The Beast in Him

  “Hey, Ronnie Lee,” he said casually. “I was wondering if you could help me with something kind of important.”

  Shaw went to say something, but Ronnie slapped her hand over his mouth. Smitty bit the inside of his cheek as he eyed the position of their bodies—Brendon on top of Ronnie. And, again, naked.

  Lord, Bobby Ray Smith, sometimes you can be a real asshole.

  “Bobby Ray, can you go out into the living room? I’ll be out in two shakes of a dog’s tail.”

  Fighting to hold in his laughter, he turned and moseyed on down the hallway. As promised, Ronnie suddenly appeared, a hotel robe wrapped tightly around her. She backed out of the bedroom, holding up her finger and pleading, “You just wait right there, darlin’. I’ll be back in a few minutes. I promise.”

  She closed the door and headed down the hall toward Smitty. She held up that finger again, brought it to her lips to indicate silence, and flashed five fingers at him. Then she disappeared down another hallway.

  Smitty wandered into the living room and dropped onto the couch to wait. In about ten minutes, Ronnie reappeared. Freshly showered and dressed, she motioned to Smitty while grabbing her leather jacket.

  Ronnie opened the front door and again motioned to Smitty. Knowing where this was going and wondering what exactly was wrong with his people, he stood and followed after her. He met her at the elevator. “What are you doing?”

  “Same thing you’re doing, only for a different reason.” She pushed the elevator button again. It dinged its arrival and the doors slid open. Ronnie pushed Smitty inside as Shaw’s roar rang out from their apartment.

  “Ronnie Lee Reed! Where the hell are you going?”

  “Lunch with Bobby Ray. I’ll talk to you later tonight. Have a good day at work. Love you!”

  Smitty watched Shaw snatch the front door open and, completely naked, charge right for the elevator, but the doors closed seconds before he reached it. His fist slamming against those doors, though, shook the suddenly small box they were riding in.

  “Ronnie Lee…?”

  “You interrupted us in the middle of…well, ya know.”

  “And so you torture the man?”

  “Oh, like you weren’t trying to. Besides, I’d already gotten what I needed.” She grinned in sexual satisfaction. “Twice. My poor kitty, however, had been holding out and was left a little frustrated.” She rocked back on her heels. “Yeah, I left him hanging…I’ll be paying for that tonight.” And clearly she couldn’t wait.

  Smitty laughed with her. “You always did play with fire.”

  “I know. I know. But I can’t help it.”

  The elevator doors opened and she grabbed Smitty’s hand, pulling him out of the elevator, through the bustling lobby, and out to the busy Manhattan streets. Cutting between cars, she led him to a diner across the street and two blocks down.

  They walked in and the cook behind the counter called out her name.

  “Hey, Matty,” she said with a smile.

  “The usual, baby girl?”

  “Yeah, and”—she pushed Smitty into an empty booth—“give him the same but triple it.” Ronnie Lee sat down and let out a sigh. “All right. Spill it.”

  Jess was on her forty thousandth yawn when Phil walked in her office.

  “Hacker.”

  It was such a common problem Phil didn’t even bother creating full sentences about it anymore.

  “Any good?”

  “A little too good. Something familiar about it.”

  “Trace ’em,” she said around another yawn. “I want a name.”

  “Already on it.” He moved into the room. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Because you’ve been yawning all morning.” He grinned. “Busy weekend?”

  “Something like that.”

  He dropped into the chair across from her. The man never really sat as much as dropped, flopped, or dived onto furniture. “Is this getting serious?”

  “No…maybe…” She sighed. “I don’t know.”

  “Did you tell him about the Wilsons?”

  “Yeah, he knew I was lying. I think he only pushed that security stuff on us trying to get me to admit it.”

  “So do we still have to pay for all that crap?”

  Jess laughed. “You cheap bastard. Of course we have to pay for it. Besides, a little extra security couldn’t hurt right now.”

  “Yeah, Sabina wants to up the ante at the den too.”

  “It’s not a bad idea. I worry what she’ll do if Wilson makes a move while she’s human.”

  “And that worries you for good reason,” Phil muttered under his breath. Unlike the rest of the wild dogs, Sabina was much more dangerous as human. She had this thing for knives…

  “Call up Mace. See what they can do for the house.”

  “Will do. And the hillbilly?”

  “I don’t know, Phil. I keep telling myself not to get in deep with this guy, and then I find myself getting in deep with this guy. Wolves are notorious, ya know? Males and females. They fuck, fuck, fuck. Happily. Bouncing from bed to bed. Until one day they find the one. Their mate. I’m just a way station for this guy.”

  “Sweetie, you don’t know that. You could be the one.”

  “I may be goofy, but I’m not delusional.” She yawned, running her hands through her hair. “I am having a great time, though. I haven’t been this relaxed in ages.”

  “Then we must hold on to him,” Phil teased. “At least for a little while.”

  Jess giggled. “Yes, we must. Besides, he’s being really cool. He’s going to try and discreetly help us with this Wilson thing. And he didn’t even get mad when I punched his sister.”

  The sound of chairs scraping and running feet had Jess’s head snapping up. Her three friends charged in to join Phil.

  Sabina literally dived onto her desk, knocking papers and pens onto the floor. “You punched her?”

  “I was startled when I saw her. I didn’t mean to.”

  “Did you make her cry? Bleed? Sob softly while begging you not to hurt her anymore?”

  “What is wrong with you?”

  Sabina took Jess’s hand. “I just love you so much. I am so proud, my friend.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Show her. Show her how proud!”

  The other three ran out of the room and Jess jumped up, yelling, “Dear God, no! Not the pom-poms!”

  Ronnie bit into her grilled cheese sandwich and said around a mouthful of gooey food, “Why do you want to know about the Wilsons?”

  “Can you never just answer a question?”

  Ronnie Lee Reed knew something about everybody. She didn’t try to know these things, but she found out anyway. She was always a wealth of information when it came to the Smith Packs countrywide, and Smitty had used her knowledge time and time again.

  “All right. All right. No need to get snappy. The Wilson Pack is small and ornery. They are distant cousins of the Smiths, but I don’t know the bloodline.”

  “What about Walt?”

  “Unpleasant. Rude. A real redneck. Last I heard he’d taken over his daddy’s trucking company, but he ran that into the ground.”

  “You think he needs money?”

  “He always needs money. He has a real nasty gambling habit. And he doesn’t borrow from full-humans. He borrows from bears. Polar bears.”

  “That’s stupid.”

  “Yeah, one time they broke both his legs when he didn’t pay up. His mate finally had to borrow from her own kin.”

  “What do you know about his mate?”

  Ronnie rolled her eyes. “Polly June Taylor. A most unpleasant woman. But she’s loyal to him.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “Anything I can help with?”

  “Don’t know yet.”

  “Well, you just let me know.”

  They ate in silence for a few minutes until Ronnie asked, “So that’s her, huh?”

  “That’s who?”

  “Jessie Ann.
I saw her on the monitor at the museum, but I didn’t have time to ask you about her.”

  With such a short amount of time to pull everything together for that museum job, Ronnie Lee offered to help out. Mostly she’d been handling their payroll, but she did a damn fine job of working the surveillance truck too.

  “Yeah, that was Jessie Ann.”

  “And then she shows up at the office and decks your sister.”

  “Yup, she sure did.”

  “It seems you’ve been seeing a lot of Jessie Ann.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Even after she popped your sister?”

  “Definitely after she popped my sister.”

  Ronnie laughed. “You Smith males do like ’em mean. So what’s going on with you two, Bobby Ray?”

  “I don’t know. I like her.”

  “You always liked her.”

  “Yeah, but…It’s different now.”

  “Of course it is. You’re adults now. But don’t play with her, Bobby Ray.”

  “Why do you think I would?”

  “I don’t think you’d mean to, but don’t string her along. Since I can remember, when I’d see her in the school library reading those ridiculous romance books, that girl has had ‘forever’ written across her forehead. I’d hate to see her hurt ’cause you’re just scratching an old itch.”

  “I can’t promise anything.”

  “Then just don’t be stupid.”

  Smitty smiled and winked. “I’ll work on that.”

  “Stop. Please stop. For the love of all that’s holy, stop!”

  But they wouldn’t. They just kept going.

  While Jess sat on Phil’s desk, the rest of them shook their pom-poms and cheered. May actually did a split. She was a very flexible gal. Thankfully, Jess hadn’t brought the pets with her because the additional dog howls would have made her insane.

  They wouldn’t even have those stupid pom-poms if it hadn’t been for her dumb idea after too many dark truffles one late night. “I know! Let’s go to the Halloween party as Satan’s cheerleaders!”

  “I’m leaving,” she warned her friends.

  “One more,” May begged. “Just one more.”

  They turned away from her and started another cheer that didn’t remotely rhyme and involved way too much violence.

  Placing her hands on the desk behind her, Jess relaxed back. “Hey, Smitty.”

  “Hey.”

  Then Jess screamed and scrambled off the desk. “Where the hell did you come from?”

  “The Lord.”

  She glared at him. He stood there, that perfect ass resting against Phil’s desk, his arms crossed over that massive chest. He’d even taken off his jacket. How could they not notice the man in the room?

  Taking a deep breath to calm her shattered nerves, Jess demanded, “Why are you here?”

  “Two reasons.” He looked at her friends. “What y’all cheering about?”

  “Nothing,” they all automatically answered. All except Sabina who said, “Actually—”

  But May slamming her heel into Sabina’s instep elicited a lovely silent scream.

  May gave her prettiest smile. “How are you, Bobby Ray?”

  “Fine. And you?”

  “Pretty good. Thank you kindly for asking.”

  Unable to tolerate the Southern politeness anymore, Jess snarled, “What two reasons?”

  Taking his time answering, Smitty looked her up and down before saying, “First, I heard from Mace that y’all want us to secure your den. He went over to check out the location, but we have one problem.”

  “Which is?”

  “The pups. The mobile ones are going to be a problem. Especially if we’re going to do a top-to-bottom overhaul.”

  “A top to bottom?” She figured a couple of cameras and stronger doors. “Why are you doing that?”

  “’Cause y’all need it.”

  “And how much is that going to cost us?”

  “A lot.”

  Jess’s eyes narrowed. “So what do you want?”

  “Any way you can give us complete access to your house for a few days. The less distractions, the quicker we can get this done.”

  “I’m sure there is. We’ll come up with something and let you know. And the second thing you came here for?”

  “When can I expect you tonight?”

  Presumptuous timber wolf! “Who said I was coming over tonight?”

  “I did.”

  Jess folded her arms across her chest. “So sorry to disappoint, but I have plans tonight.”

  “Plans?” She could see his entire body tense even though he never moved his ass from that desk. “What plans?”

  “Plans with my Pack—”

  “You should come,” Phil cut in.

  And all of them turned to him, shocked.

  “I should?” Smitty asked.

  “Yup, definitely.”

  The man truly was evil. Evil incarnate.

  Smitty glanced at her. “Jessie Ann?”

  “Sure,” she said after clearing her throat. “You should come.”

  “No—”

  But Sabina cut May’s plea short by slapping her hand over the woman’s face. “We’d love for you to come,” Sabina chimed in, even while she struggled with May. “Yes, you will be there. Nine o’clock.”

  Phil jotted down the club information and handed it to Smitty. “Yup, nine o’clock.”

  Smitty stared at the piece of paper. “Caleb’s Corner? Never heard of it.”

  “It’s a nice place. You’ll love it.”

  We’re all going to hell.

  Jess could tell by the look on his face that Smitty knew damn good and well they were setting him up, but he had no idea how. And Jess knew that after tonight, Smitty might actually end it all with her. He might never speak to her again. Ever.

  Smitty slipped the paper into his pocket and slowly walked over to her. “See you tonight,” he said.

  “Yeah, see ya tonight.”

  Then his hands gently grasped her jaw, framing her face. No way. He wouldn’t kiss her in front of her Pack, would he? They’d never said anything about keeping their sexual relationship secret, but Smitty had never been an outwardly affectionate male to the women he slept with. At least not when she knew him. But before she could analyze it anymore, he was kissing her. It was a sweet kiss but, at the same time, claiming. Making it clear to anyone within a thirty-mile radius exactly whom Jess belonged to. Whom she belonged to at the moment anyway.

  After he’d completely melted her bones, Smitty stepped back and winked at her. He turned and headed to the elevator, glaring at Phil the entire time until the elevator doors closed.

  An awkward and large silence followed his departure. Until Sabina stated the obvious, “He’s worried about you and Phil?”

  “I guess so,” Jess replied, completely fascinated. “It was a definite Smith ‘this is my bone’ move.”

  Jess and Sabina stared at each other for several seconds before they burst out laughing.

  “Me? And Phil?”

  Sabina released May so she could bang on the desk. “That’s hilarious!”

  Phil cleared his throat. “I don’t appreciate the humor here. I’m definitely a threat to the male population.”

  That just pulled more laughter from his wife and best friend.

  “Maybe you should let it go,” Danny suggested. “You’re just embarrassing yourself.”

  “Wait!” May ordered. “Just wait. What about Smitty? You can’t have him come tonight. It’s not fair!”

  Now all of them but May were laughing, leaving the poor She-dog to dramatically storm off on her own.

  Chapter 17

  “Why am I here?”

  Smitty didn’t even spare a glance at Mitch. “Because I’m pretty sure this is a gay bar Jessie has me coming to. And you’re much more gay-friendly than I am. You’ll distract them from my amazing body.”

  “So…I’m your beard?”

  “I don?
??t know if you’re using that term correctly, but I also don’t care.”

  Smitty grabbed Mitch’s jacket and pulled him to the bar called Caleb’s Corner. There was a bouncer out front, but he barely looked at them. And there was no line waiting to get in. What a lame-ass gay club. Still, Jessie was here. Which meant he was going to be here.

  But once they got inside, all Smitty wanted to do was turn around and run. Run for his very life. Lord in heaven, Jessica Ann Ward was the meanest female on the planet! And she should burn for this. Burn!

  “Wait. I thought you said this was a gay bar?” Mitch sounded as horrified as Smitty felt.

  “I thought it was.”

  “Well, it’s not, and I’m out of here!”

  Mitch tried to make a run for it, but Smitty grabbed his jacket collar and yanked the big cat back. “You’re not deserting me, Shaw.”

  “Like hell I’m not. You may have that military connection with Llewellyn, but I’m from Philly. There’s some things we won’t do for anyone.”

  The two were seconds from pulling out claws and going at it in the middle of the bar when Jessie suddenly—and literally—jumped in front of them.

  “Smitty!” She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. And in that second he knew he wouldn’t leave. She smelled too good.

  When she pulled away, she looked over at Mitch. “Oh…you.”

  “And I’m happy to see you, too, beautiful.”

  Jessie stepped back and gestured around. “As you can see, we’ve pretty much taken over the place, but we’ve got some bears and a few jackals hanging out tonight, so you two shouldn’t feel too out of place with all these dogs.” She pointed toward an empty booth. “Why don’t you guys grab a table and sit back and relax.”

  “Sure. After we stop at the bar first.”

  “Oh.” Jessie scrunched up her face. The action annoyed him because she looked so goddamn cute doing it. “I forgot to mention. Caleb lost his liquor license a week ago. So, at least for now, soft drinks, virgin margaritas, and Shirley Temples only. But the Shirley Temples are to die for.”

  Smitty worked hard not to grit his teeth. “There’s no liquor here?”