The Feline Gaze

Chapter 12

Cassidy

The next morning, I’m sipping coffee at my desk when my office door swings open and my assistant appears. I can scent her anger before she even enters the room.

“This is ridiculous,” Danielle says, storming into my office. She drops a stack of papers on my desk. “Have you seen this?”

“What is it?”

I’m still in post-sex-with-Matthew bliss and to be honest, I probably haven’t seen anything she could want to show me. My heart and my soul are on a cloud in dreamland. I don’t want to come back down and deal with Alastair’s bullshit today.

But it’s not Alastair’s crap we’re facing today, I realize. I grab the newspaper from Danielle and look at the headline.

SHIFTER DIVERSIFICATION PROJECT HALTED, SAYS MAYOR.

“What the fuck?” I look at her. “Says who? I realize that Alastair wouldn’t collaborate with Ridge Constr

uction, but the entire project is being scrapped? No, no, no.”

This can’t be true, anyway. I was just with Matthew. We spent the entire night making love over and over again. When we finally emerged from the bedroom this morning, it was only so both of us could get to work. I dropped him off at the bar so he could get his car and then I went home, showered, changed, and managed to make it to Cambridge Real Estate with five minutes to spare. There’s absolutely no way Matthew’s project could have been halted, at least not by him. He was much too busy with me last night to have any time for paperwork.

“Apparently,” she says, hissing. “The mayor decided that Ridge Construction is in violation of a bunch of zoning laws. He’s shutting down the project and says they can reapply for a building permit in a year.”

“A year?” I stand up. “Uh, no. Not happening, and this is bullshit.”

I grab my purse and storm out of the office because enough is enough. I move down the hall to Alastair’s office and push open the door.

“Fuck!” Alastair calls out and starts scrambling for his pants. Melanie is splayed out on his desk. Obviously, the two of them were mid-coitus when I walked in, but I’m too mad to be embarrassed. “Haven’t you heard of knocking?”

Melanie starts getting dressed, too, and she shoots me a shy smile.

“Hey, Cassidy, I won’t be long. Give me just a minute and I’ll get out of your hair, okay?” She’s so fucking sweet and gentle. Any other day, I’d be enamored with her sweetness, but not today.

“Don’t worry about it,” I say. “I’m the one who won’t be long. Alastair, your dad is being completely shitty. He’s shutting down the apartment buildings for college shifters who want to live here. He says Ridge Construction is in violation of zoning orders.”

“What?” Alastair at least has the decency to look surprised. My cousin has never been a particularly good liar, so I kind of think he’s not faking this time. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m going to his place right now. This blatant legal bullying has got to stop. There’s no zoning law that says he can’t build apartments there. In fact, I know that Ridge Construction went through the proper channels of acquiring all of the appropriate permissions before construction began because your dad fucking signed off on them!”

“How do you know that?” Alastair asks, reaching for his shirt.

“Before I came to you and asked if we could support the project, I got copies of all of the paperwork that was publicly filed. It’s all clear, Alastair. I even talked with our legal team here at Cambridge Real Estate. Alfred and Jessica both said the paperwork was good. I wanted to have all of my ducks in a row before I came to you with the project, but apparently, none of that mattered because your dad is going crazy.”

“He’s not going crazy,” Alastair says, and he looks pained.

“Look, I’m sorry that your dad is sick. I really am. Uncle Jacob and I have never been close, but do you really think this is the way he should go out? Your dad has the chance to leave behind a great legacy. What he’s doing is destroying it.”

“You want me to talk to him, don’t you?”

“Nope.”

“No?”

“I’m doing something better. I’m going to your mother.”

“What?” Alastair pales, and Melanie looks from me to him and back again, obviously trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Okay, so my cousin didn’t fill his bride-to-be in on the family drama. That’s totally fine.

“Alastair, your dad is making poor decisions that are not only affecting the people in this room, but the people in this city. Our town needs more than the same old things all the time, man. We need change. Growth. We need to know that we’re bringing in new citizens and new shifters and new jobs.”