Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (42 page)

Elizabeth found another hard one. “Wow, Justin, that’s a tough shot. Could you make it?” she asked, pulling the trigger. Bark flew and so did the can.

“Five.”

The next one was wedged in a tree.

“Six.”

There was a can dangling from the wind chimes and swaying gently in the breeze. “Does that can there count as easy or hard?” she asked, before taking the shot. “I don’t want you to win by a technicality.”

Staring at the can she was referencing, he considered it. “I say hard because it’s moving.”

She fired at the last word out of his mouth
, and the can ripped apart as bullet tore through it.

“Damn it,” he muttered.
“This shot’s almost impossible.”

Elizabeth looked at it. “You might have me
this time, Justin. I have to get down on the ground for a shot, and I do have a baby bump.”

He laughed
at the visual in his head. “Oh, are you trying to make excuses now?”

She winked at her husband.

“She was giving you an out before she made the shot, Justin,” Blackhawk said, drinking the rest of his beer. “That was her way of keeping her name off your ass.”

Dropping down to the ground, she gaged the distance from her to the can
, knowing her gun and how it would pull once she fired. Sliding to her right, Elizabeth found the one possible shot. It was between the holes on the cinderblock.

Justin prayed she’d miss or that tattoo was going to suck when he got naked with any women.
Tex was a man’s name, and that was going to draw speculation.

Pulling the trigger the bullet flew straight as planned, entering the cinderblock and exiting through the back of the can. Ethan helped his woman up and kissed her. Watching her school the man was very sexy.

“Shit! Julian you’re a dead man!” he yelled towards the house.

Elizabeth pulled away from the kiss. “Give the boy child the money.
I don’t think anyone’s ever gotten my name on their ass before.”

Ethan
started laughing. “My life is never dull, Mrs. Blackhawk.”

Justin took the money and grimaced. “Before the weekends over
I’ll get it.”

Elizabeth went to him and hugged him. “Good job, Justin.
Be glad it didn’t say ‘my ass belongs to a pregnant woman’.”

He grinned and hugged her back. “
That was truly excellent shooting, Tex. I’ll wear it proud, but I’m still killing my brother.”

“And so you should,” Elizabeth admitted. “He set you up for this one.”

Before Justin could comment, Julian exited the house. The look on his face said it all. The time for joking was officially over.

“I need anyone that has an FBI badge to come
inside and anyone who doesn’t to stay out here,” Julian demanded, holding the door open.

All
three agents went in, leaving the remainder of the family out in the yard.

“What do you think’s going on?” inquired Claire, drinking her beer.

Justin shook his head. “No idea, but it can’t be good. Julian looked like he was ready to go over the edge.”

Clarissa Littlemoon sat on her couch, crying into a handful of tissues. When the FBI came back into her house, she sobbed harder.

Tori glanced over at her fiancé. “What’s going on?”

Julian stood there with everyone. “When she dropped the bowl on the floor, something seemed wrong to me.
My mother is unflappable, but I could see it in her face. There was fear there. I asked Justin to get you all outside, and I confronted her.”

Elizabeth glanced over. “What’s she crying about?”

Julian took a deep breath. “When I was a little kid, my dad went out hunting one day and never came home. We believed it to be a hunting accident.”

Tori didn't understand. “It wasn’t an accident?”

The woman on the couch began sobbing harder at Tori’s question. It pretty much answered itself.

Blackhawk lifted a brow. “Okay,
so it wasn’t an accident? Then what was it?”

Julian didn't know where to start. Finally, when Tori squeezed his hand, he dropped the bomb.
“She told me beside my father, they found a white feather.” There was so much pain in his face, as he struggled to get the words out.

Tori gasped
. “Jules, I’m sorry.”

Elizabeth dropped her voice to a whisper. “I’m going to have to talk to her. I need to ask questions that you may not want to hear. You should go outside and stay with your family. I have her now.”

Julian shook his head. “No, I need to be here.”

She
understood, because she’d probably do the exact same thing in his situation. Crossing the room to sit beside the woman, Elizabeth knew she was balancing between witness and victim. There was a fine line and she needed to walk it. “Mrs. Littlemoon, we need to ask you a few questions.”

Clarissa nodded. “I’m ready.”

Elizabeth took her free hand in hers, stroking her knuckles with her thumb. “Your husband didn’t die in a hunting accident, did he?”

She shook her head
, looking up at Julian. “I’m so sorry. Your uncle didn’t want you kids to suffer. I wanted to tell you the truth, but he insisted it was best you didn’t know.”

Julian knelt before her. “Mom, it’s ok
ay. Don’t worry about it. We’re all big now and can handle it. Right now you have to tell Elizabeth, Ethan and Tori everything. Leave nothing out, please.”

She nodded. “Your father went out
to get a deer. That part is absolutely true. When he didn’t come home that night, his brother went out searching for him. When he came back he told me what he found. Your father was dead in the woods.”

Elizabeth needed to know if anything else was the same with the scene. “How was he killed?”

Julian cringed at the words.

“I’m sorry, Julian. I need to ask,” she said, softly.

Ethan came over and placed his hand on the man’s shoulder in support. “We’ll get you and your family through this, Julian.”

He nodded
, believing that they would. There were no people he trusted more than the Blackhawks.

The woman touched her son’s face gently.
“Someone had stabbed him in the chest.”

Julian stood
, his stomach rolling and the nausea rising up in his gut. “I have to go outside. I can’t listen to the details. I thought I could, but I can’t.” He hurriedly left the room, the back door slamming behind him.

“Tori,
you should go with him,” Elizabeth suggested, knowing the woman wanted to be by his side. If it was one of the men she loved, she’d want the same thing. There was a time for the job, and a time to be a partner to the one you loved.

When she was gone, they both flanked the woman. “I know this is hard, Mrs. Littlemoon, but think back to that day.”

She shook her head. “My husband was a stubborn man. He did what he wanted to do, and my job was raising the kids. I did just that. Connor is a great father, Justin served his country, Julian is independent and caring, Claire loves being in the Navy and Liana is a great mom. I did my job. I know nothing about that night.”

“Okay, stay calm. Breathe for me, Mrs. Littlemoon,” said Elizabeth, pulling her against her body and offering the woman comfort.

Ethan spoke up. “You mentioned that Julian’s uncle found him. Can we get in contact and meet with him? He may have some answers for us.”

Clarissa had more bad news. “My husband’s brother died of heart disease three years ago.”

It was obviously going to be a dead end on a very cold trail. There was only one thing to do. “You take the night, and you spend it with your kids. If you think of anything that can help us, please tell Julian and he’ll let us know. Okay?” she said, squeezing her hand.

The woman sobbed
as Elizabeth held her tight. Just then her kids came in through the back door. It only made her weep more, that all these years she’d lied to them all. What kind of mother was she?

“Mom,
don’t make yourself sick,” whispered Justin, as he held onto Liana as she cried. “We’ll get through this.”

Julian nodded standing between them all. Tori was by his side and holding onto Claire. “We’re
strong, Mom. You raised us to be tough, and we’ll get you through this.”

The woman nodded and stood, going to her children. They all moved around her in a big circle, holding them to her body.

“I’ll get your father and husband justice,” Elizabeth stated. “I promise the killer won’t get away with this.”

Julian glanced over at Tori
, and he held his hand out, pulling her towards their circle. She was going to be his wife and was part of their family. “I know you will,” he said, believing it. Julian knew how tenacious the woman was, and he trusted no one more with the people he loved.

It was the ultimate
faith between friends and family.

“
I know you’ll make this right,” he said, going back to hug his family. Now it was time to pick up the pieces of something he never knew was even broken.

             
                            *   *   *

As the plane was landing on the tarmac, Callen called the hospital
, asking to speak to Nurse Marly. When she was put on the call, he informed her that he landed and would be there in less than twenty minutes.

“Do you want to see Desdemona before you leave with your child?” she inquired. “We can take you down to the morgue and you can say your last goodbyes.
”

At first his instinct was to decline her offer. After all this
, the woman had planned on keeping his child from him. “Yeah, I want to say a few words to her.” What he wanted to do was tell her what was in his heart for the last time, severing that last tie. It was much like when he went to see his mother’s grave and said goodbye. Getting the words out had been cathartic.

“We’ll see you shortly,
Director Whitefox.”

Callen unbuckled as the door was opened by his pilot. “I’ll be back in the next hour or two. As soon as I get onboard we need to head out of here and fast.
Director Blackhawk needs the Jet back.”

“Yes Sir. Just so you know,
he has rescheduled the flight to land in the little airport outside Red River. You won’t have to make the drive.”

Thank God for his brother. He ran out of the plane and was flagged down by another man.

“Are you Callen Whitefox?” he asked, holding out keys. “Your rental car is ready. Drive safe, Sir.”

That’s
why Ethan was in charge. Never again would he bust his ass about micromanaging everything. He really owed his big brother for everything he’d done tonight by trusting him and backing him up. Callen should have known the man would have control freaked it to death, clearing the path to the undisclosed issue. Pulling out of the parking lot, he raced to the hospital and the child waiting for him.

             
                            *   *   *

Elizabeth sat in the passenger seat staring
out the window. Everything around her was off balance and out of sync. Callen was nowhere to be seen, and she’d received a text message from him telling her he loved her, and he was sorry. That made her incredibly edgy. Something was going on and she needed to know.

“Where is he, Ethan?
Let’s go with the truth this time.”

Blackhawk knew
it wasn’t going to be pretty. While messing with Julian’s brother gave him time, the truth was eventually going to surface. “Callen received a call. When he asked me to come outside, he told me there was an emergency.”

Elizabeth became sick. “Is our son okay?” Her hand immediately went to the baby growing in her belly. “Is Wyler hurt?”

“No baby, stay calm. Our family is fine.”

Elizabeth didn’t understand. “Then what was the emergency.”

Blackhawk pulled into their driveway, turning off the engine. “He took the jet back to Cypress Grove.”

It would have hurt less if he slapped her. Elizabeth stared at him. “You let him go back there to her, and you didn’t think I should know?”

The tears filled her eyes at the betrayal, and Elizabeth wasn’t sure who to be angrier with at that moment; Callen for leaving or Ethan for allowing him.

“Baby, he said he’d be back tomorrow. He needed my help. I’m his brother
, and it’s my job in life is to protect him and help him. He was ready to beg. What was I supposed to do when he said it was an emergency?”

That answered her question.
She had never been angrier at him in her life. “You should have told me. I’m part of this too. You let him go off to do God only knows what.”