Authors: Jamie Jeffries
Dead was more final. If someone had her and was holding her to smoke him out, would they send a message? Or would they wait, assuming he would eventually come looking?
They’d send a message, wouldn’t they? Of course they would. Jimmy kicked the palo verde, angered at his indecision. All right, he’d wait until noon. If there was no message by then, he’d have to think about who to contact. He went back into the house, roaring, “Where’s my breakfast, woman?”
THIRTY-THREE
7:00 a.m.
Alex stepped outside, prompted by Dylan’s honk. In her hands she had two travel cups full of coffee and over her shoulder, the strap of her carry-bag cut deep, as if she had something very heavy in it. As soon as Dylan saw her, he jumped out of the cab and ran around the front to open her door, taking one of the coffees out of her hand.
“Thanks,” she said, hauling herself into the seat with the sissy-strap. She set the other coffee cup in the holder on the console, and leaned forward to swing the strap over her head.
“What have you got in there?” Dylan said. “Looks heavy.”
“Just my tablet, a picnic lunch, and some muffins for breakfast.”
Dylan started laughing.
“What? What’s funny?” Alex asked.
He tried to stop, but every time he thought about what had to be at least ten pounds of food in that bag, he snorted and started laughing again. Finally, he got control.
“That thing has to weigh over ten pounds. You must have a week’s worth of food. They do have food on the rez, you know.”
She looked ruefully at her bag, now sitting on the floor between her feet. “Well, I did put a couple of bottles of water in it. And we have no idea whether we’ll be near Sells, or even a village, at lunchtime. I’m just trying to be prepared.”
“That’s okay, baby, you’re a good Boy Scout,” he said, suppressing the urge to laugh again. She looked offended. “Thank you for thinking of it.” He jerked his head to indicate the back seat. “I’ve got a case of water back there.”
“Oh,” she said. “I didn’t know.”
By then, they were leaving the southern edge of Dodge, and the sun was peeking up over the distant peaks of the Sauceda mountain range.
“By the way, I called in and took personal leave, so we’ve got all day. Where do you want to start?” Dylan asked.
“I guess the best place would be the market,” she said. “Do you think anyone would tell a stranger where to find Anna?”
“Maybe if the stranger were Native,” he answered. “I don’t mind asking. Unless you...”
“No, it’s okay. I want to do whatever will get us the fastest answers. Should we have gone over to check whether Wanda and Hector came home last night?”
“Way ahead of you. Before I picked you up, I called, and then went over when I didn’t get an answer. There’s no change.”
“That was smart. I would have hated to make this trip for no reason,” Alex said. “Look, Dylan. Is that antelope, or deer?”
He ducked down to look out her window, to where she was pointing, but couldn’t see what she spotted.
“Probably deer, if they’re very far from the road. Antelope are much smaller, and you’d have a hard time seeing them this early in the morning.”
Dylan visually checked the road ahead of him, and then looked back at her. She was still staring out the window. He could only see a quarter of her profile, but he got the impression that she was soaking in the scenery. She didn’t often get to be a passenger on the desert roads. He was lucky to be the passenger at work half the time, so he could soak it in, too.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, his voice quiet.
Alex turned to him and revealed eyes bright with unshed tears. “I’m thinking I’ll miss this country when I move to Phoenix,” she said.
Dylan’s heart did a stutter. He got it. She didn’t want to be stuck in tiny Dodge for the rest of her life. Hell, he didn’t either. He needed to be here for his mother and the boys. If not, he wouldn’t be here. But then, he wouldn’t have rekindled his feelings for Alex. So, no matter what pain it had cost him to come back, there was one good thing to come out of it, besides his brothers, of course.
He understood Alex’s desire to escape. He couldn’t move the boys anytime soon, though. Even if he got them before the end of the year, they would still have to be near their mom, until the end. He’d been reading up on parenting too, and he figured he needed to let them settle for at least a year after his mom died or after they came into his custody. It wasn’t good for kids to have too many big changes too quickly.
Dylan hadn’t responded to her remark, his thoughts turned inward. Before he knew it, they were at Why and he turned southeast, heading for Sells and the Baboquivari range. As if no time had passed, he said, “It
is
beautiful country, isn’t it?”
He didn’t turn to look at her, needing to keep his eyes on the road with the sun at such a low angle and driving almost directly into it. But he heard the smile in her voice as she asked, “Where have you been, Dylan?”
Surprised, he risked a glance at her. With the sun shining on her mahogany hair, she was the most beautiful thing in sight. He took a deep breath.
“I’ve been thinking of how much I’m going to miss
you
when you move to Phoenix. Tell me there’s a chance we can work things out long-distance. I don’t want to lose you.”
Her hand crept over the console to rest on his leg, and he covered it with his. “I’m not planning that far ahead, Dylan. Of course I still want to be friends, always. I just can’t see the future. Try to be patient with me, okay?”
Dylan squeezed her hand. “Of course, baby. We’ll take it one day at a time.” Inside, he was panicking. How could he make her understand how important she was to him? Neither of them had grown up in a complete family. Did they know how to be one? He hoped to God they did, because he didn’t want the same life for his brothers, or for his future children. He wanted them to have a mother
and
a father.
Right now, Alex looked a lot like the woman of his dreams — except in his dreams, she was always willing and eager to be with him. She wasn’t running off to Phoenix to pursue a career.
THIRTY-FOUR
Alex was trying to keep her mind off Wanda and Hector by enjoying the scenery. Dylan’s anguish about her offhand remark came out of left field. He was trying to hide it, but she could feel him suffering. They’d already talked about this, though. Even though they were enjoying a physical relationship, until they were sure they had a future together she and Dylan were supposed to keep it casual. Was he changing the rules?
She didn’t know anything about long-distance relationships, except what he told her when he broke up with her before leaving for school himself. He said they didn’t work. But, maybe long-distance was relative. After all, Phoenix was only a couple of hours from Dodge, give or take. She’d be back often to see her dad. He’d have to take the boys there for school shopping, at the very least. Unless he chose to go to Tucson instead. The point was, they could still see each other.
Of more importance were their other differences. He’d been raised Catholic, though he didn’t seem to practice it. She’d been raised nothing. When she was younger, she went to Sunday school when her mom went to church, but she didn’t remember that; it was something she was told.
After her mom left and Nana came to live with them, no one went to church. Her Nana was a free spirit, her dad always said. Alex suspected that meant that Nana was a hippie in her day. Her dad didn’t go to church either, but she didn’t know if he had before. She thought he’d changed, after her mom left, but it was so long ago that now it was just a ghost of a memory. She couldn’t point to anything specific. Anyway, there was the matter of religion.
She didn’t care that he was Native and she wasn’t, but she suspected finding out he was full O’odham changed things for Dylan. She’d have to wait and see how that worked out, because she didn’t know how she’d feel about it if he got more involved with the tribe. Or, how he’d feel about her if he did.
Dylan had only been back in town for a few months, not long enough for them to get to know each other the way you know someone to commit to a lifetime with them. It was true they’d had some intense times since then. He’d hurt her once though, left with no contact and no sign of remorse. Would he do it again? Could she trust him not to?
It was too soon to know. For now, she liked being with him. More than liked, maybe. He was as good to look at as he ever was. She more than enjoyed their intimate moments, and he made her feel safe. But was that enough? At nineteen, she was a lot smarter about love than she’d been at fifteen, when he’d swept her off her feet.
Alex was prepared to take things slow, enjoy his company and wait for something more than lust to develop between them. Now it seemed that Dylan might not be. It made her sad; she had no desire to hurt him. She wanted something like Wanda and Hector had. Not that she could see any sexual heat between them, but then they’d been married forever. Maybe that didn’t last. Wanda adored Hector, and he, for all his taciturn ways, loved Wanda more than life. That’s what she wanted.
Thinking about Wanda reminded her they had a monumental task ahead of them, and they were going blind.
“Dylan, do you know how many people live on the rez?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ll bet Anna Redhawk will. A good ballpark, anyway. I wonder if we could get her to go with us when we start searching. I don’t even know whether Wanda would have started with people in town or in the remote villages,” he answered.
“Where would you start? As a law officer, I mean?” she asked. “You know more about the cartels than I realized.”
“We have to deal with their fallout,” he said. “We’re always getting updates from the feds, and sometimes the people we pick up on ORPI land tell us things. I really should make an effort to learn more Spanish, though. I don’t speak enough to get what they say, sometimes.”
“I wonder why they don’t specify bilingual when they recruit?” said Alex.
“They do, but they have trouble filling LE positions in this park,” Dylan answered. “It was designated the most dangerous national park to work in back in 2008, when that ranger was killed.”
She shivered. “Are you safe?”
“As safe as I can be,” he answered. “They send us out with partners now, and we’re armed. Things have changed since then.”
“I’m glad,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to lose you, either.”
Once they started talking, the miles seemed to go faster, and before long they were in Sells, cruising the streets looking for groups of people. Alex was disappointed not to see a farmer’s market or flea market somewhere. It seemed Basha’s grocery was the only game in town.
Dylan parked his pickup and the pair automatically clasped hands as they walked toward the store. Inside, they found a crush of shoppers that matched the full parking lot outside. Alex paused, unsure how to start a conversation leading to Anna Redhawk’s whereabouts. Dylan pulled her forward and walked up to one of the checkers whose line was empty for the moment.
“Excuse me, ma’am, but do you know Anna Redhawk? She is my grandmother’s sister, and I’ve come a long way to visit.” It sounded like a very thin cover story to Alex, but the woman broke into a wreath of smiles.
“I know her. You want to see her?” she said.
“Yes, please. Can you tell me how to get to her house?”
“I could, but there is no need. That’s Anna.” The woman pointed with her chin at a short, rotund woman of Wanda’s age who was waiting at the bakery for her turn to order. Alex had a moment of panic. What would happen when Dylan walked up to her and she didn’t know him? But Dylan apparently didn’t share the same apprehension. He was already striding confidently in Anna’s direction. Alex hurried after him.
THIRTY-FIVE
Dylan followed the eyes of the checker to the woman standing in the bakery counter line. From the back, she could have been Wanda. The resemblance gave him the confidence that he could talk to this woman, not like law enforcement, but like an acquaintance. He started walking over and got halfway there before he remembered Alex. She wasn’t beside him, but that was best. He hoped she understood to hang back a bit.
“Anna Redhawk?” he asked, as he stepped up behind Anna in the line. She turned toward him with a smile, but then stopped in apparent confusion.
“I’m a friend of Wanda Lopez,” he said. “She mentioned she was coming to see you yesterday. Did she find you?” It was Dylan’s turn to be confused as he detected her expression of alarm. He struggled to keep his face neutral. This had already gone south, and to help Wanda he needed to salvage it.
“I… I… Yes, I saw her for a few minutes. And you are?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t say my name, did I? I’m Dylan Chaves, her distant relative. She’s been like a grandmother to me. We’re a little worried,” he added, as Alex joined him. He put his arm around Alex as he added, “She and Hector didn’t come home last night.”