“I don’t think CJ told us everything.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Tom confessed. “I wanted to stay here with you to make sure you’re safe if your uncle has a death wish and tries to steal you away from here”—Elizabeth shot him a look—“but now I’m thinking we should go to the hospital and see if CJ changes his story. I have something I want to ask him.”

***

“He needs morphine,” Doc Weber said to Darien, as he looked at the X-ray of CJ’s broken leg. “I’ll rebreak the bone where it has knit together wrong and realign it properly.”

“I need to question him about his involvement in the problems we’re having,” Darien said.

“You’re welcome to question him,” Doc said, “but I still need to give him morphine.”

Tom and Elizabeth slipped into CJ’s hospital room as Nurse Matthew inserted an IV into CJ’s hand. Jake and Peter stood nearby, arms folded across their chests.

Jake finally said to CJ, “Okay, so you say you didn’t have anything to do with anything, yet you knew about everything.”

“I overheard my brothers talking.”

“And you were where at the time?” Darien asked.

“Mr. Winston’s place on the outskirts of town.”

“And just what did you overhear?”

“Their plan to scout out the perimeter of the territory, around the farms, to see what they could see.”

“Why would they want to do that?”

“I don’t know,” CJ said. “But why would they lie? They didn’t know I was there.”

Darien said, “Or they knew and they fed you a line of bull in case we picked you up and you spilled your guts about what was going on. Or you’re lying to save your ass.”

“No, I swear that’s all that I know,” CJ insisted.

“That’s all?” Darien asked.

CJ hesitated. “Yes.”

Tom spoke up. “CJ, at the cabin, you said you knew I was looking for Elizabeth. But when I heard the plane crash, I didn’t even know Elizabeth had been on it until I found her, so how did you know that?”

CJ didn’t say.

“I could break your uninjured leg,” Jake said. “You know, to take your mind off the pain when Doc rebreaks the injured one.”

CJ eyed the syringe filled with morphine.

Doc withheld it, waiting for Darien to give him the go-ahead.

“Damn it. I didn’t have anything to do with it, but after we found out Elizabeth had gone to the airport in a hurry, we went back to Mr. Winston’s and the guy that Eric had talked to on the slopes was there. He asked to talk to Eric alone. Of all of us, Eric was always the angriest at Darien for everything that had happened. As I said, he wouldn’t even consider just coming to Darien and asking to rejoin the pack.

“So I was worried and went to listen at the door. I heard the guy say he knew Eric had a grudge against the Silver pack. The guy said his employer wanted to bring back the woman Tom was with—Elizabeth—on a private plane and asked Eric if he wanted in on the job.” Everyone’s eyes were glued to CJ.

“What did he say?” Tom asked threateningly.

“I don’t know. I heard Brett and Sarandon coming down the hall, and I had to get out of there. The creep left right after that.” CJ said, looking pained. “Eric might still be angry about our father, but no matter what, I don’t believe he would have agreed to help kidnap Elizabeth. He couldn’t have. We were trying to help Elizabeth! We were still trying to find the guy that hurt her on the slopes only hours before this guy showed at Mr. Winston’s.”

“I recognized all three men who kidnapped me,” Elizabeth said. “No one else took part in my kidnapping in Canyon.”

CJ looked at Elizabeth gratefully.

“You should have told us about the kidnappers’ plan,” Tom said through gritted teeth.

“I wanted to,” CJ said, “but I didn’t want to rat out Eric. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Where are your brothers now?” Darien asked. “Still at Mr. Winston’s place?”

“I don’t think so,” CJ said. “After Elizabeth left, we argued about what to do. I wanted to find another way to get back in the pack. Eric said maybe we should just give up altogether. I left the cabin in my wolf coat to run through the woods, and that’s when I heard the plane in trouble. Since the snowstorm hit and I didn’t go back to Mr. Winston’s, they’re probably out looking for me. They could be anywhere.”

CJ winced at the pain in his leg.

“Give him the morphine,” Darien said to Doc, wishing that CJ had stayed with the pack, but still not positive his cousin hadn’t been involved in any of the pack’s recent troubles.

Tom certainly looked like he could just about strangle CJ. He whispered something in Elizabeth’s ear and moved to leave. Elizabeth followed, casting CJ a sympathetic look, and they walked out of the hospital room.

Darien shook his head. “And knock him out before you break the leg,” Darien added.

“You got it,” Doc said.

Darien turned to Peter on the way out. “Let me know when he wakes up. All right? Come on, Jake.”

As they headed out of the hospital, Jake said to Darien, “I think he was telling the truth.”

“I don’t know. If our cousins were looking for a way to get back in the pack, why scout out the human farms? I feel like there’s something we’re still missing. Let’s go home and learn what more we can from Tom and find out how Elizabeth ended up with him in the woods during the blizzard.”

“You know he’s got to have mated her by now.”

Darien smiled. “If Silva thought she was done knitting baby booties, she’s got another thing coming.”

Chapter 25

When Elizabeth was dressed in a warm, blue wool sweater, jeans, and a pair of comfy slipper boots, she and Lelandi joined Tom and the others in the living room. Tom wished he hadn’t been so antsy about Elizabeth taking so long. But he suspected they’d had a lot of girl talk and Lelandi had gotten the whole story from Elizabeth.

Noticing how tense he was, Sam, Radcliff, and Kemp had cast amused looks at each other, but they hadn’t dared say a word.

Tom quickly handed Elizabeth a plate with a ham sandwich, chips, and a pickle. “Compliments of Sam.”