Casey glanced around and saw several Anglo cowboy-looking types drive up in a big oil-company pickup. They climbed out, most holding beer bottles, and one of them gestured in their direction. “I think we should leave now.”

  Ashe looked at the men. That was all. He simply looked at them with those lethal obsidian eyes.

  The men exchanged shrugs, then turned toward the tavern. Casey blinked, then peered up at Ashe. She’d never met anyone who could command respect with just one glance. It was like something out of a John Wayne movie.

  As if sensing her reaction, Ashe captured her gaze, held it, and slowly smiled. “Nothing’s going to happen that you and I can’t handle.”

  As she slipped into the passenger seat, her heart hammering wildly, Casey couldn’t quite get over the feeling that there was more than one meaning woven into his words. The attraction between them was getting stronger with each passing moment. Just being with him made her feel wonderfully alive, enticingly feminine and ready for anything.

  Certain that she was losing her mind, she stared out the window and lapsed into silence.

  ASHE PRESSED DOWN HARD on the accelerator. Right now, he felt the need to have the wind rushing past his face. He needed some outlet for all the crazy feelings crashing around inside him. Though he hadn’t looked at Casey since they’d started back to the Rez, he was aware of everything about her. Maybe that was the problem. He reacted to her presence on a level he couldn’t explain. Things that defied order and logic—like the heat of desire that flashed through him whenever he was close to her—brought confusion and trouble. Right now he needed focus if he was to find his foster parents’ killer, and get Fox out of whatever trouble she was in.

  “I should point out that I’m being a paragon of patience out of deference to your culture,” Casey said, cutting into his musings. “But I still haven’t heard a good explanation why there’s bad blood between you and Walker. There’s got to be more to it than his having had a thing for Fox.”

  “There’s a café up ahead. It’s on the Reservation, and there won’t be any problems there for us. Why don’t you let me make amends for what happened earlier by treating you to dinner? I’ll explain everything while we eat.”

  “Deal.”

  They were seated at the small family-style café less than ten minutes later. From the way the waitresses smiled at Ashe, Casey could see that he was a favorite here. Of course, few women would have been impervious to the sexy half smile that played on his lips. It even made her own heart skip a beat—though she intended to fight those annoying feelings every step of the way.

  She ordered a Navajo taco at his suggestion, and didn’t regret it when the food came. The spicy dish—made with cheese, chile, meat and beans all piled on fresh fry bread and topped with lettuce and tomatoes—was simply delicious. She ate greedily but then, noting his silence, stopped and glanced up.

  “You’re still stalling, and I haven’t got all year,” she said, reaching for a glass of iced tea.

  Ashe nodded and gave her his quirky half smile. “It’s really a simple story. Walker is one of those men who thinks that being an Anglo somehow elevates his character. His dad worked on the Rez many years back, and that’s when he, my brother and I attended the same high school. Fox was in junior high then. When we heard that he was constantly giving her a hard time after school, we saw he got the same on her behalf. He’s never forgotten it, and neither have I.”

  The waitress, who was setting a nearby table, let out a hoot. “You left out the good part, Ashe.”

  Casey glared at Ashe.

  “Okay, okay.” Ashe shrugged. “Travis and I kind of threw him through the library window. He wasn’t really hurt, just skinned up a bit. The window was open at the time.” He paused, then added with a shrug. “We all got suspended.”

  Casey laughed. “If he was half the creep back then that he is now, I’m sure he deserved it.”

  Ashe shrugged, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. “He has gotten smarter over the years. Lately, he’s been trying to goad me into a fight when his buddies are around. The cops in Farmington back each other up, just like we do at our PD. He won’t take me on one-on-one because we both know I’d wipe the floor with him.”

  With any other man, she might have suspected such a statement to be half bravado and half optimism. But she was getting to know Ashe well enough to understand that he seldom, if ever, bluffed.

  “Let’s go back to the station,” she said. “We need more to go on than a size-ten-shoe cigarette smoker as a lead. Maybe somebody found that van, or we can discover something we overlooked if we go over the evidence once more together.” Casey knew she’d be better off in more formal surroundings. Her mind would then be more likely to focus on the disciplines of her job, not on the myriad crazy longings that played no part in what she had to do.

  As THEY LEFT THE restaurant, Casey’s thoughtful silence intrigued Ashe. She certainly wasn’t putting all her cards on the table. His gaze strayed from her stern expression to her hair, and suddenly he found himself wondering what it would feel like in his hands. It looked soft, shining with a reddish gold luster that invited his touch.

  He studied her hands. They were small and feminine, yet strong enough to wield a weapon or be used with skill in a fight. That duality defined everything about her and it was perhaps what drew him the most. She was part of the law-enforcement world he loved, yet she still retained a special feminine magic that could tempt him with just a look or a smile. Most appealing of all, underneath her extraordinary self-discipline and control, there was something wild about her. He’d felt it when she’d kissed him; everything male in him had responded.

  As they drove across the Rez, the blackness that surrounded them was pierced only by their headlights and a maze of stars in the moonless sky.

  “I’ve never been in a place where it’s this quiet at night. And lonely, too,” she added, her voice barely above a whisper. “Life out here can’t be easy.”

  “It isn’t, but it is our land. This is the Dinétah, the place that defines us and carries our history. There are times of trouble and times of plenty, but not much in between. Some years the land is parched, and the rains don’t come. Then our people and our animals go hungry. Other years, the rains and snows come in the right proportions like they have recently, and there’s plenty of corn, melons and alfalfa. I belong here. It’s all part of me. I would never live anywhere else.”

  “Yet your brother Travis chose to leave. Are you two so different?”

  He nodded slowly. “Yes. Travis is not much on tradition. He makes his own rules as he goes. My brother is like the wind. He doesn’t like anything that holds him back or stands in his way. He and I have our differences, but blood still binds us and, in that way, we are the same. He’s out of the country right now—probably half a world away—but I expect he’ll arrive on the Rez soon. Nothing will stop him, particularly now that he knows Fox is missing. Neither of us will rest until she is found and the killers are in custody.” He paused for a moment. “Speaking of Travis, I have an idea I’d like to follow up on right away. I know a place where we should look for Fox.”

  “Where?”

  “Our family shrine, near Rock Ridge. I know my brother took Fox there a few times. Few people outside our family know how to find it, but it’s a place of power and truth.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I can’t explain it any better than that,” Ashe admitted. “But I’d like to check it out next. You want to come with me?”

  “Sure.”

  Ashe drove quickly down the nearly empty road, then turned up a dirt trail that was barely wide enough for his vehicle. The road was full of ruts from the just-ending rains, but at least it was sandy instead of gooey mud.

  It took another twenty minutes of hard driving along what was essentially a horse trail before they reached the base of a tall cliff. The rising moon bathed the sandstone mesa, casting imposing shadows over its rugged surface. “From here, we reach the shrine by climbing,” he said. “It’s only steep in one place.”

  “You think Fox came here?” Casey looked around. “But there’s no vehicle around.”

  “She wouldn’t have driven here. She would have ridden bareback on one of the horses the Benallys keep in the pasture near the turnoff. If she released her mount, nobody would have known she’d come here since the horses know how to find their way back. Wait for me here, if you’d rather not climb up at night. It’ll take me about an hour, there and back.”

  “What’s up there?”

  “On the top there’s a rock cairn, a shrine to Changing Woman. There’s something very special about this particular mesa. Even Fox felt it, though she doesn’t share our beliefs. If she was frightened and in trouble, it’s possible she might have come here. My brother always said it was to be our stronghold. He hid supplies up there in a cave, and—”

  “And what?”

  “I just remembered something. My foster father came here once. He said he wanted to leave something he considered important to him—in deference to us, no doubt. It’s possible that whatever it is may give us some answers to what happened.”

  “Then I’m going with you.”

  “Somehow, I knew you’d say that,” he said with a grin.

  As they approached the rock face, Ashe stopped. “Wait.”

  Staring off into the distance, he sang a Navajo prayer, as was the custom before approaching a sacred area.

  “Offering a prayer appeases the gods,” Ashe explained, answering the question he could see in her eyes. “Otherwise, the site is profaned and the holy beings depart. Many believe that it’s the failure of our young people to follow our ways that has brought the tribe a lot of the troubles we face today.”

  He started walking up a narrow trail and, true to her word, Casey stayed up with him, remaining almost at his side. His hands were tough and callused, but hers were not. The weathered sandstone could abrade skin like a file drawn across the fingertips. Without a word, he dug his leather gloves out of his jacket pocket and offered them to her.

  Casey never once complained as they continued to climb, though the higher they went, the more difficult it became. His respect for her grew. He felt he understood her and what drove her. She was like him in a lot of ways. An invisible-yet-impregnable bond seemed to be forming between them. It wasn’t the best time for it, but fate often made its own rules. For now, all he knew was that Casey was the only respite his heart knew from the pain that surrounded him.

  They were at the most challenging section—a steep, forty-five-degree slope of rock—when Ashe noticed a glimmer of light coming from below and behind her. “We’re being watched,” he said. “Someone must have followed us.”

  “Where?”

  “Don’t worry about it now. Just concentrate on the rock face,” he said. “It’s tricky here, and you don’t want to slip. Lean into the rock, and grab on to handholds.”

  A second later, a shot rang out. The weathered stone beneath her fingers suddenly crumbled, and she began to slip down the rock face.

  Ashe slid down after her as quickly as he dared, hugging the rock. A heartbeat later, he reached down and grabbed her arm, then dug his other hand into the first opening he felt in the rock. They came to an abrupt stop.

  “Thanks,” she said, bracing herself quickly to avoid slipping farther downslope.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No. My right arm hurts, but the bullet didn’t hit me. I just got a little scraped up by the loose rocks. Let’s keep going. I’m okay.”

  Suddenly fragments of sandstone peppered over them as a second shot rang out, echoing for miles.

  “He’s got us. We’re sitting ducks!” Casey said. “We can’t reach for our weapons or take cover here.”

  “We’ll be all right. His aim’s off. He’s still shooting high, and doesn’t know where the bullets are hitting. We can handle this,” Ashe said quietly, leading her sideways toward a shadow formed by a big crack in the rock face. “This is a place of power. The scales will tip back our way.”

  Chapter Six

  Several rounds whined over them, ricocheting off the rock face. Casey tried to match Ashe’s quick pace as they moved toward the more shadowy half of the cliff. “Either he’s a lousy shot, or a great one. The bullets are missing us, but not by much,” she said..

  “Our people say that each mountain has a spirit within it. It is that spirit that will help us now.”

  She envied him his beliefs that gave him such unshakable courage. All she felt at the moment was the incredible urge to find something to hang on to while she returned the fire.

  “Don’t let anger or fear cloud what you have to do now,” he warned.

  “How did you—”

  “Know what you were thinking?” Ashe finished for her. “It’s human nature to want to fight back. And, believe me, we will fight back. But right now we’ve got to stay alive long enough to be able to do that.” He reached out for her, steadying her as she moved toward him and onto a level spot that was barely fourteen inches wide.

  As they entered the shadows, she realized that their attacker had stopped shooting. “Do you think he’s out of ammunition?”

  “No, but maybe he’s figured out that all he’d be doing now is wasting bullets. The shadows here will shield us effectively, and he’ll be shooting blind. We’re no longer dark spots against the cliff. Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yes, but how do you manage to keep your balance so well here?”

  “Knowing this place gives me an edge.” He called in to the station using his handheld radio. “They’ll send backup here as soon as they can,” he said once he’d finished the transmission. Hearing the distant rumbling of a car engine, he added, “But I expect it’ll be long after the sniper is gone. It’ll be up to us to gather as much evidence as we can.”

  They worked their way back down slowly, staying in the shadows. “Were you able to get a fix on the sniper’s location?” she asked.

  “A general area, yes, but not much more than that.”

  “I want to search for footprints down there, and anything else we might be able to use to nail this creep.” She watched Ashe, trying to emulate his movements down the steep trail.

  Although he seldom looked back at her, she knew he was aware of every step she took. What she liked most about him was that he wasn’t coddling her. The help he offered seemed rooted in respect for an equal, and that was precisely the way she wanted to be treated.

  Ashe led the way toward a pile of massive boulders that had been part of the mesa before weathering and erosion had allowed them to break free. “The muzzle flashes I saw came from this general area.”

  Following her own instincts, Casey started her search in a place she would have considered ideal, had she been the sniper. She spotted a smaller, solitary boulder about six feet tall and crouched down, studying the ground beside it. Several nine-millimeter shell casings were lying just to the right of a grouping of clear boot prints. “This is where he was at,” she said. “He must have braced his weapon on top of this rock. And, from these shells we know it was almost certainly a handgun. At this range, it’s surprising that he managed to hit that close to us, even with support. It’s a real stretch for any pistol.”

  “You’re right A rifle would have done the job much better.” Ashe joined her, pointing out vehicle tracks about ten feet away. “He didn’t use a motorcycle this time, either. Maybe it was the van. It would have been quieter. We’d better start making plaster casts of these vehicle tracks and footprints so we can compare them to what we already have.” He crouched down. “These boot prints look smaller to me, and aren’t the same brand.” He stood. “I’m going back to my carryall. I have what we need there. Then, while the plaster is setting, we can go back up the mesa.”

  Casey glanced at the steep rock face, dreading a second climb and knowing that it was inevitable. “Do you still think Fox may be up there?”

  Ashe checked his vehicle to make sure it hadn’t been tampered with. “No. Had she been up there, she would have made her presence known and done her best to help us, even if she’d had to turn herself into a target,” he said, concern for his foster sister an ever-present companion for him now. “But the shrine might hold some other answers for us.” With Casey’s help, he took out the supplies he needed and carried them back.

  After the plaster casts were made and left to cure, Ashe and Casey returned to the base of the cliff. Ashe reached into the medicine pouch he carried and placed a pinch of the contents at the base of the rock. Holding the small pouch out to her, he invited her to do the same. “It’s an offering made of pollen, white shell and other gifts to appease the spirit that resides within this mountain. It’s a sign of respect, and considering what we’ve been through, I think it might be a good idea. That is, unless you find the gesture offensive.”

  “Not at all.” She followed his lead, placing the offering on the ground.

  This time the climb up was easier and they reached the summit without any further incident. Ashe, using a small flashlight, led the way past the cairn of rocks to a narrow opening in the rock face that led downward into a small, dry cave. They searched together, but there was no sign that Fox had been there recently. Finally, Ashe spoke. “My brother, my foster father and I placed items of special significance to us in this cave. It was a symbol of our unity. My brother hid a duplicate of the medicine bag our real father always carried with him.” He pulled it out from behind a large rock and showed her a small leather pouch with a turquoise beaded design. “He had it made as a reminder of our past. It contains soil from our sacred mountains.”

  “What did you leave?” she asked, eager to know more about the powerful man beside her.

  He pulled out a small box. Inside was a glistening black rock. “This was given to me once by a hataalii, a medicine man. Flint is said to protect us from evil. It was the only thing I owned that I felt was worthy of this place.”

  He paused, then continued. “I never knew, nor did my brother, what our foster father left.” He brought out a small metal box. “It wasn’t necessary that we know. We loved him for caring enough to leave an item he considered important here at our stronghold.” He stared at the box, lost in thought. “I wish he was here now, and that none of this had happened.”