Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (23 page)

Once
Elizabeth was dressed, she picked up her gun and badge, slipping quietly out of their room. Immediately she sensed something wasn’t quite right. The smell of coffee permeated the air, and unless she was sleepwalking there was no way she’d made it. Her husband was dead to the world, and he wouldn’t have gotten up to make coffee and return to bed. Hell no to the idea a burglar had broken in to make her coffee, so that left one other option. Callen Whitefox had stayed the night in their home.

When
Elizabeth entered the kitchen she found him leaning on the counter, drinking coffee and reading some of the tech printouts. “Morning, Callen,” she casually stated, walking in and grabbing two mugs from the shelf. One was for her and one for her husband, when he dragged himself from bed.

“I hope you don’t mind
, Elizabeth. I was awake and badly needed the caffeine.”

Elizabeth poured herself a cup of coffee and leaned against the opposite counter, so she could have
a face to face conversation with the man. “Why would I mind, Callen?”

He shrugged unsure what to say to her. There was still this u
nspoken uneasiness between them. Partially because of how he felt about her, and then because she now knew what happened between him and her husband. Right now he was struggling to bridge that gap. It wasn’t like he had a lot of female friends. All the women he had in his life he had sex with, and this was a whole new territory for him. Plutonic relationships were a bitch, especially since what he felt for his sister-in-law was far from that.

“Are we discussing you making coffee, or you being here over night?”

When he woke up, it occurred to him that maybe she wouldn’t be comfortable with him being in her home. After all, she had a right to be wary of her husband’s family even though she welcomed him the night before. Part of him wanted to escape early, but with the alarm on the door he was trapped.

“Both.”

Elizabeth took a sip of coffee and scrutinized the man in front of her. He had some deep wounds too, just like her husband. They were evident and proof that both men had a rough childhood where they were abandoned and felt unlovable. Elizabeth felt the overwhelming need to protect him too, and fix his heart. “I enjoy that I didn’t have to make the coffee, and as for you being here it’s going to depend on the answer to one question.”

“Okay Lyzee.” He tried out her nickname again to test the water, and if she really cared if he used it.

“Are you going to hurt him again?”

“N
ever.”

“Then I don’t mind if you stay here, come here, sleep here, or eat here. He deserves a decent relationship with his family, and I’m not going to hinder that
, ever. But if you hurt him, they won’t be able to find enough of you to put you back together. Clear?”

Whitefox watched her eyes. She was dead serious, and he was glad she was part of their family. Elizabeth Blackhawk would keep his brother safe. That kind of loyalty was a valuable thing.

“Crystal clear, ma’am,” he said, grinning at her.

“Now,
do you want some breakfast?”

“Wow, you're going to make me breakfast too?”
Shit, how was he supposed to get over her, if she cooked for him too?

“Yes
I am and your brother too, if he ever wakes up. Besides, we can get to know each other while we cook.”

We cook?” he laughed. “You want to die, or is this some sick test
to see how tough I am?”

Elizabeth laughed and tossed him an apron. “Suit up, Mr. Whitefox.”

“An apron?” Now he was laughing at the entire situation, but oddly he couldn’t refuse. Whitefox was pretty sure most people didn’t say no to Elizabeth Blackhawk. He watched her pull out a waffle iron. “We get waffles?”

“Don’t like them?” she inquired, pausing.

“I love them. I just don’t think I’ve had real waffles since I was living at home with my mom. One day she felt maternal.” There was so much pain in those words, he only hoped he managed to make it sound blasé and not pathetic.

Elizabeth looked over at him. “It had to be tough on both you and Ethan, losing your moms.” Sadly, she knew how it felt and there was no feeling quite like it.

Whitefox shrugged, trying to not let more emotion free. “She was young when she had me. Wyler liked them young.” It was said with definite animosity. The anger helped push down the pain. “Being a kid herself, after a while the responsibility got to her. Granddad stepped in and took over when he noticed there was neglect. When she died, he kept me even though he didn’t have to do it. I wasn’t his obligation.”

“When you lose a parent
it leaves a void.”

“Are your parents alive?” he asked, wondering if she really understood.

Elizabeth measured out the ingredients for the waffles. “No, my mom and I were in a car accident when I was ten. We were headed to my soccer game, and a truck crossed the median and hit us head on. I don’t remember much of the accident; I guess that’s probably a good thing.”

“I’m sorry
.” Whitefox wished he didn’t bring it up.

“Then my dad became
both my parents. He packed us up and moved us to Salem, and he became the sheriff of the town. I went off to the FBI and to start my life, and then he was murdered.”

“Lyzee, I’m
so sorry.” He found himself placing his hand on her shoulder in support. When she placed her hand over his, he felt his heart skip.

“Wounds heal, Callen. I found him justice and that’s what matters in my heart. I came back
and took over his job as sheriff. It brought Ethan into my life. Fate is funny. If bad doesn’t happen, then good can’t either. I firmly believe that.”

“Ethan told me you both nearly died on that assignment.”

Elizabeth faced him. “Yeah, it was pretty ugly, especially for my step-mother and half-brother.”

“Were they
the ones that killed your dad?”

She stirred the batter. “Yeah.”

“Are they in jail?” Right then he would have tracked them down for her if they weren’t.

“No, Ethan killed my step-mother after she shot us both, and I beat the hell out of my half-brother to keep him from kil
ling Ethan. He has brain damage and is pretty much dead to the world. He just sits around staring now.”

Whitefox didn’t know what to say. “You literally beat the hell out of him?”

Elizabeth laughed at the look of horror on his face. “Yeah, he was going to hang a man and kill Ethan. He’s lucky I was shot and only had use of one arm, or I would have probably killed him.” She wasn’t ashamed to say it. It was truth. “But his mother shot me in the shoulder,” she turned and pulled her sleeve up to show him the scars. “One was from a drive by shooting when I was in the FBI, and the other my step-mother.”

“Ethan was shot too?”

“We have matching gunshot wounds,” he
answered from the doorway of the kitchen. He’d come down earlier and heard them talking. It touched his heart that this woman of his had so easily accepted his brother, and she was making him feel welcome in their home. He had planned on being awake first, so he could warn her that his brother was there, but exhaustion won out.

“Hey Cowboy,” Elizabeth crossed to her husband, and gave him a kiss. “Sorry I didn’t wake you,
but you looked really peaceful. I figured today was going to be a long one, and you deserved some sleep.”

He kissed his wife and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Morning Callen, you sleep okay?”

“I’ll survive.”

“Dreams?”

Whitefox nodded. “Yeah the same ones and it’s getting old.”

Elizabeth went back to making the waffles, pouring batter into the waffle iron, and waiting for them to cook. When her husband came over and pulled the apron off her waist she didn’t know what
was happening.

“I promised I’d make breakfast for you when you were having our kids,
so go sit,” he ordered, and patted her on the ass.

She smirked and pointed at him before continuing, “I’ll suck up that condescending ass pat only because your child and I are hungry. Don’t forget it,” she stuck out her tongue.

Both men laughed at her.

“Callen, what kind of dreams?” she took her coffee and went to sit on a stool to watch the men in aprons making her breakfast.
It occurred to her that having family was a nice thing.

“It’s the same one; I’m in this forest, standing in a circle
, and all around me are these women tied to the trees. Arrows are sticking out of their bodies. One in each woman, and they’re begging me to help them and I just stand there watching.”

“Is there anything different in the dreams?”

Whitefox pulled dishes out of the cabinet as instructed. “No, not that I can tell.”

Elizabeth stood to go get the paper. “If they change, maybe you should write down as many details as possible. I don’t discount the power of dreams and the mind.”

Elizabeth turned off the code to the alarm and opened the door to get the paper. As she bent down she froze, seeing something that disturbed her. “Ethan, come quick.” She reached into her bag sitting by the door for a tissue.

He practically ran at the tone of her voice.

“Look,” she pointed at the feathers on the porch and the laminated note she held in the tissue. “We had company last night.”

Blackhawk stared down at the feathers the rage filling him. The killer had found their
house. “We had to be followed, because you can’t just Google us online to find us. That bastard was outside our home!” His body shook, and he was overwhelmed with the need to beat something into oblivion. A dark haze covered his vision and almost erupted from him in a wave, as he now comprehended the likelihood that the killer could now reach his family. This had been his greatest fear when he became an FBI agent. If he had a life outside work would it be at risk due to his career choice?

Elizabeth walked the laminated card to the kitchen counter. “Call
en, in that drawer are the bags can you pull one out?” Elizabeth waited and then dropped the card into the bag. She sealed it and then took the time to read the back. On the front, much like Whitefox’s, was a picture. This time a black raven was inked on one side and on the other, printed meticulously was:

        Prodigal first son and his beautiful wife

“This is very personal,” she said, looking up at both men. Her husband dropped the black and white feathers into another bag. The look of anger on his face said it all, and it had her worried. Her husband was notoriously calm, but now he looked to be close to the edge.

“First the second son, and then the first son, it looks like someone is trying to tell us something about you both
,” she added.

“I don’t see how any dead pregnant
women could possibly relate to us,” added Whitefox. “Then toss in the feathers.”

Elizabeth sat on the stool and looked at both men. “Well, you both were accused of getting a woman pregnant.”

Blackhawk tensed at the idea that this was tied to his past.

“You’re the
raven,” she said, pointing at her husband, “and you’re the fox,” she pointed at her brother- in-law.

“Don’t forget, you’re the beautiful wife. You’re now part of this too,” added
Blackhawk angrily.

“I don’t get
it; these were just nicknames as kids, and they mean nothing now.”

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. “To you both, yes, but to the killer he’s got his undies in a bunch over it. Something about you, your nicknames, your birth order
, and your tattoos has him all stirred up. I’m not saying he started killing because of you both, but he’s looking for an audience, and it appears we’re it. All three of us are now his focus.”

“We can’t let your pregnancy get out,” Blackhawk
snapped abruptly. “Callen, call grandfather, and tell him that I need him to call me later today, and to keep his dream about Elizabeth being pregnant quiet. Tell him I think it’s going to risk her life.”

Elizabeth put her hand over her husband’s tattoo, and rubbed it reassuringly. “We’ll figure this out, and I’ll be fine.”

The rage was still there. “I’m not hungry. I’ll get ready for work,” Blackhawk walked from his family, forgetting his promise to make her breakfast.

“Come on Callen. L
et’s have something to eat and call your grandfather. It’s going to be a long day for all three of us. We better fuel up before we head into FBI West.” Elizabeth ignored the hurt she felt over him forgetting his promise.

Whitefox couldn’t help but wonder if their stupidity in their youth had somehow started all of this killing. He knew they needed to do something to take care of it and fast. Before someone they loved paid with their life.

Like Elizabeth Blackhawk and her unborn child
.

Ethan
Blackhawk instructed his brother to meet him at FBI West as soon as his own work load was handled. The drive into work with his wife was done in complete silence. Being so close to the edge with his temper, it worried him that he may slip, and take it out on her. Deciding to say nothing at all to her just seemed a better option at the time. Apparently, that was fine with Elizabeth.