Thunder Horse Heritage

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.”