Jenna Kernan - Tribal Blood

She did and he took a shot. The bullet punched a hole in the rear door of the car she had stolen.

“That one isn’t armored.” He swung the rifle so the strap held it behind his back. “Okay. Let’s go farther up into the ridge. There’s a second cabin.”

“Anyone know that?”

“Ty.”

“Let’s go.” She allowed him to help her to the car and flushed as he pulled the safety belt over her distended belly and clipped it in place. She sank into the seat, closing her eyes.

“How long did they have you?” he asked.

She turned to him, opening her eyes. “Since February.”

“February!” He straightened, his brow sweeping down over his dark eyes. That was eight months.

“Yeah.”

“Everyone said you ran away.”

“I didn’t.” She reached and gripped his hand. “Colt, there are more of us. More like me and they’re all from Turquoise Canyon.”

Now he was staring down the road where they had gone. “I could call Jake. Maybe he could pick them up.”

“You have a phone?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“They’ll kill Jake.” The next contraction built across her middle.

He gripped her door frame and glanced down the empty road. “But you said there were others.”

Her eyes widened. “Yes. Three others. They have Marta Garcia. She was in my class in high school. They took her before me. And Brenda Espinoza. She’s five months pregnant. And Maggie Kesselman. They’re all like me.” She motioned to her belly. “Marta’s due any day.”

“What will happen to them now that you escaped?”

A cold shot of terror ripped through her. “I don’t know.” But the possibilities terrified her.

“We have to tell Jake,” said Colt.

His brother was the newest hire on the tribal police force and she knew he could be trusted.

“I think so.”

Her back cramped. “Oof!” she said and clutched her middle.

“We’re getting you somewhere safe. But I need to find a woman to help you.”

“No. Anyone who sees this baby is in danger. Colt, I wish I could have thought of a way by myself. But I’m scared. I need your help.”

“But I’ve never—”

“Neither have I.”

He shook his head and she saw something she had not seen before in him: fear.

“Colt Redhorse, you left me once. Don’t you dare do that again.”

She’d told him not to go. She’d felt something terrible would happen to him. As it turned out, something terrible had happened to both of them.

“I promised to come back.”

“You didn’t.”

“I did. But you were gone.”

She glowered at him.

“I’ll get you somewhere safe, Kacey. I promise.”

Kacey sighed. The air here was so sweet and clean. She thought of the musty basement where she’d been kept for months and shuddered.

“So, call Jake. All right?” he asked.

She nodded.

He rounded the hood at a run. A moment later, they were in motion on the rough road, heading back toward the center of Turquoise Ridge.

* * *

COLT HEADED FOR David SaVala’s claim. It was close and David could be trusted to deliver a message to Ty. Ty could get to Jake. Then Colt was going to take Kacey to his cabin and help her bring this baby into the world. Colt planned on keeping this car hidden but close in case he needed to get Kacey to a hospital. With luck, Ty would be here soon.

Colt had three older brothers and his younger sister. The oldest brother was Kee, newly board certified as a doctor. Colt wished he could bring Kacey to him, but she would not go near the clinic. He planned to find out why. His next oldest brother was Ty, who, unlike Colt, had made it through his service in the US Marines to be honorably discharged. His tales of the service had convinced Colt to join.

But Ty had not chosen to enlist. He had signed to avoid federal prosecution after he and their father were arrested for armed robbery. Ty had already been in the Wolf Posse, the tribe’s gang. The tribal leadership felt he needed discipline, so a deal was struck. Charges dropped if Ty enlisted. His father had previous arrests, so the tribe allowed federal prosecution. Now Ty lived between the gang who had claimed him and the family that couldn’t keep him from choosing that life. Ty had often said it was easier to leave the military than a gang.

Finally there was Jake, the newest member of the Turquoise Tribal Police and six years Colt’s senior. Jake had looked after him when their father went to prison. Colt had been lucky. He’d sort of had three fathers.

“Ty lives in Koun’nde. He has a phone. If I can get SaVala to lend me his phone, we can take it far enough to get service and call Ty and Jake. Then I can call Kee and ask him to come deliver this baby.”

She had her eyes closed again and was blowing through pursed lips. Sweat beaded on his brow.

“Kacey?” he whispered.

She turned her head to look at him, her cheeks puffing out and in as she blew.

“They won’t get you,” he promised.

Her head dropped to the headrest. He knew she was already nineteen, but she still looked like the girl he’d first loved, still loved. Why had he left her? She’d been right about everything. Something terrible had happened to him and to her. He’d been so sure that the Marines would be a shortcut to what she wanted, with money to provide the life away from her mother and the shadow of his father. He’d been trying to prove he was strong like his brother Ty and smart like Kee and good like Jake. But he wasn’t any of those things. He was a fragile wreckage of a man who couldn’t even talk to people since...well, since everything that had happened over there.

He hadn’t had the chance to be a hero. He’d just been taken like a sheep from a pasture to the butcher truck. Fate had made him the last lamb in line.

He pressed the web of his hand between his thumb and index finger to his forehead, trying to ease the pounding. He was in a car again and there was not enough air. He released his head to grip the wheel, bracing for the blast, waiting for it.

This time he’d be ready.

Colt was not going back there now. Kacey needed him. He was here on Turquoise Canyon and he had to stay focused. But he knew he wasn’t keeping the panic attack away. He was only postponing it. The doc at Walter Reed in Maryland said he needed counseling and put him on the list. With luck, it would be decades before they would get to his name, because he wasn’t talking about that with anyone ever. No one who wasn’t held by insurgents could possibly understand.

His gaze flicked to Kacey, who sat with her head dropped back on the headrest but turned toward him. She smiled at him, her face relaxed and her hands laced over her belly. Her dark hair was gathered in a loose braid that lay on her shoulder. Her once soft, round face had changed. Her deep brown eyes were still bright, but there were dark smudges beneath them. Her lips were full and pink, but her jaw and pointed chin seemed too prominent in her thin face. How much weight had she lost? Kacey had always been slender, but now she was skinny, way too skinny. How much had they given them to eat?

Not enough—clearly.

The rations that he’d been given during his captivity rose in his mind and he pushed the memory of that down. One sure way to be of no help to her was to think about that.

No one understood that the captivity wasn’t as hard as the memories that just would not go away. It wasn’t getting better with time. It was worse. Colt gripped the wheel. He hated cars, trucks, anything that rolled. No one in his family understood. They were worried, but they didn’t get it. He could not think about it, but he was stuck somehow. Afraid all the time.

Kacey was now looking in the side mirror, watching for trouble. Perhaps she could understand, he realized. Because she’d been a captive, too. But then she’d also understand that he was the very last person capable of helping her. That was why he was leaving her with his brother. Any one of his brothers was a better choice than him.