One day soon, when Grant and Shayla were on vacation, relaxed and watching the waves crash on the sand, he’d tell her what he was, where he came from, how he felt about her. Soon enough for all that. She could make her decision then. “It’ll be nice to get away,” he said casually, as though he didn’t have big plans for their time away together. “We could both use a vacation. What do you think?”
She took his hand in hers. “That sounds nice. Maybe for Memorial Day we could head to the beach, make it a four-day weekend.”
“Think you can stand me for four days?”
“Yeah, you’re good company.”
“You too, baby doll.”
He held her as she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Twelve
Shayla slept. Grant didn’t. He sat at the computer doing research on security companies instead. The question of how to keep Shayla safe at home and at work had been eating at him lately since he spent less time at her company and more time working at his own business. He couldn’t be there at Brass Cat Agency every day to oversee the little things like sprinkler system maintenance and checking the outside motion sensors. Her dickhead ex hacking the website and screwing with her on a virtual level made Grant crazy worried. Hunter had made things personal. He might come after Shayla in real life once she’d figured out how keep him out of her virtual information. Maybe he’d gone overboard with his worrying, but why take chances?
In the morning, they went out to Divine’s Diner for breakfast. Grant went there a lot since he wasn’t much of a cook. The food at Divine’s was good and ready fast, not like at a greasy-spoon place, just simple stuff that didn’t take forever to cook. Poor Shay had been so busy all week she hadn’t gone shopping.
Nothing much edible in her house except bread and cornflakes, without the milk or butter. He refused to order his favorite breakfast of shrimp and grits, no matter how much he wanted it. He’d gotten dumped last time he had that meal at Divine’s Diner. Grant wasn’t superstitious, but he refused to take any stupid chances. Every day with Shayla was a gift, and he would do everything in his power to keep her safe, to have day after day with her. No, better security wasn’t too much vigilance.
He brought up the security idea casually while they ate, as though the issue hadn’t kept him awake last night. “It’ll be good to have a better security system with everything going on.” Apparently, a lot of people were calling Brass Cat, trying to find “the truth” or to try to reach Shayla for whatever bizarre fucking reason. He didn’t want to have to worry about people showing up where she worked, trying to determine if she was some circus oddity or reality-TV star.
“Increasing security is probably a good idea. If Brass Cat doesn’t go under, anyway.”
Grant took her hand in his. “It won’t.” He had faith in Shayla bringing her company back better and stronger than it had been before Hunter had messed with it. “I researched a couple of different companies this morning, and I’ve got a meeting today with the owner of Carter Security to see what options are available. Let me make sure the building is secure before Tessa is trained in for my old job and I’m gone from Brass Cat.”
“Thanks. I guess it’s probably time to upgrade security. I don’t want anything extravagant or complicated, though. I don’t want to deal with alarms going off all the time.”
”I’ll look into simpler plans that won’t be a nuisance.”
Only a handful of people were ever physically present at Brass Cat at any given time. Telecommuters, freelance workers, and online business developers made up a large portion of Brass Cat Advertising. Video chat programs allowed the staff and clients to communicate across distances. Shayla had acquired contracts from businesses in other countries, and Grant cringed at Shay’s newest group of clients, though this group hadn’t expressed any interest in discontinuing their work with Brass Cat. They were a bunch of off-the-grid types who liked to pay in Bitcoin.
Yeah, Grant knew how to make all the numbers show up legal and proper. Even when Shayla allowed a few local small businesses to pay in trade, he made it work, but damn, she dealt with so many people in so many different companies and countries, and that made Grant nervous. Even with the loss of business Shayla had suffered, she still had a lot of clients. Just one crazy, unsatisfied client or pissed-off employee was all it took, all it ever took, to walk into a business and cause damage.
Brass Cat’s existing alarm system was set every night for after hours, but that was not enough protection for him to feel okay about being away from her. A full-time security guard would be a good addition, but he wouldn’t push that issue with Shayla. She had said no once before.
* * * *
Aaron Carter from Carter Security and Surveillance welcomed Grant into his office and took a seat in a rather small wooden chair. Grant sat in a similar chair. If he rocked forward, the whole thing might break under his bulky six-foot-five frame.
Mr. Carter did a poor job at suppressing a laugh. “Sorry about the tiny furniture. Remodeling.” He pointed to the walls. Two were an old-looking beige and two a light coffee color. The smell of paint and freshly cut wood had burned Grant’s nose the second he’d walked in the door. Grant nearly offered to help. The thought of feeling a saw in his hands as he cut and measured and mapped-out details in his head relaxed him a little.
“What brings you to Carter Security today?” Mr. Carter looked at him with penetrating light brown eyes that suggested he might be analyzing everything while feigning mild interest.
“I need a better security system than the one in place at my girlfriend’s company, Brass Cat Advertising. I’m leaving soon to run my own business, and I need to be sure she’s safe at work. She doesn’t want a full-time security guard right now, though.” Grant was still not happy about that.
“We’ve got plenty of options that can enhance security without a physical guard. We have a simpler option of sending a security officer by once a week for a check of the company’s parking lot and front lobby and once monthly to check the inside security equipment.”
“That option sounds good.” It would have to do.
Mr. Carter pulled some brochures from his desk drawer, and they selected a security and equipment plan in the budget Shayla had specified. The hard part was watching out for Shayla herself. “So, ah, Mr. Carter…”
“Just call me Carter.”
“I want to take some extra measures to keep Shayla safe both at home and at work. What features do you recommend? Also, the bill for those extra features can be sent to me and not Brass Cat.”
“You want to keep her safe, right?” An edge sharpened Carter’s words.
“Yes, I want to keep her safe. I’m not some freaky stalker. I don’t want to spy on her or anything. I just want to make sure she’s all right and that if something happens, she can get help quickly. And a sprinkler system. That would be good.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than he began to sweat. God, but Grant hated the thought of fire. A fire inside a fireplace, yeah, okay, fine, but the thought of an out-of-control stove fire, its flames tearing up the walls, reaching into every room, was sometimes enough to make him dizzy. He couldn’t lose anybody else. Damn the bear for making him live, anyway.
Cut the bullshit and focus, the bear growled at him.
“Then don’t be that guy. Don’t be the guy who worries so much he makes his girl feel like a prisoner. Don’t make her feel like she can’t trust you when she catches you keeping tabs on her because you’re being a controlling ass all while telling her it’s for her own safety.”
Carter had probably seen that kind of shit happen before, but dammit, the extra measures were for Shayla’s protection. Grant didn’t think she was the cheating type, and if she did decide to look elsewhere, he would pick up on the smell of another man on her and her things. Grant would get the message loud and clear.
“I’ve seen it happen,” Carter continued. “The guy squeezes too hard, and the girl runs.”
“I ge
t it, man. Thing is, I lost some people once. They died in a fire. And Shayla, she somehow managed to survive a bombing. Plus, now this entertainment news reporter and Shay’s crazy-as-fuck ex have teamed up to try and prove some idiotic theory that Shay and a bunch of other people survived disasters because they’re bionic or immortal or some shit. She survived because she was lucky. Nothing more. I’m pretty sure her ex, who’s some type of computer genius, was behind the hacking of her business website and bank account. Though we don’t have proof yet, she’s certain he was the one who threatened some of her clients. She’s got a computer expert working on keeping things secure from a cyber level, but I can’t relax unless I know I did everything I could to keep her from getting hurt.” Grant looked down. He wanted Shay protected. That was the truth, plain and simple, but Carter’s words nagged at Grant.
Grant wouldn’t be that guy. He would look out for Shay, but he didn’t want to lose her by squeezing too tight either. So many ways to lose someone you love. Maybe he should just walk away. Be numb again. The bear growled at him and, with his freaky shifter skills, managed to make Grant’s brain feel like claws had scraped the side of it. Grant struggled to stay still and expressionless as Carter looked him over.
“Are the police looking into this guy and the hack job on her business?”
“Yeah. They gave her the runaround on it at first until a detective got involved. Nobody’s having any luck proving anything yet, though.”
“What’s her ex’s name?”
“Hunter Knowles. He runs a company called HJK Webmasters and a conspiracy theory blog called Finding Hidden Truths.” Grant watched Carter write that information down on a Post-it note and stick it to the side of his computer monitor.
He looked Grant over for another moment, then finally nodded. “So, compromise. Give Ms. Patrick my card, convince her to use my security company at home, just like she would at work, and I’ll add a few bonus features that she need never know about. I’m gonna look into Hunter Knowles and see what I can find on him as well. In exchange, since you’re a numbers man, you can help me with some financial advice and help me find a new bookkeeper. Mine gave notice yesterday. Her husband’s in the military, and he’s being transferred to Alaska. I need someone in three weeks’ time. I don’t do numbers and bookkeeping shit.” He scrubbed his hand through his short dark hair. “I suck at math. I have dyscalculia. Sort of like dyslexia, but with numbers. ”
“All right. Deal.”
They shook hands, and this time Grant was struck by the contact. Electricity like a mild static shock went through his palm and up his arm. Would that happen with a psy? He wasn’t sure. He’d never met one, not that he knew of anyway. Grant let his bear’s long incisors extend and his eyes became the bear’s eyes, black and glowing.
Carter just laughed. “Yeah, that’s right, shifter. I’m not normal either, but I’m one of the good guys. I help shifters as well as my kind.”
Grant was still trying to make sense of it, trying to determine if he had made a deal with an evil genie or just stumbled upon a strange psy when Carter continued.
“I’m not a shifter, not like you anyway. I’m a Voleur de Vie. In the states, people call us soul stealers, life wreckers, witches, soul eaters—and those are the nicer names.”
When Grant just looked at him, Carter went on, “My people have an alliance with your people. Part of my job is to protect all of us. And there’s some bad shit out there, even among our own kind. Although you already know that, I’m sure.”
Grant looked down. He didn’t know nearly as much as he should. He knew where to go for answers, though, and a talk with Aiden and Greg, one where Grant actually listened and didn’t act like a jerk, was long overdue.
* * * *
“So you’re interested in shifter culture and everything else in the world of strange now that shit affects you more directly? Now you’re ready to wake the fuck up and listen?” Aiden sounded more than a little pissed.
Grant sat on the picnic bench across from bear shifter brothers Greg and Aiden, ready to hear a lecture he definitely deserved. On the walk to their campsite at Bears’ Creek, he’d talked to the brothers about Kendall Baron, obsessive reporter, and Hunter, Shayla’s crazy ex, looking for proof of superhumans and medically enhanced indestructible people, who were terrorizing Shayla in their search. He’d asked about the Voleur de Vie since he thought it might be hella rude to ask Aaron Carter for the details. Also, no guarantees if the guy would have given Grant the truth or fuck with him a bit for shits and giggles.
Aiden and Greg were twins. Though they had the same tan skin and green eyes, Aiden’s dark hair was kept close-cropped, and his style was clean-cut, while Greg looked more like a mountain man with his wild, curly blond hair and scruffy beard. Greg dressed like a homeless surfer, but Aiden’s style was more business-casual. Though they weren’t physical carbon copies of each other, Greg and Aiden seemed to communicate on the same plane. Grant had no brothers or sisters. No close family. He could always start one of his own. The thought struck him out of left field, and he shut it down hard. Not gonna happen.
He would never pass down his DNA. Maybe Shayla could be his family—his wife, his mate. Maybe she’d agree. He pushed that thought aside. Why the fuck did he have to want that with her? He stood to lose so much if he asked for what he wanted. For now, he would worry about keeping her safe, and that meant listening to Greg and Aiden, who had most likely already given him a lot of the information he needed to know, and more than once. The details of shifter culture and the list of other stranger creatures? Grant had mostly ignored them. He hadn’t cared, hadn’t listened when he should have, because for years he hadn’t given two shits whether or not he saw another day. After moving to Great Oaks, he’d made a slow return to the land of people who cared whether or not they lived. Even after he’d stopped feeling supersuicidal, Grant had still been angry at Greg for initiating him instead of letting him die.
Every time Grant got together with the brothers for a camping trip or important shifter event, he resented being there. He went only to learn what he needed to do to keep the shifter community’s secret, himself, and by extension, the bear, safe. Spending occasional time with the bear pack kept the brothers off his case about participating in bear shifter culture and how it was necessary and all that other stuff he considered bullshit. Now Grant was awake and alive, ready to do whatever it took to keep Shayla safe, even if it meant learning more about shifter culture—even if it meant sorting through the anger and other unnamed emotions he had for both Aiden and Greg.
“So, now you wanna know about being a shifter and the whole world you’ve basically ignored for the past six years?” Greg shoved Grant.
He’d kind of had it coming, but he held his ground and stared right back at Greg. He thought he caught a hint of approval in Greg’s eyes, though the green had turned an inky black with shards of jade that seemed lit with anger. “Is this new interest in shifter culture temporary? We tell you what you want to know, you help some woman you’re into at the moment, and then the lights go out again? Is that how it’s gonna work, or are you finally gonna own your place in the shifter world?”
“I lost everybody in that fire!” Grant was yelling too and didn’t care who heard him. “Everybody, including the woman I was going to marry, so yeah, I did want to die. You took that choice from me. So fuck yes, I held a grudge. But what the hell would you have done in my place, if you’d woken up and everybody you cared about was dead?”
“The same goddamn thing!” Greg shouted as he sat on top of a picnic bench. “I’d ask to die and hope like hell I did. But when we found you, I was so fucking tired of having to end people’s lives when there were no other options that I saved yours because I could, and I couldn’t let you die. I couldn’t.”
Grant nearly choked up at the sincerity of Greg’s voice. Greg, who always moved like a relaxed, controlled assassin in a video game, looked lost, as though he’d been defeated by the enemy after all. �
��I hoped that you’d wake up and realize the gift I gave you meant more than just keeping you alive. I claimed you as family. But it was selfish too on my part. I could only hope I did the right thing. And I wanted saving you to be the right thing to do.”
Family. That one word was a sore point for Grant. He hadn’t had one until Brian, Freddy, Joe, and Maya, and he had tried for as long as possible to avoid any attachments that could bring him pain again, but maybe Greg had wanted to give Grant something like what he’d lost? Nah, that thought was probably too deep, but… As Greg had dug his huge incisors into Grant’s shoulder six years ago, he’d said the words, “He is claimed as family.” Aiden has spoken the words, “So be it,” and Grant had assumed their words were a part of the tradition or process or whatever. Could those words have been more than a part of the tradition? Did he even want to know? “So, uh, about that crazy shit out there that I haven’t listened to you about in the past…”
Greg lit a cigarette and looked off into the distance. Aiden spoke. “Aside from some of the stranger creatures out there, and we’ll get to that in a minute, here’s what’s happening with the animal shifters. This is shit you need to pay attention to, first and foremost.” Aiden started out like it was gonna be a long-ass list of trouble and that Grant knew only the very basics, so this time, he planned to listen.
Should have listened before, the bear admonished Grant. Grant didn’t bother arguing the fact that the bear had probably heard some or all of it and could have filled Grant in. The bear was stubborn as hell. Kind of spiteful too.
Stranger Creatures 2: Bear's Edge Page 12