âMy daughter is on her way to you now. I need you to promise to keep her safe. Donât forget sheâs just a child.â Cassidy turned toward the windows. âA child who should not have to make this choice.â
âShe will be with us for her Sunrise Ceremony.â
âAre there drugs involved? Peyote or some such? Because I will bust you, all of you, so fast.â
Clyne rolled his eyes. âYou see. This is the trouble. You donât know anything about us.â
âI know itâs illegal to give drugs to a minor.â
âWe wonât.â
âFine. Dress her up in feathers and beads. It wonât change her.â She stomped across the room and then back, her arms flapping occasionally. Finally she stopped before him. âI canât believe I kissed you.â
He gave her a satisfied smile. âWell, you did.â
Chapter One
If Cassidy Walker had known what would happen that Monday morning, she most certainly would not have worn her new suit. As an FBI field agent, Cassidy had drawn the short stick on assignments today or perhaps this was her bossâs idea of humor. He knew there was no love lost between her and Tribal Councillor Clyne Cosen. Yet here she was watching his back.
Did her boss think it was funny assigning her to Cosenâs protection or was this still payback for her bust in January? Was it her fault he was skiing in Vail when she and Luke had found both the precursor and the second meth lab? Heâd gone back to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force to report his agents had made the bust, but he hadnât been there.
Another feather in Cassidyâs cap.
She glanced over at her supervisor, Donald Tully. Because of his dark glasses, she could not see his eyes. But his smirk was clear enough. The man could hold a grudge.
Cassidy adjusted her polarized lenses against the Arizona sun. From her place behind the speaker, she scanned her sector for any sign of threat. Her assignment was to protect the speaker from harm. This was not her usual duty, but today the stage was filled with a mix of state and national officials and that meant all hands on deck.
Outdoor venues were the most dangerous, but the Apache tribal leaders had insisted on staging the rally here in Tucsonâs downtown river park.
As the next speaker took the podium she tried hard to ignore his rich melodious voice and the fine figure he cut in that suit jacket. The long braid down his back had been dressed with leather cords and silver beads. His elegant brown hands rested casually on either side of the podium. He had no speech. Clyne Cosen, tribal councilman for the Black Mountain Apache, didnât need one.
She gritted her teeth as she forced her gaze to shift restlessly from one person to the next, looking for anyone lifting something other than a cell phone. Judging from the wide-eyed stares from most of the women in the crowd and the way they were using up their digital storage snapping photos of the handsome tribal leader, it seemed she was not the only one who admired the physical presence of this particular speaker.
Cassidy glanced at the cheery arrangement of sunflowers just before her feet and resisted the urge to kick them off the stage. She had a personal grudge with this speaker and was struggling to maintain her focus.
The next up would be Griffin Lipmann, the president of Obella Chemicals. The Bureau had already suited Lipmann in body armor as this latest spill had made him public enemy number one in the minds of many. He was the main reason the Bureau had lobbied to hold this rally indoors. Of course Clyne Cosen and his band of Apache activists wanted to be right beside the river that was now an unnatural shade of yellow.
Cosen knew the power of the television cameras and social media. Until he finished speaking, he was her damned assignment and the way he was going on and on, it didnât look like heâd be stopping anytime soon.
She tried to set aside her personal issues with him and do her job. But her teeth kept gnashing and her hands kept balling into fists. Soon sheâd be meeting Clyne in a personal capacity, him and all his brothers. Damn that Indian Child Welfare Act. It had left her with no options, no more appeals. Nothing but the judgeâs final ruling. For the first time in her life she considered breaking the law and running for Mexico.