Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (42 page)

“Can you drive a little faster?”

“Want me to put on the lights,” he asked, laughing.

“Yeah, do it.”

Whitefox shook his head and pretended he didn’t hear him. Clearly, Ethan Blackhawk was completely out of his mind.

Timothy Blackhawk had cake with his granddaughter-in-law and noticed that she looked worn out. He gave her some tea and took her by the hand. “I have a spare room
. Just lay down for a little while. You need to rest before you collapse and make yourself sick.”

“Okay,
Granddad, but please wake me up in a bit. I don’t want Ethan to worry too much about me. If I don’t come home he’ll have every FBI agent on the planet searching for me, and S.W.A.T will be kicking in your door.”

The old man laughed and tucked her in on the bed. He’d done it so many times before with the boys when they were young. Now he hoped to at least get t
o do it with a great-grandchild or two before his time was done. He noticed Elizabeth placed her gun right beside her, and his heart broke for her. That kind of worry and fear must be a very large burden indeed. He wished he could take it all away and soothe her. After all, she was now his to take care of, just as much as his grandsons.

As she closed her eyes
, he walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. He was going to let her fall asleep and then make a very important phone call to his grandson. It was time he had a discussion with the boy, and he was going to make sure he listened and listened well. He wasn’t going to let his grandson follow in the path of his own son. He’d made that mistake before, of not intervening, and he wasn’t doing that again. Ethan wasn’t too old to have some good old fashioned sense beat into him.

Whitefox pulled over next to his deputy and rolled down the window. “Chet, how’s it going?”

“She entered about ninety minutes ago, and they haven’t come out. I stayed back pretty far, but when she got back in her vehicle at the burial grounds, she strapped on her gun. I think she knew I was watching. I backed up a bit more.”

“I appreciate it
. Go on and head on out. I’m dropping my brother there, and he’ll take care of it now.” He rolled up the window and pulled forward. “Fix your mess, Ethan,” he said, as he parked outside the house.

“I plan on it,” he answered, hopping down. “Thanks Callen, I owe you one.”

He watched his brother run for the door, “No Ethan, I owed you, and now we’re even.”

Ethan Blackhawk rushed into the house,
and he was met with his grandfather, blocking his path and not looking at all happy. He’d seen that look plenty of times before, and this time he earned it. Someone’s ass was about to be chewed a new one, and he braced for it. Granddad looked livid.

“Sit!”
He pointed at the couch. It wasn’t lost on him that his grandson looked scared out of his mind and worried about his wife, but he was still getting the intervention.

Blackhawk obeyed. The tone meant business
, and he was suddenly that young boy all over again.

“I just tried calling your home. Your wife is here, and she
’s finally resting. But we need to have a little discussion on the correct and incorrect way to treat the woman you married.”

“Granddad,” he started.

“No, Ethan Jackson Blackhawk! You will listen to me and not say a word until I’m done. Am I perfectly clear?”

He just nodded. Wow, he used his middle name. When he stole his truck at
seventeen, he didn’t even use his middle name. This was big trouble indeed.

“Your wife called me tonight, asking if she could come here for a while. I could hear it in her voice, and told her
to come. She showed up visibly upset and had been crying. Then she proceeded to weep until I thought she would make herself sick.”

Blackhawk felt really bad that he’d made her cry that
much, and that she had to resort to leaving their home to find comfort.

“You
’re heading down a dangerous path. It’s one that your father took before you. No, you aren’t cheating on her, but you are still damaging her heart, and that’s unacceptable. I raised you better than that, and maybe I failed with you too. I let your father ruin the lives of who knows how many women, by his stupidity and careless actions. I’ll not let you do the same.”

“Yes
Granddad,” he answered. He had done something careless. Once again, he bruised his wife’s heart when she didn’t deserve it. Just because he had issues, it wasn’t fair to dump them on her.

“She
’s a good woman, and Elizabeth reminds me of your grandmother. She won’t put up with your shit, but her heart can still be hurt. We went to the burial grounds, because she wished to see your mother’s grave. It makes me angry that you didn’t bother to share that part of yourself with her before now.”

He didn’t know how he felt about her going there
. Part of him wished he was strong enough to go himself.

“Then we came here
, and she made me dinner and kept me company, even though she was hurting inside. She even brought me a cake.”

He couldn’t help but think about Mrs. Feinstein.

“The poor child wanted chocolate cake. Instead she got carrot, because you have her so tied up in knots about what she eats and harming her child. You need to stop controlling this to death. You’re taking the joy and happiness right out of her eyes and life. If you think that she’ll want to have more children with you after this, you're mistaken. I would venture to guess she is questioning having this one with you.”

That scared him
. All he wanted was a family full of children running through their house. It’s why he bought a big one. And he did it again. It wasn’t them buying the house, it was ‘he’. Yeah,
he
was one big, giant, insensitive asshole today.

“She’s pregnant. Let her eat what she wants
! Who are we as men to tell her that she has to eat salad, or not eat something? You aren’t growing a child. Elizabeth is, and since you seem to not know this, your wife is a very smart woman. I don’t doubt that she can carry the load on her shoulders just fine without you bossing her around like she’s three.”

Ethan had the decency to look embarrassed.

“You married her because you fell in love with who she was, and now you are trying to take away that identity. What if she told you that you had to change? That your job was too dangerous, and you needed to sell shoes for a living?”

“I’d be appalled and angry.”

“She told me she feels like her only value is that of a child bearer.”

Now he felt horrible. He didn’t appreciate her enough, and he didn’t treat her the way she should be treated. There was no doubt that he deserved this conversation
as a wakeup call.

“You think she isn’t stressed enough? I heard she saved your life this morning. Wha
t if Elizabeth didn’t do her job, and she wasn’t with you today? She’d be a single parent right now, and I’d be burying you beside your mother. Wise up son! You're going to push her so far away that she won’t want to make the journey back to you, and then I’ll really be angry. I happen to be quite attached to your wife, and the little fact that she is growing me the next generation of Blackhawk. I’d like more than one great-grandchild and for her not to file for divorce and run from us. She’s the only woman in this family right now. All the remaining men need to be a little more careful as to how they treat her, and act accordingly. There has been too much sadness and upheaval, and we don’t need to lose yet another woman.”

“How mad is she?”

“Plenty and I can’t blame her for one second.”

“Can I see her?”

The old man stood. “She’s sleeping and needs to rest. Don’t you dare wake her! Let her get some down time, because fighting with you wore her out.”

“I promise. I’ll try and stop being so heavy handed.”

“Watch over your woman, Ethan. Don’t crush her with your own issues.”

Blackhawk nodded
, walking past his grandfather to the spare bedroom. He just wanted to see that she was safe. When he opened the door, the light from the hall fell across her body and her face. She was sleeping peacefully, and her hand was resting on the butt of her gun. He crept into the room to watch her rest. All the emotions overwhelmed him. Finally, now that she was safe he could relax.

Blackhawk peeked out the room.
“Granddad, can I stay the night?”

The old man nodded. “
You’re always welcome here. This is your home, Ethan, and now it’s hers too.”

Thankin
g his grandfather, he returned to his wife. Blackhawk unclipped his own gun, placing it on the bed stand, and slipped hers from under her hand. When the guns were moved, he climbed onto the bed with her and just laid there watching her sleep.

Occasionally
, he would stroke her cheek, or tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear. When he kissed her on the lips, she moved instinctively closer to his body. He felt his body tighten when she placed her leg over his possessively and dropped her arm over his hip. Blackhawk tucked his arm under her head and pulled her against him to hold her.

Tonight they’d sleep.

Tomorrow he’d apologize profusely and hope that she’d forgive him once again for being an idiot. There was very little peace in his body. Just because she was found didn’t mean she was going to forgive him for his behavior.

                           
    *   *   *

The killer watched as the one brother returned alone to the house he was staking out. He wanted to follow the woman until he could
abduct her. All of this was making him very frustrated, and the feeling of being out of control consumed him. If she wasn’t here, there was only one other place that she could possibly be, and that would be on the reservation. He was going to have to take a little trip out to the old man’s homestead and find her. He had plans, and they were slowly unraveling and making him angry.

He started the car
and pulled away. It was time to find Elizabeth Blackhawk, because she had a date with the spirit world.

                                 *   *   *

Callen Whitefox parked the Denali and ent
ered his brother’s house.

Again
, he felt like he was being watched, and there was the overwhelming need to look out the window. Down the street, he saw headlights go on, and a sedan sized car pull away.

Part of him was nervous, but the rational part of him br
ushed it off. Taking no chances, he set the alarm and grabbed a slice of pizza, before tossing the rest into the refrigerator. He wanted a shower and to just relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow, he had to head into his office and again do more paperwork to make sure that everything on the reservation was being taken care of properly.

He couldn’t help but think back to the white board in his sister-in-law
’s office and the name under the face of the one victim. He was going to need to drive out to the Montgomery family land, and he wasn’t looking forward to giving them the bad news. He would take one of his deputies with him when he did it, so that he could help keep them calm. The last thing he wanted or needed was to stir up the Natives and get them ready for vengeance against a killer, or against the FBI agents that were his family.

As he wandered around the living room
, Whitefox was drawn to the bookshelf that held all the photos in the room. He couldn’t help but notice that most of them were of Elizabeth and a man he assumed was her father. There were a few of her alone and few of her with Ethan.

In the pictures
, he was smiling and looked relaxed and happy. His hair was down, literally, and he didn’t have the lines of stress on his face. Most of them had him staring at his wife, and the love was evident in his facial expressions. He made a mental note to get Elizabeth some of their family photos. He was pretty sure that she would love to have them, as they created a family together and many more memories.

White
fox yawned and headed up the stairs to the bedroom. Finishing his pizza, he took a shower and brushed his teeth. Once again, hoping he would find nothing more but a deep sleep.

~ Chapter
Thirteen ~

The killer drove brazenly right onto the reservation. He’d done it many times before
, pretending to be a tourist, stopping in to look at the wares some Native Americans were selling and to have a beer in the local bar. It was like he was one of them, blending in and camouflaged in plain sight. He would make his family proud and not askew his heritage, but embrace it with open arms and a willing heart.

He would make a great patriarch to the family one day, and he couldn’t wait to move onto the reservation and lead his people in the ways of their ancestors. He was perfecting his craft and honing his skills. Tomorrow he would put out a new medicine wheel, and make an offering to the spirits and ask for guidance on what to do next.