Trouble in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 1) (21 page)

Jack furrowed his brow in confusion. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“We’re heading back home to Alaska tonight,” Sawyer said, standing up as well. “Drew, you got that plane we talked about all ready?”

Drew nodded. Bash, who had been mostly quiet this whole time, suddenly stood up.

“What?” Bash said. “You guys are leaving us alone in the middle of all this mess? You can’t do that! We need you!”

Anderson placed a hand on Bash’s shoulder. “Son, if you need us, we’ll always be here. We’ll always come. But, right now, you guys have this under control, and we have a clan back home to take care of.”

Jack stood up now, too. He almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You guys are leaving us? Usually the old folks don’t trust the younger generation to take care of things. I mean, no offense, but I was expecting you to kind of just take over things from here and order us around. That’s how clan life has always worked.”

Anderson turned to Jack. “Times are changing, Jack. I get that. I may resist things like self-driving vehicles, but one thing I’ll never resist is a young man or woman who can get shit done. I watched all of you working together today, and I know you’re all capable of great things. I’m getting old. I won’t be around forever, and I take a lot of comfort in knowing that the younger generation is capable and strong. When I’m gone, you will be the ones to carry the legacy. You will be the ones to guard over our shifter brethren and fight any of the forces trying to destroy us. So, yes, I’m heading home now. And I’m leaving this fight in Chicago in your very capable hands. Give ‘em hell. And take care of my daughter. I know you will.”

Jack felt his chest puffing up with pride at Anderson’s words. He resolved then and there to be worthy of the trust Anderson was placing in him. He had wanted to escape clan life so badly, but now he realized he’d been running away from the very people who loved him most. The clans back home weren’t trying to stifle his dreams. They were trying to help him soar. Jack’s feeling of happiness only grew as he felt Silver reach over and grab his hand. He looked down at her with a smile on his face, his heart warming as she smiled back at him. The months ahead would be long and interesting for everyone in this room. Of that he was sure. But he had no doubt that the Fur Coats could handle whatever was thrown their way.

“Come on, guys,” Jack said. “Let’s load into the hovercars and head back to Chicago. It’s time to show the Astors and the mayor what shifters are made of.”

Thirty minutes later, goodbyes had been said, and Silver climbed into a hovercar with Storm and Jack. Grant and Bash led the way in the other hovercar as the two vehicles zoomed into the sky above Lake Michigan and started heading back toward Chicago. Flying in unmarked airspace, or “off-roading,” was strictly prohibited and carried severe penalties. But the electronic symbols were still scrambled on the hovercars, and the airspace over Lake Michigan was empty. They had pushed their luck numerous times already today. Hopefully that luck would keep holding out and they could get back to Chicago and onto normal flyways without being caught.

Jack sat in the backseat and let Silver and Storm have the front. Silver kept glancing over her shoulder and smiling at Jack, though. She could hardly wait until they were safely home and she had some time alone with him to truly celebrate being reunited. Silver sighed happily. Despite all the troubles in the lives of shifters right now, she had Jack. What more could she really ask for? And, as an added bonus, her dad seemed to have a newfound respect for Jack. Knowing that her father approved of her lifemate took a huge weight off of her shoulders.

As the hovercar rose higher, Storm brought Silver back to the present moment by pointing at a small port on the side of the dashboard’s computer screen.

“There’s a port there that should accept all kinds of data drives,” Storm said. “Why don’t you see if there’s anything interesting on that data drive you took from Mrs. Astor?”

Silver nodded, and stuck the drive in the port. Behind her, Jack leaned forward with interest. They were all hoping to find something useful—something that would give them an edge over the Astor’s and the destruction they had planned. At first, things looked promising. There were several folders of documents with labels such as “Very Important” and “Top Secret.” Silver clicked on the folders, and started opening some of the documents. That’s when her excited smile quickly turned to a frown.

“This is all gibberish,” she said.

Storm leaned over to look at the screen, and frowned as well. On the screen were random letters and symbols, arranged in a seemingly meaningless order.

“I think it’s some kind of code,” Jack said. “It looks like all the data is arranged in paragraphs, so there is some structure to it. But that looks like a pretty intense code to break.”

Storm sighed and leaned away from the screen. “We’ll get Grant to look at it when we get back to Chicago. He’s pretty good at cracking codes. He used to do it for fun back when he was in law school. He said it kept the logical side of his brain sharp, or some weird bullshit like that.”

Silver leaned back too, disappointed. “I guess we’ll have to wait, then. But we’ve definitely found something important. Hopefully it’s something important related to the eye scanners.”

Jack reached over the seatback and squeezed Silver’s shoulder reassuringly, sending a wave of warmth through her body. “Don’t worry, Silver. Whether or not this particular information is helpful to us, we’ll find a way to stop this threat. Anyone who dares to mess with the Fur Coats is going to quickly find out what we’re made of.”

Silver smiled and settled in to her seat. Jack was right. They were a strong group, and they were courageous. They would meet this challenge head-on, just like generations of shifters had done before them. Humans wanting to destroy shifters was nothing new. The details of the situation might be slightly different, but Silver had no doubt that the outcome would be the same as it had hundreds of times before over the centuries: shifters would remain, and thrive.

They were too strong to fail.

* * *

Several hours later, the hovercars made it safely back to Silver’s apartment. Silver changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt, thankful to finally get to wear something comfortable after hours of being stuck in the dress she’d “borrowed” from Mrs. Astor.

As soon as Juno knew they were back, she came over to see everyone. Her eyes welled up with tears as she hugged Silver tightly.

“I was so scared we were going to lose you,” Juno said.

Silver returned the hug and then grinned. “Turns out I’m not so easy to get rid of.”

Jack was already at the computer screen on Silver’s living room wall, swiping through news for Chicago and trying to see if there was any information that would link them to the helicopter crash and burning building, which was the headline on every news website.

“Looks like no one has identified us,” Jack said. “Police are saying they think the helicopter was flown by two individuals from out of town, who have now escaped. It says here that two men from out of state were spotted flying the helicopter in the suburbs a few hours before the crash. Police are looking for any available information on the two men. So far it seems that all they’ve been able to learn is that they were unusually tall and had dark hair.”

Silver had to laugh. “Yeah, Daddy and Uncle Sawyer are tall. I guess they got the out-of-towner part right, too.”

Bash came to stand alongside the screen with Jack. “It doesn’t look like anyone recognized any of us, though. There’s nothing in the news that would possibly link to us. And I imagine that if the police knew we were connected they would have contacted us by now.”

Storm whistled under her breath. “Looks like we actually got away with all of this,” she said.

“Yeah, but what about the Astors? They know,” Silver said, sounding cautious. She wanted to believe that the group was safe, but she knew Mr. Astor well. He was a spiteful, malicious man. When someone crossed him, he made it his mission to make sure they paid for it.

Jack kept scanning the screen. “There’s nothing in the news about them, except to say that Mr. Astor was scheduled to speak at the mayor’s safety summit today and police are exploring the possibility that he was targeted. He’s currently in the hospital recovering from smoke inhalation and is in stable condition. His wife is missing and is feared dead.”

Silver’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, that woman actually went back again to try to save her clothes. What an idiot!”

“Darwin’s law,” Bash said with a shrug. “Survival of the fittest. And she definitely wasn’t one of the fittest.”

“Wait, what about the safety summit?” Storm asked. “Did they still have it? I completely forgot about it with everything else going on in the last few hours.”

Jack kept scanning. “Um, nope. Safety summit was canceled. It will be rescheduled for a later date. That’s all the news says about that.”

Silver frowned. “Mr. Astor might tell the police about us,” she said.

“He might,” Jack answered. “Or he might try to get back at you without involving the police. He seems like the type to take matters into his own hands.”

Silver shuddered. “That man is evil.”

“Don’t worry,” Jack said, reaching to pull Silver into a hug. “He’s no match for a determined group of shifters. You know that.”

“I know,” Silver said, tilting her head back and standing on her tip-toes to give Jack a quick kiss on the lips. “But it still gives me heebie-jeebies just to think about him.”

Before Jack could respond, a loud string of curses came from the corner of the living room. Silver looked over to see Grant huddled over a tablet screen with his brow furrowed.

“What’s wrong?” Silver asked. He had been intently studying something on that screen for the last hour, almost. Silver had assumed he was looking through news as well, but she had assumed wrongly. He’d been working on the data drive.

“I thought I had broken the code, but I was off somewhere,” Grant said.

“Code?” Juno asked.

“We stole a data drive from the Astors’ condo,” Storm explained. “It has a lot of documents on it that look important, but they’re all in some sort of code. Grant’s trying to figure it out.”

“I’m going to have to look at this with fresh eyes tomorrow,” Grant said. “It’s been a long day and I think I’m just too exhausted to think clearly right now.”

Storm nodded. “We should probably all go home and get some rest. Juno, you’ve been pretty quiet. Any new updates on the eye scanners?”

Juno shook her head no. “They haven’t made any progress, although they haven’t worked on them much in the last day. Supposedly, there was going to be a big push to get stuff done after the safety summit, but since that got canceled I’m not sure. Things might be low pressure for a few days, at least.”

Grant stood up and started slipping on his jacket, which he had thrown across Silver’s couch. “Looks like we’ve got a few days of breathing room before things start to heat up again. Let’s use the time to rest and think about our game plan going forward. And I’m going to work on cracking this code.”

Jack nodded. “I think that’s the best use of time. We’ve all been through a lot in the last few days. We could use some time to recover. Everyone, make sure you don’t go anywhere alone though. Always stay around a big crowd, or use the buddy system and stick together. Let’s try to avoid having another kidnapping to deal with.”

The group agreed, and then everyone except Jack left. Silver felt her heart skip a beat as Jack closed the door behind him and turned around to face her with a smile.

“Alone at last,” he said, then crossed the room to plant a kiss on her face. He pulled her into his arms, and Silver breathed in his familiar scent. Now that it was quiet, she realized just how crazy the last twenty-four hours had been. What a day. She had almost been exposed as a shifter, Jack and the rest of the crew had almost died rescuing her, and then she’d seen her father head back to Alaska, trusting that she would be safe with Jack.

Jack. Just the sound of his name enveloped her with a feeling of safety and security. He was a strong bear, dangerous and fierce when he needed to be. But he was hers, and his goal was to protect her. Silver wasn’t sure how she had spent so many years telling herself that Jack was just a friend. He was so much more. He was her best friend, her protector, her warrior who would fight alongside her to the death.

“You are incredible,” Silver whispered into Jack’s ear, reaching up to hold the back of his head with her right hand. She loved feeling his strong skull beneath her fingers as she ran her palm through his short hair.

Jack pulled back and placed his lips on hers, giving her a long, sweet kiss. “That’s funny,” he whispered, his voice husky. “I feel the same way about you. This has been a crazy couple of weeks, and I feel like life is quickly changing. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is that you amaze me. Your bravery in the face of evil men inspires me.”

Silver felt her heart swelling with gratitude over Jack’s words. She was so often praised for her body—for her ability to dance and move in a spectacular manner. It felt good to be praised for her heart, for a change.

Not that she didn’t want Jack to enjoy her body, too. She had missed him terribly, and she had big plans for the evening for them both to enjoy each other.

“Come on,” she said, pulling him toward the bedroom and giving him a sultry look. Jack grinned, but then hesitated.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” he asked. “You took a pretty good hit to the head. If you just need to rest I totally understand. I’ll still be here tomorrow.”

Silver smiled. “I appreciate your concern. But I’m feeling great. What I really need now is you.”

Jack smiled and started walking toward the bedroom with her. “Well, then, I’m happy to help out,” he said.

No sooner had they made it through the bedroom door than Jack took Silver’s face in his hands and kissed her deeply. The feeling of his mouth against hers was so sweet. Silver felt a shiver of pleasure go through her body as his hands slid from her cheeks down to her waist. He slowly, gently pushed her down to a sitting position on the bed, and then pulled off her shirt. She marveled at how strong his hands were. They were tough and ready for a fight, yet so gentle with her.

Jack used his index finger to trace a line from Silver’s bellybutton all the way up to her chin, and Silver closed her eyes as she enjoyed the warmth of his touch. He reached behind her and unclasped her bra, pushing the lacy straps of the garment down and off her shoulders before reaching for her breasts.

Silver moaned gently as Jack cupped each breast in one of his palms, then bent down to level his mouth with her nipples. The feeling of his wet, warm tongue covering her tingling breasts was nothing short of incredible. Silver lived for moments like this with Jack. She let the warm electricity of passion wash over her body, and then reached for Jack’s shirt. She pulled it off and over his head as he continued paying attention to her breasts, and she let her own hands slide down to rest on his strong chest. In the moments where she had worried she would never escape from the Astors, Jack’s face had continuously flashed across her mind. It was hard to believe that she was actually here, now, in his arms.

As if sensing the sudden surge of her emotions, Jack stood and pushed her down on the bed with an urgency. He tugged at her sweatpants, pulling them off and tossing them aside quickly. Then, with a low growl, he used his teeth to grab the hem of her panties and pull them down as well. Silver could feel herself growing wet as the pressure built within her and between her legs. She wanted him so badly. Needed him so badly.

“Jack,” she called out. All she could say was his name. But that one word held a thousand meanings. After everything that had happened in the last few days, the only thing she wanted to do was make love to her bear. To lie there with him and know that nothing else in the world mattered. Jack responded to her pleading desire quickly.