Trouble in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 1) (7 page)

When Jack had arrived in Chicago for medical school, he had found it refreshing to be around a bunch of full humans who were oblivious to the fact that shifters even existed. For the last several years, he’d been merrily going about his business without having to constantly hear a bunch of doomsday scenarios. He enjoyed having a few shifter friends in the city, but he was happy to leave anything else having to do with shifters alone.

Jack wanted to write this latest threat off as just one more paranoid, crazy threat. The only problem was, he knew Silver wasn’t the paranoid type. And he had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach when he thought about the eye scanners. It was only recently that eye scanners themselves had become widely available, and they were still relatively expensive. But technology progressed at lightning speed these days. It wouldn’t be too long before scanners were cheap and in every home. It wasn’t really that big of a leap to think of scanners that detected animal DNA being widespread as well. Add in a few government officials who hate shifters, stir in a little public hysteria, and there could be a real problem.

Jack ran his fingers through his hair and stared up at the ceiling. The truth was, it didn’t matter to him, really, whether or not Silver had given up a chance to spy on a potential enemy. He would rather deal with a huge, potential threat to everyone than a very specific threat to Silver. He knew he was falling for her and falling hard, and he didn’t try to stop the freefall of his heart. Whether or not he ever told Silver that he cared for her, he could enjoy this moment with her, right here, right now. There was no point in rushing in to anything. She needed time to let her heart heal, and he needed time to figure out whether he could make enough space in his life to give Silver the attention she deserved.

Silver was the one to finally break the silence, interrupting Jack’s thoughts with a simple question. “Wanna order a pizza?” she asked. “I had dinner at the charity event, but it was basically two bites of chicken and a few pieces of lettuce. The food at those things is always ridiculous. You’re paying a thousand dollars for a seat, after all. The least they could do is give you a decent dinner.”

Jack’s jaw dropped as he looked over at Silver. “You paid a thousand dollars for a meal?”

Silver shrugged. “Well, I didn’t. Joe’s family did. A thousand bucks is like a couple pennies to them. But regardless of who paid for my poor excuse for a dinner, I’m starving.”

Jack chuckled and sat up straighter on the couch. “You really want to order pizza? I thought all you dancers ever ate was a salad and the occasional grape or two.”

Silver laughed. “Well, maybe ordinary dancers. But I’m a grizzly. You can’t blame me for having the appetite of a bear.”

Jack grinned. “Fair enough. How do you feel about supreme pizza?”

“That’s my favorite,” Silver said, grinning back.

“Perfect. Why don’t you enjoy a few sips of that wine and I’ll order us some grub.”

Silver nodded, and Jack pulled out his phone to order the food. Twenty minutes later, the pair was digging into a box of deep dish supreme pizza. They had set the box down on Silver’s coffee table and were watching a movie on Silver’s wall, which easily converted to a television screen with a simple voice command. Jack only half-watched the movie. He couldn’t keep himself from glancing over at Silver every few minutes. He hoped he wasn’t being obvious, but he was having a hell of time keeping his eyes on the television when the most beautiful woman in the world was sitting right next to him.

By the time the movie ended, Jack’s exhaustion was beginning to catch up with him again. Silver seemed to be feeling better, and he needed to get home and get some rest. As much as he wished he could stay there and be next to Silver all night, he forced himself to stand up.

“I should get going,” he said, reaching for his phone so he could call his hovercar up to the front of the parking garage.

“Yeah, of course,” Silver said. “Sorry I kept you so long. Thanks for coming over. I was pretty upset earlier.”

“Anytime,” Jack said. “It was no trouble at all. And besides, I had a great time. Are you sure you’re okay now?”

Silver nodded, and gave Jack an encouraging smile. “I’m great, thank you. I should get some rest, too. My knee is a lot better, but I need to make sure it’s in tip top shape for rehearsal tomorrow.”

Jack slapped his forehead. “Oh my god, I’m such an idiot. I’ve been hanging out with you all night and I didn’t even ask about your knee. You’re going to get to dance this weekend, then?” Jack was mentally kicking himself for forgetting to ask Silver about what was probably the most important issue in her life right now.

But if Silver was annoyed by his lapse, she didn’t show it. Instead, her smile widened. “Yeah, I’ll get to dance this weekend for the grand finale. The only thing that sucks is that I won’t have anyone there that I know to watch me. I gave away all my free tickets to Joe’s family. I’m sure they won’t give them back to me now, just to spite me. And I doubt they’ll show up now that I’ve broken up with him.”

Silver’s face fell a little bit as she finished speaking, and Jack felt his heart aching for her. “I could come,” he offered. “I mean, and pay for my ticket. I think I work this weekend but I could probably get someone to switch with me. Just because you don’t have free tickets doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have someone there to cheer you on.”

Silver smiled and shrugged in his direction. “Thanks, but it’s okay. I don’t want you to have to go to all that trouble. And besides, the only tickets available this last minute will probably be super expensive. It’s no big deal. I’ll still have a big audience to dance for. I’m just happy that I’m going to be able to finish out the show. Then I’ll really have some time to rest up and let my knee heal.”

Jack frowned. “Still. It’s a big deal. You’ve been excited about this show for a long time.”

“I know,” Silver said. “But really, it’s fine. It’s still going to be a great show.”

Jack sighed. He knew Silver was putting a happy gloss on an unhappy situation. But he also knew there wasn’t much he could do to change things. She had trusted Joe, and he had betrayed her trust. But the show must go on, and Jack had no doubt Silver would dance as brilliantly as ever, with or without a boyfriend there to cheer her on.

“Alright, I better get going,” Jack said, reluctant to leave but well aware that he was losing valuable hours of sleep. He couldn’t afford to be a zombie at work. His patients were counting on him to take good care of them.

Silver stood to give him a goodbye hug, and the feeling of her arms around him, however brief, sent a wave of heat through Jack’s body. He couldn’t help tilting his head down to kiss the top of her head. Her hair was silky soft, and smelled faintly of coconut.

If Silver read anything other than friendliness into his goodbye kiss, she didn’t show it. Jack gave her another small wave, and then quickly left her condo before he was tempted to do or say something stupid and give himself away.

“Keep it together, Jack,” he whispered to himself as he stepped into the elevator. “Life is complicated enough right now without throwing a woman into the mix.”

Sunday morning, Silver woke up and felt like her head was two sizes too big.

“Fabulous,” she muttered to herself as she rolled over in bed and tried to block out the world for a few more moments by burying her face in her pillow. The last thing she needed right now, on top of everything else, was to be sick.

The last few days had been hell. First, Joe had called her nonstop, leaving messages ranging from apologetic and pleading to angry and demanding. Silver had refused to talk to him or answer any of his questions. She knew she could never go back to him after what had happened at the charity dinner, and she didn’t want to feel like she was defending her decision to him. He knew why she had left. There was no need to rehash everything a hundred times.

It had felt a little odd at first to have the wealthiest, most sought-after bachelor in Chicago desperate to win her back. For a moment, Silver had to admit she might have even relished the attention a little bit. What girl wouldn’t be flattered to have a guy like Joe, with money and connections, paying so much attention to her?

But Silver’s gratification over being a “catch” didn’t last long. After a little over a day of trying to reach Silver, Joe had gotten the message that they really were done. And that’s when things turned nasty.

Joe had “leaked” to the local papers that Silver had cheated on him. He had played the part of the innocent, wounded boyfriend who had just wanted to be the best man he possibly could for his girlfriend, but had then had it all thrown in his face.

It must have been a slow news week in Chicago, because a lot of people picked up on the story. Silver couldn’t even ride the El to work because every time she got on the hovertrain, she was bombarded with people asking her questions about the breakup, or, worse, calling her a slut and shaking their head that someone could treat a man like Joe the way she had.

Silver had responded by withdrawing from the world as much as possible. She took hovertaxis back and forth to rehearsals, and when she wasn’t dancing she was hiding out in her apartment, trying to focus her mind on anything but Joe.

She had called her mom, who had broken up with a celebrity years ago and suffered a lot of media scrutiny over the situation. Her mom empathized with her, but told her that there wasn’t much she could do except lay low and wait for it to blow over.

“Don’t try to defend yourself, or set people straight. No one listens, anyway. Just wait a few days or weeks and everyone will move on to the next interesting piece of gossip.”

Silver had taken her mom’s advice as best she could. But it was hard to truly lay low when you were dancing as the star of a popular ballet during its grand finale weekend. Friday’s and Saturday’s performances had gone well enough, but Silver couldn’t help feeling like the energy of the crowd wasn’t quite the same as it usually was. Maybe she was reading into things too much, but she felt like everyone was viewing her through a dirty lens, believing that she was a liar and cheater. Not exactly the image you wanted to be in your audience members’ heads when you were dancing as Cinderella.

Still, Silver was pleased with the way she had danced, and her knee was holding up well. She had two performances today, and then the show was over. But if the pounding in her head didn’t get better, Silver wasn’t sure she was going to be able to finish off her last two shows.

She forced herself to sit up and look around the room. Maybe she just needed to get up and get moving. Sometimes, when she had a cold or a sore throat, she felt better after getting up and letting things resettle after a night of sleep. Maybe the pounding in her head would settle a little bit if she got her day rolling.

As soon as the room stopped spinning from her sudden change of position, Silver put a hand to her forehead, then winced. She definitely had a fever. Her skin felt like it was on fire. Silver swung her legs over the side of her bed and walked over to the bathroom, where she held on to the counter to steady herself in front of the mirror.

“Computer, what’s my temperature,” Silver asked.

The plain mirror instantly transformed into a crystal computer screen, and a long, horizontal beam of red light shot out from the screen, scanning up and down Silver’s body a few times.

“Caution, temperature is critically elevated,” the computer announced. “Current readout is 103.7 degrees Fahrenheit.”

“Wonderful,” Silver muttered. She turned to the small medicine cabinet on the wall next to the mirror and asked wearily, “Computer, do I have fever reducing medication.”

The computer screen on the medicine cabinet displayed two options, and Silver chose the one that appeared stronger, then took a double dose. With her bear metabolism, it often took twice the normal amount of medication to have an effect on her. She chose some pain medication too, and downed a double dose of that as well. Then she slowly, painfully walked toward her kitchen, hoping she had some orange juice in the fridge. Her whole body ached, and every step felt excruciating. She hoped that once the medicine kicked in, some of these aches would disappear. She couldn’t imagine dancing under the hot stage lights right now.

Silver had been so excited to land the role of Cinderella, but the dance gods had not been kind to her this show. She’d had issue after issue with her health, and, at this point, she just hoped she could make it through her last two shows.

Silver was relieved to find that she did have orange juice. As she took long sips of the cool fruity liquid, and the meds she had taken started to kick in, Silver started to feel a little bit better. She told herself to just remain calm, and take the day as it came. She’d danced while injured and sick before. She could power through this.

As Silver took another long drag from her juice, her phone screen suddenly lit up, and the intercom system in her condo started dinging before announcing, “Call from, Joe’s house. Call from, Joe’s house.”

Silver rolled her eyes and groaned. Seriously, hadn’t he given up by now? You’d think that after smearing her name in the local press, he’d at least have the decency to not call her anymore.

“Ignore call,” Silver said. The dinging and computer voice died down. A few moments later, another dinging announced that she had a voicemail. With a sigh, Silver commanded the computer to play the message.

“This oughta be good,” she muttered to herself. But as the message started playing, Silver was surprised to find that it wasn’t Joe’s voice on the line. Instead, it was his father. The sound of Mr. Astor’s voice, sneering and jubilant, made Silver’s blood run cold.

“Well, hello there, Silver. I bet you weren’t expecting it to be me, were you? I was just wondering how you were feeling. It would be a shame if you feel ill on the last night of the show now, wouldn’t it?”

The message ended with maniacal laughter, and Silver shivered. Her brain might have been moving a little sluggishly this morning, but it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. Silver’s hand went up to her flaming hot forehead again. Mr. Astor knew she was sick. And she knew that, somehow, he’d had something to do with it. But how?

Silver racked her brain, trying to remember if she’d had anything usual happen to her in the last few days. But everything was a blur of rehearsals and performances, with a bit of avoiding the press mixed in. Nothing seemed sinister or too out of the ordinary.

Silver stumbled to the living room and collapsed onto the couch. Her head was spinning and she was exhausted. She picked up her phone, intending to text Storm or her brother. But she decided against it at the last minute. They would only freak out and worry about her. Instead, she decided to set an alarm to wake her up in an hour. She could sleep that long and still make it downtown in time for her warm-up. She needed all the rest she could get right now.

* * *

Several hours later, Silver stood backstage, breathing in and out slowly and trying to steady herself in a room that refused to stop spinning. She had already made it through the afternoon matinee performance. All that was left was the final evening performance. She hadn’t danced her best in the afternoon’s performance, but she had done a good enough job that no one except her dance coaches would truly see the difference. Now, though, she was feeling the effects of expending that much energy while sick. She was supposed to go on in fifteen minutes, and she was beginning to accept the fact that she might not make it through this last performance. Her understudy was greedily circling backstage, trying to act concerned but really just hoping that she would have the chance to dance the last performance. Silver hated to admit it, but today might be that girl’s lucky day.

Silver closed her eyes and tried to block out everything around her. She used to be strong, stubborn, and fearless. Some days, like today, she wondered what had happened to the spunky little girl she used to be. A little fever had never stopped her before. And yet, here she was, wondering whether she should just throw in the towel on the last night of the biggest show of her career thus far. Was she really that sick? Or was she just getting older and too complacent? If she powered through, she believed deep down she could do this. But did she really want to? What did it matter, anyway? No one she knew was here to watch her. At the end of the day, ninety-nine percent of the crowd out there would be just as happy watching her understudy dance as they would be watching Silver.

Silver stood and started walking back toward the dressing rooms with a resigned sigh. She might as well pull out of the show and go home to rest. Mr. Astor could win this stupid little battle. Silver didn’t care anymore. She just wanted to sleep.

Silver made it back to the little spot in the dressing room where her duffel bag was sitting, and she started digging in it for some street clothes. She would throw on a sweatshirt and then go tell the director that she was bowing out. As she was reaching for her sweatshirt, though, she felt a buzzing from her phone in the side pocket of the bag. She almost ignored it. After all, most of the calls she was getting these days somehow related to her breakup with Joe. But, for some reason, she decided to glance and see who was calling.

When she pulled the phone out, she saw that it wasn’t a call, but a text from Jack. Despite how awful she felt, Silver couldn’t help but smile at his name on her screen. She had to admit that she had enjoyed seeing more of him than usual this week. He was so easy to talk to and hang out with, not to mention he was drop-dead gorgeous. Silver was pretty sure he didn’t look at her as anything more than a childhood friend, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t daydream about him, right?

Silver opened the message, and her eyes widened in shock. Jack had written:
Surprise! All the Fur Coats are here to cheer you on! Have a great show!

Attached to the message was a photo. Jack’s arm took up a good portion of the screen, stretched out as far away from his body as he could get it so that he could get everyone in on the impromptu selfie. The whole group was there, grinning at the camera—Jack, Grant, Storm, Bash, and Juno. And it looked like they had seats really close to the stage. Silver whistled. She had no idea how they had managed to get that many seats together this late in the game. It must have cost them a fortune!

Silver bit her lower lip in determination, and slipped her phone back into the duffel bag along with her sweatshirt. She stood up straight and took another deep breath. There was no way she could back out of this show now. Seeing her brother and her friends out there, sacrificing their Sunday evening and who knows how much money to watch her dance, gave her renewed energy. She was strong. She was a grizzly, after all. She could do this, no matter how sick she felt.

Silver made her way back toward the stage, and stood in her position behind the curtain. She closed her eyes, and did what she always did when she felt scared or weak. She imagined her birth mother, who had died giving her life, and she channeled her spirit. Silver drew on the strength of the woman who had given up everything so that she could live, and she bit her lower lip with determination. She would dance tonight, for her mom, her family, and her friends. She wouldn’t let an evil man like Joe’s father hold her back, or keep her from her dreams.

“Silver, it’s five minutes to showtime,” the director said, breaking into Silver’s thoughts. “I need to know if you’re going to be able to dance this show.”

Silver opened her eyes and smiled at the director. “I can dance it,” she said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the understudy frown unhappily.

“Are you sure?” the director asked. “I don’t want you crapping out on me halfway through.”

“I’m sure,” Silver said. “Let’s do this.”

Silver danced her heart out that night as she had never done before. The fever didn’t go away, and the aching in her bones continued to feel worse. But Silver ignored the pain in her body and dug deep down within herself to find the strength to keep going. Every time she was tempted to quit, she pulled up a mental image of the photograph Jack had sent her of the Fur Coats, all sitting out in the audience and cheering her on.

Silver danced the best she had ever danced that night. She poured her whole soul out onto that stage. Through all of the pain, and the moments where she felt lightheaded and feverish and would have rather just gone home to fall into her own warm bed, she persevered. When the final bows had been taken, Silver stumbled once again to the dressing room, exhausted, but happy to know that she had made it. Now, she could truly rest. She had a few weeks off before she had to start rehearsing for her next big show, and she was looking forward to relaxing.