Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (9 page)

Both men
exited their stakeout positions and moved towards the trail. Heading up the caravan of ATV’s was Tori. When she came to a stop, another passenger hopped off, caring a gun.

Callen couldn’t believe his eyes. “Elizabeth?” he stood staring at his pregnant woman crossing the path to
wards him. “What are you doing here?” he asked, taking her by the arm and leading her as far away from the cave as possible. Pulling her behind a tree, he stared down into her eyes. “You shouldn’t be here with him.” Whitefox pointed to her belly.

“
Yeah, the funny thing about that is I couldn’t figure out how to leave him at home with his brother,” she answered, grinning.

Obviously, she caught him off
guard with her response.

“I missed you,
Lyzee.”

Her fingers slid lovingly down his cheek, tracing his strong jaw, almost memorizing it.

It had been four long days without kissing our touching the mother of his unborn child. Quickly, he glanced over his shoulder and found his brother directing the team. “God Angel,” he whispered, pulling her into his arms and taking her mouth with a vengeance. His Elizabeth tasted like heaven, as their lips met and plundered, becoming reacquainted with everything he’d missed while away. When he pulled away, she smiled serenely up at him.

“We missed you too, my love.”

His heart flipped in his chest at the use of the term. Dropping to his knees, he placed his hand and mouth beside the baby bump, whispering to his child growing deep within. “I missed you son. Daddy’s here now. I’ll keep you and mommy safe.”

Elizabeth ran her hands over his hair and smiled at how loving Callen was towards their child. Yeah, he’d make an excellent father
, just like his brother.

“We should go see Ethan, or the tech team will start talking.
Although, before leaving Julian’s, I bought us some time,” Elizabeth whispered, taking his hand in hers momentarily.

“How?”

She pointed at Christina. Her husband’s tech supreme was walking around the clearing but staring at Ethan. “I let her ride in with the boss man. She was wrapped around his back.”

Callen offered her a fist bump. “God, I love a sadistic, evil woman that gets off on torturing people.
It’s so damn sexy and gets me all hot and bothered.”

Elizabeth snickered. “
It’s a good thing, huh?”

Blackhawk wandered over to his wife and
Callen. He threw his arms around his younger brother, genuinely glad to see him. “I missed you, Cal.”

“I missed you both too, but what the hell are you thinking bringing her out into the field six months pregnant?” Callen
raged, finally saying out loud what was bouncing in his head.

Blackhawk laughed. “You know how she is. You try stopping
Tex. She’s got a mind of her own.”

The female Blackhawk interjected.
“Uh boys, TEX is standing right here, and she’s packing heat,” she replied, patting her Glock. “It would be a shame if in some hormonal rampage I shot you both in your very fine native derrières.”

Both men
ignored her threat. If anything, they were accustomed to her promise of violence, with zero follow through. “Walk me through the scene, Cal.”

Whitefox led them over to the bramble
, slipping on a pair of latex gloves, before pulling the shrub out from the opening. Immediately, the stench of dead wafted up towards them.

“Holy disgustingness,” muttered Elizabeth, feeling the need to retch
as she backed up. This pregnancy was running her through the ringer. Baby didn’t like the smell of meat, cooking flesh or now decay. Then again, she really couldn’t blame little EJ on any of that, with the exception of the meat thing.

No one enjoyed the process of death.

“Hello there everyone and how are we all today?” cheerfully greeted Doctor Chris Leonard, as he pulled on his own gloves.

She took that
back. There were a few people that enjoyed death, and her ME was one of them. The man was working in the right field.

“Chris, can we get them pulled out as soon as possible?” inquired Blackhawk. “I don’t like us sitting out here in the shadows while the killer could be out there
observing us.”

“Give me a moment, Boss.”
Doctor Leonard squeezed past them and into the cave to check it out, before giving him the answer. It would all depend on the state of the bodies. Taking off his stationary light, he placed it not far from the corpses. It would give him enough illumination to work with for now. Pulling out his flashlight he moved even closer to the skinless men, searching for trace.

Approvingly, he noticed that the killer had d
efinitely done a good job of removing their skin. Searching for wounds, he slid over as Doctor Tony Magnus entered, mimicking his actions.

“Wow, this one’s new. I don’t think we’ve ever
worked one where a maniac was skinning his victims,” he threw out there, grinning.

Chris pointed to the side. “Bones are over there.” Pulling out his chart he started marking off a few things, and then he grabbed the camera
to begin taking pictures. Once done, he backed out of the space and handed it to Elizabeth. He knew she was still having issues with certain smells, but would want to see what was happening in the cave.

“Thanks Chris, you’re a lifesaver!” Elizabeth held the
equipment so both men could see the scene with her, as her ME went back to work.

“Shit, I really hope those people were dead or that
had to be excruciating,” muttered Whitefox. Immediately, he moved closer towards Elizabeth in a manner of protectiveness.

“Doc, how did he die?” Elizabeth shouted back into the cave after her ME.

“When I get him back to the bright lights, you’ll have your answer, Director.”

That was pretty much how it was going to be. Even though the directors liked the answers fast, the ME and Anthro doctors didn’t like to make speculative guesses on scene. Instead of pushing
it, Elizabeth did something that was an aberration for her. “Okay, then we’ll discuss this there.”

Both men
glanced over, lifting a brow.

“That’s it?” Blackhawk was more than a little surprised
at her easy cooperativeness. “You’re not going to nag, pressure, or bitch at them.”

Whitefox touched her forehead. “Are you feeling okay?”

She laughed. “I’m perfectly fine. I’m not pressuring them for two reasons boys. One, I’m not too happy about being out here in the dark, and two- this isn’t my rodeo. We passed this one off to Callen. I’m simply an agent and here to evaluate if he goes off track. If he starts to screw this up or it gets over his head, then I’ll step in and reel him back under control.”

“Uh,
let me introduce myself. I’m the one you’re talking about and I’m in your presence,” Whitefox said, waving at them.

Blackhawk snickered. “Good point.”

Julian and Tori wandered over together. It was fairly obvious that everything between them was far better than the last time the directors had seen them as a couple. Julian had his arm around her back, hand resting possessively on her hip.

Elizabeth stared up at Callen. “We
’ve had everything you wanted transported here. You have your three agents,” she pointed at herself, Ethan and Tori. “There are your techs, your doctors, and equipment. Now what, Boss man?”

Julian tensed
at the news. “Victoria, you’re back on duty?”

She grinned and pointed at her Glock, pulling her badge out of her back pocket. “Isn’t it the shiniest and greatest badge ever?
I almost want to go off with it and whisper loving words to it all night long.” This time Tori ran her thumb over the gold badge and sighed. “I missed you, lover.”

Elizabeth
started laughing at her antics. “Yeah, Tori is getting a field test. If she passes, then she’s back on duty.”

Julian went completely silent. It looked like the big pink elephant in the room was now getting ready to stampede. Here came the
only barrier between them and happily ever after. “Great. I’m happy for you, Honey.”

Elizabeth lifted a brow. That was a big
ol’ fib, if she’d ever heard one before. Maybe everything wasn’t peachy keen in paradise after all.

Blackhawk grabbed their attention. “Run the scene, Callen.”

The man had seen his brother and Elizabeth do it more than enough times to understand to how manage it. First step was to get all the trace done before they pulled out of there.

Elizabeth whistled for him
. It stopped Christina and her techs in their spots.

“Bag it all up ASAP. I want us out of here in less than ninety minutes. I have the police station aware we’re coming. The bodies can be housed there in their basement. The
chief of reservation police has given us space to work, and there’s room for a make shift lab too,” Callen said, pushing the team hard. The techs began hustling. Normally Elizabeth gave them two hours, but now they were even more under the gun.

There were some mock salutes, as the team began scattering.

“Julian, you take the perimeter. I want to know where the killer came from. Track his movements for me. Take Agent Christensen with you as your back up,” Callen continued.

Elizabeth handed him his rifle. “Be careful.”

Tori grabbed a spare camera from the ME’s kit sitting outside the cave. “I’ll document everything.” God! It was good to be using her mind again. She followed Julian through the clearing to the spot he was focusing all his attention.

Blackhawk scanned the area,
searching for anything that might jump out and try to catch them off guard. Instinctually, he slid his body closer to his wife.

“Talk us through it, Cal.” Elizabeth pulled out her phone and waited for him to give her details.

The man was about to discuss the assignment’s correlation to the bodies showing up, when there was a disturbance off to their right. Two men walked into the clearing and every agent with a gun pulled it.

“Director Whitefox! What
’s the meaning of this?” raged Chief Soaring Eagle. “You said that the FBI would be respectful of our land. This looks very intrusive!”

Callen fought hard to not step in front of Elizabeth. If he did, she’d be pissed and that was one more issue to deal with later.

“Who the hell is this and why are they on the crime scene?” Elizabeth questioned. Old habits die hard, and she wanted to boot some native ass back behind the tree line.

Both men stared at her disapprovingly.
This was exactly what they meant. Here stood another outsider crossing the boundaries of respect.

Whitefox went into work mode and tried to sooth the man’s ruffled feathers. “Chief Soaring Eagle and Shaman Tallman, these are my partners
; Directors Ethan and Elizabeth Blackhawk, and they’re here to help assess the situation and figure out who left the bodies.”

The taller man
stared at Elizabeth, looking very unimpressed. “An outsider,” and then his gaze flickered towards Blackhawk, “and a half-breed?”

It was all it took.

“Oh look, a jackwagon and an ignoramus.” Elizabeth stated, in retort. Nothing pissed her off more than people disparaging her husband and family.

Both reservation men stared down at her in
disdain.

Elizabeth was about to tear them both new ones, but Ethan placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to warn her. It wouldn’t hurt them, but it would make Callen’s job more difficult.
There was a time for battle, and this wasn’t it.

“I assure you, Chief
that the team here isn’t new to working on Native land. They’re respectful of our culture and will work hard to find who did this.” Callen was grateful Elizabeth didn’t go shit nuts on them, like she normally would.

At this point he’d take the small miracles.

The men didn’t look pleased either way. “We wish to see the remains.”

Elizabeth almost said something, but again, her husband squeezed her shoulder. It wasn’t going to be easy to not run this one. Everything in her was t
elling her to flip both men off, telling them to pound sand.

They needed to let Callen spread his wings and take command, and that meant even with the
se idiots.

“I’m sorry, but no one sees
the bodies until our ME has cleared them. Right now all I can offer is that we’ll be working out of the police station and sometime tomorrow the autopsies will be complete and we can revisit this then.”

The two seemed mollified.

“Now, if you don’t mind, we need to get finished up and transport the bodies back to the work area.” Callen paused. “Oh, Chief Soaring Eagle?” he called, getting his attention.

“Yes?”

“The sketch artist drawing, did it ring any bells?” he inquired.

There was no emotion on the man’s face,
but the eyes gave it away. “No, it didn’t.”