“Sure.”

  She loved how he was always so accommodating. They kept hiking, her boots squishing in the mud. She did think if it started raining, they’d be washed off a bit. If she did shift into her wolf, poor Nate would have to carry her muddy things back to the cabin. But when they reached what she thought would be another half-mile point, she turned. “It’s time to head on back.”

  “Are you feeling hot?”

  “Oh, yeah, baby.”

  He chuckled. “I mean, like you’re going to shift.”

  “Nah. I just figured we’d hiked far enough, and when we return, we can watch the sun set off the lake, have some wine, and just enjoy the evening and what follows.”

  “That sounds great.” He put his arm around her shoulders, and they walked like that for a while. “But showers first.”

  She laughed. “You think?”

  The clouds began to roll in and cover the sun. But the sunlight was still shining through the trees as the sun went down, and she figured they’d have a spectacular sunset if the clouds didn’t overtake the sun all the way before they settled down to watch it.

  That’s when Kayla saw something shimmering in the mud near a boulder, and she headed off the trail to check it out. With all the rain they’d been having, it appeared something had been half-buried or lost or tossed there and the rain had unburied it. Could be a pop-top from an old soda can. Or some other piece of shiny metal trash. The wolves never left trash behind in the woods, but human trespassers would.

  When she and Nate got close to it, she dug it out of the mud and wiped it off with her free hand. “Ohmigod, it’s a diamond necklace. Or one of those fake silicon-carbide diamonds that look so much like the real thing. I suspect it’s from one of the robbery heists.”

  “Yeah, I agree.” Nate crouched down where she had pulled up the necklace and eyed the mud.

  “Do you think there’s anything else there?” Her heart already beating faster at the prospect they might have found some of the stolen jewelry, Kayla pocketed the necklace and started poking around at the mud.

  “We were just talking about the jewelry heist, and you found what appears to be a high-dollar necklace. We should make sure there isn’t anything else here in the event the jewelry was actually buried here, unlike the necklace that had been found in the stream above the falls.” That’s when Nate found something else shining in the mud. “Whoa, I think we might have hit the jackpot.”

  He handed it to her, and she rubbed off some mud. “Amethyst-and-diamond ring. Beautiful cocktail ring. Real gems or not, it’s gorgeous.” She frowned. “Did anyone notify Manning’s parents about his death? They must have been devastated.”

  “Unfortunately, his dad and brother are in prison for their own cases of armed robbery, which might have been the reason Manning was also committing them. His mother had taken off with another man after Manning’s father was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to sixty years in prison.”

  “Oh, okay, so I guess no one really missed him. That’s sad,” she said.

  “I agree. So Durham Manning could have buried the jewelry here, traveled upriver to get some distance between him and the jewelry, and then run into one of his cohorts, who tried to learn where he put it. If Manning was involved in the armed robberies, he wouldn’t talk, and whoever was trying to get him to reveal the location shot him. Possibly Manning was trying to get away from him in the river. In any event, he ended up in the river, swam to the other side, and died,” Nate said.

  Thunder rumbled off in the distance.

  “Okay, well, if there is more jewelry, we’ve got to find it, take it to the cabin, secure it in the safe, and call Peter,” she said.

  They were both digging through the mud as quickly as they could to see what else they could uncover. She felt plastic and realized it was a black garbage bag, partially shredded. Nate and she began slowly drawing the bag out of the slick mud so as not to tear it any further or lose any jewelry. She found some pairs of earrings. They were on display cards, or they could have been lost forever—pearl earrings, diamond earrings, ruby-and-sapphire ones.

  “Rings, watches, necklaces, bracelets. Several pieces of the jewelry had fallen out of the bag.” Kayla couldn’t believe they’d uncovered jewelry from one of the jewelry store robberies. Unless it wasn’t from that, but then why else would a sack of jewelry be buried out here?

  “I can’t think of another reason why it would be here. Manning’s body was so far away from here that if the shooter had been looking for the jewelry in his direction, he would never have found it,” Nate said. “Which is a good thing for us. We’ve got to make sure we get every last piece of jewelry. If we didn’t have issues with your shifting and the storm coming, we could stay here until Peter arrived with his men, but we need to head back.”

  “Yeah. It’s a good thing this is in our pack territory or someone might think we stole some of the jewelry from the find if any pieces are missing in the mud. As if wolves even wear jewelry.”

  “It’s also good that we can move the jewelry from the crime scene without getting into trouble with the sheriff’s department since we’re all wolves and handle things differently in Silver Town,” Nate said.

  Nate stopped digging in the mud, pulled out his phone, and called the sheriff while Kayla continued to find more of the jewelry that had slipped out of the flimsy plastic bag the robber had used. “Hey, Peter, it looks like we might have found a cache of stolen jewelry in the woods.” He gave him their coordinates. “Don’t let anyone other than our own people know about it for now. We don’t want this to get on the news for the bad guys to learn of it and come after it while we’re armed with only water bottles and first aid kits. Or someone else who just wants to get their hands on the jewelry who had nothing to do with a jewelry heist—even to get the reward money.”

  “Yeah, you know it. You’re sure it’s from one of the robberies?” Peter asked.

  “As many pieces of expensive-looking jewelry as we found, I’d say so.”

  “We’re on our way. We’ll have to touch base with the police handling the jewelry store theft in Green Valley and at the other locations to see who can identify the stolen jewelry if it’s theirs, but only after we have the jewelry secured.” Nate heard vehicle doors slam and vehicles roar off over the phone. “Then we’ll let everyone know it has been found and secured so no one will be looking for it out there—or anyplace else.”

  “As long as we’re not missing any pieces and more sacks of jewelry aren’t hidden out here from some of the other heists. We’d stay here, but the storm is coming, and Kayla could shift at any time.”

  “Uh, okay. How did you find it, by the way?” Peter asked.

  “The rains washed some of the leaves and earth away, and Kayla actually saw a diamond sparkling in the sun. The robber had put it all in a black trash bag, but he must have gotten one of the cheaper brands, and some of it was ripped away.”

  “Bear claw marks are all over the sack over here.” Kayla showed him the claw marks.

  “Scratch that. Kayla found evidence that a bear”—Nate took a deep breath and smelled the scent of the bear they’d encountered here before—“uh, the one we chased off earlier, must have been rooting around for something to eat and tore up the bag a bit.”

  “A bear? Did you tell Darien about it?” Peter sounded concerned for them.

  “No, we chased him off.”

  Kayla stopped what she was doing and quickly joined Nate, whispering, “Someone’s coming.”

  “Someone’s coming,” Nate said to Peter.

  “None of us are there yet. Don’t worry about the jewelry. Get yourself to safety.”

  Nate tucked his phone into his pocket, leaving it on so if they ended up in trouble, Peter would know about it. “Come on, Kayla,” Nate said.

  But she handed him the sack of jewelry. “Take it,” she whispered. “I’ve got to shift.”

  “No.” Not now!

  “Yes, damn it. I can’t help it.” She sounded so frustrated he realized he’d made the mistake of thinking she was going to shift to protect them as a wolf.

  She quickly stripped out of her clothes and shifted, and he bundled her clothes up around the torn sack of jewelry.

  She ran off in the direction that she had heard the noise. He wanted to tell her to stay with him, but this could work out better. Whoever or whatever it was wouldn’t see her as well while the sun was going down, but he swore it was descending lower in the sky more slowly than usual. They needed the cover of darkness now to give them the advantage! But in the light, they wouldn’t be together, and he would be more of a target, which was just what he wanted.

  He was running for the cabin, which would be the only real protection he had until whoever was out there couldn’t see him. Under normal circumstances, Kayla and Nate shouldn’t have disturbed the crime scene, but if someone was looking for the jewelry, he might have found it and taken it away from there. Then all the evidence would be gone anyway.

  Nate just hoped Kayla was okay and didn’t get herself hurt. He had to hurry to secure the jewelry and come for her. Panting, he finally reached the cabin, sweating up a storm and worried about his mate. He unlocked the door, then locked it shut. After racing to the safe, he opened it, then slid the jewelry into it. He shut the safe door, locking it. Wanting to get back to Kayla pronto, he yanked off his clothes and shifted into his wolf and ran for the wolf door, then barged outside.

  Kayla would probably stay in her wolf form for the duration, but he didn’t want to risk it if she turned into her human form. He didn’t want to take a chance leaving her out there if the man who had murdered Manning was searching for the jewelry.

  He howled for her.

  Way off in the distance, she howled back, and his heart skipped for joy to know she was still okay. But for how long?

  Chapter 23

  Kayla had found the man who had been coming for them, and he was someone her loving mate had been looking for—presumed dead but very much alive. Phil Peterson. She couldn’t believe it. But he looked just like the picture Nate had shared with everyone in the pack in case they found him.

  Phil was wearing camo gear, making him blend in better with the woods, but his blond hair and white skin were perfectly visible.

  Had Phil’s friends known he was alive? Had they been covering for him? Or had they thought he was dead all this time—that Manning had killed him and run off too? What if Phil had killed Manning and that’s why he had gone “missing,” but he really had gone into hiding? She wondered how Phil’s parents would take the news!

  She heard her wolf calling for her, and she howled back. She knew Nate had to have secured the jewelry in the safe and was returning to protect her. But she wasn’t leaving just yet. She needed him to know she’d found Phil, and they needed to let Peter know it too. At least that mystery was solved. She was glad Phil was alive, and he might actually help to unravel the business of the armed robberies.

  The sun had already set, and Phil was using a high-beam flashlight, swinging the light in her direction. She moved away from that area so he wouldn’t see and shoot her if he was afraid of her. She didn’t want to spook him into running away. They needed to catch him and prove he was not missing at all.

  She wondered if the sheriff and his men would be at the cabin soon. If they were there, they would have heard their howls. The rest of the wolf pack must have been off doing other business or someone would have come to learn what the trouble was this time.

  Nate howled again. He was getting closer. She suspected he was howling to let any of their wolves who could hear him know they had trouble out here. Yet again.

  But this time, they weren’t running from the bad guys. Kayla and Nate were in charge.

  “Hey, Phil, where the hell are you, man?” a man said from deeper in the woods, and she realized Phil wasn’t the only one out here looking for the jewelry—as she had suspected.

  Great. That changed the game plan. That could mean lots more guns, more flashlights, just more trouble for Nate and her. So much for the wolves being in charge this time.

  She heard the other guy stumbling through the brush. And then someone else was following him.

  “Crap, Everest,” another man said. “I can’t believe we’re out here again in the dark. You know if we get caught trespassing out here again—”

  “My dad will bail you out like the last time, Randy. We got to find the damn jewelry. We can’t leave it out here for someone else to stumble across. Not now that they’ve announced a damn reward for it for whoever finds it on top of everything else.”

  “Like we can find it in the damn dark. Whose idea was it to come out here when the sun set again? I can’t see shit. And that one wolf was nearby.”

  “So? You got a gun. If it attacks, shoot it.”

  “That’s if I can see him. I mean, hell, we can’t locate the jewelry in the dark, and we can’t even find Phil now. What if Phil knows where the jewelry is and he’s heading right for the spot? Then he’s going to take off with it and leave us with nothing?” Randy asked.

  “If he’d known that before, he would have already come out here and taken off with it and not told us where to meet him out here to search for the jewelry. He said he got into the safe deposit boxes Manning had and the jewelry wasn’t in them. Use your head,” Everest said.

  “Well, Phil was the idiot who lost his head and killed Manning before learning where he hid the jewelry.” Randy scoffed. “I told you we shouldn’t have used Manning.”

  “He was the only one of us who had committed armed robberies and gotten away with it before,” Everest said. “We knew he could do it.”

  “Except for his time in the slammer,” Randy said.

  “Yeah, but we got away with it for several heists. Besides, we grew up with Manning, and we knew him and trusted him. Everything was going fine until he kept the jewelry during the last of the heists and hid the take from us,” Everest said.

  “That’s because he and Phil had a beef over the cut. And, damn it, I still think those people at the cabin found the jewelry. They found Manning. Who would have ever thought it? So what if on their hikes they found the jewelry?” Randy asked. “Or they found it on him?”

  “It wouldn’t have been sitting on top of the ground in full view for them to see.”

  “Yeah, but do you think Manning had a shovel with him when he buried it?” Randy asked.

  Everest stopped. “No. I’m sure the police would have found the shovel on him or somewhere near the river where he swam across.”

  “Right. So he would have just buried the jewelry under leaves and tree branches or maybe dug a little into the earth with his bare hands. But in the woods, it would be hard to do—you know, because of all the tree roots.”

  “A log then? He could have scooped some earth out and hid it under a log.”

  “Yeah, that’s possible. But there could be hundreds of fallen trees in the woods. You know, even though Phil killed him out here and everyone’s thinking Manning had the jewelry on him, what if he hadn’t? What if he had buried it or hid it somewhere else?” Randy kicked at the ground with the toe of his boot, looking frustrated. “We should never have trusted him to keep the jewelry to pawn it and turn it into cash.”

  “He’s done it before and knew what he was doing. And he had a guy who was converting the stuff for him, and he wouldn’t tell us who it was. He just changed the rule when it came to everyone’s cuts was all—because he was the one who was doing most of the workload and we were mostly along for the ride,” Everest said.

  Kayla had also wondered if Manning had buried it somewhere else. She wished she could have been recording all of their conversation. Then she heard someone approaching, and she smelled another man’s scent. She frowned. Where did she know that scent from? She realized it was the man who had come for Manning’s keys at the lodge. Phil hadn’t been that man. So whoever the shaved-headed guy was, he had to have given the keys to Phil to go to the bank and use them on Manning’s safe deposit boxes.

  She moved farther away from his approach.

  “Hey, wait up for me.”

  “Gerald, why do you always have to be so damned late to the party?” Everest asked. “Phil said next time he’d take care of you too.”

  He didn’t look at all like the shaved-headed, bare-faced man in a baseball cap who had come to the hotel for the keys. Now he had a red fuzzy head and was growing out a beard and mustache.

  They all used flashlights to peer around at the woods.

  “Where’s Phil?” Gerald asked. “I thought we were supposed to meet him. That he figured out where the jewelry was.”

  She recognized his voice now—low and deep, annoyed, just like the shaved-headed man’s voice had been when he came for Manning’s keys at the lodge. She hadn’t heard Phil’s voice yet. That would cinch that she’d heard him speaking in the woods with Manning when she and Roxie had been running as wolves.

  “Phil is out here somewhere. But you know it’s private property and yelling for him isn’t a good idea,” Everest said.

  “Besides, there are wolves out here,” Randy said. “They chased us before, and we heard them howling again.”

  “Wolves?” Gerald’s voice was dark with worry.

  “Yeah, so don’t run or they’ll chase you and eat you,” Everest said. “Come on. I think I hear him this way.”

  She wondered where Phil had disappeared to too. He had been there, but then the arrival of the other men had taken her attention, and suddenly he was gone—like a ghost vanishing in thin air. If he had wanted to meet up with them, why was he hiding from them now?

  Then Nate howled. He was getting closer to her location, but she didn’t want to howl and alert the men she was really close by them. She was afraid they’d all turn and shoot a bunch of times at the woods, and she might get hit. Nate would be able to follow her scent and would know that she was close to the men or she would have howled back.