Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (72 page)

Staring in the window he saw his father, w
ho abandoned him and his mother for Ethan Blackhawk’s mom. There was also his grandfather. The old man was obviously the one that controlled the family and made all the decisions. His mother told him that his grandfather wouldn’t have accepted him, because he was only a half-breed. Yet, Timothy had accepted his first grandson, and he was no more full blood than him. It all came down to the fact that he carried the Blackhawk family name. It would all have been different had he just had the name. Now it wouldn’t matter. He would show them all by crushing the family once and for all.

Creeping to the door
, he touched the knob and found it turned in his hand. Out came his service revolver as he readied himself; he entered silently and walked in to meet his long lost family and introduce himself.

Both men
glanced up and recognition dawned as his father moved to stand in front of the old man. The sound of a gunshot filled the room, as his father brought his hand to his chest. There was a look of surprise on his face as the circle of blood spread. He dropped back onto the couch and couldn’t speak, as the pain overwhelmed him.

“You shouldn’t have abandoned
mom and me, Dad. Now you get to die.”

Timothy moved to
the son he gave life, and now was watching as death took him. He was supposed to go first, not his own child.

“Grandfa
ther, I suggest you stop moving, or I’ll kill you too and without hesitation.”

“What do you want, Thomas?” he asked sadly.

“I’m glad you know my name, but it’s too late. Now, we’re going to take a little walk and wait for your grandsons and Elizabeth to find you. If they hurry, you may live to see them,” he laughed, waving the gun at the man. “Leave him. It’s too late for Wyler. I’m an excellent shot and that bullet hit his heart.”

Thomas Mason led his grandfather out of the house and to a nice location. He would make the call shortly, and bring his brothers to him.
The trap was set and the bait was in place.

It was time to finish this.

One Blackhawk down, four to go.

~ Chapter Twenty ~
 

The Denali slid into the driveway with three doors opening at the same time. Everyone charged the house, Ethan first, his wife then his brother. When they entered, his father was lying on the couch motionless and prone. Wyler was barely conscious; he was gray as his life slowly leached from his body from the one bullet wound.

“Dad!” he yelled, running to his father.

Elizabeth grabbed a blanket and pulled his body flat on the couch. “Callen call 911,” she shouted, as she applied pressure, sitting on his hips and leaning down. With her free hand, she felt for a pulse. “He’s still alive.”

Wyler Blackhawk slowly opened his eyes. “He took Timothy,” he mumbled. “Going to kill him too.”

“Ambulance is coming,” said Callen Whitefox. He didn’t want his father to die, not now. They just started working on their relationship. He knelt beside the couch. “Don’t die, Dad,” he said, softly. “Please.”

Ethan Blackhawk placed his hand on his father’s shoulder.
“You have to pull through this, or it’ll kill granddad,” he added, as if he could convince the man to fight harder just by saying the words.

Wyler nodded.

“You aren’t going to die, Wyler. I promise,” she said. Elizabeth once said the same words to her partner, and they didn’t come true. This time they had to, or the family would be fractured.

Blackhawk’
s phone rang.

“It’s your phone, Lyzee,” he said. “He’s calling from your fucking phone.”

Elizabeth took it from his hand, “He wants to screw with you. I’ll take it.” Elizabeth kept pressure on her father-in-law’s chest and answered, keeping it on speaker.

“What do you want, asshole? Couldn’t kill a woman and now you have to go after an old man?”

“Oh, Elizabeth, how nice to see you survived the forest. I wish you were here. Then I could show you how a real man makes love to a woman. Maybe give you the next Blackhawk heir. What’s wrong with my brother? Impotence doesn’t seem to run in the family.”

Blackhawk was about to explode, until Whitefox elbowed him.

“Where are my worthless brothers?”

“Busy.”

“That’s too bad. I’ll have to kill Timothy then.”

Elizabeth
shook her head, signaling she had this. “I don’t believe you have him, Thomas. How about you prove it?” She wanted to make sure he was still alive.

“Elizabeth?”
It was the soft gentleness of their patriarch.

“Granddad, are you okay?”

There was a pause, as if he was thinking. “I’m just collecting more stones for you, sweetheart.”

The talking stopped
, as if Thomas yanked the phone away.

“Tell
my brothers that if they want the old man to live, they need to find him and before I lose my patience. Timothy has one hour.” The call went dead.

“I’ll see if they can trace it,” said Blackhawk in a panic.

“Shit, we’ll never find him in an hour,” added Whitefox.

Elizabeth thought back to the conversation she had with Timothy. “No need, he’s going to the quarry.”

“What?”

“Just go and
trust me. I’ll stay and wait for the EMTs. Hurry, he’s not giving Timothy much time, and he’s losing it.”

Both men charged out the door and into the woods, moving as quickly as they could. The quarry wasn’t too far ahead. It was maybe a mil
, if that. Blackhawk hoped his wife was right, if not they were going to lose their grandfather and probably their father too. This is what his wife did, putting together the pieces, and he had to give his partner absolute trust.

Even if it meant trusting her with the life of his family.

Elizabeth watched them leave, and returned her focus to the man
beneath her. “Wyler, you better hang in there,” she said, looking down at the man. He was getting more gray and pale. “If you die on me, I’m going to be damn pissed.”

“
You’re a very bossy woman,” he whispered, and then he licked his lips, struggling to stay alive.

“Yeah, I am.”

He watched her with unblinking eyes. “You take care of my boy and grandson.”

It was ironic how his one son just took him back, and the other finally called him dad, and now he was going to die. It just seemed so unfair, but then again maybe it was for the best.

He paid for his sins and now his spirit could rest in peace. Atonement was made and he was now free to leave this existence.

“Wyler, you aren’t going anywhere,” she demanded, the blood was slowing, but still was bubbling through her fingers.

“Please call me Dad,” he whispered.

Elizabeth’s eyes filled with tears as she heard the words,
and now he had to live. He’d just made himself part of her life. Kissing him on the cheek she looked into his eyes. “Damn you, Dad. You can’t leave us yet!” Leaning down, she whispered in his ear and tried to convince him to fight longer.

He nodded and closed his eyes.

The sirens wailed and Elizabeth looked over her shoulder as the EMTs entered the room. “Hurry,” she yelled, moving off his body. As they started working on him, she ran outside to the front of the house. A crowd was gathering at the sound of the ambulance sirens and the FBI lights still flashing on their vehicle.

“Which way to the quarry?” she asked one of the tribe members.

“One mile that way,” he pointed north, noticing her jeans and hands were covered in blood.

Elizabeth pulled her gun and sta
rted after her husband and brother-in-law. It was time to save her family and put a killer in his grave. Thomas Mason messed with the wrong woman. Her family was paramount, and she was going to keep them safe and keep her promise to Timothy no matter what.

This ended here and now.

Four Blackhawks were coming home, if she had anything to say about it.

Ethan
and his brother crouched in the tree line watching the man beside their grandfather. He obviously didn’t know they had found them this quickly. Their brother was holding a gun at their grandfather’s back, and he stood behind the man protectively. There was no way to make a clear shot, not without risking his grandfather’s life.

“What do we do?”

Ethan Blackhawk sincerely wished they’d thought to put on vests this morning. “How good is your aim?”

“
Really good, why?” He looked worried and didn’t like that question at all.

“I’m going to go into the quarry. You
need to cover me.”

Callen touched his arm. “Be careful and don’t do anything stupid, you have a child coming.”
Now he fully understood why his brother was called ‘Cowboy’.

“Just cover me
.” He pulled his gun and started moving into the opening, giving his brother the ultimate trust, he was his back up. “Hey Thomas, let him go! You wanted me here, and here I am.”

He was surprised; his brother had found him already. “You move fast, Ethan. It must be the Blackhawk blood
or is it your smart wife? Where’s your brother?”

Blackhawk needed to remain in control, and he wasn’t going to be baited by the reference of his wife.
“Don’t you mean our brother? That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? It all comes down to all three of us being Blackhawks.”

“Come on out, Callen, or I kill
Grandfather right now,” he said, pointing the gun over his grandfather’s shoulder and firing a round at his brother’s feet. “I’m serious, dead serious.”

Whitefox stood in the tree line, and moved into the clearing
. His own gun was drawn and trained on the man that was their brother. If he even made a move to kill his brother, he was going to make the shot to end his life. Hopefully Timothy Blackhawk wouldn’t move. “You have us both here, so now let granddad go,” he shouted, moving to stand beside his brother in solidarity.

“First we talk, and then a Blackhawk dies.”

                           *    *    *

Elizabeth did the mile in less than ten minutes; she sat in the trees and watched her husband and
Callen, as they stood in the clearing with their insane half-brother. She watched him waving his arm around, and how unhinged he looked. Someone was going to die in that clearing, and she had a sick feeling it was going to be someone in her family.

She turned on her
laser and waited until the right moment to take her shot.

Timing was going to be everything, and she just needed to make sure she did it right the first time.

                          *     *    *

Blackh
awk knew it was going to go bad. He had seen assignments that ended this way. They didn’t have a clear shot at the suspect, because of a shield. He kept his gun trained on his murderous brother, the best he could, but his movements were erratic.

“If you want to talk to us
, go ahead and talk.”

“You both have no idea what it’s like to be invisible. Our father abandoned me and my mother for you both.”

Blackhawk laughed. “You think we weren’t abandoned, Thomas? You think our father stuck around for us? The man you’re holding the gun on is the man that raised us both, and he would have taken you in too, had Timothy known.”

“My mother said he didn’t want me.”

“I didn’t know about you, Thomas,” said Timothy Blackhawk. “I would have welcomed you had I known. I love my boys.”

“Your mother changed her last name, Thomas,” Whitefox shouted. “Her real last name was Teldar.”

“You lie!”

“It’s the truth. She changed her last name and took you so we wouldn’t ever know about you. She moved you to a new place and took the last name Mason. Wyler couldn’t find you if he even had a clue
you existed. Your mother took you and made you invisible.”

“No she didn’t!”
Thomas Mason screamed in rage at them discussing his mother.

“Even if our father found out about you, or knew about you, he wouldn’t have found you,” added Blackhawk.

Thomas Mason was confused. He didn’t know if they were lying. They had to be lying. “My mother wouldn’t lie to me.”

“Oh she lied.
Our father wouldn’t have cared and maybe that part is true, but the man you’re threatening would have. Timothy would’ve cared and raised you as one of us.”