Shadow of Time - Book 1: (Paranormal Romance) (6 page)

“Nah. I’
m going to skip town and go to a quiet spot for a while. Sit and watch nature run its course.”

Josh looked
up. “By yourself?” he asked, sounding intrigued.

Like
he
cared. He’d left her standing by herself this morning too.

“Yes,
by myself. I can’t open up to my environment with other people around. Call it meditation or whatever.”

“
Beware, Crazy Hermit on the loose,” Ben teased.

Hannah punched him. “Sticks and stones...” she replied. “Yada, yada. See you guys later.”

“But – what time are you going to be home tonight?” Ben sounded a bit worried all of a sudden.

“No idea. I’m not
going to keep an eye on my watch the whole time. That’s not really my idea of a relaxing, peaceful afternoon.”

“
Do come back before nightfall.” Josh unexpectedly put his hand on her shoulder.

“Oh. Okay,” she stammered. So he did care about her after all. “Will do.”

She waved at the two guys and turned around. As she started the car and drove off, she could still feel on her skin where Josh had touched her.

Twenty minutes later, Hannah had found herself a nice
, quiet spot on Lake Powell Beach. She breathed deeply in and out, letting the beauty and tranquility of her surroundings sink in. The longer she sat at the lakeside, the more she became aware of how much she could hear all around her. Nature rustled and moved without pause. A soft wind tousled her hair, a small bird sat tweeting on a branch, the leaves of the trees whispered in the breeze. She spotted a beautiful, dark-blue beetle crawling past her feet, making its way toward the rock next to her.

So this is what young Navajo men learned to listen for during their
vision quests. They’d go off into the wilderness for days without food or water, learning how to be in sync with nature. They’d find edible plants, learn to listen for subterranean springs, train themselves to hear animals coming from miles away.

Maybe that was why Josh seemed
so mature – he was so much closer to nature than anyone she knew, and he seemed so much more human for it. He was so different from her other friends.

Hannah closed her eyes and leaned her head against the rock behind her. She’d planned to spend
some alone time, but now that she
was
alone, she couldn’t stop mulling over things that niggled at her mind. Plus, her backside felt sore from sitting in the sand, and the little flies buzzing in and out of the shrubs had all apparently decided to crawl into her ears. No vision quest for her today, then.

Grumpily, she snatched her backpack from the rock behind her and pulled out her book. If she couldn’t sit still and enjoy the view, she could at least t
ry and read a few chapters. Hannah threw a soggy sandwich in the sand next to her to lure away the flies. Any bug in its right mind would prefer peanut butter to her earwax.

Fortunately, i
t didn’t take long for her to get into the story. By the time she finally looked up again, the sun was already setting. She’d better go home.

Quickly, she
packed up and climbed the hill separating the shoreline from the gravel road running alongside the lake.

Once back at her car, she opened
the trunk to get a cardigan, her eyes drifting to the gas tank hatch. It was ajar. That was weird. How could it be open? And
why
?

Hannah slammed the trunk shut and
put on her cardie, bending over to take a closer look at the hatch to see if it was broken.

Nope. Nothing wrong. She’d pop down to a garage tomorrow
and have it checked out just to be sure.

Hannah
closed the hatch, got in and turned the key. A cold sweat broke out when she suddenly noticed the fuel gauge on the dashboard.

It was below the red line. The engine didn’t sound too good, either.

“What the hell?” Hannah banged her fists on the steering wheel, cut the ignition and got out again. She stamped to the side of the car and took another look at the gas tank hatch. Her eyes drifted to the gravel road beneath it.

There were footprints there. And was that spilled liquid? Shaking her head
in disbelief, she crouched down and picked up some dirt. It smelled like gas. Oh, this could
not
be happening! Someone had stolen her fuel. If she ever got her hands on the asshole who’d done this...

Cursing under her breath, she sat down behind the wheel again. What was she supposed to do now? There was no gas station around here. The closest one was the station where she’d bumped into Josh, and she was never going to make
it there on the few drops of fuel left in the tank.

With a desperate groan, she
got out her phone and called Ben. He had to pick up. If he didn’t hear his phone, she had no idea what to do.

Fortunately, Ben answered on the
third ring. “Hey, Han! Where you at?”

“You’re
not
going to believe this. I got myself stranded somewhere along Lake Powell. Some idiot drained my tank. They stole my fuel. I can’t go anywhere.”

Ben was silent for a moment. “We’ll meet you there,”
he said. “Where are you exactly?”

“Close to that tiny beach where we used to go for picnics with mom.”

“We’ll be there in twenty. We’ll pick up a jerry can of gas on the way.”

“Wait, Ben. Don’t
– don’t hang up yet. Can you keep talking to me?” A shiver ran through Hannah. The sun had nearly set, it was getting pitch-dark, and she had no idea what kind of people were around. Apparently, not every passer-by was someone she would want to run into. Least of all her gas thief.

“Sis? I’m
driving. I’ll give the phone to Josh.”

Hannah swallowed. “Hey,” she heard Josh on the other
end of the line. “You okay there?” He sounded worried.

“Not really. I’
m out of fuel. Someone stole my gas, and now I’m stranded here all by myself, and it’s getting dark. I don’t know what to do.”

“First of all, get into the car and lock the doors. And stay on the phone until Ben and
I get there.”

Hannah did what Josh told her.

“Did you at least have a nice afternoon?” he went on.

“Yeah,
I was sitting by the lake to enjoy the view. I read for a while too.”

“Good. We picked up a ton of
brochures at the visitor’s center, and we made tacos for dinner. I bet they’ll still taste nice when we get home.”

Hannah’s lips curled up in a smile. “Sounds good. I wish I
were home right now.”

“
I bet. Well, it won’t take long. Ben is driving like a maniac.”

In the background, Ben
let out a cackling laugh, and Hannah grinned. “Are you sure you still feel safe yourself with him behind the wheel?” she said.

“Of course. I drive like that, too.”

“Oh, how nice of you to tell me. I’ll never get into a car that you’re driving, then.”

“Too bad. I
just planned all kinds of nice trips for us with that pile of brochures as my guiding light. Don’t you want to join me?”

She blushed.
His stand-offish attitude was clearly gone again. “By the way,” she changed the subject, “I was wondering this afternoon about that school you said you wanted to found on the rez. How will you set that up?”

Josh
started telling her about his plans to found a native secondary school in the vicinity of Naabi’aani, and Hannah shared a few ‘teacher-fresh-out-of-college’ stories with him.

“
Sounds like teaching isn’t that easy,” Josh concluded after listening to one of Hannah’s anecdotes about the freshman group that had given her nightmares.

“Oh, you’ll do fine. You seem sort of strict.”

“Of course I am. Pupils will tremble as I enter the classroom.”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that sounds very pedagogical.”

“Oh, we’re at the gas station, by the way.”

“Hmmm. Ben
really
drives like a maniac.”

“Yeah, he’ll only be a minute, there’s
no one here. Everything will be fine. Don’t worry, okay?”

Her gaze drifted to the road ahead of her.
Oh
,
crap. In the darkness, she could see three guys were approaching her car. They looked drunk. One of them was carrying a half-empty case of beer, and the other two were shouting at each other in unsteady voices.

“Shoo
t.” She couldn’t help whispering into the phone. “Josh. There’s a bunch of drunks walking in my direction. They’ve seen my car.” One of the guys was pointing at her Datsun right at that moment. “Oh, damn.”

“Are your doors still locked?”

“Yes,” she quivered.

“So
just ignore them. They can’t bother you when they can’t get in.”

“
I suppose.” Despite his words, her heart was beating in her throat.

In the meantime, one of the
guys had stopped next to her window. He bent over to look at her through the glass. “You okay in there?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Hannah swallowed
hard. “My car broke down, but help is on the way.”

“Woul
d you like a drink?” the second one asked, holding up a beer bottle.

“No, thanks.”

“Can’t we sit in your car for a while?” the guy next to her asked in a velvety voice. The third one plonked down on the hood of the Datsun, staring at her through the windshield without saying a word. The look in his eyes was downright creepy.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Her voice was getting shaky. “I don’t know you guys, and I’m all alone. No offense.”

Her eyes were darting from one guy to the other. The way they moved was odd. It was like their bodies responded to one another, reminding her of a documentary she’d recently watched about packs of wolves and their group behavior. Goosebumps spread all over her arms.

“Come on, don’t be a party
-pooper.” The guy on the other side of her door tried the handle and discovered the car was locked. He violently pulled the handle again, a few times. The sound echoed in Hannah’s ears like it was coming from far away.

Oh my God, she had to do something before this got out of hand.
Say something. Scare them off.

“Keep your dirty paws
off my car,” she barked, as snippy as she could manage. “I just told you to stay out of my car. Are you deaf?” She fixed the guy with an angry stare. He wasn’t even that much older than the pupils she taught. She could do this outside the classroom, too. Make clear where her boundaries were.

The guy on the car hood
crawled closer and tapped a finger on the glass, leering at her. “Maybe you’re blind,” he replied. “There’s three of us and only one of you. You really think we can’t force you out of that old car if we want to?”

A cold shiver ran down
her spine. Her right hand reached for the glove compartment, finding the unloaded gun she kept there for emergencies. “Just in case,” her mother had said when Hannah first got her driver’s license. She wasn’t a big fan of firearms, but right now she silently thanked her mom.

“Fine.” She pointed the gun at the guy on the hood. “Go force the door open.
Let’s see how far you’ll get after that.”

They stared at her
wide-eyed. The guy in front of her slid off the car hood. “Come on, let’s go. That chick is nuts, ” he muttered, kicking against the front tire and glowering at her. “Have a nice life.”

Hannah followed the
guys with her eyes until they disappeared into the dusk. She let out a shaky breath. Her heart was hammering like crazy.

“Hannah?” A tinny voice
piped up from the passenger’s seat. “You still there?”

She grabbed her
cell phone. “Yeah, I’m still here,” she replied softly.