“What brings you to see us, Soldier Boy?” Starfall lightly touched Jake’s shoulder and smiled.
“I was out hiking and saw you all picking berries and thought it would be a good opportunity to visit with my mom and sister away from the camp.”
“You’re not afraid of the Prophet’s enforcers, are you?” Starfall said. She squeezed his bicep. “You look like a man who knows how to handle himself.”
Jake shrugged away from her. “What were you ladies looking at just now?” he asked.
“We were looking at cactus,” Sophie said, ignoring Starfall’s frown.
“What kind of cactus?” Jake focused on the ground where Sophie pointed.
“Starfall knows,” Sophie said. “Show him the picture.”
“I don’t think so.” Starfall hugged her arms across her chest. “Why don’t you go back to your mother, and let us adults talk?”
Sophie pouted. “Jake’s my brother. I want to stay with him.”
Jake put his arm around her. “Sure, you can stay with me.”
Starfall tossed her head. “I was hoping I’d run into you again soon,” she said.
“Why is that?” he asked.
She glanced at Carmen. “I wanted to talk to you. Alone.”
“You can say whatever you need to say here,” he said.
Now it was Starfall’s turn to pout. But Jake’s expression sent the clear message that he wasn’t budging. “I have something that belongs to you,” she said. “Something I found when I was out walking yesterday.”
He tensed, and it was as if the temperature around him dropped a few degrees. “What is it?” he asked, the three words sharp with anger.
Starfall twirled a lock of hair. “Something you wouldn’t want to fall into the wrong hands.”
“Give it back.”
Sophie cringed at his sharp tone, but Starfall only laughed. “Oh no,” she said. “If you want it, you’ll have to pay for it. Or I could hand it over to the Prophet. He might be very interested in it.”
“What are you talking about?” Sophie asked before Carmen could voice the question.
But neither Jake nor Starfall answered. They glared at each other, then his expression cooled, and he seemed to shrug off his anger. He turned his back to Starfall and squatted to get a closer look at the cactus. It was a clear dismissal. Starfall glared at him, hands fisted at her sides, and Carmen braced herself to pull the other woman off him if she decided to attack.
Jake had to be aware of Starfall’s anger, but he continued to ignore her. “I think that’s a Colorado hookless cactus,” he said to Sophie.
Starfall glared at Carmen, then moved over behind Jake. “Don’t you want to know more about this item I found?” she asked.
“Right now I’m more interested in this cactus.”
“How does a guy like you know anything about cactus?” she asked.
“It’s a hobby of mine.”
“That’s the same thing the guy said who asked me to find these for him,” Starfall said. “Since when are cactus such a big hobby?”
Jake stood. “You might be surprised,” he said. “Who was the guy?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but her words were drowned out by the loud crack! of gunfire. Granite shards exploded from a nearby boulder. Sophie screamed, and Carmen reached for her weapon but was shoved hard as Jake forced her and Sophie to the ground and then pulled Starfall after them. “Stay down,” he ordered, even as he drew a gun.
Jake fought to slow his breathing and control his racing heart as a second shot struck the dirt in front of the boulder he and the women were sheltering behind. Movement from an outcropping of rock fifty yards distant caught his eye, and he aimed his pistol and fired. No return fire came, and seconds later a car door slammed and an engine roared to life.
Staying low, he moved from behind the boulder and raced in the direction of the shooter’s hiding place, cresting a small rise just in time to see the rooster-tail of dust that trailed the vehicle’s retreat. Cursing his bad luck, he kept moving toward the rock outcropping where he thought the gunman had been positioned.
He had knelt to examine the area when the pounding of footsteps announced he was not alone. “It’s just me,” Carmen called before he could raise his weapon once more. She came around the largest boulder, holding her own gun and a little out of breath from running. “Did you get a look at the license plate?” she asked.
He shook his head and shoved his gun back in the waistband of his jeans. “No. And I didn’t get a look at him, either.” He picked up a stick and nudged a brass casing. “Some of these are still hot.”
She moved in beside him, and he caught the clean herbal scent of her hair. “A .223-caliber,” she said. “Probably an AR-15.”
“That’s what I thought,” he said. “Pretty common ammo. Tough to trace.”
He didn’t have to look to know she was pinning him with the kind of gaze designed to make guilty suspects squirm. “What are you doing out here?” she asked.
“I’m here to get my sister and mother away from Metwater, to someplace safer and more suitable for a child.”
“And you carry a gun to do it? And what did Starfall mean—she has something of yours? What is she talking about?”
He blew out a breath. He’d known this was coming. In fact, he’d planned to tell her as soon as he had clearance from his supervisors. There wasn’t time for that now. He needed help, and she might be the only one he could turn to. He met her gaze with a hard look of his own. “Can I trust you?” he asked.
“I guess that depends on which side of the law you’re on.”
He liked that answer. “I’m on the right one. I’m a cop, too.”
She sat back on her heels, her expression telling him she hadn’t seen that one coming. But she recovered quickly. “Let me see your badge.”
“That’s the problem. I don’t have it with me. Someone stole it out of my pack yesterday after I left Metwater’s camp. I think it was Starfall.”
“How did she manage to steal it out of your pack? What were you doing?”
He checked their surroundings to make sure they couldn’t be overheard. Sophie and Starfall were back at the canyon rim, surrounded now by the other women. “Is Sophie okay?” he asked. He had been in such a hurry to pursue the shooter
