He wasn’t the only one who didn’t want her flying out to see the boyfriend in Texas. Even her brother had told her several times she needed to give the guy up. Adam suspected Brad knew who he was, but he wouldn’t tell anyone his name. Neither would she.

  If she was that interested in him, wouldn’t she have mentioned him by name at some time or another and let on how much she cared for him? Maybe she wouldn’t share her feelings with the guys, but why not with the she-wolves in the pack?

  He got a call from his dad and answered on Bluetooth.

  “Hey, are we still on for fishing this weekend?” his dad asked.

  Adam and his dad were close, and whenever he had a chance, Adam tried to run down to fish with him at the pack leaders’ ranch or they would go out on the boat. Since his dad was a retired police officer, he was working security for the pack leaders’ ranch now. So was Adam’s mother, who had met Adam’s father on the police force. His mother would undoubtedly be going on a shopping trip in town with some of her lady friends when he and his dad went fishing.

  “I sure am, Dad.”

  “Hey, about Sierra…”

  “I’m taking her to the airport.” Adam had to warn his dad she was in the Hummer before his dad said something that would get Adam into trouble. “She’s off to see her boyfriend.” Why did she always have to go to see the boyfriend? Adam wanted to tell the boyfriend it was his turn to make the effort and come see her. He should have checked out the pack to see that Sierra was fine living here with them. Did he at least pay for her airfare?

  “Oh, hey, Sierra, have a great time. I’ve got to run,” his dad said.

  “Thanks.” Sierra frowned at Adam.

  “See you and Mom Saturday, Dad.” Then Adam ended the call. Hell. He shouldn’t have mentioned on their last fishing date how he wished Sierra would call it quits with the boyfriend. His dad had instantly believed Adam had the hots for her and had started in on how Adam should change Sierra’s mind about leaving town to see the guy. No matter how many times Adam told him there wasn’t a lick of truth to it—because he didn’t want his dad slipping up like this in front of Sierra—his dad knew him too well and didn’t believe him.

  In reality, a bunch of hungry bachelor male wolves would jump at the chance to date her if she wasn’t still seeing the guy.

  She looked over at Adam. “What about me? What was your dad going to say before you cut him off?”

  Great. He would have to tell his dad not to mention anything more about this. “I have no idea, but I wanted him to know you were with me.”

  She stared daggers at Adam.

  He shrugged. “Who knows?”

  “You do. You know just what he was going to say.” She let out her breath in a huff. “You’re going to be in the doghouse, you know.”

  “With you?”

  “Well, until you tell me what your dad was going to say about me that you were so eager to stop, yes. But no, I wasn’t thinking of that.”

  “Then what?” Adam couldn’t think of one reason why he would be in the doghouse over anything except for the other matter.

  “Did you tell anyone beside your dad that you were taking me to the airport?”

  “My boss. Well, not him either. I just let him know that I was going there about the stolen rental car.” What had that to do with anything?

  “Okay, good. For your own sake, keep it that way. Unless your dad tells everyone. No one else would take me to the airport. Brad and many of the bachelor males made sure of it.”

  Raising his brows, Adam glanced at her. “Seriously? Why?” He was surprised because whoever had an in with her might end up with a mate if she dumped the boyfriend.

  “Yeah, seriously. I’m surprised you didn’t get the word. They don’t want me returning to see my boyfriend.”

  “What about your brother’s mate, Janice? Or her sister, Dorinda, who is rather a rebel? Wouldn’t they have offered to take you to the airport?”

  “Nope. Maybe Cassie would have if she hadn’t been on a wolf lecture tour back East. Then again, maybe not.”

  “Because they don’t want you to see the boyfriend?”

  “Because they don’t want me to mate Richard and leave Portland for good.”

  Richard. Now if only Adam had a last name. Yet even if he did, what good would it do him or anyone in the pack?

  “I could have driven my own car to the airport, but I didn’t want to pay the parking cost, or I could have taken an Uber, but I figured someone in the pack wouldn’t mind taking me. That was before I began asking pack members for a ride and everyone said they had obligations and couldn’t do it at that time.”

  “Which could be true. In any case, I don’t have any heartburn over it.” Though he did, for the same reason other pack members did, but he was going to the airport anyway.

  Since Adam was a detective and worked with Sierra, several of the bachelors in the pack had asked him to investigate this out-of-state boyfriend of hers. He told them he couldn’t do it. It would be unethical. So why was he trying to learn who her boyfriend was on his off-duty time as if he didn’t have anything better to do with his life? If she had a boyfriend and didn’t want to date anyone in her new pack, so be it. She would eventually mate Richard, and she would leave the area to join him. Or he would join her here. It really wasn’t anyone’s business, though the males still wanted to know just who he was and how serious the relationship was.

  For all Adam knew, she corresponded with him all the time, called him, texted, emailed, sent him letters in the mail. Despite telling himself he didn’t care and that it wasn’t his business, he did have a wolf’s curiosity.

  “Okay, so tell me why Richard”—Adam tried not to say the guy’s name with animosity, but it was a struggle because he didn’t believe Sierra deserved that kind of treatment—“doesn’t come out to see you. Is he afraid of meeting the pack members?”

  “He wouldn’t be afraid of the pack members, if we even saw anyone else when he visited. But he’s got a very important job.”

  “Like you don’t?” Crime was up across the board in Portland. They needed all the help they could get, and she was great at the job.

  She folded her arms, tilted her head to the side, and didn’t answer Adam.

  “You deserve better.”

  “It’s my choice to see him.” She looked out the window.

  “So he has offered to come out here, but you preferred to see him out there?” Maybe Adam had it all figured wrong. What if Sierra was afraid the pack wouldn’t like what they saw and would try to discourage her from seeing this Richard, so she thought she was protecting him.

  “No, and it’s really none—” she began to say.

  “Of my business. I know. Sorry.” But Adam wasn’t. He knew he’d irked her over it. He also knew her brother did too.

  “I hear enough from Brad about it so I don’t need to from you too.”

  “What do your parents think of the situation?”

  Sierra gave him a look that told him to back off. Her parents had met when her mother was in the air force and her father in the army while stationed in San Antonio. They retired there so they might want her to return to Texas. First, Brad came out to Portland. Now Sierra. Brad said their parents were considering moving to Portland if Sierra stayed and mated someone though.

  Sierra looked back out the window and didn’t answer Adam, so he wondered even more what they thought of the situation. He suspected they didn’t like Richard, or she would have said they thought he was great or something. That was why she was mad.

  Adam let out his breath. He supposed she had something really special going on with Richard since she kept returning to see him. Yet she wasn’t mating him, and that made Adam suspicious that things weren’t all right in paradise.

  * * *

  Sierra couldn’t help being annoyed with Adam, though she understood he was concerned about her. She still appreciated he’d gotten her favorite coffee for her and was taking her to the airport.

  But she also knew he was like the other bachelor males of the pack who didn’t want to give her up to an out-of-state wolf. Her parents and Brad had given her enough grief over continuing to see Richard. But damn it, it was her decision to make, no one else’s. She didn’t mean to be so grouchy with Adam over it, but she guessed she was feeling some of the same things that others were telling her—that Richard should have paid her airfare, that she needed to move on with her life.

  So what had Adam’s father been about to say concerning her? She suspected Adam had been talking to him about her. If it had been about work, she was certain Adam’s father would have just said what he had to say, not shut up over it.

  She sighed and rested her hand on her purse, felt the postcard in the outside pocket that she’d received in the mail this morning, reminding her that she needed to hand it over to Adam. Not when he was driving though. He’d want to examine it right away and she didn’t want him to pull over the SUV when he might make her late and miss her flight.

  She glanced at Adam as he drove them to the airport. He was tall like her dad, his hair a lighter shade of brown, and he had dimples when he smiled. He smiled a lot whenever he saw her, as if she always brightened his day. His workload had doubled, and the chief hadn’t found a replacement for Josh yet, though Adam always had a smile for her.

  Butterflies were flopping around in her stomach. She wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing by seeing Richard any longer.

  The last time she saw Richard, she ended up sitting in his apartment for hours on end while he worked. Even though he was supposed to be taking off from work to be with her. That was the whole point of going to his house. Seeing him.

  He had his sights set on making full bird colonel, which was a nice goal…for him. And she totally understood where he was coming from. When she was in, she’d worked hard to make rank too. She liked that he was goal-oriented and doing what he wanted to do most.

  On the other hand, she’d been happy to retire from the army to pursue her first love—art. She loved reconnecting with her twin brother, Brad. Of course, her parents wanted her to move to San Antonio, but she didn’t want to be part of the pack down there. She’d met a few of her parents’ friends and they were fine, but she really liked the Portland pack. And she loved her part-time job as a sketch artist at the Portland Police Bureau and teaching art classes in the evenings or during the week when she could. That was the nice thing about teaching kids in the pack. They had her come in whenever she could. Her hours weren’t set in stone. She didn’t want to move to wherever Richard would be reassigned next when he was finally transferred. She wanted to be with a pack, and she wanted stability. And someday, she wanted kids.

  So why was she still going back to see him? Trying to come to grips with ending the relationship? She wasn’t a quitter, which was why she had stayed with the service until retirement, and she suspected that was why she was having such a hard time breaking it off between them. Richard hadn’t seemed to want to end their relationship either.

  As soon as they reached the airport, Sierra pulled out the postcard she’d slipped into a baggie as if it was evidence of a crime. Just in case it might end up being so. If anyone needed to give her advice concerning the postcard, it was Adam.

  “Here we are.” He pulled into the airport lane for dropping off departing passengers. He got out of the Hummer to help her with her bags. “Can you manage okay? I guess I should have already asked you that. I’ll be parking in the tower anyway to investigate the stolen rental car and I can park, then help you with your bags.”

  “No, I’m fine. And good luck on the case.”

  “Thanks. I look forward to seeing you when you return.” He pulled her bags out of the SUV and set them on the sidewalk.

  She handed him the postcard with a German shepherd pictured on the front and a hand-drawn X on top of the dog. On the back, the card said: I don’t know how you got away with hiding your dog at the hotel, or maybe all the police were conspiring with you so I’d get more time for threatening a woman instead of a dog, but I’ve got your number. DM

  Adam read the back of the card and frowned. “DM. Dover Manning?”

  “But the postcard wasn’t sent from the jail where he’s being held without bond for previous weapons charges and breaking probation.”

  “It’s from Portland. Hell. And he’s got your home address. Someone else had to have mailed it for him.”

  “Someone who would kill my dog, if I had one.”

  Adam looked up at her. She knew that dark look. He was thinking she could be the target. She agreed, but she didn’t want to consider it right now, not when she needed to catch a flight. “I’ve got to run.”

  “You need to move back in with the pack. Stay with your brother and sister-in-law. Or with Leidolf and Cassie. The whole pack will offer you the best protection.”

  “I’ll think on it.” She didn’t want Dover Manning to intimidate her from jail. If someone broke into her house, she might consider the situation differently. For now, she was going on a two-week vacation to be with her boyfriend, and that was all she had time to contemplate. “Thanks again! See you when I get back to the job.”

  She grabbed the bags and hurried into the airport to check in. Then she checked her bags. She didn’t want to think about the situation with Richard and that he wouldn’t ever visit her here. She was beginning to believe she didn’t want to waste her time and money to see him if he wasn’t willing to do the same for her.

  Chapter 3

  Adam figured he should have handled that better as far as confronting Sierra about her boyfriend not taking the time to visit her out here. He knew he shouldn’t have brought it up. Hell, if he’d been dating her, he would have taken off to be with her, moved here even, or attempted to convince her to rejoin him. He couldn’t imagine being apart from her if she really meant something to him, like this guy should feel.

  His dad called him back. “Hey.” This time he didn’t say anything more as if he was afraid Sierra was still with Adam.

  “Yeah, Dad, she’s not here. What were you going to say about Sierra before? She was not happy with either of us.”

  “Sorry about that. I was going to tell you not to drive her to the airport if she asked you to. The word had gone out—via her brother—that no one was to drive her there.”

  “I didn’t get the word.”

  “Obviously.”

  “I had a job to do at the airport. I would have taken her with me anyway, even if I’d had word from Brad not to take her.”

  “You have a soft spot for her. Your mom and I are trying to come up with ways for you to change her mind about seeing the boyfriend any further. Oh, but maybe this worked for the best anyway.”

  “How’s that?”

  “You taking her to the airport when everyone else refused to. If things don’t work out with her boyfriend, she’ll see you as the good guy.”

  “I was just doing a job.”

  “Sure you were. So you’re working on the case of the stolen rental car at the airport?”

  “Yeah, how did you know?”

  “It’s been all over the news. Do you need any help with the case?”

  “Not right now, but you know when we go fishing, I’ll bounce some ideas off you.” Adam’s dad had retired from the police force two years ago, but he couldn’t let go of solving crimes. “You know they have an opening in the cold cases department.”

  “Nah, your mother would kill me.”

  Adam smiled. “She could join you there.”

  “She likes being retired from the police force.”

  Adam glanced at the postcard in the plastic bag sitting on the passenger’s seat that DM had sent to Sierra. There was no return address, and Adam was afraid this could mean trouble for her.

  “Got to go, Dad.”

  “Okay, call if you need any help. Talk to you later.”

  They had never discovered who Dover’s cohorts were in the hotel thefts. His workers were either lying low or hitting up other businesses. Or had they gone clean? Adam doubted it. There were enough robberies in the city that his partners in crime could have been involved in any number of them.

  Adam parked his Hummer in the short-term parking lot and went inside to speak to the woman at the rental car counter. “Hi, I’m Detective Holmes from the Portland Police Bureau.” He showed her his badge.

  “Yes, oh, I’m so glad you’re here. We had a second rental car stolen minutes ago.”

  * * *

  Forty-five minutes later, Sierra felt a slice of apprehension slide through her as she boarded her flight to the Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport. When she finally arrived in Killeen, she texted Richard to let him know she had arrived. She had hoped he would be there waiting for her, all smiles, with a big hug and kiss and a promise of more when she arrived.

  She didn’t get an answer as she waited for her bags on the carousel. The last time she had come to see him, he was still at work, couldn’t get away, and she swore they were having an office party the way it sounded with all the laughter and talking in the background. He better not do that to her this time too.

  She texted him three more times, gave him a call that went to voicemail, and gave in and hailed a cab. She wasn’t waiting forever at the airport on his return call. And she knew just where this fiasco was headed. She was glad she had made one last effort though, and she would call it quits in person, face-to-face, unless he made this right between them.

  When she arrived at the apartment, she saw lights on in his windows. She frowned. So he wasn’t at maneuvers in the field with his division or at work in the office? With a spare key to his apartment in hand, she paid the taxi driver and pulled her bags up the sidewalk to the apartment door, glad Richard lived on the first floor at least.

  She didn’t bother knocking. She was too angry that he hadn’t bothered to answer her call or texts. Unlocking the door, she let herself in, leaving the suitcases in the foyer, shut the door, and heard the sound of a man and woman in the throes of making love in the master bedroom in the back. What the hell?