Fire Burns Hot ((An FBI/ Romance Thriller~ (Book 5))) (22 page)

                               *    *     *

Tori slowly came awake, and found herself in
someone’s arms. At first it confused her, but mostly astounded her. There were no dreams. When she fell back to sleep, Tori was sure they would haunt her, but they didn’t.

But now there was a bigger issue. Julian was back in her bed, and Tori knew he was going to ask questions. They were inevitable at this point, and she probably owed him.

“Good morning,” he said calmly. Julian had been awake most of the night, repeatedly checking on her to assure himself she wasn’t dreaming. In fact, he’d slipped the necklace off his own body and placed it over her head, giving her a fighting chance.

The charm was one his father had
worn continually, and swore it kept away the things that scared people the most. Julian wore it religiously, and now he was giving Tori a chance at peace.

“Hi,” she said softly. “I’m sorry about your lip,” again she apologized.

Julian dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “It doesn’t even hurt,” he admitted.

There was that uncomfortable silence between them. “You want me to tell you about it, don’t you?”

He weighed his options. “Yes, because I think I can help you. If you trust me enough, I might be able to help you work through it all.”

Tori didn’t speak.

“Who’s Quinn?” he asked, because he needed to know what she’d say. He had to find out the truth, before he invested anymore of himself.

She tensed. “I guess I said his name.”

“Yes, you did.” Now he began stroking her arm gently, offering peace. “I have you, Tori.”

She laughed
sardonically. “He used to say the same thing to me,” Tori sighed. “I just didn’t reciprocate.”

“What happened,
honey?” he asked, and then heard her phone beeping like crazy.

She rolled away from him, glad to have the space between them, until she could refocus. “They found another body. That was Detective Austin. We have to go, Julian,” she stated in relief.

“We’ll be finishing this tonight,” he said in no uncertain terms. What sat between them needed to be handled.

Somehow Tori wasn’t surprised.

                               *    *     *

Friday Morning

Elizabeth stood in her kitchen holding CJ, as Callen once again
attempted to make them breakfast. It was absolutely adorable how he tried to concentrate on what he was doing. Elizabeth knew that the man wanted to be able to cook in the worst way, but he just didn’t have the ability to master it. This morning he was trying to make pancakes, but it was turning into a hot mess. She refused to laugh about it, because he was genuinely trying his best. When yet another one was burnt, she popped toast into the toaster.

“I’m sorry, Lyzee. I don’t know why I can’t figure this out,” he said dejectedly.

“Oh, sweetheart, so what?” Elizabeth placed CJ in his highchair and placed some O’s on his tray. The boy went after them like they were the best thing in the world. Yeah, he was his father’s child.

It appeared that he would be o
ne more Blackhawk that would eventually be poaching her food.

“I feel like a failure,” he admitted.

Elizabeth went to his side, and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Callen, you don’t need to cook. You have other skills,” she said lecherously, patting him on his ass.

Now he laughed. “So you're just using me for my body?” he grinned, leaning down to kiss her. The kiss went on a little longer than he thought it would, and when Wyler cleared his throat, he pulled away laughing.

“Son, if you’d stop kissing the girl, you might master the cooking,” he offered, dropping a kiss on CJ’s head before grabbing a cup of coffee from the pot.

Now Elizabeth was laughing. “He may have a point,” she offered, and earned a slap on the ass as her reward for the comment.

Just then the toast popped, and Elizabeth snagged the piece. She was having a hard time keeping from being sick. It was the charred smell of pancakes that was getting to her. Baby didn’t like burnt anything and meat. Good to know and bad timing all around.

“I’ll master this yet. If Ethan can do it, so can I,” he insisted, as he watched her skip coffee and eat dry toast. “Stomach?” he asked again.

“I may have a bug,” she said simply, and was thrilled when her phone began ringing. “Blackhawk,” she answered.

“Director, it’s Detective Austin. We have a call in of a body
, and my captain told me to alert you. It’s probably the same killer.”

Elizabeth motioned to Callen to get ready. “Okay, text me the address. We’re walking out the door in two minutes. Did you contact Agent Christensen?”

“Yes, she’s in route.”

Elizabeth was glad. Maybe she could keep the police from jacking up her s
cene. “Meet you there,” she replied, hanging up.

“Dad, we have to go. Another body turned up.”

Wyler just nodded. “I’m taking CJ shopping. We need to get groceries and take care of last minute presents.”

Elizabeth pulled her boots on and clipped her gun to her hip. “Thank you,
Dad. I’d be lost without you,” she admitted.

“Sorry about the mess,” stated Callen, pulling on his boots and clipping his badge and gun to his belt.

“Go. I have it,” he said, looking around at Callen’s chaos. Once they both were out the door, he shook his head. “Uncle Callen needs to stay the hell out of mommy’s kitchen, CJ. He’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

CJ just screeched in delight as his granddad gave him more O’s. He was being fed, and that was all that mattered to him.

The Denali rushed to the scene, lights and sirens screaming into the early morning air. Elizabeth drove and Callen did the navigating. If this was indeed the work of the killer, then they were going to need the entire tech team to come in and sweep.

“Call Chris and tell him step on it. I don’t want the CSI’s touching this one. This scene may be our only chance at finding trace that can help us.”

Callen dialed their ME, and told him what their boss wanted, and then passed on the directions. Hanging up, he held on as Elizabeth drove like a maniac. Generally that was common, but now it was compounded by her need to circumnavigate the scene before the police got their hands on it.

Pulling to a stop where the other cars were, they were just in time to see Julian and Tori trying to talk down the police from accessing the scene. Elizabeth jumped out of the Denali and rushed across the grass to their team.

“What the bloody hell is going on here?” she exclaimed, positioning herself in front of her agent protectively.

“We got a call and we’re here to investigate,” stated Detective Brian Leto. “You’re assuming that this woman is part of your investigation, and you have no right to claim jurisdiction until we check it out.”

Elizabeth could feel the flicker of her temper building. “Oh, so basically what you’re saying to me is that you might perhaps have a killer that’s burning victims on top of the case we’ve taken over?” She motioned over to the corpse, hanging by a chain from the tree. “You get many torched bodies as cases?”

Detective Austin put her hand on her partner’s arm. “Come on Brian, you’re just trying to ride their asses. You know this one’s FBI domain.”

Leto glared at the woman standing in front of him. “We need to secure and check the scene. Then Director Blackhawk can wait to find out if this one is her jurisdiction or ours.”

“How are you planning on doing that?” asked Elizabeth. “Hey I know. Why don’t you have the CSI team that missed a ton of evidence stomp all over
it? Then my team can clean up the mess afterwards again.”

Leto was pissed, as w
ere the CSI’s behind him. “Are you saying we fucked up, Director?”

The southern was
raging to come out. Elizabeth tried to keep it in, but it was about to explode all over the jackwagon. “I’m saying that we’re claiming this to be our jurisdiction. If you don’t like it, take it to my damn boss. His name is Gabe Rothschild, and you can find him out at Quantico. He’s the top dog, and you can voice your displeasure there,” she drawled.

Just then the FBI
tech vans rolled up and disbursed like ants, going into work mode. No one was even bothered that their boss was going head to head with the police. If they had a dollar for every time that happened, they’d all be rich. Elizabeth and local law didn’t mix on a good day. On a bad day there was the potential for a nuclear explosion.

“Sweep it and leave nothing behind!” she yelled over her shoulder. “Now if you don’t mind, Detective Leto, I have work to do. Step your ass behind the crime tape.” As Elizabeth moved to walk away, Detective Leto grabbed her arm roughly. It just happened to be her bad arm, and it hurt wickedly. Elizabeth was about to kick his ass, but she didn’t get a chance.

Callen saw red as the detective put his hands on Elizabeth. Normally he’d let her beat the man into oblivion, as it was highly entertaining, but this was his woman. His and Ethan’s and
no one
put their hand on her in their presence.

Whitefox hit him so hard
, that they landed back against the squad car. Callen had the man by the jacket and stared down into his surprised eyes. “You never want to put your hands on her again. Am I perfectly clear? Next time I will be ripping your fucking arms off and beating you to death with them.”

Everyone around them stopped moving.

“Yeah, you’re clear,” he hissed between his teeth.

Callen stared angrily down into his face.
“We have this, so get the hell away from the FBI’s scene, and take your CSI’s with you.”

Elizabeth whistled and the entire tech crew started back up again. “
Get to work! I want this scene processed ASAP!”

Whitefox got off the man, and placed himself between Elizabeth and Brian Leto. “Have a nice day, Detective.” Callen waited until he removed himself before
turning to face Elizabeth. “Sorry baby,” he whispered, moving closer to her body. “I lost my head all of a sudden.”

She offered him a fist bump. “Way to take him down. Very impressive Mr. Whitefox,” she said laughing.
“You’re getting stealthy. He didn’t even see you coming.”

Detective Austin, Tori and Julian followed them over to the body. It was still hot,
and there was the distinctive smell of cooking human flesh. You couldn’t mistake it for anything else in the world.

Elizabeth felt the bile rise in her throat, and it took everything she had to swallow it and keep it down.

Chris Leonard was kneeling on a tarp they’d placed underneath the charred remains, and slowly removing the woman’s shoes. “Apparently, he dumped the accelerant on the middle part of her body. There are scraps of clothing remaining. After he strung her up, is when he lit her up. When he struck the match, the middle went combustible and then the flames spread up, not down.”

Elizabeth breathed through her mouth. “So tell me what we do know.”

Chris Leonard looked up and laughed. “When I get her back to the autopsy lab, you’ll know what I know.”

Elizabeth was cranky. Her arm hurt
, and she could retch at any second. Her patience was running really thin. “Come on, Doc. Seriously.”

He shook his head.

“Okay, then I’m playing a rousing game of guess the facts.” Elizabeth threatened. “Anyone else want to play a game I like to call ‘speculation’?”

Callen raised his hand. “She liked high heels.”

Elizabeth winked at him. “With what skin is hanging from her legs, she looked to be Caucasian.”

“She’s not that tall,” tossed out Tori.

“Okay, stop it. I get your point,” stated Chris both laughing and finding it irritating. Unsubstantiated guessing bugged the shit out of him. “From my initial assessments, she looks to be a Caucasian woman, standing roughly at five foot six. Hair is gone, as are the eyes cooked, so I can’t tell you color. From the scraps of fabric beneath the body that we found, there are sequins.”

Elizabeth thought about it. “Strippers like sequins.”

Doctor Leonard stood. “So I hear, but since I’ve never been to a strip club, I can’t ascertain if that’s fact or fiction.”

Whitefox coughed and mumbled ‘bullshit’, right before winking at the man.

Elizabeth looked over at Callen and gave him a look, lifting an eyebrow.

“Although
, I haven’t been to one either.” He threw it out there to make her laugh. “Only the things I’ve seen in movies. I swear.”

Tori moved closer to the body. “
He used the basic run of the mill chain that you can purchase at any store. Our killer isn't being elaborate, and the fact that he didn’t know fire would only burn up, tells me that he’s not a pro fire bug.”

“I tend to agree,” said a man behind them.