Tribal Law Read Free Page A

time?”
    â€œIt’s all arranged. And it’s a big reservation. Besides, he won’t follow off the reservation.”
    â€œHe might. Or he might be waiting for us when we come back.”
    â€œYou can drop me. You’ll be alone. Stop worrying. You’re like an old woman.”
    This just got better and better. She knew that her father had been approached in prison by the leader of the Raggar crime family, who was managing the business nicely from federal prison. Better access to criminals, she supposed.
    â€œAnd what happens if we turn around, find Gabe and tell him everything?”
    â€œGabe arrests me and probably you. Escalanti tells his people down across the border that we can’t deliver the product and they send killers to our home. Plus Raggar won’t get the delivery and he’ll be after us, too.”
    Selena had had this pressed-to-the-wall feeling since her father returned home this morning. It felt as if someone was kneeling on her chest.
    â€œWhere are we going, exactly?”
    Her father directed her to Sammy Leekela’s junkyard off Route 60, just shy of the border of their sovereign land.
    Sammy Leekela had a part for everything stockpiled on his four-acre lot that was ringed by rusting fencing to keep out the scavengers of the animal and human variety.
    â€œHere? They’re cooking meth here?” she asked.
    â€œPerfect place. Off the beaten path but close to Route 60. Lots of land. Fenced. Nothing to kill with the fumes.”
    â€œI thought it was a mobile meth lab,” she said.
    She paused at the rusty gate. Usually, if she needed a part, she went to the office. But today the gate receded the instant she pulled into the drive. Because they were expected.
    She shivered with dread. Right now her father had broken parole and she had helped him. But if she continued, she’d be a drug trafficker, just like her father.
    If she didn’t, they’d kill her family.
    â€œLet’s go,” he said.
    She touched the gas and they lurched forward. Her father shot her an impatient look as they rolled in. Sammy gave them a friendly wave and closed the gate, then retreated to his office. Her father directed her to a series of abandoned tractor trailer beds. Some were rusty and dented. But now she noticed one that had an unusual addition—a stovepipe. The trailer in question sat tucked between several others, further hiding it from detection. The only other clue was the number of footprints and tire tracks in the snow. That trailer was getting a lot of foot traffic.
    She couldn’t believe it.
    â€œI bought our used flatbed here. I still owe Sammy almost nine thousand dollars,” said Selena, her indignation rising.
    â€œYou want me to ask for a discount?” asked her father.
    â€œNo. I do not. I want to go home.”
    â€œAnd we will, right after we drive to Phoenix and back.”
    â€œThat’s six hours, you know?”
    Frasco shrugged. “I brought sandwiches.”
    As her father had warned, Department of Corrections officer Matt Dryer was there to meet them. He was the only one they saw. He left the center trailer carrying a blue plastic tub in two hands.
    â€œThat’s it?” asked Selena. “You don’t need a truck for that.”
    â€œFirst run. Only a few hundred thousand.”
    â€œDollars?” she squeaked looking at the innocuous plastic storage tub.
    Selena wondered how many years in prison that would translate to. Her father had enlisted Selena to make the runs because it was too dangerous for him to be out of the house so much and because she refused to involve Mia in this.
    â€œYou know there’s no end to it,” Selena said. “Once we start, they won’t let us quit.”
    â€œHush up now,” said her father and climbed out to greet the crooked DOC officer. He wasn’t even supposed to be on the reservation without an escort. No federal official was. Gabe had