Blind Acceptance (13 page)

“Holy cow!” Maddie cried. “That’s a pretty nice neighborhood.”

“That’s a pretty valid reason for wanting to get rid of her.” Remus tapped his pen on his desk. “I’m guessing he’s her only living relative and would inherit if she dies.”

“Yes, sir. But there’s more.” Macon glanced at Koril and then back at Remus.

“Seems Daddy likes to gamble. Horses, cars, blackjack, doesn’t matter what. He just likes gambling. Unfortunately, he sucks at it.”

Remus chuckled. “How much?”

“Right now, a quarter of a million, but that amount grows almost daily. He’s staying ahead of the payments, but he’s got nowhere near enough to pay them off.”

“How’s he staying ahead?” asked Remus.

“Well, some of this is theory at this point, but I should have proof by the weekend. I believe he’s been playing footsie with some of the larger accounts at that brokerage firm he works for. I think he had good intentions of paying them back before the old man died, but he got careless and somebody stumbled on to his creative bookkeeping.”

“Who?” Remus asked.

“One of his associates, Jeremy Poole.”

Remus threw down his pen. “What makes you think Jeremy was onto him?”

“I discreetly talked to some of the secretaries there, and they thought it was strange that out of the blue, Jeremy and Robert started spending a lot of time together. I think that once Jeremy found the discrepancies, he confronted Robert Conners and demanded hush money.”

Macon pulled a small tablet from his shirt pocket and flipped it open. “Jeremy has made three ten-thousand-dollar cash deposits to his personal account in the last two months.” He looked up at Remus. “I think he’s blackmailing Laynee’s father. With the threat of his crimes going public, the old guy must have been jumping for joy when his father-in-law died.”

Koril laid his hand on Macon’s arm.

“Tell him about the lawyer.”

“Her father tried to sign the papers with the attorney handling the old man’s estate, claiming to be her legal guardian since she was disabled. Up until a few weeks ago, he actually was her guardian.

She turned twenty-one, and she’s working for wages at that fancy school she grew up in. In any court, that would make her responsible for herself, and he wouldn’t give her father access to her funds.”

“How’d you find out about that?”

Maddie asked. “Lawyers are usually notorious for keeping confidentiality.”

“And secretaries are notorious for spilling their guts over a free lunch.”

Remus snickered. “So our newest pack member is rich. That’s gonna cause trouble for the three of them.”

“Why would that be trouble?” Maddie asked.

“Because she’s gonna want to spend money on them, and they’re not gonna want to touch her funds. It’s gonna get ugly at some point.” Remus turned to Koril. “Suggestions, gentlemen?”

“We need to know for certain that Macon’s scenario is right, and then we need to expose the crime so he goes down for it. The only way she’ll feel safe is if he’s behind bars.”

“What about Jeremy?” asked Remus.

“He was there when they left her to die.”

Macon looked at Koril, a question in his eyes. “Just tell me what you’re thinking, Macon. You don’t need Koril’s permission to speak your mind. I wanna know what you’d do about the situation.”

Macon turned a hard look on Remus.

“I’d take them both out of the picture.

Any man who’d leave a defenseless blind girl in the woods for the wild animals to dispose of doesn’t deserve to live. They’re expendable.”

Remus watched the young security officer for any signs of doubt. His eyes were bright, his hands steady. He couldn’t ask for a better pack security officer. “Koril, do you concur?” He knew that disposing of their enemies was always Koril’s first reaction, but the wanted it said so the young man knew he had their backing.

“Eliminate them. It’s the best for everybody involved.”

“What about Laynee?” asked Maddie.

“Are you gonna tell her you’re executing her father?”

Remus’s eyes widened in surprise when Macon turned to his mate. “I’ll make sure it looks like an accident, and you won’t have to say a thing.”

“No, son, that’s not the way to handle this.”

“What’d you have in mind, Maddie?”

asked Remus.

“It’s not our decision to make.

Laynee’s an adult, and it should be her decision.”

Laynee draped her towel over the bar behind the door and reached for the clothes she’d left beside the sink. She’d spent the day with David and Eric, even agreeing to take a nap with them in the early part of the afternoon, although she hadn’t closed her eyes. If she didn’t know better, she’d think the two of them were producing heavy pheromones.

She’d never been so physically attracted to anyone. When the three of them returned from their long walk, David had marched her straight to the bedroom with orders for her to relax in a warm bath, and they would have a surprise for her when she came out.

Quickly, she pulled the borrowed shirt over her head and sighed. “I wish I had my own clothes. I don’t even know if what I’m wearing matches or not.” Still, it was really nice of Maddie to loan her so many things. Eric and David had such a nice family, well, all except for Lyssa.

“I wonder if they realize just how lucky they are.” She thought back to her last encounter with Lyssa. “Not sure what her problem is, but she was sure different when she came back to the house.” When she touched her, she didn’t feel sad anymore. It was more like satisfaction, or a sense of accomplishment.

“I wonder what happened to get rid of her deep-seated sadness.”

She’d just finished getting dressed when a knock at the door interrupted her thoughts.

“Hey, pretty lady. Are you about done?” David asked.

“Just give me a minute to run a comb through my hair and I’ll be right there.”

The door opened. “Would you let me do that for you?”

She smiled and held out the comb.

“Sure, if you’d like.”

He took the comb from her hand and moved to stand behind her. He started at the bottom and began working the tangles out little at a time. “You have beautiful hair, Laynee. There are dozens of different shades of yellow that all blend together and fall sensuously down your back.”

Lyssa laughed awkwardly. “I’ve never heard it described quite that way. My instructors have been after me to cut it for quite a while now, but I’m not willing to do that.”

“Why would they want you to cut your hair?”

“Probably because I haven’t mastered the art of braiding it on my own. They don’t think it’s dignified for a teacher to run around with hair falling over her shoulders, and they don’t like fixing my braids when they don’t come out just right.”

“I don’t mean this in a bad way, but why would they even care? Aren’t your students blind?”

“Yes, so that leaves me with the conclusion that the teachers don’t like the way I look. Lucky for me, they haven’t pressed the issue.” She let her head fall back as the plastic teeth of the comb scraped gently over her scalp, giving her goose bumps. The rhythmic pull felt so good. She sighed and stifled a groan when he let his fingers run through the strands, stopping to massage the base of her neck.

“I left a rubber band on the sink.

Could you hand it to me?”

“Here you go.”

She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and used the rubber band to hold it in place.

He leaned close to her ear, his lips brushing the lobe as he whispered. “You ready for a little dinner? Eric and I have set up a picnic in front of the fireplace.”

She shivered. “That sounds really romantic. Let’s go.”

His fingers closed around her arm at the same time one of his hands slid around her back. He urged her forward.

“We’ve definitely got romance on our minds.”

When they entered the living room, she heard the crackle and pop of the fire right before she smelled the smoke from the wood blaze.

“Bring our pretty dinner companion over here, David. I’ve made a nice, soft place for her to relax while we serve her.”

David led her over and helped her to sit on what felt like a large pillow. She let her fingers trace over the velvety softness as the heat from the fire drifted over her. Someone sank to the floor on her right side, immediately followed by someone else on her left.

“Here, love.” Eric pressed a stemmed glass into her hand. “This is a nice, fruity white wine, and we’re gonna have a toast to the beginning of our relationship.”

Laynee bit her lip. “Okay.”

“To new beginnings, eternal friendships, and the blossoming of new love.”

David snickered. “You are always so long-winded. How about to a new relationship.”

Eric growled. “What’s wrong with my —”

“How about to us.” Laynee raised her glass and held tight as the guys touched their glasses to hers. She raised the wine to her nose and inhaled the aroma before delicately touching the glass with her tongue. Feeling warm, she took a small sip.

“Well,” David asked, “what do you think?”

“It’s wonderful. It has such a delicate bouquet.”

“This bottle was a gift from a friend out in California,” Eric said. “We thought you’d like it.” There was a loud clink when he set his glass down. “You look beautiful, Laynee. That yellow shirt brings out the green in your eyes.”

She sighed and reached out to find a place to set her glass. David grabbed her hand and moved it to some type of board on the floor in front of her.

“What’s wrong?” asked David. “You look like Eric’s compliment upset you.”

Laynee shook her head. “Nothing’s wrong, not really. Sometimes it’s really frustrating when I try to imagine what something looks like when I can’t imagine the colors people talk about.”

“Has no one ever told you anything about color that made sense?”

“No, not really. It all sounded the same to me, so I stopped listening a long time ago.”

“Wait a minute.” David got up and walked away.

“Where’s he going?” asked Laynee.

“I’m not sure. He went into the bathroom.”

After a minute she heard him moving around behind her. When he sat down, she heard a click and then felt warmth on the side of her face. She turned toward him. “What’s that?”

David took her hand. “Think of the sun. When you’re outside, and you turn your face toward the warmth of the sun, how does it make you feel?”

She leaned toward the heat coming from David and thought about their walk earlier. She’d felt the sun on her face walking away from the cabin and a sense of peace and happiness had settled over her. For a brief time, she’d felt like she belonged here. It had felt like home. “It made me feel light and happy. Like everything’s right with my world.”

Eric took her other hand. “That’s the color yellow.”

Laynee let the warmth soak into her skin.
That’s the color yellow. It feels
like happiness and home.
“That makes a lot of sense because a sunny day always makes me smile.”

Eric kissed her fingers. “I could tell.

When we walked today, a small smile graced your face every time you looked up toward the sky.” He laid something in her hand. “Feel this.”

“What is it?”

“You tell me.”

Something small and thin settled on her palm. Holding it carefully, she brought it to her nose and caught an earthy scent. Bringing it to her mouth, she touched the tip of her tongue to the flat surface. “It’s some kind of leaf.”

“Yes,” Eric said. “I pulled it off an ivy plant they keep on the table in the kitchen. Plants represent growth and healing to me, and most of them are green.”

Laynee rubbed the leaf against her cheek. “So this feeling of new growth is the color of green.”

“Exactly.”

“Take this, Laynee.”

She held her hand out and gasped when David dropped a couple of ice cold squares in her hand.

“Blues can be calming, even intellectual. It’s cooler than the sun on your face, but just as settling.” David moved the ice around on her palm.

“Blues are icy, easy on the eyes, and tranquil. They’re like the ice cubes you have in your hands.”

Laynee moved the cubes around as water began running down her fingers, dripping onto her leg.

“Do you feel how the heat from the fire is melting the ice?” asked David.

“Yeah, the water is slightly warmer than the cubes, but it’s still cold.”

“That’s how I think of oranges,”

David said. “They’re whimsical, just like an ice cube melting in the sun, lazy and relaxed.”

Laynee rolled the cold cubes between her fingers.
Orange, whimsical!

Eric moved close and took the ice cubes away, drying her hands with a small towel. “And that brings us to red.”

David grabbed her other hand and held it toward the fireplace. The heat was stronger, the warm air tingling her fingers. “Red is for passion. It can be good, or it can be bad because anger is just as passionate as love.”

Eric ran his fingers over her warm palm. “It’s heat, so hot you think if you completely submerge yourself you might not survive.”