Page 432 of Chaos has a Name
She stared at him.
Was he kidding her?
“What are you? Ten?” she asked. “This isn’t my domain,” she stated. “I can’t magically make him change his work policy about not liking music while work is getting done. He set that rule two decades ago, Anthony. You were there. You know that.”
Chris sat on his stool and just stared at Tony, enjoying the show. He knew his wife, and she wasNOTtreading into his area—especially since it was literally for listening to music.
“Exactly,” Tony said. “I’ve been doing this for twenty years. I think I can do it and listen to music.”
Chris wasn’t buying that.
They had a new team, and he needed to test their parameters and see what they could do. They were supposedly the best, but that didn’t tell him if they wereHISbest or the FBI’s best.
There was a distinct difference.
“I told him that people make mistakes when they aren’t concentrating. That’s it,” he said. “Someone didn’t get sleep last night, and he’s cranky.”
Yeah, she could see that.
She looked over at Tony.
“Again, Director, I’ve been doing this a long time. I can handle a bone in my sleep.”
From their work area, Jaxon actually laughed and then covered it with a cough. She couldn’t help it. She had the sense of humor of a thirteen-year-old boy. It helped since sometimes, she was married to a man who acted like a thirteen-year-old boy.
Tony was pouting, and what he needed was a break. Elizabeth understood how they’d pushed them all night.
“Anthony, I’m not your mother. I’m his boss, and you know I’m going to defer to him when it comes down to it. You like music, he doesn’t. I can’t split the baby in half here. You know that. His word is law here, unless I see a reason to override it. Once in twenty-plus years have I done that. The odds aren’t in your favor—especially since I need accurate results or I’m boned—and not in a fun way.”
He sighed.
“If there’s ever a divorce, I hope you get custody,” he said, giving Chris the hairy-eyeball—right before he rolled them up into his head.
Truthfully, Chris didn’t get offended. He’d had this conversation many times over the last twenty years with Anthony. When he was exhausted, he got bitchy.
It didn’t upset him.
He had his methods, and once he saw if the people here could do the job, he’d amend them. They were new out the gate with working with Elizabeth, and it took time.
If they nailed it, he’d lighten up.
If they screwed up, he’d lock it down.
Until he could determine that, he wasn’t letting the crazy out of the cage.
“Joke’s on you, Anthony,” Elizabeth stated. “We have a prenup. I get the dogs, he gets you, this job, the morgue, the bills for my boots, my bad attitude, the in-laws, and the gold-baron’s haunted mansion. Oh, and Callen.”
Callen was leaning against the wall with Takoda, Ethan, and Gene.
“I mean, at least we’ll have fun,” Chris stated.
She pointed at him.
“Wait until we get home. We’re going to have a talk, ridiculously sexy man. Until then, I had better see some forensics or no one is going home but me.”
Chris got it.
It was time.
