True Love Lost (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 3)) (5 page)

Elizabeth LaRue Blackhawk had run him over in Salem, whe
re she had been sheriff, and she continued to do the same thing here too. As co-directors to FBI West, the second biggest FBI hub in the country, she always kept him on his toes and so did the job. When Elizabeth knocked him off his feet, it only took four days and he proposed to her in hopes she’d say yes. When she did, he became the luckiest man alive. Now nine months later they were sitting in his office, sharing a job, expecting their first baby, and having a really good start at life together.

“Now you're staring.”

“I’m thinking about you being pregnant,” he replied, smiling. The baby bump was now prevalent, and his wife was still sexy as sin. In fact, her being pregnant drove him even wilder, if that was possible. Now he had more of a reason to be territorial and possessive. She was carrying his child. Yeah Elizabeth still wore her low ride jeans, gun strapped to her hip, but the new addition he purchased her was personally his favorite thing. Many times he teased her about the t-shirt that said ‘baby on board’, but she always looked mortified and threatened to slowly torture him.

So, he went and got her right where he knew her heart l
ay- the belt buckle. For their anniversary two months ago, he had a belt buckle special ordered, and she wore it pretty much daily. It simply stated the truth.

Momma.

At first when she opened it, he wasn’t sure if she’d ever wear it. His surprise was that she was rarely without it. Well, that and she burst into tears and cried for ten minutes over it. To this day he still wasn’t sure if he did a good job, or the baby hormones took over.

“I am definitely that,” she said
, rubbing her hand over the bump lovingly. Gone were the button down shirts. Now she just wore stretchy ones that accentuated the life growing deep in her body. Fortunately for her and her ravenous appetite, baby Blackhawk was always hungry and she had only gained three pounds so far. With all the burgers she consumed, you’d think she’d be a bus, but she still was the same size. Maybe it was the fact she still forced her husband to run with her. Only he refused to let her do it outside, she might slip. Ethan had purchased them treadmills and they ran side-by-side every morning. It wasn’t the same thing, but she knew her very overprotective husband just wasn’t having it. The control freak had final say.

Elizabeth watched her husband and wondered if he was going to take what
she was going to say next well or lose his cool.

“You have the look, Elizabeth. What’s bugging you?
You went from ‘sex’ to perplexed.”

Elizabeth considered her options.

Blackhawk started to look concerned. “You can tell me anything, Lyzee baby. What’s wrong?”

Honest
y was the best policy, and they lived by that rule in their marriage. “At the last doctor appointment, they told me I’m completely healthy and the baby is doing really well.”

“Yeah, I was there
.” He lifted a brow, something big was coming. Elizabeth looked worried and usually she just said anything she thought, and whatever exploded around her exploded. If she was leading in with the baby, there was the intent to soften him up. Baby Blackhawk was his one big soft spot- well next to his wife.

“I want to go back out in the field one last time before we have
the baby.” There it was said and put out there for him and the universe. What’s the worst he could say?

“No
!”

The only reason
her husband was being a hard ass about it was because Thomas Mason, his crazy half-brother abducted her and tried to kill her and his unborn child. “Ethan, really. I need to do this, because I’ve sat here for four months being patient and a good director. It’s making me freaking insane! I feel like I need to shoot something.”

He fought hard to not laugh. Yeah he could tell she was going stir crazy, only because he was too. “Downstairs is a target room. You can go shoot all the targets you want.”

“Let’s go out one more time. You and me!” Elizabeth Blackhawk wiggled her eyebrows. “The Cowboy and Indian can ride again. Come on, baby. You know you want to,” she drawled, lecherously. “Take your wife out into the field and let her use her mind before the baby sucks all her brains from her head.”

Now he did laugh, but still wasn’
t going to budge. “I tell you what, you forget that idea all together and I’m willing to bribe you with something that will keep you occupied.”

Now she was intrigued. “What kind of bribe?”
Immediately her mind went to sex.

Damn baby hormones.
Damn sexy husband.

“
I’ll make sure you have burgers daily for lunch to start, and I won’t make any comments about the fat and calories.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Nope, I get those now. If you refuse to buy me them, I can skip down to the cafeteria, or make a minion
do the dirty work. As for the fat and calories, you heard the doctor. I can eat whatever I want. Baby Blackhawk is a big boy and he’s sucking up all my food calories. Plus with our demanding jobs and still running, I’m underweight.”

Okay,
Elizabeth was going to play hardball and that meant something bigger than food.  “I’ll forgo the hair tie every day until you have the baby, and I won’t cut my hair until you tell me to do it. So it can be as long as you want.”

“Callen and Wyler long?” Elizabeth had a thing for her brother-in-law
’s hair. She was woman enough to admit it. Often she found herself just playing with it when Callen was near.

“Yep, that’s the deal.”

Oh yeah, that piqued her interest.

Immediately, Elizabeth Blackhawk started fantasizing about her sexy, long-haired, native man with all the tribal art tattooed on his body
and maybe a few braids. 

“
Plus you can run your fingers through it whenever you want, and I won’t look mortified that you’re doing it. You know you like playing with it,” he grinned, salaciously.

“
Even in front of the staff?”

Blackhawk tried to keep a straight face. “Even in front of Christina.”

Elizabeth weighed the options and was about to give her answer when she heard the voice in the lobby. “He’s back!” she said excitedly, jumping off the desk and grabbing her husband’s hand and dragging him to the door.

The tell-tale laughter meant only one thing.

The
Blackhawk three were back together again! 

~ Chapter two ~

Callen Whitefox was home. It had been a long four months in training
, and it had been brutal. The classes, the qualifications, and then of course there was the survival training. Arrogantly he believed he’d have the upper hand, because he was a full blooded Native. Boy had he been wrong. The instructors were ready for him, and ran him through the ringer on a daily basis. For a while he wanted to quit, but he kept telling himself Elizabeth would kick his ass. After all, she survived training and ranked top of her class.

It was a matter of survival
and saving face.

His
.

It was all worth it. He was now hom
e and a full-fledged FBI agent with the shiny gold badge. It matched their badges, and he could now work with the two people he respected and loved most in the world.

Whitefox kissed Ginny on the cheek
, as she hugged him enthusiastically. Nothing had changed; the woman was still the same as when he left. She was effervescent, bubbly, and fond of any man in jeans. Callen Whitefox suspected the ass pat she just gave him wasn’t an accident.

“I missed you
too, Ginny,” he said laughing, as she bounced up and down almost breaking his jaw.

“Callen! Welcome back! You weren’t due in for another day or so,” she
replied, smiling up at him. Callen Whitefox was the second handsomest man in the building. He was only second to his brother. In her opinion it was pretty much a dead heat when it came to hotness. Both men were two levels above scorching hot.

“I hopped an early flight out of Quantico. I had people that I missed terribly,” he said
, and then he just knew she was near. Looking up, Elizabeth Blackhawk and his brother stood in their office doorway and her smile was huge. It definitely welcomed him home.

Elizabeth stood beside her husband,
taking in the man hugging their administrative assistant. There was no doubt she missed him, and she knew that her husband did too. When he came back into Blackhawk’s life and hers, he was immediately added to their circle of family. One they both guarded carefully.

“Elizabeth,
oh my God,” he muttered, walking toward her and pointed at her belly. In four months she went from no belly to baby belly almost overnight.

She laughed and ran at him, launching herself at him and trusting he’d catch her. When he picked her up off the floor and hugged her to his body he definitely was home. During his past with his brother,
he’d betrayed him over a woman. As much as he would always be attracted to his sister-in-law and head over heels in love, he wouldn’t sabotage having them as his family. So, he would love her silently and keep her safe, because she healed their family just by becoming a Blackhawk. It was moments like this he cherished, and felt the heat and want roll through his body.

“I missed you, Lyzee,” he whispered into her hair. She smelled like home and family.
The spicy calming scent gave him a sense of peace and belonging.

Elizabeth’s feet were
finally placed on the floor and she took his face in her hands. “Welcome home, Callen,” and she planted a big wet kiss on his mouth. When she pulled back she took him by the hand and led him over to his brother.

“Callen,
I see you're kissing my wife again,” he said, grinning at his brother.

“Hey, she kissed me first this time. I didn’t initiate it,” and he laughed when she winked up at him. “I missed you Ethan,” he said,
moving towards his brother and embracing him.

Ethan hugged his brother as Elizabeth closed his office door. “I missed you too, Cal. Welcome home
little brother. It wasn’t the same without you.”

Desdemona Adare stood by the coffee machine just off the lobby. She just witnessed the most amazing thing. Well, two of the most amazing things. One was Elizabeth Blackhawk smiling and laughing like a mere mortal. Running at a man that wasn’t her husband and kissing him in front of Ethan Blackhawk
and the staff. The second thing even more amazing than the first was the man himself. Holy shit the sexy radar was off the scale again. The bells were going off and so were the whistles. Maybe it was the sharp angular features that screamed Native American blood, or the delicious form packed into the well-worn jeans that covered his body. But hell yeah, he was hot. He was dressed almost the same as Elizabeth Blackhawk and until that moment, she didn’t appreciate jeans in the workplace. Now she completely understood the lure, and may even start wearing them herself.

She grabbed her coffee and wandered out to Ginny who was on the phone ordering a welcome back cake for the man who just locked himself behind her boss’s door. Desdemona waited, and when Ginny hung up she had to know.

“Spill it. Who was that, Ginny?”

Ginny laughed. “Doctor Adare, that man
was Special Agent Callen Whitefox. He’s just back from Quantico.”

“
Is he here to stay?”

“I sincerely hope so
. He’s our Liaison to the Native American community.” she said. “His office is right next to Elizabeth Blackhawk’s office. Oh, Excuse me,” she said, as the phone rang again.

Desdemona Adare took her coffee and started back down to her lab. She’d been wrong earlier thinking that Ethan Blackhawk was the sexiest thing she’d seen lately. Callen Whitefox now held that prize. Then it occurred to her, he was
just hugging and getting a very friendly kiss from her boss. Well crap, it looks like Elizabeth Blackhawk had laid claim to all the sexy Natives in the office.

Damn it!

Callen Whitefox sat on the couch in his brother’s office. His sister-in-law sat beside him, leaning against him. When he first met her, he wouldn’t have sat this close to her in fear that his brother would have kicked the shit out of him. But now, they had an understanding. There was nothing but love and trust between them. Elizabeth had protected the blossoming relationship between him and his brother, and in the process made herself an indelible mark in his life. She was his best friend in the entire world, even more so than his own brother.

Healing
three generations of Blackhawks and weaving them back together was no easy task. All the Blackhawk men and including himself loved her to death and would take a bullet for her. The three men not married to her had gotten her initials inked on them, just in homage to the woman that fixed the unfixable. Elizabeth was their miracle, and she was treated as such.