Chapter Six

Chapter 6

"C hicago Police Department and animal control have issued a warning for citizens and guests to be on the lookout for a man fitting the forensic artist's rendition of the murder victim's attacker. What more proof do you need?" Brigid drummed her fingers on the bistro table at the local delicatessen, where she'd insisted Selene meet her and Deme.

Selene's salad remained untouched on the plate in front of her. She hadn't had much of an appetite since Gryph had disappeared. If only she knew where to look for him, she could set her mind at ease and quit worrying about his wounds and whether he'd healed properly.

Unlike her siblings, she understood why he'd left. The television in her kitchen had been on when she'd gone inside her apartment. He had to have seen the report on the news about the attack on the victim in the hospital.

He'd been there when she and Brigid rode up on the motorcycle. Selene felt his presence and had sensed him in the shadows at the corner of her building. While her sisters figured his absence confirmed his guilt, Selene knew he couldn't have been the one to attack the woman in the hospital. He'd barely been able to stand when they'd left. When Cal had gone after him, she'd held her breath, praying to the goddess that he would escape. Injured like he was, he might not have been so lucky. Cal was one of Chicago Police Department's best, was in good shape and hadn't lost several pints of blood in a vicious attack.

"Cal said he just disappeared. One minute he ran down an alley and the next, he was gone. The doors into the buildings on either side had been locked. Unless he had a key to one of them, he couldn't have gotten in."

Yeah, he'd disappeared, after stirring up such intense feelings inside her. How far would they have gone had he not been injured? Could she have stopped herself from making love to the man?

"Selene?" Deme stopped in the middle of her conjecture. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Yes." Selene blinked, her cheeks burning. "What was it you said?"

"Is it possible that we have more shifters in the city?" Deme asked.

Selene glanced from Deme to Brigid. "Shifters? As in half man, half animal?"

"Yes." Brigid leaned forward. "If the stranger you had in your apartment could look like a man one moment and a lion the next, who's to say there aren't other kinds of shifters roaming the streets?"

"Seems reasonable." Selene wasn't sure where the conversation was going.

Brigid dug her smartphone out of her pocket and tapped the screen. "We know whatever attacked Amanda in the parking garage wasn't human."

"Right," Deme agreed. "The scratches and bite marks could only have been a large animal."

Brigid's thumbs flying over the keypad, she continued talking with her head down. "Whoever entered the hospital and Amanda's room was human. An animal would have certainly been noticed well before making it to her door."

Deme nodded. "Undoubtedly."

Brigid's brows drew together. "At least human at the time he entered the hospital, killed the girl and escaped."

"What do you mean?"

Brigid glanced up. "Amanda was attacked by an animal on the street."

"Agreed," Selene said. "Gryph said it was a wolf."

"Though an animal supposedly attacked her, a human thought it important enough to finish her off, right?"

"Right." Brigid glanced up. "I just got word that the surveillance video showed a man dressed in scrubs with a stolen ID entered her room with a chart. Walked right past the guard we had posted. It was shortly afterward that they found her and informed us.

"Unfortunately, before she died, the description she gave of her attacker was that of a lion with a man's face." Brigid laid a hand over Selene's. "Honey, it's a pretty damning eyewitness account."

"On the video, what did the man look like?" Selene demanded.

Brigid shook her head. "Couldn't tell from the video. He was wearing a surgical mask."

"Gryph said it was a wolf that attacked Amanda in the alley, and I believe him. I don't know who the man was who came in the hospital to kill her, but it wasn't Gryph."

"He could have left your apartment right after you did, come to the hospital, waited for us to leave Amanda's room and sneaked in to kill her."

"I'm telling you, he wouldn't have killed her," Selene insisted.

"If he didn't come to the hospital to kill her, why did he leave your apartment and make a run for it? Why not hang around and tell his side of the story?"

"With a description circulating on the television, knowing I'd seen him like...like that, he had to feel like it was run, or be sent to jail for a crime he didn't commit."

"If it was a wolf, we could have a lot more shifters in the city than any of us can imagine. If they can look human, there's no telling who they are or where we should look to find them." Brigid tipped her head toward the man seated at the table beside them, and she leaned close to whisper, "The guy in the seat beside you could be a shifter and we'd never know until he shifted in front of us."

Deme and Selene both looked left at the same time. The man had lifted a large hoagie to his lips and was just about to take a bite when their gazes met.

He frowned, the frown turning into a glare as he turned his chair, put his back to them and bit into the sandwich.

"Who would know more?"

"We could go to a library and research the news reports," Deme offered. "Or check through the police files of all the reports passed to the special investigations team."

"Or we can go to Byron Crownover." Brigid shoved her phone across the table, the screen displaying an internet page identifying strange and unusual happenings in Chicago.

"Who is Byron Crownover?" Selene leaned over the screen and read the title—Chicago's Secret Inhabitants. "What's this about?"

"We've had loads of calls about strange happenings reported to the police department, from sightings of pumas on the streets to a huge bird flying past the Willis Tower with the wings of a hawk and the face and body of a man."

Deme snorted. "Sounds like the people who report being abducted by alien creatures."

"I know." Brigid leaned forward. "But we know from our experience battling the Chimera beneath the Colyer-Fenton College campus, that otherkin exist."

Selene shivered. She and her sisters had nearly been killed trying to save Aurai, the youngest, from the creature who'd taken up residence in the tunnels deep beneath the city.

"Question is—" Deme leaned closer to the phone "—what kind of shifters and how many live here in the city?"

"We need to contact Byron. He's the area expert, although some suspect he's a kook. But if he's got statistics on where the sightings occur most often, that might narrow our search down to a specific location."

Deme pushed her chair back. "Let's talk to Byron. Where do we find him?"

"He's an anthropology professor at Colyer-Fenton College."

Selene's lips twisted. "Why does that not surprise me?"

"Haven't we suffered enough at that place?" Deme asked.

"I'm just glad Aurai is finished with her studies there. The place still gives me the creeps." Selene's badass sister Brigid shivered.

They'd all come so close to dying trying to rescue Aurai from the Chimera's clutches. Before that time, Selene had assumed the creature with three heads—a lion, a goat and a snake—had been nothing but a Greek myth. The reality was even more frightening than she could ever have imagined.

"I'm coming with you." Selene stood.

"Shouldn't you be minding your shop?" Brigid asked.

Selene gathered her purse, determined to go with her sisters. "I closed it for the day."

"What about the planning for the Women's Aid Organization charity ball? Weren't you supposed to meet with them at five o'clock?" Deme glanced at her watch. "You have fifteen minutes if you still want to make it."

Selene clapped a hand to her mouth, torn between her obligations to the charitable event and going after information that could help them find out who was responsible for a woman's tragic death. "Damn. I forgot all about that. It seems so inconsequential compared to finding Amanda's killer." And proving Gryph wasn't the one to do it.

"I know, but for some of us, life goes on. And the children will benefit from the money raised." Deme patted Selene's arm. "Let Brigid and me do our jobs and you do yours."

"I want to find the killer just as much as you do." Selene straightened. "Even more so."

Brigid's eyes narrowed. "What's so special about this man you rescued that has you so protective of him?"

"Nothing." Selene looked away. "I just don't like to see the wrong man accused of such a horrific crime."

Brigid and Deme both stared at her for long moments.

The intensity of their glances made Selene squirm.

"Something tells me there's more to it than that," Brigid said.

Unfortunately, there was, and damned if Selene was going to tell her sisters. Not when she didn't know what to make of the feelings she had for a man she'd crawled into bed with after only knowing him for a few hours. "I'd better get to my meeting." She turned and almost ran out of the deli.

Deme's hand on her arm stopped her. "Be careful, Selene. Falling for the wrong man could be painful."

"Especially if he's a killer," Brigid said, her voice tight and edgy.

Her sisters' words hit a little too close to home and left Selene wondering what she'd gotten into by rescuing a man-lion. She couldn't regret her actions. Gryph was worth saving. She knew that in her heart. "He's not a killer." Selene lifted her chin, squaring her shoulders. "And I'm not falling for a man I've only met once."

Once outside the deli, Selene checked the calendar on her smartphone and headed for the downtown building of GL Enterprises, where she was to meet with the Women's Aid Organization. She hoped the meeting wouldn't last long because she wanted to spend some time on her own, searching for her mysterious houseguest.

* * *

Gryph returned to his apartment beneath his corporate headquarters, redressed his wound and then crawled into his king-size bed and slept until mid-afternoon the next day. Not until he felt someone watching him did he awaken, then he jerked to a sitting position, his pulse slamming through his veins.

He stared at the man sitting with his legs crossed elegantly in a chair beside him. It took a moment for his eyes to focus and his brain to engage before he relaxed. "Sneaking into a man's bedroom can get a body killed."

"I didn't sneak. I knocked on the door, but you didn't answer, so I let myself in to wait." Lucas stared at Gryph's wound. "Thought you'd never wake up. How's the shoulder?"

"Fine." Gryph shoved a hand through his thick hair, pushing it away from his face. He flexed, a stab of pain shooting through his sore shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

"Father asked me to check on you."

"Tell him I'm okay, and not to worry." Gryph flung the sheet back and rose, naked from the bed.

"Many of the inhabitants of the Lair have been pounding at his door. They're afraid."

Gryph stepped into a pair of sweats and pulled them up over his legs and hips, cinching the drawstring. "Tell him I'll stay clear of the Lair until this all dies down."

"Some are calling for you to turn yourself in to the authorities."

Gryph's brow furrowed. "I haven't done anything." He strode through the apartment to the room containing his workout equipment and stepped up on the treadmill.

Lucas followed. "The picture of you is everywhere. If you turn yourself in, they won't have to worry about being discovered."

Gryph started walking, then adjusted the settings to a steep incline and broke into a jog. "I'm not turning myself in." Every time his heels hit, it jolted his shoulder, reminding him of the attack that had cost a woman her life and almost his own. "I need to be free to find the animal responsible for that woman's murder."

Lucas leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. "Aren't you afraid you'll cross paths with the police working the case?"

"They can't find me from the picture they have unless I change in front of them. I have no intention of providing that opportunity."

"Are you certain no one saw you?"

He hesitated for a moment before responding. "Yes. No one saw me but the victim."

"The inhabitants of the Lair know you. Aren't you afraid one of them will turn you in?"

"I have to trust them. I have no other choice. I can't change who I am or where I've come from." And he would never completely blend into the world of the surface dwellers. It couldn't happen. Not when he had so much to lose and could potentially harm a human. "You're lucky." He glanced at his brother.

"How do you figure?"

"You are human."

His brows rose. "Your point?"

"You can live anywhere you want and you don't have to worry about changing or hurting others. You have choices in your life."

"And you don't?" Lucas pushed away from the wall.

"No one will call you a freak. You're a good-looking guy with a great future ahead of you." And he could love anyone he wanted—otherkin or human.

An image of Selene's dark brown hair splayed out across his skin, the residual warmth of her leg draped over his and her breasts pressed against his side, made him miss a step and he almost fell off the treadmill. He grabbed the rail, sending stabbing pain through his shoulder. The pain brought him back to reality. He couldn't be with a surface dweller. Although he'd established a tentative place in society, maintaining a certain level of anonymity was required to keep from exposing his true nature.

Lucas nodded toward the healing wound. "That's quite an injury you have there. How'd you manage to get away after you were attacked?"

Gryph snorted. "I threw myself into the river."

"I'm surprised you didn't drown."

"I managed to pull myself out."

"But you were gone quite a while. You had to be freezing."

"I managed."

"Did someone help you?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

Lucas's eyes narrowed. "Ah, it must have been a woman."

Gryph hit the stop button on the treadmill and climbed down. "I have a meeting to attend. Don't you have to be at work?"

"I'm on a sales call."

"Not if you're with me." Gryph stepped around his brother and returned to his bedroom, shedding his sweats and tennis shoes as he went. "I have a business to run, I'm sure you can find your way out as easily as you found your way in. Tell Father I'll steer clear of the Lair for the time being." He stepped into his shower and turned the spray on cool.

Silence reigned as Gryph let the water wash down his body. His wound stung, but was healing nicely. The poultice Selene had used had done the trick.

Selene.

What a mess. She'd saved his life, going above and beyond the role of nurse to keep him warm when he'd nearly gone into shock.

Trouble was, he couldn't get her scent or the feel of her body against his off his mind. Even now, his groin tightened, blood flowing south. He twisted the water controls to ice-cold and forced himself to think of something else until he had his body under control, then stepped out of the shower.

He dried off, wrapped a towel around his waist and left his bedroom for the kitchen and a cup of coffee.

"Mr. Leone, you have an appointment with Althea Washburn of the Women's Aid Organization in ten minutes." Marge Reingan, his executive assistant, held out a clipboard with several papers on it. "Sign here." She handed him a pen.

"What am I signing?"

"A letter authorizing the purchase of the building on Wacker."

He scribbled his signature.

Marge flipped a page. "And here." She pointed to a line on the page.

Gryph signed. "I guess you heard about the attack?"

She nodded.

"Do you think I should turn myself in?"

"Not if you didn't do it." She took the pen from him. "Besides, too many people depend on your generosity. What would happen to them?"

"Balthazar can manage my assets."

"Not like you do. He has no desire to rejoin the surface dwellers."

"I've always wondered why. As a human, he could blend in easily."

"Not all who live in the Lair are otherkin."

He smiled at Marge. "Like you?"

She nodded, the gray hairs standing out more in the overhead lighting. "It's a safe haven to many."

"I know and I wouldn't want anyone to be displaced by my elimination. That's why I have Balthazar on my accounts. If anything should happen to me—" and it almost had "—he will have access to the money from my corporation. He can continue to support the inhabitants of the Lair."

"Why do you let them continue to think Balthazar provides for them when it's the money you make that helps them survive?"

"I owe my life to Balthazar. He took me in when my own mother couldn't take care of me."

Marge nodded. "He has a big heart."

"He's taken in a lot of strays, like me, Lucas and just about everyone in the Lair."

"Many of us wouldn't be alive today if not for him."

"Exactly." His chest swelling, Gryph remembered the many times Balthazar had played with him in the tunnels, how he'd taught him to read and write. Balthazar had been responsible for getting them connected to the internet and online for distance learning. He wanted every person in the Lair to have a chance to provide for themselves should they choose to live amongst the surface dwellers. "Balthazar deserves the credit."

Marge tucked the clipboard against her chest. "Do you want me to cancel your meeting with Mrs. Washburn?"

"No, I'll see her."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"The drawing that's circulating doesn't look enough like my human form to present a danger." His only danger lay in the hands of the woman who'd rescued him. He could only pray she wouldn't turn him in.

Marge's gaze went to the wound on his shoulder. "Did the animal that killed the woman do that?"

He nodded.

"What was it?" she asked.

"I suspect it was a wolf shifter." He paused, waiting for her response to his announcement.

She didn't even blink. "My husband, God rest his soul, was a member of a pack that lived on the edge of the city. I can put out some feelers, if you'd like."

He'd known, but didn't want to ask for her help. Since her husband's death, she'd had no connection with the wolves. "Thank you, Marge. I'd appreciate that." He nodded toward the door. "In the meantime, I'll get dressed and see you up in the office."

"Whatever you do, don't let anyone take you to jail." Her lips formed a thin line. "Shifters don't do well in captivity. My husband's cousin was jailed for stealing. He didn't last long behind bars. Captivity made him crazy."

"I'll bear that in mind." He had no intention of spending time in jail. Metal bars gave him the hives. But if he wanted to clear the air, he had to do something to find the murderer.

Marge spun and headed for the elevator, then stopped and faced him as she waited for the door to slide open. "Oh, and, Mr. Leone, I believe you didn't hurt that girl."

"I'm glad someone does." He smiled.

"A more troubling concern is that whoever did could strike again."

He nodded. "I know." All the more reason to do something before it happened again. "Stall Mrs. Washburn. I'll be up in five minutes."

"Yes, sir."

"And, Marge. Anything you can find out about the shifter packs..."

"I'll get right on it." The elevator door slid open and she stepped inside, turning to face him.

"Hey, Marge." He held a hand over the closing door, forcing it back.

"Sir?"

"What was it like for you, as a human, to be married to a shifter?"

Her gaze drifted to the far wall, her mouth softening. "Like a woman in love. What he was didn't matter. It was who he was that I fell in love with." Her attention returned to him. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." He let go of the door.

This time, Marge put her hand out to stop it from closing. "Gryphon, you know I love you like a son. Okay, a grandson." She cupped his chin. "Life is way too short to squander a chance at love. If you fall in love with someone, look at what you have in common, and don't focus on your differences."

They exchanged glances, then the door closed, leaving Gryph alone.

Marge had been with him since he'd moved closer to the surface. She'd lived among surface dwellers in her youth and part of the time after she'd met and married her husband, Tom.

When Tom had come down with a brain tumor, she'd moved him to the Lair to live out the remainder of his days so he wouldn't be judged if he shifted without warning.

After his death, Marge had gone to work helping Balthazar raise Gryph and Lucas. When Gryph's success in day trading had grown to the point he had to invest what he was making in other businesses, he'd moved closer to the surface and taken Marge with him, giving her an apartment in his building. One with floor-to-ceiling windows to let in as much light as possible. He knew she loved the sun. And he loved her like the grandmother he'd never known.

What he hadn't expected was that she was a wizard at managing his office and his schedule, and her compact frame was every bit a match to stand up to unwanted visitors.

Gryph hurriedly dressed in a business suit, shirt and tie, hating the constriction around his throat. The suit was his cover. He glanced into the mirror, his skin smooth with no sign of the fine hairs that appeared when he shifted. No one would recognize him in the drawing being circulated. No one but Selene and the other woman who'd helped him into her apartment.

With a deep breath, he stepped into the elevator that whisked him to the top floor of the building. No amount of rationalization could erase the sense of foreboding that went with him.