

“You had whistling going on too?” she asked.

Elizabeth nodded, and then, she filled her in.

Well, that appeared to be problematic for all of them. The nuts were nutting, apparently.

When she was about to answer her, the front door swung open, hitting the wall, and someone rushed in.

Everyone pulled their gun, except for Takoda. He had his hands full of bone whistle and a skull.

When they saw who it was, and he stopped moving, they all re-holstered their guns. She’d be lying though if she didn’t notice Ivan was more than his normal twitchy.

The man was not having a fun time on the reservation. Too much shit was popping up at them for his liking.

“Maybe don’t do that,” Elizabeth said, coming face to face with Lance Running Wolf for the first time. “That’s how you get shot by the Feds.”

Granted, she’d be lying if she said this wasn’t incredibly convenient for her. Lance was here, and that cut down on an interview—mostly, hunting him down.

He was, after all, on the council, and she had to wait for the head pickup before she could start digging into interviews with the massive list of people she needed to talk to.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “I was driving by, and I saw all of the cars at my daughter’s cabin. I thought something happened.”

Oh, he could say that.

“She had someone leave her a present,” she said, as Koda held up the bag with the head in it.

The older man gasped.

He saw the head and knew who it was. That was what set him off.

“Oh, God! I knew this was going to happen!” he said. “You angered it. I told you, Rayna, not to get involved. What were you thinking?” he asked.

Everyone just watched the interaction. This was, after all, the Chief of Police’s home.

Not theirs.

At his tone, Rayna sighed.

“I was thinking that someone was killing people, and that was wrong, Dad. So I opted to do my job. I’m crazy like that!”

The man was flustered.

“We need to go,” he said. “You’re coming to my cabin, and we’re staying in until this blows over. Bringing the FBI into this was a bad idea. I warned you!”

She shot him down.

FAST.

Oh, there was no way she was hiding. This was her job, and she’d been a legitimate cop before he convinced her to come home where ‘she belonged’.

“Pass. I’m going to find who is behind this,” she admitted. “I’m helping the FBI. Period.”

Well, he didn’t like that.

Not.

At.

All.

As he moved toward her, it was clear that he saw the hickey on her neck, and that pissed him off. It was blatantly obvious that his daughter didn’t listen to him.

Oh, well, she’d listen now.

“We’re going!” he said, grabbing her wrist.

“Dad, stop,” she said.

When he yanked on her, Uriel moved before anyone else, and he had the man on his knees, his wrist bent into an uncomfortable position within seconds.

“When a lady says don’t and stop, we don’t ignore her,” he offered, a low growl in his voice. “Don’t make me emphasize that more than I am,” he warned.

When she touched his arm, Caspian released her father’s arm.

“It’s okay, Cas. I have this. I’m accustomed to dealing with this kind of bullshit. He’s been bossing me around my whole life.”

At her words, Lance got up, and he did not look amused that the man had stopped him or what she’d just said.

This generation was so disrespectful, and they didn’t honor their customs.

“Who do you think you are?” he asked, rubbing his wrist as he stared at the man. “That’s my daughter.”

Well, since he couldn’t stake claim to Rayna, he just stood there and didn’t say a word, but the look on his face must have spoken volumes.

It riled Lance Running Wolf up too.

“How dare you!”

She stopped her father.

“Hey. I’m not your property, and I’m not his property either.

What I am is the Chief of Police here, and what I say goes,” she said, shutting that shit down.

“You need to stop acting like this, Dad. It’s wearing thin.

This is an official investigation. I’m not playing cop here.

They aren’t playing FBI. Calm down, or you’re getting escorted out of here. ”

From where she stood, Elizabeth liked the show.

There was nothing better than a woman with a set of balls and the ability to swing them around like a weapon of mass destruction.

That resonated with her.

If anything, she now liked the Chief of Police a whole lot more, and that was crazy because she’d liked her from the start.

It was clear that Uriel had his hands full, and that was exactly what the man needed. Rayna would keep his life spicy.

Unfortunately though, for Rayna, her words were NOT enough to slow down the crazy train.

“You slept with her!” he accused.

Only, Uriel didn’t flinch. It wasn’t like everyone here wasn’t well aware of that detail.

Honestly, he didn’t care if the man liked it or not. Rayna was in danger, and the last thing he was going to do was play games.

“And?” he asked.

His voice held that tinge of irritation.

To defuse this, Rayna touched his chest, and felt the body armor that he had gotten from his vehicle.

“Cas, I’m okay,” she said, staring up at him.

When he looked down at her, his face softened, and he took a step back to give her room.

Oh, but he was watching.

If the man got rough, he was dealing with an Archangel, not the man who slept with his daughter. Elizabeth put him on protection duty for her, and he took his job very seriously.

This wasn’t Caspian.

This was Uriel.

The government didn’t give him an Archangel name because he was fun and liked fucking around and find out.

Because she knew he’d never give up, Rayna pointed toward the bedroom so she and her father could have a little conversation.

Not in front of Caspian.

Her sex life was her business.

NOT.

HIS.

“Dad, go in there. You and I are going to have a little talk. Someone is way over the line here, and I’m going to have to discuss boundaries again, I see.”

He stared at the man as he walked past him, and the look said it all.

Lance Running Wolf didn’t like him.

When they were gone, Elizabeth shook her head.

“You should have knocked him out fast. When he came to, we could have blamed Ivan.”

Uriel laughed.

Ivan did not.

Why?

He wasn’t sure she was kidding. With Elizabeth, one never knew.

Elizabeth had work to do, and little time to play around.