Stargazer's Woman

“What are you trying to tell me?” Kris inquired.

“Do you think he had something to do with what happened to Tina?”

The detective hesitated. “Maybe he’s a righteous guy, maybe not. But, one marine to another, check your six.”

Kris recognized the jargon—watch your back. She nodded. “Count on it.”

Lassiter stood, then walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. In the stillness that followed she could hear Max being questioned in the next room. Scarcely breathing, she made it a point to listen.

Chapter Three

“Come on, Natoni,” Lassiter snapped. “Spill it. You figured to make a small fortune in platinum, but Harris double-crossed you and your partner. Though you walked out of the hospital, she ended up dead. Harris is also dead now, maybe run off the road by his remaining partner or partners, but what happened today suggests none of them managed to end up with the platinum. That’s why the other members of the gang are coming after you. They think you know where it is. Tell me I’m not on the mark.”

“John Harris is dead? You guys are sure of that?”

The detective gave Max an incredulous look. “The guy’s toast. What’s left of him is sitting in some cardboard box at the morgue. But here’s the thing. Unless you come clean, you’re likely to end up as dead as your partner. If I were you I’d spill my guts rather than have someone else do the job for me. Prison trumps death.”

“Finding the reason those idiots tried to grab us is your job, Lassiter, not mine.”

“You were a police officer once. What happened to you? Your word’s sure not worth much these days.”

Their gazes locked and the tension in the room escalated. He knew Lassiter was pushing his buttons. No one had ever believed how he’d solved his last case. Despite the life he’d managed to save his credibility had been compromised. But he had few regrets. That one incident had drawn him back to the Rez and made him who and what he was today. The “who” he could live with, but the “what” part of that equation still gave him more of a problem.

“You don’t really expect me to believe that you have no idea who the men were?” Lassiter pressed.

Max paused for a fraction of a second, remembering the voice. He could have sworn it had been Harris’s. Yet the police were convinced Harris had burned to death, trapped in his vehicle after running off a mountain road.

He’d heard a dead man…for all the sense that made.

“They were wearing masks and didn’t exactly stop and introduce themselves,” Max answered at last.

“What if I tell you that the woman’s account of today’s events doesn’t match yours?”

“Then I’d say that you’re either lying to me, or you need to take a closer look at your source. She just came back from overseas—deployed for over a year in a combat zone. That means she probably brought home a boatload of emotional baggage. No telling how many casualties she saw along those roads. Then just a few weeks after she gets stateside, her sister gets shot to death not fifty miles from home. You expect a calm, completely accurate story from her?”

“So you’re saying that what happened at the nursery was the result of some penny-ante crooks looking to jack a car, not something connected to you two and the missing platinum?” Lassiter glared at him. “Coincidences are for fools, Natoni, and neither of us fits the mold. You’re neck deep in whatever’s going on. Come clean and save us both some time. Otherwise, we’re going to be in here for a long, long time.”

“Knock yourself out. I’ve told you all I know. Meanwhile, the bad guys are another mile down the road.”

SHE’D LISTENED CAREFULLY and knew that there was a lot Max hadn’t told the detective. For example, he’d never mentioned her gun. He hadn’t lied, not from what she’d been able to tell. He just hadn’t volunteered information, even when pushed.

The man was a pro—but at what? She needed more information. The problem was she had no way of getting it…except directly from him.

“Tina, what did you get me into?” she whispered in the silence.

A second later Detective Lassiter came back into the room. “Your attorney is here, and we’re releasing you.”

“My…what?”

“Tribal attorney Emily Largo is here.”

“But—”

Before she could say anything more, a petite Navajo woman in a blue suit with long black hair tied back at the nape of her neck came into the room.

The woman made a faint gesture with the palm of her hand, indicating that Kris should withhold any more comments. “My client is free to go, correct?” It hadn’t been a question as much as a statement.

“Absolutely. But we ask that she stay in the area,” Lassiter said.

Kris looked directly at him. “My business is here, and so is every dime I have, Detective. Where else would I be?”

“You tell me,” he answered.

“That’s enough,” Emily said, looking at Kris and shaking her head slightly. To emphasize the need to end this conversation, she gave Kris a gentle nudge out the door.

As they stepped out into the hall, Kris saw the tall redheaded man who worked for Jewelry Outlet. “Mr. Talbot,” Kris said in a cold voice. Now she knew why he’d been coming around. He’d bought into the conspiracy angle as well.

“You may be leaving for now, but this isn’t over,” Talbot said. “The sheriff thinks you may be involved in the theft of tribal property, and so do I.”

“Ignore him.” Emily nudged her toward the side door. “Let’s get out of here.”

As they reached the exit, Emily stopped, then gave her a stern look. “I’m going to get Max. Wait here and speak to no one while I’m gone. Clear?”

“How much will I owe you for all this?” Kris asked, blurting out what was at the forefront of her mind. At the moment, her personal checking account wouldn’t have bought two tanks of gasoline.

“It’s already been covered,” the Navajo woman said, then went down the hall.

Detective Lassiter joined her again as soon as Emily disappeared from view. “She’s the tribe’s top gun,” he said. “Just remember my warning,” he added, then hurried away.

A gazillion questions were going through her mind, but one stood above all the others. Just who exactly was Max Natoni? The guy had some serious connections, that’s for sure. One way or another she’d have to figure out who she was dealing with.

Max came around the corner of the hall and joined her moments later. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, they’re through with me,” she said. “But where’s Ms. Largo?”

“She’s got other business at the moment.” He led the way outside. “I know you’ve got a lot of questions, I can see them in your eyes. But let’s wait until we put some distance between us and this zoo.”

She did as he asked. Neither spoke as she drove through the city and headed west, back toward the nursery, which lay between Farmington and the Navajo Nation along the San Juan River valley. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, he broke the silence.

“There’s no turning back now. We’re in too deep. You realize that, right?” he asked at last.

“I know we’re both targets, yes. That also means I’m going to have to stay away from the Smiling Cactus Nursery when it needs me most.”

He nodded. “Otherwise you could endanger your employees or customers.”

“I’ll turn the reins over to Maria as soon as we arrive. She can take care of business for me until all the details surrounding my sister’s death are settled.”

“I think that’s the right decision,” he agreed.

Her insides were knotted but pride kept her voice cool. “Who are you, Max? I mean, really.”

“I’m exactly who I’ve told you I am. I’m a tribal employee.”

She shook her head. “There’s more to you—and the job—than you’re saying.”

“That could be said about almost anyone,” he replied with a slow smile. “There’s more to you, too, than just being the owner of a plant nursery.”

Max scarcely moved when he spoke. Like a good fighter, he didn’t seem to believe in wasted motion. Yet there was a raw energy about him, an edginess, that made him exciting to be around. It was like watching the beginning of a storm.

“Talbot, from Jewelry Outlet, was at the station,” she said, bringing her thoughts back into focus. “He thinks we’re all part of the gang who heisted the platinum.”

“Talbot’s job is probably on the line. The insurance company doesn’t want to shell out a bundle of cash to cover the tribe’s claim and they’re probably putting heat on Jewelry Outlet.”

Kris rubbed her temple with one hand. “When I came back home I thought I’d finally be able to sleep in peace at night knowing I had a good chance of waking up again. That’s all I wanted. But all I’ve found so far is more death.”

“My people believe that when we restore the balance between good and evil, we walk in beauty,” he said. “You’ll find the peace you want once harmony is established again.”

She lapsed into a long, thoughtful silence, then spoke. “Restoring that balance you spoke about is going to take a fight. The bad guys think we’ve got the answers, and the good guys think we’re the bad guys. That doesn’t leave us with many allies.”

“Don’t assume we’re working alone just because you haven’t seen our allies,” he said in a quiet voice.

There was something oddly reassuring about his confidence. “Who are our allies?”

“The tribe, for one,” he said. “We’ve got good friends who can be counted on to cover our flanks if things get hot.”

“Tribal employees, like you? You’re pretty sure of them?” she asked, her mind filled with even more questions.

“I am.”

There’d been a finality to his tone that told her he’d answered all the questions he was going to for now.

As she glanced at Max she saw the way he held himself. His muscles were hard and tense. For a brief second she pictured herself running her hands gently over his arms and chest. Would he shudder at her touch, or would he be all hardness and control?

A delicious shiver touched her spine but, with effort, she suppressed it.

“You okay?” he asked. His eyes were dark and probing as they held hers.

Did his imagination misbehave, too, when he looked at her? She pushed the thought back firmly. Max Natoni was a dangerous man—to his enemies, and to any woman who didn’t encase her heart in armor.

“I won’t go back to work until this is resolved, but somehow I’ve got to make that clear to the ones who came after us. I have to make sure my staff stays safe,” she said turning back to the business at hand.

“My guess is they’ll keep a watch on the nursery for a few days and once they see you’re not around, they’ll pull out and go on the move. We’re the ones they want. The cops will be coming around here often, too, now that the nursery’s on their radar. That’s company the guys after us will want to avoid.”

Max’s voice was low and smoky, a hunter on the prowl. Yet in the confines of the car, it also seemed to hold an air of intimacy. She glanced over at him, then focused back on the road. Smoldering. That was the one word that best described him. So much lay just beneath the surface….

“You must really have some connections if you rate the tribe’s top attorney,” she said, mostly to see his reaction.

Max raised an eyebrow, then his lips curved in a wicked smile that made her breath catch in her throat.

“No answer?” she probed, refusing to let him get to her.

“As I told you, we have allies.”

She pulled into her parking slot at the nursery. “I don’t know what to make of you, Max,” she said, honestly, “and I like to know the people who are by my side when I’m fighting. Overseas, the enemy generally didn’t bother to differentiate between a combat unit and noncombat one. Knowing and trusting the people I was with kept me alive.”

“I hear you.”

He held her gaze for a second or two and she felt the impact of that look all through her body. Liars were usually polished, but there was a roughness to Max, an edge of raw masculine power that made her want to trust him.

“Your sister was a good judge of character,” he said at last. “You know that. If you trusted her judgment, then you should also trust me.”

She could almost feel the layers of secrets that surrounded him. “Let’s take this one step at a time,” she answered, then pointing ahead, added, “Does that have anything to do with your connections to the tribal president?”

Two Navajo men were working quickly to change the damaged tires on Max’s truck. She recognized the name of the company on their jackets, too. It belonged to a nationally known racing team based in Farmington.

Following her gaze, he smiled. “Like I said, I have friends.”

Again, a nonanswer. “I’m going to go talk to my staff and explain that I’ll be away for a few days,” she said.

“This operation may take much longer than that,” he warned, opening his door.

“I’m optimistic,” she answered.

“Go do what you have to, but hurry. We can’t afford to hang around for too long. We’re going to be under surveillance by the cops and the bad guys.”

“All right. I’ll meet you here at my truck in five minutes.”

He shook his head. “You’ve got a great truck, but mine has a few extras that could come in handy. Bring your Beretta along with you, too, and the extra clips.”

Kris watched him stride off. He was in superb physical condition…like an active duty soldier. In a way, maybe that was exactly what he was. What made Max Natoni even more dangerous was that underneath all the mystery that surrounded him beat the heart of one ultra sexy man.

Chapter Four

The Navajo man tightening lug nuts with an air hammer glanced up as Max approached. Turning the task over to his associate, a younger Navajo man who appeared to be just out of high school, he took Max aside.

“Thunder, Hastiin Bigodii wants an update,” he said quietly.

Max looked at his cousin, Ranger Blueeyes. Under other circumstances, he would have greeted him as family, but an operation was underway and security procedures were required. The man before him now was simply Wind, just as he was Thunder—not Max Natoni.

Max told him about the voice he’d heard during the kidnapping attempt. “They were both wearing masks, but I’m one-hundred-percent positive that one of the men was Harris.”

“John Harris is supposed to be dead. The authorities concluded that he drove over a cliff a few days after the theft of the platinum.”

“The charred body found in the wreckage of Harris’s car couldn’t have been Harris’s because he was here this morning, trying to kidnap the woman and me.”

“Then it looks like we’ll have to operate under the assumption that the man is still alive, no matter what the police have been led to believe. I’ll pass that information along. Is the woman going to be a reliable asset?”

He knew what Wind meant. “I don’t know her well enough yet to answer that. Her sister once told me that they were alike in all the ways that mattered, that there was a bond between them. But whether she’ll be able to second-guess my old partner is something that remains to be seen.” He sighed. “What complicates matters is that she doesn’t really trust me. She’s been trained to look past the surface. She’s got an intelligence background in the military, so she’s skeptical of halfway answers.”

“Do whatever you have to do to get her complete trust.”

“I’m working on it.”

“If you’re right about Harris being alive—”

“I am,” he interrupted.

Wind nodded. “Then he’ll come after her again. We’ve suspected that Harris had—has—a partner on the inside, so he probably already knows about the note. That could explain why she’s become a target—and an asset that’ll have to be protected.”

“I haven’t told her about Harris being alive, but she knows she’s in danger. She’s chosen to stay with me, but with her skills and training, she’s more than capable of looking after herself.”

Wind nodded. “Maybe so, but she’s still an asset and it’s our duty to guard her. The body count is high enough already.”

“Harris killed my former partner. He won’t touch this woman, not while I’ve got breath in my body,” Max growled.

Wind nodded once. “I’ve got a source in the County Sheriff’s Department. He said that Lassiter warned the woman—marine to marine—that your current activities are suspect.”

“That could damage any seeds of trust that may have started to develop.”

“Then handle it quickly, Thunder.” Wind looked around for a second, then continued. “Have you tried…really tried…to use your gift? That could simplify things, stargazer, and put a quick end to at least one of the problems we’re facing.”

“I’ve tried, but nothing happened,” he admitted.

“So I’m working on this case the only way I know for sure works—dealing with reality, not metaphysics. I’ll get results.”

Wind shrugged, then turned off the air compressor and began to help his assistant put the tools away.

Seeing Kris coming in his direction, Max went to meet her halfway. “Are you ready?” He looked at the oversize purse she was carrying—big enough to conceal her pistol.

She nodded. “I’ve done all I can do here for now. We need to plan our next move. How about if you take me to the exact spot where you and my sister first came under fire? Then I’d like you to go over every detail with me.”

He nodded. “I plan to take you there and talk you through it, but first we need to shake off any possible surveillance.”

“As soon as you’re sure we’re not being tailed, I’d also like to stop by my place so I can pick up a few changes of clothing. You can keep watch.”

He drove down the highway in silence. Somehow he’d have to find a way to convince Kris that even though he guarded more than his share of secrets, he was worthy of her trust.

As the miles stretched out before them, he thought of Tina. “Your sister died doing the work she loved, Kris. She liked living on the edge and the job fit her like a glove. That may not be much consolation to you right now, but it will someday,” he said somberly.

“Is that what keeps you in your line of work, the lure of danger?” she asked.

“Partly, yeah,” he admitted. “I’d die by inches in a nine to five. But it’s more than that. By working to restore the balance, I make a difference. That’s the most any of us can ask for.”

“I still don’t understand your relationship with my sister. Neither of you was in the police force anymore, so how did you end up working together on this operation?”

“After she went freelance, I’d throw work her way as often as I could. I trusted her and she trusted me. In our line of work that’s all that matters.”

“Was there anything more between you other than work?”

“No,” he answered flatly. “Not that your sister wasn’t interesting or attractive to me.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He’d have to give Kris some glimpses into who he was as a man if he wanted her to trust him. “I’m not one for involvements, and neither was she—at least by that point in her life. If you’re envisioning some sort of unspoken romantic attraction like you see on those TV cop shows, forget it. We stayed professional.”

He paused, then grudgingly answered the question he could see still mirrored in her eyes. “Did I ever think about having a physical relationship with her? Sure I did. She was tempted, too, on occasion. If it hadn’t been for our jobs, who knows what might have happened.”

Kris got what he was saying. Tina had liked to keep work and play separate. Yet her sister had also often enjoyed uncommitted physical relationships with men. In that particular way, she and Tina were vastly different. Her heart would have to be engaged before anything serious could happen.

“Your sister’s first love was her work and no matter what else you may hear, she died trying to complete her assignment. Before I’m through, everyone will know the truth, too. You have my word. It’s a matter of honor—hers and mine. Do you understand?”

She nodded slowly. It was their mutual love and respect for Tina that bound them now. “At the moment, the note’s your best lead, and I’m going to do my best to help you figure it out. With luck it’ll also lead us to the ones responsible for her death.”

They soon approached a familiar intersection and Kris sat up and pointed. “I live a short distance down that road.”

“We can’t stay long,” he said, following her directions. “Pack quickly.”

“After we leave my place, then what?” she asked.

“We’ll go see a few people I know.”

“I’m going to need more than that. I won’t go into any situation blindly, no more than you would,” she said, her voice firm. “I’d really like to trust you, Max, but you’ve got to give me a reason.”

He understood her perfectly. He didn’t trust easily, either. In that one way they were kindred souls. He glanced over at her. She was an incredibly attractive woman. A man could drown in those pale golden eyes. But what drew him to her went beyond that. He liked her code of honor and her loyalty to the people who mattered to her. Any man would be proud to have a woman like Kris by his side.

He stared at the road ahead, then continued. “Let me start by telling you something you don’t know. I believe the man who killed your sister—John Harris—is still alive. I can’t prove it, mind you, because I never saw his face, but he was one of the men who came after us at the nursery.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” she demanded. “This changes everything. If Harris pulled the trigger and the police aren’t even looking for him, I’ve got to do everything in my power to find him and bring him in. He’ll have the answers I’ll need to clear my sister’s name. Harris is the answer.”

“If I’m right, Kris, and he’s alive, you won’t have to go looking for him. He’ll come after us with everything he’s got. That’s why he didn’t care if I heard his voice. He intends to kidnap and force us to find the platinum for him. Then once that’s done, he’ll kill us.”

“Let him come,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion. “If he wants a fight, let’s give him one he’ll never forget.”

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