by Aimée Thurlo
Lucas chose the densely wooded areas, though the snow-laden scrub brush grabbed at their clothing and made passage nearly impossible in spots.
Marlee stayed up with him, appreciating the trust he was placing in her as they worked together against their enemy.
As they reached an area close to the shooter’s last known position, a place thick with scrub oaks and pine, Lucas slowed down. “We’ll lay low here until we can pinpoint his new location. There’s no way he can get a clear shot at us now,” Lucas whispered.
“Comforting thought—I think.”
He smiled at her. “Don’t worry. Even if he comes after us, we’ll see or hear him before he spots us. I’m good at escape and evasion, and there’s more cover here than there was in the desert. Trust me on this. It’s one of the things that I had to learn on the recon team.” He saw the questions in her eyes, but shook his head. “Another time.”
“I trust you.”
His gut tightened. He wanted to know she trusted him as a man, not just because of the training he’d received, but because he was worthy of her trust in every way. He pushed the thought from his mind. This wasn’t the time to dwell on that. She was relying on him, and for now, that was enough.
They remained perfectly still, listening. Soon Lucas heard the sound of a vehicle somewhere behind the hill driving away, then another one approaching along the highway.
He took her hand in his, and tried not to think about the softness of her skin or the way she held on to him tightly as he led her toward the road. He edged past the brambles, keeping them hidden in case there had been two men after them, and the vehicle leaving was a ruse. Sheltered behind a large rock, he caught a glimpse of the red flashing lights on top of his brother’s Jeep.
“The shooter must have seen the sheriff’s vehicle approaching and high-tailed it out of here.”
Gabriel pulled up alongside Lucas’s truck and jumped out quickly, taking shelter from possible attack from either side of the road by staying between the two trucks.
Lucas punched out Gabriel’s cellular-phone number, and brought him up-to-date, telling him where they were, as well. He was frustrated but not surprised that the attacker had left the scene and no one had gotten a good look at either the shooter or the vehicle.
As they hurried to meet his brother, a coldness seeped through him. He didn’t like the idea that, as it had been many times during his boyhood, Gabriel’s presence had affected the fight and swung it in their favor. Lucas glanced back at Marlee. When he saw the relief in her eyes, the iciness coursing through his veins intensified. He would have given anything to have seen that look on her face because of something he’d done, rather than because of the arrival of the sheriff of Four Winds.
When Gabriel met his eyes, Lucas saw the flash of awareness there. The last thing he needed right now was a lecture from his older brother about calling for help sooner. If Gabriel said one word about this matter, he’d bury his brother’s face in the nearest snowdrift, and worry about it later.
“What happened?” Gabriel asked, his tone crisp and businesslike as he continued to watch the hillside, rifle in hand.
Lucas filled him in succinctly. “We didn’t ever see him. Did anyone pass you heading into town?”
“No, but maybe one of the rounds lodged in your truck will lead us somewhere.” He found one flattened against the engine block and peeled it loose with his pocketknife. “This is a soft-point hunting round from a .30-.30 Winchester. It’s too damaged to do a match, even if we found the rifle. Half the people in this county have one of these weapons anyway.” He looked inside Shadow’s truck, and saw the empty gun rack. “Start carrying a rifle, again. Your aim’s lousy, but the noise might scare them away. Things are getting ugly in town, Shadow.”
Lucas’s hands balled into fists. “Don’t forget my aim’s gotten better since I was away, but if I ever get five minutes with whoever did this, I won’t need a gun—just me and him…”
“I know how you feel,” Gabriel said, “but let me take care of this. Don’t you go hunting for trouble.”
Lucas glanced at Marlee. “The truck’s going to need some repairs, not just the tires, either. You’ll have to ride back with my brother.”
“And where the heck do you think you’re going?” Gabriel challenged. “I’m going to need both of you back in town to sign statements about all this.”
“I came out here to talk to Riley Sayers, and I’m going to do that first.”
“You’re going to need more than Chief to get around now,” Gabriel said. “The town council should be able to provide you with a vehicle.”
“Yeah, no doubt, but I don’t want to get stuck with the one they’ll undoubtedly come up with.”
Gabriel gave him a puzzled look, then suddenly he nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. You’d probably be offered the old man’s truck,” he said. Like Lucas, he avoided mentioning Simmons by name out of respect for Navajo tradition.
“I’m not worried about the chindi, but I’d just as soon not drive his van around. It might unnerve some of my patients to see me coming in a dead man’s vehicle.”
“You have a point,” Gabriel said.
“I’m going to ask Riley if I can borrow his son’s Blazer. The boy’s off going through basic training now, and left the thing at home.”
Gabriel took his brother aside, leaving Marlee standing by his Jeep. “What’s eating at you, Shadow? You had someone gunning for you and her, yet your mind doesn’t seem to be focused on what just happened.”
“You’re wrong. It is focused. It just occurred to me that our town is going crazy again, like it did with you and then Tree. Only this time it’s my turn, and Marlee’s, too.”
“Maybe you should keep your distance from her, then. It’s easier to handle your own problems without combining them with hers. I bet Coach Jenkins over at the high school would keep an eye on Marlee. He’s asked her out twice that I know of. I could speak to him about it.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Marlee is my business, not yours or his.” The words came out before he could stop them. He glared at his brother as he saw the smug grin on his face.
“Well, son of a gun! Looks like Lanie was right. You’re really stuck on her. Well, it had to happen sooner or later.”
Lucas contented himself by giving his brother a stony glare. When Gabriel’s grin got wider, Lucas fought hard to suppress the impulse to deck him.
“Stop by my office after you get through at Riley’s place,” Gabriel said. “And here—” Gabriel handed Lucas his rifle “—take this. There are fights you can win with your fists, Shadow, but this isn’t going to be one of them.”
Lucas turned his head and walked back over to Marlee, who had decided to get into the Jeep where it was warm. “I’ll catch up to you later.”
“Go take care of your patient,” she said with a brief nod. “Gabriel will get me home safely.”
He knew she’d meant to reassure him that he was free to go, but somehow the words irked him more than he’d thought possible. He didn’t want to need Marlee, but for some reason he wasn’t ready to define, he wanted Marlee to need him.
His grip on the rifle was tight as he strode down the road to the turnoff, then uphill in the snow. He’d always prided himself on being able to handle any situation. Yet right now his biggest battle was against himself—between logic and feelings that defied his attempts to ignore.
THE NEXT MORNING, after a disappointing shopping expedition, Marlee returned to the boardinghouse with only a few groceries. Her thoughts were more troubled than ever. Lucas had come in late and left early, and she’d heard while trying on boots at the feed store, that almost a third of the schoolkids were now at home with the flu, and the town council was thinking of suspending classes. Most of the businesses along Main Street were closed. Only the grocery store, the feed store and the post office had remained open.
She’d gone into Rosa’s briefly, having no other place to buy food, and the treatm
ent she’d received was more chilling than the icicles dangling off the roofs. She was used to having people’s eyes stray to her scar when they spoke to her, but at least before now they’d tried to hide it. Today she’d even heard one woman whisper something about how difficult it must have been for Lucas not to stare when he was with her. The words had hurt, though she hadn’t let anyone know.
The worst was that the feeling of danger hanging over the townspeople had changed everything she loved about Four Winds. All of the friendliness that she’d come to associate with the town had vanished.
Marlee kept busy in her own kitchen, finishing the pies she’d promised to take over to the senior citizens’ center. Since her supplies were getting short, she’d considered not doing the baking. Yet, unwilling to disappoint anyone, she’d decided to go ahead anyway.
As she set the pies out on the front porch to cool, a vehicle pulled up.
Lucas stepped out of the borrowed Blazer and walked up her front steps. Something about his expression chilled her spirit.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I was just at my brother’s office. The news that the peddler paid Four Winds a visit is out.”
“Do they know he was here at the boardinghouse?”
“Fuzz isn’t sure about that.”
“I was afraid this might happen, but I was really hoping it wouldn’t come out until the flu epidemic was under control. Now people will start trying to find out who the peddler met. The Blackhorse family and you, in particular, will be at the top of that suspect list.”
“Which means you’re going to have to watch your back more than ever, because you’ve been with me a lot lately,” Lucas warned, coming inside with her and dropping down on the couch. “I’ve got to tell you, in all the time I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen people acting this badly toward each other. Folks who’ve known each other for years, ones I’d thought of as fast friends, barely look at each other.”
Marlee had never harbored any illusions about the nobility of people. She was a realist, but Lucas’s observations were filled with the pain of betrayal and it nearly snapped her heart in two. She wondered just how badly he’d been treated by the townspeople he served.
“When people are scared, they say and do things they don’t really mean,” she said.
“I learned something in the military about situations like these—where nothing seems to stop an enemy. People’s fears erode their confidence, and they begin to lose hope. When that happens, a kind of dry rot of the soul takes over, and they lose the battle all that much faster.”
Marlee nodded thoughtfully. She knew intimately the feeling he was describing. “When dreams die, when people think they have nothing to lose, that’s when they’re at their most dangerous.”
Lucas met her gaze. “That applies to all of us—the good guys and the bad.”
Marlee didn’t look away. An alliance was forming between them. He was acknowledging that they each had secrets, and their pasts each held a share of darkness. Yet it was through the lessons they’d learned there that they would find the courage and the cunning to fight the battles that lay ahead.
Knowing she didn’t stand alone, that she had an ally who would remain at her side, renewed her determination and courage. Yet at the same time, she desperately wished her feelings for Lucas could have given him comfort and provided a haven for him, instead of propelling him headlong into danger. A dark rush of sadness filled her, weighing her spirit down.
As Lucas’s cellular phone rang, she left him alone, giving him some privacy. Remembering she hadn’t checked for mail, Marlee went out to the box. It looked like the seeds she’d ordered for next spring had been shipped early. Maybe that was a good omen, a sign that, like spring and the new life it brought, the situation in Four Winds would undergo a regeneration soon, bringing new hopes and peace.
Feeling better, she returned inside and walked to the kitchen. As she tore the small box open, a handful of dead insects fell out. Marlee yelped and jumped back.
Lucas, who’d only got as far as the living room, rushed to her side in an instant. He stared at the insects, then scooped them into a paper towel and placed them in the trash.
“Throw the box out, too, will you?” Marlee asked, and shuddered. “I don’t mind bugs so much when they’re someplace you’d expect. But this was too much.”
He picked up the box by the edges and studied it. “There’s something else in here,” he said, then shook it. A small, black plastic rose fell out with a note taped to the stem.
“‘The fruits of corruption,’“ Lucas read. “What’s that mean to you?”
“Not a thing,” she said, staring pensively at the block-lettered words written in pencil.
Lucas placed the box and plastic flower back on the table. “Leave these for my brother.”
“They’re not much use as clues. What can you tell from a cheap plastic flower that’s been painted black? It’s not even new.”
“It’s still revealing. Look at the way it’s worn around the edges, as if the elements like the rain and sun have taken their toll on it. My guess is that it came from a grave-site, which means it’s meant as a threat to you, and also to me as a Navajo.”
Chapter Ten
Marlee stood to one side as Gabriel studied the box and plastic flower. When she’d first seen the seed package, she’d thought of it as a sign of things to come. She’d been right, though not in the way she’d hoped.
“I agree with you, Shadow. This probably came from a grave at the cemetery.” Gabriel glanced at Marlee. “Still no ideas of who might have sent you this?”
“No, but I bet it was tampered with after it was put in my mailbox. The return address is genuine, and so is the box. I’ve placed plenty of orders from that catalog company before.”
Gabriel looked at his brother. “If this had happened a little later today, I would have blamed the article in the paper. Now I’m thinking that whoever leaked that story also arranged for this, but his timing was off a bit.”
“What article?” Marlee asked. “I haven’t seen the paper yet.”
“You didn’t miss much. Alex wrote another long edi-torial pointing out that Shadow is the only member of the Blackhorse family who hasn’t been involved with the ped-dler—until now. He hints that the illnesses are linked to the peddler and to you two.”
Shadow grimaced. “He’s always been a thorn in our side. He reacted the same way before, with you and Joshua. What I really need now to fight these allegations are the test results on that water. I asked it be given priority because of the town’s situation, and requested it be faxed to me at your office. Have you received anything yet?”
“Not that I know about, but I haven’t been in for several hours. I do know your medical supplies came this morning. The truck wasn’t sure where to deliver them, so they came to my office. My dispatcher signed for them.”
“I’ll go over there and get them right now.” He glanced at Marlee. “Will you give me a hand?”
“Sure, but I’d like to drop off the pies I baked for the seniors at the center first.”
“No problem.”
After delivering the pies and taking a few moments to say hello to some of the regulars at the center, Marlee returned to the Blazer with Lucas. For what seemed to be an eternity, they rode in silence.
Desire ribboned through her, as unexpected as it was powerful. She, who’d always held to the belief that keeping secrets meant trusting no one, felt the desperate urge to trust this man.
“Do you think Gabriel will catch whoever shot at us?” she asked at long last.
“I really doubt it. That’s one of the things that worries me most. The person will know he got away with it, and that’ll just build up his confidence. Then he’ll try again.” He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I really hate being the target of someone who doesn’t have the guts to face me.”
“Maybe we should hedge our bets. If we stay away from each other, we may deter th
e attacks, or at the very least force this person to target only one of us.”
“If I thought you would be safer without my being around, I would have offered to do that, but until we know who and what we’re up against, any action we take could turn out to be making things worse. There’s also another factor to consider. Right now, with my caseload getting heavier by the hour, I need your help. I’ve read through the notes and records you took for me back at the high school, and they’re excellent. They’re concise yet thorough, like someone trained and experienced in medicine.”
Their eyes met as he probed her face for answers. She said nothing. He was fishing. Eventually, of course, he’d learn the whole story. Gabriel would dig into her past until he got to know her far better than she would have ever wanted. And, of course, he’d tell his brother. But until then, she would continue to guard her secrets. For now, she’d enjoy the closeness she shared with Lucas, and allow it to soothe the ache in her heart.
When they arrived at Gabriel’s office, Lucas and Marlee began the process of checking the shipment of medical supplies that had arrived there. Several minutes later, Gabriel came in holding a fax. “Here’s the report on the town’s water. I took the liberty of giving it a quick read. It’s only a preliminary screening, but they’ve given the water the all-clear so far from viral or bacterial contaminants,” he said.
Lucas studied the lab’s findings. “So it looks like it is the flu after all.”
“We can all use news like this.” Gabriel looked at the contents of the two open cardboard boxes. “That isn’t much by way of supplies,” Gabriel commented. “Do you have enough medications?”
“This is my normal order, and it’s usually more than enough, but it won’t be now, not at the rate I’m using up my stock. I’m going to have to get the town council to okay more funds. If we still had a mayor, I’d go directly to him. Since we don’t, I have to do things by committee. That’s slow and usually a hassle.”