Kiss of the Bees

What the hell do I do now? he wondered. Really, there wasn’t any choice. He would have to gut it out. Bluff like hell and hope for the best, but in the meantime, he started the engine on the Subaru and then turned on both the radio and the air conditioner at full blast. That way, if the girl was still aware enough to make any noise, chances were the cop wouldn’t hear her.

Moments later, with his heart pounding in his throat, he saw the headlights take a sharp turn to the left a mile or so north of where the Bounder was parked. He could still see the blue lights flashing, but behind them there was only the pale red glow of taillights.

“Whew!” Mitch said aloud. “I don’t know what the hell that was all about, but it was too damn close for comfort.”

Wanda and Fat Crack were getting ready to go to the dance at Little Tucson. They had always enjoyed going to summertime dances, although Wanda liked it less now than she had before her husband’s elevation to tribal chairman. Before when they went to dances, they danced. Now, often as not, she was left to dance with one of her sons or grandsons while Gabe went about the never-ending business of politicking.

“Did you tell her yet?” Wanda asked, as she watched Gabe fasten the snaps on his cowboy shirt.

They hadn’t been talking about Delia Cachora, but Fat Crack knew at once who and what Wanda was asking about. Wanda had disapproved of his bringing Delia back to the reservation, after thirty years away, to take on the assignment of tribal attorney.

“We need somebody who knows how to go head-to-head with all those Washington BIA bureaucrats,” Gabe had told his wife back then while the tribal council was wrangling over the decision. “If she can handle those guys, she can take on Pima County and the State of Arizona.”

As Gabe expected, Delia Chavez Cachora did fine when it came to dealing with Mil- gahn paper-pushers. Where she fell short of the mark was in relating to the people back home, the ones who had never left the reservation. And that was part of the reason Fat Crack had hired David Ladd to serve as her intern. Schooled by Gabe’s Aunt Rita and old Looks At Nothing, Davy had forgotten more about being a Tohono O’othham than Delia Cachora could ever hope to know.

When Gabe didn’t answer, Wanda knew she was right. “You’d better tell her pretty soon,” she warned. “Davy’s supposed to be here next week, isn’t he? She may be real mad when she finds out.”

Looking in the mirror, Gabe slipped a turquoise-laden bola tie on over his head. He sighed as he pulled it tight under his double chin. “You’re right,” he said. “She’ll be mad as hell. Maybe I’ll tell her tonight, if I have a chance. If she’s there. That way she’ll have time to get used to the idea before Monday when I have to see her at work.”

The shrug Wanda sent in her husband’s direction as well as the derisive look said as clearly as if she had spoken that Wanda Ortiz didn’t think Delia Cachora would be over the issue of Davy Ladd anytime soon.

“She’ll be at the dance, all right,” Wanda told her husband. “If her Aunt Julia has anything to say about it, Delia will be working in the feast house.”

The painful shock of scraping along the rough wooden floor shattered Lani’s druggy haze and brought her back to agonizing awareness. But it’s better to hurt, she thought. At least that way I know what’s going on.

The blindfold had caught on a splinter of wood and had been pulled loose as she slid across the floor. When she realized the scarf was gone and opened her eyes, she knew it was daylight from the light leaking in through the ventilation holes. The interior of the box felt like a heated oven. Moments later, a car engine started and she could feel a tiny breath of cool air blowing across her damp clothing. The car started, but for some time it didn’t move.

There in the dark and alone, without the man watching her and gloating, there was no need to hold back the tears. Lying flat on her back, she gave in to both the pain and to her growing despair, letting the tears flow. She couldn’t understand why this calamity had befallen her, or what she could do about it.

Somehow, in her aching grief, Lani raised one hand to her throat. There, beneath her fingers, she felt the smooth, woven surface of the basket, the o’othham wopo hashda she had made from her own hair and from Jessie’s.

What if her hair charm, her kushpo ho’oma, fell into the hands of this new evil Ohb? Lani had woven the maze, the ancient sacred symbol of her people, into the face of the medallion. It was bad enough that Mr. Vega had copied the basket onto that awful picture of his, the one he had drawn of her while she slept, but Lani was suddenly determined that, no matter what, he would not have the basket itself.

Struggling in the dark, she worked desperately to unfasten the safety pin that kept the woven brooch on the slender gold chain. Even as her fingers struggled with the pin, Lani could feel the drug cloud begin to wrap itself around her, dulling her senses at the same time it soothed the terrible throbbing of her wounded breast.

She fought the drug with all the resources she could muster. And even though she couldn’t hold it off forever, she did manage to keep it at bay long enough to slip the precious woven disk into the safety of her jeans pocket.

Only then did she give in and let the enveloping sleep overtake her. Whatever the drug was, Lani hated it because it had made her helpless and turned her into a victim. At the same time, she loved it, too, because while she slept, the searing band of pain that was now her right breast no longer hurt her. The drug put her mind to sleep and the pain as well.

Her last waking thought was that Mr. Vega was right. The drug was awful, but it did help.

David Ladd fought his way up out of the nightmare with the awful scream still ringing in his ears. Throwing off the covers, he sat up in bed, shaking all over and gasping for breath.

“David!” Startled out of a sound sleep, Candace sat up in bed beside him. “For God’s sake, what’s the matter?”

“It was a dream,” he managed, through chattering teeth, but already the punishing heartbeat was pounding in his head and chest. Another attack was coming. Helplessly, he fell back on the pillows.

Scrambling out of bed, Candace reached for the phone. “I’ll call a doctor.”

“No, please. Don’t do that,” Davy begged.

“But David . . .”

“Please. Just wait! It’ll go away in a few minutes. Please.”