Amelia nodded. “Gavin and I like to run together too. It’s a nice way to get to know each other and to work out any stress we might be feeling.” She reached over and ran her hand over Gavin’s thigh.
He smiled at her.
The rumble of a plane’s engine caught their attention, well before Theodore heard it with his human hearing. Amelia and Gavin looked in the direction it was coming from, both surprised that anyone would be arriving this late in the day. They’d have a full camp at this rate, with another group of paddlers being dropped off. As they watched for the seaplane, Theodore finally heard it too, and Nina came back from the woods and looked up at the sky.
“More paddlers?” Theodore asked.
“It’s my dad’s, well, my plane,” Amelia said, her brows furrowed, indicating she was worried, but at the same time, Gavin heard the relief in her voice. “He’s not carrying any canoes. He must be coming early to pick up Nina.”
“Then you can return with him,” Gavin said, having mixed feelings about it. He truly enjoyed Amelia’s company, but he didn’t want her in a bind because she was with him while he tried to track down the person causing all the trouble for them. He didn’t want her to feel she was obligated to go with him.
Theodore eyed them, looking as though he thought Gavin and Amelia must be having relationship troubles, if Gavin was suggesting she return with her father.
“I’ll tell my dad what happened, but I’m continuing on the vacation paddling with you. He can take Winston with him. Mom can watch him until we return and you can take him home with you.”
“Are you sure?” Gavin was surprised she’d really want to stay with him to help. He was concerned for her safety, especially if the wolf that had scared Nina was Heaton. On the other hand, no one would suspect Gavin was doing surveillance. Not when he was paddling with his girlfriend. Theodore would be returning to his company’s campsite in the morning, and if he happened to see them later, he would think they were just there having fun on a camping trip.
“Yeah, I want to stay with you.” Amelia headed for the dock, then paced up and down it, anxiously waiting for her dad to land.
“I guess you’ll still be staying the night here with us,” Gavin said to Theodore, who was near the campfire, waiting, in case Nina had to return to the woods.
“Yeah. I wouldn’t attempt to return to the island tonight. It would be dark before I got there. It took me eight hours to reach here.”
“I wouldn’t either.” Though with his wolf’s night vision, Gavin could have done it. And he was an expert paddler, so physically, he could have made it. Their present company precluded that. “You can have breakfast with us in the morning, then.”
“Thanks, I’d like that. I brought some food with me for tonight and tomorrow, since I wouldn’t have been able to rejoin the group until later. I’ll share that with you too.”
“Sure.” Now that Amelia was staying with Gavin longer, they would need more food.
The plane landed on the water, and Henry finally parked it at the dock. Amelia hurried to tie the plane up. Nina was back in the woods, being sick. Gavin hoped the medicine would kick in soon and she’d make it back to the hangar okay.
“I tried getting ahold of you,” her father said to Amelia, sounding anxious. “Where’s the plane?”
She told him what had happened, and her father’s expression was angry.
“I ran by your place, and you weren’t there. I checked with the shelter where you were taking Winston, and they said you hadn’t arrived. You’d just disappeared off the radar. That and the woman being so sick are why I came tonight instead of waiting until tomorrow.”
“We’re okay. All three of us.” She gave her dad a hug and spoke softly for his ears only, though with his enhanced hearing, Gavin made out her words.
“We think my plane, well, your plane was sabotaged.” Then she told Henry the rest, their heads bowed together a little while she explained what had happened. She also told him about Gavin being an Arctic wolf.
Her dad looked over at Gavin, and he wondered if Henry worried about his daughter being alone with the wolf. Or maybe he was just shocked to learn Gavin was an Arctic wolf too. Thankfully, she didn’t tell him the rest of their history together.
When she mentioned Gavin was taking Winston, her father smirked at the PI. Gavin seemed to be earning some good points with everyone over that. He knew Winston would appreciate it most, and certainly, he’d missed having a dog all these years. He wondered if Amelia’s father believed he was just offering to take in the dog to win over the girl. If it helped, Gavin was all for it.
Once a pale-faced Nina returned from the woods, Gavin and Theodore packed her bags in the plane, while Amelia grabbed Winston’s container of kibble and carried it there.
Henry shook Gavin’s hand, his handshake firm, as if warning him to take care of his daughter. Not to be bested, Gavin gave Henry just as firm a handshake back, letting him know he was alpha all the way and would take care of Amelia. Henry inclined his head a little to Gavin in approval, his expression still stern. Henry shook Theodore’s hand too, but Gavin suspected he didn’t use quite the gorilla grip on him.
Amelia’s dad helped Nina into the plane. Gavin and Amelia hugged Winston, then put on his life preserver and loaded him in. Henry exited the plane with a sat phone and a couple of bags in hand. Theodore was still standing on the dock like he was part of the group, but Henry needed to speak to Amelia privately and took her aside.
“I’ll see you later,” Gavin said to Henry. “Hey, want a cup of coffee?” he asked Theodore to move him away from the father-and-daughter talk.
“Yeah, sure.” Theodore and Gavin left the dock and returned to the camp.
Amelia was so glad her father had come and not their competition. “Dad, the man who didn’t want me to fly the plane was one of the jewelry-store thieves running with my ex-boyfriend in Seattle. I didn’t realize it until after we had crashed.”
Her dad’s eyes widened.
“What are the odds that a jewel thief shows up and causes a scene, then I end up flying with Gavin on the sabotaged plane?”
“Hell.”
“Yeah. It’s too much of a coincidence. But we both believe Heaton actually did the sabotage.”
“I can believe that. I’ll notify the authorities. You just…enjoy yourself. They’ll want to speak with you too,” Henry told Amelia.
“All right, Dad. I’m so sorry I lost the plane.”
“The plane isn’t what is important. You are. Are you sure you don’t want to return with me?”
“No, I’m certain. Gavin’s going to help us with this. And I want to help with his case, since he hasn’t been able to do anything on it yet because of what happened. Plus, even when I suggested just leaving me here while he took care of his business, he wouldn’t do it. Are you going to be all right without me flying for a while?”
“Yeah, but you know how I feel about this.” He motioned to the bags. “You left your bags and your sat phone in the plane when we switched off. I suspect you’ll be wanting these.”
“Boy, do I ever.”
“You’re all right with—”
“My boyfriend? Absolutely.”
Her dad raised his brows, glancing back at Gavin as if he couldn’t believe it, or maybe he realized she was just saying that for their cover.
“Call me when you arrive safely,” Amelia told her dad.
“I will, and I’ll have both our planes checked out to make sure they hadn’t been tampered with. Though we’ve had no trouble with them, so I suspect this was meant for either me or our passengers.”
Henry wished them all luck, gave Amelia a hug, and climbed back into the plane. “Be careful.”
“We will.”
After returning to say goodbye, Gavin untied the ropes, and Amelia’s father took off across the lake un
til he was airborne.
Gavin wrapped his arm around Amelia’s shoulders as they watched her father flying overhead, wanting the intimacy and not just to take part in some role they were bound to play. Then they left the dock and returned to the campfire.
Pulling out a bag, Gavin asked Amelia and Theodore, “Do you want to roast some marshmallows?”
He wanted to talk to Amelia about what they were going to do tomorrow. They needed to travel in the same direction Theodore would be paddling, but they couldn’t just follow him. Well, maybe partway, and then paddle off to another island close by.
“Yeah,” Theodore said, and Amelia agreed. “That was damn decent of your dad to make the trip early.”
“He was concerned about Nina getting too dehydrated. I’m glad he came tonight too,” Amelia said.
“He’ll take good care of her. You know, I miss Winston already,” Gavin said as he skewered marshmallows on metal rods and handed one to each of them. They began to roast the marshmallows over the campfire, watching the white marshmallows turn golden brown and gooey. “He’s so big, he’s easy to miss when he’s not around.”
“He’s a beautiful dog,” Theodore said. “How big do they get?”
“Almost two hundred pounds when they’re full grown,” Amelia said. “He’s only a year old.”
“I have two sons who eat everything in the house and then some. I can’t imagine feeding a dog that big too.” Theodore looked at the woods nearby. “Do you think the wolf will come back?”
“No. Not if he knows what’s good for him. They don’t really bother people. And he’s a lone wolf.”
“Did you track him?” Amelia asked.
“You can track a wolf?” Theodore sounded awed.
“Yeah, but he was super wily, as if he has been around humans a lot,” Gavin said.
Amelia’s eyes widened fractionally.
Clearly she realized, as he did, that the wolf had to be a shifter.
Chapter 10
“I hope you were all right with me calling you my boyfriend,” Amelia said in Gavin’s ear as they snuggled together in his tent later that night, while Theodore slept in his own tent across the campfire from them.
“Are you kidding? I’ve been working toward that goal ever since I met you again.” Gavin loved the intimacy he shared with Amelia and thought of how much of a void there would be if she wasn’t with him now—without her warmth, her soft touch, her whispered breath against his ear, her heart beating in rhythm with his, her scent that made him want her the way a male wolf craves a she-wolf.
“Even after the first time and, technically, second time we met? You’re not a glutton for punishment, are you?”
He laughed. “I’m hoping we’re beyond that.”
She licked his chest. “Maybe I should have made you work harder for it.”
He kissed her forehead. “I would have. Believe me. I heard most of what you told your dad and that he’s going to get ahold of the accident investigators. I couldn’t read his body language from where Theodore and I were standing near the campfire though.”
“He’s angry. He gets real quiet when he’s mad. Before he reacts, he considers all the implications.”
“Like a wolf.”
“Yeah. And about that… He was shocked you were one too, and even more shocked to learn you’re an Arctic wolf like us.”
Gavin traced his fingers over her naked shoulder in a gentle caress, not disturbing the sleeping bag tugged up to cover her back. “Did he believe you about the boyfriend-girlfriend bit?”
She nuzzled his chest. “I’m sure he smelled you all over me, so he wasn’t entirely shocked.”
Gavin laughed. “I guess it went without saying.”
She swept her hand down his bare chest. “You could have just been warming me up after our little swim in the cold lake.”
“He’s too wily to think that’s all there is to it.”
“Right. Learning you are a PI and former cop, he probably felt you could protect me if I needed it.”
Which was the only downside to having Amelia here. Someone might wish her harm. “Your dad didn’t mind that you weren’t going to return and help with the scheduled flights?”
She shook her head. “We’re down a plane. So no. He’s angry we’re going to have to cancel on some flights because we’re short a plane though. We have another, but it’s undergoing refurbishing.”
“He wasn’t worried that Heaton might be out here as a wolf?” Gavin was surprised her father wasn’t more concerned about that.
She sighed. “I didn’t tell my dad that part. He definitely wouldn’t have wanted me to stay if I’d told him about that and about the raft.”
The truth was coming out. Gavin groaned. He’d thought Amelia would be perfectly honest with her dad about the situation.
“What? I can protect you. Don’t worry.”
“From your father? He will want to kill me if he learns I didn’t insist you return home with him for your own safety.”
“If I had seen the wolf, I would have known it was Heaton, scent or no.”
“All right.”
“Besides, you need me for your cover story.”
Gavin let out his breath. “As soon as Theodore’s asleep, I’m looking for Heaton, if it was him. You just stay here. I’ll leave the gun with you.”
“Well, don’t get yourself killed over it, or my dad will be mad.”
“I fully intend to be the one left standing if it comes to that.”
“You better be.”
An hour later, Gavin kissed Amelia. “I’m heading out.”
“Be careful, and if you need me, just howl.”
“I need you, all right.” Then he dressed, kissed her again, and left the tent. In the woods some way from their tents, he left his clothes and shifted. Adrenaline pumping, he was in hunting mode, praying this wouldn’t backfire and put Amelia at risk.
* * *
While Gavin was off trying to track down the wolf, Amelia couldn’t sleep. She dressed in jeans and her own blue sweatshirt, socks, and boots, then left the tent to make a fire. Once she sat beside it, gun in hand in case Heaton showed up, she watched the woods, listening for sounds of anyone walking about. Or growling in the distance. Theodore was lightly snoring in his tent.
In the romance department, she didn’t think Theodore was interested in Nina in an intimate way, beyond being concerned about her health. Just a working relationship. Because he’d paddled all the way here to ensure Nina could go home sooner when she felt so ill, Amelia saw Theodore as a hero.
The sat phone suddenly rang and startled her, giving her a near heart attack. She quickly answered the phone so it wouldn’t disturb Theodore. The caller identified himself as Phil Thomas, the man heading the team to investigate her plane crash. “I’m sorry I’m calling you so late. I was just assigned to head up the task force to investigate this. Your father said you were paddling with your boyfriend tomorrow. I need your story concerning the accident, and I’ll need to speak with you and your boyfriend tomorrow, face-to-face, before you leave.”
“Uh, yes, of course.” She didn’t want to wake Theodore—if his sleep hadn’t already been disturbed—and have him learn the truth. She banked the campfire, then headed into the woods away from camp, as far as she could in the dark with the moon lighting her way, so she could talk privately to the investigator.
Suddenly, she saw the glow of fluorescent eyes in the brush. Gun in one hand, the phone in the other, she said to the caller, “Just a minute. Can I call you back? I see a wolf.” She hung up on him before he could say a word.
“Gavin?” she called out to the wolf. Gavin and Heaton were similar in size and build. Their markings were different, but she couldn’t really see them that well in the dark.
If it was Gavin, she suspected he would have woofed and come r
unning to join her. This wolf was wary, watchful. What if it was a real wolf, smelling the beef stew they’d cooked earlier and checking it out?
“Heaton? Why would you have sabotaged the plane? Risking killing me and my passengers? Revenge?” She knew he couldn’t answer her, but she had to ask the question, if he was the wolf.
They heard noise in the brush, and the wolf turned, then dashed off.
A couple of minutes later, she saw wolf’s eyes again. “Gavin?”
He woofed at her. Now she was worried whether it really was him. She couldn’t smell him because the breeze was blowing away from her.
He shifted. “Just me,” Gavin said, then joined her and caged her with his arms. “What are you doing out here?”
“The accident investigator called, and I didn’t want to disturb Theodore’s sleep. Then I saw a wolf. He didn’t respond to me like you did.”
“Hell.” Gavin released her and shifted, then sniffed around and headed deeper into the woods. He disappeared from her sight and she waited, listening. Brush crunched nearby, and she heard a zipper sliding up. Gavin must have shifted and was getting dressed. She was glad, but she hoped if the wolf was Heaton, he wouldn’t attack Gavin when he was more vulnerable.
Gavin approached and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go back to the campsite.”
“I promised the investigator I’d call him back. I left him hanging when I told him I saw a wolf.”
“Okay.” Gavin released her. “Give me the gun, and I’ll stand watch while you talk to him. I couldn’t locate the wolf, not when he’s wearing hunter’s spray. He has us at a disadvantage.”