Books by Linda Conrad

by Conrad, Linda

  Tory waved her hands in front of her face, trying to stave off his words. “I don’t want to know.”

  She laid her head down on the table, trying to absorb—no, truthfully, she was trying to avoid thinking about all he’d said. It was too much to even consider.

  Ben rose and came to stand beside her. “My eyesight is going out again. Come to bed with me for now. We can finish this discussion later. After you’ve rested and have had a chance to clear your head.”

  Absently, Tory nodded. She couldn’t think. Could barely move. It felt like some evil spirit had paralyzed her with mind control.

  Ben pulled her up from the chair, lifted her into his arms and took them both off to his bedroom.

  Through the night, Tory reached for him again and again. At times it was to crush his lips with demanding, hungry kisses. At other times it was to roll into his embrace so he could soothe and rub her back as she whimpered in her sleep.

  Ben was lost. Lost in the force of their coming together. Lost in the emotions she had wrung from him. And lost because he knew that much worse things were still left to be said between them.

  In the darkest hour of the night, he reached for her. Intending to pull her to him and declare his love, he was surprised to find the bed empty beside him.

  “Tory? Tory, where are you?”

  Still quite blind, Ben crawled out of bed and felt his way through the familiar house, calling her name. A momentary panic raced through him when she didn’t answer. She wouldn’t have gone outside, would she?

  “Answer me,” he demanded.

  He heard her shift in the darkness. “Tory?”

  Suddenly she was beside him, taking his arm and whispering in his ear. “Why are you up? I’m right here. I would never leave you alone in the dark.”

  He heard it in her voice just as clearly as if she’d spoken the words aloud. She wouldn’t leave him alone, but she would be leaving him soon.

  He knew she was right. It had to be that way. But it still hurt.

  “I’ve been sitting on the couch, looking out the window at all the stars,” she said in a gentle voice. “Do you want to come sit with me?”

  “You know there is more to say.”

  “Yes, I know.” She took his hand.

  He sat on the couch and pulled her onto his lap. Sighing, Tory rested her head on his shoulder.

  “I’ve done more than put myself in danger, haven’t I?” she asked rhetorically. “I’ve probably ruined your chances of finding out who’s behind the drug cure scam.”

  “If they’re as clever as we think they are, the evil ones are no doubt heading further undercover right this minute. But it doesn’t really matter. We’ll get them the next time. What matters is that you’re okay.”

  “You’re going to ask me to leave. Not just to leave your house, but leave all of Dinetah, aren’t you? I truly don’t belong here.”

  “It’s for the best.”

  “But I thought I was…” she hesitated and he wished like hell he could see her expression. “Shirley Nez keeps telling me I’m meant to be her assistant. She says I’m more Navajo in the way I’ve taken to the Plant Clan than most of the real Dine.”

  His heart began to weep over its coming loss.

  “You’re in the ultimate danger in every part of the rez,” he told her. “We can’t protect you everywhere, all the time. I don’t like it, either, but you have to go.”

  “What about you? Who will take care of you, and your practice?”

  “I don’t have any time left. Maybe a day or two at most before the disease wins for good. You know it as well as I do.”

  She put her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. “I could do it all. I swear. Except for the crystal gazing. But maybe your patients would…”

  He chuckled at her resistance, because he’d thought of all the possibilities himself. “No,” he said gently. “I know you would try. But it’s better if I just shut down.”

  “How will you live?”

  “I’ll be fine. I have several spinster cousins who have volunteered to come live here and be my housekeeper.”

  “Would you marry one? Like in the old traditions?”

  “You don’t know everything you think you do.” He laughed. “Dine are never allowed to marry another from their ‘born to’ clan. Further, it is doubtful any woman would want to tie herself to a crystal gazer who has been witched and cannot see.”

  “I feel like I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t know where I’ll go if I leave the reservation. I still have a contract and I haven’t yet paid off my school loan.”

  Ben buried his nose in her hair to smell the sage one last time. “I’ll buy off your contract and pay off your loan. You can go wherever you want. Wherever in the world you feel you’re needed.”

  “You’ll pay off my loan? How?”

  That made him smile. “You know, for a street-savvy woman, you can be pretty unobservant sometimes. My father set me up with a huge trust fund right after my mother died. That’s what pays for everything around here.

  “How did you think I was running the clinic?” he added. “Think about it. You’ve never seen any patient pay, and not once has an insurance or government form been filled out.”

  “But I thought the Tribal Council supported you.”

  “The amount they grant wouldn’t pay our pharmacy bills for one day per week.”

  “Oh, sheesh.” She gulped. “You’re rich.”

  Yeah, he was rich. Rich in every way it didn’t matter. But when she left, he would be the poorest man on earth.

  17

  H eartsick and beyond rattled by everything she’d learned over the last twelve hours, Tory drove down the grade from Ben’s mesa. Lucas Tso was in the passenger seat instead of the man she loved, and her brain still spun with thoughts of Skinwalkers. She headed into the bright golden daylight of early morning with a deep black cloud overhanging her heart.

  The pink slip for Ben’s SUV was now in her suitcase. And the pain of losing him was already wedging itself deep inside her every cell.

  Amazing her own city-savvy little self, she really did believe the Skinwalker story. She suspected the legend had always made sense to her Irish soul, but her practical side hadn’t wanted to accept it.

  She was, after the initial disbelief, truly glad her new Dine friends had such good protection in the form of the Brotherhood. Not that any of this knowledge would do her much good in New York or California or any other damned place where she might end up.

  No, if anything, she would be well advised to wipe all legends and ideas from her brain the minute she crossed the border and left the Navajo Nation. But there were a few things she would never forget. The warm brown eyes of a gentle and very sexy doctor were on the top of that list.

  The ache in her chest at the thought of never seeing Ben again, never seeing the cliffs and mountains and colors of Dinetah again, hurt so badly she nearly doubled over the steering wheel. But Lucas’s quiet, watchful presence beside her meant she had to keep her eyes on the road ahead and her foot on an accelerator that was taking her farther away from where she wanted to be with every mile.

  His job was to guard her until she arrived back at the rental house on Bluebird Ridge. After that, apparently, the Bird People would be keeping an eye on her as she packed and left the rez.

  Okay, so the Bird People concept seemed one step too far for her brain to comprehend, even considering her childhood belief in leprechauns. But then, if she could accept that human beings had learned to turn themselves into animals—and ones with superhuman strength at that—then birds who stood guard for their human friends shouldn’t be that big a stretch.

  In a way, she would’ve liked to have a long conversation with Lucas Tso. There were questions that remained unanswered. He also seemed like a nice guy who had a tremendous artistic talent and would be an interesting person to talk to.

  But every time she went to open her mouth, the tears welled in her ey
es and began to burn in the back of her throat. She never cried.

  Tory didn’t say anything and within the hour was back at the tiny house with the wonderful garden in back she’d planted months ago. Lucas bid her farewell and soon she was all alone again. She needed to pack, and she wanted a second to say goodbye to her garden plants.

  Each dragging step she took, though, made it clear a nap would be a much better idea before she did anything else. Her brain needed to rest. And her body ached almost as badly as her heart from a night filled with both passion and despair.

  Going into her bedroom, having to face the bed where she and Ben had first discovered each other, seemed too difficult after everything else. So she collapsed on the sofa and fell into a dreamless sleep. No wolves chased her this time, and no warm brown eyes showed up to caress her with their loving gaze.

  “I disagree, Raven,” the Navajo Wolf said carefully through the satellite phone. “We can turn the situation around quite quickly if the Anglo woman doctor joins with us, recants her objections and signs on as a researcher with our team. Her change of attitude will seem quite realistic and will add enormously to our veracity with the pharmaceutical company.”

  “We don’t have a team,” the Raven managed. “And if we did, I can’t see how Dr. Sommer is going to suddenly have such a change of heart.”

  The low, feral growl from the other end of the phone upped the Raven’s panic. He found himself cowering behind his desk, though the Wolf was undoubtedly hundreds of miles away.

  “Think of a way—or else, Raven. I suggest kidnapping her and using the powder to make her see the light. She’s left the protection of the Brotherhood now. It should be easy to get her alone and spirit her away. No one will notice…or care.”

  “But…”

  “Just do it,” the Wolf insisted. “And then contact me with good news for a change. I’ll expect to hear from you soon that all is in order.”

  When Tory woke up groggy and irritable, she decided to put off packing until she went to the Raven Wash Clinic to tell Dr. Hardeen goodbye. She would never leave the reservation without explaining to him about Ben paying off her contract and loan. Ray Hardeen had been a good boss and had treated her with respect, even though many of his patients hadn’t wanted anything to do with her.

  Splashing water on her face, she decided that she owed a great deal to Dr. Hardeen. This would be an opportunity to tell him thanks.

  Twenty minutes later, she drove into the Raven Wash Clinic’s parking lot. Heaving a sigh of both relief and misery, she was glad to see that Dr. Hardeen’s car was there. Saying goodbye was going to be difficult.

  After knocking on his door and hearing nothing, she peeked inside. His back was to her as he stared at his computer screen.

  “Dr. Hardeen?”

  He turned, and it was everything Tory could do to keep her gasp of surprise hidden. The man seemed to have aged twenty years in the last few weeks. His hair was much grayer, his eyes droopy, and his facial skin was wrinkled and cracked as though he’d spent the last three weeks in the sun.

  “Dr. Sommer? Tory. Come in. What can I do for you?”

  She wondered if there was something she could do for him. But she didn’t say anything. Instead she told him she was leaving and that Ben would be paying off her loan.

  “Are you sure I can’t say anything to change your mind?”

  She shook her head. “No. But thanks for asking.”

  “Well, there is one more thing,” he began.

  It was then she noticed something strange in his eyes. Fear. Panic. The man sitting in front of her was petrified of something.

  “I’ll need to check the rental house on Bluebird Ridge and get the keys from you,” he continued. “That shouldn’t be a problem, right? Would later this afternoon be okay?”

  “Uh, sure. No problem. Just as long as I have a couple of hours of daylight left to get on the road.”

  “Good. Good,” he said absently. Obviously, she was being dismissed. “See you later.”

  She wanted to talk. Find out what was bothering him. Did he know about the Skinwalkers? She would bet he did.

  “Um, Dr. Hardeen, can I ask you…?”

  “Later, Tory,” he interrupted. “We’ll talk then.”

  As she left his office, the creepy feeling that something was terribly wrong with Dr. Hardeen—and maybe with the entire Raven Wash Clinic—engulfed her and left her shaken. She picked up her speed, wanting to reach the sunlight and the safety of Ben’s SUV. Well, her SUV now.

  But as she was almost to the outside door, someone grabbed her from behind. The air whooshed from her lungs.

  “Dr. Sommer, wait.” Russel, the nurse-practitioner, spun her around.

  “You’ll be happy to know I’m leaving Dinetah forever,” she spat out, trying to wrench her arm from his grip.

  His expression looked nearly as spooked as Dr. Hardeen’s. “That will be good for you but not good for the Dine, Doctor.” His eyes narrowed, boring into hers. “But you’ve just made a terrible mistake. Coming here was extremely foolhardy. Get in your car and leave the rez now. Do not stop or look back. Your life hangs in the balance.”

  A threat? She planted her feet and popped her arm free. “I’m leaving.” Spinning away from him, she ran the rest of the way to the parking lot.

  Was it possible Russel was a Skinwalker? The medicine dude? God, she couldn’t get out of this place fast enough.

  Breathing hard, she jumped in the SUV, locked the door and dug out the cell phone she’d forgotten to give back.

  Shirley Nez punched the off button on her cell phone and basked in sunshine, while the shadow of death slowly moved to cover her spirit. She had been the Brotherhood member to get Tory’s call for a reason. The Yei were already at work to make her visions a reality.

  There were one or two more things left for her to do. But then, she would meet with the new Plant Tender and give her the last lesson. Perhaps, for her and for the Brotherhood, the most important of all the lessons.

  Everything was turning out as foreseen. Shirley picked up her phone and began making the calls that would mean new hope for the Dine—and perhaps for the entire world.

  “Do you know why the Plant Tender requires our presence today?” Lucas Tso had been the last to arrive at the ancient and seldom used medicine man gathering place atop Bluebird Ridge Mesa.

  Ben shrugged. “No, cousin. But I’m grateful to see some of the sights of our sacred land again. There is not much time left for me to see anything. And I’d hate to forever miss the beauty of this place used by our elders.”

  Today might be the very last day he would have an opportunity to memorize the sights of his beloved land. A fuzzy haze had once more replaced the blackness for a few hours, but his gut told him that it wouldn’t last long.

  He stood at the edge of the cliff and gazed down into the backyard of Tory’s rental house. His heart turned over at the vague image of his SUV parked in front. She must still be packing. Would the Yei smile on him yet another time? Might Tory step outside to her garden before leaving?

  It would be difficult standing where he could actually see her, but not be with her. Yet one more chance to see her lovely hair and feel her warmth, even from this distance, would be the greatest of blessings.

  “You still believe it’s for the best to send her away?” Kody Long had quietly come up behind him.

  “It is the best for her.”

  Kody screwed up his face as though he’d tasted something sour. “It’s you that doesn’t want her here. First off, you don’t want to be dependent on her in your blindness. You couldn’t stand not being the strong one. And secondly, you have some strange notion your mother would only have wanted a Navajo woman for you. But you don’t know that for sure.”

  “Hey,” Ben grumbled. “Leave my mother out of it.”

  “And don’t give me that crap about tradition, either,” Kody argued. “You know I don’t buy it. My wife’s presence hasn’t caused anything
to be out of balance or in chaos. In fact, she’s been really useful to the Brotherhood when it comes to fighting the Skinwalkers by getting information. A little while ago Reagan even pinned down the name of the ‘medicine dude’ at Raven Wash Clinic.”

  “Really? Who is it?”

  “I’m waiting for Shirley Nez to show up to tell everyone at one time. Then we can make plans to take him out or at least neutralize his efforts.”

  “I think you may have a longer wait, cousin,” Lucas said. He stood next to Ben and pointed down toward where Shirley’s old pickup was pulling into Tory’s yard.

  “What the hell is the Plant Tender doing down there?” Kody threw his hands up. “She’s already late to meet us.”

  Ben didn’t like the odd feeling that was creeping into his bones. Something about this whole setup seemed wrong.

  “Lucas, are you experiencing something strange?” he asked his sensitive cousin.

  “I feel we are needed elsewhere.” He pointed again as Shirley tore out of her truck and dashed into the house. “The Plant Tender needs our help down there.”

  “Uh-oh,” Kody muttered. “Look. See that shiny black limo just heading around the farthest bend in Bluebird Road? That thing seems dangerous. Out of place.”

  “I recently heard that Dr. Ray Hardeen of Raven Wash Clinic has purchased such a vehicle,” Lucas told them.

  Ben grabbed Kody’s arm. “Tell me the medicine dude Reagan uncovered isn’t Hardeen.”

  Kody grimaced. “Let’s move out. He’ll be there in less than five minutes. All of us need to begin the special chanting—now.”

  “I didn’t expect to see you here, Plant Tender.” Tory stood aside and invited Shirley Nez to step inside the air-conditioned rental house. “Did you reach the Brotherhood to tell them Russel Beyal is probably the medicine dude they’ve been looking for?”

  “There isn’t much time,” Shirley said quietly, without answering her question. “I have something to tell you.”