Lakota Baby. Elle James

Dakota’s room, she passed the thermostat with only a cursory glance, determined to fix the heating problem after she’d assured herself that Dakota was okay. Tendrils of frigid air caressed her bare feet and calves, rising from the floor. Her breath caught in her throat, making it difficult for her to fill her lungs.

      Frigid night air drifted in from the bedroom in front of her—it had nothing to do with the thermostat.

      “Dakota.” Maggie raced into the minuscule room, barely large enough for the baby’s furniture. The small window stood wide open, the blue-and-white cloud curtains flapping in the bitter wind.

      “Oh my God,” Maggie whispered. Her feet carried her one agonizing step at a time toward the crib of her five-month-old son, her heart choking the air from her throat. Even before she peered through the colorful mobile into the nest of blue blankets, she knew.

      Dakota was gone.

      A SHRILL BEEPING NOISE pierced his sleep, forcing Joe Lonewolf awake. He fumbled in the dark for his pager, until his fingers curled around it and he lifted it close to his face. In bright green digital letters he read Call Maggie, followed by a phone number and 911.

      His pulse raced through his veins and as he swung out of bed the blankets and sheets fell in a careless heap to the floor.

      Why would Maggie call at…he peered at his clock…four-twenty in the morning? Hell, why would Maggie call at all?

      He grabbed for the phone and dialed the number, every cell in his body on high alert.

      “Joe?” Maggie answered the phone before it had barely rang once. “I need you.” Her words came out in a sob, reaching across the line like a hand curling around his heart.

      “What’s wrong, Maggie?” He could hear the faint wail of a siren in the background. “Are you okay?”

      No response, only the sound of someone taking a ragged breath.

      “Maggie! Talk to me!” he shouted, panic tightening his chest.

      “Joe, Dakota’s gone.” A sharp clattering crackled across the line and the phone went dead.

      What the hell was going on? Before he could form another coherent thought, he was throwing on clothes, a jacket and hopping into his boots. He hit the door running. Maggie needed him. He had to get there.

      Outside his house, the predawn air hit him like a slap in the face. What was it, minus ten degrees already? And it wasn’t even the end of October. The first snow hadn’t fallen.

      His black SUV had a thin layer of ice covering the windshield and it took two cranks before the engine turned over. Maggie needed him. The thought replayed through his head, a mantra to keep him moving forward when he could hardly see through the windshield.

      Dust and gravel spewed to the sides as he spun the vehicle out of his driveway. He raced down the road until he passed the bright green city limit sign for Buffalo Bluff, the largest town on the Painted Rock Indian Reservation. For once in his life, he wished he didn’t live so far out of town. The eight miles to the small community took an eternity. At the same time, the drive gave him too much time to think about Maggie—his stepbrother’s widow.

      Had it only been two weeks since Paul’s accident? It seemed like a month had passed from the time he’d received the call that his stepbrother had run off the road on his way home from work at the Grand Buffalo Casino. He’d been pronounced dead at the scene, leaving behind his wife and baby.

      Joe slammed his hand to the steering wheel, still angry he hadn’t lived up to the promise he’d made his mother—to watch out for Paul.

      Now Paul was dead. But his baby had his whole life ahead and he needed someone to look out for him. What had Maggie meant, he was gone?

      Dakota. The baby boy still gnawed at Joe’s gut. He should have been mine. As soon as the thought surfaced, Joe pushed it down. He had no right to feel that way. Maggie should have been mine. His foot left the accelerator and his Explorer slowed in its headlong race across the reservation. None of this was supposed to happen.

      Maggie wasn’t supposed to marry Paul, Paul wasn’t supposed to die, and Dakota should be tucked in bed sleeping like the baby he was. Why then was he racing into town, fear gripping his chest?

      Joe skidded his SUV against the curb next to the little house on Red Feather Street and slammed the shift to Park. As he leaped from the vehicle, he squinted at the bright array of lights from squad cars and state police vehicles. The wind had died down during the night, but the smell of snow sifted through the morning air.

      He blinked at the glare of headlights and strobes, his eyes stinging in the frosty air. Four hours of sleep wasn’t much to go on and he hadn’t had a drop of caffeine since yesterday noon. Not that he needed caffeine.

      Not since Maggie’s call.

      Delaney Toke, one of Joe’s tribal police officers, stepped down from the concrete porch. “Glad you came. She just sits there, rocking back and forth.”

      “What happened?”

      “Apparently, someone came in during the night and stole the baby.”

      Although he’d been prepared by Maggie’s words, Joe still felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. “How, when?”

      “We don’t know. All we can guess is somewhere between midnight and four-fifteen this morning when she called.”

      “Thanks, Del.” He moved around the officer and strode toward the door.

      Maggie might be his brother’s widow, but she’d been Joe’s woman first. Until he’d gone to Iraq. He didn’t regret the time he’d served for his country, but he did regret the time he’d been away. He’d never thought Maggie would marry Paul.

      But why wouldn’t she? Joe hadn’t made any promises—he’d actually told her they had no future and not to wait for him.

      Standing in desert BDUs with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder, he’d fought his desire to take her into his arms as her face paled and her eyes pooled with tears. Had he really expected her to wait around for his return from the dangers of war? He’d been a bastard and gotten what he deserved when he came home to find Maggie married.

      Too tired to think or to allow old memories to clutter his head, he sighed and turned toward the door. A state policeman was unrolling yellow crime scene tape around the yard to cordon off Maggie’s house from curious neighbors.

      A cameraman from the satellite station out at the casino was already panning the scene. Joe bypassed the man and headed for the door.

      “Hey, Joe,” Del called out. “Sorry about your nephew.”

      Joe nodded briefly, his gut clenching the closer he got to the door. He hadn’t seen Maggie since his stepbrother’s funeral. But she’d called him. Fear for her child must have made her desperate. Joe knew she’d rather call anyone but him after how he’d treated her over a year ago.

      Brown grass crunched beneath his feet, brittle from the subzero nights. A few tenacious leaves clung to the ash tree in the front yard, soon to be whipped away by forty-mile-an-hour winter winds. He tried to focus on the insignificant details, instead of on his imminent meeting with the woman he’d spent the better part of a year trying to forget.

      Had she married Paul out of revenge?

      No. Maggie wasn’t the vengeful type. Then, had she always been in love with Paul? Joe felt his chest contract. Had their night of passion been nothing but lust, just as he’d told her?

      The letter from Leotie two months after his deployment to Iraq said it all. Maggie and Paul had gotten married not long after Joe’d left. She said they were happy, in love and expecting a baby.

      The news hit him like a mortar to his belly.

      As he’d walked night patrols in the desert, he’d wondered what Maggie would have done if he’d asked her to wait for him. Would she