Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (45 page)

Ethan couldn’t breathe
. Just holding in the emotion was overwhelming as he listened to her words. So many tears threatened to fall. He didn’t realize how much he missed his mother, and he didn’t know how his wife understood so well. Leaning on her strength, he found he could finally speak.

“Hi
Mom,” he said softly and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. “I miss you, and think about you every day when I see little things that remind me of you. I know that I should have come back sooner to see you, and I hope you can forgive me. I just wasn’t ready. There was no way I could make this trip alone, and I needed to wait until I found the right person to join me.” Blackhawk stared down at the flowers that his wife had to have placed there the day before. “Remember, how I always told you that I was going to marry someone just like you? Well, I did Mom. I found my miracle, and I have to believe that you had something to do with it,” he said softly, and then he looked over at his wife and wiped the tear from her cheek. “I’m really happy, Mom. After watching you be so sad for so many years, I didn’t believe this kind of happiness could exist. I was so wrong, Mom.”

Elizabeth squeezed his hand.

“Now that I’m going to be a father, I completely understand that kind of love. Thank you, for sticking around when it would have been easier to run. Thank you for giving me the last part of your life,
Mom, when you could have been out enjoying your last days, instead of focusing on me.” Ethan Blackhawk closed his eyes again and took another breath, struggling for composure.

Elizabeth tried so hard
not to cry. All she wanted was to be strong for him, but hearing his words and seeing what was locked so deep inside him touched her. Maybe it was because she was going to be a mother, and she would have a son of her own one day. All she hoped was that he turned out just like his father.

“I love you
Mom, and I kept my promise. I saved those words for the only woman other than you that deserved to hear them. You were right, Mom. If I waited to share those words with the right one, it would mean everything.”

Yeah, she loved him more than anything in the world. If him control freaking her to death was what would make h
er husband happy, she’d suck it up and let it go.

Ethan Blackhawk stood,
pulling his wife up against his body. “We have to go, Mom,” he said, then he paused to continue, “Remember how I used to tell you I wanted to be a cop or a robber?” he laughed. “I chose the right path, and I know you were worried I’d be the robber.”

Elizabeth laughed with her husband.

“Now I have to find a killer, but I promise that I’ll be back.”

“We’ll be back,” Elizabeth added. “I promise too.”

Ethan nodded and didn’t say anything else. It was as if he was having a private conversation with his mother in silence. Elizabeth just remained at his side, as she would until the end.

“Let’s go baby,” he took her hand and walked her back to the car.  “I want to go home.”

Callen Whitefox sat in his office and signed off on everything he was responsible for and then the next day’s work too.
At this point he needed to stay ahead, as he would be out in the field with his brother the next day. They had to interview a few people for the assignment. Then it occurred to him that maybe his brother’s wife would be doing it, and they wouldn’t need him. Something like disappointment started growing in him as he dwelled on it. He found working for the FBI intriguing and exciting, and he was going to miss it when it was over. A part of him would miss being near his brother and the bond that they were rebuilding.

Looking down at his watch, he was perplexed. Chester Biggs was due into the office and was late. They were both going to swing over to the Montgomery family home and deliver the bad news. He’d give him a few more minutes
, and then he was going to go to his place and see what was keeping him. Once this was all taken care of he wanted to head back to his brother’s house and spend more time with his family. It had been such a long time since he felt the attachment to others that he found himself desperate to be with them. After years of no family, it felt amazing to have what he had been missing back in his life.

Elizabeth
was in her kitchen making them lunch. Her husband was lying on their couch barefoot and shirt off, and she had to force herself to keep busy. Dressed he was distracting, but shirtless she was finding herself creating little fantasies in her mind. Unfortunately, he was very aware of his effect on her. There was no doubt it was intentional. Oh yeah, she was aware of his little game. He’d take his shirt off, she’d get all hot and bothered and they’d roll around more. Well she wasn’t falling for it this afternoon. She wanted to plan for tomorrow’s interviews without distraction. Maybe if she thought about death and the killer, she could keep from climbing all over him.

Maybe.

Or maybe not.

Elizabeth made his sandwich and placed a pickle on the plate before carrying it in, placing it right on his
well-defined abs to prove she was in control. Deliciously sculpted abs, and her mind wandered again.

Damn him!

“Thanks for lunch, baby,” he
said, picking up the plate and sitting up. Ethan Blackhawk lifted a brow. Not a comment about the shirt being off? That was just very unlike his wife. Usually she’d make some comment, or forgo lunch to make out with him. That had been his master plan for the afternoon.

“You're welcome,”
Elizabeth answered, without looking up. “Do you want to talk about our strategy for tomorrow?”

“Okay.
” He warily took a bite of his sandwich. “Your area is connecting the dots, so who do you want to go at first?” He was still nervous about her being out in the field, but he had to let this play out, or he’d drive her away.

“I have the tech team trying to find where the
Chloral Hydrate came from, tracking all the distributors. I asked them to see if we can break it down chemically to see if any of them match. There are only three people on the reservation that have access to that drug.”

“Doctor Wolman, Doctor Reginald and Doctor Barnes,” he read from her paper.

“Medical, dental and veterinarian, in that order,” she supplied. “I need to lean on the team to get me the next two victims’ names. I think we’ll have a bit more to go on, if I can put names and locations to the faces. Two girls were Native American, one Caucasian and the bones were split fifty-fifty.”

“Want me to yell at them?
” Blackhawk gave her that boyish grin that made her want to jump him. His wife could only hold out so long. He’d win this battle yet.  

God, she loved looking at him, b
ut she needed to focus on work and not her hormones. “I’ll yell at them, good cop, bad cop.” Elizabeth dialed the tech lab and put it on speaker phone. There was uproarious laughter when the call was picked up. “I’ll assume by the celebration going on in my lab, that you have now gotten the last two identifications and the final weapon to determine the cause of death.”

There was dead silence on the phone, as if all of them had forgotten how to breathe.

“Oh, Director Blackhawk. Um, we’re working on it right now,” said the tech.

Elizabeth could hear hushed whispers. This was her favorite part
, and now she’d screw with them. “I want it emailed as soon as possible. I’m in route to be in the office within the hour, and I better get it before I arrive, or I’m coming down there. I think we’re all smart enough to deduce what will happen if I arrive there empty handed.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Thank you,” she disconnected the call and looked superbly happy.

“Are we going into the office?” he asked, eyebrow lifted in question. That was going to
greatly interfere with his plans for his wife.

Elizabeth leaned back on the couch and smiled at her husband
. “Hell no. You and I know that it’s a lie, but we’re high up on the food chain. Our tech crew hasn’t a clue. I like to keep them on their toes.”

Blackhawk leaned over her and kissed her, just enjoying her being beside him on the couch.
“I love a devious woman,” he said, as he tried to lure her into fooling around.

“Anyway,” she mumbled, as he kissed her
and she tried to continue, “I noticed,” he was still kissing her and it was getting distracting, as his hands started wandering. “Ethan,” she laughed. “Focus for me. I know you have your shirt off trying to bait me into sweaty sex on the couch, but focus and then you’ll get the sex.”

“Talk fast,
Elizabeth. You only have a small window of me having control being this close to you.” He bit her earlobe, and continued onto her throat. Now his hands were working their way under her shirt and to the prize.

“Anyway, I cross checked the list of people who can dispense Chloral
Hydrate with those on the shaman list, and guess what name comes up on both?” She could feel his hands trying to unhook her bra.

“Who baby?” Blackhawk was listening, just multitasking. Sundays for him meant lounging around and getting his wife naked as much as possible. It was his plan for the rest of their lives.

“Doctor Wolman, the medical doctor who inspected the bones the first day, and then his wife Julia Wolman is a practicing shaman for the tribe.” Elizabeth noticed he already had her jeans unbuttoned. Man, he worked fast.

“I don’t believe in coincidence, and
I say we hit them first thing tomorrow.” Finally he got the clasp for her bra undone under her shirt. He leaned down and whispered something in her ear and she practically gasped. He wiggled his eyebrows and jerked his head towards to the stairs.

Elizabeth chewed on her lower lip and ran her hands across his shoulders and tattoos in consideration.
Sweaty sex with her truly sexy husband or some boring tech report that she already had the information from.

“I’m game, Cowboy, but lock the bedroom door
. We don’t need your brother barging in on that,” she whispered, letting him pull her up off the couch. “You have a dirty mind, Mr. Blackhawk.” Dropping the papers Elizabeth ran up the stairs.

Ethan
grinned wickedly. She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know.

Callen walked around his deputy’s house and knocked loudly on both doors. It wasn’t like Chester to not answer his phone, or for him to blow off a work assignment. The man, if anything, took the job too serious. This just didn’t feel right, and something was making him incredibly nervous about the entire situation.

Maybe the neighbor had seen him sometime that morning
. Whitefox opted to head there and hope that it was just his mind screwing with him, and that there wasn’t an issue.

It was an older
Native man that answered his knock, staring at him over his glasses like he was some criminal trying to break and enter. “Yes?”

Whitefox pulled out his badge. “I’m Callen Whitefox, Chief of Reservation Police,” he paused, taking off his sunglasses, “I’m looking for Chester, did you see him today?”

“You’re Timothy Blackhawk’s grandson, the one not in the FBI, right?”

“Correct, sir. I’m the non
-Federal one.” Everyone wanted to remind him of that little fact, and it twisted the knife in his soul a little bit more.

“No, I didn’t see him, which is odd for him on a Sunday. Normally he stops by and drops
off a copy of the paper for me when he goes into town, but he never showed today. Last time he did that he was down with the flu. I hope he’s not sick.”

That wasn’t what Whitefox wanted to hear, and now his sneaking suspicion was turning into raging paranoia. “Thank you, if you see him have him call his boss as soon as possible, okay?”

“Sure thing, tell your grandfather I send my regards and hello.”

This was definitely wrong.  He wasn’t sure what he should do, but he reached for his phone, hoping his brother would answer his call. Maybe
, he was over the edge with worry over nothing, but if something bad had happened to his deputy, he was going to need the FBI again.

This time to search and hopefully rescue.

Ethan and his wife were rolling across their bed
in a tangled mess when the phone rang. He stopped and rested his forehead against his wife’s, knowing that it was going to be official business.

“Don’t answer it!” Elizabeth
laughed, knowing he absolutely was going to do it anyway. They were both on call.

There was a brief minute when he thought about letting it go to voicemail, but he just knew he couldn’t, so he reached for it.

“Blackhawk,” he answered his phone. If it wasn’t an emergency, he was going to hurt someone. He finally got his wife naked and trapped beneath him, and was seconds from scoring.

“Ethan, I have a huge problem. My one of my deputies has gone missing. No one’s seen him since last night, and I just have a really bad feeling about it. Chester is all about his job, but he blew me off this morning and his neighbor said he hasn’t been home.”