The Killing Times (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 1)) (23 page)

“Gabe, kiss Livy for me, and the kids. I have to brief the team, and then follow up the religion angle,” she said, bringing the call to a close.

“Go
! You both be safe and watch each other’s backs.”

“Sir, yes,
sir,” she drawled, winking at Blackhawk. “Go enjoy your family, you big tyrant. I love you and miss you.”

Gabe laughed at the
description, “Love you too, Lyzee.” He ended the call.

“That had to be the oddest
conversation I’ve ever had with that man,” said Blackhawk. He was bothered by the fact she so easily said
‘I love you’
to another man, and he returned it just as effortlessly.

Elizabeth smiled, “I told you
. Gabe’s a normal guy.”

“How many kids does he have?” he asked, suddenly curious. “One? Two?”

She held up her one hand, and grinned.

“Five?” he was shocked. “
He has five kids? It’s official. I’m in the twilight zone and trapped in some bizarre episode where nothing is what it once was.”

“Don’t be surprised, Ethan.
Gabe loves kids, but I will let you in on one secret, that has to remain between us,” she said leaning down to whisper in his ear. “All five are girls. That’s why he’s so bad ass, he’s used to being around tough women,” she patted him on the shoulder and left the room laughing.

Blackhawk felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and checked his incoming message.

Don’t play hard and fast with her heart, Cowboy. I will hand you your ass.  

            ~ G.R

He wondered if she was going to get the same warning, or if he was just the privileged one.

                            *   *   *

Elizabeth stood at the white board, making notations as her team strolled
in, everyone looked tired and worn down. She had sympathy, but what could she do? She remembered going days without sleep on an assignment just to catch the killer, and she was about to push them even harder.

Agent Sanderson wandered in
and sat on the edge of the table, watching her carefully. Elizabeth met her gaze, unashamed of her past or present. There was nothing she needed to justify to this woman, especially regarding Ethan Blackhawk. What was between them wasn’t anyone’s business.

“Offer is still open, Agent Sanderson, to bunk at my house,” she said
, eyes back on the white board and not the woman.

“Thanks, but if another body turn
s up, Ethan will be calling in more agents, and we’ll
all
work out of the central location.”

Elizabeth nodded understanding
the woman’s implication. She was making it a point to tell her not to get used to Blackhawk bunking at her house. She wanted to comment, but she would choose her battles and this wasn’t one she cared to fight. After last night, she wanted to tell Lily not to bet on it, but why bother.

Watching Tony stroll into the room, he looked worse than the rest and wouldn’t even look at her. There was another mess she needed to clean up, when this was all over.

“We’re all ready,” said Sara Bishop, closing the conference room door, as she took a seat between Tyrell and Christopher.

Elizabeth looked at
her team, and it pained her that someone had slipped they had a serial killer. She was having a hard time believing that one of them was betraying her. Something just didn’t seem to sit right.

“First
off, thank you for all the overtime you’ve been putting in, and all the hard work. We all appreciate it, and so do the families of the victims. The other day, I heard outside our office, a referral to the ‘
serial killer’
. I’m going to go on record, right now. If it wasn’t a given that we aren’t to leak, speak, or discuss this with anyone outside this room, let me make that a direct order. If we cause mayhem out there, it drains our resources, and we’re pulled too thin. So, if asked, we are going with the standard line.”

“Yes,
ma’am,” muttered Tony.

“I’m sorry, is there an issue Deputy?” she said, not in the mood for any of his drama. “Because, if there is, feel free to express it now.”

“No issue, Sheriff LaRue.”

Elizabeth rolled her sore shoulder,
and watched the man. “Fine then, Tony. Let’s focus on why we called this meeting. While going over the notes last night, Agent Blackhawk and I think we found a connection to the killings.”

Tony’s whole body tensed. O
h he bet they found a connection, but it had nothing to do with the killer. His blood pressure began to rise, as he even thought about her and the FBI agent together.

“We believe it’s all tied together with the
Salem witch trials of 1692. The killer seems to be mimicking the methodology. The burning, hanging, drowning and pressing or as we call it now, crushing.”

“Wow,” said Tyrell, “
That’s some twisted shit, boss!”

“We live in
Salem, not
THE
Salem, but the town shares the name nonetheless. We seem to believe that the killer is taking the religious route, and eradicating ‘
witches
’. As of right now, we can’t figure out how he’s picking the victims, but the unsub seems to have a specific approach. Once we break that, we can figure out if there will be another victim and hopefully stop this madness.”

“Were the women practicing witchcraft?” asked
Christopher Santana.

Blackhawk moved to the front of the room. “That we don’t have an answer for
as of yet, but we are about to divide our team and find out. Agent Sanderson will be working the witchcraft angle, and the sheriff and I will be tracking the religious counterpart. We’ll be checking the churches and religious groups in town, to see what we can find. Agent Sanderson will be using half the deputies to do some leg work, since there’s going to be a lot of it. As she stated before, if another body shows up, I’ve got authorization to call in more agents. My team can be here in less than eight hours. They’re on standby and ready to mobilize.”

The deputies looked tense at the thought they weren’t enough to help.

“Right now, our resources are limited, we are running on just the people here, and we may have to open it up to more agents. It has nothing to do with your abilities. With my team on the ground, we can go from a team of seven to a team of twenty and cover more man hours. I don’t want to burn out the valuable resources we have here. You all need down time too.”

“So, we aren’t being replac
ed?” asked Tony, defiantly. He stared directly at the sheriff and then Blackhawk, knowing they understood he didn’t mean professionally.

“
This isn't a competition, Tony. It is what it is,” he answered, his gaze unwavering and standing his ground. If Tony wanted a pissing match to see who was the big dog in the yard, so be it. There wasn’t time for this. The clock was ticking and at any moment another woman could be murdered.

Elizabeth took over
. “Sara, you and Tyrell are going out on patrol. Keep your eyes and ears open. If a citizen has a tip, take it and write it down. We’ll look at it later; we want the people in this town to feel secure. By seeing us out among them, they’ll feel a little better. Agent Blackhawk and I will be out later today to join you.”

Agent Sanderson stood by her partner. “Christopher and Tony, you’ll be working the witchcraft angle with me, here at base. It’s going to take calls, talking to people and
chasing a very long paper trail.”

Both men stood, nodding to their boss.

“Tony, I need to speak to you before you go,” Elizabeth said.

“Okay, Sheriff LaRue.”

Elizabeth touched Blackhawk’s arm. She needed him to stay, since the hostility was also aimed at him. She wanted him to be part of this talk. Tony needed to see it was a unified front and the childlike behavior wasn’t going to fly.

Everyone walked out, the three remaining as the door closed with a quiet click.

“What’s going on, Tony?” she asked, leaning on the table with her hip. “You usually aren’t this angry. In fact, I can only remember seeing you this bitchy one time.”

Tony sat in silence.

“Tony, he’s not leaving the room. You can spill it now, or you can spill it later, but this needs to be worked out soon. It’s causing distraction, and distractions are what gets you or someone else killed,” she said, softly. “That I know from personal experience.”

Tony just stared ahead
with no comment. He deserved to have a talk with her alone, excluding the FBI guy. They had history together and he’d at least earned that.

Elizabeth stared at Blackhawk and shrugged, giving up.

“I don’t know what you mean, Sheriff,” Tony answered, nonchalantly. “I’m perfectly fine. If it’s okay with you, boss, I would like to join my team and get to work.”

“Go,” she said, finally. They were burning daylight. She watched him leave the room, the door slamming behind him.

“What are you going to do about him,” asked Blackhawk, feeling guilty that he had come between her and a friend.

“No idea, but he’ll calm down.”

“If this is going to be a problem for you, I can move back over to ‘
The Wayfarer’
,” he offered, hoping she wouldn’t take him up on it.

I
f she did he would understand.

No, he really wouldn’t.

Elizabeth just watched him emotionally retreat from her, and it made her angry. Yeah, she needed a solution because Tony was causing a rift between them, and it scared her. “If that’s what you feel that you need to do, Ethan. I won’t stop you,” she replied, standing.

It had to be his decision.

“I need to get some work done,” she added, leaving.

Blackhawk
stared after her, as she left the room. Her anger was palpable, and it worried him. He didn’t want her to push him out of her life; he wasn’t ready to not have her, now that he found her. That panicky feeling started to crawl up his body to his heart.

Elizabeth retreated to her office, trying to not let her personal mess, screw with her job. She was going to start searching for information on the local churches and religious organizations. When she sat at her desk, she saw a note sitting there for her. Opening it, she read it.

   I need to see you alone, it’s important. I’ll

      stop by t
onight at your place. Lose the fed.

    
~T

Her office door opened and Blackhawk entered closing and locking the door
behind him. He didn’t want to be interrupted during their conversation. “Lyzee, we need to talk. I think you got the impression that I didn’t want to stay with you and that’s completely wrong.”

She sat back in her chair, looking over at him. “I didn’t get that impression
at all, Ethan.”

“Then why did you tell me I could go back to the roach coach?” he asked, genuinely confused.

“Ethan, I told you today that you’re are welcome in my home. I’m not embarrassed by our relationship, or what people think about it. I’m a grown woman. If I sleep with you, or don’t sleep with you, it’s not their business. It’s our business. You need to decide if it bothers you that you’re involved with me, and then make your decision.”

He looked surprised and added, “I’m not bothered by what others think, e
specially when it comes to you,” he paused and offered more truth. “If anything, it’s you that’s slumming it. In the dating reality, I won the lottery, and you’re dating beneath you.”

Just his words broke her heart, that he thought that about himself
and didn’t see that he was amazing. “That’s not even close to being true, Ethan, and I’m sorry you see it that way.”

Wow, someone stomped all over this man’s heart a few times
. When she got her hands on the woman that made him a mess, she was going to kick her ass. The pain in his eyes was clearly visible that he wasn’t worthy of what they just started building.

Blackhawk shrugged, wishing he could believe her words.
There was nothing more in the world that he wanted to believe. Growing up on the Rez- the nickname for the reservation, he never thought he’d get lucky enough to score with a woman like her. Had someone told him he could actually have a lady like her in his life, he would have laughed. Since finding Elizabeth in Salem, it was like living a non-stop dream, and he never wanted to wake up, finding it wasn’t real.

“What I meant is
that I think you're bothered by what you think,” she said, softly. “That’s the bigger issue here. I don’t think you’re ready for us on a personal level.”

And here it came.

This is where
Elizabeth told him it was fun, but she couldn’t see herself with a man like him. Or maybe it would be his favorite excuse of all times that she wasn’t looking for anything serious, and she’d call him sometime. Ethan Blackhawk felt like someone reached into his body, and stole all the warmth and replaced it with ice.