by Jessie Cooke
KYLE
There’s a girl lying right in the middle of the old wagon track. I nearly ran her over. She was so tiny and her body was crumpled against the sand and curled into a fetal position. I threw the SUV into park and I got out and went over to where she lay. I knelt down and touched her. Her skin felt like it was on fire. She was still breathing, but barely. Her cracked lips told me that she was dehydrated and I’d be willing to bet that her internal temperature was headed into stroke territory…if she hadn’t had one already. I picked her up easily and held her against my chest as I stood. She was as light as a feather. I carried her to the SUV and laid her down in the back. She let out a moan as her body hit the cool vinyl of the seat. I reached in the front for my bottle of water. It was hot, but it was wet and right now to this girl I’d be willing to bet that was all that would matter.
“Hey! Wake up. I need you to drink some water.” I wondered what in the hell she’d been doing way out here, all alone. I thought about looking through the backpack she was clutching to see if she had any I.D. on her but as I reached for it, she moaned again. I took her tiny face in my hand and pressed the plastic water bottle to her lips. “Hey there, take a drink. You need water. We need to get you cooled down.” I supported the back of her head with my hand and held it up. Then I pressed the water bottle to her lips and said, “Come on, pretty girl…just drink a little bit.” I poured a little in and when she didn’t choke or gag, I poured in a little more. I was about to pull it back when she wrapped her lips around the top of it and began to guzzle it. “Whoa there! Slow down a little. You’re gonna make yourself sick.” I pulled it back and she reached for it with her lips. I probably shouldn’t notice at a time like this, but what pretty lips they are. I put the bottle back to her mouth and said, “Drink it slowly, okay? Just take sips.” She nodded, still not opening her eyes. She drank the water in sips and after four or five of them, I saw her pretty dark lashes flutter and she pulled open her eyes. I wasn’t prepared for that. She had the most incredible pair of eyes I’d ever seen.
“Hi there.” She frowned and then pushed against me, trying to sit up. When I didn’t move she balled her tiny hands up into fists and started wailing on me. “Take it easy,” I told her, taking hold of her skinny little wrists. “You’re safe, but I think you’re sick. I’m just trying to help you. I’m no doctor but I think you might have heat exhaustion. We need to get you to the hospital.”
“No! No hospital.” It sounded like her throat was raw.
I sighed. Why do women have to be so difficult? “Okay, no hospital but, there’s a clinic on the reservation. I’ll take you there.”
“Who are you?” She said it as if I was the one trespassing. I was a little stunned that she had to ask. I tried not to be too insulted, the girl was just unconscious and most likely suffering from heat exhaustion. I’m sure once I told her she would know.
“Kyle Case.” I flashed her one of my sexiest smiles, dimples and all. She still looked confused and there wasn’t even a flicker of recognition in her violet eyes. Maybe it was the heat. Otherwise she must have crawled out from underneath one of the rocks around here.
“Where am I?”
“Reno, Nevada.”
She rolled her eyes. Seriously. This little girl is about half dead and she rolled her eyes at me. “I know I’m in Reno. I’m not mentally challenged. Where in Reno?”
I rolled my eyes back at her. I can’t say it was my most mature move ever, but it felt damned good. “You’re just a few miles south of the Paiute reservation.” I told her. I still had my hand on her back. She sat up further and when my hand tried to follow her movement, she shook me off. I forgave her for that too. She’s sick and even though most women over the age of sixteen clamor for my touch, she can’t really be held responsible in her current state. “We should get you to the clinic. We need to get your temperature down.”
“Can you take me to the Tribal Council Chairman?” Her voice was weak, barely above a whisper.
I raised an eyebrow. Council Chairman Winnemucca is not even close to being my biggest fan. “I think you should go to the clinic first.”
“That’s fine, I’ll walk.” Even in her weakened state I could hear the determination in her voice.
“You’ll die.”
She didn’t say anything to that. Instead the stubborn little imp slid out of the SUV and placed her feet in the dirt. She put out a hand and steadied herself…and then she took off walking. Maybe she has a death wish. I sat back and watched. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t make it far. Besides, the view from the back of those jeans was a nice one. She’s tough. I have to give her that. She made it at least ten steps before finally falling face first into the dirt.
I waited a second to make sure the little spitfire wasn’t going to get back up on her own and come at me with her claws out. She didn’t, so I went over and picked her back up. She was out cold…again. I tucked her in the back of the SUV and headed up the old wagon path towards the east side of town where the health clinic was located. Once they cool her down and get some fluids in her, then someone can call the Tribal Chairman for her. I couldn’t help but be curious about that. What would this little white girl with the violet eyes want with Jonathan Winnemucca?
15
Skye
Three Months Later
“Your phone is ringing.” Kyle was touching me on the shoulder. For a second, I was stuck in my dream and I thought it was Mick…
“What?”
“Your phone, it’s been ringing for ten minutes. Whoever it is hangs up and calls right back.”
“Shit! It has to be my grandfather. He and you are the only two that ever call me.” I jumped up, forgetting that I only had my sports bra and panties on. Kyle wasn’t enough of a gentleman to avert his eyes. Instead he gave me a lecherous look up and down and ran his tongue across his bottom lip. I rolled my eyes. “You wish. Get out of my room.”
Kyle Case is the quintessential “bad boy” personified. His jet-black hair is cut short and has that “just drug my fingers through” look on top that made him look like he just finished having sex…all the time. His eyes are like dark chocolate. Most people might think that they’re black, but if you really look into them, you’ll see the flecks of brown swimming in the irises. As if that wouldn’t have made them mesmerizing enough, they’re framed by inch long, dark lashes. His bottom lashes are so long that it looks like he’s wearing eyeliner and mascara all the time. He’d shown me a few articles online that accuse him of it. His lips are full…the kind a girl might like to suck on and he always has a five o’clock shadow that adds to his overall sex appeal. His dimples crease on either side of his mouth and his dark eyes dance like a child with his hand in the cookie jar most of the time. He perpetually looks like he’s up to something. Right now, he’s standing in my room wearing nothing but a pair of black cotton pajama pants and a sexy smirk. It was a picture that any magazine in America would pay me for…if I was so inclined.
He turned like he was going to leave and the colorful tribal band tattoo on the bicep of his right arm danced. The black phoenix on his back with the orange and yellow flames shooting out of its wings was nice to look at too. Kyle Case was a fine specimen…but for whatever reason, I just wasn’t interested.
My new friend Rita told me that growing up on the reservation everyone knew Kyle was destined to be a star. His movie-star good looks coupled with the fact that he could out sing just about anybody in the business by the age of sixteen guaranteed it. By the time he was nineteen, he had his first platinum album. He was twenty-six now and he’d gone from making solo albums to being the lead singer in a band called Stone Mother. Kyle was shocked when he discovered that I had no idea who he was. He accused me of living under a rock. He had no idea back then how accurate that really was.
I picked up the phone just as it started ringing again. “Good morning, Grandfather.”
“Good morning, Skye. You weren’t answering your phone.”
; “I’m sorry. I was up late cleaning up at the Community Center after the concert last night. It was really nice of Kyle to do that, don’t you think?” Kyle heard his name and stopped in the doorway. He turned back around to gawk at me some more.
“It was fine,” my grandfather said. For some reason he really didn’t like Kyle. I hadn’t figured that out just yet. I’d been too busy re-introducing myself to him. That day when Kyle found me in the desert, he took me to the clinic. By the time they stripped me down, immersed me in cool water for several hours and started an IV, Grandfather had gotten word about “the girl with the violet eyes” at the clinic. He’d come over to see for himself and as soon as he laid eyes on me he said, “Koomeba.”
I found out later that meant, “Sky” in our language. Grandfather enveloped me in his big arms that day and for the past three months he’s done nothing but work to find my aunt whom he believes he can force to tell the truth. Once she tells the police that I killed her husband in self-defense, Grandfather says the police will have to drop the charges.
“Have you seen Kyle this morning?” I tensed. Kyle came back here with me last night…we were just hanging out because it would be his last night here for a while. Nothing happened, but I doubted that Grandfather would believe that if he knew that he’d spent the night.
“Um…yeah…He’s here. I made him breakfast since it will be his last day here for a while.” Grandfather rarely asked a question he didn’t already know the answer to. I got the feeling he already knew damned well that Kyle was here.
Kyle was laughing…silently. He was making fun of me, but too chicken-shit to let my grandfather hear him in the background. I waved my palm at him, pointed at the door and turned my back on him. It didn’t really help, now I could just feel him staring at my ass.
“I found her,” Grandfather said. My heart began to race and I could hear my own pulse thumping inside my head. There was only one person he could be talking about.
“Aunt Hannah?”
“Yes. Big Todd went to pick her up and bring her here. I’d like for you to be here when she arrives. I want to see the look on her lying face when she sees you.” Of all the things I found out about Grandfather so far, the one that stood out the most was that he hated a liar. He claims that was what got both my Aunt Hannah and my father out of his good graces.
“I’ll be there!” I almost asked if I had time to shower before I realized that would just let him know that Kyle was here and I wasn’t properly dressed. Instead I just asked, “Is half an hour okay?”
“Yes, of course. We’ll be in the council chambers. I’m going to have Bear sit in.” “Bear” is my tribal council appointed attorney. He’s a three hundred pound full-bred Paiute who is so dark skinned that people mistake him for an Indian from India or Egypt. His real name is Avonaco which means “lean bear.” I find that hilariously ironic. Grandfather asked me, “What time will Kyle be leaving today?”
I cupped my hand over the receiver and just to see he look of desperation on Kyle’s face I mouthed, “Grandfather wants to know what time you’re leaving. I think he’s going to miss you.” Kyle glared at me and finally left the room. Grinning back into the phone I said, “I think he said his ride will be here at four.”
“Good,” Grandfather said happily.
“Did you want to see him before he goes?”
“Not at all,” Grandfather said.
16
Skye
I was a nervous wreck about seeing my aunt again. I was still angry with her for not protecting me against her perverted husband, and I still firmly believed that I did what I had to do…but it was still going to be nerve-wracking to look her in the eye even after all of these years. When I entered the town hall where the tribal council holds their meetings, I heard raised voices. I quietly moved towards the door to the conference room and then stopped and listened.
“You can’t just have some big ass Indian come and haul me out here on a whim. That’s kidnapping.”
“I requested your presence here more than once. If you didn’t want to be escorted out, you should have come on your own.”
“Really Bear? You’re a fucking lawyer and you’re letting him do this?”
“Don’t use the language here, Hannah.” That was Grandfather. I didn’t hear Bear say anything. He was smarter than her apparently.
“I haven’t been out here in over twenty years…why would I want to come now?”
“Because Hannah, it’s time for the truth. That’s why Bear is here, to witness the truth.”
I heard her sigh and say, “Jesus Daddy, you haven’t changed a bit. Still living in the old days where the big chief could put on his head dress and tell everyone what to do. You’re not a chief and you don’t have the right to bring me here and hold me against my will. Besides, I have no idea what “truth” it is that you’re talking about.”
“I’ll tell you then,” he said, “It’s the one where you admit that Skye killed that no good for anything husband of yours in self-defense.” I heard a chair scrape the floor and then Grandfather saying, “Sit down, Hannah. You’re not going anywhere.” That was the moment I chose to step into the room. Hannah was still standing up and when she saw me, she dropped down into the chair. Her mouth was literally hanging open.
“What kind of bullshit is this? You’re not only kidnapping but you’re harboring a fugitive as well, Daddy? She killed my husband.”
“I did,” I told her. “I’ve had to live with that for five years now. I took a life when I was still a child because I had no choice. He was trying to rape me and you weren’t going to stop him.”
“You’re delusional. I’m sending the authorities out here right now.” She pulled out her phone and Grandfather nodded at Big Todd who up to this point had been leaning against the wall in the back of the room. Big Todd took it from her hand. “You are all going to jail for this! You’re all crazy!”
“Aunt Hannah, I spent the last few years of my childhood and the first couple of years after becoming an adult sleeping on cold sidewalks and going hungry and being afraid. I’ve suffered for what I’ve done…but the fact is that you could have prevented it all. You knew he was being inappropriate with me and you chose to ignore it. You were home the day he came in my room. I screamed. You chose to ignore me. That was all bad enough, but I found out recently that after I left that day you did everything you could to make it look like I was some kind of cold blooded murderer.”
“He was my husband!”
“I was your niece…your blood.”
“He wasn’t like that. He didn’t cheat on me and especially not with kids.”
“When it’s a kid and especially when it’s not at all consensual…it’s called rape.”
“You walked around in those skimpy little outfits…”
“How dare you! It was Nevada in the middle of the summer. I wore shorts and tanks…the same thing any other girl my age would have been wearing. You can call it whatever you want to. Whatever it takes for you to be able to sleep at night…but it was molestation and attempted rape at the very least and you were not only turning a blind eye to it…you lied about it and covered it up after he died.”
“He didn’t just die little girl! You murdered him! Yes, I moved the body because I’ll be damned if my husband would be remembered as a child molester. Whatever he planned on doing that night…he didn’t deserve to die for.”
“You’re as guilty as he was then,” I told her. I realized I shouldn’t have wasted time worrying about seeing her again. She was really nobody to me and I wasn’t intimidated by her in the least.
“Hannah you need to tell the police what you know. Skye is twenty years old. She can’t live her life on the run. You have the power to clear her name and give her the chance at a good life,” Grandfather said. His tone wasn’t pleading; it was said as if it was a direct order. My aunt’s dark eyes were narrowed on him. She waited for him to finish and then she said,
“She deserves a good life?
What about me? First she teases and seduces my husband and when he goes to collect on what she all but promised, she wants to cry rape. You’re damn right I ignored her screams. She had already ruined my life at that point. She had it coming….”
Grandfather pushed a button on his intercom and said, “Can you come in here, please?” I was surprised and my aunt was shocked, when a few minutes later a man in a suit and a man in a sheriff’s uniform and two tribal police officers came in.
“What the hell is this?” Hannah screamed.
“Do you remember me?” the man in the suit asked her.
“You’re the detective who was investigating my husband’s murder. This is the girl…this is Sarah Winnemucca!”
“They just listened to everything you said, Hannah.” Grandfather looked at me and said, “Skye, these gentlemen are going to let Bear drive you to Las Vegas. You’re going to give them your statement and then you’ll be booked and released back into Bear’s custody. They’re not going to lock you up. I promise you that.” My stomach was in knots. I felt the squeeze of an invisible hand around my throat…I wanted to scream…. “Skye? Can you trust me and do this? Once this happens, Bear will bring you home. Detective Laramie has assured me that if he has Hannah’s confession, he can get the D.A. to drop the charges against you. He’ll just need a few weeks. During that time you’ll be free, here with me…Isn’t that right, detective?”
