Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (3 page)

Resentment filled her.

Anger surrounded her.

Where life prepared to spring free
and be born, bitterness threatened to swallow it whole.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

Nothing.

~ Chapter One ~

Two weeks later

Tuesday morning.

Her laughter filled the air as they raced across the field, dodging small obstacles on horseback. The sun was shining and the air was warm. Spring was breaking, and so were the ties to the past that held Victoria Christensen prisoner in her heart and soul.

For the last t
wo months, she’d be going to outpatient therapy at the VA hospital. The dreams were subsiding, the fears abating, and life was blossoming within her. She owed it all to the man chasing her on horseback. Julian Littlemoon arrived and saved her, dragging her back to his home on the reservation. The five weeks spent in the hospital without him nearly broke her, but his love patched her back up and was making her whole again.

He was her miracle.

Her salvation
.

Pulling the hors
e to a stop, she dismounted and escaped to the trees, laughing. Julian was right behind her, and if he caught her, she didn’t doubt he’d keep his threat.

“Tori, you better run!” he yelled,
dismounting his horse and making chase. “You think you’re funny?” Julian shouted, racing after her, closing the distance. He could see her barely ahead of him, her red hair bouncing behind her, as her laughter filled the silence of the morning.

“I’m more than funny, Julian,” she shouted back.
“I’m hysterical!”

Since moving in with the man, Tori enjoyed the pranks that riled him up. Last night she filled his one riding boot with shaving cream. The look on his face was priceless
, and it was well deserved payback. He put a giant plastic cockroach in her cereal box the other morning and had her screaming in shock.

“When I catch you,”
he threatened, closing the gap, “I’m going to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget!” Tori might have been a soldier with endurance, but he was faster and knew his way around the forest behind his home on the Rez. This was his terrain, and he was going to catch his feisty vixen and get even.

She laughed
, vaulting a horizontal tree. “You haven’t caught me yet,” she replied, putting on some speed to increase her lead. If he did what he threatened, she was screwed.

Literally
. 

The idea warmed her to her core, and she almost wanted to let him win just to feel his arms around her body.
There was nothing more perfect than Julian and his promise of heated lovemaking.

His laughter bubbled out, as he raced behind her
with one sole mission in mind. The love he was feeling for her overwhelmed him. This woman was his soul mate, and there wasn’t anything he didn’t adore about her. The smoky blue eyes enthralled him and the red hair made his heart flutter. His soldier girl was beautiful inside and out. Julian hadn’t brought up the ‘marriage’ word yet, since he was waiting until her therapy was over. There was only one obstacle between them and the altar in his mind.

Her job.

Tori was still in the FBI, living over three hours away from him. When she went into the veteran’s hospital to get help for her PTSD, she’d taken a leave of absence to heal. That was coming to an end shortly, and now they were faced with the looming pink elephant in the room. He was a private investigator, just starting up his business, and neither of them were in a position to quit their jobs and move.

It still sat between them,
waiting to rear its ugly head, when they least expected it.

When they parted ways
three months ago, his heart was broken and destroyed. Somehow, they found their way back together again. Now, it was bliss and would remain that way, if they could just navigate their work issues.

Julian firmly believed in fate, and he didn’t doubt it would get them there, eventually.

Tori glanced over her shoulder, and Julian wasn’t far behind. His face showed nothing but intensive determination as he was on the hunt. He was planning on catching her and teaching her a lesson. His brown hair and gold specked eyes gave her so much peace of mind. In the last two months, everything had fallen into place.

Tori couldn’t be happier.

Every morning they’d go for a ride, and then she’d leave for her outpatient therapy. When she’d return home, he’d be there waiting for her with dinner and another trek out on horseback.

She knew the sacrifice he was making.
Julian was a tracker, and that’s how he made his money. Lately, he refused to take any jobs that forced him to leave home for more than a day. It warmed her heart that he was so protective, but it worried her that he was burying his business because of her. His willingness to risk his hopes and dreams for her was astonishing.

It did more than touch her
deeply, it gave her life back.

It made
her believe in love once more and that she was worthy, even after all her past sins.

Now,
Tori wanted desperately to reward him with something too. The man was everything to her and deep inside she longed to share the peace he’d given so willingly. Recently, she’d watched him toil and study to pass his private investigator exam. Tori was incredibly proud of him. Already, the plan in her mind had been set into motion. Julian was in for a huge surprise. It had been in the works for a couple weeks now. Honestly, it was getting hard to sneak around and finalize the plans, since Julian was all over her whenever she was home.

There was only one small
detail remaining, and shortly it would all be ready to be unveiled. Now Tori only hoped he’d accept it and not ruin the surprise beforehand.

Racing around a tree, Tori stopped,
trying to catch her breath. Before she could peek back around the trunk, there stood Julian, grinning triumphantly at the prize he’d managed to snag.

“Julian!” Tori jumped when he materialized before her
. Damn his silent native stalking skills. Tracker her ass- he was more a predator on the prowl.

Julian
trapped her between his frame and the old bark. They were both out of breath, but he didn’t mind the chase, as long as he always caught her in the end.

It was the story of their relationship.
Where ever she would run, he’d certainly follow.

“I love you, Victoria,” he
mumbled, running his lips across her throat and jaw.

Tori’s body shuddered a
t the simple touch. Whenever Julian was beside her, this was the outcome. It was raw need, instinctually forged in both of them.

“I love you too, Julian,” she answered back, easily.
Running her hands up his chest, she stared into his eyes right before she kissed him.

One of Julian’s most cherished moments in his life was finally hearing her
whisper those precious words. It was followed only by kissing his woman. Here in the forest and pressed against a tree added to the mystique and simply felt right. Julian deepened the kiss, reveling in the victory of not only catching her months ago and claiming her, but at that moment too.

Breaking away, Tori ran her fingers down his cheek. “Still mad at me?” she inquired, giggling.

Julian wasn’t angry, but there would be payback, and he wasn’t above playing dirty. “No, I’m far from that, Victoria.” Leaning against her, he showed her exactly what he was feeling. Mad didn’t even come close to describing it.

One of the best things about being with Julian was his large heart and how sweet he was
to the depths of his soul. On the outside, he came across being secretive, silent and aloof. Once you got past the quiet exterior you found the truth; the man was gentle and full of life.

“How about we ride back to the house and you can teach me a lesson or three,” she
suggested, leaving light kisses across his face lovingly.

Hell yeah! There was no way he was saying no to that offer. Naked Victoria in bed was a far better option than what he planned for the
remainder of the day. “Absolutely, and since I caught you I get to have you anyway I want,” Julian added, taking her hand in his.

Then h
e noticed the look on her face, and he’d seen it before.

“Honey, are you okay?” he asked, concerned. To his knowledge, she hadn’t been having blackouts lately. The VA hospital and therapy seemed to be helping. This was a first in weeks
, and it alarmed him.

Tori could smell it.

There was death lurking nearby.

She pulled away from the tree and his hand
, searching the surroundings visually for what her mind already knew was there. In her life, she’d seen much loss. As a soldier, she’d waded through it and fought standing in the midst of it. As an FBI agent there’d been even more coating her soul and life.

This smell
Tori knew well.

It repulsed her and warned her
of what was coming.

Wandering
through the trees, she searched for it, finding a clearing that opened to a circle. Someone had been there recently and left behind the offensive stench. “Can you smell it, Julian?” she asked, softly.

Now he was worried. Shit, if
Tori was back sliding that would mean going from outpatient to inpatient. He couldn’t bear the idea that she wouldn’t be in bed beside him every night. “No Honey, I don’t smell anything but your perfume.”

She shook her head
, walking into the clearing. It was there. Tori would bet her life on it.

“
Victoria, come on. Let’s go home,” he cajoled, hoping to lure her away. Fear was already filling his body as happiness threatened to ebb away.

“There’s blood here somewhere.”

Now he was getting more panicked at her words. If she was detecting that scent, it didn't bode well for her mental status. “Maybe someone gutted an animal they were hunting. We’re standing in the center of a forest on the Rez. It’s a possibility.” 

Inside her gut,
Tori knew better. The distinguishing smell was something she’d never confuse with anything else in life. It was the musky mix of bowel and blood. Intermingling and creating a distinct odor one couldn’t forget.

Julian
observed her, wondering why he couldn’t detect anything. Part of him was panicking that this was a figment of her mind. His heart broke for his poor damaged soldier, and what it would mean to go back to the VA and have to stay there.

Tori shook her head
, continuing to look around; now focusing on the ground they were walking on. “No Julian, it’s human. I can tell the difference. I smell death and blood, and human decay is distinct.”

Immediately, he thought back to working for the Red River Sheriff’s Department, when he first met the Blackhawks. There’d been a killer taking men and removing body parts. When he and his old boss found the place
the corpses were being left, he had his first sniff of human remains. It still stuck with him, and yet he didn’t smell it here.

“Okay
Honey, then let’s look around and see what we can find,” he offered, believing that Tori wasn’t going to give up on it. His woman was determined when she was on the trail of something. Julian suspected she missed her job and solving things for a living. This simple life had to be incredibly boring to her. A little more fear filled him, at the thought of losing her again.

Tori dropped to her knees not far from a section of trees. Someone had been there recently. The dirt was all scraped up and disturbed. “How accessible is this clearing?” she inquired, picking up a tiny rock and scraping away some dirt.

“I’ve never seen it before, but we were just aimlessly running through here. I guess Natives could find it.” He watched her carefully. Julian crouched down beside her, inspecting her handiwork.

“Blood,” she answered his unspoken question. “Look!” Tori showed him the rock. “Something bled out right here and soaked into the ground. What didn’t was covered with loosely packed dirt. The rain the other day brought it to the surface.”

“Honey, it may be a camping site. If that’s the case then hunters may have caught dinner here and cleaned it.” Julian looked around, starting to get that off balance feeling. As a tracker, he could find anything, and now his acute training was detecting things previously missed.

Someone had
definitely been there, and he wasn’t sure he was buying his own explanation. As Julian glanced around, there were no signs of camping, and they were too far to carry a deer out of the woods in one piece. If someone had been there, they tried to erase all the evidence.