“I should have called you. But everyone was asleep still when we went out running. I’m so sorry,” Roxie said.

  Landon sighed. “Hell, we learned you swam across the river.”

  “Yes, and we saved Xander’s life.”

  “Right. But wake us and tell us if you’re going out like that.”

  “You’d still send a search party out on us.”

  “Yeah, of course. What are big brothers for?”

  She smiled. “Okay, I’ll wake one of you to tell you whenever I’m going to run with Dylan on my own.”

  “Is he a bad influence?”

  “No, he’s not a bad influence. It was my idea.”

  Landon laughed. “Why am I not surprised.”

  Dylan smiled at Roxie.

  “I’ll be in after lunch.”

  “All right.”

  Then they said goodbye. “I can’t believe we were out there for a whole five hours. Everyone was upset with us for taking off and not letting them know where we’d be.”

  “You told him you were the bad influence, not me.” He put the pans he’d cleaned on the drying pad. “If it wasn’t for me getting involved with these guys, you wouldn’t have done this.”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t want you to take all the credit for finding Xander.”

  Dylan chuckled.

  “Let’s get cleaned up and then we can have some lunch. I agree with Jake. You shouldn’t be pulling guard duty. What were you thinking?”

  Dylan just smiled at her. He hadn’t had anyone really care about his welfare in years, and he really liked that everyone did here in Silver Town.

  “I’m not looking forward to going in to work,” she said, heading up the stairs.

  “Your siblings are all going to give you grief for worrying them.”

  “Yep. Every last one of them.”

  Chapter 11

  Roxie couldn’t believe they’d managed to locate Xander and was so relieved they had. Just like when they’d found Luke and he was okay. If they could have found Fennel too, that would have been even better. But she was sorry she’d worried her family so. When she looked at her phone, she realized everyone had called and texted her, looking for her and Dylan.

  She and Dylan headed up the stairs, but he suddenly turned and went back to the living room. She wondered what was up and watched him. Then she saw him pull something out from under a couch cushion. He hurried to rejoin her on the stairs and handed her underwear to her.

  She laughed and took them from him and continued upstairs.

  “I put them away so they weren’t lying on the floor in full view for everyone to see,” he said.

  “Thank you. I’d forgotten about them. I was trying to rush to put on my pants and sweater so I could make sure Jake stayed to tell us what was going to happen. I’m grateful you tucked them away.”

  “I didn’t relish shifting in the snow to talk anymore so I was happy you told Jake to come inside to talk,” Dylan said.

  “What was in Luke’s other bag? Did he tell you?” she asked, taking hold of Dylan’s hand and walking him to her bedroom.

  “Yeah, his deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrush, and shaving kit, just in case any wild animal got wind of it and wanted to tear into the bag. He said he lost his toiletry kit on a camping trip one time because he’d left it in his tent when he went hiking with his parents. He wasn’t about to make that mistake again. He said the bear had bitten into his tube of toothpaste and chewed on his toothbrush.”

  “Eww.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Hey, I’m sorry I got you in trouble with your family. This is my case, and I take full responsibility. I should have thought about them worrying about you when you didn’t show up for work. I’m so used to doing these jobs on my own that I didn’t think of that.”

  “No way. I insisted we cross the river to find Xander. Let’s get a shower.”

  Shower together? If that was what Roxie had in mind, things were really looking up between them, and Dylan was all for it.

  “The first time we were in water together, the water was warm, but you weren’t dressed right for it.” She began pulling off her sweater in the bathroom.

  “The swimming pool?” He slipped his sweater over his head. “Yeah, a parka and boots were a little much for the pool. I’ll have to go swimming with you when I’m not wearing so much.” He pulled off his shirt and dropped it on their sweaters.

  “I’ll hold you to it. Do you have a bathing suit?” She pulled off her pants.

  He chuckled. “No. That’s something I didn’t think to bring with me on this mission.”

  “There’s a shop that has everything you might need for a vacation in Silver Town.” She tackled his belt. “The second time we were in the water together—”

  “It was cold, and we were both wolves.” He ditched the rest of his clothes.

  “This time,” she said, climbing naked into the shower and pulling him in with her, “is perfect. No clothes, hot water…yeah.”

  She had a nice big walk-in shower, and they had lots of room to clean up without running into each other. She even had an overhead sprayer and a separate sprayer, but she pulled him into her arms and began to kiss him under the spray of hot water, telling him in no uncertain terms that this was what she wanted, that she needed the closeness between them. Now this was really nice as he began to kiss her back. He pushed a wet straggle of hair off her cheek, and her eyes heated with passion, their gazes colliding in that moment. She gave him a mischievous smile that confirmed what he believed. She wanted to take this a little further.

  As wolves, they couldn’t have consummated sex or they would be mated wolves—for life. Normally, he would have been more cautious about going even this far with any she-wolf he had just met that he wasn’t asking to mate. But Roxie compelled him to delve into this more. To kiss her and caress her. To see her naked in his arms, soft, sumptuous, curvy, beautiful. To taste her sweet lips, her tongue, her skin. To listen to her heart and his thumping wildly and hear her soft sigh. To breathe in her excited and sexy scent, telling him she was eager to take this all the way, if they had been ready for it. To feel the wolf touching him in return, her fingers gliding over his biceps, whisper-soft, her tongue teasing his, her breasts pressing against his chest.

  She felt wondrous against his body, like she was meant to be there with him, holding each other close, tongues gliding over each other’s. Her gaze softened, her eyes closing as she appeared as lost in the kiss as he was. He had no control over his burgeoning erection that pressed against her, eager to fill her to the brink, throbbing with need. He was trying to let her set the pace, to see how far she wanted to take this—just get sudsy and rinse off, kiss and caress and hug, or more.

  That was when she swept her hands down to his hips, pressed him hard against her, and rubbed a little, making his arousal jump. If she rubbed him any more, he was going to come.

  He figured he’d go for the gold, but if she indicated in any way that she didn’t have that in mind, he’d stop. As soon as he slid his hand over one of her breasts and kissed the other, she seemed just as willing to keep going. He moved his hand lower, caressing her hip, and then worked his way to her mons. She spread her legs a little. Yeah, she was all for it, and he was glad he hadn’t misread what she wanted to do. He wrapped his arm around her back to give her support and began to stroke her clit as she melted to his caresses.

  She began to cling to him, her soft sighs morphing into breathy moans. He was so wrapped up in kissing her luscious lips that he didn’t feel her tensing at first. Then she tightened her hold on him and clued him in that she was about to come. He pressed his finger between her feminine folds to moisten it, and she came with a cry that was guttural and filled with passion.

  For a moment, she held on to him as if she couldn’t stand without his support. And then she took a deep breath and let it out, the hot water sluicing down their skin in a waterfall of warmth. Her eyes met his and she smiled. She slid her hand down to his erection, her mouth curving up even more. Then in sync, she began to stroke his arousal, and he was kissing her mouth, his hands cupping her face.

  But the end was near, just from smelling her musky scent and her pheromones, hearing her come, feeling her body against his as if it were meant to be. All he could think of was wanting to enter her in the worst way, when he knew he shouldn’t even be thinking of that! Not this early in the game. Especially when he didn’t even work in the Silver Town area. And yet thoughts kept flashing through his mind of how—if he were to find a mate—she would be just like Roxie.

  He groaned as she stroked him, her tongue pressing into his mouth with exuberance, and he met her tongue with his with just as much enthusiasm.

  She continued stroking him. He felt the sweet pain of needed release and the pleasure of knowing he was just on the verge of…coming. He cried out, swearing that he had to have more time with her, to feel this again with her, to keep on going.

  Then the water started to chill a bit, and they laughed and hurried to wash off the rest of the way, turn off the shower, and hop out to dry off.

  After they dressed, they went to the kitchen, and Roxie began frying chicken wings, boiling noodles, adding a garlic herb sauce, and boiling some spinach, loving how willing Dylan was to take her up on sexy ventures.

  “Do you still want to go to see Xander with Peter when he’s able to be seen? I saw you take your medicine for the headache.” Roxie served up their chicken wings on a platter while Dylan ladled out the noodles. She brought glasses of water to the table, and they sat down to eat.

  “Why not? Oh, because Doc might read me the riot act?” He smiled.

  “Exactly.” Roxie took a bite of her chicken wing.

  “Yeah. I’m just having a slight headache is all.”

  “Right. You way overexerted yourself today. I don’t think your boss would approve. What if Doc puts you on bed rest?” She arched a brow.

  Dylan laughed.

  She smiled. “You laugh, but Dr. Summerfield takes the care of his patients to heart and doesn’t want them to end up back at the clinic because of overdoing things.”

  Dylan chuckled. “I really like him. Lunch is delicious, by the way.”

  “Thanks. Chicken wings are one of our favorite family meals so I thought you might enjoy them after our harrowing experience.”

  “Yeah, it really hits the spot. You know”—he paused and took a sip of his water—“I was worried about us crossing the river.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry about that. I thought you were concerned I couldn’t do it, but you must have been worried that you might have trouble because of your recent head injury.”

  “Right.”

  But she knew he had been more concerned about her, and she appreciated it, really. She’d been worried about the hunter’s health and welfare and didn’t want to go so far out of their way to reach the logging road and bridge to cross it and then have to backtrack all along the river until they found Xander’s scent again. She also had the notion that Dylan worried she couldn’t make it across the river, and she had to prove to him she could if the situation called for it—which she felt it did. She did feel bad that she hadn’t considered Dylan’s recent injury before she had gone into the river. She knew he would have swum after her no matter what to make sure she stayed safe. But she also felt bad that she had worried her family needlessly.

  They finished their meal and then Dylan got a call. “Yeah, Peter.” He glanced at Roxie. “Sure. I’m on my way.” He ended the call with Peter. “Peter said Xander is awake.”

  “Okay, I’ll clean up here, and I’m going to run over to the lodge and see what I can do to help.”

  “I’ll meet you over there in a little while.”

  “All right.”

  Their eyes met and they shared small smiles. Then they kissed sweetly at first, softly, but the kiss morphed slowly into something much more passionate. She realized just how much she loved kissing him, and he seemed to love kissing her back. He parted his lips for her, and she took advantage of the opening and stroked his tongue, prolonging the pleasure.

  Then they took a deep breath and pressed their heads together. She smiled. “I’ll see you soon.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Good luck with the interrogation.”

  “Good luck with the lodge activities.”

  Dylan drove over to the clinic in his truck, looking eager to finally learn something about the case. She didn’t blame him. She wanted to know too. Everyone in Silver Town did.

  Roxie hurried to clean up their dishes and started corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots in the slow cooker for dinner tonight and then headed over to the lodge. Once she was in the lobby, she saw a couple of drunks yelling at Minx in the bar and grill. Roxie immediately called CJ, since she knew Peter was busy with Xander, and hurried into the restaurant to deal with the unruly customers.

  As soon as Dylan arrived at the clinic, Carmela, the office manager, waved him back to the room.

  He stalked off and found Trevor guarding the door. “Peter’s in there waiting for you.”

  “Thanks.” Dylan walked in, hoping that he was going to get some answers too.

  Peter was standing over Xander’s bed, showing he was the alpha and wanted the truth. Dylan took a seat nearby, showing he was a bystander and not in charge of the investigation unless Peter handed the questioning over to him.

  Peter read Xander his rights, then said, “So tell us what happened.”

  “I was hiking, and I got lost.”

  Convenient lie, Dylan thought, but he didn’t say anything as Peter wrote some notes on a small pad of paper.

  “What about Jim and Fennel? They left you on your own to die of hypothermia in the snow?” Peter asked.

  Xander looked at his bandaged hands clasped together on top of his stomach covered in a white blanket.

  “Okay, so the four of you went hunting, killed an elk, and then what happened?” Peter asked.

  Xander looked over at Dylan. He focused his gaze back on Peter and shrugged.

  Peter let his breath out in a huff. “You know, Jim drove off in Eddie’s SUV. He left you and Fennel behind. Did he do it because you were a witness to Eddie’s murder? Did he wager on Fennel and you never making it home alive—thereby eliminating a couple of witnesses who knew what he’d done?”

  Xander looked at his hands again.

  “I take it you didn’t agree with what he’d done,” Peter said, but Xander didn’t answer him. “We haven’t found Fennel yet. Is there anything you can tell us to help us locate him and, if he’s in bad shape, that we can use to save his life?”

  Xander didn’t say anything.

  “Okay, so you’re indicating Fennel’s not that great of a friend,” Peter said.

  “Use your wolf dog to locate him,” Xander said, glancing at Dylan, challenging him to the task.

  Peter smiled a little, but then his demeanor turned serious again. “We have search dogs with us, and we have search parties going in shifts to try and locate Fennel. But Fennel might not be lucky enough to find a cave and hunker down like you did before we can locate him. If he is out there, he might have already succumbed to the cold.”

  “I don’t have a clue. We fought and we went our separate ways, and then we were caught up in the snowstorm. I was trying to find a place to get out of the snow and ended up blindly walking into the river. The currents took me downstream, and I had to reach the opposite bank. That’s why I was so cold. If I hadn’t had to swim in the river, I wouldn’t have been so bad off. I stumbled upon the cave and was grateful there wasn’t anything sleeping in there during the storm. I changed out of my wet clothes and put dry ones on and then got into my sleeping bag and tried to get warm. But I was freezing and I couldn’t warm up. I needed a fire, but I couldn’t leave the cave or chance losing my way back to it.”

  So the clothes Dylan had borrowed could have been worn by Xander when Jim killed Eddie and then any evidence washed off in the river. Peter glanced at Dylan as if saying he thought the same thing. He nodded.

  “Okay, so what was the fight about between you and Fennel?” Peter asked.

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Convenient,” Dylan said. “Was Fennel upset about Jim killing Eddie, and you told him to suck it up?” So much for leaving this up to Peter to ask all the questions. Dylan couldn’t help himself when it came to wanting to know all the answers. Besides, Peter didn’t seem to mind and had asked him to be there during the questioning, probably so he could bring up things that Peter didn’t think of since Dylan knew so much more about the men than the sheriff did.

  Xander frowned at him. “I don’t know anything about Eddie’s death. I didn’t know he was dead until you told me.”

  “Ahh, okay. So why did you split up from Jim? Did he tell you to look for the boy who had seen you, Fennel, and Jim at the crime scene?” Dylan asked.

  “I didn’t know about Eddie’s death,” Xander said again.

  “All right, but you were in the boy’s tent. You and Jim and Fennel. Then you were hotfooting it after the kid because you wanted to silence him—until Jim got the idea to split off from the two of you to get Eddie’s SUV and the bags all of you had left in the ski lodge’s rooms,” Dylan said.

  “Your wolf dog told you that?” Xander raised a brow.

  Yeah, that was hard to explain.

  “Who shot the elk?” Peter asked.

  “I don’t know. Not me. Not the guys. We just came across it and someone else had shot it.”

  Peter said, “You and your friends were illegally hunting with suspended hunting licenses. Who do you think will be found guilty of the charges?”

  Xander waited a long time before he said anything. “I don’t know anything except I was out hiking—”

  “With a rifle that might have been used to kill an elk and a handgun you were carrying too. Since the gun’s serial number had been removed, we’ve also got you on those charges. Accessory to murder? That too.”