Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (41 page)

Elizabeth nodded. “I know he can’t bring himself to it, but I’ll do it for him so he doesn’t have to go.”

“And this, Elizabeth, is why the spirits and the ancestors past made woman the one that carried the burden of the heart; because only she could. We men aren’t worthy.”

Ethan Blackhawk was in sheer panic. She wasn’t at work, she wasn’t at the stores, and she was just gone. There was only one last place she could possibly be,
and that place was his grandfather’s house. He looked over at his brother, who had said nothing the last hour. It was obvious that he was angry at him too. 

“I guess I deserve this,” he muttered
. This is exactly why he wanted to lock her away.

“I wouldn’t wish this fear on my worst enemy, Ethan. So I won’t wish it on my own brother,” he said, quietly. “But you did create this mess.”

“My own brother turns against me.”

Callen Whitefox finally looked over. “I haven’t turned on you; I’m just siding with your wife on this one, because I happen to think you were way over the line.”

“This is why I want to lock her away and keep her safe. This
fear is consuming me right now.” Blackhawk felt the panic and terror that he’d managed to drive away his wife. For all he knew she could be on a plane back to Salem and her old life, taking away his family. The fear of losing them both was overwhelming.

“That’s the problem, Ethan. You can think about locking her a
way, and you can hover over her, but then you need to draw the line. The minute you forget that she is a human being and treat her like you own her, you’ve just lessened what she is in life. Elizabeth seems to be a pretty good agent. Is she? ”

Blackhawk pulled up in front of his grandfather’s house and sighed. “She’s the best I’ve ever worked with
, and I get what you’re saying. I crossed the line.”

“Bro you didn’t just cross it, you fell off the cliff tripping on it. Cut her a break. You’re damn lucky to have her in your life, and I wish I was half as lucky.
Guys like us only dream about girls like her. We don’t get to make it a reality. You did.”

Blackhawk knew he was right.

“I’ll help you find her,” he said, hopping out of the Denali and going to his grandfather’s door. It was locked and all the lights were off. “You’re going to have to just head home and wait. She’ll turn up. It’s getting dark soon, and she’ll eventually come home to sleep.”

Ethan had never been this worried in all his life.
That wasn’t true. Once, in Salem he felt this way, and it was his fault then too. Now, it was different. He wasn’t only scared for the woman he loved, but terrified for the child she carried that was part of both of them. He’d go home, but he wouldn’t stop worrying until she walked back into their home and his arms. All he wanted to do was keep her safe.

Instead
he’d driven her away and probably into danger
.

Elizabeth parked the vehicle on the roadside, gazing out at the burial grounds. “It’s pretty,” she said, softly. It
didn’t appear to be a normal cemetery. There were beads and feathers blowing in the slight breeze. Pretty wind chimes decorated the handmade crosses, stones, and statuaries. Stepping down from the Denali, she went to the passenger door to assist Timothy. As she offered him her hand, he looked into her eyes. His brown meeting her icy blue and she couldn’t help but feel like he was staring directly into her soul and measuring her against his Native wisdom.

“What do you see, Elizabeth?” he inquired.

She looked around at the grounds, and just let herself observe what was there. Using the same instinct she used for observing a crime scene, she finally had an assessment. “I see a really beautiful place that isn’t just to bury one’s dead, but a place to find peace and the answers to questions.”

Timothy walked into the area and to the stone that was where his wife was buried. “My wife is here,” he said, touching the stone with his wrinkled hand and whispering some words in a language his wife would have understood. Oh, how he missed her. After many years of marriage, his heart
still ached now that she was gone. He believed she watched over him. In fact, he believed that his beloved wife had found a way to send Elizabeth to them.

To heal their family
.

Elizabeth sat in front of the stone and pulled a third of the flowers from the bunch that she had in her hand. Reading the dates she could understand why there was so much sadness in his eyes.
Timothy had been alone for a long time. “You miss her a great deal.” It was a statement. Not a question.

“
More than words can ever express,” he said, touching the beads that hung over the stone. “She died when the boys were very young. I’ve missed her for over thirty years now, the same as I did the first day she left on her journey without me.”

“You never thought to remarry, Granddad?”

“Never. Why try to replace the love of your life?”

“I don’t blame you,” she whispered, and tears threatening to come back and overwhelm her.
There was no way she could remarry if something happened to her husband. He was her heart.

“I’m going to ask a favor from you, Elizabeth. It
’s a heavy burden, but you’re the only one that I can trust with the task.”

She looked ove
r at the man and nodded. “Yes, Granddad?”

“When it’s my time, and it will come because I have had a long life on this earth. I need you to take over for me and take on the job of holding them together. Promise me that you will be there for both of them and keep them together.”

She didn’t know what to say. That this man would trust her with the men he loved very much touched her heart.

“I need to know that they’ll be safe and taken care of
, and I don’t believe anyone can carry on for me but you. I believe the raven we discussed was sent to you. I would like to think it was a harbinger from my wife, giving me a message. I believe you were sent here to help put my family back together again. I thought my boys would always hate each other, and my son had damaged them both. Now I see how Ethan lives freer and lighter. I also see how my Callen isn’t as hopeless; he sees a chance in life like his brother has now. I believe, Elizabeth that you have made the difference in this family.”

“You honor me, Granddad.”
Elizabeth stood and walked over to the man, careful to not step on his wife’s grave. She kissed him on the cheek and took his hand. Everything he said touched her heart. “I’ll take care of them both, I promise.”

“I thought that I lost Ethan years ago, and it broke my heart. When he came back I was given a new gift. He gave me a granddaughter that I wouldn’t have had. I trust you with his heart, and with Callen’s until he finds the right woman. I’ll need you to take care of my burial. The boys I fear they will be unable to cope.”

Elizabeth accepted the duty. “You write down what you want, and I’ll make sure it is carried out to your specifications. As for Ethan and Callen, I’ll carry them and get them both through it, Granddad.”

“Somehow Elizabeth, there was never a doubt you would.”

Blackhawk pulled into his driveway, and the house lacked luster. It was too late in the afternoon on a Saturday to do anymore work. The dentist office wasn’t answering the phone, the vet was out taking care of some horses, and his wife was missing. When he and his brother entered the house, he dropped his papers on the desk in the office that he and his wife shared. Maybe if he begged some more, she’d come back to him. 

Whitefox grabbed his phone and called his deputy. When the man answered
, he whispered into the phone. “Find the FBI agent, my brother’s wife. I have a feeling she’s on the reservation with granddad.”

“You want me to pick her up?” asked Chester Briggs.

“No, find her and call me with her location. Don’t approach her just observe her unnoticed.”

“Okay boss,” he answered.

Elizabeth had to be with his grandfather. The old man had a routine, and Timothy was a creature of habit. On Saturdays he was always home at night, planning his weekly rituals. If he was missing, and the doors to his house locked, then chances were he was with Elizabeth. Granddad never left the Rez, so it narrowed it down.

“I’ll find her, boss.”

“Thanks. Call me back.”

Elizabeth stood in front of the tombstone of her husband’s mother. It was well kept and covered with beads just like the other one. She ran her fingers over the stone and the name. She never knew her name was Catherine. It was the same as her own mother’s name, and she too died way too young.

“Catherine, it means pure,” she said to Timothy.

“It does.” He watched the woman with old eyes that had seen many things in his life
, and yet she brought a new breath to his time left on the earth. She was a blessing, and when he saw his grandson, he was going to sit him down and talk to him about what he was throwing away with his carelessness. There would not be a repeat of his own son’s behavior.

She pulled off one more third of the roses and took a moment to take in their scent. To her
, roses always meant funeral flowers, but they still were beautiful. Laying them on her grave, she spoke to the woman. “Catherine, my name is Elizabeth and I’m married to your son. I know that you’ve been gone a long time, but I have to believe that part of our parents remain with us when their spirits leave. I know how much your son misses you. I can see it in his eyes every day. He wants to come back here and see you, but he just isn’t ready yet. I’ll do it for him, until he’s strong enough to return.”

“She would have liked you,” said Timothy, as he observed her quietly. “I believe she would have loved you instantly, because of the way you love her son.”

“That gives me peace, because I always wonder if she would have accepted me as part of her family.” Elizabeth tucked hair behind her ear as the wind picked up. Something inside her made her look around the burial grounds, scanning for the disturbance.

“In our culture Elizabeth, we are connected to nature and that around us. Feel how the wind has picked up? That is you
r answer from the spirit world. Catherine hears you.” It wasn’t lost on him that Elizabeth was very astute, and she didn’t miss much. When the wind started, she looked around, seeing everything with her icy blue eyes.

Elizabeth smiled. “Then this trip was well worth it, to meet his mother.” She turned and
moved one stone over to the next grave in the family.

“That would be Callen’s mother.
I had them all buried together. The women in this family, they all were called back to the Great Spirit way too soon.”

She ran her fingers over that stone too, placing flowers across the front for her brother
-in-law. She noticed the wind slowed, and the beads on the stones stopped moving. “I think it’s time to return back to your home, Granddad.”

“Come child.”

Elizabeth took his arm and helped him across the grounds to the Denali. It was time to get out of the open. Being a trained agent, she just knew when eyes were watching her, and her gun was in her purse. The hairs on the back of her neck stood, and she wanted nothing more than to be locked behind the doors of the car and fast. Before she helped Timothy into the vehicle, she reached into her purse and clipped her gun to her hip.

“Worried, Elizabeth?” the old man asked, watching her curiously.

“Just thinking about self-preservation,” she answered, helping him into the vehicle. She scanned the area and again saw nothing but the burial grounds. Only her cop instinct said otherwise. After being in the FBI for over ten years, she had come to rely on her instincts for survival. In the field they were sometimes all you had to survive.

Someone was watching them
.

Elizabeth Blackhawk had no doubt and would bet her next paycheck on it.

Callen Whitefox ordered pizza. He figured they might as well have something to eat, since they were just sitting there going over information. He noticed his brother was wound tight, ready to spring and snap at any moment. When his phone beeped he read the display. Elizabeth Blackhawk and his grandfather had been in the cemetery. Now they were on the move again, and what were his instructions. He typed back a message to keep an eye on both of them, and if anyone approached them to keep them safe. He went back to his papers and waited for dinner to arrive. Once a final location on his sister-in-law was reported to him, he would give his brother the news and some peace.

Timothy Blackhawk escorted his grandson’s wife back into his home. Just watching her in the cemetery was the answer to all the questions he had about the woman. She was astute and very much in tune with everything around her. When the wind picked up, he took it as a warning of them being watched. He believed the spirit world watched over them at all times, and gave them signs if they looked for them. He didn’t want to worry her with his warning, but she just knew. Elizabeth was very perceptive
. Had he not known for a fact, he’d think she had some Native blood in her. Timothy had great hope for his grandchild she was giving life, and that maybe he would be allowed to be part of his culture and pick up the gifts his mother carried and his father shunned.

“I’ll make you dinner,” he said
, walking to the kitchen.

“No, I think I’ll make you dinner,” she answered, keeping her gun on her hip. She no longer felt watched, but still, she wasn’t willing to be caught unarmed and risk either of them. If anyone was coming at them, she’d be ready. “Tell me what you had planned and I’ll take care of it for you
.” Elizabeth walked into the kitchen and made the older man sit.

“I was planning on simple. Some soup and a sandwich, but we can do more elaborate if you wish.”

Elizabeth put water on for tea. “No, that’s fine, Granddad. I happen to be a culinary master at soup and sandwiches.” When he laughed, she winked.

“The soup is in a container in the freezer
, and the sandwich items are in the refrigerator.”

Elizabeth got to work; she didn’t mind spending time with the older man. Her husband’s grandfather was very sweet
, and just the peace she received from being around him was very welcoming. As the tea kettle whistled, she took down a mug and poured him a cup of tea.

“Tell me, Lyzee,” he used her nickname, since it felt right at that moment. “The FBI lured you in,
but have you always wanted to be an agent?”

As she cut a tomato into slices and layered them on bread she answered, “Always, from the minute I was a little girl I always wanted to find justice,” she
grinned. “Call me old fashioned, but I like to see the good guy win.”

“Ethan had me worried for a while
. When he left, he was very angry, and then five years went by and money started arriving magically into my bank account.” Timothy motioned to the house. “It repaired the house and keeps it maintained, and I still didn’t know what he was doing. Then one day he ran into Callen ten years ago.”

“Ethan believes in responsibility, and I know he’s taking care of you,” she answered, nonchalantly. She’d seen the automatic transfers monthly out of their account and
followed the paper trail back to his grandfather’s account. She wasn’t surprised. Ethan Blackhawk was a good man deep down, even if he was infuriating to no end at times.

“He wouldn’t come see me, but he still remembered me,” he said sadly. “It gave me hope that he’d come home one day.”

Elizabeth pulled the soup from the microwave and stirred it. “He loves you very much, and he wasn’t running from you, Granddad. Ethan was, and still is, running from himself. For some reason he worries about his past, and what people will think of him. One day he’ll figure it out and stop running. I can keep up with him for as long as it takes,” she paused. “I’m not ashamed of his past, Granddad. I am proud of where he came from, but he needs to find that path himself. I can’t force it on him. All I can do is wait for him to realize that being Native isn't a hindrance but a blessing. I’m proud to be a Blackhawk, now he needs to be.”

The old man looked up at her. Elizabeth
was very astute indeed, and she knew her husband well.

“When he finally comes to peace with it, he’ll jump in completely. Right now he’s still punishing himself for what has him worried.”

“You’ll forgive him then? Today, too many people run from responsibilities instead of sticking by them and fighting for them.”

Elizabeth constructed the rest of the sandwich, and cut it in half placing it on the plate.
She thought about it, as she licked mayo from her thumb. “I’m stubborn, Granddad, and I don’t run from things. I generally run head long into them. Right now I’m angry at your grandson, but I still love him more than anything in this world. I could have gone out in the field alone to spite him and his feelings, but why hurt him when he’s been hurt so much in his life? Ethan, right now, is breakable and I’m not. I’m willing to swallow the hurt, to keep his heart intact. I came here to avoid a fight with him, and give us both space to think.”

Timothy was touched.

“His last girlfriend wasn’t very nice and without going into details, she did a number on his heart, confidence, and mind.” Elizabeth left it at that. This wasn’t her story to tell. It was Ethan’s and she wouldn’t divulge things he didn’t want discussed. She’d protect his heart and the things that gave him shame.

“She hurt my boy?”

Elizabeth placed a sandwich in front of the man and a bowl of steaming soup. Joining him at the table, she thought about it and then spoke. “Let’s just say if I ever meet her, they’ll probably be taking me off to jail for kicking her ass for hurting him.”

Timothy laughed. “That bad, huh?” he said, taking a bite of his sandwich.

“It wouldn’t be the first woman I’ve had to knock around when they crossed the line with Ethan, and it probably won’t be the last. I’m still waiting to run into Kaya Cheek. I am so going to hand her an ass kicking too,” she said, biting into her sandwich.

“Oh, that one I would like to see,” he chuckled. “There is no love lost with that woman
. She caused my boys a lot of grief. I didn’t like her from the start,” he answered. “Kaya was hell bent on stealing the Blackhawk name.”

A little wave of awareness touched her mind at the man’s words. Elizabeth pushed them down until later; she wasn’t ready to think about it just yet. “Ethan told me to be on my best behavior on the reservation, so
I haven’t gone to meet her yet. When this is over I can’t make any promises.”

“It is a joy to know you carry on my name, Elizabeth. A pure joy, and if you kick her ass I’ll
cover for you with the council. It would be my pleasure. You're a Blackhawk now, and that means something here.”

“That’s what I like
Granddad, backup.”

Callen Whitefox got the second text message
, and he looked over at his brother. He was sitting on the couch and staring at the ceiling. Growing up as kids, whenever Ethan was stressed or upset, he would go very quiet and silent. His brother was trying to figure out a way to solve the problem he created. “Get your shoes, we’re going for a ride.” Whitefox would just drop his brother off at his grandfather’s and let him work it out there. The old man would referee it.

“I can’t
. I have to wait for my wife to come back, if she ever does.”

Whitefox sighed. “I know where she is,” he said, watching his brother’s face fill with rage. “Hold on there, Ethan,” he
said holding up his hand. “Before you start swinging, I just found out one minute ago where she was, and this time if you swing, I’m punching back. I took a face shot because I deserved it, and I didn’t cause this damn mess or drive your wife off.”

Blackhawk stared at his brother
, his jaw clenched.

“When we went to granddad
’s cabin and he was gone, I called my deputy on duty, and asked him to find him. Granddad doesn’t go out often unless it’s for council.”

“She’s with granddad?”

“Yeah, my deputy found them at the burial grounds together, and now they’re back at his house, and have been the last hour.”

“I have to go,” Ethan jumped up.

“Hold on! I’ll drop you there and come back. You don’t need to be driving like a maniac and killing yourself. I’m more level headed right now than you are, clearly.”

Blackhawk was already slipping into his shoes and grabbing the keys.

“I mean it, Ethan. Hand over the keys.” Whitefox held out his hand.

“Okay, but let’s go. I want to bring my wife home.”

“Ethan, you may want to start with an apology and behavior modification,” he replied, following his brother to the door, and setting the alarm when his brother didn’t bother.

Blackhawk hopped up into the passenger seat of the Denali and waited for his brother. He was lucky that his wife was safe and unharmed, and he made a vow right there that he’d stop treating her like she was a prisoner in her own life. While she was gone, he reevaluated and knew what he had to do
. Forcing her into hiding wasn’t going to work, but sticking to her like glue and watching over her like a hawk would. It would just be easier.

Whitefox started up the vehicle and backed out of the driveway. “Ethan, remember you can’t force your wife to do what you want
. You need to ease off her, okay? If you don’t, next time I’ll help her find a place to hide out that you can’t find,” he meant it.

Blackhawk nodded. “I appreciate that you sent your deputy out looking for her and watching over her. It means a lot to me.”

He nodded. “Just cut her a break.” Yeah, he had a soft spot in his heart for Elizabeth, and he would kick his brother’s ass if he didn’t see what a treasure he’d found. Someone had to do it. His brother was incredibly lucky, and there would be men lining up to take her off his hands if he didn’t clean up his mess. Including himself.