Dead Shall Speak (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 10) (3 page)

Jaxon came alive too.

Together, they were a team. Their mating became special and uniquely them.

Doctors Magnus and Armstrong had a long future ahead of them if he had anything to say about it.

Since she was letting him be the boss, and he was leading the way, they’d head right into ‘happily ever after’.

It was the only way.

His younger fiancée would be given the perfect life, if he had anything to say about it.

Tony leaned back in his chair to read a message that came in on his cell. It was from one of his best friends, Chris Leonard. If there were two people he missed most, being out on this dig, it was his ME buddy and Elizabeth Blackhawk.

They were his family. Since he had none left, he had been adopted by both people. Chris was his brother in arms, as they fought the good fight against the killers and murdered. It bonded them together, making them as close as possible.

Then, there was Elizabeth. What could he say about her? She was his surrogate mother, best friend, and sister of sorts.

When he stumbled, she picked him up.

When he was lost, she helped him navigate the darkness.

Because of her, he was with Jaxon right now. He owed her more than he could ever repay her. What they had was so special and precious to him.

As he thought about her, Tony sent another text. Oddly, she had yet to text him back the last month.

He hoped she was well.

It was unusual, but she was co-running the second largest FBI hub in the world.

What did he expect? Nightly check ins?

Instead of letting it bother him, he replied to the message from his friend. Curiously, he inquired about what was going on back at FBI West. He knew his friend missed him and was bored out of his mind. If it wasn’t for Jaxon, he’d feel the same. When you played in death all day long for the FBI, it was hard to extract yourself from it.

You needed an outlet.

Tony never realized how much he missed being a Fed, and it wasn’t all about the work. It was about the camaraderie too. He didn't believe he could ever let it go.

When the dig was over, he was gladly heading home with the woman who would be his wife. Tony couldn’t wait for Chris to meet her. It was akin to bringing her home to meet the family. Maybe, if he was lucky, Elizabeth would have time for a dinner out with them to celebrate.

Or, he would go to her.

Since family was something he didn't have, the two people he loved most mattered.

The end of the tunnel was ahead for Tony, and before long, they would be out of there.

Thankfully.

While he knew Jaxon loved her work and was thriving in the dirt, she’d mentioned getting away with him. When she brought it up, his heart thudded in his chest. Little did she know, that was exactly what he planned.

Yeah, they would be taking a long trip.

As in a honeymoon.

Right after they tied the knot!

He hoped that he could give her the sun, moon, and stars, because she deserved them and so much more.

Pulling up the data which was coming in on his tablet, he noticed they had nearly thirty bodies logged.

This was one hell of a burial site.

Someone had been a very busy serial killer. Once all the bones were pulled from the ground, the FBI would be stepping in to work the case. Since this grave was in Kentucky, a state that Gabe Rothschild and Ethan Blackhawk shared jurisdiction, one of the teams would be headed there after he was done. Tony hoped the bodies would stay with him, and then maybe Jaxon could work on finding their identities.

Yeah, out of FBI West—her new home.

Maybe if she saw how great his side of the country was, she’d want to stay there. It would give her purpose, and give him time to keep her close.

Then again, it wasn’t like he was going to give her an option. She was letting him lead, and that path was heading straight back to his side of the USA.

When he heard a shout of his name, he stood. Immediately, the tone made his heart kick in his chest. The woman he loved sounded worried.

“Tony! Hurry!” came Jaxon’s voice.

It caused fear to pump through his body. Rushing from the tent, he threw the baseball cap on, and made it across the land to the hole. Inside sat his woman, and she didn't look right.

Something was definitely off.

“Are you okay?” he asked, staring first at the woman he loved, and then the other doctors beside her.

Jaxon shook her head.

Tony noticed they all looked…off.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

When she pointed at a hand breaking through the surface of the dirt, the look of horror said it all.

“I thought we were recovering bodies that were here for over thirty years,” Jaxon Armstrong said, trying not to let the fear fill her at what she’d just found. “No one told me they’d be fleshy, Doctor Magnus.”

Tony was more than confused.

That was exactly what they were unearthing.

There was no way the bodies could have skin and meat on them. He followed her motion toward what had her so freaked out.

It took a second for his brain to work through the confusion.

Tony stared at the decaying hand and realization dawned.

Well shit!

Yeah, all the other remains were decades old. This one hand wasn’t. To his knowledge, there was nothing in the ground to preserve a set of remains this well.

To him, they looked fresh.

Jumping down in the hole, he moved closer to the body. Yet, he restrained himself from touching it. Leaning down, he sniffed the flesh, much to the horror of the anthro team behind him.

Apparently, they didn't roll like the FBI, using every one of their senses to deduce an answer. They should. It came in handy quite often.

“This is very wrong,” he stated. “This body is relatively new.”

Jaxon wanted to be sick.

When she’d met Tony on their last case, this was the part that made her want to run and hide. Fleshy victims freaked her out.

She was better with bones.

Plain.

Simple.

Bones
.

This was getting ugly.

“Maybe there was a pocket of something down there that kept the preservation like that,” she offered, knowing deep down that was total bullshit.

There was no way…

Tony Magnus shook his head. “We did mineral trace in the soil before we began. That’s not possible, Doctor Armstrong.”

Already, he was pretty sure what had happened.

While the academics behind him were confused as hell, Tony had seen this more times than he could keep track in is life.

This was definitely bad.

Glancing over, before standing up, he motioned to his team. “Everyone needs to stop digging and get out of the grave. We have to call in the authorities before I let this dig progress any further,” he stated.

There were groans all around.

No one wanted to stop working on the dig.

They all had a job to do.

Ignoring their comments, Tony didn't really care what they wanted. He was in charge and that was a great deal of responsibility. It was also something he took very seriously.

“We have a big problem,” he continued, “Someone left a body here, and it’s new.”

Jaxon moved closer, trying to feel more secure as she pressed herself to his side. “How new?” she asked, her voice barely over a whisper. When it came to bodies, she didn't want to deal with someone who had recently died.

She was a burial rat for a reason. She liked her bodies to be strictly bones.

“It not that old. I need to call in the Feds. It seems impossible, but it looks like our killer is back.”

Somehow, he didn't think this was a fluke.

Someone had returned to the scene of the crime…

His scene.

~ Chapter One ~

             FBI West

      Tuesday Morning

It was quiet on the home front.

Way too quiet.

Normally, FBI West was a hub of activity. Don’t get him wrong. It was still busy with agents running around, but something was missing. While the crimes continued, and agents were still being called out, there was one distinctly absent person.

Elizabeth Blackhawk.

For a month now, there’d been no one to perch on the corner of Ethan’s desk, and no one to have coffee with on the couches in their offices. Work was the least of his problems. Their home life was boring as hell too.

In all honesty, it was beginning to make him more and more edgy as each day went by. The lack of communication was starting to break him. While he knew she was safe, he couldn’t help but worry night and day.

His pregnant wife was out there, and he was helplessly waiting back home.

It was horrible.

Maybe if he knew where his wife was, Ethan might not be such a nervous wreck. Having her disappear was a hard pill to swallow, and at that moment, it was definitely stuck in his craw. Never before had he experienced such feelings of loss. Nothing compared to this.

Not when he lost his mother.

Granddad.

And nearly his life.

He’d navigated those feelings far better. At this point, it was like his heart had been ripped from his chest and thrown just out of his reach.

It was breaking him.

It was like the universe was testing him, trying to shatter what was left of him into little pieces. It wasn’t that long ago that he’d been abducted. Thanks to that, there were still ramifications in his life.

He was edgy.

Paranoid.

Worried sick.

Now, he was forced to pile more stress on his already overburdened shoulders.

Then to make the rest look insignificant, there was the incredible guilt racking his body.

What Ethan wanted to do was protect the woman bearing him another child, but instead, what he’d done was send her out into the world alone to protect the FBI’s newest prize.

It was taking its toll.

If this didn't end, Oracle would be the death of him.

He already knew it.

In his mind, Blackhawk could picture a million ways it was going to go wrong. She’d get hurt, the baby would be injured, or something far worse—
his woman and child would die
.

Each day was filled with these horrible scenarios, and Ethan Blackhawk was helpless to stop it. They filled his mind, nearly bringing him to his knees.

He hated himself for thinking it.

Ethan loathed that he was so damn weak.

Where was his trust?

Faith?

Blackhawk despised the fact that this brutal fear was strangling him each and every day. It made him feel pathetic and helpless, and as a survivor, that didn't sit well with him.

At all.

After being abducted, he’d leaned on the people he loved. The most important crutch was his wife, and now that security net was ripped away.

It sucked.

What he wanted to do was call her, demanding that she immediately come home. Thanks to all this, Ethan Blackhawk had even more insight on something he had suspected before. Without his wife, he was absolutely nothing.

She mothered their children.

Elizabeth brought laughter to their home.

In everything she did, she offered her heart and soul to their tribe.

She was the center, and without her, they were crumbling beneath the weight.

It was crushing him to be away from her for so long. Then, it occurred to him. It had to be a million times worse for her. While he was able to head home at night to spend the evening with their children and Callen, she couldn’t.

His poor, sweet woman couldn’t, and that had to be so very lonely.

The woman, who was the protective raven of their clan, was on her own somewhere in the world. There were no men to watch her back.

That killed him even more.

His Elizabeth was on protection duty when she, herself, needed the strong arms of her men to keep her safe.

Yeah, this was going to break him or drive him completely bat shit insane in the process. Already, he was pretty sure which that would be.

Definitely the latter.

When he heard a knock on his door, he glanced up. There stood someone who understood all his angst.

Callen Whitefox looked like hell.

He had actually lost some weight since Elizabeth had left. He’d been depressed and lacking in the fun department. It was obvious that he was suffering too.

Their connection was just as strong, and without the woman he loved, Callen was struggling day to day.

While Ethan and Elizabeth had a special bond, brought together by fate and the universe, Callen also had one with her too. Elizabeth was his best friend and protector. She watched over him and kept him safe. Lately, Callen had been seeing Doctor Callista Gaines for therapy. Before she headed out into the great unknown, Elizabeth had gone with him, helping one of the men she loved get through some bumps in the road.

And what a minefield laden road that was indeed.

On their last case together, the truth had come out. Callen had been sexually abused as a young teen. He was broken inside, and Elizabeth had been helping him face his demons.

Together, they were weaving the wounds closed with therapy and love. Like always, she was using her heart to heal one of them, like only she could.

Now, with her gone, Callen had been forced to go at it completely alone. He was missing the woman who gave him strength and will to fight harder.

While Ethan had offered to go with him, Callen wouldn’t let him. The bond between them was strong, but his brother was still working through the shame. He’d tried to explain that he wasn’t ready to have anyone hear the horrible secrets he’d carried for so long.

Ethan couldn’t blame him.

He completely understood.

When he was taken, the man who tried to break his spirit had succeeded. For the longest while, Ethan was ashamed that he’d succumbed to the man’s psychological warfare.

And he was only in captivity for a couple days.

Callen had been sexually abused for many long years. In order to survive, he had to allow horrible atrocities to be done to him.

It was heartbreaking, and Ethan didn't even know all the details. What he did see was how visibly shaken Elizabeth was after each therapy session.

It spoke volumes.

For now, all that Ethan could do was be there for the man he loved with half of his heart.

When Callen was ready, he’d hold him up. Blackhawk knew it was only a matter of time.

“You look like shit,” Ethan said, as Callen dropped down onto the couch. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look this bad.”

It was the truth. The sparkle was gone from his brown eyes, his hair hung limply in the ponytail at his back. With the weight loss, the man appeared…gaunt.

“Yeah, I know.” Callen had lost his appetite, the will to work out, and the desire to laugh. He was barely holding on as Elizabeth was missing from his life. To say that he was dying without her wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

She was the life in his body.

Her being gone was akin to the sun no longer shining. Everything that was once alive was now withering in the dark.

Callen was being swallowed alive, and he knew it.

“Can I help you with anything?” Ethan asked, hoping his brother would let him do something. “Do you want to talk about it?” he offered.

“No. I can’t, Ethan. If I even say the words, it’ll break me,” he replied honestly. “Digging it up has made the pain so much more brutal.”

“We’ll be okay, Callen,” Blackhawk promised. All they needed was some rest and their woman back.

“I’m so tired, Ethan. I don’t know how much longer I can do this without her.”

Blackhawk knew that neither of them was sleeping at night, knowing their woman was out in the world alone. Ethan felt helpless that he couldn’t save his brother.

This guilt was killing him too.

“Have you heard from her?” Callen asked.

Regretfully, Ethan had to shake his head. “No.”

They wouldn’t have had to take such drastic measures normally, except the FBI’s files had been hacked, and the only information they could see that was taken was everything on Oracle.

Who did it, they didn't know.

Until they could find the culprit, Elizabeth was going to stay ‘missing’. They couldn’t take a chance that Oracle would be compromised. That’s why someone had to take one for the team.

At that point, Ethan was beginning to believe that he should have gone out instead.

He was accustomed to being away from the family and office. It would have been easier on their kids and Callen. If he could go back and change it, he would. While he would still miss her, the people he loved most wouldn’t hurt.

Going back to that fateful day, he should have insisted that he head out to save them all. If he was lonely, he’d battle through it. He couldn’t bear the idea his wife was as miserable as they were.

Ethan would swallow the pain of being alone for his wife and brother any day.

“I miss her. Why can’t we call her?” he asked.

“She has to stay under. Gabe is the only one who can reach her. Her cell is off, so they’re not traceable. She picked up a burner phone along the way.”

Callen was a calm man, but he hated this. The time away from Elizabeth was eating away at his soul. Never in his life had he ever come to rely on one person this much. She was the keeper of his heart and secrets.

“How was therapy?” Ethan asked, knowing his brother had just finished up. Maybe if he kept pushing, Callen would open up. Wasn’t that exactly what Elizabeth had done when he was going?

“It sucked.”

Yeah, he’d felt that way about it too.

“Is Doctor Gaines riding you?”

Callen let out a long pent up breath. “It’s uncomfortable to sit there and talk about my sex life with another woman. It feels wrong talking about us three with a stranger. I always feel like she’s taking notes.”

That made him laugh. “She is. Right after you leave, she scribbles it all down. I’ve seen my file. I wanted to throw up.”

“Thanks,” he muttered. “Why does she need to know what turns me on? I mean, can’t I just say Elizabeth and go with that? I’ve had to sit there and describe one of our nights in bed. It’s horrifying, bro.”

Ethan understood. When dealing with a victim of a sex crime, Doctor Gaines was just trying to get Callen to open up. When Elizabeth was there, it was far easier. That’s why she’d gone to therapy with him.

“Why do I have to discuss my erection with her? Does she really need to know that pain gets me off? I feel like I’m a case study in this horrible nightmare.”

Blackhawk got it. When she’d asked him something similar, he closed down. “Just tell her. Trust me. She can work miracles.”

“Then let her make Elizabeth reappear. That’s the only fucking miracle I want.”

The tension was there as the stress lines formed across his forehead. When his cheek twitched, Ethan felt bad for his brother.

“It gets easier, Cal. I swear to you it does. One day, you’ll be a mess, and then like a light switch, it’ll go off.”

He shrugged, finding it hard to believe his brother. “I want Elizabeth back. She’ll heal me. Now I feel raw and exposed talking about whether I like wild sex or tame sex. I don’t want to talk about her and intercourse, especially when I’m obviously not having it.”

Ethan got that too.

It had been a month.

It was wearing thin on both men. They went from sex daily to nothing at all. It was a horrible shock to the libido. A man can only jerk off so much before that even lost its luster. Ethan suspected his brother and he were up for an award when it came to fantasizing and masturbating.

“She’ll be home soon.”

“God help her. I have a month of pent up frustration, and before you suggest self-servicing, let me point out that Doctor Gaines tried and I almost puked in her office. I’m definitely not discussing it with you either.”

Blackhawk snorted. Apparently, he was going to win on lack of control. Callen won the martyr award on this one.

“You technically just did.” He pushed on, seeing that Callen was getting some of this off his chest. It would help. “Is that all you talk about?”

“No, she also wants to know about our sleeping arrangements. It’s awkward. Seriously? She obviously knows all this. You were her last victim in therapy hell. She knows we sleep together in the same bed.”

Ethan lifted a brow. “You’re preaching to the choir on awkward, bro. I know we slept together as kids, but you’re a freaking bed hog now. Elizabeth is a saint for playing bed border between us.”