Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (7 page)

“I saw two
males with complete removal of their skin, and there’s bones lying beside them. You’ll need Tony Magnus to check them out.”

Blackhawk stared at his wife and shook his head
again and this time he pointed. He recognized the look on her face. It was the ‘I want to go out in the field look’ and it always meant trouble.

“The problem is going to be getting the tech team all the way back here. We had to come in
on horseback.” Callen kept his voice low, in case the killer was lurking in the woods.

Blackhawk didn’t see a problem.
The FBI can get ATV’s in to get scene accessibility. Are you going to be okay running this one?”

Whitefox nearly dropped his phone. “What did you say?”
This was officially his worst case scenario. This would be his first time in charge, and he really wasn’t an assignment boss kind of guy.

Elizabeth started laughing. “You caught this one, Cal. You’re a director, and this isn’t your first murder. You’ve watche
d us do it a few times. I never thought I’d say this, but you’re the boss.”

He was beginning to get
sick to his stomach. “Um, okay.”

Blackhawk was grinning at the sound of terror in his brother’s voice. “What do you need?”

Callen took a deep breath, knowing he could do this. They were right. It was time he stepped up and earned his stripes. “I need three to four agents for the field. I want Tony Magnus and Chris Leonard in for body retrieval. We can work out of the police station on the Rez, so get me Christina and two other techs to work the lab too.”

Ethan was making notes on his phone
, sending out texts to the team. “You lucked out. Both doctors are currently in house and available, so I’ll get them mobilized.”

“We need a place for the agents and the tech team to stay,” added Whitefox.

“I’m emailing Ginny to book the hotel for the team right now.” He finished his email and sent it off. “Anything else?”

“I need authorization to utilize Julian. If the killer was this far back into the woods, then I need him tracked.” Whitefox glanced over at Julian
, and he nodded, accepting the assignment.

Elizabeth spoke up. “I’ll sign off on his expense.
Is that all you need initially?”

Callen thought about it. “I think that’s about it. I’ll send my GPS location and Julian, T
ori and I will stay here until the team arrives.”

Ethan thought about it. “You have one little thing left to handle before the team can roll into town.”

“What?”

Blackhawk grinned. “You may want to contact the local council and tell them that you have bodies and the FBI is about to descend onto the scene.”

Crap! That wasn’t going to go over well at all. “Terrific. I wonder why that escaped my mind,” he added, sarcastically.

“Is it going to get ugly
?” Elizabeth questioned, hating to see Callen in between a rock and a hard place. His job was difficult enough.

There wasn’t even an answer, only sardonic laughter.

His brother
was grinning. “Welcome to the world of being boss. Handle it and make them accept it, Director Whitefox. You got this one, Cal.”

There was an audible sigh. “Okay, I’ll call in later and update you on the status.”

“Expect the team there in less than four hours. They’ll be rolling in on ATV’s so tell Julian to secure his horses if they aren’t already. Good luck, Callen!” Blackhawk hung up the phone.

Elizabeth didn’t say anything. She was waiting for her husband to tell her absolutely no
, and then she’d start to argue with him.

“You know we can’t let him do this alone.
He’s scared shitless,” Blackhawk admitted.

She shrugged. “I’m aware.”
Could it really be this easy? Was keeping her mouth shut the way to get the men to concede, giving her what she wanted?

“
Technically, Tori is already there and this could be her trial run. If you and I join them, we have our three agents that he requested.”

“I guess we could.” Elizabeth was getting excited, but keeping her face neutral.
It was like she somehow discovered a new man secret. If she said nothing, miracles happened.

“He’s going to have his hands full with the council and an investigation,” Blackhawk continued. “He probably could use our help.”

“Yep.”

He was probably going to regret this, but he did it anyway. “Saddle up Tex
. You and I are going in as his back up. Callen’s about to become our boss.”

Elizabeth was up and out of her seat so fast that he actually jumped. She ran at him and hopped up in his arms, leaving kisses all over his face. “I am so damn excited and so is the baby. We get a field trip back to Red River. I hope I see that jackwagon
sheriff again.”

Already Blackhawk was having second thoughts. “Whoa, back that comment up for a second. You are not to provoke anyone into a fist fight, a gun fight, a knife fight, a verbal squabble, or a slap down. Am I clear?”

She laughed as he lowered her back to her feet. “Did you hear that EJ? We’re going on a field trip.” Then it hit her. “Can I drive the ATV through the woods?”

“Oh hell
!” This was going to make him age ten more years, and it wasn’t even his child she was carrying.

Elizabeth grinned wickedly. “Come on
, Cowboy. You need to procure us a house to stay in, and I’ll drive us home to get us packed.”

“You're enjoying this a little too much, Elizabeth.”

Then came the maniacal laughter. “Yeah I am. The only thing that’s going to be better is the look on Callen’s face when we roll on in on some bad ass ATV’s.”

“
Oh boy.”

“Can we get one for the house? I can ride it to the mail box instead of walking.
Then we can do donuts on the cul-de-sac.”

“God help us both,” Blackhawk muttered.

When he looked horrified, she merely slapped him on the ass as she walked to the door.

“Heaven can’t help you, Cowboy.
Where we’re going is hell, and the devil likes to hang out with his serial killing buddies.”

He only wished she was kidding.

Callen hung up with his brother
, feeling a bit overwhelmed. This was his first assignment in charge without them. He was already feeling the pressure on his shoulders. “Okay, we need to stay here and keep the scene secure. I’m going to call the council, apprising them of the situation. We have less than a dozen FBI agents rolling up on the scene shortly.”

“I’ll take the horses back to the house,” Tori offered. “I’ll wait there for the team to arrive
, and I’ll come back in with them.”

Julian didn’t like that idea, and he didn’t like the idea of her sitting out in the opening where the killer could come back. “Okay, get my gun out of the cabinet when you come back,
Honey.”

“Anything else?” she asked, grinning. Man, she wished she could work this assignment alongside the team again. Part of her was disappointed, but the rest was happy that Julian was taking a job,
getting his life started back up again.

“No
, but you hustle right home with Weeko and Wakanda, and you don’t stop for anyone, please.” Julian was nervous as hell at letting her ride out on her own.

Callen could see the fear in Julian’s face. “Here,” he said, dropping down to one knee and pulling up his pant leg. He took out his clutch piece and handed it to her.

Julian relaxed a little. His soldier girl could defend herself now, and that made him ease up on the nerves. “Hurry Honey! Stay in the house and don’t leave without the team, okay? Text me when you get there.”

Tori grinned and started walking away, tucking the gun into the back of her jeans. Suddenly, there was a
yank on her arm and she was pulled back towards him.

“I love you,” he said,
kissing her deeply. When he finally released Tori, she stared at him dumbfounded. “Get out of here quick,” he said, slapping her on the ass to move her along.

Julian followed her
, watching to make sure she mounted the horse. When she kicked Weeko and tugged on Wakanda’s reins, they were off fast through the forest. It was then he prayed to himself that she make it back to his cabin safe.

Callen wandered up behind him. “You have it bad,” he said, grinning.

“Yeah, don’t I know it.” Julian just didn’t know what was going to happen in the end. Yes, he had her love, but their careers were both still up in the air, moving them in two different directions.

Whitefox could feel the tension rolling off his friend in waves. “It’ll all work out in the end.”

Julian didn't know what to say, but he was hoping the man was right. “You better call the council, but be prepared. This is going to piss them off. Chief Soaring Eagle hates outsiders.”

Whitefox was well aware
of the aggression; the only difference was that he didn’t really have a choice. The man was going to have to play with the FBI.

At least Elizabeth was safe at home. If anyone could stir up a tribe of Natives, she could. That was Callen’s only consolation
in the whole mess.

                                          *   *   *

After the call to council, one thing was blatantly clear. They weren’t
the least bit happy about it at all. The chief wanted the Rez police to handle the situation and keep it ‘in house’. Callen reassured him that the people brought in would be respectful and on their best behavior.

Great,
it was just one more thing to worry about while he ran this assignment. He had to keep a bunch of non-natives from insulting the residents of the Rez.

“You don’t look so good,” stated Julian, observing his friend. He’d heard most of the call, and he understood the pressure was on Director Whitefox.

“Yeah, I don’t know how or why Elizabeth and Ethan like running these assignments. This is a type B personality’s worse nightmare.”

He laughed. “I can only imagine.”

“Come on Julian. We need to go guard that cave. I don’t want to be sitting out in the open like this. I think we need to blend in a little more.”

Julian followed him over to the opening,
dragging the bramble back in front of it. “Okay, let’s make ourselves scarce until backup arrives.”

Whitefox was quiet for a while. “Have any cards in your pocket?”

Julian laughed. “Do I look like a magician?”

Callen shrugged. “I just figured you and Tori might get bored and play cards.”

That struck Julian funny. “Do you sit around playing Gin with Elizabeth in your spare time?”

He had a point. “Gotcha.”

“It’s going to be a long four hours,” Julian admitted.

“Yeah it is,” he answered, settling
down into the brush, his back against Julian’s as they watched both directions. Now it was about not letting anyone sneak up on them, adding their corpses to the body count.

                                          *   *   *

Pulling up in front of ‘Fort Blackhawk-Whitefox’, Elizabeth and Ethan hopped out of the Denali
, walking hand in hand towards their house. The tech team was mobilizing and meeting at Julian’s cabin to head in all together. On the way home, Ethan called their boss and explained the situation and that the three directors were going to be out in the field together. At first he wasn’t happy, but when they informed him where the bodies were located, he understood.

Because they were a couple or triangle, they had to tread lightly when it came to the job. Yes, they were out of the ‘closet’, but they had to make sure that if they were
on a job, and it was costing the tax payers, they could justify the expense. Three directors in the field was a hefty price tag.

Now that they were home, it was time to get their things packed and get moving.
Callen needed his back up as soon as possible.

Opening the door, they walked in to hear giggling coming from their kitchen.
Other than Elizabeth, when the men were chasing her around, giggling wasn’t the norm.

Ethan promptly covered his wife’s mouth, so she couldn’t warn Wyler as they came around the corner. Since finding out that their father had a thing for Bly Cocheta, the boys were enjoying busting his ass at every given opportunity.

They called it ‘operation pie baking’. The family had a private joke, using that as the euphemism for sex. Wyler knew what it meant, which only made it funnier to embarrass him.

Elizabeth started laughing
, the sound muffled against his hand, as they moved into the kitchen. She fought valiantly to warn her father-in-law, but Ethan was bigger and more determined to have fun with it.