Fatal Divide

by Jamie Jeffries

  “I hope so, too.” He grinned. “I know you won’t have any hesitation in calling me a d... uh, a bad name if I start that shit again. Oops, sorry.”

  Alex’s laugh rang out, causing everyone in her immediate vicinity to smile. Thurston could see what made Dylan hover around the girl. Too bad she was out of his league. She was going places, and Thurston didn’t know if Dylan’s plans included following her or if he thought he could clip her wings.

  Alex immediately looked contrite. “Dylan, I’m sorry, that wasn’t appropriate.”

  “Don’t worry. I hardly knew Jimmy, and I didn’t know Ernesto at all. Is Wanda okay?” Dylan asked Thurston.

  “I think so. About Ernesto, anyway. His fingerprints came up on the IV bag. She may not have wanted him dead, but she’s not mourning him.”

  “I’d better go see her. Want to come, baby?”

  “I may as well. That was my last change, on the tilt.” Alex grinned as Dylan elbowed her.

  “Wanna let me in on the private joke?” Thurston asked.

  “She tilts all the time. Too impatient,” Dylan said. Alex punched him lightly on the arm.

  “I tilt because people sneak up behind me and scare the sh... heck out of me,” she contradicted. Thurston didn’t get it. What was so funny about that?

  “Well, I’ve got to run. See you guys around,” Thurston said. “Alex, call me if you need anything for the story.”

  “Oh, I will, don’t worry.” She waved at him as he got into his car and drove away.

  SEVENTY

  “So, that’s that,” Alex remarked to Dylan. He was putting Davi in his car seat while she strapped Juan in with his seat belt.

  “Looks like it. What are you going to do with the story?”

  “Write it straight for the paper. Dad’s never going to let me do an editorial again, probably,” she said. “The blog will be a different matter. Dylan, we’ve got to do something about this cartel problem!”

  “We?” he answered, an incredulous grin spreading across his face. “Alex...”

  “Stop! I don’t want to hear it. We need to talk about how you’re always disrespecting my work, Dylan. It hurts my feelings and makes me mad. If you want to be friends, you can’t do that.”

  Dylan glanced at Juan, who was following the argument with interest. “Can we talk about this later?”

  “Yeah, but this time we can’t let anything get in the way. Would Sophia watch them?”

  “I think so. Thanks for understanding about that, baby.”

  “It isn’t a problem. She needs the help and so do you. It’s a match made in Heaven.” She got into the pickup and shut her door, failing to notice that Dylan’s hands were fisted and his expression fierce.

  Two hours later, after they visited Wanda, who stuffed the boys full of fry bread with honey, and then dropped the kids off with Sophia, Alex and Dylan were seated on ‘their’ bench in the park.

  Dylan was the first to speak. “Baby, I don’t mean to disrespect your work. I just worry about your safety. I think they already tried to silence you. If you keep this up, they’re going to succeed, and there won’t be any way to protect you.”

  “It sounded like disrespect when you said I was playing around. I know how important your work is. Why don’t you know how important mine is?”

  “I only said that because I was upset, and I’m not saying it isn’t important. But why does it have to be you? Why can’t someone else tell the world about all of this?”

  “Because it’s been going on for years and no one has! Don’t you see how important this is to me, personally? All those unidentified bodies, and you know it’s probably one or another of the cartels that’s responsible for most of them. And no one knows! Even right here in town, no one pays attention. It’s up to me.”

  “I don’t want to lose you, Lexi. We’ve got big challenges, but I love you. I want to work them out so we can be together. Do you love me?”

  Alex gazed into his eyes, intense with his passion. “I do. That doesn’t mean I can cave in. You can’t keep me from doing what I need to do. I’m afraid I’d resent you for that. I know I’d resent you. Wouldn’t that kill love? It isn’t fair, to me, to you, or to those little boys, for me to risk falling out of love with you. We have to work out the problems before we can be together.”

  Dylan’s head dropped. Alex wanted to gather him into her arms and not hurt him anymore, but it was clear to her that this was the right way to handle it. If they cooled the passion and let their heads solve the problems, their hearts would still be joined when the time was right.

  Dylan looked up again, released her hands and took her face in his hands. “As long as you can see a future where we are together, I’ll wait. Just tell me what you want from me, and I’ll do it.”

  “First, I want a kiss,” she smiled. There wasn’t even time to draw breath before his lips crushed hers. His hands left her face and his arms surrounded her, drawing her in. She melted into him, her body responding to their connection even as she fought to keep her head.

  The kiss was like wine, heady and sweet, the intoxication racing through her veins and making her weak in the knees. She gave herself over to it, refusing to think about a time when his kisses would be seldom available to her. If she thought about that, she’d break down.

  When he released her, Alex clung for a moment to the desire that always flared with his touch. She drew a long breath. “I have something to tell you. Please don’t get mad.”

  Dylan’s lips parted, and she rushed to finish before he could object. “I think it’s best to put some distance between us until we can sort things out. Shh,” she said, placing her fingers on his mouth as he opened it again to protest. “I’ve applied for some scholarships that include on-campus lodging at ASU. I’ll be home for some weekends, and I’m only a couple of hours away. You need to accept that I’m going. You and Dad can get together and complain about me if you want, but I’m going, one way or another. I’ll get another job in Phoenix if I have to.”

  She waited for the explosion, her piece said. It never came. Dylan had her hands again, and raised both of them to his lips. “All right. But, I can see you, right? You’re not telling me to stay away.”

  “Right. But you know you’re going to be busy making a family with your brothers. And in case you’ve forgotten, you need to spend some time with your mom.” Her heart broke at the stricken look on his face. He had forgotten, or no, not forgotten but pushed his mom’s situation to the back of his mind. He really didn’t need her complicating his life right now.

  “When?” he asked, so quietly she nearly missed it.

  “Not until next semester. I want to hear if I can get a scholarship before I rock the boat with Dad. After Christmas for sure, but more likely next fall semester.”

  “So little time,” he murmured, pressing forward to kiss her again, lightly this time.

  “We have forever,” she answered. “For the rest of our lives. Let’s get this right.”

  He put his arms around her again and pulled her into his chest. She almost changed her mind. It felt so right to be sitting here with him like this. She leaned contentedly into his shoulder with a small sigh. It would work out. It had to.

  She loved him so much. Enough to get out of his way so he could do the right thing for his family. And when he’d done that, then it would be time to build their family. Maybe by then, she’d be ready to be a mom to two adorable little Native boys, and someday, to their own children.

  The End

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading this book. If you enjoyed it, please review it on Amazon, Goodreads, or the site where you purchased it. Nothing is more helpful to an indie author than readers who take the time to post their impressions and constructive critique. I read and value every review I receive. My reader's reviews have helped me hone my writing and encouraged me to continue.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jamie Jeffries is the pen name of a successful author with several published novels under other pen names, in addition to other titles under this name.

  She likes to bring a bit of the unusual, the unlikely and the humorous to her plots. Jamie brings you heroines who overcome hard challenges, sweet, sexy heroes with a hint of alpha male, and side characters you’ll love to hate or laugh with.

  When she isn’t writing (which is almost never) Jamie enjoys reading, hiking in the foothills near Denver, live blues music, and now and then indulging in her karaoke habit.

  Caution: whether reading or writing, Jamie bites when interrupted in the middle of a good chase scene, whether it’s bad guys chasing the hero in cars, or the hero chasing the heroine around the bedroom.

  Contact Jamie on:

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  Discover More Books By Jamie Jeffries:

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  What do you do when everything you think you know about yourself turns out to be a lie?

  That’s the question that Hannah, aka Em, spends no time answering before she steals her dad’s new BMW and runs headlong toward…somewhere else…to find out who she really is.

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  For Ty, the only answer is to distance himself, physically and emotionally, and make a new life without them.

  When the two are thrown together, both sense that they shouldn’t act on their growing attraction, but fate has a different idea. Can he justify trying to win a younger woman who has never had a chance to know herself and her desires? Can she trust a man who has dark secrets he can’t, or won’t, share with her? Only by accepting their pasts can they move on to a future together—if they’re strong enough to overcome their obstacles and forge a lasting relationship.

  Impermanent is a standalone full-length Romantic Suspense novel, which you can obtain free at my website, www.JamieJeffriesBooks.com.

  Fatal Exposure (Book One of the Desert Heat Series)

  Dylan made Alex’s heart race and her blood pound when they were in high school. Then her dad caught them naked in her room and sent Dylan packing. Dylan left town a few weeks later, saying he’d never be back. They’re about to learn you should never say never.

  When they meet again four years later, over a mummified corpse in the blazing Arizona desert, what secrets is he carrying, and why does he have to look so damn good? Alex, now a college student and aspiring investigative journalist, can’t decide whether she’d like to find out what she missed all those years ago, or help put him behind bars.

  Will she get the chance to make up her mind, before she's marked for murder herself?

  Fatal Exposure is the first book in the Desert Heat Series, a romantic suspense series set in the southern Arizona desert. It is available at this time exclusively on Amazon. Always free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription, it will also be available in paperback format shortly.