Books by Linda Conrad

by Conrad, Linda

  Michael shook his head. “What’s gotten into you?”

  Shooting her a quick glance, he saw a mixture of frustration and guilt in her eyes. And he wondered why.

  “I have something to tell you,” she said quietly.

  A flash of his own guilt jolted him, set his nerves on edge. He gathered his wits and reminded himself it was too early for her to know if she was pregnant or not. The next second he also found himself swallowing a little disappointment. Wouldn’t it be to his advantage if she were expecting a child?

  Yeah, the idea of becoming a father and marrying Lexie suddenly sounded very appealing.

  Clamping his mouth shut, he gave her a sharp go-ahead nod and waited for whatever she had to say.

  “More ghosts have come to see me.”

  “What?” That was the last thing he’d thought she would say. It was the last thing he’d wanted to hear.

  “Now don’t get all huffy and don’t raise your voice. These ghosts were your relatives.”

  “Mine? What the hell?” He put his foot on the brake and brought the truck to a stop. Turning, he faced her and waited for an explanation he didn’t really want to hear.

  She met his glare with one of her own and folded her arms over her chest. “This morning a Navajo woman’s ghost came to see me. She told me she’d been known as the Plant Tender during her lifetime.”

  “My aunt, Shirley Nez?” Then Michael remembered Shirley’s ghost had come to speak to his cousin Ben during a sweat bath vision quest a couple of years ago. He guessed there was a possibility her spirit might still be around to talk to Lexie. But it wasn’t something he liked thinking about for very long.

  “Yes,” Lexie answered. “Apparently I’m going to be useful to the Brotherhood in the Skinwalker war. I’m supposed to act as the Message Bearer. ”

  “I’ve never even heard of such a person,” he said without thinking. “And, believe me, I’ve learned every legend and story in the Navajo history. Exactly what kind of messages would you bring? And who are you supposed to tell?”

  For the first time since they’d been stuck out here after the fire, Lexie set her jaw and seemed in total control. He wanted to reach out to her. To soothe and protect. But he didn’t think his attentions would be wanted. Perhaps because of what he’d done last night.

  “I’m supposed to tell you, ” she told him. “Your aunt said you have the power to find the answers.”

  Oh, man. Michael felt the interior of the truck’s cab closing in on him. He didn’t want Lexie talking to ghosts. Such things were outside the Navajo Way and would only bring her trouble. But if Shirley Nez was really trying to communicate with the Brotherhood through Lexie, he couldn’t afford to stop her. They needed all the help they could get to conquer the Skinwalkers.

  He drew a breath, tried to settle his mind around having the woman he might love bringing messages from the ghost world. And maybe talking to Skinwalker chindi. The idea kept throwing his mind out of harmony.

  Leaning his forehead against the steering wheel for just a moment’s reflection, he cleared his thoughts. He knew the Old Plant Tender, his aunt, could not have left any bad spirits when she’d died. Shirley was the best person he’d ever known.

  So perhaps if Lexie was to talk only to the spirit of Shirley Nez, she wouldn’t come in contact with bad chindi. Could that be the answer? He needed more time to reason out the concepts.

  “Are you feeling all right?” Lexie asked, bringing him around to the present.

  He lifted his head and tried a smile. “Do you have a message to give me?”

  Lexie nodded. “We’re supposed to go to the desert today. Near the place you’d wanted to search for the petroglyphs.”

  “There are dozens of possibilities around that area we’ll need to check,” he told her. “It might take us days, even weeks, to find the right spot. Are you sure you want to start out for there now?”

  “Your aunt gave me specific directions. Will that speed things up?”

  Taking another deep breath, Michael knew he was doomed. “Probably. So I guess if you’re ready, I am, too.”

  He put the truck in gear and headed out once more. But he wasn’t at all positive he was pleased with the way things were going. With Lexie talking to ghosts on a regular basis, no matter what the reason, would she still be the same person as before?

  “Uh…while you drive us out of here, do you think I could call Jack?” She reached her hand out for the phone.

  Well, he guessed that answered one question.

  Not far from Tocito Wash but on the opposite slope of the Chuska Mountains, two secretive men met behind closed doors.

  “The fire wasn’t my fault. It was an accident,” the one who could turn himself into the Skinwalker Bear whined to his superior. “It got started by a lightning bolt—by the hands of the Blue Flint Boys—perfectly natural. And then I lost sight of the professor’s pickup in all the smoke. I had to get myself out, didn’t I? But I’ll pick up their trail again today.”

  “I refuse to give those excuses to the Navajo Wolf, you idiot.” The Skinwalker first lieutenant, known as the Owl, paced the floor. “The idea behind this scenario of scaring the woman and following her and Michael Ayze around was to make her afraid enough to leave Dinetah. The Wolf wants Ayze to find the parchments for us. But that damned do-gooder Brotherhood genius won’t be finding anything if he’s too busy protecting the woman.”

  “If you ask me, he’s doing more with the woman than just protecting her.” The Bear in his human form screwed up his mouth in a ridiculous grin.

  The Owl started to wave away the offhand remark then stopped himself, trying to think. There was obviously something between Michael and the Anglo woman. He’d seen the signs himself. Hadn’t the Wolf been trying to get rid of the woman for just such a reason?

  Could the Owl find a way to use the professor’s interest in the woman to the Skinwalker’s advantage?

  He began to develop a plan. The more he thought of it, the more he decided it would be an ingenious plan.

  Turning to the Bear, who was doing his own pacing, the Owl asked, “You’re sure you can track them down this morning? And manage to stay with them for a change?”

  The Bear shrugged a shoulder. “No problem.”

  “It’d better not be.” The idea budding in his brain was destined to be worth a fortune.

  “This time don’t let them see you,” the Owl demanded. “And I want to know if they seem to be headed toward Monument Valley.”

  “Do you think they’ll go there at long last?”

  “Yeah, I do. Finding the parchments before we do is too important to the Brotherhood for Michael Ayze to ignore the search for very long.”

  The truth was, the Owl knew Michael. Knew him well enough to know what he would do in most situations.

  The Owl also prided himself in being an astute observer of human nature. He was positive the woman would behave exactly as he’d imagined in any given circumstance.

  “After they leave Monument Valley, I want to know where they’re headed from there.”

  “Probably they’d go back to the Ayze compound, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe.” But if the Owl knew his old friend, they’d be making at least one stop first.

  It wouldn’t take much to put his new plan into motion. Most of what would be necessary was already set in place.

  The Owl smiled and gave himself an imaginary pat on the back. He was a genius. Much smarter than Michael Ayze. Smarter even than the Navajo Wolf.

  In fact, after he got his hands on the parchments, he would turn his attentions back to getting rid of the old Wolf. No rush. Most of his plans for the Navajo Wolf were already in play, as well.

  So, yeah. As the teenage recruits would say, he was undoubtedly the smartest—and going to be the richest—badass in all of Dinetah.

  Lexie blinked her eyes against the harsh sun streaming through the windshield and told Michael which way to turn. They’d been driving for qu
ite a while.

  Earlier she’d been overjoyed at finding herself once again on a real asphalt highway and driving past convenience stores and gas stations. But the euphoria had slowly given way to the anticipation of following the ghost’s directions and locating the right cave in the desert.

  When they’d started out, she’d foolishly hoped their long ride would give Michael and her a chance to talk. She’d even tried a couple of times to introduce the subject.

  “Can we talk about last night?” she’d asked boldly when they’d first driven out of Tocito Wash and onto a paved road.

  “How far until the next turn?” he asked instead of answering. “You don’t need any big distractions right now. We can’t have you forgetting the directions. Maybe we can talk about this later.”

  She had tried talking about it later, too, but met with a similar wall from him.

  Michael did manage to do a lot of talking himself, though. He’d absently commented on their surroundings and continued her lessons in the Dine Way as they’d traveled through Dinetah.

  They’d taken the paved road until they reached U.S. 491. Which in turn led them north until they turned on U.S. 64 West. About a half hour later, they made another turn. This time, it was northwest on a graded dirt road at the Tes Nez Iah Trading Post.

  From there the directions became less like reading a map and more the way Lexie remembered from living in the back country in Louisiana. Travel until you pass the double-wide trailer with two medicine hogans in the side yard. Turn left over a cattle guard and go seven more miles until you cross the north fork of Gypsum Creek. When you see an abandoned wagon, turn left again on the rutted sand road and look toward the red rock fingers.

  With every mile they traveled Michael kept up a running lecture on the plants and desert animals they were seeing. She learned to identify chamisa bush, banana yucca and piñon nuts. And heard all about wild deer, desert rabbits and prairie dogs. She even learned more than she’d wanted about the differences between sandstone, shale and granite.

  The lessons she’d liked the best, though, had been on Navajo philosophy. Michael talked to her about the Navajo requirement for order and harmony—how every action must have a result. He also compared the Navajo philosophy to Asian philosophy and Confucianism.

  He’d told her Navajo beliefs included the idea that thoughts and words can bend individual reality. For instance, to speak of death is to invite it. If you think of joy or sorrow, those are the emotions you will produce.

  Lexie was certainly impressed by his knowledge of his heritage. She could see why he was a respected anthropology professor. So brilliant. A wonderful teacher.

  While she watched for their next turn, Lexie let herself lazily gaze out the window, listening to him talk. His words rolled over her skin the way she wished his fingers would. Low and sensual, the tone of his voice both lulled and pulled her.

  Just driving. Just talking about plain old rocks. Everything he did was sexy.

  At one point in the journey, Lexie even closed her eyes and daydreamed again about last night. The two of them had been so good together. When they’d been in tune physically, it’d felt much as though they were sharing each other’s thoughts. Two parts of the same whole.

  A part of her was desperate to experience his lovemaking again and again. But another more thoughtful side of her was determined never to give in to that kind of uncontrolled passion again. The pain and loneliness of the day after hadn’t quite seemed worth the pleasure.

  She steeled herself and tried to behave in the Way of the Navajo, following the lessons he’d given. She cleared her mind of negativity and only thought of the joys and thrills of their lovemaking.

  Except for Jack’s birth, last night had been the best one of her life.

  Once more her thoughts slipped around to this morning’s pain of silence, and she felt herself going over to the dark side of anger. His refusal to talk about what had happened, and what might happen in the future between them was just plain killing her.

  Did he feel guilty about something? Perhaps he did, but she certainly didn’t. And why should he feel guilty? It wasn’t like he’d forced her to do anything she hadn’t wanted to do. She’d been a full and very willing participant.

  Damn Michael Ayze and all his tender looks and clever fingers. And damn herself for having given in to him. Lexie swore she would become stronger. She had to be for Jack’s sake and for their future here. Last night would be the one and only time letting herself go with Michael Ayze.

  “What’s next?” His question broke through her thoughts.

  “Huh?” She looked over at him and remembered their mission. “Oh, the directions. I think we must be almost there.”

  “I agree. We’ve come around a different way than usual, but we’re on the outskirts of Mystery Valley where most of the pictographs have been found.”

  “Let me re-create the directions in my head for a minute.” She ran through the various turns in the ghost’s directions. “This must be where we get out and walk.”

  Michael nodded and drove the pickup out of the ruts and onto a hard-packed dirt turnout. “Before you get out,” he said as he turned to her. “Let me get you a hat from my pack in the back. The sun can be cruel in the desert.”

  Crueler than Michael Ayze could be? She doubted it. He’d done everything in his power to make her fall in love with him and then dumped her flat. If that wasn’t a perfect definition of cruelty, she didn’t…

  Love? No. No. No. Absolutely not. She’d sworn she would never be so stupid. It was not possible.

  “Take another drink of water, Lexie.” Michael held out the canteen and she took it gladly.

  They’d been walking in the desert, searching and trying to follow the ghost’s directions, for what seemed like hours. But according to her watch, it had only been about forty-five minutes. The midday heat must have fried her brain, making her forget the instructions and lose track of time.

  She swallowed sand along with the water, took another gulp and then sat on a flat-topped granite out-cropping. “Are we lost?”

  He shook his head. “You look flushed though. Our goal shouldn’t be more than a few minutes ahead. Are you going to make it?”

  Taking another drink, she closed her eyes and thought of Jack. Her baby’s future was as a Navajo. She would be the mother of a strong Navajo man.

  Grateful for the opportunity to help rid her child’s nation of the evil running rampant here, Lexie filled her lungs with air and straightened her shoulders. She renewed her determination to see the job as Message Bearer through to the end.

  “I’ll be fine,” she told Michael. “We’re supposed to walk two hundred paces west from the last rock slab of painted images.”

  “I remember what you’ve already told me,” he said softly. “Another few yards ahead and we should see the cleft where we’ll find the cave entrance.”

  She tried to stand on wobbly legs. Michael took her by the arm, holding her upright until he could slip an arm around her waist to steady her even more.

  “Just lean on me, love,” he whispered hoarsely.

  “We’ll make it there together.”

  He was right, too. They hadn’t walked far until she spotted the dark patch behind the gray boulders and reddish cliff walls.

  “That’s it?”

  “Yeah, you got us here, Lexie. Just like you were told to do.” He showed her how to duck behind a natural overhang and then duck again to enter the cave. “Be proud of yourself. Those directions were complicated, especially for someone unfamiliar with the area.”

  Lexie didn’t feel proud. She wasn’t sure what she felt. The minute they’d entered the dark, quiet cave, cold air had brought her temperature and her mind back to normal in a hurry.

  Michael took a huge lantern-type flashlight from his backpack. “The petroglyphs must be much farther back in the cave. Otherwise the anthropologists who work this area all the time would’ve found them long before now. It could be a diff
icult path. Why don’t you sit here near the entrance and wait for me?”

  She didn’t want him to go alone, but she was exhausted. “How long will you be? Are you sure you won’t need me?”

  “I don’t know how long this will take.” He pulled off his heavy-looking backpack and unhooked the long rope he’d attached to it earlier. “You can rest against my backpack. Sit right here where there is still some light filtering in from the cave opening.”

  “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” She lowered the padded case she’d been carrying and handed it over to him. “Can you take your computer with you and still hold the rope and the flashlight?”

  “No problem.” He put the laptop’s strap around his own neck. “Noise echoes in caves. If you need help, just scream. I’m not going so far that I can’t get back to you in a hurry if necessary.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she told him as she sat.

  “Yes, you will.” He smiled down at her. “Remember to keep drinking water. Stay hydrated. I’ll call out to you every few minutes to let you know what I’m finding.”

  Lexie gingerly eased into a more comfortable position and watched as he flicked the light out ahead of him into the cave tunnel. Then he disappeared into the darkness.

  In a few minutes she heard him call her name. She answered and then relaxed and prepared herself for the wait.

  Michael continued to call out from time to time, but his voice got farther and farther away.

  Closing her eyes, just for a moment, Lexie tried to stay focused on seeing Jack again so she wouldn’t worry so much about Michael.

  When she’d talked to her son earlier today, he’d told her all about the wonderful things he’d been doing. Yesterday he’d gone to his cousins’ school and his aunt had said he could go to a head-start program there half days if Lexie would agree. Part of his training would be done in the Navajo language. And Jack’s best news was that he’d gotten pony currying lessons from his grandfather.

  Her heart thumped at the mere thought of how much she missed her baby. Michael had promised they would be back to his sister’s in time to tuck Jack into bed. She could hardly wait.