Trouble in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 1) (19 page)

“She’s out cold,” Jack said, his voice choked up with emotion. “I’m not sure if there’s any damage to her skull.”

At that moment, amazingly, the elevator door opened, and the computer calmly announced. “You have arrived on Floor One,” as though nothing unusual had happened.

“Come on, let’s get out of here before the door closes,” Sawyer said. “We’ll have to cross our fingers for now and assess the full damage later. Hopefully she just had the wind knocked out of her. Jack and Anderson reached for Silver at the same time. Jack looked up and started to take a step back to allow Silver’s father to pick her up. But Anderson shook his head no and put a hand on Jack’s shoulder.

“You take her, son. A father’s love is strong, but so is a lifemate’s. And I can see you two are meant for each other.”

Jack felt his heart filling with gratitude at Anderson’s words. Having Silver’s father approve of him put at least one positive spin on this whole situation. Jack scooped Silver up in his arm, surprised at how heavy her small frame was. She might look slim as a ballerina, but she was solid muscle from all the dancing she did. Jack followed Sawyer, Anderson, and Bash into the lobby of the building, and his heart quickly sank again.

Through one of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the lobby, Jack could see that the area right outside the building was swarming with policehovers and firefighters. There was yellow tape everywhere, indicating a no-fly zone. Government no-fly zones were controversial, and used rarely, so Jack was surprised to see one here. No-fly zones disabled all auto-piloted hovercars, and sent electronic signals to scramble manual flying capabilities. Many people felt such no-fly zones were unsafe, because the electronic signals could cause unintended interference with auto-piloting hovercars even beyond the supposed limits of the zone. Usually such zones were reserved for very high profile situations, like when the President planned to visit the city. But right now, this whole block was on lockdown for some reason. Jack suspected that Mr. Astor had somehow managed to pull some strings. It probably didn’t help that there was a gas helicopter on the roof. It had been years since a gas helicopter had entered Chicago airspace. Policemen were swarming right outside the doors of the condo building, talking to residents who were pointing up toward the roof of the building and looking distraught.

“It’s going to be impossible to get out of here without being noticed,” Jack said.

“Agreed,” Bash said. “Although, on the plus side, it looks like the security cameras have been destroyed. At least we’re not on camera right now.”

Jack’s eyes followed Bash’s finger, which was pointing up to the part of the wall’s computer screen that usually housed video cameras. The whole wall was destroyed. Jack wasn’t sure what had happened to it, but there were large cracks in it, and pieces of the shattered computer screen littered the floor.

“Hey, now,” Sawyer said. “All hope isn’t lost. Look, Grant and Storm are still out there, just like they said they’d be.”

Jack looked out to the left now, where Sawyer was pointing. Sure enough, he recognized two familiar hovercars. The original plan had been for Grant and Storm to station themselves outside the condo building to provide an alternate means of escape if escaping via the helicopter became impossible. That had been a plausible scenario, since a gas helicopter was likely to draw quite a bit of unwanted attention once people started realizing it was there. But no one had planned on a no-fly zone for hovercars.

“Well, that’s awesome that they’re there,” Jack said. “They must have managed to make it in before the no-fly zone went into effect. But it doesn’t really matter now. There’s no way we can fly out of here until the no-fly zone is lifted.”

“Aw come on,” Sawyer said. “You still don’t trust my flying abilities? I landed the helicopter on that roof, didn’t I?”

Jack frowned. “Crashed it, actually.”

“Hey now, son. A crash landing is still a landing,” Sawyer said.

“Look,” Anderson said, speaking up and sounding worried for the first time since this mission had started. “Silver might need medical attention. And we need to get out of here without being interrogated by the cops. We all know that if we have to talk to the cops it’s going to be bad news. So here’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to exit the building as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. Blending in with the huge crowd out there shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We’ll sneak over to the hovercars. Sawyer and Bash, you guys jump in with Grant. Jack, Silver, and I will jump in with Storm. Sawyer and I will each take the pilot’s seat. As soon as everyone is strapped in, we’ll switch the hovercars to manual piloting and make a break for it. Since this is busy, downtown Chicago, it’s likely they’ve tried to keep the no-fly zone as small as possible. We won’t have to dodge through the manual interference signals very long to get out of here.”

Jack’s eyes widened. “I mean this with all due respect, but are you guys insane? The manual interference in government no-fly zones is designed to send a signal to force a crash-landing of any hovercar that enters the no-fly zone on a manual flight pattern. There’s no way this will work. We’ll barely get off the ground before we’ll be crashing again.”

Sawyer shook his head. “It’s not impossible to outsmart a no-fly zone. The trick is to anticipate the crash signals and overcompensate for them so that you’re pulling the aircraft up much higher than the interference signal is pulling it down. It’s difficult to do. You have to time it right because if you pull up that violently without it being countered by a manual interference signal, you’ll flip the hovercar and crash it.”

“This is nuts,” Jack said, his heart already pounding from the nerves.

“I know,” Anderson admitted. “It is nuts. But I promise you we can handle it. We’ve dealt with much worse. Besides, do you have a better idea?”

“No,” Jack admitted. “I guess I don’t. And we have to do whatever we can to save Silver.

“Alright, then,” Anderson said. “Hold on to that girl of ours, and try to keep her face against your chest so no one can see that she’s actually knocked out.”

Jack nodded, and pressed Silver’s face against his chest. He looked out at the chaos just outside the lobby doors, and took a deep breath. He had been pretty lucky so far today. He just prayed that his luck wasn’t about to run out.

“Come on, boys,” Sawyer said, starting to walk toward the exit doors. “Time for a little more fun.”

Silver came to with a start. The first thought that ran through her mind was that she had never been so sure that her head was going to explode. A sharp, stabbing pain was shooting over and over from the top of her head, down her spine, and all the way to her feet. It was excruciating.

The second thought she had was that the cloth pressed against her face smelled just like Jack. She tried to pull her head back and look up, which is when she realized that she couldn’t because someone’s hand was firmly holding the back of her head.

Slowly, things started to come into focus for her. She realized that the reason the cloth pressed against her face smelled like Jack was that it was Jack’s shirt. And it must be his hand pressed against the back of her head. He was walking quickly, causing her whole body to bounce up and down with every step. She wanted to tell him to slow down and be more gentle, but she couldn’t find the energy to push against his hand, or even to talk loud enough for her voice to be heard over the sound of the crowd.

It was loud. So loud. Sirens, screams, alarms, and barking dogs filled Silver’s ears. She couldn’t see anything, with her eyes pressed against Jack’s chest. She could feel his heart beating. It was pounding, racing. Its pace was fast. Much too fast. Something was wrong. Where was she? What was going on?

Silver concentrated and tried to remember what had happened right before she passed out. Slowly, it all came back to her. Finding Mrs. Astor, forcing her to scan her eyes to open the door, getting in the elevator, Jack screaming something, and then everything going black.

She heard muffled voices now, and the whoosh of a hovercar door opening. A fresh wave of sharp pain radiated across her head as Jack shifted her position and then set her down in a hovercar seat. He was moving quickly, and not being very gentle. She wanted to protest, but she still couldn’t form words. Instead, all she managed to do was let out a yelp of pain.

Suddenly, Jack’s face was in front of hers, his eyes full of concern.

“She’s awake,” he called out. “Her eyes are open! Silver’s awake!”

Silver squinted her eyes, trying to stop everything from being so fuzzy. She was in the backseat of a hovercar, and Jack was sitting next to her. Directly in front of her, she could see the back of Storm’s head in the front seat. To the left of Storm, she saw her father, who was now turning to look at her.

“Welcome back, Pumpkin,” he said.

Silver tried to speak again, but words were still proving difficult to manage. “What happened?” she finally managed to rasp out.

“We’ll explain in a little bit,” her father said. “Right now, we have to get going. Hold on as best you can. We’re about to have a bit of a wild ride. Jack, is she all strapped in?”

Silver felt Jack double-checking her five-point safety harness. Alarm bells went off in her brain. All hovercars were equipped with five-point safety harnesses, in case of extremely rough skies. But, usually, only the simple lap belts were used, not the full harness. Something serious was about to go down.

“She’s strapped in. We’re good to go,” Jack said.

“Alright, I’m going to give Sawyer the signal,” Anderson said.

Silver’s head was still pounding, but her vision was getting clearer. She saw her father in the front seat, holding up his hand in a peace sign. Silver had an instant flashback to her childhood. That was the signal her father had always used with his closest friends to indicate they were ready to face something dangerous together. Silver was confused about where she was and how she had arrived here, but she knew one thing for sure when she saw that signal: shit was about to go down.

A few seconds later, Silver felt the hovercar lifting rapidly away from the ground. Almost as soon as it was airborne, it dived rapidly toward the earth again. Silver’s stomach flip-flopped from the rapid change in direction, and her eyes widened as she saw the ground coming closer and closer through the window. Just before impact, the hovercar lurched sharply up and to the left. That’s when Silver saw another hovercar, which she recognized as belonging to Grant, flying a similarly erratic pattern in the sky next to them. Almost as soon as Grant’s hovercar came into view, she lost sight of it again when her father banked sharply to the right. Then they were diving again, heading too quickly toward the ground. But again, they lurched upward right before crashing. As they changed directions again, Silver finally noticed the crowds of people below. Everyone was screaming and pointing up at their wildly maneuvering hovercar, and policemen were running around trying to aim their laser guns at the hovercar. Yellow tape was everywhere indicating a no-fly zone. Suddenly, their wild, lurching ride made more sense.

“We’re flying manual in a no-fly zone, aren’t we?” Silver asked as she looked over at Jack, then winced as another lurch sent a fresh wave of pain through her skull.

Jack actually grinned, and shrugged. “You never told me how crazy your dad was,” he said. “I think he’s secretly having the time of his life right now.”

After another dive downward and then upward, Silver rolled her eyes. “He’s really proud of his manual flying skills. But I would have thought even he would draw the line at trying to navigate a no-fly zone.”

“We didn’t have much of a choice,” Jack said, gripping the seat in front of him as the hovercar banked left again. “If we wanted to get away from that condo building without being questioned by police, this was our only option. I’m glad to see you talking and coherent, by the way. You hit your head pretty badly on the elevator.”

Silver reached up to touch the painful, throbbing spot on her head. That’s when she felt warm, sticky blood. She winced. “It still hurts like the devil.”

“I’m sure it does. Just hang in there, babe. I’ll make sure to check out the wound once we’re somewhere safe.”

“Won’t be long,” Anderson called from the front seat. “We’re just about out of this no-fly zone.”

Silver looked out the window and saw Grant’s hovercar suddenly zooming away, flying in a straight line as it broke away from the no-fly zone. Moments later, their hovercar did the same. The lurching stopped, and her dad picked up speed as they started racing away from the condo building, which was completely going up in flames at this point.

“Incredible,” Jack said.

Silver felt her chest puffing up with pride. Her dad had always been an amazing pilot, but even she was impressed with the way he had just navigated the no-fly zone. She would have thought it was impossible to get out of there without crashing, but once again her dad had stepped up and flown with ease.

“I’m guessing Sawyer is piloting the other hovercar?” Silver asked Jack. There was no way Grant could have been the one flying through that mess. Silver was a little surprised that Storm, who was Sawyer’s daughter, hadn’t wanted to ride in the hovercar with her dad. But there probably hadn’t been much time to discuss who was riding where when everyone ran out of the building.

Jack nodded, his eyes still wide with awe. “Yeah, Sawyer’s piloting the other hovercar. Looks like I’ve got some pretty big shoes to fill if I want to impress you,” Jack said. “You didn’t tell me just how talented the other men in your life were.”

Silver smiled and reached over to take Jack’s hand. “Don’t sell yourself short. You have your own set of talents, even if they don’t involve crazy flying skills. And you have the same good heart and character as Sawyer and my dad. That’s what’s most important to me.”

Jack squeezed Silver’s hand, and Silver felt a familiar warmth spreading through her body.

“You did come rescue me,” Silver said, grinning over at Jack. “That definitely counts for something.”

Jack smiled. “I had help, as you can clearly see. And I’m definitely thankful for that. But I would have come for you even if I had to come by myself. Even if I would have faced certain death. You are my life now, Silver. I’ll always come for you.”

Silver grinned as Jack leaned over and planted a kiss on her lips. Then she blushed as she caught her dad looking back at her with a smile. “Looks like you found yourself a pretty great guy, Silver. Don’t you two lovebirds get comfortable just yet, though. We still have to make sure we get out of downtown without being caught by the police.”

“Where are we going to go?” Silver asked, suddenly worried again. “The city is swarming with police!”

“We’re going to fly across Lake Michigan,” Anderson said. “We’ll land near Bear Lake, and hide out with the son of an old friend who lives there. He’s actually the guy we got the helicopter from.”

Jack and Silver exchanged slightly panicked glances.

“But, Daddy,” Silver said. “We all have lives back in Chicago. We can’t just up and leave. Jack has his residency. And I have my dancing career. At least, I think I do. Hopefully any video footage of my shifting was destroyed in the fire, so Joe’s father has no way to prove anything.”

The hovercar was picking up speed now, zooming over the water of Lake Michigan right behind Grant’s hovercar.

“It’ll just be for a day, Pumpkin,” Anderson said. “Just to make sure there’s no danger to you guys back in Chicago. As long as there isn’t video footage, you should be able to go back. But you might want to get used to your life being shaken up a little bit. There’s a new war coming against shifters. Things aren’t going to be stable much longer.”

Silver and Jack exchanged another glance. Silver could see the frustration in Jack’s eyes, and she knew what he was thinking. Now that the old folks were involved, things were going to get crazy. There would be talk of war, and battles, and clan honor. Life wouldn’t truly settle down again for a long time, if ever.

Silver looked away from Jack and looked out the window. She’d have to wait until later to talk to Jack. There was no sense trying to discuss the situation while her dad sat there with his supersonic bear hearing, able to hear every whisper she made. Storm didn’t comment, and kept looking straight ahead out the window of the hovercar. Silver knew Storm probably wasn’t happy about the elders being involved, either. But, surely, they couldn’t blame her for this? It’s not like she had asked to be captured.

After several minutes, Storm broke the silence. “Who’s the guy in Michigan?” she asked. Anyone I would remember?”

“I’m not sure if you would,” Anderson said. “His name is Drew Brooks. He’s the adopted son of Zach Brooks, a black bear shifter I know from California. Drew’s actually fully human, but he’s still quite a force to be reckoned with. He lives off the grid these days, and has a small fleet of gas aircraft. He’ll keep you guys safe as long as you need to hide out.”

Silver continued to frown as Lake Michigan kept speeding by below them. She hoped that this would all blow over soon, and that they wouldn’t have to hide out for very long. The ominous tone in her dad’s voice wasn’t giving her much hope, though.