But what if Joanna had been at least partially right? Andi asked herself. What if the hostility between Joe and her would diminish if they released some of the sexual tension that kept them both on edge? Was she willing to have a brief affair with Joe in order to maintain peace between them while they worked together to save Russ and Eddie?
Andi carried two tall glasses of iced tea out to the pool area, where Joe sat alone in a lounge chair, shaded by a huge umbrella. The late-afternoon sun had begun its descent over the western horizon. She had steered clear of Joe for the past twenty-four hours. But now, she had no choice but to return to the role of nursemaid, at least until J.T. and Joanna returned tonight.
"We've got the place all to ourselves," she told him as she handed him a glass.
"Where is everyone?" He lifted the chilled tea to his lips and drank, then sighed contentedly.
"Didn't J.T. tell you? He took Joanna into Trinidad to her OBGYN for her weekly checkup. They're staying in town for dinner and won't be back until late."
"Where's Rita?"
"This is her day off."
"Where are the children?"
"With Alex and Elena," Andi said.
"Whose idea was that?"
"Not mine, if that's what you're implying."
"I wasn't implying anything. I was just asking a simple question."
"Humph!" Andi sat in the cushioned wooden rocker situated across from Joe's reclining lounger. "Nothing is simple with you. There's always a hidden meaning in your questions."
"So you say."
"So I know."
"All of this arguing isn't good for my recovery," Joe told her, just a hint of a sardonic smile lifting the corners of his mouth.
"Bull. You seem to be thriving on our little confrontations," Andi countered. "I'll bet you've missed me, haven't you?"
"Maybe," he admitted. "After all, I need something for entertainment while I'm recuperating. But if you think you're going to put me back in bed and keep me there, then you'd better think again."
Andi felt the blush as it crept up her neck. Before it reached her cheeks, she looked down at the tiled patio floor, deliberately avoiding Joe's eyes. What he'd said could easily be interpreted in more than one way. She had immediately thought of keeping Joe in bed for a couple of days, and the two of them making love.
When she heard him chuckle, she jerked her head up and glared at him. "What's so funny?"
Damn it, why had she asked him something so stupid? He was bound to respond with a caustic remark. But instead, he surprised her.
"We are what's funny. You and I," Joe said. "There's so much tension between the two of us that everyone around us can't help but notice. We've been fighting ever since the first day I returned, when I came to Kate's house and found you there. Why can't we stop arguing?" He sipped on the iced tea, then set the tall, perspiring glass down on the wooden Mexican-style table to his right.
"We argue because we disagree. I'd think that's obvious."
"Okay, I'll give you that. But we seem to be disagreeing over everything. If I say up, you say down. If you say black, I say white."
"So what are you suggesting? Do you want to lay the reason out on the table and examine it?" she asked. "Are you sure that's what you really want to do?"
“It might help us if we did just that. It might clear the air."
"Or it could get us in trouble."
"We're already in trouble and we both know it. That's part of the problem. We're trying so hard to avoid the truth that it's become the size of an elephant, just sitting there between us. How do we continue avoiding something that big?"
Andi stood, looked directly at Joe and said, "I'm not ready to—"
Joe grabbed her wrist and jerked her down onto his lap. When he winced and groaned, she tried to pull away, but he reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Please, let me go." The steely determination she saw in his eyes momentarily rattled her. ' T—I hurt you when I fell into your lap. You must be more careful."
"Stay where you are." He spoke with authority, his words a command instead of a request. “In the past, I let you postpone things one time too many. You were never ready to take the next step in our relationship. Well, Andrea, this time you're not going to put off facing the inevitable. You're as ready right now as you'll ever be."
Andrea? Dear God, he had called her Andrea. In the past, the only time he had used her given name instead of her nickname was when he had been aroused and intent on making love to her.
"This can wait until you're better," she told him.
"No, it can't wait. So, I will go first. I will speak the truth," he said. "I have wanted you, as a man wants a woman, since the first time I saw you. That one thing has not changed."
Andi sucked in a deep breath as his words settled over her and a tingling awareness spiraled outward from the feminine core of her body. "All right. I can be totally honest, too. I knew you felt that way. I felt it, too, from the very beginning. But I was afraid of that feeling. I had never experienced anything so powerful."
“Is that why you kept putting me off?'' he asked. “Because you were afraid?"
"Yes," Andi admitted. "I thought that if I gave in to what I was feeling and we became lovers, I would love you too much to leave you. And that frightened me. We weren't sure if we had a future together. I didn't want either of us trapped in a relationship that might eventually bring us both a great deal of unhappiness. And I was right, wasn't I?"
Joe frowned, but nodded agreement. "It seems you were. But things are different now. We aren't falling in love and hoping for a future together. We're just two people trying to resist a physical attraction."
"For once, you and I are in total agreement." Andi glanced away, uncertain what secret truths might be revealed in her eyes.
Joe loosened his hold around her waist and let his arm drift lower to drape her hip. "I never wanted to hurt you. I still don't."
Andi trapped the lump of emotion in her throat, stemming the tide of tears threatening to erupt. "I don't want to talk about the past. Not right now. Discussing what happened five years ago will only confuse me more than I'm already confused."
Joe eased Andi over to his side, so that she rested half on the lounge chair and partly against his right side. Her heartbeat accelerated when he reached under the fall of her long hair and clamped his big hand around the back of her neck. As she drew in a startled gasp, their gazes linked and they shared an utterly spellbinding moment of recognition. Man to woman.
She melted against his uninjured side when he brought her face down to his. Their breaths mingled, warm and sensual. Waves of anticipation washed over her as Joe touched his lips to hers. Tender and tentative. She sighed. His fingers spread through her hair and gripped the back of her head, then pressed her closer as he claimed her mouth in a ravaging kiss.
Passion too long denied controlled their actions. The kiss deepened quickly, becoming a heated mating dance. Andi lifted her hand to his chest and laid it flat atop his shirt, over his erratically beating heart. She longed to touch his bare flesh, to run her fingertips over the solid muscles of his shoulders and broad chest. Seemingly of their own volition, her fingers opened the top four buttons on Joe's shirt and inched their way beneath the parted folds. The moment she encountered one tight male nipple, Joe groaned.
"Am I hurting you?" she asked.
"Only if you stop touching me," he replied, his lips brushing hers.
"We can't. . . If we try to. . . Your wound could reopen and—"
Joe silenced her with another kiss, longer and more powerful than the first one. Within seconds her body took control, eliminating all rational thought. She wanted nothing more than to stay here in this glorious moment forever. On the verge of unparalleled satisfaction. The promise of fulfillment almost as great as the fulfillment itself. Her body and her mind awaited the inevitable, yearning with an uncontrollable hunger.
She wanted Joe. She
had always wanted him. Her soul recognized him as its mate. Denying this truth was useless. She had lied to herself long enough. She could lie to Joanna and even to Joe, but her heart knew the truth. She loved Joe Ornelas. She had loved him since the first moment she saw him, and she probably would love him until the day she died. And beyond.
"Joseph," she murmured as she lifted her fingertips to caress the lips she had only moments ago kissed. "Oh, Joseph."
He grabbed her hand, squeezing her fingers tightly. "Don't," he cautioned her. "Don't say anything."
She realized that he knew she had been about to confess her love and had stopped her before she spoke the words aloud. He didn't want her love, only her body. He was wise enough to understand that there was no place in their relationship for love. Too many unresolved issues stood between them.
Andi withdrew from him, first on an emotional level and then physically. He tried to hold on to her, to bring her back to him, but she resisted. And when she pulled away and stood, he made no move to stop her. He only looked at her, a sad compliance in his dark eyes.
"When we find Russ and Eddie. . ." Andi studied Joe's face, needing to read his expression as much as to hear his reply. "When they are safe and this is all over, you'll go back to Atlanta, won't you."
"I suppose I will," Joe said. "Unless. . ."
"Unless?"
"Unless something changes and I have a good reason to stay."
"You should stay," she said. "For Kate and J.T. and their families. For Eddie, in particular. But mostly, you should stay for yourself. This is where your heart is, isn't it? In New Mexico, on the reservation? If only you hadn't run away—"
"I would never have left, if you hadn't. . ."
"You blame me. I blame you. We always come back to that, don't we."
Joe stood. Andi backed away from him.
"Just stay the hell away from me for the next few hours, will you?'' Joe stalked past her, leaving her alone on the patio.
She felt as if he'd slapped her. She wanted Joe. She could even admit that she loved him. But unless they could come to terms with the pain and disillusionment of the past, they would continue going around and around in the same vicious circle that bound them together and yet kept them apart.
Chapter 10
Tell him that he can't go," Andi said. "He hasn't recovered enough to be gallivanting all over creation."
J.T. shrugged. Joanna's eyes widened as she shook her head in a noncommittal gesture.
“Woman, I am going. And if you want to go with me, then stop giving me such a hard time." Joe narrowed his gaze until his eyes were mere slits. "I can and will leave you here."
"You're certainly not going alone. You aren't going at all." Andi huffed, completely aggravated with Joe. "J.T. can send someone else with me. One of the Dundee agents who flew in from Atlanta this morning."
"I am one of their agents," Joe informed her. "We'll call Wolfe and Hunter in if we find anything in Black Rock."
J.T. interjected himself into the conversation as he laid his hand on Andi's shoulder. "Look, Andi, I don't think it's going to hurt Joe to ride over to Black Rock and take a look around. You can drive and he can rest."
Andi could have gone to Black Rock alone or with one of J.T.'s ranch hands or one of the Dundee agents, but Joe was being a stubborn jackass, as usual, and insisted on going. The phone call had come in thirty minutes ago, from a distant relative of Joe's father, a man named Aaron Tuvi, who lived in a small Arizona village on the reservation, just over the New Mexico border. Black Rock had a population of about three hundred and whenever strangers showed up, residents were bound to take notice. Aaron had overheard some men talking at the trading post about squatters having moved into an abandoned house on the outskirts of town. Someone had caught a glimpse of a teenage boy entering the old shack. Aaron had immediately thought about Russ and Eddie, because word had traveled throughout the reservation about the missing boys. Since Aaron was "family," he had gotten in touch with J.T. instead of the Tribal Police.
"I'm glad Aaron didn't try to confront the boys," Joe said. "If he had, they might have bolted and run. Or he could have frightened them and somebody might have gotten hurt."
"Since the rifle we found at the mine belonged to Mr. Lovato, same as the stolen truck, then we can assume the boys aren't armed, except possibly with knives."
Joe nodded.
"Let's just hope that someone else in Black Rock doesn't put two and two together and call the police," Andi said.
"All the more reason why we shouldn't waste time arguing," Joe told her. "If we head out now, we can be in Black Rock within an hour."
"Oh, all right." Andi knew when she'd lost a battle, and she had most definitely lost this one. Although he was still healing from a gunshot wound, Joe had no intention of letting anyone else spearhead the search for the boys.
J.T. and Joanna walked with them out to the Expedition, and waved goodbye as Andi headed the SUV westward. With every mile that took them closer to Black Rock, she prayed that the squatters Aaron Tuvi had heard about really were Russ and Eddie. And that she and Joe could reach them before they either fled or ended up in a standoff with the police. Or were tracked down by Bobby Yazzi's killer.
Joe seemed as reluctant as she to indulge in idle conversation. They hadn't gotten more than five miles from Blackwood Ranch before he'd reclined his seat, pulled the Stetson he'd borrowed from J.T. down over his eyes and gone to sleep. The drone of the tires on the asphalt hummed a monotonous rhythm, mile after mile. Taking the back roads cut their traveling time by nearly fifteen minutes, and Joe had told her that they were less likely to be followed that way, since they could more easily detect a tail. J.T. had pointed out that it was only a matter of time before the police started keeping an eye on Joe and her, if they weren't already. Since the deaths of Edmund Kieyoomia and Charlie Kirk, half the law enforcement agencies in the two states had become involved, including the New Mexico State Police, the Arizona Highway Patrol and the Law and Order Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Andi checked the clock on the dashboard. Noon precisely. She was making good time and had passed only three vehicles since leaving the main highway. She slowed the Expedition when she saw a narrow wooden bridge ahead. The old bridge spanned Chiz Creek, which meandered downstream between terraced limestone cliffs. A coppice of willows and alders edged the long, sleepy waterway.
"Something wrong?" Joe lifted the Stetson and glanced at Andi, but didn't raise his head.
"No, nothing's wrong. Just making sure there isn't anything coming from the other direction. That's definitely a one-way bridge." She nodded at the old wooden structure.
Joe raised his head just enough to take a look. “Want me to drive?"
"No, I do not want you to drive."
"Hmm."
Andi took the Expedition across the bridge. Slowly. Carefully. Then she breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the other side. Joe covered his eyes once again with the Stetson. Andi inhaled deeply and then exhaled, thankful that they had avoided another argument.
"You shouldn't have a problem finding the trading post," Joe said. "This road will take you straight into Black Rock. There's only one street in town, and the trading post is the largest of the four buildings."
"Mr. Tuvi is meeting us there, isn't he?"
"Yes. He will show us the way to the abandoned house."
"You think the squatters are Russ and Eddie, don't you."
"I think there's a good chance that it's them."
“Maybe, when we get to the house, you should let me go in first and see—''
"It's too dangerous for you to go in alone," Joe said. "If these squatters aren't the boys, anything could happen."
"And if the squatters are Russ and Eddie, Russ isn't going to react in a positive way—''
"I know, I know. Then we'll go in together." He lifted the Stetson, pushing it back on top of his head as he sat up and glanced at Andi. “When we ge
t to the house, you will stay behind me." When she opened her mouth to protest, Joe narrowed his gaze and said, “You stay behind me or you stay in the Expedition."
"Oh, all right. I'll stay behind you."
Within twenty minutes they arrived in Black Rock, which was by most standards nothing more than a wide place in the road. She pulled the SUV up in front of the trading post and killed the engine. When she started to open her door, Joe grabbed her arm.
"You stay here."
"Why?"
"People will ask fewer questions if I go in alone," he told her. "Aaron is the son of my grandfather's brother. He has no doubt mentioned that a cousin of his is coming by to pick him up today."
"Okay," Andi agreed. "It makes sense to me. Navajo sense, anyway." She understood that to the Navajos, family was everything.
While Joe got out of the SUV and went into the trading post, Andi bided her time. She thumped her fingertips on the steering wheel, then curved her head just enough to take a good look at Black Rock, which comprised Johnson's Trading Post and three other weather-worn buildings. And one of those structures appeared to be empty. There wasn't a sign of human life on the street—only a stray mongrel that looked as if he needed a good meal and probably a flea bath.
As the minutes ticked by, Andi became restless. What was taking Joe so long? All he had to do was bring Aaron Tuvi outside.
Suddenly, the door to the trading post opened. Andi sat up straight and peered through the windshield. A man and woman, each carrying a sack, came outside and headed toward the lone truck parked alongside the Expedition. The couple stared at her, but neither spoke nor acknowledged her in any way. She smiled at them. They did not return the friendly gesture.
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