“Hmm, well, just in case, I’ll have breakfast at the lodge,” Roxie said.

  Kayla looked up from forking up some more cauliflower. “No. Way. You were here for me tonight. He wasn’t. We’re not going to rearrange things every time he’s supposed to see me when he could just cancel on another date with hardly any warning.”

  “What about your cabin trip?” Roxie asked, sounding concerned.

  Kayla finished her meal and began to clear away the dishes. “What cabin trip?” She turned and frowned at Roxie.

  “Oh, uh, sorry. I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”

  Kayla’s mouth dropped. Now she really felt bad for making Nate feel that way.

  “It’s, uh, a birthday surprise, and well, I thought Nate would have told you by now. Anyway, Nicole wanted to make sure we had everything covered at work because she didn’t want Nate to learn you couldn’t do it. I don’t know why he hasn’t asked you yet.” Roxie got busy wiping down the counters as if she felt bad that she had given away the surprise.

  Kayla tucked a curl of hair behind her ear. “Maybe he’s having second thoughts about it.”

  “No.” Then Roxie frowned at her. “You’re not doing anything that would make him reluctant to ask you, are you?”

  “No. Of course not. I don’t think so anyway. I wish you hadn’t told me. What if he doesn’t ask me?”

  “I’ll tell you what. If he doesn’t, I’ll go with you and make sure Jake knows we’re renting the cabin in lieu of Nate doing it.”

  “You don’t want to.”

  “Yeah, I do. Ever since Nicole mentioned it, I’ve been jealous of the two of you for getting to do that. So if he can’t make it—for a perfectly good reason—we’ll drive out there instead. Who knows? Maybe he’ll make it to the cabin later, and you and he can spend some quality time together and I’ll return home.”

  “No. If you come with me, then we’re there together. If he comes later, he can be there—with the two of us.”

  Roxie smiled. “I think I’m rubbing off on you. That’s not a good thing.”

  “Ha. I’ve always wanted to be more like you. Surer of myself. More…outgoing.”

  “Everyone loves you just the way you are. Especially Nate.”

  A week at a cabin? Kayla smiled. She couldn’t believe it, but she was thrilled. Maybe she’d just skip her Fourth of July plans to ask him to mate her and do it at the cabin instead. Then they’d have their whole week to celebrate their new life together. Unless that’s what he planned to do with her. She just hoped he didn’t cancel on her!

  The next morning, Kayla—worried Nate might not show up—forced herself not to be excited about him coming to breakfast, though she’d had a devil of a time trying to figure out what to wear today. If it had been a “normal” day, she wouldn’t have been so indecisive. And she’d straightened up the house three times already. She was trying not to let Roxie see her fussing so much over things, but her sister knew. As wolves, they really couldn’t get away with much without the other knowing, especially when they were also quadruplets. She was just glad Blake and Landon weren’t living here any longer or she figured they’d give Nate a talking-to.

  She was still fixing a special omelet for her and Roxie—buttery mushrooms and crumbly feta cheese—and one for Nate, whether he could make it or not. Hmm, this was going to be good.

  But then Nate arrived early, and she was so thrilled to see him. She couldn’t help it. He just brightened her day. Before she could throw herself at him—which she was really trying hard to hold back from doing—he took her in his arms and hugged her soundly. “I’m so sorry about dinner last night. Nicole gave me hell over it.”

  Kayla chuckled. “I love your sister.” She hugged him back, and they kissed—tenderly, then openmouthed, tongues caressing.

  Then she heard Roxie dishing up the omelets.

  “Are you ready to eat?” Kayla asked Nate as she got him a cup of coffee.

  “Yeah. Thanks so much for having me over for breakfast.”

  “I’m glad you’re here. So what’s the case you’re working on?” Kayla asked as they took their seats at the kitchen table.

  Nate told Kayla and Roxie about the missing person’s case he was still looking into.

  “Do you think he’s really in trouble?” Kayla hadn’t thought Nate had cases that could be that dangerous. She could see why he had been focused on the job and had canceled on her for dinner.

  “He could be. His parents never called the police when he disappeared before, for one thing. And for another, they were concerned enough to hire me. I believe their gut instinct is that he’s in trouble. I’ve got to interview a bunch of people who knew Phil today to learn what they know about his going missing.”

  “What do you think happened?” Roxie asked.

  “I don’t know for sure. He’s not a young kid, and no one’s come forward to say they saw something related to him that would indicate he was in trouble. I’m hoping I can learn something about his last movements—like who saw him before he vanished—and get to the truth.”

  “I hope you find him safe and sound,” Kayla said.

  “Yeah, I sure do too.”

  After they finished breakfast, Nate was going to help with the dishes, but Kayla said, “No, you have to locate the missing guy.”

  Nate smiled at her but didn’t make a move to leave the house. He looked determined to stay and help.

  Roxie said, “Thanks for helping, Nate.” She handed him the frying pan. “Meet you at the lodge, Kayla.” And then she hurried to take Rosco and their year-old short-haired orange cat, Princess Buttercup, to the lodge and leave the two of them alone.

  Kayla laughed. “I guess you’re helping me with the dishes.”

  “I’m glad to. That’s why I offered.” He began scrubbing the pan with gusto.

  Kayla was so glad he was here with her. “I’m sorry if I might have sounded annoyed with you last night.” She finished putting the last of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

  “Oh, you were fine. I knew I was in trouble.”

  She laughed. She wasn’t about to deny it.

  “Okay, I’m going to be working on this case all day and probably a little late, but I want to see you too, so let’s just leave it open as to when we can get together but know that I want to see you as soon as I can.” He set the frying pan on the drying pad.

  “Absolutely. What you have to do is really important. Anytime is fine with me.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, and they kissed. He was always so tender toward her, but their kisses always morphed into something passionate and filled with longing.

  He kissed her jaw, her neck, sucked hard, and she knew he’d left a hickey there! As if he was trying to prove to everyone that she was the one for him. But she wasn’t about to leave it at that and branded him with a kiss mark on his neck too. He smiled at her, seeming well pleased. He pressed his burgeoning arousal against her, and she figured he was going to feel uncomfortable on the way to work this morning.

  “I’ll see you as soon as we’re able,” she said, and then they said goodbye and she headed off to the lodge while he drove back into Silver Town. And she frowned.

  He didn’t ask her to go with him to the cabin!

  Chapter 3

  Nate was so glad he had breakfast with Kayla, making him realize how he should never cancel on her unless there was a real emergency and he had no other choice. She made his morning so much brighter that he was ready to get after this missing person’s case and any other that might need his immediate attention with renewed zeal.

  “How was breakfast?” Nicole asked at the office. She raised her brows at him, as if she knew just how it had been once he was with Kayla.

  “It was great, and, yes, you’re right. I shouldn’t skip out on dates with her.”

  Nicole smiled. He knew his sister loved it when she was right about something regarding him.

  Not long after getting to the office, Nate and Nicole drove first to Phil Peterson’s parents’ farm outside Green Valley to speak to them again. He believed Phil’s parents might have some more ideas about where Phil could have gone after giving it some further thought.

  “Did you speak with any of Phil’s friends about him disappearing?” Nate asked Phil’s parents. Sometimes family could learn more from the missing family member’s friends than an outsider they didn’t know could.

  “Not really,” his mother said. “I mean, we did talk to them, but none of them expected him to just take off like that. I told the police that too. Phil was looking forward to working a new job as a journalist at the paper. He wasn’t planning on running off. We think his friends know more than they are telling us though.”

  “What makes you think they’re hiding the truth from you?” Nate asked.

  “They clammed up. They always talk to us, and they were casting each other looks like they had to keep a secret. Maybe we’re reading too much into this, but it really seemed as though there was more going on than they wanted us to know,” the mother said.

  “We learned from them that they’d all been at the Red Dog Pub the night he went missing,” the dad said. “We asked if Phil had said anything to them about taking off, and they said no. But I swear they looked sheepish about it.”

  “Of all his friends who were with him at the Red Dog Pub, who do you believe might be the weak link in the group who might break under pressure and tell us more about the situation if he or she knows something?” Nicole asked.

  “Sarah. At nineteen, she’s the youngest, and she’s also the most easily manipulated. If you can get her away from Everest, her boyfriend, she might talk,” the mother said.

  “Maybe Gerald will talk. He really liked Phil and took his disappearance the hardest, even though Everest was supposed to be Phil’s best friend. But Everest said Phil would show up when he felt like it and didn’t seem to care in the least that he was gone,” Phil’s dad said. “Most likely their friend Randy won’t tell you anything. And his girlfriend, Ann, does everything Randy says.”

  “Do you think there was a falling-out between Everest and Phil?” Nate asked.

  “Yeah. The night of the pub outing, but no one will say if anything happened. I even went there,” the dad said, “and asked other people who frequent the joint if anyone saw anything. No one admitted to seeing anyone.”

  “What about your daughter?” Nate asked.

  “She wouldn’t go to the pub. The arts and theater are her thing. Rowdy pubs are not,” the mother said.

  But Nate believed Phil’s sister might know or suspect something and didn’t want to tell her parents about it. Then Nate saw her watching them surreptitiously from the hall.

  Nicole saw her too and smiled at her. “I’m going to step outside for a moment.” She stood up from the couch and walked outside the house to the front patio.

  Phil’s sister disappeared from the hallway, and he heard a door open and shut out of his view. Nate hoped Nicole was going to speak to the sister and hadn’t left the house because she wasn’t feeling well.

  “Can you think of anyone else who might have been involved in Phil’s disappearance?” Nate asked. Even though family and friends were the first to consider as suspects, he had to look into other possibilities—if Phil hadn’t vanished on his own.

  “I know he wasn’t involved in drugs,” his mother said.

  “Ruby watches a lot of crime shows. Once a homicide detective learns drugs are involved, that gets into a whole slew of new suspects—drug dealers, drug users. But she’s right. He wasn’t dealing, and he wasn’t using,” the dad said.

  “And no girlfriend?” Nate asked, thinking that just because Phil’s parents were adamant that he hadn’t been involved in drugs didn’t mean he wasn’t.

  “No,” the mother said.

  “I know we talked about this before, but have you had time to think about any enemies he might have had?” Nate asked.

  “We’ve talked about nothing else since he didn’t return home,” the mother said. “There’s no one else we can think of.”

  “But Phil really didn’t tell us about everything that was going on in his life,” the dad added. “I’m sure he had secrets.”

  “Sure, everyone does. It’s just natural that children don’t tell their parents everything that’s going on in their lives. Then again, if something seemed unusual that might have something to do with this, we’d like to know,” Nate said.

  “Since Phil stays at the secondary farmhouse on the property, he can come and go as he likes. He and his friends were always arriving at all hours at his place. It seemed odd, we thought. Sure, after work, if they all got together for a party or something, but the hours were strange,” the dad said. “And it wasn’t for long. Like for less than an hour. It’s a bit of a drive out here for someone to come here and just stay for a few minutes.”

  The mother sighed. “I’m sure there was nothing to it.”

  Yet since they had mentioned it, Nate figured they felt that something wasn’t quite right.

  “We both have restless nights, so one or the other of us would see all the goings-on,” she said. “We don’t want you to think we watch out the windows day and night. We’d hear the cars rolling in on the gravel road and go check to see what was going on. It’s remote out here, and we wanted to make sure someone wasn’t coming to rob us or something.”

  “Did you ever ask him about it?” It seemed odd. Nate wondered if Phil and his friends were involved in the drug trade, and the parents had really figured that out but couldn’t admit it to themselves.

  “We sort of joked about it,” the dad said, sounding serious, like he was afraid the son would move off the property or something if they pressed him about what he was up to.

  But he was their son, and he had a pretty sweet deal here. Free home, according to his parents. He could do what he wanted.

  “We didn’t want to make him mad. He might move somewhere else,” the mother admitted.

  Just as Nate suspected.

  “He apologized that he’d woken us up. And then they all stopped coming over. At least we thought they had. You know actions speak louder than words, so we were thrilled they were being so considerate. But then we realized they were all using the old dirt road on the back of the property to get to his place,” the dad said. “At least we didn’t hear the vehicles any longer on the gravel road. But whenever we got up in the middle of the night, we’d take a peek, just as a matter of habit to see if they were there, and sure enough, half the time, they would be. Then they’d take off.”

  “So they weren’t staying overnight,” Nate said.

  “No, they’d get together for an hour or less. Then we suspected they’d all head for their own places. So we don’t know what that was all about,” the dad said. “But when we asked his friends about his vanishing—where they thought he might have gone or why he might have left—none had a clue. So they said.”

  “All right. Well, if you think of anything else, just call us,” Nate said, wanting to see to Nicole and make sure she was okay.

  “Thanks, we will.” The dad shook his hand, and Nate walked out the door.

  Nicole was alone on the front porch, and Nate hoped she’d been able to speak with Phil’s sister. Or maybe Nicole had just felt nauseous and had needed some fresh air.

  “How are you doing?” he asked as he walked her down the steps to the walkway and out to the car parked in front of the farmhouse.

  “Oh, I’m good.”

  “Okay, that’s good. Where to now?” he asked her as they got into his car, and he started driving on the gravel road. He could see how the sound would wake people if they were light sleepers. Of course as wolves, they’d hear it even if it was an asphalt or cement drive.

  “His sister said Everest and her brother had a big fight at the Red Dog Pub.”

  “So she did talk to you.” He switched direction and headed for the pub.

  “Yep. We need to speak with the weak link. Sarah. Apparently, she was drunk, like they all were, and she sat on Phil’s lap. Everest was furious and physically slugged Phil, but Phil laughed it off, which infuriated Everest even more.”

  “How does his sister know about this?” Nate asked, surprised. “I thought she didn’t frequent the pub like her brother and his friends did.”

  “Phil’s sister, Vicki, went with a girlfriend to the pub after seeing a play just to learn what Phil and his friends saw in the place, since they went there all the time. Everest saw Vicki, grabbed her, and made her sit on his lap in retaliation to see how Phil liked it. Phil punched Everest in the face. They brawled, the bouncer threw them out of the pub, and Vicki said that was the last time she’d seen her brother.”

  “Does Vicki think Everest killed Phil?”

  “Yeah, but she’s scared to say so. Everest’s daddy’s a prosecutor, and she said Everest has been in trouble before—drunk driving, hit-and-run—and the lawyers keep getting him off of any charges. So if Everest did kill her brother, he might never be charged with a crime, and he might even go after Vicki for saying anything about it.”

  “Okay, she could be in danger too. I guess that’s why Phil’s parents didn’t want a PI agency in Green Valley to look into this. Maybe they thought Everest’s daddy would shut them down.” Then Nate explained the business of Phil’s friends going to his house at all hours of the night and everything else that Nicole hadn’t learned while she was outside on the porch.

  “Did you ever look in his house to see if there were any drugs or anything else that could clue us in to his whereabouts?” Nicole asked.

  “Yeah, the first time I spoke with his parents, but the place was clean. And you know, with our wolf’s enhanced sense of smell, I would have smelled drugs if there had been any, but there hadn’t been. Still, it makes you wonder what was up. They could have been just handing the money over there but keeping the drugs away from his house.”

  “I think it sounds pretty suspicious,” Nicole agreed. “His parents’ gut instincts say the same thing. They’re suspicious. Especially since he hasn’t returned home and they haven’t had any word from him.”