Thunder Horse Heritage

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.