“My,” Bertha said, “you’re back. Not that I doubted it for a moment.” She gave Elizabeth a heartwarming smile.

Tom got into the vehicle and saw her panting in the very backseat. “Good dog, my ass, Elizabeth. You nearly gave me a heart attack when I realized you’d run into Sam and Trevor with Bill. We’re just lucky the farmer didn’t shoot you when he saw you before someone could stop him.”

She woofed and wagged her tail. He was right: she wasn’t anyone’s obedient little dog. But she knew she had scared him—and herself—when she came upon the farmer armed with a rifle, so she wasn’t annoyed with Tom for scolding her.

Tom wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug of an embrace. She licked his face. He chuckled, and she snuggled the upper part of her body against his lap.

Sam, Kemp, and Radcliff climbed into the SUV.

Sam glanced over the backseat and said to Tom, “You’re keeping her for real, aren’t you, Tom? I wouldn’t let her slip away again.”

Elizabeth wagged her tail, wanting to tell Sam it was the other way around. She was keeping Tom for herself; no other she-wolf need apply. She wanted to tell him that he should see what he had in Silva and do something about it!

Tom stroked Elizabeth’s head and back in a loving way, as he explained to Sam and the other men what had happened. He left the part out about them being mated wolves. She wondered if they had all guessed as much.

She sighed and promptly fell asleep on the ride to Darien’s house, despite worrying about what was coming next.

***

As soon as they drove around the circular drive to the front door, Lelandi hurried out of the house to greet them. Elizabeth raised her head and woofed. Watching her playacting, Tom knew he loved her.

Sam got out of the vehicle so that Tom and Elizabeth could leave the backseat. “I’m staying,” Sam said, “for Elizabeth’s protection.”

“Me, too,” Radcliff said.

Kemp followed him out of the car. “Thanks for the ride,” he said to Bertha.

“Sure thing. If any of you need a lift later, just holler. My guests are all at the ski resort, so no need for me to be home at the moment.” She drove around the circular drive and the long way through the trees to the main road and then headed to Silver Town.

Lelandi gave Tom a hug. “I’ll take Elizabeth up to the guest room and get her some clothes. Get anything you’d like to eat or drink. I’ll be down in a little while.”

Elizabeth had already raced up the stairs.

“Come on, guys. Let’s make some sandwiches for everyone,” Tom said.

“I’ll make them.” Sam was so used to doing so at the tavern that no matter who offered, he always took over the task. “What will we do about your cousins?”

“I wish it was anyone in the world but them,” Tom said. “But it’s Darien’s call.” Tom said so, though he knew his brother would ask Jake and him what they wanted to do since they were all blood relatives.

When Elizabeth came down dressed in clean clothes from Lelandi, Sam and everyone were making sandwiches, but Tom looked distracted, a contemplative look on his face. Elizabeth pulled him aside.

“I don’t think CJ told us everything.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Tom confessed. “I wanted to stay here with you to make sure you’re safe if your uncle has a death wish and tries to steal you away from here”—Elizabeth shot him a look—“but now I’m thinking we should go to the hospital and see if CJ changes his story. I have something I want to ask him.”

***

“He needs morphine,” Doc Weber said to Darien, as he looked at the X-ray of CJ’s broken leg. “I’ll rebreak the bone where it has knit together wrong and realign it properly.”

“I need to question him about his involvement in the problems we’re having,” Darien said.

“You’re welcome to question him,” Doc said, “but I still need to give him morphine.”

Tom and Elizabeth slipped into CJ’s hospital room as Nurse Matthew inserted an IV into CJ’s hand. Jake and Peter stood nearby, arms folded across their chests.

Jake finally said to CJ, “Okay, so you say you didn’t have anything to do with anything, yet you knew about everything.”

“I overheard my brothers talking.”

“And you were where at the time?” Darien asked.

“Mr. Winston’s place on the outskirts of town.”

“And just what did you overhear?”

“Their plan to scout out the perimeter of the territory, around the farms, to see what they could see.”

“Why would they want to do that?”

“I don’t know,” CJ said. “But why would they lie? They didn’t know I was there.”

Darien said, “Or they knew and they fed you a line of bull in case we picked you up and you spilled your guts about what was going on. Or you’re lying to save your ass.”

“No, I swear that’s all that I know,” CJ insisted.

“That’s all?” Darien asked.

CJ hesitated. “Yes.”

Tom spoke up. “CJ, at the cabin, you said you knew I was looking for Elizabeth. But when I heard the plane crash, I didn’t even know Elizabeth had been on it until I found her, so how did you know that?”

CJ didn’t say.

“I could break your uninjured leg,” Jake said. “You know, to take your mind off the pain when Doc rebreaks the injured one.”