But when he released her, he spoke with such fervor she lost her way. “Stay here, mi vida. Stay and be safe locked inside the SUV. I’ll find out if this is the place. And if Tory is inside, I will bring her out to you.”
Mi vida. He’d called her his life. Her heart skipped and twirled in her chest. Oh, if only she could believe in those words. But she knew better. His life was elsewhere. He was educated and rich, adventurous and exciting. And she was none of those things.
Speechless, she watched him head off over the rocks and sand, into the desert and toward who knew what danger.
Cisco crept away from Sunnie, cursing himself under his breath. When he’d looked down and seen her eyes swimming with tears, he’d been damned forever.
He was an idiot to love her. But love her he did. And with a more hopeless and yet intense emotion than he had ever felt in his life. He knew there would never be another who would touch him, his heart and his spirit, the way Sunnie had.
But there was only one thing in the world he could give her—her friend Tory alive and well. And when he had done that, it would be time for him to leave.
He was fairly certain he’d discovered everything there was to find out here in Dinetah. And more. He’d met his half brothers. His father’s death was no longer a mystery. At least not to him.
So did he have to actually come face-to-face with the man one last time to prove something? Not for any reason he could find. There were no more mysteries to solve. His mother’s greatest wish was fulfilled.
As he crept across the desert toward the big house on the hill, that last thought dredged up something from deep within his gut. The knowledge that the one who had fathered him, the one his mother had unfortunately loved, that man was long gone and done. The pure evil who stood now in his place meant nothing to anyone anymore.
But for Sunnie’s sake?
Sighing softly in the night, Cisco decided that there was one more thing he could give her before they parted forever. He could do what she had tried and failed.
And so he made a resolution. As he rescued Tory, he would spend a moment or two more in his bastard father’s house. Just long enough to end the life that had caused such havoc and wreaked such terror amongst Sunnie’s clansmen and friends.
Just long enough to kill the Navajo Wolf.
Sunnie stood for way too long looking out toward the darkness where Cisco had disappeared. She didn’t know how to feel or what to be. Should she just give in to the love that was quickly consuming every cell in her body and run and hide as he’d asked? Should she begin fortifying herself for the coming pain of losing him too soon?
Or should she damn well put aside the emotions altogether and remember who and what she was? Loving Cisco had changed her world. Instead of the black pit of self-pity and hatred she had been wallowing in for the last six months, everything around her had suddenly come alive with color and light.
Deep inside, she was still the same strong, tough-willed woman she had always been. But she no longer needed revenge to restore her spirit and dissolve the guilt. The Navajo Wolf would meet his end by some other’s hand or by his own greed. It didn’t matter to her anymore.
The only things that mattered were saving Tory and making sure nothing happened to Cisco. He would not be killed or injured while rescuing her friend. She swore it.
Digging in her pocket for her phone, Sunnie stopped when she heard a car’s engine in the distance. It seemed to be coming closer to her position. She hid behind a sandstone boulder and watched as another SUV with its lights off pulled up behind Tory’s vehicle.
Sunnie held her breath until she could see that the SUV was a white Navajo Tribal Police unit. How had Hunter gotten here so quickly?
But it wasn’t Hunter who eased out of the driver’s seat and stood quietly next to the SUV. It was Lucas Tso’s bride, Teal, the new Navajo Tribal policewoman. Sunnie whispered the other woman’s name and came out of hiding.
“Ya’at’eeh,” Teal said in her own stage whisper when she spotted Sunnie. “I hoped I would find you.”
“What are you doing out here? How did you know where to look for me?”
“My husband has been tracking Professor Richard Yellowhorse for the last few hours,” Teal told her. “I have been right behind him. Tracking my husband, you could say.” She grinned wryly through the starlight. “Lucas knows I’m here, though he doesn’t much care for the idea.”
“So Lucas is on his way into the Navajo Wolf’s mansion, following the professor? This is really the right place, then?”
“Oh, yes. When Hunter got Cisco’s call with the directions, Lucas was nearly right on top of the house. I think that damned Professor Yellowhorse-slash-Skinwalker Owl must’ve been only fifteen minutes ahead of you.”
“So Lucas knows we’re here?”
“He knows. He’s stationed himself nearby, holding off and waiting for the rest of the Brotherhood and the Bird People to arrive.”
“I’d better warn Cisco. I wouldn’t want the two of them to kill each other by mistake.” She pulled out her cell and hit the buttons for his phone.
“Don’t worry about Lucas,” Teal said as they waited for Cisco to answer. “My husband would never kill anyone except the Skinwalker Owl. And he’ll easily sense the difference.”
Cisco quietly answered his phone and Sunnie told him to watch out for Lucas. It only took a matter of a few words to get the message across. But when Sunnie hung up, she felt devastated and more alone than she’d ever been.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?” Teal asked softly from beside her.
“What is?”
“Being in love and watching the one you care about the most walking into danger.”
“I’m not in lo—” She stopped. Lying to even herself was useless at this point. “Yeah, it is terrible, actually. It’s a lot easier to take the risk yourself rather than waiting behind.”
“Tell me about it. I’m not very good at the wringing-my-hands and weeping-into-a-hanky gigs. Frankly I’m a lot better with a weapon.”
“Are you going inside the mansion after the Brotherhood gets here?” Sunnie suddenly realized she was definitely not one to stand silently in the background, either. She hadn’t spent all that time on a rifle range for nothing.
“I’m not a medicine man and can’t say the chants that will control the Skinwalker danger,” Teal began. “But, by God, I can shoot better than any of them. And at the base of all that evil are human men who can be killed with a bullet just as well as with a chant. I’ll be there.”
Sunnie made up her mind in a heartbeat. “Hey, you cops carry other weapons in your units, don’t you?”
It was long after midnight and pitch-dark when Cisco spotted Lucas’s silhouette in a clump of junipers near the mansion. Though once Cisco would’ve said all Navajos looked alike, the truth was, each one he’d come in contact with had made a distinctive impression on him. Impressions he was sure to carry to his grave.
The two men motioned to each other and met a little farther from the mansion, concealed by a stand of cottonwoods.
“What have you found out?” he asked Lucas in a low voice.
“Something feels all wrong about this place.”
“What do you mean by wrong?”
Lucas hesitated, then whispered, “There’s an air of expectant death here.” He reached down and actually touched a prairie dog that leaned half out of its hole, still as a statue. “It’s as though the very ground is dying.” The prairie dog never stirred.
The unnatural sight put a knife of fear into Cisco’s gut. “Do you think that means they’re going to kill Tory at any minute instead of waiting?”
“No. I can feel the Plant Tender’s lifeblood still beating strong and true. I sense no imminent danger there. This is something else. Something far more sinister.”
Cisco didn’t like any of it. The night suffocated him and the ground beneath his feet pulled him down. “I want to get Tory out of that place now. Now that we’ve brok
en through the magic and can see the mansion, have you found out where they’re holding her? Do they also have a security system on the house?”
“There were vultures stationed outside when I arrived. But our Bird People allies have arrived and quietly disposed of them. I’ve seen nothing else.” Lucas shifted in the dark. “As to where they’re holding the Plant Tender, there seems to be a separate wing of rooms attached to the main house by a covered walkway. The main house is lit up like there’s a party going on, but the separate wing is mostly blacked out with low lighting in one or two rooms. That’d be my guess as to where they’ve stashed Tory. But something else is going on there, too.” Lucas straightened with determination. “That wing had mystical energy protecting it alone. I’ve said the chants that will break through the magic there, too.”
“I want to try reaching Tory,” Cisco said. “A quick strike. In and out and back to Sunnie—she’s waiting on the road. You and the rest of the Brotherhood can bash in all the heads you want after we’re long gone.”
“Your woman and mine are on their way here.”
“What? How do you know?”
Lucas hesitated for a beat, as though he were listening to some unseen voice. “Teal called me. But I knew they had made up their minds long before I heard from them.
“You love her.” Lucas said that last with such certainty Cisco was taken by surprise.
“Your wife Teal? I hardly know her.” Cisco knew what Lucas had meant, but he wasn’t quite ready to share his feelings, so he felt it was easier making a joke.
Lucas ignored the smart remark. “Even if you stayed together, you can’t keep Sunnie safe forever. She’s strong-willed and too smart. Are you afraid you’ll lose her if she steps out of her darkness?”
The damned man was talking in metaphors and it made Cisco itch with discomfort. Unfortunately he also knew exactly what Lucas was talking about. And that made him uncomfortable, too.
“I can’t lose her. She isn’t found. Not by me. Not the way you mean. I’m not what she needs. I just want her out of the shadows and back to her life and family, where she belongs.”
“If you don’t plan on standing beside her, leave now. It will hurt less.”
Cisco drew in air, let it out. “I do love her.”
“And she loves you. But that is not always enough.”
Perhaps not. But Cisco had had enough of talking in circles. He wanted to find Tory, bring her to safety, then see if there would be a chance at ending the Wolf’s life.
That one action would tell Sunnie everything he felt. Then he wouldn’t have to say goodbye. Leaving only meant adding one more layer of scars to his hardened heart. And he was too much of a coward to face her disappointment and pain.
“I’m going to find Tory,” he told Lucas. “Try to keep Sunnie out of the worst of it, will you?”
Before he started out, Lucas taught him a code for signaling by text message. Cisco was grateful for not having to learn smoke signals or how to throw his voice the way the ancient Navajo warriors had done. There was a lot to be said for modern electronics.
He used the knife in his boot to disable a modern but simple security alarm and pry open a French door to the separate wing. Finding himself standing in an empty room that seemed to be used as a library, Cisco crept to the interior door and eased it open.
Right outside was a long, poorly lit hallway. At one end was another exterior door, presumably the connection to the main house. Also down that way, a guard sat dozing in a folding chair directly outside one of the many interior doors. His presence made it a good possibility that that room was where they were keeping Tory.
Turning his head to the other end of the hallway, Cisco spotted a huge set of double doors. To their side was a panel that looked from this distance like a circuit board with levers and buttons. Security. Something important must be housed behind those doors.
Everything was quiet. Too quiet.
Then the door he’d guessed as the connection to the main house blasted open and a couple of men walked in. They came straight toward him down the hall, striding right past the guard, who had awoken with a start and sat at attention. As they quickly passed by his hiding place, Cisco could hear them talking in a mixture of Navajo and English. The lighting was low, but he saw that one man seemed to be the other’s superior.
They went straight down the hall to the double doors. One said, “You have the code, Professor?”
Cisco didn’t hear the answer but knew it had been said with disdain. He wondered if the one with more authority might be Professor Yellowhorse. If so, Lucas Tso would like that information. In a few seconds the two men disappeared inside the double doors.
Taking his best chance first, Cisco used his knife to make a subdued but annoying scratching noise on the wooden door to the library, where he stood. Just loud enough to get the guard’s attention. One more time and then the foolish guard got up from his chair to find out where the noise was coming from. Cisco held his breath, waited until the guard got closer, then took him down with one arm around his chest and one hand on the artery in his neck.
The guard was out of action in an instant and without a sound. Cisco dragged the body back into the library. Then he palmed his blade again and took off down the hallway with knife in hand.
It took less than sixty seconds to reach the now-unguarded door and jimmy the lock. Inside, as he’d hoped, was a blond woman, hog-tied on a queen-size bed. The lighting was dim, but Cisco saw the fear in her eyes.
He put his fingers to his lips to motion her to remain quiet, then he bent to whisper in her ear. “Sunnie Begay sent me. I won’t hurt you, but you can’t make noise.”
At the mention of Sunnie’s name, Tory nodded her head. After Cisco slit the ropes around her ankles, he heard an involuntary groan. She must’ve been in that position for many hours. With cramps and numbness, this woman would never make it out of here under her own power. He finished cutting her free, then told her to lay still.
Okay. It was time to make use of his new code. He pulled out his cell, was relieved to see a strong signal and sent a message to Lucas using his thumbs. Then he went to the lone window. Within a minute’s inspection of the sill he found the security system. Disabling it was tricky, but he managed.
By the time he was done with the system and had the screen cut out, two figures appeared at the window. He’d expected to see Lucas, but the first face he saw was much more familiar.
Sunnie. She hoisted herself up and climbed through the window, with Lucas right behind her.
When he had her in his arms, he gave her a scowl of disapproval. But she narrowed her lips and shook her head. Laying one hand lightly against his chest, she looked up at him with what had to be gratitude in her eyes. Then she pulled free and went directly to Tory’s side and began rubbing the other woman’s arms and legs, trying to get the circulation going in her friend’s limbs.
Cisco took Lucas aside. “The double doors down the hall—your professor’s there, but I’m not sure we’ll be able to get in.”
“Wait,” was all Lucas said. Then he gave him a wry smile and began sending another text message.
Turning back, Cisco saw Sunnie trying to help Tory get through the window. Right outside, the waiting arms of her husband, Dr. Ben, captured her and held her close.
When Tory was safe, Sunnie halted and turned to Cisco. “Thank you,” she breathed.
“Out,” he told her quietly.
“But you’re coming, too.”
He shook his head. In the distance, a rooster crowed three times.
Sunnie lifted her head. “Let the Brotherhood handle the rest,” she urged. “It’s not your fight.”
Wanting one more kiss, one last moment, but knowing the touch of her lips might weaken his resolve, Cisco picked up his slender love and slid her out the open window without uttering a word. He said a prayer under his breath that she would be able to make her way to safety. Adios, mi amor. Vaya con Dios.
All of a s
udden there was the sound of an explosion coming from the main house. Then two more in quick succession. High-pitched shouts and alarm bells began to ring out.
Cisco watched over Lucas’s shoulder as the double doors at the end of the hall crashed open. Three men came charging across the threshold and raced down the hall. The last of the three was the man Cisco figured was the evil professor.
Lucas held his place and gently closed the door as the men traveled past. In another moment Lucas reopened it and stole down the hall behind the three just as the first blasted out through the connecting door.
Cisco stood in the hall, watching Lucas’s back and also keeping an eye on the double doors in the opposite direction, which were still standing wide-open.
He saw Lucas catch up to the last man, the professor, just as that one changed forms. Right before his eyes, what had been a human turned into a small owl. Amazed, he knew he would never question witchcraft again.
In that instant Lucas pounced on the bird before the thing could take wing. Cisco somehow lost perspective between human and fowl. There was a jumble of motion, along with two sets of deep, masculine chants. He couldn’t make out either forms or words.
Cisco decided there would never be a better time to find out what was so important behind those double doors. After he made his way down the hall, he paused and looked back toward the fading commotion at the other end. He saw Lucas standing over the carcass of a dead owl as feathers dripped slowly from his fingertips.
Hunter and Kody Long rushed through the doorway and brushed past Lucas. Perfect timing. Without a word, they halted long enough to let Cisco lead the way down the hall. The three brothers stepped through the double doors and found an alcove on the left with a bank of computers. No one sat at the machines.
Straight ahead of them a darkened room spread out. On a massive bed in the center of the room lay the form of a sick, old man. As the three of them came closer, they saw the pockmarked face that had once had Cisco’s own features. A jawline and forehead were all that remained to seem familiar.
Books by Linda Conrad Page 129
