“Oh, this is beautiful,” Sierra said, her parents agreeing.
Everyone else had seen the falls before, but Brooke said, “I always love seeing them.”
“Me too,” Josh said.
They were all taking cell phone pictures of the falls.
Then they headed back to the marina again, everyone vying for a time to captain the boat. Everyone got a couple of turns on the five-hour trip.
When they finally reached the marina, it was time to unload the boat. Brooke and Josh went home after that, everyone thanking them for the lobster lunch. The rest of them were driving in their separate vehicles to the pack’s ranch.
Adam drove Sierra’s car, hoping his Hummer would be repaired by Monday like the body shop had promised. “So what did you think about the boat ride and the family get-together?”
“It was wonderful. My folks and yours really hit it off. And everyone had a great time boating down the river. Did you and your new crime team solve any of the crimes you’ve been working on while I was talking to Brooke and Janice?”
He chuckled. “No. Though your dad believes the coroner is correct that the drowned men died accidentally, since he’s a wolf like us. Your dad gave some scenarios he knew of where boats were found, and the boat captain or others had drowned. Of course then my dad was looking up cases for the local area, and our moms were trying to outdo them. Josh and I were getting the biggest kick out of them. They might all be retired from their original jobs, but they’re all great detectives. How are you feeling about going for a wolf run and returning to Portland for our favorite ice cream spot after dinner with our families?”
“Boy, are you saying all the right things.”
“Good, we have a date.”
Adam got a call on Bluetooth from Tori and hoped he didn’t need to go in about anything. She was on call today, and if she needed his backup, he would go in. “Yeah, Tori, what’s up?”
“I was looking into Mr. Kinney’s background after going over the statement he gave concerning the carjacker, and something didn’t add up.”
“We wondered about that too,” Adam said. “So what did you learn?”
“Mr. Kinney has a record. He has spent time in jail for theft.”
That didn’t sound good. “And…?”
“Guess who he served time with.”
“The carjacker,” Adam guessed. “The description he gave didn’t match the carjacker in the least, and then when we told him he was dead, Kinney was highly irritated we hadn’t told him already. If he hadn’t been so angry with us over it, I would have just figured he hadn’t remembered the carjacker’s description because of the head injury.”
“Yep. And he’d been in jail with the guy we just picked up for taking part in the kidnapping of Melissa, Burt Barnes.”
“Aww, hell, they’re all in this together?” Adam couldn’t be any more furious about it than he was. Here he was feeling sorry about Kinney being injured and that he could have been fatally killed, and all along he was one of the gang?
“It sounds like they could be.”
“So that means they had a falling-out?” Why else would the carjacker have hit Kinney so hard as if he intended to kill him and then stolen his car?
“I figure that’s what it is all about. The carjacker was trying to kill him, steal the car, and get rid of it.”
“Are you arresting Kinney?” Adam wasn’t planning on going in, despite how much he wanted to deal with this personally. He glanced over at Sierra and smiled.
“I want to gather more evidence against him, but I’m going home for now. I’ll run in again if we have any more developments.”
“Okay, sounds good. Keep me posted.”
“I will. I didn’t want to disrupt anything. You two have a fun day.”
“We’re going to have dinner with both of our families. We’re almost there.”
“Oooh, sounds serious. Enjoy your dinner!”
“We will, thanks,” Adam said.
Then they said goodbye and Sierra said to Adam, “You could have gone in if you needed to.”
“No way. Unless Tori needs emergency backup, I’m here to do this with you.”
“I just wanted you to know that it’s okay with me if you have to go in, even if we have plans,” Sierra said.
“Only if it’s a matter of life or death.” Adam reached out and took Sierra’s hand and kissed it. “Otherwise, this is more important.”
She sighed. “Good. Though I’m serious about if you need to go in about work when we have something planned. I don’t want you to think I’m clingy or anything.”
“I would never think that, honey. I’m just glad we’re together. And the same thing goes for you. If you get called up for anything, don’t worry about any plans we might have. We’ll make up for it.”
“Okay.”
They finally arrived at Brad’s home on the ranch, and he and Sierra’s and Adam’s parents greeted them. Janice was in the kitchen pouring glasses of wine for the ladies. The guys were having beers.
The dads and Brad went out to grill the steaks, while the ladies talked about Sierra’s parents relocating.
“When are you going to propose a mating to Sierra?” Kirk asked, getting right to the point as he was drinking a beer with Brad and Adam on the back patio.
Adam smiled at his dad while Brad put the steaks on the grill.
Sierra’s dad frowned. “We tried to stay out of Sierra’s love life, but both of us agreed that we didn’t think Richard was right for her. His work always came before her, even when there wasn’t a good reason for it. We all know how important promotions are in the military, but the family is important too. She deserves more. Better.”
“I agree, sir. I definitely thought the same when she was going out to see him. And then he had the gall of coming out to see her here without telling her he was going to,” Adam said.
“I heard about that.” Kirk chuckled. “And there you were. That must have killed him, but it served him right. I’m glad you were there for her.”
“I was glad to be there for her. Though neither of us could have anticipated his showing up like he did,” Adam said.
“Once she called it quits with him, we knew she would eventually find a mate and settle down. When all the grandkids start showing up, we want to be here for them,” Kirk said.
Adam laughed.
Kirk slapped Adam on the back. “Boating as a family again would be great too.”