The Warrior's Way (Apache Protectors: Tribal Thunder) Read online

  “Nonetheless, the Bureau could not break Lupe Wrangler’s alibi.”

  “She should be in custody,” said Tinnin.

  “I agree and I’m here doing what I can.” He had his hand on his neck again, massaging away the tension that now crackled in the room.

  “We believe the witnesses. It’s not over.”

  She now recalled the theory that Wrangler’s death might trigger sleeper cells to action. Could these men be right? She decided to proceed as if the threat was viable, as she had been trained to do, until she knew otherwise.

  “Tribal Thunder contends that this is not over,” said Jack Bear Den.

  “Tribal Thunder?” she asked.

  “These men are Tribal Thunder.” Luke motioned to Tinnin and Bear Den. “It’s the warrior sect of their medicine society.”

  She knew about medicine societies—mostly that they were misogynistic groups, all male and secret as heck. Sophia looked from one to the other and speculated on their activities. Certainly protecting their people would be their prime objective.

  “Just a few ground rules before you two visit the dam.” Tinnin pinned her with his eyes—he no longer looked tired, but was rather deadly serious. “You will be with one of my men at all times.”

  Her gaze went to Bear Den. It was him, of course. She knew it and the prospect excited and terrified her.

  “Detective Bear Den will escort you.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  Tinnin glanced to Luke and then back to her. “Your cousin wants assurances you are protected because of the recent incident. He and your supervisors feel there may be an ongoing threat.”

  She doubted that. Sophia glanced at Bear Den. He looked capable, but an FBI agent did not need the protection of a small-town cop.

  “Detective Bear Den is very good and knows the territory,” said her cousin. “He’s an ex-marine. Weapons specialist. He’s been a tribal detective for seven years here and knows the terrain. He is an honored member of his medicine society, the Turquoise Guardians, and of the elite warrior society, Tribal Thunder. He’s their best.”

  Best of nine, she thought.

  “You can trust him to keep you safe.”

  Bear Den spoke to her and his voice was deep and rich as dark coffee. She loved the sound.

  “My honor,” he said.

  She cast him a dubious look and he inclined his chin, as if readying for a fight.

  “Detective Bear Den will make sure you are safe,” said Luke. “It’s a condition of your consultation.”

  “My supervisor onboard with this?”

  “He had no objections.”

  She blew out her frustration. “Fine.”

  “So you will have protection 24/7,” said Tinnin.

  “Maybe twenty-four. Certainly not seven. This won’t take as long as you think,” Sophia assured him. Her confident smile was met with silence. “I’d like to get started.”

  Because the sooner they started, the sooner she could get out of here.

  “Detective Bear Den will bring you up to the closest reservoir now,” said Luke. Bear Den cast her a wicked smile.

  And that was when it happened. Her body, always reliable, and her mind, always predictable, both short-circuited at once. Her stomach flipped as she squinted at him trying to figure how the upturning of his lips could make her go all jittery inside. She met the steady stare and the challenge with a smile of her own. The connection grew. He had an air of confidence and a physicality that inspired her to all kinds of bad ideas.

  “Check in with me tonight, okay?” said her cousin. “Let me know when you expect to be finished your consultation and I’ll come get you.”

  She tore her gaze from the detective.

  “Sure thing,” she promised.

  “We’ll make sure she stays in touch,” said Tinnin.

  He handed her a large boxy black Motorola radio that looked a decade old. She clipped it to the waistband of her slacks.

  “You ready for a tour?” asked the detective.

  “Absolutely. I look forward to it.” She didn’t, because the idea of being trapped in a vehicle with him made her skin itch.

  Chapter Two

  “Agent Forrest said you were on leave. But he was unclear why you were on leave.”

  She glanced at him cautiously, perhaps recognizing a fishing expedition when she heard one.

  “Was he?” She made no excuses and offered no answers.

  He snorted at her posture. Jack Bear Den slowed his stride to match that of his charge. Sophia Rivas was a beauty, but she wasn’t very big, reaching only to his shoulder.

  She looked straight ahead with her chin up, as if nothing bothered her. Well, she bothered him. Had certainly gotten under his skin in record time.

  Jack accelerated to reach the passenger side door of his SUV before she did. She increased her speed and then let him go. He had the vehicle door open when she reached him.

  She looked younger than thirty-three, with wide dark eyes that shifted to scan the vehicle’s interior before she cast him a dubious gaze.

  “Is that your mobile data terminal?”

  The laptop was old and looked like it had been kicked down a flight of stairs, but it worked. Mostly.

  “What about it?” He knew he sounded defensive. The FBI had all the toys and nearly unlimited resources, and he’d had to fix his side mirror with duct tape.

  “Nothing,” she said, wisely closing her mouth.

  Her gaze met his and locked in like a sniper zeroing in on her target.

  For a moment he saw the trained FBI agent instead of the most appealing woman he’d seen in...forever. He was just dying to know why she was on administrative leave. He was also dying to know what she looked like naked, but that was an incredibly bad idea. He’d been assigned as her protector. It was a sacred duty and nothing came before his duty.

  She carried no weapon at her hip. So she preferred a shoulder holster beneath her blazer. He couldn’t see it, but could see just a little honey-brown skin at the modest scoop of her collar. His higher vantage allowed him to also see the slope of her breasts. He glanced away, placing a hand over his own service weapon, which was clipped in a leather holster to his belt. You had to rock it backward to get it clear. Most folks wouldn’t know that. But Sophia Rivas sure would.

  She glanced at his hand, his thumb locked under the belt just before his weapon. Then her gaze swept up over him in a way that made his entire body flash between alertness and sexual arousal. Finally her gaze held his. She had big amber eyes framed with dark spiked lashes and the kind of mouth that made a man do stupid stuff.

  Oh, no. This was not happening. He was not having sexual fantasies about a woman who looked at his headquarters, vehicle and person with a cool disdain.

  How had she ended up in explosives? Forensic explosives expert. Odd choice, that.

  He reached for her elbow to assist her and she gave him a certain look that made him hesitate.

  “I can make it,” she said and climbed into his vehicle. He moved to close the door, resisting the pull to step nearer to her. Then he rounded his SUV and slid into the driver’s seat.

  He wiped his damp palm on his trousers before turning the key. He gave a cough meant to clear his dry throat.

  “Thank you for agreeing to help us.”

  “I’m not sure how much help I can be. The canyon walls are steep on both sides and we are clearly in a gap in what used to be riverbed.”

  “You wouldn’t want to be here if any of the three reservoirs go.”

  “Can we tour the interior workings of the dam system?”

  “Yes. I’ve arranged a tour for tomorrow.”

  She gave a little laugh and shook her head.

  “What?”

  “My cousin knows that we aren’t seeing the interior until tomorrow?”

  “Yes, I mentioned it to him.”

  “And yet he sent me up here today. Where is it I will be staying? I didn’t see a hotel or casino.�
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  “Yeah, we don’t have a hotel, or rather we do and it is connected to the casino, but it’s being renovated. Grand opening is this November. Maybe you can come back.”

  “I highly doubt that.”

  “Don’t worry, I have a bed for you.”

  Agent Rivas was out of the car and marching toward the station before he could turn off the ignition. He didn’t see her again until he reached the squad room and that was only her back as she entered his chief’s office without knocking.

  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.”

  “Too bad. It was a thrill. What did you do up on Black Mountain for fun?”

  Her eyes went sad and then she looked away, leaving Jack to wonder what kind of a childhood she’d had on her rez.

  “So what do you want to show me?”

  Back to business then. He pointed out the landmarks, towns and road system along the river and bridge east of the reservation. Beyond sat the great gray wall of Skeleton Cliff Dam that allowed just enough water to keep their livestock alive and their towns above the waterline.

  “That looks like a very healthy vein of turquoise,” she said, motioning to the line of blue threading through the canyon wall beyond the river.

  “Yes. It is good quality, too. We don’t mine by the river anymore. Too much overburden,” he said, pointing to the dangerous overhang of rock created by undercutting the hill to retrieve the turquoise below. “But we have some nice veins farther north at Turquoise Ridge. Very hard and nice nodules. Turquoise varies by looks and quality. That over there is brilliant blue with a webbing pattern called ‘bird’s eye.’”

  “I know it.”

  “We also have bright blue with flecks of iron pyrite up on Turquoise Ridge. That’s our main mining sight now. It’s pale blue to dark blue. We get a little green sometimes. But that’s rare.”

  “You wear it on your belt,” she said.

  He tilted the buckle. “Yeah. This is from that ridge,” he said, grazing a thumb over the brilliant blue outer inlay that surrounded the medicine wheel. Then he lifted his hand to brush the grey Stetson on his head. “My hatband, this paler blue with the fleck of black chert matrix, this is from Turquoise Ridge.”

  “Chert?”

  “Those are the blackish inclusion of the host rock that makes the cut stones more valuable, similar to spider web veining. Some collectors prefer the veining and inclusions to the solid blue stone.”