Turquoise Guardian

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“I didn’t get us out. I’d have been cuffed to the handgrip in a smoldering wreck if not for you.”

He’d been the reason they had a chance to get out of that SUV, and they both knew it.

Her smile drop away. “Did they find them?” she asked.

“No. Those other two got them out before torching the vehicle. No sign of them since.”

“Oh, Carter. What’s happening?”

He lifted his water. “I was hoping you’d know.”

“I don’t. I can’t even imagine. It’s like a nightmare.”

Carter rubbed his neck. It was a gesture he used when unhappy, but she wondered now if it might stem from pain.

Carter had refused to go to the health clinic but had allowed Kurt to look him over. He declined the neck brace they recommended for the jolt he’d taken during the crash, but took the offered analgesic medication.

“Did you get through to your family?” asked Carter, changing the subject. Did he believe her? She couldn’t tell.

“I did. Your brother let me use his desk phone. I called Kay. She’ll get word to my mom and Ellie.” But not her father. Her father had made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with her ever again. Her stomach ached, and she felt even lower than before.

“Do you ever see them?” he asked. She could see the pain now, there in his tight expression and the watchful eyes. Did he still feel the ache that she carried like a stone in her heart?

“Sometimes. When I can. I see them at Kay’s.” Her younger sister had married at nineteen and moved to the smaller Rez communities of Koun’nde to the north of Pinyon Forks.

Now his eyes held accusation. “But you never came to see me again.”

She hadn’t. Not after that last time.

“Carter. I...” She thought of their last meeting. “I didn’t think you’d want to see a manzana.”

A manzana was Apache for an apple. It meant that she was red on the outside and white at the core.

She used the insult he’d thrown at her when he had been home recovering, and Yeager had still been listed as missing.

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

“You told me to go away, me and my manzana clothing.” She lifted the hem of her ruined blazer to show that she still dressed like an Anglo working in an Anglo world.

His jaw tightened. And the glimmer of desire faded from his eyes, replaced with something hard and cold.

Detective Bear Den poked his head through the open doorway.

“The FBI is here. The real FBI.”

“You find them—the guys that took us or the other two?” asked Carter.

“No.” Jack shifted and rested a hand on his hip. “Vanished like ghosts.” He inclined his head toward the door. “They have some questions.”

Carter nodded and rose.

“Ah.” Jack shifted again. “They want Amber first.”

Carter hesitated, and she thought he might argue.

“You gonna sit in?” asked Carter.

Jack nodded and Carter resumed his seat. Amber stood, and her lunch rolled in her belly. She reminded herself that she had done nothing wrong. But it didn’t quiet her nerves as she trailed behind Detective Bear Den.

She’d had a chance to clean up in the bathroom, but the fine powder still clung to the creases of her dark slacks and jacket, resisting her efforts to beat it away. And the smell of the gasoline and the air bags clung to her like skunk spray, making her head ache.