Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (40 page)

“You don’t have anything to say?” asked
Blackhawk. The tension was thick in the vehicle. Granted, most was coming off of him in waves, but some was definitely from his brother.

“
Oh, I have plenty to say about this little fight between you and your pregnant wife. I’m just not opening my mouth about it.”

“You disagree with how heavy handed I was?” he asked, staring over at his
him.

Callen Whitefox looked over at h
is brother. “You want the truth without any recriminations?”

“If I didn’t want the truth I wouldn’t ask for it, Callen.”

Whitefox weighed his words carefully. “I think what you just did was pretty shitty. In fact, if you were my husband I’d divorce you and leave your ass. You just made her feel like she’s an invalid, and she has no say in her own life. If she isn’t thinking twice about a family with you, you’ll be lucky.”

“You don’t understand.” It was all he could come up with in his defense, but already he was beginning to feel horrible.
Rational Ethan was beating back the anger and coming to the surface.

“I wasn’t privy to what you said to her in private, but from the look on her face as she left the office, I’m betting you were over the edge.”
Whitefox debated on whether or not to tell him about earlier this morning. “Today, when we went out, remember how you told me to give her a candy bar, because she needed to eat something?”

“Yeah.”

“I went in and she was sobbing.” He looked over at his brother. “She ran out of my house today, knowing you were in danger, and not once did she think twice. She pulled you out of your car, and saved your life, Ethan.”

“That’s why she can’t be out wandering the streets.
Why is this so hard for anyone to see but me?”

“Yeah, you keep thinking that way. Let me know how divorce feels. It’s a good thing
granddad, and I have spare rooms, because she’ll be keeping the house and your car in the settlement.”

“A divorce?
” The idea that she’d leave him terrified him.

“What isn’t fair is she was scared shitless today, and made me promise that I’d keep you safe
. Not once, did she demand you stay locked inside. She was so worried about you that she sat in her office crying. Elizabeth doesn’t seem like the
‘bawl in the workplace’
kind of woman.”

“She isn’t.” He didn’t know she was so upset she’d been crying over him
and carried it alone.

“She could have heavy handed you equally,
and made you feel bad for going out into the field wearing a target on your back, but she didn’t. I’m betting she kept it to herself because she didn’t want you to divide your focus. I guess having a fight with you before you went out to risk your life seemed counterproductive to her. Elizabeth was probably worried you’d be so upset over a fight you may not see someone trying to kill you.”

Blackhawk didn’t say a word.

“I hope for your sake the killer isn't after her, because she’s upset now, and I doubt she’s thinking about the assignment.”

His stomach knotted as he even thought that he just made her weaker and
placed her in more danger.

“Then she just got into the elevator, crying. You’ve made your pregnant wife cry twice in one day. Congrats, you have just become Wyler
Blackhawk. First you start forgetting her feelings matter, and then you start bossing her around. Sound familiar, Dad?”

That scared him senseless. Tha
t was his biggest fear in life. That he’d be like his father, or to let his wife see him as that kind of man. There was no doubt that it lived within him, but keeping it hidden was a priority.

Losing her would kill him.

“You bullied a pregnant woman and ordered her around, when she isn’t your underling. I bet she’s pretty upset since you’re partners. Good thing you have her back,” he said sarcastically. “You just showed her that it’s okay for her to trust you to come back alive, but you don’t have to play by the same rules.”

“You don’t get it!
I’m scared she’ll die.”

“Well, she wasn’t the one shot at today, so imagine how she feels right now. There’s an old Indian saying, ‘you use your hands to push so hard, and you lose your grip on what you value most’. You just pushed pretty damn hard, Ethan. I know I’m not
married, but if she was my wife I’d keep her close. That pathetic drive by you just did was pretty cold, Ethan. That’s always a bad sign that a marriage isn't going to last.”

“I was a pretty big asshole.”

“Oh yeah you were.”

Blackhawk sighed, and turned the Denali around. It looked like he still had a lot to learn from his younger brother. Who would have thought?

Elizabeth got changed, picked up her phone and dialed Timothy. “Granddad, can I come see you?” She only hoped he wouldn’t tell her no. Tonight she didn’t want to be alone.

“Of course you can
, sweetheart. I was going to make dinner; will you stay and eat with me tonight, and keep an old man company?”

She tried to not sniffle. “I’d like that
, and I’ll bring dessert for us.”

“I’ll see you in a little bit, Elizabeth.” Something in her voice made him worry
, and he suspected why she sounded upset.

She grabbed her purse and gun, set the alarm
, and walked out of her house to the Denali. There was no way she was leaving her husband a note. Going one step further she turned off the ringer on her phone. If he wasn’t going to treat her like a wife and partner, she wasn’t going to act like one.

First stop
, she wanted to find something for dessert, and then she wanted flowers. It seemed appropriate to bring her husband’s mother some, as he had done for hers in Salem. As she pulled out, she didn’t feel the eyes watching her. Maybe had she been focused, she would have seen him and would have known that she had almost become a victim herself that night.

                            *    *    *

The killer was going to make his move. His plan was to knock on her door and abduct the FBI agent. He wasn’t going to be able to drug her, but knocking her out and taking her would be an easy thing. Unfortunately, she hadn’t stayed put long enough for him to plan out his next move. He’d followed her and her husband in separate vehicles, and watched him pull away as he parked down the street from their house. Ten more minutes and he was going to make his move, but she slipped away. Now he would have to re-plan it all, and find a better time to abduct her.

In his rearview mirror he saw the second Denali pulling back towards the house, and he was grateful he had waited. He would have been caught if he had made his move. The spirits were leading him tonight, and he had nothing to worry about, they would give him the sign that he was doing the right thing. It was a matter of watching and waiting.

He had plenty of time.

More time than the raven and fox.

                                 *    *     *

Ethan Blackhawk panicked when he saw the Denali gone from the front of his house. She had just been there. Maybe fifteen minutes had passed since he drove
by, leaving her. “Where could she have gone?”

H
e was starting to panic at the idea she was out there alone. Then she had told him she was going to do it. He was so hell bent on forcing his will on her, he didn’t even register when she told him she would go right back out.

Whitefox didn’t say anything.
‘I told you so’
seemed so inappropriate at that moment, when his brother was genuinely panicked.

“This is my biggest fear,” he said to his brother, as he parked the Denali and rushed into his house
, hoping she left a note.

Just the look on his face when h
e emerged said it all. No note and no sign of Elizabeth.

“We have to find her. If you were a pregnant, angry woman where would you
go?”

“I have no idea,” his brother answered, not really sure where Elizabeth would
be. “If she told you she was going out in the field, then chances are…” He let it go at that.

Now Ethan Blackhawk was beyond panicked and into complete and total terror. He pulled out his cell phone and started tracking his wife.

~ Chapter Twelve ~

Saturday late afternoon

Elizabeth pulled into Timothy Blackhawk’s driveway and picked up her cell phone. It appeared that her husband had figured out she wasn’t at home. He was calling nonstop. Dropping the phone into her purse, she grabbed the cake that was for dessert. It was carrot cake. Her least favorite, but guilt overwhelmed her when she thought to buy chocolate. She was supposed to be eating healthier. As she approached the door, the old man opened it for her, and offered her his hand.

“What’s wrong, Elizabeth?” he asked, softly. It was obvious that the woman was upset. Just the look on her face said it all. “What has my boy done
to upset you this badly?”

The flood of tears started again, and she couldn’t help herself. Elizabeth didn’t know if it was because of the pregnancy, or the fight she just had with her husband. All she did know was she needed some time away and wanted to think. 

“Come in,” he said, closing the door, and putting his arm around her shoulder. He had heard the tears in her voice when she called, and he knew she was going to be emotional. There was no doubt it was a long day for her.

“Than
k you for letting me come here,” she replied, sniffling. “I didn’t want to sit at home alone and think.”

“Want to talk about it?” H
e sat beside her, and let her lean against him, as he protectively pulled her under his arm. “You seem to have an aura filled with bad energy tonight my little raven.”

“Ethan.” It was all she could get out before the tears started again, making it hard for her to catch her breath.

“Tell me about it from the start.”

Elizabeth started with how he almost got killed, and the finished with how he told her she couldn’t go and do her job, treating her like she had no choice in the matter. She was hurt at how heavy handed he had been. “I’m an FBI agent. I can take care of myself pretty well, and all I feel like now is just a
means of reproduction. I stopped being Elizabeth just because I’m having a child with him. It’s like he thinks I don’t care that I’m pregnant. Of course I’m worried and scared! I just don’t have the luxury of sitting at my desk crying about it while someone’s after my husband.”

“Oh
Elizabeth, my little raven. You are so much more than just a child bearer. Even if that was all you were, it is the most important job in the world. The spirits gave woman the duty to procreate, because she was the only one strong enough to carry the burden of loving a child her entire life. Man was passed over for the duty; we don’t have the heart, or spirit of a mother’s love.”

Elizabeth took the tissue he offered her, and watched him as he walked across the room to a bowl. Inside were pretty glass stones. He returned and sat beside her, taking hold of her hand.

“When Ethan’s mother found she was sick, and there was no cure left to help her I gave her this stone. She used to hold it, and worry it with her thumb. You can tell that she had many worries.” Timothy Blackhawk placed it gently in the palm of her hand.

“At this rate I’ll wear it right away,” she sniffled and started rubbing the blue stone. It was the color of her eyes.

“Then I’ll give you another one, and you can wear it away too. Ethan found most of them at the old quarry behind the reservation land. When he was a boy he liked to collect them, and believed they held magic inside them.”

Elizabeth gave him a kiss on his cheek, and laid her head on his shoulder. “Thank you,
Granddad, you don’t know how much you’ve cheered me up.”

“Then what would you like to do, child? Eat
or have cake?”

“If I ate cake before dinner, Ethan would be upset,” she answered
automatically. “He wants me to eat healthier and already thinks I don’t care about the baby.” Elizabeth sniffled and lovingly placed her hand over her stomach. “So no cake for us.”

Timothy was going to sit his boy down
, and he was going to give him one hell of a lecture when he got his hands on him. Now he had her worried about eating cake and not dinner first.

“I’d like to go see Ethan’s mother. I have flowers in the car for her grave. I think I’d like to talk to the woman who worried this stone before me.”

Timothy Blackhawk’s heart was touched by the woman before him. She listened, she understood, and she was full of life. He knew that despite this bump in the road, they’d fix this once his grandson figured out the fine line between being overbearing and protective. He stood from the couch and offered her his hand. “You drive and I’ll point,” he said, walking to the door of his home.  “Maybe you can get Ethan to visit her as well one day. When he is ready.”