Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (30 page)

“Ethan!”
She arched further into the wickedly, amazing oral skills the man was showing off. When she shattered apart, he continued until her entire body quivered for him again.

Moving up her
frame, he yanked down his boxers and slid into the delicious warmth. It called to him, gripped him and invited him home. It would only be this way with the woman that owned his heart. He brought his lips to hers, and took his time devouring her. Long deep strokes brought them both so much pleasure.

Elizabeth met him for each one, tipping her hips and welcoming him over and over again. The gentle lovemaking wasn’t hurried, and it made his heart ache for the woman beneath him.

Pulling back from the kiss, he stared down into her eyes and continued enjoying her body.

When her eyes filled with tears at the sweetness
of the moment, he kissed them away and offered her his soul. “I love you, Elizabeth. You own my heart completely.”

A tear slid down her cheek. “
I love you so damn much.” Again she met his mouth as they both tightened and broke apart. It wasn’t cataclysmic, but there was so much love between Ethan and Elizabeth that it swept them away.

It was a bearing of
feelings, sharing the deepest secrets in their hearts. Reconfirming what both knew to be true; souls were perfectly aligned.

As he caught his breath, he enjoyed all the sweet words she whispered in his ear. The woman beneath him completed him
in so many ways.

“I think I might be able to sleep now,” she mumbled.

Ethan slipped off her body and helped her dress. “I’ll carry you up, Baby,” he offered, pulling on his boxers, assisting her back into her shorts.

“Okay,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck
and nuzzling him.

Climbing back into bed,
Ethan placed her in her spot. Instead of rolling to her side, she laid her head on his shoulder, cuddling with him. It reminded him of when they first slept together.

“I love you, Mr. Blackhawk,” she said, yawning.

Ethan kissed her on the top of the head and enjoyed the scent of wife. “I love you forever, Lyzee my love.”

And there was no doubt
that he always would.

             
                          *   *   *

Julian stumbled into the house and felt like shit. He was tired, sore and missed Tori. He pulled out his phone and checked the messages for what felt like the millionth time.

Nothing.

It was like she’d erased him from her life. Again he sent another message apologizing for what he did, praying he’d get a reply.

Still nothing.

It wasn’t boding well in his favor. This could be the end.

Stripping out of his clothes, he set his alarm and lay on his back, pulling her pillow over his face, just to breath in nothing but her scent. When the tears threatened to overwhelm him, he simply let himself sink into the multiple beers he’d chugged to swallow the mental and physical pain.

If this didn’t work, he was screwed.

“I love you, Tori. Wherever you are, I love you so damn much it hurts.”

Closing his eyes, Julian prayed for another chance with the only woman in the world he knew he’d love.

Even when he was well aware he didn't deserve it.

Friday Morning

It was a horrible night’s sleep and Tori was sure her face showed it. Tossing and turning all night, she refused to look at her phone every time a message came in from Julian. As she lay there, her heart missed him and already the anger was beginning to ebb away as the sun came up. Tori found that at that moment, what she really wanted to do was call him.

Picking up her phone, she scrolled through the messages from him. The ranged from apologies, to begging and finally simple desperation. Her heart ached at the pain in the words. The man screwed up, and he needed to realize that what he did wasn’t going to happen ever again.
Love forgave, and if anything she still was madly in love with him.

When Tori was broken and damaged, he hunted her down, found her in the VA hospital and brought her to his home. She wasn’t in good shape at the time. Losing a good chunk of weight, she’d whittled away and wasn’t exactly looking terrific. Her skin was pale, her hair began falling out and her eyes were dead.

He fed her soup that he made himself. Whatever she wanted, he made it appear, just to help her regain her body weight and strength. Julian constantly stayed in bed with her to scare away the nightmares that still chased her. Never leaving her side for a minute, he’d healed a broken woman.

For that alone she did owe him.

Julian saved her and nursed her back to health. It was hard to be angry with a man that put his life on hold to help save her. Then there was the simple fact that he’d been damaged too, and no one cared to fix him.

Until now.

Tori swung her legs out of bed and finished reading the messages. The cracks in the anger were growing and the tiny seeds of forgiveness were sprouting. She was still mad as hell, but Tori was almost to the point of taking the higher road. It was going to be hard to stay mad at him, when all she wanted was to be held by him and safely in his arms.

Hoping into the shower, Tori thought
more about Julian, praying he was holding up. Today at some point, they’d fix the mess and work through it. Tori refused to be like her mother, running from the problems in a relationship and abandoning everyone in her anger.

Yeah, she was willing to
meet him halfway. Tori spent too much of her life locked in the past, and what she needed was to move forward; but first Julian needed to understand what he’d done was inappropriate, cruel and mean.

She loved him and wanted him back.

Down at the breakfast table, the three Agents were eating and having coffee. Callen had once again wanted to make Elizabeth oatmeal, but they ran out. Today he’d head to the store to stock up their supplies, so he went with his standby; toast. It was the only other breakfast food he could decently manage.

When Tori walked into the kitchen, she already looked vastly better than the night before.

“Toast?” he offered, standing at the counter.

She smiled. “No thank you, coffee is my breakfast of champions.”

Callen poured her a mug and handed it to her, and then he took his seat beside Elizabeth. Automatically, his hand went to her belly and stroked it lovingly.

Tori began laughing.

Elizabeth looked up from her paper and lifted a brow. “Something funny in that coffee mug, Darlin’?”

“I’m pissed I’m not back at FBI West. I so want in
on this baby pool,” she stated, sipping her coffee. “I want to screw with them all desperately.”

The three of them laughed, recognizing the same wicked streak that Elizabeth had herself.
One of the constants at FBI West was they tended to run a betting pool on pretty much everything that intrigued them.

E
than’s hand went to her belly now too and both men enjoyed the feeling of the baby moving beneath her skin.

“Here’s my question,” started Elizabeth, leaning forward. “If you didn't know which
man was the baby daddy, who would you have picked?”

Tori thought about it. “That’s hard. I have a few rationales on that one.”

She was intrigued. “Spill it, I want to hear them.”

Taking a sip of her coffee, Tori prepared to lay it out. “Okay, at first I thought that you’d go with the same father for all the children, only because of being logical. They’d all be full blood siblings, in case there was ever a medical emergency.”

Ethan laughed. Had they not been surprised and planned the pregnancy that would have been his plan.

“But then if you look at matters of the heart, you’d want to make each man equally part of the family
. Having all your children with Ethan would mean ostracizing Callen.”

That would have been the route Whitefox would have taken, equally sharing the children between them. Plus he was desperate to have a child of his own. It was paramount to him as a man.

“Then there would be the craziness and total chaos of just allowing nature to decide.”

Elizabeth grinned. Why dictate fate when you could just as easily ride the bus and sit back and relax.

“So, who won on this one?” she asked, pointing to each one in the unit. “Logic, fairness or chaos?”

Neither man spoke.

“We can tell her,” stated Elizabeth. “After the shit went down in Cypress Grove, not a soul heard about the fight in the swamp. I trust her,” Elizabeth paused, “Besides, girlfriend code strictly prohibits it. I won out on the baby making. Little EJ wasn’t planned.”

She grinned
, not surprised in the least. “What is this girlfriend code you speak of?” Tori inquired, lifting her brow. “I was in the Army, we had codes out the wazoo, but I’m unfamiliar with this one.”

Blackhawk laughed. “It’s a made up way to make men hurt and suffer for just about anything they do to their wives. You two become friends, and Callen, Julian and I suffer.”

Elizabeth snickered. “Amen. It’s the strictest code among women. Once you make the vow, you can’t ever break it.” She had once offered it out to Callen’s ex and that was an unmitigated disaster.

Tori contemplated it. “So, I accept this code thingy and that means you and I get to torture the men in our lives with it.”

She shrugged. “It also means you have a friend to lean on and trust with all your pain, secrets and problems.”

It would be nice to have someone to trust and love.

Elizabeth timed it just right. “Oh and I tell you all about the sex I’m having and you reciprocate.”

Blackhawk began choking on his coffee and Callen thumped him on his back. “See?”

Tori started laughing. “Sign me up. I’ll take on the girlfriend code just for that little part alone. Julian would be mortified,” she said, and then the joy was gone and the hurt came back.

“Hey,” Elizabeth leaned forward. “It’ll work out. I’d bet my momma belt buckle on it. And this is my favorite damn one.”

The agent nodded. “I hope you’re right.”

“My suggestion is to ride today out and observe the man in question. I’m betting he’s going to follow you around and be willing to do anything to fix what he broke. Men are jackwagons, but they tend to get it.”

“Hey!” Callen objected.

Blackhawk simply sipped his coffee. “You realize the jackwagons are in the room, right?”

Both women started laughing.

“I’ll bet you fix it by the end of the day,” Elizabeth offered. “I can tell already you’re ready to work on it. You got past the mad, now you’re in the pity phase.”

“Pity phase?”

Blackhawk finished for his wife. “Yeah, you have pity for the idiotic men and the stupid things we do.”

Elizabeth patted his cheek. “I wouldn’t call it pity, Cowboy. It’s more like mercy.”

Callen shook his head, changing the subject. “W
hat’s on our agenda? I imagine we have a date with the lab.”

“Yeah, tox is in, as is DNA. Chris sent me the text a while ago. The team was working late last night
, dealing with the new victim. We also need to start focusing on the feather angle. I need to know the species. If those are Eagle feathers, you just can’t go to the local craft store and pick them up.”

“True,” confirmed Blackhawk.

Tori looked confused.

Callen cleared it up for her. “Eagles are protected, even though they’re
not endangered species anymore. You need to be a licensed handler to get the feathers. You have to prove that you’re not harming the birds. Mostly they’re collected from abandoned nests, or the ground. If you get caught harming an eagle, you’re in deep shit. You can do jail time.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Most of the laws govern the bird, nest, and eggs but the feathers can be included if it’s proved they were on the
Eagle at the time. You just can’t trap them and pluck them. It’s a big no-no.”

“Tribal law allows some Natives to collect the feathers, but you have to be permitted to do it. Once we find out the species of bird, we can track the permits in this area and go from there,” Ethan added.

Tori nodded. “Well, it should be easy to find someone who has a lot of them. It can’t be that common to own them.”

Callen shrugged. “I have about ten of them personally. I earned them as a young man, hunting.”

Blackhawk grinned. “I have a few more than Callen, but I stole mine.”

Elizabeth started choking
, when she laughed and swallowed at the same time.

When Callen hit her on the back he gave his brother a look. “Can you not kill her while she’s growing my child? I kind of need her the next four months.”