Tribal Law by Jenna Kernan Page B

balancing act. What’s best for Tomas? What does my mother need? How can I get enough business to pay the loans, keep us fed and keep my sisters happy? And now my father. I want everyone safe.”
    And that love for them was going to get her killed, he thought.
    She gave him a beseeching look now. As if wanting him to understand something. He got that cold feeling in the pit of his stomach again.
    â€œSelena, don’t let him drag you any farther into this. Please.” He was about to ask her to come with him. To let him protect her from her family, which he now believed to be the biggest threat. Her love for them put her in danger. But Selena cut him off.
    â€œYou have your job. I have my family. My sisters, my mom and my little brother all need me. My father needs me, too, in his way. They are everything to me.”
    â€œBut you’re not safe here. Come with me. I can protect you.”
    â€œProtect us, my entire family? With twelve men? Or just me?”
    She waited.
    â€œJust you.”
    Her smile was so sad. She leaned forward and he followed, filled with a fragile hope. She stroked his cheek and then her fingers slipped away.
    He didn’t want her to put him through this again, making him choose between doing his duty and protecting her family.
    He knew what he’d do if she forced him to choose and it scared him to his core. He’d choose her and lose it all.
    â€œI’ll find the precursor,” she said. “Then you can arrest them, and things can go back to the way they were.”
    â€œIs that what you want?” he asked. It wasn’t what he wanted. Not anymore. He wanted Selena back.
    This time her father was working with DOJ, but he’d still managed to drag Selena into the line of fire twice in only twenty-four hours.
    He wished he could throw him back in prison.
    â€œSo you’re willing to stick to Dryer’s story?” he asked.
    â€œThat Nota took the truck because Dad’s parole officer stopped by? Yes. Nota didn’t call anyone. So Escalanti wouldn’t know I was with him, and his car is still here. Plus it explains the bullet holes in my truck. The story works.”
    It might work. Or it might get Selena killed. If Escalanti thought she was working with the federal authorities, would he kill her or just call off the deliveries?
    It was a huge risk. One he didn’t want Selena to take.
    If he were Escalanti, he would either move the lab and call things off, or kill the Doselas on the suspicion they were playing him.
    â€œI should arrest you,” he said. The threat was halfhearted. “At least then I’d know you were safe.”
    To arrest her was to blow the investigation wide-open. He chafed at the need to do his job and his instinct to keep Selena with him.
    â€œI just want this to be over,” she said. “Good night, Gabe.”
    She shifted and the door release clicked, then Selena slipped from his unit.
    She hesitated. He knew he should say something. But words failed him. Selena closed the door and he let her walk away, waiting until she was inside before starting the engine. Had he thought she might change her mind and come back to him?
    She wouldn’t. She had her family and he had his job.
    He stared at Nota’s muscle car, which gleamed yellow under the light from the Doselas’ living room window. It wouldn’t be long before the Salt River gang missed their two gunmen and Escalanti knew that Nota and Martinez were not coming back.

Chapter Fourteen
    Gabe returned to the crime scene after dropping off Selena and met with his lead investigator and Murdy, who had bad news. His men had run the snowmobile’s trail and hit a dead end. The precursor had been off-loaded at the shoulder of the road that ran parallel to Piñon Lake Road. They could determine nothing of the delivering vehicle or vehicles. In other words, they had not found the location of the storage site for the