The Killing Times (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 1)) (52 page)

“We have to find him
and get justice for Sara,” said Christopher. There was such loss in his heart over her death. The woman was like his kid sister.

“We will,”
promised Elizabeth. “I’ll get Sara and her family justice.” Elizabeth led her deputies into the house. There was that little awareness that the killer could be watching them and start taking shots at any moment.

“Now it’s getting personal,
Lyzee,” added Tony.

“He obviously has a scope and rifle; I want you all in vests, under your
clothes. You can lose the uniforms and patrol cars. For now, try and blend in as much as possible. I also don’t want anyone taking any unnecessary chances. Am I clear?”

They all nodded.

“I also don’t want anyone hanging around the outside of our house. Now that he’s gunning for me, he will gladly take shots at you.”

“When he shot at you, he missed,” said Tony.

“He was screwing with her,” said Blackhawk, leaning against the wall. “She insulted his manhood and intelligence, and from here on out, he is going to mess with her until he can get her alone to kill her. Which now means any of you could be next, just to hurt her and throw her off her game. The killer will watch this house to see what she does.”

All thre
e of the deputies stared at her, pissed she made herself the killer’s target.

“What?” she looked at them, knowing what they were thinking. “My name isn’t on the list
, guys. I’m an incidental in this sick twisted mess.”

That was
all it took to make Blackhawk snap.

“Excuse me gentlemen, I need to speak to my
wife
upstairs, NOW!” he snarled angrily, as he emphasized the word ‘
wife
’.

All three deputies jumped at his outburst. It was completely unexpected
and so very unusual for him.

Elizabeth didn’t know what to do with his
anger. He was generally a calm man, but now he was dragging her up the stairs to their room. Once there he pushed her in and slamming the door.

“Hey, watch
it!” she snapped, nearly tripping as he shoved her.

“Of all the insane, hair brained, reckless, dangerous, idiotic things I have ever seen done in all my time in the FBI, you have finally beat it all.
Gabe wasn’t kidding when he said you were a danger to yourself and more reckless than even me.” He paced back and forth, hoping to burn off a little of the anger that was crushing him. “Even I won’t bait a killer with my own life!”

“Ethan…”

“An incidental? Is that what you are, Elizabeth? To who? YOU? Because there’s nothing more important in my life than my wife! What about your deputies? I won’t stand idly by while you paint a bulls-eye on your back, just waiting for some maniac to lose it and take your life.”

“I get it. Y
ou’re mad,” she said.

“MAD?” he practically yelled
as he stalked towards her angrily. “I’m beyond mad. I’m fucking irate! I’m on the verge of being homicidal here. You knew what you were doing, challenging him, and I won’t pretend I’m okay with it. I’ll swallow a great deal in order to be in this relationship and married to you, but I won’t allow my wife to sacrifice her life to a nutjob with a God complex!”

Elizabeth stood there watching him. She had never seen him lose his cool
like this. Maybe Ethan threatened Forbes, but not once had he ever lost it and completely went crazy. Now he was pacing and his body was completely tense, like stone.

“What are you going to do, Ethan? Ship me up north, and hide me out with Mrs. Feinstein?”

“If I have to, yes!” Blackhawk stormed to the door, and opened it.

“This is my job,” she sa
id calmly, looking at his back. Underneath the anger was a rational man, she just had to find him. “We both know he went after Sara to bait me, now he thinks he has, and he’ll come directly for me. You and everyone around me will stay safe. I’m the prize, Ethan. It’s easier to watch one target than ten and you know that.”

He whirled around and stared at her
, with his eyes full of intense anger.

Elizabeth actually took a step back,
as fear welled up in her. Ethan Blackhawk was on the verge of a meltdown, and she just pushed him a little too far.

“I can’t be near you right now
, and for the first time since meeting you, I don’t want to be,” he said angrily, as he slammed the door behind him.

Elizabeth
could actually feel her heart break. His words tore at her and crushed her. She pushed it down deep, unable to deal with it at that moment. When you focused on anything but the main directive, you tripped yourself up. Elizabeth couldn’t allow that to happen. Her focus needed to be on the killer.

S
he wiped her eyes and headed to the door. It was too late to go back and undo what was done, and she knew it. The challenge was already thrown down, and now she needed to follow through, despite what happened between her and Ethan. All she could hope was after it all was all said and done, they were fixable.

Elizabeth ignored
Blackhawk standing with his people as she walked right by him and out into the night. Searching the yard, she found the ME. It wasn’t lost on her that he looked tired, and worn out. “Doc, come on in, and we’ll talk as soon as you finish with Sara.” 

“Give me a few moments, Lyzee,” he said, talking to the FBI techs and making sure ME staff followed the directions to the letter of the law
. The woman in the body bag was not only a friend, but one of them, and she deserved to be treated with the utmost respect.

Elizabeth went back into the house and again, she walked right past Blackhawk,
refusing to look at him. He wanted space, she would give him plenty. She went out onto her patio and looked at her garden. There were plants missing. Big clumps had been yanked out, and she wondered how the hell it happened. The FBI and her team did a number on her home while they were away.

The more she dwelled on it, the more she realized that she
wanted to get the hell out of Salem, and fast. As soon as this was over, she was willing to move anywhere he wanted, and that was the irony of the situation. When it was over he may not want to be anywhere near her. Elizabeth hoped it was just anger. Deep down her fear was he’d stop loving her, because she had a dangerous job and willingly baited a killer. As she stood there, the tech that always followed her husband around like a puppy, came out carrying an FBI vest.

“
Sheriff Blackhawk? Elizabeth?” Christina tapped her arm gently.

“Yes?”
she replied, not even turning around.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry to bother you,”
she began.

Elizabeth turned to face the woman. “What do you need, Christina?”

“Your husband, I mean, Special Agent Blackhawk sent me out here to put this on you.” The woman waited for the fireworks to start exploding.

“Please tell the agent, his wife said, kiss her ass,” she
growled. “On second thought I’ll tell him.” Elizabeth grabbed the Kevlar and stormed towards the house. Inside she tossed it at him in front of his team. The challenge on her face said it all. “Next time Ethan, don’t send a messenger. They tend to get killed in the crossfire.”

Blackhawk heard the gasp from members of his team, and it only fueled his fire. Rarely were his directives questioned, this may have been a first. He pushed it down and swallowed the reply that begged to be released.

Elizabeth waited, staring directly into his eyes. When she saw he wasn’t going to say anything back, she turned on her booted heel and headed as far from him as she could get. It was petty, but she went to her office and slammed the door. He was right. Their first fight was going to be epic, because now the hurt was gone and the anger was in its place.

Elizabeth sat at her desk looking over paperwork when her door opened. The man standing there looked battle worn and exhausted. As he sat in the chair and closed his eyes, a sigh escaped his lips.

“Are you going to be okay, Doc?”

“I don’t know Lyzee. I just feel like I’m losing my edge. All this death, watching friends and teammates die, it’s starting to wear on my old heart.”

Elizabeth walked toward him and finally saw
what he was feeling. His face was wrinkled and there were circles under his eyes. Her heart broke that one day she would be burying him too.

“Do you think you know who it is?”
Doc inquired.

Elizabeth sighed.
“We’re not one hundred percent, but we have a decent lead, but he’s in the wind. He fits the profile, and that’s what we have to go with for now. Twenties to thirties, male and a religious zealot.”

“What do you think?”

“I think whoever it is, is a sick bastard, and I’ll look forward to pulling the trigger myself.”

“Your father once told me, that once you start
thinking of crossing that line then it’s time to get out of the job.”

Elizabeth thought about those words, and could see t
hat she was close to that point. Not just there yet, but she was starting to see her temper take over and the lines beginning to blur. That had happened once before in her past, and Elizabeth managed to start seeing clearly again, but how many times could she find her way back to the right side of justice. Elizabeth buried it back down deep, unwilling to think about it for now.

“I called you the other day
. I heard you went up north, and got married.”

She suddenly felt horrible. She didn’t
even tell him personally, but let him hear it through the rumor mill and that personally hurt her. The pain was evident on his face at being excluded from that important day in her life.

“I did get married, but I went up north to exhume my dad,”
Elizabeth answered, softly. “The marriage wasn’t planned, not on my end. Ethan asked me to marry him, and then it just happened that we eloped.”

He looked surprised. “Why
did you exhume your father?”

“The killer left a note
that he killed my dad too.”

“Charlie was one of the victims?”

“Yes he was, so I had to have him re-examined. He ingested the poison, and it wasn’t heart medicine.”

“I would have gone with you,” he said standing. “I understand that sometimes an ME misses things, but I would have stood beside you so you didn’t have to face it alone.”

“I know you would have, but Ethan was there, and he handled it for me.”

Doc looked at the woman before him. He remembered when she was a little girl with pigtails and scuffed knees.
“Do you love him, Lyzee?”

Elizabeth
didn’t even know where to begin with that. She loved him so much it hurt. Just the idea that they weren’t okay now was distracting and killing her. Elizabeth wanted him by her side, but he didn’t want to see her. “I love him more than anything in my life, Doc,” she replied, honestly.

“Then I
’m very happy for you, my girl. You deserve it, and your father would approve. He would have liked Special Agent Blackhawk very much.”

“I
believe he would have too.”

When he hugged her,
it reminded her of when her dad did the same thing. And the kiss on her forehead brought back memories too. “Do you forgive me for not telling you I was getting married?” she asked softly.

“There’s nothing to forgive, Elizabeth. You’re a grown woman and you’re entitled to run off and marry a complete stranger without me saying anything.”

Elizabeth started laughing. “Thanks Doc.”

He
patted her cheek and winked at her.

“Will you take Sara now?” It was evident that they were both stalling the inevitable.

It was time to transport her friend and co-worker.

“I’ll go back and start the autopsy, but preliminary shows she was dead only two hours, max. She wasn’t rigid and her arms showed no defensive wounds.”

“So she knew her killer.”

“
I say that’s very likely.”

Elizabeth mad
e a mental note to find the car Sara was driving. “I have to go tell her parents and make the visit.” She hated doing this at dawn; the knock on the door for the family of law enforcement was always terrifying. She used to feel the same about her dad, and it ended up her mom went first. Life had a way of screwing with you.

“Be safe dear,” he said, patting her cheek. “I’ll take her back to th
e morgue and start right away. I don’t think I need to tell you that I’m closing the autopsy to anyone that was a friend.” He simply meant her.

Elizabeth mulled it over. “I’m going to be out doing the notify and looking for the car. I can’t make it.” The only reason she didn’t fight him was she screwed him out of a wedding and felt guilty. Well that and she didn’t think she could handle watching Sara being cut open.

“Wait for me Doc, and I’ll walk you out,” Elizabeth went to her closet in the office and pulled out her sheriff pullover and her Kevlar. She noticed that once it was on and the pull over added, it was almost invisible. It was just how she wanted it. The vest could be all that stands between life and her death. “I don’t imagine I can talk you into wearing Kevlar for me, can I?” she said, smiling gently. She grabbed her keys and phone.