You Had Me at Wolf

by Terry Spear

  She didn’t seem to be in any rush to release him. He knew the cousins would have made it to the top and probably skied down before Blake and Nicole could reach the chairlifts. The guys weren’t going anywhere, and listening in on their conversations would be tricky unless Blake and Nicole got lucky.

  “I don’t like this business with the gun,” Blake said.

  “I don’t either.” She ran her hands over his shoulders. “In the worst way, I wanted to get rid of it.”

  “And they’d panic when they learned it was missing.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Not to ignore this situation with the cousins, but I was thinking, after dinner, we could watch a movie,” Blake said, hoping he could keep her company for a little while longer tonight.

  “We won’t even be eating until around eight if the guys head up to their room by then. We could watch a movie while we’re eating,” she suggested.

  “Okay, that would work.” A nice, long movie would allow him to have more time to spend with her.

  Nicole smiled. “Listen, if I were able to get the evidence that I need from these guys tomorrow, I wouldn’t be leaving. Okay? I need a vacation. And this is the perfect place to take one with a bunch of fun-loving wolves, doing what I love to do. Running as a wolf and skiing.”

  Blake wasn’t convinced. “What if they leave before you’re able to prove who they are, and you have to follow them to their next destination?” She wouldn’t have backup, and with three guys she was investigating, she’d need assistance. She couldn’t do this on her own. He could just imagine her vanishing like the other private investigator had.

  “I still need a partner. I don’t care if he’s an investigator or not. You’re the perfect one for the job. All wolf, you’ve proven you and your family can be a real help. I need you for my protection in case things get hairy. As long as your family can do without you for a few days, I’d want you with me.”

  Hot damn. “They can do without me. They won’t even miss me.”

  She chuckled and kissed him again, and their tongues tangled.

  He loved the taste of her, sweet and chocolaty, the way she smelled of lavender and spice, she-wolf and woman.

  But then she pulled away from him. “They would miss you and all the excitement we’re getting ourselves into. I wouldn’t be surprised if Roxie tried to come along.” Nicole grabbed her ski boots from the closet and sat down on one of the office chairs to remove her snow boots.

  “I couldn’t be gladder to be there for you. As for Roxie, I think she believes there’s more to me helping you than just doing a job, and she might be interfering if she came along. Not to mention Rhys might still recognize her. About our dinner tonight… I talked to my family, and they’re all going to eat here while we have dinner at the house.”

  “Aww, they didn’t have to do that. They could eat earlier than us if they want to be at the house to have their meal.”

  “They love eating at the restaurant, and they don’t have to clean up anything afterward. I told them we’d have breakfast with them, and they were glad about that.”

  “They really don’t have to stay away while we’re having dinner,” Nicole said, putting on her ski boots. “Especially if we watch a movie on top of that.”

  “They’re happy to. Believe me. Any excuse to eat out. Landon and I have been doing it a lot while our sisters were away—so we didn’t have to cook meals and clean up after ourselves—but our sisters are enjoying having some meals there too now. Or at least Roxie’s enjoying the takeout until we can put these guys away for good.”

  He finished slipping his ski boots on and buckling them, and then they grabbed their skis and poles and left the office. They saw Landon taking Rosco out for a walk. They waved at him and went outside and finally skied toward the chairlift where they saw Eli going up the lift.

  “We’ll follow him,” Nicole said as they moved into the line for the chairlift the cousins seemed to be using the most. “If we could get him to talk, it would be great, but I’m afraid that he might not, and then he’d tell the others we’d interrogated him, and they’d flee.”

  “I’d certainly love to try it, but I’d be afraid of the same thing. The younger brother isn’t to be trusted. He’s in the same boat as the older one, it sounds like to me. Except he didn’t receive the life insurance proceeds resulting from his death. His mother did.”

  Nicole glanced at Blake. “Wait, what if he did get the proceeds? What if his mother was involved in this to protect him and gave him the money to live off, maybe to help pay for his upkeep while he lived with someone else?”

  “I wonder how that would work. The boy would know his mother had gotten the money to give to him for his death. So he would be a witness to the crime. Actually, an accessory.”

  “Maybe he didn’t. Maybe the mother didn’t want to tell him for fear he might talk and give them away. She could have said the money was from her savings or work money or something. In truth, she wouldn’t even need to say where she got the money.”

  Blake leaned over and kissed Nicole’s cheek. “That would make sense. Kids talk. And since she’s dead, she’s beyond worrying about being prosecuted for this. Then again, he went along with the charade to fake his death.”

  “True.”

  They rode the ski lift up, and when they reached the top, they headed past the easy run and in the direction of the intermediate slope where they saw Eli skiing to the run.

  Then they saw Rhys and William waiting to talk to Eli. That was a surprise, since they thought Rhys didn’t want to be seen with his younger brother.

  “Now what?” Blake asked, sure Nicole wouldn’t want to get on top of the three of them when they were talking.

  “We’ll slowly slip on past to the expert slope, and we’ll hopefully hear something important.”

  “Hell, you’re going down the blue slope?” Rhys said to his brother.

  “I haven’t been skiing in a couple of years.” Eli turned and dashed down the run, pretty much in control, wobbling a little, like he was trying too hard to prove to his brother that he was good at this.

  Rhys laughed and raced after him. William followed.

  “I didn’t get much from that except that his younger brother has been skiing when he was supposed to be dead, albeit not recently,” Nicole said as she and Blake stopped at the top of the expert run.

  “I thought they didn’t want anyone to see them together,” Blake said.

  “From the looks of it, the two brothers have been close, don’t you think? Just like William and Rhys are?” Nicole asked. “I bet you anything that Rhys was involved in this with the mother from the very beginning.”

  “Yeah, I’m starting to think that. What about the friends who were with them when the brother supposedly died?” Blake and Nicole were standing at the top of the expert slope, watching a couple of skiers making their way down to the bottom.

  “They may not have known about it. William and Rhys could have been keeping their attention while Eli slipped out of the water and vanished into the woods. It sure turns everything upside down to know Rhys and William lied about Eli’s drowning.”

  “Still, what if they hadn’t known at first? Maybe they thought he had. But Eli sneaked off while his brother and his friends were goofing off. They might not have known he hadn’t drowned. Not until later. It would make it easier for the brother and his friends to tell the story like they knew it.”

  “Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that. So the person who would have been in on it was the mom. She was the one who sent him with his brother and Rhys’s friends to the lake in the first place. She got the money, and she made him stay with someone else,” Nicole said. “Maybe they went there before to plan how he would slip away and she’d pick him up, or someone else would and take him somewhere safe.”

  “Too bad we can’t corroborate that with witnesse
s who saw the mother and Eli going to the lake earlier. I had another thought too. What if the fire in the Kovac home wasn’t started by Rhys or William?” Blake asked. “What if Eli came back and started it?”

  Nicole adjusted her ski glasses. “Wow, that could be. We didn’t even know he could still be part of the equation, but where was he at the time of the party? Where had he been living at the time? If Eli did set the fire, he wouldn’t have gotten anything out of it financially if Rhys hadn’t been involved and given him some of the money.”

  “So that goes to a new motive. His mother forced Eli to die, live elsewhere, get money for his death, and he came back for revenge. Possibly.”

  “True. I didn’t believe I’d have this many people who were dead come back to life. Come on. Let’s make some runs down the slope and then go have lunch.”

  After making several trips down the slopes, they finally headed in to have lunch at the restaurant and found the cousins together at a table inside, talking about the powder snow. Nicole went for a table out of their sight but near enough that they could hear the conversation with their wolf’s hearing, as long as the chatter in the restaurant didn’t get too loud.

  “I thought we weren’t going to be seen with him,” William said.

  “Yeah, but you know how I worry about him. I wish he’d just stay in the room.”

  “We should have left him behind.” William pulled a bottle of water out of his backpack. “He’s eighteen now. He needs to make his own way in the world.”

  Blake smiled at Nicole. She was eyeing the water bottle, but that wasn’t the one they needed to get. They needed to get Rhys’s. Since he’d been in the military, they had his DNA on file.

  “Like I did? He hasn’t done anything wrong,” Rhys said.

  Nicole raised her brows at Blake.

  “We both know that’s not true,” William said.

  Blake wanted to force the truth out of them in front of their sheriff, Peter Jorgenson. Especially since Nicole said she’d stay a while longer, even after the job was done.

  Then the men grabbed their food to go and left the restaurant. Blake and Nicole ordered grilled cheese sandwiches and cheesy broccoli soup.

  “Eli could have done anything,” Nicole said.

  “Like being involved in the fire that killed his mother and his stepfather?” Blake asked.

  “Yeah, like that too. Or it could have been something entirely different. I haven’t heard either of the guys call him by any name that would help me to search records to see what he’s been up to if he has an alias, and I’m sure he must,” Nicole said.

  “And no one that sounded like it could be him on their Facebook friends’ lists?” Blake figured that might be easy to catch him up on there.

  “I’ll look again, but there wasn’t anyone else who said he was joining them at the ski resort. I’ve been monitoring the posts that William and Rhys have where they’ve been uploading photos of all their skiing fun. Eli hasn’t posted any. Other friends say how cool it is that they’re having so much fun and wish they were there. Here’s the picture of Eli at the age of twelve, before he supposedly drowned.” She showed it to Blake.

  “That doesn’t look a whole lot like him now that he’s an adult. You can imagine Eli has been disgruntled about being hidden away while his cousin and brother are off having a ball.”

  “Yeah. I’d say he’s been really sucking it up for them. Maybe they said they’d take him with them only if he stayed in the room, and he was agreeable, but then enough was enough.” Nicole took a sip of her water.

  “I can imagine so.”

  Their grilled cheese sandwiches and bowls of soup were served, and they moved to a window seat so they could watch the guys eating outside.

  “It’s easy to keep track of them. They don’t seem to vary their routine,” Blake said.

  Nicole agreed. “I hope they continue to keep on schedule. If they suddenly change things up, it would worry me.” She began eating her soup.

  “There’s Eli. He’s walking past them to take a seat at another table and ordering from a menu outside. He does favor his older brother.”

  “Yeah, if I had seen them together, I would have realized they were related.”

  After Rhys and William finished eating, they went inside to the restrooms, then went to the lockers in the rental shop and picked up their skis.

  Eli watched them, then headed inside to do the same thing, used the restroom, then went to grab his skis from a rental locker.

  “What now?” Blake asked.

  “Let’s go skiing.”

  “Seems like we have a routine too.”

  She smiled. “Except tonight I’m having fine dining at your place and we’re taking in a movie. And then a wolf run with your family.”

  That would be the highlight of his day.

  After the cousins and Blake and Nicole skied for the afternoon, they all ended up back at the lodge. The brothers and their cousin went to the restaurant to get dinner, Eli taking a separate seat. Landon and Kayla went in to take a booth near where Rhys and William were sitting to see if they could overhear anything while they ate.

  Blake and Nicole took seats near the fireplace and had hot cocoa.

  “Looks like Rhys and William are just playing games or checking emails or something on their phones,” Nicole said, checking Facebook on her cell. “They’re not posting new pictures of their skiing.”

  “Eli looks like he could be playing games too,” Blake said.

  William and Rhys finally grabbed bottles of beer and their meals and headed for the fireplace.

  “Here they come,” Nicole said under her breath. “At least with all of you running the lodge, it makes it seem safe.”

  “That’s true. And you’re with me.” Blake wrapped his arm around Nicole’s shoulders.

  She smiled.

  They cuddled next to the fire, petting Rosco’s head. When the brothers and their cousin headed to the elevator after eating, Roxie came to speak with Nicole. “Do you want me to go to your room and listen in on the cousins while you’re with Blake at dinner and the movie? I saw them going up the elevator to their room.”

  “Yeah, thanks, and then we’ll all go running as wolves together,” Nicole said.

  “I can stay in the room, just to make sure they don’t spill the beans and we miss it. I can run with you all later,” Roxie said.

  Nicole frowned. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I don’t want us to miss anything if it could mean a break in the case for you.”

  “Okay, thanks.” Nicole stood and gave her a hug. “Really, thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. I can see how hard it is to prove these guys are guilty, and I want to help if I can. You know I have a personal stake in it. That will teach Rhys he can’t get away with committing crimes.” Roxie headed for the stairs, pulling her sweatshirt hood around her face in case Rhys came out of the room to get ice from the dispenser or something.

  “Come on. Let’s take Rosco for a walk and then get our dinner.” Blake was looking forward to spending some alone time with Nicole where they weren’t having to conduct surveillance on the bad guys the rest of the night.

  They walked Rosco to the house, and then he fed the dog. After that, he and Nicole took the dog for another walk, brought him home, and removed their outer gear. Rosco immediately went to his bed by the fireplace.

  Blake started the gas fire. “In the spring, we’re going to put up a fence around the back so we can let Rosco explore for rabbits and squirrels to his heart’s content. We don’t mind taking him on walks, but he needs to be able to have time to just explore the yard without us having to keep him on leash all the time.”

  “I agree. When I had my Lab, she had a nice big yard to run in and explore.”

  Blake and Nicole started cooking the salmon, spinach, and a bake
d potato for dinner. After dinner was ready, they sat in the living room, having white wine and eating their dinner on table trays. He would have extended the time they had to enjoy their dinner and movie out a bit by having their meal on the dining room table and then moving to the living room to start the movie afterward, but she wanted to combine the two so they could run and then she could return to the lodge and free Roxie from her duty.

  They watched a romantic comedy about a man who was an assassin. A woman’s father was his target, but then he began dating the daughter, having missed the opportunity to take out the father. Blake and Nicole laughed and cuddled while they watched the movie together. He loved doing this with her, and he thought about how nice it would be to do it on a regular basis. The movie had a cute ending, and Nicole and Blake began kissing each other, his hand slipping up her sweater to run over her lacy bra.

  “I want you to solve this mission, but I don’t want you to go,” Blake said, kissing her cheek and nibbling on her ear, being perfectly honest with her.

  She sighed and began kissing him. “You’re making it hard for me to want to return to my empty apartment in Denver.”

  “Don’t then. We don’t have any PIs in Silver Town. We desperately need one.”

  She smiled and kissed him again. “Just keep thinking those thoughts.”

  He would. But he would do more than that. He would let Darien and Lelandi know they could have a valuable pack member if they could encourage her to stay in the area. He would do everything to convince her of it too.

  Blake was afraid she’d return to Denver and forget all about him. He knew he’d miss her. He could visit her there if she was agreeable, but keeping up a relationship could be difficult. And what about her parents? He hadn’t considered having to win over a prospective mate’s parents, but that was the next step. If he wasn’t getting way ahead of himself.

  “I want you to know how much I’m enjoying your company. I mean, really enjoying it,” he started out. “I just have to be honest and tell you we’re not royals.”