The Killing Times (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 1)) (8 page)

Gabe laughed
. “Be safe, Lyzee.”

“Thanks again, Gabe.” After she hung up the phone, she instructed her secretary to scan and send all the documents to the email on the paper. “It needs to be done quietly.”

“You called in the FBI?” she asked, noticing the Quantico address.

“Yes, but let’s keep this
hush hush for now, okay?”

“You're the
boss,” she replied, turning with the files.

Yeah great, she was the boss.
It was none of the fun, and all the shitty responsibility.

                            *   *   *

Mid-flight, the information arrived and Lily still wasn’t speaking to him. She was pissed that they had pulled backwoods duty as punishment. He didn’t mind a small town; it’s how he grew up. He wanted to apologize to Lily, but every time he tried, she would give him a dirty look, and then go back to working on her laptop. Blackhawk got the picture, and he couldn’t help but feel bad, but at least they still had their jobs.

“Information is in,” he said, forwarding it over to her.

“Great.”

“Are you going to be pissed at me the entire assignment?”

Lily glared at him. “Yes I am. You played cowboy and dragged your partner into the shithole with you, Ethan. What you do with your career is your business, but I don’t like having meetings with Gabe after each assignment. Not ones where I’m shipped to the outer reaches of civilization as punishment.”

“Hey, we saved
someone’s life, and Gabe wasn’t really pissed. We’ve both seen him mad. This was nothing. I remember one time…” he started, and stopped when he noticed she wasn’t amused.

“
Ethan, he’s sending us to a Godforsaken town in the middle of nowhere. We are probably sleeping in our car, if he even gets us one of those. Not to mention we know nothing about this sheriff. He’s probably old, sweaty, bald, and wears those tacky brown uniforms. He probably hasn’t a clue which way is up, and now we’re going to have to babysit some hick,” she pointed at him. “All while you get us shot at again by some homicidal local.”

Blackhawk couldn’t help but laugh, “Lily, look at the files. Check out the meticulous notes. This Sheriff LaRue isn’t an idiot. He
assesses like we do, so he’s had law enforcement experience, and I’m willing to bet that he did time in the FBI.”

“
Well that’s good to know. At least we have a bald, sweaty sheriff, who couldn’t cut it in the FBI, to lead us around.”

But Blackhawk didn’t hear her
. He was too busy reading the files and trying to decipher the information. From what he saw, the sheriff definitely was right. The bodies were piling up and leads weren’t. That suited him just fine; he needed a distraction from the woman in his dreams.

Ethan
looked forward to this assignment and escaping the mystery woman who was taking over his nights. He was beginning to think he was crazy, falling for a woman who didn’t even exist. Maybe it was hopeless, and he needed to move on and see a shrink after all. The raven haired beauty just didn’t exist. She was a figment of his imagination. He needed to just come to grips with that, and admit it was fun while it lasted. Granted, the dreams heated his body like no real woman ever managed, and he fell for her scent and voice. But it was time to find a flesh and blood female and start dating again. Maybe she was a manifestation of his pent up sexual desire. What he needed was to find someone of the opposite sex who turned him on, as he got off a few times to forget her.

Blackhawk’s mind was made up
. As soon as this assignment was over, so was his nighttime fantasy.

And yet…

Even though he tried talking himself out of the raven haired beauty, he still found himself dwelling on her. Something about her was completely alluring. This mystery woman was so distracting that he never noticed Gabe didn’t include the dossier on the sheriff.

Again
, he forced himself to move on in his mind. “Goodbye dream woman,” he whispered, closing his eyes briefly for one last glimpse of the memories he’d squirreled away.

Then it was time to start living once again.

~
Chapter Three ~

Thursday Early
Morning

Elizabeth sat in
‘The Barrel’
, mulling over her notes. It was the little place her half-brother owned and operated. She spent a great deal of her down time there. Whenever Elizabeth needed a quiet place to work, she would stop in, grab her coffee and have silence. Then at night she sometimes would grab a beer here with her deputies.

Behind the bar was Beatrice, and she was making another pot of coffee in preparation for the morning crowd. Soon breakfast would be served, coffee handed out, and the town folk would be in to gossip about the bodies. Hopefully before they arrived, she would have the FBI agents long gone and safely tucked away in her office.

Keeping anything quiet in Salem was nothing short of a miracle. Word here travelled faster than the Black Death during the medieval times.

Elizabeth glanced
up as her half-brother entered for his morning shift. It wasn’t odd to find him working late and early, it was after all, his place. George was one of those annoying people who didn’t need sleep.

After work, he could be found in his workshop, refinishing furniture
. In fact, Elizabeth was pretty sure he never slept; it was beginning to make her think he probably wasn’t human.

“Hey E.L,” he said, straddling the chair. Ever since they were kid
s he called her by her initials or her nickname. He liked the way it sounded much better than boring old Elizabeth.

“Hey George, how’s things?”

He nodded taking in his sister and the files on the table. She was working again. “Good! Same old! Mom is worried about the bodies they found, but I told her you’re on the case, so no worries.”

Elizabeth patted his hand; she genuinely liked her half-brother, but her step-mother not so much. Once her father remarried
, she remembered the fights between her dad and the woman, and it still bothered her. “When you see Abigail, tell her I send my regards.”

George nodded, gave her that good ol
’ boy smile, and pushed away from the table. “Will do E.L. I’ll have Beatrice get you some more coffee.”

When he was gone, Elizabeth sat and observed
the regulars in
‘The Barrel’
. Horace was at the counter; Beatrice was working the bar, serving coffee and filling creamers, and then there was the spattering of older men who hung out there to gossip.

Part of
her was rattled that one of her citizens was the killer. When the bells over the door chimed, she was pulled back to reality and couldn’t help but smile. Here came her deputy, and surprise surprise, he was looking for her. When she raised her hand, he nodded and joined her at the table.

“You weren’t at your house this morning,” h
e said, grabbing her coffee and stealing a sip.

Apparently, they had no boundaries with their friendship. “You do realize that I live clear on the other side of the county from you
, right?”

“I’m aware,” he grinned, wickedly.

“I’m meeting with a few people this morning.”

“Oh?”

Elizabeth just smiled. She knew he wasn’t just here coincidentally. Tony had gotten the gossip from Martha, she was sure. He was dressed impeccably in his sheriff deputy garb, shaved and looked, or tried to look imposing. “Are you wearing cologne?”

“I
’m glad you noticed,” he winked, flirting with her.

Elizabeth changed the subject, back to the reason he was here. “Martha told you, didn’t she?”

He blushed and looked guilty. “No, I heard her calling the FBI to confirm the files made it, and she gave them instructions to meet you here. I tried to get it out of her, but she was tight lipped.”

“So then
aren’t you supposed to be out patrolling?”

Tony leaned forward and whispered in her ear
and he noticed she smelled great too. “I’m just getting a coffee, and I’ll be on my way,” he tipped his hat at her, and she laughed.

If there was one thing
Tony was, it was entertaining. Not an iota of his charm worked on her, but he kept on trying and she had to give him credit. As for the flirting, she just ignored it, refusing to lead the man on.

“Go.”

“Yes ma’am,” he retorted.

“Deputy!”

Tony perched at the counter, taking a seat as he waited for his coffee; he teased Beatrice and turned on the charm. He was trying to stall as long as he could to see what the FBI was going to send them, and of course if there would be any female agents.

Outside the quiet bar, the black SUV pulled to a stop.
Lily was driving, only because it took her mind off how irritated she still was with her partner. “This is where the sheriff wants to meet us?” she asked, rolling her eyes. “I told you, fat, sweaty man who is most likely a drunk.”

“
These are the correct GPS instructions. I’m guessing not much is open at six thirty in the morning here,” Ethan said, grabbing all his files and opening the SUV door. “Lily, try and wipe the scowl off your face. This Sheriff LaRue is Gabe’s friend. He already warned us to behave, or who knows where we’ll be shipped next. The fact the ‘
Dragon Slayer
’ has a friend is a miracle, let’s not be the ones responsible for jacking that up.”

“One derogatory female
comment and I’m knocking him on his fat ass just to enjoy it.”

Blackhawk hoped she was kidding
. “Let’s go.”

Once the doors opened, it was just like every movie he had ever seen. Two strangers walk into a place in a town and time stops and people stare.

He was used to being gawked at; he was tall, and somewhat imposing, wearing all black and obviously American Indian. It was always unnerving, and was like no one had ever seen a Native before.

This
was the part he hated most.

It was t
he quiet judgment of his heritage. His eyes traversed the bar, sitting there was a man in a uniform, gun strapped to his hip, watching them with unblinking eyes. Well, it looked like Lily was wrong. The sheriff wasn’t bald, fat, or old. In fact, he noticed his partner was smiling as she walked forward, her hand out in warm greeting. It said it all. Apparently, she thought the sheriff was worth the attitude adjustment.

“Hello, Sheriff LaRue, my name is Special Agent Sanderson, and this is my partner, Special Agent Blackhawk. We were supposed to meet you here this morning to discuss…”

Blackhawk cut her off, people were staring, more so than usual. “How do you do?” he said, putting out his hand.

Tony must have looked confused,
as to why they were talking to him, until he finally got it. Before he could properly introduce himself, a voice broke the silence.

“Excuse me, Special Agents Blackhawk and Sanderson,
there seems to be some mistake. I’m Sheriff Elizabeth LaRue.” She waited for their attention and couldn’t help but smile at the faux pas. “I think you’re here to see me and not my deputy,” she drawled.

Everything in Ethan Blackhawk’s body froze
. It was the voice from his dreams, and it now had somehow invaded his waking hours. Chills of awareness rushed over his body. It couldn’t possibly be...

“I hope you had a good flight and drive,” she continued pleasantly.

Blackhawk could feel his gut tighten much like in all the dreams. Could it be possible that he finally found her when he had just given up? 

It was as if everything moved in slow motion, except the pounding of hi
s heart. He turned, as did Lily, to take in the woman addressing them. She was tall, but not as tall as him and incredibly well built. Her hair hung down her back in a long ponytail. Then there were the eyes he’d looked into every night for a year. The icy blue sparkled with laughter, at the error they both had just made.

Well shit, this wasn’t what he expected. He wasn’t sure if he just got very lucky or
screwed over big time. The dreams had nothing on this woman. When he inhaled sharply, he recognized the scent. There was no mistaking it; she was the one. Their paths crossed accidentally, or because fate liked to have the last laugh. Just being this close, he was sure his pent up sexual frustration was about to get worse.