Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Dana Mentink (e books free to read TXT) 📖

the sun shone on the slick rocks, everything looked shiny. He was afraid if he glanced away for even a second, it would take him forever to find it again.

“Henry!”

His gaze darted to Nora. Her arms were high in the air, but there’d been no mistaking the alarm in her shout. A giant paw snapped the branches of a bush fifteen feet in front of her. The snout poked out first, followed by a loud huff. A black bear, at least six feet long, stepped out into the open picnic area and slapped the ground with its paw. Its ears stood straight up, then flattened as its head ducked down, scared but ready to fight.

“Hey!” Henry yelled. “Get out of here.” He slipped down the boulder and felt a sharp edge rip his knee open.

“She has cubs,” Nora said loudly, waving her arms.

The bear took one step forward and began clacking its teeth together. Four fast clicks followed by a growl. The enormous animal turned away and Henry almost breathed a sigh of relief until the mama bear spun back around, taking another closer step to Nora, huffing and releasing another rendition of the odd chattering sound.

Normally when dealing with a black bear, the procedure was to make yourself big and stand your ground, but when cubs were involved, the usually timid animal’s behavior could transition to something unpredictable. Henry slid all the way down to the ground, taking the scratches with inward groans. He picked up a stick of driftwood and stepped away from the boulders, then waved the stick in the air. “Hey!”

The bear shifted her gaze from Nora to Henry and huffed again. She picked up the box of brownies with her jaw then turned and jogged toward the boulders, uttering a repetitive grunt that sounded like she was ordering her cubs “Off! Off!” The cubs barreled after her, tripping occasionally and scrambling over the rocks. The mama stopped every few steps to look over her shoulder, keeping a keen eye on Henry and Nora.

Henry stood tall, his stick still in the air, but he didn’t want to spook the mama into acting aggressively. The cubs moved along, across the boulders he’d just slid down. At the far edge of the pile, they disappeared into the tree line closest to the river rapids.

Nora dropped her hands to her knees, leaning over and breathing deeply. “Wow.” She half laughed, but the way her voice wobbled could easily be mistaken for a cry. “I love black bears,” she said. “They’re beautiful, but I kept thinking that I was in the way of them enjoying these snacks.” She waved at the spread of food in front of her. “At least she had good taste taking the brownies with her. I don’t think they’d been touched yet.”

Henry finally lowered the branch he’d been holding. A mama bear, he knew, could run thirty miles an hour, but he finally felt confident that if she decided to turn around now, they’d have time to prepare. “Where’s Perry?”

“I don’t know. It’s like he disappeared.”

Henry grabbed his radio and sent a call out to Perry. No reply.

Nora pointed in front of her. “Take a good look at all the food that was left here by the supposed partygoers.”

“It’s like the perfect storm of bear attractants.”

“Maybe it was meant to be a bear party.”

The idea seemed ludicrous. As he studied the grounds, he had to admit the entire crime scene had been ruined. All the sand had been shifted. Branches and foliage had been trampled and…

Henry spun around to the boulders. He struggled to climb back up the slimy rocks as his knee, the side of his leg and his hands stung from his earlier quick descent. No matter which way he turned his head, adjusted his body and squinted, he’d lost sight of the metallic reflection he’d spotted earlier. He balanced on his good knee and grabbed his flashlight. Maybe the beam would catch the reflection if the casing had fallen in a crack.

The cubs had tripped right over this particular boulder. If one of their clumsy paws had hit it, the likely trajectory would be the river. The way the water aerated here, it would pull the bullet casing into the current and toss it around the rapids before allowing it to sink to the bottom.

“Pretty sure the sun is out.” Perry’s deep voice sounded like a Southern drawl when he was joking around. “No need for a flashlight.”

Henry didn’t bother to explain himself and kept the flashlight steady, hunting. “Where have you been?” His beam found nothing.

“Are you serious? I was looking—”

“He tried calling you on the radio,” Nora said, her voice soft. “There were bears here. A mama and two cubs.”

“And I had possible evidence up here that’s gone now.” Henry clicked off the light and made his way back down the boulders.

Perry took off his green hat and rubbed his wrinkled brow. “We’ll need to get a ranger to start tracking the bears, then. Make sure they’re maintaining distance from people.” He gave Nora a side glance. “I need a moment alone to discuss the case with Henry.”

She pursed her lips and gave Henry a meaningful look. He had no idea what she was trying to communicate by the subtle widening of her eyes, but she obviously didn’t appreciate being excluded. She went back to the raft and waited.

“Now, can you tell me where you went?” Henry asked.

“I was deeper in the woods. I must’ve lost my signal, but you can handle a few black bears on your own.” Perry’s eyes shifted, downcast. “I went back behind the trees to check my ATV tracks from the other night. You were, uh…” He cleared his throat. “Right that I should’ve been watching. I’d just come from a meth lab complete with booby traps, and I wasn’t in the best state of mind.”

Henry shook his head as if the thought no longer needed to be considered. They were all human, unfortunately, and the