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

by Kelley, Morgan

  Tills looked nervous.

  “When he’s patched up, Sheriff Duffy, he’s being transported back to FBI West and charged with felony assault with a weapon, because he’s a smart ass and likes making comments, I’m tossing in felonious stalking and lying in wait for the women.”

  “You can’t do that!” objected Tills.

  Blackhawk was seething and feeling homicidal. “You could have hurt my wife and child! You’re lucky I’m taking you in at all!”

  “Get him out of here,” motioned the sheriff. “Quick, before we have a homicide on our hands.”

  Immediately, Ethan’s attention was on his wife and the baby growing in her belly. Gently he stroked his child as he gazed into her eyes, seeking the truth. “You didn’t get hit in the stomach did you baby?” he asked his wife, concern overwhelming him. “I’ll kill him if he even touched our child.” And he meant every word of it.

  “No Ethan, Baby Blackhawk is completely safe,” she said wrapping her arms around his neck and nuzzling his cheek. He was vibrating with anger, and she just wanted to alleviate some of the tension. “It’s okay, Ethan,” she whispered in his ear, until his body relaxed marginally.

  “Can we get out of here for a while,” whispered Desdemona. “I think I need to just get out of here and regain my bearings. I feel really unsteady,” she said, softly.

  Elizabeth looked over, worried about her friend. She was pale and shaky.

  “Come on,” answered Whitefox, as he bundled her into her coat. “How about we go get you some tea?”

  “I think I need a bourbon.”

  Ethan Blackhawk helped his wife into her parka. “When I get back, you better have him ready for transport, because if not, I will arrest you for interfering with a federal agent’s duty in apprehending a criminal.” He wasn’t screwing around. This was way past crossing a line.

  “Can we talk this through Agent?” he asked, hoping to keep his deputy from going to federal prison. “Go get lunch. There’s a diner down the road. ‘Cup of Joe’, they serve alcohol too. I’ll meet you in my office. We can all calm down and talk this out rationally.”

  Blackhawk was already calming down now that he knew both women were safe. “We’ll be back in two hours, Sheriff.” He was back in control and in director mode.

  James Duffy nodded, and walked out of the room frustrated as hell, wondering how he was going to fix this.

  Now he had even more of a mess to contend with in town. Two FBI agents ready to beat the hell out of his deputy, a wrecked basement, a killer on a rampage, and a brewing migraine. Today was a really bad day to be sheriff of Red River. Maybe if he was lucky, the mayor would let him resign.

  Yeah, probably not. Who’d want to take over this mess? Nobody in their right mind would want to deal with this hassle.

  Apparently, he was crazy.

  In the Denali, no one spoke.

  Both men were a frazzled mess over what could have happened if Elizabeth wasn’t really good at protecting herself and those around her.

  Elizabeth sat beside her husband and was still holding his hand, reassuringly. What she really wanted to do was roll her shoulder, because it hurt like a bitch. The last face shot she gave Bobby Lee Tills cost her. Now there was an ache beginning in the joint, and moving down her arm. Elizabeth hoped he didn’t think to ask about it or Ethan Blackhawk might lose his damn mind.

  Desdemona sat practically in Callen Whitefox’s lap, as he held her close and stroked her hair. Being close to him was cathartic and maddening at the same time now that the adrenaline was dissipating.

  Finally, Ethan Blackhawk let out a deep breath. “I’m afraid to ask because it’s going to get me angry again, but I guess I’m obligated to request the details. What happened?”

  “I know that sigh. That’s the ‘Elizabeth can’t I leave you alone for an hour’ sigh. I want to go on the record right now and say in my defense, that I was sitting on the counter reading a tech report. I didn’t leave the building, I didn’t provoke a stranger, and I didn’t even think anything was going to happen. Desdemona was finishing an autopsy. We were just working and minding our own damn business.”

  “And?”

  Desdemona continued. “I just finished the fourth autopsy. My neck was killing me from staring down for five hours straight, and I wasn’t paying attention. I pushed the cart into the cooler, and there he was. He came out at me swinging that knife. There was no way we could know it wasn’t real.”

  “And then?”

  “Your wife jumped in front of me to protect me, and beat him up.”

  Elizabeth snickered until her husband looked over at her and lifted an eyebrow in displeasure. She knew what he was thinking. His face said it clearly.

  A pregnant woman should have a little more common sense.

  “You should have shot him.”

  Elizabeth stared at her husband. “He was wielding a foot long knife, and Desdemona was blocking the way. I’m an excellent shot Ethan, but even I can make a mistake. What if I hit her?”

  Whitefox pulled her closer. Just the idea made him sick to his stomach. He cradled her cheek with the palm of his hand and offered her comfort. Then he felt sicker that Elizabeth risked her own life.

  “Okay, so you couldn’t shoot him. I’ll buy that,” said Blackhawk, watching his brother in the rearview mirror. “Please continue Desdemona.”

  Doctor Adare licked her bottom lip as she tried to focus. “Elizabeth ran at him and knocked him away from me, and she had all his focus from there on out. She’s pretty fast for a pregnant woman.”

  “Thank you.”

  Blackhawk looked over at his wife and gave her the look.

  “I was doing my job.” And keeping her promise to Callen, but Ethan didn’t need that piece of information.

  “When he went at her, she booted him in the gut, and that’s when he clipped her in the face, but it was completely a lucky shot.”

  “Yeah it was,” she mumbled.

  “Elizabeth countered with this super painful looking thing with her elbow to his throat, punched him in the face-twice, and then I think when he still wouldn’t go down she kicked him in the groin.” Desdemona was now starting to laugh. It was that laughter you got when your adrenaline finally stopped and you came down off the fear high.

  Elizabeth cracked her knuckles and tried to not snicker. “What?” she asked innocently, when her husband stared at her again.

  “I don’t think the deputy expected her to have cowboy boots on, and the shot to the groin was the one that took him to the floor.”

  Both men cringed. A family jewel shot was painful, but one with cowboy boots on had to be doubly wicked.

  “Then,” Desdemona continued, “on his way down he smacked his head off the counter, and she stomped on his solar plexus. But I’m rather sure the groin shot was the end of it all, but getting the wind knocked out of him twice was probably to prove a point.”

  Blackhawk ran his hands through his hair, not sure if he should be laughing or yanking it all out.

  “That’s when he started crying and begging.”

  Now both women were snickering. “He wept like a baby,” added Elizabeth. “It was very gratifying.”

  “Today I earned my first gray hair,” commented her husband. “You and Desdemona aren’t allowed to play together anymore.”

  “Hey!” interjected Elizabeth. “I was just doing my job. Nutjob, knife and damsel in distress.”

  “Callen and I managed to work alone in a room and no one called ambulances or for help once. In fact, we even managed to safely exit the building to get lunch. Again, you two are not playing together alone anymore.”

  Whitefox laughed. “In theory you’d think that plan was going to work, but there’s going to be a huge problem with keeping them apart, Ethan,” he said to his brother.

  He looked up in the mirror confused.

  “Know the house right behind yours that you can see from your bedroom?”

  Blackhawk shrugged. “Yeah, wh
at about it?”

  Whitefox pointed at the woman leaning against him.

  “Hi neighbor!” she said brightly, hoping they wouldn’t be disappointed.

  Elizabeth turned and grinned at her new friend. “Nice,” she smiled, offering her friend a fist bump. “I have an accomplice next door.”

  Desdemona accepted it, laughing and relaxing.

  “Great and here I always thought home was the safe place where nothing can happen.” Blackhawk started laughing. How could he not?

  “Spiders and flies,” she said, winking at her friend.

  Both women burst into laughter at their private joke, and the look on Ethan and Callen’s faces.

  Both men were pretty sure the women had lost their minds.

  Sheriff James Duffy sat in his office with one bitch of a headache. There were five dead men, a deputy that tried to assault two women, and two FBI agents that were on the warpath.

  Literally.

  When his phone rang, he seriously contemplated not answering it, but then duty won out and he figured it couldn’t possibly get any worse.

  Then he realized how wrong he’d been. It went from bad to absolutely horrible in the matter of minutes.

  It was the hospital. His deputy had told them he needed to pee and escaped out a window. No one thought to monitor a deputy, because he was the law.

  He had to be asleep, and at any moment he was going to wake up and find out that this had all been a big nightmare.

  Duffy rattled around in his desk until he found the bottle of pills. As he popped two pills to dull the ache in his brain, he tried to mentally prepare himself to tell the FBI agents that the man they wanted arrested was gone.

  The shit was going to hit the fan.

  That should go over real well. He was picturing Ethan Blackhawk losing his damn mind. Now he needed to do something proactive to counter act the hospital’s stupidity.

  “Sheila,” he bellowed.

  The woman came running at the tone of his voice. It wasn’t like him to raise his voice. Sheriff Duffy was pretty laid back. “Yeah, Jimmy?” she was frazzled over what had gone on at the station. She was pretty sure the women deserved the scare, and they were just bullying a small town deputy.

  “Call in Julian Littlemoon. I have a special assignment for him,” he said, swallowing two more pills. “Tell him it’s going to involve tracking and to dress warm.”

  “Yes Boss,” she said, backing out of the room.

  Good. Now if Julian did what he did best it might appease two angry FBI agents. If not, he might luck out and Blackhawk wouldn’t kick the shit out of him in lieu of his deputy.

  Although his wife was the wild card and just might.

  Callen was stressed. The text message he received from Desdemona made everything in him go stone cold. Now that she was beside him and was safe, he felt a little better, but he could still see she was nervous and that disturbed him. He was trying to comfort her the best he could, but he was trying to keep from crossing the invisible line. They weren’t a couple, and he didn’t know how she’d react if he acted like they were.

  Something in him warmed at the thought. Yeah, he wouldn’t mind being a couple with her. Desdemona Adare would be an adventure. Callen thought it through, and Doctor Adare could be a good partner through life. Next to Elizabeth, she was a sound choice.

  “Still want that bourbon?” he asked, running his hand up and down her back, reassuringly.

  Desdemona was trying to relax, but the man beside her was making her completely insane, and running his fingertips up and down the most sensitive part of her back. Callen Whitefox was giving her the mother of all hot flashes. She was flushing red, she was sure of it. “No, no bourbon. Thank you,” she answered finally. That’s all she needed to do. Get buzzed and do something incredibly stupid like jumping the man and kissing him until she got it out of her system.

  Crap, more heat crept up her body.

  “Let’s order lunch,” suggested Blackhawk, as he waved to a waitress and waited for her to meander on over.

  “Yeah sugar,” she said, snapping her gum and smiling at him while she fluffed her bleached blonde hair.

  “We’re ready to order.”

  “Okay, whatcha gonna have handsome?” she inquired, winking at him. “There’s waitress on the menu today if you’re interested.”

  Automatically he placed his hand on his wife’s leg, in case she tried to jump up and kill the woman. Even if he was single, after his ex-girlfriend, blondes turned him right off. He liked out of control, raven haired hellions that kept him on his toes.

  “Three cheese burgers, bacon on all of them and for one of them extra mayo,” he looked over at Desdemona.

  “I’ll have a veggie burger please, no mayo just plain. Whole wheat bun please,” she smiled at the woman sweetly, feeling bad for the woman. Elizabeth was glaring at her like she was right. She was on the menu- dead waitress, with a side of kicked ass and her body to never be found again.

  “Sounds good.” She walked around the counter and the sweaty bald man behind the counter slapped her on the ass. She didn’t protest, even though it grated on her last nerve. She needed the job and she refrained from hitting the man.

  “I would have broken his arm off and beat him to death with it,” added Elizabeth, taking a sip of her iced tea. “Although, she hit on my husband, so she’s on her own and my sympathy is all dried up.”

  “Ah I love a violent woman,” said her husband. “A violent, vindictive woman with a wicked temper that likes to hurt people and carries a gun.”

  “Lookee here cowboy, that describes me. How do you feel about fat and wobbly?” she asked, laughing.

  “I happen to find fat and wobbly very sexy.” Blackhawk leaned over and kissed his wife lightly on the lips.

  “Good answer to avoid the violent, vindictive woman with a gun.”

  Everyone at the table laughed.

  Desdemona watched her bosses and smiled. It was amazing how different they were once you got to know them. She was surprised they were the same people. In the office they seemed aloof and distant, but when they were off duty they were really normal people. Apparently, they were a very happy couple.

  “Are you done with the autopsies?” Blackhawk asked pulling Desdemona out of her private thoughts. .

  “Unfortunately no, I have victim five to complete yet, and then I can call it a night,” she answered. “After lunch I’ll get him done. I’ve noticed that all the victims have one single wound and that’s it. The killer has intent to remove one part and discard the rest. Nothing else is damaged on the bodies.”

  “You’re seriously going to autopsy after you eat?” Elizabeth was horrified. “Count me out. I want to keep my burger down. One of the men will have to pony up and ride that rodeo with you. If I wasn’t pregnant I could pull it off, but Baby Blackhawk doesn’t like autopsy post feeding.”

  Both men laughed already aware of what was coming.

  “That’s why I don’t eat meat,” she answered, and Elizabeth almost dropped her iced tea.

  Blackhawk caught the glass and placed it back on the table, as the laughter ensued. Elizabeth simply stared at her blankly, like Desdemona Adare was talking a foreign language.

  “Are you okay?” asked her husband, still grinning. Eating meat was his wife’s holy grail. People who didn’t were foreign to her and possibly alien and not of this planet.

  “Maybe the deputy did hit me, my hearing must be going. Maybe I should see a doctor. Did Desdemona just say she doesn’t eat meat?” Her face was dead serious, as she looked over at the men.

  “Yes, she’s very serious and told us last night.”

  “Not even bacon?” she whispered, horrified at the thought.

  “Nope.” Desdemona laughed at the look on her friend’s face. It wasn’t one of judgment, but one of genuine disbelief. “They do make a really good tofu bacon that I like.”

  Now she looked completely horrified. “Tofu bacon?”

  Desdemo
na found the look on her face funny as hell.

  Callen patted Elizabeth’s leg and laughed. “Breathe deep. You can do it beautiful.”

  Desdemona ignored the nickname Callen had for her boss, or the jealousy would take over. “Elizabeth, I’ve been an ME for ten years. At three autopsies a day, that’s nine thousand bodies I’ve had to cut into and wade around in to find the grossest things. To me, the human body is like meat. I just can’t do it.”

  “Well when you put it that way, it kind of grosses me out now too,” she said, as the waitress put the big greasy burger in front of her. Elizabeth looked at it and thought about it.

  Both men grinned at Elizabeth.

  “No meat huh?” she asked, eyeing the veggie burger in front of her friend, and then the meat burger sitting in front of her. One was bland and stuffed with things it shouldn’t be, and the other had cheese and bacon sitting on it, calling to her.

  “No meat,” she answered, dipping a french fry in ketchup. “Not to mention if I ate the way you do, I’d weigh four hundred pounds. I’m not blessed with your metabolism. Even pregnant you’re still thin”

  Elizabeth began weighing the pros and cons.

  Ethan Blackhawk watched his wife and was entertained. She was genuinely contemplating the options on eating the burger in front of the doctor.

  Finally hunger won out. “What’s that baby?” she asked her belly, and garnering laughter from the three others at the table. “Uh huh. Okay, I agree.” She shrugged, picking it up to take a bite. “We’re over it,” she answered and smiled as her husband started laughing. “Sorry Doc. Blackhawk bossiness wins out once again.”

  Sheriff James Duffy was waiting for his deputy when he knocked on the door. The man was full Native, and one of his big talents was tracking. If they had a missing person, call in Julian Littlemoon. The man just had mad skills when it came to finding the lost. He was either very lucky or the powers that be had granted him a genuine gift. Once when a child had wandered away, Julian Littlemoon had found him in less than four hours.