“It is special. And how could I ever forget you? You’re the only man who has ever really touched my heart and soul.”

  He began moving in a gentle rhythm within her, and as she tilted upward to welcome his thrusts, he groaned like a man who had reached his breaking point. “Don’t urge me on like that. I can’t hold back if you do.”

  “I need you, Ashe. Never hold back,” she said in a ragged whisper.

  Her world became a rainbow of colors as he filled her, then withdrew, only to claim her again. She was a part of him now and as he entered her body, he was a part of her.

  “My sawe,” he murmured. “You’re mine.”

  “Yes, yours,” she whispered, surrendering to the magnificent fires sweeping through her.

  As her world shattered, she felt him shudder and heard his own cry of triumph. Bathed only in moonlight, she clung to him as they drifted back to a world now gentled by love.

  It felt like an eternity later when she opened her eyes.

  He nuzzled her neck tenderly. “You gave me a gift beyond measure tonight when you gave yourself to me, my sawe.”

  “What does that word mean?”

  “‘Sweetheart,’” he whispered.

  His gentleness soothed her, but, as he pulled his body away from hers, she suddenly felt desolate and more alone than she’d ever been.

  Sensing her thoughts, Ashe drew her close to him. “You can’t lose me or what we found here tonight. And no matter what surprises the road ahead of us holds, this night will be a part of us forever.”

  To Casey, knowing exactly what the road ahead held for them altered the assurance he’d intended to give her.

  ASHE WALKED INTO THE tribal police substation alone the following morning. Casey had insisted on going back to her motel shortly before dawn. She’d pulled away from him emotionally, but he wasn’t quite sure why. Instinct told him that it had something to do with the secrets she still harbored. What hurt him most was that, even after what they’d shared, she continued to hold back. Those secrets were a terrifying barrier between them.

  Ashe looked for Casey, but she hadn’t shown up yet at the station. As time passed and she failed to show, he tried to call her on the cell phone but she’d either turned it off, or was in a section of the Rez where communications were impossible. Ashe tried the radio then, but had no better luck.

  As the hours passed without word from her, his concern grew. It wasn’t like her to disappear like this, but perhaps she’d needed time to herself after last night. There was another possibility, however, and that was what worried him most now. As a law-enforcement officer working a case, it was possible she’d run into a problem. Dangerous situations cropped up when you least expected them.

  Ashe called the motel where Casey was staying and was told her sedan was not in the parking area. He considered his options. He could put out an APB on her, but if she wasn’t in trouble and was simply out working the case, he could do more harm than good.

  He decided to try a different tack. Sometimes a low-profile approach was best. He contacted Officer Nakai on the radio and switched to a private frequency. “You out patrolling your regular area?”

  “That’s a roger. What do you need?”

  “I need to find Agent Feist. Can you keep an eye out for her vehicle?”

  “You’ve got it. Shall I pull a few other units on this, too?”

  “Only people you trust. I want this kept under wraps.”

  “You’ve got it. My cousin is patrolling another section. I’ll get his help.”

  Ashe was driving past the café near the hotel when his radio crackled to life. He picked up the mike and listened to John Nakai’s report.

  “I just located her sedan. Do you know those rent-by-the-week apartments south of the old high school? She’s there.”

  “I appreciate this,” Ashe said, changing direction for that location.

  “Any time.”

  Ashe sped down the highway, weaving around the few slow-moving vehicles in his way. As he turned and drove up the narrow, paved road that paralleled the river, he caught a glimpse of Casey rounding the corner of the small apartment building.

  She didn’t appear to be in any kind of trouble. Yet instinct told him something was definitely going on. She would have checked in, otherwise. He parked a hundred yards from the apartment and approached on foot.

  As he turned the corner of the building, he saw Casey walking with Fox. Surprise instantly gave way to relief as he realized that Fox was fine and safe at last. He started to call out to them when Fox moved to one side to step around a garden hose on the sidewalk.

  Then he saw the gun in Casey’s hand as she urged Fox forward. She was hiding the weapon between them, but there was no mistaking what he’d seen. His blood turned to ice and an impenetrable darkness descended over his soul as he faced the extent of Casey’s betrayal.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ashe crept forward, keeping Fox and Casey in sight. Anger twisted his gut as he remembered the woman he’d made love to only hours ago. He’d given her his heart, his trust. She’d given him her body, but nothing else.

  There was no reason he could think of, except one, for Casey to be holding Fox at gunpoint. Casey must have been involved in Fox’s kidnapping for reasons of her own. There was a heaviness inside him, as if his very spirit were being weighed down with stones.

  The two women ahead of him stopped, and Casey suddenly turned in his direction, scanning the area. Ashe slipped out of sight around the edge of the building. Counting to fifteen, he looked cautiously around the corner again. Both Fox and Casey had disappeared.

  Ashe pulled his weapon from its holster and moved forward silently, intent on finding Fox and yet uncertain what would happen next. The possibility that he might have to hurt Casey knifed at his gut. He passed by several rooms that were obviously unoccupied. Then, as he walked to the end apartment facing the parking lot, he caught a glimpse of a shadow inside the room. A figure by the window was holding a gun.

  Without hesitation, Ashe kicked the door wide open, then hit the floor and rolled as one shot rang out.

  The room was dark. The only light came from the apartment hallway door and from a crack in the window curtains. He moved forward by instinct, half guided by the memory of where he’d seen the figure standing.

  As daylight trickled into the room, he saw Casey’s outline less than six feet away, her head turned toward the doorway leading to another room. Seizing the moment, he dived forward, tackling and pinning her to the floor.

  “Ashe!” Casey yelled up at him in surprise. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I might ask you the same question.” Casey struggled to keep her gun firmly in her grasp, though Ashe had her hand pinned to the carpet. “Let go of your pistol.”

  “No! No way. Not until you tell me why you’re here.”

  “You’re not in a position to bargain.”

  “I’m not in a position to compromise my assignment, either.”

  “What kind of assignment? I saw you leading Fox down the sidewalk, and you had that gun in your hand.” He could feel her softness pressing against him. His body recognized and remembered hers. He bit back a groan. “Don’t push this, Casey. Just tell me where Fox is. We’ll settle the rest later.”

  “I can’t tell you that. Now let me get up. This is getting us nowhere.”

  He saw the stubborn gleam in her eyes, and realized that she would not give him the information he. needed willingly. He knew then that he had to break through to her somehow.

  “You’re in way over your head on this, Ashe. Believe me,” she said. “You’ve misread the situation. I’m here to protect Fox, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

  “I’m here for her sake, too. I can’t let you get up while you’re still armed. If you want me to trust you, then you’ll have to trust me, too.” He saw the hesitancy in her eyes and continued. “I held you in my arms only hours ago. I loved you in every way a man can love a woman. Yet your trust, your loyalty...those were already given to something—or someone—else.”

  “I’m guilty of nothing—except doing my best to keep Fox safe. Let me go and I can prove it to you.”

  “Drop the gun,” he repeated, his voice a hiss.

  “All right.” She released her hold on the weapon, and as he moved away, got up slowly. “I’m a U.S. Deputy Marshal. I was sent here to protect Katrina. I had my pistol out and Katrina close to me because I heard a vehicle drive up.”

  As she started to move her hand toward her jacket, he tensed. “Don’t,” he warned.

  “I’m not reaching for my backup. I’m reaching for my ID—the real one. You’ve suspected for a while that I wasn’t in the FBI, that it was only a cover. You also knew that your captain wouldn’t be foolish enough to give me access to his department if I didn’t have some solid credentials.” She pulled out her ID and silver badge. “I’m telling you the truth now.”

  “I don’t care about your kind of truth anymore. I’m sick of playing games. Let me talk to Fox.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t. You’re forgetting something. There’s a leak somewhere, and it has already resulted in the murder of your foster parents. I want to trust you, but I have questions about you I just can’t reconcile. I’m under orders and as the deputy in charge of this case, I’m accountable for everything I do. I’d trust you with my life, Ashe, but this is duty we’re talking about, not personal choice.”

  “You think I’d do something to harm Fox? Is that what you’re saying?” He moved away from her. Nothing could have hurt him more. “Don’t bother answering that. I’ll find her myself.”

  As he released her and shifted to stand, Casey pulled out her backup pistol and leveled it at him. “Don’t do it. I may not have it in me to kill you, but I will shoot you in the leg if I have to, in order to stop you.”

  He turned around slowly. The loss he felt was devastating. This was the woman he’d loved, the woman he would have given his life for; yet she didn’t trust him enough to even let him talk to Fox. Half of him hoped that she would shoot and put an end to the pain tearing at his gut.

  “I took an oath to protect any witness under my care. I can’t break that just because my heart tells me that you’re incapable of harming her.”

  Ashe walked up to Casey slowly. She wouldn’t shoot him. He couldn’t have been that wrong about her.

  “Ashe, stop.”

  He stood directly in front of her, grasped the barrel of her pistol and forced it against his chest. “If you want to shoot, do it. It can’t hurt me any more than what you’ve already done.”

  Casey tried to move her hand back, but he forced it to remain exactly where it was. “Ashe, don’t.” She moved her finger away from the trigger and relinquished her hold on the weapon. “If you try to go after Fox, I will do my best to stop you. But I don’t want to hurt you,” she said, her voice an anguished whisper. “Why do you find that impossible to believe? Only hours ago I held you and welcomed you into my body. You know me in a way that no one ever has. You’re hurt, I realize that, but how can you think that doing this isn’t hurting me just as much?”

  “Take me to see Fox. We’ll both protect her.”

  “I can’t. As I said, there are questions about your background....” She held his gaze, pleading silently with him to understand.

  He returned her backup pistol to her. “What is it that you’ve found that makes you question my honesty?” He’d given her his heart and she was tearing it apart. “Ask your questions, Casey, and then let me go to Fox.”

  With a sense of detachment he would never have thought possible, he noted the way tears filled her eyes. He wanted to take satisfaction in knowing that she, too, was in pain, but he could not. He felt empty inside, and very cold.

  “You paid cash for that truck of yours,” she said, her voice quivering. “That’s a huge chunk of your salary. Where did you get that money?”

  The veiled accusation was shattering. He knew now that this had been on her mind all along. But, without solid evidence against him, she hadn’t been able to get a court order to check out his bank records. Though he wished she had come to him directly, he also knew why she hadn’t. A question like that would have placed her at odds not only with him but with his entire department, compromising her ability to work the case on the Rez.

  Yet, hearing Casey voice her suspicions about him now, coldly and clearly, asking that he prove his innocence to her, almost destroyed him. Each of Casey’s words had sliced through him like a blade. “I paid in cash after saving the money for five lean years,” he answered grimly. “I didn’t always get a chance to go to the bank, so whatever money I had left at the end of the pay period I set aside. I’d make deposits whenever I could and put the money into a special savings account. The amounts were never large, but they added up. Check it out.” He picked up the motel phone, got the number of the bank and dialed. After getting his bank manager and exchanging a few quick instructions, he handed her the phone.

  After a few minutes’ discussion, she hung up.

  “Are you satisfied?” Ashe asked coldly. “If you are, then let’s stop wasting time. I’d like to talk to Fox now.”

  “I’ll take you to her,” Casey replied.

  She went across the apartment and stood by a closed door at the end of the hall. She knocked, identifying herself in a soft voice. An older, but tough-looking Anglo man stood at the door, saw Ashe and immediately reached for a handgun at his waist.

  Casey stopped him. “It’s okay.”

  Fox sat in an easy chair away from the windows, leafing through a magazine. The instant she saw Ashe, she stood and ran up to him. Remembering the Navajo custom of not touching, she hesitated, but then, seeing him smile, she followed her heart and hugged him.

  Ashe held her for a moment, obviously relieved to have her safe at last. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” His voice was thick with emotion.

  As he released her, Fox smiled and moved away. “I told them you wouldn’t give up.”

  Satisfied she was okay, Ashe nodded to the Anglo man, then turned to Casey for an explanation.

  “This is Bobby Hayes, my former supervisor at the U.S. Marshals Service. He’s retired, and the only person I knew I could trust to take care of Fox while I was out in the field investigating. Someone compromised Fox’s location, and we believe that’s why your foster parents were killed. Since we have no idea where the leak is, I couldn’t trust anyone inside my department—or in yours. I sent reports to my boss, but even he hasn’t been told where we’re keeping Katrina.”

  “I knew you’d be frantic,” Katrina said, “and that Travis would come back and turn the Rez upside down, looking for me. That’s why I sneaked away and called you. I tried to let you know that I was okay, and that you didn’t have to rescue me or call Travis back here just on my account.”

  Ashe smiled at her. “My brother should be back any time now. He wouldn’t let you face this alone.”

  “It will be nice to see him again,” Katrina said in a soft, faraway voice. “But I wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.”

  “When I realized she’d called you,” Hayes said, “I had to move her fast. Casey was under orders not to tell anyone—not even you—about Katrina. Since we had no idea how the killer was getting his information, the simple act of phoning you meant it was possible Katrina’s whereabouts had been compromised.”

  “I covered our trail every step of the way,” Casey explained. “I wore a black wig when we checked into a motel and I always made sure I was never too close to any of the clerks. I gave Fox the wig to wear later, because I knew her blond hair stood out too much here on the Rez. I still don’t know how you managed to keep tracking us down.”

  Ashe looked at Fox. “Why are you in the Witness Protection Program?”

  “It goes back to something that happened when I was just a kid. I don’t really remember very much of it. But it looks like someone doesn’t know that.”

  Casey looked at Ashe and gestured toward the adjoining room. “My partner will guard Fox. If we’re going to work together, I need to fill you in.”

  CASEY LED THE WAY INTO the next room—the bedroom—then closed the door. She knew how badly she’d hurt Ashe, but what was hardest of all to face was the coldness in his eyes. The love she’d seen reflected there only a few hours ago had completely vanished. The knowledge of what she’d lost was like bitter acid eating away at her soul.

  “All right,” he said in a quiet voice. “Let’s hear it.”

  His tone was so matter-of-fact and impersonal, it wrenched her heart. Casey wanted to touch him, to show him that it wasn’t too late, that their feelings were strong enough to overcome anything. Instinctively, she reached for his hand, but he pulled back.

  “Don’t. What we had is over. You distrusted me both as a man and as a cop. There’s nothing left for us to build on.”

  Her heart was breaking into pieces as she saw the pain that was mirrored in his eyes. Like drops of water, her dreams were slipping through her fingers, leaving her with only an aching sense of loss.

  “Tell me about the Marshals Service involvement with Fox,” he demanded without emotion.

  Casey took a deep breath and forced her voice to stay even. “When Fox was six years old, she was an eyewitness to her parents’ murder. Fox gave the police a description of the killer and an artist sketched out a composite, but it was very rough. Then, while the police investigated, Fox was placed in a foster home. Less than a week later, there was an attempt made on her life.”

  “Even if she was a target, this still doesn’t sound like a federal matter.”

  “There’s more. The moment the police ran her parents’ names through the computer, we learned what had happened and took over the case. Fox’s biological father was in the Witness Security Program. He’d asked for protection after he testified against a group of Russian criminals working in the U.S. He had been in the WITSEC program for six years at the time of the murder.”