Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (65 page)

                            *    *    *

The killer just didn’t understand it. How the hell had he lost her? She wasn’t Native. Elizabeth Blackhawk was an outsider, so how had she managed to slip past him in the woods and escape? Anger filled him as he backtracked looking for any sign of her. Soon it would be dark, and he had just enough time to get out himself. With the black bears and the mountain lions, she might just become a snack. He would head out, home to clean up, and back to his brother’s house.

Once there he would watch and wait to get his brother. But first it was time to mess with his mind, and push him over the edge. Maybe if he was lucky, the man would eat his service weapon and end his life.

He pulled out Elizabeth Blackhawk’s phone and sent him a text message, smiling evilly. That should put him over the edge. Pulling out his compass, he started back to the area where he had the quad hidden. Soon it would be time to see how much pain Ethan Blackhawk could handle before he crumbled.

                            *    *    *

It had only been a very large deer, and Wyler was pissed. “That deer would have filled my freezer and made you a lot of jerky,” he whispered to Elizabeth grinning. “Now I really hate the man hunting you.”

Elizabeth wanted to laugh, but still she needed to share what she knew.
“Wyler, the man who is following us, we analyzed the fetus DNA,” she started, preparing to tell him the truth; he needed to know, especially if it came down to a fight. The killer would use it to throw him off guard, and that could cost them their lives.

He took a sip of the water and passed it to Elizabeth. “Yes?”

“The DNA came back as a match to Ethan and Callen.”

It registered finally.

Elizabeth saw the telltale sign that he got it; he was so much like his son, or should she say his son was just like him. “The man following us, he’s your other son.”

How could he not feel bad about all this? His son’s pregnant wife was out in the forest, fighting for her life because he made so many mistakes in his youth. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I wish I made better choices.”

Elizabeth understood, she touched his cheek and looked into his eyes. “I don’t judge on the past, Wyler. I judge on the future and as far as I’m concerned I’m your biggest fan.” Elizabeth smiled gently at him, offering him reassurance.

“Come, let’s keep moving. I’ll stop in a while to let you rest; I don’t want you to stress your body too much. I have to keep you healthy.”

Absently, she rubbed her hand over her belly, and with her free hand she held his, as they started to move back through the woods and further away from the killer. No longer could she hear his taunts and the cry of disturbed wildlife. Finally, she felt some wisps of safety. The man leading her out of the woods could be trusted. Deep down, she believed that Wyler was her savior.

Hours abducted ~ eight

Ethan sat behind his desk, and was listening to Gabe bark orders into the phone. He was in the process of getting ready to mobilize a search party at daylight. Right now, it was dusk, and the temperatures at night in fall weren’t too cold unless you were in the mountains.

All he
kept praying was Elizabeth was tough enough to survive. In the FBI, they covered basic survival if you were caught inland, alone, and by yourself. He knew she would have basic knowledge. Then he remembered that she wouldn’t be in jeans and a pullover, she was dressed in deerskin and that wasn’t going to offer her or their unborn child any warmth. He had to stop thinking about it, he was making himself crazy.

“We have a flight leaving Quantico at midnight, it lands at five
in the morning. We’ll mobilize a search and rescue to start at daybreak.”

Christina and the lab techs had given them a general location of the Rosewood bush, and at dawn they would begin the search for their abducted co-worker.

“The killer might be expecting that, so everyone should be suited up in vests. This may be him using my wife as bait. Elizabeth believed I was the initial target,” he said, feeling sick thinking about it. His wife was fighting for her life because of him. “Once we start combing the thicker forests, I’ll be the main target he will be gunning for. I’m the only Blackhawk son.”

“Hang in there Ethan,” he said patting his shoulder. When it came to that time, his agent wasn’t going to be going out. He wasn’t risking him to find Elizabeth.

Blackhawk’s phone chimed and he knew it was going to be from the killer. It was tone again. He picked it up and read the message. A sharp pain went through his heart at the words.

You’re t
oo late Raven. The dove didn’t make it. I took

    
her life, and you have no one to blame but yourself.

                         
You’re a failure.

His Elizabeth was dead, and he failed her. Suddenly, he couldn’t breathe or think. What he wanted was to lie down and die. There was no way he could continue without her.

Gabe saw the look on his agent’s face and
immediately grabbed the phone. He felt sick to his stomach, and then control seeped back, as he regained what he almost let slip. “He’s full of shit, Ethan,” snapped Gabe angrily, hoping he was right. “If he killed her, he’d send you the pictures. He’s messing with your mind, trying to keep you off track and keeping you from finding your wife.”

Blackhawk let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“The first picture he’d want you to see is of her dead, and Elizabeth isn’t dead.” He left off the word yet, because he didn’t want to believe it any more than his agent did.

“You have a point,” and his heart started beating again.

“If he killed her, he’d want you to find her; you’d get a picture or a location.”

Gabe was right.

The door flew open and Christina ran into the room, both men jumped, “Boss, I got it!” she practically tripped and landed on the desk. “Oops sorry, I’m just excited.”

“What do you have?” he asked, standing.

“Angela Teldar changed her name. She was from a small town outside the reservation on the opposite side. It was all done by hand with no electronic conversion. She didn’t get married. Angela Teldar changed it, trying to disappear. We’ve been only searching marriage records, once we couldn’t find Teldar. All of us assumed no name pop meant that she just got married. Then one of the techs suggested legal name changes, and that’s where we found it!”

“What did she change it to?”

“Mason, and as I tracked that name, with any births of male children with a mother named Angela Mason, I came up with only one.”

“Christina, I may kiss you,” he said excitedly.

“Yeah well, Elizabeth will kick my ass when she finds out, so say it with a promotion,” she teased and bounced.

It touched him that she didn’t think his wife was going to be dead, and that his team had hope and faith in his wife.

“What do you have?” asked Gabe.

“There is one male child by the name of Thomas Wyler Mason.”

Ethan Blackhawk flinched as if slapped. In his heart he knew it was true, but it still hurt the killer had his father’s name.

“But here’s the kicker, Boss!” she
said, pulling out another paper. “I found him. I actually found the son!”

“We have a location?” Now he was excited.

“We not only have a location, but his DNA, and I ran it against the dead fetuses.”

Blackhawk didn’t understand. “How did we have his DNA?”

Christina looked like she was going to explode. “Remember the river bed excavation with the bones and first full body? The one where Elizabeth tore the sheriff a new one and kicked them all off scene, raising hell?”

Gabe missed that in the report and there was probably a really good reason why. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him or them, but it sounded like a completely Elizabeth reaction.

“Yes.”

“We collected his DNA that day. He was one of the deputies.”

Recognition dawned, as Blackhawk felt the rage build. “I’ll fucking kill him!” He practically roared, scaring Christina and having her step back. “I met him at the sheriff’s station, and he was the deputy Elizabeth called for the missing person reports.”

Gabe stepped in front of his body and
placed his hand on his chest. “What you will do Director Blackhawk, is get a search warrant, and then we’re going to do a little search and seizure at the man’s house. All of it strictly by the books.”

He took a deep breath.  “Can you get the search warrant?”

“Yeah, but where are you going?” He hoped he wasn’t planning on playing cowboy.

“I’m going to kiss every person in my tech team, starting with Christina.” He grabbed the woman and planted a kiss on her forehead and
jogged from the room. Screw inappropriate behavior. His team may have just told him how to find his wife. He was pretty sure she’d forgive him.

“I love my j
ob,” she said, grinning at Gabe.

“You better wipe that smile off your face before Elizabeth gets back, or you won’t be having a job to
love,” he laughed, finally feeling a little hope, as the woman scurried away.

Elizabeth sat on a rock beside Wyler. She was tired, worn down
, and scared for her husband and her child. She put her hand protectively over her stomach and prayed that she’d be okay.

“Are you in pain?” Wyler asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, trying to keep her warm. Dark was
falling and she felt chilly.

“No, just worried that when he drugged me it hurt the baby.” If anything happened to this pregnancy, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to come back from it. Already
, she was attached to the idea of having a little Blackhawk.

“How far
along are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“
Only about two months. Granddad says I’m having a boy,” she smiled lovingly at the idea. All she wanted was a house full of little Native boys. “I hope he’s right.”

“He will be. My father has always had the g
ift of baby prediction. In fact, he prides himself on never ever being wrong.”

“This will be your first grandchild
, Wyler. That has to be exciting,” she offered, smiling hopefully. The man didn’t really want anything to do with his kids, she wasn’t sure that he’d want anything to do with a grandchild, but she could always hope. Elizabeth didn’t mention the dead fetuses that were also his grandchildren. Hers would be the first living Blackhawk.

Wyler looked over at her sadly. “Ethan won’t let me anywhere near his child; I destroyed any chance of that a long time ago, Elizabeth.”

She took his hand and held it. “You’re very wrong Wyler. Your son is an honorable man, and I have a feeling that he’s going to let you. I’d bet on it.”

“You think?” There was a little glimmer of hope that maybe he wouldn’t be excluded from the
circle of family, even when he didn’t deserve one.

“
Wyler, I do. I’m the child’s mother, and I have some say in it. I don’t have a father anymore or grandparents. You’re the only grandfather this baby is going to have in life. I need you to man up and be like Timothy. I want you to love this child with all you have in you. This could be your chance at redemption.”

Her bluntness surprised him.

“I mean it Wyler. Forgive me for saying this, but you screwed up big time. You damaged your sons, but I’m willing to trust you with mine. I know the kind of person Ethan, and he’s part of you. If you're even half the man he is, you’ll still be a fantastic grandfather if you put out the effort.”

“I see why my father and son
s love you.”

“Your son
s love you too, Wyler. They just have holes in their lives where you should have been, and those holes are filled with anger instead of love.”

“I don’t know how to fix it
.” And he really didn’t. There weren’t words enough to say sorry to his boys. He knew that he’d damaged them, and he was sorry. He now saw the error of his ways.

All he wanted now was his family.

“You have to just keep trying. Don’t walk away anymore, because that’s what they expect you to do. When it gets tough, you stay, you stand with your boys, and you put yourself in front of them to protect them.”

“Like you do?”

“Someone has to be their armor, Wyler. They took a lot of hits as kids, and now they’re wounded again. To find out they have another brother, and that he’s a killer. Imagine the pain that causes inside them.”

“I’ll protect my boys from here on out,” he promised the woman.

“Then I have no problem letting you see my son grow up, and be part of his life,” she answered, simply. “Besides, I want a whole tribe of Blackhawk boys.”