Callen slapped his hand away from his brother’s chest. There was no fucking way he was letting the man touch him. What he also wasn’t letting him do was talk down to him.
“Tread lightly,NEWchief.”
The whole time, Ethan said nothing.
Well, that feeling of belonging for the first time in his life was over.
It had been short-lived.
“That’s foul,” Callen stated. “Back off.”
Abe stared at him.
“The same could be said of you, Callen. You were raised on our reservation. We expected you to respect that, and you both didn’t. We don’t understand how two of our people died, and you didn’t bring it to us.”
Ethan went there.
“Because it’s an active investigation, and weLITERALLYjust found him an hour ago. We just got Lanceback here, and you called. Did you want us to drive him to your house, Abe, and drop him on your doorstep? Should we discuss how you have people spying on us every time we come and go onLAND THAT IS ALSO OURS?”
The man bristled and said something to the other man in their Native tongue.
Both men caught it.
They are not of us. We have made deals with the devil.
Well, shit.
They really didn’t like them, now did they?
Before Callen could say anything, Abe went there.
“Tone matters,” he stated.
Ethan was just about at the‘burn it to the ground’point in this conversation, but he somehow managed not to make a comment about what they both overheard him say.
“Again, we would like their bodies,” Thomas said. “We hope that an autopsy was not done.”
Callen tried to calm the situation.
“None was done. They were both stitched back up, after what was done to them, so they could have some dignity in death. Neither would have wanted to be seen like they were.”
Abe nodded.
“Very well.”
Ethan tried.
“Abe,” he said, trying to stay calm. “We never wanted any of this to happen to a single person on the reservation. Surely, you don’t believe we condone this.”
The man sighed.
“Ethan, we don’t believe that you intended for anyone to be harmed. We know that, but you don’t seem to see that this will anger people. You’re the FBI. We are not. That history between the two is never fondly remembered. Now this is added to it. At what point do we protect ourselves?”
Well, that didn’t sound good.
“What are you saying?” Callen asked. “Because I recognize a big‘fuck you’when I hear it, and I’m hearing it.”
The two men stared at each other, and then, Thomas went there.
