Page 67 of The Defiant Curse

Because she’d been out with The Hunters, taking care of business, they thought nothing about her going out without a tracker—temporarily.

Now, that was biting them in the ass.

Because she was MIA.

Oh, and she wasn’t the only one. Her jet went offline for quite a few hours, much to all of their dismay. It still wasn’t back on, and they had no idea where Jim had taken her. That meant she had help from higher up.

Gabe had given her that little gift as President of the United States.

And now, Ethan was worried.

DEEPLY worried.

First, she’d just come off a brutal case where they lost family, and then, during the midst of it, as if his timing wasn’t absolute shit, they’d had a disagreement over him butting into her world.

They made up, sort of, but before he could really apologize for overstepping his boundaries and saying he was losing faith in her, she was gone.

Yeah, seeing Gene come back to FBI West without her…

It scared him.

For the first time in the fifteen years that they’d been together, she’d never just walked away from him or the world they’d built.

That had always been his MO, and when he’d done it, she’d followed.

She’d fought.

She’d been there.

She’d never given up.

Now, he couldn’t be there for her because he couldn’t fucking find her. His wife had made up her mind, and he was left out in the cold.

There was a way to fight that cold, but the only person who could tell him where she was, wouldn’t.

Oh, and don’t think he didn’t try to find Elizabeth. He’d tried to get it out of Gene, but the man was not breaking.

Hell!

Everyone tried.

Truthfully, Ethan knew that Chris likely suspected where she was, simply because he was likely the one who supplied the pilot with some information, but Ethan couldn’t prove it.

If he learned anything about Christopher Leonard, it was that he didn’t crack under pressure, so there was no point in even trying. Unless he could get him to admit he knew, in their world, you had to have proof, and the ME was also not saying shit.

Unfortunately.

At this point, he and Callen were both climbing the walls, along with Ivan. The man was worried, but even he wasn’t nearly worried enough.

Maybe he also knew.

Blackhawk couldn’t be sure, and that was part of the problem.

Ethan knew that Elizabeth would trust someone, and he suspected it would be her head of security, and clearly, Gene.

That bothered him, but honestly, he’d earned it. When the shit was going down, and she needed support, he’d faltered.

Ivan hadn’t.