The Vow (Black Arrowhead #1) - Dannika Dark Page 0,98

and rustling grass. Seeing a light in the distance made him slow down and pay attention to his surroundings. In front of a run-down house, he spotted Crow’s green car, the trunk and the driver’s-side door wide open. Lakota sidled off the road and into the brush. He didn’t see anyone outside, and there was no movement inside the car. The front door to the house was wide open, but no lights were on.

He unsheathed his knife and sprinted toward the house. Bracing for an attack, Lakota used his left arm as a shield as he quietly made his way inside, his heart pounding and the taste of adrenaline on his tongue. The outside light barely revealed the empty kitchen and living room. He moved to the hall, his gaze briefly skating down to a human skull with a melted candle on top. Anyone might have assumed it was decorative until they gave it a closer look.

The bathroom door was open and the room empty. Lakota flipped on the bedroom light and shouldered the door open. He scanned the empty room for clues. Tokens that belonged to Shikoba’s tribe were on top of the dresser. In the corner was a large box filled with cartons of Pilgrim cigarettes. Lakota did a brief calculation in his head of how much money Crow had wasted on those things. Yet despite all that money, he slept in a room with deep cracks in the walls and water stains on the ceiling.

Inside one of the drawers, he found two daggers that belonged to the Iwa tribe. More specifically, they were weapons the warriors carried. The blade had a distinct shape, with a backward hook on the dull spine that would do significant damage when pulled out of a body. One had dark stains on the wood handle.

A chill ran down his spine when he realized that Crow had intentionally used sacred tribal weapons to commit the crimes. It must have frustrated Crow that the Council had kept those details secret until the time of Tak’s arrest. Had he also scattered tokens from the tribe around the bodies? No wonder the higher authority had specifically requested Lakota for the case. They knew that as a Native, he would gravitate toward the tribes and be able to infiltrate their community, which was whom they’d suspected all along. Given the tension that existed among the people in this territory, Crow had played a smart game.

A floorboard creaked. Lakota whirled around just in time to grip someone’s raised arm, preventing a knife from going into his chest.

Kaota’s eyes widened. “I thought you were Crow,” he said, lowering his arm. “I saw your truck parked down the road and came up on foot. Where is he?”

“Not in here. What did the Council say?”

“They’re coming.”

Lakota didn’t blink. “All of them?”

Kaota regarded the arrowheads on the dresser. “Only Jack and Robert were at the compound. It’ll take the rest too long to get out here, and someone has to stay with Tak. Only one of them is coming.”

Lakota moved into the hall. “We need to find Melody.”

They jogged out the front door, the air sticky and warm.

“Take a look at this,” Kaota said, pointing at the open trunk.

Lakota peered in.

Kaota held up a brown shirt with a design on the front. “This was Koi’s,” he said, his face full of rage and grief. “He was wearing it the day he went missing.”

Lakota couldn’t imagine the pain Kaota must have felt losing his brother. Most of the items were women’s clothes, and some still had what appeared to be bloodstains on them.

“I bet those are Crow’s,” Lakota said, pointing at a pair of bloody men’s jeans. Reno had been right about him being both smart and stupid. Elaborately carrying out murders, only to stuff evidence in his trunk—it probably gave him a thrill driving around, knowing he was getting away with it.

Kaota squeezed Koi’s shirt in his fist. “And the rest?”

Lakota stepped back. “Souvenirs.”

He’d been at his job long enough to have seen the signature habits of a killer who took pride in his work. Serial killers collected items to remind them of the kill. Contract killers didn’t, because keeping evidence was far too risky. Crow was a rare breed because he’d turned a passion into a career. Based on the tokens inside the house, he must have trespassed on tribal land numerous times. The tribe would have scented his wolf, so Lakota had a feeling he was another species of animal,