Beverly Barton - Navajo's Woman

“Give my regrets to Joanna,” Joe said. “I’ll have dinner with your family another time. I need to get settled into my old place. You can follow through and get that ad placed in the Navajo Times. Maybe the boys will see it and contact us. We’ll start out first thing in the morning questioning anyone who has a connection to either Eddie or Russ.”

“It won’t do you any good to run,” Andi said. “You’re just postponing the inevitable. I know how to find you, and from now until the boys are safe, you won’t get away from me.”

Joe nodded to J.T., gave Andi a hard, menacing glare and strode out of the den, leaving behind a fuming Andi and a somber J.T.

Joanna Blackwood stood in the doorway, glancing back and forth from her husband to Andi. “Isn’t Joe staying for dinner?”

“No,” Andi said. “I think I ran him off.”

“What happened?” Joanna asked.

“A difference of opinion,” J.T. replied.

“I’m sorry,” Andi said. “Under normal circumstances I would never have… I’m only doing what I must. If I don’t protect Russ, no one else will. Please understand.”

Huffing disgustedly, J.T. shook his head. “Andi, you act as if everyone is against Russ, as if our family— Eddie’s family—would be willing to sacrifice Russ in order to save Eddie.”

“Not the entire family. Just Joe.”

“Why is it that you can’t seem to realize that Joe wasn’t the one who committed a crime five years ago?” J.T. looked Andi square in the eye. “I liked Russell as much as anybody did, but Joe wasn’t responsible for his death. Joe didn’t make Russell kill himself. Your father chose—”

Joanna rushed to her husband’s side and grabbed his arm.

“J.T., I think you’ve said enough.”

“No, it’s all right,” Andi assured her friend. “J.T. has every right to defend Joe. Just as I have every right to defend my father and my brother.”

“There isn’t any reason why we can’t all work together, is there?” Joanna gazed pleadingly up at J.T. “Andi needs to be with Joe throughout his search. If Russ were my sixteen-year-old brother, I’d insist on going along.”

“Thank you, Joanna, for seeing my side of this situation,” Andi said. “I appreciate the predicament y’all find yourselves in and I don’t want to cause any friction between the two of you. I think it’s best if I leave, too.”

Lacing her arm through J.T.’s, Joanna smiled at him and said, “Don’t you agree that Andi should go with Joe when he sets out searching for the boys?”

J.T. looked as if he’d been cornered by a grizzly bear. He shrugged, huffed loudly, and then nodded. “You have to do what you think is right, just the same as Joe does.”

“Now, Andi, why don’t you stay for dinner?” Joanna said.

“I’m afraid I can’t. I have somewhere I need to go.”

“Right now?” Joanna asked.

“Right now,” Andi replied.

J.T. groaned, but then his lips curved into a smile. “You could give him until morning to cool off before you go after him.”

“If he gets any information on the boys’ whereabouts tonight, he could be long gone by morning,” Andi said. “I’m not going to give him the opportunity to go anywhere without me.”

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