Jenna Kernan - The Warrior's Way

He slowed as Olivia, their dispatcher, gave him a look.

“I wouldn’t,” she advised.

He took her advice and waited. It didn’t take long. Rivas emerged red-faced and panting, her fists clenched. She cast him a murderous look and continued past him. He let her stride away, following until he returned to his seat beside her in his SUV.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Not even close,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me that we would not be alone?”

“You didn’t really give me a chance. It’s on our tribal gathering grounds. There are several cabins. I’ll be there along with some of the members of Tribal Thunder. But you’ll have a private cabin. It’s a beautiful place beside the river and we have a lodge with a generator for gathering at nights.”

“Nights? I only packed an overnight bag. You think there will be more than one?”

“Tinnin said we’d have you until Tuesday. Time enough to see all four dams, inside and out.”

She rubbed her slender neck and looked straight ahead. “Four days. After that I’m going home, even if I have to walk.”

They sat in silence, the A/C blowing in their heated faces. The air between them seemed to move with currents all their own. He hadn’t felt this kind of attraction, ever.

“Can I call you Jack?” she asked.

“Sounds fine. Shall I call you Sophia?”

“Fine.”

“You want to know why I’m stuck up here in the hinterland instead of working on a case?” she asked.

Jack shifted in his seat. “Sure.”

“I was involved in an incident of fatal force.”

That was a euphemism that told him she’d killed someone. Likely shot them.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“So I’m on administrative leave until they finish the investigation and clear me.”

“FBI conducts their own investigations, right?”

“Yes.”

“So you should be fine.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You think they’ll sweep any mistake I made under some rug bearing the FBI seal?”

He shrugged and set his vehicle in motion.

“Well, they won’t. I could be relieved of duty, permanently. And that can’t happen.”

“If you say so.”

“And they wanted me to see a shrink. When I said no, they extended my leave.

“It wasn’t even the assignment I’m working, which is going to hell, I’m sure. Luke thought I might like to go home to our rez.” She shook her head. “Can’t do that so he came up with this to distract me. A welcome diversion. Ha. Oh, anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’m stuck here until they take me back.”

“You can’t go home?” he asked.

She cast him a look and then turned to stare out the window. Only then did he realize he had asked Luke nothing about her upbringing. All he knew was that she was of the Black Mountain people, butterfly born of spider.

But who was she deep down, where it mattered? Jack wanted answers.

“You want to talk about it—the investigation?”

She shook her head.

“Okay. I’m a good listener. Just saying. So, do you have brothers and sisters?”

She didn’t look at him. “Yeah. And tons of cousins. My mom came from a big family. Where are we going?”

“Top of the canyon. I thought I’d give you an overview. Okay?”

She nodded.

“I’ve got three brothers,” said Jack. “Carter is the oldest. He’s my twin and he’s coming home soon. He’s under protection by the Department of Justice.”

That sure got her attention. Her posture changed and she half turned to stare at him.

“Why?”

“Witness. He went with his wife, Amber, who survived the mass shooting at Lilac copper mine. She was going to testify in a federal case against Theron Wrangler.”

“But Wrangler is dead and so they don’t need witnesses.”

“That’s right.” She was quick and pretty.

“Then there are Tommy and Kurt. They are younger. Kurt flies in the air ambulance out of Darabee. Next town over. And Tommy is a Shadow Wolf on the border.”

“Border patrol?”

“They work under Immigration and Customs Enforcement—ICE. But he works with border patrol, too.”

“Shadow Wolves. That’s the all–Native American outfit, right?”

“Exactly. They’re on the Tohono Oodham lands.”

“I’ve been down there. It’s hot.”

“Most of Arizona is.”

“But not here and not Black Mountain.” She seemed to have lost some of her bristle. “Listen, I’m sorry your people feel threatened by BEAR.”

“What’s your take on it?”

“I’m not briefed. Really, I only know that group has been connected with the Lilac shooting and might be involved with the Pine View wildfire in July.”

On the drive he told her what he could. Carter had rescued Amber Kitcheyan from the Lilac copper mine and placed himself between her and BEAR’s assassins, and the Lilac shooter had been caught. She knew that the mass murderer had been subsequently executed and that the assassin was a member of the Turquoise Canyon Apache tribe, Detective Bear Den’s tribe. She did not know that the shooter had been terminally ill, or that his death had brought suspicion on his daughter, Morgan Hooke.

“Our men set up protection for Morgan Hooke as a precaution.”

“What happened?”

“She helped us recover the blood money paid to her dad. And she and her daughter are safe. You’ll meet Ray Strong soon. He’s one of our men and her assigned bodyguard. Soon he’ll be her husband.”

She made a face that showed her disapproval of that turn of events.

“You know about Meadow Wrangler?” he asked.

“More than you do, I’d suspect.”

“She witnessed her father’s death.”

“I know that. I also know she has a history of substance abuse resulting in rehab.”

“She got drunk at eighteen and swam in a country club’s fountain.”

“She’s an unreliable witness.”

“We believe her.”

Sophia shrugged. “Your prerogative.”

They crested the top of the canyon rim and Jack brought them to a halt.

“This is it. From here you can see Skeleton Cliff Dam above our land and also Piñon Forks and Koun’nde, our two main settlements. Turquoise Ridge is out of sight and also above flood level.”

“Let’s have a look.” She exited the vehicle and their doors closed simultaneously.

Jack walked easily to the edge of the rim, where the rock bluff ended, leaving the dizzying drop to the valley below. The river had once cut this canyon from solid stone and spanned the gap where the town of Piñon Forks now stood. He had never seen the river roar with the yearly monsoonal rains because the dam and reservoir system had been installed in the 1920s, long before the stretch of his memory. But the old ones remembered. Few had seen it tumble and rage and then shrink like the belly of a woman after giving birth. The floods left rich fertile soil deposited yearly. They also left wetlands that burst with mosquitoes and that brought yellow fever. Crops were raised in the rich earth, but now the land was fit only for grazing livestock and none died from yellow fever. Was it better now than before the river was tamed?

He didn’t know. He only knew it was different. They had electricity, mobile phones and no crops.

“That’s quite a drop,” she said.

“Nine hundred meters from that point above us. Over a half-mile deep.” Jack smiled. “See that spot over there?” He pointed to the arched cut in the yellow sandstone. From here it looked close to the water. “That’s just short of eleven meters—higher than an Olympic diving platform. We used to jump off it into the deep water.”

“That’s foolish.”

“Fun. It was fun.”

“You and your friends sound reckless. I don’t take such chances.”