Native Born

by Jenna Kernan

  Who wanted him dead? she wondered.

  Cassidy slipped the shoulder harness over her right side and winced as she reached to get that left arm through. She managed it.

  “Let me help,” he said, reaching for the buckle.

  “Did I warn you about the gun?”

  He drew back. Once she had it clipped she was sweating like a marathon runner. But she still managed to drag her gray pinstripe blazer over her body armor, removing the view of turquoise lace from Clyne and any of the persons in the hallway. The tattered remains of her sleeves peeked out from the cuff of her ruined jacket.

  She pushed off and he helped her up. Cassidy resisted the urge to bat his hand away.

  “You’re uninjured?” she asked.

  “Yes. But you need to see a doctor.”

  “You carrying?” she asked, trying to surmise if he wore a holster under his blazer or clipped to the belt that sported an elaborate turquoise and red coral buckle. Her gaze dipped south of his buckle and she flushed. And wouldn’t you know it, when she lifted her gaze it was to find Cosen’s gaze intent and his body perfectly still. Only now the tension in his tightly coiled muscles seemed sexual and arousing as all get-out.

  “Sorry,” she said.

  He made a sound in his throat that fell somewhere between a growl and an acknowledgment.

  She shook her head to clear the unwelcome arousal that stole through her. “Rendezvous point. Come on. Not safe here.” Man, it hurt to talk.

  Cassidy motioned for him to proceed down the hall. They’d made it about halfway when two of the field agents from her unit, Pauling and Harvey, appeared in the hall. Pauling came first, jogging so the sides of his suit coat flapped open to reveal both the shield on his belt and the butt of his pistol under his left arm. Keith Pauling was young, hungry and a former army ranger, with neatly trimmed hair and a hard angular face that screamed Fed from a hundred yards. Behind him came Louis Harvey, more experienced, heavier set but the haircut was a dead ringer.

  “She’s been shot,” said Clyne.

  Harvey took charge of Clyne and Pauling flanked Cassidy as they ushered them to the rendezvous room and her supervisor, who no longer looked smug.

  “Walker. What took you so long?” he asked.

  “She’s been shot,” Clyne said again.

  Cassidy cast him a look. She didn’t need him as her mouthpiece. Her ribs were feeling better and she’d be damned if she was going to spend the afternoon in the hospital when they had a shooter out there.

  Clyne was herded away. He gave her one last long look over his shoulder, his braid swinging as he went. He was one of the most handsome men she had ever met and for just a moment, the confident mask slipped and she saw her daughter’s face. The resemblance took her breath away.

  Amanda. The arch of the brow, the worry in those big brown eyes. And then he was gone.

  She scowled after him. If she had saved his life, then he had also protected hers. When other speakers on stage had run or fallen or flattened to the platform, Clyne had acted like a soldier, recognized that she was injured and carried her to safety.

  She hated to owe him anything and wondered if he felt the same. She had met him before this. On a snowy evening on the Black Mountain reservation while investigating a meth ring. And again in court when her attorneys succeeded in delaying the process for challenging her daughter’s adoption.

  Cassidy saw a medic first, who decided that her ribs were bruised. The slug that they dug from her vest appeared to be a thirty caliber. She declined transport and borrowed an FBI T-shirt from Pauling that was still miles too big for her. The navy blue T said FBI in bold yellow lettering across the front and back. She covered what she could with the blazer.

  Her people had already found the location of the shooter, now long gone. He’d left at least one rifle cartridge behind, despite taking two shots.

  “He was on the roof of the adjacent hotel,” said Tully. Her new boss peered at her with striking blue eyes. His hairline had receded to the point that it was now only a pale fringe clipped short at the sides of his head, but his face was thin and angular with a strong jaw and eyes that reminded her of a bird of prey.

  She knew from his previous comments that he liked running their unit and didn’t like that she wanted out. He took it as some kind of black mark that she was not satisfied to bake out in this godforsaken pile of sand called Arizona. But Cassidy wanted to join a team that chased the big fish, not the endless flow of traffickers and illegals that ebbed and flowed over the boarder like a tide.

  Tully plopped her down before a computer and made her write her report. While the others moved out to investigate; she sat in the control room. The reporting didn’t take long. After she finished, she went over the footage of the event with one of the techs, watching her movements when the vase exploded from the first blast and then the proceeding mayhem. They had not stationed on the roofs because the threat was not deemed great enough to warrant the added security. If they had, her people might have been in place when the shooter arrived.

  Her partner returned. Luke Forrest was Black Mountain Apache and Clyne’s uncle, though as she understood it, he was Clyne’s father’s half brother and born of a different father and clan, though she didn’t understand the clan system very well. Luke had not applied to the Bureau, but had been recruited right out of the US marines.

  “How you feeling?” he asked.

  “Bored,” she said.

  He laughed, his generous smile coming easily on his broad mouth.

  “Well, there’s worse things,” said Luke.

  His hair was short, his frame was athletic and slim and he only vaguely resembled Clyne around the eyes and brows.

  Cassidy stared at Luke and wondered what Clyne’s mother had looked like because she was Amanda’s biological mother, too.

  “What?” said Luke.

  “Did you know Clyne’s mother?”

  “Of course.”

  “What was she like?”

  He gave her an odd look, but answered. “Beautiful. Strong. Protective of her kids.”

  Cassidy nodded. Strong and beautiful, just like Clyne, she realized.

  Why was she comparing everyone to Clyne Cosen? With any luck she wouldn’t have to see him again. Her stomach twisted, knowing from her attorney that she would lose. Clinging to the only loophole allowed in the Indian Child Welfare Act. Thank God her daughter had turned twelve last June. Of course neither had known her real birthday until recently and had always celebrated on her adoption day on February 19.

  “Where’ve you been?” she asked.

  His eyes did that thing, the quick narrowing before his face returned to a congenial expression.

  “Luke?”

  He chuckled. “I must be losing my edge. I was with Tully and with Gabe Cosen. They’re both on the joint task force.”

  She knew that Gabe had been invited belatedly to the joint drug enforcement task force that had been behind the operation to find the mobile meth lab and precursor needed to make the drugs. They had done an end run around Gabe, the chief of the tribal police force, and her partner because they were both Black Mountain Apache and therefore also suspects. Reasonable precaution, she had thought at the time. Now she felt differently.

  “Listen, I’m sorry they left you out of the loop,” she said.

  “Yeah. Me, too.” He gave her a long look. “You sure you’re okay? You had a close call today.”

  “Yeah.” Cassidy waved away his concerns as if they were smoke.

  She refused to think about it, refused to consider that her daughter might have been left without a mother, again. Would Amanda then be turned over to her birth family?

  She focused on what Luke had said. “So does Tully think this has to do with the bust on Black Mountain?”

 
“It might. Might be someone after Obella Chemicals. Hell, it might be someone from Obella Chemicals.”

  “In other words, they have no leads.”

  Forrest shook his head.

  “Tully said that he thinks Clyne Cosen was the target. Gabe Cosen agrees and wants his brother to have added security detail when off the rez.”

  “Reasonable,” said Cassidy.

  Forrest rubbed his chin and Cassidy knew he was holding back.

  “Spill it.”

  “Your name came up as a possibility, too.” He gave an apologetic shrug.

  Her first reaction was indignation but she reined that in. “They figure how I shot myself in the back?”

  Forrest chuckled. “Yeah, that did put a chink in their theory.”

  “Anyway, we’re trying to get Clyne to accept protection. He’s resisting,” said Forrest.

  “You think Tully will pick you?” Luke Forrest would make sense. He spoke Apache, knew the culture and the tribe. He’d blend in while the other agents would stick out like flies on rice.

  “Don’t know. Doesn’t matter if Clyne won’t take us up on the offer. Plus we’re still on cleanup with the Raggar case.”

  Which was proving much easier now that Gabe Cosen was on board. They had the meth lab and the precursor and were working on shutting down the distribution ring, run by mob boss Cesaro Raggar, currently in federal prison. She knew this because she’d been pissed not to get that assignment herself, when she was the one who’d responded to Gabe Cosen’s call for backup once the precursor had been located. “How’s the youngest brother doing?”

  “Kino?” Luke rubbed his neck reflexively in the place his youngest nephew had taken a bullet. “Healing. And back to work on the tribal force.”

  As a tribal police officer, she knew. He’d also been a Shadow Wolf working on the border, tracking smugglers with his brother Clay. The Shadow Wolves were an elite team of Native American trackers working under Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hunt and apprehend drug traffickers on the Arizona border.

  “Anyway, Gabe mentioned to Tully about the petition to overturn.”

  Cassidy’s gaze flashed to Forrest and held.

  “You should have told him, Cassidy. He’s talking about pulling you off the Raggar case.”

  Which was exactly why she had not told Tully about the custody battle.

  “That has nothing to do with me doing my job. Damn it, Luke. I’ve been on this since the beginning. I’ve put in the time and I deserve to see it through.” Plus she knew bringing down Raggar and Manny Escalanti would give her the commendation she needed to earn a promotion to a major field office. Escalanti was the leader of the Black Mountain’s only gang, the Wolf Posse. He’d managed to insulate himself on the reservation and by using others to run his errands. Cassidy wanted him bad.

  Forrest shrugged. “It’s a problem.”

  Clyne burst back into the room with her boss and his brother Gabe Cosen on his heels. Gabe scanned the room, met her gaze and did a quick clinical sweep before moving on. He kept his gun hand clear and immediately stepped out of the doorway to a position where he could see anyone approach the entrance. She smiled in admiration. The man would make a good agent, she decided, thinking that being the chief of police on the rez seemed a waste of his talents.

  “Councilman Cosen, please,” said Tully. “We can’t guarantee your safety.”

  “Your guarantee. We all know what a guarantee from the federal government is worth.”

  Man, she could see the chip on his shoulder from clear across the room. If she had it right, his tribe was one of the few that had remained on their land because they had succeeded in making a deal with the federal government that had been kept.

  “It would be easier with your consent,” said Gabe. “We are only talking about the times when you come down off Black Mountain.”

  “I’d rather have you,” said Clyne, his dark eyes flicking to his younger brother.

  “Well, I already have a job on the rez. These folks are much better prepared to watch your back, as evidenced by Agent Walker here.”

  Clyne came up short when he spotted her.

  Gabe’s comment forced Clyne to look at her. Cassidy sucked in a breath and felt the twinge at her ribs. Why did the simple connection of his gaze and hers make her skin buzz with an electricity? Oh, this was really bad.

  He looked away and Cassidy exhaled. Unfortunately her skin still tingled. It was his charisma. Had to be. Because she refused to consider that she was attracted to Clyne Cosen.

  “It’s bad enough that you’ve got DOJ and these agents swarming all over Black Mountain,” said Clyne. She knew that he didn’t like Department of Justice or FBI, really any federal agency, on Indian land. But his words lacked the authority of a moment before and his gaze slipped to meet hers again before bouncing away. He wiped his mouth. If she didn’t know better she would say he was rattled.

  “Yes, and one of them died taking that load of chemicals. And you didn’t mind them using their helicopter to transport Kino to the hospital down here.”

  Cassidy had arrived on scene just after the shooting Gabe mentioned. Kino had been hit in the neck. He would have bled to death if not for the transport.

  Clyne scowled and damn if she didn’t find him even more appealing. Now Cassidy was scowling, too.

  “I won’t object to protection for gatherings off the rez,” he said at last. “Are we done?”

  It seemed Clyne was as anxious to be away from them as she was to see his back.

  “Almost,” said Gabe. “I want to request a new DOJ agent be appointed to the joint task force to replace the fallen agent, Matt Dryer.”

  “Easily done,” said Tully.

  “And,” said Gabe glancing first to his brother and then to Cassidy. He held her gaze as he spoke. “I request that Luke Forrest and Cassidy Walker be assigned to Black Mountain to assist in our investigation and report back to the joint task force.”

  “No,” said Clyne.

  Gabe turned to his elder brother as the two faced off. Clyne was slightly taller. Gabe slightly broader.

  “I am required to notify tribal council of the presence of federal authorities on the reservation. I am not required to obtain their permission. This is your notice.”

  Clyne’s teeth locked and his jaw bulged. Cassidy had to force herself not to step back. If the man could summon thunder it would surely have been rumbling over his head.

  “Perhaps an agent other than Walker?” suggested Tully.

  Gabe shook his head, his gaze still locked on Clyne. “Her.”

  Cassidy swallowed. She didn’t understand why Police Chief Cosen would make such a play when his brother was against it. Her boss looked leery as well, likely because he now knew of the custody battle boiling between them. But she wanted the assignment because she wanted to continue her investigation and there was only so much she could do from Phoenix when the main player, Manny Escalanti, never left his nest on Black Mountain.

  But why would Gabe Cosen want her? It didn’t make sense and she suspected a trap. Was he trying to gain some advantage in the adoption battle? If so, she couldn’t see it.

  Clyne now leaned toward Gabe with a hand on his hip, which was thankfully clear of any weapon. Gabe settled for folding his arms over his chest and smiling like a man who knew he had won this round. Cassidy didn’t think it was over, because Clyne looked like a bull buffalo just before a charge.

  Their uncle Luke Forrest stepped between them, placing a hand on the shoulder of each brother.

  “It won’t be so bad,” he said to his nephew. “Just like I’m visiting. And I sure won’t mind sitting at your grandmother’s table a time or two.”

  Tully glanced at her with an open look of assessment. She thought he was trying to puzzle this out
as well and had also come up empty.

  “All right, then,” said Tully and pointed at Cassidy. “Agents Walker and Forrest, you are reassigned to Black Mountain until further notice.”

  Clyne glared at her and her wide eyes narrowed to meet the challenge in his gaze.

  “Yes, sir,” she said.

  Chapter Three

  “But why would he choose me?” Cassidy asked.

  “Damned if I know,” said Tully. “Because you saved his brother’s life?”

  Her partner, Luke Forrest, spoke up. “Don’t you see a conflict of interest here?”

  “It’s Chief Cosen’s call,” said Tully. “One thing I know about Agent Walker is that she does her job. She proved it again today.”

  She couldn’t tell if he was proud of her or still annoyed. But it was true. If she wanted Clyne Cosen dead, that had been her chance.

  “Yes, sir.” It was automatic, her response. Inside her head she was shouting, No! But that was the voice of emotion. The one that she ignored whenever possible.

  “Walker. Forrest. You are assigned to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Cassidy groaned. She didn’t need to be on another committee. Especially one made up of state, local and federal authorities. What she needed was to be in the field. They’d been getting close to Ronnie Hare and that bust might be all she needed to gain her transfer.

  “Since you are Apache, I expect you to be able to do some recon and find out if there is anything going on up there that would lead someone to take a shot at Tribal Councillor Cosen.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Agent Forrest.

  Her daughter. The basketball game that she’d promised she would attend.

  “I need to make arrangements for my daughter.”

  “Go on, then.”

  Clyne’s scowl deepened.

  Cassidy moved to the far side of the room to make a call to her mother-in-law. After Cassidy’s husband, Gerard, had been killed in action, Diane Walker had moved west to help her pick up the slack. Cassidy had no family of her own, and Gerard had been Diane’s only child. She made the call, apologized and disconnected. It was not the first time she had been unexpectedly sent on an assignment. It was the first time that that assignment was challenging her custody in federal court.