Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) (30 page)

Now
, she would run and try to recover as best she could, if she ever could get over the man who just crushed her soul.

Callen
stared out the window, as he watched her leave. Part of him felt bad, and part of him felt relieved that it was finally over. He was so distracted that he never heard Elizabeth come up behind him. When she wrapped her arms around his waist he relaxed.

“Want me to go track her down and give her an ass kicking?” she asked. “I will if you want me to
, Cal.”

He laughed
sardonically. “No, I think she just got her ass handed to her in the worst way possible.” Whitefox opened his hand and showed her. “I’m not very hungry any more. I think I’ll go to bed if you don’t mind, Lyzee.”

Elizabeth watched him walk away, and let him go. If he needed her and wanted to talk
, he knew where to find her. She cleaned up the takeout and put it in the tiny mini fridge in the room. Her appetite was gone now too. Chinese takeout was only fun if you had someone to enjoy it with, and now she was in a bed and breakfast alone.

It hurt her to see the people she loved heart broken
. Part of her wanted to go to him and check on him, but he was just like his brother and needed space.

Elizabeth brushed her teeth and climbed into bed, shutting off the light
on the nightstand. She could see into the adjoining room, with the mirror. Callen was sitting on the bed in the dark, silhouetted by the moonlight, looking down at the ring in his hands. Elizabeth couldn’t stand to see it any more. It was crushing her heart that he was so wounded and facing it alone.

Pulling back the blankets, she stood in
the doorway and waited to for his attention.

“Yes, Lyzee?” His voice didn’t sound like his own. It was weighted down with such heaviness.

“Callen, come to bed.” Elizabeth held out her hand, and waited for him to take it.

He looked at her with such emptiness in his eyes. “I don’t want to die alone.”

Elizabeth rushed over to him and sat on the bed beside him. “You won’t be alone. I promise,” she swore. “Come to bed and stay with me.”

Whitefox nodded
, letting her pull him towards the room. He followed her into bed, and she curled against him. Elizabeth placed her head on his shoulder and arm across his waist, anchoring him to her.

“I love you, Callen, and please don’t let anything she said to you damage your heart.
Desdemona was angry that she was just dumped, and you took back the ring. Women get mean when they’re scorned. It was nothing more.”

“I love you too.” He rubbed his cheek against the top of the head. “I don’t want to talk about Desdemona anymore. I need to move forward.
That part of my life is closed.”

Elizabeth looked up and saw the unshed tears in his eyes. “Can I have a kiss goodnight?” she asked, waiting for him to decide if that’s what he wanted or not. Again, it had to be his choice.

“Always, Lyzee.” His lips met hers and she lured him in, making him forget, and pulling all the sadness from his body. She offered him tranquility, and unconditional love with just a kiss. He took everything that she had to offer and always would. If this was all he was entitled to in his life, then this was it. Callen was resigned to it from here on out.

Desdemona’s words came back to haunt him, and Elizabeth kissed him more, as if she were in his mind and heart
. His warrior was feeling the pain that tried to plant itself there, growing into something more vicious. Elizabeth was desperately doing battle with it to win. It wasn’t the kiss on the stairs earlier. It was more.

It was filled with love.

Elizabeth broke away and returned to curl against him.

“You going to call Ethan?” he asked, softly.

Elizabeth thought about it. “Not this time, Callen. That one was all for you.”

Callen felt his heart squeeze and a tear slid down his cheek. “Goodnight, Lyzee.”

“Night sweetheart.”

Elizabeth waited until she felt him fall completely asleep, when his breathing was perfectly even
, and he was out cold. She picked up her phone and sent her husband a text, telling him what happened between Callen and Desdemona, and that she was worried about him.

Then she told him she loved him,
but kept her promise to Callen. She kept the kiss between them, because she knew Ethan would understand. He would want his brother to heal and not be broken into pieces.

There were sacrif
ices you had to make for family when you loved them, and you didn’t think twice.

Monday
Late Night

The light sound at the door pulled them both from sleep. Callen grabbed his gun and jumped out of bed, holding his finger to his mouth. Someone was tapping at the door in the Gardenia room.

Elizabeth pulled her gun and moved through the dark to secure the second door. She peeked out the tiny eye hole and saw nothing.

Whitefox made it to the door, looking out the hole and immediately relaxed. It was Julian, and he opened the door for him, stepping back.

“Lyzee, it’s Julian
.” Callen kept his voice low, as she appeared in the doorway.

“Sorry to bother you both,” he said, softly.

Elizabeth holstered her gun and motioned for him to follow her. Going back into the room her and Callen Whitefox were just sharing, she flicked on all the lights and looked at the watch on her wrist. They’d only been asleep about ninety minutes, and it was nearly midnight.

“What’s going on, Julian?” she asked, taking in his attire. “You just coming out of the swamp?” The man was staring at her and the room and taking it all in
, and Elizabeth knew where it was heading.

“Yeah, I found
the remains. There are a few issues that you need to be aware of and that’s why I’m late getting out. Trust me the swamp in the dark is a bitch.”

It was hard to not notice a few things in the room
, the first being Elizabeth Blackhawk. She was wearing a tiny pair of shorts, and was vastly different than the pregnant woman he remembered her to be months ago. The second was they just came through a room where the bed wasn’t messed up, and both of them appeared to be sleeping together.

He knew she was married and loved her husband, but now she was just waking up from a slumber with her brother-in-law. She had the look on her face waiting for him to say something, but he wasn’t going that route. If her husband didn’t know, he wasn’t finding out from him. This wasn’t the assignment he was hired to work, and as far as he was concerned
, it was none of his business.

“Tell me everything you can,” she said, coming alert at the idea that they indeed now had a crime scene and c
ould do some actual work on it.

Callen went back to his spot in bed and leaned back crossing his legs at the ankles. He noticed t
he looks Julian was giving them. Most of the speculation was directed at Elizabeth. They ranged from checking out her legs to glancing at the bed where they’d been sleeping. Not that Callen wouldn’t have made the exact same assumptions in Julian’s place, and not that he didn’t wish he’d earned the curious stares.

“I didn’t touch anything, but I did get as close to the bodies as
possible to see what we had. I couldn’t get pictures. It was starting to get dark. There are two bodies stuffed into a cave like area behind some Cypress branches.”

“How hard was it to access? I have to get a full forensics team in there to get those bodies extricated.” Now she needed to contact base, and she grabbed her phone and dialed, putting it on speaker as it dialed.

“Not impossible, but it has some challenges.”

After two rings, Ethan Blackhawk’s sleepy voice came over the line. “Yeah baby
, are you and Callen okay?”

“Ethan, call in the team. We have two bodies. Julian just got in from the swamp, and we need to move in tomorrow morning and fast.”

Ethan Blackhawk came completely awake at the words. “What do we have?” he asked.

It was Julian that continued. “
The first victim is fully skeletonized. There are roots growing through the body, so I’m going to say it’s been there a while. The one right beside it is decaying, and not looking so damn good. We’re talking possibly a few weeks in the swamp to maybe a month at my estimation. They’re both up out of the water, so the gators couldn’t get to them, but the bugs from the rocky area had a field day.”

“Can you tell me if one is a woman?” he asked, hoping they had found Cordelia Adare.

“The rotting one is a woman; she’s wearing rings and has long hair. The other is completely bones. You need an anthropologist for that one,” he paused. “We have another issue. The cave like dwelling is smack dab on Native land.”

“And the Natives aren’t friendly?” Elizabeth asked.

“They were to me. Ethan and Callen should be fine, but if we start bringing a full team onto the land, we may have issues. The smaller a team going into the area the better in this case. I can lead us in, and we can quietly remove the bodies. That will make the tribe happy, and we like happy Natives, not angry ones.”

“What do you need, Lyzee?”
inquired her husband.

“We
’re going to need an ME. We can’t have Desdemona going in, so I need you to ship me Doc Leonard, Doc Magnus, and a few techs- maybe two or four at the most. They can process the scene. Christina loves some field work, and she’s the best we have.”

Ethan was typing on his phone as he listened. “Okay, I can have them there by five thirty in the morning. We’re going to have to contact the local police and claim jurisdiction on this one.”

“We have a problem there, Ethan,” said Whitefox. “We’ve been to the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Denton isn't going to cooperate, and my suggestion is we get to the bodies first, then tell him kiss our asses.”

“He can kiss my ass,” said Elizabeth. “He’s a jackwagon, and going to make my life complete and total hell.”

“We had a little name calling altercation where he insulted, Elizabeth.” Callen told his brother what happened.

“I’ll kill him.”

Elizabeth tried to calm her husband down. “I’d like to point out, that technically I am sleeping with the boss.”

Julian shook his head and looked around the room. When Elizabeth pointed at him he just shrugged.

Ethan laughed, obviously calming down over the situation. “I’m coming out. I’ll handle the jackwagon. You, handle the bodies and Doctor Adare. Callen, since you’re the Native American Liaison, you get the Indian tribe if anything pops up. We go in quiet tomorrow morning. Where do you want the meet up to be?”

Elizabeth thought about it. “Here at the
bed and breakfast is probably best.  It’s pretty quiet and not a lot of guests. I think there’s one couple besides us, and then Julian. We can meet up in the lot at five forty five and then caravan to the Adare property.”

“I’ll not be going into the swamp; I’ll head off Sheriff Jackwagon
and cover for us until you get the bodies out. You need specific gear?” he asked, still typing.

“The water isn't that deep, just to about my knees
. So you really just need light clothing and boots. We’ll avoid the deep parts.”

She
laughed. “I told Callen to bring his swim trunks. I have my bikini all ready.” Both men in the room looked happy at that prospect, but the husband on the phone… not so much.

“Good try. You get a clean suit and I will duct tape it to your body.
NO bikini, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth started laughing. “Ethan my love, it’s about ninety degrees outside now. I’m trudging into
a swamp filled with gators, leeches and all kinds of nasty shit. I’m going to be comfortable. Just bring me some waders and I’ll be on my best behavior. Besides Callen is my partner and babysitter, and he’s almost more overprotective than you.”

He laughed. “
You think I haven’t seen your best behavior? As for my brother babysitting you, we both remember how that turned out last time. You just be up and all pretty for your gator trek at five forty five a.m. You have bigger issues tomorrow and her name is Doctor Desdemona Adare.”

“I have a plan on that one, Cowboy. You know this isn't my first rodeo, right? You just leave the
doctor issues to me, and you get ready for the jackwagon.”

“Be safe tonight guys
. Get some sleep. We’ll meet you at the rendezvous at five forty five.”

“Safe flight, handsome. I love you,” she said, giving him a kiss into the phone.

“Elizabeth. I love you too.” He knew what she was waiting for and just sucked it up. The kiss was returned, even though his brother was snickering. He cut out the call, and hopped out of bed and started dialing his team. There was the rush of blood in his body. Nothing was better than fieldwork, and he couldn’t wait to get out there and back with his partner and brother.

Even if it was in a swamp and his wife was threatening to wear a bikini.