Black Raven's Pride

by Aimée Thurlo

  Hearing that Deputy Black Raven was still on campus, she lingered in the office, hoping to see him. She tried to tell herself that it was just because the intruder had rattled her and he was a cop, but deep down she knew it was more than that.

  Moments later Nick strode into the office. His loose-legged stride was all masculine boldness and confidence. Women watched him out of the corners of their eyes, and exchanged wistful smiles when he wasn’t looking.

  Eden was pleased when Nick found her immediately among all the staff and gave her a heart-stopping smile. Fires suddenly danced over her skin and an excitement as primitive as the desert itself lit up the air.

  Nick walked over and placed a strong hand on her shoulder. “I was hoping to catch you.” As he searched her face, Eden felt the full force of the black eyes that had always been able to see deep into her soul. “What’s wrong?” he asked quietly.

  She wanted to deny that anything was, but the words were all lodged in the back of her throat.

  “Talk to me.”

  His voice caressed her, running down her jagged nerves like molten wax that both soothed and burned. Though several staff members remained in the room, as she looked into his eyes it was as if all the others had faded back into the dim recesses of another reality, and they were the only two people there.

  “I’m okay,” she said, her voice too shaky to pass as natural. “Really.”

  “No, you’re not,” he said firmly. “You can’t fool a man who knows you in all the ways I have,” he whispered discreetly.

  Her breath caught. Images of another time and place filled her mind and she remembered the many layers of desire she’d discovered in his arms.

  Hearing the school telephone ring, Eden quickly focused on the present. Many years ago she’d sworn she’d never lean on anyone like her mother had on her father. And yet, after hearing Nick’s soft words she’d nearly turned her back on everything life had taught her. She’d have to be much more careful.

  “I’m sorry, Nick. I have to go get my gradebook and some student papers before lunch is over,” she said, taking a step away.

  He was about to say something when Mr. Puye came out and caught his eye. As he excused himself and accompanied the principal into his office, Nick turned his head for one last look at her.

  She knew then that he’d be coming around to her home later to finish the conversation. Nick never left any challenge unanswered.

  EDEN REACHED into her pocket and clasped the note she’d received earlier today, wondering what she should do. If news that she’d been receiving warning notes got out, it was possible she’d be asked to resign until after the matter was settled.

  Not that she would. She couldn’t afford it, not with Christopher to support. But the last thing she needed was another complication.

  Thoughts swirled like hungry buzzards in her head, colliding with each other, and undermining her courage. Back in her room a moment later, Eden collected her belongings and walked out of the building. She only taught half days, though if things went the way she hoped, next semester she’d be teaching full-time.

  As she reached the fence at the end of the school grounds, Eden saw Nick parked farther down the road under the shade of an old cottonwood. Seeing her, he got out of his department vehicle and walked to meet her.

  “We have to talk, Eden.”

  He stood proud and tall in his tan uniform, his eyes alert and focused, like a warrior of old. Nick was a living, breathing temptation on every imaginable level.

  “I’m sorry, Nick, but I’ve got to stop by the post office to buy some postcards for a class project, then go pick up Christopher.”

  “No problem. I’ll give you a ride and we’ll talk on the way.”

  It hadn’t been an invitation, but rather an order, and she bristled at his tone. “No thanks, officer. I’m walking.”

  Unexpectedly, Nick grinned. “Some things never change. You still hate having anyone tell you what to do.”

  His smile was infectious, but Eden didn’t want to encourage him, so she forced her expression to remain stern. “That’s right. Now please go away.”

  “You know I won’t do that,” he answered calmly. “You need my help and I need to maintain the peace here on the pueblo. That gives us common ground. Instead of fighting each other, we should work together.”

  Eden considered his offer then nodded. “I’m stuck in a difficult situation, Nick. I came here searching for answers about my family’s past, but someone seems dead set on running me off this pueblo. If the school finds out that I’m being threatened, they can really make things difficult for me. Can you find the person harassing me and quietly get them off my back so I can finish what I came here to do?” She handed him the note she’d received earlier. “I found this in my mailbox this morning when I came in.”

  He scanned it quickly. “You mentioned getting notes before. When did you get the first one?”

  “I began to feel uneasy, like I was being watched, just a few days after I moved in. The notes started right after that. I think it may be the work of someone my grandmother called ‘Tall Shadow,’ but I haven’t been able to find out who he is yet.” Eden told him about her grandmother’s letter, but suspected from the look in his eyes that he’d already seen it. “This man may have been behind everything that happened to my family. It’s possible that he’s the one sending the notes now.”

  Nick remained silent for several long moments as they got underway. “Eden, I understand all about family loyalties, believe me. And we’ll get to the truth. But I have to tell you, no one by the nickname Tall Shadow lives here now. I’d know.”

  “I’m looking into a twenty-year-old case, and people come and go. I know that. But I can’t back off and move away, Nick. My son deserves a mom who has the courage to do what’s right.”

  “This is my fight, too, whether you believe it or not,” he said, then as if unwilling to leave it up to interpretation, added, “We have the same goal and that makes us allies.”

  A swift, secret fire burned through Eden, but she fought to keep her thinking clear. They would be allies because she had no other recourse, but her only future, her only goal, was to give Christopher the kind of secure, loving home she’d always wanted but never had. Nick was her past, but Christopher’s future was in her hands.

  NICK DROVE AWAY from the Plaza, lost in thought and trying to ignore the sweet scent of the woman beside him. He had a real bad feeling about this business. The note Eden had received worried him far more than he’d let on. The implied threat was there, and could mean almost anything. To make things even worse, despite the fact that Eden had told him about the contents of her grandmother’s letter, he was dead certain she was still holding back about something.

  That wasn’t surprising, of course. He was holding out on her, too. Neither of them had any reason to trust the other. The entire history of their relationship was one of crushed hopes and dreams. The past had left too many scars.

  Nick tried to focus on his job. He needed to keep a sharp lookout for trespassers who might be trying to sneak onto the pueblo to document Tewa rites.

  A few hundred yards from the rural post office, he caught a glimpse of several people gathered below in a small, brush-lined arroyo. It was deep enough to hide all but the tops of their heads.

  “Eden, there’s something going on down there I have to check out. Stay in the unit until I get back.”

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know, maybe a fight. Lock the doors when I get out and stay inside, okay?”

  Nick left the gravel road and parked the vehicle behind a line of junipers. After reporting his position to the dispatcher, he slipped out of the Jeep and crept forward noiselessly toward the scene of activity.

  It wasn’t long before he had a clear view. Two men were holding his uncle Thomas by the arms as the third punched him repeatedly. The broad-shouldered pueblo men had slicked-down hair, wore bolo ties, snake-skin boots, and had on fancy western-cut
shirts. That was practically a uniform for the casino muscle he’d seen a few times. Ever since legal gambling establishments had opened on several nearby pueblos, crime had been on the rise.

  Nick stepped out into the open, resting his hand on the butt of his pistol. “That’s enough,” he yelled out. “Let the man go.”

  The goon who’d been hitting Thomas spun around. Seeing Nick was a cop, he sucker-punched Thomas one more time in the gut, and then took off running with his pals.

  The sound of a door slamming caused Nick to glance back. Eden was walking in his direction, pretending to talk to another officer just out of view. Nick realized she was trying to back him up by making it appear that he wasn’t alone. He had to smile. That was the Eden he knew. She could always be counted on to help someone in trouble.

  Nick went to his uncle’s side and slowly helped him up. Thomas seemed dazed, but he recognized Nick. Glancing across the arroyo, Nick saw that the men who’d assaulted Thomas had already reached an SUV parked on the other side. He’d never catch up to them now.

  “Hey, nephew,” Thomas managed, trying to crack a smile as he struggled to catch his breath. “And Eden. When did you join the force?”

  Nick saw Eden approach, carrying his nightstick like a baseball bat. “I thought you were going to stay in the unit where you’d be safer,” Nick said harshly.

  Knowing she’d put herself at risk to help him made him realize that she still cared about him. But the undeniable fact that the knowledge pleased him, was disturbing in itself. If there were two people in the world who were better off without each other, it was Eden and him. “What if they’d been carrying guns? Did you think of that?” he added.

  “Admit it, Nick. I helped out a lot,” she said with a tiny smile and handed him the night stick. “Those thugs punching your uncle took off right away when they thought another officer or two were coming to help you.”

  “It could have backfired,” Nick grumbled, then turned to his uncle. “Who sent the muscle? I want some names,” he clipped. “What casino are they from?”

  “I’m not pressing charges, so you’re wasting your time.”

  “If I’m right, those aren’t the kind of men who just fade away. They’ll be back, and next time I may not be around to rescue your butt.”

  Thomas nodded slowly, shaking off Nick’s helping hands. “I didn’t think they’d come looking for me, that’s all.”

  “You owe them money?”

  Thomas shrugged. “When didn’t I owe somebody money? Don’t worry about it. I’ll find my own way out of this.”

  “I don’t think it’ll be that easy. Once they’ve got their hooks into you, they don’t like to let go.”

  “True, true,” Thomas said. “But I’ll come up with the cash somehow. I always have an ace up my sleeve, nephew. You must know that by now.”

  He had a gut feeling his uncle was referring to the diary, but if that were the case, Thomas had a few surprises coming. Neither he nor Jake would ever pay a ransom for that diary, or allow themselves to be blackmailed like their father had been. And the pueblo residents whose secrets were in that journal were probably less able to pay blackmail than either him or Jake.

  “A funny thing can happen when you have a card up your sleeve,” Nick warned slowly. “It can fall out onto the table anytime and, once people know you for what you are, you’ll suddenly find that there’s no place to hide. Trouble will find you no matter where you go.”

  Chapter Five

  Eden took a tissue from a small packet and began to dab a cut above Thomas’s eyebrow.

  Thomas seemed content to accept Eden’s care, but Nick knew what was going through his mind. His uncle was weighing his options and looking for a way to avoid answering questions.

  “Have you been by the ranch lately?” Nick asked. He took his uncle’s arm as Eden finished, and led him toward the tribal vehicle.

  Thomas slowed down imperceptibly, then matched Nick’s pace again. “Why that particular question?” Thomas gave Nick a speculative glance and, as Nick opened the rear door of the tribal unit, got inside.

  Thomas hadn’t denied it. More than ever, Nick suspected that Thomas had the diary. Thomas wouldn’t have been so cagey if he hadn’t had something to hide.

  “I owe you one, nephew, and Eden, too,” he said as they got underway. “Things could have gone very badly for me in that arroyo if you hadn’t come along. So tell me straight out what I can do to repay you.”

  As they reached the developed area of the pueblo, Nick glanced back at Thomas. His face had been bruised in several places and his left eye was starting to swell shut, but he’d be okay. “What I can always use from you, uncle, is information.”

  Thomas wiped his face clean with a handkerchief and straightened his shirt. When they entered the Plaza, he gestured toward the soda machine in front of the Cultural Center. “Let’s stop there. You can buy your old uncle something cold to drink, and we’ll talk.”

  Nick pulled into an empty parking space, parked, then led the way to the covered porch by the Center. Placing several quarters in the machine, he pulled out three cans of soda, tossed one to his uncle and handed another to Eden. “Tell me, Uncle, did you come to my niece’s naming ritual last month? It was a big day for our family, but I don’t remember running into you then.”

  Thomas smiled. “Yes, I was there with Theresa.” He glanced over at Eden, then lapsed into a lengthy silence.

  Eden stood. “I’m going to go to the trading post across the street and see if I can pick up the postcards for my class’s project there.”

  Nick nodded, grateful that she’d sensed he and his uncle needed a few minutes alone.

  As Eden walked away, Nick continued. “Tell me, did you get a chance to…look around the place now that Jake’s family has taken it over? Curiosity and old habits can be a powerful incentive.”

  Thomas shook his head. “The past is over and done with. I’m not much interested in Black Raven Ranch these days.”

  “It still holds the things that defined your sister—our mother.”

  “If you’re talking about her art, I agree. But if you mean the diary…” He shook his head. “That should have been destroyed a long time ago—burned to a crisp and the ashes strewn into the wind—if you ask me. But I guess you and Jake couldn’t bring yourselves to do that.” He suddenly stopped speaking, studied Nick’s face, then exhaled softly. “It’s missing again, isn’t it?” The question was rhetorical. “You boys should have expected that to happen, you know. But don’t come looking to me. I haven’t got it. You two should keep better track of that thing.”

  His response had seemed candid and not at all what Nick had expected. Now he wasn’t so sure that his uncle had it. Then again, his uncle had survived for decades conning others. “That diary is our property. It’s a record of our mother’s past, and belongs with me and my brother.”

  “Tell me something, nephew. Did you ever really read it?”

  Nick hesitated, unwilling to lie but not wanting to give his uncle any more information. Instead, he glanced over at Eden who was crossing the street on her way back.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said, accurately interpreting Nick’s silence. “Take my advice. Don’t. Sometimes it’s better not to disturb the past.”

  Seeing the way Nick was watching Eden, Thomas smiled. “She’s a real sharp lady, but she’s another one who needs to learn that same lesson. Eden just came back, and already that old issue about half whites living on the pueblo is creating a stir. Then, there’s the matter of those ceremonial objects that her parents are accused of taking. If she’s come here looking for the truth about that crime, she’s in for a few surprises. I doubt those things will ever turn up. And, to make things worse, she may not be able to live with what she uncovers, or the price it’ll exact.”

  “Just what do you know about Eden and her past?” Nick asked.

  Thomas slowly grinned. “So you’re in love with her again after all these years.
Or did you ever stop loving her in the first place?”

  Nick’s face became as neutral as he could manage. His uncle was an old poker player and could read every nuance in his expression. He’d have to be more careful. “There’s nothing between Eden and me. We’ve just been trying to catch whoever has been harassing her.”

  Thomas shook his head. “Don’t kid a kidder, nephew.” He smiled at Eden as she came back and joined them.

  Eden gave Thomas a worried look. “Are you going to be okay? You look like they punched you pretty hard.”

  “I’ve taken worse.” Thomas looked at Nick, then back at Eden. “It’s great to see you two together again. I remember when you’d both sneak off so you could be alone down by the river. Wasn’t your favorite meeting place by that big old cottonwood?”

  Eden’s face turned crimson. “How did you know that? We were always so careful.”

  “I saw you two there a few times after school, but I never said anything because I thought you were good for each other.” He looked directly at Eden and held her gaze. “I still do. You have a history together, and that binds you in its own way.”

  Eden froze, barely breathing.

  Nick glanced at her, sensing her fear, but not understanding why she was afraid. There was so much he didn’t know about her. And, right now, he just couldn’t figure out why she felt so threatened by Thomas.

  “Your mother, Isabel, and Nick’s mother, Saya, were very good friends,” Thomas said. “You two were just kids then, but I remember overhearing them making plans to fix you up someday.”

  “Did my father know about that?” Nick asked, surprised.

  “No way. Saya’s friendship with Isabel irritated him to no end because he seriously believed that no pueblo man or woman should ever marry outside the tribe. He really disapproved of Eden on principle, and that’s why he tried to so hard to discourage you from dating her when you were both in high school. He changed a lot in his last few years, but back then he drew a hard line.”