“Gabe,” he said, nodding and pulling up a report on his tablet. “The killer sent me pictures; there’s a tech in my office trying to find a location. The killer stripped her and redressed her. We know what she’s wearing from the pictures, and right now two agents are on their way to the reservation tourist store. Callen thinks he’s seen the dress and moccasins for sale there.”
“Okay,” he dropped his bag and took off his jacket.
“We searched my dad’s house, and we found one picture and some letters with a woman’s name. I have my team searching for her now, and maybe we can find a connection.”
“What do you need me to do?”
For a moment he showed weakness. “Tell me she’s going to be okay.”
Gabe didn’t know if she would, but he was willing to lie to his friend. “Your wife is the smartest, toughest woman I know. Elizabeth was top of her class. My wife tells me stories of how she got her through the survival classes and the obstacle courses. When they had to do basic survival, she never once got tagged by the S.W.A.T guys, and you know how hard that is to evade. Livy told me she was the only one in her group to evade the paintballs. Elizabeth Blackhawk isn’t going to lie down and cry. Right now she’s fighting damn hard, and I know she’ll get home.”
“Thank you for that.” Sometimes he needed someone to be the voice of reason and remind him how bad ass his wife could be.
“What’s the woman’s name? I’ll call Quantico and have everything we can locate on her pulled.”
He gave him the name and watched him make the call. “How much time do we have?”
Blackhawk looked at his watch and tried to pretend they weren’t talking about his wife. “We’re at the halfway point.”
“Then I suggest we get busy and figure this out.”
Elizabeth held her father-in-law’s hand as they moved in the opposite direction of the killer. They traversed quickly but silently through the brush and between the trees. The cuts from brambles were ripping into the already raw cuts on her arms and legs, but she didn’t care. The pain was worth the knowledge that she was getting away and going to live another day. Watching the man with her, she didn’t care what he had done in his past. There was going to be a big wet kiss for him as soon as he got her home. Every time she looked up at him, he reminded her of her husband and a couple of times she felt her eyes filling with tears.
“Elizabeth, are you alright?” he asked, looking back at her.
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I’m just worried about Ethan.”
Wyler nodded understanding. “I am sure Ethan is frantic. I’ll get you back there. We have another three hours if we don’t stop. Once it gets dark he won’t have a chance of tracking me. I’ve been doing this a long time in these woods.”
Elizabeth didn’t know if she should tell him who the man was, but she thought she probably should. When he stopped to give her some water, she looked up at him. “Wyler, the man killing all those women, he’s impregnating them.”
“Did he touch you, Elizabeth?” He felt angry, this was his son’s wife, and the idea that he violated her sent fury through his body.
“I don’t know, but I’m already pregnant, so he can’t hurt me.”
He was surprised to know he was going to have a grandchild. Then he remembered that his son wasn’t going to ever let him see the child. He pushed the hurt down and masked the pain. “Congratulations honey. Now that I know that, we’ll make extra stops so you can rest. You can’t stress your body too much.”
“I’ll be okay. I’m just relieved that you found me in the woods.”
“Me too, Elizabeth,” he said, handing her some venison jerky. “Eat this, so we can keep your strength up. I can probably carry you out towards the end, but I’m not the young man I once was.”
“I’ll be okay; I just need to get home to Ethan.” She bit into the jerky. “Well, now I’ve had venison and decided that it may very well be my favorite new food,” she grinned. “Next to bacon.”
Wyler patted her cheek very fatherly, and knew how his son had fallen in love with her. “I’ll get you more when you get home. I promise.”
“You look alike,” Elizabeth finally said it, her bottom lip quivered. “Every time I see you, I see my husband.” Then her eyes filled with tears again.
Wyler Blackhawk pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “Since I know how handsome my son is, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Elizabeth sniffled. “Now I get to see what Ethan will look like through his life. The Blackhawk men are and always will be incredibly handsome.”
“Eat your jerky. You're delirious,” he smiled, and then went on alert when he heard a twig snap. He pulled her down behind some brush and placed her protectively behind his body. “If he finds us you run that way,” he pointed and whispered into her ear. “You keep running. It’s going to be brutal, but I’ll buy you time.”
Elizabeth nodded and touched his cheek, watching as he pulled out a wicked hunting knife. Now, she would just pray the killer didn’t find them both, because Elizabeth Blackhawk didn’t run.
Apparently, no one told Wyler Blackhawk that.
* * *
The killer just didn’t understand it. How the hell had he lost her? She wasn’t Native. Elizabeth Blackhawk was an outsider, so how had she managed to slip past him in the woods and escape? Anger filled him as he backtracked looking for any sign of her. Soon it would be dark, and he had just enough time to get out himself. With the black bears and the mountain lions, she might just become a snack. He would head out, home to clean up, and back to his brother’s house.
Once there he would watch and wait to get his brother. But first it was time to mess with his mind, and push him over the edge. Maybe if he was lucky, the man would eat his service weapon and end his life.
He pulled out Elizabeth Blackhawk’s phone and sent him a text message, smiling evilly. That should put him over the edge. Pulling out his compass, he started back to the area where he had the quad hidden. Soon it would be time to see how much pain Ethan Blackhawk could handle before he crumbled.
* * *
It had only been a very large deer, and Wyler was pissed. “That deer would have filled my freezer and made you a lot of jerky,” he whispered to Elizabeth grinning. “Now I really hate the man hunting you.”
Elizabeth wanted to laugh, but still she needed to share what she knew. “Wyler, the man who is following us, we analyzed the fetus DNA,” she started, preparing to tell him the truth; he needed to know, especially if it came down to a fight. The killer would use it to throw him off guard, and that could cost them their lives.
He took a sip of the water and passed it to Elizabeth. “Yes?”
“The DNA came back as a match to Ethan and Callen.”
It registered finally.
Elizabeth saw the telltale sign that he got it; he was so much like his son, or should she say his son was just like him. “The man following us, he’s your other son.”
How could he not feel bad about all this? His son’s pregnant wife was out in the forest, fighting for her life because he made so many mistakes in his youth. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I wish I made better choices.”
Elizabeth understood, she touched his cheek and looked into his eyes. “I don’t judge on the past, Wyler. I judge on the future and as far as I’m concerned I’m your biggest fan.” Elizabeth smiled gently at him, offering him reassurance.
“Come, let’s keep moving. I’ll stop in a while to let you rest; I don’t want you to stress your body too much. I have to keep you healthy.”
Absently, she rubbed her hand over her belly, and with her free hand she held his, as they started to move back through the woods and further away from the killer. No longer could she hear his taunts and the cry of disturbed wildlife. Finally, she felt some wisps of safety. The man leading her out of the woods could be trusted. Deep down, she believed that Wyler was her savior.
Hours abducted ~ eight
Ethan sat behind hi
s desk, and was listening to Gabe bark orders into the phone. He was in the process of getting ready to mobilize a search party at daylight. Right now, it was dusk, and the temperatures at night in fall weren’t too cold unless you were in the mountains.
All he kept praying was Elizabeth was tough enough to survive. In the FBI, they covered basic survival if you were caught inland, alone, and by yourself. He knew she would have basic knowledge. Then he remembered that she wouldn’t be in jeans and a pullover, she was dressed in deerskin and that wasn’t going to offer her or their unborn child any warmth. He had to stop thinking about it, he was making himself crazy.
“We have a flight leaving Quantico at midnight, it lands at five in the morning. We’ll mobilize a search and rescue to start at daybreak.”
Christina and the lab techs had given them a general location of the Rosewood bush, and at dawn they would begin the search for their abducted co-worker.
“The killer might be expecting that, so everyone should be suited up in vests. This may be him using my wife as bait. Elizabeth believed I was the initial target,” he said, feeling sick thinking about it. His wife was fighting for her life because of him. “Once we start combing the thicker forests, I’ll be the main target he will be gunning for. I’m the only Blackhawk son.”
“Hang in there Ethan,” he said patting his shoulder. When it came to that time, his agent wasn’t going to be going out. He wasn’t risking him to find Elizabeth.
Blackhawk’s phone chimed and he knew it was going to be from the killer. It was tone again. He picked it up and read the message. A sharp pain went through his heart at the words.
You’re too late Raven. The dove didn’t make it. I took
her life, and you have no one to blame but yourself.
You’re a failure.
His Elizabeth was dead, and he failed her. Suddenly, he couldn’t breathe or think. What he wanted was to lie down and die. There was no way he could continue without her.
Gabe saw the look on his agent’s face and immediately grabbed the phone. He felt sick to his stomach, and then control seeped back, as he regained what he almost let slip. “He’s full of shit, Ethan,” snapped Gabe angrily, hoping he was right. “If he killed her, he’d send you the pictures. He’s messing with your mind, trying to keep you off track and keeping you from finding your wife.”
Blackhawk let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“The first picture he’d want you to see is of her dead, and Elizabeth isn’t dead.” He left off the word yet, because he didn’t want to believe it any more than his agent did.
“You have a point,” and his heart started beating again.
“If he killed her, he’d want you to find her; you’d get a picture or a location.”
Gabe was right.
The door flew open and Christina ran into the room, both men jumped, “Boss, I got it!” she practically tripped and landed on the desk. “Oops sorry, I’m just excited.”
“What do you have?” he asked, standing.
“Angela Teldar changed her name. She was from a small town outside the reservation on the opposite side. It was all done by hand with no electronic conversion. She didn’t get married. Angela Teldar changed it, trying to disappear. We’ve been only searching marriage records, once we couldn’t find Teldar. All of us assumed no name pop meant that she just got married. Then one of the techs suggested legal name changes, and that’s where we found it!”
“What did she change it to?”
“Mason, and as I tracked that name, with any births of male children with a mother named Angela Mason, I came up with only one.”
“Christina, I may kiss you,” he said excitedly.
“Yeah well, Elizabeth will kick my ass when she finds out, so say it with a promotion,” she teased and bounced.
It touched him that she didn’t think his wife was going to be dead, and that his team had hope and faith in his wife.
“What do you have?” asked Gabe.
“There is one male child by the name of Thomas Wyler Mason.”
Ethan Blackhawk flinched as if slapped. In his heart he knew it was true, but it still hurt the killer had his father’s name.
“But here’s the kicker, Boss!” she said, pulling out another paper. “I found him. I actually found the son!”
“We have a location?” Now he was excited.
“We not only have a location, but his DNA, and I ran it against the dead fetuses.”
Blackhawk didn’t understand. “How did we have his DNA?”
Christina looked like she was going to explode. “Remember the river bed excavation with the bones and first full body? The one where Elizabeth tore the sheriff a new one and kicked them all off scene, raising hell?”
Gabe missed that in the report and there was probably a really good reason why. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him or them, but it sounded like a completely Elizabeth reaction.
“Yes.”
“We collected his DNA that day. He was one of the deputies.”
Recognition dawned, as Blackhawk felt the rage build. “I’ll fucking kill him!” He practically roared, scaring Christina and having her step back. “I met him at the sheriff’s station, and he was the deputy Elizabeth called for the missing person reports.”
Gabe stepped in front of his body and placed his hand on his chest. “What you will do Director Blackhawk, is get a search warrant, and then we’re going to do a little search and seizure at the man’s house. All of it strictly by the books.”
He took a deep breath. “Can you get the search warrant?”
“Yeah, but where are you going?” He hoped he wasn’t planning on playing cowboy.
“I’m going to kiss every person in my tech team, starting with Christina.” He grabbed the woman and planted a kiss on her forehead and jogged from the room. Screw inappropriate behavior. His team may have just told him how to find his wife. He was pretty sure she’d forgive him.
“I love my job,” she said, grinning at Gabe.
“You better wipe that smile off your face before Elizabeth gets back, or you won’t be having a job to love,” he laughed, finally feeling a little hope, as the woman scurried away.
Elizabeth sat on a rock beside Wyler. She was tired, worn down, and scared for her husband and her child. She put her hand protectively over her stomach and prayed that she’d be okay.
“Are you in pain?” Wyler asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, trying to keep her warm. Dark was falling and she felt chilly.
“No, just worried that when he drugged me it hurt the baby.” If anything happened to this pregnancy, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to come back from it. Already, she was attached to the idea of having a little Blackhawk.
“How far along are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Only about two months. Granddad says I’m having a boy,” she smiled lovingly at the idea. All she wanted was a house full of little Native boys. “I hope he’s right.”
“He will be. My father has always had the gift of baby prediction. In fact, he prides himself on never ever being wrong.”
“This will be your first grandchild, Wyler. That has to be exciting,” she offered, smiling hopefully. The man didn’t really want anything to do with his kids, she wasn’t sure that he’d want anything to do with a grandchild, but she could always hope. Elizabeth didn’t mention the dead fetuses that were also his grandchildren. Hers would be the first living Blackhawk.
Wyler looked over at her sadly. “Ethan won’t let me anywhere near his child; I destroyed any chance of that a long time ago, Elizabeth.”
She took his hand and held it. “You’re very wrong Wyler. Your son is an honorable man, and I have a feeling that he’s going to let you. I’d bet on it.”
“You think?” There was a little glimmer of hope that maybe he wouldn’t be excluded from the circle of family, even when he didn’t deserve one.
“Wyler, I do. I’m the child’s mother, and I ha
ve some say in it. I don’t have a father anymore or grandparents. You’re the only grandfather this baby is going to have in life. I need you to man up and be like Timothy. I want you to love this child with all you have in you. This could be your chance at redemption.”
Her bluntness surprised him.
“I mean it Wyler. Forgive me for saying this, but you screwed up big time. You damaged your sons, but I’m willing to trust you with mine. I know the kind of person Ethan, and he’s part of you. If you're even half the man he is, you’ll still be a fantastic grandfather if you put out the effort.”
“I see why my father and sons love you.”
“Your sons love you too, Wyler. They just have holes in their lives where you should have been, and those holes are filled with anger instead of love.”
“I don’t know how to fix it.” And he really didn’t. There weren’t words enough to say sorry to his boys. He knew that he’d damaged them, and he was sorry. He now saw the error of his ways.
All he wanted now was his family.
“You have to just keep trying. Don’t walk away anymore, because that’s what they expect you to do. When it gets tough, you stay, you stand with your boys, and you put yourself in front of them to protect them.”
“Like you do?”
“Someone has to be their armor, Wyler. They took a lot of hits as kids, and now they’re wounded again. To find out they have another brother, and that he’s a killer. Imagine the pain that causes inside them.”
“I’ll protect my boys from here on out,” he promised the woman.
“Then I have no problem letting you see my son grow up, and be part of his life,” she answered, simply. “Besides, I want a whole tribe of Blackhawk boys.”
Wyler laughed. “Be careful what you wish for, Elizabeth. Blackhawk men tend to raise hell.”
Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) Page 48
