Making the Rent the Hard Way - 15

Luca stood, then began to pace. "I worked at his restaurant as a waiter. You do know that he owns one, I presume. If you're an even halfway-decent investigator, you'd have checked him out."

That piqued my interest, since I knew he was a graphic artist by profession, but I didn't ask—yet. I wanted to hear what he had to say first. "About that, I didn't have to. He told me he owned Waterfront After Dark. Since I'd heard of it, I know it caters to shifters."

He nodded, still pacing. "It does. And everyone who works there is one."

"I discovered that tonight."

He stopped to look at me. "You went there?"

"I did. I figured I should see what's what."

"Smart move, for a human, if somewhat dangerous."

"How do you figure?" I asked. "From what I know of the place, humans are welcome there."

"Let's say, they aren't asked to leave. But all they see are the bar and main dining rooms."

"I take it there's more."

"Yes. Very private areas only shifters are allowed to access. And if they aren't allied with Farnham, even those are off limits."

"'Allied', as in working with him to make him the alpha of the city?" I asked.

"Exactly. He wants to rule Westerden, make it an all-shifter city. Once he's done that, he plans to move on to take over more cities."

"That might be hard. Humans aren't going to sit by and watch that happen."

Luca scowled. "You'd be surprised. He's already convin…" He snapped his mouth shut.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where he'd been going with that. "He's got backing from some of the bigwig humans who run the city now. Right?"

"Worse than that."

"What could be? Oh, hell. How long has he been planning this?"

"More years than I like to think about." Luca smiled grimly. "I gather any research you might have done on him only went back to when he arrived in the city."

I nodded. "Twenty years ago. There was nothing, at least that I could find, about where he was before that." I looked at him questioningly.

"I don't know, either. He seemingly appeared out of nowhere, then opened the restaurant. He's clever. By making it known it was primarily for the shifter community, he piqued the interest of important humans in the city. The ones who choose, so to speak, who will run for office."

I looked at him in feigned shock. "You mean 'we the people' don't make that decision?"

Apparently he believed me because he replied, "Are you that naïve?"

"Not really. So, he's got the ear of those people, and…what?"

"At this point, five of the ten members of the city council are shifters. So are the chief of police, two judges, and the DA."

"Holy shit! Why isn't this general knowledge?"

Luca looked at me as if I were stupid. "Because they've kept what they are a secret. Humans may accept us, but they don't want to know who we are. Out of sight, out of mind, as the saying goes. Yeah, they get a kick out of going to a restaurant or club that's a known shifter hangout so they can rub elbows with big, scary wolves in human form. But if one of us changed in front of them, they'd freak, and probably try to kill him."