“You know what I mean.” Of course they weren’t dating. Emerson would have to live near Loveland, Colorado or Yuma Town for that to work out between them.

  “They eliminated him. Does that happen to all the guys you date?”

  “No. One of them got away.” She finished eating her eggs.

  “Only one? What did he do? Run away?”

  “He was chasing other she-cats’ tails, so he was a rogue but not in the terminal category. Though that could depend on the she-cat he cheated on, I suppose. So is my sister going to dig up dirt on you?” Jessie waited for a response before she grabbed another slice of bacon.

  “That would put me on her terminal list? I hope not, since we’re not even dating.”

  Jessie smiled, amused he kept bringing that point up.

  “What if I have a bunch of aliases?” he asked.

  “Hmm, that sounds like a rogue to me, though I suppose that could mean you were undercover for law enforcement and one of the good guys.” She realized she had no idea what he had done before he had taken over his uncle’s resort. “So what did you do before you quit your job?”

  “Undercover work.”

  She laughed.

  “Oh, and the electricity is back on.” He took another bite of his bacon.

  “Okay, that’s good news. I’ll move back to my cabin as soon as we do a little investigating.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay here, just in case the bears return?” He sounded serious now, as if he were worried about her safety, not as though he was making a play for her.

  “I’m sure you have stuff to do. And I need to write. We’re so close to each other, I can yell, and you can come rescue me.” She really had to write or she would have loved to just hang out with Emerson. This really had to be a working vacation for her.

  “All right. But if you hear anything while you’re over there, even if you think it’s nothing, call me and I’ll come check it out.”

  “I will.” She didn’t believe in trying to manage bad guys on her own if she could have a hunky hero to help her out. She appreciated that he would open his house up to her to keep her safe. Especially when initially it seemed as though he didn’t want to have anything to do with any guest staying at the resort.

  After they finished eating, she grabbed the dishes to clean up. He came to help her.

  She began scrubbing the frying pan. “I’ve got it. You made breakfast when I had planned to.”

  “I’m perfectly fine.” He put the dishes in the dishwasher.

  She finished cleaning the frying pan, then said, “I’ll check your injuries, and then change to go outside with you. How’s the weather?”

  “It’s snizzling, a light snow-ice mixture. Cold. But nothing major like last night.”

  “Okay, good.”

  She reached up to feel his forehead, not taking any chances that he wasn’t running a fever and was too macho to let on. But his skin was nice and cool.

  She made him sit down so she didn’t have to reach up to remove the bandages and could get a better look at his injuries. “Oh, my, you’re healing nicely.” The skin around his scratches was pink now, not red. They were lucky they healed so fast. “I’ll send pictures of your injuries to Kate, so she has a chance to look at your wounds and verify they’re looking fine.”

  “Thanks, Jessie. You would make a good nurse.”

  “Ha!” But she smiled at the compliment. After she took pictures of Emerson’s wounds, then sent them to Kate, she said, “I’m going to get dressed now. I don’t think you need bandages again, but we’ll let the doctor be the judge of that.”

  “I’m fine. Thanks.”

  “If she says you are, then I agree.”

  He chuckled. “All right.”

  Jessie hurried off to the bedroom and shut the door. Then she slipped off all her pink nightwear and pulled on panties and her bra. She tugged on a pair of fleece-lined pants, jeans over those, candy cane socks, her boots. Then a fleece-lined shirt to go under her sweater. She had considered searching for the bear or bears as a cougar, but, like she suspected last night, she didn’t think that she would find any trail left by the culprit or culprits.

  She got a call and grabbed her phone before she left the bedroom and smiled. It was Dr. William Rugel. She loved Yuma Town’s doctors. They were great about making sure that their patients were taken care of, even if they weren’t close by. Kate must have been busy with a patient.

  William said, “Kate filled me in on Emerson’s injuries. From the pictures you took, they look good, like they’re healing properly, and you’re doing a great job. No more bandages required.”

  “Oh, thanks, William. I’m so glad.”

  “Kate said to keep watching for red streaks or fever, or if he is continuing to have headaches, give us a call.”

  “He doesn’t have a fever, there are no red streaks, and he said he is feeling fine.”

  “Okay, good. Just keep monitoring him. A concussion can come back to bite him, so just watch him. I don’t mean you have to stay with him, but just check on him periodically,” Dr. William said.

  “Yeah, I sure will do that.” She felt glad that Emerson was going to be okay—as far as the claw marks were concerned. They ended the call and feeling lighthearted, she left the bedroom. “Unless the concussion gives you trouble, Dr. William Rugel says your wounds are looking good.”

  “I told you.”

  She smiled. “Well, I’m thrilled. Are you ready to check out the shed?”

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  They put their parkas, hats, boots, and gloves on, and then they went outside. “I thought of running as a cougar to see what we could find. It would be faster, and we could cover more territory in the snow,” she said.

  “If they had left a scent and tracks. With all the blowing snow we had, we won’t find tracks, and they didn’t leave a scent.”

  “I agree with you there.”

  They made their way through the deep snow to the shed and found the door lock mechanism had been broken.

  “What I don’t understand is why they would wear bear coats to break in. They wouldn’t be able to carry off anything much that way,” she said.

  “We wouldn’t guess who they were if we’d seen them as bears. They might not realize we are cougars.” He let out his breath in exasperation. “I’ll have to replace the lock now.”

  “But they would have smelled you’re a cougar.”

  “They might not know we exist, just like we’re unsure about them and wouldn’t know why I smelled like one. Maybe I’d hunted one while wearing this parka and carried the carcass off.”

  “Well, that could be.” She tried to walk into the shed and found a box of Christmas lights and ornaments and one of several trees sitting way in the corner under a pile of stuff that had been tossed around. “Oh, yes! Can I use these to decorate my cabin?” She was so excited about it.

  “For the time that you’ll be here?” He sounded surprised she would want to go to all the trouble.

  “Yes. I like having the ambience so I can write the story. I’ll put all the decorations away before I leave so you don’t have to deal with it.”

  “No, that’s okay. I can do it after the holidays, and I’ll carry them over to the cabin for you and help you set them up.”

  “Thanks. But after I help you straighten up the shed.” And she was helping him carry the decorations over to her cabin since it was her idea after all. She so appreciated him for saying yes and not being such a Scrooge any longer.

  Chapter 6

  Jessie seemed so thrilled about the Christmas decorations, Emerson again felt like he’d been a Scrooge, so he was glad he’d changed his mind. He vowed to hang the Christmas lights up around her cabin, at the very least. He carried a box of decorations that was labeled cabin five and set it on the patio, then returned to get the small artificial tree.

  She was trying to sort things out in his shed—which he appreciated—the tools, mainly, setting stuff back up on shelves and on pegboard where some of the tools had been hanging. His uncle had been so particular about everything being in its place that Emerson felt sick about how the intruder had broken in and trashed it. He appreciated that Jessie was trying to help him set things right. Though it was too cold out there to do it all at once. He would come out later and do some more straightening.

  Once he deposited the tree on her doorstep, he returned to the shed.

  “I was going to help you carry that all over there! You still are injured, you know.”

  She sounded annoyed with him, but she should have seen when he was really injured.

  “Ahh!”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, worried she’d hurt herself.

  “Fur! Bear fur.” Lifting it off a metal shelf, she showed it to him. “I can smell a hint of bear on it.”

  He joined her and smelled the fur. “Hell, it smells like one of the guys who came looking for you before you arrived.”

  “The guys you mentioned to me? No way. I told you already I didn’t know anyone up here and if anyone was looking for me, they wouldn’t be checking out the shed. The shed has nothing to do with…” She hurried out of the shed and Emerson raced to catch up to her.

  He imagined he was thinking the same thing as she was—that they had broken into her place too last night while she was staying with him.

  He pulled out the keys to the cabin and made her stay on the porch to ensure no one was in her cabin. The lock hadn’t been touched. He didn’t understand it. “Would they believe you had some kind of connection to my uncle?” Emerson unlocked the door and opened it.

  “I’ve been coming up here for five years, but just to write and of course I visited with your uncle. I wouldn’t believe anyone would think anything of it. He was a charmer, you know. You’re nothing like him.”

  Emerson was amused at the jab. “He decorated for Christmas.”

  “Oh, yes, his home and all the cabins. He always had a special little tree in the living room for me decorated with cougars of all kinds—glass, plastic, wood, fabric. Every year there was a new cougar ornament on the tree. He went out of his way to find one for me.”

  Emerson smiled. “Hell, he had the hots for you.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. He was my dad’s age.”

  Emerson knew his uncle had always wanted kids, but he and his aunt had been unsuccessful at having any. He imagined Uncle Paul saw Jessie as the daughter he’d never had. Emerson went through the house to ensure no one had been there or was still there when she came in with the box of decorations. He meant for her to stay outside while he checked the place over. Thankfully, both bedrooms and the bathroom were clear.

  “I don’t see any sign of bear fur and they didn’t break the door lock,” he said.

  “Well, good. I just don’t understand why they would break into your uncle’s shed but come to the resort looking for me first.” She frowned at Emerson as he carried the Christmas tree into her living room. “Are you sure they’re not after something to do with you? I mean, since you said you had an undercover job.” She didn’t sound like she believed it.

  “I got here just a few days ago.”

  “Okay, so it didn’t happen until your uncle died and you arrived. You could have inherited something or moved something here from wherever you were before this.”

  He put the Christmas tree stand up and she helped him set up the tree. “That wouldn’t explain why they were looking for you.”

  She began pulling decorations out of the box and setting them on the table.

  “Can I help?” He told himself he had nothing better to do with his time right this instant, but in truth, he wanted to be here with her, enjoying her company, and watching over her. Besides, it would go faster with the two of them doing this and he figured she wouldn’t mind the company either. Then when she sat down to write, he would get out of her hair.

  She smiled up at him. “Yeah, sure, if you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all.” He strung the lights on the tree first.

  She began hanging ornaments and he started to string red beads around the tree.

  He was amazed at all the Christmas cougar ornaments his uncle had bought that she was placing among the red, green, blue, and gold balls. He left the plaid green and red and gold bows to her to tie on the tree. “I’ll hang the lights along the eaves outside.”

  “Thanks, that would be great.”

  He went to fetch the ladder, thinking this would have been easier to do before the snow came. Not that he had been here before the snow came. But he was actually enjoying helping out. He began stringing the lights and when he was done, he turned them on, the lights reflecting off the snow. It really was pretty and made him feel more lighthearted after being ambushed on the mission and returning home to learn his uncle had died. She made him feel more lighthearted.

  Then he went inside to hang the lights around the windows. She had finally finished decorating the tree. Her little cabin in the woods was cheerful and it made him reconsider decorating the main house for Christmas.

  “It looks great. Just perfect for setting the mood for writing. Especially with all the fresh snow outside also. Thanks so much for being a good sport and helping me with this,” she said. “Are you ready to see if we can find any sign of the culprits in the woods?”

  “Yeah, I am, and you’re welcome.”

  They bundled up and went outside. She locked her door and then they headed off through the woods. They could have covered more ground by separating, but no way did he want to do that. They needed to stay together, just in case.

  Jessie found more bear fur caught on a tree branch about a half mile from the cabins. She was glad they had found more evidence. At least they had a lead. “He, or they, came this way.”

  “Yes, I see. And some fur over here. The snow might have covered their tracks, but they left evidence along the way that will help us to track them.”

  Jessie and Emerson had hiked two miles in the snow and woods when they finally came to a craft store on the main road, one car parked out front of the shop.

  “How much do you want to bet they parked here and pulled off their clothes and shifted,” Jessie said. “I can’t imagine they would have run for miles as bears to reach us from some other location.”

  “Yeah. I agree.”

  They went to the door of the shop and Jessie opened it. A bell jingled their arrival. They went inside but didn’t see any sign of bear fur, or a clerk.

  A middle-aged woman dressed in a green and red plaid, wool skirt and green sweater, and a red Santa hat trimmed in faux white fur came out of a back room to greet them, looking thrilled to have some customers. “Welcome. Come in. Because of the snowstorm last night, things have been quiet today.”

  “Uh, yeah, I’m sure of it until they clear all the roads,” Emerson said.

  “You didn’t have anyone at the shop last night?” Jessie asked, looking over the Christmas decorations on a tree, specifically for any cougars the woman might have.

  “No. I had to close early because of the storm. No one came after about two.”

  “And no one broke in?” Emerson asked.

  “Uh, no. What’s this all about?” Frowning, the woman looked concerned.

  “I inherited Whispering Pines Resort about two miles from your place as the crow flies.” Or, in their case, as the cougars could walk through the snowy woods. “I’m Emerson, Paul Merriweather’s nephew.” He offered his hand, and she shook it.

  Jessie smiled at Emerson, who cast her a smile when he didn’t give the woman his full name as if she already would know it. “I’m Jessie Whittington, a guest at the resort and come about this time every year.”

  “Jessie, oh, sure, Paul often mentioned you after you’d come for a stay. I’m Rachael Pringle, owner and manager of the Crafty Knick-Knack Shop. I knew Paul. I was so sorry to hear about his untimely heart attack. He was always so friendly, dropping by when he had a moment to chat it up with me.” The shopkeeper glanced outside and saw they hadn’t driven a car there. “You…walked from the resort?”

  “It was a shock to me. I’ll certainly miss him, and I wish I’d spent a lot more time with him these past few years.” Emerson motioned in the direction of the resort. “And yes, we walked through the woods. Someone broke into my shed at the resort last night during the snowstorm. We tracked them here.”

  “We can have a look at the security cameras I have. What about yours?” Rachael asked.

  “My uncle didn’t have any, unfortunately.”

  “Oh, I have the kind that is power-generated if the electricity goes out.”

  “That’s good. Our electric did go out last night.”

  “Same here,” Rachael said, “both at my house and at the shop. The clocks were all wrong this morning when I showed up for work.”

  “I’ll have to get some security videos for the resort. That’s on my things to do list, including repairing the shed door.”

  “That’s just awful. Even though I’ve never had any trouble, the security video just makes me feel safer. Did you report the break-in to the police?” Rachael asked.

  “They didn’t steal anything, so no. The police wouldn’t do anything about it.”

  But Jessie was thinking about the bear injuring Emerson, so it wasn’t just that the bears broke into his shed. Of course, they couldn’t report that either, not when the police and local hunters might go on a bear hunt to shoot what had probably been bear shifters. Since shifters turned into humans at death, at least cougars did, that could put the bear shifter population at risk.

  “All right. Here’s the security video.” Rachael showed them the monitor and played back the time last night that they’d had the break-in and the time before that.

  A black SUV had parked in her lot, the snow blowing hard.

  “Oh, I would never have checked my video since my place hadn’t been disturbed. But the snow is blowing so hard, you can’t see the people who left the vehicle. Only that they wore black and then headed into the snow. Two men though,” the woman said.