Chapter Two – Sam

“Are you OK, Sam?” Nevis asked as they walked into the Bear Creek News offices. “You look a little peaky.”

Sam looked down at Nevis, but then Sam looked down on everyone. Even for a bear shifter, he was huge. He only hoped that when he found his mate, she would not be vertically challenged. He smiled. Wasn’t he vertically challenged in his own way? Didn’t every time he walked into a room, after ducking through the doorway, prove that point?

It was a surprise to his Mom that he had not suffered permanent brain damage from all the things he had walked into. Since puberty onwards, he had never met a doorframe he didn’t have to duck under.

“I’m OK. Something came over me, but I’m good now.” Sam held the door open and let Nevis go inside first, before following, remembering out of habit to duck his head as he did.

“Something came over you? What kind of something?” Nevis asked.

“The kind of something that makes me think I should not have had that prawn salad I found in the back of my fridge last night.” It wasn’t the prawns. Sam knew that for sure, but he didn’t want to be asked a hundred questions. That, after all, was Sam’s job. As a private investigator, he was good at getting information out of people. The skill was to not reveal too much about yourself in return. Not your true self, at least. However, he often made up characters and back stories to hide his true self and his true purpose. He’d posed as an electrician, a plumber, a schoolteacher… The list was long and varied.

“Hey, Teagan.” Nevis stopped in his tracks and motioned to Sam to follow him. “She’s asleep. Poor thing,” Nevis whispered. “Makes me realize how lucky Chrysi and I are to have a child that sleeps through the night.”

“I wouldn’t mind a child that stays up all night,” Sam confided. “But until I find my mate, I let my clients keep me up instead.” That wasn’t part of an act; he truly wanted a mate and a family. And there was no need to ask his mom if she wanted a son who was married off and producing grandkids, it was the first thing she asked whenever they spoke on the phone.

“Speaking of which, what can I help you with?” Nevis asked.

“I wanted to put a missing person ad in the paper,” Sam said, pulling a tattered photograph out of his pocket.

“That isn’t my department,” Nevis said.

“I know, but the photo isn’t great. I wondered if you could clean it up.”

“Let me take a look,” Nevis said, turning it over and then looking at it closely. “A little worn.”

“Yeah. It’s the best the guy, Lenny Grimes, had.” The photograph reminded him of Lenny, worn and tattered: his sister’s disappearance a couple of weeks ago had knocked the stuffing out of him.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Nevis said.

“They are cat shifters. And while he has plenty of photographs of his sister when she’s a cat, this is the only one he has of her in her human form. The guy is a little screwy.” Sam held up his hands. “Not that I am the kind of man who discriminates.”

“So what is the case?” Nevis asked, putting the photo into the scanner. It was a picture of his sister when she had been a bridesmaid, Lenny had been all around Cougar Ridge asking if anyone had seen her, hence the worn and tattered state of the photograph.

“Lenny’s from over in Cougar Ridge.”

“And?” Nevis asked, encouraging Sam to talk. Nevis was often fascinated by Sam’s cases. The two men would often talk over the clues, and come up with theories. Those cases Sam was free to talk about, at least. Some of Sam’s clients asked for, and received, complete confidentiality.

“And he reported his sister, Ophelia Grimes, missing two weeks ago. She simply disappeared, car and everything.”

“He’s reported it to the sheriff?” Nevis asked.

“Sheriff in Cougar Ridge doesn’t have a clue what happened. I talked to him, but he thinks Ophelia maybe found her mate and left her brother behind. Drove to work and never came home. No car, no note, no witnesses. She’s been looking after Lenny for years, no one knows their history. You know what it’s like over in Cougar Ridge, as long as you don’t bother anyone else, no one asks questions.”

“So why did you take the case?” Nevis cocked his head, trying to read Sam’s expression. “I’m guessing Grimes doesn’t have a fortune squirreled away from which he has offered to pay you willingly?”

Sam chuckled and shook his head. “You would not be wrong there, my friend.”

“Then why?” Nevis asked.

“Because.”

“Because what?” Nevis asked.

“Because I lost someone once. I don’t mean dead, I mean lost. There one minute and gone the next.” Sam had never shared his own story with Nevis. Hell, he didn’t share his story with anyone. He was a private person, but he liked and trusted Nevis.

“Your mate?” Nevis asked with a frown.

“No. My sister. She was gone and everyone thought she had run off with a man who hit town a couple of days earlier. She was only sixteen, and my dad forbade her to see the guy, even though she insisted he was her mate.”

“Why would your dad do that?”

“He didn’t believe it. My dad was certain she was being manipulated. Certain enough to push his own daughter until she didn’t want to speak to him. The guy, Hannibal Olash, was his name, convinced her they were mates. Groomed her.”

“What happened?” Nevis asked, his full attention on Sam.

“She went out to the movies, and never came home. The town figured Hannibal Olash really was her mate, so when she left, the sheriff did not want to know. The sheriff said it was the natural order of things for shifters. My dad, well, he nearly died of a broken heart. My mom blamed him. If it wasn’t for the shifter bond, their marriage would have failed.”

“And you became a private investigator so you could find her?” Nevis asked.

“Now, wouldn’t that be a cliché?” Sam asked.

“It sure would,” Nevis said. “And that is what happened?”

“Yep.” Sam shrugged. “It worked, I found her a couple of years later. Over in Russia.”

“Russia! Was she OK?” Nevis asked, his voice low, filled with concern.

“He’d used her as a dancing bear. It was all I could do not to rip his head off his scrawny shoulders. Turns out that was what he did. His MO.”

“And Ophelia Grimes, do you think the same thing happened to her?” Nevis asked.

“I don’t know, but what if it did?” He jabbed his finger at the photograph. “What if someone took her?”

“I cannot argue with you.” Nevis sat down at his desk and pulled up the photograph. “Leave it with me, and I’ll clean it up as best I can.”

“I would appreciate anything you can do to help. Lenny has shown the photograph to everyone in Cougar Ridge, but it’s time to spread a wider net.” Sam stepped back toward the door. “Thank you, Nevis. Give me a call when it’s ready. I appreciate it.”

“You are welcome. And, Sam?” Nevis called after him.

“Yep?” Sam half turned.

“This one is on the house. I’ll clean it up and place the ad. Just let me know the copy.” Nevis bent his head to study the photo once more.

“No, really, man, I can pay,” Sam insisted.

“I know you can.” Nevis looked at his screen, moving his mouse and clicking as he worked. “I’ll have this ready for you by the end of the day. I’ll email it over to you and if you think it’s OK, I’ll make sure it’s in this week’s paper.”

“Thanks, Nevis.” Sam left his friend’s office, quietly closing the door behind him so as not to wake Teagan, who was still asleep at her desk. At least he hoped she was asleep. What if she wasn’t?

For a large man, Sam moved swiftly and quietly. He could sneak into the office where Teagan and Theo worked, and listen to her breathing, without waking her.

He took a couple of steps forward, his bear criticizing him for being a worrywart. That did not stop him. Better to be a worrywart than ignore someone who might need help.

In truth, Sam was too soft to be a successful private investigator. Not soft with regards to tracking down and helping bring to justice those who deserved it. But he was soft when it came to getting his fees paid. Luckily, he had completed a couple of jobs for a mega-rich businessman named Harlan recently, and the money kept the wolf from the door. Literally.

His landlord, Sonny Parker, was a wolf shifter, who liked to hound Sam about any overdue rent. Not that Sonny would ever throw Sam out; the guy owed him too much for sensitive investigations carried out with the utmost discretion. The investigation had brought a whole new meaning to the three little pigs and the big bad wolf. The huffin’ and puffin’ had not been about blowing any houses down.

He was a couple of steps away from Teagan when the same weird feeling he’d experienced earlier crept over him. He stopped dead in his tracks. If there was something wrong with him, he sure as hell did not want to give it to Teagan. She had enough to cope with. Babies were hard work; his sister had taught him that when she had her first little cub last year. Luckily, her stint as a dancing bear had not left her scarred for life, and she had met her true mate a year after her rescue.

That was a whole ’nother story.

Sam’s knees went weak. His strength was ebbing away when a voice reached him. Not the dulcet tones of a woman who had just met her mate, although Sam recognized her for what she was as soon as he turned around and set eyes on her. No, she was coming at him, broom in hand, screaming like a banshee.

“What the?” he yelled as quietly as he could. It was too late; Teagan was awake and screamed in shock, right as his mate swung the broom at him. My, she was magnificent. And tall. Yep, Sam always liked to think of the practicalities of a situation. Even when the situation was as messed up as this.

“Get away from her!” his mate demanded.

“I was just checking that she was OK,” Sam replied in his defense.

“Sure you were.” The broom was still aimed at his head.

“Sam, what’s going on?” Nevis came into the room, a bemused look on his face at the scene before him.

“You know him?” Lia asked.

“Sure, he’s a private investigator. He came in to place an ad for a missing person,” Nevis told the broom-armed banshee.

The banshee who is our mate, his bear said excitedly.

Great, just what I need, a female with an overactive imagination. Don’t we get enough of those on the job, without having one waiting for us at home?

She does not look like the wait-for-us-at-home type, his bear answered.

Sam smiled. No, she does not.

“You find this funny?” his mate accused, the heat in her cheeks spreading down her neck, and he could only imagine where it might end.

“Calm down, Lia. Honestly, it’s fine. Just a misunderstanding,” Teagan said, putting herself between Sam and his mate. “Hey, you look a little…”

“What?” Lia blushed a deeper red. Was she trying to ignore the spark between them? Or maybe she wasn’t a shifter.

Sam lifted his head and sniffed the air. It wasn’t very subtle, and both Nevis and Teagan picked up on it.

“Wait, you two are… Oh, my!” Teagan grinned, looking more awake at the realization she had just witnessed the meeting of two people joined together on a deep, deep level. “Wow! Congratulations.”

“Yeah, congrats,” Nevis said. “Couldn’t happen to two nicer people.”

The look on Lia’s face told him she was not so sure. Damn, was his love life about to get as complicated as some of the cases he worked?

She can complicate our lives anytime, his bear said, practically drooling.

Great, a lovesick bear. That was all he needed.