Been there.
Done that.
Blackhawk explained.
“Elizabeth is on her way there. We have a problem that’s plaguing us, and we need a solution. The kind of solution that a special off-the-books kind of an agency handles.”
Oh, well, that told them what kind of solution he was looking for, if he was calling them.
A dire one.
A bloody one.
A fast one.
A not-so-legal one.
You didn’t call mercenaries to do a food delivery. You called them to handle a problem that needed to disappear—and on the DL.
“What kind are we talking about?” Maura asked, focused on the man on the screen. She wanted to make sure they were on the same page here before they went dark OPS and kicked in a door or five.
Because they would.
They all respected the Blackhawks, so no matter what it was, they were in.
No money was needed.
The bottom line was that you didn’t charge family when they needed you. They’d learned that from Elizabeth and Ethan.
Blackhawk checked the time.
Yeah, he knew she was going to be there soon, so Ethan went there. He told them all about the lunatic they were chasing.
The one who got away.
Those were few and far between in their world, but once in a while, that happened.
This was one of those cases.
Because they needed the facts to do their job, he ran down more than the basics. Blackhawk shared things that he probably shouldn’t, and wouldn’t, had these not been friends.
Once she heard this was a fast-moving serial killer, who was trying to goad Elizabeth into playing a game, Maura gasped.
OOF.
She knew it was going to be bad.
As of late, there were snippets on the news about her, and the mess she was dealing with, but this was all kinds of shitastic. Hearing it all proved the situation was far more dire than the media knew, and the Blackhawks were letting on. They were keeping this under wraps.
For now.
Any information getting out was bad. What they did know was that Elizabeth liked to keep her media exposure to what kind of gown she was wearing to some stupid dinner, and Jackson James outings. That was harmless, and the only fodder she’d give the media—unlike this.
Ethan was to the point.
“She’s not going to outthink him. There’s no way. He’s had decades to set up hidey-holes and routes to the cities and victims. We’re beginning to think that she came onto his radar twenty years ago, when he was being apprenticed. She’s just trying to keep it above board—for now, but that’s not going to get it done. We need your help before this breaks her in ways she won’t come back from either.”
Well, absolutely.
