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

by Jenna Kernan

“This was my sister’s. I kept them for you even though they told me not to. That I should destroy anything that would reveal who you were. She made me promise never to tell you, Jack. I promised her the day you were born. I didn’t lie about you being my son. You are mine as much as you are hers. And I told the truth when I said I’d never been with a man other than my husband. But I didn’t tell you that you were Ava’s child before you were mine. I promised her, Jack. I’m sorry.”

  Because she was protecting him, and Sophia saw exactly why keeping that secret was so important. Suddenly Jack rose to his feet.

  “What was the name of the man who shot my father?”

  “He’s in federal prison. Life sentence.”

  “The name?”

  Delane shook his head. Sophia knew that Jack could find the information easily. Everyone did, but still the name was not coming from his parents.

  “Before you run off after him,” said Kurt, “maybe you should remember your promise to Kenshaw, and that BEAR just blew up a pipeline in Phoenix and that we are probably next.”

  Jack sat back down in front of the box Annetta had left him. Carter pressed a hand to his back, high up, directly over the medicine wheel. Was Carter reminding Jack to use the wheel to help find his direction?

  Jack blew out a breath and then lifted the old box from the table, as if it was fragile, like an eggshell. He tucked it under his arm and looked to Sophia.

  “We need to go.”

  “Jack, don’t run off,” said Annetta.

  “I’m not going after him, Mom. I just need some time to...” He looked at Sophia. “You ready?”

  She followed him out of his parents’ house with his family trailing as far as the front steps. Sophia held out her hand.

  “Keys,” she said.

  He turned them over without a word of objection. She had the seat adjusted by the time he was belted into his.

  “Where to?” she asked, backing them out.

  “I’d prefer to be in Piñon Forks in case something happens.”

  She headed toward the town.

  “You said the casino hotel is closed for reno.”

  “We’re going to my place.”

  She saw the squad car on the shoulder. It pulled out as they passed.

  “One of your men?” she asked.

  “Hmm?” He turned to glance out the side mirror. “Yeah. That’s Wetselline. He’s our shadow tonight.”

  She had not seen him on their way from the canyon and that bothered her. Jack was a distraction and she was getting all tied up in his problems. It had made her forget her own, just as Luke had promised. She had never been so completely overtaken by anything other than her job in years. She didn’t like it. Didn’t like that being with Jack was more appealing than returning to her position and that the problems on Turquoise Canyon were becoming her problems. Somewhere along the way in the consultation, she had taken a wrong turn. She needed to get back home to her job and her life.

  Jack thanked her for coming with him.

  She made the obligatory reply and flicked on the radio to static.

  “Local station goes off at seven.”

  “I have to get out of here,” she said. But instead she drove to Jack’s place. Not because it was closer to the dam and got better mobile phone service, but because whether she would admit it aloud or not, she wanted to be here with Jack.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sophia sat beside Jack on the couch of his comfortable ranch-style house. He had too much black leather furniture and not enough food in the refrigerator, but the space was clean. She especially liked the wall decorations. Instead of paintings, he had hung various drums. Some were elaborately adorned art pieces and others looked ancient, with rawhide heads so thin the center of the leather was transparent.

  Jack had been exceedingly quiet on the ride to his place. “Your things are in the spare room. I had Ray bring them over.”

  She slipped a hand onto his knee. It was obvious he was feeling lost and the confusion was etched in lines across his forehead.

  “It’s not what you expected. Is it?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “I... I’m just... Am I supposed to get a surfboard now? I’ve never even seen the Pacific Ocean.”

  “You don’t need to do anything except keep the secret that your family has kept for you. They were protecting you.”

  “But all this time. They wouldn’t still be after her.”

  “Gang hits have no expiry date. Once you are targeted that target stays on your back unless they withdraw it.”

  And now Sophia had the same target on her back, as his mother had once had. Would they take her into protective custody, too?

  “She should have taken me with her.”

  “Is that what you would have done, in her place?”

  He sighed.

  “She might be living in Detroit or Dallas. She’s cut off from her family and friends. And she did nothing wrong. It was just really horrible luck,” she said.

  “I knew I was different, that we had different fathers.”

  “And mothers. That’s the surprise. But you still have Annetta. She’s more mother than many.”

  “I feel sick,” he said.

  “Take some time. Time helps.” She knew something else that would help ease his mind, soothe his body. Sophia admitted the truth, she was not some angel of mercy. She wanted Jack again. It was possible that the investigation on her use of force might take longer than usual because of the pipeline explosion. Or it might be expedited for the same reason. And if they ruled in her favor, she’d be back on the job. She looped her arm around Jack’s stronger one and lay her head on his shoulder.

  “You can’t change it.”

  “Change what?”

  “The past. I’ve been trying to bury mine. You’ve been trying to uncover yours. Uncovered or ignored, it’s still there like an infection in your jaw. Eventually you have to deal with it.”

  He turned to her. “But not tonight.”

  Her body tingled with anticipation as he leaned in and kissed her, slow and deep. She laced her fingers around his neck and he eased her down to the thick leather cushions of his couch.

  “I need you, Sophia,” he whispered, hot breath fanning the hair at her neck.

  “Me, too.” How had this happened? She should be keeping her distance. Reminding him that she was here only to give her opinion and to distract herself from the investigation.

  Well, Jack was the best darn distraction she’d ever had. And when his hands covered her breasts, she ached to have those big hands pressed to her bare skin.

  She unclipped her holster and slipped out of it and her blazer. Then she unbuttoned her blouse. His mouth found the bare skin at her stomach, traveling up as she released each button. Then he pushed the fabric off her shoulders. She sat up and he let her go. Sophia did not know where she got the nerve, but Jack’s hungry eyes made her bold. So she dropped her blouse and released her bra, letting them fall to the floor. Then she slipped out of her shoes and slacks. She stood in only her panties. Jack sat on the edge of the couch, both hands on the couch cushions as his gaze devoured her.

  “So beautiful,” he whispered.

  She hooked a thumb in the elastic of her panties and lowered them over her hips, then kicked them away.

  Sophia stood wearing only a smile. Their eyes met.

  “Your turn, Jack.”

  He rose from the couch like a charging bull, but instead of disrobing he lifted her up into his arms and ran her toward the back of the house.

  She squealed as he tossed her onto his bed and then flicked on the light on the side table.

  “I never do this,” he said.

  “I think you did this last night.”

  “I mean here. I don’t bring women here. I don’t bring them to meet my parents, either.”

  “Why not?”

  “Never found one I liked that much. Didn’t want to give them the wrong idea.”

  “But I’m safe. R
ight? Because I’m leaving.”

  “No, Sophia. You’re dangerous because I don’t want you to leave.”

  The smile left her.

  “Jack, I have to go. You know that.”

  “I do. It makes this sweeter and sadder.”

  This was a bad idea. The man had been left behind by his mother and now she was preparing to do exactly the same thing. Sleeping with Jack wouldn’t make him feel better. Not in the long run, because whatever was happening between them, it was growing stronger. Just the thought of leaving him made her chest ache. But she could no more leave his bed right now than she could stop breathing.

  Sophia extended her hand. “Come to bed, Jack.”

  *

  SOPHIA WAS STILL ASLEEP. They had spent much of the night tangled in each other’s arms, sharing the passion that seemed to burn between them like wildfire. But well before the dawn, he woke, his mind racing with his heart. He needed to see what his mother had left him. So he rose and headed for the kitchen and then out to the concrete drive and his truck. He returned to the dark kitchen with the shoe box and flicked on the light. Then he sat alone at the kitchen table.

  Inside were photos he had never seen. Photos of two sisters. The photos of the sisters as young women showed the differences. His mother, Ava, the oldest, was smaller than Annetta. Ironic, he thought, as he studied each image of his mother. Maybe he’d see her sometime, someplace. Unexpectedly. But she was now twenty-eight years older. What did she look like now?

  There was a diary, written by his mother. He did the math and realized she began the entries at fifteen and continued on and off into her first year of college. He flipped to the end and saw his father’s name written out in bold letters:

  Robbie Taaga and I went to the movies. I really like him. When I’m with him I’m so happy and when we are apart I hurt inside.

  Jack lowered the book. He had not been away from Sophia. But just the prospect of her departure filled him with gloom. Was it because of all this? Maybe this was about his mother leaving and not Sophia at all.

  He closed the diary and placed it carefully back in the box. It wasn’t about the past. He was now haunted by the future. What would happen if that dam broke? What would happen if she left them before the strike? He knew the attack was coming. He believed Kenshaw Little Falcon’s prediction that the dam, their dam, was the new prime target of one of the cells.

  So why did he want to follow Sophia back to Flagstaff when she left them? His life, his duty and the legacy his mother had given him were all here. But soon Sophia would not be.

  “Hey, there,” she said.

  Her voice had been just a whisper but he still startled.

  “Sorry,” she said.

  “Didn’t hear you.”

  “I was standing here awhile. You seemed lost in thought.”

  She stood in bare feet in a familiar flannel robe. It belonged to him and reached nearly to her toes. It also gaped at the chest, revealing a wide swath of smooth skin and the curves of her breasts.

  “Borrowed this.” She tugged at the worn collar.

  “It never looked so good.”

  She came forward, stood just behind him with a hand on his shoulder. “Interesting?”

  He handed her an envelope he had not yet opened marked Jack.

  She slipped into the seat next to him and opened the flap.

  “Photos,” she said, flipping rapidly through the stack, her smile growing wider until she grinned. “These are precious.”

  She moved to sit on his lap and she went through the pictures again for him. It was his mother, pregnant. Then in a hospital bed, with circles under Ava’s eyes, smiling joyfully as she held a dark-headed baby. Beside her bed was Annetta, obviously pregnant as well. What she saw as happy, he saw as sad. One of the photos showed a guard at the door. It was the last time he would ever see his mother, and he could not remember her face.

  “Can you find her?” he asked.

  She stilled and then lowered the photos to the table surface.

  “Perhaps. But it would put her in danger.”

  “Why? Anyone who is still looking for her would not know she has a son.”

  “That’s true. I’ll see what I can arrange.” She glanced toward the stove and the digital clock there. “Too early to call. Coffee?” she asked.

  “All ready. Just hit the switch.”

  Sophia flipped on the drip coffeemaker and left him, heading for the bathroom and a shower. Jack put away the box. Sophia might be able to arrange a meeting. He felt butterflies in his belly at the thought. He wanted to meet her, but what if she was disappointed in him?

  Sophia called to him. When he reached the bathroom, he opened the door enough to peek inside. She asked him to come in and he did. The view of Sophia’s naked, soapy body through the textured glass was something he would never forget.

  “Come in before the water gets cold.”

  As it turned out, the water did get cold before they left the shower’s stream. His legs were trembling and her smile curled his toes. Sophia was generous and inventive and full of surprises. He toweled her dry, which started them off again, and they ended tangled up in damp towels and sheets in his bed. They dozed with Sophia’s warm clean body draped across him until his phone woke them.

  He lifted the mobile and saw it was Wallace Tinnin and that it was after nine on a Monday morning.

  “Yeah, Chief,” he said.

  “You coming in?”

  He was generally there by eight.

  “On my way.”

  “Listen, we got something on Trey.”

  Tinnin was speaking about the gangbanger Jack had picked up. The one who had used his one phone call to reveal Sophia’s location.

  “Minnie said that Trey got a video on his phone. He showed it to her. I’ve got his phone and I watched it. It’s a carjacking and Sophia is the driver of the car. She’s clearly visible and they recorded the shooting.”

  It was on the phone of Trey Fields. Why?

  “Minnie said there was a still photo, too. Can’t find that. Might have been deleted. But Minnie says it was an Instagram shot made up to look like a wanted poster with Sophia’s image. Minnie said they don’t know her name. Just that she killed one of their guys.”

  “He recognized her when I arrested him,” said Jack.

  “Seems so.”

  Jack had put Sophia in danger by making that collar. He’d seen Fields and just reacted. But he was supposed to be escorting Sophia. She was law enforcement so he had not considered any consequences of involving her.

  “Who did he call?” asked Jack.

  “A friend here on Turquoise Canyon. Real question is, who did the friend call?”

  “I’m bringing her into the station now,” said Jack.

  “Seems prudent,” said Wallace. “I’ve alerted our guys to keep an eye out for suspicious persons.”

  “Wearing yellow and black,” said Jack.

  “Yeah. They know.”

  Jack disconnected and set the phone aside.

  “So they know where I am,” she said.

  “It’s not safe for you here anymore.” So soon. His mind was screaming for him to stop her, keep her. Too soon, she would be leaving him, too soon.

  They were up and dressed in record time, all business now as if the night and morning had happened in some different place to two different people.

  “I wish I could stay awhile,” she said in the truck.

  Like forever, he thought.

  “Yeah.”

  Her phone chimed. She slipped the mobile from her pocket and glanced at the screen.

  “My captain,” she said and took the call.

  Jack could hear her captain through the speaker because his voice boomed. So he heard the conversation.

  Her captain had good news. They had expedited the investigation and ruled the shooting justified. He was ordering her to report to Phoenix and the pipeline explosion ASAP.

  She glanced at Jack. They both knew
that she had set the explosives so that only she could trigger the blasts. Of course, his miners could bypass the system she set with time. If they had time.

  Sophia told her boss the new developments.

  Her captain swore. “Sit tight. You’ll need an escort.”

  “Will do.”

  She disconnected and glanced to him. Had she intentionally bought them time?

  “Justified,” she said, then closed her eyes and sank into the passenger seat. “They ruled justified,” she whispered.

  The relief she expected never came. Instead she felt a kind of tearing inside her chest. It came with the words whispered in her soul...now you must leave him.

  No. Not until she was sure he’d be safe.

  “They’ll still be looking for you,” Jack said.

  “Up here. Not in Phoenix. You said yourself, they don’t know my name.”

  “That information could be wrong. I’m not betting your life on it.”

  “We better go,” she said. Her throat squeezed so she said no more.

  As they reached the station, Sophia received another call from her captain, Larry Burton.

  “Highway patrol found the older brother of Martin Nequam. Juaquin is being detained on a gun charge.”

  “Rifle?” asked Sophia.

  “Yup. And a handgun. They found a rifle with scope in his trunk.”

  Sophia blew out a breath.

  Burton continued. “We’re sending an escort to retrieve you.”

  Sophia’s heart sped. She couldn’t leave Turquoise Canyon now. The pipeline was a forensic investigation. But the threat here could still be prevented.

  “I can’t come back right now,” she said and then held her breath at the audacity of her words. She had never refused an order before.

  “What did you say?”

  “I can’t. There is a credible threat up here. We need more agents on Turquoise Canyon. Not less.”

  “Sophia, we have multiple explosions down here. You’re an expert. I’m ordering you to report.”

  “Requesting personal leave, sir.”

  “Denied.”

  She closed her eyes and pictured everything she fought so hard to win destroyed by her own undermining. Then she looked at Jack’s strong, solemn face.

  “You’ll have my resignation today, sir.”