“I thought you changed your mind,” Christina stated.
Kane laughed. “Hell no! I wanted to get you something,” he stated, pulling a box out of his pocket. When he popped it open, there sat the wedding bands they’d once used while undercover working for the Littlemoons.
Her heart skipped.
“What did you do to it?” she asked, checking out the pretty colored stones in the band. They’d been diamonds, and now they were gorgeous green emeralds.
“That’s Milo’s birthstone. I wanted to include him in this. Today, I’m marrying his mother, and I want us to always remember this day.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Kane.”
He lifted her chin. “If you tell me you’ve changed your mind, I’m going to freak out, the cops will come, and I’ll have to be taken to a sanitarium.”
She laughed. “I will never change my mind. I just wanted to say one thing.”
He waited.
“You’ve always been the one,” she said. “From that first day on the Rez, when you flirted, fed me pizza, and didn’t get mad when I held you at gun point, I knew.”
He smiled. “Know what?” he asked.
“What?” Christina inquired.
“That day, where we sat in the morgue and you talked dead bodies to me?”
“Yes?”
“I knew too. I saw this day. I knew you’d be my wife, and you, Chrissy Redwolf, will be my greatest adventure. I promise.”
He kissed her again.
“Want to get married? We have houses to look at, and I want to get Milo settled. Babies need stability.”
Well, she figured she should just drop the bomb.
“Kane?”
He kissed her knuckles. “Yes?”
“Milo isn’t going to have stability—not for a while.”
He didn’t understand.
“What are you talking about?”
She took his big hand and placed it over her already churning stomach.
“I’m pregnant.”
He stared at her. Then, the smile on his face said it all.
“We need to get married now. I’m not letting you back out. I want to have my wife, my son, and our little baby Redwolf all to myself.”
She took his hand.
“Lead the way, my sexy Native man. Lead the way.”
He may have followed her back across the country, but one thing was for sure.
Today, he was going to lead the way.
To their happiness.
To their future.
And for love.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Washington DC
US Marshal Office
To say that Marcus Hunter was pissed would be an understatement. He was ready to chew all kinds of ass. Not only had the shit gone down in Salem, but his two employees had not been part of it.
While Bonnie had been burning down the Blackhawk home, abducting a pregnant woman, and then killing her, his team had been naked and rolling around in bed.
They’d missed their chance twice that day.
It was shitty that Bonnie had escaped earlier, but that she’d come back and no one on his team was ready for it?
It made him look bad.
Marcus was not pleased.
Sitting in his office, in front of him were the two people responsible for tracking Bonnie.
He wasn’t sure who to tear into first.
The woman who was a newbie and shouldn’t be sleeping with her partner, or the man who was a veteran of this game who made stupid, careless mistakes due to his obsession for revenge.
“I can’t believe the magnitude of this clusterfuck,” he stated. “How did this happen?”
Dakota wasn’t going to let Sarah take the fall. While this went down, he was losing himself in someone who was offering him more than anyone else ever had in all of his life.
She didn’t deserve the shit end of this deal.
“I made a mistake.”
Sarah touched his arm.
He patted her fingers reassuringly.
“It was all on me. I took advantage of the situation and slept with her. I shouldn’t have, and for that, it’s on me.”
“Bonnie escaped twice in one day, Dakota,” Marcus stated. “You’ve been on this case for years. You’ve tracked her and Clyde, you worked with the FBI last year to catch her and you lost her then too.”
Oh, he was aware.
“Debra died, you dropped the ball, and now I have a mess to clean up. Ethan Blackhawk, Gabriel Rothschild, and the President of the United States are all on the warpath, and at the end, you know who is standing there?”
“Me.”
He took the blame.
“I dropped the ball. The second I heard she hopped a plane to New Orleans, I should have been following. It was my choice to take down time. This is on me.”
Marcus liked the man. He genuinely did. The only problem was he was obsessed. He had to try to save Dakota Rakin’s career, and it wasn’t going to be easy.
“You’re on probation, Sarah is being bumped to a woman Marshal for training, and you’re permanently removed from the Bonnie case. You’re never tracking her again.”
He stood. “Sir!”
“SIT!”
Dakota didn’t.
“You’re a menace to her,” he said, pointing at Sarah. “You’re a menace to yourself, and I have to be the one who draws the line before your picture is on the wall out there beside Debra’s.”
He stared at him. “Don’t take this from me.”
Marcus shook his head. “It’s done, Dakota. You pack up all the files, give them to me, and I’ll hand them to another team member. You’re too volatile to handle something this high profile. You’re out for revenge.”
“I’m out for honor. I promised I’d get justice for my partner.”
He got that.
But still…
“No, Dakota. It’s over. The hunt stops here.”
The room went silent.
The two men stared at each other.
“Fine.”
Dakota pulled off his badge and gun. “Then you can have these back. I’m going to find Bonnie, and I’m going to do it on my terms.”
Sarah gasped. “Dakota!”
He placed them on the desk.
“Don’t do this, Dakota. If you dig around in this, you’re going to piss off the FBI, the President, and me.”
There was his one warning.
“Then so be it. I’m going on the hunt.”
He headed out of his office. Dakota went right to his desk and began filling the wastepaper can with all his ‘worldly possessions’ and a few cases where people had gotten away.
Sarah followed him.
“Dakota, please don’t do this,” she said softly, as everyone around them watched in curiosity.
“I have to do this.”
“No, you don’t.”
He faced her. “I was born to hunt, Sarah. I was born to do this, and if I can’t…”
“There are other things out there, Dakota. There are other wars to wage and battles to fight. Don’t do this. For me.”
There.
She put it out there.
“I have to make atonement, Sarah. I have to have absolution for my sins, and only then can I make amends for what I’ve let happen.”
“What about me?” she asked, tears filling her eyes. “I need you, Dakota.”
He touched her cheek.
“You deserve better.”
That first tear fell down her cheek.
“I see.”
Dakota hated hurting her. She was, for the first time in a long time, the only person he’d felt anything for romantically. Who was he kidding?
He felt everything for her.
Dakota saw that now.
“I have to do this.”
“I’ll wait for you.”
He touched her lower lips with his thumb. “Don’t. I’ll only disappoint you too.”
&n
bsp; She didn’t buy that.
Gently, he gave her a kiss on the lips. “I need you to move on, Sarah. You’re sunshine and happiness, and I’m cranky and dark. You deserve everything I can never be. That’s why we wouldn’t work. I’m not good enough for you. Let me go. Find that dream, and be happy. Find that hero you’re looking for because it’s not me. It can’t be me.”
He was so damn wrong.
How was she supposed to show him that?
Her lip quivered. “You are my dream, Dakota. I’ll find you again,” she promised. “We were meant to be. I will fight for you, and never hurt you!”
God!
He wished he could tell her the words she wanted to hear, but he was a mess inside. Dakota needed to find him in order to get back to her.
He grabbed his things and headed toward the elevator, leaving happiness behind. In that moment, he had to choose.
Justice.
His nature as someone who hunted.
Or love.
As he stood in the elevator, watching Sarah, he put his hand over his heart. Yeah, he wasn’t lying when he told her his feelings. He’d fought them for her, but inside his heart, he could be honest.
“Goodbye, Sarah Valley. I love you and will until my dying breath. You were the one. I see that now,” he whispered to himself.
Only, it was too late.
He was far too broken to be of any use to her. Here was his proof.
Dakota pushed the button and let the door close.
It was for the best.
Now he could head to the darker side of his nature and do what he was born to do.
It was time to hunt.
Bonnie and all the scum were about to find out what a truly rogue hunter could do.
It was on.
And it was bound to get ugly in ‘The Big Easy’.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Salem
One Week Later
It was the end of an era.
As Elizabeth stood there, holding the tiny baby in her arms, she stared at the rubble.
The house…it was gone.
Her childhood was here, and in it, she’d lost all the mementos she’d saved. Gone were the irreplaceable photographs of Charlie and her.
Gone was the furniture she’d always see him sitting on, and gone was her home.
Elizabeth was wounded inside.
“Elizabeth,” Callen said, approaching her.
She glanced over, tears in her eyes.
“Oh, angel, don’t cry,” he said, pulling her into his arms. She went into the frame of his body, craving that calming touch. This was worst case scenario.
Bonnie snuck back and took her parting shot.
Maeve was dead.
Wyler left, abandoning his new son to the grief.
Dakota quit the Marshals.
And she was left to stare at her burned down home as she held an innocent child, literally ripped from his mother’s womb.
How could this have gone worse?
Oh, yeah.
She could have died.
Ethan approached her side. He had been digging through their possessions, trying to find anything that could be salvaged.
He held out a picture frame, containing a toasty picture of her and Charlie.
“We can rebuild, baby,” he said, touching her cheek. “We can have this back exactly like it was.”
She let the wall crumble.
Here, with the two men she loved more than herself, she let the tears come. “I don’t know what to do next,” she whispered. “I don’t know where to begin.”
Callen agreed with his brother. “We rebuild.”
She stared at the house.
“I can’t come back here. I can’t do it. I’m not strong enough to pretend I am.”
The men closed around her.
They got it.
This had been…bad.
They’d gone into this fight wounded, damaged, and not on their game, and they came out the other end with a family fractured by a lunatic.
Maeve’s death had destroyed Wyler—enough he’d leave his grandkids and sons.
Again.
Her children were scared shitless of fire now, and they couldn’t sleep at night.
They didn’t have anyone to watch their kids as they worked, and they didn’t know what the hell to even do.
If Bonnie wanted to spread the shit all over, she certainly did it right.
Killing Elizabeth would have been too easy.
This…
This was months and years of mess to repair.
Ethan took his brother in his arms. Little Timothy, while born early, was strong. He had the dark Native hair and pale skin, much like Charlie had gotten.
“TJ, it’ll be okay,” he said, rocking the fussy baby in his arms.
Callen had faith.
“When you’re beat down, there’s only one way to go,” he said to his wife.
Elizabeth was trying.
God!
She was trying so hard. She couldn’t help but think that this was all her fault. Why had she assumed Bonnie wouldn’t try for them? Why had she let her guard down?
Had she not, maybe Liam wouldn’t be dead. Maeve would still be carrying her baby, and Wyler…?
Jesus!
She’d dropped the ball, and she’d never forgive herself for that. This was on her.
“What do you want to do?” Ethan asked, popping a pacifier into the baby’s mouth.
They knew it was her call.
“I want to go home,” she said softly. “I need to lick my wounds, regroup with my kids, and know we’re safe behind the fort’s walls.”
They got it.
She began laughing.
They stared at her.
“Are you okay?” Callen asked, fearing a mental breakdown. If she had one, he wouldn’t be shocked. After this, it was expected.
“Timothy was right. Granddad was spot on.”
They didn’t get it.
“With what, baby?” Ethan asked.
She ticked off all of the kids’ names on her fingers. “He said we’d have six baby birds, and now we do. Timothy is mine now too. He lost him momma. He’s an orphan.”
Yes, Timothy had been right.
Only, the men wished they had been too. They trusted Wyler not to bail, and they’d been burned.
Again.
They grew up without him as their father, and now Timothy was destined to live that fate too.
“He’s ours,” Callen stated. “He’s our blood.”
Ethan ran his hand over the baby’s forehead. “He’s a Blackhawk. That’s all that matters. We take care of our own.”
That was the truth.
It reminded her.
“We have to bury Maeve. She deserves a funeral after I had to go digging around in her body.”
They heard it.
There was horror there.
There was pain.
Ethan touched her cheek. “She wanted to go home. Wyler said she wanted to be cremated and sent home.”
Elizabeth understood that.
Home…it was the one place you were supposed to be safe. Salem had been her safety net.
Now it was gone.
“I’m not going to rebuild,” she stated. “I can’t.”
They each took one of her hands.
“Baby…”
“Angel…”
She looked up at Ethan. “Take me home. Please. I need to go home.”
He was worried about her.
His wife was carrying the weight of too many souls on her shoulders. “I’ll take you home. Chris will get the kids to the jet. We’ll be home in a few hours.”
She began crying.
Callen glanced over at his brother.
He was worried.
Scooping her into his arms, he carried her to their vehicle. All the while, both men were thinking the same thing.
Everything had changed.
And there was one
big question.
Could she recover?
To be continued…
Dear reader,
Thank you for sticking with me for this arc! I know when you read Stalked by the Past, and found out about Chris and Elizabeth, some of you thought I was losing it. Then you dove into Dying to Love, only to be afraid for our favorite threesome.
I hope that I gave you some resolution, while also offering up more stories to come. Right now, the family is healing. They’re back together, but they are dealing with the ramifications of what’s gone down.
Will Wyler be back?
Will Elizabeth recover?
How will the family press on?
In the next few books, we’re taking a trip back to a previous storyline. We’re going to Boston in Discarded by Fate to hunt for a sick and twisted killer. While there, Elizabeth is going to recall something from a case in her past. It’s going to be relived in the flashback book, Dawn of Evil, and then played out in Dead are Forgotten.
What could that arc possibly be?
Well, just between us, I’d think about Jaxon, Jagger, and their ‘dead’ father, Michael O’Bannion. There’s your hint.
Run with it.
As always, I hope I kept you guessing, laughing, crying, and rooting for our team.
Oh, by the way! Since this is my 50th novel release, I have a prize up for grabs. This month, there will be contest in honor of this release. In order to be included (June 2017) you have to head to my blog and read the contest details. The winner will be given a special prize. All you have to do to be in the running is have read The Killing Times, left a review on Amazon, and been on my email list. The winner will be given a choice of their 2 favorite books, bound together in a mega paperback with a brand-new cover. There is ONLY ONE ever being made, so you will have the ONLY copy, and the book choices will be yours.
Head to www.morgankelley.blogspot.com to see the rules, sign up for my newsletter, and get the details.
See you in the next book.
Here’s to love, mayhem, and murder.
Always,
MK.
P.S. When Dakota Rakin left to hunt on his own, he wasn’t kidding. Stay tuned this November for his own trilogy spin off. He’ll be in Atonement, Absolution, and Amends, as he chases his own demons and they chase him.
Revenge has Come (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 19) Page 60
