“A what?” I reached for my phone, then remembered it was on top the speaker. All three were on the speaker. “I need to see this guy.” I stood up, searching the room.
“I’m sorry.” She looked around the bar again. “Do you want me to take it back?”
She started to reach for the drink. “No. Leave it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She glanced around the bar again, then slinked back through the tables.
I’d only gotten an up-close look of the Smirker. I’d easily recognize him, but no one else in his group. Her description was too vague to know if it was him or not, but I continued to scan the room, sitting down, trying not to look freaked out. “Where are you, asshole?”
“Dina, what’s wrong?” Yazzie, the oldest of the local girls threw herself into the chair next to me. “Your Spirit is radiating fear.”
I reeled myself back in, not knowing I was letting my alarm show. But no one else was looking at me. Just Yazzie, who the others said was the Cocopah’s next tribal spiritualist.
She leaned in close. “Since you arrived, your Spirit has been disturbed. A darkness has crossed over your light. If a bad Spirit has attached itself to you, you must be careful.” She reached out and grabbed my hand, slipping something small and hard into my palm. “Keep this with you. Your Spirit is stronger than the evil that pursues you.”
“Yazzie, I’m not into all that…”
She waved me silent, closing my hand around the rock. “Keep it with you always so your Spirit touches the Earth. You are not Kwapa, but you are of old blood and your Spirit is stronger. Trust it, Dina, even if you don’t understand it.”
She slipped away without any more warnings. I reached for my can of beer when it struck me. “Wait!” I shouted, standing to catch Yazzie. But she was gone. That fear wasn’t any lighter.
She’d called me Dina.
CHAPTER
6
I sat down and let the rock fall to the table. A clear stone, rough, but polished by hands over a long period of time. A local rock… a quartz? I didn’t know. I couldn’t think. My head spun with the confusion crashing down on me. I pressed my palms to my temples, squeezing my head between them. This is all insane! It can’t be real.
“Beth?” I jumped out of my seat at a hand settled on my shoulder. Casey. His pushed me back down as he sat next to me. “Easy, love.”
I rubbed my eyes, looking at Casey, then at Lutz standing behind him. “They were here, in the bar.”
“Where?” Lutz jerked his head around to glare at the crowd. His hand poised to reach under his shirt.
“Sit down and keep your hand away from your gun or you’ll get us all arrested.” Casey hissed at Lutz, who obeyed quickly. Casey sat down and stroked my arm. “They approached you here?”
“No. They sent that!” I pointed to the drink. “It’s an Irish Car Bomb.”
“Are you kidding?” He pushed the drink away and his jaw clenched. “That’s taking it too far. We’re going to finish our drinks and get out of here. Lutz is coming with us.”
“So his room was… visited?”
“Yeah, someone was there.” Lutz grabbed his beer and gulped part of it down. “Didn’t find or take anything. I think they’re just trying to scare us.”
“And they’re succeeding.” Casey’s voice was low, but strong. “You’re both worn out and stressed. You’re going to sleep it off and we’ll look at everything again in the light of day.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
Casey swung back and grabbed the phones off the speaker, handing them to me.
I pulled the back of mine off and removed the card, giving Lutz his. He pulled his card too. “We’ll pick up burners for any real conversations.”
“Sounds like a beer run.” Casey pocketed his phone. He couldn’t disconnect from his office at all, but we were the only ones he needed to talk to.
Lutz grabbed the Car Bomb. He dropped the shot in and drank the beer down, making a face. “Nah, had better. Should we grab the car?”
Casey looked at the beers. “No. Besides drinking, you’re both too distracted to drive. Drink up and we’ll go.”
We finished our drinks, trying to look casual. I got my duffel from the locker room and met them at the gym door. I wanted my own gun in reach, shifting my favorite from inside the duffle to the outer pocket, the grip turned for an easy grab.
Lutz crawled into the back seat of Casey’s big truck and stretched out. I took shotgun, the duffle between my feet, but leaning over the center console to be closer to Casey. Security waved us out the back gate, taking us the long way through a rougher side of town.
At a little bodega, Casey stopped and bought beer. He handed me a bag. In it were chips and three burner phones. I quietly set them up and passed them out. When we got to our apartment, I went out onto the patio while Casey settled Lutz into the guest bedroom.
We were on the third floor of a five story complex, facing the pool. Feeling movement behind me, I couldn’t help but look around a little too fast. Casey stuck his head out the door. “I’ll fix dinner. Want a drink?”
I shook my head and he went back inside. I didn’t need more beer. I needed to make a call. It only rang twice.
“Din’ah!”
“Yes, mama.” Of course she would know it was me, despite the strange number on her caller ID. The tears that had been pushing at the back of my eyeballs started to break free. “Mama, something
