It gets messy when your loyalties are split. For all of his life, Ben Waters knew he would grow up, find a woman among his tribe, marry and have children. His grandfather, the chairman of the Yakama Tribal Council, had instilled it into him from day one. It was his duty.
But then? He went away to college, because the tribe also needed educated members, and he found a woman — and she wasn't Yakama. And he walked away from her.
Now, the tribe needs him, his grandfather insists. He must come home. He must leave his life in Portland, leave his job and friends at Eyewitness News, leave the woman he loves and cannot have.
And he obeys his grandfather, because he always has.
Past mattered. Family mattered. Heritage mattered.
But so does his heart. And his heart has other ideas.
Book 10 in the Newsroom PDX new-adult suspense series.
Foul language, some sex, lots of politics — because it's Portland.
L J. Breedlove is former journalist writing mysteries and thrillers about what she knows: complicated people, small towns, big cities, cops, reporters, politicians, assorted bad guys.
She says: "I write about religion, and politics. About race and gender. I believe in the journalism axiom: Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. To which the labor organizer Mother Jones was supposed to have added: And in general raise hell. Works for me."