“Son,” Smitty drawled, “don’t make me show you how much of a Smith I truly am.”
Sherman cleared his throat. “I’ll speak with you another time, Jessica.” She heard his footsteps heading back to the coffeehouse.
When Sherman opened the door, Smitty tossed out, “Just don’t call her when we’re having sex—which will be constantly!”
Jess waited long enough for Sherman to get inside before she yanked away from Smitty and followed up with a solid fist to his chest. The pain that radiated up her arm afterward, she ignored.
“What is wrong with you?”
“Nothin’,” he said, looking confused. “Why?”
Smitty wasn’t sure what he enjoyed more. Torturing that scrawny dog—and he had tortured him. The poor guy didn’t know whether to be horrified or jealous of Smitty and Jessie going at it. Or had his pleasure come from torturing Jessie Ann? All that was fun, but what he enjoyed the most was having Jessie Ann plastered up against him. She nuzzled real nice, even when she didn’t mean to.
At the moment, however, she looked real cranky.
“I was helping like you asked.”
“You were being a dick,” she said while looking down at the giant watch on her wrist. “And you were enjoying every damn second of being a—oh, my God! I’ve gotta go.”
She ran to the corner and hailed a cab, but before she stepped inside, she ran back over to him.
“One other thing.”
“Yeah?”
She slid her hand under his jacket and twisted his nipple until his eyes watered.
“Touch my tits again without permission and I’ll rip this off.” She glanced at her watch again. “Ach! Now I really do have to go.”
Jessie turned and ran back toward the waiting cab. Sure, Smitty could have let her go, but to be honest, he’d never been so damn entertained by a woman before. “So how do I get permission?”
She spun around, jumping back when she realized he stood right behind her. “Stop sneaking up on me! And you don’t get permission.”
“Why not? You said I was pretty.”
“Look, Smitty, while I appreciate your doglike persistence, you need to know that nothing you do or say will change my mind about this. You’re part of my past, and these days I’m all about my future. I don’t have time or room in my life for you and your casual chats. Understand?”
“Sure.”
“Good.”
“’Cause I always love a challenge.”
He’d caught her with that when she was halfway in the cab. With one foot in and the other still braced against the curb, she stared at him. “What challenge?”
“You’re challenging me to get you back into my life.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Your exact words were ‘I challenge you, Bobby Ray Smith, to get me back into your life.’”
“I never said that.”
“That’s what I heard.” The beauty of wolf hearing. You heard only what you wanted to, made up what was never said but should have been, and the rest meant little or nothing.
“Is there something wrong with you? Mentally?”
“Darlin’, you met my family. You’ve gotta be more specific than that.”
“That’s it. I’m leaving. I can’t have this conversation with you. I can’t—”
He saw it immediately. The way her entire body tensed, her eyes focusing across the busy city street, locking on something in the distance. She went from exasperated to on point in less than five seconds.
“What’s wrong, Jessie?” He followed her line of sight but didn’t see anything that stuck out to him.
“Nothing,” she said, her eyes still staring across the street. “I need to go.” She went up on her toes and absently kissed him on his cheek. He’d bet cash she wouldn’t even remember she did it.
She stepped into her cab and closed the door. She didn’t look back at him, didn’t acknowledge him in any way. That wasn’t like her. Even if it was to give him the finger, she’d do or say something before driving off.
Smitty turned and stared at the spot Jessie’d been staring at. But he still saw nothing that made him feel tense or worried.
So what the hell had worried his little Jessie Ann?
As soon as Jess stepped off the elevator, her friends made a run for it. They got away except the one she wanted to catch anyway.
“Jess! Be reasonable!” She dragged Phil into her office by his collar and slammed the door. She had about ten minutes before the others would sneak back in. She had to make this fast.
Phil, however, was busy defending his actions of deserting her with a crazy hillbilly wolf. “We figured we all didn’t need to go to the hospital with you.”
“Shut up about that. I’ve got a question for you.”
“What?”
“Do you remember Walt Wilson?”
Phil thought for a second. “The name sounds familiar... ”
“Kristan’s biological father.” And the man who’d unceremoniously dumped an eighteen-year-old Maylin because “That thing inside you ain’t mine.”
“Oh. Him,” Phil sneered. “What about him?”
“I think I saw him.”
“In New York?”
“No, in space.”
“Okay. Sarcasm a little unwarranted.”
Jess paced to the big window behind her desk. She rarely looked out it. She rarely had time.
“You sure it was him?”
“No, but I think it was. I saw his picture once in May’s photo album. She kept only one picture of him so Kristan would know what he looked like.” She frowned. “He’s lost a lot of hair for a wolf. Got a giant receding forehead.”
“I don’t think foreheads can recede.”
“You’re gonna argue this with me?”
“Whoa. Is all this tenseness about Walt Wilson?” Phil grinned. “Or about that big ol’ country wolf?”
When Jess pretended to lunge for him across her desk, Phil wrapped his arms around his chest. “Not the nipples!”
“Track Wilson down,” Jess told him. “If he’s in town, I wanna know.”
“Okay.”
“I find the timing of his appearance a little suspect, Phil.”
“I was thinking that.”
“And I won’t have Kristan hurt. Not by this asshole. But keep your mouth shut until we know something.”
Phil walked around the desk and stood beside her, mimicking her stance. “What else is wrong?”
“Wilson is a bigger problem than any of you realize.” She let out a breath. “He’s a Smith. Distant cousin or something. I’m not sure of the bloodline, but it’s there.”
“Great. Just great.”
“Yeah, you know how the Smiths are about family. And if they think we’re crossing him—”
“Let’s not go there yet. I’ll see what I can find out and I’ll be discreet.”
“Good.”
“Besides, I wouldn’t worry.” Phil grinned. “We’ve got the Smitty hookup now.”
“I’m not asking him to go against his family, you bonehead.”
“Awww. You’re protecting him. Is love in the air? I bet you just need a little help from me to get this thing moving. Just trust the love doctor to—and don’t throw anything at my head!”
Jess put the five-inch pewter dragon statue back on her desk. “Don’t irritate me, Phil.”
“Yes, ma’am. But you know Wilson may just be here to see the kid.” Phil shrugged. “Maybe he already has.”
“I thought about that.” Jess sat back on her desk. “But she’s either with Keith”—Sabina and Phil’s oldest boy “—or her sisters.”
“You don’t think they’d cover for her?”
“No way. No one’s stupid enough to cover for Kristan’s crazy ass.”
Johnny moved his book to the side so the waitress could put down his burger and fries. He’d never been big on the fantasy stuff. He liked westerns and murder mysteries. But Jess went on and on about Tolkien’s work, and to shut her up, he grabbed one of the many copies from the many bookshelves all over the Pack house. Johnny had to give it to her, though, the book was really good. He’d enjoyed the movies, but Tolkien’s written word spoke to him on another level entirely.