Silence that Sizzles (14 page)

Kyle closed the file. Then he looked up at her. She could see the pain in his eyes, and it twisted at her gut. “This is a series of emails that all originated from your email account. The latest ones talk about the live trials and the timeline for bringing the vaccine to market.” Kyle handed the file to her. Kelly’s fingers were cold as she took it.

She opened the file. She scanned it in disbelief. As Kyle said, the emails were all exchanges between her and other people in her department. But the problem was she had never written any of them. Then it dawned on her. “I’m being framed. I didn’t authorize this project, Kyle. I didn’t know anything about it. I told you that I wanted to expose them. What better way to make it impossible for me to do that than if they dredged up and created a false case where I knew about everything? They would discredit me. They would ruin me with this if I tried to go public.”

Kelly realized that her plan, which would have been shaky at best, was now gone. In light of what Eric had found, she would be the scapegoat. She would be Oak Tree’s sacrificial lamb led right to the slaughter by her own hand. They would blame everything on her and say it was a project done without their knowledge instead of the other way around.

Anyone who knew Kelly knew that her reputation was the most important thing to her. She would do anything to make sure that nothing happened to it.

“Well, I guess that’s that.” She felt the coldness taking hold in her limbs. She wasn’t stupid. She didn’t think for a moment the trumped up evidence meant that she was safe from Oak Tree. But what it had also done was alienate her from the one person she thought that she could help her. There was no way Kyle would trust her now. Two strikes and Kelly was out.

Kelly stood up. “I don’t know how I can expect you to believe me, other than to say that I didn’t do this, Kyle. I wouldn’t do something like this. But I understand why you would think that I would. This looks damning.”

“It sure the fuck does.”

That was really all there was to say. Kelly somehow understood that now. Kyle looked away from her. She simply nodded. It was over.

She walked to the door and opened it. She saw Cal standing there ready to follow her, but she put her hand up. “I don’t think your bosses want you following me anymore.”

She was done with shifters, and she was most definitely done with Kyle Frost.

Kyle didn’t know what to think. There was a part of him that desperately wanted to believe Kelly. But the evidence in the file was damning, just like she said. He didn’t know what to think or what to do, and when he was in those kinds of moods, he did what he did best. Drink and try to forget.

That was the state that Sophie found him in several hours later after the fights were over. Kyle had barely been watching. His mind had been replaying everything that Kelly had said. He had heard the desperation in her voice. She wanted him to believe her. It didn’t feel like she was trying to deceive him, but he just didn’t know what to think. He didn’t want the fact that he thought she was his mate to cloud his judgment of the kind of person she actually was.

“So, you decided to drown your sorrows? I saw Kelly beat it out of here a couple hours ago. She looked.… upset.”

“She’s gone for good.” Kyle didn’t see the point in beating around the bush. He had pushed Kelly away by refusing to believe her. Had he been wrong to believe Eric’s evidence?

Sophie looked at him aghast. “What do you mean she’s gone for good? She’s your mate for heaven’s sake. You can’t just let her leave.”

“The hell I can’t. No mate of mine would do what she has done.” Even though he said the words with the conviction of a religious man, Kyle still wasn’t sure.

He saw Sophie put her hands on her hips and shake her head at him in disgust. “I don’t know what you and Eric have been cooking up over the last twenty-four hours, but I think you guys have some screws loose. There is nothing wrong with that woman outside of the fact that for some crazy reason, she is head over heels for you. I have no idea why. Look at yourself. You’re a fucking disgrace of a man if you let her go.”

Kyle whirled on her with a growl, but Sophie stood her ground going toe to toe with him. “Oh no. You are not going to go all bear on me. If that’s what you want, your bear and my panther can go down to that ring right now and have it out. I can win.”

“Watch yourself, Sophie. There is only one alpha here, and it’s me.” They glared at each other. Kyle had never had anyone challenge him like this. He felt the roar of the blood rushing in his ears. Then he took a breath. Sophie wasn’t his enemy. He had to remember that.

Everything that he had done in his life came down to this one moment. He felt a clarity of mind that he couldn’t remember feeling in the years. He had been absolutely right in what he had said. No one challenged him. Not even Sophie. But now, she had, and he would allow it because he had needed someone to set his mind straight.

Sophie had been right. He had been the dumbass that had let his mate walk out the door without even putting up a fight. He hadn’t let her try to explain. He had only accused and judged her guilty. That was Eric’s way. Not Kyle’s.

“Stand down, Sophie.” There were still the rules of the shifter community that they both had to respect in the situation. Kyle was the alpha of the Urban Dwellers. Sophie had to respect that. “I let my temper get a little out of hand. Let’s talk about this like rational people.”

He almost had to chuckle at his words. He and Sophie were far from what could be considered rational people. She had a temper, not unlike his. He knew that she was throwing everything at him because she believed he was in the wrong. He needed somebody to kick him in the ass every now and then, and he felt lucky that Sophie was on his side.

Sophie gave him one long hard stare. Then she lowered her shoulders and took a step back. It was all the ground she was going to give; he sensed that, but it was enough. It was a conciliatory gesture. “There were some things that Eric told me about Kelly that upset me.”

“First of all, consider the source. Eric isn’t known for telling people things they want to hear. Second, perhaps you should start learning how to talk to people instead of drinking all of those feelings away.” Sophie crossed her arms over her chest. It made Kyle’s bear growl again, but Kyle knew this wasn’t a challenge. Sophie was trying to talk sense into him, and he knew it was for his own good.

There were few people that would willingly go toe to toe with an Urban Dweller like Sophie just had and very few others that would make it out still in one piece. He looked at Sophie with an admiring glance now. He realized that he had been part of the reason that she had not made it to the level of success that she wanted in her life, and he was going to fix that as soon as he fixed the situation with Kelly.

“This is pretty bad.” He picked up the folder and handed it to Sophie. Already a plan was forming in his mind. If Sophie was going to become part of the Urban Dwellers leadership, he was going to have to start bringing her in on some things. “This was what Eric found when he went digging into Kelly’s past. Kelly said she was here for my protection because she found out about this project. These emails, though, indicate that she was actually involved in it and actively working on it.”

Sophie looked at the documents. Then she shook her head. She handed the file back to Kyle. “That’s some fucked up shit, Kyle. But as far as Kelly’s concerned, she’s been framed. Can’t you see that?”

“How can you be so sure of that?” Kyle asked.

“Look, I realize that I just met Kelly. You’ve known her a lot longer than I have. But just read the way that these emails are written. They’re sterile and generic. I’ve listened to her talk about her work just a little bit, and she has a passion when she talks about it that comes through in everything. This doesn’t sound like her at all. It sounds like some kind of robot.”

Kyle considered her words. Then he opened the file and read the emails again. Sophie was right. They did sound sterile and formal. He understood the way that Kelly talked. It didn’t sound like her tone of voice at all.

He realized then that he had been a complete ass. He had to find her and let her know that he had been a jerk for not believing her and judging things so hastily. “Where do you think she would go?”

“Cal followed her. Why don’t you ask him?”

Kyle felt a sense of relief. He pulled out his phone and placed the call. Cal answered a moment later. “Yeah, boss.”

“Where’s Kelly?” Kyle didn’t waste any time with pleasantries.

“I lost her at the Market.”

The Market was the shifter mall just a few blocks away from the Urban Dwellers. It was a place where a myriad of people gathered to sell different types of goods and services that were generally only requested by those in the shifter community. The market operated at odd hours given the nocturnal nature of its clientele. Kyle had no idea why Kelly would’ve gone to the Market.

“How did you lose her?” Cal was one of their best security guards. The fact that he lost Kelly seemed strange.

“Don’t know. One minute she was in front of me, and the next minute she was gone. I’ve been looking for her ever since.”

A tendril of fear grew in Kyle’s stomach. Kelly might be good, but she wasn’t that good. If she had managed to lose Cal, that might mean that there was something wrong. “Thanks, Cal. Come back to the club now.”

“Roger that, boss.”

Kyle saw Sophie looking at him with an expression of concern. “Cal said that he lost Kelly at the Market.”

Sophie’s mouth fell open. “Cal doesn’t lose anybody.”

“I know; it seems suspicious.” Kyle was starting to put the pieces together and realized what had happened. He had let Kelly leave, and she had nowhere to go. She would’ve wandered to the nearest place open at this time of night to regroup, and the Market was the closest place that also would have had a crowd of people inside where she could blend in. It would make sense that she would go there. But now, he suspected that things had gone awry. Just because she had been framed by Oak Tree didn’t mean that she was out of danger. The only way to keep Kelly’s mouth shut forever would be to make her disappear.

“I think I did something horribly wrong.” The words were out of his mouth before he could hold them back.

“What can I do to help?” Sophie stood next to him and put her arm on his shoulder.

Kyle knew that he could call Eric. But Eric was the cause of this mess, and he didn’t trust Kelly. Kyle didn’t have time to try to convince him. He was going to be on his own in this one. He looked at Sophie. “Will you come with me to the Market? I want to see if I can retrace her steps. We can meet Cal on the way.”

Fifteen minutes later, Kyle, Sophie, and Cal stood outside the Market. There was a flashing neon sign outside announcing that it was open twenty-four hours a day. Kyle had been able to make the sign out from a distance standing on the sidewalk outside the club. He figured that was probably what had drawn Kelly there. She didn’t have anywhere else to go. She was out on the streets, and she would’ve been feeling uncertain and alone. He still couldn’t believe that he had just let her walk out the door. Any effects of the liquor he had consumed were entirely gone by this point. The only thing he wanted was to find her and make sure she was safe.

“So, what we do now?” Sophie asked.

Kyle raised his nose into the wind. He could still faintly make out Kelly’s scent. He had been following it ever since the club. So he had been able to validate Cal’s story that she had come to the Market. If he was able to find her, and she was in one piece somewhere hiding from him, he would deal with it. But right now, he had a sinking suspicion that that wasn’t the case. He innately sensed that his mate was in danger.

“This would be a lot easier if I was able to phase.”

“You know the rules, Kyle. You know them better than anyone because you guys were the ones that made them.” What Sophie was talking about was the fact that one of the first things that they had instituted when they brought the Urban Dwellers together was the rule that there would not be shifting permitted in any public places. Shifting among humans created dangerous situations. Humans barely trusted them the way it was. Even though they had made seventeen years of progress on that front, there was still a level of distrust and a feeling of ‘us versus them.’ It was something that he, Eric, and Tony had been working on with the city leaders, but the sentiment was still prevalent. Among the masses, shifters were suspicious, mysterious, and dangerous. The lower profile that they could keep in their human form, the better.

Kyle knew though that inside the Market at this time of night there would likely only be other shifters. Any humans that were doing dealings in the Market now were humans that were aligned with the shifters. He was willing to take the chance. He knew that he’d have to deal with the wrath of Eric and Tony later, but he needed to be able to find out where Kelly had gone. The desire to find her was growing by the moment. “You guys just keep an eye on my flank. If you see anything that I don’t see, let me know. Otherwise, I’ve got this.”

Kyle was planning it out like he was back in the field. This was a simple search and rescue mission. He would change into his bear just long enough to be able to find Kelly’s scent. Once he figured out where she was, then he would phase back. He went inside the doors and then slipped into a small hallway off the side. He took off his clothes; he would need them again soon enough, and then he phased.

Every bone in his body felt like it was breaking in half, and in a way, it probably was. The idea of how he was able to phase on-demand and in control was still something that had a sense of magic about it. But it was simple anatomy and nature. After you came of age as a shifter, it was just something that you learned to do. And once he had learned how to control his bear, things settled in his life. At least, they had until the unfortunate event that happened at prep school. He couldn’t think about that now, though. He needed to focus on Kelly.

In his bear form, he knew that he was an imposing sight. He was a polar bear. This was different than the rest of the shifters in the Greyelf Grizzly clan and was part of the reason that his family had felt the urge to break away when they did. They had just never quite merged in a way that made sense for his family to stay.

He lumbered out from the hallway and found Sophie and Cal standing there waiting for him. Sophie looked unimpressed. Cal was also a bear shifter so he was similarly nonplussed. Sometimes he forgot he was surrounded by other shifters given the fact that he only usually saw them in their human forms. Sophie raised a hand and flung it out in front of her. “Well, you’re the one who’s breaking the rules, so you can lead the way.”

Kyle huffed at her. She continued to look unimpressed. But he knew that regardless of whatever she said, she and Cal would have his back. That was the important part.

Kyle lifted his nose again into the air, and this time, the smell of Kelly’s perfume was stronger in his nostrils. He knew that by phasing, his bear would have a better chance of finding her. He started to lumber through the Market. It was surprising that even at this time of the night, there was still more people than he would have expected there. He drew curious glances and a few angry stares, but otherwise people gave him a wide berth. He thought that it might be perhaps because even if they didn’t recognize exactly who he was, they knew the two shifters behind him which should tell them exactly who he was. He was an Urban Dweller, and this was his city. If someone had come into it and decided to fuck with his mate, he was going to take them down. These were the murderous thoughts of rage that went through his mind, and he forced his bear to be calm. He could feel that the bear wanted to run and find her as quickly as possible and claw apart anyone else that he may find with her. But he had to control those urges, at least for now.