Chapter 39
“Oh, fuck! Sorry, sorry!” Zane exclaimed, backing out of Logan’s room, quickly shutting the door.
Back in his bedroom, Zane sat down, staring at his computer screen.
Shit! Scrubbing his eyeballs with his hands, Zane knew it would be a long time before he’d forget—if ever—what his brother and Kieran were doing.
Shit! Shit! Shit! Kicking himself for not waiting, all he could do now was to apologize for barging in.
Trying to ignore the picture that kept reappearing in his mind, Zane began assembling his report for Jackson.
Smirking as he weeded through the information gathered from Brenda’s phone, he separated out the texts from Michael and Tyson along with her corresponding ones.
Then he assembled them by date so it’d be easy for Jackson to follow the timeline.
Hearing a knock on his bedroom door, Zane rose, pocketing his phone, then, glancing at David, made sure he was still asleep.
Scenting Logan outside, he quietly opened the door stepped out and closed it behind him.
“Hey, look, I’m sorry about before…it’s just…
I found out something…” Zane said, his voice trailing off, looking any place other than at his brother.
Logan snickered at his brother’s deep red face. “Yeah, let’s just forget it ever happened, okay?”
“Uhmm sure. No problem,” Zane mumbled, then handing his phone to Logan, continued, “While I was checking out something, I found this. We are surrounded by Michael’s men…
well not his men anymore. I think Brenda is controlling them.
Her brother is on his way to Scotland and will probably be leading them, since Michael is dead. ”
Logan inhaled deeply, looking at the phone’s screen. “I take it Brenda is the name of the High Priestess?”
“Yeah, and she has a younger brother Tyson who she’s very protective of.”
Handing the phone back to his brother, Logan asked, “What time will Tyson get here?”
“Early morning. It appears these dudes aren’t doing anything other than watching the hotel but that may change once Tyson arrives.”
“Gotcha. I’ll handle it with Slate and Groose. You stay with David. And remember your gift. Use it if you need to.”
“Will do. David is sleeping and I have more to find out about Brenda.”
“Go! An enforcer will be guarding your room. If they get past Groose’s men, take David and pop into Maximus’ room. Do not leave your mate’s side no matter what.”
~/~/~/~/~
After returning from his hoard, Fionn walked softly into the living room, wondering if Theo and Norm were still up, but they weren’t, so no one had missed him.
Grabbing a couple of cans of juice, he headed back to his bedroom, thinking about his uncle and what he had been looking for.
Deciding to call Penn, Fionn, shut his door, sat down at his desk and dialed his lawyer.
At first, when Ki told him about Penn, Fionn was unwilling to share the ugly details of his life, but he changed his mind with his friend’s encouragement and his dragon’s approval.
“Hello Fionn,” Penn said.
“Hi, I hope you don’t mind me calling but my father’s brother was in my home in Scotland without permission. Can he do that? Walk in and start rifling through drawers?”
“In short, no…even though he has petitioned the court to be your guardian. However, since there are several applications seeking custody of you other than his, the court has ordered a report as to the validity of each person’s claim.
Until that’s finished and the court rules on the pending petitions, Cody and Dylon are still your legal guardians.
Your uncle was trespassing,” Penn said, then asked, “What were you doing there? I thought you were staying at the hotel with the rest of the Blackwood Pack.”
“I am, but I went there to find the midwife’s certificate for my birth that you asked for.”
“Did you get it?” asked Penn.
“No, but I went through all the file folders my father had in his study and took those about his estate I thought you’d need.”
“Good work. Would you ask Logan to send them to me tomorrow?”
“I don’t have them with me, but I can get them to you in a few minutes,” Fionn said before hanging up.
Copying Penn’s address and stuffing it into his pocket, Fionn stepped into the portal.
Standing in front of his hoard, Fionn could feel his magic grow stronger and was tempted to stay, but resisted the urge; he’d promised to deliver the file folders promptly.
Grabbing them all, except the one containing the pictures of his mother, he entered Penn’s address on the portal’s screen and soon found himself standing in front of a tall office building in downtown San Francisco.
After a thirty-floor elevator ride, Fionn arrived at Penn’s office. Walking up to the receptionist, he asked, “Is Penn here? He’s expecting me.”
“May I have your name?”
“Oh, sure, Fionn MacDùghlas.” While she was on the phone, Fionn wandered over to look out the floor-to ceiling windows, curious about being so high inside.
Never having been that far above ground except when his dragon was flying, he loved it, and decided right then he’d buy an office at least as high up as this one.
“Fionn?”
Turning around, Fionn saw his lawyer, at least he thought it was, as the man looked like the picture of Penn he’d found on the High Council website. “Penn,” he said, “nice to meet you. I brought you all the folders.”
“Come in, and let’s see what you have.” After telling the woman he didn’t want to be disturbed, Penn ushered Fionn into a small conference room. Taking the file folders from him, Penn said, “Have a seat. These are all the files you found that pertain to your father’s estate?”
“There may be more. I still have to check his safe and his study at the chateau in France,” replied Fionn.
While Penn quickly shuffled through the folders, Fionn couldn’t keep his eyes from scanning the skyline outside the windows.
Unable to contain his curiosity, he walked over to them, peering out, agreeing with his dragon that it was the next best thing to flying.
“Have you decided if you want to meet the relatives fighting for your custody?” asked Penn.
“I don’t want to see any of them. They never visited me and my mother…
ever. If I wasn’t important to them before, it makes me wonder what their motives are now.
I already know my uncle doesn’t think much of me, so I’m not interested in seeing him pretend otherwise.
As for my mother’s relatives, where were they when my mother needed them?
They thought so little of her when she was sick and dying, they couldn’t even bother visiting.
I don’t know about you, but that tells me a lot about what kind of people they are. ”
Penn smiled. Fionn’s logic was irrefutable and it reinforced his gut instinct that the sudden interest in Fionn was just a cover to gain access to the assets of the estate. “Who would you prefer to be your guardian?”
“Easy…myself. I want the court to emancipate me, then all my ‘loving’ relatives can take a flying leap,” declared Fionn.
“I can try, but honestly, the court will only grant that if there aren’t any relatives…which doesn’t apply in your situation. What about Cody and Dylon? Would they be acceptable to you?”
Dejected at Penn’s assessment, Fionn replied, “Yeah, I’d rather have them than any of my relatives. At least I know they won’t try to hurt me to get at my hoard.”
“For what it’s worth,” said Penn, “I agree with you about these relatives who suddenly came out of the woodwork professing their love for you.”
“Good, because you should never trust a dragon, especially when gold is involved. If my father died broke, and I had nothing, none of these relatives would give a shit about me.”
Penn looked down at the file in his hands, but his mind was elsewhere, thinking how sad it was for someone as young as Fionn to be so jaded.
Opening the folders one by one, he examined each document while imagining what his client’s life must have been like to feel that way now.
Looking at Fionn, from time to time, he was determined to do everything possible to keep him out of the clutches of his relatives.
Then, glancing at one of the papers in his hand, Penn noted it was the midwife’s certificate he’d asked for. Scanning it, his eyes widened at what it said. “Fionn, did you check the contents of all these folders?” he asked.
Fionn kept looking out the window as he answered. “Yeah…well, except one. I didn’t have the time to look at it as my uncle had arrived, so I grabbed it along with the others and got the hell out of there in the nick of time.” Then, turning to his lawyer, he asked, “Why?”
“It must have been in that folder,” said Penn. “Come, take a look.”
“What are you talking about? Is it a new will? My uncle mumbled something about that,” Fionn said, leaving his place at the window and joining Penn. Taking the paper from his lawyer, Fionn read it, then shouted, “Holy fuck! Is this for real?”
“I believe so. See the raised seal impression she made over the information she wrote?”
Rubbing his fingers over it, Fionn said, “Yeah. So that means this is legal?”
“Yes, it is, but to cover all the bases, I need an affidavit from her acknowledging she was present at your birth, personally filled in the birth details and that all of it is truthful.”
“Why go through that trouble?”
“Because of this,” Penn said, pointing to his birthdate. “Do you know what this means?”
His temporary elation now dampened, Fionn said angrily, “Yeah, it means my mother and father lied to me.”
~/~/~/~/~
Slipping back into his bedroom, Zane checked on David, pulling the covers over his mate where they’d fallen off.
Zane softly kissed David’s forehead before getting back to his computers.
He sat there, scrolling through all of Brenda’s bank records, finding the ones linking her to the judge.
Then, Zane dug deeper into the records of the Convent of the Sisters of the Four Gods.
Shaking his head at what he found, he spent most of the night gathering proof about the scam Brenda and Michael had perpetrated on the followers of the Church of the Four Gods.
Twenty fucking years! They scammed the followers for twenty fucking years!
You’d think someone would’ve been suspicious.
By early morning, Zane had compiled evidence of theft, fraud, bribery, kidnapping, prostitution, false imprisonment, and murder.
After sending his report to Jackson, he turned off the computers.
Rising, he yawned, then stripped his clothes off as he walked over to his mate and crawled into bed next to him.
Snuggling up to David, Zane pressed his nose against his mate’s neck, inhaling his mate’s scent, loving how it relaxed him, so much so, that it wasn’t long before he joined his mate in slumber.
~/~/~/~/~
It worked like clockwork. Logan couldn’t believe how easy it had been.
After showing Groose and Slate what Zane found out, Logan proposed a plan they all agreed to.
When Brenda’s brother arrived, he’d find no one waiting for him because Groose and his men had picked off each man, capturing them one by one, bringing them inside, where each prisoner was tied up and gagged before Ian and Colton removed their skin-deep, bio-trackers.
It took most of the night because Logan had Groose hide each removed bio-tracker in random cars parked on the street.
When the final one had been placed, Logan opened the app and smiled.
When Tyson arrived and did the same, all he’d see were red dots scattered throughout the city.
Logan laughed as he imagined the look on his face.
A truck carrying Slate’s crew eventually arrived at the hotel and the prisoners were frog-marched downstairs and shoved into the back of the truck, each handcuffed to an iron ring embedded in the steel floor.
Then they were driven to an airfield where a Dire Enterprises’ cargo plane was waiting to fly them out of Scotland.
Standing by the bar in his suite when Slate and Groose returned, Logan said, “Can I get you something?”
“I’ll take Macallen if you have it,” answered Slate.
“I’ll have the same,” Groose said.
Logan poured the three drinks and after handing one to each, he lifted his and sipped it, savoring the fine flavors on his tongue. Motioning the two to sit, Logan chose the sofa, smiling at Slate and Groose. “Well done. The idea of using the cars was genius.”
“The only one left is the brother,” Slate said.
“Yes, but that’ll be Jackson’s decision to make. I didn’t want to give the High Priestess an opportunity to rush to the High Council claiming we were attacking her family in response to her demand,” replied Logan.
“That’s a good point,” Groose said. “I would love to be a fly on the wall when she sees all her men going in so many different directions.”
“Yup. I’m wondering what the brother will do,” said Slate.
Chuckling, Logan said, “Freak out, I imagine. I wonder who’s calling the shots…the High Priestess or her brother.”
“I bet Zane will have the answer,” Slate said. “Don’t you ever repeat this, but he runs circles around my crew. I would love for him to join Dire Enterprises.”
“I’m not sure he’d want to,” said Logan. “My brother’s a lone wolf…oh, not in the usual sense of what that means…but more that he likes to be alone a lot with his computers. But you’re right, Slate. Zane is a fucking genius when it comes to computers and how they can be used.”
“That might change now since he has a mate,” Groose said.
“Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth. It can change you in ways you’d never have imagined,” said Slate.
“Ain’t that the fucking truth,” Logan snickered. “For the better, if my experience is anything to go by.”
“Well, hopefully, soon my Fated Mate will show up,” Groose said wistfully, setting down his empty glass. “Thanks for the drink. I think I’ll try to catch forty winks. See you later.”
After Groose left, Slate said, “Whoever’s going to be his Fated Mate, is one lucky person; he’s one of the finest people I know. Well, time for me to mosey along ‘cause Dakota’s waiting for me.”
“Catch you later,” Logan said as Slate left his suite. Now alone, he closed his eyes, exhausted.