Tribal Law (10 page)

“Selena?” he said.

“I'm here.” But her voice sounded choked and strained. Were those tears?

“Selena, did I make you cry?”

She cleared her throat. “No. It's just... I'm so sorry for all of this. I wish I could do something. Except make a casserole. We made one, too. Mama insisted. We'll be at the Chee home after the funeral, as well.”

It was the first bright spot in his day.

“I'll see you there, then.”

“Yes. And Gabe?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for telling me about your day.”

He had, hadn't he? And it felt natural as breathing.

“You're welcome.”

“Good night, Gabe.”

He whispered good-night and disconnected, recalling a time when he had imagined what it would be like when the good-night wishes were not whispered over the phone but over the pillows in their marriage bed. Gabe pressed the phone to his forehead as the terrible ache made him fold at the middle. How had he let this happen?

Chapter Sixteen

On Saturday, after the funeral, the home of Officer Chee's parents was filled to bursting with members of the tribe. Tables groaned under the weight of casseroles and platters of cold cuts. Some had brought drinks, desserts, flowers. No one came empty-handed. Chee left behind a father, mother and brother. Andre stayed close to his mother, straying only a time or two to speak to his friends. On the top of the television was a framed photo of Dante Chee in his Black Mountain police uniform and one of him looking much younger in his US Marines uniform.

Selena stood beside Mia, who elbowed her in the ribs and inclined her head toward the door. The Cosen family had arrived. Selena lifted to her tiptoes to see them parade into the crowded room. Glendora Clawson, Gabe's grandmother, carried a casserole wrapped in tinfoil. She was dressed all in black, except for her open pink parka and the stunning turquoise-and-sterling necklace. Her hair showed only a sprinkling of gray and there was no doubt where her grandsons had gotten their looks. Behind her came the oldest Cosen brother, Clyne, wearing a black woolen topcoat. Snow stuck to his neatly braided hair, which he had dressed with silver beads. He looked every inch the tribal leader, from his bear-tooth bolo to the distinctive toe tab of his traditional moccasins. Next came Kino, still in his police uniform and escorting his pretty new wife, a Salt River woman named Lea. He wore his long hair in one single braid down his back. Clay was absent. Still in federal court down in Phoenix, she knew. Kino closed the door and Selena lowered herself back to her heels.

“Where's Gabe?” asked Mia.

“I don't know.”

Clyne approached Brenda Chee first, representing the tribe as he spoke. He was formal and eloquent, and she was glad she had never been interested in Clyne. The woman he chose would have to represent the tribe as well as he did and be the model of all that was good in an Apache woman.

By the time Glendora and Kino had finished speaking with the family, the door had opened again and Gabe stepped in from the cold, still wearing his blue dress uniform. The sight of him made her catch her breath. Her hand went to her mouth, pressing the pads of her fingers to her lips. Judging from the women standing about her, she was not the only one who noticed his arrival. Old and young watched Gabe steer through the crowd. It was not only his striking good looks or the uniform that he filled in all the right places, it was the elegant way he walked and the air of authority that was as much a part of him as his skin. Heads turned and the room quieted again as Gabe spoke first to Mr. and Mrs. Chee and then to Andre. His words were sincere and heartfelt. Like in his eulogy, Gabe spoke of honor and duty and his genuine grief at the loss that was shared by the entire tribe.

“You have to catch this man,” Brenda Chee said, clutching Gabe's hand.

“Yes, ma'am. We will,” he said, and Brenda released his hand, mollified.

Gabe left them and found his brothers. Mia poked her again.

“What?” she said.

“Go over to him.”

“Why?”

Mia rolled her eyes. Selena bolstered her courage and made her way across the room, but Violet Norris got to him first. Her giggles sounded like the call of a screech owl. Selena paused and Amelia Bush cut in front of her to join Violet, who appeared less than pleased with Amelia's arrival. Selena glanced back to Mia who held up both hands in surrender. Selena noted that Kino, newly married, was the only Cosen not drawing a gathering of female admirers. And why not? The older Cosen boys were two of the most eligible men on the rez and definitely the best looking.

Clyne was now speaking to four women and Gabe had three. Martha Moses had elbowed her way between Amelia and Violet.

Her younger sisters Paula and Carla flanked her.

“Want us to run interference?” asked Paula.

Selena smiled. “No. It's okay.”

“You sure?” asked Carla, casting Selena a sympathetic look.

“Positive.” Selena forced a smile and scanned the room.

Glendora sat with Mrs. Chee. Selena went to greet Gabe's grandmother and they had a nice chat. Glendora had never treated Selena differently after her father had been arrested. Perhaps it was because her own daughter had been married to a man who had been in and out of prison for much of their troubled marriage. Her mother had been close friends with Gabe's mother and had told her some of what had happened. It was Selena's opinion that all the Cosen boys had a mission to redeem the family name. But, more than that, they seemed determined to be what their father had never been—honorable men.

Selena wandered back to her sister and noted that their mother looked wilted from the long day and the chemotherapy.

“Ready to go, Mom?” she asked.

Her mother nodded wearily. Her mother and sisters went to make their farewells to the Chee family as Selena slipped out to start the car and turn the heater up to full blast. She returned to the foyer where Mia helped her mother with her coat. Carla held her mother's gloves and Paula gripped her hat. Selena glanced back to see Gabe staring at her over the heads of two women before she stepped out into the night.

Her sisters all climbed into the back of the car and pulled the doors closed while Selena saw her mother seated. She was heading toward the driver's side when a familiar male voice called to her.

“Selena!”

She turned to see Gabe trotting out to her. Mia's window buzzed down as Selena stepped out of the headlights' beam to meet Gabe.

“I didn't get a chance to speak to you.”

“Yes. I know.” She thought that answer showed restraint. Did it mean anything that he had called her last night? That when he was stressed and harried he had turned to her? Perhaps it was nothing, but she felt a connection growing again.

“I wondered if I could...if you'd like to go for a cup of coffee?”

There was coffee inside, of course, but no privacy.

“Now?” She glanced back to her vehicle where her mother and sisters waited.

Gabe rubbed his neck.

Mia climbed out of the backseat and opened the driver's side door.

“See you at home,” she said and closed the door, making Selena's decision for her. A moment later her car was pulling away, leaving Gabe and Selena alone beneath the stars.

“I guess you're driving me home,” she said, and then remembered that his family was inside. “Did you come with Clyne and Kino?”

“Kino and Lea have their pickup. Grandmother and Clyne are together, and I have my unit.” He motioned out toward the road and the line of cars and trucks that sat bumper to bumper. “I came right from work.”

On a Saturday. Of course he had.

“Shall we?” Gabe said, indicating the direction.

They walked in silence toward his SUV where he opened her door and clasped her elbow as she climbed up. She usually would not need the assistance, but tonight she wore a simple gray woolen dress and black shoes with low heels that had absolutely no tread whatsoever. Once she was up, he reached and pulled the seat belt across her body and clasped it at her hip. His hand lingered there and her whole body began to tingle and tighten. Suddenly she was glad she had gone to the trouble to comb out her hair and clip it back from her face. She'd even put on light makeup, mascara and a raspberry lip gloss.

She glanced from his hand on her hip to Gabe's face. His eyes glittered and his jaw clenched tight. She tried to remember why seeing him was such a bad idea. Something to do with him breaking her heart, but here was her heart pounding wildly and urging her on as if it had never been torn to pieces.

He was going to kiss her again, and she was going to let him.

Chapter Seventeen

Gabe wished he hadn't strapped Selena into the passenger's seat. Now that they were kissing and she was tugging at the shoulders of his uniform, he wanted to drag her out of the car and take her...where?

Gabe stood beside her open door at the shoulder of the road before the Chee family's home where anyone might see them. He pulled back, ignoring her groan of protest as he rested his forehead against hers.

“I've missed this. I've missed you,” he said.

She stroked her hand through his short hair, and finding no purchase, she laced her fingers behind his head and sighed.

“I wish things were different,” Selena whispered.

“We could make them different.”

She released him and gave him a sad look that told him nothing had changed. In fact, her father's return had only made things worse. He shouldn't even be seen with her because he did not know who was watching her. He should take her home.

“Did you say something about coffee?” asked Selena.

Gabe drew back. She let her fingers glide down his neck and over his shoulders before sitting back in her seat. By the time she'd released him, he needed the cold air to bring himself back under control.

Gabe left her to return to the driver's side, moving his coat out of the way to take his seat. He'd left it in his vehicle before going in, but now he draped it over Selena's lap. That darn threadbare coat she wore over her pretty gray dress was just not warm enough on a night like this.

She snuggled under the sheepskin and he started the engine, whisking them away from the gathering and his family.

When he sat beside her, he was glad for the intimacy of darkness that hid them from the view of all the people who pulled them apart.

Gabe drove toward Black Mountain, trying to think of some way to change things while the smell of lavender drove him crazy.

Memories surfaced. They had not waited for marriage to explore each other's bodies, but he knew he had been Selena's first. He did not know if she'd had others since then, but he knew there'd been none here on the rez. So she'd been discreet or gone without. Perhaps she'd been the wiser, because he'd gone out and tried to find her replacement. He never could. There was no one like Selena anywhere.

Had she missed him deep down the way he'd missed her? They'd been so good together.

Her words stretched out across the space that divided them.

“You were wonderful today,” she said. “Your words were very...heartfelt.”

“It was difficult.”

“You didn't show it. And your call for action, for the tribe to return to the old ways and not let ourselves be used by outsiders. I wish my father had been there to hear you.”

Her father, who could not attend as he was under house arrest. Her father who had cut a deal with the DOJ and not bothered to tell Selena, and then let his daughter drive out alone with a member of Escalanti's gang. Gabe gripped the steering wheel in a stranglehold as the anger settled in his guts.

“Has your dad been contacted by anyone new?” Escalanti would have to send a new contact or come himself.

She glanced at him. “Is that what this is, another interview?”

Gabe cursed himself for a fool. He finally had Selena alone and he was blowing it again.

“No. It's not. Just coffee.” He focused on the road and not the way Selena's scent filled the warming air in the cab. But when they got to the town of Black Mountain, they found every café and restaurant closed.

“I didn't realize it was so late,” he said.

“There's the casino,” she suggested.

That never closed. But the bright lights and the horde of outsiders held no appeal. Weekends were always crowded. But the casino did have a hotel and hotels had restaurants and beds. His body went hard at that and he fought a mighty battle to resist his needs. He'd only just gotten her to agree to go for coffee.

“Too loud,” he said.

“And too many people we know work there.”

That was certainly true.

“There's my office. I have coffee.” Why hadn't he thought of that earlier? It was quiet and the dispatcher on call was over at the firehouse tonight. He'd have her all to himself.

But Selena had not agreed. In fact she was scowling.

“Or the casino,” he offered. “If you want.”

Idiot. His office made it sound like what it was—an ambush.

“Your office,” she said.

Had she just agreed to what he thought? Oh, he hoped so. He turned them back toward the station, parked in his usual spot and showed her in via the back door, walking the familiar route through the squad room.

“It's creepy in here after dark.”

They threaded between his men's desks.

“Let me get the lights.” He stepped into his office and flicked on his desk lamp, leaving the fluorescents off.

“Better?”

She nodded and turned as he took her brown work coat, sliding it from her shoulders to reveal the trim gray dress that clung just enough to make a man interested.

Who was he kidding? Selena could be dressed in a paper sack and he'd still be interested. He hung her coat on the coat tree beside the door and added his jacket and hat to the adjoining hooks. When he turned she was already seated on his couch, one leg crossed over the other at the knee, one shoe dangling from her toe.

Oh, boy
, he thought. He was in trouble.

Gabe headed toward the coffeepot.

“Do you have tea?” she asked.

He thought Yepa drank tea, so he raided her top drawer and returned with two tea bags wrapped in white paper envelopes. He preferred coffee but he'd drink dishwater if it meant sitting beside Selena. He filled the carafe and sent the water through the coffee machine.

“Sugar?”

“One.”

The water heated, dripped, and when he had enough, he poured the water into two paper cups. Selena left the couch and came to stand beside him as he added one packet of sugar and a tea bag to her cup. She accepted the offering and dunked the tea bag. He felt just like that bag, bobbing up and down and unable to get out of the hot water.

Finally she lifted the liquid to her mouth. Gabe stared as Selena blew on the hot tea. She might have managed to cool it, but her actions heated him so much that he unbuttoned the collar of his uniform and loosened his tie.

Selena cast him a knowing smile and headed across the room where she sat on his leather sofa and sipped her tea. He set aside his cup and followed her, sitting close, but not too close.

“How is your mom?” he asked.

Selena uncrossed her long legs and planted her feet on the ground as she edged toward the front of the cushion. She told him about the treatment and how it stole Ruth's strength.

“My father said that Raggar would find out soon about the shootings. That he might not want to take delivery from the lab because of it. He also said that it's Escalanti's job to take possession of deliveries of the chemicals from the Mexicans and store the chemicals for the labs. And that it was his men's job to protect me and the barrels. He asked me to ask you if those two who attacked me were Mexican cartel.”

“No. Tell him they were from a gang in Salt River.”

Selena frowned. “That's bad, isn't it?”

He nodded. Shootings were always bad.

“That means they knew about the barrels,” she said. “How did they know we were moving it, and how did they know where we would be?”

“We are working on that now.”

Gabe wondered if there was a leak in Escalanti's organization.

“Why would the Salt River gang attack the Wolf Posse?” she asked.

“We're not sure. Maybe to steal the chemicals.”

“Or take over Escalanti's operation?”

“Yes. That's possible. They also might just be shopping for material to cook down in Salt River.”

He tried to puzzle it out, but the scent of lavender intruded. Nothing and no one could compete with the chase and with the job. Until now. Tonight he didn't want to know why the Salt River gang had crossed into Wolf Posse territory or if Raggar had learned of the attack on the shipments or how they had found Nota and that truck. He wanted Selena. He turned toward Selena and tucked her hair over her shoulder.

“Thank you for coming to the service and then the grave. I knew you were there and it helped.”

She gave him a quizzical look. “You never look like you need help from anyone and you never ask me for it.”

“Well, I've never had to stand over the grave of one of my officers before, either. I hope I never have to do that again.”

She took his hand and held it to her cheek. “It's a terrible loss. I heard you promise Brenda that you would find the killer. I hope you do.”

“We already have.”

Her eyes widened. Was that because of his revelation or because he had confided in her?

“That's good.”

“We have evidence that the body was moved by Nota and the other man. The one on the snowmobile. His name was Alfred Martinez.”

She nodded, her eyes still huge.

“Why did they kill him?”

“We don't know if they did yet. But it's likely. I'll know soon.” He turned to her question. “Chee was hunting the morning of his disappearance. We think he might just have seen something he shouldn't have. Stumbled on to something.”

He wished he knew where they had shot Chee and what his officer had seen before he was killed. He didn't have ballistics back yet. Just the match on the prints. Nota and Martinez had moved Chee's body. Whether they had shot him was still in question. But he thought it likely that the slugs in Chee's chest would match the ones fired from Nota's pistol.

“Poor Dante,” she whispered.

Selena moved closer. Her cheek pressed against his and he drew her in. She felt so good in his arms.

“We should have gone to the casino,” she whispered, and then nipped his ear.

“Maybe,” he said, drawing her tight. Nothing had changed; in fact, things were worse. She leaned in so that their bodies pressed together.

Everything but Selena dissolved in the yawning desire. He kissed her neck and she arched back, giving him access to her throat as her fingers kneaded his shoulders.

She straightened and took a firm hold on the back of his neck, her fingernails raking through his short hair as their lips met. When she finally pulled back, Gabe had to resist the need to keep her close. It was hard, as always, to let her go. But he did. She eased away, panting, her eyes wild with the heat that burned him up inside.

“Chief Cosen,” she said, “are you sure you know what you're doing?”

He didn't. His thoughts where all jumbled up, tangled in the long strands of her dark hair, pushed aside by the enticing scent of her warm body.

“Are you?” he asked.

“
I'm
not the chief. What do I have to lose?”

“I should stay away from you,” he said.

“Why don't you, then?”

He grimaced. “I can't.”

Her gaze flicked to his and held, her face serious. Just the sight of her made his entire body quicken with need and readiness. He needed to hold her again. But he waited for Selena.

She gripped his hand and gave a little squeeze. She rose and her fingers slipped from his. She walked toward the door. Gabe edged forward, but he somehow remained where he was, though his heart was hammering and he had to bite down to keep from calling her back. She made it to the coatrack and reached. He held his breath, but she did not lift her coat. Instead, she closed and locked the door. Gabe exhaled his relief. She was staying.

Selena moved gracefully to his desk and flicked off the tabletop lamp.