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“What’s going on, Nick?” Ace asked, and he found himself explaining about the animals. About them being in the right place at the right time years ago. About the way the one cougar looked at him just now, as though it knew Nick was going to need a hand.

The look of disbelief on Ace’s face wasn’t exactly encouraging to his own doubt.

“I know, man. It’s crazy.” He did. There was no doubt, but he couldn’t shake it.

“You think they’re what, like avengers?” He didn’t blame his cousin for his scepticism.

“I have no fucking clue, man. It’s just weird.” Needing to change the subject, he asked, “How’s our girl?”

“She’s been sitting in there, staring at the computer screen. I think she’s terrified. I even offered to do it for her or to sit with her. Kept shaking her head no.”

Gazing toward Ace, he told him, “Let’s not give her a choice then, huh?”

His amused smirk spoke volumes. “You always were the smart one, Nicky boy.”

Laughing, they headed inside. The scene that greeted them as they entered the office made him sad. Removing his coat and boots without a word, Nick picked her up, placing her in his lap. He cooed into her hair, “I’m sorry, baby.”

Rubbing her cheek into his face was answer enough for him as Ace pulled up a chair beside them.

“Why is this so hard?” she asked them.

Looking at the screen, he saw that she’d typed her name into a search engine but nothing else. She was just sitting there contemplating her name.

When he attempted to hit enter, she grabbed his wrist. “Wait! What if I’m a bad person?” Genuine fear projected from the very fibre of her being, and he knew she was afraid.

“We’ll never know until you hit enter. Unless you prefer to go sit in the living room while we look?” he suggested.

The look of horror she sent his way made it virtually impossible not to laugh. “What’s his name?” Her question took Nick off guard.

“Whose?” He really didn’t want her asking about who he thought she was.

“Him. The man who did this.” She swept her hand up and down her body. “What is his name?”

Ace responded before he could. “Alex Medina.”

After a minute of processing the name, she spoke. “It means nothing. Shouldn’t it mean something? I mean, it’s likely he did this to me, right? His name should be familiar, shouldn’t it?” The last part was whispered more to herself than them.

Hugging her body to his own, Nick said to her, “No, Pepper, it shouldn’t. Your mind is protecting you from that dreadful night, which means blocking his name out. You said you had a brother, correct? You had a dream about him.”

Her entire body lit up with excitement. “Yes! James. So, he’d be James Wallace.” She deleted her name and typed in her brother’s. The first thing to pop up once she hit enter was the fatal accident that took their parents.

He thought, for sure, that she’d wilt and give up, not wanting to see the awful event unfold again. Their girl was made of stronger stuff than that, though. He should have known. She scrolled through until she found a commendation James had received after rescuing hostages in a domestic abuse case.

“He’s a North Vancouver detective. Is that far from here?”

“’Bout eight hours or so,” Ace told her.

“That’s not too bad.” It seemed like she was thinking out loud now.

A cell phone interrupted anything else they could have said. Dashing to the kitchen after depositing her on Ace’s lap, he picked it up just before voicemail set in. “Sheriff Kelly,” Nick answered.

“Hey, Sheriff, it’s Ranger Allen from Glacier National Park.”

“What can I do for you, Ranger?” he asked, confused because he didn’t normally get calls from the National Parks.

“Well, Sheriff, I have a problem. Some cougars we’ve had keeping proprietary over here have gone missing, and we heard a few years back you had a pack in the area?”

“That’s right, we did,” he confirmed.