“Adriana!” a voice called to her from outside the second door to the conference room. It had been closed and was now just barely cracked, a woman’s hand holding it for her.
Adriana jumped up and slipped out of the opening, past her boss, and into the hallway. She noted three more wolves, all black with silver streaks, more of the security force that had been sent in to help the one who’d come to her rescue, albeit a tad late. She could smell them, their Alpha rage filling her nostrils as she trotted off in the opposite direction ahead of her boss.
She pushed into her own office and made her way into the private bathroom to shift. There were bruises down her arms and a large scratch she’d not even felt running down her arm. They would all heal quickly enough, so no permanent damage. She put a bandage over the scratch and retrieved a clean change of clothes from the spares she kept in the linen closet, getting dressed and pulling her long red hair up into a ponytail.
“Don’t fuck with a redhead,” she said to her reflection in the mirror before leaving to find her boss and see what security had done with Parquo.
She had a good idea of what, but she’d need to confirm and discuss the plans for how to minimize this with the human press. Shifters understood that bad wolves must sometimes be put down, but it was a bit harder to explain to outsiders who could only see it from their fragile frame of reference. Alexander had put himself in a precarious position, and he’d lost.CHAPTER TWODane
“Morning, Dane. You see the news?” Garrett asked as he stepped off the elevator and into the penthouse apartment that served as both Dane’s living quarters and personal office.
“Nah. I just got in from my run. What’s going on?” Dane replied, stripping off his soaked shirt to reveal an eight pack and the large dragon tattoo that started on his chest and wrapped around his side to extend down his back. “I was just about to grab a shower when you buzzed to come up.”
This was one of several homes Dane owned, but it was the most convenient during the week when he preferred to be in town for meetings. Garrett was his second-in-command at the large real estate development company he owned and saw to the day to day operations, but Dane liked to keep his head in the game. He trusted no one completely, though Garrett was as close as it came to be a confidante. They were clan brothers first, businessmen second.
“Someone took out Parquo.”
“Took him out?”
“Yeah. Details are sketchy. You know how shifters hide the facts from human news. They found him over in Salem Park, the victim of an animal attack, according to the news.”
“Well, I can’t say he didn’t deserve it. I told you never to trust a wolf with a shady backstory.”
“You were right. We dodged a bullet with that one.”
“I wonder who ended him?”
“No idea, but there’s another report. An article that came out this week in Transformation about how he’s been laundering money and running sweatshops in a few third world countries. He was ruined anyway. Most likely, someone looking at going down with him took care of him before he could talk, cut a deal.”
“Sounds right. Anyway, did you come up here just to tell me about a man who I didn’t really know anyway?” Dane asked. His eyes narrowed as another thought occurred to him, “We don’t have any business dealings with him, right? I mean, we talked about him at one point, and I said no. We didn’t go ahead and sign off on anything with him, I trust.”
“We did not. I know that your decisions are final.”
“Good. What’s up then?”
“I just need to get your signature on some paperwork and Carol in marketing wanted me to remind you about the community outreach shindig next month. She said you have to be there.”
“I don’t have to be anywhere I don’t want to be.”
“Okay. Sure, but it will look bad if the owner of the company can’t be bothered to turn up. Maybe you could bring a date, a proper one. Make it look like you are a family man.”
“My personal life has nothing to do with the company.”
“It does when we are trying to sweet-talk the mayor into selling off the old factory district to us for redevelopment. We need for him to believe we are the sort of people who intend to build quality housing at a fair price for the local people.”
“Aren’t we?”
“No. We’re the kind of people who will lead him to believe that and then build high-income apartments that only a certain kind of people can afford.”
“In other words, we’re assholes.”
“Yes.”
What Garrett didn’t know, but would when the time came, was that Dane was actively involved in a homeless housing project that had just started up. He might be building high-end accommodations through his company, but he was planning on clearing some sidewalks on his personal dime. It felt good to give something back.