Navajo Justice. Aimee Thurlo

      Chapter One

      It was a beautiful morning in late March. The sky was a clear, almost brilliant blue, the air clean and crisp—the kind of day where the breeze whispered of dreams that were still in the making, and songbirds celebrated the coming of spring.

      Laura Santos drove home from the post office slowly, taking back streets off the main highway that, although graveled and bumpy, gave a great glimpse into the true character of the small New Mexico town. One-story houses stood like sentinels between fields of sandy soil dotted with tall clumps of blue-green sage and eager green-and-yellow native grasses. Horses wandered lazily, seeking the fresh green fare. Their slowly shedding, thick winter coats were now the only reminder of the long, cold months behind them.

      Today, she could afford to take her time and enjoy the day. She’d finally finished her latest novel, Dawn of Desire. It was the story of a wounded ex-soldier who’d come home to find the love he’d left behind. Laura sighed. It had been a beautiful love story with a delicious hero. Best of all, the book had flowed easily, as did most tales told from the heart.

      Restless now, she wondered how to celebrate the completion of the book. There was no special man in her life. The relationships she’d had in the past hadn’t worked out for one reason or another, and she wasn’t the kind of woman who’d settle for a man who was “good enough.”

      Of course, her life was simpler this way. Her work was very time consuming, and she also had her madrina, her godmother, to take care of, so her days were full. Although she dated occasionally, and had all the usual healthy urges, no one had ever really come close to touching her heart.

      As she entered the more densely populated neighborhood where she lived, the pavement began and the dust level dropped noticeably. Turning onto the street that led to her home, Laura looked down the block and caught a glimpse of her new neighbor, Burke, sitting astride his motorcycle, adjusting something on the engine. The tall, black-haired Navajo man had the palest brown eyes she’d ever seen and a smile that, although rare, could undoubtedly coax a pulse out of a stone.

      As she slowed to make the turn into her driveway, her gaze strayed over him. Looking up just then, Burke waved. She smiled back at him, feeling her heart start to beat a little faster.

      Aware suddenly that she hadn’t been watching where she was going, she focused back on the turn, hoping she wasn’t about to hit the mailbox—again. She’d been checking him out last week, daydreaming, when she’d brushed against it with the front bumper. The pole that supported the box had broken off at the ground, and the custom-designed mailbox, shaped like a house, had ended up looking like something used in a television commercial to advertise tornado insurance. At least Burke had been stepping inside as she’d knocked it down, so she hadn’t had to make a lame excuse.

      The man had moved in about a week ago, and had already doubled the machismo level on their street, as every woman on their block would have happily attested. There was something powerfully and wonderfully masculine about him. Laura had no doubt that it was partly due to the arrogant confidence with which he did virtually everything. His long-legged stride, so filled with purpose and a hint of aggression, gave something as mundane as “walking” an entirely new meaning.

      She sighed and lowered her head, resting it on the steering wheel. Reality-check time. The romantic in her was taking her very good-looking neighbor and rewriting him into a fantasy hero. Burke was probably a businessman or some form of engineer, like many of the men in her new, upper-middle-class neighborhood. His masculine walk was probably due to a sore spot left after taking a corner too fast on his motorcycle down one of the graveled back roads.

      She’d have to make a point to talk to Burke and find out more about him next time he came up to the cedar fence that bordered their properties. So far only her madrina, Elena, had actually spoken to him. With luck, Laura’s fantasies would come to a screeching halt once she met him and found out he was a salesman with a high-pitched voice and the tendency to try and sell life insurance policies to everyone he met.

      Laura switched off the ignition, grabbed her purse and climbed out of her sporty but sensible Chevrolet sedan. Flipping through her Scooby-Doo key chain on the way up the sidewalk, she found the right key and unlocked the front door.

      The second she stepped across the threshold, an invisible cloud of foul-smelling gas slammed into her like a massive wave. She staggered back, coughing and fighting to catch her breath.

      She turned her head away from the house, trying to catch her breath so she could go back inside. All the oxygen inside the house had been replaced by natural gas, making her light-headed.

      “Elena!” she called out frantically, but there was no response.

      “Elena, where are you?” Laura yelled again, fighting the feeling of nausea from the noxious gas. She stepped back from the door, looking around for Burke, hoping she could ask him to call 911, but she couldn’t see him now. Knowing there was no time to lose, she took two deep breaths of fresh air, then rushed into the house.

      For a moment, her blood turned to ice and she couldn’t move. The interior of her home was in shambles. Everything that had been on the bookshelves was now on the floor, swept into random piles. Cushions from the sofa and chairs had been slashed, then torn open and gutted. Stuffing lay scattered around the room like the aftermath of a bizarre snowstorm.

      She tried to focus her thoughts quickly, feeling dizzy from lack of oxygen. Her godmother was here someplace and she had to locate her and get her outside, fast.

      Laura’s lungs felt as if they’d burst any second. Knowing that she had to take a breath, she rushed to the living room windows and threw open the first one she reached. She took a deep lungful of air, then plunged back into the nightmare her home had become.

      Laura quickly searched the bedrooms and the kitchen, resisting the urge to turn on the lights and risk a spark-initiated explosion. But Doña Elena wasn’t there. Halfway back to the living room Laura was forced to take a breath. She tried to make it a shallow one, but the smell was overpowering. She ran into the bathroom, slid back the small window and breathed deeply, then dove back into the poisoned atmosphere.

      The hall seemed endless as she ran along it, heading directly for the next closest window. But when she tried to lift the sash, it was stuck tight. Out of air now, she was forced to take a short breath, but that proved to be a mistake.

      Suddenly very dizzy, she leaned against the wall. Elena was in here somewhere and Laura had to find her, but her eyes had lost the ability to focus. Vaguely, she remembered the garage and turned to head in that direction. As if someone were playing with a dimmer switch, the room grew darker and she slipped slowly to the floor.

      Laura fought to stay conscious, but oddly shaped patterns exploded before her eyes. Asphyxiation—she didn’t want to die this way. Yet even as the thought formed, it slipped away and darkness greeted her.

      Laura wasn’t sure when her thoughts began again, but she awoke to the feeling of being carried. A man’s arms, strong and warm, were wrapped around her, pressing her securely against a rock-hard chest. His strength was comforting, but also deeply stirring on a primitive level.

      Still groggy, she wondered if this was what happened to romance authors when they died—perhaps God had created a special heaven for them. She didn’t struggle. If she’d gone to romance writers heaven, she would enjoy every single moment of it.

      As a strong light hit her eyes, she buried her face against his chest. The Light. It was harsh. She’d expected more—or maybe less. And where was that tunnel she’d heard about, and those departed loved ones stepping up to offer encouragement?

      Slowly, she realized that she was able to breathe now. Did the dead breathe?

      “You’re going to be okay,” a deep, sure voice said.

      She turned her head to look at her rescuer, but his face was lost in an iridescent haze. A soft glimmer in his eyes seemed to pierce it somewhat, and she found herself captivated by the light brown eyes that held hers. “Am I dead?”