The Beast in Him

CHAPTER 18

The cell phone woke him up Thursday morning. Not surprising. He’d meant to set his alarm but he kept forgetting. For the last three nights he’d had Jessie Ann in his bed and the last thing he worried about was time. After they left the Karaoke bar Monday night, they’d started making out in the elevator leading to his apartment, unable to keep their hands off each other. Nearly fucked in the hallway but she took off running and Lord knew he loved a good chase. The rest of the night they spent in bed, making each other come like crazy. It had been nice.

Hell. Who was he kidding? It had been amazing.

The next night she’d shown up at his door, extremely tipsy on champagne after dinner with a client, and dumped there by Phil. After getting her out of her skimpy dress, they’d dived under the covers and spent hours playing “what am I fondling now?”

Then last night he’d had a job that wouldn’t end until late and he didn’t think he’d see her. Done by two, he still found himself driving over to her office. He wasn’t exactly shocked to see that the light in her office was on. Now that he and Mace handled all security for Jessie’s company, he’d let himself in, gone up to the top floor, dumped her over his shoulder, and taken her back home with him. They’d both been exhausted and ended up doing nothing more than kissing and nuzzling before they both fell asleep in each other’s arms.

He’d never slept so well before in his life.

And he’d had no intention of getting up early, until his damn phone went off.

Yawning, Smitty flipped open his phone but quickly realized it hadn’t been his ringing.

By the time he turned around, Jessie had her phone to her ear and was scrambling over the bed and over him, heading to the bathroom.

Before the door closed all he heard from her was, “No. I’ll handle this myself.”

She didn’t sound happy, but he figured he could dig into what was going on once she got out of the bathroom. He really hoped it didn’t have to do with that idiot Wilson. He had Mitch tracking him down. The lion could find anyone once he set his mind to it. But until they tracked Wilson down and Smitty had a chance to talk to him, he wouldn’t feel Jessie’s Pack was safe. At least not safe enough.

He soon heard the shower start while he had the coffee brewing, when his own phone rang.

“Yeah?”

“Hey, buddy. It’s Phil.”

“Yeah?”

“Okay. Not a morning person. Good to know. Anyway, the Pack needs you to do us a favor.”

“What?”

“Stay with Jess.”

Smitty’s lip curled back, he felt his incisors lengthen. Did he actually just have a dog tell him he should stay with Jess? As in permanently? Two things bothered him about that. One, he didn’t want the little runts ordering him to do a damn thing. And two... that “permanently” didn’t sound as bad as it should.

“Hello? Damn. I think I lost the connection.”

“No. I’m right here.”

“Oh. So you can do that?”

Taking a deep breath, “Don’t you think that’s up to me and Jessie Ann?”

“Well, she’ll just say no.”

And there went his hackles.

“What d’ya mean she’ll say no?”

“She’ll say she won’t need you.” The little runt said it so matter-of-factly too. Why wouldn’t she need him? They got along real well. Didn’t irritate each other too much, in his opinion. And had amazing sex.

Dammit. Now what was he doing?

“Are you there?”

Smitty ignored the pooch’s exasperated tone. “If she doesn’t need me why are you trying to force the issue?”

“Because we don’t want her to go to Connecticut by herself. Since she’s our Alpha Female we have to abide by her wishes. But you don’t. And from what I can tell, you won’t.”

“Connecticut?”

“Yeah. What else have we been talking about?”

Annoyed, frustrated, and just downright pissy due to lack of coffee, Smitty slapped his phone closed and stalked to the bathroom, bursting into the room.

He snatched the shower curtain back, and got a lovely Jessie scream for his trouble.

“What?” she demanded, trying in vain to cover herself with a washcloth—although he didn’t know why. He’d spent many hours licking her from head to toe, exactly what hadn’t he seen? And tasted? And enjoyed?

“Why are you going to Connecticut?”

“Were you listening to my phone call?”

“No.”

She gave an adorable little snarl. “Damn Phil.”

“Answer my question.”

“No.”

She yanked the curtain closed. But Smitty just yanked it back open.

“Why are you going to Connecticut?”

“I need to check on something out there. Something that has nothing to do with you.”

She yanked the curtain closed again. Smitty yanked it back.

At this point he kind of guessed he was being a bit ridiculous, but that didn’t stop him from finding something else to go off about. “What is that on your head?”

Jessie glared. “It’s a shower cap.”

“I didn’t even know I had one of those.”

“It’s probably your sister’s. Now will you piss off?”

“I’m coming with you.”

“Like hell you are.”

“This isn’t up for debate.” He forced a smile. “Just think of me as your protection for when you’re not paying attention. Which is, from what I can tell, all the time.”

“I’ll make you regret this. I will talk. A lot. Just to piss you off.”

Smitty nodded slowly. “So all those other times you talked a lot, you weren’t trying to piss me off?”

“You son of a—now you asked for it. I’m so going to annoy you.”

He grinned and this time he didn’t have to force it. “Leave the shower cap on. That’ll do the job.”

“Oh!” She closed the shower curtain. “I hate you!”

“Now, Jessie Ann—”

“Shut up!”

“Come on now. I’m just jokin’.”

“Oh? Really?” She pulled the curtain back again, standing there beautifully naked, except for that cap and her washcloth. “Then fuck me while I’m wearing this cap.”

“Do I have to?” he whined and ready to run if his survival instincts deemed it necessary.

“Fuck me with the cap or I go alone.”

“Well... ” He stepped into the shower. “I guess if I have to.”

“It was an accident.”

Jess slammed the truck door, refusing to believe that line of bullshit. “Don’t speak to me.”

Smitty buckled up his seatbelt. “I don’t know how it happened. That cap just went flyin’.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, “Shut. Up.” Jess scowled. “And who doesn’t have a blow dryer?”

“Me. I don’t need it.”

Jess pushed her frizzed mass of curls out of her face. “Clearly you do.”

“Not really. I just get out of the shower and my hair dries like this.”

It was the triumphant smile that insulted her most.

Jess held her hand out. “Hat.”

Smitty reached into his backseat and pulled out a baseball cap with the football team logo for the Tennessee Titans embroidered on the front. She pulled the cap on, yanking it low over her face, tucking her hair back behind her ears.

“Now don’t you look cute as the dickens?”

She had uncontrolled hair, a baseball cap for a team she didn’t even know, Smitty’s way-too-big bomber jacket because the man detested her much beloved parka, and the same clothes from last night except her panties, which she refused to put back on since she simply found that disgusting. So, all in all, she found that compliment damn rude.

“We don’t discuss this again. You don’t tell me how cute I look. And you get a goddamn blow dryer. Now drive.”

Clearing his throat, Smitty started the truck. “Yes’m.”

“And I need more coffee.”

“Darlin’, I think that’s a given.”

The trip should have felt a hell of a lot longer since Jessie Ann never actually shut up the entire time. She’d been pretty cranky until he got her some coffee. Then she cheered up and started talking... and talking... and talking.

Thankfully, Smitty found her pretty amusing. Downright funny, sometimes. The woman could definitely tell a story. And she had lots of those.

Around noon, as the radio news predicted rain, they finally arrived at a small, tidy white house that even included a white picket fence.

“What’s here?” he asked.

Jessie shrugged. “We found the hacker.”

Smitty tensed. “What do you mean you found the hacker? What hacker?”

“We had a hacker problem. And we’ve had this problem before. I’m dealing with it.”

“Should we call the cops?”

“Not yet. Not unless I have to.”

“You should have told me. I’m not prepped for this.”

“You don’t need to be.”

Smitty stared into her eyes. “You know this guy?”

“Yup.”

“Jessie, this isn’t safe.”

“It’s safe.” She grinned. That big, innocent, goddamn goofy grin. “Come on.”

Before he could stop her, she was out the truck and heading up the walkway. Cursing under his breath, Smitty followed her.

As he walked up behind her, the front door opened. A woman not much older than him smiled at them but as she recognized Jessie, her smile faded.

After several moments, she stepped back and yelled, “Carol Marie Haier! Get your ass down here this minute!”

Jess sat in a chair across from a pouting thirteen-year-old. Her mother’s head had nearly exploded when she realized her daughter had gone back to her old habits. Habits that had cost her mother dearly once before.

Marie Haier placed a glass of water in front of Jess. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like some coffee or something?”

“No. Thank you. Just a few minutes with your daughter.”

Marie glanced up at Smitty, looking a little nervous.

He gave her a slow, sweet smile. “Actually, ma’am, I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee.”

“Sure. Of course.” She seemed relieved to have something to do and walked out of the room.

Jess looked at Carol. “So we’re back here again.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Carol. Let’s not play this game. We both know how it’ll end. One call and this is all done.”

She shrugged. “Do whatever you want.”

“How will that sit with your mom? When she has to hire lawyers again, pay your fines. You’re not even supposed to be near a computer.”

Staring at the floor, “So what do you want?”

“The truth. What happened?”

“There’s a company. In Spain or something. They’ve offered more than five thousand dollars to anyone who can hack your systems.”

Well, that explained the recent increase in assaults on their system. With her team and less-than-law-abiding friends, Jess was able to keep the wolf from the door, so to speak. But Carol had always been really good. She could hack damn near anything and had already broken into their system four years ago. A lesson they only had to learn once. Especially since it was a nine-year-old that had done it, their competition had loved every moment of their situation. The laughter died, though, when the same companies realized Carol had already been and gone from their systems, taking whatever she wanted with her.

“Where did you get access to a computer?”

“Internet coffee shop.”

Jess nodded. “So while you’re sucking down those non-fat lattes you’re trying to break into my system?”

“I wasn’t going to take anything from you. But we need the money.”

Jess let out a breath. “I understand, Carol. But this isn’t the way to go about it.”

Carol looked between her and Smitty. “So now what? Drag me off to jail?”

“You’re thirteen. The best I can hope you get is some time in juvey. And maybe a public caning.”

Confused, she asked, “You’re not going to turn me in?”

“No. I don’t think your mother deserves that. Do you?”

Smitty drank weak coffee and forced down a sub par muffin because that’s how he’d been raised. After twenty minutes of Marie Haier nervously fluttering around them, Jess made their excuses to leave. She said goodbye to the little girl and Marie walked them to his truck.

“I’m so very sorry about all this.”

“Don’t be. There’s only so much you can do when you’ve got a genius for a daughter.” Jess opened her door. “So how’s work going?”

Marie shrugged, looking just like her daughter. “Not bad.”

“Still working at the grocery store?”

“Yes.”

“Ever consider secretarial work?”

“Uh... sure.”

“I’ll have my assistant call you. We just set up a system for Lathan Industries. They’re not far from here. They’re expanding and I think there are openings if you’re interested. They’ll give you on-site training.”

He could see Marie working hard to not get overexcited. She’d been let down before. A lot, he’d reckon. “Yes. I’m interested.”

“Good. My assistant will call you later today with the information.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure.”

Jessie climbed into his truck and closed the door.

“Thank you for the coffee and muffin, Mrs. Haier.”

She smiled at Smitty. “You’re more than welcome.”

Smitty stepped into his truck, started her up, and pulled out. As soon as they got to the corner, Jessie called into her office. First she called Phil. It had to be the strangest conversation he’d heard in a long time.

“The Spanish have sent their Armada to destroy us. Yes. It’s time to call in the fleet. I want them blasted out of the water by the end of next week. Good. Thank you, Admiral.”

When he glanced at her while sitting at a light, she gave him that big dog grin, before dialing her assistant. That, thankfully, was a much more logical discussion. Jessie went over messages, gave instructions on who to call back and who to ignore. As they finished their conversation, Jessie instructed her assistant to contact the CEO of Lathan Industries and to remind him of how he’d said, “‘I owe you one’. Now it’s time for him to pay up.”

She shut off the phone and Smitty stopped at another light. “I don’t get it.”

“Don’t get what?”

“Why are you helping the Haiers?”

“That poor woman is blissfully average like the rest of us. And she has a daughter with a one hundred and ninety-five IQ.”

Smitty blew out a breath. “Wow.”

“She has no idea what to do with her. And the kid is bitter because her old man bailed. Blah, blah, blah. Let me tell you, nothing is worse than a bored, bitter genius.” Jess stuck her phone back into the pocket of the jacket she wore. “I figure we get the mom straight. Then we can get that kid into some program that will keep that brain of hers occupied. Then when she turns eighteen—that brain will belong to me.”

He glanced at her in surprise. “What?”

“That kid is going to make my company a fortune. I just have to keep her out of federal prison long enough.” She snorted. “What? Did you think I was doing all this out of the goodness of my heart?”

“Well... yeah. I did.”

“She’s not a stray puppy, Smitty.”

“Puppies. Kids. They’re all the same to you when they’re needy.”

She grinned. “Quiet yourself.”

He reached for her with one arm. “Come here, darlin’. Let ol’ Smitty show you how much you’re appreciated.”

“Shut up,” she said again, slapping at his arm.

Laughing, Smitty turned onto the main highway. And as they drove out of town, the skies opened up.