Thunder Horse Heritage
Elle James
She'd been his wife for barely a day and now FBI agent Tuck Thunder Horse was responsible for identifying her body.So he was more than shocked when Julia Anderson turned up very much alive–and on the run. Julia confessed to witnessing a murder and now needs Tuck to help her stay alive…and protect the baby he hadn't known she'd had.Julia and Tuck's marriage might not have lasted, but there was no time for recriminations with a killer on their trail. As Tuck struggles to put their painful past behind them, he can't help but find himself overwhelmed by his love for his little daughter…and his still-burning passion for Julia. Unable to trust anyone but each other, they know working together is the only way to safeguard their child. Could their one-day marriage turn into a lifelong adventure?
THEY ONCE EXCHANGED THEIR WEDDING VOWS. NOW HE VOWS TO KEEP HER ALIVE.
She’d been his wife for barely a day and now FBI agent Tuck Thunder Horse was responsible for identifying her body. So he was more than shocked when Julia Anderson turned up very much alive—and on the run. Julia confessed to witnessing a murder and now needs Tuck to help her stay alive…and protect the baby he hadn’t known she’d had.
Julia and Tuck’s marriage might not have lasted, but there was no time for recriminations with a killer on their trail. As Tuck struggles to put their painful past behind them, he can’t help but find himself overwhelmed by his love for his little daughter…and his still-burning passion for Julia. Unable to trust anyone but each other, they know working together is the only way to safeguard their child. Could their one-day marriage turn into a lifelong adventure?
“I’ll keep an eye out—you feed your daughter. Unless you’re afraid of a baby?”
“I’m not afraid of my daughter.” Tuck gathered Lily into his arms and held out his hand for the bottle. “What do I do?”
“Stick it in her mouth. She knows what to do next. All you have to do is hold her.”
As he cradled his daughter, a surge of love filled every corner of his soul. Tuck’s heart swelled, so he could barely breathe. “She’s beautiful.” He’d never experienced anything as painfully wonderful as holding his own child in his arms. “Thank you for having her.”
“I’m sorry, Tuck. I should have told you about Lily. You had a right to know your daughter. And she had a right to know her father.”
Tuck could barely speak. Even with killers waiting for them, he was afraid to ruin this perfect moment.
Thunder Horse Heritage
Elle James
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Golden Heart Award winner for Best Paranormal Romance in 2004, Elle James started writing when her sister issued a Y2K challenge to write a romance novel. She managed a full-time job, raised three wonderful children and she and her husband even tried their hands at ranching exotic birds (ostriches, emus and rheas) in the Texas Hill Country. Ask her, and she’ll tell you what it’s like to go toe-to-toe with an angry 350-pound bird! After leaving her successful career in information technology management, Elle is now pursuing her writing full-time. She loves building exciting stories about heroes, heroines, romance and passion. Elle loves to hear from fans. You can contact her at ellejames@earthlink.net or visit her website at www.ellejames.com (http://www.ellejames.com).
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Tuck Thunder Horse—Lakota Indian, North Dakota rancher and FBI special agent assigned close to home at the Bismarck, North Dakota, branch office. He didn’t believe in love at first sight until it happened to him a year before. Now he doesn’t believe in love at all.
Julia Anderson—A schoolteacher who left Tuck on the night of their wedding, who seeks his help to protect her and her daughter.
Lily Anderson—Julia’s four-month-old baby girl.
Jillian Anderson—Julia’s sister and FBI special agent, who found trouble while visiting Julia.
Ray Mullins—FBI supervisory special agent and Jillian Anderson’s boss at regional headquarters in Minneapolis.
Dante Thunder Horse—Tuck’s brother, and a helicopter pilot for the North Dakota branch of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Pierce Thunder Horse—Tuck’s older brother and fellow FBI special agent now assigned to the Bismarck office.
Walter Pickett—National Indian Gambling Commission representative in charge of overseeing the Running Buffalo Casino at Fort Yates.
Timothy Wilks—Casino manager of the Running Buffalo Casino in Fort Yates, North Dakota.
Josh Behling—Tuck’s friend and partner at the Bismarck FBI branch office.
Contents
Chapter One (#ube35589e-e35e-5430-a21f-3ecba3b894d6)
Chapter Two (#u5726b860-eff5-52b4-be64-04bdac75c164)
Chapter Three (#u3455d4fc-c44c-5a6b-83b9-6da9f3554fbb)
Chapter Four (#uf172d869-c3af-5110-9ae4-7edce038a85f)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One
Tuck Thunder Horse stared at his phone, debating leaving it off as his plane taxied to the gate in Bismarck, North Dakota. Off duty for the moment, with nothing on his docket but a “rest and recuperate” order to close out his latest FBI assignment, the idea was tempting. And after endless debriefing sessions followed by seven hours in transit from Quantico, Virginia, all he really wanted was to find a bed to fall into.
His sense of responsibility wouldn’t let him ignore duty. He switched the phone on and groaned as it immediately started beeping. He had no fewer than five messages and three texts. What could be so all-fired important? His supervisor knew he was on his way back to North Dakota, and his family didn’t expect him until later that night. His heartbeat kicked up a notch. Had something happened on the ranch?
Two of the three text messages read “Listen to your voice mail” and were from a buddy of his, Josh Behling, assigned with him to the FBI’s Bismarck satellite office. He and Josh went back to initial FBI training at Quantico. Their training days and a few missions that had tested their strength and mettle had forged a friendship that had lasted through the years. He looked forward to seeing his friend.
Behling had promised to meet Tuck at the airport and take him to his apartment, where he’d left his car. Tuck would stay the night there. His brother Pierce would be in from Quantico the following morning. Together they planned to head to the Thunder Horse Ranch, a good three-and-a-half-hour drive, to enjoy their
R & R together.
The last text read “911” with a phone number following.
Tuck clicked on the voice mail from Behling, frowning at the three voice mails from a “Blocked Sender.” Before Behling’s message could begin, his phone buzzed, indicating an incoming call. He hit the talk button.
“Oh, good, you must be on the ground.” Behling’s voice came over the line, intense, urgent. “I’m here to pick you up, but we’ve had a change of plan. Do you have a bag to claim?”
“No. I carried it aboard.”
The plane pulled to a stop at the gate and the fasten-seat-belt sign blinked off. Passengers filled the aisle, retrieving carry-on baggage from the overhead bins.
Tuck unbuckled and stood, bumping his head on the low storage compartments. Being over six feet tall had its disadvantages on mass transit. He muttered a curse and reached up to grab his suitcase, his hand holding the phone to his ear. “What’s the plan?”
“Well…” Josh heaved a sigh. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not taking you to your apartment.”
“No?” Tuck grinned. “Are we going out on the town for old times’ sake?” He inched his way down the aisle toward the hatch, juggling the cell phone against his ear and being careful not to bump the guy in front of him with his case.
“No, we had an agent of the National Indian Gaming Commission murdered tonight. His body was found along the shore of Lake Oahe. We also found a dead woman we haven’t identified yet.”
Tuck stopped at the door of the plane, his breath lodging in his throat. “Anyone we know?” He’d met a few of the NIGC reps, having dealt with them on occasion over the years.
“No. The guy was covering the casino near Fort Yates. Not sure what’s going on down there, but the Sioux County sheriff asked for our help.”
At the mention of Fort Yates, a flood of memories crashed over Tuck. The last time he’d been in the town near the South Dakota border, he’d been on a vacation that had ended in total disaster. He sucked in a deep breath as he pushed the memories away and asked, “When did it happen?”
“Don’t know yet. I was just getting ready to leave for the site when your plane landed. McGowan’s out sick. I need a partner and figured you’d want to be in on the investigation.”
“I’m supposed to be off for the next week.”
“Yeah,” Behling said, “but how often do we have an NIGC murdered in North Dakota?”
“Once in a blue moon.”
“Right. Are you in, or do I have to call in our supervisor to cover?”
“I’m on my way. Do we have air transportation available, or are we driving down?”
Behling chuckled. “Got a chopper ready and waiting for us.”
“See you out front.” Tuck clicked the off button, pocketed his cell phone and sighed. The thought of getting back in the air after having just landed was only slightly more appealing than getting on the road in the opposite direction from the Thunder Horse Ranch. And to be heading to the place he’d sworn off since that fateful night over a year ago… Well, he wasn’t exactly thrilled. Yet, he was curious enough to take the bait. Murders in North Dakota came few and far between and…who knew? While he was in Fort Yates, he might run into her. Whoa, now. He pushed that errant thought to the back of his mind.
Behling picked him up outside the airport terminal in his black four-by-four SUV. He didn’t wait for Tuck to buckle his belt before he drove away from the curb.
“You mentioned a woman.” His chest tightened as he asked, “Who is she?”
Behling glanced in his rearview mirror and merged into the traffic leaving the airport. Before he made it to the airport expressway, he took a turn to the right, heading for the line of hangars where private planes and helicopters parked. “The Sioux County sheriff wasn’t forthcoming. He seemed more concerned about the dead commissioner.”
“Are we only dealing with the Sioux County Sheriff’s Department, or will the Standing Rock Tribal Police be involved, as well?”
“Both. So far they’ve been cooperative, but I’m not getting much information from them.”
Tuck dropped down out of the SUV, and together they entered the building.
“Are you two all that’s going?” A man in a navy blue jumpsuit met them at the door to an office, carrying a flight bag and a small clipboard.
“Hi, Rick. We’re it.” Josh shook hands with the man and turned to Tuck. “Don’t know if you two have met. I had to beg, borrow and steal to get use of this chopper.” He grinned. “Tuck Thunder Horse, meet Rick Knoell.”
The men shook hands and headed out to the tarmac, where a sleek black helicopter sat.
Tuck whistled. “We have the budget for this?”
“Like I said, I had to beg, borrow and steal.” Josh jerked his head toward Rick. “Rick needed some night flight time. He owed me a favor, and we needed a quick trip to Fort Yates. It all adds up.” He shrugged.
Behling climbed aboard the bird, slipping into the passenger seat.
Tuck slid into the seat behind him. While Rick performed the preflight check, Tuck listened to his other voice-mail messages. One from Behling, indicating the chance of being late to the airport. The other messages from the blocked sender were nothing but air and an odd sound like a baby gurgling in the background. Tuck shook his head. He didn’t know anyone with a baby. Probably a wrong number. But something about the calls made him uneasy. Why would a wrong number call back twice?
He didn’t have long to worry about it. By the time he’d deleted the messages, Rick had climbed into the pilot seat and started the engine.
Once they were in the air, Tuck settled the flight headset in place over his ears and sat back for the ride, static and the rumble of the rotors numbing him, creating white noise in which his thoughts churned.
The last time he’d been to Fort Yates, a little over a year ago, he’d gone down for a weekend of boating, gambling and drinking. The memories were a mix of blurred impressions and startlingly clear images. The ending of that vacation was not one he’d ever experienced before. After all, it wasn’t every day that a man got engaged, married and ditched all in the span of forty-eight hours, more or less. He still wasn’t sure how it had all happened, but he had the pictures and annulment papers that proved it hadn’t been a bad dream.
As they neared the small outpost of Fort Yates, the neon lights of the Running Buffalo Casino rose up out of the grasslands, a beacon of garish illumination on the dark prairie. The red, yellow, blue and green neon lights reflected off the still waters of Lake Oahe, a lake formed by a strategically placed dam near Pierre, South Dakota. The lake provided miles of fishing and camping for the residents of North and South Dakota, its shores following the Missouri River’s path from Pierre almost to Bismarck.
Tuck’s chest tightened as he leaned forward to stare out the window of the helicopter. The casino and the surrounding resort looked just as they had the last time he’d been there. Nothing had changed. Except him. Gone was his carefree, reckless sense of taking each day one at a time. He still didn’t know why he’d jumped into the wedding and—more disturbing—why she’d ended it so quickly. The whole situation had made him step back and take stock of his life, and he hadn’t much liked the direction he’d been heading.
The helicopter bypassed the casino and landed at the Standing Rock Airport south of town where a Sioux County sheriff’s SUV waited, lights flashing on top of the vehicle.
As soon as they exited the chopper, the sheriff met them, his hand held out. “I’m Sheriff White Hawk. I thought you’d never get here.”
“Can you bring me up-to-date?” Tuck stepped forward, used to taking charge.
“Our victims were the NIGC rep and a local schoolteacher.” The sheriff talked as he led them back to his vehicle. “We cordoned off the shoreline around the two bodies, and I’ve had a couple of my deputies asking questions around the area. So far, no one saw anything.”
Typical. With so much wide-open space in North Dakota, a person could get away with murder, and no one would be the wiser for days. That’s where Tuck’s job became critical. “Has the state crime-lab team arrived?”
Sheriff White Hawk nodded. “They just got here.”
“Was everything left the same way as it was found?”
“Other than the footprints from the fishermen, no one’s touched a thing.”
“Good.” Tuck climbed into the passenger seat of the sheriff’s SUV.
They accomplished the short ride to the crime scene in relative silence, the occasional static flaring from the radio on the sheriff’s shoulder harness.
A mile past the turnoff to the casino and recreation area, the sheriff turned on a county road, headed toward the lake. After another mile, the lawman slowed the vehicle and glanced at Tuck with a grimace. “We go cross-country from here.”
Tuck nodded and held on as they bumped across the dry, flat land to the shore’s edge, where several other SUVs and a flotilla of motorboats ringed the crime scene. Yellow crime tape flapped in the wind around the land side of the perimeter.
Tuck ducked beneath the tape and flashed his credentials to get past the battery of Sioux County deputies and Standing Rock tribal policemen.
Once inside the perimeter, Josh hurried forward to the crime-scene technicians and exchanged a few words.
Tuck hung back, his gaze panning the area, his investigative eye noting everything that could be considered evidence. There wasn’t much to go on. Based on the lack of blood spatter, the agent and the woman had been murdered elsewhere and their bodies dumped here, probably by boat. The sheriff’s deputies would be checking for anyone who might have seen a boat pull close to shore. But as dark as it was, if the boat didn’t have a light, no one would have seen a thing.
When Behling stepped back, Tuck caught his first glimpse of the dead woman.
Tuck’s breath caught in his throat and his heart jammed in his chest so hard it hurt, a foggy haze settling around the edges of his vision.
Pushing back pain, Tuck sucked in a deep breath, his feet carrying him forward as if he was walking through quicksand. He had to be seeing things that weren’t there. It couldn’t be her. “Do you have a positive ID on the woman?” he asked, his voice echoing in his head.
The medical examiner looked up at Tuck, his brows raised questioningly. “You have a need to know?”
“It’s okay,” Behling said. “He’s another special agent.”
Tuck moved closer, his gaze fixed on the body. “Jesus.” He closed his eyes, pressure squeezing his chest tight. “I know her.” He opened his eyes and stared down at the lifeless remains of the woman he’d met a little more than a year ago here at Fort Yates.
Behling’s head jerked in his direction, his brow furrowing. “You know her?”
Tuck nodded. “That’s Julia Anderson. She was my wife.”
Chapter Two
An hour later, Tuck sat on the side of the bed in his hotel room at the casino, staring at his hands. What the hell had just happened? He was on his way home for a week off—he’d never planned to spend his vacation finding out who had murdered a woman he’d been married to for a grand total of forty-eight hours.
Behling left him at his door, claiming he had a mound of paperwork and calls to make and that he’d check in with Tuck the next morning when Rick would take them back to Bismarck.
Relieved to have a chance for some time to himself, Tuck had assured Behling he would be fine and needed the rest and an opportunity to think…alone.
Except for the blood staining her chest, Julia looked the same as the last time he’d seen her on their wedding night—what he could remember of it. Long blond hair and pale blue eyes, a slender build, rounded, firm breasts. She’d been a beauty then and was just as beautiful in death. Had they met any other way…had they tried to make their farce of a marriage stick…this scenario might have had a completely different ending.
Over a year had passed since their last correspondence—the annulment papers delivered by courier to his apartment door on his day off.
His head dropped into his open palms, the terrible nature of Julia’s death weighing him down. Who had killed her?
The cell phone lying on the bed beside him buzzed. He checked the caller ID—Dante. He didn’t bother answering the call. What could Tuck say to his brother? Hi, I’m in Fort Yates and just got through viewing my ex-wife’s remains.
His brothers didn’t even know he’d married. He’d been too embarrassed to tell anyone. He’d been to a bachelor party for a friend and had been so sauced when he’d met Julia, he hadn’t been thinking clearly. After dancing with her for two hours straight, they’d ended up in his hotel room, making love until early into the next day. Still high on alcohol and sex, they’d run out to the justice of the peace, obtained a wedding license and tied the knot at the quaint little wedding chapel in Fort Yates. As the alcohol wore off and exhaustion set in, they returned to his hotel room, where they collapsed and slept through the rest of the day and night.
When Tuck had woken the next morning, Julia had been gone, leaving a note with an apology and no forwarding address. She’d filed for an annulment immediately, and their union had been dissolved. Just like that.
When his cell phone quit ringing, Tuck glanced at it, remembering the “911” text message from earlier that day before…well, before everything. Behling’s call, the quick trip to Fort Yates and the murders had made him forget to follow through, but now the contents of the message came back to him in a rush.
Could the message have been from Julia? His heart skipped several beats as he dialed the number in the message. Could it have been the last text message Julia had sent before she’d been brutally murdered? He opened the text screen and a phone number flashed up at him. With a sense of dread, he pressed the number, engaging the dialing capability.
After several rings, someone answered. Or at least Tuck thought someone clicked the talk button. The ringing had stopped, but no one spoke.
“Hello?” Tuck waited in case the connection was bad. Reception in the far reaches of North Dakota was scarce if not nonexistent. “Hello?”
“Tuck? Tuck Thunder Horse?” a feminine voice asked in a whisper.
A hint of recognition tugged at Tuck’s consciousness and his heart rate kicked up a notch. “Speaking.”
“It’s J-Julia.”
All the air left Tuck’s lungs as if someone had sucker punched him. “Julia?” How could it be Julia? She was dead, her body taken to the Fort Yates morgue. He’d identified the body himself. His stomach gurgled and twisted.
“I need to see you,” the woman said.
Tuck ran a hand through his hair. Who the hell was this? Why was she impersonating a dead woman? His grip tightened on the phone as anger forged through him. He tamped it down and feigned ignorance of what he’d witnessed earlier. “When? Where?” His voice was gruffer than he’d intended, a lump knotting in his throat.
“Are you in North Dakota?” she asked.
His lips thinned. “As a matter of fact, I am. Just flew into Bismarck a couple hours ago and made a quick run south to Fort Yates.”
She made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sob. “Oh, thank God.”
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“No. No, nothing is all right.”
Tuck couldn’t agree with her more. Anyone with the gall to pass herself off as a dead woman wasn’t firing on all cylinders. “Tell me where you are.”
“In Fort Yates.” Her words were spoken carefully, as if she was afraid to give away too much.
“Where in Fort Yates? I’ll see what I can do to get there.”
“I can’t tell you. Tell me where you are and I’ll meet you.”
“I’m at the casino.”
After a long pause, she whispered, “Meet me in fifteen minutes at the marina below the casino. Come alone.”
Alone. Tuck’s sense of self-preservation tensed. She could be setting him up. But for what? Hell, at this point did it matter? He wanted to know her game. “It’s dark. How will I find you?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll find you.”
Before he could question her further, the line clicked in his ear.
His emotions still raw from seeing the woman he’d married on a whim lying dead on the shore of Lake Oahe, Tuck’s blood ran cold then hot, blazing through his veins like fast-flowing molten lava. How dared she? How dared this stranger call claiming to be Julia, when Julia lay dead?
He checked his watch and headed out the door. The walk to the marina from the hotel wouldn’t take long, five minutes max. That would give him ten minutes to watch for her to arrive if she wasn’t already there.
His stride ate the distance. Part of him wanted to notify Josh of the phone call, but something in the
woman’s voice made him hesitate. He had to know her story before he called in his friend, otherwise Behling might think he was imagining things.
Wide-open expanses of North Dakota prairie were interspersed with scrubby little trees along the road down to the marina. Tuck scanned both sides, peering into the bushes and the shadows of the limited vegetation along the way.
The marina consisted of two long jetties jutting out into Lake Oahe with small, medium and large boats moored in the slips. The marina building perched at one end of the pair of jetties, closed for the night, shuttered, with all merchandise displays tucked within the walls. Besides a dirty yellow streetlight on the marina, two lone lights jutted from the top of poles at the end of each jetty, reflecting light off the inky water below.
Tuck had about given up trying to find the woman when a figure detached itself from the shadow of the marina building, a dark cap pulled down low. As Tuck neared the figure, her head turned left then right in a jerky, nervous movement. She wore a long, draping shawl wrapped around her body, disguising her figure. She could have been a young or old woman, fat or thin. He couldn’t tell, but he’d find out soon enough.
Tuck stood back, studying the woman for a moment, gathering his nerve and tamping down the desire to strangle her for playing the role of a murder victim.
Coaching himself to calm, he forced all anger from his face and demeanor, then walked forward.
She remained hidden in the shadows.
“I’m here…Julia.” His teeth ground together on her name. “What do you want?” Tuck stopped, refusing to move closer. She’d have to meet him halfway.
The hint of a sob drifted across the crisp evening air toward him, and the woman moved another step out of the shadows, her hand reaching out. The glow from the yellowed night light glanced off the side of her face, illuminating her profile.
Tuck sucked in a breath and backed up a step. The female was the image of the one the medical examiner had pronounced dead only a short while ago.
Tuck lurched forward, gripping her arms, his fingers digging in, refusing to let her escape. “Who the hell are you?”
She hunched her shoulders, her body shaking, staring up at him, searching his face. “Tuck?” His name wasn’t so much a question as a statement, and some of the tension in her arms slackened.
Tuck’s grip tightened. He’d be ready if she tried to make a run for it.
“We can’t stay here,” she whispered.
Tuck’s eyes narrowed. “We’re not going anywhere until you answer my question…here…now.” His jaw tightened and he refused to move.
Her gaze darted left then right. “We’re not safe.”
He snorted. “Should have thought of that before you chose this spot.”
“I had to be sure it was you before…”
“Before what?”
“Please, could we go somewhere safe, not so out in the open?” She tugged against his grip, her gaze darting past him.
“Who are you afraid of?” Tuck demanded.
“I don’t know.” She stared up at him, her blue eyes wide, frightened. “Please, we have to go somewhere safe.”
“We can stay here or go to my room at the casino.” His mouth pressed into a thin line. He was reluctant to let this woman into his room, but curiosity burned too strongly to ignore. He had to know who she was and what was going on.
“Your room?” Again her gaze darted left then right, and she ducked her head. “No, I can’t,” she said, her voice cracking. “I can’t go back there.”
“We don’t have many choices in a town the size of Fort Yates. Do you have any other suggestions?”
“I can’t go home.” Her body drooped, her arms going limp. “I have nowhere else to go.”
Tuck hesitated another second, then let go of one of her arms, keeping a tight hold on the other as he led her back the way he’d come, toward the hotel casino. He berated himself inwardly for falling into her plan, but if he wanted to get to the bottom of this charade, he had to play along until he got answers.
As they neared the hotel, she slowed, adjusted the bulky shawl around her middle, bringing the fabric high around her neck. With shaking hands, she tugged the hat lower over her eyes, pushing long, loose strands of hair back under the hat’s rim.
Past being patient, Tuck nudged her forward with a little more force than he intended and stepped up on the back porch of the casino, pushing through the double glass doors to the stairwell.
The shawl-wrapped female stumbled. A small cry burst from beneath the shawl, but it didn’t sound as if it came from the woman.
“What the hell?” Tuck reached out to yank the shawl aside.
A hand whipped out, knocking his aside. Blue eyes stared up at him, sandy-blond brows diving like daggers toward the bridge of her nose. “Don’t.”
“I’m not taking you into the hotel until I know what you’re hiding beneath that shawl.” He reached out again for the shawl.
She stepped back, her chin tightening, her eyes narrowing to slits. “And I’m telling you if you try to remove the shawl, I’ll kill you.” To emphasize her point, she jabbed him in the side with the business end of a revolver. “Now, are we going to your room or what?”
Tuck’s pulse leaped. If he wasn’t mistaken, the gun appeared to be a SIG Sauer revolver, just like the one he carried on duty with the FBI. Unfortunately, his was at the armory. Headed for a week off, he hadn’t seen the need to carry. What the hell was she doing with a
SIG Sauer? The way she held the revolver was a sure sign she had no clue how to use it, but that didn’t make the weapon any less deadly. He remained calm. “Aren’t you afraid someone will see you holding a gun?”
“No.” Even after her arm came to a stop, the bulk around her middle shifted. “Now, are you going to take me to your room, or do I have to use this?”
He didn’t move, gauging whether or not she had the gumption to pull the trigger. Now more than curious about her story, he decided to go along with her plan. If necessary, he could easily disarm her when the time came. “Come on.”
She let out a breath. “Good. The sooner we get this meeting over with, the better.”
“You’re tellin’ me.” He led the way up the stairs to the third floor. When they reached his door, Tuck inserted the key and waited for her to enter.
As she passed across the threshold, she turned to face him, the gun tenting the shawl. “Don’t try anything. I know how to use this. And I really don’t want to.”
“I don’t doubt that in the least,” Tuck lied, following her into the room.
Once he had the door closed firmly behind him, he faced the woman, his heart stone cold. “Now that we’re alone, suppose you tell me why the hell a dead woman is holding me at gunpoint.”
* * *
JULIA GASPED, HER heart squeezing so tightly in her chest she couldn’t breathe. “Shut up.”
“Who are you?” Tuck Thunder Horse stalked toward her, closing the distance between them. “I watched the coroner zip the body bag on Julia Anderson.”
Julia raised her empty hand to her ear, tears filling her eyes. “Shut up,” she whispered. She’d suspected her sister was already dead, but having it confirmed stole her breath away. Her body trembled, the tremors becoming more violent until she shook so hard she could barely stand. “Shut up.”
“No. I will not shut up until you tell me what’s going on.”
Julia swallowed hard, knowing that in order to keep herself and her baby safe, she had to hold it together. Had to get Tuck Thunder Horse to take her and Lily into his protection, or they’d die before she could get them away from Fort Yates.
Die just like her twin sister.
“I am Julia Anderson. You and I were married over a year ago. I filed for an annulment the next day.” A lump of emotion lodged in her throat. Her sister lay on a cold, hard slab in the morgue. She’d already lost one of the only two people she had left in this world. She’d be damned if she let anyone hurt Lily. And Tuck was the only one she trusted to help protect her baby.
Tuck’s jaw tightened, a tic flickering in the left side. “If you’re Julia, then who the hell was in the body bag?”
The baby wrapped snugly against Julia’s belly stirred and whimpered. Lily, sweet Lily, the love of her life, her reason for living.
Julia coughed to cover the sound of the child’s whimper. “That was my twin sister, Jillian. Whoever killed her will be after me next.”
“What?” Tuck shoved a hand through his hair, her revelation hitting home. He really hadn’t known anything about Julia when he’d married her. “You expect me to believe you had a twin?”
Julia jerked the hat from her head and let her long blond hair fall down around her shoulders. She and her sister had been identical twins, Jillian arriving two minutes before Julia. Their mother had told them that Jillian had arrived kicking and screaming, Julia in a more sedate manner, calm and angelic. “Did she look just like me?”
The man studied her face, his gaze traveling from the tip of her head down the length of her body. “Hard to say when you’re covered from head to foot.”
Julia dropped the hat on the floor and slid her free hand beneath the shawl. Patting the bundle around her middle, she hesitated, reluctant to spring the next shock on a man who already didn’t trust a word she said. “Well, it’s true. We were sisters.” The ready tears sprang to her eyes, and she dashed them away with the edge of the shawl.
“Do you know what happened to her?” Tuck asked, his voice hard.
Julia nodded.
“Do you know why?” he asked next.
“Yes. That’s why I called you.”
“Why me? Why contact me after all this time?”
She drew in a long, steadying breath. The time had come to tell him the rest of the story. “We need help.”
“We? Seems a little late for your sister.”
Julia winced, actually hating this man for a minute for his callousness. Still, maybe it was better that he could be so calm, so detached. Heaven knew she couldn’t—not with so much at stake. Her sister was dead. She could be next. Her baby was at risk. All of that meant she had to convince Tuck to protect them. “I’m in trouble and need help.”
“What makes you think I’ll help you?” He glared at her. “You didn’t want anything to do with me a year ago. You didn’t even have the decency to say goodbye.”
Guilt lay heavily on Julia’s heart, but the strong sense of protectiveness she’d developed since the birth of her daughter won out. Protecting her daughter was more important to her than anything. For Lily’s sake, she would take whatever harsh words this man chose to throw at her. Besides, she knew she deserved them. Sneaking out of the hotel room, running off with no explanation and ending their marriage long-distance, without laying eyes on the man again… It had been a weak, cowardly thing to do. She knew that. But now she had no choice but to be brave—for her baby’s sake, if not for her own.
With a deep, indrawn breath, Julia laid the gun on the television console and, grasping the corner of the shawl, lifted it up over her head, dropping it to the floor.
For several seconds, Tuck studied her, his brow furrowing. He didn’t move, didn’t speak, just stared at her middle.
Then Lily moved, a tiny hand peeking out from the fabric of the sling, waving in the air.
“Tuck Thunder Horse, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but meet Lily.” Julia swallowed hard and continued, “Your baby girl.”
Chapter Three
All the air left Tuck’s lungs in a whoosh, and the image of the baby wavered like a mirage on hot desert terrain.
As quickly as his vision blurred, anger raged, red-hot and fiery, erupting through his body. “How dare you threaten me—with a gun or a baby. Do you really expect me to believe that this baby is mine?” He poked a finger at the woman’s chest. “Even if you’re telling the truth about your twin and you really are Julia, why should that make me trust you? You weren’t all that trustworthy when you married me and then walked out on me less than a day later. Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe anything you have to say to me?”
She hugged the child to her chest and then loosened her hold, titling her forward so that Tuck could see her face.
Nestled in a pink fluffy blanket, the infant’s mouth moved in a soft sucking motion, her shock of thick black hair stealing Tuck’s anger, sucking the fire right out of his veins.
“She looks like you,” Julia whispered. “She has your hair, your dark skin…your eyes.” Just as she said the words, the baby blinked up at him with dark orbs, already losing their baby blue for the ink-black so typical of the Thunder Horse family’s Lakota heritage.
Tuck’s chest squeezed so tightly, he could barely draw in air. The baby did look like him. “So, she has black hair.” He fought the urge to reach out and touch the baby’s rosy cheek. “That doesn’t mean she’s mine.”
“She’s four months old.” Julia stared across the baby at him. “You do the math.” His ex-wife reached around her neck with one hand and fumbled with the knot holding the sling, while balancing the baby in her other arm. When she had the sling loose, she handed the child across to Tuck.
He hesitated and drew back, his hands dropping to his sides.
“Hold her. She won’t bite.” Julia shoved the baby at him, giving him no choice but to take the squirming bundle.
He grasped the baby, holding her out like an alien being. Then Tuck stared at the infant girl, who stared back at him, her dark hair and dark eyes so very much like his own.
Then she smiled, the mere quirk of those tiny lips and cherubic cheeks nearly bringing Tuck to his knees.
His hands shook. Rather than drop the baby, he brought her close to his body and cradled her against his chest. “Are you sure?” Tuck glanced up at the woman standing across from him.
Julia’s lips trembled, her eyes glistening with tears. “Never more certain.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She sighed. “I didn’t know I was pregnant until two months after we met…and then it snowballed, all happening so quickly.” She gulped, her head dipping low. “One minute I was a single woman with no cares in the world, the next I was scrambling to find a place big enough for a baby. The school semester started. I was working teaching kids. A lot of things were happening at once.”
“And it just slipped your mind? You never thought for a moment that I had a right to know?”
“Yes, you did.” Her belly twisted with her guilt. “I didn’t know whether or not you’d want to be a part of her life.” It was just an excuse, but it was the one she’d clung to, so that she wouldn’t have to get back in touch with the man she’d married and then run away from. So she’d made the choice for him.
“And you made the decision not to tell me.” He shook his head.
“After what happened between us, I thought it would be unfair to saddle you with a child you might not want.” She sighed. “I was wrong.”
She’d been wrong about so many things.
Marrying Tuck in the first place had been a mistake. Even now, she could hardly believe she’d done it. It was so unlike her to get carried away, swept off her feet. Jillian had always been the spontaneous one—not Julia. Julia was the thinker, the planner, the one who calculated cost and consequence for every decision she made.
If she’d taken the time to stop and think, she never would have gone to that little wedding chapel. She’d have taken the time to get to know her husband first—at least well enough to know what he did for a living. If she’d been aware before saying her vows that he was an FBI agent, then she would have realized that a relationship between them could never work.
Julia knew all too well what being an agent meant. Her father had spent most of her formative years away from home as a member of the bureau. She recalled how her mother had waited by the telephone every time he was on assignment, expecting the call that her husband had been injured or killed in the line of duty. Sadly, she’d gotten that call when Julia and Jillian were twelve years old.
Jillian had followed their father into the FBI.
Julia still couldn’t understand why her sister would do such a thing, knowing the dangers. Hadn’t losing a parent shown her how dangerous it was?
Julia had never considered joining the FBI or having anything to do with it. The job hadn’t just taken her father away from her—it had ruined her mother’s life, as well. Julia had seen the way the stress and anxiety of being an agent’s wife had weighed on her mother. It was a strain Julia refused to bear. Bad enough that she had to worry about her sister on the job. She refused to worry about a husband, too.
When she’d found Tuck’s badge in the hotel room, she’d lost it. Images of her mother trying not to cry as she sat by the phone had flooded her memories, bringing her to her knees on the bedroom floor of the hotel. She couldn’t get away from Tuck fast enough. She refused to be one of those wives who waited night and day for “the call.”
All Julia had wanted was a safe home with someone who would be there to love her. A father who put his family ahead of his work. A man who wasn’t destined to die of gunshot wounds earned in the line of duty.
Just a glimpse of that all-too-familiar badge had been enough to make Julia run. She’d departed the hotel, leaving a note that she was sorry and that their marriage had been a mistake. Annulment papers had been easy to obtain, and within forty-eight hours she wasn’t married.
Of course, there were still consequences she never could have anticipated. Consequences like the precious baby girl cradled for the first time in her father’s arms.
For a long time he stared down at the baby. “I have a daughter.” He shook his head, his eyes widening. “I have a daughter. What did you say her name was?”
“Lily. Lily Amelia.” She looked down at her hands. “You said your mother’s name was Amelia. I thought it was pretty.”
She’d named his daughter after his mother. Tuck touched a finger to the baby’s rounded cheek, marveling at how soft and smooth her skin was. “You had no right,” he whispered. The baby had been born four months ago. Four months he could have been getting to know her. “You had no right to keep her from me.”
“Agreed.”
Anger and regret made a resurgence through him. “Then why?” He glared at her. “Why now? There must be something you want, or you wouldn’t have contacted me.”
Julia stepped forward. “Like I said, we need your help. We’re in trouble.”
“The same trouble that took your sister’s life?”
She flinched, her lips trembling. “Yes.”
“Who was behind the murder?”
“I don’t know. My sister and I had gone to the casino. She was on vacation, visiting me.” Julia swallowed hard before she could continue, her words coming out in a rush. “Jillian was making a video of me on the path outside the casino—the one that leads to the marina. She wanted to get the lake in the background. I was turning to get in a better position when I saw movement by the docks.”
She pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes widening. “When I looked closer, I could see a man being held at gunpoint and then shot in the chest down by the water. Jillian caught it all on her camera without realizing what was happening. I was too shocked to say anything. It happened so fast.” She stared up at Tuck, all the horror she must have witnessed reflecting in her watery blue eyes. “But then the murderer glanced our way. I don’t think he saw Jillian, but he definitely saw me.”
Tuck’s hands tightened around the baby. “What happened?”
“I told my sister.” Julia’s head moved back and forth as if she were in a daze. “She went after him.”
“Where were you?”
“She made me promise to go home and wait for her. To take care of Lily until Jillian came for me.” She stopped talking, tears dripping down off her chin. “My sister never came back.” Julia’s words thickened. “God, I shouldn’t have let her go.” Her eyes filled with tears and overflowed, rivulets of grief running down her face.
With the baby in his arms, Tuck could do nothing to comfort her. Nor should he want to, given their history together. She’d lied by omission. Something as important as a child of his own wasn’t a fact you kept from a father.
Besides, she hadn’t come to him for comfort—she’d come to him for help. She’d said she was in trouble, and it was up to him to get to the bottom of it. “Did you notify the authorities about your situation?”
“Yes, I called you.”
“No, I mean did you call the sheriff?”
“No.”
“Why the hell not?”
Julia gave him a watery smile. “Because Jillian told me not to. I never saw my sister after I left her in front of the casino, but I did hear from her one more time. I was waiting at home when I got a text message. The attachment was the video Jillian made of the murder. It’s just enough someone with the right equipment might be able to make out the murderer. The message told me to take Lily and run—and not to trust anyone, not even the police, and definitely not the FBI.”
“Dam—” Tuck clamped his lips closed, frowned and held out the baby. “Maybe you’d better take her.”
“She’s yours.” Julia stepped back, her hands held up in surrender.
“And yours.” He continued to hold the child out to Julia. “Take her.”
Lily whimpered, squirming in Tuck’s hands.
“You’re scaring her.” Julia hesitated, her arms rising then falling to her sides. “Please. You hold her. I feel so shaky right now, I’d probably scare her even more.” She dug in a pocket and pulled out her phone, her hands trembling so badly, she almost dropped it. “She must have sent the text as she was…d-dying. Why wouldn’t she trust anyone in law enforcement? My sister works…worked for the FBI. She was a special agent, like you.”
Tuck’s brows rose. “Your sister was FBI?”
“Yes.” She looked down at the floor, but not before he had a chance to see that her blue eyes were glazed with unshed tears.
Her grief tugged at Tuck’s heart, when he had no business reacting to anything about her. He didn’t know her, other than the one night they’d spent in bed. One night.
Apparently, one night was all it took. His gaze shifted to the baby in his arms. He was amazed by the fact he was a father. One night, and a beautiful baby was conceived.
Lily’s dark eyes blinked up at him. She looked so much like a Thunder Horse, it hurt to think of her in any kind of danger. Tuck’s jaw hardened. “Let me call a friend of mine and see what’s happening with the investigation. We’ll take it from there. But I’m not making any promises.”
Julia’s eyes widened. “You won’t tell them about me and Lily?”
“I won’t say a word.” He hugged Lily close to his chest. A wave of protectiveness made his arm tighten around the tiny bundle. He’d do anything to keep this child safe.
“Are you sure you can trust the man you’re about to call?” Julia chewed on her lower lip, the movement capturing Tuck’s attention. She was so beautiful, with her blond hair and blue eyes.
“I’d trust him with my life.”
She leveled her gaze at him. “What about the life of your baby?”
His baby. The words struck him all over again. The tiny human in his arms was his child, a part of him and completely dependent on him to protect her from harm. The baby’s eyes drifted shut, her cheek resting against his chest, trusting him to keep her safe and warm. “I trust him,” he repeated. Josh had saved him on more than one occasion, and Tuck had returned the favor. They were as tight as brothers.
Julia nodded, gathered Lily from his arms and walked around the small living area, gently rocking the baby back to sleep.
Still in a state of semishock, Tuck dialed Josh’s personal cell phone and waited, his gaze on the woman and baby who’d completely rocked his world. The phone was answered on the second ring. “Josh?”
“Yeah, Tuck.”
“Anything new on the murder case?”
“I just got off the phone with Bismarck. I can’t go into a lot of detail, but it’s never good when we lose an NIGC. They want answers, and fast.”
“Typical. Got any leads on who did it?” Tuck asked.
“No, and from what the sheriff said, we don’t have any live witnesses.”
Tuck glanced across at Julia. The one witness they had was too afraid to come out of hiding, the only other evidence on a cell-phone video.
His blood ran cold. That put Julia right in the middle of the investigation. If the killer knew that Jillian had sent Julia that video, he’d do anything to eliminate all eyewitnesses and destroy any physical evidence. And he might be ruthless enough to use a baby to get what he wanted.
“What about the Anderson woman?” he asked.
Julia’s attention swung back to him, her eyes wide.
“That’s the sad part. She was identified as a local schoolteacher. All we can figure is that she witnessed the murder and was killed for her trouble. Strange thing is that there were no signs of a struggle.”
“None?”
“No. And unlike the NIGC rep, who was shot, the woman was stabbed. She might have known the killer. We checked in at her apartment, and the neighbors said she had a baby, which is strange.”
“How so?” Tuck asked.
“The babysitter who lives next door said Julia picked the kid up around the same time as the murder. The murderer could have killed her close to her apartment, but no one’s seen the baby since. We have an Amber Alert out. I hope the killer doesn’t have her.” Josh sighed. “It’s tragic when the innocent become collateral damage.”
Tuck knew exactly where the baby was, but he clamped his lips shut, not ready to reveal any more than he had to. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, the babysitter mentioned a sister who came to visit. There’s a suitcase and clothing, but we haven’t located the sister, and there wasn’t any identification in her belongings. Maybe she’s taken off with the baby, running scared. We’ve initiated a background check to see if we can locate the sister.”
“Let me know what you find.”
Josh snorted. “Man, you’re supposed to be off. I’m sorry I dragged you all the way down here.”
“Yeah, but I knew the victim. Now I’ve got a stake in this.”
“We meeting for breakfast in the morning?” Josh asked.
“Sorry, Josh. I think I’ll sleep in. That little bit of jet lag is kicking in. But call me if you learn anything else or if Rick wants to leave early.” Tuck’s gaze met Julia’s. The dark smudges beneath her eyes and the tears trembling on her lashes made his chest ache. When he clicked the off key, he stood for a long moment, his world having made a one-eighty.
“You didn’t tell him I was here. Does that mean you’re going to help us?” She hugged Lily closer. “Because if you aren’t, I’m out of here.”
“Fort Yates won’t be safe once the killer figures out there’s another witness. You better hope he didn’t find your sister’s phone.”
Either way, Tuck knew that Julia would be in danger by morning, if she wasn’t already. Once the forensics team did their job, it wouldn’t be long before they discovered the dead woman was really Jillian Anderson. Whoever had killed her would put two and two together after it came out that Jillian had a twin named Julia, alerting the killer to the possibility that the woman who witnessed his crime and the woman who came after him were two separate people. And God forbid he’d found Jillian’s phone. It would show that her last communication was to send Julia the video with evidence of the murder. He’d be after Julia, and Lily would no longer be safe if she stayed with her mother.
She drew in a deep breath and looked down at the baby sleeping in her arms. “I have to get Lily out of Fort Yates.”
“First thing in the morning. Right now, you look dead on your feet.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he could have bitten his tongue.
The ready tears spilled from her eyes, running down her wan cheeks. “I’m sorry. I just can’t seem to stop crying.”
“Understandable. You just lost your sister.” The thought of losing one of his brothers hit Tuck so hard that before he could think straight, he pulled Julia and his baby into his arms and held them. The fear of what might happen to them outweighed the fear of losing his heart all over again.
Yeah, his life had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.
* * *
JULIA LAY AWAKE in the king-size bed of the hotel suite, Lily sleeping quietly beside her.
Through the crack in the bedroom door, she watched Tuck moving around. The coolly efficient FBI agent was worlds away from the funny, attentive, passionate man she’d met and married a year before.
Her life had come full circle—not just bringing her back to Tuck, but also landing her last adult relative in the morgue. The career path that had frightened her all her life, that had taken away her father, broken her mother’s heart and driven her away from Tuck all those months ago, was now the reason why she’d turned to Tuck for protection. She trusted him to keep her and Lily safe. But what would happen when all of this was over? He knew about Lily now, and if the look on his face when he held the baby was any indication, he wouldn’t let Julia just walk away with his child again.
She really didn’t know anything about Tuck, his family, where he grew up, what his parents were like. He’d mentioned his mother, but did he have siblings? Were they anything like him? Would they want to know Lily? They hadn’t had time in their whirlwind courtship to find out all the important details.
What if Tuck wasn’t a fit father for Lily? Julia would take Lily and raise her all by herself if that’s what it took.
But what if he was every inch the good man he seemed to be? If he was capable of being a good father, then she had no right to keep him from his daughter. Yet could she let him become part of their lives without developing feelings for him? Feelings that would place her right in her mother’s shoes, spending all her life worrying over him all the time?
In the outer room, Tuck unbuttoned the blue chambray shirt he wore and let it slide down over his back.
Julia’s breath caught in her chest.
Tall, broad shoulders, swarthy skin, hair hanging down almost to his shoulders, he could have been in a commercial promoting the Lakota Indians of the Dakotas, or an extra in a Wild West movie.
No wonder she’d fallen in bed with him. What single woman wouldn’t want to? It was hardly surprising she’d been too caught up in the moment to think of taking necessary precautions. She looked down at the sleeping bundle nestled at her side. She couldn’t regret, even for a moment, anything that brought her daughter into her life. But still, she knew she could have handled the situation much better.
During her pregnancy, she’d struggled with the truth, knowing she should tell Tuck about the pregnancy. Julia knew it really boiled down to Tuck’s work with the FBI. She’d been determined to raise Lily on her own, proving she didn’t need a man, especially one who was in such a dangerous line of work.
Guilt lodged like a twisted sock in her belly. She should have told him. He had every right to see his daughter. He could have been there for her when Lily had been born. Maybe things would have worked out for them. Tuck might be luckier than her father and sister. He might live to see his own grandchildren brought into this world.
Sure, and pigs can fly.
Pain washed over her anew. What more proof did she need? Her FBI agent father had died in the line of duty. Her sister worked for the FBI, and now she was dead. More tears welled in Julia’s eyes.
Tuck sat on the sofa and pulled his cowboy boots off. Then he stood and unbuttoned his jeans.
Julia should have turned away and allowed him his privacy, but she couldn’t. Her tears continued to slide down her cheeks, even as her gaze was drawn to the agent like a moth to a flame.
He loosened the button, his fingers grasping the zipper, then he paused. As if he thought better of it, his hands dropped to his sides and he glanced toward the bedroom.
Julia squeezed her eyes shut, feigning sleep.
The soft shuffle of bare feet on carpet let her know he’d entered the bedroom.
Carefully, Julia peeked through her lashes.
Tuck Thunder Horse leaned over the bed, staring down at the baby beside her. He reached out and brushed a finger over her cheek, his dark eyes fathomless, his square jaw rigid.
He bent and brushed a kiss across Lily’s forehead. His gaze shifted to Julia, his expression unreadable. As quietly as he’d entered the room, he moved on to the bathroom.
Julia’s gaze followed his retreating figure, an uncomfortable twinge of jealousy making her wish she’d been the one to receive the kiss, recalling how nice his lips felt on hers so long ago.
She shook her head, forcing her thoughts to clear. She couldn’t let herself fall into her attraction for Tuck again. This situation was temporary, just until the danger was resolved.
Her damp cheeks reminded her of what was glaringly important in this scenario. Her sister was dead, and she and Lily might be next.
Chapter Four
Tuck turned on the shower faucet, leaving it on a cool setting.
Sleep was the furthest thing from his mind with his ex-wife lying in the bedroom on the other side of the door. His groin tightened, memories of their fateful night together causing blood to flow and surge down low. A cold shower had been the only remedy he could pursue. Sleeping with Julia was not even a possibility. Not after she’d skipped out on him after their wedding night and omitted informing him of such a significant event as the birth of his child.
Anger at himself for still being so drawn to her burned along with the lust in his veins. Tuck stepped into the shower, the cool water pelting his skin, barely dampening the desire building inside. He grabbed for the miniature bottle of shampoo and scrubbed his hands through his hair, digging in his fingers hard enough to scrape his scalp. Yet, no amount of rubbing would rid his mind of her scent, her porcelain skin, the silken blond hair, the gentle swell of her hips, the full, sensuous lips—everything that made her Julia.
Tuck groaned, his soap-covered hands slipping down his torso to the hard erection he couldn’t shake by willpower or chilled water.
How was he supposed to keep her safe, when all he wanted was to lose himself in her body?
He forced himself to visualize the baby sleeping beside her. The dark-haired female version of himself lying so peacefully beside her mother, unaware of the danger she faced. The gravity of Lily’s situation was better at pulling him out of his fog of desire than being doused in icy water.
The baby gave him the necessary resolve to pull his head out of his lust and focus on the situation at hand. No matter what he wanted or desired, the baby was his main concern. Keeping Lily—and her mother—out of harm’s way had to be his focus. The only way to keep them safe was by catching the man who’d killed the NIGC representative and Julia’s sister.
He’d seen the video. The distance from the subject and the graininess made it difficult to determine the identity of the shooter. With advanced techniques and equipment, they had a chance. If he could get Julia, Lily and the cell phone out of Fort Yates intact.
* * *
JULIA LAY BESIDE Lily, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep with the sound of the shower on the other side of the bathroom door. Tuck would be standing naked beneath the spray. As if it was only yesterday, she recalled standing in a similar shower in this very hotel over a year ago with Tuck Thunder Horse, admiring her husband’s strong, sexy body, her fingers roving, exploring, her tongue tasting and memorizing every inch of the Native American.
Her pulse quickened, her blood burning a course straight to her core. She hadn’t taken a lover since that night—even before she found out she was pregnant. She’d just known that no other man would make her feel the way Tuck had. While her marriage had been brief, those hours she’d spent in Tuck’s arms had been electric, overpowering—above and beyond anything she’d ever known. Had she been too rash running out on Tuck before giving their crazy marriage a chance?
The thought of her sister lying in a cold, dark morgue brought her back to reality with a dull thud against her bruised heart. No, she had been right to leave and avoid falling deeper in love with the man. Had she stayed with him, she’d have set herself up to suffer the similar heartache of having lost her father and sister to the bureau.
She’d seen what it had done to her mother, watched her as over the years she’d withered away, dying by inches every day her husband was on active duty and then fading slowly of a broken heart once she’d lost him.
The sudden buzzing of her cell phone jerked Julia out of her morose thoughts and back to the present. She grabbed for the device and stared at the screen display. “Blocked Sender.”
Julia sat up and glanced at the bathroom door. Should she answer or let it ring? She wished Tuck would walk out at that moment and tell her what to do. But the shower continued on.
After the third ring, Lily woke and let out a cry.
Her nerves jangled by the evening’s events and Lily’s cries, Julia couldn’t think straight. She pressed the talk button and held the phone to her ear, her heart stopping, her vocal cords frozen in her throat.
“Julia Anderson, everyone thinks you’re dead. But I know the truth.” The raspy voice growled into Julia’s ear. “I also know what your sister sent you, before she died.”
“I d-don’t k-know what you’re talking about,” Julia lied.
“I have her cell phone. I know about the video file. If you don’t keep the file to yourself and give me your cell phone, you and your baby will end up just like her.”
Julia’s hand shook so badly, the phone slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor. As if Lily sensed her distress, her whimpers amplified into wails.
Tears welled in Julia’s eyes and she stumbled to her feet, staring down at the device at her feet as if it was a snake coiled to strike.
“What’s wrong?” Tuck stood in the now-open doorway of the bathroom, a towel slung around his hips, water dripping off his body, pooling at his feet.
“The phone,” Julia answered in a stupor.
Tuck’s jaw tightened. “Whose phone?”
“Mine.” She glanced down at the seemingly innocuous phone at her feet.
“You didn’t answer it, did you?”
She nodded, her gaze shifting back to Tuck.
A tic jerked in his jaw, his lips firming into a thin line. “The killer?”
She nodded.
“What did he say?”
“He’ll kill Lily and me if I share the video with anyone.” Julia lifted the baby off the bed and hugged her close to her chest.
“So he knows about Jillian and that she sent the clip to you.” Tuck’s words were a statement. He reached back into the bathroom and grabbed his jeans. “We need to get out of here.”
Her breath catching in her throat, Julia whispered, “Now?”
Lily whimpered.
Tuck stared across at Julia, his expression as hard as his jaw. “Now. Pack fast.”
He strode into the living area of the suite, dropped the towel and slid his legs into his jeans.
For a moment, Julia could only stare at his naked backside, her mouth gone dry. Then she spun into action, her child’s safety crystallizing as the most important thing in her mind. She laid Lily on the bed and blocked her in on each side by pillows before getting dressed and then stuffing diapers, bottles and formula into her backpack.
In less than two minutes Julia had everything. As she tied the sling around her neck, she glanced across at Tuck, who stood at the window, peering around the edge of the curtain.
* * *
TUCK HAD HIS suitcase waiting by the door. He checked out the window to see if any new cars had shown up in the parking lot below. As late as it was, most gamblers had either called it a night and gone to bed or were spending the night at a slot machine, hoping to hit the big jackpot. Nothing moved in the parking lot.
Then a couple of pairs of headlights shone down the long drive leading into the casino.
His pulse quickening, Tuck zeroed in on the vehicles, calling out over his shoulder, “It’s time to move.”
“I’m ready.” Julia appeared at his side, Lily wrapped around her middle as she’d been before, the shawl draped over her body. Julia leaned over his arm and stared out. “What’s going on down there?”
“I have no intentions of finding out. Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed his suitcase and then set it down, thinking better of it. Nothing in it was that important. He’d move faster without it. He took Julia’s backpack from her, then he held the door open for the mother and child.
After Julia passed through, he caught up and moved around her, heading for the stairs, not the elevator. He took the steps two at a time, arriving at the bottom first.
Julia maneuvered the stairwell at a slower pace, careful not to slip and fall with her precious cargo.
Tuck opened the door leading out the back of the building and checked for bad guys. “The coast is clear for now. But we need to move fast.”
“Where are we going?” Julia started to push past him to the outside.
Tuck spotted movement at the corner of the building. A man in dark clothing rounded the corner, his head swiveling back and forth, searching.
For Julia, no doubt. Tuck jerked her back into the building and pushed her behind the metal staircase. “Wait here beneath the stairs until I come back. Keep down and keep quiet.”
He ducked out the door, sliding into the shadows of a nearby bush. As he inched his way along the wall of the casino building, he kept the man in view while searching for a way to get Julia out of the hotel and away safely.
Tuck spotted a golf cart near the back entrance, parked beneath an awning.
About that time, the man searching the back of the building moved abreast of where Tuck hid in the shadows. In the meager light from the moonless night, the dark silhouette of a pistol was clearly visible. Tuck didn’t recognize the man as any of the sheriff’s deputies, the tribal policemen who’d been at the murder scene earlier or the potential witnesses he had questioned at the casino.
The man wore dark clothes and moved in a crouched stance, easing through the darkness like someone who’d done this before. Making a snap judgment, Tuck darted out, knocked the gun from the man’s hand and jabbed an elbow up into the guy’s nose.
He doubled over at the same time as Tuck’s knee came up, connecting with his face. The guy fell to the earth and lay still.
Knowing he might have only moments before the man regained consciousness and raised an alarm, Tuck ran for the golf cart and felt in the dark, praying for a key. When his fingers closed around the hard metal, he sent a silent prayer to Wakantanka, the Great Spirit. He cranked the engine and slammed into Reverse, backed all the way to the rear door of the casino and motioned for Julia.
She hurried out, sliding into the passenger seat even as Tuck whipped the cart into Forward and sped toward the marina.
“What happened to the man you saw?” Julia spun around in her seat, checking behind them.
“Taken care of,” Tuck said between gritted teeth as the cart bounced down the narrow lane to the marina by the lake.
“Where are we going? Shouldn’t we be looking for a getaway car or something?”
“Not a car. We’re going by boat. The drive into the casino is narrow. They’ll spot us immediately. The lake is big enough to give us a lead on them.”
Julia held on to the brace bar the canopy was mounted on as Tuck pushed the little cart to the limit. “I think someone’s following us. Make that two people.” She turned to Tuck. “Can you make this thing go faster?”
Tuck’s teeth ground together. He had the accelerator floored. “This is as good as it gets, unless you think you can run faster, carrying Lily.”
“No way. But they’re gaining on us.”
A quick glance behind him assured Tuck. “We’ll get there first.” Then luck would have to be with them. The first boat they came to had to have the key in the ignition, or they’d be sitting ducks.
Lily whimpered.
Tuck didn’t dare glance down at her. He had to make it to the marina and get them the hell away before anything happened.
A dull thump made the cart shudder. Bits of hard plastic splintered across Tuck’s back. “Get down!”
Hanging on to the seat, Julia slid onto the floorboard of the cart, her free arm clutched around Lily’s form. “They’re shooting at us,” she cried. “What if they hit Lily?”
“Not gonna happen.” Tuck hoped he was right. He bumped up onto the wooden pier, barely slowing as he took stock of the moored boats.
A long, sleek jet boat caught his attention. He aimed the cart in that direction and floored the accelerator again. The cart leaped forward, bumping over the wooden planks, jarring the occupants.
Lily’s voice rose in a wail, her cry matched by Julia’s as she tumbled out of the cart backward, landing flat on her back on the pier in front of the jet boat.
“Julia?” Tuck feared she’d fallen in, but there was no splash.
Julia waved a hand. “We’re okay, just shaken.”
“Stay put.” Tuck jumped out of the cart and dived into the jet boat. He groped for the ignition switch, praying the owner had been stupid enough to leave it there. “Damn.” No key.
He hopped out and into the ski boat beside it. A fat foam miniature buoy dangled from a key in the ignition. Tuck glanced up the path toward the casino. The silhouettes of three men raced toward them.
“Get in!” Tuck revved the engine, leaned over the side and unhooked the ropes tying the boat to the dock.
In seconds Julia was on her feet, racing for the boat.
Tuck reached out to capture her beneath her arms and swung her and Lily into the boat.
A soft popping sound was followed by wooden splinters flying off the dock into Tuck’s face. He ducked low and shifted the boat into Reverse, pulling the lever all the way back. The ski boat roared out of the slip, backing away from the marina as fast as Tuck could make it go. When they were well away from the shooters, he trimmed the engine down at the same time as he spun the boat around and shoved the shift forward. The boat tipped nose up and plowed the water until it picked up enough speed so that the front dropped down and they skimmed along at forty-five knots.
For the first time in what felt like hours, Tuck breathed. He knew they didn’t have long to get ahead. The thugs would find another boat with keys in it or hot-wire one and be on their tail soon. The farther away from the marina they got, the better. Tuck risked flipping the lights on to check the fuel gauge and groaned. Damn, less than a quarter of a tank. That wouldn’t get them far.
He’d have to find someplace to ditch the boat and hide or get out and make a run across land. His gaze moved to the woman in the seat beside him.
“Are you two all right?”
“Yes, thank goodness.” Julia had thrown back her shawl to check on Lily. The baby snuggled against her mother, her fist bunched in the fabric of Julia’s shirt.
A swell of pride filled Tuck’s chest at the same time as an overwhelming fear knotted his gut. “See if you can find life vests for the both of you. They might be under the bench seats.” He didn’t add that the vests could be necessary in case the boat tipped over or a fast turn threw them both into the lake.
How the hell was he going to keep them safe with men shooting at them? With very little gas to keep the engine going, they couldn’t stay on the lake long. Had he chosen the wrong route? Would they have been better off trying to get out by car?
Second-guessing would get him nowhere. They had enough gas to get somewhere. There had to be campgrounds on the lake.
Tuck didn’t dare slow down. He held the wheel as steady as he could while Julia moved about the boat, searching the cubbies beneath the seats and locating life vests to fit both Tuck and herself. She even found a small child’s vest. Unfortunately it was still far too big to fit Lily.
“Put yours on first,” Tuck said.
Julia laid the baby on the backseat while she slipped her arms into her vest and tightened the straps and buckles around her middle. Then she strapped the ill-fitting vest onto Lily, tying it around her snugly enough to keep it from falling off and the baby afloat should they hit the water.
All the while, Tuck kept a watch behind them, not that he could see much. The night sky was filled with millions of stars, but without a full moon, the inky-black lake, churning in the North Dakota wind, revealed nothing.
Until the bad guys caught up with them, Tuck wouldn’t be able to see them. By then it would be too late.
Carrying the bundled Lily, Julia moved up to the seat beside Tuck. “She’s not very happy, but it can’t be helped.” The mother fixed her worried gaze on the baby in her arms, squirming against the straps.
Tuck’s chest tightened. He could do nothing more than what he was to make their burden lighter. “Keep a lookout for campgrounds, trailers, tents, RVs. We have to get off the lake soon.”
Julia glanced up at him, her forehead dented in a frown. “Why?”
“We don’t have enough fuel to outrun them for long.”
“Gotcha. I’m looking.” Her head swiveled as she peered through the windshield. “You’ll have to get closer to the shore for me to see anything.”
Tuck struggled with which bank of the river-fed lake to cling to, finally settling on the east side, the boat skimming the surface and the flat North Dakota land stretching into the darkness.
This was only the second time in Tuck’s life he’d been scared of anything. The first being less than two months ago during a raid. He, his brother Pierce and Tuck’s best friend and fellow FBI agent Mason Carmichael had been assisting the ATF. Tuck had let Mason down, allowing his buddy to walk into a trap by entering the building they suspected contained a militia group’s cache of drugs and weapons.
The ensuing explosion had thrown Tuck and Pierce back several yards, knocking the breath out of them and giving them both mild concussions, but keeping them away from the worst of the flames. The ATF team and Mason had died along with the members of the militia inside.
He’d watched as Mason died in Pierce’s arms, knowing he could have stopped him from going into that warehouse. His worst fear now was that he would fail Julia and Lily.
He couldn’t let that happen.
“There!” Julia pointed to the shore a quarter mile ahead. “What’s that?”
As they moved steadily closer, Tuck made out the outline of a playground set complete with swings, slides and teeter-totters. Behind it were neat rows of travel trailers, RVs and tents. A yellow light glowed over a shower building at the center.
He eased the steering wheel to the right, bringing the boat closer to the shore.
Other boats were grounded on the water’s edge or anchored a few feet out. Tuck passed the campground.
“Aren’t we going to stop and find a car?” Julia asked, her head swiveling, looking behind them.
“Yeah, but we can’t pull in too close, or someone will see us.” Tuck drove the boat straight for the shore north of the campground.
Julia touched his arm. “Aren’t you going to stop? We’re going to run aground.”
“That’s the idea.” The bottom of the boat skimmed across sand and gravel, coming to a stop in two feet of water. “You two get out and wait on the shore for me.”
Julia shed her vest, gathered her backpack, untied the baby from her life vest and carried her to the front of the boat. When she was ready, she sat on the edge. “What are you going to do?”
“We can’t leave the boat here. If the guys chasing us recognize it, they’ll know this is where we stopped.” He held out his arms for Lily. “Want me to go first and help you two down?”
“No, it’s better if I go first, while you hold Lily.”
Julia handed the baby girl to Tuck and turned, sliding over the edge into the icy water. As her feet hit bottom, she lost her footing for a second and staggered, arms flailing.
“Careful,” Tuck called out, frustrated that he couldn’t help, the baby firmly tucked into the crook of his arm.
Julia tipped and fell on her back in the water. She struggled to get her feet under her, the backpack and her shawl weighing her down. Finally, she managed to stand straight, water dripping from every part of her body, her hair hanging like limp ropes in her face.
“Thank goodness you had Lily.” Her teeth chattered. “The water is icy cold.” She moved closer to the boat, easing her way along the sandy bottom. When she was abreast of the bow, she reached up for Lily.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Tuck held the baby out of her reach.
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