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  Now she was free to do her own thing again without the obligatory guilt for at least another year, and she had piles of notes for her research. Her dream was to have her own vineyard someday.

  Alex had gotten off scot-free this trip because of the destination and because he had school. Eric had his quarterly investors meetings to attend to, which meant he was off the hook too. Which reminded her that she was surprised that Eric had been so willing to take Alex out on a school night. Her eyes popped open as she realized the day. She pulled out her phone and checked the date.

  “Goddammit!” She punched in Alex’s number. It went straight to voicemail. She furiously dialed Eric’s number. It rang several times and went to voicemail as well.

  Pushing to her feet, Thea began to pace the room. It was a Wednesday night, which meant that Eric usually met up with his buddies at the club they co-owned in the warehouse district. Thea probably knew Eric’s schedule better than Eric knew it himself. That was the upside and downside of being someone’s personal assistant.

  “Executive assistant,” she corrected herself out loud. She still couldn’t believe that she was wasting her time and her degree catering to her stepbrother’s every whim, but the insider experience she was getting couldn’t be matched. As much as it killed her to admit it, she was learning the business of running a successful company from the inside out from one of the best.

  Eric Carmichael was the CEO of one of the largest technology firms in the world. The part that was most admirable was that he had built it entirely on his own. His father was a billionaire in his own right, but there had been an unknown falling out around the time that Eric graduated from prep school, and he had never taken another dime from his father.

  When Thea graduated from school and needed a job, Eric offered to show her the ropes if she’d be willing to do some grunt work for a few years as his assistant. Apparently, Eric had finally figured out that business and pleasure didn’t mix. One of her first duties had been working with the legal department on a settlement after his last assistant decided to sue him when he broke things off with her and fired her to get rid of her.

  They had the strangest family interactions. Thea and Eric got along well enough. Thea loved Robert like he was her own father, who had been a man she had never known. Eric and her mother, Rebecca, hated each other. The only member of the family who everyone adored was Alex. If there was one thing Thea figured her mother got right, it was giving birth to Alex.

  Of course, since then, Thea had been the one to look after him. Eric dove in and out at the most inopportune times wreaking havoc with Alex’s schedule, which naturally meant that Alex adored him in return.

  Which led Thea straight to the reason she was so agitated in the first place. It was the 23rd of the month, which meant that it was fight night at Urban Dwellers, which was the name of the club that her brother owned with his buddies from prep school. Alex had been begging her for the last year for permission to go see the fights, but she was vehemently against it. She had made Eric promise that he wouldn’t take Alex behind her back.

  She stopped pacing long enough to try both their phones again. The result was the same. Voicemail. She glanced at her watch. It was going on 7pm. The fights didn’t start until 9pm. She still had time to intercept the play that her brothers were making on her. She made her way toward her room. Urban Dwellers definitely wasn’t the kind of place for her casual attire; at least, not if she wanted to blend in.

  Thirty minutes later, Thea exited the building and let Karl hail her a cab. She gave the driver the address that she knew by heart. She knew the locations of all of Eric’s various real estate holdings. She knew where he kept his money, including his several offshore accounts. She knew more about Eric then she probably knew about herself when she thought about it seriously. The crazy thing to her was that Eric didn’t seem to mind.

  “You’re family,” he’d say whenever she uncovered another unsavory detail about his life that she’d wish he’d kept to himself. Apparently in Eric’s world, that meant that you let your dirty laundry all hang out. She wasn’t as forthcoming with him about the details of her personal life, not that she really had one.

  She tried calling Alex and Eric’s phones again. She practically growled at her phone as she heard Eric’s voice brightly request that she leave a message.

  “Eric, it’s Thea. If I find out that you have Alex at the club, I’m going to cut your balls off. Consider yourself warned.” She hit the off button and threw her phone into her clutch with an exasperated sigh. She saw the cab driver look at her in the rearview window with wide eyes and felt heat rise in her cheeks.

  It wasn’t like her to lose her cool. But after a week with her mother she was on edge. She stared out the window. For some reason, the image of the guy at the airport popped into her mind. She had seen him moving through the throngs of people quickly and with a grace that told her immediately that he was a shifter. He had been strikingly handsome, and there was something about him that made her feet follow in his wake. They were going in the same direction after all.

  She had been surprised to find him looking as if he were on the verge of a panic attack outside on the sidewalk. Then she realized what had probably happened. Shifters weren’t big fans of flying. Eric had a private jet and still popped a couple of Valium before every trip. She hadn’t even stopped to think that the man might consider her a crazy lady for asking about his well-being.

  Their exchange had been brief, but she had found herself mesmerized by his eyes. She had felt as if she were drowning in them. There was something about him that made her heartbeat speed up, which was nutty. She wasn’t the kind of woman who felt that kind of hot instant attraction to a man, even if he was handsome. Yet she had been oddly disappointed that he hadn’t asked her for her name or phone number. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t had random guys ask her for her info before. Thea wasn’t so self-centered to think that she was God’s gift to men, but she knew that she was reasonably attractive.

  She grimaced. He was a shifter, though. No doubt he wouldn’t be attracted to her because she was a full-bred human. She had watched Eric chase the skirts of what seemed like every shifter female in Copper City. He had told her one day when she noted his preference that shifters were a lot wilder in bed. The idea of Eric in bed with anybody was repulsive to her. She hated how comfortable he was oversharing every part of his life, but then again, she also had a first-hand look into what it was like living as a shifter in a predominantly human world. For Eric, it was probably a lot easier than others. He was handsome and wealthy. That put him two steps ahead of almost everyone else in the world, shifter or human.

  Her thoughts had come full circle. She brushed the memory of the guy at the airport away. She’d never see him again, so it was pointless to waste any more energy on the idea of him. She had bigger things to worry about anyway. Like the fact that her dumb older stepbrother had probably taken her sweet, innocent little half-brother to a shifter club to see a bunch of shifters fight. She was going to strangle Eric when she found him.

  Thea’s eyes focused outside the window again as the taxi came to a stop. She looked around in confusion. “Where are we?”

  “Thirty-five Seventy-Second Street,” the taxi driver said. He was staring at his phone. Thea could see some kind of notification on the screen. He probably was already booking his next fare.

  “I asked for Thirty-Five Seventy-First Street,” Thea said with a low groan. She could see the gridlock of traffic out the windshield. Although she was just a block off her destination, she knew in traffic it was going to take another ten to fifteen minutes to go around the block. “You know what? Nevermind. I’ll walk from here.” She thrust cash for the fare into the driver’s hand and got out of the cab.

  She stood on the curb for a minute assessing her options. She could walk around the block to the front entrance of the club. She looked down at her feet with a grimace. She should have known better than to wear heels, but they looked kil
ler with her skinny jeans and the black slinky blouse that rode low on her shoulders.

  Her attire was actually on the conservative side for a night at Urban Dwellers. It was the hottest nightclub in the city and was probably nearing full capacity even though it was barely after 8pm on a weeknight. That was because of the fight, of course. The humans didn’t know anything about it. They partied on the dance floor on the main level while below their feet in the basement arena, there was an equally rousing group bursting at the seams, screaming for their favored opponent in the ring.

  The whole thing left Thea with a bad taste in her mouth, but Eric’s logic along with that of his partners was that it would happen regardless of whether they sanctioned it or not. This way, they were able to keep an eye on it and control it, if there was such a thing. Of course, what they didn’t say was that they also profited a bundle from it. It wasn’t anything that Thea condoned, and she certainly wasn’t going to let Alex watch it.

  Alex was fascinated by shifters. The jury was still out on whether he had gotten the shifter gene. She knew that Robert and Eric would be thrilled if he did, her mother less so. Thea didn’t know yet how she was going to react. She was more focused on trying to create a normal life for Alex despite everything in their family that pointed to the contrary.

  She bit her lower lip as her eyes came to rest on an alley almost directly across the street from where she stood. She knew it ran the length of the city block between her and her destination and came up next to the building that was next door to the club. It was a shortcut that would save her feet and some time. But the sun was already low on the horizon, and long shadows fell inside the alley. Even during the day, it would be dim in there. Now it looked like the doorway into the pit of darkness.

  Thea stood there for another moment and then stood up straight and threw her shoulders back. There was nothing to worry about. It wasn’t even full dark yet. She’d keep a good clip and be back on the sidewalk on the other side in no time flat.

  Having convinced herself that this was the right plan, she strode across the street narrowly avoiding the front fender of three cars that were trying to advance in their lanes despite the traffic. Ignoring the cursing from the interior of the cars, she stepped up onto the sidewalk and plunged into the alley before she could talk herself out of it.

  The air temperature seemed to drop ten degrees once inside the alley. She was tempted to pull out her phone and use the flashlight app, but she gave herself another stern talking to. She could see the light from the end of the alley in the distance. It wasn’t that far.

  She made out the silhouettes of large garbage bins, and she gave them a wide berth. Still, the odors emanating from them made her nose wrinkle. She hoped that the smell wouldn’t cling to her clothes. Her heels made a tapping noise on the concrete as she walked, and it seemed as if the sounds echoed loudly at her from all the walls. She quickened her pace.

  Thea felt her heart begin to race when she heard a thud of metal hitting the ground behind her. She whirled around but didn’t see anyone there. Then she felt something small and furry scurry across her foot. She let out an unladylike squeal and turned to dash toward the exit of the alley.

  She stumbled when the heel of her shoe broke, and as she pitched forward, she heard a harsh laugh behind her. She landed hard on her hands and knees and felt the abrasions across her skin as the asphalt tore through the flimsy material of her jeans. She flipped over onto her butt and looked up at two men standing there over her. She could smell the stench of alcohol wafting off of them.

  “Well, look what we have here, Kurt. A pretty little gal,” the shorter of the two said peering down at her. He knelt down toward her. “You need some help, girlie?”

  Thea heard the slur of his words. Even in the dim light of the alley, she could tell that his eyes were bloodshot. In addition to being drunk, he was probably hyped up on some drug.

  “Hello, darlin’,” Kurt said. “Don’t mind my friend, Ollie. He’s rude. Let me help you up.” Kurt offered her his hand.

  Thea started to scoot backward as she regained her footing. The only thing she could think in her head was that she had to get out of the alley and out into the open. “Thanks, but I’m okay.” She managed to get to her feet but found the two men had stepped closer to her.

  “Looks like you might have hurt yourself,” Kurt said as he sniffed the air.

  Shit. They were shifters. Probably on their way to Urban Dwellers for the shifter match. It drew in a much less cultured crowd than the usual club clientele.

  “Just a scrape,” Thea said. She brushed herself off as she backed up. Her damaged shoe made her steps uneven and readily apparent that she was trying to make an exit. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m fine. I’ll just be on my way.” She turned around and ran right into Ollie’s chest.

  The short man grabbed her wrists and pulled her into his chest. She struggled against him, but his grip was like steel.

  “Now, where you going?” Ollie said with a lewd smile. “We was just getting acquainted.”

  “Let me go!” Thea said in a loud tone. She could see over Ollie’s shoulder that the alley’s exit was less than twenty yards away. She saw the silhouettes of people passing by on the sidewalk. She just needed one of them to look in and see her. She cursed herself for her stupidity in taking the shortcut to begin with.

  She knew what she needed to do. She just had to scream. As she opened her mouth, she felt the poke of something sharp against her side. It quelled the sound in her throat before it even crossed her lips.

  Kurt’s rank breath heated the skin at the nape of her neck. “I wouldn’t do that if you know what’s good for you. Now, step back into our office. Ollie and I would like to have a little chat.”

  He pressed the knife further into her side, and Thea’s eyes welled at the pinprick of pain as it sliced through her shirt. Kurt’s arm circled her waist as he lifted her up. Her breath came in hard gulps.

  “Please help me…” she whispered toward the people who now seemed so far away as Kurt dragged her backward into the depths of the shadows.

  CHAPTER THREE

  He was late. After showering, Billy had sat down on the bed and started flipping through his files. He didn’t even remember closing his eyes, but he guessed he shouldn’t have been surprised. It had been a long day, and the city’s assault on his senses had taken a toll. When he woke up, he realized that he had to move it if he wanted to get to the club before the shifter fights started.

  Billy knew from various sources that on any given Wednesday night, Anthony Atwood, Kyle Frost, and Eric Carmichael could be found at their club, the Urban Dwellers. Billy thought it spoke volumes about the three men that they had named their club after their unofficial clan name. But there was one night a month where they hosted the big fights for the more well-known fighters, and shifters came from all over the country to watch them.

  It was an unusual partnership arrangement as each of the Urban Dwellers came from a different species of shifter. Anthony was a wolf shifter, Eric a panther shifter, and Kyle a bear shifter. Kyle’s family had once upon a time lived in Greyelf and been part of Billy’s clan, but the Frosts broke off their ties when they moved to Copper City.

  To have three species mingle so freely wasn’t entirely unheard of, but it was unusual. The only thing that Billy had been able to uncover was that the three men had been roommates in prep school. It appeared that their bond had stood the test of time as they were all now in their mid-thirties. Billy studied their pictures one more time before getting ready to leave.

  He paused at the mirror just inside the door. He thought that he looked reasonably acceptable for going to a nightclub. Maren had helped him pick out his wardrobe for the trip. He wore a lavender button-down shirt paired with a dark pair of jeans. He had reluctantly left his cowboy boots at home and traded up for a pair of tan loafers. Maren had assured him that he’d blend in at the club, but he wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t been anywhere near a dance c
lub in a decade, since his years at the police academy. Those memories didn’t inspire any confidence that he would fit in now any better than he had then.

  Figuring he didn’t have any further choice in the matter, especially if he wanted to arrive in time to speak to the three owners before they were distracted for the rest of the evening. Billy went downstairs planning to hail a cab but as he stepped out into the cooling air of the early evening, he changed his mind. He knew the club was a little more than a mile away. He was in a hurry, but a brisk walk would help take the edge off his bear.

  Billy’s thoughts darkened even as he walked, though. There were too many people on the sidewalk, and he found that even though he switched sides of the street several times, there always seemed to be someone in his space. Billy was taller than many men, and so he could see over the tops of everyone’s heads to pick his path through the crowd. He wasn’t looking forward to the upcoming meeting with the three Urban Dwellers.

  The fact that they were ignoring all of Lukas’s summons spoke volumes. Clearly, they had no intention of acknowledging him, much less joining him. So, in addition to trying to find out what they knew about Joshua Bailey, Billy was also playing the part of ambassador for Lukas. It was a role that seemed to be thrust on him often. Aside from council negotiations, he’d had to mediate many a squabble in Greyelf. But the stakes were much higher in this game than they were in the small town where he had lived for the last seven years.

  Billy was wrapped up in his thoughts as he neared the address for the club. He had memorized it. Billy hated depending on notes or technology for anything. He fully trusted himself and his memory above everything else. He took a deep breath as he saw the glowing neon lights flashing half a block up ahead. It was almost show time.