In that moment, she put on her big girl panties.
Oh, and focused.
“Contact the Secret Service. When we arrive, I need to get right behind that gate. I can’t risk being outside and held up for a check. Make sure we have transport ready too. I have to do this as quietly as possible.”
Raphael understood.
He and Uriel had been working on transport and finding a way to get her to and from the plane to the White House for her meeting.
Unfortunately, they’d shipped all but one of the armor-plated vehicles West to be used out there. The other was the decoy car already at the White House. So, they’d have to be sneaky.
Raphael made the call.
He also told Tiffany when they’d be arriving, so there would be no risk to Elizabeth. If that didn’t work, Raphael warned her that they would contact Gabe and raise so much hell no one would keep their jobs.
And that worked.
As the jet headed to DC, she was going over the information she had.
“He’s telling me where he’s going to drop the bodies. It will have to be someplace familiar. He’d want me to be able to find it, but not have it too public.”
Uriel was of no help on this one.
“Maybe something will come to you when you’re talking with Gabe. What does he want to see you about?”
She shrugged.
“Who the fuck knows? Hopefully, it’s not to bust my balls. This isNOTthe time,” she admitted. “I can’t even work this like a normal case. None of the victims will tie to him, and I already know who he is. This is about just leaving bodies around for me to get clues so that I can chase him. He loves the chase, apparently.”
Uriel leaned forward and in no uncertain terms laid down the law.
“If you think I’m going to let you hand yourself over to him, I won’t. I’ll kill you myself.”
She snorted.
“Well, that’s telling,” she said. “Here we are thinking we’re safe and we have a wannabe killer on staff. I never saw that coming,” she joked.
He lifted her chin.
“I mean it. You’re our mother. I know what he’ll do to you. You’re not getting into his grasp. If he takes one of us, you don’t do us dirty by swapping yourself for us. That’s shitty. We’refucking Marines. We protect you. Why would you damn us to the same fate as having to mourn you?”
And she touched his cheek.
“And you’re mine too, Caspian. I’m getting you back home to your pretty Native woman. I want you to get married, have babies, and be a dad. Sometimes, Mom has to do distasteful things to protect her family. The moral of this story is then don’t get captured. If you do, then it looks like we’re at a standstill on this one.”
He made her go there.
“IfThe Huntersget here in time, will you let them help you?” he asked.
She nodded without hesitation.
What she couldn’t do is risk the nation’s security over her own, but if they could get shit handled, and get back on a transport, she’d utilize them.
She wasn’t crazy.
Her initial intent was to bring him in legally, but after seeing that crime scene, and being two days behind him…
If the universe dropped them in her lap, she’d do whatever it took to save some lives. Despite what she told them about wanting to bring him in legally, she knew she’d break that if given the opportunity to save someone she loved.
