First was WHY?
“Did that help?” Ivan asked.
“Well, it gave me a direction. I need to head home. I have a freaking migraine,” she said.
Ivan hopped behind the driver’s seat, and she looked at her watch.
“What time was your previously canceled dinner?” she asked.
Ivan was trying not to think about it. If he missed it, he’d tell Blue he was working. Then maybe she wouldn’t be pissed at him.
“Ivan?”
He sighed.
“It’s soon. It’s almost five now.”
“Drop me off at home, and then get your ass to your woman’s home. She deserves for you to have her back.”
He didn’t say anything.
“You know you want to. You know that you have to face this at some point.”
Yeah, he did.
Facing it wasn’t the issue.
Surviving the heartbreak was.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Fort Whitefox-Blackhawk
Callen headed out to see his father, knowing that he had to fix the mess he’d made. It wasn’t right for everyone to carry his baggage.
His issues were HIS issues.
“Where’s Chris?” he asked.
Wyler was helping the housekeeper work on the evening meal. She wanted to learn how to cook Native American food, and he wanted her to learn. Then he could spend more time with his son, TJ.
“He went up to his room. He said he’s not feeling well. His energy is off. I’m going to make him a pouch to help him,” he stated.
When Callen didn’t speak, Wyler glanced up.
“You know something. When you do, you always get that look on your face. Spill it. There are no secrets in families!”
Callen debated.
“He’s having a bad week. Chris just found out that he’s sick, but you have to keep that quiet,” Callen stated.
Wyler put down the knife he was using to chop the root vegetables for the stew.
He was concerned.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“HIV.”
Wyler’s eyes went big.
“I have a broth he should drink. Timothy said it would boost the immune system and make a person strong. Chris is going to need it now. I’ll make it.”
“I’m going to go find him.”
Only, he needed something else.
“Okay, son,” Wyler said, getting to work on the broth. When his son didn’t leave, he stopped.
“What?” he asked.
Callen needed his father’s opinion on this. His whole life, he wanted a relationship with the man, and now that he finally had one, he needed him.
Chris was upset.
Elizabeth was pissed at him.
Ethan would be too once he found out what he’d done.
All he had left was Wyler.
“Do you think Elizabeth would ever leave me?” he asked. “Do you think she ever thinks about it?”
The man laughed.
Callen didn’t.
That’s when Wyler realized that his boy wasn’t jacking around. He was asking a legitimate question.
“Oh, you were serious?”
“Yes.”
Wyler headed his way.
“Callen, she adores you. When you’re working at night, I’ve watched her sneak down and watch you when your back is to the doorway. She’s enraptured with you. She stands in the shadows as you work on a book, and she smiles. It’s one of the only times I see the weight lift off of her shoulders.”
Yeah, he was a dick.
He really screwed up on this one, and it was time to fix it.
“I need to find Chris.”
“I’ll make this broth.”
Callen jogged up the back stairs to the second floor. As he headed down the hall, he listened to him on the phone inside his room.
“Yes, Mother, I’m good.”
There was silence.
“No, I’m perfectly fine. Your cards are out of sync. I’m just getting over a bug. I think I picked it up at the pediatrician’s office.”
More silence.
“No, Bethe is fine. There’s no need to head here from California. She was accepted into a new pediatrics practice. I had to take her for her wellness—no one is sick. I really wish you’d stop with the witchcraft. If I were sick, I’d call and tell you.”
More silence.
“I love you, too, Mom, and I’ll think about your offer to come to California. Bethe might just like it. I’ll call you again. I just wanted to hear your voice.”
Silence.
Then Callen heard the soft sobs. His heart broke. He’d been part of this. He’d hurt him.
The only reason Chris would call his mother was if he was planning a hasty retreat, and if that happened, he’d have to chase him and drag him back.
Callen knew what he needed to do.
Knocking on the door, there was a pause.
“Yes?”
“It’s me,” Callen stated. “Can I talk to you?”
Callen heard him blowing his nose, and he waited until the man composed himself.
“Sure.”
When Callen entered the room, he found Chris sitting on the bed. His eyes were red, and he looked absolutely miserable over the whole situation.
Yeah, it was time.
“I wanted to apologize.”
“For?” Chris asked, trying not to cry.
“I’m sorry for being jealous of you. I was looking at it the wrong way. I was looking at it like you were Elizabeth’s, but then I thought about it, and you’re actually mine now too. I don’t have to feel that way.”
“Callen.”
He stopped him.
“I’m territorial of her because I can’t imagine losing her. If I lose Elizabeth, I know it’ll kill me. I’m not strong enough to survive without her. I sometimes let that beast out, and I’m not proud of it. I’m sorry that I made you sad.”
“I’m not sad because of that,” Chris said.
Callen didn’t speak.
“I just don’t want to die. I’m all alone.”
The tears came, and he began sobbing again as he sat on his bed. “I keep telling myself we’re all dying, but I know what will kill me. I’m so scared. For years, as I studied to be a doctor, making science my profession, I never feared the end. It is just going dark, but then I found things out.”
“Like?”
“That there is an afterlife. I believe now that there’s more, and I don’t want to be alone in it. I’m alone now, but I don’t want to wander forever lost.”
That broke Callen’s heart.
Callen kicked off his boots and climbed onto the bed. He pulled Chris against him, and he cuddled him into his bigger body.
The man sobbed.
Callen held him through the storm. He refused to let Chris feel this way. He refused to feed that pain in him. For this battle, Callen would fight for the man against him.
“I am so alone.”
“Shhhh, I have you. It’s okay,” he said, holding Chris. “You’re not alone. I have you now. I will always have you,” he promised.
Chris closed his eyes and just held on.
He couldn’t do it alone.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Fort Whitefox-Blackhawk
When she arrived, Ethan was just pulling into the driveway too. The limo let him out, and he immediately headed her way. That’s when he saw it.
Shit!
His wife had a giant knot and a small cut on her forehead.
What the hell?
“Are you okay?” he asked, turning her head to check it out. She’d left in pretty good shape, and someone was returning her back to him broken.
Where the hell was Ivan and his brother?
“I’m perfectly fine.”
He lifted a brow.
“Okay, so maybe that’s an exaggeration. I’m mostly fine, but I’m a little dinged up,” she sa
id, so glad to be home. As she went into his arms, Ethan held her in the blustery wind.
“Hey! What’s going on?” he asked. “You smell like beer. Did you get into a barroom brawl?” he asked, guessing at this point.
Yeah, she only wished.
“I took a beer-filled mug to the head and flipped off a rail. I knocked myself out, and my ass hurts.”
His eyes went big.
“Elizabeth! You could have been seriously hurt! Are you okay?” he asked, holding her to his body.
She didn’t tell him about Callen. She needed to regroup, and she knew he was inside. Elizabeth needed backup. She was a storm inside, and it was raging.
“I have a headache.”
Ethan checked her eyes. While the light was dissipating, he could still see her irises, and they weren’t disproportionate to how they should be.
“You terrify me,” he stated.
Elizabeth watched him as he picked up some snow and made it into a ball.
“This is not the time for a snowball fight, Ethan Jackson Blackhawk. I’m no match for you now.”
He laughed.
“Duly noted, but it’s for that goose egg on your head. It’s swollen, and it looks painful.”
“Yeah, it hurts.”
He noticed she was outside and stalling. Something else had gone down.
“What did my brother do?” he asked.
She told him everything.
At first, she thought he’d blow, but Ethan was pretty damn mellow.
“That’s on me,” he stated.
She didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. How could this be his fault?
“What?”
“I abandoned him. I left him behind, I broke him, and I never came back. Ever since then, he’s had this issue, and I saw it in the note he left me. I damaged him, and I made him question everything.”
She listened.
“I told him I’d never leave him. When we were boys, I told him I’d always have his back, only…I bailed. Callen never recovered from that. It’s his big fear.”
She softened.
How could she not?
Ethan led her toward the house.
“Maybe you can forgive him and remember that he means well, but remember how you felt after we had those issues?”
Yeah, she did.
She feared losing him every second of every day. Now she was good. They were good.
“We rehashed his pain. Callen was good until we started with this note and Chris getting sick. Give him the benefit of the doubt. Once he regains his bearings, Callen will be good again. We’re all entitled to a weak moment.”
Of course, he was right.
Elizabeth loved the new, calmer Ethan.
He led her toward the house.
“All I’ll say with Callen is give him time. He’ll figure this out. Remember, he was last man onboard. I’m accustomed to the crowd.”
“I’m not shacking up with another man.”
He pointed at the house and their bedroom window.
“Technically, you are. And he slept with us last night. Callen’s freaked out, and you need to be calm.”
Well, that was a little too late. She’d already freaked the hell out, tore him a new one, and dumped her frustration all over him.
Great.
She screwed up too.
Ethan knew he’d gotten through to her. The lines between her eyes were gone, and she looked less stressed. The best thing about all of them is there was always a mediator.
ALWAYS.
Today, it was him.
“Want to face the family?” he asked.
Yeah, she was ready.
“Let’s go in. I want a beer. I can hold the bottle on my damn head too.”
He led her in.
Inside, Ethan smelled it. The scent was something you couldn’t miss. It took him back to his childhood, and he already knew what was being brewed.
It should be illegal.
God!
The house was going to smell like this for the longest time, and he knew it.
“What the bloody hell?” Elizabeth asked, covering her nose with her pullover collar.
“That’s Granddad’s ‘All That Ails You’ brew. He used to make it when one of us got a cold. Right after, we proceeded to puke. It’s freaking lethal.”
Wyler laughed as he filled a mug. “It’s dinner for all of you,” he teased.
“What the hell?” Ethan asked. “I’m not sick. I may have had to drink that when the old man was alive, but there’s no freaking way you can make me do it.”
Elizabeth laughed.
Her husband was bordering on insolent child.
“To what do we owe this horror?” Elizabeth asked. “Seriously?”
“Callen told me about Christopher. He needs to drink this.”
“It smells atrocious,” she said, planning to lie her ass off next time she got a cold. “Why does it smell like gym socks?” she asked.
“Herbs. You should drink some too. You have a knot on your head, and this will help.”
She backed up.
“Hold your horses, Tonto. I’m not ponying up to that nightmare. I don’t care if I get the plague.”
Wyler laughed and then gave her a kiss on her head.
“Who did you get into a fight with?”
She told him as he poured the smelly drink into a mug. All the while, she kept her distance from it. Once that smell got into her hair, it would never come out.
“Well, that’s not like you.”
Yeah, she was aware. She had been having husband issues at the time.
“Oh, we gave the detective a room, and he’s in Ethan’s office hiding. The kids freaked him out. They made slime at school, and one of them ‘sneezed’ it on him. He’s not tribe friendly.”
She laughed.
“Which kid?” she asked. “Wait! Let me guess. Gross and a prankster.”
“EJ,” they both said at the same time.
“Yes, so he’s in a bedroom time out. By now, he’s wrecked the place. I’ll deal with him after I serve up this drink.”
They both took a step back.
“Where’s Chris?” she asked, as Ethan actually placed her in front of him, so he wouldn’t have to touch it.
“Really, Ethan? Someone doesn’t want to see me naked for a week.”
Oh, he’d take his chances with that.
“I’ve had to drink it. That will kill anything.”
She didn’t doubt it.
“Anyway, Chris is in his room. Callen went looking for him a while ago. I haven’t seen him the last hour. Are we having dinner?”
“Yeah, Chris has to have a special diet.”
“We can all stand to eat better,” Wyler stated, patting Ethan’s stomach.
“Hey now, old man! I have a six-pack.”
“Son, it’s more like a four pack. Eat some fruit, stop drinking coffee, and take a walk,” he said, handing Elizabeth the mug to take to Chris.
Oddly, it didn’t smell as bad in a small dose.
“Dad! I work out every day!”
Wyler knew how to get his sons going. It was fairly easy. The deputy director had become more vane.
Elizabeth snickered at the horrified look on her husband’s face.
“Ah, mid-life, here we come. Ethan lost two of his pack. Next up, he’s going to need a sports car.”
He slapped her on the ass.
“Jesus, Ethan! This shit just got on me! Stop! What if it peels off my skin!”
Wyler gave her a look.
“I love you, Dad.”
He laughed.
“Go find them. Dinner is in one hour. The nanny will handle bath duty. I’m tagging out on this one. I had to wash two dogs an hour ago.”
“Why?”
He showed her his phone.
Sungila had been painted and glittered.
Kanje was wearing the previously discussed slime. He was covered in it.
“Why do we spend all t
hat money to send them to a school that teaches them to make slime?” she asked.
“Chemistry?” Ethan asked.
She wasn’t sure, but there was going to be a new slime rule. EJ was a menace.
“Who decorated Sungila?”
“Cat.”
“Funny, those are both Callen’s kids…hmm,” teased Ethan. “I think that I’m in the clear here.”
“Yours flushed the goldfish…alive. Again,” Wyler stated. “Oh, and may I suggest you put your sex toys on higher shelves? Someone’s…vibrator is covered in marker.”
He pulled it from the drawer and tossed it to Ethan.
Elizabeth laughed her ass off until her head throbbed. She couldn't help herself.
Shit!
This place was insane during the day. She was suddenly glad she chased crazies.
“Have five kids under six, he said. It will be fine, he said,” Elizabeth teased.
Ethan couldn’t help himself. They headed up the stairs to find Callen and Chris, and get ready for the mayhem that was sure to come.
Thank God they had a nanny.
At Chris’s door, they knocked.
It was Callen’s voice that they heard inviting them in, and it was low and soft.
When Elizabeth opened the door, she found her husband lying on Chris’s bed with him, holding him against him while he slept.
“He was feeling unwell,” Callen offered. “I told him about what I said today, and I upset him,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Then I came up here to make it right.”
And that right there…
That was why she loved him.
Elizabeth kicked off her boots and placed Wyler’s potion on the dresser.
Ethan joined her.
He tugged off his tie and suit jacket. Together, they climbed into the bed and curled around Chris.
And then they just held them.
As one.
Chapter Eight
Blue’s Home
Friday Night
Dinner
W ell, it was here. This was the exact thing he was dreading, and to make it a million times worse, Ivan had two choices. Go home and change, or stop and get his girl some flowers. He couldn’t do both, so he went with the flowers.
Dead are Forgotten Page 30
