Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) (13 page)

“Deputy,” she paused. “I’ll be stopping in to see the sheriff of Cypress Grove tomorrow. Make yourself available,” she added. Then Elizabeth reached into the back of her jeans and handed him back his gun and then the magazine. “Night y’all,” she drawled, heading out to find her partner.

Desdemona stood by her rented Mercedes and watched her boss
stalk towards her. She knew by the look on her face it wasn’t going to be pretty.

“Elizabeth,” she said, trying to explain as she watched Callen hop into the Escalade and start it up.

Her friend kept walking and climbed up into the vehicle, their eyes meeting before she sat and closed the door. The look said it all. Elizabeth Blackhawk wasn’t happy and when they talked, she needed to be ready for an ass kicking like none before.

Desdemona watched them back out and Whitefox floor it to get him as far away from her as possible at that moment. She knew she’d screwed up but she was entitled to her feelings on the matter wasn’t she?

Damn it to hell. This was all just one big hot mess.

                                 *   *   *

He watched the entire scene unfold from the darkness and was supremely happy about what was happening. Desdemona Adare had come home and actually obeyed the last note he’d left for her.

At one point he’d given up hope she’d return and now she was here.

Everything was going to fall into place, and all he had to do was just stay under the wire and not let the FBI find anything out about what really happened in Cypress Grove over thirty years ago.

Walking away into the darkness, he headed out into the bayou to check on Cordelia Adare, and see if time and nature had taken care of all the evidence.

Just like it had her mother.

                                *   *   *

Callen didn’t say anything the entire way back to the bed and breakfast. He was too damn mad
over the entire situation. Mad at himself and mad at the woman he asked to marry him seven months ago. Here he believed he could fix it, and they had a chance. This whole thing was a mess.

“Give it time to settle, Cal,” Elizabeth said from beside him.

It was like she knew what he was thinking. The woman beside him just got into his head and heart and lived there.

“I’m trying,” he snapped, parking the Escalade and hopping out. “I’m going to go up, shower and go to bed. I worked all last night to come home today
, and I’m beat and in no mood for this shit.”

Elizabeth watched him stride ahead of her and just let him go. Once inside she stopped at the front desk.

“Yes?”

Elizabeth smiled. “We got so tied up sightseeing and visiting friends that we didn’t get to have dinner. Are there any pizza places that deliver?”

The woman pulled out a menu from the local place and Elizabeth looked it over. “Great! Beer too!” She pulled out her phone and ordered a pizza and beer and handed the woman the money. Can I leave the cash with you? I want to run up and shower.”

“Sure thing,” she said, watching her guest run up the stairs.

Tourists were just plain weird.

                                       *   *   *

Callen stood under the hot spray and let all the tension ebb away. He had to let it go and not let it tie him up in knots. If he wasn’t focused, one of them could get seriously hurt. That was completely unacceptable to him, as Elizabeth’s family and an FBI agent. He took a few deep breaths and then finally turned off the shower.

Drying off
, he slipped into his drawstring pajama bottoms and dropped onto the bed in the Gardenia room. It was a decent room to have to stay in, and at the moment he was trying to forget that he was a little rude to Elizabeth in the car. Callen was in a foul mood and used her as his whipping boy.

Now
, he felt bad that he’d made her a target for no reason at all. Elizabeth was the last person who deserved his anger at the moment. Callen let out a sigh, knowing she was a really great best friend because she took the hostility without kicking his ass like he probably deserved. He could hear the TV in her room and decided that misery indeed did like company, and she’d either tell him off or calm him down.

Knocking on the adjoining door he waited for her to answer.

“It’s open, Cal.”

Elizabeth knew he’d eventually calm down and want to get it off his chest. If anything
, he was just like his brother. Blackhawk men had a few things in common. They had tempers that flared and then fizzled, stubborn streaks, and huge hearts. You took the good with the bad, and in her opinion they were mostly good characteristics to have. She had a few of them herself, so how could she fault them?

Opening the door, Callen
hesitantly glanced into the room to make sure he was indeed welcome there.

Elizabeth had pulled down the bedding and was sitting there in a pair of shorts and tank top. It was the same things she wore to run every day, and it was some of his
favorite attire she owned. Sue him, he was a man.

“You gonna be okay,
darlin?” she asked, patting the bed and turning the volume down on the TV. “Want to talk about it?”

Callen shrugged
and entered the room, dropping down on the bed beside her. Immediately she started soothing him, like he knew she would. Her hand took his and they linked fingers. “She really broke my heart, Lyzee.”

“I plan on kicking her ass tomorrow, so you can watch.”

He snickered and looked into her eyes and then went serious again. “I get the impression her grandmother doesn’t like Indians, and that’s why she didn’t tell her about me.”

“I’ll ass kick the old hag into the swamp too.”

Whitefox grinned at the visual. “What do I do? I don’t know how to work my way through this,” he said, softly.

Elizabeth tucked his hair behind his ear and it reminded her of another conversation at a different time. The man was back to being broken inside and she felt responsible. She’d told Timothy that Desdemona wouldn’t hurt his grandson. Wow, looks like she needed
to tell Timothy she was wrong on this one. Strike one on leading the family.

“I’m taking the blame on this one.”

Whitefox looked up confused. “How is this your fault?”

Elizabeth sighed. “How isn't it? Your fiancée obviously has issues with us, Cal. I asked her in the beginning if she was going to be okay with us being close
, and she lied. I knew that she looked me in the eyes and lied, but I honestly believed if I made her my friend, she’d trust me. She doesn’t, and in any relationship with someone of the opposite sex, there has to be trust.”

“I told her too, Lyzee. I warned her that family mattered.”

“I also told Timothy she wouldn’t hurt you, and I’m so sorry I was wrong. If I could go back and redo all this, I would. I’d rethink it and possibly step back more, so I wasn’t in your life like I am now.”

That crushed his heart. “You’d abandon me too?” he inquired
, devastated at her words.

“
Callen! I’d never do that to you. You know I love you and want to keep you and your heart safe. I might just not be so lovey-dovey with you. It obviously makes Desdemona uncomfortable.”

He relaxed once he knew she wasn’t going to toss him aside. Now he needed her more than anything.
He just had his heart betrayed by a woman he erroneously believed wouldn’t hurt him. Right now, Callen needed the one who he knew wouldn’t ever damage him. Elizabeth would be the Band-Aid to stop the ache he was feeling, so he could continue on with life.

“I love you.
I can’t stop what I feel, so Desdemona has to come to grips with it or it’s on her Lyzee, not us. Not once in the last seven months have you ever crossed a line. Yeah, we tease Ethan and each other, but there’s trust between us.”

“Did you ever tell her about what happened between you and Ethan?”

“No.”

Elizabeth laughed. “Don’t.”

Now he was laughing too.

“You’ll get through this, I promise. I’ll be right here by your side until we figure it out and you decide what you want in life. If you still love her and think it can work, then I support you. But I can’t change who I am. I can’t pretend that I don’t have a big ol
’ soft spot in my heart for you. For Christ’s sake, we named our son after you.”

There was something he had to know. “I need to ask you something
, and I need the absolute truth.”

Elizabeth looked him in the eyes, ready for anything he h
ad to say to her. “Go ahead, Cal. You know I won’t lie to you.”

“It’s not me, is it? I have some redeeming qualities in life to make a woman love me, right? My mother never cared, the woman I slept with were just a way to forget and now Desdemona just crushed me. Is it me
, Elizabeth?”

Her
heart broke for the man. “Cal, it’s not you. You're smart and damn funny. You have a huge heart and are a really good man.”

“I need to ask this now too, and don’t take it the wrong way please.”

“Go on.” She squeezed his hand reassuringly and supported his need to ask anything of her.

“If you weren’t married to my brother
, could you ever see yourself with me?” Just asking her that question felt like he was betraying Ethan, but now he doubted himself, and he needed to know the truth. Elizabeth didn’t lie. “Would you even look twice at me if you passed me on the street, Lyzee, or do you only see me because I’m Ethan’s brother?”

The pain in his voice was tearing her heart to pieces. The man was so wounded inside that it made her want to weep for him.
“I absolutely would be with you in a heartbeat. You're a very sexy man, Mr. Whitefox. You make me laugh, and you have this ginormous heart of absolute gold.”

He touched her cheek and fell even harder for her, if that was possible. “Thank you, Lyzee.”

“But I’d have to test you out in the sack first, just to be sure. A few times at least,” she grinned. “You know, test drive the Indian around the block a few times.”

Whitefox started laughing. This was why the men in his family loved her. She went from serious to crazy in a heartbeat and took them all
with her.

She was about to
add more when there was a knock on the door of her room.

Callen went on alert. No one should be knocking on their door
at this time of night. “Give me your gun,” he demanded, and then looked over as she started laughing uncontrollably.

“Cal,” she kissed him on the mouth
, and laughed more. “Relax, it’s okay. I was expecting it.”

Whitefox
trusted her again and relaxed, as she hopped off the bed, walking to the door. When Elizabeth opened it, he started grinning. She had ordered them dinner and the owner of the bed and breakfast had brought it upstairs. It wasn’t lost on him that she looked past Elizabeth, to him on the bed. Thank God that he decided to come into her room and lounge there.

“I brought up two plates and two glasses for the beer. Housekeeping will get them tomorrow,” the owner said, smiling once she saw the man in bed waiting for dinner. Now she could relax, they obviously were telling the truth.

“Thanks,” said Elizabeth taking the food and beer, and closing the door with her foot.

“You ordered me dinner?”

Elizabeth laughed. “Cal, I know you and your just like your brother. You get mad, you get quiet, you talk it out and then you get hungry.”

Whitefox went over to
Elizabeth, hugging her to his body. “I love you. Thank you for listening to me.”

Elizabeth nodded and patted his cheek. “I think we
should grab the pizza and beer, sit in bed, watch a movie, and gorge ourselves on fat and grease.”

He laughed. “If you think that I’d ever turn down pizza, beer
, and bed with you, then you’re insane.” He looked around, suspiciously.

“What are you looking for
?” she asked, confused.

“Ethan.
This is like my dream night and I’m waiting for him to jump out.”

Elizabeth started laughing and opened the pizza box and inside was a meat covered pizza. “Since Desdemona is at the swamp, you and I are having dead everything on a cheese covered
grease fest.”

“God, I
am so in love right now.”

She grabbed the pizza and he grabbed the beers
, and they hopped onto the bed. When he joined her, Elizabeth smiled. Apparently the storm had passed, because he was flipping through the channels looking for something to watch.

“Scary movie?” he asked, stopping on some gory slasher flick.

“Cal, remember the pit with the dead corpses and the body soup?”