Read Navajo's Woman for Free Online

There had been a time when he had thought he could never survive in the white man's world, and she had been certain that she could never live the Navajo life. When they had first begun dating that difference had been the only thing she'd thought would ever come between them.
    Joe halted several feet away from her. “Kate has lunch ready. Won't you come back inside and eat with us?"
    "Yes, of course, I will," Andi replied. "I would never do anything to offend Kate. I know she's as distraught over what has happened with Russ and Eddie as Doli and I are."
    "If I need to apologize—"
    "You don't!" Andi's gaze locked with Joe's, and for one timeless moment she felt light-headed. Breaking eye contact, she shifted her feet back and forth in the dry soil, sending tiny dust storms up and about her ankles.
    "Both J.T. and Kate have mentioned several times over the past few years that Doli has been having problems with Russ." Joe stood rigid as a statue, his hands tense, his expression guarded. "But I didn't mean to imply that I thought he had killed Bobby Yazzi."
    "There isn't much point in our having this conversa-tion, is there? Even if you don't believe that Russ is a murderer, you are convinced that however Russ and Eddie are involved with Bobby, Russ is somehow the one to blame."
    "Why must you put words in my mouth?"
    “Are you denying that you think Russ somehow influ-enced Eddie, that he's the one who got the two of them into trouble?"
    "No, I cannot deny that I don't think Eddie would be in this situation on his own. But that doesn't mean I—"
    “Why is it that you can so easily be judge, jury and executioner, when you don't have all the facts?" Andi walked over and stood in front of him, then lifted her head and glared into his solemn eyes.
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    "Damn," Joe cursed under his breath.
    Andi trembled from head to toe. She balled her hands into tight fists as she held them on either side of her hips. With only the slightest provocation, she could easily pum-mel that broad chest, venting years of anger and frustra-tion on his hard body. Joe had discovered her father's crime, and without giving him the benefit of the doubt or trying to understand what had motivated Russell, he had arrested a good man for one forgivable error in judgment. Joe had judged Russell Lapahie guilty and unknowingly sentenced him to death. The fact that Joe had not been the one who pulled the trigger on the gun that killed her father did not make him any the less guilty of his exe-cution.
    And it didn't help any more now than it had been five years ago that Joe felt guilty, that he was filled with re-morse. She understood that Joe never meant to harm her father, but all the regrets in the world couldn't change what had happened, couldn't bring Russell back to life. And no matter how hard she tried, she would never be able to trust Joe.Never again. She had trusted him com-pletely once, and not only had he betrayed her trust in him, but he had run away instead of staying and facing the consequences of his actions.
    “Maybe it's best if you and I don't see each other again after today," Joe said. "Any information I have, I can pass along to you through a third party. Kate or—"
    "Wrong." Andi glowered at him, her heartbeat drum-ming inside her head. “If you think, for one minute, that I'm going to let you go after Russ and Eddie alone,then you'd better think again. Wherever you go and whatever you do from now until the moment we find those boys, I'm going to be your shadow."
    "No, you won't. I don't need you or want you. . ." Joe hesitated, shifted mental gears,then cleared his throat. "You'll just get in the way."
    "I don't care what you want. I'm coming with you and that's that."
    “No. J.T. and I can handle things. We are both trained for this type of situation. You are not. So just get any ideas you have of tagging along with us out of your head. You are not going."
    Andi