Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four)

by Kelley, Morgan

  “What is it?”

  Elizabeth opened the tissue and they both looked down at the pregnancy test with the word ‘Pregnant’ in blue. “Someone knocked up Cordelia and now she’s gone missing.”

  “That’s a good motive for murder.”

  “Maybe that’s why the stalker has been quiet. Maybe this isn't connected and Cordelia got herself pregnant, told the man, and he didn’t like the idea of being a daddy.”

  Whitefox opened a plastic bag he pulled from his pocket. “We better test it to make sure it’s not a false positive. Can we ship it back to FBI West?”

  Elizabeth nodded. “We can and will.”

  “So, we have a woman saving movie tickets, little papers with hearts drawn on it, sexy underthings, and a pregnancy test with a positive result.”

  Elizabeth started thinking about it. “I don’t want to discount the nutjob yet, Cal. I don’t believe in coincidences. I really wish Julian would find me a body, and then we can go from there.”

  “What if it’s not our stalker?”

  She shrugged. “We hand it off and head home. If I can’t link it to the stalker, then I can’t justify being here.”

  He nodded.

  “You want to stay don’t you?” she said, softly.

  “As pissed as I am at her, I feel bad. I promised her I’d keep her safe, and I feel like I need to give her some closure on this. Then I can figure out what to do about the woman herself.”

  Elizabeth stood and grabbed the box. “Then we stay, and we get the closure she needs.”

  Callen smiled at her. “Thank you, Lyzee, for helping me with this. I know you’d rather be at home with Ethan and CJ.”

  “And don’t forget you. I promised you I’d not let you go out alone if I could go.”

  Whitefox pulled off his rubber gloves. “Come on, let’s go back and sort through this stuff and pack it up.”

  “Good idea.” They walked through the house, and out the front door. As they approached the Escalade, Elizabeth heard her name called and looked over her shoulder.

  Callen moved to stand in front of her when he saw the people behind the house moving towards Elizabeth.

  “Load this up, Cal,” she said, handing him the box. “We need that secured for FBI West.”

  “Lyzee be careful.” He didn’t like the drunkenness and the fact that Desdemona was glaring at Elizabeth like she was the enemy.

  “Hey everyone! Look who it is. This is the almighty Elizabeth Blackhawk and apparently she feels like mingling with the peasants. This here, ladies, is the woman that’s supposed to be my best friend, but in actuality she’s fucking my fiancé.”

  Elizabeth let out a breath and kept moving towards them. “Desdemona, I think you’ve had too much to drink, it’s dropped your IQ quite a few points this evening,” answered Elizabeth, shaking her head.

  “Oh, I stopped in at the bed and breakfast. The owner told me how cute a couple you were and all in love, making out, and holding hands. Then I saw you while I was in the liquor store. It was quite touching how the two of you were whispering and the best part was the ending. I truly loved when he tossed you over his shoulder and put you so lovingly in the car.”

  Elizabeth started laughing. “Wow, got some time on your hands, Des? You would think that you would be more concerned for your sister’s whereabouts and less about what I do at lunch time. Now, if you’re done, I’m going to go find your sister while you act twelve and get shitfaced with your friends.”

  “Desdemona,” Callen shouted. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Elizabeth was off-limits, even if the woman was drunk.

  “Oh, everyone meet the other player in this drama. This sexy man is Callen Whitefox, my fiancé, and the man jumping my friend.”

  “Jesus, Desdemona! Are you out of your mind? She’s your boss and can fire your ass. Knock it off!” he stated, emphatically.

  “Let’s just go Cal,” said Elizabeth. She took her eyes off Desdemona for one second, and that’s all it took. When she turned back around the slap clipped her square on the cheek and stung. Elizabeth counted to ten and didn’t move. If she looked at the woman she was going to punch her in the face and break her nose.

  “Oh my God, Lyzee! Are you okay?” Whitefox moved towards her, but Desdemona stepped between them.

  “For one damn second, can you stop running to her like she’s the fucking Goddess Aphrodite? For once, can you open your damn eyes and see that your attachment to her is ruining us?”

  Whitefox stared at her, unsure what to say. He was just too shocked at her behavior and words.

  Then, Desdemona struck again, punching him in the chest and aiming for his face with the next swing.

  Callen took the hit and tried to avoid the next one. There was no way he was putting his hands on her, even though he would like to shake some sense into her.

  Before Desdemona could strike him again, Elizabeth was on her and had her in a headlock, dragging her backwards towards the water. She really hoped there weren’t any alligators in there, but she had to put an end to this, and now.

  “Let go of me! You’re a man stealing bitch!” Desdemona fought but was out weighed.

  “Keep your fucking hands off Callen. I don’t know what you grew up thinking was acceptable. In our family we don’t put our damn hands on each other in anger.” Elizabeth shoved with all her force and knocked Doctor Adare backwards and into the water. “Cool off for a while Desdemona.”

  Elizabeth watched the woman come to the surface sputtering, and when her friends ran towards her to help her out, her phone began ringing. “Awesome timing.”

  “Elizabeth,” Blackhawk said into the phone. “You need to get home fast. The jet’s ready. It leaves as soon as you board.”

  “What’s wrong?” Suddenly her heart stopped in her chest. “Is CJ okay?” She’d never forgive herself if something happened to her son while she was away.

  “It’s granddad. I’m sorry to tell you this over the phone, but he has congestive heart failure and has for the last six months. He’s not going to make it through the night. Doctor Wolman just saw him. He’s sedated, but you have very little time to get here before he’s gone.”

  Elizabeth ran towards the Escalade. “We have to go Callen. It’s granddad!”

  He ran after her, not even looking over his shoulder at his fiancé sitting in the swamp water sobbing hysterically and calling his name. The man had one thing on his mind. Family!

  “Okay Ethan, tell him we love him, just in case,” she said, softly, hoping and praying that the jet would get them there in time.

  “Be safe, and I love you and need you right now. Please tell Callen, and hold him up as best you can. This is going to crush him.”

  Elizabeth understood. This was the man who raised both him and Callen. Timothy was their dad for years. The man who taught them everything about being the men that they were today. “I’m coming Ethan. Hang in there okay?”

  “I’m trying,” he whispered softly, before hanging up the phone and going back in to sit with the man that taught him how to live and love.

  Whitefox drove as fast as he could to the airport. Elizabeth wasn’t telling him what had happened, and that had him scared shitless. It meant it had to be pretty bad. As he drove, Elizabeth called the bed and breakfast, speaking to the owner and informing her they were going sightseeing out of the area. To hold their rooms, and they would be needing them the rest of the week.

  When Elizabeth hung up the phone, she still didn’t say anything to him. Now Callen was feeling sick to his stomach. As the airport loomed ahead of them, he pulled in and parked in the garage.

  Elizabeth hopped out and grabbed her purse and badge. They were going to need them to clear security with their guns and evidence. Pulling the evidence box, they started towards the terminal. She could see that the lights on the jet were already on, and true to his words, Ethan Blackhawk, even in his own grief was taking care of them out in the field. Now it was just a matter of getting them home in
time.

  As they entered the gate, they pulled their badges and guns handing them to security. They waited while they checked to make sure that the plane was FBI property and the correct names were on the passenger manifesto.

  Once approved, Elizabeth grabbed the box and raced from the ramp to the tarmac. Whitefox was right behind her, and they had the stares of other people but didn’t care. They needed to get in the air as soon as they could.

  Running up the steps, the co-pilot was waiting. The door was pulled closed and they began rolling before the locks were engaged.

  “Get us in the air fast and then we need to be alone,” she ordered, buckling in and sitting beside Callen.

  “Yes, Director Blackhawk,” he answered, entering the cockpit and closing the door to give them privacy.

  Whitefox needed to know, and he couldn’t wait any longer. “What happened? Did he fall and trip over something?” He went with everything that he could think of that wouldn’t be horrible, and that the old man could overcome. Besides he was a tough old man, and this would be nothing for him to bounce back from.

  Elizabeth looked over at him, taking his hand in hers. She told him what her husband told her, and she did what she promised. She held him up as he broke.

  “No. I’m not ready!” He couldn’t believe it. “I just saw him, and he said he was fine. The day before I left on my last assignment, I stopped in to see him and he was just fine!”

  Elizabeth squeezed his hand, and the man just stared at her, tears beginning to slide down his cheeks.

  “They have to be wrong! I can’t believe it. I want to talk to him!” He pulled out his cell phone and started dialing his grandfather’s house. When his brother answered, his voice shook. “I want to talk to him, Ethan. Put him on the damn phone!”

  Blackhawk felt his heart squeeze in his chest for the pain his brother was feeling. He knew when his mom died how horrible the void felt. His brother didn’t feel that when his own mother passed, because she never loved him like Timothy did. This was like losing the only parent that ever read him stories, tucked him in and helped him with homework after school.

  When Ethan lost his mom it was the same, but he’d only had her thirteen years. Callen had Timothy as his surrogate dad for over twenty seven years. That was his dad, and now the hole would be gaping.

  “Cal, he’s resting. I can hold the phone to his ear and you can say your goodbye. He’ll hear you.”

  “I don’t want to say goodbye, Ethan! Tell me it’s all a mistake. Tell me that I could have been with him the last two days, instead of running in circles after Desdemona!”

  Blackhawk felt his pain. “Cal, you need to say your goodbyes now, just in case you don’t make it back here in time.”

  Whitefox started sobbing. “Please tell me it’s a mistake,” he whispered through the tears. “I’m not ready, Ethan. I have so much left to learn from him.”

  “It’s time Callen. I’m sorry. Pull it together and say goodbye. He doesn’t have long, and he’s holding out for you and Elizabeth.”

  Callen glanced down at his watch. They had over two hours to go, then landing and the drive. It was going to take them at least three hours to get there. He didn’t want him to suffer. The man who gave him everything he ever had, who loved him first.

  “Okay, I’ll say goodbye.”

  Elizabeth squeezed his hand and offered him any strength that she had to get him through what was coming. “I’m here Callen,” she whispered, and he nodded, wiping his eyes with his free hand as he balanced the phone on his shoulder. Immediately, she went into his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, offering him whatever she could to just hold him up.

  “Okay, I’m holding the phone to his ear. Say your goodbye Cal.”

  Callen sniffled. “Granddad, I don’t want you to go, but I know you can’t stay. Thank you for everything you gave me. I wouldn’t have made it without you. I would have overdosed on drugs in some backroom of a flop house, like my mother. I wouldn’t have lived, because before you I had no reason to survive. When my mom died, you told me I’d be okay and I believed you. I don’t have that rock anymore. You were the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m sorry that I was bad at times,” he sobbed.

  Elizabeth kissed him on the forehead and let him hold onto her while he spoke. “I’ll be your rock,” she whispered, softly.

  “If I could take all the times back that I made you mad or worried, I would. You were my dad and my mom, and today I’m losing both at the same time. I’m going to miss you!”

  Elizabeth wiped his cheek and rested her lips against his forehead, giving him tenderness and love while he finished.

  “It’s okay for you to go Granddad. Don’t suffer for the next three hours. You did your job. Go be with grandma and just know you did a damn good job. I love you, Granddad. I love you so much,” his voice broke, and the tears came, and he handed the phone to Elizabeth.

  “Are you there, Lyzee?” asked her husband.

  “Yes, Ethan.”

  “Tell Callen that he heard him. He has tears on his cheeks. You need to go next. He doesn’t have much time, and his breathing is shallow.”

  “Okay, I’m ready.”

  “Go,” he said, holding the phone to his ear.

  “Granddad, its Elizabeth. I have everything under control now. I know what you want done, and what you want said. I’ll make sure you're honored for the eighty-nine years you lived on this planet. No one will forget Timothy Blackhawk. Your legacy lives on in the men that follow you. I’ll hold them up every day until the pain is gone,” she wiped her own tears.

  “I’ll have your final wishes taken care of, and I swear to you that I won’t let anything happen to your boys. They’re mine to carry now, and as long as I live I’ll love them with all I have in me.”

  Callen sobbed openly and shook in her arms.

  “I never had a granddad. Mine were both gone before I was born, but if I had to pick one, you would have been it. You make all other grandfather’s look bad. Go be with your wife. I know you miss her and it’s time to let the pain go, and just be the free spirit I know you are inside.”

  She pulled Callen’s face into her neck and let him weep. “Your great grandsons are going to be amazing too, and I promise that they’ll know all about the shaman and the man that led this family before me. Be at peace, Granddad. I love you and your boys.”

  Ethan returned to the phone. “He heard you too, Elizabeth. I’m going to say my goodbye, and see you here when you land. Take care of my brother. He’s not going to be okay for a long while. Callen is going to need you more than ever.”

  “If you need me, you call, Ethan. I’m here for you too.”

  “Thank you, Elizabeth, for everything you said and for taking care of Callen.” He felt the tears coming, and knew he needed to say his goodbye next.

  “It’s okay, Cowboy.”

  Ethan hung up the phone and looked over at his granddad. He took his hand in his and held it reverently. The man was very special to all of them, and he knew it.

  “I’m sorry I went away for all those years, Granddad. I wasted two decades of being away from you and seeing you every day. I’ll carry that in my heart forever, but I’m glad I came back. I got to spend the last year here with you, and it meant everything to me. Thank you for being so damn hard on me growing up. Without it I would have done horrible things as an adult. You led by example and when I raise my kids, I’m going to be just like you. You were my hero, and my mom and dad. There won’t ever be anyone that can fill that void in my life.”

  Blackhawk kissed him on the cheek. “I want to tell you don’t go. I want you to open your eyes and tell me you're fine, and that I’ll have you another twenty years until my boy becomes a man, but I won’t do it. You earned your peace now, and I believe that tomorrow when I wake up that you’ll still be here guiding me, because I have to believe everything you tried to teach me is real. I need to believe that our ancestors still remain.”

&n
bsp; Ethan wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “Just give me a sign once in a while, and I’ll be open to it. I promise I’ll be looking for you.”

  Timothy opened his eyes and stared at his grandson, motioning him close. The brown eyes, so filled with wisdom for years, stared directly into ones just starting to learn the ways of life.

  Ethan leaned down, placing his ear close to the man he loved and listened to the last words he’d ever hear from him. When he heard what he had to say the tears came, and he laid his head beside his grandfather. “I promise I will. I’ll tell them, Granddad. I love you. Goodbye and safe passage into the spirit world.”

  Ethan waited for the man they loved to leave them all.

  Timothy Blackhawk closed his eyes, squeezing his grandson’s hand one last time. After a while, the last breath was released and a new adventure was to begin. It was his journey to find his wife and all those who passed before him. His time there was over, and he trusted that his granddaughter was ready to protect the boys he loved more than anything in life.

  It was the end of the shaman, and the beginning of so much more.

  Saturday Evening

  Elizabeth drove the Denali that was waiting for them at the airport to the Rez. Neither occupant wanted to deal what was coming, but they knew that it was inevitable. She drove with lights and sirens all the way their granddad’s house. Once the vehicle was parked, she waited, taking Callen’s hand in hers. It was time to do what she promised to do. Carry the family and lead them through all this. She swore to Timothy that she’d do it, and she never broke a promise to the Blackhawk men.

  And she never would.

  “Come on, Cal. I have you,” she said, walking in with him. Once inside she saw her husband, and he was holding their son in his arms. The look on his face said it all.

  Timothy was gone.

  “When?” Callen asked.

  “Over an hour ago,” he answered, handing the baby to his wife, so he could hold his brother in his arms. Right now, he knew that he was about to fall apart.