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

by Kelley, Morgan

  Elizabeth just nodded, knowing she’d be marked.

  “If you even think of letting that cat out of the bag to get the target off me and onto you, Elizabeth, we will have a cataclysmic fight,” he said, knowing the look on her face.

  “I wasn’t thinking that, Ethan. I was actually thinking how sick that bastard is in the head.” Absently, she laid her hand over her belly. Elizabeth wouldn’t risk her child.

  Ever!

  Timothy stood. “You have a terrible headache, sweetheart. I’m going to make you some of my special tea. It’s good for the blood.”

  “Okay, Granddad. I would appreciate it, thank you.”

  Elizabeth’s phone rang and she clicked the speakerphone button. “What do you have Chris?”

  “We didn’t compare them, but I’m running it right now, and it should pop in a few seconds,” said Doctor Leonard. “I don’t think they’re going to match. Their mothers weren’t a genetic match. That we did run. We were thinking they might be sisters or relatives.”

  Elizabeth had a feeling that he was going to be wrong. The pieces were beginning to fall into place, and she had that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. This whole thing was very personal and in the center was the Blackhawk family.

  There was silence on the phone and then the furious typing on a keyboard.

  “I’m sorry, Boss! We should have caught this. Son of a bitch,” muttered Doctor Leonard. “I ran them together, and they have a fifty percent autosomal DNA match.”

  “English,” said Blackhawk. Honestly, he hoped she was wrong.

  “They share a parent and since it isn’t the mother, as they were in two different bodies, it has to be the father.”

  Elizabeth touched her husband’s cheek when he started to recognize the path her mind was taking. The disgust in his eyes at the killing of children was there, but then the father killing his own children, it was pure perversion. “Chris, I need to know something and I need it kept just between us, as a favor and off the records.”

  “Give me a second to call you back.” He disconnected the line.

  Elizabeth waited and an unknown number dialed into her phone. “Chris?”

  “Yeah, it’s my personal phone. What do you need me to do?” She never asked for personal favors before, so it had to be pretty big. They’d been a team for many years; he trusted her sense of direction.

  “I need you to pull the DNA for myself, Ethan, and Callen Whitefox. Mark it unknown to keep it buried and off the radar and run it against the remains of the fetus.”

  “Why you?” asked Whitefox.

  Doctor Leonard answered. “Lyzee wants a red herring thrown into the mix. If it ever gets spotted I can just say I randomly picked three profiles as the baseline, and just used the three people in charge of the investigation. If there’s a relationship to the DNA I can feign accidental discovery.”

  Blackhawk looked at his wife and kissed her forehead. Even in this, she was protecting both men.

  “Run them as fast as you can. I need the information immediately.”

  “I think our killer is at the breaking point. We found his bones, we took away his ability to make more medicine wheels, and we don’t seem to be playing his game.” Blackhawk added.

  “Chris, I owe you, but please keep it really quiet. As in I never asked.”

  “Asked what?”

  “I owe you,” Elizabeth laughed, as she hung up the phone.

  “I don’t get why we have to keep this quiet,” asked Whitefox.

  She looked over at her husband, offering him the chance to field it. “You want this one, Director?”

  “If we find out that the victims were related after the killer is caught, we can just pretend that we had no clue. It might skate by a judge if the defense team cries foul. We’re being targeted, so there had to be a reason that the two head investigators continued on without trading the assignment off to someone else.”

  “That’s a very slippery slope legally. Someone could lose her job.” There was so much love and respect for her right then.

  Elizabeth shrugged. “I was the original Cowboy and I like to play fast and hard with the FBI rules.” Elizabeth took the tea from Timothy. “Thank you.” She inhaled the scent and it smelled wonderful.

  “It is from my personal stash of herbs.”

  Blackhawk put his hand over her mouth before she could sip. “Is it baby safe, Granddad? I don’t know if she should be drinking ‘herbs’ from anyone’s stash.”

  Elizabeth laughed. In the midst of all the mess, the trouble, and the chaos, he was still control freaking the pregnancy. It made her all warm and mushy inside for the man.

  “Ethan, I’m eighty-eight, not an idiot. I wouldn’t give her herbs that would harm her. Like she’s the first woman I’ve tended to in my life. I was there when they delivered you, I treated your mother when she had the same symptoms as your wife,” he looked over at Elizabeth. “Anemia correct?”

  She shrugged and answered, “The ME thinks so. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow.”

  “I’ll send you home with some tea, and you make sure she drinks two cups a day. She won’t be as pale or as tired. It detoxifies the blood and helps stimulate blood cell production.”

  “Yes Granddad.”

  “If you need anyone to deliver this baby, Elizabeth, you let me know. Contrary to my grandson’s belief, I do know how it’s done.”

  “Uh, no offense but she’s going to the hospital to give birth in a sterile environment.” Blackhawk wasn’t letting anyone near her without a medical degree.

  Elizabeth took his hand and leaned against his chest as she drank her tea. Everyone became really quiet. The implications were that somewhere out there was another child that was their blood relative. Not only that, but the child was a serial killer. Could they be both sides of the coin? One half of the DNA making them desire justice, the other half craving death.

  The phone rang and she answered it.

  “Lyzee, I have your results, and I’d send them to you, but if I do there’s a trail. I’m not as tech savvy as your team to make it disappear. They’d be able to locate it if they had to find it.”

  “I don’t want a copy. I just want it figured out and then forgotten.” The less people that knew what was going on the better for all of them involved.

  “Two of the three share twenty five percent autosomal DNA. The two positive male results would be uncles to the fetuses.”

  Both men looked horrified that they indeed weren’t the only living offspring from Wyler Blackhawk, and that their blood relative was a homicidal maniac. Then there was the realization that all those fetuses were nephews and nieces. Almost twenty dead children that were technically part Blackhawk.

  “Assuming the killer is the father, he’s a blood relative. He’d be a half-sibling to the two test sources.” He told them what they already suspected.

  “Bury it Chris, and we never had this conversation. If you’re ever asked about this play dumb. For some reason it finds the light of day and anyone’s ass is on the line, I ordered it to go missing, and no one else but me knew about it. Ethan never had a clue, and I directly ordered you and threatened to fire you. Got it?” It was her way of protecting her husband and his job. If one of them had to take the hit, she’d be the one. “If Ethan knew about this he’d make it official, so I’m the one breaking the rules here,” she reiterated. “Bury it or you’re terminated.”

  “Got it,” and then the phone went dead.

  All three men just watched her. Essentially, she just broke the law and threw her career away if they got caught. It was all done to protect her husband and family.

  “Elizabeth,” Blackhawk didn’t know what to say, he just kissed her on the lips. “I love you,” he whispered.

  “Let’s face it, Ethan. If one of us has to lose their job, I’m the more likely choice.” She patted her belly. There was no doubt in her mind that he loved her, and that’s why she would cover for him completely and risk a career she l
oved.

  “Well, now I’m really wishing that I didn’t tell your father to take a little hike,” she said, sitting forward to pat Timothy’s weathered cheek. “You have the Blackhawk guilt look on your face. Ethan gets it whenever he thinks he did something wrong. You didn’t know this child was out there, and you don’t need to blame yourself.”

  “Had I known I would have taken him in and raised him too,” he said, sadly.

  “I don’t know why anyone is surprised,” chimed Whitefox, angrily. “We all know Wyler didn’t live the straight and narrow. I need some air.” He stood and walked outside, slamming the door behind him.

  Timothy went to get up, and his grandson put his hand on his shoulder.

  “I have this one, I know how he feels,” Ethan Blackhawk went to find his brother.

  He didn’t know why he climbed up into the tree house. Maybe because he hadn’t been up there in twenty years, or maybe because when he went up there it gave him happy memories. Nothing had changed in the little wooden house. It was exactly the same as he remembered it, and it did bring him calm. Although, he didn’t get to build it with his brother and his grandfather, since he came into the family later, it still reminded him of happier times.

  “Room for one more?” asked his brother from the window.

  “Sure, we can rename it to the house of bad DNA,” he mumbled in the corner.

  Blackhawk climbed through the window, and tried to not think how he’d just been with his wife here a few short days ago, and now he was facing some truly sick information with his brother.

  “I’m just really pissed, Ethan.”

  “I understand, Callen, and if it’s any consolation I am too. If dad kept it in his pants, I wouldn’t have some nutjob taking shots at me from the woods, or my wife sitting in a mass grave digging for corpses. I get the anger, I’m right there with you.”

  “I just don’t get it. How could another kid mean nothing to him? How many more are there? Am I going to wake up one day and find out that I have a sister? Or there are a set of twins that look similar to us?”

  Blackhawk sat beside his brother and mimicked the same position. He wasn’t saying anything that he didn’t understand, or feel himself. He had a baby on the way, and he was upset he had to miss blood work, let alone thirty years of his life.

  “Let me spin it this way for you, Callen. Let’s see if this helps out any. If Wyler didn’t do what he did, then I wouldn’t have a brother.” Ethan let it hang between them. “If he didn’t cheat on my mother with your mother, we wouldn’t be here right now. I would but you wouldn’t. If he didn’t have the third affair, I wouldn’t have come back here to assist the chief of reservation police, and I wouldn’t have reconnected with you. I would have lived four miles away, and never cared to see the man that I share blood with. It’s all connected and fate is a bitch sometimes.”

  “You know what pisses me off?”

  “What?”

  “You’re too fucking logical for me, and you always were the one that would sort through it all and get right to the point.”

  Blackhawk laughed and elbowed his brother.

  “Hey, is this tree house for boys only, or can girls play too?” Elizabeth asked from the window. “I may be carrying a boy, so does that get me in?”

  “Come on in,” answered her husband. “All Blackhawks are welcome here.”

  She climbed in and squeezed between them. “Well boys, it seems we have something in common.”

  Both men looked over and down in confusion.

  “My brother was a serial killer, yours is a serial killer, and we were meant to be,” she grinned, taking both men’s hands in hers. Now, she was doing what she promised Timothy she’d do- hold them together. “Look at it this way. At least you know, Callen, that both your parents weren’t the crazy part of the tree and same for you, Cowboy. It’s the killer’s mother that gave him the fruit loop gene.”

  “Is that a technical term?” snorted Whitefox, squeezing their twined fingers. The simple contact gave him warmth in the cold cracks in his heart.

  “It certainly is the term. Look it up.” Elizabeth squeezed back, and she was glad they had that unbreakable Blackhawk bond now. The man cemented himself in her heart.

  “We’ll get through this,” Blackhawk said. “We’re almost there thanks to you, Lyzee. I married you for your mind.”

  Elizabeth laughed. “I somehow doubt that, and I bet that’s how you got all the girls up here in the tree house.”

  Callen snickered. “There was this one time,” he started.

  “Really Cal? You want to go there?” Ethan Blackhawk threatened back. “I know about your treks up here too and yours were more embarrassing. Like that one time with your pants…”

  “Point taken.” He surrendered.

  Elizabeth could tell the drama had passed now that they were being brothers again and laughing. “I don’t want to hear about anyone’s track record up here. I was one of the helpless victims lured here by one of you two.”

  “I beg to differ on the lured part. You came willingly and very enthusiastically if I recall.” Blackhawk snickered at the innuendo.

  “Ugh, you two want to knock it off? While I don’t mind thinking about Elizabeth having sex, it’s ruined since she’s doing it with my brother.”

  She snorted and elbowed her husband. “He’s just as funny as you, Cowboy.”

  “Hardly,” Blackhawk quipped, and then snickered when he smacked his brother for thinking about his wife and sex at the same time.

  “HEY!” Whitefox objected. “For the record, I’m funnier,” he answered back.

  Elizabeth stood and helped pull them both to their feet. “Let’s go home and have dinner and just relax. We don’t need to interview Doctor Wolman. He’s too old to be Wyler’s son. His son is too young, and the wife couldn’t impregnate. So, we can cross them off the list.”

  “So what do we have?”

  “We have nothing, until we get to Wyler, and unless you want to track a full blooded Indian through the woods at night while he’s looking to kill something that’s foraging, go for it. Personally, Baby Blackhawk and I, the next heir to the family tree house,” she pointed to her belly, “want to go home and do something mindless until tomorrow morning.”

  “I have to update Gabe, unofficially.”

  “You call him, and your brother and I will start making dinner,” she climbed back out the window. “Want to ask granddad to join us for dinner?”

  Both men laughed at her. “He’s left here three times in eighty-eight years. He’s going to turn you down.”

  Elizabeth reached into her pocket and pulled out cash. “Twenty says he comes first time I ask, no begging, and I don’t baby guilt him as leverage. I use good old Elizabeth southern charm”

  “You're on.” Blackhawk pulled out a twenty and handed it to his wife.

  “Elizabeth just bought the beer for tonight,” laughed her brother-in-law. “I can’t wait to see this,” Whitefox said, as he dropped the twenty in her hand. “I’ll even volunteer to drive him home after dinner, if by some miracle you pull this off.”

  “It’s a deal, boys. Watch and learn how the female of the Blackhawk clan gets it done. Maybe you’ll learn something.”

  Both men laughed and smugly watched her, knowing she was going to get shot down.

  Walking inside, she found Timothy and lounged beside him on the couch. “Granddad, I want you to come to dinner tonight. I’m going to make the men cook, and you and I can decide which room will be for the next Blackhawk man coming into the family.”

  “Okay. Let me get my keys,” he said easily.

  Both men stood there staring at her.

  Elizabeth pulled the money from her pocket and tucked into the front of her bra, winking at her husband. “Crazy mad skills, boys. Let this be a lesson, not to mess with me. You were both just schooled on the proper way to use the Blackhawk charm. It’s not just for getting a woman in the sack.”

  Callen laughed an
d shook his head.

  Ethan didn’t know how she did it, but then again, he’d follow her anywhere. He wasn’t the least bit surprised that she pulled it off.

  “Thanks for the money. That’s going to keep me in burgers all next week,” she said, taking Timothy’s arm. “So, Granddad, Ethan is really good at Italian. It’s how he got me to marry him on day four. Hope you don’t mind it.”

  The old man patted her cheek and just smiled. “I happen to love Italian, sweetheart.” He heard the whole conversation in the yard, and he was glad he could teach his boys a lesson. Don’t bet against the family patriarch and don’t gang up on his favorite granddaughter.

  * * *

  He sat outside their home and watched them pull up to the house. They managed to get the shaman off the reservation.

  How sweet.

  They were probably having a quaint family dinner together and laughing. Little did they know they wouldn’t be laughing past tomorrow. They would be mourning the loss of the woman and hopefully both of the sons by nightfall.

  Then he would come forward as the only Blackhawk heir left, and the old man would love him and take him under his wing. He would be part of them before long. The excitement filled him as he turned on his engine and pulled away to go finalize his plans.

  There was much to do. He needed to find the perfect clothing for Elizabeth Blackhawk, fill the syringe and get himself ready. He was actually excited to have the new day start. After thirty six years of being a nobody, he was about to claim his birthright and make those that hurt him pay dearly.

  * * *

  Wyler crouched down and analyzed the trampled sticks and broken branches. Someone had been through his hunting ground recently. No one knew of this one, and it took half a day to get here on foot, but was worth the trek. Most of the tribe wouldn’t venture out this far. It wasn’t worth the long effort of dragging the kill back home. He had found the hunt was superior and always yielded the biggest buck and doe. If man was starting to stomp on the land, it would have to be abandoned. Soon the prey would leave when man left his mark.