Tribal Law by Jenna Kernan Page A

attention returned to him as she cast him an odd look. “Jovanna? That’s good. Your grandmother told my mother that you had found her.”
    â€œShe’s been adopted by a white woman.”
    Selena drew in a breath. “Clyne must be furious.”
    She knew his brother well enough to know that. Of course, she knew his family, or had known, them very well. His heart ached again at the losses, one upon the other.
    â€œClyne wants her to know her roots, of course, become part of her tribe, and my grandmother wants her to be home for the ceremony.”
    â€œWhat do you want?”
    No one had ever asked him that. His first thought was that he wanted Selena. But he just couldn’t think how that could happen. Because of her actions tonight she was now part of another active investigation. That alone meant she was off-limits. Would they always be on opposite sides?
    â€œI want Jovanna happy. But I worry about her losing a second mother.”
    â€œYes. I understand that. Being forced from her adoptive mother might be very hard on her.”
    Selena echoed Gabe’s thoughts, but as of yet, he had not raised them with his family.
    â€œI hope she will want to know us and learn about being an Apache woman. And I wonder if she even knows about the Sunrise Ceremony.”
    â€œShe’ll need a sponsor. A woman to teach her what she must know. Has your grandmother asked anyone yet?”
    â€œProbably.” But he didn’t know. The woman who was selected must be a close friend, but not a relative. So it couldn’t be either Lea or Isabella, the new wives of his younger brothers. He looked at Selena, thinking she would be perfect.
    â€œWhat?” asked Selena.
    â€œI wish it were you,” he said, and then lowered his head, thinking he shouldn’t have said that.
    She rested a hand on his forearm and his muscles twitched beneath the gentle pressure. He met her gaze.
    â€œI would be honored,” she said in Apache.
    He responded in the language of their birth. “It would be our honor, Sunflower Sky Woman.”
    Her mouth gaped as she blinked up at him. Was she surprised that he remembered her Apache name? She shouldn’t be. He remembered everything about her. Couldn’t seem to forget a single thing.
    â€œI wish things were different, Selena.”
    â€œI wish that, too.”
    The silence stretched. He closed his eyes, praying for some path that would bring him to a place where he could be with her and still keep his position as chief of the tribal police. Selena zipped her coat closed. It had grown so cold inside the interior of the vehicle that he could see each exhalation she made. Her breath and his breath mingled, fogging the windows, obscuring the outside world and leaving them in an icy cocoon.
    â€œGabe, I have to go in.” But she didn’t move to do so.
    â€œSoon,” he said.
    â€œHow did those men find us?” she asked.
    He had no answer.
    â€œI don’t know.” He shifted in his seat. He needed to tell her something.
    She turned toward him, so that her back was to the passenger’s side window, giving him her attention.
    â€œWhen I reached your truck and I saw someone lying inside, I thought...” Here his voice failed him. The squeezing pressure across his chest grew too great. He dragged in a breath and blew out frost. “I thought I’d lost you.”
    She smiled. “I’m right here.”
    He had lost her once before, but the permanency of this, of realizing that she might have died, frightened him so much.
    â€œI don’t want you to go inside.”
    She cocked her head. “I don’t understand.”
    He didn’t know how to explain it. He just knew he needed to get her away from this house.
    When he said nothing, her gaze strayed toward her front door.
    â€œI wish I could be like you. Believe in something so much that it came before everything else. For me it’s always been a