Consumed by Wrath: An FBI/Romance Thriller (An FBI/Romance Thriller ~ Book 8) Read Online Free

if they would remain a couple or detonate apart.
    Closing his eyes, he sent off a silent prayer to someone who might be able to help. If Timothy was watching them, he really could use his help. Callen could only hope that the powers that be would hear him and offer them some mercy. Callen implored Fate to find some good in all of them and let them have a second chance in love and life.
    Didn't they deserve it?
    Callen’s biggest fear was on the horizon. Soon, he was going to have to go back out in the field and leave his family behind. He was the liaison to the Native community, and that meant that he needed to travel. For the time being, he managed to work from the office and on video conference calls, but that couldn’t happen forever.
    Soon, he would need to move on with life, and he prayed Elizabeth and Ethan could handle it while he was gone.
    Scratch that.
    He hoped that Elizabeth could hold the family up in his absence. If not, they were all doomed.
    When he opened his eyes, Callen slipped his reading glasses back on and stared down at the bills. With a sigh, he went back to work. Until Ethan was back on his game, he would just have to suck it up, carry the family, and do what needed to be done.
    Even if it meant doing it on very little sleep , or none at all.
     
                                    *   *   *
     
     
     
    It was as if she knew something was wrong.
    Pulling from sleep, Elizabeth slowly listened to the sounds around her. There was the slow even breathing of Ethan and nothing more. Over time, she had memorized it. Elizabeth couldn’t recall how many times, over the last four months, that she had spent time staring at the ceiling or a sleeping man.
    Let’s just say that shuteye wasn’t her friend anymore. In fact, it had become her worst enemy. At first, she would be pulled from sleep by Ethan’s shouts or cries, and when he had finally become less volatile while sleeping, it was her dreams that plagued her.
    H er nightmares had become the issue, and now Elizabeth was her own worst enemy.
    In her dreams, she would see herself being too late to get to him. When they pulled him from the ground, there was a vastly different outcome, and it haunted her. His lips would be blue, his eyes would be dead, and her existence would be irrevocably changed forever.
    Never in her life had she been so haunted by dreams. Yeah, when she lost her partner in the FBI, she was chased by the nightmares and his dead eyes, but never like this. What Elizabeth was feeling was a whole new terror. It was holding her in its cold, icy claws and refused to relinquish its grasp.
    It was slowly stealing her sanity and life.
    God, what wouldn’t she do to have peace and Ethan back?
    Cautiously rolling to her side, she watched her husband in the light that cascaded from their bathroom. When they returned, Ethan couldn’t handle the dark, so they began catering to his needs. Now, it allowed her the opportunity to watch over him whenever she was wide awake.
    Which was practically every night.
    Staring at him, she desperately longed to fix him. There wasn’t anything that she wouldn’t give to have him back and repaired. Yes, it was true that he was far better, but he wasn’t the same man. It was like he was a giant jigsaw puzzle and the only piece missing was the one that held his heart.
    For some reason, she couldn’t find that last piece to make him whole.
    It frightened her.
    What if Ethan never came back to her as the man who she fell in love with?
    What if this was it?
    What if he didn't love her anymore?
    The tears filled her eyes , and she valiantly fought to push them deep down. Where she would let Callen see her weep, she wouldn’t allow Ethan to suffer more.
    Why add additional stress to his already heavy load? After all, she was to blame for all this. This mess was her burden to carry.
    It was the least that she could do for him.
    Gently, she ran her fingertips across his tan cheek as if