Books by Linda Conrad

by Conrad, Linda

  Jacquez stepped out from behind one of the boulders and stood next to his boss. His face and shirt were bloody, his ear was missing a big chunk of skin and his eyes had a glazed, burned-out expression.

  But he was standing in a spot where he couldn’t get a good look at Bailey. That was all that mattered for the moment.

  “Very well,” the director began. “Do you have your cell phone with you?”

  “Huh? What do you want to know that for?” Hunter took a moment to think through his panic.

  Did the man already know that his cell phone was in the SUV under the seat? Why had he bothered to ask the question? All George had to do was kill him and search his body for the phone to find out.

  “That’s my question, Long. Shut up and answer it or the deal’s off.”

  Truth or dare. Hunter made his mind up which in an instant.

  “I lost it. In the fire.”

  “You know…all I have to do is search you to find out if you have it.”

  “Yeah. So why’d you ask?”

  “I wanted to see if you’d lie or tell me the truth.”

  “Well, you got the truth. What else do you want to know?”

  “Have you spoken with any of your clan since last night?”

  Hunter’s mind was racing. What was the right answer to this question? What response would keep them alive the longest?

  He flipped a mental coin in his head and picked the truth. “Nope. Haven’t seen a single person at all while Ms. Howard and I have been out for our little stroll this morning. Why?”

  That he’d been telling the truth this time must’ve shown on his face. The director studied him for a moment before smiling again.

  “Fine, then,” the big man said, and turned his head. “Jacquez, he’s all yours.”

  14

  Hunter crouched and began bobbing and weaving. Bailey’s blood pressure skyrocketed as she caught a glimpse of Mr. Smelly preparing to kill the man she loved.

  How had they gotten to this point? And how the hell were they going to get out of it?

  She held her breath, trying desperately to do everything the way Hunter had instructed. “If they find us, keep the rifle close to your side,” he’d told her. “Don’t give up without using it on them first,” he’d added.

  Well, she wanted to use the rifle right now. She’d never thought of herself as a killer before. Yet all she could imagine at the moment was how great it would be to put a bullet into Mr. Smelly’s brain.

  Hunter shot her one last cautionary glance, then turned to focus on his opponent. Bailey squeezed even tighter against the rock, keeping the rifle hidden between her body and the boulder. Hunter had said to shrink down and try to become invisible. This was the best she could do.

  The heavyset man Hunter had called the director, the man who was the center of attention, seemed focused on the two men who were about to fight.

  Bailey chanced a glance at the third man, who was standing close to her side and holding a nasty looking knife. He, too, appeared to be absorbed in watching two men try to kill each other.

  She wasn’t the least bit worried about Hunter being killed by Mr. Smelly. The man she loved was bigger, better and stronger than the goon who’d kidnapped her and Tara.

  But when the fight was over, then what? She would have to be brave and keep her head. No matter what.

  Mr. Smelly lunged at Hunter, who slid sideways and avoided contact. It was then that Bailey noticed the knife in Mr. Smelly’s hand. She almost screamed at Hunter to watch out.

  But she caught herself, closed her mouth and kept trying to disappear, as he’d told her. The fight wasn’t fair, but then Hunter probably had known all along that it wouldn’t be. Biting her lip, she watched as he wrenched Mr. Smelly’s arm around and forced him to drop the knife.

  She threw another quick glance at the director, who was scowling but still concentrating on the fight. He was the real danger, she knew. Any minute now he could change over into that horrible dog thing and kill them all.

  Fighting off terror, Bailey looked back just as Hunter and Mr. Smelly both went to the ground, each desperately struggling for control of the knife. Mr. Smelly got to it first and quickly slashed at Hunter.

  It was all she could do to keep down a hysterical gasp as a sudden flash of red blood appeared on Hunter’s cheek. But he showed no signs at all of being hurt. Never slowing, he simply forced the knife out of the other man’s hand again.

  They rolled on the ground and Hunter ended up on top, the knife in one fist and his other hand squeezing Mr. Smelly’s neck. After a second, the goon grew weak and fainted.

  Just then the henchman who’d been standing beside her suddenly yelled, “Enough! Game’s over.”

  Without warning, he sent his knife sailing toward Bailey. The blue-steeled blade struck her smack in the upper arm. Shrieking at the intense pain, she ripped the knife from her flesh, dropped it to the ground and then grasped the rifle with her good hand, preparing to defend herself.

  “No!” That angry shout came from Hunter, who raised his arm at the same time and sent the knife he held flying across the clearing.

  Hunter’s blade struck the man beside her with a deadly thud. She watched as the sharp steel buried itself deep in the man’s neck. He took one silent step in her direction, then collapsed.

  At first she was paralyzed with fright, sure that he would get up and finish the job of killing her. But he stayed down.

  And as Bailey glanced up, the director raised his rifle and shot Hunter. Right before her eyes, the man she loved was blasted with a bullet to his chest.

  Seeing Hunter’s blood splattering everywhere, she felt her mind go numb, but her body reacted on instinct. Without really aiming, she raised the rifle barrel and pulled the trigger.

  The director had turned in her direction and the bullet caught him in the gut. For a second he looked stunned as a blotch of red blood grew wider and wider across his shirt at the waist. The stench of gunpowder wafted through the air and choked her.

  Raising his own rifle and pointing it in her direction, the man made an inhuman noise, then wailed, “I should’ve killed you first, bitch. You shot me, damn it. Me! I have the map. I’m this close….” He stopped speaking and fell to the ground in a heap.

  Bailey dropped her gun and ran to where Hunter was lying. He was so still!

  “Hunter,” she cried. “Oh, God, no. Please don’t leave me.”

  He blinked his eyes, and her heart started beating. But glancing toward the huge hole in his chest put her in a panic again. How could she save him?

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Hunter mumbled.

  “Tell me what to do.” She sniffed through the tears.

  “Try to stop the bleeding,” he moaned.

  “Okay. Okay.” She tore at the hem of her long skirt and managed to rip a few pieces off to use as a bandage. “How? Where do I put this?”

  His whole chest seemed to be blown wide-open and was bleeding profusely. How was she going to stop the life from gushing right out of his body?

  “Tie it around your arm,” he managed to gasp. “Put pressure on the wound.”

  “My arm? What on earth are you saying?”

  “Can’t help you,” he croaked in a hoarse whisper. “Stop the bleeding, then go for the phone. Call the Brotherhood.”

  His voice was getting weaker. His body shook with obvious pain.

  “I can’t leave you,” she yelled. “What if you die while I’m gone?” Tears were rolling down her cheeks, but she hardly noticed.

  “I’m not dead yet, slick,” he whispered. Hunter gave a watery smile, and she tried to fight off her growing hysteria. “But it hurts like hell,” he growled through tight lips. “Stick with the plan…go for the damn phone.”

  Bailey didn’t much like helicopters on good days. But today, with one paramedic insisting she take pain medication and another in the back feverishly working over Hunter, she couldn’t stand being in the confined space.

 
; “I’m not taking whatever it is,” she insisted forcefully to the hapless paramedic. “I want to be clearheaded until we get to the hospital. I need to find out how Hunter is before I—”

  “Relax, Ms. Howard…uh, Bailey.” The soothing words came from Hunter’s brother, Kody Long, who was sitting facing her. “My brother is in good hands. And I performed a short curing ceremony for him before we took off. So please don’t worry about him. You should do whatever the doctors tell you,” Kody continued. “Your father is already at the Chinle Health Care Facility, waiting for us to bring you in. He won’t be happy if you show up in shock and with your arm still bleeding.”

  Bailey had been stunned when Kody and the FBI had taken only five minutes to appear with a medevac helicopter after she’d called for help on Hunter’s cell phone. Now the whole sky seemed alive with helicopters and the ground was crawling with federal agents and cops.

  “They’ve stopped the bleeding and I’m not in shock.” A millisecond later what he’d said sank in. “My father is there? Already?”

  Kody gave her a thin smile. “He’s been on the reservation for two days. We couldn’t keep him away. He’s not terribly happy with the Brotherhood at the moment. And I’d rather not make him any madder. So if you don’t mind, please do what the paramedic recommends.”

  She gritted her teeth, but tried to be pleasant to Hunter’s only brother. “No drugs. Sorry. I can’t.”

  Kody didn’t look pleased. But he clamped his mouth shut and folded his arms over his chest.

  “I’ll talk to my father. It’ll be okay.”

  “Good luck with that,” Kody said, and then turned to look out the window.

  Bailey knew how demanding and insistent her father could be. But he was a reasonable man. And he loved her above everything else. He would understand if she explained the situation to him.

  “I do not understand you,” her father muttered as he spun around to face her. “What were you thinking? You could’ve easily been killed. You actually came damn close.”

  “Dad, please,” she replied in her most soothing voice. “I told you. I couldn’t let Tara die.”

  She’d had twenty-two stitches sewn in her arm, and had been bathed, x-rayed and prodded. When she’d insisted and then begged to stay with Hunter in the E.R., the hospital nurses had finally convinced her that he desperately needed to remain calm. And he could best do that without her wringing her hands beside him.

  The man she loved was currently in surgery, and had been for the last two hours. Waiting was taking a toll.

  Her father had finally gotten her to eat something. But after managing to swallow some soup and crackers, she was back on her feet and pacing in a private waiting room. She’d refused to go any farther away than down the hall from Hunter while they worked to save his life.

  She and her dad were standing toe to toe. He just couldn’t seem to understand her motives.

  “What was that child to you?” Luther demanded at last. “Why her? Why now? You’ve never done anything remotely like this in your entire life. And you couldn’t have picked a worse time to be so heroic, either.” He was shaking his head, his breathing was shallow and his eyes were growing wider and wider.

  “Dad…” She was beginning to worry that he might be having a stroke.

  “I sent the best tracker in the world out for you,” he interrupted loudly. “And he finds you, saves you. And what do you do? You insist on staying out there! Running around the desert wilderness like some savage. I don’t get it.” Luther Howard seemed about to pop a blood vessel in his neck.

  She watched him suck in a breath of air and then rush on, his face getting even redder. “Maybe you were just being a spoiled child again, if we’re being absolutely honest about things.”

  He took another breath and blinked his eyes. “Bailey, the Brotherhood told me about the Skinwalker war.” He’d begun speaking slowly, but in a much more somber tone this time. “I knew about the evil ones as a child, of course, but truly thought they were just legends. Now I have to believe it. You knew they existed when you took off, didn’t you? You knew and yet you still insisted on playing games.”

  “It wasn’t a game, Dad. It was deadly serious. But it was something I had to do.”

  Her father continued to shake his head. His whole body had tensed and was beginning to tremble. “I thought when you signed yourself into rehab, that you were finally going to start behaving like an adult. Your mother and I have always wanted only what was best for you. We didn’t care what you did, just that it made you happy. But this…”

  Bailey found herself shaking her head exactly as he’d been doing, so she put her arm around his waist and hugged him. “That was the point, Dad. You never expected anything from me, simply gave me whatever I wanted. I didn’t know how to be responsible—to you, to society, to myself. Flitting around the world with every thing I ever wanted, but without a direction, did not make me happy. But I didn’t know why. Now, I do know. Now, I’m finding out what’s really important.”

  Her father slipped out of her embrace and sat down on one of the hard waiting room chairs. “You scared the hell out of your mother and me.” His body slumped. “How is that being responsible?”

  She had never seen him like this. For as long as Bailey could remember, her father had been bigger than life. He was soft and gentle on the inside, a man who loved his family and cared deeply about employees and stockholders. But his outside shell had always seemed hard and tough. Called the Navajo Shark in the world of business, he stood tall and fearlessly, an imposing figure that intimidated competitors.

  At this moment, though, he looked more like a man who’d been through hell.

  And she was the one who’d put him there. “I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t mean to frighten you. If I could’ve called you to explain, I would have.

  “But I couldn’t walk away from the baby, Dad.” Bailey stared deep into his eyes, willing him to understand. “I don’t ever want to be the kind of person who would. I couldn’t look you and Mom in the face.”

  “You explain it to your mother, then,” Luther said with a huge sigh. “You’ve caused her a lot of pain and you’ll have to be the one to make her understand. Not me.”

  He sighed again and lifted his chin. “I’ve hired a Navajo woman to pack and move your grandmother. Though my mother is fighting the idea of leaving her home.”

  Shaking his head softly, her father took one more big breath. “As soon as the doctor says you are ready to be released, a plane will be standing by to take you home. Your mother is waiting at the house in the Hamptons.”

  Bailey sat down next to him. “I can’t go yet.” She knew he wasn’t going to want to hear what she had to say, but she was determined. This was the path she had to take.

  “I’ll call Mom and talk to her. But I can’t leave…at least not until Hunter is out of the hospital and is strong enough to say he doesn’t want me to stay.”

  Luther Howard’s eyes glinted, then softened. “I wondered if you two had rekindled your old flame. In my darkest moments, I was ready to blame him for keeping you out there in danger.”

  She shook her head so hard her whole body vibrated.

  Her dad held up his hand. “Just in my darkest moments, honey. When I thought about it rationally, I knew damn well you would never let him or anyone else talk you into doing something you didn’t want to do. That isn’t who you are—and that isn’t who Hunter Long is, either. He would never have put you in danger if you hadn’t insisted.”

  “You knew I was that strong inside?” How could that be when she had never known it?

  Her father nodded. “Certainly. You were that strong and independent at the age of three. I realize you sort of lost your way in the last few years. But who you are won’t ever change.”

  The idea took her aback. But her next thought brought out another question.

  “And how is it you knew what Hunter would do? For that matter, how did you knew he was the best tracker in the world
?” When she hadn’t even seen Hunter in eight years.

  Luther Howard smiled at his only daughter. For the first time since she’d walked into the E.R. behind the stretcher carrying Hunter, his expression showed how much he loved her.

  “Hunter Long was one of the few people who meant something in your life. I kept tabs on him over the years because I knew someday the two of you would have to finish what you started in college. Finishing what you start is who both of you are. I don’t know if I’d call that determined—or plain stubborn.”

  She bristled at his description. But he just chuckled.

  “All right,” he finally agreed. “Call your mother. I’ll arrange to get you a room near his. And I’ll stick around as long as I can. I’m scheduled to be in China this week, but I guess it can wait awhile longer.

  “Anyway, I still have to talk your anali into leaving Dinetah. She can’t stay here alone. But she’s just as stubborn…uh, determined as you are.”

  Her father’s expression brightened a little. “Actually, I’d also like to stay to congratulate Hunter on putting up with you long enough to save your life.”

  “He’s really hurt badly, Dad. I don’t know if he’s going to make it.” A tiny sob leaked out without her permission.

  Her father stood and took her into his embrace. “No question about that, honey. Don’t give it a second’s thought. He’s got the best doctors. He’s definitely going to make it.”

  “They say the tribal cop isn’t going to make it,” a female voice said from behind the alcove wall in the waiting room down the hall from the ICU. “I heard he has a punctured lung, and there’s buzz about internal injuries.”

  Bailey’s heart stood still, but her head felt as if it might explode at any moment. No way! Hunter couldn’t leave her now.

  She’d been buying bottled water from a machine, but she left it in the slot and turned to tell whoever had been speaking that she was wrong, that Hunter would live. Right then, Lucas Tso came down the hall with a Navajo man in a white coat, one she’d never seen before. The doctor turned into the ICU suite, while Lucas pulled her off to a quiet corner.