Devil Hath Come (an FBI/Romance Thriller ~book 7) (36 page)

~ Chapter Nine ~

Cyra hadn’t heard from him all day, and she honestly hoped
that Elizabeth’s advice would pan out. Leaving him alone to think was beginning to feel like a very bad idea.

At any second, she was going to start the desperate texting, to just hear anything from him.

Certainly by now, he was over it.

God, she couldn’t handle it.

It was decided. Now, the texting would begin. What did Elizabeth Blackhawk know about men anyway? Picking up her phone, she started a message, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door.

Going to
see who was there, she peeked out and found him. Okay, she took that back. Apparently, Elizabeth did know more than she did, because Chris was standing there and looked just as miserable, if not more.

When Cyra opened it,
she waited for him to speak. “Can I come in?”

He’d stayed away as long as possible. He needed to face the truth and just get it out. If she walked away because of some weirdness in his family, what could he do? At least he had the memories.

And the hurt.

“Sure,”
Cyra answered as took a seat on the edge of the bed while he took off his jacket.

He didn't know where to even start.

“Are you avoiding me, Chris?”

There was no way
that he was going to lie to her. Although he sucked at dealing with women, he at least knew that lying to them was a bad idea. “Yes.”

“Why? What did I do?”

It all came out in a gush. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “It’s not you. It’s my life. I wish I had a normal mother that didn't scare every woman away that I ever brought home. Belladonna Leonard is hard to appreciate, and I don’t want to make you run for your life.”

She watched him
as he purged it all off his chest.

“Why can’t I have a mother that doesn’t dance naked in the moonlight around a sand circle? Or celebrates weird holida
ys with even more bizarre customs? What normal person has to plant rosemary at each door to keep evil spirits from moving in?”

Cyra wanted to smile, but managed to hold it back.
The poor man was getting himself worked up for no reason at all.

“Is it so damn wrong
, that for once, I want to be normal? I don’t want to worry that you’re going to look at the mausoleum and run from me.”

Chris dropped into a chair and sat there staring at her dejectedly.

It wasn’t hard to see how to handle it, and now that she knew why he was so upset, they could deal with it. “If you want the truth, I’m kind of jealous of all that.”

He stared at her like she was a few crackers short of a box herself. “What?”

“Your life must have been fun. Growing up was an adventure for you, and it had to be amazing.”

Now
, it was his turn to stare blankly at her.

“Christopher,
ordinary is overrated. I grew up normal and my brother is still an embarrassment. He gets paid to set criminals free. My dad’s wife grills any man I bring home and tries to set me up with only Jewish guys. Your life growing up at least sounded like fun.”

He never thought about it that way.

“I think you’re so worked up because you like order and science and your mother makes you crazy.”

Chris laughed. “She picked out my house
, and I hate it.”

Cyra stood and crossed to him. “Then sell it, but I can promise you right now,
that I’m not having a relationship with you because of your mother or house. I’m with you because you’re really good in bed.”

H
e opened his mouth as she caught him off guard.

Cyra started laughing. “I’m kidding. I’m with you because you’re funny, sweet, polite, and
very sexy. Just focus on that and stop trying to over think my motives or feelings.”

This was what he wanted to believe so badly.

“Your mother won’t scare me, but you walking away and avoiding me all day was frightening. What we have is pretty great and I don’t want to quit now. We just began this adventure and I love every second of it.”

He hoped she was telling him the truth.

“Why did you think I’d run because your mother is Wiccan?” she asked.

Chris pointed at her throat.

It took Cyra a minute to figure out what he was talking about and then it dawned on her. “My necklace has you all worked up like this?”

“You’re wearing a cross and my mother is a witch,” he answered. “They don’t really go together
all that well.”

She
finally got it. “Remember how I told you that my mom died of cancer?” she asked, touching the little gold cross with her fingertips.

“Yes.”

“She was wearing it on the last day that I had her in my life. I don’t wear it because I believe in the power behind it, but because it was my mother’s. It reminds me of her. When I think about her, I always see her with it around her neck and it gives me peace.”

Apparently, he’d made a big assumption there. It was funny, because when it came to his job
, he refused to speculate. Here, he had done just that with Cyra.

“You and I are all that matters in this relationship. How about we worry about that and stop sweating the things we have no control over?”

“You’re right.”

She
was well aware of that fact. “Do you feel any better?”

“Yes I do,” he replied. How could he not? His girlfriend had just accepted the scariest part of his life without batting an eyelash
. This was a bigger win for him than when he found out he could legally change his name.

Then he paused
as realization dawned.

His name.

Chris stood up. “I need to tell the Blackhawks something! Do you want dinner?” he asked, excitedly. Not only had he fixed them, but he believed that he had found a way to find the name of the first victim.

Cyra was a little caught off guard. One minute
, they were talking about them and the next, he was off to something else. “Uh, yes. Okay.”

“I’m going to run up to their room
, and then go grab us take out. I’ll be right back.” He turned, starting for the door and then decided to take a chance. Turning, he went back and pulled her into his arms. The kiss was searing and full of passion.

She held on for the ride
and found herself being turned on by the battle of tongues. She wasn’t sure how long it lasted, but finally he broke away.

He looked around
the room in confusion. “What was I going to do?”

That
one statement made her laugh. “You were going to talk to the Blackhawks, and then go get us take out,” she answered, handing him her room key. “I’m going to shower and wait for you.”

“Can I sleep here
with you tonight?” he asked. Chris never wanted to never leave her side either.

“I think that can be arranged. You better get moving then.” She laughed as he raced
away. Her heart skipped in her chest, at the silly look on his face, as he closed the door.

Yeah,
there was no doubt. She was definitely in love.

Outside, Chris tucked the key into his pocket
as he walked away grinning. Now, he needed to take care of those two little things and the evening would be perfect!

He watched him leave.

There was so much anger and rage in him at that moment.

The woman behind the door was the reason
that he was sent away like he did something wrong.

It was all Cyra’s fault. There was no doubt in his mind that she was going to work her way up the FBI ladder by sleeping with the doctor.

Everyone at FBI West knew that when it came to the Blackhawk inner circle, Chris Leonard was in it. He held a special place in Elizabeth’s heart. Often, he’d find her down in his office having coffee with the man and laughing without a care in the world. The doctor would also have lunch with the threesome regularly.

Cyra thought she was tricky, but now he got it. This
was her plan all along.

Why else would she shack up with a man
, that was nothing more than a nerd with a fancy title?

Part of him wanted to
go after the medical examiner, and the other part wanted to kick the door in and show her want a real man was like, and not the geek who just left.

He gave it a couple of minutes
, as he waited to make sure that the doctor wasn’t going to return, and then he planned his move.

Yeah, Cyra Austin was going to regret ever going to the Blackhawks and ratting him out.

He’d have the last laugh yet.

Once at their room, he knocked on t
he door. He needed to tell them about what had popped into his brain, and then get the hell out of there fast. Chris honestly hoped that he wasn’t interrupting anything.

There wasn’t a ‘
do not disturb’
sign on the door, so the odds were in his favor. When Ethan opened, he was shirtless and his jeans were unbuttoned. Chris tried to not notice his hair was free and messed up.

If he had a question about what had gone on before he arrived, it was solved when he was escorted in to find Elizabeth sitting beside Callen on the bed in his
boss’s dress shirt. Yeah, it was obvious.

Ethan handed his ME a beer.

“Thanks. I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he stated, grinning at Elizabeth. If he could torment her, it was another little lift to his evening.

She timed it just right. “
No, it was just a threesome.”

Chris started choking and both men simply laughed at him. They saw that one coming a mile away, too bad
that he didn't.

“Lyzee!” he spat out, between gasps of air. “If you kill me, you’re down to a newbie ME.”

Grinning, she pointed to the end of the bed. “Want some Chinese?” she offered, holding out her container.

“No thank you. I’m going to get dinner for Cyra and myself now, but
something work related occurred to me.”

She waited for it.

“We couldn’t find the identity of the first victim, but did we try a reverse name search on the state name change database? If she was born in this state, we should be able to get it. If that comes up empty, then we can run it on the remaining ones.”

Ethan
was more than happy to do just that. “That’s a great idea.”

“How did you come up with it?” Elizabeth asked, taking a glass of wine from Callen

He stared at her. “It was just an epiphany.”

She wasn’t buying that at all.

Oh crap, he sicked the pit-bull on himself again. For someone so damn smart, he should have anticipated this one coming. In hindsight, he should have emailed Christina to handle it.

“I think you know this from experience, or you’d say otherwise,” she added.

Chris looked embarrassed.

“Spill it,” she said laughing.

“My mother named me something ridiculous and I changed my name before I started college. Okay? Happy?” he stated, chugging the rest of his beer.

“What was
your name?” she inquired while the men both snickered.

“Oh
, hell no! I know you too well. If I even let that cat out of the bag, you will torture me endlessly.”

She started laughing. “That’s okay. I know
for a fact from personal conversations we’ve had, that you were originally born in California. I’ll just run you in reverse to find out. I have all night.”

He wasn’t sure if she was bluffing or not.

“If you’re wondering, I’m not.”

Chris hated when she just knew. “Fine, but I swear to God, I will tell everyone all your secrets from years ago if you ever bring it up.”

That the men’s attention.

Callen leaned forward
eagerly. “What kind of secrets are we talking about?”

Chris went to open his mouth
to spill the beans.

“
It’s a deal. I won’t say a word to anyone but the people in this room,” she swore, offering him a fist bump as her oath.

Both men were disappointed and didn't hold back the groans. They were fascinated with her life when she was a newbie agent.

He sucked it up and just told them. “My mother named me Orion Leonard. Okay?”

Elizabeth started giggling. “It’s kind of cute.”

Chris started laughing. “Great. I just gave the most sadistic woman on the face of the earth information to blackmail me. I am so off my game. This love thing is a mess.”