“Where is she, then?”
“How would I know?”
“She’s your cousin.”
Nathan dipped his head in agreement. “We are related, but I hardly know her anymore.”
“You saved her from burning to death once.”
“In another lifetime.”
“Are you not concerned at what happens to someone you once cared about?”
Nathan let down his guard for a moment and the rush of regret that wrapped around Tiernan put him on edge.
“As hard as it might be for you to believe, I still care about her,” Nathan said. “What is it you want from me?”
“I already told you.”
“Yes, you’re looking for Ella, but there’s something more. Something darker.”
Was Nathan reading him? He seemed to be in tune with Tiernan’s fears.
“There’s Marisala.”
Nathan started. “What about her?”
“Something happened to her. Something bad.” The rush of panic suddenly enveloping Tiernan made him realize Nathan had just lost control. Good, then he would get to the truth. “Marisala is gone, Nathan. She’s a shell. Out of her mind. Someone did that to her purposely and with malice. The question is—was it you?”
“I would never hurt Marisala!”
The sense of shock and disbelief whirling around them almost convinced Tiernan, but he had to be certain.
“You’re not wearing your buffalo totem,” he said. When Nathan didn’t answer, Tiernan filled him in. “Yesterday morning, Ella found Marisala out of her mind and took her to the reservation clinic for observation. Afterward, we went back to her trailer to see if we could figure out who did this to her, and we found your totem.”
“I must have left it there when I was with her a couple nights ago. I would never hurt Marisala,” Nathan repeated. “Because I love her. She swore she loved me, too, but she wanted off this rez and I finally found where I belong—right here!—and I wouldn’t leave again, not even for her. I wasn’t enough for her, couldn’t offer her enough, so she told me she found someone else. Obviously, someone dangerous.” He shook his head. “Where is she now?”
“With your grandparents.”
Nathan slammed the door behind him and started to push by Tiernan. “I must go to her.”
Tiernan put out an arm and stopped him. “For now, Marisala is safe. Ella… I am not so confident.”
“How long has she been missing?”
“We were together last night, but we fought, and she went off alone. Something happened to her.” Then he faced the truth. Warped mind and all, Marisala had been spot on. “The villain took Ella… stole her,” he said, remembering Marisala’s words. “He has her now. If she was safe, she would never let us all worry like this.”
“She would have called someone,” Nathan agreed.
“How the hell will I ever find her?”
“If she is aware, she can find you.”
Startled by that, Tiernan echoed, “Aware? What do you mean?”
“On another plane. If she called on the abilities she inherited from her father—"
“Which she is afraid to use.”
“If she were to journey, and if you were receptive… open to it…”
Tiernan remembered Ella saying that, of all her da’s apprentices, Nathan had held the most promise. “She told me you had abilities, as well. Why can’t you use them to find her?”
Nathan shook his head. “I gave up the Lakota mysticism I practiced to fit in with the white world. While I still walk a more aware path than the majority of The People, I can no longer do this or I would.”
If he wasn’t lying through his teeth, Tiernan thought, though he got nothing from the man that would tell him otherwise.
And then Nathan said, “Perhaps you can find Ella yourself,” which made Tiernan’s heart skip a beat.
“What makes you think that?”
“I can still sense power in a man,” Nathan said. “I sense something in you. Besides, you’re the one with a connection to Ella. If that connection is strong enough, you will be able to reach her.”
Tiernan tried to get a handle on what Nathan was saying. Reach her how? On this other plane? Before he could settle it in his mind, Nathan pushed by him, so determined to go after Marisala that Tiernan didn’t try to stop him.
As Nathan got into his truck, he called out, “I hope you find her in time.”
“In time?”
But the sound of the truck’s door slamming drowned out his question. Nathan took off and Tiernan ran for Red Crow.
In time…
The clock was ticking.
***
Cold seeped through her thin cotton clothing and enveloped her flesh, making Ella wonder why she had ever thought the mine would keep her warm. She’d been fine when she’d been moving through the tunnels searching for answers, but now that she was tied up, on the ground, a cool stream of air blowing over her, she was chilled straight through.
To make it worse, her head ached and every time she tried to lift it, she felt the tunnel whirl around her. Before she had been able to identify the villain, there’d been a loud crack and a flash of light, after which she’d felt a sharp pain in her thigh. Then she’d dropped to the tunnel floor.
Another dart, she assumed.
Though she worked at the bindings keeping her hands behind her back, she made no headway at removing them. Her feet were secured, as well, and the two sets of rope were attached one to the other, so she couldn’t even stand and try to hop out of there. She lay on her side in a soft arc.
How long had it been?
Was it day or night?
What was he planning on doing to her?
As if she’d sent some kind of signal that she was awake, footsteps echoed down the tunnel toward her. She rolled over so she could see in that direction and realized the man was carrying a battery-powered lantern in such a way that she still couldn’t see his face.
Would he continue to hide his identity from her?
Not if she could help it.
Tuning in to her higher self, Ella quickly grew aware. She analyzed every sound and movement the villain made, and when he stopped, the lantern held out before him illuminating her and the surrounding area and little else—certainly not him—it no longer mattered.
“Afraid of me?” she asked. Maybe he should be—even she didn’t know what she might be able to do once her head cleared of the drug. For now, however, she subdued the anger that seethed inside her—she needed answers first. “Maybe you should be afraid.”
“Big talk for someone who is in my power.” He disguised his voice with a low, raspy tone.
“So why haven’t you killed me?”
“I don’t need to,” he said, laughing. “The mine will do it for me.”
Just as she’d thought—he didn’t want to do the dirty work himself. He would just as soon leave her to die of thirst and then let her rot.
“And yet you had to come to check on me, to make sure I was still here,” she said.
“You’re not going anywhere. And I’m not here for you. I have work to do.”
She analyzed the way he spoke, the cadence and intonation. And promptly eliminated one of the three suspects. “Need more gold?”