True Love Lost (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 3)) (8 page)

Callen
was grateful for the pinch. “Hello, Doctor Adare,” he said, walking forward, his hand out. His eyes flickered up to his brother to see if Elizabeth was indeed serious.

Ethan
shrugged.

Doctor Adare didn’t miss how the man had his arm over the
director’s shoulder as he walked in, and it also wasn’t lost on her that the woman’s arm was around his waist.

Almost like lovers.

It was confusing.

Elizabeth Blackhawk was m
arried, wasn’t she? From everything that she heard from Christina and the tech team, Elizabeth and Ethan Blackhawk were madly in love. She’d seen it herself and yet Elizabeth and Callen Whitefox shared an intimacy that didn’t seem to bother Ethan Blackhawk. He had even been playing absently with a piece of her hair in her ponytail, and she couldn’t believe the badass boss was tolerating it.

She felt like Alice after falling down the rabbit hole.

Nothing was what it seemed. 

Automatically her hand came out, and she accepted his handshake. Doctor Adare had to look up at him. Callen Whitefox was just as tall as
Ethan Blackhawk, and now she felt like a munchkin in Oz. “Hello, Special Agent Whitefox,” she greeted him, and forced a neutral smile onto her face. The minute they shook hands, she felt her whole body flush with warmth. Oh yeah, this field assignment was going to seriously suck.  

Sexy agent plus scary boss and a few corpses. Great.

“It’s nice to meet you, Doctor Adare. Elizabeth has told me a great deal about you,” he said, warmly. The feeling of her hand in his was really nice. She was delicate, just like the china doll she resembled.

Elizabeth lifted an eyebrow and looked at her husband. They passed a look between them that was only theirs to understand. Yeah, it was going to be interesting out in the field.

“Callen, give the doctor about thirty minutes to pack up what she needs, and then meet her at the Denali. You can drive her to her house so she can pick up some clothes and you do the same. You both leave for Red River shortly.” He wasn’t sure either of them was listening to a word he said.

“My clothes are in
the Denali,” he answered, still watching the woman, as he stepped backwards to stand far enough from her. Doctor Adare was a puzzle, and he had questions for his brother and sister-in-law. 

“We’ll need to swing by my house,” Doctor Adare said, softly.

“Pack for cold weather conditions,” added Elizabeth. “Red River gets snow, and from what Gabe emailed me, the bodies are off the beaten path and in the outdoors.” Elizabeth didn’t need her ME getting frost bite in a skirt out in the snow. “There’s FBI gear in the storage room for snow retrieval. Take it with you,” she said, watching them both.

“Yes, Director,” she answered and turned away. “I better get packing,” she answered nonchalantly, despite how nervous she was inside.

“I’ll see you down at the Denali, Doctor,” Whitefox said, heading for the door, pulling Elizabeth back against his body with his arm over her shoulders.

“I’ll be ready for you, Agent,” she
replied, knowing that was nothing but a load of bull shit. Nothing in the world was going to prepare her for that man and what was coming, she could just feel it. 

Red River Sherriff’s Station

James Duffy hung up the phone and looked at the Deputies standing in his room. Right now one of them was stationed out by the find, and the other two were in his office. They had followed procedure for the situation and called into Quantico for help. Their county didn’t have an ME or a processing lab, and with five dead bodies they were going to need all the help they could get.

“That was Gabriel Rothschild out of Quantico. They’re on their way,” he said. “They want us to keep the site secured and just keep it as quiet as possible, so the killer doesn’t come back and try to move the corpses.”

“Great, how many feds are they sending,” asked Deputy Bobby Lee Tills. Feds were nothing but trouble
, and he didn’t like how they came in and played God.

“I was told the first wave was going to be the ME, a Doctor Adare, and a Special Agent Callen Whitefox,” he answered, reading their names off the paper he scribbled them on.

“Great another Indian to deal with,” he muttered, disgustedly.

Sheriff James Duffy looked up fast. “Bobby Lee, I mean it when I sa
id watch your mouth. Not only around the FBI but also Julian, and if you can’t seem to handle that then you’ll be off duty until this is all over. I don’t plan on having you insult the FBI. There’s nothing wrong with Indians,” and he meant it.

Bobby Lee Tills was a good deputy, but he was a prejudice asshole at times. The last thing he needed was to have the man piss off the FBI and make the situation worse, and then there was his own Deputy Julian Littlemoon.
He respected the man, and he wasn’t going to have a war brewing in his station.

Bobby Lee stared at his boss, he might have to shut his mouth, but he didn’t have to like the idea of working with the
Indian FBI man.

“They should be here by this afternoon, and I need you to cooperate
.” Sheriff Duffy pointed specifically at Bobby Lee, and not the other deputy. “Bobby Lee, I want you to head out to the site and relieve Julian off his shift.”

“Fine,” he said
, dropping his hat on his head and leaving the office.

“This is going to be a mess,” he said to the remaining deputy. “
I certainly hope that Special Agent Callen Whitefox has really thick skin. If not, he might be bailing on this assignment before he even gets started.”

Callen Whitefox leaned against the Denali and watched the woman cross the parking garage. She carried a field kit and a tote bag, and wasn’t smiling at all. It was like this was going to be torture, and he didn’t understand why. At first the three of them thought she was chilly because of Elizabeth Blackhawk, but she still had the same look on her face, and Elizabeth was nowhere to be found. Despite her iciness, there was something appealing behind the craziness of her apparel. He was looking forward to this assignment even if she wasn’t. Being trapped in a car for three hours, he at least hoped she’d talk a little and maybe he could get to the bottom of the issue towards half of the Blackhawks.

“Let me get that for you, Doctor Adare.” He took the bag and kit and placed them on the back seat of the Denali.

“Thanks, Special Agent Whitefox,” she answered, hopping up into the passenger seat. “I talked to Christina; they’re heading out in an hour or so. They just need to load up the trucks and get the supplies we’ll need for a night retrieval.”

“Thanks,” he said
, politely. “Want to input your home address into the GPS? We can swing by your house and you can grab some things, and then be on our way.”

“Okay,” she
answered, doing what he asked.

“Elizabeth told me to make sure you brought weather appropriate gear, so I pulled a parka and boots for you,” he added. “They’re in the cargo.”

Doctor Adare tensed. “Thank you, Agent,” she said finally. It never occurred to her that maybe her boss disliked her attire on the job. Maybe that was her hint on the point of contention between them.

Whitefox pulled out of the garage. He could feel the tension.

“It’s going to be great working with you Doctor Adare,” he said, amicably. His brother had pulled him aside and asked him to break the ice before they arrived. Both men suspected the issue was with Elizabeth, and they needed to head that off before she arrived in the field.

“Thank you, Agent Whitefox.”

He needed a new approach, or they were going to polite this to death. “You can call me Callen,” he offered and noticed she relaxed slightly. “Since we’ll be working together on this. Unless you aren’t comfortable with using my first name.”

Doctor Adare thought about it. “Okay, Callen.” There was no doubt that the he could hear the pounding in her chest. “You can call me Desdemona.”

Callen Whitefox grinned at her. “Othello?”

He caught her off guard
, and he earned a smile. “Yes, as a matter of fact.”

“I think it’s a pretty name,” he offered
, trying to get her to relax. He noticed they were heading towards his brother’s house.

“My mom
loved Shakespeare,” she added. “Most people don’t know it’s from that play, but think it’s some Goth-y name I made up.”

“I not only know it’s from
‘Othello’, but I also know she was his traitorous wife who broke his heart.” He grinned at her when she relaxed completely. “It’s one of my all-time favorites.” Apparently, literature was a safe topic for future reference.

“I’m impressed, Callen.”

Part of him didn’t want to push her on the problem at hand, but it was time to get to the bottom of the reason she was so tense. “You’re going to have to forgive me for asking this, Desdemona, but what seems to be the problem between you and Director Blackhawk,” he asked, and tried to watch her face. Immediately, the shuttered look was back, and Desdemona Adare was hiding again.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she answered. “I have the utmost respect for the
director.”

“Well, it can’t be that we’re
Native, because you don’t seem to have a problem with Ethan, and you were just smiling at me. Then there’s the fact that Elizabeth isn't of our heritage. What is it about Elizabeth that has you this stressed out?” he asked evenly, trying to inflect calm into his voice to ease her tension.

Desdemona was surprised that in five minutes he’d managed to read her so successfully. She licked her lips as they pulled into the development
where she recently purchased her home.

“If we’re going to be partners in the
field, we need to have trust. I can’t work without it,” he bluffed, pushing her for an answer. If she refused, she refused. There wasn’t anything he could do about it.

“She makes me nervous.” Finally
, she just spilled it. He was right, they were going to be partners for this assignment, and he seemed like a decent guy, even though he was rolling right over her and taking control.

“Why?”

“The tech staff said she’s tough, ballsy, and she can kick anyone’s ass,” she added. “And she just makes me anxious.” It was hard to believe she trusted him with this, and obviously she was an idiot. The man was just cuddling up with Elizabeth Blackhawk on the way down to her lab, and they had to have some sort of personal relationship.

“I’ve worked with her when I was Police Chief of the Reservation, and I’ll be honest with you, Desdemona. She’s no-nonsense when it comes to the job
, but you shouldn’t believe everything you hear.”

“Great,” she muttered.
Which part of the ‘everything’ should she believe then?

“Elizabeth is really great, but you should just relax and not be so stressed. She can smell fear a mile away,” he laughed, trying to get her to relax
, as he parked in front of her house.

“You sound like an expert on her,” she added, skeptically. “I think I just need to keep my distance from her
, and then everything will work out better for both of us.”

“I am an expert on her,” he paused. “Elizabeth is my sister-in-law, and Ethan’s my brother. As for keeping your distance from her, that’s going to be almost impossible,” he added
, grinning. Now he was entertained.

Well that explained the kiss and Ethan Blackhawk not minding. Now that she thought about it, there was a similarity
between the men. Something in her relaxed marginally with this new found knowledge. “Why can’t I keep my distance,” she asked. “Is it because of the assignment?”

He hopped out of the Denali and looked over at her. “Well, you can try, but you see that big house right behind yours? The one with the big white fence you can’t see over that surrounds the property?”

She looked towards the general location.

“The really big stone one,” he added.

“Yeah, I know what one you mean.” And she did. She stared at it from her bedroom window every night before she closed the blinds on the window.

“I’m assuming you haven’t met your new neighbors,” he added
, trying to not break into laughter, but the entire thing was seriously funny.

“No why?”

“Ethan and Elizabeth Blackhawk own the house right behind you.”

Desdemona felt sick to her stomach.

“Welcome to the neighborhood.” Now he did start to laugh.

Aw hell
.

No double hell
.