The Killing Times (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 1)) (56 page)

Completely
surprised by her public display of affection, he went along for the ride. It was long, slow and so full of lust that he felt his body temperature rise to combustible levels. Blackhawk completely forgot where he was, and if he remembered he might have been mortified. His whole body tensed with need as his wife kissed him senseless.

When Elizabeth broke the kiss, she looked up into his eyes and grinned wickedly. Everything around her had stopped during the
kiss; she didn’t hear, see or feel anything but the man in front of her. Now it all came crashing back. Horns resumed honking, men were whistling from car windows and traffic continued past them.

“Holy
shit Elizabeth!” They hurried off the busy street. “What the hell was that?”

Elizabeth just looked up at him innocently. “That was an assault by a deadly weapon in public
. Get out your handcuffs and book me, Ethan.”

When he just stood there staring
, open mouthed, Elizabeth simply started laughing. “Let’s go back to the office.”

He still didn't reply.

It was a good day when she could throw Ethan Blackhawk off balance.

Way off balance.

                            *   *   *

The killer read the morning paper and there was Sheriff Blackhawk
in all her whore-like glory.

The voice had been so right about her
.

Sh
e was just like the others, and he was justified in taunting her. Now he would get her, and cleanse Salem of her vile sins.

At first there was guilt, but now, there would be no remorse. She was a sinner, and the only way to make a sinner repent was to make them feel the wrath of God.

Tonight, death would claim her husband, and she would understand that God has the final say in who lives and who dies. She was powerless to stop it all. 

Tonight the Indian would be cleansed in blood.

                            *   *   *

Elizabeth’s chest tightened as they entered the morgue. It was a solemn place, and she knew seeing Sara Bishop on the slab would be very difficult. Already the guilt was bubbling up, and she knew she didn’t protect one of her own. Getting through this was going to be very hard, and she expected tears.

What Elizabeth didn’t expect were her deputies waiting for her when she walked in the door. The three of them were sitting on the bench, somber and patiently waiting for their boss to arrive.

“What are you three doing here?”
Elizabeth inquired, still holding her husband’s hand.

“We didn’t want to make you do this alone,” said Tyrell. “
We all want to see her together, as her family.”

Elizabeth understood
and she hugged each one of them, glad to see they had obeyed and were vested up. Leading them to the elevator, she couldn’t help but reminisce that just a week ago, there had been a good memory here as she had been kissed by Blackhawk. Now she was using it to say goodbye to a friend.

Life had so many twists and turns
that it astounded her.

In the morgue,
Elizabeth entered first to find her deputy was resting peacefully on the slab.

Where she thought there’d be tears, instead
it pissed her off. Such a waste of life, hopes, and dreams. Before she even talked to Doc, Elizabeth walked over to the woman who served under her and was her friend.

She would miss her.

Elizabeth took her hand in hers, and made her a promise. “I’ll get him for you, I promise Sara.” The tears filled her eyes, as she brushed one of Sara’s curls from her cheek. “I’m sorry I didn’t keep you safe, I’ll carry this forever,” she whispered to Sara’s deaf ear.

Blackhawk watched his wife, and he knew she was hurting, but he had to let her work through the pain
in her own way. He patiently waited until she returned to his side. “We’ll get him, baby.”

Elizabeth
simply nodded, watching each of her men take a turn saying goodbye. They were a family. Tyrell placed a kiss on Sara’s forehead and whispered something in her ear. Tony held her hand and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles as tears threatening to fall. Then Christopher touched her cheek, saying nothing out loud, but his face speaking louder than words.

She moved towards each man
to offer them support.

“Guys, go home. Crash for a couple hours and get some rest
.” Elizabeth waited for them to look at her.

“I won’t sleep again,” answered Tony.

“I know the feeling,” she hugged the men, watching two of the three leave. “Tony, go home.”

Tony wiped his eyes.
“Don’t end up here, Lyzee,” he said finally.

Elizabeth knew both Tony and her husband were thinking about it and honestly, so was she. “I have no intention of dying.”

Tony hugged her and kissed her on the top of the head. When he whispered in her ear, she nodded.

“It’s okay. Now go home.
” Elizabeth watched him walk away.

Blackhawk moved back to her side.
He wanted to know what the man had said to his wife.

“He wanted to
tell me he was sorry, just in case,” she answered, causing her husband’s body to go tense.

“You aren’t dying.
I won’t let you!” Just the idea made him want to lose his mind. Elizabeth lying on that table shook him to the core and made him want to go on a rampage.

“It’s okay, Ethan. I’ll be okay.”

Blackhawk held onto her tight as he began praying silently in his mind to anyone he could think of to keep her safe. He really wished he listened to his grandfather, back at the reservation. It might have come in handy right about now.

Elizabeth
couldn’t look at her deputy anymore. It was tearing her up inside. “Tell me Doc, did she suffer?”

The older man had watched the entire thing, touched by the love they all felt for each other, and now he wanted to offer Elizabeth Blackhawk a little peace. “No, she took a
strike to the back of the skull. It hemorrhaged, and she never woke up. Her last moments were peaceful.” He was glad for both of the women. “I won’t have tox back, but I honestly believe, he came across her, and made his move. She has no defensive wounds, and she had to have known him, or she would have been wary.”

“No sexual assault?”

“No, she was clean. Except this time, we found wood chips made of pine in her hair.”

“Doc, how long until we get more information back on the trace?”

Doc shrugged. “It’s on its way to Quantico.” Without pausing, he changed the subject. “I saw the paper. It’s a bad thing, Elizabeth.” He used her full name, almost like a father would.

“I’m aware,” she answered, honestly.

“You going to be okay?” Doc asked her, but he was looking at Agent Blackhawk.

“I’m okay.
Ethan is more upset than I am. I’m used to being smeared, but that brings us to this, someone in your office took that pic. Only your techs were in here, and I was where Sara is now,” she pointed.

Blackhawk got that sick feeling again at her words
. He prayed if they had to die, he went first, so he wouldn’t have to come down here and say goodbye. He met her eyes, and she must have understood. She moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and squeezing him reassuringly.

“I’ll look into it, Lyzee,” he
promised. “You look tired. Make your husband take you home, and get some rest. Those are the doctor’s orders.”

Before she could protest, Blackhawk took her hand. “Good idea,” he pulled her along. “I want to look at that
diary, and then I want to look at my wife.”

Elizabeth wanted to think about the victims a little more
. She knew she was missing something, but her husband looked distressed and she opted to comfort him. Work could wait until morning.

The entire way home,
all Elizabeth wanted to do was take the vest off, but Blackhawk was adamant they remain on until they entered their house. Ethan was afraid the killer would be waiting in the trees to pick her off as soon as she opened her car door. Patiently, she waited, giving him that little bit at least. She nearly laughed as he tried to protect her all the way into the house with his own body.

Blackhawk
was very serious and that made it funny. If the killer had a rifle and scope, he’d take head shots, and the vests wouldn’t matter, but she kept that to herself. Ethan Blackhawk was already worked up. No point making him downright out of his mind.

Inside, he locked and bolted the doors and then drew the blinds
all around the house. Closing plantation shutters, Ethan wasn’t willing to take any chances, and he wanted to do everything possible to keep her out of the scope of a rifle. While he was locking down the fortress, she poured them each a glass of wine and carried it to the couch to wait for him.

She began flipping through the
diary of Kathy Cory. It turned out to be one more dead end. It only listed a prospective meet up time with her girlfriends and they were going to smoke and drink. There were no specifics, and all she learned was Kathy Cory liked to party, and she did so frequently. It fit with her theory of women with ‘
loose morals
’.

It made her sad, because t
he young girl was just out enjoying life. No one should die because of that.

Blackhawk checked every window, door
, and corner in the entire house. It was locked down, and he would shoot anything that tried to enter. He wasn’t risking her life. As Ethan went downstairs, Elizabeth was sitting on the arm of the couch facing the patio, as if something was bothering her.

“You look perplexed.”

“I just scanned the diary, and it said she was just going out to hang out with friends and drink and smoke.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep,” she tossed it onto the table and pointed at the vest. “Can we get out of these things now?”

Blackhawk
laughed, as he assisted her in getting free from the vest. In return, she did the same for him. Blackhawk carried them to the front door and dropped them there, so they would be the first thing they grabbed on their way out.

“Hungry baby?” he asked.

“No, morgue diet plan,” she answered, sliding into the couch. “You?”

“Same here, I’m looking forward to a break from the morgue
for a bit.”

“Want to drink lots of wine and make out?” she suggested. When he hopped over the couch with the bottle in his hand she nearly snorted.

Blackhawk winked and pulled her into his lap. “Come here Mrs. Blackhawk, I want to kiss you,” he leered, wiggling his eyebrows lecherously. He also wanted to remove the sadness from her eyes since losing her deputy. His plan was to distract her the entire night.

Elizabeth relaxed into his arms
and noticed the offensive hair tie was back. “Wait, I can’t do this,” she said sitting back up.

“Huh?” Blackhawk looked confused.
“What’s wrong?”

Pulling the tie from his hair,
she whipped it across the room. As he laughed, she began running her fingers through the silky black strands. “Now everything is perfect. You may commence making out,” she whispered, as he bit her lower lip.

It felt wonderful to just hold her in his lap on their couch. The need
for her overwhelmed him, as he deepened the kiss until they were both breathless. “I missed you today,” he said, nibbling on her throat and earlobe. “I also owe you for that assault in the middle of the street.”

“I missed you too,” she said, flicking
open the buttons on his shirt, running her hands lovingly over his raven tattoo. “Feel free to have your way with me, Mr. Blackhawk.”

“
That kiss today was pretty spectacular, Mrs. Blackhawk,” he added, as she moved to straddle his body. “And had we been alone, I would have taken you up on the offer of arresting you.”

Elizabeth leaned into him and whispered into his ear. “You should have told me before we left my office. I would have brought my handcuffs and a prison jumpsuit home. We could have played ‘
interrogate the naughty criminal’
.” She noticed his whole body tensed, and she swore she heard him swallow.

“Very intriguing
Elizabeth,” he whispered back, as his hands started roaming beneath her clothing. “I think we’ll have to investigate that further.” His lips started wandering her throat.

“Oh and Ethan?”

“Yeah baby?”

“When you were in high school,” she paused and bit his earlobe
, because she loved when he moaned for her. “Did you ever want to have sex with a cheerleader?”