Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (52 page)

“Women tend to drive men insane,” he answered. “You’ve brought out the homicidal in me a few times.”

“He’s made this personal. Right now he’s drawing spirit guides on paper and flesh, and he’s killing pregnant Natives. He’s trying to lead us somewhere.” Elizabeth was about to continue when her intercom buzzed. “Yeah, Ginny?”

“You have a visitor, a Mr. Blackhawk.”

Both men on the couch tensed.

“Okay, I’ll be right out,” she answered. “Before you both lose it, specifically you,” she pointed at her husband. “If you want to escape
then stay here. I’ll take him into your office.”

Blackhawk appreciated the offer. “I’ll face him, but
absolutely in my office. There’s no white board in there, and he’s still on yours.” he stood and could see the look on her face. “You're not dealing with him alone.”

“I can go with her, Ethan,” offered Whitefox.

“It’s okay. I knew he’d pop up eventually, and I won’t hide from him. Wyler has a way of turning up when you least expect him.”

Elizabeth followed her husband and brother-in-law from her office
. They went into his office, and she continued to the lobby. Her heart ached for the man; he was sitting on a chair, and looked lost and very alone. Yeah, he was a horrible father, and she would always side with her husband, but she still could feel sympathy for him.

“Mr. Blackhawk? Are you okay?” she asked, walking towards him with her hand out in welcome.

“Yes, I just feel a little overwhelmed. It’s a big building. I don’t often leave the Rez.”

“I understand that completely. When I first saw it, I felt very much the same,” she smiled, gently. “What brings you into FBI West?”

“I need to talk to you and my son, and I knew he wouldn’t come to me, so I came to him,” he shrugged.

“Mr. Blackhawk, I would have come out to you
, had you called.”

Somehow he believed she meant it. “I thought my son should see something,” he
answered, letting it go at that, until he saw his boy.

Elizabeth nodded, and motioned towards the area housing their private spaces, “
Ethan’s in his office. Follow me and we can talk in there.” She escorted him to her husband’s office, and watched all of the men in the room. There was no love lost from the boys to the father and just the chilliness was evident.

“Ethan, Callen,” he said,
taking the chair that Elizabeth offered him.

“Mr. Blackhawk, would you care for some coffee or tea?” she offered.

“No thank you. I won’t take up much time. I know you must be very busy.” It wasn’t lost on him that his son had a powerful looking office, a beautiful wife, and a decent life. It gave him a measure of peace that he made it through his shitty childhood.

Ethan Blackhawk knew he could be intimidating, and he turned it all on at that moment. The man in front of him ruined his life and his mother’s life. He did something that he could never forgive, betrayal. Then he looked at his own brother,
and he found forgiveness for him. This wasn’t going to be easy either way. The entire situation made him feel off-balance.

Elizabeth stood by her husband
. The hand on his shoulder reassuringly stroked the back of his neck, offering calm. It was her way of connecting them, and signifying they would make it through together.

“What do you want, Wyler?” asked Blackhawk. Just saying his name caused his body to tighten. The
comfort from his wife helped him through it.

“I needed to come see you, and I knew you wouldn’t come to me.”

“You're probably right. We don’t really have anything to talk about, so why would I just stop in?”

Wyler Blackhawk pulled a baggie out of his pocket. “I woke up this morning, and it was on my porch.” He handed it to Elizabeth. “Then I noticed my arrows
and quiver were all missing.”

All three looked down at the baggie and back to the man sitting in the chair. It was hard to not find it unusual
. They had yet to release any information on how the women were killed. Now his arrows and quiver coming up missing was odd. The killer hadn’t left arrows behind, so why steal Wyler Blackhawk’s? All three went on alert.

“Did you touch this card?” asked Blackhawk, standing and looking at the bag in his wife’s hand. It was a laminated card just like they had received.

Elizabeth handed it to him and went to her husband’s phone and dialed the lab. “Christina, can you come to Ethan’s office? We have more evidence and bring a bag.” She hung the phone up.

“What does it say,” asked Whitefox, not moving from his position.

“It’s a bull. On the back it says, ‘Only one brother will remain’.”

Christina entered with a knock. “Where’s it at?” she wore gloves and carried an evidence bag.

Ethan Blackhawk took the evidence bag, dropped the baggie into the bag, sealed it, and signed it to continue chain of evidence.

“Christina, I need something on this fast. I know you're bogged, but this is really important,” said Blackhawk. “Find me something and get it to me an hour ago.”

“Yes, Boss,” she started for the door.

“Wait,” Elizabeth stopped her. “We also need someone to accompany
Mr. Blackhawk back to his house and collect any trace the killer may have left.”

“Sure thing Director Blackhawk.” If the woman gave any notice
of the name similarity, she didn’t show it. “Give me an hour to have the trace for you, and I’ll have a tech team in the garage waiting for escort.” Christina closed the office door and headed off to do her job. Now the clock was ticking.

Wyler Blackhawk was proud of his son. He’d made something important of himself, and even his wife was powerful.

“I’ll have the team escort you home,” Blackhawk ended the conversation abruptly.

“Can I talk to you, alone for a minute, Ethan?”

The muscle in his jaw ticked, and he almost said no. “Sure,” he nodded at his brother, signaling it was okay and accepted a kiss from his wife. He must look like he was in bad shape for her to kiss him in the office in front of his father. As soon as both were gone and the door was closed, he sat crossing his arms and braced himself for a conversation with his father. It was the first in more than twenty-five years.

Wyler wished he didn’t abandon his sons so long ago. 

“What can I do for you?” he inquired coolly, as he leaned back in his chair. His eyes remained trained on the man. It wasn’t lost on him that he looked like his father- more than he remembered or liked.  Blackhawk wondered if his wife would find him attractive when he got older, and had more worry lines around his face much like the man before him. The black hair was the same. Wyler wore his longer, hanging down his back in a single braid. It was the eyes that got to him, the soulless eyes he swore he inherited. Until he met his wife and found that he still had his soul, it was just buried deep.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“A few decades late, don’t you think?” he said angrily, and then regaining control. He wouldn’t let this man rile him up. He didn’t have that power over him anymore. Most of the stupid things he did in his youth were because of this man and anger. Together they were a volatile brew. The pattern stopped here and now, and he was no longer that boy.

“It is, and I needed to tell you.”

“I appreciate you telling me. Now …” he stood, dismissing him.

“I know it doesn’t matter, but you picked a really good wife.
It’s easy to see that she’s kind and loves you,” he simply said.

Blackhawk felt his body shake in rage. Elizabeth was off limits
. Even in a compliment from this man. “So did you,” he threw in there angrily, and hated that he drew that hostility out of him yet again. “My mother loved you the same way Elizabeth loves me. You had a good woman; you were just too big of an asshole to know it.”

“I know. I wish she was still her so I could apologize to her too,” he said honestly. “I’m trying to clean up my life. Change what I was and amend for my sins.”

“What do you want from me?” Blackhawk leaned forward, looking into his father’s face. It kept catching him off guard at how closely he resembled him, and at how he could have ended up just like the man before him. How dangerously close he’d come. Elizabeth pulled him out of the mire, and he wouldn’t ever be this man. It was all because of her.

“I don’t want anything from you. I said what I wanted to say and that’s it.” Wyler stood.

Blackhawk sighed at his own behavior. “Wait, please sit.”

The man did, as if waiting for the anger to continue and willing to take the
vicious, angry barbs.

“I don’t want to hate you forever, but I just can’t get past it yet. I’m not
at that point. You’ve done too much damage to just walk in here and be forgiven immediately.”

“I understand. I don’t want you to get past it, or even forgive me, Ethan. I just wanted to tell you how I felt and let you know that I’m here for you. I know I never was before, but I’m really trying to change my life. I stopped drinking
, and I know it’s only been twelve days, but it’s been a fight. I’m going to stay sober, and I’m going to atone for my past. I wasn’t there for you, and I wasn’t there for Callen. That will be my burden the rest of my life.”

Blackhawk just listened
as he relived the pain.

“But from this day out, I’ll be here. If you ever want to
come to me, or reach out to me, I’ll be here for you. The hurt I caused you both can’t be erased and forgotten, but please believe that I’m genuinely trying to change who I am going forward.”

“I appreciate that.”

“If I could take it all back I would. In a heartbeat, but I can’t undo the past. I can’t save your mother, and I can’t be a better father. My only saving grace is that the two men I created didn’t end up like me. You both turned out to be decent men, good men. Your grandfather did that, and I owe him too.”

He didn’t know what to say. There
was still so much anger, but he could feel the cracks forming in the wall of hate.

“When you have kids of your own
don’t end up like me. It was selfish and wrong of me, and I hope you are nothing like the man I was then.”

“I won’t be that man,
Wyler. I wouldn’t betray my family, or my wife for anything. I didn’t get married to chase other women around. I got married to be committed to one woman,” he said simply. “I’ve experienced what it’s like for my father to come home one day and tell his wife and child that he’s tired of being a father and husband.” He may have been young, but he remembered the fights. “That he made a mistake. My family won’t ever be told they’re mistakes.”

Wyler nodded. “Take care
and goodbye son,” he said softly, as he walked out of his boy’s office and probably out of his life forever.

Blackhawk just sat in his chair and stared out his windows. He knew that coming home meant confronting his old man; he just didn’t think that it would be as hard as this, or as painful. There was a part of him that wanted
Wyler to suffer for what he did and the pain he caused. There was a little hate in him that wanted to break his own father into pieces, much like those he had been broken into as a child.

How do you forgive a man that
had walked out on you and your mother?

Then there was a part
of him that wanted forgiveness- not for Wyler’s sake, but his own. He wanted to heal, so he could be a better man, and learn from his own father’s mistakes. He wanted to be a good dad and a good husband in the worst way, and somehow he didn’t think holding this grudge was going to be the way to achieve his goal.

Elizabeth stood in her doorway,
lying in wait for the man to exit her husband’s office. “Mr. Blackhawk, can we talk?” she asked, walking with him to the elevator.

“Yes,” he
answered, surprised that she dared come near him. He was certain his son would have already told her to stay away from him at all costs. “Will he be mad we spoke? I don’t want to make him angry at you.”

“Maybe or maybe not, but I need to say something and you need to listen to me. It’s very important.”

Wyler expected an ass chewing from his son’s wife, and he knew he deserved it. “Go ahead, Elizabeth.” He braced for it and in a way, welcomed it. Atonement was never comfortable and neither was the havoc his choices caused.

“After
the tech team sweeps your house get out of there. Lock the doors, and head out and don’t look back until this is over.”

He looked surprised. This wasn’t what he thought she’d say to him. From what he had seen of his son’s wife, she was protective of her husband, and now she was helping the enemy. He just didn’t understand why.

“The killer is screwing with this family.” Elizabeth looked over her shoulder. “Go stay with Timothy, or go away for a while. I don’t want to be finding your body in your house, or in a ditch somewhere.”

“You’re warning me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Even if you and Ethan aren’t on speaking terms, this killer is sadistic and would love to hurt my husband. Regardless of your past issues, he’d still hurt if he failed to catch this man before he killed you. Ethan is tied up in knots right now, and if he wasn’t he would have told you the same. Despite the years and the anger, you’re still his father. If anything, your son is a very honorable man. He’ll blame himself if anything happens to you, if he didn’t think to keep you safe or warn you. I’m just taking care of the details for him.”