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

by Kelley, Morgan

  “What does it say,” asked Whitefox, not moving from his position.

  “It’s a bull. On the back it says, ‘Only one brother will remain’.”

  Christina entered with a knock. “Where’s it at?” she wore gloves and carried an evidence bag.

  Ethan Blackhawk took the evidence bag, dropped the baggie into the bag, sealed it, and signed it to continue chain of evidence.

  “Christina, I need something on this fast. I know you're bogged, but this is really important,” said Blackhawk. “Find me something and get it to me an hour ago.”

  “Yes, Boss,” she started for the door.

  “Wait,” Elizabeth stopped her. “We also need someone to accompany Mr. Blackhawk back to his house and collect any trace the killer may have left.”

  “Sure thing Director Blackhawk.” If the woman gave any notice of the name similarity, she didn’t show it. “Give me an hour to have the trace for you, and I’ll have a tech team in the garage waiting for escort.” Christina closed the office door and headed off to do her job. Now the clock was ticking.

  Wyler Blackhawk was proud of his son. He’d made something important of himself, and even his wife was powerful.

  “I’ll have the team escort you home,” Blackhawk ended the conversation abruptly.

  “Can I talk to you, alone for a minute, Ethan?”

  The muscle in his jaw ticked, and he almost said no. “Sure,” he nodded at his brother, signaling it was okay and accepted a kiss from his wife. He must look like he was in bad shape for her to kiss him in the office in front of his father. As soon as both were gone and the door was closed, he sat crossing his arms and braced himself for a conversation with his father. It was the first in more than twenty-five years.

  Wyler wished he didn’t abandon his sons so long ago.

  “What can I do for you?” he inquired coolly, as he leaned back in his chair. His eyes remained trained on the man. It wasn’t lost on him that he looked like his father- more than he remembered or liked. Blackhawk wondered if his wife would find him attractive when he got older, and had more worry lines around his face much like the man before him. The black hair was the same. Wyler wore his longer, hanging down his back in a single braid. It was the eyes that got to him, the soulless eyes he swore he inherited. Until he met his wife and found that he still had his soul, it was just buried deep.

  “I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

  “A few decades late, don’t you think?” he said angrily, and then regaining control. He wouldn’t let this man rile him up. He didn’t have that power over him anymore. Most of the stupid things he did in his youth were because of this man and anger. Together they were a volatile brew. The pattern stopped here and now, and he was no longer that boy.

  “It is, and I needed to tell you.”

  “I appreciate you telling me. Now …” he stood, dismissing him.

  “I know it doesn’t matter, but you picked a really good wife. It’s easy to see that she’s kind and loves you,” he simply said.

  Blackhawk felt his body shake in rage. Elizabeth was off limits. Even in a compliment from this man. “So did you,” he threw in there angrily, and hated that he drew that hostility out of him yet again. “My mother loved you the same way Elizabeth loves me. You had a good woman; you were just too big of an asshole to know it.”

  “I know. I wish she was still her so I could apologize to her too,” he said honestly. “I’m trying to clean up my life. Change what I was and amend for my sins.”

  “What do you want from me?” Blackhawk leaned forward, looking into his father’s face. It kept catching him off guard at how closely he resembled him, and at how he could have ended up just like the man before him. How dangerously close he’d come. Elizabeth pulled him out of the mire, and he wouldn’t ever be this man. It was all because of her.

  “I don’t want anything from you. I said what I wanted to say and that’s it.” Wyler stood.

  Blackhawk sighed at his own behavior. “Wait, please sit.”

  The man did, as if waiting for the anger to continue and willing to take the vicious, angry barbs.

  “I don’t want to hate you forever, but I just can’t get past it yet. I’m not at that point. You’ve done too much damage to just walk in here and be forgiven immediately.”

  “I understand. I don’t want you to get past it, or even forgive me, Ethan. I just wanted to tell you how I felt and let you know that I’m here for you. I know I never was before, but I’m really trying to change my life. I stopped drinking, and I know it’s only been twelve days, but it’s been a fight. I’m going to stay sober, and I’m going to atone for my past. I wasn’t there for you, and I wasn’t there for Callen. That will be my burden the rest of my life.”

  Blackhawk just listened as he relived the pain.

  “But from this day out, I’ll be here. If you ever want to come to me, or reach out to me, I’ll be here for you. The hurt I caused you both can’t be erased and forgotten, but please believe that I’m genuinely trying to change who I am going forward.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “If I could take it all back I would. In a heartbeat, but I can’t undo the past. I can’t save your mother, and I can’t be a better father. My only saving grace is that the two men I created didn’t end up like me. You both turned out to be decent men, good men. Your grandfather did that, and I owe him too.”

  He didn’t know what to say. There was still so much anger, but he could feel the cracks forming in the wall of hate.

  “When you have kids of your own don’t end up like me. It was selfish and wrong of me, and I hope you are nothing like the man I was then.”

  “I won’t be that man, Wyler. I wouldn’t betray my family, or my wife for anything. I didn’t get married to chase other women around. I got married to be committed to one woman,” he said simply. “I’ve experienced what it’s like for my father to come home one day and tell his wife and child that he’s tired of being a father and husband.” He may have been young, but he remembered the fights. “That he made a mistake. My family won’t ever be told they’re mistakes.”

  Wyler nodded. “Take care and goodbye son,” he said softly, as he walked out of his boy’s office and probably out of his life forever.

  Blackhawk just sat in his chair and stared out his windows. He knew that coming home meant confronting his old man; he just didn’t think that it would be as hard as this, or as painful. There was a part of him that wanted Wyler to suffer for what he did and the pain he caused. There was a little hate in him that wanted to break his own father into pieces, much like those he had been broken into as a child.

  How do you forgive a man that had walked out on you and your mother?

  Then there was a part of him that wanted forgiveness- not for Wyler’s sake, but his own. He wanted to heal, so he could be a better man, and learn from his own father’s mistakes. He wanted to be a good dad and a good husband in the worst way, and somehow he didn’t think holding this grudge was going to be the way to achieve his goal.

  Elizabeth stood in her doorway, lying in wait for the man to exit her husband’s office. “Mr. Blackhawk, can we talk?” she asked, walking with him to the elevator.

  “Yes,” he answered, surprised that she dared come near him. He was certain his son would have already told her to stay away from him at all costs. “Will he be mad we spoke? I don’t want to make him angry at you.”

  “Maybe or maybe not, but I need to say something and you need to listen to me. It’s very important.”

  Wyler expected an ass chewing from his son’s wife, and he knew he deserved it. “Go ahead, Elizabeth.” He braced for it and in a way, welcomed it. Atonement was never comfortable and neither was the havoc his choices caused.

  “After the tech team sweeps your house get out of there. Lock the doors, and head out and don’t look back until this is over.”

  He looked surprised. This wasn’t what he thought she’d say to him. From what he had seen of his s
on’s wife, she was protective of her husband, and now she was helping the enemy. He just didn’t understand why.

  “The killer is screwing with this family.” Elizabeth looked over her shoulder. “Go stay with Timothy, or go away for a while. I don’t want to be finding your body in your house, or in a ditch somewhere.”

  “You’re warning me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Even if you and Ethan aren’t on speaking terms, this killer is sadistic and would love to hurt my husband. Regardless of your past issues, he’d still hurt if he failed to catch this man before he killed you. Ethan is tied up in knots right now, and if he wasn’t he would have told you the same. Despite the years and the anger, you’re still his father. If anything, your son is a very honorable man. He’ll blame himself if anything happens to you, if he didn’t think to keep you safe or warn you. I’m just taking care of the details for him.”

  “I can make myself scarce. I don’t want to be used to hurt him anymore than I already have on my own.”

  “Where will you go?” she whispered, hoping her husband would stay in his office a little longer. Yeah, she was going behind his back, but it needed to be done.

  “I have some hunting spots on the reservation land. I need to restock for winter anyway. I can go hunting and be invisible for a couple of days.”

  “Tell no one but your father, and get the hell out of dodge.”

  Wyler Blackhawk laughed at her reference. “You’re an interesting woman, Elizabeth Blackhawk.”

  “So everyone keeps telling me.”

  Again, she looked over her shoulder and touched his arm as she held out a card. “Here’s my personal number. If you need anything, you call me. When you come back to your house please phone me, so I know to keep an eye out for you.” she patted his arm and turned. “The tech team is waiting for you in the garage. Happy hunting, Wyler and be safe.”

  Wyler watched his daughter-in-law walk away. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t expect the woman that knew how he treated his son to treat him like he was human. It gave him hope that maybe he was redeemable. He tucked the card into his pocket and made mental plans to head deep into the reservation hunting lands to save his son anymore pain.

  When Elizabeth finally made it into her husband’s office with her brother-in-law, Ethan Blackhawk was on the phone. It was on speakerphone and she could hear the woman talking.

  “We have one appointment for tomorrow morning, it’s at ten a.m. and then not again until the following week on Friday. Doctor is very busy this month.”

  “Okay, she’ll take the appointment tomorrow.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration.

  “Okay Mr. Blackhawk, if for some reason she can’t make it, call and let us know and we’ll reschedule.”

  “Thank you.” He disconnected the call and glanced over at his wife.

  “Why do you look frazzled over the doctor appointment?” Ethan had wanted to control freak it to death, and now it was apparently causing him some sort of anguish.

  “Tomorrow I have a bunch of meetings, and I can’t go with you,” he didn’t like the idea of her going without him. It was his child too. Shouldn’t he be there with her? “I wanted to be there with you for every appointment, like a supportive husband and father should be.”

  “Cowboy, you know how many appointments I’ll have in the next eight months? I think I can manage to leave our house and drive to the doctor without an armed escort for blood work. Besides, you tend to intimidate, and we don’t need to piss off the doctor and nursing staff when they’ll control my pain meds during delivery.”

  Whitefox laughed and winked at his sister-in-law. “Want me to take you to your doctor appointment?”

  “Oh yeah, that looks even better. ‘Hi, I’m Elizabeth. No he’s not the baby daddy. He’s the daddy’s brother’. Really boys? Do we need to make this child a redneck before I have it? Let’s ruin the child after I have him. Please a little dignity while I’m carrying Baby Blackhawk.”

  Blackhawk and Whitefox both began laughing at the term.

  “I guess you have a point, baby.”

  “I can leave when you do. I’ll go to the office early and work on my tablet there, and then come back here. Okay?”

  “Yes, Mrs. Blackhawk. Now that this is over, what’s our next order of business?” he asked, feeling calmer.

  Elizabeth walked over to the white board and pointed. “We have a few suspects, Mrs. Wolman, Doctor Wolman, Doctor Reginald and the vet, Doctor Barnes. I say we saddle up and start with the Wolmans. It’s two at once.”

  Blackhawk thought about it. “How about we divide and conquer? Callen take the vet, since he’s familiar with him. We can take the dentist. Meet up for lunch and hit the Wolmans together?”

  “Even better.” Elizabeth deferred to Whitefox. “You okay with that? Since there’s no evidence being collected, we don’t need to worry about someone from the FBI going with you to preserve chain of evidence. Can you handle the vet on your own?”

  “He’s a family friend, and I think I can manage. Where and when do you want to meet for lunch?” He looked at his sister-in-law, since she was pregnant and would likely have the deciding choice anyway.

  Elizabeth smiled sweetly at her husband and looked down at her still flat stomach. “Baby Blackhawk, what would you like for lunch today?” she paused, as if having an imaginary conversation. “Uh huh, uh huh, oh, I happen to agree,” she looked back up at her husband. “Apparently, the Blackhawk child and I are in agreement. We both want burgers, and before you make any comment, Doc Leonard said eat more red meat, and secondly feel free to prove the baby didn’t just tell me that.”

  Blackhawk couldn’t help but laugh at how silly his wife was behaving. Yeah, he couldn’t be happier he was married and was having kids. “I know better than to argue with you over things when you aren’t pregnant and hungry. Burgers and pow wow, one p.m.”

  “You threw that in for me, didn’t you,” she said laughing with her brother-in-law over his Native American reference.

  “You think you’re the only one that can be funny, Elizabeth?” he asked, grinning.

  “Hardly darlin’,” she said smiling. “I find myself laughing at you and Callen all the time.”

  Ethan and Elizabeth Blackhawk headed to the office of Doctor Reginald. The office was in town and one weekend a month the good doctor would head into the reservation to donate time and services. It was a huge glass office. Apparently both Blackhawks should have been dentists. This must be where all the prestige and money was in careers. Elizabeth was a little wary. They didn’t have much information on the dentist, and she didn’t like going in blind. Nasty surprises popped up then and she was known to get nasty right back.

  Once inside the building, they stopped at the receptionist’s desk and Ethan allowed his wife to do the dirty work. He knew she enjoyed playing with the civilians. His forte was cleaning up her wreckage and watching with amusement.

  “Time of appointment?” asked the woman behind the glass, not even looking up. “Time of appointment, please.”

  “How about now?” said Elizabeth.

  The woman looked up and didn’t even flinch. She obviously had to turn away many people, who tried to bully their way in before.

  “If you don’t have an appointment, you need to make one. We don’t take walk-ins, ma’am. Do you wish to schedule something?” She clicked away, disregarding the people at her window. “We have an opening in January, the twelfth at two forty five p.m.”

  “No, I’m pretty sure that you can fit us in now.” She took off her badge and held it up so the woman could see it. This was going to be fun. In the back of her mind she always hoped they’d put up a fight, that just made her day more of an adventure. If this was her last time out in the field, she wanted to make the most of it.

  “Are you insane? Put that down. We don’t need to have our patients think something is wrong!” The woman practically hissed, as she stood in her
chair, hoping to block the waiting room from seeing the gold shiny FBI badge.

  “My partner and I would like to see Doctor Reginald now. You could say it’s official business.” Elizabeth was enjoying this, and she could tell her husband was too. He was completely relaxed beside her, sunglasses still on and arms crossed, but she could see the curl to the corner of his mouth.

  “The doctor is with a patient.”

  “Okay, see that table over there?” She pointed at the glass topped coffee table. “In two minutes, I’ll be standing on the top of it, holding my badge up in the air, and asking loud annoying questions about dead bodies. Then my partner here will be asking every person for their ID as they try to rush from the building in absolute horror and terror. Then they’ll go home, call all their friends and tell them what happened. ALL because you thought I was yanking your chain about this being official business.”

  The woman gave her a nasty look and slid the glass closed. Elizabeth wished she could read lips, she was sure the woman was dropping some major profanity. It made her proud.

  “Like that glass can protect her,” Blackhawk said laughing under his breath. “I love working with you. I just have to stand here and look intimidating, and you do all the hard work.”

  Elizabeth tried not to laugh. She was busy working on her daunting look as she stared. She was talking fast into the phone, hand waving in the air, as she turned three shades of red.

  The glass slid back. “Have a seat, you’ll be seen shortly,” she mumbled, venomously.

  “Nope. Not good enough,” she paused, and read her name tag, “Tiffany. Let me explain something you don’t seem to get. I’m a federal agent. I’m paid by the taxpayers, and I am on a schedule. If you think it’s a good idea to send me over there with the civilians, then you must be a few cards short of a deck,” she drawled.

  Ethan loved when his wife got all southern on the civilians. It turned him right on and made him want to kiss her right there and then.