“We should just get a warrant anyway,” she said. “There’s no way they’re going to tell us the truth without one.”
“I’m sure we can find out everything we need to know just by looking around and asking a few questions.”
“You have a lot more faith in these people than I do,” she grumbled under her breath as the office door opened.
A man with dark hair, dark eyes, and wearing a Western-cut suit walked into the front lobby and held out his hand to Chance. “I paid for my fishing license this year. Emery Leland,” the man said with a grin, reaching out to shake Chance’s hand. “What brings you out to the mine today, Warden?”
“We found a dead grizzly shifter downriver from here. Autopsy confirms it was arsenic poisoning. Our consulting scientist found a sample containing dangerous levels of arsenic in a popular fishing hole near where the dead shifter was found. We took another sample today, and it was clean. We just want to have a look around and ask a few questions.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Emery Leland said, scratching his chin. “As I’m sure Stacy told you, we had our environmental checks just a few weeks ago, and the reports will be coming in soon. We have some of the strictest environmental regulations of any mine in the country. We all fish these waters ourselves,” Mr. Leland said, slapping Chance on the back. Chance growled and frowned, looking uncomfortable. This guy was laying it on thick. Summer didn’t buy it for a second.
“I know you do, and I’m sure you’re right, but I still have to do my due diligence. Don’t want to have to go through the trouble of getting a warrant.”
“Of course, look around as much as you need. Stacy will show you around.”
Stacy looked at Summer and glared. Sighing, she stood from her reception desk. “Follow me,” she said, directing them to the entrance of the smelting plant.
They took their tour, and Summer got to ask extensive questions of the engineers around the wastewater processing for the smelting plant and mine. They answered all her questions, which seemed to satisfy Chance. Summer still wasn’t convinced. She was sure that the engineers were hiding something. There was no other explanation for the shifter’s death. And proving that the mine was contaminating the river was the entire reason she’d come to this part of Montana in the first place.
At the end of the tour, Stacy offered them the use of the breakroom, where they could get some soda from the vending machines before they left. Chance got himself a soda and offered to buy something for Summer.
“I’ll take a bottle of water,” she said. Chance bought her water and handed it to her just as a group of miners walked into the breakroom.
“Mr. Leland has been laying off all the shifters who work here as soon as they come out. How do you explain that?” asked a big, burly man with a dark beard and dark eyes.
“Because shifters are lazy animals who take more deserving humans’ jobs,” said a man with a wrinkly, tanned face in a sneering voice.
The first man approached the second man, growling, and they pushed each other as if a fight was ready to break out. Chance stepped in front of Summer and blocked her from the gathering crowd of angry miners.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, taking her hand and leading her out of the room. When they got to the parking lot, he open the passenger door first and waited for her to climb inside.
“Why did you hurry out of there when those men started fighting? We could’ve gotten some valuable information.”
“I wanted to keep you safe,” he said, starting the engine.
Chapter 6
Chance grumbled inwardly as he drove back to town. The men fighting in front of Summer had brought out his bear’s protective instincts, and he had to get her out of there as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that meant he didn’t get a chance to investigate what the men had been fighting about.
As he was considering the implications of shifter layoffs at the copper mine, his cell phone rang. He checked the ID and saw it was his clan mate. “This is Chance,” he said into the phone.
“Chance, thank God. Have you heard about the Owenses up on Aspen Drive?”
“No. I’ve been out of town all day. What’s going on?”
“They’re all sick. The kids are bad off.”
“Why are you calling me? They should get to the hospital.”
“Tim Owens doesn’t want to take his family to the hospital. Too scared of retaliation. The family came out as shifters before the hate groups hit. He thinks someone in town is out to get them. He’ll only trust another shifter. I tried to talk sense into him, but he wouldn’t have it. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”
“I’m on my way,” Chance said before hanging up.
“What was that about?” Summer asked from the passenger seat. Her honey-brown skin glistened in the afternoon sunlight that streamed through the window. Her dyed, red dreadlocks were wrapped around her head in a halo, making her look like an exotic angel. Her beauty made his bear wake up and roll over, panting. Those thoughts would have to wait for another time.
“A shifter family downriver has taken sick. We’re going out to talk them into going to the hospital.”
Chance pulled onto the road headed toward the Owens’ ranch down in the valley. Outside, the scenery changed from pine forest to open plains dotted with cattle and sheep. As they came to Aspen Drive, the road was lined with the black- and white-dappled bark of aspens and their quaking green leaves. He pulled into the Owens’ driveway and parked in front of their big ranch house.
Chance got out and helped Summer with her testing kit. Something told him there might be a connection between the Owens’ mystery illness and the poisoned bear shifter they’d found in the woods the day before.
They were greeted at the front door by Tim Owens himself, looking pale and sick. On a man as big and burly as Tim, the effect was even more dramatic. Tim had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, heavy bags under his eyes, and dark blotches on his skin.
“Chance, what brings you here?” he asked in a weak voice.
“I came to check on you and your family. The clan is worried since you won’t go to the hospital.”
“Come in,” Tim said, stepping out of the way. Chance and Summer walked into the house that smelled of musty bodies and sickness. The family was gathered together in the living room, looking weak and frail. A little blonde girl sat huddled on the couch in a pile of blankets, black spots all over her pale skin.
“How long have you been like this?” Summer asked, pulling the strap of her testing kit from Chance’s shoulder. She set the kit on the dining room table and began to unpack her tools.
“Since yesterday,” Tim said, sitting down at the table to watch Summer work.
“You have acute arsenic poisoning. Probably from your drinking water. I’ll test it now to see what kind of levels we’re talking about.”
She went to the kitchen sink and turned on the water, pulling a sample into a sterile syringe. She put the sample into a test tube and added the testing solution before putting it into the stand to wait.
“We’ll know in fifteen minutes.”
“We’ve been poisoned?” Tim asked, just catching on to how serious this was.
“I suspect it’s runoff from the mine that’s polluting the river.”
“Our water comes from a well.”
“If the arsenic is seeping into the water table already, it's worse than I thought.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” Tim said.
“It probably isn’t from the mine,” Chance told him. Summer glared at him, furrowing her brows. He shrugged. He still didn’t have a firm reason to believe the mine was responsible for the poisonings. At this point, the only connection was the fact that arsenic was used in copper smelting. He’d wait for the environmental oversight reports to make his final judgement. Summer’s tests in the river had come up clean. There had to be an explanation.
After several minutes, Summer lifted her test tube beside the strip of pap
er with all the colors on it. “It looks like you have fairly low levels in your drinking water. I’d guess it dissipated since yesterday. I got the same results at the river. I suspect the copper mine let out all its wastewater two or three days ago and then stopped.”
“Are we going to get better?” Tim’s wife asked from the living room.
“You should see a doctor, and I wouldn’t drink from this water source until it comes up completely clean. We can go to town and pick you up bottled water, and Summer can leave you some testing supplies,” Chance said.
“Sure. I can do that,” Summer agreed.
“Still don’t want to go to the hospital,” Tim said. “Shifters heal fast.”
“With your accelerated shifter healing, you’ll most likely get better as the poison makes its way out of your system. But Chance is right. You should see a doctor.”
“We’ll be fine,” Tim said. “If you can get us the water, I’d be much obliged.”
Chance led Summer back to the truck, and she stopped at the passenger door, giving him a look that spoke a thousand words.
“What?” he asked, knowing he was in trouble with her.
“Why do you keep contradicting me?” she asked, her irritation quite evident in her voice.
“Look, Summer, you’re a smart woman. Anyone can see that, but I’m not convinced you’re right about the source of the problem. If we keep focusing on the mine, we might miss the real cause. Now, let’s go get those folks some water.”
By the time they made it back to town, bought the water the Owenses needed, and drove all the way back out to the ranch, it was already dark. Summer explained to Tim how to use the testing solution to check for arsenic and left him with a color strip that showed the levels. She told him how he wanted the water to come up clear after the solution was in it for fifteen minutes. Then it would be safe to drink again.
Chance hated to leave the family still ill, but Tim was a notoriously stubborn bear. If he believed his family was safer at home than going to the hospital, that’s exactly what Tim would do. Nothing anyone could say could change his mind.
At least they had clean water and Summer’s assurance that they’d probably get better on their own. That made him feel a bit less guilty as he drove off into the darkness and away from the sick family.
“Why don’t you come up to my place tonight,” he said, looking over at Summer in the dim light of the cab. She was gazing up at the full moon. It bathed her beautiful curves in its soft glow. “We can discuss the case over a few beers.”
“Why not? After seeing that sick family, I don’t feel much like going back to my hotel room alone.”
Chance smiled in the darkness. His bear roared in his head that he finally had his chance to claim her as his mate. No matter how much the idea of sinking his teeth into Summer’s neck while he sank his shaft into her wetness made him hard with desire, he had to keep his distance from this woman.
He could lose her forever if he didn’t play it right. Asking her back to his house had probably been a mistake, but he really didn’t want to be alone tonight. After seeing Tim’s family ill from poison, it had given him a horribly sinking feeling. Maybe Summer was right about the mine. No matter how much he didn’t want to believe that a major new employer in town was making his friends sick, the evidence was starting to pile up.
He decided he would talk to her about it further when they got inside. Pulling up to the front driveway of his house, he cut the engine and smiled. “This is it,” he said, opening the door of his truck.
She slipped out into the darkness and slowly walked toward the front porch of his house as he followed behind her. He’d built a big, pine wrap-around porch onto the old farmhouse a few years after he’d bought the place. But that wasn’t his prize possession. No, that was the garden at the back of the house. Something he wanted to show her more than anything.
They walked up the steps as the lights from the inside glowed through the big bay windows. Chance opened the door and held it for her as she walked inside and began to inspect his home.
He took a sharp breath inward, hoping she liked what she saw. His bear grumbled that this was her home now. Chance wanted more than anything for that to be true. No matter how much attitude Summer had, he still wanted her. He wanted her with every breath in his body. Her spirit only made her sexier.
Summer was doing pretty well on her own, but he felt, deep down, that she needed some grounding in her life. Without it, she was frantically pushing against a specter she didn’t even know was real. He hated to see that. He wanted her to know what she fought for, to have that security and assurance that her work would pay off in the end and that she could make a real difference.
“This is a nice place. What period was it built in?”
“Turn of the twentieth century. It still has a lot of the historic features. That fireplace is original,” he said, pointing to the big, stone hearth. “So are the floors.” The wood floors that stretched across the entire house were a source of pride for him. “When I first bought the place they were covered in green shag carpet. When I pulled it up, I found the original floors. They had some damage, but I was able to salvage them.”
“They’re gorgeous,” she said, moving into the dining room that opened into the kitchen. He’d put all new cabinets and appliances in the kitchen. Chance might be a big burly man, but he liked to cook and knew his way around a stove.
“Gosh, I love this kitchen. Do you even use all this stuff?” she said, looking from his gas range and back to him.
“Of course. Hungry?”
“I’m famished, actually.” She slid onto the stool at the bar and leaned over the counter, squeezing her arms together around her breasts. Chance’s eyes lingered on the curve of her cleavage for a brief moment, but he quickly tore them away.
“Let me get you that beer I promised,” he said, turning to the fridge to pull out a bottle of domestic microbrew. He popped the cap and handed it to her.
Summer looked at the bottle and smiled. “I would have taken you for an aluminum can kind of guy. This is good stuff.”
“What would give you the impression that I like bad beer?” he asked, dumbfounded.
“I don’t know, the whole country boy, ex-army, game warden thing you have going on.”
Chance lost it. A deep, belly laugh erupted from his gut and spilled out, echoing through the room. Summer smiled and started to giggle between sips of beer.
“You’d be surprised what I’ve got going on,” he said, his laughter finally dying down. He opened his own bottle and took a deep swig.
“Oh, like what?” she teased, her bottom lip caressing the mouth of the bottle. Chance took a sharp breath through his teeth. Summer was so damn hot. He could barely contain himself. His bear rumbled to attention.
He cleared his throat and took another swig of beer. “I told you about the garden. It’s dark out back, but the moon is full. Want to go see it? We can get some veggies for dinner.”
“Sure.”
She followed him out the sliding doors onto the back porch, and he flicked the porch light on. Down the porch steps, the plastic coverings of the hoop houses and the glass of the greenhouse glinted in the dim light. The raised beds inside the main garden were faintly illuminated by the moon.
“This way,” he said quietly, feeling as if he was about to give her a little tour of his soul.
“Is this where you grow your famous huckleberries?” she asked as they entered the main garden, which was fenced in against deer and other predators by a tall, wire mesh.
“It is. Here I’ve got the broccoli, over there is lettuce. I’ll cover it with a running hoop house when the weather turns. The tomatoes were fantastic this year. I’ve got corn coming up down at the end. This trellis is raspberries, and here, this entire section is wild huckleberry. Bears like huckleberry.”
“Bears?” she asked, turning to him suspiciously.
She doesn’t know. Chance blanched. He’d assumed she knew ab
out his bear. Everyone in town knew. Chance had come out to the public almost immediately. Would she think differently of him if she knew?
“Yes, bears,” he said carefully. The grizzly inside him grumbled and grunted for him to just spit it out.
“Are you… are you a shifter?” she asked, her fingers playing on the dark amber bottle.
“I am. A grizzly bear.”
“No wonder!” she said, her eyes growing wide in the light of the moon. She took a step closer and looked into his face.
“You aren’t afraid?” he asked.
“Of course not. Should I be?”
“Maybe,” he said, moving toward her. He could smell her luscious scent, sense the warmth of her curvy body, his need growing with each breath.
“I’m not,” she whispered.
“Good,” he said, stepping away. He knew what would happen if he let himself get closer, and he wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.
He took a swig of beer and told her to follow him. Chance gave Summer a tour of the greenhouses and the gardens, picking a few things as they went through. He planned to make her a vegan feast in an attempt to keep his hands off her tonight. They had things to discuss.
They made their way back into the kitchen, and Chance got to work washing the veggies he’d picked. Then he gave Summer a chopping board and a knife so she could prepare the salad.
“How does breaded and fried eggplant sound?” he asked her, looking over his shoulder as he pulled things from the cabinets.
“I can’t think of anything more delicious.”
Chance prepared the eggplant and put some fresh potatoes in the oven for potato wedges. While they cooked, they discussed the case.
“I just can’t believe another family was hurt,” Summer said.
“I know,” Chance said. Seeing the little shifter girl so sick from the water in her own home filled him with frustration and rage.