“I’m just teasing you. Seems a lot of those high school romances failed.” Ben glanced at the tips of his boots.
“I heard about your divorce, Ben. I’m sorry. Does Stacey still live in Silverhill?” Ben had married his high school sweetheart, a full-blooded Ute like Ben, but their relationship hadn’t worked out any better than hers and Rafe’s had.
“No. She moved to New York City…Manhattan.”
“Wow, Manhattan’s a long way from the reservation.”
He shrugged. “She has her life and I have mine. I was just kidding about Rafe. He’s a good sheriff, and we’re lucky to have him. Now let me give you a tour of the cultural center.”
Ben cupped Auntie Mary’s elbow as he guided her past the glass cases lining the walls of the front room. Most of the enclosures contained pottery, tools and rock art with pictographs, a specialty of the Ute Tribe. A few of the cases remained empty.
“What’s going in here?” Dana tapped the glass of one of the vacant cases.
“Those cases are for some of the more valuable items. They’re locked up in the museum in Durango until I finalize the installation of the rest of my security equipment.” He put a finger to his lips. “Shh—don’t tell anyone we’re not completely secure yet. Can you keep a secret, Dana?”
With her heart pounding, Dana glanced at him sideways through lowered lashes. Did everyone in Silverhill suspect she’d been keeping Rafe’s daughter from him all these years? Or did the paranoia from years of lying have her in its grip?
She tossed her hair and squared her shoulders. “Are you kidding? That’s part of my job description.”
Ben laughed and threw open a set of double doors leading to an enclosed patio. Dana recognized the ring of stones painted with bears from her youth. She clapped her hands. “Are you going to stage performances of the Bear Dance?”
“So you remember the old customs.” He nodded his approval.
“How could I forget with the living historian here telling me all the stories?” Dana draped an arm around Auntie Mary.
Smiling, Ben patted Auntie Mary’s arm. “She helped a lot in my research. So many of the young people have forgotten.”
“You obviously haven’t.”
He tilted his head, his silky ponytail slipping over one shoulder. “It’s like you said before. It’s part of my job description. Now let me show you the back rooms. We put in a little theater where we’re going to show a documentary on the Ute.”
When Ben finished his tour, he herded them back into the entrance hall. Dana hugged him. “Thanks for the tour, Ben. I’m looking forward to the opening this weekend.”
“Do I get one of those too?”
Dana disentangled herself from Ben and turned toward the door. A tall man with shoulder-length blue-black hair and high cheekbones stood framed by the door.
“Joshua?” Dana covered her mouth with her hand. The good-looking guy at the door had to be Joshua Trujillo, whom she’d known since childhood.
He opened his arms wide. “The one and only.”
Dana rushed toward Joshua and threw her arms around him. “I haven’t seen you since high school.”
“Yeah, big-time FBI agents don’t have time to visit the little people.” He kissed the top of Dana’s head.
Joshua shook hands with Auntie Mary and gave a nod to Ben. “You ready for the big opening this weekend, Ben?”
“Almost.”
Ben’s eyes narrowed and Dana almost shivered at the cold air between the two men. They’d been good friends in high school.
“What are you doing these days, Joshua? You look fantastic.”
“I run a few clubs in Durango, and I’m negotiating to open one in Denver. You’ll have to stop in once I get it going.”
“Joshua’s one of the tribal members who’s trying to get the Southern Ute to approve casinos on our land.” Ben’s thin lips and crossed arms told Dana all she needed to know.
Lifting his shoulders, Joshua smiled. “Calm down, Ben. That’s not going to happen now, since the cultural center stands on the very land I wanted for the casino.”
“You didn’t mention to Dana that one of your clubs in Durango is a topless joint.”
Dana’s brows shot up. “Really?”
“Oh, come on, Ben. It’s an upscale gentlemen’s club.” Joshua spread his hands and shot a sideways glance at Dana.
Ben dug in his heels. “Dana, do you know Emmett and Rafe talked to Joshua after Lindy’s murder because Joshua was interviewing Lindy for a job at his gentlemen’s club?”
“Damn it, Ben. They didn’t pursue that lead—nothing to it.” Joshua turned his back on Ben. “Have you seen Rafe yet, Dana? I should hold a grudge against the man since he stole my girl.”
Dana’s cheeks warmed. She and Joshua had been close before they both went to Silverhill High, but she wouldn’t call their relationship a romance. Did Emmett even have his interview with Joshua in his case file? If so, she’d missed it. “Of course I’ve seen Rafe. We’re working together.”
“I had you all to myself on the reservation. Then when we went to Silverhill High, all the white boys dazzled you.” Joshua’s eyes glittered, and his smile bared his teeth.
Dana’s blood heated, her face growing hotter…and probably redder. “That’s crap, Joshua. Maybe I just sensed then that you had a fondness for exploiting women.”
Joshua’s sharp laugh echoed in the expansive room. “You and Ben. Hey, if women want to remove their tops and shake it a little for some extra cash, I’m just giving them the opportunity. And you’re right. Only one white boy dazzled you.”
She snorted. “Just keep believing we would’ve been together if it hadn’t been for Rafe.”
Although Joshua was right about the dazzling part. Once she’d met Rafe, she couldn’t see anyone else, but it had nothing to do with his skin color.
“Is this trip about second chances?” Joshua winked. “Because if it is, I’m in the running.”
Dana shook her head. What happened to the shy, sensitive boy she knew? “This trip is about a murder investigation. You should realize that since you knew most of the victims.”
She had backed away from Joshua during the conversation, and now Ben rubbed her back. “I think you should get Mary Redbird home. She looks tired, and Joshua and I have a little business to discuss.”
“Really?” Dana put her arm around Auntie Mary and led her to the door, past a smirking Joshua. “I thought the casino idea was dead in the water.”
“It’s not about that.” Ben rubbed his hands together. “Joshua has something I want.”
Dana shrugged and left the two men to their business. Ben had given them a thorough and interesting tour of the cultural center, but Auntie Mary looked tired and Dana’s grumbling stomach reminded her that she hadn’t eaten since grabbing a quick sandwich at Steve’s hotel when she and Rafe had turned over Holly’s computer. Steve planned to turn it over to the FBI’s cyber crimes unit for further analysis.
When they arrived at Auntie Mary’s house, Dana settled her aunt in a chair by the fireplace and tucked her shawl around her.
“Put your feet up. I’ll heat some of the leftover chili and make you a sandwich. Is that enough?”
“That’s more than enough. Just the chili for me. Now let’s get back to that conversation Ben interrupted.”
Suppressing a sigh, Dana ducked her head into the fridge to rummage for the chili. Auntie Mary had dozed during the ride back to her house, and Dana had hoped she’d forgotten about Lenny and his veiled threat. She shouldn’t have mentioned it at all, but she’d wanted to divert her aunt’s curiosity from what had happened in Holly’s bedroom. Once you started keeping secrets, it became a never-ending labyrinth.
She placed the plastic bowl in the microwave and slammed the door. “It’s interesting that Lenny was seeing Louella before her daughter was murdered, and you can bet we’re going to look into it further. I’m also going to ask Emmett and Rafe about Joshua’s topless club. I wo
nder if the other women had any connection to him. Wow, he sure has changed.”
“I’m not talking about all that, and you know it. Stop trying to change the subject.”
Dana folded her arms and rested her hip against the back of the sofa. “I probably imagined that Lenny suspected something about Kelsey.”
“Whether he suspects anything or not isn’t the point. When are you going to tell that fine man he has a nine-year-old daughter?”
Dana twisted her hands, her ring cutting into her palm. She deserved the pain, welcomed it. She’d allowed the deception to go on for too long. Rafe would never forgive her now. He had a right to know about his daughter. Her lies to Kelsey had spun out of control too. Her daughter had grandparents, uncles and now an aunt and a cousin.
She was a McClintock.
“Tell him before someone else does, Dana. And you’d better have a good explanation as to why you kept his daughter from him all these years.”
Dana covered her face with her hands and took a turn about the small room. “You know why I didn’t tell him about the pregnancy. Pam warned me if I told Rafe about my pregnancy, his father would disinherit him, banish him from the family.”
“Do you really think Ralph McClintock would cut off one of his sons? And for what, bringing another McClintock into the world?”
“I didn’t want to take that chance. Rafe had already lost his mother. I didn’t want to be responsible for wrenching him away from the rest of his family.”
“You don’t know Ralph McClintock. Years ago, a rumor was circulating that Ralph got one of those ski instructors pregnant and planned to take the baby from her and raise it with that wife of his. Probably another reason Rafe’s mother escaped from the marriage. Ralph McClintock is interested in more McClintocks. Period.”
“It wasn’t just that. You know what everyone would’ve said—she’s just like her mother, just like Ronnie Croft.”
Auntie Mary quirked an eyebrow. “Everyone would have said that or just Pam McClintock…just you?”
“Everyone.” Dana dashed a tear from her cheek. Auntie Mary didn’t know what it was like to be thrust into the high school in Silverhill after living on the reservation. She’d always lived on Ute land, respected and revered by everyone on and off the reservation. The white kids at the school expected the kids from the reservation to fail—to drink, to get high, to get pregnant. Dana never wanted to give them that satisfaction.
And she hadn’t wanted to ruin Rafe’s life, saddle him with a girlfriend and a baby he didn’t want, perhaps at the expense of his McClintock family roots.
“Pam was right. It would’ve destroyed Rafe’s life. I did it for him.”
“Kelsey didn’t destroy your life.”
Dana’s lip trembled. No, she’d never thought of Kelsey as a mistake. But Rafe wouldn’t have felt that way, especially if his father had disinherited him. Rafe had gone off to college in California. He became a cop in L.A. He had goals and plans, and a baby didn’t fit into his scenario. He wanted to move to California, and she had a full scholarship to Georgetown. She wasn’t going to give that up.
She gasped and clutched her sweater around her throat.
She didn’t want to be humiliated. She didn’t want to give up her scholarship. She didn’t want to give up her dreams.
What about what Rafe wanted? She’d never given him a chance to find out. The pregnancy and the decisions that followed revolved around her and her desperate need to distance herself from a mother who used her body and then her sacred Ute powers for financial gain.
Dana never wanted any part of that. Somehow Pam McClintock knew it and exploited Dana’s fears, throwing in that part about Ralph banishing Rafe from the family for good measure.
She sank onto the sofa across from Auntie Mary. “I know I was selfish to keep the pregnancy a secret from Rafe. When his stepmother found out about the pregnancy, she confronted me. She used it to break up our relationship.”
Auntie Mary hunched her shoulders. “Rafe never did listen much to Pam. I don’t think she would’ve had much influence with him.”
“Maybe not, but she used the opportunity to tell me all about Mom.” Dana sawed at her bottom lip. Did Auntie Mary even know all of Ronnie’s dirty little secrets?
Folding her hands in her lap, she scooped in a deep breath. “Pam told me Mom slept around and specifically targeted the rich ranching families, the Pierces, the Prices, the Scotts…even Ralph McClintock, although Pam assured me she never got far with Ralph. When Mom got pregnant with me, she used it to try to coerce these men into marriage.”
Dana snuck a tear-blurred glance at Auntie Mary, whose dark eyes shimmered with her own unshed tears.
Dana drew a shuddering breath. “They all refused and denied fathering her child. Mom told me Jack Pierce was my father, but after Pam’s story I couldn’t believe that anymore. Jack never recognized or acknowledged me all the years he lived in Silverhill.”
Auntie Mary nodded her head, a single tear rolling down her creviced cheek. “Ronnie was always insecure. She was a beautiful girl, but she never felt she was good enough. You’re beautiful too, Dana, but you developed your mind. You’re strong and confident and nothing at all like your mother.”
“S-so you knew all about Mom and her plans to marry rich?”
“Of course, but I couldn’t do anything to stop her. She was headstrong, and that is a quality you share with her.”
“Do you understand why I couldn’t tell Rafe about the pregnancy? It was like history repeating itself with Ronnie Croft’s daughter—only the daughter landed the big fish…a McClintock. Pam threatened to tell Rafe all about my mother and suggest that I had the same plan to ensnare him into marriage.”
Dana stretched out her arms, palms up, asking her aunt to understand, trying to understand herself.
“I can see how that threat would work on a frightened, confused eighteen-year-old girl, especially a girl like you, a girl who had something to prove. But you’re not that girl anymore. You’re a successful, strong woman with a child who needs her father.”
“You’re right.” Dana slumped against the cushions. “I have to tell him. He’ll hate me. He’ll never forgive me. He grew up in that household of secrets and lies before his mother deserted the family, and he loathes deception in anyone.”
“That’s the price you have to pay. Rafe may surprise you. I’m sure he’s made mistakes too.”
The microwave buzzer had sounded several minutes ago, so Dana pushed up from the sofa. She ladled steaming chili into two bowls and carried them to the living room.
As she placed Auntie Mary’s bowl on a tray in her lap, she asked, “So is Jack Pierce my father or not?”
“I don’t think so.” Auntie Mary blew on a spoonful of chili. “I think your father is Ennis Price’s boy, Jonah Price. I think your mother knew it, but Jonah was a wanderer and a gambler—not husband material. I don’t think old Ennis even left the ranch to him. It’s still vacant, waiting for the granddaughter or something…the legitimate granddaughter.”
Dana shoved the spoon into her mouth, burning her tongue on the chili. She could be crazy Ennis Price’s granddaughter. Did she want her own daughter to grow up like that? Not knowing her father? Not knowing her family? She had to find a way to tell Rafe about Kelsey.
Later that night, Dana lay awake in bed watching the digital clock click from twelve minutes past midnight to thirteen minutes past midnight. The day’s events raced through her head—the vision, bumping into Lenny and then Joshua, the emotionally charged conversation with Auntie Mary.
And beneath the jumble of thoughts lay one constant…her feelings for Rafe. After all these years, those hadn’t changed. One look from him, one touch, one kiss turned her insides to jelly. She still wanted him. He still wanted her.
But her deception ensured she’d never have him.
The phone on the nightstand rang, sending a shrill sound through the quiet house. Adrenaline coursed through Dana’s body.
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A call after midnight always meant bad news.
Chapter Six
Rafe rubbed his eyes as he peered into the darkness cloaking the highway, watching for a pair of headlights. He hadn’t wanted Steve to call Dana, to wake her up and drag her out to another murder site. Of course, he never made that ridiculous request. Steve and Emmett would question his sanity and Dana would scorn his efforts to protect her…an experienced FBI agent doing her job.
Worry had gnawed at his gut all day. Dana’s vision scared the hell out of him, and the fact that Louella Thompson might have shared her suspicions about Dana with Lenny heightened his concern. Lenny could use the information to blackmail Dana or even worse. He could spread it around the reservation and Silverhill, painting a target on Dana’s back.
Two beams of light swept around the corner and barreled toward the parking lot of the new Shopco, already crowded with cop cars, a few reporters and two ambulances. The car squealed to a stop and Dana flung open the door and strode to the center of the action, her long, denim-clad stride eating up the space between them.
Rafe snorted. She hardly looked like a woman in need of protection.
She joined the group of men and hooked her thumbs in the front pockets of her jeans. “What do we have?”
Steve answered his partner. “Like I told you on the phone, Dana, it looks like it’s another Headband slaying.”
“Dumped in a parking lot? Or did we get lucky and hit on the scene of the murder?”
“We got lucky in a couple of respects.” Emmett scratched his jaw and nodded toward the body. “He murdered her here in the parking lot, and a couple of teenagers saw him drive away.”
Dana gasped. “Do we have a make, model or license on the vehicle?”
“Not that lucky.” Rafe hated to be the one to disappoint her…again. “The teens drove up and parked, facing west. They noticed two cars in the parking lot when they arrived, but figured they were vacant or contained other teens on a midnight tryst. Then they got down to business and looked up only when they heard one of the cars drive away.”
The Sheriff of Silverhill Page 6