No, Pamela was shrewd in her business dealings.

  “So you want Max to try to find him? He wasn’t just waiting for you to get in touch with him and marry you?”

  “Yes and no. He’s been waiting for ten years. But in the last six weeks, I haven’t been able to reach him. He says it all has to do with his work.”

  “Ah, so you want Max to not only locate your husband-to-be but also to ensure he’s a safe bet to marry.”

  “Exactly. That’s why I need to know if Max is going to be closemouthed about this whole business. I don’t want even the mayor to know about this job. I’ll pay Max handsomely, rest assured, and he’ll have to dedicate himself to just this high-priority case.

  “Christopher waited so long for me that I can’t, with a good conscience, end things between us without knowing what he’s been up to and if he’s seeing someone else and ready to move on or if he’s truly ready to make a full commitment to me.”

  “Ten years is a long time, and you haven’t been seeing each other in all that time?” Becky couldn’t imagine the relationship they’d had. If she was hooked on a guy, no way would she be able to wait to be with him, money or no. And if he wanted her to wait and marry her when she had the money instead, that made him suspect to Becky’s way of thinking.

  “We had been seeing each other up until six weeks ago. We stopped when Christopher thought someone was spying on us, but then I just couldn’t get in touch with him. My dad could very well have had a PI watching either one of us earlier on.”

  “What if Max has other important cases he’s working?” Becky couldn’t expect him to drop everything for one person. It wasn’t fair to the people whose cases he was already working on, nor to him or anyone else with the firm that would have to take over the cases.

  “We’ll come to that when we come to it.”

  “When was the last time you actually saw Christopher?”

  “Six weeks ago to the day. I told him that the settlement would be through soon, back then, but he didn’t believe it. He thought I was just stringing him along. He said he had a job in Europe for the next few weeks and then he would be home. As soon as I learned I would get the rest of the inheritance, I figured it was time to tell him, but something just doesn’t feel right. Actually, I probably could use a full-time investigator.”

  Becky sighed. Max was a wolf and she suspected he would prefer working for Ryan since he was a wolf too. She could imagine how nice it would be to talk about cases when they were all wolves and could relate to one another so well.

  “Okay, so you want me to ask Max to look into this boyfriend of yours, who was to be your husband, and see if there’s anything fishy going on and report back to you. Max might need to talk to you further to see if he can learn any other details that you might not have told me.” Either because her boss didn’t want to say or she just didn’t think the information was relevant, but it would help Max with the case. Becky hoped he would take the case and she’d see more of him.

  “Yes. Call him tonight, if you don’t mind, and let me know what he says.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Becky ended the call and called Max. “Hey, my boss wants to hire you for a job.” Then she explained everything she knew about it.

  “Seriously? Okay, no running it by my boss? He’s going to get suspicious if I transfer my cases to the other agents and won’t tell him why.”

  She chuckled. “You know? You’re a wolf. Of course you’ll tell him, and of course the word won’t get out to anyone beyond those that need to know. I’m not worried about that. You have to do what you have to do to keep yourself from getting backed into a corner.”

  “True. I didn’t want to lie and tell you I wouldn’t. Ryan needs to know what’s going on with the agents in his office. We have a daily briefing, letting him know about the more important cases we’re working on, though sometimes what seems to be less important might be extremely so.”

  “Where does this case rate?”

  “I’d say, considering who is hiring me for the job and the concern to her reputation, it’s extremely important.”

  “Did you need to speak to her about Christopher?”

  “I do. I’ll give her a call.”

  “All right. I’m going to get ready for bed. ’Night, Max, and thanks so much for doing this.”

  “Wait, was our dinner a case of you checking me out to see if I was reliable enough?”

  She smiled. “Well, for me, it was just a blind date. Apparently, Pamela had an agenda of her own. That’s kind of a switch for you, isn’t it?”

  He laughed. “I would never have guessed it in a million years. She’s great at this business.”

  “I think what sold her on you, besides my putting in a good word, was that you found the dog for the owners.”

  “And you had a lot to do with that.”

  “We make a great team. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Chapter 3

  Max didn’t know what to think of this new mission of working for Ms. Tynan. He was certain his boss would be fine with it, but he still needed to check with him because Max would have to transfer all his cases to the other guys. And Ryan needed to know where Max was if he wasn’t working on regular cases. He called Ryan right away and explained what he needed to do.

  “All right, Max, you sure got yourself into something that sounds intriguing. Mum’s the word. Tell the other guys they need to take over your cases, and if anyone gives you grief, have them come to me. I would rather this stay between you, me, Becky, and Ms. Tynan.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How did the date go? I guess Ms. Tynan was checking you out.”

  Max smiled. “Becky and I had fun. And yeah, that was sure a surprise to both of us.”

  Ryan chuckled. “That’s good. See you tomorrow morning then.”

  “Thanks, Ryan.” Then Max called Asher. “Hey, I’ve got a job to do—boss approved—and it means not working on any other cases.”

  “Well, hell,” Asher said. “I bet the pay is better than the cases you were working on. So what do I need to take on now?”

  Max was glad his friends at the agency agreed to take his other cases on such short notice. He really wanted to do this right, and he couldn’t have if he’d been worrying about taking care of cases he’d set aside, though he knew Ryan would have made sure someone did them. They all worked together, and if someone was having trouble with something, they all chipped in to assist. It helped that they were wolves and belonged to the same pack.

  The good news was he was going to be seeing more of Becky, and that really played into his plans perfectly. He would enjoy every minute he could with the she-wolf!

  Then Max called Becky back. “We’re all good. I made arrangements with Asher and the others to take the rest of my cases, and I’ve talked to the boss and he’s fine with it. Do I need to call your boss and tell her?”

  “No. As her personal assistant, I handle all the stuff like that. If she feels differently about this, she can tell me if she wants to deal directly with you.”

  “That works for me.”

  “I’ll tell her you’re for sure working strictly on her case. She’ll be pleased. Don’t be surprised if you solve this for her in a way that makes her happy enough that she might just want to hire you full-time.”

  He chuckled. “She might not like to hear what I learn.”

  “I totally agree. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  “You will. ’Night, Becky.” This sure had been a strange turn of events that he’d never expected. He stripped off his clothes and took his shower, climbed into bed, pulled his covers up, then grabbed his laptop resting on his bedside table. He set it on his lap and checked his special databases for anything relating to Christopher. He had so many hits that he would have to speak with Ms. Tynan again to get some more details on him.

  Max set his laptop aside and turned out his lamp, settled against his pillow, and closed his eyes. He suspected that if the other single guys ever met Becky, they would be hounding the boss for a blind-date assignment. But Max didn’t believe they would ever get as lucky as he had on a blind date. And solving a case tonight with her? It couldn’t have worked out any better, not only for the family, the dog, the ones who had found Bear, and him and Becky, but it probably helped him snag this new assignment that looked like it could get interesting really quick.

  * * *

  First thing in the morning, Max called Becky’s boss. “Ms. Tynan, this is Max Browning. I don’t have enough information for Christopher Anderson. Do you have any other details about him that will help me narrow the search? Birthplace? Birth date? Parents’ names? High school attended? All these things will help with reducing the number of names I have to comb through.”

  “Yeah, sure. And please call me Pamela. Christopher and I went to school together. We graduated from Vander High School, class of 2008, and he was born June 21, 1990. I was in some of the same classes with him. He’s a natural strawberry blond, has the nickname of Red, and his parents’ names were Fred and June Anderson. Both of them still live in Mountain View, but they are adamant he shouldn’t have anything to do with me since I wouldn’t give up my fortune to marry him. It’s a decade later and they could have had grandchildren by now. They felt that once I received my inheritance, I wouldn’t marry him, so my relationship with them is as bad as it was with my parents with regard to Christopher. Also, he was born in Kansas City.”

  “I’ll start the search on the databases again. I don’t want to ruffle feathers, but I do want to speak with Christopher’s parents to see if they have any clue where he might have gone.”

  “I don’t believe they will be helpful at all with this. If anything, they will lie about his whereabouts so that I can’t get ahold of him, if they know where he is.”

  “I’ll let you know if this helps. Talk to you later.” Max and Pamela ended the call, and he began to narrow the search down. Using Christopher’s parents’ names, his birth date, and his high school, Max was able to narrow it down pretty quickly. Even though he’d thought this was going to take a lot longer, now it looked like it wouldn’t take any time at all. But one of the things he learned was that Christopher’s biological parents had died in a car accident when he was two in Kansas City. The Andersons were his adoptive parents. Max wondered if Christopher knew that.

  Becky called him back. “Hey, I’m free for lunch if you want to come here, and you can tell me how things are going. Pamela is busy for most of the day, so she wanted you to update me if you have any news.”

  “Yeah, sure, I’d love that.”

  * * *

  When it was time for lunch, Max arrived at Becky’s home on Pamela’s estate, a lovely little brick one-story home surrounded by woods, but Becky had planters around the house that were filled with flowers. He wondered if she loved gardening and had planted them.

  Becky had made a delightful lunch of Indian spiced chickpea wraps, something he’d never had before.

  They sat down to eat, and he told her how good the wraps were.

  “Thanks. I should have asked if it was something you might like first. So what did you learn?” she asked.

  “I called Christopher’s parents, and they wouldn’t tell me a thing about his whereabouts. Either they figured Pamela wants to know, or they’re worried he’s in some trouble and they don’t want to give him up.”

  “Who did you say you were working for?”

  “I say I’m a private investigator, and I don’t name my client.”

  “Okay, that’s good. But they still suspected something was wrong?”

  “Sure, when a private investigator gets involved, usually something is up. Though if he has nothing to worry about, there shouldn’t be any problem. I also learned the Andersons are his adoptive parents, and I don’t know if Christopher realizes that or not. He was two when his parents died.”

  “Oh, that’s sad. So what do you do next?”

  “I’m trying to learn who his friends are and where he’s worked in the past. I’m coming up with nothing. No current location for him.”

  “Hmm, I’ll text Pamela and see.” Becky quickly pulled her phone off the dining table and texted her boss, then waited. When she got a return text, she said, “Okay, she said no, that he was an investment counselor, did investments overseas, but he never told her which firm he worked for. I wonder if she didn’t ask or look into it further when she was seeing him because she didn’t want to believe he could be a con man or seeing another woman.”

  “She’s more interested in learning the truth. Nobody likes to believe they’re being conned, and when emotions and relationships get in the way, it can be really hard to keep reality and relationships separate,” Max said.

  “So gut feeling, what do you think?”

  “I don’t know enough about him to give a guess yet. Sure, I can speculate, but I would rather be more well informed first. Speculation won’t help my investigation, unless it comes up with new leads I can look into.”

  “Pamela’s really open about a lot of things, but when it comes to relationships, she is really tight-lipped about them. I had no idea she had been dating Christopher. Not that I blame her. She has been in the tabloids any number of times, and she really tries to avoid anything about her love life getting into them. Particularly while she was trying to get her inheritance. If her parents hadn’t been so adamant about who she was seeing, she might not have been so secretive. In any event, I don’t blame her. It’s different for us. We are able to see each other when we can anytime, and we don’t have to worry about paparazzi reporting our every move. Of course, they did report about Christopher early on, but then she was careful because her parents were so angry with her.”

  * * *

  Later that afternoon, Max was back at the office, looking up news stories about the Tynans, and one caught his attention. He thought he might see some references to the boy Pamela Tynan had dated, but this was a story of when she was a little girl and she had cried wolf! According to the news story, she had broken through ice on the pond on her parents’ property and a wolf saved her. Only the wolf shifted into a woman and fished her out before she drowned. And then she carried Pamela off to a cabin somewhere where she warmed the girl up and then took her back to her property and vanished.

  No one believed the young girl, but Max thought it was too much of a coincidence that Pamela had seen a wolf shifter who had saved her when she was young, hired a personal assistant later who was a wolf, and then picked Ryan’s PI agency to hire a wolf to check into the missing boyfriend. Knowing the woman who rescued her was a wolf shifter was one thing, but how did Pamela know about Becky, if she did?

  Then what about the business with him and the other wolves in the Green Valley pack? He remembered the incident they’d had on their Green Valley pack land recently. The case where hunters had shot one of their wolves on the pack leaders’ land. And the hunters had sworn they’d shot at wolves. Of course the wolves said they were walking along the river on a date when the hunters started shooting at them. It was in the news all over the place. Several of the wolves had been involved in the whole affair, including Max and the rest of the PI team as they tried to gather evidence against the hunters. Some had testified against the hunters; some had been in the courtroom watching the proceedings.

  Pamela could have seen the news at any time since it was so widespread, given the nature of the hunters’ accusation—that they’d been shooting at wolves who had turned out to be humans. He could see where she might have put two and two together and figured it out that the couple the hunters had said were wolves had truly been shifters too, since she’d had the earlier wolf experience at the frozen pond.

  Then there was Becky. Why did Pamela assume Becky was a wolf, if his assumptions were correct? He called Becky up to ask her. “Do you ever run as a wolf on your employer’s property? Somewhere you would feel safe?”

  “Yes. She has hundreds of acres that are never used for anything. She doesn’t allow hunting or anyone to trespass on the property. It’s really pristine, and it makes for a great place to run in. Why?”

  “I found an article about her when she was a young girl. She was rescued by a wolf.”

  “What?”

  “Yes. I have no idea who the woman who rescued her might have been, but she pulled her out of the frozen pond on her parents’ property when Pamela fell through. The wolf shifted to save her. The girl told everyone, but of course no one believed her.”

  “Ohmigod, the woman carried the girl to a cabin and warmed her up and—”

  “Yes, you found the same article I was reading,” Max said.

  “No, my mother told me the story. She saved a young human girl, despite her people chastising her for doing so. She couldn’t let the girl drown, even though she risked detection. She carried her toward home, but then my dad, who wasn’t mated to her yet, came to help Mom and the girl, so my mother could shift back into the wolf. At the house, they warmed Pamela up, dried her clothes and hair, carried her back to her property, and told her to stay off the pond in winter or spring thaw and run along home.

  “My dad said that he mated my mother shortly after that because she did what was right, and he would have done the same. Still, the other wolves in their pack didn’t agree. My mother wouldn’t have done anything differently, and my father was always proud of her. Then she had me, my sister, and brother, triplets, and it made her doubly glad she’d saved the girl. No one deserved to die like that.”

  “Pamela Tynan was the girl.” It all fit.

  “My boss,” Becky said. “She knew who my mother was then? That was why she hired me?”

  “I don’t know. Not for sure. But, well, I don’t believe in that many coincidences.”