Black Rock Guardian

by Jenna Kernan

  “I understand that. Did you join the service because of him?”

  “Yes. And the Bureau. Dad had been accepted...” She hesitated and took two deep breaths, then plunged back in. “Before the accident, he joined the FBI. It was his next move after the army. Got his dream placement, too, in DC.”

  And that placement would have taken him away from them permanently.

  Ty’s eyes rounded and his expression went wary. He wasn’t stupid. But she wasn’t doing this for her father. She wanted to make a difference, too. Was that so wrong? Her mother thought so. It was why Beth stopped calling home.

  “But I also joined...” She shook her head, still not believing she’d told him about her father or that she was even considering bringing up her mom.

  “Also joined...” he coaxed.

  She’d had enough. Her stomach ached from talking about this and she needed an antacid.

  “So,” he said, “you’ll sleep with me. But you won’t tell me the other reason why you joined the army?”

  She could feel him drawing away. It made her mad, too, his withdrawal, because she wouldn’t give him what he wanted.

  “I joined to get away from her.” She spat the words.

  His face registered surprise, but he didn’t speak.

  She blew out a breath and reined in her anger. “After he died, my mom got weird. She drove me everywhere and wouldn’t let me in anyone’s car but hers. I was going crazy.”

  “Protecting you.” Ty’s voice was just above a whisper as if he understood and was taking her side.

  Beth doubled down, getting it all out. “Suffocating me. After he died she forbade me to ride horses. I wasn’t allowed to play soccer. She said that was too dangerous because of the possibility of head injuries. So when I turned eighteen, I bought a bike. I knew she’d go crazy. That’s exactly why I bought it. And she did. Ultimatums, the whole thing. I joined the army to get away from her, but I stayed because I fit there. They promote you on merit. You succeed or fail because of what you do, not who your parents might be or if you look a certain way.”

  “I remember,” he said. “No history or past mistakes, just what they can see.”

  “The Bureau is different but also the same. You rise based on what you produce, what convictions you make. Merit, like in the army. They don’t have many agents who look like me. The demographics are still mostly men and mostly white. I’m different there in a good way. It makes me stand out and it got me this assignment.”

  “Your mom still in Oklahoma?”

  “Yes. She lives and works in the city and keeps a place on the rez.”

  “And you took this case because you could help our people,” said Ty.

  She hadn’t. They’d picked her because the database said she was Apache and she’d been happy to let that distinction help her along.

  She lifted her gaze to meet his and felt small as she admitted the truth. “I took the assignment to make a big case.”

  “Why is that so important?”

  She didn’t know how to explain it or if she really wanted to explain it.

  “Because I can make more of a difference in a bigger field office,” she said.

  “Oklahoma is not a small place,” he reminded her.

  “I hate Oklahoma.”

  “Because your dad hated it.”

  She dropped her gaze. “The best agents are in New York and DC.”

  “Ambition, then. I understand that.”

  But he didn’t approve. She could tell by the way he rolled to his back and folded his uninjured arm behind his head to stare up at the ceiling.

  “I was ambitious once,” he said. “Then I realized that I was one small fish in a big ocean. You know what little fish do, right?” He turned to her.

  “What?” she asked.

  “They try to stay alive.”

  She made a sound in her throat that acknowledged the truth in that. Then she curled against him. He didn’t stop her, but neither did he take her in his arms again. There was a barrier rising between them again.

  “Big world. I can’t save it. But I try to save the ones I can.”

  Their goals were different. Was he thinking that she didn’t need him or wouldn’t need him for long? He planned to stay here with his family and she was leaving as soon as they let her. She wanted to take back what she’d told him. Take it all back. She had position and authority already. But he had something more valuable, he had people he cared about and who cared about him, real living people, while she was still trying to make her father proud.

  She fell asleep to the rhythm of their heartbeats.

  The ringing of Beth’s phone woke her from a deep sleep. She glanced at the phone’s display and saw it was three in the morning and that the call was from her supervisor, Agent Luke Forrest.

  “Hoosay here.”

  “Get to the tribal police station,” said Forrest. “Mills committed suicide tonight and someone set the clinic on fire.”

  Beth threw herself to a seated position. Beside her, Ty sat up against the headboard, his body a dark silhouette in the bedroom. It had come too soon, the crash of reality that ripped her from his embrace.

  The records! The Bureau had removed what they deemed significant, but there was always the chance they could unearth more.

  “How bad is the fire?”

  “Bad enough.”

  “Maybe kids. A Halloween prank?” she asked.

  “Started in the records room. When the firefighters are done, we’ll sort through what’s left. Meet me there.”

  “En route,” said Beth, but Forrest had already hung up. She slipped from the bed. “I have to go.”

  He captured her wrist. “It’s a trap.”

  She hesitated. He wore no shirt and she could clearly see the stitches that ran across his shoulder, the wound he had suffered at Antelope Lake. Why hadn’t she remembered that during their lovemaking? They could have torn the stitches. “What?”

  “It’s just like the nonexistent meth lab on Canyon Ridge Road. Set a fire and see who shows up. My girlfriend shouldn’t be there. I know that much.”

  She mulled it over. What he said was smart. “I’ll be careful. But I have to go.”

  Ty released her wrist and she snatched her pistol and badge from the bedside table. She recovered her underthings on the way to the living room, gathering her slacks and shirt along the way. She sat on the couch and flicked on a side lamp to draw on her ankle-high boots. Hemi came out to keep her company.

  Ty stepped into the hall a moment later, leaning against the wall. He now wore a pair of gym shorts and nothing else. The red scars on his shoulder marred the perfection of his skin. His arms and face were tanned, a workingman’s tan, she realized.

  “Beth, you’re undercover. Here with me.”

  “They won’t see me at the fire.”

  “What if they see you leaving here right now?”

  She glanced toward the windows and the darkness looming all around them. Then she gathered her courage. “It’s my job.”

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  She cast him an impatient look. Hemi moved to stand by the door, glancing back at them.

  “Everything you do doesn’t have to involve risk.”

  He was psychoanalyzing her based on a five-minute conversation that they never should have had. She stood and grabbed an antacid, popping it into her mouth.

  “Stay here and wait for me to come back.”

  She holstered her weapon and looped the lanyard over her neck. She couldn’t stay. This was her case, her chance.

  He snorted and his chin dipped. “Yeah, right. Play time’s over and you’re back on the clock.”

  He turned and retreated toward the bedroom, snapping his fingers to call his dog. Hemi trotted after him. She stood and considered going after hi
m. But what could she say? She did have a job to do and it did matter what they had shared but not enough to change anything. As she had feared. Ty was the man she wanted and could not have, at least not for long.

  Beth shrugged into her leather jacket and retrieved her motorcycle helmet on her way out the door.

  * * *

  TY HAD GONE back to bed, but he didn’t sleep. Instead he lay on his back with his arm across his forehead and watched the light rise until he could see all the objects in the room, including the pair of handcuffs she had left behind on his bedside table. She’d been gone for hours. Was she safe? Did she need him? Ty threw back the covers and sat on the edge of his bed.

  Hemi groaned and lifted her head. She had slept on the dog bed she must have dragged in here sometime in the night. Usually he brought her dog bed into this room at night, but she could do it herself and he had been distracted.

  She came to sit beside him, resting her enormous head on his thigh while staring up at him with soulful eyes. He stroked the thick fur on her ruff with distraction. Hemi sighed. When his hand stilled, she stretched and walked to the door, her toenails clicking on the wood floor. She paused in the doorway, looking back at him as if asking if he was coming along.

  “Need to go out, girl?”

  Hemi’s reaction—hurrying toward the front door as she wagged her tail—was answer enough. Ty let her out and then retreated to the bathroom. He was half-dressed and shaving when his cell phone rang. He snatched it up, hoping it was Beth. His shoulders sagged as he realized it was Faras calling at 6:05 a.m.

  “Not good.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  When Faras called, you didn’t ask him why. Ty fed Hemi and took her along, fixing the carrier to the back of his Harley. He reached the clubhouse, as Faras called the Wolf Posse’s headquarters.

  Ty was surprised to be greeted by Chino, an unlikely guard, at the entrance to the property. Ordinarily, his second in command would not be given the menial task of sitting in his automobile and checking in arrivals. Something was going on.

  Chino cast him a glare and waved him on. Ty was happy for the roaring engine of his motorcycle, which made speech between them difficult. He rolled up to the ranch property, noticing again the number of new trucks. Once upon a time he was all that kept the posse’s old fleet of battered high-mileage vehicles moving. That time had come and gone, and Ty’s usefulness dwindled as the number of autos under warranty grew.

  Ty released Hemi from the crate and they were ushered in by the guard at the door. Once inside, he found Faras sitting alone at a large dining room table. Before him was his open laptop, a cigarette smoldering in an ashtray and, at his elbow, a full cup of coffee.

  Faras pinned his weary gaze on Ty.

  “About time,” he grumbled. Then he lifted his cigarette and took a long drag, exhaling smoke toward the ceiling, where it swirled, forming a blue-gray haze.

  Ty pointed to the couch, and Hemi hopped to the cushions, stretching out for a nap. Ty continued through the living room to stand before Faras on the opposite side of the rectangular table.

  “What’s up?” asked Ty.

  “You see Chino outside?”

  Ty inclined his head and glanced toward the door. The house was uncharacteristically empty. Some of that could be blamed on the earliness of the hour. But Faras usually had a guard inside the premises.

  “Found out the Russians called him. Believe that?”

  “Who? Chino?”

  Faras took a drag on the cigarette and nodded.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means he’s trying to take over. Doing an end-run. He knows that Usov is ticked at me. Knows Quinton narced on me and that the guys are getting restless because tribal arrested Hauser and Mills. Perfect timing. Remember when I took over?”

  “That was different. The posse had lost its leader.”

  “Yeah, but I was a long shot. Only reason I’m sitting here is you, bro. Don’t think I forget it, either.”

  Ty wondered if Faras was appreciative enough to let him go free and clear. But he knew Faras well enough to understand that he had not called Ty to his side at this hour to release him from his obligation or to offer thanks. Faras had helped him entrap his father. Ty had owed him, though that debt should now be more than paid.

  “I want you here full-time starting right now,” said Faras.

  That was definitely not going to work. Ty drew up a chair and sat down. He folded his open hands before him on the top of the table, partly to show he was getting down to business, but also to show Faras where his hands were.

  “I just don’t know who to trust. Time to fall back on the ones who were there from the start. You know?” asked Faras.

  “Yeah. Understandable. So the Russians... How’s that going to work with Dr. Hauser dead and the clinic closed?” Ty did not mention that the clinic had been set on fire, but wondered if Faras might already know.

  “They don’t need the clinic or Hauser. They just want the posse to pick up candidates.”

  Ty had never asked how this part of the operation worked. Up until three weeks ago, when Kacey Doka arrived after escaping captivity by the Russians, he didn’t even know it was happening. But it was like driving by a horrific accident. You couldn’t unsee that.

  “How does that happen, exactly?” asked Ty.

  “I used to pick rejects from our recruitment. Girls we didn’t want because they were too messed up or their families were. Easy to find the ones that no one would miss. But now tribal police are on to us and they’re going to take note of every girl who ‘runs away.’” Faras used air quotes around the words runs away.

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know, man. This is bad. I have to deliver four girls, so I got bigger problems than Chino trying to take the reins.”

  Ty thumped his hands on the table. “Hate to add to your troubles, but my dad will be out soon.”

  Faras took another long drag on his cigarette, then stubbed it out. He lifted his coffee mug and took a sip. For a moment Ty thought Faras was weighing his options or brainstorming a plan. But then he slammed his laptop shut, leaving his hands splayed upon the black plastic casing as he glared at Ty. “You take care of him. You hear? This time you do like I said and kill the bastard.”

  Ty understood. Faras would be of no help where his dad was concerned. Ty was on his own on that one.

  But by ordering him to take care of his father, Faras had presented him with the opportunity to escape Faras’s demand to move in permanently.

  “All right. I’ll take care of it.”

  Ty stood and exited the Wolf Posse’s headquarters. Hemi roused as Ty strode through the living room and hopped down from the couch to fall in step beside him as he cleared the front door.

  He almost made it out, but Faras called after him.

  “I was thinking of taking girls that are passing through. You know?” He drew out a new cigarette from the pack and lit it. The tip flared orange for the intake of his breath. “Take them from outside the boundaries of the rez or take them at drinking parties. We always get outsiders at parties.”

  “Outsiders?” Ty asked. Faras was getting desperate.

  “Yeah. You know, any women from outside the rez?” Faras set the cigarette in the ashtray and quirked an eyebrow. “I just need four more and those bastards will move on and I’ll be back to business as usual.”

  Which meant drug sales, protection and money laundering. Ty had never seen Faras look so frazzled. If he didn’t know what Faras had done and what he was capable of doing, he’d almost feel sorry for him. But Ty knew that a cornered animal was the most dangerous sort.

  Faras drew out a cigarette from the pack on the table and then realized he had one smoldering in the ashtray. He slipped the tube of tobacco back into the pack and turned his attention on Ty
. “You know any women who don’t belong here?”

  Did he mean Beth? Did he actually think he’d turn over his girlfriend? Or did Faras know who and what Beth really was? He schooled himself to hold a blank expression.

  “No,” said Ty.

  Faras slipped the open pack of cigarettes back into his shirt pocket. “Think about it, bro. You ain’t known her that long. Then it’d be one down and three to go.”

  Ty’s jaw tightened.

  Faras’s smile was cold as winter frost. “You take care of this trouble with your dad. Permanently. Then get back here. If he ain’t out yet, come back. I need four girls in their hands by Friday or Chino won’t have to challenge me.”

  Ty headed out with Hemi trailing beside him. His canine needed no assistance in hopping up to her traveling crate and sat with tongue lolling as he fixed the harness about her. He needed to find Beth and warn her that she was on the capture list.

  Ty stopped at the top of the drive for the rolling gate to open and permit his exit. Chino made him wait. Finally, the barrier rolled back and Chino flipped him the bird as he roared away on his sled. He made sure he was out of sight and earshot before pulling over. His cell phone offered him no service. Ty swore. Hemi rested her large chin upon his shoulder. He lifted his hand to give her an absent scratch on the cheek. Then they were off again, heading for Piñon Forks.

  He was careful to park at the clinic because he couldn’t very well pull in to the parking lot of tribal headquarters. His bike was too distinctive to be seen right in front of the building that housed the police station. Luckily, the tribe’s clinic was a separate building and his big brother worked there, giving him all the reason he needed to visit. Plus, Beth might be here because of the fire.