Stealing Thunder Read online

  Leonard Hawkins sounded like the exact opposite of the ultra-serious Nathan Lantero, Tiernan thought.

  The ride to the reservation wasn’t long but it could take a man’s breath away. The road wound through forested area, with dips and sharp curves but no guardrails. In places, the road switched back on itself sharply and the land quickly fell away. He imagined there had been more than one accident with someone driving too fast, especially in the dark or in foul weather.

  At last they passed a sign saying they were entering Bitter Creek Reservation land. The road straightened and Tiernan tensed a little as he drove past sorry-looking houses and trailers that spoke to poverty. Ella guided him straight to the center of town and a plain single-story brick building. A gas station and auto repair sat to one side, and there was a small general store across the way. The casino was the biggest building on the rez as far as he could see—definitely bigger than the nearby government offices that housed the tribal council, tribal police and health center, among other services.

  Tiernan parked his truck near the door and was out of the cab and at Ella’s side by the time she opened her own door and slid from the passenger seat.

  Again, she avoided his touching her.

  “You’d better remove that,” she said, indicating the sheathed knife at his waist. “Or they won’t let you in.”

  He nodded and quickly removed it. “I’ve gotten used to wearing this since I came to South Dakota. I never know when I’ll need it out in this wilderness.”

  He threw it on the truck floor and then slammed the door shut and followed Ella into the casino.

  The moment he stepped inside, Tiernan had to catch his breath—a cloud of smoke hovered in the atmosphere, reminding him of Irish pubs before the ban on smoking had gone into effect five years ago. Never having been addicted to tobacco himself, he’d been glad of the change. Now he felt as if he could hardly breathe.

  “We’ll have to ask someone where to find Leonard,” Ella said over the musical sound of dozens of slot machines, “then head for the cashier cage.” Stopping suddenly, she pulled close to him and lowered her voice. “Uh-oh, the cashier doesn’t look very friendly.”

  Tiernan noted the middle-aged Lakota woman who frowned as if she’d had a bad day. She was sorting a pile of chips.

  “We can fix that.” He stepped forward and gave the woman his best smile. “A pleasant evening to you, darlin’. If you would be so kind to point out Leonard Hawkins to me, I would be in your debt.”

  The woman’s expression softened a bit. “Do you have an appointment with Mr. Hawkins?”

  “No,” he said, placing an arm around Ella’s back and pushing her forward. “But this charming woman is an old friend of your employer. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see her.”

  The woman eyed Ella with suspicion. “I don’t know. He doesn’t like surprises.”

  Tiernan wondered if good-looking women often surprised the casino manager at his place of work.

  “I used to live on the rez when I was a kid,” Ella said. “I’m back visiting relatives and thought I would catch up with some old friends.”

  “If I get in trouble—”

  Tiernan interrupted. “Nah-nah, we will not be saying a word about who sent us in his direction.”

  The cashier considered it for a few seconds, then said, “I suppose there’s no harm. He’s in the office.”

  “And that would be where?”

  The woman indicated the direction.

  “Thank you, darlin’.” Tiernan winked at her and moved off, Ella in tow.

  “You certainly can turn on the charm when you want,” she muttered.

  Tiernan grinned. “Shall I be turning it on for you, then?”

  “Don’t bother, McKenna.” She raised one eyebrow. “I have your number.”

  “Hmm, I shall have to do something about that, Thunder.”

  He laughed and then had to work to keep up with Ella as she sped up past a handful of gaming tables—poker, blackjack, roulette and craps—and led the way to the office. He spotted Nathan Lantero at one of the poker tables.

  Nathan saw them, as well, and once more, Tiernan got a weird vibe from the man. The way Nathan was looking at him and Ella made Tiernan think he would be trouble.

  Chapter Six

  When they entered the office, no one was inside, but raised voices indicated an inner room behind one of the two doors on the rear wall.

  “Ooh, sounds like someone is unhappy,” Ella said. “Maybe we came at the wrong time. I suppose we should have made an appointment.”

  “Then you would have had to explain yourself and the man could have said no. This way you can simply say you wanted to stop by to see an old friend.”

  “That’s stretching it a little, but okay,” she said.

  Listening intently, Tiernan heard a man say, “Don’t ever make me warn you again or you’ll regret it!”

  Just then, the office door flung open and a man in dusty work clothes exited without closing the door behind him. He pushed by them rudely, knocking shoulders with Tiernan, who felt careening emotions from the brief touch.

  Before he could sort them out, another man—Leonard Hawkins, no doubt—came to close the door. He was dressed in a well-tailored suit with a crisp white shirt and a designer silk tie. His hair had the look of a hundred-dollar cut, Tiernan thought. Not much of the Lakota to be seen beyond lightly bronzed skin and fathomless dark eyes. He was handsome enough, but at the moment, his chiseled face was twisted with irritation.

  When the man realized he wasn’t alone, he took a step back and tried to cover, immediately forcing a smile. “Are you looking for me?”

  “Leonard…it’s Ella.”

  “Ella?” Leonard started. “Little Ella Thunder?”

  “Not so little anymore.”

  Tiernan watched the other man transform himself from an angry casino manager to a welcoming friend. Leonard put his arms around Ella and hugged her, then with hands on her shoulders held her away from him to take every inch of her in with those penetrating eyes.

  Tiernan twitched but held himself in check.

  “I always knew you were going to grow into a beauty,” Leonard said.

  Ella’s color rose and a smile stretched her lips. Tiernan wasn’t smiling—the man was too smooth, and there was something off about him.

  “What are you doing here?” Leonard asked. “How long is this visit?”

  While the questions sounded friendly enough, Tiernan sensed Leonard was a little too anxious for the answers. His emotions didn’t fit with his expression.

  Why would he care what Ella was doing on the rez or how long she was going to stay?

  “I’m acting as consultant on the movie. It gives me a chance to visit with Grandmother and Grandfather. I expect I’ll be here for two or three weeks.”

  “Well…time enough for us to catch up. Good. Good.” Finally Leonard looked to Tiernan. “And who is this? Husband? Significant other?”

  “Friend.” Wanting to make physical contact—better to read the man—Tiernan held out his hand. “Tiernan McKenna, horse wrangler for the duration of the film.”

  Leonard shook. “Well, nice to meet a friend of Ella’s.” Then he narrowed his gaze on Tiernan. “You’re not from around these parts, though. Your accent—?”

  “Ireland.” The skin at the back of Tiernan’s neck crawled and he focused in on the other man.

  Ella said, “Tiernan’s visiting relatives in the area, too. The MKF Ranch.”

  Leonard pulled his hand from Tiernan’s. “I know it—your family also owns the refuge.”

  They’d only made contact for a few seconds, but it was enough for Tiernan to surmise the man wasn’t as happy to see them as he made out. Why? Because Ella wasn’t alone? Or was it Ella’s presence that made the man cautious?

  “Why are we standing here? Let’s go get you something to eat. Dinner’s on me.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Leonard.”

  “If the g
uy in charge can’t even treat his own friends, then what good’s having the job?”

  As they left the office, Tiernan glanced over to the poker tables. Nathan had already left.

  Dinner was an all-you-can-eat buffet with slabs of prime rib. The restaurant area tucked into one corner of the casino was modest in size and therefore crowded. Leonard took them past the line and got them a table immediately.

  Was he trying to impress Ella or to keep her at bay? Tiernan wondered. It would be easier to avoid any tough subjects in a crowd, if that was Leonard’s intention.

  Leonard called over a waitress. “What would you like? Champagne? A cocktail?”

  “Iced tea,” Ella said.

  Tiernan nodded. “I’ll take the same.”

  Leonard shrugged. “Make it three.” When the waitress left, he said, “If you change your mind about that drink, don’t be shy.”

  He then herded them to the buffet.

  They returned to the table, plates groaning with food. Small talk got them through the meal. Tiernan began to wonder if Ella would ever get to the real reason they were there.

  It was only after the waitress refilled their iced teas and they sat back in the booth and pushed their plates away that Ella said, “Leonard, I’m really surprised that you turned to something as commercial as a casino as your life’s work. Well, considering you were heading in the opposite direction when you apprenticed with my father.”

  “I loved Joseph—the only reason I wanted to work with him. Truthfully, I’m not sure I would have made a good shaman. Flighty—that’s what Joseph used to call me. He was right. I always did like to have a good time. I still do.” Leonard heaved a sigh. “And then there’s what happened to your father. Nothing has been the same since he’s been gone. Fear drove me away from even considering a spiritual life.”

  Tiernan didn’t get fear off Leonard. He didn’t get much at all, which was curious. Unless Leonard was somehow blocking him. Or did Leonard think he was blocking Ella?

  “A casino is as far away from a spiritual vocation as you can get,” Tiernan observed.

  “True, but I still wanted to do good for The People. The rez needed an influx of money. A casino was the logical way of getting it, so I worked the tribal counsel to get approval,” Leonard said smoothly. “And they commissioned me to see that it was done. Once this place was built, I was, of course, the logical choice to run it.”

  “Of course,” Ella said.

  No of course about it, Tiernan thought. The man was self-aggrandizing and Ella didn’t seem to realize it. She was taking Leonard at his word. And she wasn’t asking him about the past, the reason they’d come here.

  Thinking to correct that, Tiernan said, “Ella has told me that you tried to save her da.”

  “A futile effort. The whole rez turned against poor Joseph. Everyone but Nathan and me. And his family, of course.”

  “Because someone made it seem like Joseph Thunder was an evil man.”

  Leonard looked from Tiernan to Ella. “You think someone set up your father for some reason?”

  “How else can you explain the bad things that happened, seemingly without cause?” Ella asked. “Horses getting sick, the fire, Nelson Bird losing his mind…”

  “All things that could have happened without anyone’s help. The Lakota are sometimes too superstitious. When things went wrong, everyone jumped to the wrong conclusion about Joseph. It was like a fever that spread through the rez.”

  “I remember,” Ella whispered.

  For a moment, Tiernan felt what it had been like to be a young girl panicked at the idea of losing her da. Ella’s terror welled up in his body…her determination to save him focused his mind…and then heat spreading up his left arm jerked him back to the present.

  What the hell?

  “The thing is, Leonard, I was too young to know what was really going on. My parents sheltered me, and when the rumors started, they cut me off from everyone. I think they feared for me. But you were an adult—”

  “A matter of opinion,” Leonard said, laughing.

  Ella didn’t lose a beat. “So I was hoping that you might be able to give me details about anything that was off.”

  “To tell the truth, I’ve put that time out of mind.”

  “Then think on it. It’s important to me. Father’s death has haunted me for fifteen years.”

  “It’s time to let go, don’t you think?”

  “Only when I know the truth.”

  “You already do, Ella. You just don’t want to accept it. You don’t want it to be a rush of bad luck and superstition that escalated. You want to place blame.”

  A silent Tiernan tried to tap into the man, but he remained blocked.

  Ella said, “I just want the truth…whatever it is…and one way or another, I intend to get to it.”

  “One way or another?” Leonard stared hard at her. “What does that mean?”

  “Just what it sounds like.”

  “You always did obsess on things when you were a kid. I guess you haven’t changed.”

  “People rarely change,” Tiernan broke in, unwilling to be left out of the conversation any longer. “Undoubtedly you are still the same person you were fifteen years ago. You just wear a different skin.”

  A skin he couldn’t penetrate, not even when Leonard seemed to relax as he laughed.

  “No doubt that’s true.”

  “And then there’s the person responsible for the bad things happening on the reservation,” Tiernan said. “I understand he used a raven’s track to mark his work then…and he’s still doing it now.”

  Leonard went still and silent for a moment, then in a tight voice asked, “What does that mean?”

  Ella said, “There was a raven’s track in the ground where Harold Walks Tall fell to his death.”

  “So you think…what?”

  “That the poor lad was murdered, of course,” Tiernan said, watching for the other man’s reaction.

  Leonard checked his watch and then shot to his feet. “I hate to do this, but I have to leave. You two can sit here as long as you like. Order anything you want. It’s all on me.”

  “I couldn’t eat another bite,” Ella said, also standing.

  Leonard gave her a quick hug. “Great to see you, Ella. Maybe we can get together again before you go back to your life.”

  Ella was smiling. “That would be great. As would your thinking about what might have happened—”

  “Got it.” Leonard saluted. “If I remember something, I promise I’ll let you know.”

  “I can use all the help I can get.”

  Leonard was already hurrying off.

  Sensing her disappointment in not getting more from the meeting, Tiernan said, “Too bad he wasn’t more open.”

  She shrugged. “I think he was as open as he could be. He’s the first one we talked to. I have to admit I should have done this long ago—reconnect with old friends.”

  “He’s one of the suspects,” Tiernan reminded her.

  Ella didn’t say anything.

  Tiernan couldn’t leave it at that. “There was something off about Leonard Hawkins. He puts on a grand act.”

  “Is that your McKenna fey-side making a judgment call?” she asked.

  Hearing the annoyance in her tone, Tiernan backed off and wondered if she could really be objective about any of the people who’d been in her old life.

  If not, he wasn’t certain they would ever identify the villain.

  ELLA THUNDER WAS trouble.

  He should have known she wouldn’t be content to do the consulting job she’d been hired to do and mind her own business. He should have known she wouldn’t let go of the past.

  Darting her and then leaving her be had been a mistake, one he wouldn’t make again. He should have sent her over the cliff to join Harold Walks Tall. Then he would have been done with her for good.

  While he’d been able to leave the scene of the murder without her spotting him, she obviously wasn’t
content with getting off with her life. Wasn’t content with Harold’s death being declared accidental. Wasn’t content with the fifteen-year-old cover-up.

  Ella Thunder was sticking her nose where it didn’t belong.

  Just like her father, Joseph, had.

  And just like her father, he would see her dead before she could expose him.

  Chapter Seven

  Ella had loosened her hair from the ponytail and was running a comb through it when two women entered the ladies’ room—Ami Badeau and her mother, Hannah. Ella recognized the sour-faced younger woman immediately. Ami had been the one who’d pushed her out of the way when she’d tried to get to her father.

  Clenching her jaw, Ella tried to get her hair back in its clip, but her hands shook so, it flew from her fingers.

  “Here, let me help,” Hannah said, picking up the clip and handing it over.

  “Thank you,” Ella murmured. Not knowing whether Hannah had been part of the crowd, she was unable to meet the woman’s eyes.

  “Mother, what are you doing…touching her!”

  “Ami! Mind your manners!”

  “I’m simply trying to protect you.”

  “Stop listening to that crazy Jacob!”

  Ami already had her arm around her mother’s shoulders and was turning the woman away. Setting the clip in place, Ella grabbed her bag and rushed out of the restroom. She was shaking inside, wanting in the worst way to be out of the casino now. Unfortunately, Tiernan was nowhere to be seen.

  Ella was gazing around, looking for him, wondering if a slot machine had seduced him, when a broad-built man in a black tribal police uniform stopped directly in front of her.

  “Ella Thunder, you cause any trouble and I’m going to lock you right up.”

  Under attack for the second time in mere minutes, Ella started. She narrowed her gaze at the man whose buzz-cut hair topped a craggy face. Though she didn’t recognize him at first, the eyes did it for her. She’d always been spooked by the pale gray eyes in Jimmy Iron Horse’s otherwise distinctively Lakota face, his only testament to mixed blood on both sides of his family.