7. Chapter 7 #2
He rubbed his head. “Yeah. I’m one of the few black bears left from a sleuth out of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Your father tried to keep us safe while he was the admin there.”
Ash leaned forward. “You lived in the Park?”
“Yep, I was born there. Five generations of my family lived in those mountains.” Emmett’s eyes went cold. “Until the former head of the National Parks took over. Walter Landry. Man had a God complex and hated shifters with a passion. Made it his mission to drive us out.”
Conall’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve never met a Park Administrator who didn’t at least tolerate the native shifters. They’re part of the ecosystem.”
“Landry was a former Mentis commander, and to this day we don’t know how that fucker ended up as head of the NPS.
He started small, cutting off traditional denning areas and claiming they were dangerous to tourists.
Then came the ‘accidental’ poisonings.” Emmett’s massive hands clenched the chair back.
“Your father was one of the few who stood up to Landry. He meticulously filed reports and documented everything.”
Pride and sadness sliced through the cold. “That sounds like him.”
“You remember the fire that ripped through the northern section of Rocky Mountain?” Emmett asked, his dark eyes boring into mine. “Right around the time your dad disappeared?”
I nodded slowly. “They said it was caused by lightning.”
“Bullshit. We’d been run out by then, but my den mate heard rumors and saw a few things before he went missing, too. Something was going on in that Park. Landry was removed not long after it happened.”
Conall’s knee pressed against mine under the table. “You think Landry and the Feds had something to do with Elijah’s disappearance, and the fire ties in somehow.”
Emmett shrugged his massive shoulders. “I think Eli was getting too close to something. He and Viggo were thick as thieves toward the end.”
My hands clenched. “Do you know what happened to my father?”
Emmett stared at me. “No, honey, I don’t. He went into the backcountry one day and never came out. A few of us searched for weeks after the fire died down. Bears have the best noses, no matter what wolves or bison shifters say.” He tapped the side of his. “But we didn’t find anything.”
The coldness swept back in, numbing the pain in my chest. “How did you end up here?”
“Viggo and that witch helped us relocate. We worked out an agreement with the Shoshone Tribe to use tribal land as our territory, and we help provide protection. We have similar preservation goals.” Emmett gestured around the café. “I’ve been here fifteen years now.”
“Viggo helped you escape?” I tried to reconcile this with what I knew about the taciturn ranger.
“Yeah. He doesn’t like most people, but he’s a decent person. Which brings me to why you’re here.”
He stood and walked over to pull the shades down. Then he dug into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. When he laid it on the table, even upside down, I recognized it immediately as the other half of a receipt.
Carefully, I smoothed it out, then pulled the plastic baggie containing the other piece from my pocket. The torn edges matched perfectly.
“Where’d you get this?” Gunnar asked.
“Viggo was in here a couple of weeks ago. Came for his usual steak and eggs with black coffee. But he kept watching the door.” Emmett’s voice dropped lower. “Two shifters in tactical black clothes walked in.” Emmett glanced at Conall. “They moved wrong. Kind of mechanical-like.”
Conall tensed beside me. “Do you think they were altered Mentis operatives?” I asked.
Emmett shrugged. “I heard about the facilities in Roswell and Austin, but I don’t know.
Donna said Viggo saw ‘em walk in, wrote some numbers and shit on the back of his receipt, then tore it in half. He stuffed one half in his pocket and slid me the other when I cleared his dishes. He told me quietly that if someone who wasn’t obviously a Fed came looking, I should give it to them. Then he slipped out the back.”
The numbers on the combined receipt formed complete coordinates. I memorized them, the coldness in my mind cataloging the information with mechanical precision.
Ash was already typing them into his map on his phone. “It’s a remote area inside Yellowstone.”
Relief and hope swam through me, and I stood and patted Emmett’s shoulder, only wincing a little when his rough, wild energy hit me.
“Thank you for helping us, and for telling me about my dad.”
“You’re welcome, little cub.” He smiled and wrapped his massive arms around my shoulders, giving me a literal bear hug. I stood for a moment, my arms awkwardly dangling at my sides. Then I brought them up and patted his back a couple of times.
He leaned in and sniffed, then let me go. “You smell like him. Kinda like an electrical storm and sugar. Watch your back, cause those men who came looking for Viggo weren’t natural.”
“Thank you for the warning.” As we walked out of the café, the implant activated and the coldness settled back in.
I wondered if I was turning into one of them.