Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (4 page)

Tori stood
, moving toward the dead fire. She placed her hand over it, feeling for heat. Whoever had been there left within the last few hours.

Nothing.

Julian moved around the clearing, searching the grass and bramble surrounding it. There were definitely tracks and someone had been there recently. Julian glanced over his shoulder, seeking out Tori. “Where are you going?” he asked, as she wandered further away.

“I smell it over here more,” she stated,
heading toward a cluster of trees and brush. “I think it’s here, Julian!”

The man trotted across the space to stand
protectively at her side. Now he did smell it. The pungent odor floated up to meet his nose, and he admitted what he wasn’t before willing to say.

There was most definitely something dead nearby.

The distinctive odor was identical to the first time he came across the dead victims of the town’s serial killer. How she knew with a simply sniff of the air astounded him.

“We have to look,” she said, touching his arm and locking her fingers around his wrist, as if he was her anchor in the oncoming storm.

Julian immediately placed her behind him, for her safety and his mental well-being.

Tori didn’t fight him, since his protectiveness was just part of
the man he was inside. Julian could be archaic when it came to her, but it was just his nature. Why go to war against something you had no chance in winning. Julian Littlemoon was sexy as sin, but stubborn as a bull.

Pulling the bramble from the
hidden stones, Julian inspected the scene. When entering the area, he never even noticed the cave like structure. Who ever wanted it hidden did a damn good job of camouflaging it with the surrounding area. “Stay behind me and if I tell you run, do it!” he demanded, lowering his voice.

Tori didn’t speak
. If she did, she’d tell him there was no way in hell she was running from whatever was in that cave and leaving him behind.

Never going to happen!

Julian pulled out his keychain, using the tiny light that was hanging there. It wasn’t much, but it was better than wandering into a cave blind. There could be wild, hungry animals making it their home. He could feel Tori’s hand on his lower back, reassuringly reminding him she was with him. Stepping into the mouth of the fissure, the odor was now even more pungent and overpowering.

Tori was hit with the smell and wanted to vomit. It was the worst stench of death she
’d ever encountered in her life. That was saying a lot, since working for the FBI for four years had shown her so much murder and violence.

This was completely above and beyond anything she’d encountered.

“Holy shit,” muttered Julian, scanning the inside of the cave before backing up. “Get out, Victoria!” he ordered, moving with her to escape what he’d just seen.

“What is it, Julian?” she inquired, already sure she knew.

Once outside he grabbed her hand. “We need to get out of here and to the police station.”

“Is it a body?” she asked, knowing her nose never lied.

“Worse. We just found someone’s dumping ground.”

“Oh God!” she whispered.

“You could say that again.”

Two days prior to their discovery.

      
Sunday Morning

Sometimes bei
ng Director of Native American Affairs was the thorn in Callen Whitefox’s side. The last thing he wanted to be doing was sitting at the Red River Reservation, mediating such ridiculous arguing.

When he was given the job in the FBI, his brother believed he was calm and level headed enough to pull it off. Well, that and
Ethan Blackhawk had no patience for it himself. With this assignment, he totally understood that. The council was in an uproar, the local police were pissed off, and all that stood between a major argument and a meltdown was him.

Great…
.

He’d never seen such complete and total jackassery. It was a waste of his time and the taxpayer’s money.
At that very moment, there were places he’d rather be. He’d left his family three hours away and honestly, that’s where his mind and heart were every second of the day.

The woman in his life was pregnant with his child, and leaving her side was getting
progressively more and more difficult. Every assignment away gave Callen increasing anxiety. Not because he worried about her, because Elizabeth Blackhawk was tough and his brother would keep her completely safe, but because he didn’t want to miss a single moment of their pregnancy. They’d just confirmed that they were definitely having a boy, and he had to run off to mediate this hot mess.

God, h
e was having a son!

Those words did something to him on a primitive man- level. It brought out the
barbarian in him, making him possessive, proprietary and over protective. His woman was giving him a precious gift. Nothing sang to the male part of him more than this pregnancy. Forcing himself to refocus, he stared back up at the men arguing in front of him.

Yeah, there were days when he wished he could bag it all and stick by her side like glue
. Today was one of them. This assignment didn’t bode well and getting home in less than five days was beginning to look like an improbability. The more he thought about it, if he was home in two weeks it would be a small miracle.

By home, Callen meant the house that
he, his brother, and Elizabeth called their own. ‘
Fort Blackhawk-Whitefox’
as they affectionately referred was currently under construction. They’d just finished putting in an apartment over the garage for their father, Wyler. Now, they were adding onto the side of the massive stone house for the new baby. At first they were going to let CJ and the baby share a room, but until EJ was sleeping through the night, no one wanted to deal with two wide awake children at three in the morning. 

Now that Wyler was above the garage in his private apartment, they were going to be on baby duty
at night and on their own. The man would be tired enough managing the new baby and CJ all day long, let alone evening feedings on top of that.

Of course his brother, Mr. Control Freak
, had already worked out a minute by minute schedule, anticipating just about everything with the exception of the zombie apocalypse. His son was going to be entering the world in drill sergeant fashion, courtesy of his uncle Ethan.

Poor EJ
. God help him. Chances were he’d end up laid back like his father and be driven mad by his name sake. It warmed his heart that his boy was going to be loved by his idol and his best friends in life.

There was something to be said about their threesome. In theory, it shouldn’t work. Yet it did. They moved together seamlessly, with only minor
squirmishes popping up now and again. Being in love with the same woman tied them together. Being partners in everything else cemented their lives firmly in place.

Life was perfect.

Who knew that sharing a ‘wife’ between them would be this fulfilling? Legally on paper, Ethan was the one married to Elizabeth, only because he found her first. Callen’s ‘marriage’ to her was out of commitment and a private vow between them, sealed with the Blackhawk family rings. Although not legal, it was binding in both of their hearts and now with the oncoming birth of their shared child.

Somethings did last forever, and Callen was sure their love was forged in steel. Nothing could break them.

The arguing pulled him back into focus.

“
Chief Soaring Eagle, you’re being stubborn!” shouted Sheriff James Duffy. “You don’t even care that someone is crossing from the reservation land and slaughtering the animals on the local ranches?”

“We
’re not trying to be being difficult, Sheriff. We’re simply stating that you may not come onto the reservation and search for the animal poacher. Everyone here is aware that you have no local law jurisdiction. Being an outsider, you have no right to question any of our people.”

Sheriff Duffy was getting irate. “So, your people can cross and kill our livestock, but we can’t talk to them? Even when we have eye witnesses s
tating that the sheep were carried back across the border onto the reservation?”

“Exactly.”

Duffy was outraged. “How is that fair?”

Whitefox stepped into the fray. This wasn’t his first time dealing with
the sheriff. The FBI had been to his town before, searching for a serial killer. Now Callen was back, and Duffy wasn’t exactly pleased when they came face to face. “Gentlemen, let’s calm down and discuss this quietly and rationally. We’re all adults here.” Yeah, and as it appeared some more than others.

Duffy raged on
, directing his anger and hostility now at the mediator. “This is insane. We have an eye witness that described the man, and I can’t do anything about it?”

Whitefox tried to regain control of the situation.  His job was to keep the peace between the two communities, find a middle ground and offer resolution. Unfortunately, neither side seemed willing to bring the most important thing to the table; compromise.

“Sheriff Duffy, we don’t believe what you saw was one of our people taking anything from outsider land. By your own accounts, it was dark,” Shaman Tallman added. “We believe it to be a skinwalker not human poacher.”

Callen simply closed his eyes, knowing where this was
immediately heading. If he had a dollar for every time he’d heard about the skinwalker myth, he’d be able to retire and put his son into an Ivy League school. “Okay, let’s discuss this rationally gentlemen.”

Duffy stood. “What the hell is a skinwalker?” He
glared over at Callen Whitefox impatiently. There was no love lost between the two of them. Last time he saw the man he punched Duffy in the face, taking out his front tooth, all because he blamed the FBI woman for killing his brother unjustly.

Which
everyone knew she absolutely did!

Whitefox sighed. “It’s a legend among Native communities
, Sheriff. It’s a creature that kills animals for their skins, and then it steals their abilities and souls.”

James Duffy sat and stared open mouth
ed. “Are you shitting me? I can’t interview a suspect because these two think it’s a mythical imaginary creature? Am I the only sane one here.”

Callen shrugged
at his question of sanity, but kept his comments to himself. Duffy’s family tree had one big scary nut fall from it already. “You can’t interview them because the Natives on the Rez don’t fall under your jurisdiction. It has nothing to do with a skinwalker.”

The man was on the edge. “Here’s an idea, Mr. FBI
Agent. YOU interview them!”

Whitefox leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “I can’t. The FBI jurisdiction is limited to crimes related to drugs, multiple homicides and ATF
misdemeanors. You requested a mediator. I’m here to help you come to an agreement. Not interrogate a suspect.” It was true. When it came to the Native American Nations, he couldn’t use his badge unless it fell under one of those transgressions. His hands were essentially tied, unless it was to talk someone off the ledge much like now.

“This is unbelievable.
Two grown men at this table are sitting here lost in fairytale land with myths and legends, the Feds won’t help, and I can’t go after a poacher because they’re Indian?”

“Native American,” corrected Callen, wishing Elizabeth was there to kick his ass and be the floor show.
If she heard him throwing ‘Indian’ around, she’d have a stroke.

“Whatever! You’re the damn FBI first and foremost! Do something!”

Callen tried to rationalize with the Chief. “Can we possibly get the witness to come here, telling us what she saw? Maybe if you hear the description, it’ll remind you of someone and that will help change your mind.”

The men didn’t look like they were going to budge.

“Please Chief. It’s about compromise.” Callen was just about ready to pack it all in and throw in the towel.

Duffy leaned forward waiting for an answer. He needed to figure out a way to get a suspect in for questioning. Lately, there had been a rash of killings. Sheep, goats and even a dog were taken. If he
didn’t get some answers, his ass was on the line. The election was coming up in the fall and unfortunately for him, his brother being an accused killer hurt his popularity.

Go figure
.

It wasn’t like he
had been the one out murdering men and taking bits and pieces off their bodies as souvenirs.

Although, he was about to kill someone, and the two stubborn
Indians in front of him were first on his list if they didn't offer up something other than ‘no’.

Callen crossed his fingers.

Duffy wasn’t betting on any help on this one. The Natives had the locals all stirred up and pissed off. The mayor was breathing down his neck to take care of this mess, or in the fall he’d be endorsing a different candidate for election. The entire situation just sucked all around.