True Love Lost (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 3)) (39 page)

“I’m only borrowing yours,” she smiled at her friend. “I have ten lab techs downstairs, and all of them are armed. I
’ll be perfectly fine!” She spun on her heel. “I don’t need a damn babysitter!”

Whitefox just stared after her, unsure what to say.

Elizabeth squeezed his hand reassuringly. “Callen this is where you chase after her and apologize and let her hand you your ass back,” she said gently. “Go on, and fix it before we all go out in the field.”

Whitefox kissed her on the cheek and nodded.

As soon as he was gone, she looked over at her husband. “Want to tell me what the little pow wow was about between you and Callen?”

Blackhawk shrugged. “He’s tied up in knots over being in love with you, and I told him that its
fine and I was willing to share your love.”

Elizabeth hugged her husband. There was no doubt how hard that was for him. “You're a very good man, Ethan Blackhawk.”

“Let’s face it. The safest person for him to lose his heart to is you. You won’t stomp on it and hand it back to him.” He told her all about Callen’s childhood and Charlene Whitefox. Just the look of abject horror on her face said it all.

“Oh
God, poor Callen!”

“
Yeah, he had it pretty rough.”

Elizabeth felt her own heart breaking for the man. “I’ll keep his heart intact the best I can,” she said, taking her husband’s hand in hers.

“I hope he’s not in over his head with the doctor.”

Elizabeth nodded
, understanding what he meant. “Family sticks together, and we’ll get him through whatever is coming,” she answered, and led him to the door. “Now, where are the three of us heading first?”

“The d
iner, are you hungry?”

“Always.”

Whitefox ran down the stairs and caught up to the woman. She was moving pretty fast, and he assumed she was furious with him. “Desi, wait!” She spun at his voice and looked up at him.

“I
’m not a child! I’m a full grown woman and you need to remember that. I go where I want, and I do what I want. I don’t think I need you to put an armed guard on me in the lab. The deputy is dead, and I’m safe.” She pointed at him and had him backing up.

Wow, she was pretty pissed. “I just wanted to…”

“Zip it. I know why you wanted to do it. Let me just put this out there Callen, but maybe I don’t like to be bossed around. How would you feel if I bossed you around?” she asked, now on the landing with him, and not far from his body. “Everyone assumes because I’m not an Amazonian warrior like Elizabeth Blackhawk that I’m harmless. I can take care of myself, and I can decide where I go and what I do.” She looked over the top of her glasses at him. She was angry for so many reasons, and the pot picked now to bubble over. Most of it had nothing to do with his bossiness, but how he viewed her as less than Elizabeth.

Before he could speak, she walked up against him and grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him down to her lips and kissed him. Fury and anger came out in the kiss. She kissed him hard, deep and with everything in her body. Pressed against him
and standing between his legs, she invaded his space and owned the kiss. It wasn’t a meek, mild kiss; it was one of frustration, pent up aggression, and sheer lust. Callen let her control it, because he owed it to her. Slowly Desdemona broke away from the kiss and looked up into his eyes.

“I know I’m not Elizabeth, but I’ll
be fine.” Desdemona wasn’t sure what came over her. “Now, if you don’t mind I’ll go autopsy the deputy. See you later,” she said softly, as she made her hasty retreat to dwell over what she just did.

Whitefox didn’t know what to say and wasn’t quite sure what she was alluding
to either or maybe that was his guilt ridden conscience talking. He hoped the truth wasn’t written on his face every time she stared at him.

The three agents rode in the Denali on their way to the diner. They figured it was as good a place to start
questioning possible witnesses. There were lots of people coming and going and maybe they’d get a lead for the assignment. When Callen Whitefox’s phone rang again and he ignored it, both agents looked back at him.

“Who are you dodging?” asked his brother.

“Granddad called again,” he said, shrugging. “I’m not in the mood to have a confrontation regarding the woman I’m sleeping with,” and then he snapped the gum and realized he gave it all away.

“Oh, look Ethan! Callen has taken up chewing blue peppermint gum. That seems familiar to me, and yet I can’t quite place my finger on it,” she teased.

“Well, let’s back track. We hugged and I didn’t smell peppermint did you?”

Whitefox started getting red.

“No. I smelled his woodsy cologne, your spicy cologne, and then soap. Pretty sure none of it was peppermint. Then in came Desdemona, and she was chewing that same gum. Now I guess we need to deduce how that gum went from her to Callen.”

“Maybe it’s magical jumping gum,” snickered Blackhawk.

“Maybe I just wanted a stick of gum,” Whitefox added, and starting to grin at how they were teasing him. “And she shared.”

“
Darlin’ we don’t doubt she shared, but the more likely reason is you kissed her so deep you ended up with her gum in your mouth,” Elizabeth fanned herself. “I do declare that must have been some kiss!” Now she was teasing him unmercifully with her southern belle accent.

Callen yanked on her ponytail and earned a punch in the leg. “Shit that hurt,” he said
, rubbing his thigh.

“You bet it did,” she said
, winking.

“For the record she kisse
d me,” he added, grinning. “But I did learn that kissing technique from someone in this vehicle.”

“Don’t look at me,” said Elizabeth. “You’ve kissed me plenty but you’ve never ended up with my gum.”

Whitefox snickered. “Can I try?” Just the idea caused his heart to pound.

Ethan pulled into the diner and looked up into the mirror. “
If you’re alluding I taught you, I’m pretty sure I’ve never shared gum with you, Cal.”

“Eww! Not you kissing me, you kissing the ladies.”

Elizabeth lifted a brow. “Oh, do tell all, Cal.”

“Callen, y
ou’re going get me killed. You’re just giving her ammunition against both of us. Sit there and stare straight ahead and say nothing,” he said laughing, as he earned a punch in his leg too. “Hey!”

“I get cranky when I’m hungry,” she
retorted, grabbing the files and hopping out of the Denali.

Both men followed laughing. When they hit the door, the humor was gone and back was the hard ass FBI agents on the job.

Elizabeth slid up to the counter and stared at the fat bald man perched behind it. It was the same man that was ass slapping his waitress the other day. Already she disliked him. “Excuse me, can you tell me who owns this place?” she questioned, civilly. Despite what she was feeling, she’d play nice.

“I do little lady. You interested in a job? You’re a little chubby with that baby belly, but you can tote trays just as good as the rest
, I guess.”

Blackhawk went to move forward, but his brother put his hand on his arm. Elizabeth could chew this man up and spit him
out in big meaty pieces and if she didn’t, THEN they’d kill him for insulting her.

Despite his comment he looked up and down her body, lecherously. “Come on back to my office, and we can talk about the job requirements
.” He stood and started heading back.

Elizabeth knew her husband was ready to go shit wild and beat the hell out of the man. “I’ll be fine, split up and start asking the waitresses if they saw the victims.” The man was going to be sorry he called her chubby.

Blackhawk let out a breath. “I hope she rips his balls off,” he muttered under his breath, and then moved his focus to the woman waiting tables. “Let’s grab a seat, order, and then cage in the waitress,” he looked back at the door his wife had gone through, and couldn’t help but worry.              

Elizabeth took the offered seat and took off her jacket.
She looked around at the sparse office and the messy desk and looked back at the bald, fat man. Yeah, it suited him just fine.

A pig in his pen.

“I’m Joe Lemar. I own this place, so ask what you need to ask.” It wasn’t lost on him that she had a really nice set of curves on her and a great rack. She may be pregnant, but he’d still do her, in a heartbeat.

“Have you seen any of these men in your establishment before?”
Elizabeth placed the pictures across the messy desk and waited for him take them all in.

“This one
.” He picked up the picture. “Wilma waited on him. I don’t know much about him, just that.”

Elizabeth picked up the picture of victim three. It was Torrance Delmar, and he’d definitely stopped into the town. “Anyone else you recognize from the pictures?”

“No sugar, no one interesting there, but I have to say,” he looked at her chest and licked his lips. “You interest me a great deal.”

“Trust me,
Mister Lemar, you want to shut that down right now. Because one, you can’t handle me and two, my husband out there will break every bone in your body.” Elizabeth picked up the photos and put them back into the folder. “Thank you for your time, Sir.” She turned and when he slapped her on her ass she sighed. “Oh Mr. Lemar, you’re going to wish you didn’t do that.”

Blackhawk ordered his wife lunch, a big meaty burger with extra bacon and mayo. He figured she was going to be hungry and dead cow always made her very happy. After his brother ordered his lunch and something to take back to the doctor, he pulled out his file and read the name tag on the waitress’s shirt. “Wilma May, can I ask you a few questions?” he smiled his smoothest smile. It was the one that charmed women and got him answers from the opposite sex. Usually he whipped it out whenever his wife wasn’t around. If she caught him, someone would die and that meant paperwork.

“Depends on what you’re asking
darlin’.” She snapped her gum and slid the pencil into her hair. “You two boys police?”

“Yes the FBI, and we’re here trying to find a murder
er. Can you look at these pictures and tell me if you remember seeing any of them in here in the last few months?”

Wilma May looked down at the very
exotic man. Oh, he was delicious looking and his smile was sexy as sin. “For two sexy men, certainly,” she winked at the man with the brown eyes. She’d always been a sucker for a brown-eyed man, although his partner was just as delicious.

“Thank you, Wilma May.”

She studied the pictures closely, and then with a blood red nail pointed to the third picture. “I waited on him, flirted a little too, because he was a fine specimen too,” she paused, “but not as sexy as you handsome,” she tapped Ethan Blackhawk on the cheek “Or your friend here.”

Callen wanted to snicker, but he knew his brother was in the middle of building a rapport with the woman. He was just infinitely glad Elizabeth was busy, or he could picture her dragging the blonde outside and punching her bloody.

“Did he say anything about what he was planning or if he was meeting someone?” Blackhawk kept asking the questions before his wife came back out, or he lost the woman’s interest.

“Hiking
or maybe camping? He ordered a large coffee to keep warm,” she tapped her chin. “Yeah, tipped well, and was really nice. Sometimes you get serious assholes in here that treat you like shit because you’re just a waitress.”

Blackhawk smiled. “Wilma May, I’m betting you see everything, and you don’t miss a thing. That’s a valuable skill
for a waitress or anyone else.”

“I like you sugar,” she said, grinning. She was about to offer her number until there was a horrible crash.

Both FBI agents stood, watching Elizabeth walk around the corner, carrying her jacket. Behind her out hobbled Joe Lemar. He was bent over and covered in something red.

“What the hell?” Wilma May muttered and stepped back to let the woman pass.

“Hi baby,” said Blackhawk. “I see it went about as well as expected.”

Elizabeth kissed him on the cheek and let him pull the chair out for her as she read the woman’s name tag. “Wilma May, can you get Mr. Lemar an ice pack for his groin? Oh and I apologize for the state of his office.”

“What did he do?” asked Blackhawk.

“Well, the groin kick was for slapping me on the
ass and the cherry pie filling,” she shrugged. “That was for calling me chubby. Baby Blackhawk was greatly offended at being referred to as chub.”

Blackhawk was ready to kill the man.

Elizabeth touched his arm, and then stood back up. Glaring over at the hunched over man, she pointed and he backed around the corner and left for cover. Then she sat again.