It was time to pick at his one weakness.
His.
Ambition.
Every agent had it, but Ethan Blackhawk had it inSPADES.
“No, you’ve misunderstood. There is no‘WE’. There’s you, and there’s Cantrell. I’m pulling you so that we don’t have to be distracted, Agent. He’s staying inPhilly. You, Ethan, are not.”
At his words, Ethan’s heart was racing.
That was the worst-case-scenario. That was his big fear, and before Gene, he wouldn’t have given a shit. He would have taken a new partner and moved on. It had all been in the plan to move up the ladder by being a good FBI lackey. Only, now, he’d found something so valuable.
LOVE.
“Gene and I work well together. There’s no distraction,” he stated.
Gabe rattled off the distractions.
“Javier Hughes is there, and it’s getting more difficult to keep him away from you. You’ll be safer in Puerto Rico, and Gene will be safer with you far from him. You’re a danger to your partner.”
Gabe watched, and he saw the emotion flicker in his eyes, and then, how it was shoved back down.
Yeah, he found his weakness.
Oh, Ethan Blackhawk was good, but Gabe had been doing this twice as long as he had been.
He’d been raised by a man who had been an agent. Gabe was familiar with how to play any game.
“Now, Puerto Rico is down two agents, and I’ll get another sent there. Maybe they’ll learn how to cowboy it up just like you. You know…by getting your partner in a shit ton of trouble and lying to your boss.”
His heart skipped.
Yep.
He knew.
Their run as partners was over.
What hurt the most was that he already knew it was his fault that Gene had been hurt, and he was already doing battle with the demons in his head that told him he was a piece of shit for allowing it to happen.
It was his fault.
Gene would be safer without him.
Still, that love inside him held steady, and he fought to find a way.
“But we’re a good team,” he said. “We close cases all of the time. We closed this one in a single day.”
Gabe was to the point.
“That’s accurate, Agent,” he said, watching him. When he saw Blackhawk’s eyes dilate, he knew he got it. “In fact, you’re too good. That’s the problem.”
Ethan was about to have a panic attack.
“Is this because you’ve been told we are in a relationship?” he asked, going there.
Oh, Gabe wanted to play mind games. Truthfully, he missed them. That was why he did what he did, more times than not.
