More importantly, what she was asking from him. Elizabeth was begging for him to make the choice so she wouldn’t have to break the rules.
Well, he could do that.
The higher you moved up the food chain, the quicker you learned rules didn’t always apply. He had to consider the safety of the citizens over moral high ground.
“You have my permission to use your authority to handle it.”
She needed to know.
“Using any means?”
He didn’t hesitate.
“You have authorization to use any means necessary to make sure the people in this country are safe.PERIOD. In fact, I’mORDERINGyou to do it,” he said, willing to carry that burden for her.
After all, she’d once carried that burden for him.
She was to the point.
“I need to speak to the Director of the FBI,” she said. “Have you put one into play?” she asked.
He nodded.
“That was what the meeting was for. In the Oval, Kate Natalia is waiting on us. When you’re ready, we’ll talk. She became official today. Tomorrow, there’s going to be an announcement. I asked her to come here after hours so we could keep it on the DL until then.”
Well, someone was about to hit the ground running. Elizabeth was tagging her boss in on this, so it didn’t bite her in the ass later.
Elizabeth didn’t mince words.
“When this is over, if you would like my letter of resignation for this mess getting out of control, and Devon Slater escaping, I’ll give it to you.”
Yeah, Gabe didn’t even tolerate that. He wasn’t letting the best Deputy Director he’d ever had in the FBI quit over one nut who escaped.
She was the most effective person in the whole FBI, and she’d held it together while Axelle bailed on them.
“Your offer to throw yourself on your sword for this situation is declined. Find him, put this to bed, and thenregroup. The new Director of the FBI and I are on the same page on this one. You have our full support, Elizabeth. What happened tonight wasn’t your doing. Devon Slater fooling everyone for twenty years as his father groomed him to be a killer isn’t your fault either.”
She stared at him.
“At some point, Gabe, it has to be my fault. At some point, the shit hits the fan, and I’m the carrier of the fan.”
He shook his head.
Absolutely not.
“I’m the boss. I will carry the blame. I don’t have many more years in this office, and if one of us has to carry the mark of this mess, it isn’t going to be you, Elizabeth. I gave you the job, and you’re doing it. I was in charge of the FBI during the years his father was doing this on the DL, and I never saw it coming. That’s on me, not you. Shit doesNOTroll downhill in my administration. I own it.”
Gabe wouldn’t let her go down because of this.
It wasn’t happening. Elizabeth was too good at what she did, and he’d protect that.
This country needed her.
HEneeded her.
She was his sister from another mister.
As Elizabeth continued to help her Marines, and also check out their wounds. Gabe left the room and went out into the hallway.
