Toni nodded. “Yes. Of course.”
“And, sweetie . . . what are you wearing?”
Toni glanced down at her mother’s suit. “A business suit.”
“Why? Are you selling insurance?”
“Well . . . I . . .”
“The bottom line is . . . you look uncomfortable. And uncomfortable to shifters means weakness. You don’t want these guys thinking you’re weak. They will stomp all over you. So grow a backbone, wear something you’re actually comfortable in, and I’ll handle Yuri for now. Okay?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Cella swung her legs off the table, swiped up her papers, and walked out of the conference room.
Alone now, Toni dropped her head on the table. Not even lunch yet and she wanted to walk into traffic.
This had been a huge mistake. Huge. Gigantic. What had she been thinking? And even worse, she’d been getting calls and texts from her siblings all morning. It seemed that everything was currently a mess at home and now here. All because of her, as far as she was concerned.
“Hi!”
Toni’s head snapped up and she looked at the woman standing in the doorway.
“I’m Kerri,” the woman said, her smile bright.
Toni nodded.
“Your secretary.” Oh, God. She had a secretary now? What for? “Although I prefer admin, if that’s okay. Or assistant. Whatever.” The woman was so . . . perky. She couldn’t possibly be a shifter.
“Yeah,” she said, as if reading Toni’s mind. “I’m a full-human. Married to a wonderful hyena. I love his Clan. You know, when I first met him, I totally thought he was a woman, just big-boned, but then I found out he’s actually a man. He laughs at everything, like at my cousin’s funeral, which was awkward, but I just adore him. So you’re a . . .” She pointed a finger at her. “Jackal, right?”
Toni nodded. “That’s so cool! I wish I were a shifter. Being full-human is okay. I mean I’m healthy and not unattractive. But to be able to shift into an entirely different species . . . that’s so cool!”
“Uh-huh.”
“Anyway, your office is finally ready.”
“Office?” The bobcat had put her at a desk not far from his own, and Toni hadn’t thought much about it. It was small but would do for her purposes.
“Floyd didn’t tell you, right?” Kerri asked with an eye roll. “Typical. You started so quickly after being hired that we didn’t have much time to set up your office. And I was making sure it was all going perfectly, so I’m very sorry I wasn’t there to greet you when you got in and that you had to deal with Floyd.” She stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes. Seconds later, her big smile returned. “Okay! So let’s go see your new office!”
Ricky had his head back and was staring up at the ceiling. There had to be a way out of this. There had to be. He was a strong, confident wolf who’d traveled the world. And yet he couldn’t seem to come up with any way to get these two She-wolves out of his office.
Ronnie was still talking, practically in tears, while Sissy Mae did that annoying repeating thing.
“I know you’re trying to get over this,” Ronnie Lee said.
“Trying so hard,” Sissy agreed.
“That you’re pretending her being here doesn’t bother you.”
“Pretending. Such pretending.”
“But we’re here for you.”
“We are so here for you.”
Just when Ricky was entertaining the idea of jumping out the window, there was a short knock at the door, and without waiting for an answer, Rory pushed it open.
“Hey, Ricky, I need you to—”
A job folder in his hands, Rory stopped mid-step, his gaze bouncing back and forth between Ronnie and Sissy.
“What are y’all doin’?”
Ronnie put her hand on Ricky’s shoulder. “Just talking to my brother. Is that all right with you?”
Rory lowered the folder. “Tell me you two aren’t still going on about Laura Jane.”
“Well, it’s not like you care, Rory Lee!”
“Because I don’t care! Neither does this idiot!” Rory stomped over to Ricky, grabbed his forearm, and yanked him out of the chair. “Now if you don’t mind, we have actual work to do.” Rory shoved the folder into his hand. “This client is having a problem with his system. Go take a look at it.”
Practically running, Ricky headed out of his office. “I’m on it!”
“This conversation isn’t over, Ricky Lee!” Ronnie yelled after him. “You’re going to have to face this at some point!”
Inside the elevator, Ricky gave a quick wave to a still giggling Mindy while he rammed the first-floor button until the doors closed. Then he let out a breath and said, “Not if I can help it.”
Toni sat at her giant mahogany desk with the state-of-the-art computer system, three HD monitors—why she’d need more than one monitor, she didn’t know—and her ergonomically designed leather executive chair. She sat and she silently freaked out.
It was a gift she had, silently freaking out. Most people, especially her family, did it loudly with much crying and yelling. Using the excuse of being artists, they were always very emotional, but Toni could never afford to do that. Someone in her family had to at least appear calm and rational.
This was true even if she were a total and complete mess. As Toni currently was at the moment. And she had been for the last three hours, through lunch, and several phone meetings, while she sat at her fancy new desk and silently freaked out.
“Hi, boss!” Kerri said as she walked into the office. She’d quickly become familiar, something Toni normally didn’t mind. But she hated that Kerri kept calling her “boss.” She wasn’t a boss. She’d never be a boss. At least not a good one.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you earlier. Mr. Van Holtz is out of the office for a few weeks, but he handpicked me and didn’t want you to be fooled by my extremely perky nature and tendency to tell too much information about myself. He says that I’m really good at what I do and disgustingly loyal. He thinks we’ll get along great—and so do I!”
She sat in the chair across from Toni. “So, now that we have a few minutes, let’s discuss my role.” She flipped open the top of the leather folio she had in her hand, the PC tablet fired up and ready for her notes. “What do you need from me?”
Toni sat and stared at the woman, her eyes wide.
“Ma’am?”
“I can’t do this,” Toni finally admitted. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t belong here.” Toni jumped to her feet. “I’ve gotta go.”
“Go? Now? But Miss Jean-Louis—”
“I just . . . yeah.”
Swinging her backpack over one shoulder, Toni walked out of her office, down the hall, and to the elevator. As the elevator headed up, she began to write her resignation letter in her head.
Of all her bad ideas, taking this job had been the worst. But that was okay. She’d be fixing that as soon as she got home. She just had to get out of here first.
Ricky really did love rich people. Why? Because they paid for everything. Things that the rest of the world thought nothing of doing themselves, the rich insisted on hiring other people to do for them. For instance . . . rebooting the monitoring system. What did rebooting entail? Pressing the restart key on the PC keyboard until the system restarted. That was it. Then everything would start up again and go back online.
The owner of this system knew that information. It was something the company always told all of their clients. Information many of them appreciated and used. But the richer the client, the less they seemed to want to help themselves. Especially the clients who were born into their wealth. They were so used to others doing for them that even the simplest task required a staff.
But Ricky didn’t care about any of that because he’d just earned his company a little extra cash by rebooting a computer, double-checking that the cameras were working, and chatting up a client for an hour or so, something Ricky didn’t mind doin
g. He enjoyed talking to people even when they had nothing in common. You just never knew what you might learn from talking to strangers.
Even better, once Ricky was done with that client, he did an evaluation for another wealthy family and was now done for the day. Realizing it was nearly four, he decided to go see how Toni was doing the first day of her job. He recognized the look of terror on her face when she’d understood that limo was for her. Most people would run, jump, and skip into the backseat, but she just looked . . . confused, then panicked.
He walked in through the huge glass doors of the Sports Center. This was the main floor where the full-humans congregated. Here they could find all sorts of kid sports for future athletes, including gymnastic classes, basketball, ice skating, hockey, whatever. There were adult facilities, too. But to get to the real heart of this place, one had to descend to the lower floors where all the professional tri-state shifter sports teams trained and had their home games. That’s where the real entertainment was, but Ricky didn’t quite make it down there . . .
She stood with her back against a pillar, one leg bent at the knee, the foot pressed against the concrete behind her. Long brown hair reaching her slim waist, bright green eyes ever watchful, cheekbones as sharp as her tongue. She smiled as soon as she saw him and he knew she’d been waiting for him.
He walked up to her, nodded his head. “Laura Jane.”
“Hey, Ricky Lee. Your brother told me you’d be here.”
“Rory or Reece?”
“Reece.”
That made sense. If Reece thought he’d have a shot at nailing Laura Jane, he’d tell her anything she wanted to know. Not that Ricky blamed his baby brother. All these years and Laura Jane still looked good. Even at seventeen, there’d been something very sultry about her and it was still there, but now it had matured, been honed into something lethal.
“So what do you need, Laura Jane?”
“Well, I came to visit my kin for a couple of weeks, and your sister has not been making it easy.”
“What do you want me to do about that?”
“I figure if we can show her there’s no hard feelings about what happened all those years ago, she’d back off a little.”
Ricky doubted it, but he was curious to see where this was going.
“And how should we show her that? That there’s no hard feelings, I mean?”
Laura Jane gave one of those slow, drawn-out shrugs. The kind that used to drive him wild when he was seventeen. “Maybe we could go have dinner. Talk about old times. Show your sister there’s nothin’ to worry about anymore.”
“You know, Laura Jane, that sounds like a real nice idea but . . .”
Ricky Lee’s words of refusal faded away when Toni sprinted past him in that uncomfortable-looking suit. Charging right behind her was some full-human gal who kept calling her name.
“Uh . . . excuse me, Laura Jane. I’ve gotta . . .” Ricky didn’t bother finishing, just went after the two women, catching up to them at the corner.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I have to go,” Toni said, her arm out as she tried to hail a cab.
“But Ms. Jean-Louis,” the full-human protested, “I’m sure this will work out.”
“Nope. It won’t. I’ve gotta go.”
Yup. That was panic. Ricky knew the signs.
“Tell them I quit,” Toni barked, her arm waving wildly at any and every cab that passed.
“Don’t tell them anything,” Ricky ordered the full-human, his arm going around Toni’s waist and lifting her off the ground. “Just say she left for the day. Okay?”
“Yes, sir.” She reached into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out a set of keys and a piece of paper. “This is also for Ms. Jean-Louis.”
Ricky nodded and, with Toni in his arms, stepped in front of an available cab. The cab screeched to a halt, and while the driver cursed at them, Ricky carried Toni to the back of the cab and pushed her inside.
He looked at the full-human. “She’s gone for the day,” he reminded her again. “That’s all that needs to be said.”
Grinning, appearing relieved, the full-human nodded. “Gone for the day. I’ll take care of it.”
Once in the cab, Ricky closed the door and gave the driver—who was still cursing at him—Toni’s address.
When the driver finally pulled back into traffic, Ricky looked over at the She-jackal who was curled into the corner of the cab—panting.
“So, darlin’,” he asked, “how did your day go?”
The wolf reached into the cab and insisted on dragging her out.
“No!” she argued, slapping at his hands. “I said take me to LaGuardia! This is not LaGuardia!”
“Come on. Once we get you inside and get you some ice cream or some hot chocolate—”
“No!”
“—you’ll feel much better.”
“Stop being so rational!” She grabbed the inside door handle on the opposite side and held on.
“Now, darlin’,” he said, “don’t make me get a pinch collar and a leash.”
“I hate you! I hate my parents! I hate my brothers and sisters! And I blame you for all of this!” Toni knew she was being irrational, but she simply did not care.
“You’re absolutely right,” the wolf soothed. “And you should go inside right now and tell them all exactly how you’re feelin’!”
Toni stopped trying to kick the wolf in the face and thought on that.
“Yes. I really should tell them how much they’ve screwed up my life!”
She scrambled out of the cab, yanking her bag repeatedly when the strap got caught on the door.
“I’m going to tell all of them exactly what I’m thinking!”
“Good.” The wolf easily removed the strap from the car door. She saw him reach back into the cab and hand the driver money.
Angry at the world, Toni headed up the stairs and into her parents’ rental house. But before she could say a word or take a step farther, Kyle ran into the hallway from the library.
“She’s here!” he yelled. “She’s back!”
And like locusts, they descended on her. Her mother. Her siblings. Her father and Cooper tried to stop them, but it was no use.
“You have to do something,” Oriana ordered. “Mom can’t schedule to save her or my life. I’ve already missed three classes today!”
Troy pushed Oriana out of the way. “I need you to arrange a meeting with the head of the math department at Columbia. Aunt Irene called him, but she ended up arguing with the guy.”
“Because he’s an idiot,” Aunt Irene complained from the stairs. “At least whoever I actually spoke to that refused to let me talk to the head of the math department is an idiot. And obviously jealous.”
“Jealous of what?” Troy demanded.
“That I easily raise more money for my department than he does.” Irene came down the stairs, a duffel bag in her hand. “Plus, I have, according to your Uncle Van, amazing legs.”
“Is that why you’re walking all slow and sexy down the stairs?” Cooper teased.
“Yes.” Irene pushed her way through the children and handed Toni the bag. Then she turned her around and pushed her toward the door.
“Wait,” Kyle said. “Where is she going? Why is she leaving? Stop this madness!”
The door closed behind Toni and she could hear the arguing continue as she walked back down the steps and met up with the wolf.
“That went well,” he said.
“I can’t go in there,” she admitted. “I can’t handle them right now.” She looked around. “But I have nowhere to go.” She let out a sigh. “I hate my life.”
“Come on,” Ricky said.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m not exactly sure,” he said, not making the least bit of sense. “But I swear, entertainment seems to follow you around, like a puppy after its momma. So I am along for the ride, darlin’.”
Ricky showed the keys to the doorman and,
without question, he sent the pair to the fifteenth floor. Once they arrived, they walked down the hallway to the last apartment. Ricky unlocked the door and together they stepped in.
“Wow.” Toni sighed as she entered and looked around.
“Your apartment is amazing.”
“This ain’t my apartment.”
Toni stopped, faced him with wide eyes. “Are we doing some illegal Smith thing?”
That made Ricky chuckle. Everybody thought the Smith Pack was always running around doing illegal shit. And, mostly, they were. But that wasn’t how Ricky and his brothers were raised. Their momma didn’t like “the criminal types,” so she made sure that none of her boys were. Too bad she didn’t really convey that attitude to her daughter, too, but Ronnie had cleaned up her act since the Pack had moved to New York and she’d mated with that big-haired lion male.
“No, darlin’, we’re not doing anything illegal. This isn’t my apartment, but I think it’s yours.”
Toni blinked and her back snapped straight. “What? What are you talking about?”
“This is your apartment. You were having a meltdown in the cab when that little full-human handed me the keys and this address.” He held out the sheet of paper the full-human had written the address on. Toni snatched it out of his hand and gawked at it.
“Maybe she was hitting on you,” Toni said desperately. “You’re cute. She was probably trying to lure you to her house so she could hook up with you.”
“Awww. You think I’m cute?”
“Good God, would you focus?”
“No need to blaspheme.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“You might as well accept that this beautifully furnished home is yours.”
“Lies!”
Ricky pointed at the two dozen white roses on the long table underneath a mirror. “The card by these flowers has your name on it.”
“What?” She snatched up the card, tore it open, and read out loud, “ ‘Because it’s time you had a place of your own. Ric.’ ”