Two of Hearts

by Christina Lee

  “All right, fine, I’ll let you drive me.” As soon as she said it, she regretted it. She was going to fight me tooth and nail.

  Still, I could see the trepidation in her eyes. I had the urge to comfort her, to slide my hand over her smooth skin.

  “Tell me about the security measures at the casino,” I said to Stuart, feeling the need to leave Dakota alone with her thoughts.

  “Same as they’ve always been,” Stuart said. “What do you suggest?”

  “Additional patrols around the perimeter of the property and extra video cameras near the entrances and in the garage.”

  Stuart nodded, contemplating this.

  “Those things cost money,” Dakota piped in. “I’d need to talk to Mom about the budget.”

  “We’re about to pick her up for this meeting, right?” I said. “We can discuss it in the car.”

  As I paced closer to her desk, I felt Dakota’s warm hand on my arm. I turned to her. Her eyes were a mix of so many things—confusion, sadness, wonder, anger.

  “What are you doing, Shane?” She whispered as if she didn’t want Stuart to hear. “This is not your problem.”

  I stepped closer and stared deeply into her eyes. In my side view, I noticed how Stuart turned away to look at the books on a shelf by the door. “You guys will always be considered family to me, no matter what.”

  “Shane—”

  I briefly twisted at the sound of Stuart quietly slipping out the door.

  “Your dad was senselessly killed, Dee.” I felt her involuntarily shiver. “Things are a mess around here. People are placing pressure on you and your mother about selling. Even Uncle Elan has been adding to the situation. If it were me, I’d be left feeling pretty hurt and defenseless.”

  When her eyes narrowed, I knew I had struck the nail on the head. But she wasn’t about to admit to any weaknesses. In some ways, she was just as hardheaded as she’d always been. Hot and cold, just like I’d remembered.

  “You sure this isn’t about something else?” she bit out. “About you being heroic or maybe thinking that I’m some damsel in distress? You know I’m perfectly capable—”

  “Are you shitting me right now?” I worked to keep my lips in a neat, straight line. That was a low blow, and she knew it. She was just trying to get under my skin. Push me away.

  I stepped into her space and noticed the small tremor in her shoulders. “I’m good at my job. I can sense a pressure cooker situation. Of course this has nothing to do with you being a woman. Are you telling me you’d turn down that kind of help because of your own pride?”

  She gasped and tried to shift away from me. But I clutched hold of her arm, tilted her chin with my thumb, and forced her to look at me. “Stop being stubborn, and say what you mean, Dee.”

  Her nostrils flared briefly before she said, “You have a life elsewhere . . . and I—”

  “I also had a life here . . . people here . . . who I care about very much,” I said, and her eyes flickered momentarily. “No matter what happened between us.”

  “This will always be me. I’ll be here because it’s where I belong,” she said. She tried to break from my grasp again, but I tightened my hold. “It’s cool that Kai got out and did his own thing. But me? I’ll be here because it’s in my blood.”

  “And?”

  “I understand your need to help. That’s the way you’re made. And it’s kind of you to offer your expertise and to talk to the police. But then you need to be on your way.”

  I slid my fingers around her waist, my other hand at her neck. Her hair was up in a loose bun but I wanted so badly to feel the silk glide through my fingers. See it fanned across my pillow in the morning.

  “You’re making assumptions about where I want to be,” I said, close to her lips. “Right now, I want to be here, in my hometown, with your family, with my best friend. With you.”

  “But—”

  Before she could get another word out I pulled her body flush against mine, my forehead resting against hers. “Don’t you know how much I’ve thought of you over the years? Wondered how you were doing, if you were okay? Whether you still thought of me, too?”

  “Could . . . have . . . picked up your phone,” she said, between broken breaths.

  “You could’ve, too,” I said, my mouth sliding along her throat.

  Almost reluctantly her fingers slipped up my arms to grip my shoulders. “I’ve always been here. You’ve always been everywhere else.”

  “You let me go,” I said against her ear, and she shivered. “Pulled down the shades and shut me out.”

  “You wanted to go,” she whispered.

  “How do you know if you never even asked?”

  Her lips parted and her eyebrows arched. “Neither did you.”

  Her words stunned me so much, I pulled back to stare into her eyes. “You wanted me to ask?”

  “I . . . God, I don’t know. This is . . .” She pushed me back further in her frustration, creating distance between us again. “You’re making it hard for me to breathe.”

  “Nice to see I still have that effect on you.”

  Chapter Eight

  DAKOTA

  What in the hell had I just agreed to? Suddenly Shane was in our business. He had pushed his way into our meeting and into my life. I didn’t want to feel like I was protected by him again, only to have it be ripped away.

  There was something different about Shane, besides the over-confident and bossy attitude. He had become a force to be reckoned with and I’d admit that it kind of thrilled me. If it wasn’t so utterly frustrating.

  Yet he had admitted to some things about our past that he probably wouldn’t have before and it made me realize just how much he had grown into a man. A solid, self-assured, devastatingly handsome man. And that killed me even more.

  We rode the elevator down to the garage and climbed into his shiny black Range Rover. Shane had insisted on driving his car, and I was too nervous about this meeting to argue.

  “Let me call my mom and tell her we’re on our way.” I fumbled in my purse for the phone I rarely used anymore. I hoped it was charged. If anyone needed to get hold of me they knew to call me at my desk or on my landline at home. I was always at one place or the other. Which was really pathetic, come to think of it.

  “What the hell is that?” he said when I pulled it out.

  “What?” I looked at him and then at the phone in my palm that displayed a weak charge.

  “That fossil in your hand.” I was used to comments like that from Rachel. She was always getting on my case about finally buying a smartphone, but I couldn’t care less about having the latest kind of gadget. I rarely used it anyway. “Is that still the one from college?”

  I shrugged. “What if it is?”

  I heard what sounded like a cross between a grunt and a growl. “Dee, smartphones are equipped with GPS in case of an emergency and have other useful apps you could use, like a flashlight.”

  “A flashlight?’ I said, my lip quirking up. “That’s your idea of a security measure?”

  “At least it’s something,” he said, eyeing me incredulously. “At least you could text faster or look up directions if you needed to.”

  “I don’t go anywhere except home and work.” I shrugged. “Maybe the grocery store.”

  That comment got a look from him because he probably remembered the contents of my refrigerator from college, which consisted of condiments, eggs, and cheese. Because you have to have cheese. But at this rate, it was probably expired.

  “My point exactly. You’re predictable—anyone could guess your route.”

  Instead of trying to understand what he meant and how it related to my safety, I focused on the word predictable and it made my stomach turn over and tighten in irritation at the same time. Is that what he thought of me?

  After I gave my mom a quick call, I remained silent, not able to form any words past the lump in my throat. He must have known he had touched on a raw nerve.

&nb
sp; “Dee¸ I meant that from a security standpoint,” he said, reaching his hand out to me. It was warm and solid, and I hated that I liked the feel of it. “Anyone could walk up to you to begin an argument about the casino and you’d have no defense, except that smart mouth of yours.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “Isn’t that all I need to win an argument?”

  “Not in this day and age,” he said, and I knew he was right. Before my father was killed, I had never given it another thought. He was a large man and was extremely smart—and still, that hadn’t helped him. A chill slithered across my skin.

  Shane’s voice softened as his thumb brushed over the top of my hand. Did he even realize what he was doing to me? “Your mom lives in one of the rez’s private cul de sacs, but you live downtown in your condo. I’m just trying to make sure you’ve got what you need to stay safe when you’re outside of the casino.”

  I nodded, thinking it all through. My mother was going to remain in my childhood home, and I continued to live in the same condo I had purchased a few years ago. It was convenient, close to work, and already contained all of my creature comforts.

  As far as I was concerned, I just didn’t consider anything else because I knew these people in my community, in our employ. They weren’t actually going to do anything to hurt me or my mother, even if they were angry and scared, were they?

  Yet I had to admit that seeing some of our employees huddled together, whispering in the break room, or openly disagreeing about the new uniform colors they had to wear out on the floor disappointed me. Maybe even alarmed me. We’d always had some disgruntled employees just like any other workplace, but there was a distance between us now—a distance that I hadn’t created.

  “I’m going to do what I can to make sure you’re safe,” Shane said, forcing me out of my exasperating thoughts.

  I turned and glared at him, not willing to admit defeat. Not yet. “I’m fine, Shane.”

  “You’re walking around with an outdated phone that probably doesn’t even hold a charge,” he grumbled, releasing my fingers. I missed their warmth immediately. “If you don’t step up your own security, then I will, simple as that.”

  With that unyielding gleam in his eye, I had no doubt that he would. “You’re unbelievable.”

  “I’ve been called far worse,” he said with a smirk, one that emphasized the indent in his cheek. One that I’d like to lick, repeatedly. “Even from you.”

  When we picked up my mother, I opened her door and then slid to the backseat, allowing her to have the front. It also gave me a break from being in such close proximity to Shane.

  Shane’s eyes roved around the neighborhood and property as my mother got herself buckled in. For the first time, my eyes darted around as well, thinking about what Shane had said in my office.

  After my mom took in the fact that Shane was driving us, she threw me a questioning gaze. “Shane wants to look into Dad’s investigation. He’s going to use his contacts with the local authorities.”

  “I appreciate that,” Mom said, giving Shane a once-over. She knew his father was on the force and that he at one time considered applying himself. In fact, I remember that exact conversation at Sunday brunch way back when. Our family tried to get together one day every week, and Shane had been invited several times over the years, as had Rachel.

  Would our lives look different now if Shane had stayed in this town and followed in his father’s footsteps? Would we have managed to stay together, or would something else have driven us apart?

  “Shane feels that given the circumstances at the casino, we need tighter security,” I said from the backseat. “So he took it upon himself to drive us.”

  “In other words, I wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Shane said, and my mother nodded, a slight smile lifting the corner of her mouth. “And I know Mr. Nakos would want his loved ones to be safe.”

  “He had our house wired with security a couple years ago when he was involved in a disagreement over sacred land and had to take the case to court,” my mother said. Shane threw me a look in the rearview mirror as if to say, I told you so. “Point being that he had his concerns as well. So do what you have to do. I’ll be on board.”

  Truth be told, my father never spoke to me about such matters. Maybe because he didn’t want to worry me. I thought I knew about casino business, but maybe there had been things he still kept from me because I was his daughter. Now it made me wish I knew more, that I wasn’t flying blind going to this meeting.

  I was glad to have my mother with me. She undoubtedly understood more than I did, and she definitely knew my father better, too.

  My mother’s eyes looked worn and sad and she fell into silence, looking out the side window, her mind on other things. As we passed by the reservation’s newest shopping plaza that the Golden Arrow helped launch, Shane muttered, “Looking good. Lots of new construction around here.”

  “We were very lucky the last few years,” my mother said quietly. I knew right then that she was more concerned about what would happen at this meeting than about the improvements our casino helped make to our reservation amenities in the last decade. And Shane seemed to know it, too, because he didn’t say anything else on the car ride, leaving us both alone with our thoughts.

  Shane pulled into the commercial parking lot where the association conducted its business and let us off at the front entrance.

  “I’ll wait for you out here,” he said, his eyes trained on his surroundings. “You need me, you know where to find me.”

  “Thank you,” my mother said as she exited the car. My gaze met his once more, and he tilted his chin as we moved toward the door, his eyes holding a glimmer of affection.

  I was too anxious about the meeting to really focus in on the fact that my ex-boyfriend had just stormed back into my life and was acting as my own personal bodyguard. Of all the different ways I imagined Shane returning, this had certainly never been one of them.

  Chapter Nine

  DAKOTA

  Mom and I rode the elevator up to the third floor and exited to the lobby. Casino Association meetings were reserved for owners, but even though I was the minority shareholder in my family’s business, I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave my mother to face this alone.

  The other members filed into the conference room and though neither my mother nor I had ever actually attended one of these meetings, I knew their faces. This wasn’t my first experience with the association or other leaders of our tribal band. I’d known these people my whole life, had attended important ceremonies with them, and my parents had even invited some of them to our home for dinner.

  But I’d never had to be the one to come here, keep the peace, negotiate territories, and take care of any problems that arose in the casinos. The fact was that my mother would never have been welcome here, no matter how friendly they had been to her in the past. It took lineage for that kind of respect, proof of Indian heritage. And God, how I wished that my father was with me in that moment.

  We somberly headed inside the room. I noticed the near deafening silence and got the distinct impression that we were walking to our slaughter. As we shuffled to some seats and I looked across the large table at an equal mix of gracious and tight faces, I thought about all the reasons my mother and I were at a disadvantage here.

  We’d never attended a Casino Association meeting, so we didn’t even understand the protocol. My father had always come alone. He didn’t have an operations manager until he assigned the position to me in his will. He’d done everything himself, kept a tight ship, his closest confidante at the casino being Stuart. Heck, I would have welcomed Stuart here in a heartbeat as well.

  My mother and I sat down in silence. Everyone around the table had their eyes trained on the entrance as if waiting for something. Or someone. The door opened and in stepped a person I hadn’t seen since my father’s funeral: the nation’s spiritual leader, Blue Cloud. He was a tall and charismatic figure, one who commanded respect.

&
nbsp; He wasn’t required to be at tribal meetings unless there was conflict or bad blood, so seeing him was like a punch to the gut. It meant he was to be present as a wise listener and a keeper of the peace. He had Chief Red Hawk’s ear and would report any disparity back to him. I heard my mother suck in an almost inaudible gasp. She also understood the gravity of his presence.

  Yet Blue Cloud was also a calming force. As soon as he entered the room I noticed how squared shoulders relaxed, seats shuffled back, and even my own hands unclenched. His gaze met my mother’s and then mine and I saw kindness reflected in his eyes.

  The term Native American is a federal government expression. Behind closed doors, we referred to ourselves as Indian and sometimes used our tribe or band names. Blue Cloud went around the room and addressed us all as such, adding not only to the formality in the room but also the familiarity, the tradition. When his eyes landed on Flint Thornfall, I finally looked in Flint’s direction, even though I’d felt his eyes on me since the moment I sat down.

  My gaze was met with steel from Flint, like he was ready for battle. I felt my mother’s legs shift beneath the table. Next, our spiritual leader announced my name, followed by, “Daughter of the late and great Linden Nakos, humanitarian to the Creek Dwellers band and creator of the Golden Arrow Casino.” I bowed my head and as he turned to my mother, the room grew silent. She did not originate from an Indian tribe. She was one hundred percent Dutch and now the sole owner of our family’s casino. And therein lay the crux of the problem, the reason for this meeting.

  The tension in the room was so thick you could walk a tightrope across it. My father had to have known this would happen. For the first time in weeks, my anger was directed not at his unknown killer, but at him.

  Why had my father created this scenario? He knew that if he had given the casino to me or Kai, the problem would be solved. You had to have Indian blood to be part of a reservation, a member of this tribal nation. Mom had zero percent and yet, he still left the casino to her.

  I turned to look at my mother and saw something shift behind her eyes—like a quiet determination slowly building its reserve. And right then I knew with certainty that my father did it because he had complete trust in her. He knew that she was tough, capable, and resilient, and my resentment immediately transformed into respect and admiration.