The lady sniffed but nodded.She dug into her pocket, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen.Austin glanced away, his eyebrows shooting up when he noticed West’s boyfriend, Jonathan, standing with a group of other people.Most of them were watching what was left of the bookstore.Jonathan wasn’t alone.His best friend was with him, and Austin was a little distracted by the sight of Caleb standing there.
Austin frowned.He’d only seen Caleb a few times and hadn’t been introduced to him yet, but every time, he’d struck Austin as calm and steady.Tonight, his eyes were wide, and he was breathing hard.Jonathan had a hand on his shoulder and was softly talking to him, but that didn’t seem to help.
“Here,” the lady said as she thrust a piece of paper into Austin’s hand.“Please let me know if you find anything.”
“I’ll do my best,” he promised.He wished he could promise more, but he was just a firefighter.
He turned to head toward Jonathan and Caleb, but before he could reach them, West intercepted him.“Was that the owner?”
“Yeah.She mentioned something about shifter-owned businesses getting burned down.”
West nodded.“She’s right.”
“I know.I told her we’d look into it as much as we could, but I didn’t make any promises.”
“I think Taylor’s going to call in an investigator.He might not know these businesses are shifter-owned, but even he noticed the pattern.”
“This is going to be a problem.”They’d have to be careful.They couldn’t afford for humans to find out that shifters existed.A lot of them would be scared and wouldn’t understand.Humans were always scared of things they didn’t understand.
“I know, but what can we do?”
“Maybe we should actually investigate this?”Austin couldn’t say he was looking forward to that, but it was an option.
“Are you going to tell Taylor that?”
Austin glanced at their captain, who was talking to a cop.His expression was serious, which wasn’t a surprise.Taylor took his job seriously.He wouldn’t be the captain if he didn’t.
“Maybe we should talk to him.”
Austin gaped at West’s suggestion.“Talk to him about what?”
“About us.I think he needs to know that something weird is happening.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“He’s not going to care.None of them will.They know us.”
“Are you willing to risk it?”
West hesitated, then sighed.“I am, but I know that you’re not, so I’m not going to push.I really do think it would help for him to know what’s going on, though.”
“We’ll talk about it later.Did you see that Jonathan’s here?”
West’s smile was instant.“No.Where is he?”
“Over there with Caleb.I think something’s wrong.”
West’s attention was definitely off telling their boss that they were shifters now.He turned to try and find Caleb, already frowning.Austin only felt a little bit guilty that he’d managed to distract him.
He knew that West was right and that they should talk to their team.After West, they were the people that Austin trusted the most.Hell, he trusted them with hislife.
It was still terrifying to think about their reactions if they found out that he was a shifter.He wasn’t sure he was ready for that just yet, but he realized he might not have a choice for much longer.For now, though, he did.
He’d let Taylor handle the investigation while he poked around for a bit to find out if there was more to the fires than anyone realized.If there was, he’d talk to West, and together, they’d decide what to do.They might be able to take care of the problem on their own, but they also might not be.The only way to know for sure was to find out who was behind the fires.Hopefully, they were a coincidence.
Austin didn’t really believe that.What kind of coincidence would only hit shifter-owned businesses?No, this had to be someone purposefully targeting them, and he felt unprepared to deal with any of this.
It looked like he wouldn’t have a choice.
