It was exhausting.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t backing down. Gabe liked to play the rules game, while simultaneously breaking all the rules as he played a game.
He was a hypocrite, and she’d call him out while standing beside a damn good agent the FBI couldn’t afford to lose.
Gene wasn’t done.
“Yeah, and as if to make that worse, he’s told my partner, who is the best goddamn partner I’ve ever had, that he’s being transferred. He’s doing it under the guise of him shooting a killerwho was going to make the FBI look bad. Make it make sense, LaRue.”
Oh, she couldn’t.
Elizabeth had learned that a long time ago.
Gabe went there.
“That killer was a fellow agent who had the right to a fair trial. We just don’t gun down people in the street and call it justice.”
Gene didn’t give two fucks, a rat’s ass, or a partridge in a pear fucking tree.
“He was in the process ofKILLING ME! He wasn’t making me a cup of coffee, and he was shot. He was breaking all the bones in my arm to make it look like the other victims, and then, he was going to end my life! I was strapped to a table and couldn’t fight for my life! Are you out of your goddamn mind?” he asked.
It was rhetorical, and Gene wasn’t done.
“He killed a bunch of people to cover up his gunrunning off of the island. That you’re willing to defend a mass murderer because of me being gay is ridiculous. That it’s the biggest bone of contention says a lot about you! Worse, it’s caused a damn good profiler to leave the FBI!”
Oh, this wasn’t happening.
Gabe wasn’t a homophobe. He could care less who his agents fucked—unless that other person was their partner, their boss, or a literal killer!
Gabe pointed at him.
“I’m your boss. I get to make the decisions, and I gave your partner a choice. He chose to turn in his badge. He could have kept his job, just not near you.”
Gene was red.
And it wasn’t a shade found in nature.
It was clear to Elizabeth that he was about to blow. The last thing they needed was to lose Gene, a damn good agent, or his partner, a profiler. There were only so many profilers in the agency, and they were a commodity.
She often got profiles from agents when her partner, Salem, was not available.
“Gabe,” she said. “Really?”
He didn’t get to answer.
Gene was off to the races.
“Yeah, because you threatened to shove him into a different office to keep us apart as punishment that we opted to break a stupid FBI rule that everyone breaks!”
He sputtered.
“Everyone breaks?” Gabe asked.
Elizabeth just laughed.
Yeah, pretty much.
They worked shit cases and stayed in roach coaches together. Did he not think that a few drinks, some stress, and being alone out in the world wouldn’t lead down the same road?
