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

by Jenna Kernan

  “I’m going to the cliff edge. I’ll be right back.”

  “Be careful,” said Tinnin.

  Jack crept forward. He crawled the last few feet on all fours until he got his head over the edge.

  Below, a lake was forming behind the dam of canyon rock that Sophia had devised, the water threading up the box canyons and flowing out into the pastureland above the tribe’s casino.

  The river flowed in a fury, but it did not overflow the banks. He swept his eyes across the scene and found the fiberglass craft they had taken across the river together.

  Why didn’t you tell her you loved her?

  He watched the patrol unit pull to the shoulder and saw Jake Redhorse jog down the bank. Jack looked downriver for her body, fearing he would see it floating in the current or worse, snagged on a log.

  He saw nothing but the unusual brown muddy water. He returned his gaze to Redhorse, who searched the boat. From Jack’s position, he could see the boat rested on its side against a large boulder. The contents of the craft were strewn along the bank. He looked again.

  But the contents were all upstream from the boat. Wouldn’t they be below the craft or in the river?

  Instead he saw the life preservers, medical pack, flares and small shovel all thrown in a pile on the bank. It looked as if someone had dumped everything they routinely stored inside the fiberglass livewell onto the bank.

  He looked at the boat’s position again. It lay above the high-water mark. That meant it had been thrown up there or...

  Could she have grounded the vessel? Sophia would know, or at least be able to guess, how far the rock would fly and how high the river would rise before they blocked the flow.

  Jack lifted the radio. “Redhorse. Check the livewell!”

  “The what?” Redhorse looked across the river and waved his arm above his head to show that he had spotted Jack.

  “The bin where we stow that gear. Check it.”

  The livewell, designed to store large-mouthed bass on fishing trips, was also fiberglass, but Jack knew it had good insulation.

  Redhorse affixed his radio to the front shirt pocket of his uniform and walked to the boat. The cooler was on its side. Redhorse lifted the two latches that locked when the lid dropped to the base.

  Sophia spilled out onto the ground like a mermaid. She lay on the riverbank, motionless and pale.

  Jack lifted the radio. “Is she breathing?”

  Redhorse dropped to one knee and rolled Sophia to her back. Her arm flopped lifelessly above her head. The young officer lowered his ear to Sophia’s lips and listened.

  Jack spoke into the radio again. “Olivia. Call Kurt. Send the air ambulance to your position now!”

  Redhorse sealed his mouth around Sophia’s and blew. Jack knew what it signified. Sophia was not breathing.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jack lay on his belly on the canyon rim staring back down to the river. The route down had vanished in the blast. The bridge above them was gone and he was stranded on the wrong side. He glanced across the water to see several people now gathering around Sophia, so many that he could not see her.

  He prayed as he watched. His shaman had chosen the medicine wheel as Jack’s guide. The circle of life and symbol of all things that were important. You knew they were important because they moved in a circle, like the sun and the seasons and the years in a man’s life. Kenshaw Little Falcon said Jack would need to know the direction to go and the wheel would guide him. Four quarters, four directions and the fifth direction that was the place in the center.

  He’d found his center. It was Sophia.

  He’d found the direction he needed to go. Toward her and with her. If he had the chance, he would not let her go. He had done his duty to his people, the tribe of his mother. Now he would follow the hoop and the woman and ask her to pass through the circle of their lives together.

  But first she had to live. She had to.

  Jack studied the makeshift dam she had made. The temporary structure allowed natural spillways between the huge boulders and rubble that blocked its course.

  Jack lifted the radio and hailed Jake Redhorse.

  “Is she alive?”

  Across the river, Redhorse stood holding the radio to his mouth. Jack could read nothing from his expression as he squeezed the radio so hard he feared it might crack.

  “Affirmative. She’s breathing. Over.”

  Jack closed his eyes and glanced up at the sky.

  Thank you for this day and all that are in it. Thank you for her life.

  Jack lifted the radio. “Get me down there, Jake. Get me to her. Over.”

  Olivia’s voice broke in. “How’s the chief?”

  “He needs transport. His leg is busted.”

  The thumping of the helicopter blades flashed Jack back to Iraq, but he kept his attention on the group across the river. He knew it was the air ambulance.

  “Jack, your brother is hailing me. Over. He wants to know where you want him.”

  “Set it down over there.”

  It seemed an eternity as he waited for Kurt to leap from the open door of the chopper and dart between the parting crowd to Sophia. He left her to fetch the stretcher. Jack knew that was good because his brother must have decided she needed nothing from him at the scene before transport.

  “Is she critical? Over,” he said.

  “Negative. Coming around. Breathing. Good pulse, he says.” Redhorse waved at Jack from across the way. “Kurt says they have time to land up there for the chief.”

  “Yes. Tell him yes.” Sophia was loaded, Kurt disappeared aboard and the engine revved as the bird ascended. A moment later, Jack was shielding his eyes as dust and sand swirled beneath the landing chopper. The pilot set the runners on the plateau, where Chief Tinnin waited with Jack.

  Jack ran to the open door as one of the crew emerged and ran past him with his bag. Jack wedged his shoulders past Kurt to get a look at Sophia. She was strapped onto one of two stretchers beneath a white sheet and her color was gray.

  “How is she?”

  Kurt rested a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “You did it.”

  “Yeah.” His attention remained on Sophia. “Is she all right?”

  “I think that cooler protected her. But it locked on her. She ran out of air.”

  That was bad. Brain damage. Jack pressed his hand to his forehead.

  “She’s got good vitals, but she may have ruptured her spleen. Possible other damage—”

  Jack cut him off. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  Kurt slipped past him with the spine board and he and the other paramedic carried Tinnin to the chopper. Jack was already aboard.

  “Aren’t you in charge now?” asked Kurt, motioning his head to the tribe’s side of the river.

  “They’ll have to wait.”

  Kurt’s brows lifted in surprise. Then he took his seat and replaced the headset.

  “Good to go,” he said into the microphone.

  The pilot gave a thumbs-up. The motor shrieked and then lifted into the air.

  The canyon, the rubble dam and the river grew smaller and smaller and then fell away behind them. They landed in the parking lot beside the hospital in Darabee. Two teams awaited and buzzed forward, taking charge of the patients and leaving Jack with Kurt standing on hot pavement.

  “Can you get me into the OR?” he asked.

  “Not in a million years. Waiting room. Now I have to go back to work.”

  “Piñon Forks?”

  “Minor injuries. We’re taking the ambulances.”

  His brother left him and Jack headed inside. Over the next three hours, Carter called to update him on the tribe’s status. Officer Redhorse called on the direction of the chief, who was already back in Piñon Forks. They were moving everyone to Turquoise Ridge temporarily, or out to Darabee. The FBI was on site and FEMA was coming in with temporary housing and still he heard nothing on Sophia’s condition.

  It was well into the evening before he rec
eived any news. The doctor met him in the waiting room, where Jack had about worn out the carpet pacing.

  “How’s she doing?”

  *

  SOPHIA FORCED HER eyes open and glanced about, struggling to figure out where she was. It didn’t take a forensic explosives investigator to recognize she was in a hospital bed hooked to an IV, a finger monitor for her pulse and... She shifted, stifling a groan at the sharp abdominal pain and the tug that told her she was hooked to a catheter. She hated hospitals and instead of being glad to have somehow survived, she began immediately plotting her escape.

  The room was dimly lit by the headboard light. The white curtain that circled her bed prevented her from seeing the window or, presumably, the second bed. Night time, she thought, and relaxed her head back onto the thin foam pillow.

  She closed her eyes against the pain. Something was definitely wrong down there in her midsection. She moved her feet, grateful they were both there and still worked. Her hands balled into fists, minus the one encumbered by the dreaded finger clip. She turned her head, continuing her inventory, and spotted the call button looped around the raised side rail.

  The sharp pain in her middle had morphed into a constant escalating throb that forced her to grit her teeth. The act of reaching for the button made her break out in a cold sweat.

  What had happened to her?

  Sophia pressed the button, which made a dinging sound. Something on the opposite side of her bed moved. She turned and saw Jack Bear Den lift his tousled head from the mattress beside her hip. His gaze was groggy from sleep.

  “Sophia,” he whispered, his tone echoing the relief that lifted his features. He straightened and she saw that he sat in an orange vinyl chair pulled close to her bedside in the dusty clothing he’d been wearing when she last saw him ascending that cliff.

  “What time is it?” Her voice was a rustling thing, like dead leaves rattling in the wind. She pressed her dry lips together, realizing how much her throat hurt. That was very bad because it likely meant she’d needed a breathing tube and that meant either her heart had stopped or she’d had surgery.

  Jack glanced at his phone. “Three in the morning.”

  “Which morning?”

  “Wednesday.”

  “Lost the day,” she said and gritted her teeth against the pain. Tears leaked from her eyes.

  Jack stroked her forehead.

  “You in pain?”

  She nodded, eyes now squeezed shut. She had no energy left for words.

  “I’ll get someone.” He rose and left her. She heard him meet the nurse outside the door and caught some of their conversation.

  Then the nurse was standing on her opposite side offering soothing words and an injection in the backside. The relief was almost instant. But she also felt the world receding again and she did not know what happened. Had they done it? Had they saved his reservation and ended her career in two spectacular explosions?

  *

  JACK MET WITH Carter and Dylan and Ray in Sophia’s hospital room that same Wednesday afternoon. They crept in trying not to wake Sophia.

  “Sleeping?” whispered Carter.

  “They gave her something for pain,” said Jack. “She’s out.”

  Ray, ever blunt, told him that he looked like he’d been blown off the mountain.

  Dylan, ever the diplomat, asked how Sophia was doing.

  “They took out her spleen. She lost a lot of blood from the rupture and they said she had at least one bruised kidney.”

  “In other words,” said Carter, “she’s lucky.”

  “And smart,” said Dylan. “Using the livewell for cover. Brilliant.”

  “Nearly killed her,” said Jack. “She ran out of air.”

  Ray was now peering at Sophia, as if judging her condition, and Jack had to resist the urge to shove him back.

  “How’s her...?” Ray pointed at his skull. “You know.”

  “No brain damage. Redhorse got to her fast enough.” And for that he would be forever grateful. “She’ll be fine in time.”

  “You hear back from her supervisor?” asked Carter.

  “He’ll be here soon. We need a plan. She saved us all and we need to be sure it doesn’t cost her the job she loves.”

  “You said they ruled in her favor,” said Ray.

  Dylan turned to Ray. “He’s not talking about the investigation. She just blew up the whole ridge. That’s not what FBI agents do.”

  Jack could not have said it better. He knew what was most important to Sophia. It wasn’t his tribe or the land. It was her career. She’d fought great odds to get clear of Black Mountain and make a fresh start. She was doing good work and if that was what made her happy, he was going to do everything he could to protect her from the fallout from their transgression.

  “You have any ideas?” asked Carter.

  Jack told him what he’d come up with. They added their opinions and suggestions on how to make the story believable. He hoped that they’d be ready when Burton and Forrest arrived with their posse of federal investigators. They came to an agreement and stood ready to protect her from the FBI. Jack wished they were on their land as they would have a better chance of guarding her. But the FBI would not take a woman recovering from surgery from her hospital bed.

  Would they?

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Carter cleared his throat in that way he did to indicate serious matters. Jack glanced up from Sophia’s pale face and gave his brother his attention.

  “Mom asked me to give you this.” Carter extended an envelope.

  “You know what’s inside.”

  Carter nodded once.

  “What?”

  “It’s information on your grandparents. Your father’s people.”

  Jack tore off the end of the envelope, drew out the page and flipped it open. Ray crowded in to read over his shoulder as Dylan and Carter waited for whatever Jack decided to share.

  Ray pointed at the page. “How do you even pronounce that?”

  “I don’t know,” said Jack, staring at the name of his father as he realized he was no longer roadrunner born of snake. He looked at the page. What clan was this? He read the names of his father written in Annetta’s hand.

  Hawaii

  Keanae, Maui

  Maua Kahauola (grandmother)

  Clifford Taaga (grandfather)

  Robert Taaga (father)

  *

  JACK GLANCED AT CARTER. “Mom said this is all her sister told her.”

  It was enough—the proper way to introduce a man beginning with the place of his birth, the names of his parents and finally the name of the man.

  He tucked the page into his wallet, in the place where he had carried the results of the DNA test for eight months.

  “Thank her for me.”

  Carter nodded.

  “Why don’t we wait out in the lounge for the agents?” asked Dylan.

  Ray filed out of the room after Dylan, leaving Jack behind. The nurse bustled in and woke Sophia, then chased Jack from the room.

  When he returned it was to find Sophia sitting up in the bed and looking more pale than before. The grayness of her complexion made the circles especially dark.

  “You all right?” he asked.

  *

  BY ALL REPORTS, Sophia was healing, but she still felt mostly on the wrong side of terrible. Her nurse let her use the bathroom while Jack spoke to his medicine society in the hospital lounge. He stepped back into her room just after the lunch tray was delivered. The pain made her jaw lock and the welcoming smile felt forced.

  His gaze swept over her. “You hurting?”

  “They just gave me something,” she said. “I will be dopey again soon.”

  But before they gave her the shot, they had tugged out her catheter and changed the dressings. Everything from her chest down was aching.

  He kissed her forehead and she closed her eyes at the touch that was light and comforting. She was done here. The tribe was safe and her
purpose complete. He didn’t need her and she was free to go. But go to what? They’d ruled on her use of deadly force. Now she faced a new investigation over her actions. She had no defense. She would lose her job and her career. It mattered, but not as it had before. Was that because she knew she had done the right thing?

  Jack pulled back.

  “Burton is en route,” he said.

  She snorted. “Just when I thought I couldn’t feel any worse.”

  “I’m going to tell them that you only advised the tribal council on how to remove dangerous overburden from the canyon rim.”

  “I blew up the whole canyon,” she said. “Pressed the trigger.”

  “No. We blew it up. The tribe. All the miners of Turquoise Canyon will swear they set the charges.”

  “Under my supervision.” She arched a brow, catching on to what he was attempting to do.

  “Not according to them. They were removing overburden from the turquoise vein and added too much to the main charge.”

  “They are not going to believe that you set those charges off immediately after the dam failed.”

  “It didn’t fail, Sophia. They blew it up.”

  “Who?”

  “No one taking responsibility. Just like the pipelines in Phoenix. The FBI will question the timing. But our guys laid the explosives. They caused a landslide.” He shrugged. “It happens.”

  He was offering her a way out. A way back to her position and her life. All she had to do was to go along with the cover-up.

  “I can’t, Jack.”

  “Well, I’m not letting you get arrested. You saved us, Sophia. Everything we have, we owe to you.”

  “No one held a gun to my head. I made the choice and I’ll take the consequences.”

  “No. You won’t.”

  “It was illegal.”

  “Kenshaw often says what is legal is not always right and what is right is not always legal.”

  She thought about that then said, “Convenient. Your shaman is a known member of the ecoextremists group.”

  “He also works with your agency.”

  “Jack. I blew up federal land. They’re not going to ignore it.”

  “That’s true,” said a familiar voice from the doorway. “Might give you a medal for it, though.”