by Terry Spear
Michael's eyes grew big. "Thanks for taking care of my little sister."
She grunted. He was her younger brother, but because he was several inches taller than she was, he called her little.
"My pleasure." Hunter took hold of her hand and squeezed. "We're married. I'll always protect her."
Michael shifted his attention to Tessa.
"Uhm, yeah, whirlwind romance." She hadn't thought Hunter would bring that up right now. Besides, they weren't really married as in the marriage license, wedding ring, or marriage vows kind of arrangement. Her cheeks heated and she tried to muddle through. "I found him washed up on the beach after the guy who was stalking me pushed him off a cliff and--"
"Whoa, back up to the guy that was stalking you. I worried someone was, but have you learned who it is?"
She noted her brother's concern for her, but not about Hunter's near-death experience. Michael was probably still pissed off because Hunter was wearing his favorite jacket.
"He broke into our house the day you were taken to prison. Hunter protected me from him. Anyway, Hunter thought maybe this guy wanted you out of the way, and so he murdered Bethany so you would be found guilty of the crime."
Michael pointed to the third man in the photos. "This other guy looks familiar also."
"Jessup's the one who's after Hunter's sister. Where do you remember him from?"
"The driver of the electric truck." Michael frowned and then looked up at Tessa. "I saw him at a number of my art exhibits. Of course, you begin to see the same people at the parties. Avid collectors, people who like mingling with others who enjoy the paintings, philanthropists, novice painters who want to learn how to sell their own works. I remember him because he kept watching Bethany. Do you think he was seeing her behind my back?"
Tessa gritted her teeth. She hadn't wanted to tell her brother Ashton was the traitor. But if any detail could help them solve the case, he had to know.
"Ashton..." Her voice broke. "Ashton's the one who was seeing Bethany when you were at your shows."
Michael's jaw clenched. "I know."
She stared at him. "You knew? Why didn't you say so at the trial?"
"Why? The sheriff would have covered for his son. Ashton would have gotten away with it, as usual, and it would have looked like I was lying."
"But what if Ashton killed Bethany?"
Michael rubbed his forehead, then shoved his hands in his lap. "I sure as hell considered it. What if she'd wanted to come back to me? Make it up to me? We'd fought that night. She said she'd done some things she wasn't proud of, although she wouldn't admit she was seeing someone else. I tried to get her to confess, but she wouldn't. She just kept protecting the bastard."
"Then you could have been angry enough to kill her," Hunter said softly.
"I was angry, but I didn't murder her. I could have thrashed the guy who'd been seeing her. But I wouldn't have hurt Bethany. I understood how she felt. I really loved her, but I didn't know how to remedy our relationship because the more popular my work was becoming, the more despondent she became over it. To sell, I have to promote. To keep my relationship alive with her, I'd have had to give it all up. But it was my livelihood, my worth." He shook his head. "I didn't kill her. She always walked along the cliffs when she was angry or frustrated. Supposedly, she went there after I left."
"Do you think Ashton might have done it?" Tessa asked.
"Why not? He was always getting away with his petty crimes. What if she had told him she wanted to go back to me and he was so angry, he killed her? He didn't say anything to me about it, but I knew he was jealous of my success."
"If you knew she was seeing Ashton, did you know if she was seeing anyone else?" Hunter asked.
Michael's eyes clouded with fresh tears and his shoulders slumped.
Ohmigod. Had Bethany been seeing someone else? A bunch of different guys?
Running his hand through his hair, Michael stared at the table and nodded. "Ashton wasn't the only one. At least one other guy was seeing her. Maybe two."
"How do you know?" Hunter asked.
"Hell, I don't know. I mean, I don't have any real proof."
"Is that why you said the place was haunted?" Hunter asked.
She couldn't understand why her brother had come up with such a ludicrous story.
"Yeah," Michael admitted. "I felt like a couple of people were watching her house. I thought I saw a man in the shadows of the trees one day at dusk. I wanted to check, but Bethany insisted I was seeing things. Later, I wondered if the guy was her lover, and she didn't want me catching him. It happened again a couple of weeks later. And then another time, I swear someone was actually in the house. A drawer opened in the kitchen. I was half-dressed, but even so I charged into the room and the back door was standing wide open. Bethany said we probably hadn't shut it all the way. So what could I say? Ghosts infested the place? I didn't want to make love to her there anymore. Let her stay with her damned ghosts."
"Did the guy or guys come to your house while she visited you?" Hunter asked.
"Not that I knew of. Why bother? They could see her anytime they wanted to at her place when she wasn't working her shifts at the Lobster Tail."
"If some other guy wanted Bethany and didn't like it that Michael was seeing her, why wouldn't he kill Ashton for seeing her also? Why only frame Michael for the crime?" Tessa asked.
No one had an answer.
"Okay, what about my stalker? He and his brothers pushed Hunter off the same cliff that Bethany had fallen from. Too much of a coincidence?"
Michael looked back at Hunter. "How in the hell did you survive?"
Finally, some reaction to poor Hunter's ordeal.
"Navy SEAL training."
"Oh."
Tessa cast Hunter a look of admiration, then focused on her brother. "Can you think of anything else? Anything that would help us figure out who did this?"
Michael snorted. "Yeah, the treasure hunters."
Tessa made a disagreeable face at her brother. Here he was incarcerated, they were trying to get him out, and he was being flippant about ghosts and nonexistent gold.
Hunter leaned back in the chair. "Treasure hunters?"
Tessa folded her arms. "You know how oral history goes. Supposedly, our great-grandparents had a huge stash of gold, and they hid it somewhere on our land. But it's just a myth, or if it really existed at some time someone else stole it. Our grandparents searched for it, so did our parents. And truth be told, even when Michael and I were younger, we dug all over the place out there, but none of us ever found it. Over the years, we've had tons of offers to take the house off our hands. I figured it had to do with the rumors about the gold."
"Yeah, and you think it was a coincidence our grandparents died in a car accident only a year after our parents did?" Michael asked, one red brow cocked.
"Dad was drunk as usual. And Granddad shouldn't have been driving, although we know Grandmother hated to drive so she was always giving him the wheel. The coroner said his heart had given out before they went off the cliff. So yeah, it's a coincidence, but totally explainable."
"The men who came to the house said they were looking to steal from Bethany's place. If they thought gold was hidden somewhere on your land, maybe that's the reason they were there," Hunter said.
Tessa couldn't believe he'd even be considering it, but then she wondered if he knew about the gold rumors all along. "Did Uncle Basil think there was gold on our property?"
Hunter's lips parted.
Hell, he had. So was that why Hunter had turned her?
To get her property? "He kept trying to buy me out." She bit back the bitterness, making it difficult to swallow. Hunter reached for her hand, but she pulled away from him. "Is that why he wanted our property so badly?"
"Leidolf found a couple of newspaper clippings on the guy I killed, pertaining to a dispute Caleb McKnight had with your grandfather over stolen gold. The other was about John Anderson and his killing Caleb McKnig
ht, father of triplets, Yoloff, Ren, and Andreas. So what if they had to do with your family's deaths?"
"I'll kill them," Michael said, his face turning as red as his hair.
The blood rushed from Tessa's face, and she reached across the table and took Michael's hand. "Don't even talk like that."
"I always thought Uncle Basil had some ulterior motive," Michael said. "You sure get to know who your friends are. And here he was insisting we didn't need to stay there because young people our age needed to be closer to the city, especially because of the work we do. Couldn't he see that nature is what inspires our work? Not city buildings and urban sprawl? Not people? But--"
"Wolves?" Hunter asked.
Michael looked from him to Tessa and she quickly said to her brother, "I didn't show him the paintings."
He glowered at Hunter. "Don't you know not to look at an artist's work that's not finished?" He ran his hands through his hair and stared gloomily at the table.
"I just came across them, by accident. Beautiful work, by the way. But back to Bethany's murder, tons of people had been in her house--the three guys who had to do with trying to take off with my sister, and of course the sheriff and his men, the coroner's office, Tessa, Ashton..."
"The sheriff," Michael said, emphasizing him over all the rest.
Tessa straightened. "Sure, because he's investigating a murder."
Michael shook his head. "He was always cleaning up after Ashton, remember? He's the one who reported the murder, except because he's the sheriff, no one considered he might have known who had done the real killing. A sheriff would be above suspicion. Hell, look at how that policeman killed two of his wives and because he was a cop, no one believed there was any foul play. Not until the second one came up missing. But even then, the police force denied he had anything to do with her suspicious disappearance. The family had to have their loved one's body exhumed so the coroner could determine if there was foul play. And of course, this time, the coroner said yes, she was murdered. So you don't think a sheriff could cover up his son's murder and get away with it? Especially when they have me--the perfect patsy for the job?"
"You asked Ashton to watch over me, even knowing what you did about him?" Tessa asked.
Michael took a deep breath. "I figured I kind of deserved it. Sticking with him when I knew he was bad news--getting me into scrapes, causing all that trouble for you. But I also know deep down, the guy's got some decency in him. Hell, our dad was bad enough with being the town philanderer and drunk. But after Ashton's mother took off with another man, his dad changed. Ashton kept reaching out, trying to get his dad to pay attention to him, in a negative way. In any way he could. He didn't have an older sister like you to help him out. And he's damned good with a rifle. He could protect you if need be."
"Because you knew there was a stalker. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to worry you."
She frowned at her brother. "You could have told me. And you could have warned me that Ashton was going to be gunning down anything that moved out by our house. He shot Hunter!"
Michael quickly looked at Hunter. "Oh, hell, I'm sorry, man."
"No problem. It was just a graze."
"What made you realize there was a stalker?" Tessa asked her brother.
"I saw footprints outside your window when I was clipping the hedges. And another time I saw someone peeking in the house when I came up with a load of wood, but I was too far away to catch him." Michael looked back at Hunter. "Hell, he looked a bit like you. Long dark hair, same approximate height and build."
"That's why Ashton said he shot him. But Hunter was with me when the man broke into the house on a couple of separate occasions."
Michael considered them both and shook his head. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. But I'm glad you've got someone who's combat trained to watch over you. I never thought you'd get married." He rose abruptly from the chair. "I've got to go. Write, will you?"
"I'll be back. We'll get you out, Michael. You just take good care of yourself."
He gave her a warm hug and she broke into tears, despite struggling not to. "You... you just take care of yourself," she reiterated.
Michael kissed her wet cheek. "I will." He shook Hunter's hand. "Don't let anyone hurt her. Take care of that stalker."
Hunter bowed his head slightly. "Will do."
Michael straightened his posture and gave a half smile. "I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden I began getting some special treatment in here. So don't worry, little sister. Things are already looking up."
"Why would Michael be getting special treatment in prison?" Tessa asked, as Hunter helped her into Caruthers's police car.
She was holding up pretty well, and he was damned proud of her.
"The judge had something to do with it. Maybe Allan and me, too." Caruthers shrugged. "We don't usually mess with humans who are incarcerated in the prison system. Most are there because they deserve it. But since you're one of us, we pulled some strings. Of course, no one in the place really knows why, just that there's a sneaking suspicion the kid's innocent, and he's got some pretty powerful friends in high places."
Tessa brushed away tears and smiled. "Tell Allan and the judge thanks for me."
"I'll do that. While you were inside, that red, Leidolf, came by. He said he'd meet you at The Olive Groves for lunch. He said the rest of your people would be there also. Want me to take you there now?"
"Let's go," Hunter said. "We'll see what Leidolf has to say."
Tessa looked at him.
He cast her an abbreviated smile. "I promise I won't tear into him." Too badly. Then he let out an exasperated sigh. "Why didn't you tell me you took a picture of a wolf in the wild and that he was shapeshifting at the time?"
"I didn't say so."
He snorted. "The look on your face revealed the truth. I told you that you couldn't play poker with me."
She'd never get anything past Hunter unless she wore a ski mask, and probably even then her eyes and voice would give her away.
"I'm not sure what it was. I thought it was a wolf. It was really foggy out. And then I saw a man. Or at least I thought so. The photo wasn't clear and no matter how much I tried to enhance it..." She shrugged.
"The man was naked."
"He didn't look like he was wearing any clothes. But it was a long ways off. I just figured my mind was playing tricks."
"He saw you."
"I don't know, Hunter. He was looking in my direction, but I was using a telescopic lens. He couldn't have seen me as far away as I was."
"Hell," Caruthers said. "if he hadn't wanted you so badly, he would have killed you."
The thought she had been living a life of danger all this time without his protection stirred Hunter's blood. "He saw you, Tessa. Believe me. How long before Bethany had been murdered had this taken place?"
"Two days. I showed her the photo and asked her what she could make of it. All Bethany saw was mist. I showed it to Michael also, but preoccupied with his painting, he didn't pay any attention. Said it looked interesting, but barely glanced at it."
But had Bethany's witnessing the photo led to her death?
In Caruthers's patrol car, Hunter and Tessa soon arrived at the Italian restaurant, although Hunter regretted that Tessa was so tense. She would have to see for herself that the pack would accept her as one of their own.
When they arrived at the restaurant, the hostess tried to seat them, but Caruthers motioned to a group of people, both Leidolf's reds and the rest of Hunter's pack, at a large rowdy table. "I'll sit with them."
The waiter escorted Tessa and Hunter to a private booth, and Tessa looked back at the table with his pack mates as if she wished they could sit with them and not have the confrontation with Leidolf. So that was what was worrying her.
Hunter gripped her hand tighter. "I promise I won't kill him for leaving me behind in the jail and going after you."
The smell of oregano, garlic, Italian sauce, and on
ions wafted in the air, and Hunter's stomach grumbled. Dishes and glasses clinked as servers cleared tables and conversation and Italian music drifted overhead. Nice setting for a romantic dinner for two if Hunter and Tessa could have enjoyed the meal without Leidolf chaperoning.
Leidolf leaned back against the burgundy vinyl seat in the booth at the end of the section, looking self-satisfied and smiled at them. "My lawyer was trying to have you released, but he told me you got yourself out by contacting someone who had a lot more clout. Pays to have a judge back you."
Unable to let go of the irritation, Hunter gave him a dark look.
"I missed you at the hotel last night, but I guess you found a safe place to hole up. Your people are returning with you, and they're dying to meet your new mate. You've got three cops leaving here to watch your backs on the coast, one who wants one of your widowed females, and she's ecstatic. Sounds like your pack is off to a good recovery. Not bad considering the mess you've been in recently." Leidolf unfolded his napkin and placed it on his lap. "Other packs usually don't mix it up much, but I've grown attached to yours, considering one of your people is joining mine. If you need my help any further, just let me know."
Hell, he was attached to Hunter's pack because Tessa still interested him.
"What did you say to the lawyer about me?" Hunter asked.
Leidolf laughed. "He holds a grudge, Tessa. Remember that." He sipped his water. "I told him just what had happened. You were wielding the knife that killed the guy. That's why he released me so quickly. I was only a witness to the whole thing. I'd planned to watch over Tessa until you arrived at the hospital. Imagine my surprise to find you had beat me to it."
Hunter squeezed Tessa's hand in her lap. "So you're returning to Portland?"
"I have to. I've got problems of my own. A red from Texas is stirring up trouble. Thinks he might have what it takes to run my pack. Can you imagine the nerve of the guy?" He winked at Tessa and turned his attention back to Hunter. "But I mean it. If you need my help, just say. I'll come to the coast and give you a hand."
Hunter bowed his head. "Likewise, Leidolf."