LITMIR.BIZ

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“I took a big risk coming here, but I knew it would be worth it.”

      “I know, so did I,” Jack said tersely. He dug his hands in his pockets, fidgeting from side to side on his feet.

      “I thought we were going to talk about when we would…you know, see each other once you leave here to go back home. And I thought tonight would be the night…”

      “Look Anna, I do really like you and all, but there’s something you gotta know. I’m in big trouble—”

      “We can find a way around my dad, I’m sure he’ll cool off eventually and—”

      “No, much bigger trouble.” The color drained from Jack’s face and in the moonlight, he looked haggard, older. “I’m in trouble with one of your people. I helped smuggle some marijuana into Navajo land a week ago to sell to this guy named Frankie who said he wanted it for medicinal purposes. I know, it was dumb, but I really needed the money to get me out of another jam I’m in back home.

      “Anyway, I was supposed to deliver more to Frankie tomorrow night, but I couldn’t get any from this source I originally found down in Sedona. Frankie said if I didn’t show up and bring the stuff he would rat me out and the Indians would come after me and probably skin me alive or hang me. I don’t know what to do. I know you can’t talk to your dad, but…do you have a friend or cousin who can help me out? Maybe they’ll know Frankie and can tell him you and I are friends and—”

      “Friends?” Anna raised her voice in indignation. “I thought we were a lot more than friends, Jack Foreman. I was starting to fall in love with you. Maybe Papa was right. Maybe I—”

      “I’m sorry, Anna.” Jack instantly enveloped her into his arms. “You’re right. I was being selfish. We are more than friends. Forgive me?” He stepped back and smiled, and her insides melted all over again. He tilted up her chin with his thumb and forefinger and kissed her on the lips, gently and then fervently until she felt her whole body pressing against his, wanting to feel his hands on her like she did in the hogan.

      He backed away suddenly, breathing hard. “Anna, I lose all control when it comes to you. We don’t have much time though. Do you think you can talk to someone to help me?”

      Achak Yazzie. Her friend’s name somehow found its way into her swooning mind. He once told her he would do anything for her. They had made a blood pact when they were kids, cutting the palms of their hands and shaking on it. Anna and Achak had grown up on the reservation together, and when Achak’s father had died of a heart attack when his two children were still under the age of ten, Anna’s father had virtually adopted the boy and his younger sister as his own, helping widow Yazzie by providing the children and their mother with anything they needed.

      Achak and Anna had practically grown up as siblings. He was a year older than she and had attended the same well-to-do Christian Academy on the reservation since money wasn’t an issue for the Becenti family.

      “DO you know a Frankie who lives on the reservation?” Anna asked Achak over the phone after she returned home, thankfully beating her parents by a few hours.

      “I’ve heard of him, why?” Achak sounded reserved.

      “I need a favor.” Anna knew Achak would probably do whatever she asked of him and felt a little guilty since she also knew Achak had lately developed his own romantic feelings toward her. She had known his feelings for her had changed ever since they’d gone to the high school prom together. Just as friends, she’d thought. But it became apparent to her that night that he thought differently. When they danced for the first time, she had seen the gleam of longing in his eyes, felt the charge between them.

      She could feel Achak’s desire for her that night, just like she felt for Jack now, which is why she had to forge ahead, she told herself. She took a deep breath. “A friend of mine is being threatened by this guy from the reservation named Frankie. My friend isn’t Navajo, he’s white in fact, and he was hoping I knew someone who could stand by him when he goes to meet with Frankie, so that he doesn’t get roughed up or anything. Would you be able to get a few guys and show up tomorrow night at a meeting they’ve arranged, sort of like protection, just in case?”

      She was met with silence at first. Finally, Achak replied. “I don’t know, I guess so,” he said hesitantly. “I think I know who Frankie is and from what I’ve heard, he can be pretty mean. I’ll round up a few others. Not that I couldn’t handle him myself.”

      Anna smiled to herself. She could picture Achak’s chest puffing out with pride. “Of course.”

      “And who is this friend, and why should I help him?” Achak asked defiantly.

      “His name is Jack.” Anna hoped Achak couldn’t sense somehow over the phone the hotness she could feel creeping into her face. “And I was hoping you would help him for me.”

      “Well, okay, but you’ll owe me,” Achak teased.

      “Owe you what?”

      “I’ll have to think about it and let you know.”

      Anna dismissed his playful banter. She had to let Jack know she had friends who could help him.

      THEY GATHERED under a majestic oak tree that marked the entrance of an old sacred Native American gathering place, marked by a circle of rocks on a cleared dirt floor in the northeast woods of Oak Creek Canyon.

      Anna had been there as a child, but it was dark that night. She was glad to ride with Achak and his two friends.

      Jack was waiting for them when they arrived. They had agreed to meet a half hour ahead of when Frankie was due to show up.

      Anna ran up to Jack, who was leaning back against the tree’s massive trunk, and hugged him. She introduced the young men to each other, and they peremptorily shook hands.

      “Why should we defend this guy?” Achak asked Anna then turned to Jack. “What have you done that Frankie is coming after you and you need me to defend you?”

      “I don’t need anyone defending me.” Jack sneered. “It’s none of your business what I did.”

      “Well then, maybe we should just go,” Achak said.

      Anna was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, the hood of her windbreaker pulled up over her hair, which was tied back in a ponytail. An onlooker might have thought she was one of the boys as she walked over to the tree and stood beside Jack in alliance with him.

      “Achak, you promised you would stay,” she said. “For me.”

      “Well, I’m not defending this guy until I know what he’s done. Maybe he doesn’t deserve defending. You know I’ll do what you ask, Anna, but I have to say this goes against my better judgment.”

      “His name is Jack and–”

      “That’s okay, Anna, I can speak for myself.” Jack disengaged from her side, distancing himself from her.

      She looked at him and for the first time, doubt about her feelings for Jack crept into her. He looked small and skinny, especially next to Achak who was lean but muscular, and his face looked pinched and pale. Like he’s afraid or hiding something.

      “I sold some drugs, you know, marijuana for medicinal purposes to Frankie, and he wanted more, and I promised I’d get it but then my source came up dry.” Jack shrugged his shoulders. “The big jerk threatened me, telling me he’d rat me out and have his thugs come after me and skin me alive or something ridiculous. You Indians, I swear.”

      Anna looked at Jack in shock that he had uttered the racial slur in front of her friends. Just then an old, beat-up Pontiac pulled up in the distance, shining its bright lights directly on the gathering at the tree, rap music blaring from the stereo.

      A hulking six-foot-tall Native American man who looked to be in his thirties strode toward them. From the light of the full moon Anna could see he was wearing a black leather jacket, black boots, and a baseball cap on backwards over his

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