Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (9 page)

Most of his day
s and all of his nights were spent doing the same thing, so he wasn’t really surprised. Basically, he’d had to learn to control his temper when men ogled his wife.

Elizabeth could take care of herself.

“Good luck to him,” he laughed. “She’ll hand him his ass and fast,” he paused. “Ginny, how do you know he was checking her out?” Now the smile was slipping and doubt began creeping into the back of his mind. He wasn’t sure how he felt about another Native man being attracted to his wife. Many times, she expressed how his exotic looks were what made her notice him. There was habitually that fear that another ‘
exotic
’ man would lure her away. Deep down, he knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t help it; he was territorial, especially with Elizabeth, and he’d be crazy to not be.

“
Uh, because I was checking him out,” she said, winking and going back to her phone calls and typing. “I’ll bring coffee in shortly, boss. Buzz if you need me sooner.”

Blackhawk dropped the personnel files on his desk, and
he headed into his wife’s office. The melodically laughter was floating from her room to the hallway. As the co-director, he was glad that she was breaking the ice with the chief of police, and that Elizabeth was being accepted by the Native American easily. Again, Ginny’s warning had taken root.

Granted
, it would make their job easier once they got out to the site. They would need complete and total cooperation from the law enforcement there, but still...

Ethan Blackhawk didn’t expect the scene when he stepped into her office. His body froze as the icy claws of anger began their ascent through his body. There w
as a man leaning over his wife as they looked at the laptop together. If it were any other man, he probably wouldn’t feel the rage rising up through his body, but this man was completely different.

The flirtatious grin plastered on the man’s face was one he knew all too well,
and he felt the rage rip through him. The intense anger began bubbling up as he started walking towards his wife and Callen Whitefox. Although he hadn’t seen him in a decade, it didn't chance that much. The face had the same teasing smile. Blackhawk imagined that was the same look he had given Elizabeth on the first day in Salem. Just the visual of him standing over his wife made him understand how people could kill out of jealousy. Blackhawk was on the verge of doing just that himself.

Elizabeth looked up
at the sound of her husband entering the room, and she immediately knew something was horribly wrong. The pure rage on his face was completely out of place. The anger was directed at the chief of police, and he appeared to be planning on committing murder right there in her office.

“Ethan?” she said softly, bracing herself for whatever was about to explode from her husband. 
Elizabeth felt like she was watching a movie unfold in front of her. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and she was helpless to intervene and save the chief of police from what was about to happen.

Callen Whitefox stood up and turned at the sound of the name, knowing it was all about to go to hell in a hand basket. There was only one
Ethan Blackhawk on this planet. As far as he was concerned if he was anyway related to Elizabeth Blackhawk, he was about to be screwed royally. Maybe he should have had the sense to run when he heard the name after all.

Anger over came sanity as Ethan Blackhawk swung out, punching the man in the face. It was just at the last second he pulled back on some of the anger, as to not kill him in front of his wife. He was going to
have to explain all of this now. This was what he didn’t want her to see when they discussed his past this morning. This was his biggest fear, and it was hovering around the one person in the world he loved most.

“Get away from my wife,
Callen! Stay far away, or I swear to God you’re a dead man!” Ethan Blackhawk’s body vibrated as he stood over his brother, lying on the floor. “I’ll kill you if you get that close to her again. Am I clear?”

Callen Whitefox just nodded
and rubbed his jaw, afraid to incite him further.

The only coherent thought Elizabeth was able to put together as she stood there watching her husband, mouth open, was that Gabe was worried about her causing a problem on the reservation. Here her husband just sucker punched the
reservation chief of police. Her being out of control was the least of their problems right now.

It looked like her husband’s past wasn’t all they had to
worry about now that he just physically assaulted a civilian.

~ Chapter Three ~

If possible
, time may have stood still. Ethan Blackhawk saw red, as he saw the man standing over his wife. Then he heard her laughter and just the interaction between them both brought him back almost two decades into his past. When he recognized Callen Whitefox, it made it that much worse. He’d lived this once before, and he wasn’t letting it happen again. The last time it cost him a woman that he didn’t even love, this time he had so much more to lose. This time he had his heart on the line.

“Good to see you too, Ethan,” muttered Whitefox, as he picked himself off the floor and
wiped the blood from his lips. “I see your temper hasn’t lost any of its edge, since the last time you punched me in the face.”

“Do you both know each other?” Elizabeth went to her husband and
stayed protectively at his side. This wasn’t normal behavior for him. Something had to be very wrong for her husband to actually resort to violence against another human being, especially a police chief from the Reservation. Punching out a civilian could and would get you fired and he knew that.

Once she placed herself at his side, Blackhawk immediately relaxed. Temper slipped away and so did
irrational fear. Blackhawk was sure his wife was going to be pissed; he just punched someone in her office. Instead she came to him and stood with him, trusting him, and having his back despite the rationale behind it. It spoke clearly of the loyalty they shared and their bond. The blind trust meant everything to him in that moment.

“You could say that we’re acquainted,” muttered Whitefox. “I should have known there was no way in hell your last name was Blackhawk, unless he was involved somehow.”

“Elizabeth, let me introduce you to my brother. Callen Whitefox is my half-brother, but he’s been dead to me for about two decades.” So much animosity came out in the words.

He couldn’t have surprised her more if
he tried. She wanted to be mad that they had just brawled in her office, but Ethan wasn’t a violent man, and if anything he was cool under fire. She was the one with a propensity for violence. “I wasn’t aware you even had a brother,” she said softly, as she ran her hand up and down his back reassuringly. When some of the tension began to drain away, she took his hand in hers. Elizabeth gave him the silent signal that it was going to be okay and that they were in this together.

“Yeah, well I didn’t find it mention-worthy.”

Callen Whitefox didn’t know what to say, but the words definitely stung. Yeah, this was going to be ugly. “I should go, because this definitely won’t work,” he finally said, as his eyes never left his brother’s face. He wasn’t sure if Ethan planned on swinging again.

“Gabe’s my boss,
and if he sent you then I have to deal with you. Have a seat, Callen.” Blackhawk wasn’t going to lose his temper again. The moment had passed. In fact, he was starting to feel bad he acted like a teenager again, and that wasn’t something that made him proud. It was his damn past creeping from behind him to haunt his present. All this was over a woman. Granted that woman was his wife, and she was worth the fist fight. The last one they drew blood over wasn’t.

Callen Whitefox took a seat, and didn’t miss how Elizabeth Blackhawk had immediately sided with her husband. She offered him her seat behind her desk, and stood alongside him, almost protectively like a sentinel. 

“Chief Whitefox, do you want some ice for your jaw?” she asked, not using his name. Aware that the only reason her husband reacted was because of her proximity to the other man. If possible she was going to keep her distance, so not to hurt her husband and stir the pot anymore.

“If you don’t mind,
Director Blackhawk,” he answered, also using her title. “Your husband has a wicked right hook,” he muttered, rubbing his jaw. “It didn’t hurt as much when I was eighteen.”

Elizabeth
laid her hand on his shoulder. “Ethan, I’ll be right back.” She rubbed the tense muscle in his neck and then left the room. They were going to have to work this out on their own, if they were going to be working this assignment together. But if the man upset him she wouldn’t mind taking the next shot. It wouldn’t be the first or last time she would knock someone on their ass for her husband.

Blackhawk waited until his wife left the room, and he leaned forward in her desk chair, taking in the man before him. “She’s off limits, Callen. Do I make myself clear? I’ll help you with this assignment, and so will she, but if I even smell inappropriate I’ll kick your ass back to granddad. My wife is just that. Mine
, and I don’t share what I own, and I own this relationship!” He held up his ring finger, showing him the band. He made it very possessive and very proprietary, and Blackhawk didn’t care if his wife heard them. There was no doubt on how he would stand on this. Elizabeth wasn’t going to be a piece of ass his brother could chase and play games with behind his back. She was all his and he didn’t care if it made him sound like a Neanderthal caveman.

Whitefox nodded
and understood. “I'm betting she could handle herself, Ethan, and I get your warning. I won’t even think inappropriate thoughts around her,” he said, hoping he could pull it off or at least fake it. What happened between him and his brother years ago changed his life and ruined it. If he could go back and fix what he did, he would in a heartbeat or he’d let him beat the hell out of him to erase it.

“She isn’t like Kaya Cheek. Elizabeth means everything to me, and while I
chose to walk away from a woman when we were nineteen and eighteen, I won’t now. Let me assure you that I’ll kill for her, whether you’re my blood or not. That’s the woman I love.” He didn’t care if it got him fired. If his brother touched her there would be hell to pay.

“I get it, Ethan.
If it’s any consolation, I’m sorry. I hate what I did to you and to us. I destroyed our relationship for a woman. It was stupid then, and I won’t do it again. I won’t go there again and especially with your wife.”

Blackhawk wanted to believe him. He desperately wanted to believe that the man in front of him would go back to being a brother and not the enemy. He was one of the reasons he didn’t want to come ho
me. He been betrayed by the man before him, and to this day it still bruised his heart. All of it was a reminder of what they once had and shared, and how easily he was betrayed by his own blood.

“If I could take it bac
k I would. I wish I could somehow prove it to you, but I’ll have to just live it and let you see it’s the truth.” So much for finding the future Mrs. Whitefox, and now he needed to fall out of love and fast!

Elizabeth came back in the room,
holding and ice pack and three cups of coffee. It was good to see that the men weren’t fighting and some of the lines around her husband’s mouth had lessened.

“Chief Whitefox, I didn’t know what you liked in your coffee, so I hope cream is fine,” she said, handing him the ice pack, and returning to her husband’s side. “Here Ethan,” she handed him the coffee mug
and compared both men to each other. Now that she knew they were related, she could see it. The same shape of the eyes, the same lips and cheekbones, but other than the tan skin they didn’t look similar to her. Maybe, it was just the fact that no other man would ever compare to Ethan Blackhawk. As far as exotic went, her husband was the one man that drew her attention. Elizabeth believed it was all about his DNA.

“Now, I think I deserve an explanation
, gentlemen,” she drawled, waiting and sitting on the arm of her own chair. “Something tells me that I had a lot to do with what just went down and frankly that doesn’t sit well with me. Men don’t duel over women anymore for a reason.”

“Yes, you do deserve an explanation, Lyzee
.” Blackhawk sat back in the chair, looking straight ahead at his brother. “Right after I was born my dad went out and had an affair with Callen’s mother. It was literally days after my birth. Once my mother found out a few years later, it was the end of the marriage. Since my parents were married I have the Blackhawk name. Callen’s mother never married my father, and he took his mother’s last name. He’s full-blooded American Indian, and I’m half,” and he was perfectly fine with that, less he had to run from.