Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) (26 page)

“Hey!”
All the men began laughing. In their culture women didn’t wear them. It was a sign of disrespect. “You realize you can’t wear it on Halloween, right?” stated her husband, laughing.

“
Not my first time on the Rez, darlin’. I’m aware that it’s not for trick or treating. I want a big display case with glass and lights. My authentic eagle feather war bonnet is going to sit in there, with the dignity it damn well deserves and a photo of granddad.”

The men knew she’d honor it and weren’t surprised she’d inherited it.

“It doesn’t mean you were his favorite,” added Whitefox.

Elizabeth shrugged. “Well since he never had to call the cops on me, I’m thinking that had something to do with his decision making process.” She pointed at each of them. “Trouble, trouble, and even more trouble.” The last point was for her husband, and then she winked. “Good think I like bad boys.”

“I was a VERY bad boy
. In fact, I can still be one if you want,” snickered Whitefox, and he earned a pillow to the head.

“Shall we carry on
, children?” she inquired and had Wyler laughing.

Blackhawk clinked his glass off his brother’s and grinned
wickedly. They both were pretty equal in the bad department.

“I also inherited all the stones that Ethan collected as a boy, because now I’ll be worrying them as I watch over this group of men, and the ones yet to come.”

Wyler sipped his soda. “You should run through them in about three weeks. I’ll start helping CJ find new rocks for his momma.”

Elizabeth smiled at her father-in-law, knowing how accurate that statement was, and they all knew it.

“Ethan, granddad leaves you the chest in his room with all his favorite things. He said he wants you to go through it when you’re ready and just remember.”

He smiled. “Best gift ever.” It was where his grandfather saved all the things the boys made as kids, the p
hotos, and pictures of his mom. “He built it and carved it himself. I’m putting it in our bedroom.”

“Sounds perfect, Cowboy.” Elizabeth read the last few lines.
“There’s one more request and it’s for all of us.”

“What?” Blackhawk couldn’t imagine what his grandfather could want or have to give them.

Elizabeth folded the paper and returned it to her lap. “We’re to learn the language and promise to pass it on to everyone that comes after us.”

Wyler grinned. “I can teach you. I’ve started teaching CJ. He’s very good at it already.”

Elizabeth smiled. “I’m in, because I’m going to smoke you both without a doubt.”

Callen laughed. “You say that now
, but it’s not that easy to do. You think granddad didn’t try with us?” he paused and thought about it. “I’m in too.”

“I
’m going to school the full Native and non-Native on this one,” ventured Ethan, challenging them both.

“Wyler gets to be
the judge, and he has final say,” demanded Elizabeth.

“What’s the prize?” Ethan Blackhawk had an idea
and grinned wickedly at his wife.

So did Callen Whitefox.

“No sex,” she immediately said, laughing.

“Damn it!” Whitefox laughed and dodged another pillow that almost spilled his champagne.

“Elizabeth, since you’re so cocky and think you're going to win, how about we make this a friendly competition? The winner gets bragging rights and the prized warbonnet.”

“Deal.”
There was no need to think about it.

“Wow that was fast. You’re that secure in believing that you can beat two Natives?”
inquired Whitefox, grinning.

“Boys, when will you learn to stop making bets with
me? Callen,” she looked over at him. “Mosey on over to the diploma on the wall over there, and read my major to your brother,” she said, laughing. “You’d think he’d have read the fine print, since he’s always quoting it on the back of our marriage license.”

Whitefox picked up the diploma on the mantel and read it. He started laughing, and then
returned it to its place.

“What? What was her degree in?” asked Blackhawk. He never once read it
. He’d seen Cornell and let it go at that. Did it matter? It was an Ivy League school after all.

“Elizabeth has a degree in
linguistics.”

“
Aww hell!”

Wyler laughed
at his boys. “That explains why she could pronounce everything accurately and only in one day.”

Elizabeth began speaking in
French and spoke to the men in the room.

Callen sat beside her and kissed her on the cheek.
“I have no idea what you just said, but that was so incredibly hot!”

Elizabeth looked him in the eyes and whispered
, this time in Italian, as she ran her fingers down his cheek.

“Yes to anything you just said,” he grinned.

“I just told you that if you live here you have to take out the trash.”

“Crap.”

Now he kissed her again and laughed. “I know what you really said, but we don’t have to tell Ethan. It’s our little foreign language secret.”

Blackhawk threw another pillow and it hit him right in the face. “Let’s go get your stuff from Desdemona’s house. Then we can all crash. It’s been a long day and tomorrow’s going to be just as hard. Thank God
that granddad only wanted one day in the teepee.”

Whitefox kissed her again, just because it was sexy, and he didn’t care if he got hit with another pillow. “Be back soon. There’s not that much over there.”

Elizabeth watched them walk out the back door, smiling the first genuinely happy smile for the day. In death, Timothy Blackhawk managed to bring them even closer if that was possible.

She lifted her glass
. “To you Granddad, because you were the epitome of badass and one day I want to be just like you!”

Elizabeth drank her champagne, and then went to go check on her son.

All was well for the night in Fort Blackhawk.

After returning from Desdemona’s house, Callen brought all of his things up to his room. He was glad to have them all back and out of there. As far as he was concerned he’d never be returning. Part of him would always feel something for Desdemona, maybe it was compassion or empathy. It certainly wasn’t the love that he felt in his heart for Elizabeth.

Yeah, she was his b
rother’s wife, but he’d decided he’d rather spend the rest of his life alone, than with a woman who didn’t earn what was precious.

His love.

During his entire life, he had given away his body and sex for free, and it got him nowhere. He’d rushed love and it ended up costing the last days with the man that raised him. It was a lesson learned, and if anything he wouldn’t make the mistake again. Love mattered, and he wasn’t going to ignore what his brain and heart knew.

Elizabeth Blackhawk was the love of his life. At least he had her as part of him, and his brother didn’t seem to mind.

For now, he’d just live with the knowledge that he found someone worthy of his heart.

Whitefox couldn’t
sleep; wandering downstairs he sat on the couch, listening to the silence of the house. His heart was still in turmoil over the loss of Timothy, and when his eyes closed the sadness overwhelmed him. Flipping through the photo album on the coffee table the tears came. There were so many pictures of Timothy, and he was so alive and filled with life.

The guilt swamped him
and slashed at his heart. He left him to die alone, while chasing a lie. The tears came harder, as he closed the book and sobbed on the couch. The memories of the day came back and the visual of them carrying him to the teepee overwhelmed him.

His dad was gone. Maybe not his biological one, but still
he was the man who taught him to shoot and hunt. Gone was the man who took him in when his mother threw him away, and fed him when he’d been forgotten for days. He saved him and gave him a chance at life. Timothy was the only reason he wasn’t addicted to drugs and booze, because it was in his genes. The people who made him were a father who drank, a mother who shot up with heroin daily and sold herself for a high.

The only reason he
survived it all was Timothy Blackhawk, and now he was gone.

The pain was so heavy it crushed him under its weight.

“Cal, are you okay?” she asked from the stairs. As Elizabeth was lying in bed thinking over the next day’s plans, she heard the soft sound of sobbing.

“No.”

Immediately she went to his side, and pulled him against her body to offer him comfort. “I’m here, sweetheart,” she crooned, and stroked his hair.

“I feel
so alone.” He didn’t know how much she knew about his mother, but he had to tell her. “Timothy took me away when he found out about the abuse and neglect.”

“I’m glad he did,”
Elizabeth whispered, softly. Her husband had told her about some of the things he suffered, and she knew Callen had been damaged as a boy.

“
My mother was young, and the men she brought home weren’t nice,” he admitted, finally for the first time in his life. No one knew the abuse but Timothy. “When I ran away from the house, I wasn’t going to go back. She wouldn’t have known anyway, but I couldn’t stay and take the abuse anymore.”

“What happened, Callen?”

He pulled up his sleeve and showed her the burn marks. “I was in the way, and the man she brought home thought it was funny to hold me down while I cried and begged as he tortured me.”

Elizabeth pulled him close and swore
that she would hold onto him forever if it took that long to heal him. Dropping kisses on his cheeks, she offered him love and peace.

“I ran away and
Timothy found me. He put Band-Aids on every burn and promised me it wouldn’t ever happen again. I was so scared, Lyzee. I feel that way now, again. He’s the only parent I ever had,” he sobbed. “Who’s going to find me when I’m lost and can’t survive on my own?”

“
I will. I promise Callen, I’ll always come for you. No matter what happens in life, if you need me I will find you. I know it hurts now, but it’ll get easier. I’ve been there.” But she had never been abused.

“I hope so, because this sucks.”

She laughed. “Yeah it does, sweetheart,” Elizabeth paused before continuing, “What doesn’t suck is that you aren’t alone. You have me, Ethan, dad and CJ. You have a family to protect you.”

Ethan stood on the stairs listening to what his brother said to his wife. He’d never known, never suspected, and couldn’t imagine. His childhood wasn’t bad. Yeah his mom died, but she was a really good mom. He never realized his brother had been abused and burned.
Everything in him twisted in pain for the man lying against his wife. Now he knew why he grandfather told him to take care of him, and he absolutely would do anything to protect him. 

“I don’t know if I can do this alone,” Callen whispered.

“You have us, Callen, and I’ll come out and find you if you’re lost.” Blackhawk stayed on the stairs. “I swear on my life, that you aren’t alone. I’ll take care of my brother for the rest of our lives.”

Both of them looked over, and Elizabeth’s eyes were filled with tears. He knew the look, and he couldn’t imagine it either.

“I should go to bed.” Callen was distraught that his brother heard the truth that his grandfather and he hid all those years. When he told Elizabeth, he didn’t know he was there. It was his shameful past, and he wished he kept it locked away. Elizabeth always held his secrets, and this was his biggest one of all.

Blackhawk nodded at his wife, knowing what she was thinking.
They couldn’t leave him alone. Not now and not ever. Callen was hurting more than they ever could understand.

When
Elizabeth took Whitefox’s hand, Ethan turned and went to stand outside their bedroom door.

Elizabeth stopped and wouldn’t
set him free. “In here, Callen.”

He looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “I don’t want to be the next family member to die.”

“Come to bed, Callen,” Ethan said, walking into their bedroom and to his side of their giant bed.

Elizabeth waited for him to make the decision. If he didn’t feel like he could, she would have gone with him to make sure he was
safe.

“No reprisals?” he asked, hesitantly. He really didn’t want to be alone, but he didn’t want to risk his brother either. It was a tenuous situation, and he couldn’t lose his
only remaining family.

“None. I’ll go to your room with you if that’s your choice. You make the decision
, and I’ll follow.”

He trusted her. Never once had she ever dropped his heart or hurt him, and he needed to be with family. “
Thank you.”

Elizabeth led him in and closed the bedroom door. “Come on, Cal,” she said, pulling him towards the bed. Her husband was on his side, the blankets pulled back, and he was patiently watching his brother with no animosity in his eyes.