Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6)

by Kelley, Morgan

  Literally.

  The slap was loud and drew the attention of just about everyone, including Wilma May, who was watching intently behind the counter.

  Elizabeth moved away from Callen, fully prepared to climb up on the table and beat down the woman. To her surprise, she didn’t have to lift a finger.

  Tori was up and had the woman by the arm, spinning her. She face planted her on the counter and kicked her legs apart to cuff her. “Oh, Ms. Kester, you’re under arrest. I just watched you physically assault a federal officer. I think you need some time to think about what you’ve done,” stated Tori, twisting the woman’s thumb unmercifully, drawing out a whimper. Out came the cuffs and the woman was yanked up by the back of her shirt. “Not to mention you insulted my friends, and that makes me want to break ninety percent of the FBI rules and regulations on excessive force.”

  Elizabeth grinned. “That was fun to watch. Now I know why you men always get that happy look on your face when I kick someone around.”

  Tori had her by the back of the shirt and part of her hair, leading her through the diner, past the patrons and toward the door. Just at that moment, Julian and Ethan walked in, staring open mouthed.

  “Agent Christensen,” Blackhawk nodded, holding the door open for her. He noticed the woman in cuffs was crying and looked mortified. Then recognition dawned. “Good day, Ms. Kester.”

  Julian just stood there unsure what to think.

  “Thanks boss, I’ll be right back,” she replied, leading the woman out of the diner.

  Blackhawk looked straight ahead and found his wife and brother sitting together. She was stroking his cheek and staring into his eyes. Something definitely went down seconds ago.

  Elizabeth ran her fingers down the red mark on Callen’s face and then left little kisses there to ease the sting. “I love you, Cal,” she whispered, running her free hand up and down his thigh. “Thank you for defending my heart,” she whispered in his ear. “Tonight someone’s going to get damn lucky on the couch, in our bed, and possibly the shower too.”

  All the blood in his face drained lower, as he grinned wickedly. Accepting her kiss, he enjoyed the way it felt to be fully immersed in Elizabeth. He was so lost in it; he didn’t feel the booth move as the two men joined him. Slowly, Elizabeth broke away and reality settled back in.

  “I see we had a visit from the town hussy,” stated Blackhawk, placing his hand on Elizabeth’s leg.

  “She placed her damn hands on Callen,” was her reply. Then she turned his face to show Ethan the vicious red mark on his cheek.

  “I’ll drive her to the sheriff’s myself,” Ethan growled. His baby brother spent his childhood being abused and in their family they didn’t tolerate anyone putting their hands on each other in anger; especially Callen. Ethan was surprised the woman wasn’t lying in her own puddle of blood. It wasn’t like Elizabeth to not start a beat down over the men.

  As if reading her husband’s mind, Elizabeth continued, “Tori took care of it. She actually beat me out of the booth, or I would have kicked the shit out of Carly.” Elizabeth owed her friend a thank you.

  “We apparently can’t leave you alone together,” Julian stated, laughing. It didn't bother him at all, and in fact, he liked that Tori had someone that cared about her.

  Wilma May wandered over with their drinks and some ice in a towel. “You okay, Sugar?” she inquired, handing it to Callen.

  “Yeah, I’m good. I can’t say the same thing about Carly,” he started laughing.

  The waitress grinned. “Is it wrong that I hope she’s getting the crap kicked out of her by the pretty redhead?”

  Elizabeth laughed. “Nope, I was hoping the same thing. I may give Tori a promotion after this.”

  Wilma May laughed. “I’m glad you’re back. It’s been slow here the last year,” she said retorted. “Hi Julian, whatcha having, Sugar?”

  He didn’t need the menu. “I’m going with the usual,” he answered.

  Blackhawk ordered next. “I’ll have whatever my wife and brother are having,” he said, leaning over to drop a kiss on her cheek. “I’m assuming it’s a salad, so put some chicken on mine. This pregnancy is killing me.”

  Wilma May winked, walking away.

  Elizabeth snorted. “Yeah, you have it rough,” she muttered, drinking her vegetable juice.

  Just then, Tori wandered back in, placing her cuffs back in place. There was a smile on her face. “Hope I didn’t miss anything,” she said, squeezing in beside Julian. When he dropped his arm around her shoulder, she enjoyed the scent of his cologne.

  “You didn’t kill her, did you?” asked Blackhawk, laughing. “Because that’s extra paperwork, and I hate that more than anything.”

  Tori smiled wickedly. “I only did what Elizabeth would do in the situation.”

  Her boss started laughing and rubbing her baby bump. “You didn’t have time to bury the body, so I’m guessing you dumped her bleached out, skanky ass corpse in the nearest gully.”

  Ethan gave her a look.

  “What? Tori said she did what I would have done.” Now she was laughing. “Man, tough crowd today. I hope the baby and I aren’t losing our edge.”

  Tori offered her boss a fist bump. “I dragged her to the Denali, read her some made up Miranda rights, and told her the penalty for assaulting a federal officer. Oh, and promised to make her some woman’s bitch in a federal jail.”

  Elizabeth manically rubbed her hands together. “Please tell me it was a big scary woman named Bertha, who needed a fluff brained, dumb ass piece of tail to…” she started, but was interrupted.

  “Elizabeth!” Ethan stopped her before she went over the edge. Everyone at the table was laughing, including him.

  “I’m so going to kiss you as soon as I get out of this booth,” stated Elizabeth.

  Funny, none of the men were laughing now.

  Tori shrugged, not missing a beat “As long as Julian doesn’t mind, I’m okay with that. I have gum in my pocket.”

  Julian stared open mouthed, and Ethan and Callen started laughing again.

  Elizabeth waited until Wilma May placed the men’s drinks down, and then she looked at Ethan. “How’s the head, Cowboy?”

  Blackhawk shrugged. “It doesn’t even hurt.” Then he saw the evil glint in her eyes and knew he was screwed.

  “That’s good to hear, since it’s going to be really sore when I finish my bitching.”

  Callen crossed his arms and grinned. Ah, the fun was about to begin, and he was thankful he’d been with the women earlier. His ass was out of the sling on this one.

  “You went back to the poacher’s house without mentioning it? Which in itself would be fine, but you were sneaky about it. That breaks all kinds of husband wife rules right there, and not to mention a slew of partner rules too.”

  Blackhawk grinned. “So, basically what you’re saying is you’re not happy. Right?”

  She crossed her arms and lifted a brow.

  “Now you know exactly how I feel when you trudge through the snow in no Kevlar,” he referred to the last time they were here. “Or take a round to the center of a vest at close range in a swamp,” he continued. “Or get stalked through the forest with a serial killer trying to take your life.” Now he crossed his arms, mimicking her position. “And generally all while pregnant.”

  Callen snickered and earned an elbow to the side.

  “I noticed there were two couches in the rental house. You want to be joining your BFF on one of them?” Elizabeth warned. Unfortunately for her, no one was buying her anger.

  “Next?” added Blackhawk.

  “You're just lucky you’re damn slick,” answered Elizabeth. “If you weren’t, I’d nail that sexy hide of yours to the wall on this one.”

  Blackhawk clinked his soda glass off his brothers in celebration. One of them managed to pull one over on her and live to tell about it.

  Julian and Tori laughed at them in action.

  “You two are pushing it,”
she pointed at the men in her life, and they continued laughing. “Damn this baby is ruining my street cred.”

  Whitefox leaned over and kissed her scowling mouth. “I’m scared shitless of you, Angel. So terrified in fact, I now have horrible nightmares of you having your way with me. I may need therapy.”

  His brother snickered, and then kissed her when Callen had finished. Both men could feel the eyes of their waitress on them from the counter and neither cared.

  Elizabeth ran a hand up and down each man’s leg, enjoying how they both tensed at her stroking. “How about we break the ‘no work over lunch’ rule and you tell us what you found out at William Boyd’s house?”

  It took a minute to focus, but somehow Blackhawk managed. The scent of his wife’s perfume was intoxicating, as her hand was dangerously close to a certain part of his body. Already, he was thinking about tonight and making crazy wild love to her. From the look on his brother’s face, Callen was thinking the same thing.

  “Ethan? The scene?” she asked again, laughing. She was purposely tormenting them. Call it her little revenge.

  “We headed out there and did a search. We found twelve gauge shotgun casings. William Boyd was shooting at us with the intent to kill. There was no mistaking that.” His body tightened in something other than lust. It was rage that the man was aiming at his wife and their unborn child. He and Callen exchanged looks.

  “How many did you find?” she inquired.

  Thinking back, he did a mental count of the bag. “Six. How many shots were there?”

  Callen heard them all and they terrified him still. “There were six in total.”

  It looked like they found them all. Blackhawk continued. “The deputy searched the back, and we covered the front where the gunfire originated from.”

  Julian picked up from there. “Boyd was nowhere to be found. Can you blame him? He just took shots at three federal agents. He had to know he was going to jail for a long time.”

  Elizabeth took a sip of her vegetable juice. “Did you check out his hidey hole?”

  Julian began choking on his drink, and Tori slapped him on the back furiously. “What?” he managed to get out, between the pounding on his back.

  Blackhawk looked confused and looked around the table, like he was missing a private joke.

  Elizabeth started laughing and offered Callen a fist bump. “This is why you don’t go behind your partner’s back in the first place. You tend to miss the things that she’s aware of and you’re not.”

  “There was a hidey hole?”

  Julian knew something felt off about the area. It just seemed out of proportion.

  Damn it!

  “Chief Longtree told us about it.” Elizabeth offered, grinning. “You mean the FBI’s boss supreme and the best Native tracker didn’t find it?”

  Blackhawk was furious. “Yeah yeah, we missed it. What pisses me off more is that we had an officer there with us who knew Boyd. He had to know about the hidden spot, and Yazzie neglected to tell us.”

  Elizabeth finished her vegetable juice, and showed Callen her empty glass to make him happy. He was micromanaging her vitamin intake with a vengeance.

  Wilma May brought over their food and placed it in front of them, smiling. “Here you all go. If you need anything let me know.”

  Whitefox touched her arm before she could turn away. “Can Elizabeth have a soda? It needs to be something clear and without caffeine, but not diet.”

  The waitress nodded, and flounced away smiling. She liked the Feds, despite what people in town were saying.

  Elizabeth stared at him until he began laughing. Now she wasn’t even ordering her own beverages. The father of her second child was way out of control.

  “I can’t believe I missed it,” added Julian.

  Blackhawk wasn’t happy. He’d been conned by the police officer. The man may have actually helped the suspect get away, by allowing him to hide while they searched. “Damn it! This makes me furious. I can’t believe we missed the opportunity to catch him in his hide out.”

  Elizabeth understood how he was feeling, and she was trying to not look smug. “I think tomorrow we hit the scene again, and this time we bring Chief Longtree and the officer that jacked around with you guys too. I’d love to see him talk his way out of this in front of his boss. Sometimes the best revenge is to let them think they won, and then dump it all on them at once.”

  Blackhawk considered what she was saying, and immediately began working on a plan that excluded her.

  “Don’t even think about it, Ethan, and if you even open your mouth, I’ll keep bringing up how you potentially allowed the man to escape.” She started laughing, as did Tori. “Yes, I just put it back on you, Cowboy.”

  Leaning over, he dropped a kiss onto her cheek. “Yeah, you women are far smarter than us men. How I ever manage to make it through the day is beyond me.”

  She winked at her husband. “You do remember life before us, right? I do believe you were completely lost without me.”

  Elizabeth wasn’t far from being accurate. His life was so much better now that she was part of it. He’d found love, reconnected with his brother, and created an amazing circle.

  Everyone continued eating.

  “What’s next on today’s agenda,” inquired Julian, looking at his watch. This was supposed to be lunch, but it was more like a very early dinner.

  Callen spoke up. “We have the DNA evidence in the Denali. We need to drop it off at the lab, and we can head out for the night. Until they analyze it and give us a match, we’re out of work.”

  Elizabeth updated the men on what they found at the farm where Andrew Sumner went missing. “It pretty much confirms it in my mind, but DNA will give the families closure.”

  Blackhawk agreed. “How was Sheriff Duffy?”

  Callen started laughing. “Sheila was a holy nightmare and Duffy was trying to get into Tori’s pants.”

  Julian began choking again, and this time his eyes began watering. “Are you trying to kill me?” he finally got out. “I’m about ready to go over the edge here.”

  Tori leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “No worries, Callen threatened his life, and Elizabeth threatened to call you. I do want to go on the record here and point out that while I may not have eleven years in the FBI like the bosses, I do have some experience from the military. I wasn’t actually worried. I’m accustomed to evading men’s pick-up lines.”

  Callen shrugged. “It’s an unwritten Native rule. You watch out for your fellow brother’s woman.”

  It earned him a punch to the ribs from Elizabeth. “That’s very chauvinistic, and while it’s customary from your brother, I like to believe you’re less narrow-minded than him. Don’t screw up my fantasy.”

  Blackhawk grinned wickedly. “I tried to teach him everything I know. He was a slow learner.”

  Julian got their attention. “Um… I want to hear about that asshole hitting on my woman. I need to know, so when I kill him and go to jail I can rationalize it to a jury.” He threw his arm around her body and pulled Tori against him. Julian was going to make James Duffy pay for even thinking illicit things about Tori.

  She laughed and cuddled against his side, whispering in his ear. “You’re very sexy, Julian. He has nothing on you.”

  Elizabeth started laughing. “I have excellent hearing too, Tori.”

  She winked at her boss, even as Julian’s body was going taut against hers. Already she knew what he was thinking about, and now so was she. Getting back to the cabin would be a very good thing and soon.

  “Why don’t we run the DNA and such to the lab? Julian and Tori can cut out early. We’ll meet back up tomorrow morning around nine at the station.” Elizabeth winked at her friend. “Consider that your reward for beating down Carly Kester for me.”

  Tori grinned and rubbed her hand up and down Julian’s leg; first with her fingertips and then with her nails. “Best boss in the world,” she answered.

  Blackhawk handed Jul
ian the keys to the Denali. “No sex in the official vehicles,” he said, laughing. “Self-control means making it back to your cabin.”

  Julian dropped money on the table and Tori slid out of the booth. “Don’t talk to me, tell her that,” he said, throwing her under the boss bus.

  Elizabeth laughed as Tori hustled out of the diner, Julian practically chasing her.

  “I’m glad they’re happy,” stated Blackhawk, dropping his arm around Elizabeth’s shoulders, and having his brother do the same thing, sandwiching her between them and protectively against them.

  “Me too, but don’t expect her to come back to the FBI. Tori is planning on staying on the Rez with Julian.” Elizabeth enjoyed the feeling of both men against her. It was familiar and comforting. When she felt a twinge, she went still, feeling the baby begin to kick. Waiting for another, she was going to tell Callen but they stopped.

  “Here’s the bill,” Wilma May said, placing it on the table. “Can I ask you something personal?” she said, watching the man with the black hair reach into his suit pocket for his wallet. He pulled out his credit card and placed it on the bill.

  “Yeah, go ahead.” Elizabeth already knew where it was heading. They were used to the stares and questions regarding their threesome. People that knew them before they were together often had the look of confusion when they saw Callen cozying up to the side of her.

  “Aren’t you married to him,” she asked, pointing to Ethan. “Because you’d think you were with him now too.”

  Elizabeth had no qualms with the truth. “I’m with both of them,” she said, grinning.

  The woman’s mouth dropped open.

  “Yes, both of them,” she reiterated.

  Wilma May looked confused.

  “Don’t overthink it. It is what it is,” Elizabeth reassured, once again running her hands over their legs. If anything, being with both of them was a thing of pride to her. Let people talk, she was the filling in the sexy native cookie, and that was a damn good thing.