by Terry Spear
“No problem. Sounds to me like you’ve gotten yourself hooked into this, and you’ll need someone who’s level-headed to check out the situation,” CJ said.
“Ha. As if he needs you to check out my family,” Jenna said.
CJ actually smiled, shocking her.
Before they headed to Cañon City, she told them exactly what Burt’s mother had said. “The phone number is listed for Sarah and B. Anton Dreyfus.”
“Okay, let’s get there and get this done so I can get on with the interview of their son. Both of you can come with me when I question Burt. If Burt sees Sarandon, he might be even more rattled than if I spoke with him alone,” CJ said. “And if he knows what you do, Jenna, he might be just as worried.”
She hoped Burt spilled his guts.
They left for Cañon City, and Sarandon said to Jenna, “I think we shocked my brother when he learned about us. He doesn’t shock easily.”
“How do you think he feels about you living with me here, so far from your family? If that’s what happens?”
“I think what’s most important is that the mated couple is together.”
“You’re close to your family, and I’m close to mine.”
“Yours wouldn’t consider moving to Silver Town, would they?”
She hadn’t thought of that possibility. “They’re pretty set in their ways. I doubt they would.”
“I can see the benefits of living at your location. In Silver Town, the whole place is wolf-run. Everyone there is ready and willing to help you out.”
“I saw that. Even for newcomers to the area?”
“Absolutely. When CJ’s wife and her two sisters moved into the Silver Town Hotel to renovate the place, we were all over there to help them out. I’ll admit we kind of got underfoot.”
“Four brothers interested in three sisters?”
“Two brothers. Brett wooed Ellie, CJ courted Laurel, and Megan’s seeing Peter, the sheriff.”
“Aww, so that left you and Eric out.”
“Eric needed his own pack to lead, and Pepper, an alpha she-wolf who was running her own pack after having lost her mate, had property north of the park where he works as a ranger. Eric was perfect for the job—and to be her mate. Even though she emphatically said she didn’t want an alpha male taking over. They’re perfectly suited and perfect as the leaders for their pack.”
“And they still live close by?”
“Four hours away.”
“So not all the Silver brothers live in town or on the outskirts.”
“No. We can move to other locations. It just depends on what we agree on. I’m flexible.”
She really hoped he was.
CJ called Sarandon, who put the call on speakerphone. “We’re almost there. They live on the outskirts of town, and I’ll go first. You just wait for me.”
“Are you sure you don’t want all of us to go? What if they know Alex really well, and they see Sarandon and the expression on their faces gives them away?” Jenna said.
“Good point. Just park behind me, and we’ll go to the door together.”
They got out of the two cars and headed up the long, curving front walk to the door of the brick house. CJ knocked on the door, looking official and imposing.
The man who answered the door looked like an older version of the police sketch Lelandi had Peter draw.
“Mr. Dreyfus?”
The man immediately smelled they were all wolves, but his eyes widened when he saw Sarandon, and his jaw gaped. “Alex?”
That was the proof they needed.
“I’m Sarandon Silver. I’m trying to locate my brother,” Sarandon said.
The man paled.
“Who is it?” a woman asked. “Alex?” She wore the same puzzled expression.
“Sarandon Silver, ma’am. I’m looking for my brother, Alex. We share the same birth father, Sheridan Silver.”
The woman looked so pale that her husband quickly took hold of her arm to steady her. “We never told Alex who his father was. Ritka’s sister, Evie, gave us the boy to raise. We didn’t have a child of our own and were convinced we could never have one. Not until we began caring for Alex, and then lo and behold, we had a son. Why…don’t you come in?” Anton glanced at CJ and frowned. “Why would a deputy sheriff need to come too?”
“He’s my brother. And Sarandon’s. I’m CJ Silver.”
“I’m Sarandon’s mate,” Jenna said brightly.
Sarandon and CJ looked shocked. Then Sarandon smiled, leaned down to kiss her cheek, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “You sure are.”
She’d only meant to give a reason why she was here with the two brothers looking for their half brother. She was good at improvising. Sarandon seemed to be taking her declaration as a statement of fact.
“Well, come in, come in. My wife needs to take a seat. This is all a little too much for her.”
CJ closed the door after them, and they followed Anton into the living room where he eased Sarah into a chair. “Would anyone like anything to drink? I need to get my wife something.”
“Can I help you?” Jenna asked.
“Uh, yeah, sure.” Anton smiled at her. “We always wanted a daughter too, but we were lucky to have our two sons.” He muted the WWII movie on the huge, curved TV mounted on the wall.
Jenna had never seen one of them in someone’s home, and this one was over six feet long. And curved? Amazing.
“Are either of your sons mated?” Jenna wanted to assure him they weren’t here to break up the family unit. They weren’t trying to get Alex to leave his adoptive home to join the Silver pack.
When he and Jenna were in the kitchen, Anton said, “They’ve both dated a lot, but neither has found the right woman.” He brought out glasses, and she began to fill them with ice and water. “What are you doing here, really? After all these years, Sarandon and CJ suddenly are checking up on a half brother they didn’t care anything about before?”
“The truth?”
Anton hesitated to respond. She swore he looked like he was aging several years just standing there, worried about what he would hear. “Yeah. Tell me what’s going on.”
“The Silver brothers—there are four of them, quadruplets—didn’t know anything about their father having an affair with Ritka. He wouldn’t have left his mate for her or any other reason, but Ritka ended up having twins by Sheridan.”
“So that’s the story. We always wondered, and Evie wouldn’t tell us the truth. Evie, Ritka’s sister, raised Alex’s sister, Faye. We didn’t know Sheridan was having an affair with Ritka.”
“I understand. Wolves mate for life. Ritka was so in love with Sheridan that she returned to him to have this secret affair. She hoped she could change his mind about mating her and taking the kids in to live with them.”
“What about Sheridan’s mate?”
“She was killed in a hunting accident when the boys were young. So, she was out of the way, as far as Ritka was concerned,” Jenna said.
“But Sheridan had four boys he was raising.”
“Right.”
“That doesn’t explain why you’ve come to see him now.”
“They didn’t know about Alex or his sister. Not until…well, until I went after Sarandon, believing him to be a suspect in an identity theft.”
“You’re a police officer?”
“Fugitive recovery agent.”
“Don’t tell me. Sarandon wasn’t involved.”
“He wasn’t.”
“And you’re not his mate.”
“That’s how we met—me trying to arrest him. Now we’re courting. But”—she pulled out her phone and showed him the picture of Alex’s mug shot—“you can see how similar Sarandon and Alex look. The same with CJ. Especially Sarandon. His discarded, expired driver’s license was stolen, and Alex used it when he was
arrested, stating that he was Sarandon. Neither men had their fingerprints on file. Sarandon cleared his name today in Colorado Springs based on his fingerprints and witness statements that verified he’s been in Silver Town the whole time. We need to find Alex and learn the truth. Is this a case of revenge against one of the brothers for not being raised as one of the Silvers? We don’t know. Only Alex will know what’s really going on.”
“You want to arrest him.”
“The police already have a warrant out for his arrest. He’s going to get caught. It’s only a matter of time. They have his fingerprints. They have his mug shot. He cut his GPS ankle monitor to slip out of the city, so he’s on the run now. My family has one of the best lawyers in the state, a wolf like us. We’ll pay Jeb to represent him.”
“You’re a bounty hunter.” It was taking the poor dad forever to get the gist of the situation.
“Yes. My mother is the bail bondswoman. We’ll have to pay the $150,000 for the bond if we don’t turn him in to make his court date, because the deed he gave us as collateral was forged.”
“He didn’t do this. I know Alex. He wouldn’t have done this.”
“He had passports and other IDs on him that belonged to other people. He impersonated Sarandon. He didn’t have any ID of his own on him. Why wouldn’t he? Why would he say he was Sarandon and get him in trouble? Like I said, we’ll have a lawyer represent Alex.”
“Why? He ran out on the bond, and you could get stuck for it. What’s in it for you?”
“I really care about the Silver family. And they really care about their half brother, despite what he’s done. They didn’t know about him before they started investigating Ritka. They learned about him, and about his sister, in Ritka’s diaries.”
“This news will break my wife’s heart.”
“We have to do something, Mr. Dreyfus. He’s a wanted suspect.”
Anton nodded. “All right.” They carried the glasses of water into the living room, and Anton told it like it was. “Dear, Alex is in serious trouble.”
Chapter 14
When CJ, Jenna, and Sarandon sat in the living room with Alex’s adoptive parents, Sarandon hoped they would learn where Alex was now.
Sarandon couldn’t have been prouder of Jenna for soothing the dad’s concerns and convincing him this was best for their adopted son. He was glad she’d offered her lawyer to represent Alex.
Once Anton had explained everything to his wife, Sarandon said, “The lawyer is really good. He helped get my fingerprints expedited, and he was there at the hearing to help clear me. We’ll all do what we can to help Alex with this situation. I won’t press charges against him for using my ID to impersonate me. We just want to ensure he knows he has family in Silver Town. We don’t mean to take away from the importance the two of you have always had in his life, since you’ve served as his real family all these years.”
Sarah had been quietly crying off and on but finally raised her hand to speak as if she were in school and needed permission. Sarandon thought she was going to offer something about Alex, but instead, she said, “Ritka killed her.”
“We don’t know that,” Anton said, rubbing her back, looking alarmed, and glancing from one brother to the other.
“Ritka did. She’d been talking about hiring a hunter to shoot something that was getting in her way.” Sarah sniffled and wiped her eyes. “I didn’t know what she meant by that. I knew she was seeing Sheridan and that he had a mate. I never told Anton. Then suddenly Sheridan’s mate was shot in a hunting accident.”
A cold sweat washed over Sarandon. Seeing his mother accidentally killed in front of him and his brothers had been devastating enough. If it had been murder and Ritka was behind it? If she wasn’t already dead, he’d want to take her down himself. CJ was clenching his fists, his face red with anger.
Jenna’s eyes were filled with tears, and she reached over to take Sarandon’s hand in a comforting manner.
“I didn’t really put all the pieces together. Not until after Ritka had died and your pack leader, your cousin, put Sheridan down. By then, it was too late to mention it to anyone. Ritka’s sister knew we couldn’t have children, or so we thought. We’d been trying for years, and nothing came of it. Evie didn’t want the boy, just the girl. We were thrilled to take Alex in, though it was on the condition that we never told Ritka about the arrangement. She never came to see the kids anyway, so it really wasn’t a problem. Then I got pregnant right away with Burt, and we were filled with joy that we had two little boys to raise. I don’t believe Alex would do what you said he did. Not unless he was coerced, maybe. Can you really clear his name?”
Sarandon couldn’t imagine any woman doing anything more hateful than what Ritka might have done. On the other hand, Alex was the product of Ritka’s and his father’s deceitfulness, and their son didn’t deserve to be treated as though he was in any way responsible for their crime.
“We’ll do our best,” Jenna said, squeezing Sarandon’s hand.
He appreciated her concern and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
Sarah tried to get ahold of Alex on her phone, but she couldn’t reach him. “I haven’t talked with him in a couple of weeks. Which isn’t unusual. He gets busy with his job and calls when he’s through.”
“What kind of work does he do?” CJ asked.
“Construction work. He makes good money at it. He’s building some new homes in Colorado Springs. At least, the last we heard from him,” Sarah said. “I’m really proud of him. We both are.”
Since he was being GPS-monitored, maybe that’s why he stayed in Colorado Springs as long as he did and didn’t run off right away. The only other thing Sarandon could think of was that Alex had been forced to leave.
“Do you think someone at his workplace could have put him up to it?” Anton asked, sounding hopeful.
“We’ll check. What’s the name of the company?” CJ asked.
Anton ran his fingers through his hair. “J and R Construction.”
“What about pack members? Could any one of them have put him up to it?” CJ readied his notepad to take a list of names.
Sarah and Anton exchanged looks, as if revealing any pack member names would be a cardinal sin.
“We have no intention of accusing anyone of anything. We just need to make some headway with the case.” Sarandon really hoped they could find someone else who was responsible, but Alex had used Sarandon’s ID at the police department, so it would be hard to explain that away.
“This is all a real shock to us. We had no idea,” Anton said.
“Same with me.” Sarandon stood.
Sarah began to list off names. “Christina DeWitt. She’s at the top of my list.”
“Why is that?” Jenna asked.
“She’s his girlfriend, but she’s not right for him,” Sarah said.
Sarandon glanced at Anton to see his take on it. He remained silent, and Sarandon suspected the only one who didn’t like the woman was Sarah. Was the woman not good enough for her adopted son?
“Why do you think she’s not right for him?” Jenna asked.
“She works in a motel. Cleaning. You know. He needs someone who has a better job.”
What difference did that make if she was working hard? Sarandon thought Sarah was a bit of a snob. “What do you do for a living?”
“Me? I’m a homemaker.”
Anton offered, “I worked construction too, which is why Alex works at it. He loved to come on jobs with me, from the time when he was about ten years old. Way before he was old enough to get a job on his own, he used to bring me tools and help me out and make his own birdhouses.”
“And Burt?” Sarandon asked.
“He liked to do other things,” Sarah quickly said. “He didn’t like the loud noises the power saws made.”
Sarandon could tell Anton felt a closeness to Al
ex. He wasn’t sure about Burt.
Sarah gave them the names of nine males, and Christina was the only she-wolf on the list.
“What about his birth sister, Faye? Would she know where he’s gone?” Jenna asked.
“Once Alex was given to us, his aunt never wanted to have anything to do with him, so the daughter never got to see her brother. Later? There was no interest. He never spoke of her, so I doubt she would know where he is,” Sarah said.
“Where is she now? Where are her aunt and uncle? Just in case they have made contact,” Jenna said.
“They lived on the other side of town. They cut themselves off from the rest of the pack. I don’t know if they’re living or dead,” Sarah said. “I would imagine their niece is mated and who knows where she is. Their name is Fennimore.” Sarah gave their last known address.
“Okay, thanks.” Sarandon wasn’t about to discount that the brother and sister might have been close all these years and never shared that with either of the families who had raised them. “What about your pack leaders?”
“Monty Matthews,” Sarah said. “He’s a good man.”
“I say we stay in the pack area of Cañon City. We talk to the pack leaders and get a list of pack members, in case someone else could be harboring Alex. They may believe he’s staying with them for some other reason. We haven’t alerted the police about his identity yet,” Sarandon said. “And we still need to find Alex’s sister, Faye.”
“Can you give us the number for your pack leaders?” Jenna asked Sarah and Anton.
“Yeah. Monty is our only pack leader. He lost his mate last year. I should speak with him about this, but I hope you can locate Alex and not involve the pack,” Anton said.
That was the importance of having a pack. To deal with issues that could involve all of them. “Don’t you think Monty will be upset with you for not telling him?” Sarandon asked.
“After losing his mate, he hasn’t been really interested in what’s going on with the pack. All of us have been talking about asking another wolf to take over. No one wants to if Monty steps in again. He’s been a great leader all these years,” Anton said.