The Feline Gaze
Page 43
“Because you’re doing a good thing, Matthew, and those people need this. We all need this. The whole fucking county needs this.”
“Then tell me what you want to do, Cassidy.”
“First things first.” She reaches for my shirt and starts to unbutton it.
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“Round two already?”
“No, silly. I need you naked so you can shift.”
“We’re going to shift?” I like the sound of that. My lion is going to get to play with her tiger, and that’s going to be an adventure to remember for the rest of my life.
“It’s faster that way.”
“What is?”
“Running. We’re going to run.”
She finishes taking off all of my clothes and then she motions for me to follow her. I cringe as I walk through Ridge Construction fully nude, but then I realize that it doesn’t really matter. My employees have seen weirder, stranger things than me naked.
Well, I hope they have, because they’re all definitely going to see me naked now. I hadn’t planned on this when I woke up today. I honestly hadn’t planned on any of this, but that’s the funny thing about life, isn’t it? Things never really do work out the way we think they’re going to.
Alice stands up as Cassidy and I enter the lobby. She looks confused and surprised and she doesn’t seem to know where to stare, so she looks up at the ceiling.
“Sir?”
“Alice, I’m leaving for the day.”
“But, sir. The...situation.”
“I’m going to take care of it, Alice. Everything is going to be okay.”
She looks down and stares at me now.
“Really?”
“Really.”
I smile at Cassidy.
“We’ve got it under control, Alice. You can let everyone know that we have a plan, and it’s a good one.”
Chapter 14
Cassidy
He doesn’t actually know the details of my plan, but Alice doesn’t know that. Nobody knows that I’m the only person who has an idea of what we should do next, but who cares? What matters is that we’re doing it. We’re going to save the city and we’re going to save Matthew’s company and we’re going to save the world.
That’s what this is, really.
When it all comes down to it, every little choice can save or break the world. The decision to get out of our comfort zones and go talk to my aunt and uncle might seem trite to some, but the reality is that this is a difficult choice that has been a long time coming. My uncle needs to know that he can’t mess with people, and my aunt, well, I don’t think she even knows what shenanigans the mayor has been up to.
As soon as we’re outside of the office building, I turn around and look at Matthew. This is the moment, I realize. This is it. This is when everything changes. What happens now can either break us or bring us closer together. I don’t know which it’s going to be. All I know is that we have a shot and we’re both totally ready and willing to take it. We have a chance to make an incredible difference.
“Here goes nothing,” I say. I snap my fingers and then I shift. Even as I feel my body changing into my tiger form, I cringe inwardly.
A snap?