Tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her temples to soak into her hair. It had not been for nothing. They had found some of them. Kacey covered her eyes with her hands and wept. As the sobs continued, she crooked her arm over her eyes.

  Agent Forrest rubbed her shoulder, and when she lowered her bandaged arm from across her eyes, he sat back.

  “We’ll keep looking for your friends, Kacey. We won’t stop. But you need to stop now.”

  She met his gaze and saw the determination there. He wouldn’t give up and there was nothing more she could do in the hunt.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “I have talked to the Justice Department about you, Kacey. We believe that Anton’s survival will ensure that someone else will be coming after you and Charlie.”

  She wasn’t safe here. Her gaze darted to the door and then back to Forrest.

  “We would like to relocate you.”

  She nearly forgot to breathe. She wanted that, too. But she still had ties to the rez.

  “What about my sisters and brothers?” She was afraid to leave them with her mom and she was afraid to tell Forrest what Ty had revealed about her mother’s work with the gang. As much as Kacey longed to get away, she would not do so at the expense of her siblings.

  Forrest looked away. “They have already been placed within your tribe.”

  She’d been removed to foster care a time or two. They always sent them back to their mom.

  “For how long?”

  “It’s permanent this time. Your mother has given up custody.”

  Kacey’s brow sank. “She would never do that.”

  “Kacey, I have really hard news. Your mother was involved in your disappearance.”

  Her words were a whisper. “That’s not true.”

  “She’s admitted to accepting payment for you, Kacey.”

  Kacey’s ears began to buzz and she thought she might be sick. She clamped a hand over her mouth, breathing through her nose.

  “She’s addicted to heroin,” said Forrest. “We got a tip, so we’ve been watching her since your return. She’s been moving drugs. We caught her and she’s facing felony charges.”

  A tip? Was that Ty? No, he’d never rat out a member of the gang. But Ty had been right. Her mother had been a gang member all along.

  And her mother was going to prison. Just like Colt’s father. Kacey’s hand dropped from her mouth as the shock was replaced with a dull numbness. She felt anesthetized and did not know if she should be happy or sad about the news regarding her mother. Both, she decided, all tied up in a hard knot in her stomach.

  Agent Forrest kept on talking. “She made a deal with the DA. Reduced sentence in exchange for all she knows about this case. She helped the Wolf Posse pick girls, Kacey. That’s why your friends were taken. You and Marta were classmates. And Brenda was a teammate on your high-school volleyball team. Right?”

  She had one hand pressed tight to her forehead at this new shock but managed to nod. Her mother knew Brenda and Marta. Of course she did. The contents of Kacey’s stomach heaved, threatening to come up. She swallowed hard. She squeezed her eyes shut to concentrate on breathing as saliva filled her mouth.

  “I’m going to be sick,” she promised.

  Forrest had a pail before her in time. Afterward, he offered a damp washcloth. He would have made a good father, she thought, but Colt said that he was unmarried.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “No.”

  He nodded his understanding.

  “Your sisters are going with Jake Redhorse’s mom and her husband, Burt Rope. You lived there awhile in high school, right?”

  Mrs. Redhorse had some health issues, but she was a good woman and a good mother. Several times, she had given Kacey the kind of home she had always dreamed about during her difficult teen years.

  “My brothers?” she asked and set aside the cloth. The heaving in her belly ceased, replaced by a squeezing tension.

  “One of your tribal leaders has asked to foster them.”

  “Who?”

  “Her name is Hazel Trans.”

  Mrs. Trans had been Kacey’s absolute favorite teacher. She had recently retired and Kacey thought her brothers would be lucky indeed to have Mrs. Trans as a foster mother.

  She nodded her approval and offered a smile. “Thank you.”

  “Sure,” said Forrest. “Tomorrow you’ll be discharged and we’ll bring you back up to Turquoise Canyon to collect Charlie. If you like, we can arrange for you to see your siblings, too.”

  He didn’t say for the last time, but that was the case. She was going and would not be coming back.

  “In Darabee, someone tried to take Charlie,” she said. “They changed the orders about feeding.”

  “We’re looking into that. Creating a list of everyone who had access to those orders. We’ll find whoever did that, Kacey. But it was not the FBI. We have no intention of separating you from Charlie.”

  Forrest gave her a warm smile and rose to go. He made it to the end of her bed and then snapped his fingers as if just remembering something. “I almost forgot. One loose end. Who drove you from the clinic to the meeting at the overlook, Kacey?”

  It was Ty. She glanced away.

  “Colt came on a motorcycle,” said Forrest. “We found the tracks and the bike, which belongs to his brother Ty. But how did you get there?”

  “I—I don’t remember.” She met his gaze and saw the smile beneath the sharp hawkish eyes. He didn’t believe her.

  “Is that so? Any other gaps in your memory?”

  “Just the clinic visits.”

  One dark brow arched over an eye. “I see.”

  Kacey forced herself to hold his gaze and not fidget. Her nose itched and her lips tingled. She did not like to lie, but she knew Ty was tied up in this somehow.

  “Your deal with justice will depend on your complete honesty.”

  She held her silence. Ty had been ordered by the gang to transport her. But they had not ordered him to raise that dust or call Colt and be sure he knew where she was being taken. If she had to jeopardize her deal to protect him, she would.

  Forrest looked away and then back. “Well, it should be easy to figure out. We have tire tracks and they’re nearly nine-and-a-half inches wide. Classic muscle-car tire like for a Corvette or a Barracuda.” He paused, watching her intently.

  Her forehead felt damp with sweat.

  “Nothing? Well, we’ll find the car and then the driver. Have a few suspects.”

  It would probably be easier to find the car if the man who owned it did not also own a body shop. Kacey wondered if Ty’s precious Barracuda was already in pieces.

  She held the agent’s gaze, determined not to implicate Ty, no matter what the consequence. Ty had helped them and she would not repay his kindness by turning him over to the FBI.

  “My memory won’t improve,” she said. “If that jeopardizes my eligibility with the Justice Department, then so be it.”

  He rested a hand on his belt, his long fingers drumming on the black leather. “Did it occur to you that the Wolf Posse were the ones who delivered your friends over to the Russian mob? I wouldn’t be protecting gang members, Kacey.”

  She said nothing.

  “Care to tell me how you got to the meet?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  He snorted. “Well, we’ll talk again soon. Maybe your recall will improve.”

  “Can I see Colt before I go with the Justice Department?”

  “I don’t see why not.”

  She wanted to ask why Colt had not come to see her here, in Darabee, but she did not because she was afraid of the answer. Would it be harder to leave without telling him her feelings or harder to admit that she loved him?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Colt finished with the FBI. He had done as Ty had asked and told them the truth. Ty had picked up Kacey because the Wolf Posse trusted him and knew that Kacey would come with him. He’d then called Colt and told him where they were heading. Colt had then called the FBI.

  Ty was now safely back on tribal lands and Colt would do everything in his power to help keep him there until he had assurances that the FBI would not go after him for his part in recapturing Kacey. Until then, Ty would be a virtual prisoner on tribal land and would be lucky if the tribal leadership did not arrest him. The only good news regarding Ty was that Kenshaw Little Falcon had offered to represent Ty to the tribal council, which Colt found encouraging.

  Colt contended that it was important that both the Russians and the Wolf Posse believed that Ty had done as he was ordered. If they didn’t believe it, Ty would not keep breathing for long.

  Forrest drove Colt back to Turquoise Canyon.

  “No trouble driving in cars now?” he asked.

  “Some,” Colt admitted. “But I’m getting better.” He did not admit that he continued to pretend that Charlie was in the car with him. Picturing Charlie here did two things at once. It grounded him in the reality that he was here on the rez and it also helped him believe that he was safe. Colt had talked about it with the therapist Kenshaw recommended, who assured him that such a simple trick was well worth using.

  “We’ll be bringing Kacey back to the rez tomorrow.”

  Just the sound of her name made his heartbeat increase.

  “She wants to collect some of her things.”

  Colt’s head snapped toward Forrest. “Collect?”

  “She isn’t staying, Colt. She wants to keep the child that she carried. We have no objections to that, but all evidence indicates that chances are high that both she and Charlie will continue to be targets if they stay.”

  She was going with the Justice Department. She had no other choice. She was leaving as she always wanted. And he was going back to his cabin in the woods.

  Colt clamped down hard, locking his teeth together until the muscle at his jaw ached. Once all he had wanted was to get back to Turquoise Canyon and never leave again. Now he wanted Kacey and Charlie there with him.

  His perfect picture of Kacey and Charlie coming home to him evaporated like the sweat on his forehead. He had to let them go, for her sake and for Charlie’s.

  * * *

  KACEY RETURNED TO the compound along the river. Hazel Trans was there with her brothers. Her sisters arrived soon after with Burt Rope and Colt’s mother and his kid sister, Abbie. The reunion was brief. She did not tell her brothers that this would be the last time she saw them. They were too young to understand.

  It was a monumental relief that her sisters and brothers would be safe and well taken care of. She trusted Mrs. Trans and Colt’s mother, May. Abbie was all smiles and laughter at the news that she would be gaining three new sisters. At fourteen, Abbie had given up hope that her mother would produce a sister. She asked Kacey where she would live. Colt told her they were still working that out.

  Kacey took comfort in the certainty that May and Hazel would be there for her siblings. Kacey had called protective services on her mother the last time her mother left, and she’d caught hell for it. Now she wondered if that was what triggered her mother’s decision to offer Kacey to the gang. Kacey was a threat to her, a growing threat.

  Perhaps it was best that she would never know. She was not planning to see her mother before her trial or after.

  “What if she wants them back?” she asked Mrs. Trans.

  “I don’t think she really does, Kacey. I’ve spoken to her. She isn’t in a good place right now and she recognizes that.”

  Mrs. Trans hugged Kacey and then slid behind the wheel.

  Hewitt spun in the rear seat, waving with enthusiasm as they drove away. It was her undoing. Shirley asked her what was wrong and she told them in a rush of tears and sobs that she had to go away.

  Soon they were all crying and hugging. They asked her if it would ever be safe for them to return, and she had no answer. She knew only what the Justice Department had told her and what she now repeated to them. Her relocation was permanent and she would be safe only if she made no contact with the ones she left behind.

  She knew she was lucky. She had escaped and would have a new life. She would attend college somewhere as she had always hoped and the Justice Department would arrange for all her needs. She expected to not require their support forever, but only until she was able to provide for herself and her son.

  Her sisters left next. She hugged them each in turn, and the tears that ran down her cheeks mingled with theirs as they embraced for a final time.

  “I’ll never forget you,” said Winnie.

  Shirley would not even talk. When they were all in Burt Rope’s car, Jackie broke away and ran back to her, giving her one more hug. And then they were gone.

  Tomorrow she would see Colt for the last time and that was one parting that she did not think she could bear. She had lost her friends, her family, her home and her tribe. It seemed too much that she would lose Colt now after just finding him again.

  But that was tomorrow’s trouble, she thought. And then she heard the truck engine.

  A familiar mint-green pickup truck rolled up to the lodge, and there behind the wheel was Colt Redhorse.

  * * *

  COLT FOUND KACEY standing still as one of the posts that supported the roof of the porch before the tribe’s lodge. Only her eyes moved. In her arms, Charlie lay wrapped in a fuzzy baby blue blanket that trailed over Kacey’s arm. She was wearing a button-up orange shirtdress tied at the waist. The short sleeves revealed the white gauze that circled both her forearms. The knee-length cotton hid the wounds on her knees and made her look older somehow. Perhaps that was because of her sad expression and the circles beneath her eyes.

  Kacey was the oldest nineteen-year-old Colt knew. She was leaving them. But she was not leaving him. Not if he could help it.

  He jumped down from the truck and reached her.

  “They said you were coming tomorrow,” she said.

  “Couldn’t wait.” He reached for her, clasping her upper arm above the bandages and coming in for a brief kiss. Or he had meant it to be brief, but the contact was like a match dropped on dry paper, igniting into a scorching openmouthed kiss that left them both panting. He drew back and looked into her eyes, wanting to kiss her again, but he needed to settle things first.

  He noticed the guards watching from the other end of the porch, both armed with rifles. Jack Bear Den stood beside Ray Strong. They nodded at Colt, Jack scowling and Ray smiling. It was hard to believe that the pair were such good friends, because they were different in almost every way.

  Kacey’s breath was returning to normal. “Would you like to go sit by the river?”

  She was trying to gain them some privacy, or what little they could find and still be under the watchful eye of Tribal Thunder, the FBI and soon the Justice Department.

  He offered to carry Charlie and she turned him over. He had missed the baby boy more than he cared to consider. If Kacey would not allow him along, he might lose them both. The thought tore him up like a cat clawing through cardboard.

  She sat on the split log bench and he returned Charlie to her.

  “He’s bigger, isn’t he?” Colt asked.

  Kacey’s smile was sunshine on a cloudy day. “I thought so, too. Lori took great care of him.”

  “How did things go with the FBI?” he asked.

  “I didn’t tell them who drove me. I said I didn’t remember.”

  Colt snorted. “How did that go?”

  Her stare was glassy. “They didn’t believe me.”

  “Ty told me that they know anyway. They have the recording from my phone. It caught some of your conversation with Ty.”

  Kacey’s head sank.

  “You don’t need to protect him,” said Colt.

  “Well, someone should,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He takes care of things, really dangerous things, and he seems to always end up holding the bag. Why is that?”

  Colt had never thought of it that way. He just needed help and Ty always gave it to him.

  He had no answer, so he watched the river flow. It marked the time passing along between them. How could he convince her?

  “They didn’t find my friends,” said Kacey.

  “They still might,” he said.

  She looked down at Charlie, using her knuckle to stroke his cheek.

  “I’m sorry I dragged you back into this,” she said. “And for nothing.”

  “Kacey, you did all you could.”

  She blew away a breath. “I’m sure Marta has delivered by now. I’m so afraid that they’ll find her body dumped somewhere, or worse, that they won’t find it.”

  “Don’t give up. They’re all looking. Our tribe. The FBI. Someone will uncover something.”

  She met his gaze, searching. “Do you believe that?”

  “I do.”

  Kacey nodded, her mouth tight. “All right, then.”

  “So you are going into witness relocation?” He tried to sound casual, but his voice cracked. She noticed, giving him an odd stare. He saw a flicker of something, as if she were trying to puzzle something out.

  “They don’t think I have much of an option. They believe the Russians won’t give up.”

  Colt understood that. Letting her live was bad for their reputation and their business. And there was no telling what else she might know about them. Details she might still recall.

  “Permanent?” he asked.

  Her gaze skittered from his and lifted up to the canyon beyond the river. Her swallow was audible and finally she nodded, a short rapid bobbing.

  “Will they take me, too?” he asked.

  Her gaze snapped to his. “What do you mean?”

  “I want to go with you, Kacey.”

  “With me?” She was shaking her head now, reluctant, it seemed, to even consider the possibility.

 

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