Chapter 27

“Hmm, are you going to run off again tomorrow?” Roxie asked, snuggling against Dylan that night. She really felt for Luke—for having bitten the trapper and turning him, and for the trapper, who wouldn’t know what kind of a mess he’d gotten himself into. She wondered then if that was why the teens at the lodge had brought up the idea of biting a human and whether they should do it or not. Had Luke wanted to tell them about his own situation, or had he told them already because he’d been so bothered by it? No matter what, the silver lining would be the trapper most likely wouldn’t be setting traps any longer.

“To search for Rusty, yes. Of course if Fennel makes the mistake of returning here, we’ll arrest him too. But if that doesn’t happen, the police will take care of Fennel wherever he ends up. Even as a deputy sheriff, when I have that job, I can only go as far as our jurisdiction covers.”

“That’s true. Who all is going with you after the trapper?” Roxie asked.

“I’ll check with Peter in the morning. He wants this taken care of just as quickly as I do because Rusty could shift in front of hikers, skiers, all who are human and cause real trouble for us. And we sure as hell don’t want him biting someone.”

“You’re right. I just don’t want you out there on your own.”

Dylan smiled at her and kissed her nose. “With a wolf pack, I’ve got backing.”

“Good.” Tonight, she just wanted to fall asleep with her wolf, enjoying the fresh scent of him and feeling his gloriously warm body next to hers. She loved how nice it was to have a wolf of her own.

The next day, Roxie and Dylan finally got out of bed, dressed, and made breakfast together. When they finished eating, Dylan called Peter to see how he wanted to do this. He figured the team he normally had would be switched out with some other reserve deputy sheriffs so that the other men could take care of their own business. “So, Peter, I’m going back out to look for that trapper.” Dylan realized it was hard for him to actually ask for help.

“Yeah, CJ and the rest of the guys were just waiting for the word from you.”

“Oh, great. As soon as they’re ready to go, I’ll be ready. I’ll just wait for them at the lodge again, like usual.” Dylan was so glad Peter was backing him all the way. Then he reached over and clasped Roxie’s hand. “They’re meeting me at the lodge.”

“Okay, good. I wasn’t letting you go until I knew for sure others were going with you.”

He smiled and kissed her. He never imagined having a mate who would always look out for him on his jobs, when in the past, he thought nothing of handling cases on his own.

When Dylan and Roxie arrived at the lodge, he hadn’t expected Luke to come with the other men. Luke was eager to help find Rusty, and Dylan couldn’t have been prouder of him.

“Hey,” Luke said, smiling at him when they met up at the lodge. “When I told Darien and Lelandi I wanted to help you locate Rusty, they were all for it. They said that it would be good to have some closure.”

Dylan had some reservations about it. He didn’t want Rusty to lash out at Luke for what he had done to him, though they would all protect Luke.

For the rest of the week, Dylan and the others, including Luke, went in search of the trapper during the day, making a few night excursions, but were home for the rest of the night to be with their families. It was finally Friday night, and Dylan planned to take off the weekend to clean out his apartment. He’d already given notice at his apartment the day he had decided to stay with Roxie and take the deputy sheriff job.

“Everyone’s fine with you taking off the weekend to move, you know. And everyone will help you with it,” Roxie told him as he and she walked home from the lodge.

“I don’t have that much stuff. Pretty much all that I have there is clothes and food.” Though he hated to give up on searching for Rusty, Dylan had to move his stuff out and clean the place up.

“All right, well, don’t worry about someone else catching Rusty.”

He smiled at her and kissed her. That was what was really bothering him about the whole situation. He looked forward to the downtime with Roxie, but he wished he had accomplished finding the trapper first.

“How about we go up to Denver tonight instead of tomorrow morning? We can stay the weekend to pack, clean, and see the sights?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah, that would be great. Should we have dinner up there?” She went to the master bedroom to pack a bag for the weekend. “I’ve got a couple of ice chests in the garage we can take. We can get ice in Denver.”

“Yeah, I want to take you to some restaurants I really like that you don’t have in this area and to some other places that I haven’t been to since I was a kid. That’s great on the ice chests.” He packed his bag too.

“Let’s go then.” She called Kayla and told her they were leaving tonight to stay in Denver. Nate and Kayla were already taking care of Rosco and Buttercup because Dylan and Roxie were going to be gone for the weekend. “No, we’ve got this. Dylan said he doesn’t have too much to pack up. Yeah, we’re going to see the sights. I’ll let you know when we return. Thanks. Love you.” She got off the phone and said to Dylan, “Kayla will let the rest of the family know we’re taking off tonight instead of tomorrow.”

“I already told my boss I was taking the weekend off. He wasn’t surprised now that I have you in my life. Before that, I worked all the time,” Dylan said, carrying their bags down the stairs.

“That’s not good for you.” She climbed into Dylan’s truck in the garage.

“You are what’s good for me all the way around.” He loaded their bags into the back seat along with a couple of ice chests she had for the food in the fridge and freezer at his apartment.

“The same for me.”

Then they were on their way to Denver, and he couldn’t wait to show her some of the places he loved and see the sights he hadn’t been to since he was a kid and his parents had been alive. He hadn’t been interested in any of that since then, not until he had Roxie in his life and was eager to share it with her. He’d even made reservations at one of the nicest hotels, which she totally approved of.

Roxie was so glad to get this done—and so was Dylan. He’d bought a few clothes in Silver Town, but now he would have all his clothes and he wouldn’t feel so much like he was living out of his suitcase. No longer was he a bachelor male living alone on his own but a mated wolf living with her. She was curious to see what his place looked like, to smell him there, to learn more about him. This had been his domain, his kingdom, as much as her place had been hers. But now he was every bit a part of her home.

When they finally arrived at the apartment complex, he parked, but he kissed her and said, “I think I straightened it up before I left the apartment, but I’m not sure.”

She laughed. “You are great at our house, so I don’t care what your place looks like. That was when you were a bachelor and you weren’t expecting company anyway.”

“Okay, I wanted to warn you just in case.”

They pulled the packing boxes out of his truck and carried them to the outer doorway of the apartment complex.

“I hope no food spoiled since you’ve been away for so long,” she said.

“No. I only defrost what I’m going to eat right away. Everything is frozen otherwise. I used up the last of the eggs and milk before I left. I wasn’t sure when I would be back, though I really thought I would have caught these guys before I returned home. Then again, I didn’t think I’d be looking for a murderer.”

“I agree.”

They went down the hall to the front door of his apartment, and he unlocked it. They were both burdened down by boxes, so when they stepped into the room and came face-to-face with Fennel holding a rifle on them, they both just froze.

They hadn’t smelled his scent at the front door. Why not? Roxie wondered if Fennel had broken in through a back window or… She saw the back door to a patio. Dylan’s apartment was on the ground floor. It would have been easy for Fennel to gain access to the apartment.

Dylan didn’t have his gun with him. He hadn’t planned on hunting anyone down.

“What do you want with us?” Roxie began to put the boxes down on the floor.

“Shut the door,” Fennel said.

Dylan threw his boxes at Fennel, knocking his rifle out of his hands. Then Dylan dove for Roxie, pushing her out of the apartment. “Run.”

She wasn’t leaving her mate alone with Fennel for anything. She knew Dylan was trying to protect her. And she knew he wasn’t letting Fennel get away with this. Roxie couldn’t either because Dylan would be chasing him forever.

But she did stay outside the apartment for the moment while Dylan tackled Fennel before he recovered his rifle. That was when Roxie raced into the apartment, looked for something that she could use to disable Fennel, and saw a lamp on a table next to the couch. She grabbed it and pulled. It was plugged in. Naturally.

She ran over, yanked the cord out of the outlet, and raced across the room with the lamp in hand. Dylan and Fennel were matched in height, but Fennel was heavier than Dylan by maybe thirty pounds. The two were fighting with each other, Fennel trying to reach his rifle, Dylan wrestling to keep him from getting hold of it.

Roxie waited for the perfect moment, then swung the lamp just as Fennel was on top of Dylan and struck Fennel hard in the head, knocking him out.

“Call 911.” Dylan shoved Fennel off him and checked him for a pulse, then headed into the kitchen. He pulled open a drawer and grabbed some duct tape. After he taped Fennel’s wrists behind his back as he lay on the floor unconscious, Dylan checked the man’s pulse again.

“He’s not dead, is he?” Roxie already had her phone out and had called 911. “A man who’s wanted for murder and attempted murder, Fennel Keaton of Denver, needs medical attention at my boyfriend’s apartment.” She wanted to call Dylan her husband, because as mated wolves they were mated for life, but she wasn’t technically married to him by human standards with an official marriage certificate, and she didn’t want to complicate things.

“No. He has a steady pulse. That was good thinking. And fast,” Dylan said to Roxie.

“I was in the army,” she reminded him.

He smiled. “Good thing for me.”

“I’m Roxie Wolff and we’re at Dylan Powers’s apartment.” She gave the 911 operator Dylan’s address while Dylan wrapped Fennel’s head with a bandage to stop the bleeding. She should have felt bad when she had injured the man like that. But if he had gotten hold of the rifle, she didn’t doubt Fennel would have shot them both.

“We’re sending an ambulance and the police to your location. Is he conscious?” the operator asked.

“No, but he has a pulse.” Roxie could hear his heart thumping hard.

They heard sirens off in the distance and she was hoping they were coming for Fennel. She saw Dylan’s bloodied nose and bruised cheek. She hurried into the kitchen to get some paper towels and stop the nosebleed. After the police saw and documented what had happened, she would wash the blood from his face.

“I love you.” She glanced around the apartment. It was a mess.

“This is not my doing. Fennel must have been staying here since we let him go and then had the police issue a warrant for his arrest again,” Dylan said. “He would have figured no one would ever suspect he’d be hiding out here—least of all me.”

“I agree.”

Then Fennel started to come to. They heard the sirens right outside the apartment building. Good. Finally. It hadn’t taken them long, but every second seemed like hours, and she wanted Fennel treated for his injury and then taken into custody before he could hurt anyone else.

The door to the apartment was still wide open. They heard footfalls racing down the hall. “Police!” one of the men said before entering the apartment.

“We’ve got everything under control,” Dylan said. “I’m a special agent with the FWS. My girlfriend is here with me. Fennel Keaton is the one you’re after.”

The officers began coming into the apartment. Dylan showed them his badge and ID. Once the police were assured Fennel wasn’t going to shoot anyone, the paramedics were called in and they took care of Fennel and transported him to the waiting ambulance.

Dylan filled in the local detective, Detective Price, on exactly what had happened and how it had ended here.

“All right. Here’s my business card if you think of anything else,” Detective Price said. “He’ll also be charged with breaking and entering.”

“Good. Here’s my card if you need me for anything else,” Dylan said to the detective.

Then the police left, one of them taking Fennel’s rifle, and Dylan and Roxie looked at the mess Fennel had made of Dylan’s apartment.

“Believe me, I did not leave my apartment looking like this,” Dylan said, noticing the piled-up dirty dishes in the sink, food wrappers everywhere.

“Once the warrant was issued for his arrest, he must have realized you knew he had lied about everything.” Roxie began putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. “He could have just washed the dishes.”

“Yeah, I agree, but I don’t believe he had my best interests in mind.” Dylan started to throw away the trash and then cleaned the pots and pans. “Here I thought I’d left the place nice and clean at least as far as the kitchen went, ready to just pack up my belongings and move out, and that would be it.”

“We’ll take care of it. I’m just so thrilled we caught him without anyone dying. There would have been a million more questions asked if I’d killed Fennel. Your place would have been taped off as a crime scene.” She wrapped her arms around Dylan and kissed him. “And then we wouldn’t have been able to clean out your apartment and take your clothes with us.” She kissed him again. “I would have had to take you shopping again.”

He laughed and kissed her. “I’m glad you didn’t kill him. He needs to go to prison for what he’s done, and you didn’t need to have this on your conscience.”

“Well, this totally calls for a celebration.”

“I agree. I’m going to quickly call my boss and let him know Fennel has been caught before he sees it on the news.”

Roxie smiled, then gently cleaned the blood off Dylan’s face. “Yes, you should do that. When your boss learns you caught him in your apartment, he might really be upset with you if he didn’t learn it from you first.”

“Exactly.” Dylan got on his phone while Roxie started the dishwasher, then headed into the bedroom.