Page 116 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

“Do I have to tell you what happens if you let someone sneak up on you and take you? Wyler said there are two. Don’t get abducted. If there are three, like Tony said...”

Oh, she was aware.

“I’m not getting snuck up on again. Let’s just get Lance and Wyler out.”

Raphael had to know.

“And the abductors?”

She glanced over at him.

“Put them down if it comes down to the survival of Lance and Wyler. The Hollow ends here. If there’s a third, chances are this person will be catching up. They kill together. That’s their MO.”

Oh, and she was putting a lot of faith in Tony. That was for damn sure.

As for everyone else, the boss had spoken.

It was hunting time.

On the rez.

* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *

Inside The Trees

His Hunting Blind

From where he was perched, he could see that Lance was actually alive.

He was moving around, but his mouth was gagged, and his hands were bound in front of him.

Well, at least they hadn’t killed him yet.

Wyler couldn’t hear what the camouflage-wearing men were saying, but the one man was talking to Lance, and the older man looked…scared.

As he took it all in, Wyler really hoped that Ivan got his ass there and fast. He only carried a few cartridges for his gun, and he didn’t want to take anyone’s life.

When the one guy in camo pulled a knife, and then grabbed Lance by his hair to yank his neck back, Wyler knew what he was going to do.

Lance was about to have his throat cut.

There was only one choice.

Lifting his gun, he aimed it, shooting the knife out of the man’s hand.

Everyone in front of him jumped.

Well, so much for hiding.

Stepping out, Wyler began loading his gun as the one man held his hand and Lance stared at him with huge eyes. He was screaming into his gag, but Wyler couldn’t understand him.

“Back away from Lance,” he said, leveling his gun to take a more deadly shot if need be.

Only, he didn’t even get to put his finger on the trigger.

Something hit him in the back of the head, and Wyler began falling forward.

Tumbling.

And all around him, everything began going dark.

Well, now, he knew what Lance was screaming about now.

There weren’t two.

There were three, and one had been right behind him. Someone knew he hunted this area.

No doubt.

Yeah, that was just his luck.

* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *

The Woods

Not Far Away

They all heard the shot, and that didn’t make any of them happy. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t tell who had fired.

Had it been Wyler?

Or someone else?

They began moving quicker, and that’s when Ivan gave her the bad news.

“He’s moving,” Ivan said, his tablet in his one hand as MATE was navigating to that spot.

Oh, shit.

“Is he running?” Elizabeth asked, hoping he’d gotten a shot off and was trying to escape.

That was her hope.

Ivan studied the movement, and he shook his head.

“No, he’s definitely walking. The distance he’s covering isn’t at a run.”

She looked around, and kept her voice low. The woods were shadowy at that time in the late afternoon. On top of that, she had that eerie feeling like they weren’t alone.

LIKE.

BEFORE.

“Which way is he heading?” Elizabeth asked.

Ivan had bad news for her.

“To where they dumped you and the mountain of skulls,” he offered.

Yeah, that wasn’t good.

Only, they had a problem. If they ran fast, behind them, they risked being heard. Now, they had to outthink them.

“We’ve got to reroute,” she said. “We have to beat them to that location.”

Uriel hated to be the Debby Downer, but…

“And if we’re wrong?”

She was to the point.

“Then, we have a double funeral on our hands and a bunch of our family members ready to be angry with five of us.”

Neither of those situations worked for them.

At.

All.

So, they’d better not fuck this up.

The whole time, Elizabeth was running the possibilities through her head.

She honestly had no idea who this could be. There were too many suspects and not enough forensics to have her back.

And that was problematic.

For Lance and Wyler.

And their longevity on Earth.

* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *

Walking Through

The Woods

Wyler was stalling.

He knew Elizabeth was coming, and he knew that she’d be tracking him. Unfortunately, the assholes had broken his phone, and tossed it in the woods.

Honestly, he hoped that Ivan was on his game, or he was screwed.

Why?

They hadn’t seen this one coming.

And somehow, Wyler was beginning to believe that neither did Elizabeth.

When he was shoved by the younger man in the camo, Wyler stumbled, and went down.

Oh, he wasn’t tripped up.

He wanted to waste time and prolong this for as long as he could.

“GET UP!” the one man said.

Wyler did, but he tried to figure this out. Honestly, it didn’t make sense to him.

“Why, Tom? Why are you doing this with your sons?” he asked.

Tom Redbear laughed as his stepsons kept them moving.

“I’m cleaning up the reservation. That’s been my family’s job for a very long time.

My stepsons are helping me. I will say that your daughter-in-law is not as good as they say she is.

This was easy. Only, my sons should have killed her immediately.

We won’t make that mistake with you. I’m willing to bet that she won’t think to look in the caves. We scared her, didn’t we?”

Wyler hated this guy.

Oh, if he got free, the two younger men were going to be nursing their balls, and faces because he was pissed off. Blackhawks fought dirty, and he already had a death wish with cancer.

He had nothing to lose.

“It takes a lot to scare her,” he stated. “She’ll find you at some point. It will just take her time.”

He was still laughing.

“She won’t because I willingly let her do this.

I knew my boys would keep her off our trail.

She just interviewed me a few hours ago about them, and I was convincing.

See, they do only come to visit me for my birthday, which isn’t a lie.

Only, what she didn’t figure out was that my birthday is the week of the Solstice.

We have a little fun outing each year as we do it too. ”

Wyler kept him talking.

“Why though?” he asked. “There’s no such thing as the Wendigo. You know that.”

He smiled.

“Do I?” he asked. “You’ve never felt that entity watching you in the woods? You’ve never hunted and felt like something was right there?”

Wyler was honest.

“Yes, I have, but our people live and die here, Tom. You know that, and so does your sons.”

Tom Redbear kept walking.

He couldn’t wait to make Elizabeth Blackhawk pay for annoying him. He had his duty, and she’d fucked this up. Women needed to be in the kitchen.

Not wearing a badge.

That’s why he was glad Rayna Running Wolf would be broken by this too.

Wyler showing up was killing two birds with one stone.

“Why did you kill people we knew? You used to be friends with Jolon and John,” he stated.

Tom kept them moving as his one son, William, had Wyler’s gun pointed into his back between his shoulder blades.

“There’s a lot you don’t understand, Wyler.

The bottom line was that they were problematic.

You were going to be after them, but you cleaned up your act, and I felt bad.

Timothy loved you so much, so I opted to let it play out.

Plus, your sons are Feds. I’m not an idiot.

We’ve always chosen people who wouldn’t be missed, right boys? ” he asked.

Both men laughed.

“The amount of Natives that just up and leave…I’ve trained them well—like my father trained me, and his father trained him.”

Wyler kept walking, and Lance was silent beside him since he was still gagged.

“Why are you eating them?” he asked.

Tom didn’t mind sharing the information. After all, it wasn’t like they’d live to tell anyone.

“Well, honestly, we didn’t at first. Only, when we ended up killing my useless son, Stephen, as one of the victims, the boys were curious. I’ve tasted human flesh, and it’s meh. They liked it though. They killed their brother, and to take on his spirit, they consumed him.”

Well, that explained where the man’s third son was. They could have kept this going had Lance’s daughter not found the clothing and bones.

Wyler hoped someone found him so he could be laid to rest with his father and first wife.

William has his gun.

“We don’t waste what is killed,” William Redbear said. “Plus, our brother couldn’t keep his mouth shut. We could have made The Hollow pleased.”

Tom smiled at them.

“You did please me, my boy.”

Then, he focused on Wyler.

“They are a father’s true joy,” he admitted.

“They might not be from my body, but they come back to see me. I lied to your daughter. I never ever leave,” he said.

“My spirit is here forever, but your ‘smart’ daughter-in-law never realized that I can lie with the best of them. I have been for ages. Now, you two know who we are, who The Hollow is, and that means you have to die. I’m The Hollow, Wyler.

When I die, they will be. They pleased me, as usual. ”

The two boys were grinning wildly.

This whole thing was insane.

Wyler realized this man was out of his mind, and so were his two sons.

“The Hollow isn’t a thing,” Wyler said.

Tom corrected him.

“Over one hundred years ago, my great-grandfather found a way to offer a sacrifice to the Wendigo. Another Native traveling through with white men who hired him as a tracker told them about it. From that day on, The Hollow was born. It’s not them, it’s me,” Tom admitted.

“Like I just told you, when I die, one of them will be the new Hollow. We are empty inside until we fill ourselves with Native spirits. We’re the container, and our duty is to do what is needed to protect our people. ”

Yep.

He was all kinds of nutters.