Alpha in a Fur Coat (3 page)

After a few moments for everything to sink in, one of the men from Hook Labs spoke up. “I know this video is upsetting. But think about how much more upsetting it is to know that these creatures are roaming freely in society. One could be sitting next to you on the subway, and you wouldn’t even know it.”

Or sitting next to you in a conference room
, Grant thought bitterly. But again, he did his best to keep his expression neutral.

“We have been working closely with several high-level people in Chicago, including the mayor and wealthy businessmen like Mr. Astor, to try to get these eye scanners developed so that shifters cannot continue to roam among us undetected. We had some old but valuable information on shifter DNA from one of our older scientists, but unfortunately, due to failures in both our computer systems and redundancy systems, we lost the information. We think the system failures were due to malicious attacks from within our company, and we are tracking down and dealing with those involved. Luckily for us, Mr. Astor had an offsite copy of the information we need. He was trying to bribe us into giving him a lot of money for it at the time his condo burned down. We were trying to work with his demands, even though they were blackmail, because we didn’t want to rock the boat too much and have the information end up in the wrong hands. After his condo burned, though, he started telling us the information was lost and that he doesn’t have any backups. We don’t believe him, and we want to sue to force him to turn it over.”

Grant frowned as he listened. He knew from Silver, who had dated Mr. Astor’s son previously, that Mr. Astor’s story was likely correct. Mr. Astor was a bit of an eccentric character, and had not backed up any of his files because he thought his condo was invincible. Grant found it hard to believe that his own now decoded copy of the information was the only copy in existence, but it sounded like that might actually be the case.

Jim looked around at the faces in the room, and then spoke again. “As you can imagine, this case is an extremely sensitive one for our client. Not only do they need to get the information back for the good of humanity so that shifters can be dealt with, but they need to do it without this story being leaked to the press. We are formatting the legal documents so that as much as possible is kept under seal and protected as proprietary business information. Additionally, we don’t want the press to find out that Hook’s backup systems themselves failed. News like that would be a major blow to the public’s confidence in Hook Labs, which would be devastating for their business. I’m sure it goes without saying, and you’ve already signed the non-disclosure agreements covering this, but I just want to remind you: do not discuss this case with anyone. Not even other attorneys in the firm who are not on the case. I can assure you that anyone who leaks information will see their employment by our firm come to an abrupt halt. So don’t risk it.”

Jim looked around the room to make sure everyone understood how serious he was. Grant almost wanted to laugh. The tablet sitting in his briefcase on the floor next to him held all of the information the men from Hook Labs were desperate to recover. What a strange twist of irony.

“In a few minutes, we are going to send out several memos and reports with information about the case. When you get back to your offices, please review these in detail. I don’t care what other projects you have going on right now. This case takes top priority. Review everything and be prepared for a follow-up meeting tomorrow afternoon. We want to get moving on drafting the legal documents as soon as possible. If there are no further questions, you are all dismissed.”

Jim’s tone made it clear that he didn’t actually want to field any questions, so the attorneys all stood and bid farewell to the Hook Labs executives, then quickly shuffled out. On the elevator ride back to his floor, Grant stood in silence among the other attorneys who had just left the meeting. They all had somber expressions on their faces, and Grant figured they were probably feeling a little shell-shocked at the realization that shifters existed. Grant resisted the urge to make a snarky comment about how Jim was judging a whole group of people without knowing them. His coworkers wouldn’t understand why he was defending shifters, and he couldn’t really explain it without revealing who he truly was.

So Grant silently went back to his office and shut the door, turning to his computer to check his email without even bothering to take his phone or tablet out of his briefcase. The email from Jim had already arrived, with fifty different files attached. Grant sat for a moment starting at the attachments in disbelief. He had essentially just been handed an inside peek at the enemies’ operations. This was pretty unbelievable.

But he didn’t sit there staring for long. You never knew as a shifter when you might be discovered somehow. If you had an opportunity to get a sneak peak at the way someone who hates shifters works, then you better take it while you can. Grant opened the first document and started reading. For the next three hours, he sat in front of his computer screen transfixed. He learned about the history of the eye scanner project, the details of failed attempts, lots of information on shifter species different from him, including wolves, big cats, and even elephants. Grant hadn’t even realized elephant shifters existed. It was only when his secretary knocked on the door to tell him she was going home that he realized how long he had been sitting there. He quickly minimized his computer screen as she cracked the door open.

“Grant?” Julia asked. “You okay in there? I haven’t heard a peep from you all afternoon.”

Grant was well known for roaming the halls in the afternoons. He often had a hard time focusing after lunch, and would jump up every ten minutes or so to grab something new from the vending machine. But today, he’d been holed up in his office the entire afternoon.

Grant nodded and tried to give Julia a convincing smile. “Yeah, I’m good. Just busy. Have a good night.”

Julia looked at him with pity. “I guess being on a project with Jim is a blessing and a curse, huh?”

Grant shrugged, and waved goodbye to Julia, grateful to let her think that his sudden disappearance was all due to an overbearing partner. But the truth was, he was feeling pretty shell-shocked right now. He needed to talk to someone. Storm’s face immediately jumped into his mind, causing him to suddenly remember that he had invited her to dinner tonight.

“Oh, shit,” he said, reaching down for his briefcase to pull his phone out. He had several missed texts from her, saying she was available, then asking him when and where, then asking him if he had fallen into a pit somewhere because it was almost dinnertime and she hadn’t heard back from him.

“Call Storm,” Grant said to his phone. Moments later, the phone had dialed and Storm’s line was ringing.

“Well, well, well,” Storm said as she answered. “I was starting to wonder if I should send out a search party for you. Let me guess. Some big important client suddenly needed some big important something from you and you’re totally swamped at work.”

“Ouch. I’ve used that excuse a few too many times, huh?” Grant said, smiling at the teasing tone of Storm’s voice.

“Yeah, well, it’s okay. If you need to cancel dinner it’s alright. I know you’re Mr. Important over there at the firm.”

Grant rolled his eyes. “I would actually still love to meet up for dinner if you’re available. I did get a new big important case today. Something I think you’re going to be very interested in hearing about.”

“Sure, I’m available. I was just leaving the office. Want to meet downtown somewhere?”

“Yeah, how about Chicago Cut Steakhouse? I can be there in ten minutes.”

“Sure. See you there. I’m intrigued.”

“Yeah, well. You should be. You’re not going to believe the day I’ve had. See you soon.”

Grant hung up the phone and started shutting down his work computer.

A few minutes later, he boarded the elevator to head down to the building lobby. Thankfully, the elevator was empty, and he laughed out loud. He had only signed the non-disclosure agreement a few hours ago, but he was already about to break it by talking to Storm. Not that it mattered. As soon as these shifter eye scanners were detected and unveiled, he was pretty sure his days at the firm were over.

The clock was already ticking.

Storm stared across the table at Grant with her mouth hanging open. She knew this wasn’t the most attractive look in the world, but she couldn’t keep the shock she was feeling inside from spilling over onto her face.

When Grant had asked her to dinner, she had almost declined. She’d had a feeling that he just wanted to make a romantic pass at her, and she hadn’t wanted to encourage that. How wrong she had been. Nothing Grant had said in the last thirty minutes had anything to do with romance. Instead, he had just detailed how he’d been put on a case at his firm that involved Hook Labs, the company developing the shifter-detecting eye scanners.

“Wow,” Storm said, finally finding her voice. “Imagine how those bigwigs in suits would have reacted if they knew you had the information they wanted.”

Grant actually chuckled, breaking the tension that had been hanging in the air. “Yeah, that thought definitely crossed my mind. I’m happy they’re pursuing this lawsuit, though. The whole thing is going to be a waste of time and money for them. And it was pretty interesting reading through the memos on the case and getting an inside look at our enemy. But there’s one thing I learned from the memos that worries me quite a bit…”

Storm raised a questioning eyebrow at Grant as his voice trailed off. He looked to his right and left, making sure no one at an adjacent table was paying attention to their conversation.

“Hook Labs is bringing in reinforcements,” Grant said.

“Reinforcements?” Storm asked, right before slicing off a piece of her steak and sticking it in her mouth. She savored the tender meat as she waited for Grant to reply. He took his time, staring up at the ceiling for several long moments. He had furrowed his brow deeply, giving his face a troubled expression. Despite her resolve to keep things purely platonic between them, Storm couldn’t keep herself from admiring his chiseled jaw line. His short, dark hair was neatly styled, and he looked extra handsome under the soft lighting of the restaurant. He had taken off his suit jacket and loosened his tie, showing off the way his broad chest and sculpted biceps pressed against the confines of his stiff dress shirt. Storm looked away and picked up her glass of wine. If she wanted to keep this bear at a distance, she had to stop staring at him like a love-struck schoolgirl.

“Yeah, reinforcements,” Grant said, finally looking back at Storm. He seemed oblivious to the fact that she had just been ogling him. “There was a long memo detailing all the failures of the current team of scientists who are working on the scanners. Hook Labs apparently pressured the Mayor to get this project on the radar of the President. You know the Mayor and President are good friends, right?”

“Yeah. I’ve heard,” Storm said, cracking a smile. She worked as an low-level assistant in the Mayor’s office, and often heard her coworkers blabbing about meeting the President the last time he’d been in Chicago.

Grant nodded. “Well, the Mayor apparently reached out to the President earlier this week. The President is interested in the scanner, and is putting pressure on some of the nation’s best scientists to come out to Chicago within the next week.”

“Uh-oh. Looks like Juno’s little ruse might be up,” Storm said. Juno had been doing her best to use her position as a research assistant to secretly screw up the scanner development rather than help it along. When a new round of more experienced scientists took over the project, though, they would probably catch on to Juno’s tricks pretty quickly.

“Yeah, well, it looks like all of our little ruses might be up soon,” Grant said. “I have a feeling that once those new scientists arrive, things are going to move forward quickly with the scanners. The information I have on bear shifter DNA would be helpful for Hook Labs to have, sure. But in the end, it won’t take long for a team of well-funded scientists to replicate the research and figure things out. I’d say we have less than three months until the scanners are functioning properly. Maybe less. And you know as well as I do that once those things are up and running, it’s only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.”

Storm fell silent and looked down at her plate, trying to process the weight of what Grant was saying. She had built a life here in Chicago. Their whole group of shifter friends had done the same. She was comfortable, enjoying a good job and the anonymity that being in a large city afforded to her. She didn’t want to think about all of that changing, but she didn’t have much of a choice now. The end of this charmed existence was looming, and it was time to start planning for the worst. As soon as the shifter scanners were working properly, there was going to be a massive witch hunt for shifters. Public hysteria would be easy enough to stir up, especially when the President himself thought the “threat” of shifters needed to be addressed. Staying in Chicago after the public discovered shifters would be foolhardy.

“What next?” Storm asked, looking back up at Grant with the desperate hope that he had some sort of brilliant plan to get them all out of this mess. “Will you go back to Alaska?”

Grant’s eyes darkened, and he laughed bitterly. “No. My dad still hasn’t forgiven me for leaving the clan to become a lawyer. He thinks he failed at raising me, and that I have no sense of duty. I’m not interested in slinking back home. But, honestly, Storm, I don’t think Alaska is enough to save us, anyway. This threat is bigger than anything shifters have ever faced before. The annihilation will start in Chicago, sure. But it’s going to stretch much further than that. It’s only a matter of time before the President sends the national guard to Alaska with the scanners as well. And with the way technology is these days, it’s not easy to just hide out, even in the wilderness of Alaska.”

Storm felt a knot growing in the pit of her stomach. “So what are we supposed to do? We can’t just sit here and wait for them to start killing us off.”

“No, we definitely aren’t going to stay here like a bunch of sitting ducks,” Grant said. “But I’m not quite sure what the solution is. I think we need to all put our heads together on this and figure out a solid plan of action. And we need to do it soon. Time is running out.”

Storm nodded, then reached for her glass of wine and took a long sip while trying to organize her thoughts. “We should see when everyone is available and have a meeting sooner rather than later. I have a feeling that things are going to get really crazy really fast.”

Grant sat up straight in his chair and then reached down for his briefcase to fish out his phone. “Yup, you’re absolutely right about that. Why are we still sitting here debating? Let’s get something scheduled.”

Grant fiddled with his phone for a second, then spoke to it with an authoritative voice. “Computer, compose group text.”

“Who would you like to text?” the phone responded.

“The Fur Coats,” Grant replied.

Storm sighed with resignation as Grant began dictating the text. Their group of friends, cheekily nicknamed the Fur Coat Society, consisted of six bear shifters. All of them had moved to Chicago from Alaska, and, although they hailed from different clans, they had all known each other as children. Their parents had been close, brought together decades ago by the need to fight against common enemies. It sounded like it wasn’t going to be much longer before it was this generation’s turn to fight.

Grant’s phone started pinging with replies from their friends. He read silently through the incoming texts, and then looked up at Storm.

“Seems like tomorrow evening works well for everyone. Is that okay with you?” he asked.

Storm nodded. She didn’t even need to look at her calendar. Chances are she didn’t have anything important going on. Besides, nothing was more important right now than meeting with her friends. If they didn’t figure out a way to stop the eye scanner threat, life as she knew it was over, anyway.

Grant finished texting back their friends, then looked up at Storm with concern in his eyes.

“You okay?” he asked. “Your steak is getting cold, and you’ve barely touched your mashed potatoes.”

Storm’s heart did a little flip-flop of pleasure at the caring tone in Grant’s voice. It felt good to have someone worry a little about her for once, and she was tempted to play up the moment to get a little more attention from him. But she pushed that temptation away as quickly as it came. She didn’t want to become one of “those girls” who thrived on getting a man to worry about her. There were bigger issues to be concerned about right now. Besides, how many times did she have to remind herself that a romance with Grant Ray was not an option?

“I’m fine,” Storm said quickly, flashing Grant a convincing smile. “But I have to admit that this whole conversation has made me lose my appetite a little bit. Maybe we should just get going.”

Grant nodded, and signaled the waiter to let him know they were done.

“I agree. It’s been a long day, and I’m really ready to get home and get out of this suit,” he said.

He held Storm’s gaze as he spoke, and once again the blazing desire in his eyes was unmistakable. Storm quickly looked down at her hands and tried to take a few deep breaths to calm herself. Life as she knew it was ending, and this wasn’t the time to be thinking about romance.

So why the hell was her heart beating its way right out of her chest?