True Love Lost (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 3)) (79 page)

N
ow it was time to do her job, and protect her family.

                        *     *     *

“How did you get all your dates, Suzan?” she asked, trying to keep her talking. As long as Randy was focused on her, Callen Whitefox had a chance to get free. Maybe he could overpower the man and save them. That was their only hope.

“We had coffee, and they came home with me.”

The reply was so distorted from the truth, but in Randy’s fractured mind, it was absolute fact. In the mind of the man holding her prisoner, he believed it was just coffee, and didn’t realize he was pouring hydraulic fluid into it, and drugging his victims.

Suddenly, the killer moved towards her.

“It’s time. You have to take out his heart, and put it in my lover. I need to get him back, and this is the last part we need.” Randy cut her bonds, but kept her hands tied together, and dragged her viciously over to the table.

Desdemona could see the violence in the man and wasn’t surprised he killed Suzan Hollister. The temper and anger simmered in the fractured mind, and she was sure it would have been magnified in Randy before the ‘accident’. He was obviously a control freak before killing his girlfriend, and now that she was dead, he was trying to control that too, but becoming mentally unhinged
in the process.

“I’m not going to hurt him. The man you have there is my fiancé and I refuse to kill him,” she
stated, honestly.

Randy screamed sickly at the Doctor’s refusal. “HELP ME do this!” All the rage was there and now focused on the Desdemona Adare. “I need his heart to save my true love!”

Desdemona shook her head in refusal. “I won’t kill Callen to give you the illusion that you have any chance of rectifying what you did, Randy. Suzan is gone and you took her life. You can’t put her or you back together again.” Desdemona had never been so scared in her life. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she was pretty sure this was the end for her and for Callen. So much for Elizabeth’s promise to keep them safe and boy she wished she could tell them all she wasn’t superwoman like they all promised. What a big letdown. Right then she wanted to scream ‘I TOLD YOU ALL SO!’

“NO!”
Randy wailed.

“I love you, Callen,” she said, standing her ground. She was a doctor, and she wasn’t going to kill him to save herself from this lunatic.

The killer lost total control at the woman’s words and in that moment of anger, Randy Duffy, in his divided state of mind made the choice to kill the woman standing between him and his perceived goal. Wrapping the beefy hands around Doctor Desdemona Adare’s throat, he lifted her from the ground and began to end her life, squeezing the life from her body.

Desdemona struggled to fight for air, but the killer was too strong
, and all she could do is look into the eyes of the deranged maniac and silent say goodbye to the family she just found. It was nice to have a girlfriend for once in her life.

Callen fought hard to get free
and to Desdemona. He needed to save her, and stop the killer from ending her life. His eyes filled with tears, as he watched her being picked up from the ground, and the mans’ hands strangling her. He’d failed to protect her, and now she was going to die and then he was going to follow. Then his mind flashed to Elizabeth and Ethan having to find his body and his heart ached at how he was losing the two people he loved most.

Then there was the popping noise
and all sound stopped as Randy Duffy crumbled to the ground and Desdemona fell with him.

Elizabeth came
through the door, her gun drawn, and talked into her com to Julian. “Clear, come on in,” she said, and then holstered her gun.

Callen had never been so happy to see her in his entire life.
Tears filled his eyes, as she met his gaze and nodded in reassurance. It was over, and they were safe. Love filled his body and replaced the fear.

Elizabeth helped Desdemona stand, and
wouldn’t let her look at the man that lay in the growing puddle on the floor. “You okay Desdemona?” she asked, popping her ear piece from her ear.

Desdemona shook her head and watched as her new friend pulled the tape from Callen’s mouth. Elizabeth Blackhawk just saved their
lives. Okay, so she was superwoman and she’d been wrong. VERY wrong.

“
Hey handsome, you feel like getting up from that table, or you want to hang out a little longer?” she teased, as she wiped the tear that slid down his cheek.

Desdemona rushed to his side
, as Elizabeth freed her fiancé from his bindings with his pocket knife she retrieved from his pocket.

Whitefox nodded unable to speak. They’d come really close to not surviving.

“Oh my God, Callen,” Desdemona whispered, as he sat up. “I thought Randy was going to kill you!” She threw herself across his body when he finally sat up.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” he said, holding her in his arms. “I’m okay. Is your throat okay?”

She nodded as she wept in his arms.

“I guess you both had no faith in me, huh?” Elizabeth looked over her shoulder as her new partner rolled into the room casually.

“Nice shot, Elizabeth,” he said, his own gun still around his neck. “I was just going to pull the trigger myself as soon as I had a clean shot,” he said, looking at the dead man lying on the floor. Agent Blackhawk made one clean shot, to the center of the forehead. Leaning down, he pulled the wig off his head. “Yeah, it’s not a wig. He scalped someone,” he said, dropping it.

Elizabeth looked around the room at the set up. “There should be enough forensics here to prove that Randy was the killer.” Elizabeth ignored the body on the
floor; she was still trying to calm her stomach. Her family was safe, and that’s all that mattered. The empty mason jar filled with a clear liquid on the counter beside the table made her sick to her stomach.

“What was he planning to take?” she asked, nonchalantly, trying to keep all the emotion from her voice.

“My heart,” answered Whitefox. “Unfortunately, it was already taken and he couldn’t have it,” he said, dropping a kiss on the top of Desdemona’s head, but looking straight into Elizabeth’s eyes.

Words weren’t needed between them. They never were when the bond was as tight as the one they s
hared. Elizabeth simply nodded, smiling gently. She touched her own heart as a reply for Callen.

His whole body clenched.

“Anyone want to tell me what the killer spilled before I had to end his life?”

Whitefox
replayed everything that Desdemona managed to pull from him as they were talking. The one thing that was completely evident was the man was insane.

“You both came close on this one,” added Julian Littlemoon.

Whitefox knew how true those words were.
He released Desdemona to go to his sister-in-law. “Lyzee,” he said, opening his arms and hugging the woman that just saved them. He buried his face in her hair and whispered low enough that only she would hear his words. “I love you more than anything in this world. You’re my angel for sure.”

Elizabeth looked up and patted his cheek.
“I love you too, Cal.”

“How did you find us?” asked Whitefox
, taking Desdemona back in his arms, because she was shaking violently.

“Well,
Desdemona left me a bunch of clues,” she said, standing to block the view of the dead man on the floor. Doctor Adare looked like she was barely holding together. “And one very important one,” she said, holding up her trigger finger.

It was poetic and it wasn’t missed by Callen Whitefox
that Elizabeth, the heir apparent to their family, had possession of the family ring again. It was sitting protectively on her trigger finger. The finger she used to end the killer’s life and give them back theirs. His heart clenched in his chest at the sight of it on her hand, and he met her eyes again. He knew the truth deep in his heart and from the look in her eyes, so did she.

“It looks better on you,
Desdemona,” she said never looking away from her brother-in-law, as she slipped it off her finger to give back to Whitefox. When he couldn’t keep his eyes locked on hers, the little niggling doubt almost overwhelmed her. “I was just keeping it safe for you.”

“Elizabeth, thank you!” T
ears filled her eyes as she looked down at the ring.

“I knew
Desdemona wouldn’t leave that family heirloom lying on an exam table, so it led me to the printouts that led me to putting the final pieces together. Randy was the killer, the dead woman corpse was his girlfriend, and he obviously had lost his damn mind.”

Callen took the ring from her hand, briefly clutching Elizabeth’s hand in his,
and his other going to her cheek. The love he felt was overwhelming. He knew why she was on top of the family totem, and he’d never doubt the woman again.

“Let’s get you guys out of this room, call in the tech team, and let me call Ethan. Right now he’s pulling out all that very sexy hair of his worried that I’ve gotten in trouble.”

Whitefox snorted.

“Ethan is going to kick my ass. I was supposed to be keeping you out of trouble,” muttered Whitefox, sheepishly. “My bad,” he said, leading them out of the garage.

“Hey, I was supposed to keep her safe,” replied Julian Littlemoon.
“Wow double duty. He must think you’re a menace to your own wellbeing.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Do I need to point out the irony on this one, boys?”

Both men laughed.

Elizabeth shook her head, and pulled out her phone.
“Oh he better not have sicked you two on me as babysitters.”

“I mean…” started Julian Littlemoon
, trying to cover for his Native friend. 

“When I get my hands on Mr. Sexy
Hair, I am so going to kick his ass.”

Elizabeth called for the tech team
, an ambulance and a back-up ME from the next town over. Then she took one for the team and called Sheriff Duffy to alert him as to what was happening. After some loud screaming into the phone from his end, she dialed her husband.

“Elizabeth!” he answered on the first ring.

“Hey sexy. I’m free for that phone sex now if you’re up to it?” she teased laughing, as she walked away from everyone else to have the talk with her husband.

“Jesus
Christ, are you okay?” Ethan Blackhawk demanded, his voice filled with panic. “Where are you?”

“I’m fine, and I just found your brother and Desdemona,” she said, trying to soothe his nerves.
“I’m chilling in the den of insanity at the killer’s house.”

“And the killer?”

“Tax payers are going to be happy.” Elizabeth’s voice held no emotion. If anything she was really good at de-compartmentalizing and now she had to, since she almost lost Callen to a killer. Oh, yeah and the woman he was marrying, even though he obviously had doubts. Apparently, there was still a mess on the horizon that was going to need clean up. Hopefully it wouldn’t require a gun or could wait until after maternity leave.

Ethan sighed. The last two hours of his life were a giant string of knots wrapped around his throat and chest, squeezing the life from him. “What happened?”

Elizabeth briefed him on everything that she discovered herself and all the information that Whitefox had shared with her moments ago. “I’m going to be tied up here wrapping up the paperwork, and then the sheriff. I already called for an ME from the next town over. Doctor Adare can’t handle this one.”

“No problem on the ME, I’ll follow up on my drive back,” said her husband.
“I imagine the sheriff isn't happy with you.”

“He’s
en route, and he was downright pissed. Seems he recanted his statement about not wanting to know and just let us handle it. Funny how that changed when he heard his brother was the fruit loop doing the killing. Apparently I’m fucking out of my mind, on a witch hunt from the start, and really shitty at my job.”

Blackhawk knew it was going to get ugly.
“Does he know he’s dead?”

“
Not yet. We’re waiting on a new ME to pronounce him. I don’t want to make Desdemona look at him. It was a pretty ugly face shot. I’ll have Callen and Doctor Adare get checked out by the ambulance crew when they arrive.”

“Be careful
and if he touches you I’m going to kill him.”

Elizabeth softened her voice, knowing this had to be horrible for him to live through. “I’m good baby
. You know how much I love my gun and how effective it can truly be. I’ll see you back at the house.”

“Elizabeth, we are so going to have a conversation
about how damn reckless and dangerous you are. I have serious concerns when my six month pregnant wife is stalking killers in the snow.”

Elizabeth Blackhawk laughed. “Oh,
we’re going to have a conversation too, Cowboy, starting with having your brother babysit me like I’m an invalid. See how that all worked out? I think Callen needs the babysitter.”