"What will you do?" she asked, wanting to believe that he could protect her from whatever was coming.
"I'm going to find out who really killed Mr. Black."
Chapter 11
Knox held Harper in his arms, feeling the warmth of her little body pressed against him. It was the most amazing feeling he'd ever experienced in his life. He couldn't believe that he was lucky enough to be able to have this kind of contentment from here on out. He would do anything to protect it. To protect her. To protect the baby growing inside her womb. As she lolled against his chest, falling into sleep, he placed his hand on her stomach, imagining his child growing inside her.
As sleep approached, Knox felt the deep bond between them expanding into the depths of his heart. In the last twilight moments between waking and sleep, he saw a vision of something deep inside Harper's subconscious mind.
It was an image, a flash of memory. It was Harper at the bank on her first day. Mrs. Black, Mr. Black's wife, was at the bank. The teller beside Harper caught the eye of Mrs. Black and they retained eye contact for a brief moment. Something about their interaction stayed with Harper, even if she wasn't consciously aware of it. Knox was able to sense that subconscious memory through their new mated bond.
He sat up in bed, realizing that it was exactly the clue he'd been waiting for. There was something going on between Mrs. Black and the other bank teller, Michael McDonald.
Harper stirred in bed beside him, reaching out to him.
"Where you going?" she asked groggily as he climbed out of bed.
"I think I've broken the case," Knox said, pulling his pants on. "Stay here and get some rest, babe. By the time I get back, I'm going to have cleared your name."
"What's going on?" she asked.
"I can't say for sure yet, but I'll tell you everything when I get back."
Knox finished putting on his uniform and hurried out the door of Harper's hotel room. On the way down in the elevator, he got a text from Rollo on his phone.
"Where did you go?" Rollo's text said.
Knox was too irritated with Rollo to answer. After all of the help that Rollo had offered to other bears’ mates, he was so willing to believe that Knox’s mate was a murderer. Knox had never been so incensed in his life.
Not only was Rollo willing to believe Harper could hurt someone, he wasn't even allowing Knox to try to clear her name. Knox had never felt that his friend Rollo was a hypocrite, but at this point, Knox couldn't think of him any other way.
Even if humans were protesting the Bear Patrol, there was no excuse to demonize a woman like Harper.
Knox hurried out of the lodge, through the parking lot, and climbed in his car. He lifted his cell phone and wrote out a text message to Rollo.
"I have new information. I know Harper didn't do it."
"Knox, I told you to stay away from her and from this case. You're putting the entire department in jeopardy. I want you back at the station right now."
"No can do, Rollo. If you have a problem with my dedication to my mate, then you can kick me off the force right now. I don't care anymore. This hypocrisy has got to end."
Knox remembered exactly how Rollo protected his own mate from criminal charges when she had, in fact, perpetrated the crime. Rollo's mate Zoe was actually in bed with the mob! Rollo had covered it up completely. Now Rollo wanted to take down Harper for a crime she obviously didn't commit. There may have been physical evidence against her, but there was absolutely no motive for a crime like that.
Harper had just started at the bank two days before. From all her accounts, Harper considered Mr. Black a kind man who had given her a job at a difficult time in her life. Why would she then turn around and murder him?
Rollo hadn't even managed to get a search warrant of Mrs. Black's home. It was at a time like this when a good shifter had to take matters into his own hands. Rollo was being too influenced by the human politics and letting it get in the way of real justice. Knox wouldn't let his mate go down for a crime she didn't commit. Never. No way. He didn’t care how long the humans protested the police department. He wanted justice. Period.
Knox hurried out of the parking lot, his phone buzzing several more times with text messages from Rollo. He didn't bother to read them. He knew where Mrs. Black lived, and he was going to get the evidence he needed to prove that she and Michael were the ones who murdered Mr. Black.
Knox drove across town and found a parking place that was hidden off the side of the road on the way to Mrs. Black's house. He hid his car under some brush and got out after taking off all his clothes.
It was dusk and would soon be dark. The cold snow nipped at his bare human flesh. With a deep foggy breath, Knox started his shift. His body contorted and changed until his muscled human body transformed into the huge, fur-covered form of a grizzly bear. Knox growled softly in the dark, snow-covered forest. His eyes adjusted to the dim light of the moon that broke through the clouds above.
He started through the forest, smelling the musky scent of forest creatures and the sharp scent of pine. The snow-covered world dampened the sound of his footfalls. He made it to the edge of Mrs. Black's property and opened up his senses.
He could see a light through a window within. Stepping closer, he smelled the air and tasted it with his tongue. He picked up the scent of a human male and the scent of a human female. Rollo had not allowed him to participate in the investigation, but Knox was positive that the two humans he smelled were Mrs. Black and Michael McDonald.
He stepped closer to the back of the house, covered by darkness. He saw figures move behind the curtains within and heard the soft sound of conversation, muffled by the pane of glass.
He stepped closer, opening up his sensitive shifter hearing. Finally, he could make out the sound of their voices.
"I've heard they have enough evidence to convict the deputy’s mate," a male voice said.
"Perfect. Our plan has worked exactly as we'd hoped it would. As soon as they arrest her, we’ll be free to leave."
Knox saw the two figures move toward each other and embrace. Then he heard the sound of kissing and moaning.
"I can't believe I had to wait so long for you," the man said.
"Well, we couldn't just run off and leave all of my husband's money. How would we have lived?"
"I would do anything for you," the man said. "Even live in poverty."
"I would never live like that. And if you loved me, you would know that."
"Of course, darling. I would never expect you to live in poverty. I don't know what I was saying."
"You're forgiven. Now, tell me what else you know about this woman, Harper. She's back at work at the bank?"
"Yes, she came back to work. But with all of the protests we staged at the police department, it's only a matter of time before they bring her in. The Bear Patrol doesn't want any more scandals after the amount of favoritism they’ve been showing their mates in the last year. It was a perfect plan. We have them right where we want them."
Knox heard them both laugh maniacally. He wished to God he had some kind of recording equipment. He needed real evidence to prove to Rollo that these two were the murderers and that they had framed Harper from the beginning.
He was going to take these sick, twisted people down. He just had to figure out how. He needed hard evidence that would prove that it was Michael and Mrs. Black who murdered her husband. They believed that Rollo would arrest Harper at any minute and then they would leave town.
Knox stood by the window for several minutes longer, waiting for them to say something more. All he heard was the sound of lips smacking and the disgusting groans of the two aroused villains. He shuddered and began to move away from the window. He couldn't listen to that.
What he had to do now was convince his old friend to ignore all of the protests and all of the pressure he'd been getting and listen to his deputy, friend, and clan mate. It might be difficult for Rollo, considering that he had his position as the police commander
to protect, but if Rollo wanted to remain an alpha of the Fate Mountain bears, then he would have to show his loyalty to his bear clan. The humans’ staged protests were trying to bring them all down.
All that the Bear Patrol had ever wanted was peace, harmony, and brotherly love among all the people of Fate Mountain. Humans and shifters alike.
Nothing mattered more to shifters than their mates, their children, and their community. But that's not what so many humans believed. They thought that the shifters were out to take over the world. They thought that the shifters wanted to get rid of humans.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Shifters loved humans. The majority of shifter mates were human women. Shifters had nothing against human men. They wanted all of the humans in the world to have the same kind of happiness that shifters had with their own families. But so much of the world had been corrupted by greed and profanity that there was little room left for the ideals of shifters and their mates.
Knox thought about this and it almost made him weep in his grizzly form as he charged through the snowy forest. When he made it back to his car, he shifted and hastily pulled his clothes back on.
He grabbed his phone as he sat in the driver’s seat and finally read the texts from Rollo. At first they were angry but finally they became remorseful. Rollo apologized, asking for Knox to please come back to the station so that they could talk as friends.
Knox gritted his teeth, still angry at his old friend, but at least now Rollo was extending an olive branch. It was what they both needed now if they were going to save the Bear Patrol, their clan, their people, Fate Mountain, and his beloved Harper. There was too much at stake to hold a grudge. Knox turned the key in the ignition and drove back to the station.
Chapter 12
Rollo and the rest of the Bear Patrol were already in Rollo’s office. He asked Knox to join them and take a seat when Knox walked through the door.
"You told me you have new information," Rollo said to Knox.
"That's right. This may not be permissible in court, or even legally obtained, but I know exactly who murdered Mr. Black."
"Who?" Rollo asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It was Mrs. Black and her lover, Michael McDonald from the bank."
"I knew it," said Damien.
"What do you mean, Damien?" Rollo asked.
"I've been having my software analyze the angle of the puncture wound in Mr. Black's chest. Because of the angle that the knife entered the chest, it would almost be impossible for a woman as short as Harper to have been the one who had stabbed Mr. Black. Unless, of course, she was standing on a stool or something.”
"When did you figure this out?" Rollo asked.
"Just within the last twenty-four hours."
"I went down to Mrs. Black's house," Knox said, interrupting.
"You what?" Rollo demanded.
"I wasn’t going to let you pin this on Harper because of your guilty conscience. Now, Damien said he proved it would be impossible for Harper to have stabbed Mr. Black, yet you're still lecturing me. We've been friends for a long time, Rollo. But I have never, in all my life, been so disappointed in someone as I am with you right now."
"Knox. Pull it together, man," Rollo said with a growl.
"He's right," said Gauge. "You've been much harder on him than you have on anyone else. We've all helped our mates at one time or another. But when it comes to Knox, your oldest friend, you are trying your damnedest to keep him away from his mate. I, for one, am tired of watching."
"I'm just trying to protect the Bear Patrol and this town," Rollo said. "The humans are really putting on the pressure. They won't stop protesting outside the station."
"You know that those protesters are all there just to throw you off the trail of the real killers?" Knox said.
"What do you mean?" Rollo asked.
"While I was standing under Mrs. Black’s window, I heard her and Michael talking about the entire thing. They are the ones who hired people to protest. They are the ones who framed Harper as soon as they found out that Harper was my mate. It is a conspiracy against the Bear Patrol and against me and my mate, all done in order to throw us off the trail so that Mrs. Black and her lover can get away scot-free."
"You heard them saying this?" Rollo asked.
"I did. I also heard them talking about how they had killed Mr. Black."
"Michael is particularly tall," Damien said. “Of my analysis of the possible suspects, Michael is the one who was tall enough to have stabbed Mr. Black from that angle."
"Do we have enough evidence to get a search warrant now?" Knox said, pounding his fist on Rollo's desk.
Rollo sighed and shook his head, pulling his eyebrows together in a scowl. He was obviously stressed, but Knox didn't feel much sympathy for him. Rollo was blinded by his position. It was getting in the way of his good judgment. And Knox, as Rollo's oldest friend, had to snap him out of it.
"We have no physical evidence that links Michael or Mrs. Black to the murder," Rollo said.
"But we do have enough for a search warrant, don't we?" said Heath.
"Yes. Get on it," Rollo said to Heath.
Heath hurried out of the room and around the corner to start the process of getting a search warrant to search Mrs. Black's property.
"And what if we don't find anything?" Knox asked. “These people are waiting for you to arrest Harper so that they can leave town."
"Then perhaps we should play this a different way," Rollo said.
Chapter 13
Harper waited patiently for Knox to return, but he didn't come back so she fell asleep waiting for him. In the morning, she woke to pounding on her hotel room door. She hurried out of bed and pulled on the fluffy bathrobe provided by the lodge and went to the door to peer through the peephole.
On the other side of the door, she saw the Bear Patrol waiting for her. Her heart began to throb, thinking that this was it. She was going to be arrested for a crime she didn’t commit. Not knowing what else to do or where to run, she slowly pulled open the door. Knox was the first to rush in and whisper in her ear.
"Don't be afraid," he said. "This isn't what it seems."
Next, Rollo came in to the room and began to read her her rights. Harper was so confused, she didn't know what else to do. The men told her to go get dressed in the bathroom and not to try to escape. She looked to Knox, worry deep in her heart. How could he do this to her?
But Knox's face was open and pleading with her to cooperate. There must be something going on that he couldn't tell her about. She would just play along.
Harper obediently went into the bathroom and pulled on her clothes. A moment later, she emerged and was handcuffed. They walked her down the stairs and through the lobby of the Fate Mountain Lodge, everyone was watching. Harper had never felt more embarrassed in her life. She hadn't done anything. She had never hurt anyone. But she was being arrested and humiliated.
There was nothing else she could do but trust Knox. She knew that he would never let anything bad happen to her or their baby. She made it to the police car and was put in the back seat. As they drove downtown to the station, they passed people on the sidewalks who pointed and stared. They passed protesters on the way into the station. They’d cheered at the sight of Harper in handcuffs.
The bears took her into the police station and began to book her. They took her fingerprints for a second time and took a mug shot to complete the arrest. She was then taken into a narrow interrogation room and left alone.
For several long moments, Harper felt panic surge in her chest. Maybe this was all real. Maybe Knox had lied to her. Maybe they were arresting her for the murder of Mr. Black and she was going to go to jail for killing a man who had been kind to her. Just the thought of it made tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn’t even wipe her tears as the sobs poured from her throat.
A moment later, Knox came into the room and took off her handcuffs. He sat down across from her and took her hands in his.
&nbs
p; "What's going on, Knox?" she asked.
"You have to play along. We're waiting to see what happens now that we've arrested you. The dominoes are going to fall, babe. You just have to trust me. I promise you. Nothing bad will happen to you."
Chapter 14
Knox and Rollo waited outside on the road to Mrs. Black's house, waiting. Knox hated that he had to put Harper through this mess, but it was the only way to make Mrs. Black and Michael make their move.
If they ran off together, Rollo would have enough to move in and make the arrest. Damien's discovery that Michael was the only one tall enough to have stabbed Mr. Black was already enough to arrest Michael, but they wanted to get both of them.
Knox knew that they were both in on it and that they had it planned together. They had even planned the protests outside the police station to throw Rollo off the track and to confuse him, making him doubt his own instincts and his loyalty to his own crew.
"I'm sorry about everything," Rollo said.
"I understand," Knox said, not wanting to have any further issues with his old friend. He had been angry at Rollo. Furious. Angrier than Knox had ever been in his life. But he also understood why Rollo had done it. And now he knew that his friend had been manipulated on purpose by devious people who were trying to take advantage of Rollo's good nature and his desire to protect the people of Fate Mountain at all costs.
Knox hated that Rollo would throw him under the bus in such a situation, but he had to forgive his friend, otherwise they wouldn't be able to move on from this.
Knox spotted a car driving out of the driveway with one figure in the driver's seat but no one in the passenger seat.
"That's her," Knox said."
"She's alone.”
"I wouldn't be so sure of that.”
"I don't know if now is the time to make the arrest," Rollo said.
"It’s time. I'm not leaving Harper in jail a minute longer than necessary."