“You’re not mad?”
Blackhawk laughed more. “Cal, you fell asleep beside my wife. You didn’t roll around naked in bed having sex. Sleeping with Elizabeth is different than falling asleep with Elizabeth.” It was all funny, and he needed that laugh. If his brother wasn’t so freaked out, he’d tell him about the conversation with Desdemona. Honestly, he felt better that his brother was with his wife, than with the woman he was engaged to be married.
“I’m so glad you aren’t mad.”
“Why are you calling me to tell me this? Because this is more something Elizabeth would be telling me, as all three of us laugh about it. Are you okay?”
Whitefox didn’t go there with the dream. Since it was a figment of his mind, and he had no control of his subconscious than he couldn’t be held accountable. That was his justification for picturing Elizabeth naked and riding him. “I wouldn’t let her tell you. I figured I should own it, and keep her out of trouble.”
“Cal, we had this discussion. Elizabeth loves you, and I love you. If you fall asleep beside her it’s not something that’s going to upset or freak me out. She told me you both were kissing to stay undercover with the desk clerk, and that didn’t freak me out. You need to chill out. You're making yourself a wreck over this and there isn't any reason. I trust you both together, and I love you both. If sleeping beside Elizabeth helps get you through everything that you’re going through right now, then sleep there.”
“Seriously? Ok, who are you and where is Ethan Blackhawk?” Did his brother just tell him to sleep with his wife again? “You’re really not mad?”
“I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that when you woke up, you enjoyed it and what you’re feeling is guilt, because it felt good.”
Callen didn’t know what to say to that, but his brother was damn right. It felt unbelievable.
“If you said you woke up, and it didn’t feel amazing, I’d know you’re lying to me. You’re human and Elizabeth is beautiful. I get that, but what I don’t get is why you're letting yourself get all strung out about this.”
“I betrayed you once before, and I don’t want to lose you, Elizabeth or CJ.” It was truth. He’d suffer every day of his life if he could just stay their family. They meant everything to him. The two decades he spent without his brother were lonely, desolate and nearly broke him.
“Cal, you're not going to lose us. I told you that I forgave you and even if I didn’t trust you, I trust my wife. Elizabeth would swallow shards of glass before she’d hurt me or you. Think of her as the safety on the gun. You may want to fire the gun and do something you’ll regret, but she’s there to keep you from going off and you don’t have to worry. Was Elizabeth upset this morning?”
“No, she was going to call and tell you to get me to calm down immediately.” Now he was feeling infinitely better over the entire thing.
“Here’s a thought. When you see Elizabeth freak out, the accent comes out, and she’s pacing or grabbing her gun, then worry. Until then, she’s really good at knowing how I’ll react.”
“Thanks Ethan.”
“I heard what Desdemona’s grandmother called you.” He threw it in there to get it over with.
“The ‘Indian’ part didn’t hurt as much as the part where she called me her friend in front of some man and her grandmother.”
Blackhawk didn’t hear about that and now he was really pissed.
“Elizabeth didn’t tell you that, did she?” Damn it!
“No, I spoke to Desdemona this morning,” and he told him about the conversation and the journal, and let the chips fall where they would. He wasn’t going to keep things from his brother.
“Is she going to be shit-canned when this is all over?”
Ethan didn’t have an answer for that. The woman broke the rules, she lied, and that was his big pet peeve. “I’m not sure, Cal. I think we need to see how this all plays out and what Desdemona does in the end.”
He completely understood. “I’ll tell Lyzee about the journal and your conversation. She went down to get us coffee. I’m going to grab a shower and get dressed. We’re heading to the sheriff’s department this morning to get the missing person report.”
“Okay both of you be safe out there.”
“I’ll keep her safe.” Whitefox would jump in front of a train for the woman. The irony was the woman who had the stalker after her was ten minutes away and all alone, and he had no desire to protect her after what she pulled. Callen was feeling intensely guilty about that. After all, he did promise her that he’d watch over her, but then she promised him that she wouldn’t run. Yeah, that was a bunch of total bullshit. A pinky swear must mean little in Desdemona’s world.
“I have no doubt. Tell her Littlemoon is on the ground there and lurking.”
“I will. We’ll check in later,” he said, disconnecting and going to his room. He needed to take a shower and get ready.
Once in the water, he felt infinitely better. His body was completely relaxed and at peace. His brother didn’t hate him, he wasn’t going to be ostracized, and he could still relax with Elizabeth. Then he started thinking about her in the dream, and the feel of her mouth on his body, fingers exploring, and he was filled with so much need and desire.
God, why was he insistent on torturing himself? Reaching down, Callen grabbed the first bottle of shampoo he could find and squeezed some into his hand. Rubbing it into his hair the scent hit him and his body went even harder. Opening his eyes between the streaming soap, he realized he had used her shampoo. Well, at least he would enjoy the scent all day, and then he realized it was probably going to make him hard all day too.
Damn it!
“Hey Cal,” she said, reaching around the shower curtain with a steaming cup of coffee.
“Elizabeth! I’m naked in here!”
“I hope so, since showering in your clothes seems counterproductive. Cal, there’s a curtain between us. I didn’t want your coffee to get cold, because then you steal mine.”
He took the cup from her hand and leaned against the wall of the shower and enjoyed the steam, coffee and company. “Thanks for the coffee. I appreciate it. Tomorrow I’m going to stand in here when you shower.”
“Yeah, but I’m not peeking because I have self-control.”
He snickered. He would so peek, and she knew it.
“How was the call to Ethan?”
Whitefox told her everything, like he always did and even the part about him sleeping with her if he needed to again. Then he went into the information about the journal. “So she’s probably going to be heading here to play nice. Ethan mentioned Desdemona wanted the original one back and was pretty upset the tech team had handled it before her.”
“Then she shouldn’t have lied, deceived and been a…” Elizabeth stopped when he looked around the curtain. “A very mean person.”
He laughed and leaned out to kiss her on the lips. “Thank you for that.” Even though he wanted to be mad at Desdemona, he didn’t want the war to get out of control. He was pissed, but it had to be between them. They’d work it out or not, but there wasn’t going to be outside interference.
Elizabeth accepted the kiss and grinned. “I saw skin and lots of it too, Mr. Whitefox.”
He looked horrified and pulled the curtain closed. He was in no shape for her to see anything. It was all her fault to begin with, but why push his luck.
She was laughing and shaking her head. “First stop is the sheriff’s department.”
“I informed Ethan of that, and he told me to pass on that Julian Littlemoon is on the ground.”
Elizabeth was already aware. “He’s more than on the ground. He’s booked into the same bed and breakfast. I just saw him getting coffee. He passed me a note, it was very stealthy and CIA like. Not very FBI-y at all.”
Whitefox snickered. “What did the note say?”
“It was his cell and that he’s going out to locate the woman.” Elizabeth knew what that meant. He probably wasn’t going
to be finding her alive. Cordelia Adare was probably missing because the stalker took her. The journal being sent the day she disappeared, the note Desdemona received in her book months ago. It was the stalker all playing out his hand, and it was now a matter of time.
“Do you think we should force Desdemona to stay here?”
“No, I think we need to lay as low as possible and hope that we can do this unnoticed. If we can find Cordelia’s body then we can call in the teams. Since this creep stalked across state lines, it’s federal. I just need to prove the woman was killed, and then I can call in the Cavalry.”
Whitefox finished his coffee and handed her the cup before turning off the water. “Can I have a towel?”
Elizabeth handed him a washcloth.
“You're funny. If you think I won’t step out of here naked, then you’re kidding yourself. This is technically my bathroom.”
She handed him a towel, just because she knew he’d do it.
“Thank you for not making me show you how big my balls are,” stated Whitefox.
“Literally,” she quipped back, easily.
Both of them laughed.
“Come on, we have locals to rattle. Once we walk into that sheriff’s office, word’s going to travel fast about who we are, and that means the jig is up. So, keep your eyes open for any lunatics that look like stalkers.”
Whitefox followed her out into the Gardenia room and waited for her to leave. “I can’t get dressed with you in here,” he said. “Do you follow Ethan around as much as you’re following me?”
“Yep,” she grinned and walked back to her room. “Make it fast, love muffin. We roll out in five minutes.”
* * *
Julian sat in his room drinking coffee. He’d just seen Elizabeth downstairs, and she looked vastly different since last he’d seen her. Just a few months ago she was six months pregnant, and now Elizabeth was definitely anything but that.
He liked them feisty and pretty, and she fit both suits. Too bad she was married to his current boss. He didn’t mind flirting with associates he worked with, but the boss’s wife was off limits.
Pulling out the map, he looked at all the local swamps and checked out the terrain. Soon he was going to head on out to talk to some local Natives and see if anyone saw anything suspicious lately in the bayou.
When you wanted to know the lay of the land, ask the indigenous people first. He needed a place big enough to hide a body. He doubted the body would be just dumped in the water. Unless she was gator bait, then finding her was going to be almost impossible.
Ethan insisted she was likely dead, and he tended to agree.
This was going to be a body recovery and that made it more difficult to find. The swamps had lots of places to stash a victim. They could get trapped in the tree branches underwater.
Finishing his coffee, he had his first location to check out. Grabbing his equipment he started for the door.
It was time to earn his pay as tracker.
* * *
Elizabeth and Callen came down the stairs and automatically her arm went around his waist to make them look like a couple. Stopping at the front desk, they waited to talk to the owner of the bed and breakfast.
“Hi, what can I do for you today?” she asked, pleasantly. “Do your rooms need to be serviced?”
“Oh, well just the Rose room, we slept in there, but we did use two showers. He’s a water hog,” smiled Elizabeth.
“I’m a big man, beautiful. I need more elbow room.”
The woman laughed. “I’ll send the maid up. Anything else I can help you with?”
“Our friend may be stopping by to see us. Can I leave a message here if we miss her?” Elizabeth asked, sweetly. They didn’t want to have to waste time waiting for Desdemona all day. This wasn’t a vacation, there was work to be done.
“Absolutely.”
Elizabeth handed her a sealed envelope. “I appreciate it.”
“I hope you don’t mind me saying, but you two look so happy together. It’s nice when couples come in and you can tell they’re very much in love. It’s evident between you two.”
Callen tensed.
Elizabeth giggled, going up on her toes to kiss him, sharing with him reassurance. When she pulled away she patted his cheek. “Love is a beautiful thing. When people find it they should embrace it and not hide from it.”
“So right,” the woman answered, smiling.
Callen reached for her hand and led her away, their fingers twined together. He wasn’t sure if she meant with her or with Desdemona. But regardless her words touched him deeply. He was grateful he’d found love with her. It eased the hurt that he was feeling over his fiancée at that moment.
“You okay, Cal?” Elizabeth inquired, hopping up into the Escalade. “I didn’t upset you did I?” Now she was touching his arm.
“No Lyzee, you’ve actually made my heart hurt less today, so thank you.”
Elizabeth would do anything to make him feel better. All she wanted was for the man to see how valuable he was, and if Desdemona wasn’t the right woman, one would come along and would be perfect for him. Sometimes it took a little bit to get love to fit the right way. He’d make it work. Elizabeth’s heart fluttered.
As they drove down the road, she pointed to the building. “I think that’s it.”
“Good cop, bad cop?” he asked, grinning.
Elizabeth hated dealing with sheriffs of small towns. She was allowed to say that, because she’d filled the role and knew how big of control freaks they could be. After all, she was case in point.
“Good cop, good cop to start.”
“Well I’m generally good cop all the time, so looks like you're the one that has to work on that,” he grinned, wickedly.
“Nice one!” She offered him a fist bump. “Let’s go Director Whitefox. Maybe I still have some magic left inside me to pull this one off.”
Elizabeth walked up the stairs into the station. Callen flanked her protectively and tried to not look too intimidating, but really a six foot six full Native garnered attention everywhere he went. That he couldn’t help. Callen kept his sunglasses on, observing everything happening around them inside the building. The man from the previous night was there, watching them walk into the building.
“Agents,” he said, nicely.
Apparently, there weren’t going to be any hard feelings after the fact. He was pretty calm, considering he’d been lying face first in the grass unconscious as a girl stole his gun right from his hand. Jonathan Delray had a pretty decent disposition.
“Hello, Deputy Delray,” Elizabeth said, putting out her hand and lifting her glasses from her face.
“This is Sheriff Louis Denton, and he’s in charge of the law in this here parish.” The man stepped back and let his boss take over.
Elizabeth could see the cold speculation in his eyes, and then the way he checked out her partner. Deep down she hoped he didn’t make this a nightmare when it didn’t need to be one at all. They just wanted some information, and they’d be on their way.
“Agents.”
“Actually Sheriff, I’m one of the directors at FBI West. I’m Elizabeth Blackhawk, and this is my partner in the field for this assignment, Director Callen Whitefox. We’re here working on something that has been brought to our attention.”
“If it’s Indian related, you need to head to the reservation. The local tribes have their own police department. We don’t have jurisdiction over anything related to it.”
Strike one.
“Native American, Sheriff. ‘Indian’ isn't appropriate to use in open conversation when discussing indigenous people of The United States of America. Indians are from India. I’m sure you see the difference.”
He started laughing. “I beg your pardon, Mr. Whitefox. I meant no disrespect.”
Elizabeth would have preferred the apology without the laughter, but there was a fine line right now and she was forced to walk it until they had a body.
Whitef
ox nodded. He was proud of Elizabeth. Usually she’d kick someone’s ass by now.
“Our situation has nothing to do with a tribe or reservation. I’m here looking for Cordelia Adare. Two weeks ago she went missing and I need a copy of the missing person report.”
“Are you telling me, that the FBI sends two directors from hundreds of miles away to find a missing person?” Now he was chuckling. “Ain’t this tax payer money at its finest? I’m so glad that I pay taxes to a government that uses it wisely.”
Strike two.
Elizabeth bristled, and then regained her temper. “I’m actually here because our medical examiner is Doctor Desdemona Adare, and she’s concerned for her sister.”
“So personal police, paid for by the tax payers. That’s just great.”
Strike three.
“We believe that the woman’s disappearance is related to a stalker issue tied to our ME. This individual has been tracking our co-worker across the country. Thus this gives us federal jurisdiction. We have proof of stalking and threat to cause bodily harm. We also have an incident where the stalker blew up an FBI vehicle. Federal property, if you will. That alone should outrage you as a tax payer in this country and make you want to assist anyway possible to bring him to justice. I know personally, as someone who also pays her taxes and is a civil servant, I have nothing but the desire to find this individual and bring him in.”
The man glared at her.
“If Cordelia Adare turns up alive, we’ll be out of your town. If she doesn’t…” She let it hang out in the air.
“I have no choice then?”
Elizabeth smiled. “We all have a choice. I have a choice to walk up and down your quiet streets in Kevlar, my FBI pull over, my Glock and badge in plain sight making everyone’s life hellish, or I can ask questions quietly. Very quietly in fact.”
Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) Page 12