“Yes, Granddad?” he asked, answering.
There was a pause, almost like he was surprised that the call was taken.
“My boy, where is Callen? I went to his cabin to drop off his truck, and he wasn’t there.”
Ethan wasn’t shocked.
There was no doubt in his mind that Timothy doted on Callen. He was his golden child.
Well, better him than Ethan. That was a burden he didn’t want to deal with in his life.
“Don’t tell anyone, but I killed him and hid the body, Timothy. Oh, no. Don’t call the cops on me. You realize he’s a grown-ass man, right?” he asked.
The people at the next table looked over, and Gene held up his FBI badge so they saw it.
“He was kidding,” he said.
Only, the man on the phone wasn’t having the sass that morning.
The universe felt off to him, and when he woke up, he had that feeling in the pit of his stomach.
And it wasn’t a good one.
“Har-har, smart ass. That’s not funny, Ethan Jackson Blackhawk. Your lip is not necessary at this time of the day. A simple answer would suffice.”
He rolled his eyes.
“And don’t roll your eyes at me. I can hear them rattling around in that head of yours.”
Gene just shook his head.
Yeah, he wasn’t messing with that.
PASS.
Truthfully, Ethan could feel himself getting angry while talking to the man, so it was best to give him the information so he could abort this call.
“He’s at the hotel in town. I saw him this morning, and he’s sleeping off a bottle of Jack, and some questionable choices. I wanted to keep an eye on him.”
There was a pause.
“What did he do now?” he asked, his voice tired.
Yeah, Ethan knew that feeling. He didn’t mind being his brother’s keeper, but he did mind being his grandfather’s and father’s keeper.
He and Callen were bonded by trauma.
“Well, I went to see him last night, and he was dick deep in Kaya Cheek without a condom. So, you tell me what he did.”
The reply said it all.
There was a slew of profanity from the older Native, and if you knew Timothy, you knew heRARELYcursed.
“I swear to God, I’m going to have to kill him or her. At this point, one of them needs to die because I’m goddamn tired of trying to keep him from knocking up some random woman like his father does!”
Ethan laughed.
“Who knew I’d be the good one by being in a relationship with a man. Guess I’m the good one now.”
