Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) (51 page)

Callen
not only won the woman lottery, he won the brother lottery. Yes, he missed their grandfather, but Elizabeth and Ethan Blackhawk had filled the hole with unconditional love.

Finishing his shower,
he dried off and stared at himself in the mirror. A simple Native man had been given a second chance to redeem himself in life and love.

Then he thought about Desdemona
, and how he’d once thought she’d be enough. Part of him was sorry he couldn’t offer her what she needed, but his heart just wanted what it wanted. Settling wasn’t going to be an option in his life anymore. It couldn’t be now that love found its way in and gave him hope.

It was
funny. Since the moment he’d seen her walking towards him in the lobby of FBI west, his heart just knew. No matter what Callen tried to do to assuage it, persuade it or deny it, love at first sight happened. For once in his life everything was perfect and he still couldn’t believe it.

Dressing he
glanced down at his watch, noticing he was right on time. Stepping out, Callen couldn’t help but be drawn to the doorway to watch her sleep in bed. Elizabeth was a dark angel.

His angel.

Her body lay prone in the bed, still unmoving from when he left her
side ten minutes ago. Both hands were free, and he assumed that was an FBI thing. Callen noticed that his brother also never slept with his hands trapped, in case he needed to get to his gun. Long curls lay across her back and body, all the way to where the blanket met at the small of her back. One of his favorite things was her hair. The way he woke with it tangled around him intimately, like tendrils holding him to her. At that moment he wanted to go to her and run his fingers down the long silky curls and take in their spicy scent.

Cinnamon
and nutmeg.

Elizabeth reminded him of Christmas. Callen wouldn’t ever be able to smell the spiciness of the holidays an
d not think of her. Then again she was a present in his life, and he couldn’t be happier that he got to unwrap her daily.

Wow
! He had it bad but in this case, that was perfectly acceptable. Nothing ever felt this right. Elizabeth was ideal for him in every way.

Ethan stood in the bathroom doorway
observing his brother, as he watched Elizabeth sleep. The look on the man’s face said it all, and he grinned recalling having the same look a few times himself too. For a while he’d worried that Callen wouldn’t adjust to them being a family, since he’d had a tough life growing up. But now all the worries were gone, as he watched him staring at Elizabeth. If anything, Callen was more gentle with her, and that he appreciated. Sometimes he forgot that she was fragile, and he knew she’d be protected if anything ever happened to him.

Was it a morbid thought? Yes, but in their line of work
there was always that chance. Tony Magnus’s words continued to replay in his mind. Maybe sharing a woman was genetically bred into his DNA, or maybe it had everything to do with their job and his brother. On day one, you signed your name on a form acknowledging that you could die. The FBI handed you Kevlar, a Glock, and papers telling you how to fill out your life insurance and will. Maybe like the warriors before him, Callen was his life insurance policy. Not for monetary purposes, but just in case he didn’t make it home one day. Ethan knew that Callen would make sure Elizabeth and his child would be taken care of, and as a man that was his primary directive.

Protect his woman and child.

Now as a warrior facing daily battles, he could breathe a little easier. He had one less thing to worry about in life, as the man admiring his wife in silence was fully cemented into their circle. Yes, he control freaked everything in life, but this was the most important thing. Now he could relax knowing that everything would be handled if for some reason he were to lose his life.

Whitefox glanced up, as his brother motioned to him. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been watching him stare at Elizabeth. Callen hoped Ethan didn’t see the dopey grin that he was sure was on his face the entire time.

He couldn’t help it, he was in love.

Elizabeth
wanted to laugh the entire time. They honestly thought she could sleep while they both stared at her?

Hardly
!

It gave her pleasure to entertain their moments of softness, and let them have the caveman moment
for once without her busting their asses. As soon as she had the room to herself, she sat up in bed and stared into the other room at the adjacent mirror.

Holy shit
! Elizabeth couldn’t help but see the wreckage. Her hair was a mess; her lips looked swollen from hours of kissing the two men she was sharing her bed and life with, and the bruises were starting to appear. Granted they were earned from saving Desdemona, but they didn’t make the package look any prettier. Thank God the men were gone. This was one hot train wreck going on that morning. Slowly, she stood and stretched out her body. Her one shoulder was still stiff, and that meant wearing her sidearm on the opposite side for the day. Already it was less sore and should be good in another day.

Elizabeth
thought back to the night as she lay above, beneath, and between the two men. She was still a little off balance because of the entire thing. When Elizabeth arrived there, her heart was dedicated to one man, and he was the center of her life. Now there was a second man, and he’d given her the family ring. Staring down at her finger, she was both overjoyed and scared.

Truth be told, she was completely attached and in love
. Now she had not one man to worry and love, but two. What if he decided to walk away one day to love another? Granted Callen swore he’d stay by her forever, but what was the guarantee? Elizabeth entered the shower, standing under the spray of water and let it slide down her body and ease the ache. There was pain from the scrapes and her shoulder, but the ache was from something entirely different. That was from the thought that possibly one day everything would change and she’d lose Callen. Finally she’d admitted her feelings, and her heart was at risk.

Finishing up,
Elizabeth tried to focus on work, and the need for some coffee. As she dried herself off, she put herself in the place of the dead woman. The rough sex was it consensual, or did the killer take what wasn’t his?

So many things were going through her mind. The man in the journal was important to Trinity Adare, and yet she kept his name hidden. Why not call him by his name? If the book held her private feelings, why not just put ‘
John’ or ‘Bob’?

Elizabeth
pulled out her jeans and then changed her mind. Today she would change her approach; she slipped into a black skirt. It was rare Elizabeth would dare pull it off at work, because the men would make a huge deal and torment her, but today Elizabeth felt battered and bruised. Today she longed to feel feminine for once. Slipping into a black fitted shirt, Elizabeth buttoned it up and inspected herself in the mirror. Not only was it tied to her need for femininity, but it gave her leverage over Morgana Adare. If anything, Elizabeth wanted to appear professional and unreachable. Today she wanted that FBI aura, because something was coming, and she knew they needed to work this out and fast.

Pulling her hair to the nape of her neck,
Elizabeth wrapped it into a very neat bun behind her left ear and secured it. Slapping on some lipstick, she nodded at herself in the mirror.

As of that moment,
she was going to play the part of FBI agent. Elizabeth lived her job, but generally she did it laid back. It made people underestimate her. She came across as some southern backwoods hick, but today she wanted to be the opposite.

Cold.

Calculating.

And
powerful.

Today
, the remaining Adare women were going to give her something to work with, or she was going to intimidate it from them. Justice needed to be done, and she needed to find who killed and impregnated Cordelia Adare. The dead women deserved someone to stand for them, and if it meant a little ass busting from the boys, Elizabeth would swallow it.

Stepping from the room
, she closed the door and walked down the hall. When Elizabeth passed one of her techs, he stared with an open mouth and had to look twice.

Elizabeth
resembled… A director in the FBI. Rushing back into the room, he dialed the other people on the team, and told them what he just saw. No one was going to believe this, and they had to see it to believe it.

Finally
, Elizabeth Blackhawk had snapped and gone Fed.

Whitefox sat at the table with his brother having their coffee in the quiet of the morning. No one was downstairs from their team yet, and they were talking freely about the assignment.

They heard
the clicking of heels first, but neither registered it as anything significant

Then he saw
the woman, and he almost spilled his coffee. “Holy shit!” he mumbled, sitting forward quickly and elbowing his brother. Standing at the buffet pouring coffee was Elizabeth Blackhawk, or a woman who had her face and a completely different wardrobe. He thought she was sexy in jeans and boots, but this was something so completely off the cuff, he didn’t know what to do with it. His gaze slid appreciatively from her heels to her hair.

Ethan turned his head to see what had his brother staring, and had to look twice too. His mouth hung open, as he stared at the woman
standing across the room. It was the tall lithe body of his wife and there was the black ebony hair, but it was pulled into this sinful thing at the side of her neck. Her clothing was tailored and fit her impeccably, and made her look like some stylish FBI Director. For the first time ever, she appeared more imposing than he did. His damn wife had switched up the game, pulling off a form fitted skirt and shirt, and doing it well indeed.

When she turned
, he saw makeup and a necklace around her throat, and then thought he’d lost his mind. Yes, she’d worn makeup and jewelry on dates or special occasions, but she actually had lipstick on in a shade of red.

What the hell happened to his wife?

“Hello boys,” she said, putting down her coffee and her room key.

Both men stared
and neither spoke.

Elizabeth dropp
ed a kiss first on her husband’s mouth, and then crossed to Callen and gave him the same kiss, before taking her seat and opening her binder. Elizabeth pulled out the papers to study while they had coffee together.

When she crossed her legs, they both watched the motion and still didn’t have words to even form a sentence.

Elizabeth
glanced up, meeting their speculative gazes. Both men looked as if they’d seen a ghost. She looked behind her and around her and then lifted a brow. “What?” she asked, sipping from her cup.

“What?”
repeated her husband. “Who dressed you this morning?” Ethan just gawked at her clothing. His wife was wearing heels with a skirt. Holy God almighty, this was completely new. It wasn’t lost on him that when she dressed up, she looked better than he ever did.

Elizabeth put her cup down. “You do realize I used to dress like this all the time when I worked under Gabe. This is standard FBI.
I wore tailored clothing, fitted jackets and heels.”

Whitefox still didn’t have words, but was fascinated with what he was seeing. He wanted to see what was under the strict attire, and unwrap her hair. “I’m at a loss here
other than to say you look absolutely gorgeous.”

Elizabeth glanced
over at him and gave him a look. “Really? You find this so shocking? That I can look like him?” she said, pointing at her husband. She noticed he was wearing a polo shirt and jeans. “Well, maybe not this minute but usually. Today I want to hit Morgana Adare hard, and see what I can rattle out of the tree. She wasn’t intimidated by me before, and I need her to see me and think that I’m serious.”

Blackhawk bought the logic, but he still couldn’t focus past the red lips and heels. Part of his body went incredibly hard, at how this little secret part of his wife existed. It was sexy.
“Are you wearing perfume?” Now he was dumbstruck and he had to lean forward to take in the scent. “Callen, she’s wearing perfume on the job!”

“Christ, I don’t know where to file this image in my mind. Do I place it under ‘
sexy boss’ or ‘smoking hot girlfriend’?”

Ethan ran his fingers up her leg, starting at her ankle and stopping at her knee. “Today’s going to be a long day. I applaud you Lyzee. Just when I think that you can’t possibly find another way to torture me, you pull it off. Now I have the image of having really hot sex with some strict librarian.”

“Oh man! In the library on one of the tables too,” added his brother. “If she pulls out glasses, I’m screwed.”

Elizabeth stared at them with her mouth open, too shocked to even have an answer.

“Maybe we’re still asleep and she’s a figment of our dream. Okay, if this is a fantasy she’s going to climb up on the table, rip open her shirt and strip for me.”