Her eyes scanned the little area of the trailer that passed for her bedroom. She was watchful for any movement that would alert her to the snake’s location. After a few minutes of no sound or movement, she carefully slid from beneath the patchwork quilt. Without taking too much time to think about what she was doing, Mya leaped for the little doorway that led to the trailer’s living area.
She made a beeline for the door, stopping only long enough to close it behind her.
Mya caught sight of the phone that she’d left on the table and made a dash for it. Her hands were shaking so badly that it was nearly impossible to hit the right buttons on the phone. Taking a deep breath, she willed herself to be calm.
Mya had never considered herself to be the most courageous person in the world, but she didn’t scare easily. That was unless it concerned snakes. Those slithering - slimy reptiles had always scared the hell out of her.
Finally managing to hit the right button, she waited while the phone rang.
“Hello.” It was Donny’s tired voice.
“Could you please come over here?” she asked in breathless gasps. “There’s a rattlesnake in my trailer.” Her words were so rushed that she was sure he probably hadn’t understood a word she’d said.
“There’s a snake … it was in my bed,” she told him again.
“Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.” She could hear him stirring from bed, even before the call ended.
Mya took another look around the living room and kitchen. There was always the possibility the snake had made it out of the bedroom before she did. When she was fairly certain the snake wouldn’t spring out at her from some dark corner, she rushed to the door and unlocked it. Flinging the door open, she stood there to wait for Donny. When she saw him coming, she noticed that he’d brought his police issued gun with him.
Mya stepped away from the door just before he burst in. “Where’s it at?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s still in the bedroom.” Mya pointed to the closed door.
Donny cautiously opened the door and peeked inside; a moment later he disappeared into the bedroom.
Although Mya could hear him moving around, she couldn’t see anything from where she was standing. She was sure that at any moment she would hear the thunderous clap of the revolver being fired, but it never happened.
Donny was shaking his head when he stepped out of the bedroom. “There’s nothing in there.”
“Well it must be in here then.” She motioned with her hand to the living room and kitchen area.
The two of them spent the next twenty minutes searching every nook and cranny of the trailer for the snake, but they couldn’t find anything.
“Are you sure it was a snake you saw?” he finally asked.
“Yes it was a snake, but I didn’t actually see it,” she admitted. “But I did hear it … and felt it on the bed with me.”
“There’s nothing here,” he pointed out the obvious.
Mya felt stupid for dragging him out of bed in the middle of the night for nothing, but she was sure of what she’d heard. It had to have been a snake. “I’m sorry for waking you up, but there was a snake.”
At first he didn’t respond. He appeared to be quietly contemplating the situation. Mya knew he was thinking skinwalkers, but she wasn’t ready to accept that possibility.
“I don’t believe it was a skinwalker. It was a real snake,” she voiced her thoughts.
“Maybe not,” he shrugged. “But I’ll have someone come and smoke this place with sage anyway … just in case. They hate sage smoke. It’s like holy water.”
“Are you sure a snake couldn’t have gotten in here, and then back out the same way?” she asked. The last thing she wanted to do was lay awake every night, worrying about critters getting in.
“This trailer has a sealed underbelly. I can’t imagine a snake would get in … that is unless you left the door open,” he said, arching one brow questioningly.
“No way. If I have the door open, I always make sure the screen is shut.”
“If it will make you feel any better, I’ll leave the gun tonight … but only for tonight,” he added.
He’d already made it clear she wouldn’t be issued a gun. She wasn’t a certified peace officer in Arizona, or any place else for that matter. It was no big deal. She wouldn’t be going back to sleep anyway.
“I’ll be okay. I’ll just call you if I see it again.”
Chapter Eight
She was so mesmerized by the medicine man’s foreign words and strange movements that she could not bring herself to look away. In one hand he held a smoldering sage stick, and in the other, a large feather. With the feather, he fanned the smoke that drifted from the burning sage. Though she had no idea what his words meant, Mya understood that he was purifying the trailer - eradicating whatever evil may be present.
Mya had always pictured a medicine man as someone who wore ceremonial garb - probably someone that would be so old that it was miracle he could still walk, but this guy shattered that image. He wasn’t particularly old, probably no older than Donny. The day was already hot, but he wore a long sleeve shirt and green kaki pants.
According to what she’d been told, the medicine man’s name was Ren, and he worked as a department manager for the Tate Super Center in Gallup. His short hair and clean-cut appearance went with his day job, but not his on the side work as a holy man. To Mya, he didn’t seem too mystic, but maybe that was just because he wasn’t anything like what she’d been expecting.
When Ren finished cleansing the trailer, he turned to Mya. His dark eyes were full of speculation. “The evil ones are close. You will have to be very careful.”
“You mean the skinwalkers?” Mya asked, cocking her head to one side.
“Yes, but they don’t want to kill you. If they wanted to kill you - you’d already be dead. They want you for some other purpose.”
“How do you know that?” Mya wasn’t sure if she should take what he was saying seriously or not. She was still skeptical about the skinwalker legends, but then again, things had been way strange since she’d come to Window Rock.
“When they visit you here … their evil is absorbed into this place. I can feel their emotions, and sometimes I can hear their thoughts. They are thinking of you as a tool … a means to an end.”
Great! Now it wasn’t just Donny, she also had a psychic medicine man giving her warnings. Mya wondered how many more people were going to warn her about the danger she was in while on the reservation.
Before Mya could respond to what he’d already said, Ren continued, “They come here at night while you sleep, and they whisper in your ear. I can’t understand what they are saying because they speak in the language of the animal form they are using. But what I can tell you is that it feels bad.”
The medicine man’s words resonated in her head for a long time after he’d gone. Before leaving, Ren had given her the sage stick. He’d said that it would help to keep them out of her living space, but he had also warned Mya that the skinwalkers were getting stronger.
According to Ren, the snake that found its way into her trailer, was a phantom. It had been sent by a powerful skinwalker to whisper in her ear while she slept. She discovered that not only could these witches shape-shift, but they could also travel out of body.
Although Mya had a hard time believing any of these tales, she humored him and took the sage. Having a little more protection couldn’t be a bad thing, even if she wasn’t convinced it would actually help her.
* * *
For the most part, her weekends were uneventful. From what she understood, if you wanted any excitement, you’d have to drive into Gallup. Taking a long drive was about the last thing she felt like doing at the moment. With nothing much to do, Mya decided to clean up her little trailer, but that only took her a total of twenty minutes. Next she turned her attention to catching up on emails. This was how she usually kept in contact with everyone back home.
Aside fr
om her phone, Mya’s laptop and wireless modem was her lifeline to the outside world. Cable television was not available in most places on the reservation, and she couldn’t afford satellite. Without her computer, she probably wouldn’t get a lot of outside news, except what she read in the newspapers she picked up a few times a week.
First Mya sent an email to her mother, assuring her that she was still alive and doing fine. Now it was time to email Jennifer and give her best friend a detailed report of the past week. Jen had been her best friend since grade school and there was practically nothing the two of them didn’t share. Jen would probably find Mya’s current situation interesting, and even a little funny.
Poor Jen had been stuck back home, flipping burgers for the summer. The reservation was far from glamorous, but it was a lot better than working in some hamburger joint.
Jen had made it clear that she would only be doing it temporarily. As soon as a job opened up at the airport in Salt Lake, she was going to jump all over it. Her dream was to work for a major airline so that she could take advantage of the perks and travel the world. Mya had to admit it wasn’t a bad idea, especially for someone with limited prospects like Jen. Her family had little money, so she didn’t have much hope of attending college, at least not without signing her life away to get student loans.
When Mya was done sending emails and reading the news, she shutdown her computer. She had no idea what she would do with the rest of her day. Though she’d brought along several books to read on her days off, Mya was in a restless mood. Curling up on her couch with a book was the last thing she felt like doing.
Her restlessness must be due to the bad night she’d had. There was no doubt in her mind there had been a snake in her bed, but everyone else seemed to believe it had been some kind of phantom.
That was one thing she could do. She could check the trailer for any holes that would allow snakes to get in.
A blast of heat swept over her as soon as she stepped outside, but she tried to ignore it. She would have to get on her hands and knees and crawl beneath the trailer in order to check for holes. The thought of getting under the trailer where there would probably be snakes and scorpions wasn’t something she was too eager to do, but it was better than waking up to find one of the creepy crawlers in her bed.
When placing her hands against the sun-baked earth, Mya was surprised at how hot it was. If it had been cement or blacktop, she would have been expecting the scorching heat against her skin, but not dirt. She quickly pulled her hands back and blew on them to cool her skin.
There was no way she was going to be checking for holes during the heat of the day. She’d have to wait until it cooled off some.
“You looking for something?” The voice came out of nowhere.
Mya’s heart jumped into her throat.
When she looked around to see who was there, she was shocked to see David Bray looking down at her, a smug smile on his face.
“What are you doing here?” Mya gasped. She hadn’t even heard the approach of his motorcycle, and there was no way she’d have missed that.
“I just got here,” he said, giving her one of his sensual - pulse quickening smiles.
“I didn’t hear you drive up.”
He shrugged. “If you plan on being a cop … you should be a little more observant of your surroundings.”
David was right. One of Mya’s biggest faults was that she became so absorbed in what she was doing that she wouldn’t notice anything around her.
Brushing the dirt from her hands, Mya stood up. “What can I do for you?” she asked, purposely making her voice sound cold and impersonal.
David slid his sunglasses up on his head. She wished that he hadn’t done that. Every time she looked into his eyes, she would get drawn into them. When that happened, all she could think about was getting to know the man behind those eyes. Mya found herself picturing him without his clothes on and wondering what it would be like to touch the skin that covered his lean body.
Blinking, Mya pushed the thought away.
“Are you okay?” he asked. There was concern in his voice, but his silver eyes glittered with mischief.
If she didn’t know better, she’d swear that he knew exactly what she’d been thinking. Mya was determined not to let him get under her skin today. David Bray was the kind of guy whose very presence would leave most females swooning, but Mya couldn’t let it happen to her. In her mind, not only was he a suspect, but she was beginning to think that he might be a player, and all too aware of the power he had over women. That always spelled trouble, especially for the woman they were playing with.
“What can I do for you?” she asked again, placing her hands on her hips.
“Why are you still here?”
Mya lifted her chin in an outward sign of defiance. “Well I never said I was leaving.”
David shook his head. “You are one stubborn woman.”
“What are you doing here?” Mya began to suspect that this wasn’t the first time he’d been out to Donny’s property. Maybe it was even David that had put the snake in her trailer.
Was he trying to scare her away?
“I came out here to talk to your uncle, but I see that he’s not here.” David shifted his weight from one leg to the other.
If Mya didn’t know better, she’d swear he was as nervous as she was, though David Bray just didn’t strike her as the type of guy that would get nervous. He seemed so solid, inside and out.
“Donny probably won’t be back until tonight,” she told him.
Usually her uncle would have been at home doing laundry and watching TV on Sunday, but he’d been called into work, and again he hadn’t wanted her to come with him. Mya was beginning to think that Donny was purposely keeping details of the investigation from her. She couldn’t get over the uncanny feeling that he didn’t want the murderer caught for some reason. Mya hated to suspect him of something like that, but what else was she suppose to think.
He’d told her that he had to go in and question a suspect in a hit and run incident, but Mya was positive it had to do with the rez murders, as people were calling the recent homicides.
Lost in thought, it was a moment before Mya realized that David hadn’t responded. “What is it that you needed to talk with him about?” It really wasn’t any of her business, but she couldn’t help but be curious.
“You,” he stated in a matter of fact tone. “He knows that you shouldn’t be here.”
Mya was shocked, and at first she was at a loss for words. She couldn’t believe that he would actually go behind her back and talk to Donny about her.
“What the hell is going on?” Mya couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice. “It’s like everyone here is hiding something, and they’re afraid the outsider is going to find out what that is.” She’d finally put her thoughts into words. Something was going on, and she couldn’t get over the feeling that whatever it was, it had everything to do with why David wanted her gone.
“You are all hiding something,” she added.
“You could be right.” He gave her a teasing smile.
Mya was infuriated. He’d brazenly admitted that his business with her uncle concerned her, but he was refusing to tell her what that was.
“I hate to intrude on your tantrum,” he said, amusement dancing in his eyes, “but could I maybe get a drink of water?”
Mya was tempted to go inside and slam the door in his face, but it would be inhuman to deny someone water on such a hot day. Besides, he had saved her life on the highway that night; a drink of water wasn’t too much to ask for. She didn’t protest when he followed her inside, though common sense told her she should have. After all, wasn’t David Bray a suspect, as far as she was concerned anyway?
Reaching into her fridge, Mya pulled out a couple of bottles of water and handed them to him.
“Thanks.” David said, before opening one and drinking down half its contents.
Folding her arms in front of her, Mya leaned back a
gainst the refrigerator. He should have enough manners to leave now, but it didn’t appear as if he intended to do any such thing.
“You never said what you were doing crawling around outside.” David sat the bottles of water down on the kitchen counter.
“You never answered me,” she shrugged.
“You do have an attitude,” David laughed. “Donny warned me about that.”
“Now wait a minute,” Mya frowned. “How well do you know my step uncle?”
“I’ve known him my whole life.”
Now it was beginning to make sense. Donny didn’t want anyone to point fingers at David Bray because they knew each other, and were apparently friends.
“Where were you the night Ben Metzger was killed,” Mya asked. She no longer cared if Donny got upset with her. These were questions that needed to be asked, and no one was willing to ask them.
Cocking his head to one side, David stared at her. The anger that she’d expected to see wasn’t there. Her question seemed to amuse him. “Well now … that was awhile back, but I think I was at home,” he said, taking a couple of steps toward her.
Her heart began to thud painfully and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. He was so close that she could almost feel the electricity buzzing between them. She couldn’t think.
“Can … can someone verify that?” she asked, her words sounding more like little gasps.
He shook his head slowly. “No,” he whispered. “Can you verify where you were that night?”
“No … but I’m not a suspect.” Mya tried unsuccessfully to move to the side and put some distance between them, but his arm shot up and stopped her. He placed both of his hands against the refrigerator, blocking her between his arms.
Bad Moon Rising - Paranormal Romance Page 7
