Jenna Kernan - Shadow Wolf

Lea Altaha seemed to be recovering because color was now rapidly returning to her face. Her eyes glittered dangerously. Kino’s body reacted to the challenge in her gaze, though not as he expected. His emotions flicked from anger at her interference to complete awareness of her as a woman. Now, with her color high, her nostrils flaring and her brow sloping down over her large dark eyes, she looked fierce and wild and sexy as hell. The tight T-shirt publicized an aid organization—Oasis—but also served to advertise a killer body. The thin cotton and her tight faded jeans hugged her dangerous curves. She wore high boots, as anyone with sense would out here. She also had a water bottle and a folded utility knife strapped to her tooled leather belt. The buckle was large and silver with a thundercloud symbol on the front. Appropriate, he thought, for clearly there was some kind of storm building between them.

She lifted her hand to point a finger at him as if his words had just registered in her mind.

“You!” She slid from the seat, her voice and posture all accusation as she stood, chin high and brow low. Even angry she was adorable, he thought, like a startled kitten. “You could have killed me.”

“I could have. But I was aiming at your windshield.” He pointed at the space where the glass had been. “Your rearview and then your side mirror.”

And he had hit them all in that order. It was a point of pride, his accuracy with a rifle.

“What is wrong with you?”

“That man was gonna shoot you. Yeah? Like he killed them.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “I stopped him.”

He judged from her widening eyes that she knew what was behind him.

Her shoulders slumped and the color washed from her face. She started shaking again and leaned back against the seat behind her.

“He was,” she whispered. “And you were trying to shoot him?”

Kino’s jaw bulged. He took a moment to push down the fury. His chance, come and gone. Would he ever have that chance again?

“I was. Until you blundered into my shot.” He pointed to the ridge of rock some hundred yards back and twenty feet higher in elevation.

She looked at the place he indicated and then at the windshield. Finally she looked at him. Her mouth opened and then closed as she worked it out.

“I blocked your shot.”

He nodded.

She was covering her eyes with her hands again. The silver-and-turquoise jewelry on her right wrist and fingers shone bright in the sun. There was no jewelry on her left hand.

Why was he even checking?

He knew exactly why. He was attracted but he had a policy of never hunting in another man’s territory. But she was too attractive for him not to notice. Still, he didn’t know if he would ever forgive her for bumbling into his hunt. Likely that didn’t mean he wouldn’t sleep with her if she gave him the chance. He’d have to be dead not to want her. She was stunning, really. The tingle of desire prickled through him. He sighed and forced his thoughts back to the hunt, the important hunt, the one for the Viper.

“Did you get a good look at him?”

She nodded, pressing her hand over her mouth as if trying not to be sick. She gagged but held down whatever was threatening to come up.

“Close your eyes. Think about that face.”

She shook her head as if unwilling to remember.

“It’s important.”

“Because he killed these men?”

Kino waved a hand in the direction of the corpses. “These men are smugglers.”

She cocked her head as if she did not believe his words or understand them. “These men are people, with families.”

He gritted his teeth. “Right. Fine. But the shooter. Please, try to picture him.”

“I don’t have to close my eyes to picture him. I’ll never forget that face. He was three feet in front of me and he was aiming a rifle at my heart.”

“Do you know him?”

“I’ve never seen him before.”

Kino exhaled in frustration. All he knew from his own observation was that the man was white and driving a red truck while wearing a stained cowboy hat. Oh, and that he chewed tobacco. It didn’t narrow the field much.

“What are you doing here?” Kino asked. “There’s not supposed to be any water stations on tribal land.”

She glanced around. “I was just following my map.”

Clueless or a liar? As he tried to decide, Kino took a page from his older brother Gabe’s book. Gabe was the chief of tribal police back on Black Mountain and often said, “If a suspect’s lips are moving, assume they are lying.” If she knew where she was, then she also knew that the tribe had pulled the plug on Oasis and their little water parties.

“Where is your partner? I thought you guys always traveled in pairs.”

“I...I have special permission.”

“That’s bull.”

Her failure to meet his gaze confirmed it. The way she shifted in place and worried the turquoise ring on her index finger made him think that she was lying. If she’d lie about this, she might be lying about not knowing the perp or, worse, she might be working with him.

“Okay. I’m detaining you.”

“What! Why?”

“Because you’re a witness. Plus, you’re lying to me, Miss Altaha, and I don’t like being lied to.”

“Okay. Look, I know this area is usually off-limits. But I’m Apache and—”

“Not Apache land.”

Kino knew that damned well because border patrol wasn’t allowed to be here, either. They had to be invited. That was probably why BP was always pumping their captain for information. Because only the Shadow Wolves had permission to pursue traffickers onto sacred lands.

He glanced at the men lying still and baking with the rocks that littered the thirsty ground. How did anyone live in a place so dry?

“Maybe you were here to meet them.”

“I wasn’t. I’m here to check this station and add water.”

“I thought the O’odham wanted the stations removed from their land.”

“Yes, but the migrants—”

“Smugglers,” he corrected.

“No. Migrants. They’re crossing here and they are dying here.”

“Yeah, less security here, no fences. Makes it easier.”

“Easier? To cross a desert in June? Thirteen bodies only last week. One of them was a nine-year-old girl.”

Almost the same age as his sister, he realized. Lea had scored a point and this time it was Kino who glanced away. But her voice followed him.

“Have you ever tried to cross this desert without water?”

No one could. He gave his own water bottle a flick. It was only half-full but they always carried extra in the truck.

“Did you ever think that if there were no water stations, they might not be so willing to take the chance? How many come because they expect to find Oasis and missed your water stations by a few hundred yards?”

She pressed her lips together and the corners of her mouth tugged down. “We save lives.”

“Maybe. But how many have you cost?”

“You don’t care. If you did, you wouldn’t be working for the Feds.” It was an old resentment that went all the way back to Fort Apache. His people had acted as scouts and trackers. His people had worked with the Americans and had helped them find Geronimo. In exchange they had remained on their land instead of being relocated to Oklahoma. But so had hers. So she had no rights to the “us against them” argument.

“I’m working for myself.”

“Shadow Wolf. That’s what you are, right? Special consultant, tracking the ones the Americans can’t find.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Not our business. The Spanish, the Mexicans and then the Americans. They all tried to take this land. It’s ours.”

“So why are you helping the Mexicans?”