Larry shook his head as they helped him out of the room.
“In the restaurant,” she said, her chin tilted down, as if telling Blake that the kiss was purely for show.
But it had been the real deal to him—and to her, or she wouldn’t have put that much effort into it. She sure had him worked up, and that hadn’t happened when he was kissing other women he’d actually dated.
They were quiet as they helped Larry to the elevator and took him through the lobby, outside, and to her car. Blake had decided to go with them out to the car, not wanting to learn Larry had collapsed in the parking lot. He noticed her license tag said she was from Colorado. That helped with the ploy of Blake being her fiancé. Unless she’d flown into the airport and the car was a rental. Her fake Facebook page said she was from Sacramento, California, but he suspected she had included that to throw Rhys and William off.
“You’re from Colorado?” Was she with a pack or on her own? The only other Colorado wolf packs he knew of were Bella and Devlyn Greystoke’s up north and Ryan and Carol McKinley’s in Green Valley.
“Yeah, I’m from Denver.”
Blake was glad to know that, in case he wanted to take some trips there to see more of her. He helped Larry into the front passenger seat and buckled him in.
“You take good care of her. The last investigator disappeared. Mysteriously,” Larry said, giving him as stern a look as he could in his condition.
“I will. I promise. So will my brother, my sisters, and my friends. She’ll be in good hands. Just you get better.” Blake shut the car door for Larry.
Nicole climbed into the driver’s seat. “I’ll be seeing you.”
“See you soon.” Blake watched them drive off, then glanced around at the people coming and going in the parking lot, but he didn’t see two males walking together who fit the cousins’ descriptions. He headed inside to talk to his brother in the lobby and saw him speaking with a guest, but then Landon motioned to the restaurant and the man headed in that direction.
Smiling when he saw Blake approach, Landon shook his head. “I always figured our sisters would pick mates first. We need to let the pack leaders know about this situation.”
Blake agreed. “We do. Helping Nicole doesn’t mean anything will come of this. Her partner didn’t look well at all. She’s taking him to the clinic to see Dr. Weber. I doubt the guy will be coming back to the lodge to help her anytime soon.”
“Then we’ll help her. Let’s check the men out and see what we can learn.” Landon and Blake returned to the office. Landon logged into a computer while Blake exchanged his ski boots for a pair of snow boots.
Roxie was watching the security monitors, but she came over to see what they were going to do. “What’s the room number where the creeps are staying?”
“Twenty-three,” Landon said. “Reserved to a Rhys Hanover.”
“Is Nicole working the case alone?” Roxie asked Blake. He thought she sounded a little concerned.
He explained what had happened to Nicole’s partner.
Roxie tsked. “You’re taking her out to lunch? She sure has you wrapped around her little finger.”
“What can I say? She’s a great kisser and she’s a wolf.”
“Single?”
“I sure the hell hope so.” Blake could just see some irate mate coming here to take him to task for getting fresh with his wife. It was one thing to have a partner, another to be kissing him as if she wanted to take this business with him a lot further.
“You don’t know hardly anything about her.”
“I know she’s from Denver, a wolf, and goes after bad guys. That’s good enough for me.” For now.
“Okay, here’s the news story on the men,” Landon said, pulling up the page.
Blake summarized the news report. “Okay, Oscar is the dead guy. Supposed dead guy. From this account from his cousin, William, it looks like Oscar was kayaking with him, following him down the Gore Canyon, which is considered an intense if not extreme river challenge. That’s where you and I went that one time we wanted to go kayaking in Colorado, Landon.”
His brother agreed. “Yep, that’s the same place all right. It can be hairy.”
“According to this, William slammed into an abandoned throw rope strung across the chute underneath the water. He was jerked from his boat and forced to swim to the shore. He finally reached the rocks on the bank and climbed out. Oscar was following him in his kayak and hit the same rope and flipped out of his boat, only his kayak was pinned among the rocks. There was no sign of him when rescuers finally arrived and secured the boat and turned it over.”
“It’s plausible, as far as abandoned throw ropes go. Anyone who doesn’t go back and retrieve their own rope ought to be hung with it. So did they hang the rope there themselves, or did they just happen to run into it? And then after Oscar was ‘lost forever,’ William mourned his cousin’s loss and waited for the insurance settlement.”
Blake agreed. “Not sure about the rope. It doesn’t say anything about the payout here. From what Nicole said, the insurance company has already paid the money to William.”
“Which is why they have all the money to spend up here. I take it you’re not going to ski,” Landon said.
“No, I’ll be hanging around here, waiting for Nicole’s return. You go ahead.”
“I’d like to ski the white powder,” Roxie said, “if anyone cared.”
“Are you already tired of looking at the monitors?” Blake had known she wouldn’t last long at it.
“Yes! Talk about a boring job.”
“You know, if you wore a ski mask, your reflective ski goggles, and a ski hat, Rhys would never know it was you if he ran into you,” Landon said. “Besides, he only met you twice.”
“Just my thought,” Roxie said. “I won’t speak to them if we end up getting close to them.”
“No giving him the evil eye,” Blake said.
“He’d never know it if I did while I’m wearing reflective goggles.”
Landon hesitated to leave. “Are you sure you don’t want me to hang around, Blake?”
“No. We’ve got enough hired help to take care of the check-ins and checkouts and reservations. I’m really only needed if we have trouble. And everything seems to be running smoothly.”
“Roxie, if you keep covered up at all times while we’re out skiing, you can come with me. At the same time, we can see if we can locate them anywhere on the slopes.” Landon asked Blake, “Are you going to check out Nicole’s background while you’re doing research on the internet?” Landon took off his boots and put on his ski boots.
Roxie was hurrying to do the same. They’d built a walk-in closet in their office for all their gear—emergency gear, skis, ski poles, boots, and snowshoes. They could take a break skiing or hiking, or they could help with emergencies while they were working at the hotel.
“Doing that right now.” Blake did a search for Nicole on the internet and found her listed as living in Denver with a private investigator business there. He smiled. “‘Mile High Investigations—no job too big or too small.’”
“Tell me what you learn when I get back. We’ll be gone for a couple of hours.” Landon slapped Blake on the back. “Just be careful.”
Blake couldn’t help thinking about the pretty blond and her mission. She should be working with a partner if these men had anything to do with the disappearance of the other investigator.
While he was searching on Facebook for her real profile, he had found five Nicole Graysons and one that had his Nicole pictured: blond hair, green eyes. But he couldn’t see her posts without friending her. And then she’d know he was checking her out.
He smiled. They were supposed to be engaged. He friended her, and as soon as she accepted his friend request, he’d list her as being in a relationship with him. Her cover, right?
You Had Me at Wolf
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