Fire Burns Hot ((An FBI/ Romance Thriller~ (Book 5))) (59 page)

For the first time in three months, there was something he wasn’t proud of at all. Jealousy was there
, trying to gnaw away at the happiness that once filled his heart. It was threatening to pull him under and break him.

There was a bigger man buried beneath it all, he was sure of it. It was a matter of digging deep and finding the happiness for them instead of allowing the sadness to inundate him.

Ethan was rarely an illogical man. If anything, he over thought situations to death, control freaking them, but now he found himself feeling instead of thinking. It was if he’d lost control against it all.

At the knock at the door, he chose to ignore it. Right now he didn’t want to be bothered
or deal with being the boss.

When the door opened without invitation, he felt the flash of
fury. Blackhawk didn’t want to face an employee half out of his mind in anger. Then he saw his brother, and he shuttered all emotion from his face. This was his cross to bear, and he wouldn’t hurt Callen with his jealousy. He’d already damaged Elizabeth by not letting her offer him comfort. Where she’d hold up and later forgive him of his sins, his brother would crumble under the weight.

“Can we talk?” asked
Callen as he closed the door and locked it.

Ethan shrugged. “Sure, about what?” he tried to pull off indifference and hoped it wasn’t blasé.

Whitefox laughed sardonically. “Nice try, but I recognize the ‘I want to beat something to death’ look in your eyes. I know my big brother.”

“What do you want, Callen?” he asked, temper
surging, driving him towards saying things he needed to contain. The logical man was struggling to keep the demons confined to his own head.

“
I love you, Ethan. I’m so sorry this is hurting you. I wish I could help carry it with you. You’re a better man than I could ever be. Had Elizabeth told me you were the father, I would be falling apart and angry as hell right now.”

Blackhawk
released the emotionally exhausted sighed. “I am both of those things, Callen. I’m just really good at pretending that I’m not dying inside.” He figured he’d be honest with his brother and let the chips fall where they may.

Whitefox hugged
him. “I need you to show me how to be a father. I can do uncle, but I don’t want to fuck this up. Dad screwed us up, and granddad tried to fix us, but I’m scared. I don’t want to damage my child. I need you Ethan. Please don’t hate me and make me do this alone. I need my big brother now more than ever in my life.”

The cracks in his wall were forming, making him soften again
to feel more love than anger.

“
Ethan. I want to share our son with you the way you’ve allowed me to belong. I’m the luckiest man alive, because I have the best brother and friend in the world. You’re the man I want my child to be like when he grows up, Ethan. I want him to be just like you; smart, successful and not afraid of anything in life.”

“Callen,” he started.

“No, Ethan. I want him to be like you, because you’re who I strive to be. All the compassion, love, and kindness you carry in you daily astounds me. Where you could have come home last year and hated me, you didn’t. You gave me a second chance. When granddad died, you gave me comfort and the biggest thing in your life; your wife. Not once have you ever made me feel less than I am. In fact, you’ve put my feelings first over yours so many times. I don’t want my son to be weak like me. I want him to be a warrior like you.”

Blackhawk was moved by his words.

Callen finally moved closer to his brother. “I love you, Ethan, because you began protecting me the day you took me in when we were boys.” Callen took a deep breath. “You took the rap, so many times when we broke the law. You made sure I was safe and protected. You weren’t only my big brother, you were my hero. You’ve kept on being my champion for years. When you left because I betrayed you, I died inside. I didn’t deserve your forgiveness, and I certainly didn’t deserve to be welcomed back into your life to this extent. You allow me to live in your home; you freely gave me half of Elizabeth’s heart. The day your son was born, you gave him my name. You’re kindness and love astonishes me, Ethan.”

Blackhawk stared at his brother and the raw emotion on his face.

“When you found out that I was abused, it never changed how you looked at me. When you discovered it, you allowed me to keep my dignity, but stayed close by to let me lean on you if I stumbled. Never once have you ever hurt me, and I find myself wishing I was the man you are inside.”

Ethan stood and walked towards his brother
. “You’re the man I am, Callen. Being here right now proves that. You should be with Elizabeth celebrating the life you made, not here worried about me.”

“You shouldn’t be here alone
. We’re a couple, and we should be celebrating together.”

The emotion overwhelmed him as the last part of the wall crumbled and the love
overcame the pain, swallowing it until there was only calm and happiness remaining.

“I know how hard it is to watch the woman you
adore carry another man’s child. I lived that for so many months in silence, Ethan. I know the pain that eats away at you until it threatens to devour you whole.”

Blackhawk just hugged his brother. He’d forgotten that Callen
had watched Elizabeth pregnant with his child, his emotion forced so deep that no one saw the truth.

It had to be hell to carry alone. At least he had his family to help him shoulder the burden.

“Let me share my son with you, Ethan, the way you share CJ with me. Never once do you make me feel like I can’t love him, or cuddle him. Please be part of my child. We share almost the same DNA, and technically the baby is you too. I’ll give you my son, in order to heal your heart,” he whispered, emotion choking him. “I’ll give CJ a brother, and maybe one day he can be like my big brother. The most honorable human being I’ve ever known in my life.”

Ethan knew he meant it, and he also knew his brother was a good man. “I’ll love
your child like he’s my own, and I’ll help you be the father I know are inside.”

Callen let the emotion flood out of him, knowing the man he was hugging would hold him up. The fear of failure, the worries of inadequacy all rushed from him and onto the shoulders of his big brother- the only man he trusted to get him through it all. “I love you, Ethan, and I want you by our side
even when the baby is born. I want you there to help me take that first step into fatherhood. Please tell me you’ll stand beside me, rejoicing in the moment EJ takes his first breath. I want to share the most important moment of my entire life with you, because without you there’d be no moment.”

Ethan was overwhelmed
that his brother was going to share the delivery of his son with him. He released his brother and looked into his eyes. “You will be an amazing father, Callen. I have no doubt in my mind. Thank you for the precious gift of your child.”

“Come home with me
, Ethan. Elizabeth is really worried about you, and she needs us both now.”

Blackhawk placed his forehead against his brother’s and they took a minute in silence. He’d be just as lost without his brother
in his life, as he would without Elizabeth. “Let’s go home, Cal. I want to celebrate this really great occasion.”

He grinned. “Pizza always says celebration to me, and maybe if it’s meat free Lyzee can stomach it.”

“Pizza it is, dad-to be. I’ll even buy the beer in honor of you becoming a father.”

Ethan slid into his tailored suit jacket, grabbed his gun, and dropped his arm around his brother’s shoulders. “Let’s go home to the wife.”

Callen grinned at the words. It was more proof to the magnitude of the man’s depth of character. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

                               
*    *     *

He knew which one he wanted. The pretty blonde with all the hair and makeup would do perfectly. Already his body began to stir at the idea of taking her body and then her life. In his mind he could see the blonde hair shriveling and sticking sickly to her cooking scalp. It made him happy and turned on
, all at the same time.

Watching her across the parking lot, he made sure
they were completely alone and no one would hear her scream. When the coast was clear, he moved in to abduct her. The last girl had been fun, when she finally woke up. It was when she actually fought him, that he enjoyed her body most.

This one looked like she’d be
entertaining. Definitely worth a few scrapes and bruises to get her subdued. “Hey baby, want to come back to my place and party?” he asked, popping up behind her.

Lulu jumped at the sound of his voice. “Oh hey there,” she said, grinning at him. “You should have come in
to the club while I was working, cutie. You could have paid for some privacy with me. I would have given you quite the time for your money.”

He grinned. “Oh I bet y
ou would have. I had to work, so how about you and I have a party now? I’m free now.”

Lulu thought about it. “How much is it worth to you,
sugar?” the woman inquired, stepping closer to him. It had been a slow day there since the feds scared away the customers. Usually she brought home an easy three hundred bucks, but today she made a measly eighty dollars.

“Two hundred?” he offered, pulling the money out of his pocket so she could see the cash briefly. A whore was easy if there was money involved.

“Two fifty and I’ll follow you anywhere.”

He grinned because he had her. “Three hundred if you leave your car here. I’ll drop you off after. I don’t want the neighbors to see the
extra vehicle in the driveway.”

“Whatever,” she said grinning. “Cash first,” Lulu stated, holding out her hand.

“Don’t trust me?” he offered. “You’ve seen me in there a million times stuffing twenties in your G-string.

“
Honey, I have news for you. I don’t trust anyone but the almighty greenback in your front pocket. Money talks and never tells a single lie.”

He pulled the money out of his pocket and started walking towards is car. “Ready?” he asked, looking over his shoulder as he hopped into the driver’s seat.

Lulu counted it and dropped it in her purse. “I sure am,” she answered, sliding in beside him.

He reached over pretending to want a kiss. His hand slid into the back of her hair
, and he grinned seductively.

“Let the party begin,” he said, slamming her head off the dashboard and knocking her out. “Good news is I love a whore, Lulu. Bad news is your time
has come to an end.”

He put the car in drive and started for someplace quiet where he could use her body
, until he was satisfied.

                                *    *     *

Elizabeth sat on the couch with all the
borrowed papers open around her. The arson files looked complete to her, but her expertise wasn’t with fire. She was more an expert on crazed, homicidal killers out for blood.

Flipping through each
one, Elizabeth tried to find something that looked like it tied them all together. Staring at the dates, she began to see the tiny thread of commonality. Organizing them by dates, Elizabeth began re-reading them in that order. A story slowly emerged, giving her a picture in her mind. The first few cases of arson began as small fires. A shed, then an abandoned barn or two were the first sites. No one was inside any of the three. In the next set of burn scenes, that couldn’t be said. Inside the first of the next group was a litter of kittens. Only on exam were all their necks found to be broken. It looked like the killer had started practicing his art on the tiniest victims.

“You’re one sick bastard,” she said, shaking her head as she read further.

Inside the next building, also abandoned, the fire department found hanging bodies of more neighborhood pets. They flagged it, but nothing was followed up. The last of those three was the most brutal killing of animals. The dead animals had their necks slit and then the building went up around them.

Elizabeth felt sick to her stomach over the entire thing. There were a few other files, but one was kids partying and the other was to cover up a burglary. These fires started five years ago, and then progressed every six months or so. Stuffing the two cases that she didn’t think were related back into her bag, she stared at the six that had to be linked.

“Looks like you were doing this for a while,” she muttered to herself.

Elizabeth’s focus was on the
papers, until she heard the engine of her husband’s Mustang in the driveway. It looked like Callen had found a way to get him to come home. Immediately her stomach turned, and she didn’t believe for a second that it had anything to do with the pregnancy. When the door opened she stood, waiting to see if the man coming home would be more receptive to her or still angry.

When he walked through the doorway, her heart stopped in her chest. His hair was loose, his suit jacket was off, and instead of pain on his face there was a smile. “Oh, Ethan,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. When he opened his arms, she ran to him and jumped into his arms.