Books by Linda Conrad

by Conrad, Linda

  “You get comfortable,” he said. “Once you’re settled, I’ll take the far side of the bed so you can be sure of my intentions.”

  Her stomach fluttered when he smiled. “It’s only a double,” she hedged. “Not that much room.”

  “Just take off your shoes and we’ll see.”

  “Okay, I guess.” This had better work out. She could not afford to get sexually involved with the man before she wrangled the information she needed. Her mind must remain focused on one goal. The one and only thing keeping her alive.

  Find and kill the Navajo Wolf.

  Slipping off her shoes, she sat down on the farthest corner of the bed, put one of the two skimpy pillows between her head and the wall and swung her feet around. She was fully upright and taking up the teeniest parcel of the double bed that she could manage.

  Cisco chuckled as he flipped off the overhead light, leaving them in the half-light coming from the bathroom. “Hey, that sure looks cozy.”

  “It’s fine.”

  He shrugged and stretched full out on the other side, with his head on the other pillow. “Okay, great.”

  This was all wrong. Though he wasn’t lying close to her, she could feel his heat. Could smell the citrus and musk of his scent surrounding her and could swear she heard the beating of his heart.

  For a few minutes she never moved a muscle, waiting for him to find a comfortable place on the bed. Waiting for him to say he needed more room or scoot closer to her side.

  But nothing happened. Not until she heard a soft snoring. When she looked over, he’d fallen sound asleep.

  Must be nice. She wished she could fall asleep that fast. But for her sleep never came easily. Most of her nights were spent tossing, thinking of the past and wishing there were do-overs in life.

  Sunnie stayed alert for a long time, waking him every hour or so to make sure he was okay. He seemed fine. Finally she decided to give him a few more minutes to fall back under completely and then she would slip out of bed and move to the chair. That way she could still make sure he was all right and not have to worry about disturbing him. Or about losing her resolve and sliding in closer in order to bathe in his warmth and strength.

  Momentarily closing her eyes to keep from staring at his prone and very compelling body, she paid close attention to his steady breathing and was lulled by the even tones. If nothing else, he sounded healthy. By tomorrow he would probably be back to normal. Good for him. She wished she could be normal again someday, too.

  But there was little chance of her ever being normal again. Her life was defined now by days, hours, minutes. She wanted her world narrowed down to only her and the evil one. Her usual trouble with falling asleep was much appreciated at the moment. It gave her more time tonight to consider a new plan.

  But then, when she least expected it, Sunnie forgot her insomnia and slipped away into the dark world of dreams.

  In dreams, she found herself holding a knife, not a rifle. Moonlight drifted through a shadowed forest and sent streaming rays bouncing along the steel shaft in her hand. The beams of light flashed back, blinding and dazzling her with both fear and hope.

  The secrets were here, close by. She could somehow feel them beating a loud tattoo right through the bottom of her feet. Pulsating evil guarded truth, but she would overpower it. If only she could find the answers.

  The growl of a beast, in harsh discord with the gentle breezes, came from somewhere nearby. She raised the knife and turned, ready to do battle. Prepared to die after finishing her mission, she calmed herself and waited for the telltale signs—the sly rustle of brush in the darkness or a glint of light against sharp fangs.

  From out of nowhere the stranger came riding up on a black steed, his rifle at the ready. He stopped, turned to her with a challenging grin, both sincerity and violence shining from his gunmetal eyes.

  Here was a potential partner. An answer. Perhaps hazardous to her spirit but a willing advocate for her cause. With little trepidation, she reached up and handed him the knife.

  He threw back his head and laughed, then pulled her into the saddle behind him. The horse bolted and raced through the trees as the two riders adjusted themselves to working together. They charged into the shadows, while the blood beating wildly through her body gave off a sure sense of forthcoming victory.

  An end was in sight. Triumph was at hand.

  Cisco awoke with a start when he couldn’t move his arms or legs. Somehow his limbs were restricted. Had he been drugged and tied up?

  Before he could pry open his eyes, the tangy scent of woman reached his nostrils and he relaxed. Sunnie’s fresh smell had already been burned into his memory. He would recognize it always.

  A sure sense of her small, feminine body wrapped around his brought him wide-awake. But he didn’t move a muscle, just lay there listening to her even breathing.

  Light was seeping into the room around the edges of the ancient curtains that covered the lone window. Scouring a hand over his eyes to wipe away the cobwebs, he recognized the glow as sunlight and was amazed to find he’d been asleep so long.

  His attention returned to the bed and his sleeping companion. Their legs were intertwined, and one of Sunnie’s arms was flung across his chest. She had snuggled up close to him during the night and ended up with her nose buried in the crease of his neck.

  The intimate position heated his blood and stirred awake an animal component to his personality that he needed to conquer. The urge to touch her, taste her, was strong. But he didn’t do mornings. No soft rehashes of regrets and dreams for him. Especially not with a woman he had never even kissed.

  Despite his many questions of trust, he’d come to the conclusion last night that he needed her. Sunnie knew her way around the reservation, understood the customs and was acquainted with many of the people. She was knowledgeable about whatever strange occurrences were going on and would be the perfect guide, a great person to use to his own ends.

  Easing out from under her, Cisco decided to admire her and those useful assets from a distance. It would be safer.

  Once he was standing upright, he realized his head didn’t ache anymore. Lightly touching the bandage covering his sutures and feeling no pain, he smiled to himself. He was back. Strong. Ready for anything the reservation and Sunnie Begay had to throw at him.

  Almost whistling at the idea of his good health, he caught himself and slipped into the bathroom instead. After he’d splashed some water on his face, there would be time enough to wake the sleeping Navajo beauty.

  Wake her and talk her into accepting him as her newest best friend.

  Sunnie jerked awake with heart pounding and blood boiling. Ready to defend and attack, she raised her fists, only to find Cisco bending over and shaking her by the shoulder with a big grin on his face.

  “Come on, sugar. Rise and shine. Time to blow this dump and get moving.”

  “What?” She struggled to shake herself awake and leave the dream world behind. “Where are we going?”

  He grinned again and had the nerve to sit down at the edge of the bed beside her. “Your apartment. I need to use your computer to go online. But I thought first we could find someplace closer to get a cup of coffee. You’re the guide here. What do you think?”

  She sat up and frowned. “I guess you’re feeling better.” He was too vivid. Too bigger-than-life. Too close.

  “Yeah. Not a thing wrong with me.”

  “Hmm. You’re not quite perfect. But I guess you’re well enough.” She’d wanted for him to be a partner, to stand beside her on her quest. Now all she wanted was more space. “It’ll be a long trip around the outskirts of the rez to my place. Maybe I should drop you off at a nicer motel here in Farmington. Or down in Gallup, where it’ll be safer for you to wait until Junior fixes your car. We’ll find one with Internet access along with all the comforts of home.”

  His expression changed in an instant as he leaned in closer. “I told you once—you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”


  She didn’t flinch, but it was all she could do not to back away. Her insides tensed and adrenaline pumped.

  His eyes flared, and he seemed to recognize her discomfort for what it was.

  Raising a hand to her cheek, he grazed his knuckles along her jawline. “You don’t want to get rid of me, do you? You want me as much as I want you. You’re lying to both of us.”

  Blinking back her shock at his blatant touch and finding herself incapable of speech, Sunnie tried to swallow. She was bound by the spell of his gaze. Hypnotized, she froze while his fingers trailed down her throat. He narrowed the small gap between their lips. Still a millimeter away, she could feel his intensity simmering, stewing, ready to explode.

  Their warm breaths mingled, became one. Two sets of electric impulses zapped across the narrow divide while neither faded nor faltered. They both just continued staring deeply into each other’s eyes, never glancing away for an instant. Time hovered just this side of fulfillment.

  Finally his hand cupped the back of her neck and he lasered the inevitable kiss across her lips. Sensations of heat, fast and furious, flamed and combusted, swamping her with needs she’d never known before.

  Sunnie surprised herself and moaned. He took the sound as a sign and deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue inside to duel with hers. Pressing. Demanding. She felt his other hand closing over her breast. Growing tension curled inside her, exploding in her belly.

  It was suddenly too much. She couldn’t breathe. The panic hit hard, right smack in the middle of her chest, as her racing heart jumped wildly.

  She brought her elbow up and caught him hard in the windpipe. “No! Stop it,” she demanded in a hoarse voice.

  He reared back, eyes full of questions and shock as he raised his hands to defend himself. She used the opportunity, pulled away enough to put some momentum behind it and shoved at his shoulders. Overbalancing, he slipped right off the bed and hit the floor.

  It took him a few gasping breaths to get a word out. During that time, Sunnie came to her senses and started feeling guilty.

  “What the hell did you do that for?” he finally croaked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know.” But she did.

  She’d let him kiss her. Touch her. Stir her needs and rob her, however momentarily, of the will and determination to finish her mission.

  The lust had been there all along, of course. But she needed to be able to control it. With her own moves. Her own choices. Not his.

  Cisco’s wary glance drilled through her. “Well, don’t do it again.”

  Sunnie got up and strode toward the bathroom. “Not a chance.” She turned back but tried not to look directly at him. “Give me a few minutes to get myself together. Then we’ll go find that coffee and head to my apartment.”

  “You want anything else? Just coffee?” The waitress at the Sunrise Café—all three hundred pounds of her dressed in a bubblegum-pink uniform—had taken Cisco’s order and turned to Sunnie.

  “No, thanks.”

  Cisco didn’t like the overly polite tone of Sunnie’s voice. She’d been quiet and reserved ever since he’d made the monumental mistake of kissing her back at the motel. The kiss itself hadn’t actually been a mistake. But the yielding power of her breath mingled with his and the hot press of full breasts against his chest must’ve numbed his brain. Thoughts of soft lips and the firm curve of her breast in the palm of his hand made him tense and achy.

  She’d kissed him back with enthusiasm and a sexy murmur from deep within her throat. He’d kind of lost track after that but knew the kiss had been one of the most spectacular episodes of his life.

  But, then again, it had also been just plain stupid.

  What had come over him? He was trying to develop a rapport between them. Instead he’d pushed her and come on like some Neanderthal.

  He would have to tread lightly from here out. “You should have something to eat,” he told her.

  “I’m not hungry, thank you.”

  The waitress flipped her pad closed, rolled her eyes and walked away.

  Gritting his teeth and trying not to act in his usual arrogant manner, Cisco didn’t say all the right things about keeping up her strength and fueling her body. Even though he wanted to. He was determined to get some food down her, though, one way or the other.

  She sipped her coffee and glared at him across the table. “So what do you usually charge?”

  “Excuse me? Charge for what?”

  “For finding people. What do bounty hunters get paid?”

  Interesting question. This must be one of those tricky places where he would have to be extremely careful. But how could he turn it around and make her trust him?

  “Bounty hunters get a percentage of the outstanding bond on a felon. Are you looking for a bail jumper?”

  “Just curious. I didn’t say I was looking for anyone.”

  “But you are, aren’t you? It isn’t too hard to guess you want to find whoever it was you thought you had in your sights the night you shot me by mistake.”

  Sunnie looked down into her cup, then checked around at the other people in the café. “You never told me what you were doing out in the desert in the middle of the night.”

  The two of them were sitting in an alcove, far away from any prying ears. Still, Cisco reminded himself to keep his voice low.

  They might be at an impasse, but some of his answers were already clear. She had to be hunting someone she believed to be a Skinwalker. It was now just a question of exactly who—and why.

  In another gut-level decision, based somewhat on his instincts and somewhat on that spectacular kiss, he decided to tell her part of his story. Just enough to keep her interested and gain him a little more time.

  “I’ve come to Navajoland to investigate an old murder,” he told her. “That young Navajo who was leading me out into the desert said he knew someone with information. I was supposed to follow him out to a remote family’s hogan to meet up with this other guy who had the answers.”

  Sunnie watched him with a curious expression. It was clear she was skeptical.

  “I didn’t realize bounty hunters investigated murders,” she said. “I thought they just found criminals and returned them to jail.”

  “I’ve already mentioned this is personal.”

  Smiling in a wry but deliberate way, she nodded. “Yes, you did. But you didn’t say why.”

  He wasn’t ready to give up that much. Not yet.

  With his continued silence, her smile turned to a frown. “I gather you had no idea the man you were following was a Skinwalker.”

  “No. Believe me, that thought never crossed my mind.”

  The expression on her face said she believed. But that didn’t mean she trusted him.

  The waitress appeared carrying plates of bacon, eggs and buttered toast, which she placed on the table before him. “You two need more coffee? Or anything else?”

  Each of them accepted another cup of coffee but declined the offer of anything more.

  Once the waitress had refilled their coffee cups and retreated, Cisco started in on his eggs. In his peripheral vision he spotted Sunnie greedily eying his bacon. That made his mission to get some food down her a lot easier. If he was going to use her services, she needed her strength every bit as much as he did. As tough as she was, she looked as though you could knock her over by whispering too loud.

  “Do me a favor, will you?” he began. “I can’t possibly eat all this food. But I also can’t stand letting anything go to waste. My stomach is not steady enough yet to overload it. How about if you help me out?”

  She shook her head.

  “Just a piece of bacon or a slice of toast? It would sure save me from being queasy.”

  He decided not to push while he continued eating and thought out loud. “If the Navajo I was following was one of this so-called Skinwalker cult, and if the men you claim were following me out of Shiprock in that SUV were also Skinwalkers, then I keep coming back t
o…why? Why me?”

  Without a word, she reached over and daintily picked up a piece of the bacon. He went back to his eggs.

  “I’ve given it some thought,” he continued after he swallowed. “The only thing I can come up with is maybe the murder I’m investigating has something to do with the Skinwalkers. It took place fifteen years ago. Was this new cult you mentioned operating that far back?”

  Sunnie nibbled thoughtfully on the point of a half a piece of toast. “Yeah, we’d already started hearing of the new Navajo Wolf about that time. But the real threat didn’t become clear until around ten years ago.”

  “Hmm.” He put down his fork and took a swig of coffee. “What if it’s connected somehow? My investigation might uncover something the Skinwalkers don’t want known. That could be one answer to why they’re following me.”

  When he looked up, she popped into her mouth the last piece of an order of bacon he’d never even tasted. “Maybe.”

  “Listen,” he said with as much sincerity in his voice as he could manage. “You’re looking for a Skinwalker and you apparently know a lot about them. What if we work together on my investigation? I get the sense that they’ll keep showing up wherever I go. I need your expertise to keep me out of trouble, and at the same time you can watch out for this man you’re tracking. What do you say?”

  “I say that’s a very dangerous course to follow. You don’t know how dangerous.”

  “But you’re willing to give it a try?”

  “I’ll think about it.” She eyed his unfinished eggs. “Hey, are you done with those?”

  Chapter 6

  T he Navajo Wolf’s mind cleared for the moment, but blurry visions and snippets of conversations still swam through his head. Had he made a mistake?

  He’d just been informed the parchments were at last in Skinwalker possession. Everything should run smoothly from here on out. Yet something felt off, some component overlooked.

  His men had already begun work on the parchment translations. Things were going as fast on that front as possible. But some thread left dangling continued to nag at the back of his conscious mind and begged for attention.