Blind Acceptance (16 page)

“So what’s our next move?” Laynee asked.

Macon stood. “I recommend the three of you pack up some supplies and get out to the cabin and make it looked lived-in.

It was in pretty good condition last week, just a little dust here and there. I left the woodpile stacked so you won’t have to do anything but light a fire.” He turned to Remus. “Then, tomorrow, they should find a way to contact the local highway patrol and take things from there. As soon as they’re
found
I recommend a trip to the bank to let them know you’re back to handling your own affairs if they’ve been presented with a power of attorney. In fact, when you’re ready for that phase, you might want to get Zyne to represent you.”

Remus chuckled. “Sounds like Macon covered everything.”

David looked at Laynee. “Well, love, what do you say we go and take care of business?”

Laynee moved forward slowly, trying to avoid the knobby roots hidden beneath the brush on the narrow, forest path.

“Laynee, are you sure you won’t let me carry you?” asked David.

She scowled. “I’m not helpless, David. As long as we go slowly, I’m perfectly safe. Maddie’s cane is all I need to navigate a safe route as long as Eric leads the way.”

“Don’t worry, guys,” Eric said. “It’s not much further.”

Laynee inhaled the flowery scent in the air and continued on, delighting in the sound of her feet sliding through the leaves. This was a grand adventure, having been locked safely away in the school her entire life. A shiver curled through the hairs at the back of her neck and then cascaded down the length of her spine. A strange, masculine scent lingered in the air as the temperature dropped, the brightness of the sun fading as a cloud most likely blocked it momentarily.

“Are you okay?” asked David.

Laynee stopped for a moment and didn’t say a word. She felt like they were being watched, but could offer no proof. Slowly, she nodded. “I’m fine.

Let’s just go. I’m anxious to be off this trail.” The breeze ruffled her clothes as the sun broke through, bathing her body in heat.

Eric stopped on the trail in front of her. “There it is. Laynee, it’s a small, one-room cabin that I guess hunters used to use. It has a wood-burning stove for heat, and a couple of cots for sleeping.”

David touched her arm. “Eric and I have sleeping bags along with food in our packs, so we should be fine. I don’t expect us to be here more than one night.”

“Watch your step,”

Eric said.

“There’s a wooden ledge that leads up to the cabin’s door.”

She felt the edge with her cane and took a step up. The door sounded as if it scraped across the floor as Eric went inside.

“We’ve got a broken pane in the front window,” said Eric.

Laynee moved inside a few steps and stopped to listen. The scritch she could hear made her think of tree branches scraping at the windows. “Does this place have window shutters?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” asked David.

“I can hear them rattling in the wind outside.”

“Damn,” Eric groaned. “The wind is scattering leaves through the broken pan.

I’m gonna need to cover it up and find a broom.”

Laynee heard something scrape across the floor and then felt a puff of air on the back of her neck. David whispered in her ear. “Come and sit down, pretty lady. We can have everything ready pretty quickly.”

She let him lead her to a chair. She started to sit and ran her finger through the thick dust on the seat.

David grabbed her arm. “Wait a minute. I’m sorry. Let me get a rag, and I’ll clean that off.” He moved away and quickly came back. She felt him moving around. “There you go, no more dust.”

She laughed and sank down onto the hard seat of the chair. “Is there anything I can help with?”

David pressed a kiss on her head.

“Not yet. We wanna get everything situated, and then we’ll go exploring.”

“I don’t suppose this place has a bathroom with hot and cold running water.”

Eric laughed. “Sorry. There’s a latrine out back and a water pump. If you want a bath, there’s a metal tub that we can fill with water.”

She shuddered. “No, thanks. If we’re only gonna be here one night, then I’ll just wait until tomorrow.” She listened to the men moving around for a few minutes. “Where are we going when we leave here?” The room got deathly quiet.

She couldn’t even hear the sound of the squirrels anymore.

David cleared his throat. “We were gonna talk to you about that tonight.”

“So talk to me while you work. You must have some suggestions.”

“We want you to come home with us,”

Eric blurted out.

Laynee felt her heart race inside her chest. “Home with you?”

David touched her shoulder. “Yeah, to our place in Glacier. We’ve got a nice little house there, plenty of room for the three of us. It’s beautiful country, Laynee. The summers are mild, and the winters wicked, but there’s nowhere else like it in the States. We wanna share it with you.”

“Guys, from what you’ve told me about your business, you’re around people a lot. Trust me. They won’t accept a blind person moving in.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

asked Eric.

“It’s a well-known prejudice. There is no blind acceptance in the world.”

David growled. “Our friends and family will accept you just fine, blind or not.”

Laynee sighed. “I can’t make any decisions until I can take care of this business with my father. I don’t wanna feel like I have to keep looking over my shoulders all the time.”

David pulled her to her feet and into his arms. “Don’t you worry about anything. We’ll help you get things settled, and what we can’t do, Zyne will do legally. When we take you home there won’t be any problems left.”

Remus studied the young attorney.

“Zyne, what can she do?” He’d only passed the bar a few months back, but he’d been at the top of his class. He could have accepted several different offers to prestigious firms, but he’d brought his skills back to his pack. It couldn’t have been easy growing up with Lyssa as an older sister, but the boy was everything Remus could hope for in a pack member.

“First, we need to take any photo identification she has, along with her birth certificate, to her grandfather’s attorney and then the bank that holds his accounts. The faster we establish her ownership of the estate, the better off she’ll be. Even now, if he had her sign a power of attorney, he could have begun to drain the estate and it would be considered legal.”

“Could he have emptied it already?”

Zyne shook his head. “Not likely. If the estate is large, any attempt to remove all funds would have triggered a major red flag, and the bank would have brought in the authorities. In some cases, that’s a sign someone is trying to hide income from the internal revenue service.”

“What about his house?”

“Once we have the necessary paperwork from his attorney, we can occupy the house and change all the locks. Again, faster would be better in case he wants to try and empty the contents. Since she didn’t know her grandfather well, she wouldn’t know if he kept valuables at home. There could be cash, stocks, bonds, even fine jewelry. We just don’t know. With her handicap, I recommend getting someone she trusts to do a thorough inventory of every inch of the place. The attorney handling the estate should have at least a partial inventory that she could start with. The old man might not have put everything of value on it. Of course, some personal items will have value to her, but not necessarily monetary value.”

“If she’s been locked away in a school her entire life, who can she trust to do an inventory like that for her?”

“Couldn’t Eric and David take care of it? I thought they were mates.”

Remus sighed. “They are, but she doesn’t know it yet. I’ve given them permission to tell her about themselves tonight, before she goes to confront her father.” He shrugged. “There’s always the possibility that she’ll reject them on the basis of what they are. She’s been pretty sheltered, and I don’t honestly think she’s given much thought to anything paranormal in her life.”

“If she has any difficulties, I could recommend several individuals that could do an inventory for her that are totally trustworthy. I’ll mention it to her when we go see the attorney.”

“Then she did agree to let you help.”

“Yes, sir. She called me right after she left here. Unless she changes her mind, I’m meeting her and David and Eric at the cabin in the morning and we’re all driving to the nearest highway patrol office. From there, after we settle things with them, we’re driving to the airport and taking a plane to Minneapolis.”

“Keep me in the loop as to what’s happening. I won’t call and harass you unless I don’t hear from you.” He leaned forward and focused his gaze on the young man. “Any signs of trouble with the humans and I want you to get back here as fast as you safely can, and bring them with you.”

Zyne nodded and got to his feet.

“Understood, Alpha Remus.”

“One more thing. Did your sister tell you where she disappeared to last night?” Remus knew the two siblings were very close.

“No, she didn’t. In fact, she’s been reluctant to even talk to me since she got home. It’s very strange and troubling.

She’s always thrived on being the center of attention, and suddenly, today, she’s content to be off by herself doing heaven only knows what. She wouldn’t even sit down and eat breakfast with the family this morning.”

“Keep an eye on her as much as possible. I’m not sure why, but I think she’s in some kind of trouble, and she’ll need help eventually to get straight.”

Zyne groaned and straightened. “I’ll do as you ask, Alpha. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find out her secrets before they come back to bite us in the ass.”

Remus chuckled as the young man left.

Some kind of trouble was brewing in his pack, and he definitely needed to find out what before everything hit the fan.

“Damn it to hell!” Robert Conners slammed the phone down and turned to glare at his associate. Jeremy’s eyes were wide, his hands clenched at his side.

“What’s wrong?”

“Wyoming Search and Rescue is widening the search area and bringing in a helicopter for higher elevations.”

“Why would that upset you? They’re bound to find her sooner or later.”

“Because I can’t have her declared legally dead until they stop the search.”

“The lawyers tell you that?”

“Yes, I can’t access her funds until she’s declared legally dead.”

“I thought they had to be missing for several years before they’d declare someone dead.”

“There are extenuating circumstances, based on people’s eyewitness testimony that we were together and the fact that she’s blind and considered unable to function out in the wilds by herself.”

“Are you sure this lawyer knows what he’s talking about? Sounds fishy to me.

Besides, I thought you had a power of attorney for her.”

“No, I only had her sign a will. It never occurred to me that her body wouldn’t be found right away. Even if the animals got her, there would be traces of her clothes or something they could use to identify her with.”

“What are you gonna do now? Mr.

Cates will be back from Europe next week, and he’ll spend some time going over the books the way he always does.

It’s gonna be very noticeable that you’ve been playing around with the figures.”

“We’re gonna have to find a way to stall him.”

“We! In your dreams. It’s your neck out there, not mine. Hell, you even told the cops that you were alone with Laynee. You need to start thinking on how you’re gonna get out of this.”

Jeremy studied him for a moment. “Do you have anything worth selling? I might be persuaded to handle the sale for you so the authorities don’t catch on.”

Robert shook his head. “I don’t have anything, but I’m gonna head over to the old man’s house tonight and see if there’s anything there that wouldn’t be missed. Years ago, he kept cash around for his spoiled daughter. Maybe he still keeps some in his office. Hell, if I’m lucky, I’ll find the combination to the safe in his office.”

“Did they tell you how long you’d have to wait before declaring Laynee dead?”

“I told you. They won’t consider it until Search and Rescue gives up and calls off the search. Hell, it could be weeks before they’re willing to give up since she’s so young.”

“I’m going with you to the house.”

Robert frowned. “Why?”

“Because two of us looking would be faster.”

Robert studied the younger man for a moment and then nodded. “Fine, let’s get out of here. We’ll head over to his estate and see what we can find.”

David took Laynee’s plate. “Did you get enough to eat, honey?”

“Are you kidding? I’m stuffed. Who made the chili?”

Eric laughed. “We got it out of Maddie’s freezer. I actually like cooking, and chili is one of my favorite dishes.”

“I’ve never had it with so much meat, but I liked it.”

“Wasn’t too spicy, was it?” asked Eric.