Chapter 12

Sarandon felt like he’d made great strides with Jenna on the courtship business. He hadn’t been able to quit thinking about her half the night, wishing they were further along with it and that he’d wake with her in his arms this morning. He hadn’t even been worried about clearing his name.

He was sitting on his bed, slowly waking up, when he finally heard her in the master bathroom. He was glad she hadn’t gone on a run without him—at least, he didn’t think she had. Maybe he was mistaken.

Jenna woofed at Sarandon’s guest-room door. Hot damn. Wearing just his boxer briefs, he opened the door and smiled. “I take it you want to run with me this morning.”

She woofed again and wagged her tail. He ditched his boxers and shifted. She raced off for the wolf door, and he followed her outside.

He loved running with her in her own territory. And claiming it for his own. Again. He couldn’t help himself. He was going to ensure everyone knew she was off-limits to them and all his. Also, that this was their territory, so beware. He’d enjoyed seeing all the new scenery in this area, realizing he rarely saw anything new in Silver Town. Most of all, he loved just being with Jenna on these runs. Seeing her darting through the trees and brush in a game of hide-and-seek, showing him the creeks, a river, and ponds. He wondered about cross-country skiing in the area, which she said she and her family liked to do. And he thought it would be fun to see the fall colors here and the summer flowers blooming all over.

She had hidden behind some rocks and he came around to find her, but this time, she paused and was smelling the ground, not waiting to nip at him in play.

He joined her to see what she was smelling. Another wolf had passed through here, not scent-marking with a urine trail, but his paw pads had left his scent just the same. Sarandon wondered if Jenna knew who it was. He nudged her to see what she thought—friend or foe—and she growled a little.

Someone’s scent she didn’t recognize, he suspected.

They began following the scent trail and explored a new area of woods—with no human hiking trails, so they should be fairly safe—but they lost the wolf’s scent at a river. They ran for about five miles, one of them on each side of the river, trying to locate where the wolf had crossed, but they didn’t find his scent trail. Maybe in the other direction? They needed to head back to her house so Sarandon could get ready to see the lawyer. He was sure glad Jenna’s parents got him one to expedite things and make sure he didn’t get railroaded.

Jenna had the same idea, and when he crossed the river to join her, she licked his wet cheek, then they loped all the way home together.

When they reached the house and went inside, they raced each other to the bedrooms. He shifted and took a quick shower, then dressed, and was ready to fix them breakfast.

She met him in the kitchen. “Okay, so I didn’t recognize the wolf who’s been in our territory. It wasn’t Burt.”

“Which makes me feel it’s still related to the case. How often do you get stray wolves up here near your home?”

“Rarely. It just seems too coincidental to me.”

“I can’t imagine what these guys hope to accomplish by following us. He has to know I’m about to clear my name so whoever is responsible takes the blame.”

“Why not try to stop you? If he didn’t want you to clear your name, I would think he’d have wanted to stop you before now.”

“Financial fraud is one thing. Murder, quite another. Maybe he doesn’t have the stomach for killing anyone.”

“Or he’s afraid of you if he knows I tracked you to Silver Town, armed to the teeth, and you took me hostage instead.”

“If you must know, I was as gentle as I could be with you, given the circumstances.” He began looking through her fridge. “Scrambled eggs or omelets okay?”

“Omelets, bell peppers, ham, and cheese.” She began pulling out the other ingredients, while he grabbed the carton of eggs.

After finding the skillets and olive oil, he cracked some eggs and started cooking them, while Jenna cut up the bell peppers and ham. The cheese was already shredded.

“Coffee or tea?” she asked.

“Coffee, milk, and sugar.”

She began making a pot of coffee, filling a teakettle with water and heating it. “I’ll call Mom and let her know we’ve got another wolf in the area. Dad will go out and check on it, as long as he isn’t working a case this morning.”

“I would have continued to search for the wolf in the other direction if I didn’t have to meet with the lawyer this morning.”

“Well, that’s our priority. I agree. I wanted to know where he got out of the river and took off to.” She got ahold of her mom and said, “Sarandon and I took a wolf run this morning and smelled the scent of another male wolf in the area. We followed him to the river, but he must have swum in it for some time to hide his scent. We searched south on the river but couldn’t find where he got out. We had to return home for the lawyer’s meeting. Did you want to ask Dad if he could check it out? Okay, thanks, Mom. We’re just having breakfast and heading over to see the lawyer after that.”

She got off the phone and fixed the coffee and orange tea.

Then Sarandon served the omelets.

“You’re a really good cook.”

“We had to fend for ourselves after our mom died and my dad gave up on raising us. Now I think I know why. He was off seeing Ritka but trying to keep it secret. Eric, my oldest brother, learned how to cook from several of the women in the pack. Bertha Hastings runs the bed-and-breakfast in town, and she taught him how to make all kinds of different meals. He wasn’t about to be our full-time mother, so he taught us how to cook too and we took turns making meals. We learned to do the laundry, yard work, and everything else we needed to do so our pack members wouldn’t feel obligated to come by to see us all the time.”

“So you lived by yourselves in your home?”

“Yeah. It worked out fine. As long as we didn’t roughhouse and end up injuring one another.”

“Did you?”

“Sure. Four boys? What do you expect.”

She smiled and set the table.

When they sat down to eat, he hoped he hadn’t left any shell fragments in the eggs. Sure way to ruin her impression of his cooking.

“These are delicious.”

“Thanks. I make a great pot roast too.”

“Hmm, sounds heavenly.” She forked up some more eggs. “Okay, so after we go to the hearing later this afternoon, what’s next on the agenda? We’ve been focused on clearing your name, but after that’s done?”

“We’re going after this guy. Or the two guys. We need to locate both Alex and Burt Dreyfus.” Sarandon’s phone rang, and he saw it was his brother CJ. “Yeah, CJ? I’m putting this on speaker so Jenna will hear what’s going on too.”

“Stanton sent me a picture of Burt Dreyfus, and I ran it over to show to Sam, Silva, Lelandi, and Eric. Sending it to you now. Was this the guy you saw at the tavern?”

Sarandon looked at the photo. “Yeah, looks like him. What did everyone else say about him?”

“They all confirmed it was him,” CJ said.

“What about the dates he was missing that Stanton was angry about?”

“He was gone about the time the suspect cut his GPS ankle monitor off.”

“He could have helped the suspect leave Colorado Springs,” Sarandon said, carrying his empty plate into the kitchen.

“He could have. I’m interviewing Burt this afternoon. They’re filming a show right now.”

“At the ski lodge?”

“No, another location. I’m on my way there now.”

“Okay. Someone’s been running as a wolf here, so if Burt has been in Silver Town all this time, it’s not him. But the wolf is driving Burt’s SUV.” Unless the wolf had been here in the middle of the night, but then he probably wouldn’t have made it back to Silver Town in time for the filming. “Where are they filming?”

“In Colorado Springs, so he is in your area.”

“All right. Then he’s definitely a possibility. Where are they exactly?”

“They’re at a fast-food hamburger place, one of the major chains. An employee fatally shot her manager some years back, and strange happenings continue to occur there. Chairs put on top of tables are mysteriously placed back on the floor when the cleanup crew isn’t there, according to employees. Some have seen a ghostly woman in the kitchen and other things moved around that no one can explain. Stanton said he wants to do shows on a dozen places in the Colorado Springs area—two haunted high schools, a hotel, an old cowboy night club, tunnels, a school for the deaf and blind, just all kinds of places. Which is good, because that means the ghost hunters won’t be here sensationalizing any of our haunted spots for a while.”

“That’s good. We’re not sure about the wolf who was near Jenna’s house. Logan, Jenna’s dad, is trying to track him down. We lost his scent at a river and had to stop tracking him because I have a meeting with the lawyer this morning. The wolf has to be a shifter if he’s trying to hide his scent.”

“Yeah, sounds like you’re right. You’re only about fifteen minutes from Colorado Springs, correct?” CJ asked.

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to try to get to Colorado Springs early. I left Silver Town at three this morning.”

“Jenna’s family got me the lawyer, so we’ll be in town for that first thing,” Sarandon said, helping Jenna put the food away, though she kept waving him away so he could talk freely with his brother.

Then they headed out to the car.

“That doesn’t sound good,” CJ said.

“He’s a great wolf lawyer, and he’s only going to be there in case I run into trouble. We have the hearing this afternoon too. I’ll let you know how it all goes.”

“Okay. Let’s get together once I get in. I won’t be able to interview Burt until this evening now. I’m trying to track down his family to see if they belong to a pack. Stanton says he has no idea if Burt belongs to one.”

“He doesn’t even know where Burt’s from?” Sarandon couldn’t believe it.

“You know Stanton. Prima donna. He’s only interested in himself.”

Why wasn’t Sarandon surprised?

“I’ve told Stanton not to tell Burt I need to talk with him or anything about this business. I don’t want him running if he’s involved,” CJ said.

“Okay, sounds like a good plan. Talk to you later, CJ. And thanks.”

“You’ve got a whole pack here waiting to hear the results. So let me know soonest.”

“Will do.”

When Sarandon ended the call, Jenna asked him, “Do you ever feel overwhelmed by your pack? Like everything you do or say is being monitored? Or that you have to keep them posted at all times?”

He laughed. “I’ve grown up with it, so it feels right. I guess for an outsider it would seem that way. If anyone’s in trouble, everyone’s there to help out.”

“How are you feeling about seeing the lawyer and the hearing?”

“Ready to get all of it over with.”