Native Born

She couldn’t help stretching and then winced. Sitting made her ribs hurt. Breathing made her ribs hurt. Talking made her ribs hurt. She glanced at the ibuprofen bottle and then the clock. One more hour before she could have another dose.

“Yes. One shooter, .30 caliber. Positioned on the Star of Tucson Hotel. We now have three cartridges. Forensics has everything we could pull from up there. Garbage mostly, we think. But maybe we’ll get a hit.”

“Let’s hope,” she said.

“Change of plans for today.”

Cassidy tensed. She didn’t like surprises and so tried to be ready for every eventuality. But she hadn’t seen this assignment coming. That was certain.

“Gabe Cosen called. His brother has a ground-breaking on the rez today. He wants you and Forrest on hand in case there is trouble.”

“I thought we were up here to pursue leads to apprehend Ronald Hare and investigate the—”

Her boss cut in. “Yeah. Yeah. But today try to be sure Cosen doesn’t get shot.” He provided her with the coordinates given to him by Police Chief Cosen. “Clyne Cosen has another rally off-reservation in Phoenix on Wednesday. Damned victory tour. You and Forrest are accompanying him from Black Mountain to the rally.”

“Does he know this?”

“Not yet.”

Cassidy grimaced. This wasn’t going to be good. She knew Clyne Cosen well enough to know that. But she also didn’t like the bait and switch. She was here to investigate the ongoing drug activity here. Not play nursemaid to a bristly Apache who didn’t want her within a mile of him.

“We’ll be on-site for the next rally. This one is indoors, so no BS. Love to find the shooter before then.”

“You and me both.” She couldn’t help but twist to check the sore muscles and ribs. Yup. They still hurt. “I’m here. Gotta go.”

“Check in after the event.”

“Yes, sir.” She disconnected and said, “And keep that transfer request front and center.”

Cassidy pulled into the barren patch of ground her GPS had brought her to. She would have been certain she was off course but there was a series of fluttering triangular flags flapping briskly in the March breeze. She dragged her winter coat from the rear seat. Down in Phoenix it was sixty degrees. But up here fourteen thousand feet above sea level there was ice on the ground.

“That’s why they call themselves Mountain Apache,” she muttered.

A leaning white sign advertised the future site of the Black Mountain water treatment facility. Whoo-hoo, she thought and climbed from the vehicle. The wind tore a strand of hair from her ponytail and no amount of recovery could make it stay in place. Her chin-length hair was just too short for a pony and she’d be damned if she’d be seen outside the house in either pigtails or a headband.

She glanced at her watch and saw she’d arrived forty-five minutes early. That gave her time to check the perimeter and to wish she had worn thicker socks. The open field left few places to hide and the lack of any obvious vehicle was encouraging. But with a scope, a shooter could easily be in range. Clyne had agreed to wear body armor for this event. Cassidy adjusted hers, her backup. The one without the distortion over her heart.

Back at her sedan, Cassidy was just lifting her phone to call Luke when a line of vehicles, mostly pickups, arrived in a long train of bright color. The wind pushed her forward and she had to widen her stance to keep from losing her footing. The sudden movement made her ribs ache.

She watched the men and women emerge from their vehicles. Clyne was easy to spot. She didn’t know exactly why. Perhaps his height or the crisp way he walked. He joined some men dressed in trenches, walking with them along the flapping flags.

Luke walked slightly behind them. She knew the instant Clyne spotted her because his ready smile dipped with his brow. Then he turned his attention back to his conversation with his guests.

She heard him say, “Self-sustaining and by using local labor we expect to come in below the estimate.”

She fell into stride behind him, ignoring the heady scent of pine that reached her as Clyne passed. He’d smelled like that yesterday, she recalled, when he had carried her into the hotel. Cassidy inhaled deeply, enjoying the appealing fragrance.

“Hey,” said Luke.

“How was last night?” she asked.

“Quiet. You?”

“Good.”

“What did they say at the hospital?”

She didn’t answer.

“Cassidy?”

She fessed up. “I went home.”

Luke’s smile seemed sad. He had met Amanda more than once in the times before she knew he was her uncle. Amanda’s father’s half brother. If it were only him, she wouldn’t mind Amanda getting to know him better. Luke, she knew and trusted.

“I got Gabe to put someone on Manny Escalanti. Told him our office would pick up the overtime.”

Manny Escalanti was the new head of the Wolf Posse, the Apache gang operating on the rez. It had been this gang that had held the chemicals for production and moved the mobile meth labs to keep them ahead of tribal police.

“We need ears on him, too. Do we know if the Mexican cartels are still working with them?”

“DOJ says that they are working with both the Salt River gang and the Wolf Posse.”

In January, the cartel had decided to move operations to Salt River but failed to capture the chemicals needed because Gabe and his very connected fiancée, Selena Dosela, had succeeded in stopping them. Selena was also Black Mountain Apache and her father, Frasco, had ties to the Wolf Posse and American distributor, Cesaro Raggar. Good thing Dosela was working with them now.

“What do you think of Selena?” she asked.

“I think she’s very brave and very lucky.”

“I mean, do you think she is working with the cartels?”

“No. Not at all.”

His answer was a little too quick as if that was what he hoped to be true, rather than what was true.

“Her father was recruited by Raggar.”

Raggar was the head of the American distribution operation running the business from federal prison.

“And Frasco went to DOJ and made a deal.”

“To save his hide,” said Cassidy.

“It’s a valid reason to come to us. Kept his family safe and got them out of the operation.”

“Unless Raggar retaliates.”

“Gabe is very worried about that. Even asked me about witness protection for Selena’s entire family.”