As the others discussed treatments and precautionary measures, Ella tried to think of something happy—the engaged couple’s upcoming nuptials—but couldn’t keep a terrible memory out of mind. Picturing a raven’s track scratched on the post between refuge and rez pastures on the set, she could almost hear Jacob railing against her.
She felt nauseous.
This was the way her father’s downfall had begun all those years ago….
Hot bile filled Ella’s throat as she remembered how quickly the accusations surrounding Father had spread and escalated and wondered if fate had the same in store for her.
Chapter Eight
Tiernan suggested Ella stay at the house and try to get some sleep, but she insisted on accompanying him and Kate and Chase to the barn to help with the horses. Five of them were sick. So far. He’d seen influenza spread through a herd like wildfire, and he wouldn’t bet there wouldn’t be more equine victims by morning.
Being a veterinarian put Kate in charge. Even her husband deferred to her as she issued instructions on what she needed them to do for the horses.
“I want them in the barn, but let’s get the floors hosed down and fresh hay put in the stalls first,” she said.
From past experience with equine flu in Ireland, Tiernan knew they needed to keep the barn dust free and well ventilated. They all got busy, Ella working side by side with him. Apparently she knew her way around horses and wasn’t afraid to put herself out.
A half hour later, the stalls were ready for their occupants.
“Make sure you clean your hands before touching any horse,” Kate said.
She started with the horse she brought inside, taking a nasal swab and a blood sample, then checking the horse’s temperature.
“How bad?” Chase asked.
“Only 100.”
Odd that the horse should be so symptomatic, then, Tiernan thought. Usually a horse with flu had a temperature between 103 and 106 degrees. Kate took samples and temperatures from each of the horses. When none showed the expected high fever, she grew thoughtful, ran her hand through the nearest horse’s mane and pressed her forehead into his cheek as if she were trying to read him.
“What?” Tiernan asked softly, knowing that Kate had a psychic bond to horses just as he did.
“I don’t know. I don’t see anything…nor sense anything. I simply have a weird feeling is all.”
Ella frowned at them but didn’t say anything as Tiernan narrowed his focus and concentrated on the nearest horse himself. He got nothing for his trouble.
“What do we do now?” Ella asked.
“Give them rest so they don’t pick up any secondary infections,” Tiernan told her.
Kate added, “I need to be sure of what’s going on before deciding whether to give steroids to the pregnant mare. In the morning, I’ll run the blood and nasal samples to the lab to see exactly what we have.”
“Or don’t have,” Chase said.
Did Chase think the horses weren’t really sick? Tiernan wondered. If not, they were great actors if the hoarse coughs were any indication. As the humans left the barn, a couple of the horses were hacking away.
As they headed for the house, Tiernan looked to Kate and Chase. “I meant to tell the two of you, Ella and I had some trouble of our own tonight. Vehicle trouble.”
“So that’s why when we drove in from the ranch, I didn’t see the refuge truck,” Chase said.
“I am sorry to be telling you all four tires were slashed outside the casino.” Feeling guilty, he assured them, “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for them myself.”
“That’s not an issue,” Chase said. “But what the hell’s going on, Tiernan?”
“Nothing good. There is more.” He tensed as he remembered the harrowing ride from the reservation to the refuge. “Ella gave me a ride back here and we’re lucky we made it in one piece—someone tried running us off the road. ’Twas Nathan Lantero’s truck, but he apparently reported it stolen the hour before.”
As they entered the house, Chase kicked back his hat and frowned. “I don’t like the sound of this. Who did you hack off and why?”
“Possibly a murderer,” Ella said.
“The track of a raven was left where the man was found dead yesterday…the same marking connected with Ella’s da, who was murdered by his own people fifteen years ago.”
“You’re that Thunder?” Kate sank into a chair in the reception area. “I remember hearing something about the shaman being killed…Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you.” Ella sat on the couch opposite.
“The authorities think Harold Walks Tall had an accidental fall, and we do not agree,” Tiernan explained, sitting next to Ella but keeping a slight distance so she wouldn’t distract him. “We’re doing some investigating on our own.”
“And whoever is responsible is trying to discourage you. I can’t believe it’s Nathan Lantero.” Across the room in the work area, Chase wedged a hip on the desk. “I’ve known him too many years to believe something like this of him. He used to work for me.”
“He worked for the refuge before he became an activist,” Ella said. “I don’t like thinking bad things about him, either. I mean, he is my cousin and he did save my life once.” Looking as if she had a rock in her stomach at the thought of Nathan’s being guilty, Ella shook her head. “So I hope you’re right, that it can’t be Nathan.”
Tiernan wasn’t so certain. Nathan had been in the casino, but by the time they’d left Leonard’s office, Nathan had vanished. Enough time for him to mess with the truck and plan how to scare the hell out of his cousin.
“I hope you and Chase don’t mind,” he said to Kate, “but I want Ella to stay here tonight. Her driving to the reservation alone isn’t safe.”
“Of course,” Kate said. “Though it won’t be any safer in the morning. Do you have someplace else you can stay?”
“No, not really.”
Kate looked to her husband.
“She can stay as long as she needs to,” Chase said. “We can scare up a cot—”
“Which I shall take,” Tiernan said. “I will sleep on the back porch and Ella can have my room.”
“No,” Ella said. “I’ll take the cot.”
“Don’t be arguing with me, Thunder. I shall win in the end. I always do.”
In the end, Ella caved like he knew she would. She was tired, scared and obviously glad to have someone make decisions for her, if only for now.
As if now was long enough….
The more Tiernan got involved with Ella Thunder, the more certain he was that there was more waiting for them. He could fall for her if he let himself…if the prophecy of doom didn’t hang over his head.
He would like nothing more than to sleep with the woman, to hold her close, to make love to her.
Which would put her in mortal danger.
Tiernan told himself to back off, to think of her as the sister he never had. Unfortunately, he’d never been good at taking orders, not even from himself.
When he threw himself on the cot to sleep, it was with her image in mind. The moment he scrunched his pillow beneath his cheek—exhausted and stressed—Tiernan felt the present slip away….
“C’mon, boy,” she says, her voice shaking, “let us get out of here, quick now.”
“What’s wrong, Aunt Megan?” he asks, looking in the direction that she does and seeing a long, dark auto coming toward them.
“That man,” she gasps, holding his hand tight and practically dragging him across the street, “he lost his son in a bombing and thinks my brothers are to blame!”
The scream of tires fills his ears and he looks back and trips.
And then she’s screaming and lifting him by his arm so that it nearly pulls free of his shoulder and the next thing he knows he’s flying through the air and then his ears fill with an explosion of sound….
AT DAYBREAK THE next morning, Ella called her grandparents and lied to them. Sort of. She said car trouble had
kept her at a friend’s house for the night, but she didn’t elaborate. She figured she’d avoid telling them what had really happened so that they wouldn’t worry. They’d already lost their son tragically and were too old and frail to deal with another frightening situation.
Which was the only reason she would be staying on the refuge—to protect them. Ella feared that if she remained in the house, danger would seek her there. Still, she had to make sure the grandparents were all right and figure out a way to break the news to them without giving Grandfather a heart attack.
After running Tiernan to the gas station for new tires, which she figured would take him a while since the station wasn’t yet open, Ella drove home to change clothes and pack a case.
And there got a breathtaking surprise.
Nathan’s truck was sitting outside the house.
Her pulse rushing through her, she ran to the house and threw open the door only to hear the clatter of breakfast dishes and Grandfather’s laugh.
“Let me help you with those dishes,” she heard Nathan say.
And then Grandmother said, “Just take your coffee and go in the other room, Nathan. I don’t need help in my kitchen.”
“All right.”
Ella was still standing in the doorway when Nathan strolled into the living room, coffee mug in hand.
“Ella, there you are.”
Still unsettled by his appearance—and by the appearance of his truck—Ella asked, “Nathan, what are you doing here?”
“Visiting the grandparents—they are my grandparents, too, remember. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No, not with that.”
“What, then?” Nathan sauntered into the living room where he took a seat on the couch.
Ella followed but remained standing. “You reported your truck stolen yesterday.”
“Someone did steal it.”
“Then why is it parked outside?”
“Apparently, whoever took it left it near the government building sometime during the night. Jimmy Iron Horse called me about it a couple of hours ago. What the hell, Ella?” Nathan’s expression darkened, sending a chill through her. “He also told me you claimed I tried running you off the road!”
“Did you?” she choked out.
“First, how could you think I would? Second, how could I when my truck was gone?”
A convenient story, Ella thought, clenching her jaw so she wouldn’t say it. Nathan could be telling the truth. She’d thought Jimmy was the likeliest suspect when it came to framing her father. Maybe the head of the tribal police was the one who took the truck and then returned it.
“If I misjudged you, then I’m sorry for that.” If Nathan indeed was innocent, Ella regretted thinking otherwise. “I need to get ready for work.”
“Not until we talk. That’s really why I stopped by this morning.”
“Talk about what?”
“I saw you and McKenna with Leonard last night and wondered what was going on.”
“I was catching up with an old friend.”
“Is that all?”
“What else?”
“I don’t know, Ella. Just be careful of Leonard. He’s not exactly what he seems to be. He goes around talking like he’s helping the rez by running the casino when all he’s really helping is himself.”
“I don’t understand. He’s given people work, the tribe money.”
“Not so much. Unfortunately, the casino simply isn’t making the profit it should be.” Nathan took a last sip of coffee, then set the mug down on a table. He seemed both concerned and angry as he said, “The rez is little better off than it was before the casino was built.”
“Then how did Leonard get enough money for his fancy house?”
“Exactly my point! Rumor has it Leonard messed with the books so he could siphon off the money for himself.”
A possibility, Ella knew, but one she didn’t want to consider. The Leonard she knew had been irresponsible but he hadn’t been a thief. Not that she knew of.
What if Nathan was lying to turn her suspicions elsewhere? The thing about his truck being returned the same night it had been stolen was pretty convenient. If it ever had been missing in the first place.
Ella would like to test him psychically to see if she could tell what was going on in his head. But even if it was possible—and she wasn’t sure she could manage it—Ella was certain he would know. Nathan might not be a shaman, but he undoubtedly had some power left.
Considering he was in the mood to talk—to place blame—she decided to take advantage of the situation. She sat in the chair opposite her cousin and leaned forward to draw him in.
“Nathan, do you think Leonard has ever used what he learned from Father to his own advantage?”
“Leonard’s no shaman.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t messing around with his powers.”
“To do what?”
“I don’t know.” Ella needed to be careful how she questioned Nathan. She didn’t want him to know he was suspect. Not that she wanted him to be guilty of anything. “What about in the past? Did Leonard ever do anything he shouldn’t have?”
“Who hasn’t?” Nathan took a swig of his coffee, then set down the mug. “What are you getting at, Ella?”
“I’ve just been doing some thinking, Nathan. Those terrible things that happened on the rez fifteen years ago—you know Father wasn’t responsible.”
“So now you’re thinking Leonard was?”
“I don’t know who, but someone else was. You’re the one who brought up Leonard. I’ve been thinking Jimmy has a lot to answer for myself.”
“Why Jimmy?”
“Because he was part of the crowd that murdered Father.”
“I couldn’t believe it, either, but Jimmy seemed convinced Joseph was responsible for the bad things that were happening. To tell the truth, Jimmy wasn’t himself that day. None of them were. It was like they had some weird fever.”
Ella remembered thinking the same thing. “Did Jimmy ever say anything against Father to you?”
“What is this, Ella? What are you doing? Why are you trying to place blame now?”
“You warned me about Leonard. Why did you do that?”
“Because I’m concerned.”
“So am I.”
From the look he gave her, Ella knew he was concerned about her. What she didn’t know was whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
She did know enough to back off. Of the three men who’d apprenticed with her father, Nathan was the most complex. He’d lived in his father’s white world for years after going to college, yet he’d not only come back to the rez, he’d become an activist with a militant Native American organization.
Was her cousin wrangling horses for Paha Sapa Gold because he needed the money, or because he wanted to keep an eye on the goings-on of the movie company?
And why?
To make sure the Lakota were represented accurately or to have the opportunity to make bad things happen?
What would be the point?
Ella wondered if Nathan didn’t like the focus of the movie that was being made partly on rez land.
If so, then what was he going to do about it?
Chapter Nine
After a restless night filled with haunting snatches of the past that even awake put him on edge, Tiernan got up before dawn and was glad to see that Ella had done so, as well. They shared a quick cup of coffee and some cold cereal, then headed for the reservation before parting ways.
Worried about Ella, Tiernan stewed at the gas station, waiting for it to open. But finally he got the new tires and hauled himself to work. He thought about the stubborn woman and their investigation all the way there.
Was he letting his past blind him, making him incautious and therefore putting her in danger?
If his wanting to make up now for what he hadn’t been able to resolve then got Ella hurt, Tiernan would never forgive himself.
He was still
worrying when he arrived on set and checked each and every one of the MKF horses. Thankfully, none of them were sick.
But he did have the unpleasant duty of telling his supervisor Doug Holloway about the problem.
“Good grief, we’re doomed. We’ve just started and already we’re lost.” The first assistant director spoke in a stricken tone and, when Tiernan simply frowned in response, explained. “We’re going to have a continuity problem.”
“Continuity?”
Doug punched at his little round glasses. “We used those horses in the sequence we shot yesterday, right?”
“Three of them,” Tiernan agreed.
“You have look-alikes? If not, you’d better find some or we’re going to have to reshoot. That would not be good. Re-shooting costs money. Big money. Max would be hacked off if that happened,” he said of the director.
About to protest that they’d only used the horses one day, Tiernan saw the look on the other man’s face and kept that thought to himself.
“All right, the chestnut and dun shouldn’t be a problem, but the Paint’s face had unique markings. I don’t have another horse that looks anything like that.”
“You just need the coloring on the face to be adjusted?”
“That would be the main thing.”
“Go see Carrie Albright, the makeup artist, and see what she can do. Before this movie is over, I’m going to have an ulcer. Or lose more hair.”
Makeup on a horse?
Again Tiernan said nothing, simply followed orders and went in search of the makeup tent.
All the while he looked for some sign of Ella. Passing the parking lot, he didn’t see her SUV. She would be all right, he told himself, because she would be careful after what had happened the night before. And he needed to concentrate on work for the moment.
Color was sometimes used to highlight a show horse’s features, he knew, but what they needed was a transformation. That, he’d never seen done.
Inside the makeup tent several tables were set up with products. The tent was empty but for a small woman with wispy brown hair around a narrow face that appeared ageless. He assumed she was Carrie Albright and introduced himself. She smiled, but not much on that too-perfect face moved.
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