How could she not?
“Gabriel! I’m already doing three jobs. I’m running a division with two offices. I’m the deputy director. I can’t pick up any more slack. The only thing left is my family, and I can’t dump them to play director. I told you so you could be ready.FINDSOMEONE!”
Oh, he got it.
“Calm down. You’ll have a stroke.”
She corrected him.
“My blood pressure, unlike yours, is fine. I’ll have a goddamn conniption fit before I have a stroke. I’m helping your daughter be a mom, and raising my own kids.PASS. I’m not carrying anymore burdens right now. When I say I’m at my max, Gabe, I mean I’m at the point of breaking!”
To hear her say that rattled all of them. Elizabeth never complained, or said shit about how difficult life was for her. She just kept moving forward.
To hear it out loud…
It was scary.
From where he sat, Ethan felt bad. He’d dumped another job on her, helping him plan a wedding—when he should have done it himself.
That was a dick move. It was just instinctual to go to his partner in crime.
Gabe tried to soothe her.
“Okay, calm down. I promise I won’t dump this on you. I’ll get someone who can handle it.”
It was clear that he saw she was at her breaking point.
Never let it be said he didn’t know her well enough.
Elizabeth was to the point, and didn’t mince words.
“Find someone,” she said. “I’m giving you the warning so that we’re not caught off guard. Get someone vetted, and makesure they aren’t someone who I hate. I have to work with that person.”
He was honest, and shared, since she’d given him the heads-up. There was no way it wasn’t a difficult decision since her family was involved.
“I like Kate Natalia for the role. I’m leading with her, if she wants it,” he admitted. “She is a damn good director, runs her own division with the child sex crimes, and you like her. The two of you work well together.”
What was this?
Could she get that lucky?
She liked Kate Natalia too.
“Are you actually not going to fuck me over for once?” she asked.
He laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
“Elizabeth, you’ve burned through how many directors in the last twenty years? There’s been a few. One committed suicide. One was killed by a serial killer on a case you worked. I had to move on. Axelle is quitting. One got blown up. Me thinks you’re the problem here, cupcake.YOU. Not me.”
She snorted.
“Listen. I only had something to do with some of them. You have no proof on the others. We’ve always said when the FBI crumbles, I’m going to be last woman standing because I’m like a cockroach.”
That they had.
