The Killing Times (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 1)) (50 page)

As he stood before the man, trying to question him
in regards to why they lied about knowing the first victim, he was becoming frustrated. It was one thing to know you were disliked, but it was another to have it slap at you with every question asked.

His wife stood beside him, saying nothing, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. He could feel the anger reverberating through her body with every derogatory comment
made by Minister Dansforth. Yet, she remained stone cold, and that worried him, it wasn’t like her to have to swallow her anger. It’s what made them opposites; he was calm under fire, Elizabeth was a burning flame. Now they both faced the bigots, and Ethan was feeling like there was a wall being built between them.

He just had no idea why.

“Mr. Dansforth for the last time, we need to speak to your son. If you’re purposely blocking us, we will have to arrest you,” said Blackhawk. “It’s called obstruction of justice.”

“I already told you.
I don’t know where he is, boy. Are you hard of hearing, son?”

“I’m neither your son, nor your boy
. What I am, is a special agent in the FBI, here to question James.”

Mrs. Dansforth stepped forward interjecting, “Stop bothering law abiding citizens, and go back to where you came from.”

“I guess we’ll have to put a BOLO out for him, and have him picked up and slapped in cuffs,” he wasn’t kidding. At this point in the game he would do it in a heartbeat.

Elizabeth picked up her cell and dialed Martha. “I need a BOLO for James Dansforth; he’s twenty one, approximately six feet tall, one hundred and eighty pounds. He
’s to be picked up and transported to my office in cuffs. If he resists, have him placed in holding until we have time to interrogate him, in house.” She purposely used the word ‘interrogate’ instead of interview hoping it would make the Dansforths talk to Blackhawk.

Her heart was aching as he struggled through the interview, as they kept insulting him. Part of her wanted to cry, the other part of her wanted to kick both their asses.

Blackhawk nodded at her, and she hung up the phone. “We’ll see you at the sheriff’s office.” He turned and wasn’t quite sure what the woman said under her breath, but it must have been pretty vile. His wife was vibrating and whipped around quickly.

“I’m sorry
, did you just make a derogatory remark about him?” She turned on the woman as fury reverberated through her tense body.

“What if I did
? You’re the sheriff, and you can’t touch me.”

Elizabeth had had enough. “Ethan,” she took off her gun and badge
and handed it to him. “I quit. I’m turning in my gun and badge.”

Elizabeth
turned back to face the woman. “Now I’m no longer the sheriff, and I can touch you.” She jabbed her finger into the woman’s chest, watching her blanch as she took two steps back.

“
For your information, that man is my husband. So, let me tell you what I think about you and your backwoods, hillbilly-esque attitude. You can kiss my ass. I’ve stood here listening to you insult him, because he’s Native American. You know what? Who gives a fuck?”

The look on the woman’s face was priceless. Yes, she just threw down the
‘
F word’
in their house of God. In her opinion, it was no worse than what they had been doing all along with their bigotry.

“You call yourself good
people; well I call you judgmental, bigoted assholes! If I ever hear you utter one more word about my husband or his heritage, you won’t have to worry about the sheriff riding crazy all over your ass! You will have to deal with me!” Elizabeth swung her focus to the minister next. “Let me assure you both, the amount of sheer hell that I will reign down on you will be more than the apocalypse and the next coming rolled into one. No one talks down to my husband like that and gets away with it. Keep that in mind and pass that little bit of information around to your bigoted friends too.”

Neither spoke, they looked too shocked
at her words.

“Furthermore,” she said pointing
at the wife again. “History lesson time, Mrs. Dansforth. Ethan’s ancestors were here first, and that gives him more right to be here than you inbred, puritanical, European pilgrims. So, you can stuff that in your bible and then go push your bigoted ideas elsewhere. It isn’t going to fly in my town, or around my husband.”

“Well I never!” she stated with such a pained look on her face
.

I
t might have been funny if the Dansforths didn’t make her want to crack their skulls together. “And you never will as long as you let your overly bloated, hot air spouting, bigoted asshole husband treat you and everyone around him like a second class citizen. Here’s a thought… get out of the kitchen, stop being barefoot and pregnant, and learn the bible you keep preaching at everyone else.”

She turned and walked away, leaving them all standing there
as they stared in her wake.

Ethan smiled at them both and nodded. “You both have a good day now, and if you hear from your son, give us a call.” Blackhawk would have laughed at the way she put both racist bigots in their place, but he had a feeling this was just the beginning of the storm.

Elizabeth Blackhawk was stirred up
and it was going to take a lot to calm her down.

                            *   *   *

Elizabeth didn’t talk the entire way back to the station. She gave him credit
. He tried to see if she was okay, and she wasn’t. Standing there for thirty minutes and having to watch the man she loved being insulted was too much for her to handle. He did give her the gun and badge back, but she locked it away in her glove compartment. Neither of which she wanted to see at that moment.

Council was probably going to hear about it, and she was going to be fired for just threatening a minister and his wife
. Then once they tossed in using profanity in the house of God, she was likely up for a public town flogging. She couldn’t believe she let them piss her off that much.

When he stopped the Jeep,
she jumped out and stormed towards her office. Once inside she slammed the door.

Elizabeth didn’t
even noticing the name change that had been completed earlier that day. As she pulled on shorts, a tank top and her sneakers, there was only one thing to calm her down. She needed to beat the hell out of something.

Out at her secretary’s desk, she tried to remain calm.
“Martha, don’t let anyone bother me. I’m not in the mood for company.”

The woman simply watched her walk away.

Once in the gym, she laced up her boxing gloves
and started on the bag. With each hit, she began to feel a little bit more human and less likely to kill someone. A fine sheen of sweat covered her, and she just kept pounding on it, pretending that it was the minister and his wife, and she was beating common sense into their heads.

When the gloves got too cumbersome, she pulled them off, willing to bare hand the bag, even if it caused her pain. It was th
at or cry. She went at it with kicks, knees, and back handed swings, anything and everything to make the hurt in her heart lessen. Now she was using all the fighting techniques that she’d learned in the FBI. It all came back, and she moved quickly and easily. Her body found its rhythm and she worked out a great deal of her aggression.

She knew he was there before he said anything.

“I told Martha that I wasn’t to be bothered.” She wished for Ethan’s sake he would have just listened. Elizabeth grabbed the tape off the wall and wrapped her sore knuckles, so she could continue on with her release of aggression.

“I may have a problem with my wife beating the hell out of her body, so I don’t think that
order applies to me.”

“I’m mad, Ethan.”

“I get that, but at who? Is it at the Dansforths or me?”

She looked up at him
surprised. He was standing there all cool and collected, and she wished she had the icy control he had, but she just didn’t. “No, not you, Ethan. I’m pissed at them and myself.”

She went back to the bag
, hitting it hard, feeling her shoulder sing in pain, but pushing through it anyway. Hand to hand combat calmed her.

Apparently, violence was cathartic.

Blackhawk flinched, as he watched his wife fight the invisible demons. “Want to talk it out? Or you just want to continue until the bag surrenders?” He was pretty sure she kneed it a few times to prove her point. Gabe was right, she would fight dirty. Better the bag than him.

Looking up at him
with sweat dripping in her eyes, she didn’t look any calmer. “I’m angry that I lost control. I’m angry that they’re assholes. I’m just angry that I had to stand there for thirty minutes while they insulted you. I don’t even think that angry is even the word for it.”

“
People are going to be assholes. That’s job security for both of us.” Ethan tried to make her smile.

Elizabeth looked at him with no emotion on her face.

“I’m sorry you had to stand there and watch it, but I’m used to it, and you can’t defend me against every bigot in the world, baby.”

“I can try.” Elizabeth sighed and sat down on the mat, leaning her head against the wall.

Blackhawk took a spot beside her, taking Elizabeth’s hand in his. It took him a while to figure out what he wanted to say. Finally, he found the words. “The south is a pretty tough place when it comes to judgmental assholes, Elizabeth.”

“Then I guess we’ll live in Georgetown
, because I’m not going to let you be ripped apart every day here. Screw the job; I’ll toss it to preserve your heart.”

Just the willingness to leave her town and job meant everything to him.
“Do I get any say in this?” he asked, leaning down to kiss her. “Or have you decided you're going to be the boss in the marriage?”

“I’m not the boss
, Ethan. I’m the one that probably just signed her own pink slip,” she said, laughing. Now that her temper was gone, it was funny in a ‘
fired and unemployed’
kind of way.

“Unemploy
ment means more time to have sex,” he joked, kissing her on the top of her head. “I know that has to cheer you up.”

She grinned.
“Might as well get started on having kids,” she quipped, teasing him back “I’m pretty sure the ‘
F word’
in the church will be the council’s breaking point.”

“Come on, let’s check on the team, and then head home
to start on those kids.”

“Sounds good to me
,” she laughed, the anger breaking up. If she was going to lose her job, it was all worth it defending her husband.

“Oh, and Elizabeth?”

She lifted an eyebrow, as he pulled her to her feet. “Yes, Ethan?”

“That little display in the church was the sexie
st thing I have seen my wife do. It was sexier than punching out my partner, and threating to ass kick my ex. You going ghetto on the minister and his wife was very hot.”

Elizabeth
snorted, as her husband picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

“Ethan! You can’t carry me to my office like this!”

“Want to bet, Sheriff?” he threw back at her.

For the first time, Elizabeth Blackhawk didn’t have
anything funny, or clever to say.

She was too mortified!

                            *   *   *

The team had everything under control, but the tox reports were still out. For now, they needed to be patient and wait on them. What they needed was the poison in its natural form, and there was a lab hold up. So, with nothing else to do, they decided to home and have a quiet dinner.

Once there,
Elizabeth showered and changed, meeting her husband in the kitchen, where he was making her dinner.

“This is nice. Y
ou're cooking again,” she said, pouring them both a glass of wine.

He accepted it and took a sip. “You look much calmer, so
I’ll guess that the storm has passed?”

“Yeah, I’m better
.” Elizabeth put down her glass. “I love you,” she stated as she enjoyed watching him move around their kitchen. It reminded her of the night he proposed and always would.

“I love you too, baby,” he answered back. There was something
cathartic about being with his wife. “What do you say to a quiet night involving some dinner, us on the couch cuddling with some lab reports, and maybe some making out?”

Elizabeth grinned over the rim of her glass.
“Will there be more booze, and us getting naked involved in this plan?”

“Probably,” he
grinned wickedly.

“Sounds
good to me, Cowboy.”  Elizabeth liked the way this evening was turning around. When the doorbell rang, she cursed.  “Seriously? Can’t a girl have dinner and sex with her husband without someone interrupting? I swear this is the worst honeymoon ever.”

Ethan grinned. “I promise when this is all over, you and I are going to a beach to lay topless in the sand.”

That had its merit. “I have a bikini and can have a bag packed in under ten minutes if you want to go now.”

Now he started laughing. “Go answer the door.”

“Spoil sport!” At least there was a honeymoon on the horizon. Thinking about debauchery with her sexy husband, might get her through the rest of this assignment.

“No growling at the guests,” he reminded her
, laughing as she walked away. He sipped his wine, seriously terrified for anyone who came to their door tonight. Unless if it was Tony. After hearing his comments today, he wouldn’t mind watching his wife chew him up and spit him out.