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They are three hours away.

Yes, but they would drop everything and be here to help me out.

She shook her head. They re still three hours away. So the house you bought—

It s the DEA s. My boss had it rented for me, but no one in the department knows about it.

Oh, you aren t really living here. Why did you set up here, in this specific location?

He wanted me to check out Shelby Bay.

Just down the coast from us.

Yes. Oakley has been known to be there and there s a house that he might be working out of, but my boss didn t want me to be living that close to where the perps could be.

So you haven t moved to Oyster Bay permanently.

Charlene sounded like she was still trying to come to grips with the fact that Ethan wasn t really retired.

That makes sense because you truly wouldn t leave your friends and the wolf pack behind.

She appeared disappointed as she pushed her windswept hair out of her face.

Yeah, but that was before I met you.

She frowned at him. I m sorry, but this is a lot to take in. I m a red wolf too. You could have confided in me from the beginning.

I wasn t supposed to, and I thought you would be safer if you didn t know.

I was a homicide detective out of the sheriff s department where I lived before.

His jaw dropped. Seriously? Now it was his turn to be shocked at the news.

Yeah, for ten years. After my family died, I had to take care of my parents rental properties and the funerals and all, and I just couldn t focus on going back to my job.

I left the force to take care of everything.

Then my boyfriend and I broke up, and I was ready for a big change in my life, which is a lot of the reason why I came out here.

It was always a happy place for me when I visited my grandfather.

My twin sister actually preferred the crystal-clear aqua waters of Destin to the wildness of the Oregon coast. The last few times, I was the only one to visit my grandfather.

I always felt…revitalized, joyful, when I came here.

The Destin beaches are crowded with tourists in the summer. Here…it s so peaceful.

Ethan understood how she felt, but he also looked at her with a new sense of awe.

She wasn t just a civilian any longer. Well, she was now, but she had been trained in police techniques so she would be better equipped to deal with someone who might be a danger to her.

Not that he wanted her to have to protect herself from these men.

I m glad you re here. But why didn t you tell me you had been with the sheriff s department when you were in Florida?

Would it have made any difference?

Yeah. As a former police officer, you would know better how to manage someone who was trouble.

So that means you don t have to protect me any longer?

He smiled. Of course I want to protect you.

But…well, I would have felt like I could share what my mission is, that as a former homicide detective, you would understand.

Believe me, I ve dated women who hated that I worked as a DEA special agent.

They just felt it was too stressful, not knowing if I would return from a raid in one piece.

Once I was shot in the leg and ended up in surgery and off the job for a month.

Instead of being there for me, the woman I was dating ended up dumping me.

She said she couldn t deal with it. She left Portland for good, so she is no longer with the pack.

Oh, that s awful. I guess not everyone can handle it. Charlene cleared her throat. When I was shot—

Hell. I hope the guy who shot you is dead.

She smiled.

What happened? He felt awful that he knew so little about Charlene and thought he had been the only one who had suffered an attack from a perp while on the job.

The shooter was a woman, actually. Noah was dating her, but she wasn t a wolf.

Then he met me, and he was at once interested in me because I was a wolf.

He s a gray wolf, not a red wolf, by the way.

When he broke up with his short-term girlfriend, she went ballistic.

They d only been together for a couple of weeks, but she had decided he was hers forever and ever.

He later explained to me she d told all her friends that she and Noah would be married before long.

She found out that he was seeing me, and she started stalking me.

This crazed blond came out of the dark when I was returning home from a trip to the funeral home and started screaming obscenities about me stealing Noah from her.

I tried to reason with her with my police training, to talk her down. But it was of no use.

I couldn t avoid being shot but I yelled out, trying to get anyone s attention so they could call the police.

But it was a dark night, full moon, with just some light from a streetlamp.

I could see, but others probably couldn t tell what was happening if they d heard me.

She shot me in the shoulder, and I was afraid she would keep shooting until I was dead, as angry as she was.

I ran at her and shoved her down. She whacked her head hard on the pavement and that knocked her out temporarily, long enough for me to grab her gun and call the police.

They were there within minutes and took her into custody.

At the same time, an ambulance transported me to the hospital.

We didn t have a wolf doctor to take care of our injuries like you have here.

I ended up in the hospital for a week and finally got out.

But the doctor put me on two months leave to recover, physical therapy, the whole thing.

Noah had been laughing his ass off because I should have been back to work after a month.

What an ass.

Yeah, I know. I was still having to deal with my family s death, so it was a lot to manage. As a DEA special agent, Noah was busy working his cases and I swear he was staying away more because of all I had to deal with.

I wouldn t have. Ethan rose from his chair and went to Charlene s. He pulled her from it, then hugged her. I would have been there for you.

Yeah, I think you would have been.

They moved to the living room, more relaxed now, and he felt a real shift in their relationship, not so superficial, better, deeper. What happened to Noah s ex-girlfriend?

She was sent to prison for attempted premeditated murder. She had done it before when she was sixteen and her boyfriend started seeing another girl behind her back in high school, but the court records had been sealed. So Noah hadn t known about it. Anyway, she ended up with thirty years in prison.

Good for that.

So you said you were shot another time? she asked.

Uh, yeah. I just didn t dodge fast enough.

You sound like me.

Yeah, it was another drug bust. I was hit in the same arm too.

Did the guy go down for it?

Absolutely. I d had other problems with him before that.

He d attempted to cut me with a knife and went to prison for a few years for attempted murder that time too.

While he was in the joint for shooting me, another prisoner killed him over drugs.

So that was the last time I had to worry about him.

She sighed and kissed Ethan on the mouth. Now I m sorry I didn t bite your other arm instead.

He laughed, thinking that s how they would always remember their first encounter.

He kissed her back, pressing for entrance.

She softened her mouth to his, parting her lips and encouraging him to dip his tongue inside and kiss her deeply.

He cupped her head, her silky hair falling over his hands.

He kissed her again, loving the feel of her full lips against his mouth, the way she licked his lips and kissed him more firmly.

Her hands were on his shoulders, caressing, holding him steady, her eyes closed.

He closed his eyes as he enjoyed the impromptu kiss with Charlene.

He was completely tuned in to her, her skin soft, her scent sweet, mixed with the fresh, salty sea air.

She finally pulled her mouth aways from his, licked her lips, and smiled. He smiled and kissed her mouth one last time.

What can I do to help you catch these bad guys? she asked, sounding serious as could be.

Nothing, really. I m just glad if any of this comes your way, you might be able to handle yourself better.

But I don t want you in harm s way. He hadn t expected her to offer, but he didn t want her to get involved in this.

She might be trained in dealing with the bad guys, but she wasn t part of the force now and she didn t have a paycheck or even health insurance from the DEA s office to cover this if she got injured.

She would have to use her own, which wasn t really fair to her.

Not to mention his boss would be ticked off if he learned of it.

You re here alone, and if you re undercover, I make the perfect girlfriend for you, as long as you don t have an ex-girlfriend coming after me.

He laughed. No.

Good. Then it s settled. Just tell me what you want to do first to take these guys down. Oh, I have a question. I thought you were retired and couldn t do anything about it, but if there s someone in your department who s crooked, then you need to know who it is.

Right.

I saw something odd when I went to the service station closest to me the night of the raid.

Oh?

Yeah, a guy named DEA Special Agent Pete Cohen looked like he was taking a bribe or drugs from some grungy-looking guy. And Pete was with someone else, the other man who rushed into my bathroom to save you.

Manx Ryerson.

Right, him too. Cohen looked like he was bullying the grungy guy, but when they saw me watching the situation—the hazard of being a former police officer and an alert and wary wolf—the grungy guy took off and Cohen and Ryerson followed me into the restaurant.

To intimidate you. Ethan was so angry, he wanted to arrest the both of them for bullying Charlene.

Right. But I told Cohen I was a homicide detective on vacation there from Florida, so he didn t ask for my name, though my driver s license still showed my address back in Florida.

Still, I think he decided I might be more trouble than I was worth.

But my wolf senses said the two men were dirty, shaking down a druggy or small-time drug dealer.

I might be wrong, and they were just talking to one of their informants, but since they followed me to turn up the heat, I don t think so.

Then the most bizarre thing happened. Some patrol officer named Lawrence Baker, stopped me for a traffic violation that he damn well knew I hadn t done.

But the really weird part was that he asked to see my police badge.

I had only told Agent Cohen that I was a homicide detective. No one else in Portland knew it.

Well, hell. So Agent Cohen sent the police officer to harass you. Then Agents Cohen and Ryerson saw you at the rental house and knew just where you lived.

Yeah, at least for the one night.

Without evidence, we can t prove anything, but I ll let my boss know.

Ethan hoped they might be able to get somewhere with the information, but no matter what, he wished he d known before his retirement party.

Though he figured at the time, Charlene hadn t been sure if Ethan had even been one of the good guys.