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Ethan was afraid he was moving too fast with Charlene, though when a wolf really, really liked a wolf, they didn t delay getting to know each other.

But with this job hanging over his head and his boss expecting results, he would have to concentrate on that soon.

He d absolutely had no plans to live in Oyster Bay after he finished this mission when all his friends were in Portland or the surrounding communities.

Yet, if he and Charlene continued on this path and ended up mating, he was ready to settle down and start their own pack on the coast. He smiled at the idea.

Then he frowned as he tossed his clothes in the washing machine and took a shower.

He wasn t sure how she was going to take the news that he was still working this dangerous job.

He got out of the shower, dried off, and pulled on a fresh pair of boxer shorts, then called Tori. Hey—

How did it go with Charlene? You took her out to dinner, right?

Marvelously. But I want you to check into something for me.

About your case already? You were supposed to be resting up for the week after being wounded twice on the mission.

As if the wolf bite counted for anything. And that didn t go in the report.

Not to mention, Tori continued, it wouldn t hurt for you to get to know Charlene a bit better while you have the time off.

No, it s not about the case. Charlene received flowers from some unknown person. A secret admirer.

Uh-oh, so you have some competition that you are needing to eliminate.

Ethan laughed. She doesn t know who sent the flowers, and she wanted me to learn who might have. The delivery was from Coastal Florists. He gave Tori Charlene s address and when the flowers were delivered.

I ll check on it first thing in the morning unless it s a case of life or death.

He smiled. Thanks.

She has no idea who might have sent them?

She has an ex in Destin, Florida, by the name of Noah Westmoreland, and Renault saw her during the raid on her home.

He knows her, was a friend of Noah s, and you know he was working in Destin before he transferred to Portland.

Anyway, since she left Noah, Renault might have learned where she was moving to and sent her the flowers.

He has no chance with her. He isn t a wolf, Tori said.

Yeah, but Renault doesn t know that. I m sure it would give her some peace of mind to know who sent them.

True. If I learn he did it, what do you want me to do about it? Tori asked.

Just let me know. Hopefully, he won t try to pursue her out here. We both thought it was bizarre that whoever sent the flowers did so anonymously. If he was really interested in her, he should have said so.

Right. It would creep me out if anyone did that to me.

Exactly.

Before I let you go, tell me that you also got Charlene flowers, Tori said.

Yeah, you bet. I was damn glad I had, though I still missed giving them to her first.

At least you also thought of doing it. I hope they were nicer than what he, whoever he is, gave to her.

Doubly so.

At least so you say.

Ethan laughed. Thanks for looking into this for me.

You know you can always count on me. I m glad the night went well with Charlene. I ll talk to Adam about it and he ll help me look into it. Good night.

Good night, Tori. Ethan knew they wouldn t share what they were looking into with anyone except the pack leaders and Adam s mate, Sierra, because she worked at the police bureau too.

Ethan got into bed, lay on his back, and started thinking about Renault.

Ethan could understand if Renault realized Charlene had left her boyfriend behind and he thought he had a chance to date her now.

But that would be a long-distance relationship and Ethan couldn t see that working out or why Renault would even consider it.

Which meant someone else probably sent the flowers.

He rolled onto his side and closed his eyes, but he couldn t quit thinking about the mystery. He opened his eyes, grabbed his phone, and turned it on. He thought about calling Charlene, but she could already be asleep. Yet, he wanted to ask her more about who might have sent her the flowers.

He sighed. Would she be angry with him? Tired of his asking her? Amused?

He called her and her phone rang and rang and rang. Hell, she was asleep. But then she answered the phone and he thought she would sound half-asleep. She didn t.

Hello, you. Do you have a change of plans for tomorrow? she asked. I was charging my phone in the living room so it took me a few minutes to get to it.

No. I just wanted to let you know I talked to Tori and she and Adam are going to look into who ordered the flowers.

I m glad they re looking into it and that you ll be around if someone starts to actually stalk me.

I am too. He won t get far with it.

No. All you and I have to do is turn wolf and that would be the end of it.

He chuckled. I ll let you get some sleep then.

You too. Then they called it a night.

He was glad he had moved here and could watch over her personally. He took a deep breath and released it. He would get to the bottom of the mystery one way or another.

***

Charlene couldn t get to sleep. She kept racking her brain for a reason why anyone would send her the flowers and who it might be.

She finally fell asleep and woke to her phone ringing early the next morning. She glanced at the caller ID. Tori.

Hello? Charlene said.

Hey, I hope I didn t wake you too early, but I wanted to tell you that Ethan has Adam, Sierra, and me on the job of trying to track down your mystery flower sender.

Thanks, Tori. Last night, Ethan told me that you would look into it.

Yeah, I was just calling to see if you have any other ideas about who it might be once you had more time to ponder it last night.

Other than Renault, or even my ex-boyfriend trying to get in touch with me, I can t think of anyone else.

Did you tell your ex-boyfriend where you were moving to?

Actually no, but he did work with Renault in Florida.

Your ex-boyfriend is another DEA agent? Tori asked.

Yeah, and he could still be in touch with Renault since they re friends.

Actually, Renault might have even told him that he ran into me at the raid on the house I was renting.

Renault could have easily learned where I was going to live next and told my ex.

Though truly, I don t know why Noah would care.

He and I ended things on a sour note, and we haven t spoken to each other since.

The flowers wouldn t be from one of the people you purchased any of the homes from, right?

I don t think so. The houses that I m renting out were owned by two older couples who wanted to move closer to their kids in other parts of the state. The person who owned the home I m living in had a new job and was moving with his family closer to Portland where he would work.

Okay, so that sounds like nothing that would hold any real leads. Did you eat in town when you were looking for places to buy? Maybe stay at a hotel overnight?

Oh yeah, sure. I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at different restaurants while I was here overnight. And I did stay at a hotel to really get a look at several different places.

Did anyone stand out to you at any of the places? Tori asked.

Charlene could tell that Tori was good at her job. She was thorough in helping Charlene to recollect what she couldn t on her own about people she might have met.

Well, I found the places about two days after I moved to Portland, so it has been nearly a month since then.

It has taken that long to buy the properties and renovate them.

Which means I did talk to a couple of people about doing the work on all three of the houses to update them and an interior decorator to furnish the rentals.

I ll think on it and get back to you in case anyone comes to mind.

Maybe something will jog your memory. Even returning to the places you ate might help.

Go with Ethan though, in case the person works at one of the restaurants.

Same with the hotel. Take him along so everyone will know you have someone in your life.

I know, it s just for pretend, but it could help stop real trouble before it starts, hopefully.

Okay, I ll do that. Thanks, Tori. I d considered doing these things, but I just wasn t sure it was really necessary.

Once they ended the call, Charlene called Ethan.

Hey, good morning! Ethan sounded like he was a real morning person. She usually was too, but not this morning.

Good morning, Ethan. Tori called. She was trying to jog my memory about who I might have run into here who would have sent the roses, and I mentioned eating at three different restaurants while I was here looking at places.

She suggested I return to them to see if I can recall anything.

So if you re at all interested, do you want to eat with me this morning while we check out the restaurant where I had breakfast?

Hell, yeah, I ll be right over to pick you up.

She chuckled.

Where are we going? he asked on Bluetooth.

The Beach Breeze Café.

Oh, great, I had wanted to try that place out while I was here.

Well, this will be fun while we re on a fact-finding mission. She was used to trying to solve mysteries as a homicide detective. As long as this didn t turn into a dangerous situation.

It didn t take long for Ethan to get there.

She opened the door and locked it behind her and climbed into his car before he could get out. Onward and upward. This is my treat, um, for helping me out so much.

You deserve it, he said.

She sighed and shut her door. Thanks. Okay, so she really needed to tell him she was sorry about biting him. If she hadn t ever seen him again, she could have lived with not apologizing. But because they were doing so much together, she had to. So about biting you—

It s nearly healed up.

Shoot, she should have asked him about his gunshot wound first thing this morning. I apologize for biting you.

He glanced at her and smiled. I deserved it, truly. As soon as I didn t smell any drugs in the house, I should have known we weren t in the right place. And smelling your she-wolf scent added to the awareness that your house wasn t where we should be.

But you were so sure that it had to be the right place. Your informant gave you the wrong address. Did you talk to him about it afterward? What if he was giving the bad guys time to escape?

Yeah, I talked to him. I wasn t supposed to be working the next day, but I had to go and see where his head was at.

And?

He swears he gave us the correct address, but I had recorded the conversation, and he hadn t. I could smell deception on him, and I told him I didn t believe him. He got really nervous, wouldn t look me in the eye, and was tapping his foot on the floor incessantly.

So he purposefully steered you to my house.

Yeah. I questioned him about why he had lied to us and sent us to someone else s home.

I bet he had a story on hand for that.

Ethan pulled into the parking lot at the Beach Breeze Café, and they both got out of the car.

Yep. He changed his story and said he always gets the two tree names mixed up.

I asked him how much Kroner paid him to change the address.

He swore Kroner hadn t or we wouldn t have caught the dude.

I had to admit that was true. If Kroner had paid Ferret off, that meant Kroner would have known that my team and I would go to the wrong place and then head to their place, and Kroner would have packed up and moved already.

Ethan opened the door to the restaurant for Charlene, and they walked inside. A hostess seated them and left menus with them.

The last time Charlene had gone there, she had loved it.

Paintings of sailing boats and fishing nets, fake crabs clinging onto them, seahorses, and seashells everywhere were hanging on the walls, and a treasure chest was filled with candy at the cashier s desk.

A fishing boat was situated in the middle of the restaurant, filled with buffet food for breakfast. Fruit, hash brown potatoes, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and doughnuts were set out, and scrambled eggs, sausages, and ham filled the warming trays and covered platters.

So then why did Ferret lie to you, Ethan? Charlene opened her menu.

I asked if he thought we would tip Kroner off by hitting the wrong house, and then Kroner would hear about it and take off.

Ferret was sweating like he d been on a desert island, sitting in the sun on a blistering hot day.

I suspected that he was afraid to tip Kroner off himself—the old adage that they kill the messenger coming to mind.

While with our clumsy raid of your house, if any news source had learned of it, 911 reports from nearby neighbors, or just anything that clued them in, Kroner could hear about it and then alerting him of the raid would have come from us, not Ferret.

Aww, okay, that makes total sense.

A server arrived at their table and they both asked for coffee. Then he left to give them a little longer to look at their menus.

Though you caught Kroner and the other guy.

Right, so no new source or 911 calls had been made.

Charlene glanced around the restaurant. I didn t have any interaction with anyone in here other than the server, as I recall.

I don t remember any customers who were in here at the time.

I mean, some families were here, but I wasn t paying any attention to them.

I was on my phone looking at house listings though, so I might have missed if someone was watching me.

Well, I m glad we could have breakfast together anyway. This is nice.

It is. I love the decor and the food is great.

So what do you want to do for breakfast? Buffet or order from the menu?

I want to try the Spanish omelet with crispy potatoes and toast, Charlene said. And sausages. Fruit comes with it.

Okay, I m going to get the buffet. They have everything I want and more. It looks like they have a good lunch and dinner menu too.

Yeah, we ll have to try it some other time. Would you like to take a walk along the beach and see the tidal pools with me after breakfast? Charlene asked.

Yeah, I would love to do that.

I should have asked you about your arm.

The teeth marks are nearly gone.

She laughed. I meant your bullet wound.

He smiled. Oh, that. It s still there, but it s healing. Thanks for asking.