Page 32 of The Valiant Knight (The Ravensmire Chronicles #2)

Tony shrugged.

“You asked what I first thought. That’s what went through my head. I wanted to tie her to my bed.”

Gabby pulled an earbud out and explained.

“Tony is VERY literal. You asked for his first thought, and that was it. He’s being serious. Tony likes the kink. Don’t get him started. You’ll end up knowing too much about him. He will offer up pictures.”

He reached for his phone.

“Don’t,” he said. “I want nothing to do with your tally whacker in a picture. I mean it.”

Tony laughed.

“Suit yourself, but the answer is still the same. The second I saw her, with those sexy eyes, I wanted her tied to my bed. The second thing I thought was her body was amazing, and then, I was trying to figure out if there was a way to keep her. I was willing to go to extremes to make that happen.”

He stared at him.

“And you’re a Fed?”

He grinned.

“Trust me, no one is more shocked than me, Elizabeth, and sometimes my bestie, Chris. I like being bossy in bed. I can’t help it.”

Yeah, he bet.

“So, I guess you could say that I knew she was the one. She made me work for it, but I loved every second of it. Imagine her face when she ran away to escape me, and then I was her boss on a dig. Then, I made her mine, and she’s been mine since.”

Finn needed to know one thing, so he tapped Gabby to get her attention. When she pulled an earbud out, he asked her.

“He’s not a serial abductor, is he?”

She snorted.

“No, he’s not. We all think he’s on the spectrum, and Elizabeth thinks he’s special. We have no way to quantify it. Smart people are odd, and Tony leads the pack.”

He could see that.

The whole time, the man was grinning like a crazy person.

“Anyway, Tony, I just know. Like you knew you wanted to break the law and tie down a woman.”

He snorted.

“When your lady likes a slap on the ass, you slap her on the ass,” he said. “It’s that simple.”

Now, it was weird.

Thankfully, Gabby was done.

When she turned the tablet, she slid it toward her man so he could see that she hadn’t been kidding.

“You got a pretty good review. You’re always late with your reports, and off the record, your boss has a thing for big breasted Asian porn.”

He blinked.

Where did that come from?

“What?”

She hit a button, and Finn got a peek into the man’s computer. All of the downloads showed up, and he felt dirty just looking at them as they opened on the screen.

“Oh, holy shit.”

She smiled.

“So, to explain the process, I searched his name, and I found it by looking up the polis website. Once I found his name and his face, and was able to get his address. Scotland doesn’t have a lot of firewalls.

They should get some. Then, I hacked into the server—by way of your access, tracked it back to his house, and took a look.

All I had to type in was performance, and that got me a bunch of stuff. ”

Finn was staring with his mouth open.

He was caught off guard.

“At that search, your review came up, and a few websites on how to make your performance better, and a man’s dick harder. Once I found that, I kept digging, and he takes Viagra. A lot . Isn’t he married?”

That said it all.

“Jesus, but he is.”

She laughed.

“Oh, well, then I typed in porn. That’s when I found all the busty Asians.

He also pays for a porn site and swings by and views it every night around ten.

I’m going to say to take the edge off before bed after the wife is asleep because I doubt they are doing it together.

It’s the same time every night. He has a favorite woman too. Her name is Mei Lay Me.”

Tony laughed.

“I’m going to bet that’s not her real name, and that your boss, Finn, has more kinks than me.”

Finn blinked.

“You did that in like two minutes.”

She shrugged.

“I’m a hacker. It’s what I do. Let’s see what you have on your computer.”

The joke was on her.

“I don’t own one. So, nice try, Hacker. I’m not being anyone’s victim.”

She lifted a brow.

“No porn?”

He was honest.

“I’m old-fashioned.”

Tony got it.

“Magazines?”

“Absolutely. They are under my bed because I’ve been single for three years. A guy has to do what a guy has to do. Any man who says he doesn’t whack off to porn is either a liar, or has been dead a week.”

Tony laughed.

“Been there,” he said, holding out his fist for the man to bump.

That made Finn laugh.

Truth be told, Tony was growing on him.

Now that she’d done the job, Gabby shut the tablet down.

“Now, since I proved what I can do to my skeptical boyfriend here, tell me how to inform Elizabeth that I’m leaving,” she said.

Finn couldn't believe she was going to do that.

For.

Him.

That made his heart light and airy, and he felt like he’d won the lottery. It also didn’t make him happy to be called a boyfriend. He wanted so much more than that.

He wanted it all.

Because he’d known Elizabeth for a very long time, Tony was honest.

“You’re best off just calling her and owning it. Tell her you’ve met someone. IN A DAY , and go from there. With her, she leans heavily into the romance thing. That will get her every time. Everyone calls her Cupid for a reason, it’s not because she can shoot a bow and arrow.”

She considered it.

“Should I do it now?” she asked, glancing at her watch to check the time.

Honestly, he would.

“Yeah, but don’t tell her about the ghosts! She’ll literally kill her husbands. Not even joking. Elizabeth is a woman on the edge about this castle. When she busts balls about it for this long, it’s on her last nerve.”

Gabby got it.

“Okay, so pretend the ghosts don’t exist.”

As soon as he said it, the lights flickered, proving that the ghosts knew they were being talked about.

Yeah, not telling Elizabeth until they got a handle on this was probably for the best.

Considering.

Pulling out her phone, she dialed her boss, and when she came on the phone, she was somewhere she didn’t recognize.

“Hey, Gabs. What’s happening? How’s the castle that I never wanted?”

She laughed.

Yep.

Tony was right.

She was still angry about it.

“Oh, it’s good. It’s a really nice place. You’re going to love it here. You have a waterfall not far from the castle, and a field of flowers.”

She stared at her.

“Do I look like a hippy who wants to roll in some flowers?” she asked. “Do you think in my downtime, I’m singing Kumbaya and dancing around a bonfire in floral prints as I toke a few on a joint?”

Gabby laughed.

“Sometimes?”

That amused Elizabeth.

And that was the point.

“Boss, I needed to talk to you. Is this a bad time?” she asked.

Elizabeth shook her head.

“No, Honey. I’m getting a mani-pedi for the Presidential Gala in a couple of days. If I don’t bite the bullet and get it done now, I won’t. I fully expect a case any minute. I can feel it coming. Something will bite me in the ass.”

She was sure.

It always did.

“We need to talk.”

Elizabeth paused.

That immediately put Elizabeth on edge. Those four words always did.

A ‘talk’ was never a good thing.

Immediately, she went there.

“Oh, no,” she said. “What did you find? Is the whole basement full of bodies? I figure that’s about my luck. Gryphen and Ian promised me it wasn’t, but people don’t tell me shit so I don’t lose my mind and kill Callen and Chris.”

She laughed.

Well, she nailed that one.

That was exactly what they were trying to do as they figured all of this out before she got there.

“I mean, Duncan is here, and now Ceit. We are putting her back into her crypt to be respectful. That’s what Callen and Chris wanted.”

She sighed.

“What then? Because for you to call me on day two of you being there, it’s only one of two things. You’ve met someone and aren’t coming back, or you want to come back right now because the ghosts are a pain in the ass.”

Trying to pull the wool over Elizabeth’s eyes was an impossible task. Most of them believed she had a super heightened sixth sense and could read mind. If they ever said that out loud, she’d kill them.

Instead, she proved she was right.

Gabby turned the phone.

“Deputy Director Elizabeth Blackhawk, this is Detective Inspector Finn McKnight. You nailed it. I met someone and I’m not coming back.”

She stared at him.

And.

Said.

Nothing.

So, Gabby tried to lighten the mood.

“I know it’s fast and…”

Her boss shut that down, and wasn’t having it. Yeah, not at all.

“Special Agent Lopez, give him the phone and take a walk.”

She gasped.

Uh-oh.

She didn’t see this coming.

“What?” Gabby asked.

Because she didn’t do as she asked, Elizabeth went there again.

“I think that was crystal clear, Doctor Lopez. Give the Detective Inspector the phone, and scram.”

Uh-oh.

She never called her that. It was Gabby or Gabs. It was rarely Special Agent or Doctor.

RARELY.

Gabby was panicking.

Elizabeth helped her out.

“Tony, take the woman for a walk. Give me five,” she said.

Well, he wasn’t ignoring that.

Grabbing the phone, he handed it to Finn, and planned on listening to his boss.

“Good luck, Son,” Tony said.

Gabby wasn’t feeling well, and the man she was starting something with could see that.

“I’ll be good,” he said, not sure what this was about, but he’d do whatever was needed to keep Gabby here with him.

When Tony dragged Gabby away, Elizabeth stared into his eyes, and only asked one question.

“Do you love her?”

Finn didn’t hesitate.

He nodded.

“Yes.”

Elizabeth asked even more questions.

“And how does she feel about you?” she asked, waiting for his reply.

“Well, she said she feels the same. Am I to assume that’s not accurate?” he asked.

She stopped him.

He was getting testy.

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Detective Inspector. She’s family, and I’m going to protect her. If you take this on, Fineas McKnight, you do it right.”

He blinked.

“Did you just first name me?”

He’d better bet his bippy she did.

She was to the point.

“I didn’t send two people I care about to that country without doing my legwork. I investigate serial killers, so assume that I investigated you.”

Oh, boy.