True Love Lost (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 3)) (7 page)

“I love
them all.”

Elizabeth grinned
, because they were special to her.

“It reminds me of us,” he said, looking over at her. His heart was so full of adoration for
her; it felt like it would burst.

“I didn’t go overboard, did I?” she asked. “Ethan told me to stop and leave it alone. We just wanted to have it be a huge surprise.”

Yeah, it was perfect. “Lyzee, it’s gorgeous,” he answered, his grin said it all.

“I’m glad.”

Callen pulled his sister-in-law against his body and hugged her close. “I love it, and I love you and my brother.”

Elizabeth let him hug her, and she could feel his body filled with emotion.

“I missed you, Callen. Don’t go away again. It was boring without you,” she said, softly. “We missed having you with us.”

“It was the longest four months of my life,” he answered
, truthfully. “I missed having dinner with you and Ethan, and I missed us just watching football on Sundays.”

“Your chair is waiting for you.”

Whitefox kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be sitting in it as soon as we get back from the assignment. I promise if I’m home I’ll never be far from you or Ethan ever again.”

Elizabeth looked up at him. “I was pretty sure you were going to escape for the super bowl,” she said
, grinning.

Whitefox sighed. The time away from them had been
the worst part. All he wanted to do was come home to the two most important people in his life. As soon as he got word he passed qualifications, he packed, picked up his gun and badge and flew the Quantico coop. “If I didn’t have qualifications the next day, I would have been here. I’m not going away again for a long time. In fact, you have to promise if I have to go away, you and Ethan will be right there with me,” he grinned, knowing she couldn’t make that promise. He’d have to travel with his job and he only hoped it wouldn’t be too far from them.

Elizabeth thought about it. “I promise,” she said, knowing that she never broke her promises to the Blackhawk men.

He was touched, knowing she’d do anything to keep that promise to him. Callen was a really lucky man. His family was the center of his life, and now would forever be the one thing he cherished more than anything else. Elizabeth was the reason.

“We should probably head down to the lab. You need to meet the new
Medical Examiner.”

“Let’s go.
” Whitefox dropped his arm over her shoulder. When she easily wrapped her arm around his waist, he just enjoyed being beside his best friend. Outside the door he noticed the name plate. It was the same as the ones outside their doors.  

Callen
J. Whitefox

Director of
Native American affairs

“That’s a pretty awesome title,” he said, running his fingers over the letters.

Elizabeth grinned. “Wait until you see the paycheck attached to it,” she said, laughing. “Well, in the field you’re still a special agent, but in the office you get to be upper management.”

“I can’t wait.” He kissed the top of her head.
His day couldn’t get any better. He was certain of it. “I like that my office is right next to yours.”

“Me too. Ethan wanted you on a different floor.”

That surprised him. “Really? Why?”

Elizabeth snickered. “Because he knows we are going to be raising hell
, and he’s obligated to keep us both out of trouble.”

Callen Whitefox grinned wickedly and then dropped his voice. “I can’t wait.
When do we start working the old man up?”

Elizabeth and Whitefox fist bumped. “
ASAP!”

When she looked at him with her blue eyes, he felt his heart skip.
“So, I get the new ME?” he asked, refocusing on work and not the emotion that was overwhelming him at that moment. All he wanted was to just hold her and kiss her.

“Chris Leonard is out in the field
on an assignment. He went out two days ago and isn't due back until next week. You get to work with Doctor Desdemona Adare,” she said simply.

“What’s she like?” he asked, curiously.
There was something in her voice, and it was barely there, but he knew her well enough to know something was under the surface.

Elizabeth thought about it. A few times she’d had the chance to talk to the woman and try to get and know her. It wasn’t an easy thing. The new
doctor was either super shy or just didn’t like her. Elizabeth didn’t know why there was that underlying tension between them, but she wasn’t anything like Doctor Leonard.

“Well, that’s hard to say.”

Whitefox hit the elevator button. “What’s that mean?”

“I think she’s either afraid of me or doesn’t like me
very much. When Ethan talks to her she seems fine, but when I talk to her I get the impression she wants to get far away from me.”

“Maybe she heard the rumors,” he added laughing
, but then ran his hand up and down her arm reassuringly, sensing the hurt in her voice. “You tend to be balls to the wall with the tech staff.”

“I don’t know, but I do know she’s smart, and her work is perfect. I personally like her, because she’s not the normal ME.”

Callen pictured her in his head. Old woman with lots of wrinkles, because who else would want to do that job all day long. “Not normal? Care to tell me more?” he asked.

Elizabeth laughed. “Nope, I think I need you to meet her and then give me you impression of her yourself.”

“Your wish is my command, Boss,” he said, laughing. “This should be easy.”

“Cal, darlin’ you have no idea!”

Ethan found her at her computer. She was checking files that had been flagged by Chris Leonard. Results were in on the toxicology reports for a few teams and she was busy updating the files. 

When he first met Doctor Adare, he didn’t know what to think of the woman. She was petite and completely gothic. Not in a scary way, but definitely in an unusual way. At first he thought it was a joke. The woman didn’t look over twenty five, and he was having a hard time believing she had almost ten years in as an ME in the private sector. Then she just laughed and pulled out her driver’s license and handed it over. After meeting her, and enjoying having a conversation with her, he told his wife all about it. Unfortunately, Doctor Adare didn’t seem to be as friendly to Elizabeth, and he wasn’t sure why. He’d even gone as far as asking Christina if Doctor Adare was happy in the position. Everyone on the tech team loved her, and
they enjoyed having her around.

Elizabeth could be hard at first, especially on the techs, but to his knowledge she didn’t even bark once at
Doctor Adare. The woman was good at her job, efficient, and one of the smartest people he’d ever met. His only hope was she’d relax around Elizabeth. Not that they were all going out into the field, she was going to have to quickly adjust.

There wasn’t a choice.

“Hey, Doctor!” he called to her. When she swiveled towards him in her chair, he almost laughed at her choice in clothing. Doctor Adare was very unusual. Today she picked black and white striped socks that came to her knees, shoes that had a three inch heel, a black school girl skirt and a sweater with a skull on the front. He wanted to call her Doctor Death, but he didn’t think she’d find it funny or professional.

“H
ey Director Blackhawk. What can I do for you?” she asked, pointing at the other chair. “Something come up?”

Blackhawk took the seat and leaned back. “You doing okay without Chris around?” he asked, breaking the ice first. No point in dropping the field bomb
, until he warmed her up. Not all ME’s liked working out of house and away from all their equipment.

“I’m good
, Director Blackhawk. I’m just cleaning up some paperwork. I finished the last autopsy in holding this morning, and the cadaver is ready to go out for the family. Toxicology has been shipped, and my schedule is clear if you need anything.”

Desdemona was glad to see
him when she turned around and not his wife. Director Blackhawk didn’t intimidate her, and all the techs said he was awesome to work with every day. So far they were right. She liked him and not because he was great to look at, but because he had kind eyes. Her grandmother always told her to go by the eyes. They were the window into the soul and heart. His eyes were almost black, but they were very warm and welcoming.

“That’s funny you should bring it up, but I need to ask a question.”

“Shoot,” she waited, dropping her glasses on the desk.

“How do you feel about going out in the field?” he
inquired, waiting for her reply.

“You mean going out getting the body and coming back here?” She wasn’t quite sure what he was alluding to by ‘field’.

“More like two hours away and working in a small town out of a facility we find there,” he elaborated.

             
Doctor Adare shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter to me, Director Blackhawk.”

He leaned forward. “Good, pack up everything you need to do an autopsy in the field, and get ready to head out. You’re leaving to go to Red River in an hour.”

“Uh, okay. By myself?” That made her nervous.

Blackhawk laughed. “
No, you are going with an agent and tech team. In fact, he should be on his way down shortly. He’s going to escort you there and keep you safe while you do the retrieval and assessment.”

Desdemona Adare relaxed. “Okay then, what do we have?”

“I’ll send you the dossier as soon as Quantico ships it, but it looks like five men, various body parts removed. Looks ritualistic, but we won’t know until we get there.”

“We?”

“Yes, we. You have an agent going with you at first, but you also get Elizabeth and myself as agents in charge arriving after.” Blackhawk watched her whole demeanor change instantly. Something about him or his wife closed her up. “Problem with that?” he asked.

“No Director,” she answered. Well the assignment was going to suck with his wife intimidating the hell out of her. How could this get any worse?

Blackhawk stood. “I hear Elizabeth and the other agent now,” he said, turning.

Desdemona Adare spoke too soon. Not only was she trapped in an assignment with Elizabeth Blackhawk, Ethan Blackhawk, but she also got the sexiest man on the earth
; Callen Whitefox as her escort.

Well shit.
This was going to be the longest field assignment of her life.

Elizabeth and Whitefox exited the elevator together, and his arm was still draped casually over her shoulders. It entertained him how everyone that walked past them looked surprised at the director and the smile on her face. Everyone expected kick ass, and few looked past that to the big softie below the surface.

“I think they all think I went crazy,” she said
, laughing.

“Yeah, I noticed. If they only knew what a pushover you are,” he teased
, and earned an elbow to his ribcage. Immediately her hand returned to the spot on his back that had her initials tattooed. It warmed his heart, and connected them more, as she lovingly ran her hand over the spot.

“Nice, abuse me the first day,” he said
, walking towards Autopsy. “Thank God you're madly in love with me or I’d be screwed.”

“You haven’t seen anything
yet, Cal!” Elizabeth laughed, lowering her arm to his waist as they approached the door. “Remember, I need an assessment of the Doctor, and I’m warning you to not take her for face value. She’s…” she began.

“Different. I got it.”

Whitefox held the door open and they both walked through, and then he came to a stop. It was so fast that Elizabeth looked up at him to see if he was okay. Then she saw the look on his face, and just knew. Different didn’t cover it.

Callen didn’t know what to think. Standing beside his brother was this tiny woman, dressed like some Goth girl gone wild. Part of him wanted to laugh, and part of him had his interest p
iqued. She was certainly different, and that appealed to him immensely. It took him a second to get past the clothes and focus on her face. Her eyes were unusual, just like her appearance. They tipped slightly, giving her an exotic look, and were the most unusual color green. Once he got past that he noticed the hair. Lots and lots of black hair, punctuated with strips of a wild red color that wasn’t found in nature. Her face was clean of almost all makeup, except the red lip color on her lips. She appeared to be so delicate and almost resembled a china doll you’d place on a shelf to keep undamaged.

They had to be kidding,
and she had to be a tech. This couldn’t possibly be the new medical examiner. This woman looked like she needed to be carded when she went into a bar.

Elizabeth pinched him on the back, to get him to stop staring and refocus. “Callen, I’d like to introduce you to Doctor Desdemona Adare,” she said
, pushing him forward as a signal that the woman needed to be greeted.