She took a deep breath and opened the door. The hall was empty. Her first instinct was to help the man she’d seen. She wanted to, but knew she couldn’t. It sickened her that someone was suffering like that, but she remembered Chase’s directive: rescue the pipe and get out. Dana closed the door and ran on tiptoe down the hall. As she went, she felt the warmth of the pipe continuing to roll through her.
At the back door, lightning flashed. Thunder followed moments later, and the instant Dana stepped into the night, rain assailed her. It felt as if the thunder beings were attacking the compound. She kept her head tucked and repositioned her night goggles.
Where was Chase? Her mind whirled over the possibilities. Had he run into Rogan?
Keep going, Dana willed herself. Turning, she ran stealthily along the edge of the lodge. From here there was a clear path to the gates, which appeared to be unbarred. That meant Chase had arrived already. Getting through the gates had been his job. She did a quick scan of the area and saw no sentries. She had to make a run for it!
The rain had turned the ground into slippery mud. Puddles were everywhere, and in places, streams of water gushed. Across the yard, Dana recognized the dorms where the women stayed. They were dark, as if everyone was asleep. But who could sleep in this hellacious storm?
Uneasy, Dana edged along the last side of the lodge. Her nerves screamed when her boots nearly slipped out from under her. The ground was like black ice, and her speed put her at risk of falling. She kept her hand against the side of the building as she ran.
She was less than eighty feet from the entrance. There were no guards out there that she could see. Who would be out on a night like this?
Blue Wolf jerked open the door of the dorm. The electricity had gone off during this last storm. The building was hot and muggy and she desperately wanted some fresh air. Standing out on the porch, out of the pouring rain, she winced as a flash of cloud-to-cloud lightning occurred. Because she lived in fear of being struck by an angry thunder being, Blue Wolf raised her hand to protect her eyes from the light.
As she did so, she saw a shadowy figure trotting down the side of the main lodge. Who was that? Turning, Blue Wolf wondered if Rogan had ordered whoever was supposed to be on guard duty back to the gates. Because that was the direction the figure was running.
Something wasn’t right. Blue Wolf felt it in her gut. She darted back into the dorm.
“Guards, get out here! There’s someone in our compound!”
Chase waited tensely near the gate. When he’d gone into the lodge, Rogan was nowhere to be found. The stranger was unconscious in the main room, handcuffed to the pole. Chase could do nothing to help him, even though he’d wanted to.
He finally spotted Dana slipping and sliding through the mud. He’d already pulled off the massive board that held the gates closed. Rain made it hard for him to see her clearly.
“Are you coming?” he rasped into the mike situated against his mouth. He stepped out of the shadows and stood at the opening, a hand on each gate so the wind wouldn’t swing them open prematurely and tip off the guards.
“Y-yes…coming!”
Chase heard the panic in Dana’s breathless voice. She had only ten feet to go across an open stretch. His heart clutched in his chest. Chase knew this was the most dangerous part of their operation. Dana would expose herself to anyone who might be watching from these buildings. They’d see her running hard for the gate and know it wasn’t one of their own people. Pulse accelerating, Chase realized he, too, was exposed to view. He watched as Dana awkwardly started her sprint across the open gap.
In that moment, he heard the shriek of women’s voices raised in alarm. Jerking his head to the left, Chase saw through his night-vision goggles three women, all armed, running toward him. Dammit!
“Dana! Three sentries coming my way! They’re armed. Hurry! I’ll open the gate and you slip out. I’ll take care of them.”
Danger! Dana felt it sizzle through every screaming nerve in her body. She lunged and slid through the heavy rain toward the gate. If not for her night goggles, she wouldn’t see anything.
Chase’s warning rolled through her like a tank. Glancing to the right, she saw armed figures running toward the gates, where Chase stood. Oh, no! She dug her muddy boots into the wet ground and tried to listen through her headset as she ran. What was he saying? That he’d stay behind? No, he couldn’t. It was three against one!
Sobbing for breath, Dana reached the gates. Chase opened them just enough for her to pass through. She started to slow her pace.
“Get out of here, Dana! Follow the mission!”
“Chase…”
“Get the hell out of here!” He shoved her roughly so that he could shut the gates behind her.
Giving a cry, Dana heard the gates slam shut. Lightning flashed, revealing the road before her. The one she needed to run down to escape. But what about Chase? There were three armed women running toward him!
Her mind whirling with indecision, Dana lurched down the road. Like any dirt road in a rainstorm, this one had turned into an oozing mire, winding like a snake across a high meadow of cactus and sagebrush. As she trudged through the mud, Dana twisted to see if Chase had come out yet. That had been the plan: he’d meet her at the gates and they’d run away from the compound together, to a car parked two miles away, near the highway.
A gust of wind tore at her. And though the rain slackened, Dana slipped and fell on her butt. She landed hard, managing to throw out her hands to stop herself from falling onto the pipe. Covered with mud, she scrambled back to her feet and glanced around. Having rounded the first curve that was dropping slowly in elevation, she couldn’t see the compound any longer. Where was Chase? She readjusted her headset, trying to hear him, but couldn’t.
“Chase! Chase, do you read me?” Dana begged as she ran awkwardly down the road.
No answer.
A horrible feeling flooded her. Something was terribly wrong. She had to make sure Chase was still alive. The breath halted in her chest at the thought of being alone. She’d just found him. Had the women shot and killed Chase? Taken him prisoner?
On instinct, Dana leaped off the road. About fifty feet down the shrubby slope, she spotted several large sagebrush growing close together. Approaching quickly, she knelt by them. Looking them over, she made a decision. Dana shook off the pack and placed it in the bushy clump. No one would see it from the road.
Kneeling in the grass, her heart pounding unrelentingly, Dana tried to gather her wits. Focusing on the Storm Pipe, she mentally telegraphed that it would be safe here. She asked the spirit of the pipe not to answer the last carrier. She explained that she needed to go back and find her partner.
As soon as she’d relayed the message, Dana felt confident the pipe would remain silent. She saw a faint blue glow pulse around the pack, then fade and vanish. Grateful, Dana leaned down, pressed her palm momentarily on the pack and whispered, “Just stay quiet. I’ll return for you soon.”
The storm was now moving away. Dana gathered her deteriorating resolve, turned and trotted back up the slope. With night goggles, she managed to avoid the murderous thorns on the hundreds of cacti that dotted the meadow. And as she ran back to the muddy road, she sensed that Chase was in trouble—either captured or dead. Memories of this man, so warm and cajoling, so powerful and beautiful, slammed into her pounding heart. Hot tears clouded Dana’s vision, and her goggles grew misty. Taking them off, Dana halted. She wiped her eyes, sobbed once, then dived deep within herself. Now wasn’t the time to cry, even though she wanted to. She had to stay together. She had to think. Chase was in harm’s way. And she had to go back and try to rescue him. But how?
Settling the goggles into place, Dana realized she’d never felt so helpless. But the closer she got to the compound, the more she felt a new strength threading through her. She recognized the feeling as love. Love for Chase.
She didn’t try to deny it. Not now, not ever. As she climbed back up to that dark,
threatening place, Dana knew her life was nothing without him.
Tonight, she was either going to live or die. But she could not leave Chase behind. He wouldn’t have left her, she was sure. Somehow, she would have to use all the knowledge Chase had imparted to her over the last several weeks, get back into the compound and find him. Find out if he was alive or dead…
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
IN A HAZE OF PAIN, Chase slowly awakened. He tasted blood and discovered his wrists were bound around a wooden pole in the lodge. Sprawled out, his head throbbing, he caught the sound of far-off thunder. Movement to his left made him more alert. But his eye was nearly swollen shut, he found. Chase remembered having a shootout at the gate with the three sentries. They’d fired simultaneously. A bullet had grazed his left temple, and Chase remembered nothing after that.
It hurt to move from his position. Rain was drumming softly on the cedar shake roof of the lodge. As Chase fought to regain full consciousness, he looked over and saw the man Rogan had been holding prisoner. His face, badly swollen and bruised, was a bloody mess; his eyes, what little Chase could see of them, looked haunted. Chase stared at him for a long moment and saw his unshed tears.
Where is Dana? Closing his eyes, Chase forced himself into a sitting position to relieve the pain and tension placed on his arms and shoulders. No one else was present in the large, dimly lit space. Had Dana escaped? Chase wanted nothing more than that. He flexed his hands, his fingers numb because of the tight cuffs. Dana had to be gone. She had to have followed their escape plan to get the Storm Pipe to safety, back where it belonged.
“Who are you?”
Chase raised his head. It hurt to move, but he looked up to meet the stranger’s eyes. “In trouble. Like you.”
The man’s mouth moved slightly. His lower lip was split open, and blood had dribbled down his chin and onto his rumpled, filthy clothing. “We’re both in more trouble than we ever wanted to be in.”
“Yeah…” Chase muttered, scanning the room. The windows showed it was still dark outside. How long had he been unconscious? “What happened?” he asked the stranger, who was tied to the next pole.
“I heard gunfire. Must have been you. And return fire. About five minutes later, a couple of women dragged you in here. Rogan Fast Horse came in and cuffed you to the pole. And then all hell broke loose. There’s a woman named Blue Wolf, and she came shrieking out of the room over there.” The man lifted his elbow to point. “She was saying the pipe was gone. And then she switched languages and I couldn’t understand anything else.”
“So everyone’s out looking for this missing pipe?” Chase kept the terror out of his tone. The man, whoever he was, was trying to be helpful. Right now, Chase had to try and figure out how to escape. Sooner or later, Rogan would come in here and try to pry information out of him. If he couldn’t, he’d put a round in his head, just as he had that woman. Rogan was a cold-blooded killer who thought nothing of wasting a life to get what he wanted.
“I think so.”
“Have they found the person who took it?” Automatically, Chase held his breath, his fingers flexing.
“I don’t believe so. Blue Wolf had nearly a dozen women out running around in the storm earlier.” He looked at Chase. “They know you’re part of a team,” he warned him in a low tone. “And from what Fast Horse said, you had better prepare yourself….”
“I think we’re on the same side,” Chase told the stranger. “My name is Chase Iron Hand. I’m here to help you.”
It must hurt the man to talk, Chase figured, since some teeth were missing from his mouth. “I’m David Colby, FBI.”
Frowning, Chase felt his head clear. “FBI?”
“My partner, Annie—” Colby choked on her name “—had a vision. She is—I mean, was—psychic. She was murdered by Fast Horse.” Colby couldn’t stop the tears from forming in his eyes. Feeling shattered from the inside out, he managed to croak, “Annie had a dream about an L-shaped object. We tracked it down to an antique dealer in Carson City, who said it was a pipe. He suggested we drop in and visit Fast Horse, who might know more about it.” With a grimace, Colby said, “That was one hell of a mistake.”
“Yeah, it would be,” Chase whispered roughly. The blood from the wound on his temple had dried, and now it pulled the surrounding flesh. “I’m sure he thought you were after the Storm Pipe.” In Chase’s mind, there was nothing more to hide about the pipe. If he died, the FBI agent would know the truth and be able to prosecute Rogan—provided he survived.
“Fast Horse and Blue Wolf kept asking us about it,” Colby said. “We don’t know what it is. All I’ve ever heard or read about are the peace pipes from history books, when I was a kid in high school.”
Managing a grimace, Chase said, “There’s a lot more to pipes than that.” He glanced around the room once again. “We’ve gotta get out of here or we’re both dead men.”
“I know that.”
Chase heard a sound and turned his head. Instantly, his eyes narrowed. Heart banging in his throat, he couldn’t believe what he saw: Dana!
Dana held her finger to her lips as soon as she spotted Chase. He and the other man were cuffed to the two center poles. She quickly shut the door and looked around. Her throat was tight with fear, her heart pounding so loudly it scared her. She almost cried out when she noticed Chase’s bullet wound. If that missile had sliced even an eighth of an inch deeper, he would be dead.
Hurrying to his side, Dana squatted down and gripped his arm. “Chase! Are you okay?”
‘I’m fine, Dana.”
“Where’s the key for the cuffs?” she whispered urgently.
Never had Dana looked more beautiful to Chase. “I don’t know—”
“It’s over there,” Colby called to her. “See it? On that wood table opposite us.” The agent gave Dana a pleading look that spoke volumes. “Get it and free us?”
Chase nodded. “Dana, this is Colby. He’s an FBI agent. We need to take him with us.”
FBI? Dana’s mouth fell open as she stared over at the badly beaten agent. She had questions, but swallowed them for later. Had the murdered woman been an FBI agent, too? “Right.” Dana sprang up and ran across the room to the table. Despite the dim light, she found the small key. Just as she reached for it, the door at the other end of the room opened. Whirling around, she gave a gasp as she saw Rogan enter. In that split second she recognized him as her twin soul. Only he was the dark half. Dana realized then that a death spiral dance would now take place. Would she die? Or would he?
The door slammed shut with a terrifying finality.
Rogan eyed the woman at the table. His gaze cut to the two men, who were still cuffed. “Well, well,” he said, smiling slightly, “the fox comes back to the henhouse. Welcome, my dear. You must be Dana, the daughter of Cora Thunder Eagle, who used to carry the Storm Pipe. You are my twin soul.” Rubbing his hands together, he walked slowly toward Dana, his grin fixed. “Now, why didn’t I think that you might try to retrieve the Storm Pipe? Why indeed?” Rogan looked at Chase. “And you brought this big brute with you. Your guard dog, eh?”
Chase was helpless. He saw Rogan’s eyes glitter with hatred. Dana had turned, her face pale. She was no match for this brutal man, and yet there was nothing Chase could do. His heart clenched with anxiety and terror. Rogan had already killed one woman. He’d kill Dana.
Choking, Chase called to Fast Horse, “She knows nothing. I know it all. You want me, not her.”
Rogan kept his gaze trained on the woman in the black spandex suit. She was tall and strong. And beautiful. “I can see how much you look like your mother, Dana.”
Hatred and anger replaced her terror. Dana closed her fist and crouched, knowing Rogan was going to attack her at any moment. “You son of a bitch, you murdered my mother and my husband!”
Rogan chuckled. He felt confident he could grab her, haul her to the pole and tie her up with her accomplice. “Oh, come now. All’s fair in love and war. Your father was alrea
dy dead years earlier. And you know the Storm Pipe is all about power. It was a power I wanted, and your mother just didn’t see it that way.” He raised his hands and shrugged. “What was I to do?”
Adrenaline coursed through Dana so powerfully that her head became clear, chasing out the fear. She went for her pistol. The strap was over it and Dana fumbled with a shaky hand to release it. It was kill or be killed. She had to act.
There was a baseball bat on the other side of the room. This had obviously been Rogan’s weapon of choice on the FBI agent. Perhaps she should use it on Rogan. If she was fast enough.
In that moment, the medicine man leaped forward. With one swift kick, he knocked the weapon out of her hand.
Dana had been taught the rudiments of karate by Chase. As she lashed out with one booted foot, she connected solidly with Rogan’s narrow chest. He seemed surprised as her sole slammed into him, hurling him backward.
Dana was knocked to the ground, as well. Scrambling to her feet, she realized she was no match for Rogan, who was a black belt in karate. Racing across the room, she heard him curse, then turned to see him getting up. She ran on, but his footfalls were heavy, coming closer and closer. Her pistol had slid beneath a cabinet and she couldn’t reach it.
Reaching the corner, Dana grabbed the handle of the oak bat, spun around and lifted it with both hands. Rogan was charging so fast he couldn’t stop his forward momentum. With her one slicing movement, Dana got lucky. The bat slammed into Rogan’s head in a grazing blow. But it was enough!
Rogan crumpled like a felled ox to the floor, unconscious.
With a cry of relief, Dana dropped the bat. She raced back across the room, her hands shaking so badly she could barely pick up the key.
“Hurry!” Chase called, watching as Rogan lay unconscious on the floor. “Hurry!”
A peal of thunder sounded nearby, closer than any others had been in the last half hour. Dana skidded to a stop and dropped to her knees. She tried again and again to work the tiny key in the handcuffs. Finally, one side opened up. Chase quickly pulled free. In moments, the second cuff opened.
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