Uncle Sheridan flipped through his pad of notes again. “Mason reviewed bank accounts to see if anyone had received large amounts of money before Larissa’s death. No one had. Which could mean that whoever was blackmailing her kept bank accounts somewhere else. So that was inconclusive. Jake found out some more stuff though.”

Jake took a sip of his beer. “Since we couldn’t find money in a local account, Trevor and Peter questioned folks to see if anyone bragged about receiving lots of money. Mrs. Hastings’s aunt died in a neighboring town. She received a substantial inheritance and put in the outdoor sauna and enclosed the deck to expand the bed and breakfast.”

“She’s above reproach,” Darien said.

“We thought so, too, but we had to double check every story.”

Tom walked back into the room with a Coke. “Then there’s Ritka.”

Darien sat up taller. She’d certainly hated both Larissa and Lelandi, and she definitely could be suspect.

“She bragged she won at the tables in Las Vegas. Angelina and Hosstene vouched for her, but you know how thick they are.”

“Did the amount she won match up with how much was stolen?”

“Her winnings amounted to about a fourth of what the blackmailer had received.”

Deep in thought, Darien rubbed his chin. “What if the three women were in on it together?”

“We had the same idea. If Angelina and Hosstene got any extra money, they hid it somewhere, aren’t spending it, and aren’t telling,” Jake said.

Darien mulled that one over. “Anyone else have any suspicious money dealings?”

“Nope.” Uncle Sheridan flipped to the next page of his notepad. “Concerning the family who wanted to join our pack, they’d heard you were a fair pack leader. As far as training, the man is a lumberman by trade. His brother is a male nurse. The mother makes jewelry and is a renowned artist in her trade. The girls are in school. One wants to be a lawyer someday. The other hasn’t decided. Both girls want to help out when the ski lifts are running.”

“And the reason they left their former pack?”

“The leader, who was highly respected, died. Another took over and they couldn’t live with his rule.”

“We could really use the brother who’s a male nurse. If we learn the family is troublesome in the future, we can release them from the pack. But for now, they can stay,” Darien said. “What about the smell of rotten leaves at the site where we discovered Lelandi in the woods?”

Uncle Sheridan nodded. “It’s kind of a hollow and lots of leaves have collected there. Wet and shaded, it’s the perfect environment for making compost.”

But Darien figured whoever the attempted murderer was had to be wearing one of those hunter sprays that either made his scent invisible to others—even to bloodhounds, which could pick up the more subtle scents more so than any other animal including lupus garous—or he was wearing that humus type spray to blend in with the smell of the forest.

Jake cleared his throat. “Carol Wood keeps asking to speak to you about adding another nurse position.”

“Tell her it’s not possible.”

“She’ll have a fit when she learns we added another when we said no to hiring her,” Jake said.

“Tell her he was hired some weeks ago but just got here, if she asks. The woman will have to learn that when I say no, I mean no. What about the other two vases of flowers sent anonymously to Lelandi?”

“Still haven’t discovered the identity of the buyers.

But the flowers her parents supposedly sent?” Tom said. “Ural bought and paid for them.”

Darien swore under his breath. “Doesn’t he know how upsetting that is for her? Giving her false hope that her parents are alive?”

“That’s another thing,” Uncle Sheridan said. “Chester McKinley informed me he located them.”

“What? Where are her parents supposed to be?”

Uncle Sheridan’s face darkened. “He wouldn’t say. If you want to hire him as a P.I., he’ll share his information.”

“Damn him anyway.” Darien lifted his beer mug.

“All right, schedule a meeting for a couple of hours from now. Anything else?”

“Nothing else. I’ll check Sam’s gun.”

“Think you can make it out in this weather?”

“No snowstorm has ever kept me homebound. Call you later.” Uncle Sheridan grabbed his jacket, shoved his hat on, and left.

“I’ll see you both when Chester gets here,” Darien said to his brothers.

Intending to show Lelandi how lame Julia Wildthorn’s romance stories were compared to the real thing, Darien headed up the stairs. He couldn’t help how annoyed he was with Silva and Sam over the shooter incident though. How many man hours had his men spent on the case, wasted now that they knew Silva was the shooter?

A man and woman were getting it on with all the moaning and groaning he heard on the television in the bedroom. He hoped Lelandi’s movie had gotten her in the mood for some real lupus garou sex and that she wasn’t still miffed with him over Ural. He gave Peter a nod, then opened the door to the bedroom and closed it.

She wasn’t in bed, no sound came from the bathroom, and the window was wide open. A willful breeze blew in snow all over the carpet. His blood running cold, Darien raced over to the window and peered out. Two of the rungs on the rose trellis were broken and the imprint of a body had impacted with the snowdrift.

“Peter! Jake! Tom! Lelandi’s gone!” He didn’t see any sign of a struggle, but it didn’t matter. If her past history was any indication of her current situation, she could be in real danger.

Peter flung the bedroom door open.

Jake yelled, “I’ll call Uncle Sheridan.”

“Tell him to notify Trevor since he’s taking care of the prisoner if she has a mind to try and free him.”

Darien ran down the stairs with Peter on his heels.

“If she does try?”

“Trevor can throw her in a jail cell until I get there, damn it!”

Tom offered, “I’ll call reinforcements to search the town for her.”

“The woman is an absolute menace to herself!”

Darien swore he’d tie her to the bed, and there she’d remain until he eliminated Larissa’s killer.

Chapter 17

NORMALLY, LELANDI COULD SEE IN THE DARK, BUT THE blowing snow was blinding her. She trudged in the direction in which she smelled smoke from a chimney. More than half of the time, she stumbled knee deep in snowdrifts, and although she tried to keep her bare hands in her pockets, she constantly had to brace herself to keep from taking a nosedive. She was certain she’d been at it for over an hour, and she wasn’t sure if she was getting any closer to finding the town. Autumn definitely was her time of year. Winter was for the Arctic wolves and polar bears. Sheesh.

A blood-curdling scream pierced the frigid air. A girl’s.

Lelandi’s insides froze. “Hello?” she shouted.

The scream had seemed ethereal, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She stood still and listened. The wind howled through the spruce, haunting her, but she was certain the scream came from a girl.

“Hello!” Lelandi called out.

“Here!” a girl screamed. “Oh god, help us!”

Tears sprang to Lelandi’s eyes, and she ploughed through the thick, wet snow, hoping she’d reach the girl and whoever else was in trouble in time. “What’s happened?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” a boy said. “How did I know the storm was going to worsen?”

“Oh, our parents are going to kill us,” the girl said tearfully.

They didn’t sound very young, probably teenaged. Lelandi opened her mouth to speak, but another boy said, “If you hadn’t talked us into this…”

Jeez, how many were there?

“Hello!” Lelandi hollered again, sure she was getting closer to the sounds of their voices.

“She’s coming!” a different girl said.

“A woman. Just great. Like she could help us,” the first boy said.

“Listen, Cody, anybody would be welcome. Even Darien. Although he’s going to be pissed. Maybe the woman’s got a cell phone,” the other boy said.

Darien. They were probably lupus garou teens. A cell phone. Wish she’d had one, but hers was still back at her house in Wildhaven, and she hadn’t had time to grab it when she made her escape. Although she wasn’t sure where she was. Or where the teens were. So calling for help might not have brought anyone to their location anyway.

“Hello!” all of the kids shouted.

Sounded like four of them, their voices muffled in the snow and wind. But she was sure she was nearing their location.

A branch snapped several feet away, and she whipped around, but saw nothing in the white bleakness except trees laden with snow, their heavy branches dipping toward the drifts, making them look like weary old men.

A deer might have made the sound. Her wolf instincts remained on high alert.

“Hello!” the kids shouted again, but Lelandi didn’t budge. A shiver shook her but it wasn’t only the cold that created it.

She moved cautiously forward, listening for any other sound that might indicate someone was tracking or hunting her. The wind howled and the blowing snow blurred visibility down to a couple of feet, but even so she watched and strained to see or hear anything else.

“I think she’s not coming,” one of the girls said, her voice frightened.

“Over here!” a boy shouted.

I’m coming. I’m coming. But if someone was following her, Lelandi didn’t want him to know where she was. She wrapped her frigid fingers around the pistol grip, and the knowledge she had it, helped.

Then something raced in her direction. A lupus garou in wolf form? It charged at her and she aimed her gun. But as soon as it emerged from the blanket of white, she exhaled a tentative sigh. A buck. As soon as he saw her, he dodged off and disappeared into the woods.