Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) (61 page)

“Are you sure? She’s on the fifth floor. The
director of the FBI arranged for a private room for her, and you’re down as her guard.”

Whitefox laughed. “I’m very sure
Director Blackhawk did. Please lead the way.” He’d carry her the remainder of his life if she’d let him.

The nurse smiled at the man
, his obvious love and devotion to the woman he was holding in his arms was touching. Leading them to the elevator, they got more than a few stares, as a large Native man with dried blood on his hands and jeans stood in the elevator holding a sleeping woman in his arms.

It didn’t bother him in the least. Let them stare all they wanted.
Callen wasn’t planning on leaving her side the rest of the day. Nothing was going to pull him away from her at this point.

“I’ll leave some scrubs for the
agent in case she wants to shower and get cleaned up,” said the nurse, smiling.

“Please
lock the door. I don’t want anyone sneaking up on us. You know- gun and all,” he said, looking at the woman’s hand.

“Oh, certainly! I’ll tell the staff to knock or to just call into the room to check in
only.”

Whitefox nodded, gently l
aying Elizabeth on the bed and covering her with a sheet. Staring down at her, it shocked him how pale she looked. The streaks of blood on her temple and hands disturbed him. Once in the bathroom, he first washed her blood from his hands, and then grabbed a washcloth to remove the blood from her flesh.

Sitting beside her,
Callen slowly cleaned the dried blood from her face and neck. Then he began wiping the drips from her hands. Tears filled his eyes and slid down his face, as the shock of what almost happened overwhelmed him. He silently wept, holding her hand in his, feeling infinitely grateful they were given another chance.

This time he was taking nothing for granted.

                                *   *   *

Director
Blackhawk stood in the rubble of the explosion, looking around at the holy mess the bomb had made of their vehicles. When the first bomb went off, it blew the Escalade, and that in turn blew the Denali sitting right beside it. Now he needed to know if there was a second bomb, or the gas tank on the second vehicle was to blame for the wreckage.

Holy shit they’d made a big mess of the parking lot. If the owner didn’t close the place and run, he’d be surprised.

Julian had on a pair of gloves and was crouched beside the man who hired him to find the missing woman. He’d been off getting breakfast for himself and Doctor Adare at the time of the explosion, and when he pulled back into the lot, his heart sunk. There was relief that he didn’t lose the second part of his assignment, but there was nausea that someone had almost taken out Elizabeth Blackhawk.

Do
ctor Adare was a nice woman and she was fun to be around. Even though she’d thrown herself at him a few times, he refused to take advantage of a woman shrouded in grief.

Besides, he wasn’t interested in getting involved with anyone
who was connected to the Blackhawk triangle. Desdemona had been engaged to one of the bosses and that could come back and bite him in the ass. Honestly, since losing his job in Red River because he went behind his boss’s back to help Elizabeth Blackhawk, he needed people to help him start up his private business. Julian liked making money and eating regularly. There was a fine line and he was intending to stay on it. 

Then there was his little principle rule that sex should be fun, and he
wasn’t going to be anyone’s rebound lay. Not happening now or ever. For now, Julian had some time away from the doctor, and that was a good thing. Even he only had so much patience for weepy women.

Feisty he liked.
Baggage laden ones- not so much. Now that Doctor Adare was safely tucked at the lab with the remaining techs and both doctors, a break was in order. There was no question that during the last week, Julian earned his pay.

“You going to be okay?” he asked his boss
, noticing that the man wasn’t really paying complete attention to the wreckage. His attention was obviously elsewhere, and who could blame him. Elizabeth was almost blown up by a nutjob.

The question pulled him out of his wife induced thoughts
. “Yeah I’ll be fine, Julian. Elizabeth’s safely tucked away with Callen, and the team is on its way. I have an agent in route that generally handles the serial bomb cases or arson serial killings for our division. Are you interested in staying on or do you want to ship out?” Right then he could use all the help he could get, but Julian was contracted, and he’d already used the man more than intended.

“I want to help
you out. I get offended when assholes try to blow up feisty women. Just tell me what I can do to get you the answers you need.”

Blackhawk laughed at the reference to his wife, but instead of jealousy
, this time he was solely grateful. “If you want, you and Agent Christensen can try and find who built this bomb, and how the hell he got to our Escalade in the middle of a parking lot.”

Before the man could answer, he heard the vehicles a
pproach. There were four Denalis pulling into the lot. “Great they’re here. I’ll introduce you to my agent.”

Julian
followed the man to where the Denali’s stopped, and like ants, the techs hopped out and waited for the direction of their boss.

His eyes immediately went to one specific tech.
Wow! He was having a hard time not staring at her. The woman was incredibly beautiful, and when he said incredibly, he meant Elizabeth Blackhawk gorgeous. The tech had been blessed with a rich red hair that was only highlighted by the smoky blue gray eyes that stood out on her face. Yeah, his sexy radar went off just looking at her. Now, that was a tech he wouldn’t mind cuddling up to when he got a chance.

He phased back in as Blackhawk updated the team.

“Christina is in the burn unit and she’s going to be there a while. She took a hit to the head and has a severe concussion. Elizabeth is also under watch for the next twenty four hours. We have until she gets back to find out what blew that vehicle.”

The techs started pulling out their gloves
, putting them on and getting ready. They knew that the female Blackhawk would be on the warpath if they didn’t have something for her.

“Agent Christensen, come with me.”

Julian watched as the woman he’d just been staring at followed her boss directly to his side. Well holy shit, he just hit the partner jackpot. The gorgeous woman was going to be his tag along on this little mission and this made his whole day.

“Julian Littlemoon, this is Special Agent Victoria Christensen,”
introduced their boss.

Agent Christensen held out her hand
warmly. “It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Littlemoon.”

Julian stared into the smoky eyes. “Same here, Special Agent. I hear you’re the explosion and arson expert
and my new partner for a little while.”

Agent Christensen smiled
. “I don’t know if I’m an expert, but I do generally handle a lot of fire and arson issues for Director Blackhawk. If it has flames involved, I usually can find the reason. What can I say, I like things that explode.”

Littlemoon hoped that his face wasn’t giving anything away. The woman was going to be interesting to work with and that was for sure.

“Julian is the best tracker I’ve ever met, and he can find pretty much anything that’s lost and needs to be found. What I need to know is how the individual got to our cars, the path he took, and if he left behind anything we can use to find him.”

He
looked around the surrounding area taking it all in, before he made any comments. “Boss, I’m going to bet that he staked out the vehicle from the overgrowth, and then crept in that way. So once Agent Christensen is settled, we’re going to be creeping through the marsh to find his way in and out.”

Tori Christensen nodded. She liked a challenge and more importantly, she enjoyed working for the Blackhawks. There was some elusive mystery surrounding them, but they ran the best unit in the FBI, and she hoped to stay there for the rest of her career. “If you give me five minutes I’ll drop my gear and be ready.”

Julian nodded at the woman. He was having a hard time enunciating anything in full sentences. Usually he had no issue around beautiful women. Look at how he managed to deal with Elizabeth Blackhawk on a regular basis, but something about Agent Christensen just sent awareness through his body.

Blackhawk noticed he watched the woman walk away. “You going to be okay
teaming up with her?” he asked, pretty sure that working with her wasn’t going to be the problem. What came after working was going to be where it all went to hell in a hand basket for the man.

“No problem at all.” That was complete and total bullshit
and he hoped his boss didn’t recognize the lie. Working with her was going to be distracting. He pushed it down and started walking the perimeter of the parking lot. All he needed was to just find the trail, and they’d be on their way. Now it was about thinking about the bomber and not the bombshell.

Tori Christensen dropped her gear and was ready to start the assignment. There were few things in her life that gave her as much joy as solving a problem and finding an arsonist. Maybe it was her past, and maybe it was the fact she
was always on the hunt for justice, but one way or another, Tori was damn good at her job. Jogging out to the parking lot it was time to begin, again. With a pat to her chest, she felt the telltale comfort of the clinking metal around her neck and readied herself for the job ahead.

The man was
lost in his own world, staring at the grass leading into the swampy area. Tori took a few moments to just watch Julian, appreciating that he was really an attractive man. Something about the dark hair tucked behind his ears was innately sexy. Maybe it was the gold flecked eyes that made him attractive too. Working around Native men didn’t generally affect her; after all, she was accustomed to being around Director Blackhawk and his brother daily at work. But they didn’t attract her attention quite like Littlemoon did. Possibly because they were attached or perhaps because the man before her was a mystery, and she loved a puzzle to solve.

Either way it was going to be an adventure.

Julian didn’t hear her approach him from behind. When her hand touched his arm, he didn’t jump, even though the tingle was startling. Looking into the stormy gray eyes he searched, as if looking for some answer he needed to find. What was it about this woman?

“I’m ready Mr. Littlemoon. Just tell me what you want me to do.”

“Julian. Please Agent, call me Julian.”

“I’m Victoria, but I don’t really go by that, so call me what most the
agents call me in the field; Tori.” She was having a hard time focusing around this man. Julian was staring at her like he was staring straight into her soul. Something was making her dizzy around him. Then again, it could be the way his jeans were fitting on his body that was causing the lightheaded feeling.

Yeah, probably.

“Okay, Tori. How do you feel about swamps, alligators and snakes?”

Agent Tori Christensen shrugged. “I have a military background Julian, and they teach you one thing.”

Now he was intrigued. “Really? What’s that, Tori?”

“If you can shoot it, then there is nothing to really be afraid of
in life,” she answered, grinning and patting her Glock.

Julian laughed. He loved a feisty woman
and now she definitely reminded him of Elizabeth. “Then off we go,” he stated, heading into the tall grasses. Even though he was trying to stay alert for poisonous snakes, his thoughts were scattered. More than half of his awareness was on the woman who was following him into the mire.

                                *   *   *

Elizabeth
pulled away from sleep and was aware she was against a warm body. For a few seconds it was disorienting, but then the scent of cologne helped her to relax. Slowly, she opened her eyes, watching Callen busily emailing someone from his smartphone. They were both lying on the bed together, and confusion overwhelmed her, since she didn’t remember how she arrived in a room.

Maybe it was the concussion after all.

“Hi, angel. Are you feeling better?”

The relatively new nickname must be here to stay.
Maybe it was appropriate since she’d almost just become one earlier in the day. “Yeah, I was tired. Are you okay?” she asked, staring up at him.

“Yeah, I slept a little
when you did, but then your bossy husband keeps emailing me to check on you every five minutes, and I couldn’t fall back to sleep.” Callen didn’t tell her he was still scared out of his mind over what happened.

“
That sounds like him.”

“The nurse brought you scrubs for you to change into if you want out of your clothes.” He pointed over at the chair.