by Jenna Kernan
“Sophia, I know you came up here to give an opinion. I know that getting involved with me and that ridge line were not in your plans. But what you did for us today—I hope we never need it, but if we do, it might save us all.”
“If it works. There’s no guarantee it will. I’ve never set an explosion even a third that big.” Was she actually excited at the prospect of seeing if those charges would block the river?
“I’m only staying until the pipeline is secured and they can increase security up here.”
“I understand.”
She reached for a neatly sliced half of the egg roll that oozed cheese and hot chili.
“I have a life down there in the valley. I’ve made a life and I am not coming back to the rez to live on my portion of the per capita payments from the tribal trust. I don’t need it.”
“That’s your prerogative,” he said.
She felt a bubble of pain in her throat. She couldn’t swallow. Sophia dropped the untouched appetizer back to the plate.
Jack reached across the table and took both her hands.
“Sophia, you’re saving us.”
“Maybe so. But when they find out, they’ll terminate me. Ask for my shield. How would that make you feel, Jack?”
He drew back. “It was a lot to ask. Too much, maybe. But I’d ask again. I’d have to. We have no choice. If we believe Kenshaw, we have to act.”
The burgers arrived. Sophia choked down what she could. Jack finished his burger first, of course, and offered her the wings. When she declined, he polished them off, too, along with the remains of the egg rolls. The man could eat, but judging from his size, he needed to.
The waitress checked in and finally cleared away the plates.
“Y’all save room for dessert?”
She shook her head and Jack looked disappointed when he asked for the check.
They settled up and headed out. Jack waved to the patrol car waiting in the lot.
“You have them following us?” she asked.
“Seems prudent after yesterday.”
Was that only yesterday that someone had taken a shot at her? It seemed days ago.
He held open the door to his white truck and she slipped into the passenger seat.
“My grandfather says ‘don’t borrow trouble,’” said Jack. “But my dad says ‘when you have trouble, go help someone with theirs.’”
“I think that is why my cousin, Luke, sent me up here.”
“I was talking about my troubles, Sophia.”
He stood beside her seat in the space beside the open passenger door to his truck, shifting as if trying to get comfortable in his own skin.
“I want you to come with me to see my folks. I need some answers.”
He had dear friends in Dylan and Ray. He had a twin brother just returned from witness protection. Yet he did not ask them to come with him. He asked her.
“Why me?”
“Sophia, I’ve been an outsider here all my life. Seems like you know something about how that feels.”
“But they love you. Have accepted you.”
“And, if those results are correct, they have lied to me since I was born. I want to know why.”
*
JACK TRIED TO stand still as he waited for Sophia to respond to his request, but he couldn’t help but weave like a snake to the sound of the flute. It wasn’t the sort of thing you asked a woman whom you had known only a few days. But it seemed so much longer and his knowledge of her so much deeper. Perhaps it was the crucible of danger, but she had risen in his estimation each hour of each day.
At last she nodded, accepting his request to come with him. It was Sunday night. They’d be home, all of them except Thomas, who had returned to the border south of Lilac with the Shadow Wolves.
It wasn’t far from the casino to Piñon Forks, where his parents lived. Just a short drive along the river that had changed from friend to enemy in the last few months. They were at the modest home of his birth far too soon. He pulled up on the flat pad, extended by his father because his boys all drove trucks and mostly came home for supper on Sundays.
Jack pulled past Kurt’s blue Ram pickup, parking beside Carter’s red F-150. Carter liked red because he was a Hotshot, fighting wildfires all over the west. In fact, he had been captain of the tribe’s team, the Turquoise Canyon Hotshots. But Ray had taken his place during his absence and done a great job, by all accounts. Jack wondered who would lead now.
Jack turned off the engine and the truck fell silent.
Sophia sat quietly beside him in the dark.
“Changing your mind or just gathering your nerve?” she asked.
“Neither. I’m reconsidering you witnessing this.”
She had just met his family and he did not want his second visit to be unpleasant. He didn’t know why it was important for them to like her and for her to like them, but it was.
He pressed his hand to his forehead as understanding dawned. He’d brought Sophia to meet his parents at their home. The first girl and the first time. Only he’d disguised the visit even from himself because he knew she wasn’t staying, despite their obvious compatibility in the sack.
“You worried I will think badly of them because they kept this secret from you?”
He lowered his head, not knowing what he thought or what he wanted. Answers, he supposed. Something to fill up this empty hole in his chest he carried day in and day out.
“It might be rough,” he said and lowered his hands to grip the wheel of his vehicle, as if already planning his getaway.
She made a sound that might have been a laugh. Jack turned in the seat to look at her. The light from the living room filtered out through closed curtains and illuminated the yard in yellow light. He could see Sophia’s face in shadows and she was smiling.
“Jack, I’m going to say this quick, because when you uncover a wound, it’s best to get that Band-Aid off as fast as possible.”
He tensed, bracing for whatever she would say.
“You are supposed to honor your parents. I mostly avoid mine. I don’t visit my father.” She laughed. “Though I might see him real soon if I have to trigger that blast.”
Did she mean her father was still in prison and that she would be joining him? He wanted to ask but did not want to interrupt.
“My mom still lives up there on Black Mountain rez. But she isn’t well. Too many years of hard drinking. But I’m still lucky. You want to know why?”
He nodded.
“Because she had me early and I’m not like my younger brothers—Ned and Talbert both have fetal alcohol syndrome. And they didn’t have my grandmother, not for long. I had one good loving parent in my grandma, and I had an excellent example of why I needed to get my degree, keep my 18 Money and get off the rez. I can’t thank my mother enough for that. Now, I only just met your folks. But I know they love you. They’ll have a good reason, Jack. Let’s go find out what it is.”
She didn’t wait, just threw open the passenger door and slipped out. A moment later she was holding open his door and motioning to the yard.
“I won’t be embarrassed, Jack. But I’ll be there for you. You give me the sign and I’ll take you out of there.”
Funny, to look at them, you’d assume he was the strong one. But it was Sophia who had the backbone needed to get answers, because she’d faced far worse. He knew too many girls who had similar upbringings that had not done so well. Five of them were missing right now. Tinnin had told him he’d assigned their new man, Jake Redhorse, to look into the disappearances. Jack felt he should be investigating, but both he and his chief believed that the threat from BEAR and protecting Sophia from possible gang attacks took precedence.
Sophia held out her hand. He took it. They walked hand-in-hand up to the front door. He reached for the knob and she grabbed his wrist.
“Wait!” There was a note of panic in her voice.
“What?” he asked.
“I forgot your mother’s first name.”<
br />
She looked so worried it struck him as comical. His entire life had been a lie and here she was worried about this?
“Annetta. And he’s Delane. Brothers are Carter, Kurt and Thomas. Thomas won’t be here.”
“Back on the border. Got it.” Her hand dropped to her side.
He was still smiling when he opened the door. If she didn’t care about him, it wouldn’t be important to know those names. She said she was leaving and didn’t want any attachments. But she acted as if she did.
His mother spotted him first. “Well, Jack! This is a surprise. Look at you two, all dusty.” She swept forward and kissed him, and then kissed Sophia. “We just finished dinner but I can heat up the casserole. Are you hungry?”
“We just ate, Mom.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. Just some dessert then? I have pumpkin pie, lemon cake or chocolate ice cream.” She waited for them to choose, ready to dart into the kitchen and fix them something.
They left the entrance, his mother leading the way, and paused in the small living room. Carter waved from the sagging sofa where he sat beside Amber.
In the living room the ballgame blared as the Diamondbacks took on the Padres. His father lowered the sound and stood to greet them. Kurt sat on the couch, closest to the set, with Carter’s wife in the middle between her brother-in-law and her new husband. Amber placed a bookmark in the novel she read, waiting for Kurt to rise so she could clear the coffee table to greet them.
“We just...” Jack’s words failed him.
His father looked from him to Sophia.
“They’re not here for dessert,” said his dad.
“What happened?” asked his mother, dessert forgotten for the moment. Her hands laced before her, gripping tight as if preparing to pray on a moment’s notice.
Carter rose to his feet. He was a big man and he wore his hair in the fashion Jack admired—long, loose and, of course, straight. He stepped clear of the coffee table. Amber trailed behind him, blending seamlessly into his family as if she had always been here.
“You opened it,” said Carter.
Jack nodded.
“Opened what?” asked their mother.
Carter stared at him as if trying to learn what he had discovered with a look. Jack reached in his wallet and passed him the wrinkled, torn envelope. Carter held it as if Jack had just served him a subpoena.
“What’s going on?” His mother’s clasped hands had now reached her throat. “What is that? Is it from the marines?”
His mother’s biggest fear was that her boys would be called back overseas by the marines.
Carter was now scanning the page.
Jack couldn’t find his voice to ask the questions. His throat was burning and tight. He looked to Sophia.
“Me?” she asked.
He nodded and she gave his hand a quick squeeze.
“They’re test results, Mrs. Bear Den.”
His mother’s hands pressed flat over her chest. “Jack, are you ill? You’re so pale.”
His father stepped up to support his mother, holding on to her elbow and draping one arm around her lower back.
“He’s not ill. No one is,” Sophia assured them.
“What is all this?” asked his father.
“It’s a sibling DNA test,” said Sophia. “Jack and Carter sent a sample to see if they shared the same genetic markers.”
Now his mother had gone pale.
“Why would you do that?” asked his father.
“I knew it,” whispered his mother. “I knew.”
Knew what, he wanted to ask, but here, now all he could do was stand mutely by and wait for Sophia to ask the next question.
“Let’s go sit down,” said his dad, escorting his wife to the dining room and a seat. He did not take his place at the head of the long rectangular table, but slid into the adjoining bench beside Annetta.
The family all took their places, with Jack sitting in the chair belonging to his father. Sophia sat to his right. Carter dropped the damning evidence on the table and took his seat, and Amber and Kurt joined them a moment later.
Sophia looked to his parents as she spoke. “Jack is interested to know why he was not told that he is not your child, but rather a nephew to one of you. Could you explain that, please?”
Chapter Fifteen
Sophia felt like the rain cloud pouring down on this wonderful family. Carter, Jack and Kurt all stared at their parents with looks of utter astonishment.
Annetta sat ramrod-straight with her husband’s hand still pressed to her lower back. Tears coursed down her cheeks, but her chin had taken on a defiant tilt.
“You are my son.”
Jack and Carter shared a look that seemed to involve some silent communication all their own. Sophia returned her focus to Annetta, waiting. She’d interviewed enough suspects to know when one had not finished speaking.
“But...” Annetta said.
Here it comes, thought Sophia. Jack reached under the table and squeezed her knee so tightly she flinched. She slipped her hand into his, mainly as self-defense to keep him from crushing her kneecap.
“But you were born to my older sister, Ava.”
Kurt said, “I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“She had to leave,” said Annetta. “She saw something terrible, a murder.” She looked at Jack now with such sorrow that Sophia found herself squeezing Jack’s hand. “Your father’s murder. He died before you were even born.”
Jack’s jaw went to granite.
Annetta’s shoulders slumped and Delane took over like a relay runner relieving a teammate.
“Your father’s name was Robert Taaga. Your mother called him Robbie. He was Hawaiian. A really big guy.”
“They met in Phoenix,” said Annetta. “He was going to the university, too. Classmates. He was helping her get through physics. So smart. She said he was so smart.”
So Jack had gotten his size and features from a man of South Pacific descent. Sophia had seen some pro athletes and actors who were Samoans, and they had been epic in size, like Jack. And his father had been murdered.
Annetta was shaking her head and staring vacantly at a spot before her on the table.
“What happened?” asked Carter.
Their father answered. “There was a robbery attempt. Robbie stepped in. Ava said they shot him the minute that he took a step in their direction. Even with two bullets in his heart, he still got the killer’s gun.”
Sophia imagined Jack’s strong heart trying to beat against the blood loss and the picture in her mind washed her cold.
“Ava saw both attackers. She made a positive ID, she testified and sent them both to prison, but they were in a gang and the Justice Department said they wouldn’t stop. That the gang would send a message by killing Ava if they could,” said Delane. He blew out a breath. “Your mom did not want you raised out there. She wanted you to know your people and your tribe. So she made a hard choice. She asked Annetta to raise you as her boy.”
But how had they managed to keep this secret? The tribe must have known or at least suspected.
“She made it a condition of her cooperation. They were both pregnant at the same time. Annetta with Carter and Ava with Jack. So when Ava delivered, they brought us to her. We said we were visiting my brother in Fort Collins, Colorado. He was on a survey crew up there for an oil and gas company. We left and we didn’t come back until you were born, Carter.” Delane looked to his oldest son.
And then they brought home the twins that were not twins. Three sons, Sophia realized. Not four.
“You were so tiny,” Delane said to Carter, measuring the distance with his hands.
“He was not,” said Annetta. “He weighed six pounds, six ounces.”
“But Jack was two months old by then, and he was over nine pounds when he was born. Our twins came home and Annetta kept you both close.”
“People must have known,” said Sophia.
“They did, some anyway.”
But this was a tribe, Sophia thought, and not like Black Mountain, with several towns and so many members spread out over so much land that it would be impossible to know everyone. But here they did know everyone and everyone knew how to keep a secret, especially an important one. And they kept it even from Carter and Jack.
Jack looked at his twin.
“We’re not brothers,” said Jack, the pain raw in his voice.
Carter reached across the corner of the table that separated them and pulled Jack close. The hug was fierce and possessive.
“We are. We are.”
Kurt stood and joined the two. The rest of them all seemed to hold collective breath. Finally Jack pulled away.
“You guys are wrinkling my shirt.” His shirt was filthy with dirt and dust, so his comment broke the tension and made everyone laugh.
“Let me up,” said Annetta to Delane. She stood. “I have to get some things for Jack.”
They sat waiting for her return, hearing her thumping around the bedroom down the hall.
“I can’t see her?” said Jack to his father, meaning Ava, Sophia was sure.
He shook his head.
“Call or write?” he asked.
“Talk to your friend Agent Forrest. Maybe he can arrange something. They haven’t let us see her. We don’t know a thing except that she’s alive. Nothing, for all these years. But she knows about you, Jack.”
Sophia’s brow wrinkled. That wasn’t possible.
“The classifieds,” said Jack.
Delane smiled. “That’s why you’re the detective. Yes. She and her sister worked it out. Ava can go online and read the news. Classifieds are always in there. She’s let her know you played baseball and when you graduated from school. That you were safe after your tours of duty. Something on your birthday—the one we picked for you both. Right between February 2nd and April 2nd.”
Carter and Jack stared, realizing they had been celebrating the wrong birthday their entire lives.
“I’m keeping it,” said Carter.
“Me, too,” said Jack.
Annetta returned with a shoe box.
