CHAPTER 26

Smitty climbed down the tree that he’d been using to get in and out of Jessie’s room. Once he figured out how to make her his for good, he’d cut down this goddamn tree. Too easy for scumbags to get in and out of her room. But it definitely served its purpose this weekend.

As he dropped to the ground, he scented a wolf and quickly turned to find Johnny leaning against the trunk of another tree, watching him.

“Boy.”

“Loser.”

Smitty’s eyes narrowed. No, no. Not a good idea to kick the shit out of the kid yet. No matter how much he deserved it.

They stared at each other, and Smitty was impressed the kid didn’t look away. But he did speak first.

“Don’t hurt her.”

“I’m trying not to.”

“Well, you’re doing a shitty job.”

“Maybe you should stay out of this, son. Until you actually have some fangs.”

Johnny glanced at Jessie’s window. “That woman means the world to me. Fuck her life up at your own peril, hillbilly.”

He walked off and Smitty gave a little smile. That kid would be dangerous once he grew into his paws.

Jess sat on the front porch, her feet up on the railing and a mug of May’s hot and delicious coffee gripped between her hands. They were heading home today. Back to work. Back to her life. What she still didn’t know—whether her life included Smitty. They’d slept together again the night before. Literally. Fully clothed. Simply holding on to each other. To be honest, Jess slept like a baby, feeling safe and loved in Smitty’s arms.

Clearly, she’d have to help this idiot out. If she waited for him, she’d be old and gray by the time he bought a goddamn clue.

So annoyed by the whole thing, Jess answered her phone without even checking caller ID.

“This is Jess.”

“Yes, it is.”

Jess’s feet dropped to the ground and she frowned, the southern accent that slithered through the phone making her hackles rise.

When she didn’t speak, the male voice continued, “I thought about calling Maylin directly, but she couldn’t decide her way out of a wet paper bag. And I need decisions.”

Jess slowly stood and walked down the porch steps. “Decisions about what?”

“About how my daughter will spend the next two years of her life. With y’all? Or with me and mine?”

Jess continued to walk away from the house, a potent rage singing through her veins. “You don’t want her.”

“No, but I’ll take her. The courts are real kind about that sort of thing. Especially when a father’s been kept from his child.”

She didn’t bother to argue the point with him. They both knew it was a lie, arguing would waste her breath.

“So what do you want?”

“A lot. I want a lot.”

“That’s awfully vague.”

“I can be much more specific... in person.”

She stopped walking. “I’m sure you can.”

“We can keep this nice and simple, you and me. Just between us.”

Jess gave a short snort.

“What’s so funny?”

Turning, she faced the Pack house. Not surprisingly, a good majority of the adults stood there, listening. Their wild-dog hearing clueing them in, their loyalty to each other leading them.

“You really don’t know what you’ve done, do you?”

He laughed. “Ain’t no little runt dogs gonna scare me.”

“I know,” Jess sighed out. “But that’s because you’re stupid.”

She hung up before he could say anything else, her gaze focusing on her Pack. She had one shot to fix this before all hell broke loose. Then it wouldn’t matter who Wilson’s Pack was tied to, who his kin was.

None of it would matter once the damage was done.

“Move that ass, Sissy Mae.”

“Hold your damn horses, Bobby Ray.”

Sissy Mae ran down the stairs, her traveling bag slung over her shoulder. “I don’t see what the big rush is.”

“It’s a rush when I say it’s rush. Now move!”

She muttered something mighty offensive and stormed out of the house. Smitty started to follow when his phone rang.

“Yeah?”

“Hi. It’s Jess.”

His very soul immediately soothed just from the sound of her voice, Smitty smiled. “Hey, darlin’. What’s up?”

“I hate to bother you and you can say no—”

“What do you need, Jessie Ann?”

“Wilson contacted me.”

Smitty let out a breath. “And?”

“And we either pay him or he’s going to try and take Kristan. That can’t happen.”

No, it couldn’t. He’d met the Wilsons and he’d met Kristan. No way would he let that sweet little gal spend ten seconds in Wilson territory.

“Background noise when he called makes me think he’s in New York.”

“But Mitch has had a hell of a time finding him.”

“I know. So has Phil. But if our best trackers can’t find him... ” He could hear her pacing, sense her anxiety through the phone. “And it worries me that we can’t find him. It means he’s hiding. Why?”

“We both know why, Jessie Ann.”

“Yeah,” she said with deep resignation. “We both know why.”

“Tell me what you need, Jessie.”

“Look, I wouldn’t bug you about this—”

“You’re not bugging me, Jessie.”

“—but my Pack is about three minutes from doing something really... not good. Something I think the Smiths will never be able to forgive us for. Either I stop this now or I let them off-leash.”

“Don’t do that. I can help.” He just didn’t know how. But knowing her Pack as he now did, he had no doubts they could and would do some serious damage that would and could cause a Pack war between the Smiths and the Kuznetsovs. He couldn’t let that happen. He had to come up with something fast or...

Ronnie Lee rushed back into the living room. “Would you stop barking at me!” she yelled toward the front door. “I’ll be right out!” She smiled at Smitty before digging through the couch cushions. In a few seconds she found her MP3 player and headed back the way she came.

“Hey, Ronnie Lee?”

She stopped, staring at him expectantly.

“Your aunt still live out here?”

“Yeah, but she’s in Nassau County.”

“Think she’d mind if I dropped by?”

“Of course not! She’s always loved her some Smiths, Bobby Ray.” Ronnie grinned and grabbed a pen and piece of paper.

“Jessie Ann?”

“Yeah?”

“Wanna go for a ride, darlin’?”

“Bobby Ray Smith!”

Jess stepped out of the way as the forty-something woman threw herself into Smitty’s big arms.

“Morning, Annie Jo.”

The infamous Annie Jo Lucas. Jess remembered her fondly. Why? Because the other females hated the She-wolf. She’d worked her way through every Smith male in at least four counties in three states. She took what she wanted, and she always walked away without looking back. A few males tried to get her, but none of them could handle her. And once their mates found out they’d been with Annie Jo at one time or another, jealousy made for a few nights in a cold bed.

On the drive over, Smitty had explained how a nasty argument between Annie Jo and her older half-sister and Ronnie Lee’s mother, Tala Lee Evans, had led to Annie Jo’s break from the Pack and her move to Long Island, of all places. But Annie Jo never forgot family or the Pack she left behind. Except for her sister, all Smith Pack members had open invites to stop on in and say “Hey.” But you couldn’t stay. Not for longer than a night. As always, Annie Jo remained the classic lone wolf.

“I should have thought about talking to her in the first place,” Smitty had said as they’d sped down the Southern State Parkway, “but I had this hot little wild dog on my mind. So I was distracted.”

For a long second she wondered what “hot little wild dog” he was talking about and how long before she could track the bitch down and tear out her long intestine. Then he smiled at her and she realized he was talking about her.

Duh.

Now they stood on the doorstep of Annie Jo’s house and the She-wolf didn’t seem to be in any great hurry to let Smitty go. Jess normally wouldn’t mind all the hugging if the woman wasn’t still unreasonably hot.

“Look at you,” Annie Jo finally said, leaning back to get a good look at Smitty but not actually releasing him. “Don’t you look good? Remind me of your Uncle Eustice. Handsome, handsome, handsome. How is handsome Eustice?”

“Doing twenty-five to life in West Tennessee State Penitentiary.”

Annie Jo blinked. “Oh. Well. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.” She finally released him and stepped back. “Now y’all come right on in this second. Come on.”

They walked into a small but tidy house with comfortable, well-worn furniture and lots of pictures on the mantels and bookshelves. A small piano filled one corner of the living room and Jess remembered how Annie Jo used to give lessons. Once she left town, the number of boys taking piano lessons dropped dramatically.

“Annie Jo, this is—”

“Jessica Ann Ward. How could I forget such a pretty face?” Annie Jo hugged her and Jess grudgingly let her. “I see you’ve grown up even prettier.”

“Thank you.”

“Y’all want some coffee or hot chocolate?”

“Love some.”

Annie Jo led them to her kitchen and sat them down at the breakfast table. She put out fresh cinnamon rolls while she brewed up some coffee and made Jess hot chocolate from scratch.

When Jess took that first sip all she could think was, Marry me.

“So what can I do you for, my darlin’ Bobby Ray?”

Smitty put down his coffee. He’d already devoured three sweet rolls in the time it took her to brew the pot. Now he was reaching for a fourth.

God, the man is a bottomless pit.

“I need your help,” he said.

“Help with what?”

“I’m trying to track someone down.”

Amber eyes that were so light they looked more yellow and doglike than Jess remembered watched Smitty closely. “You mean Walt Wilson?”

Smitty stopped in the middle of licking icing off his fingers, which did nothing but drive Jess crazy. How was she supposed to focus when he insisted on doing that? “You’ve heard from him?”

With a sigh, Annie Jo got up and went to her refrigerator, pulling out cream and sugar from her cupboard. She offered some to Smitty, who passed, and put a small amount in hers before she spoke again. “About four weeks ago he and that mate of his showed up here looking like they’ve seen better days. I know he was hoping I’d let him stay, but I got one rule. You can spend one night and one night only. Otherwise, I’d never get rid of any of ’em. I’d have Smiths acting like this was a bed and breakfast while they were visiting New York.” She returned the cream to the refrigerator before dropping back into her chair and focusing on Jess. “I know his daddy, you see? Took a turn with him when I was eighteen or nineteen.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t the best ride I had, but it wasn’t the worst. At least Walt Junior is smarter than his daddy. But not by much. Anyway, the next morning, about three She-wolves and a male showed up and off they went.”

“Do you know where?”

She sipped her coffee, those shrewd eyes watching Smitty. “Why you askin’?”

“Because of me,” Jess cut in. “Because I need to find him.”

“You know, he left something behind.” She stood and disappeared from the room, but she yelled back through the doorway, “He called about it a day later and I said I’d already thrown it out because I didn’t want him back here.”

Annie Jo came back in. “I thought it was strange he’d call about something like this, so I went through it. And found this.”

She placed the issue of Wired Magazine on the table. “Isn’t that you, Jessie Ann? In the background? With the sword?”

Jess cringed. That damn article! They’d been pretty successful keeping their names and info out of the paper until about six months ago when Wired did an article on the company. Far in the background of one of the candid shots, if you looked really close, you could see Phil and Jess sword fighting with the Roman short swords they’d just ordered. Watching and laughing were Danny, May, and Sabina. When they saw the photo they all figured no one would notice them in the back like that.

Then the woman in Human Resources said they were getting in a ton of résumés because of that one article. Why? Because everyone saw the “owners” sword fighting in the background. In other words, “What a cool place to work!”

Great for their employee pool, but bad now that they had losers like Walt Wilson coming into their lives.

“Yes, ma’am. That’s me.”

“But he circled her.” She pointed at the black marker circle around May. “Why?”

If they needed her help, they’d have to be honest with her. Annie Jo needed to know why she should rat out family.

“That’s Maylin. She’s part of my Pack. She got pregnant sixteen years ago by Wilson. But he doesn’t care. He wants money and he’s using her daughter as leverage.”

Annie Jo sat down again. “Yeah, I was afraid you were gonna say that. The Wilson males are notorious. They’ll knock a girl up and walk away in a heartbeat. Then they won’t have anything to do with her. See I was real careful because I had a scare once, when I was fifteen, and I swore never again. All I needed was for that bitchy sister of mine to find out I was pregnant and all hell would break loose. Besides, I never wanted children. So I always made sure I was on birth control and that any man I ever had sex with wore condoms. One thing you’ve gotta remember about wolf males, Smith or otherwise, is they can impregnate sand. As a female, you’ve gotta protect yourself. Isn’t that right, Bobby Ray?”

“She’s right. Which reminds me.” He patted Jess’s arm. “I need to have a condom conversation with Johnny.”

Jess’s back snapped straight. “I’m sorry. What?”

“Who’s Johnny?”

“Her foster son. A wolf. She’s gonna adopt him. But he just turned seventeen.”

“Oh, Lord!” Annie Jo exclaimed with a laugh. “Yeah, darlin’. He has to have that conversation with him. And soon. The Smith mantra—condoms, condoms, condoms.”

“Thank you, but I can have that conversation with my son.”

Annie Jo rolled her eyes. “Darlin’, you cannot talk to that boy about fucking. You just can’t. It will freak him out. Let Bobby Ray do it. Y’all are together, aren’t ya?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

Now Annie Jo’s expressive eyes crossed in exasperation. “Whatever.”

“I don’t see why we need to discuss this now.”

“We don’t. But I need to talk to him soon.” Smitty smirked at Annie Jo. “Maylin’s daughter is sixteen and a cutie.”

“Oh, Lord!” Annie Jo exclaimed again. “Darlin’, you better let him talk to that boy or y’all are gonna have yourself a nine-pound, eight-ounce problem.”

“Phil and Danny can do it.”

“They’re wild dogs, too, right? They can’t tell that boy what he needs to know. You need Bobby Ray to do it.”

“Why?”

“Wolves are different. From, oh, let’s say, fifteen to seventeen, their aggression kicks in.”

“Johnny’s not aggressive.”

“He growled at me in the elevator,” Smitty told her out of nowhere.

“He did what?”

“If little Kristan hadn’t been there, he’d have gone for my throat.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What was there to tell?”

Jess opened her mouth to start yelling when Annie Jo put a calming hand on her forearm.

“Before you tear his head off, you need to understand that the wolves and the wild dogs are different. They grow up different. You, of course, don’t count because you were the only dog in a town of wolves. But it goes like this, from fifteen to seventeen, male pups are aggressive to adult male wolves. They’ll take ’em on in a heartbeat and get their ass kicked every time. They actually need that sort of discipline and they don’t really mind. Of course, Bubba was... oh, never mind. But when they hit eighteen, their aggression turns to a level of horniness the likes of which you’ve never seen. They’ll fuck damn near anything.”

Jess snorted. “That’s not entirely true.”

Smitty growled. “I walked away for a reason.”

“Don’t bark at me.”

“He probably walked away for two reasons.” Annie Jo cut in. “One, because he didn’t have condoms. Bubba Smith beat into every one of his sons the condom, condom, condom rule. He made sure they had condoms in their trucks, in their school bags, stuck in books. Any place he could think of, and Lord love ya, but you better use ’em. Bubba didn’t want a bunch of grandkids running around since he knew his sons would breed a ton once they were mated. Unfortunately, the Wilsons just didn’t have that same philosophy. “

“And what, pray tell, is the second reason?”

Annie Jo smiled. “The second reason is, you were special, Jessie Ann. Everybody in town knew that. Why you think the She-pups kept coming after you? But none of that is here or there. Y’all can work that out yourselves because one of my students will be here in about five more minutes.”

Smitty nodded. “Where is he, Annie Jo?”

“The Bronx.” She stood and opened one of the kitchen drawers, extracting a pad. She tore off the top sheet. “Here. Take it. I don’t want that boy back here. But let me tell you something, Jessie Ann. The best thing Walt Junior probably ever did was throw that little Maylin away. Wilson’s mate, she can’t be more than late twenties, early thirties. But damn if she don’t look closer to mid-forties. They ride their females hard and put ’em up wet, with very little payoff.”

“She’s married now,” Jess said with true pride. “And her husband loves her and their daughter.”

“There you go. That’s all that matters.”

The doorbell rang and Annie Jo stood. “All right, y’all. Time to go.”

She couldn’t hustle them to the door fast enough. But when Jess saw Annie Jo’s “student” she could see why.

Jess didn’t know a lot of virile-looking twenty-five-year-old males who went for piano lessons in the middle of a suburb.

“Curtis, why don’t you go on in the living room and wait for me there. I’ll be right in.”

Devouring the woman with his eyes, he nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

Annie Jo walked them out to Smitty’s truck. “Now, if y’all need anything else from me, you just let me know. And of course, y’all can stop by anytime.”

She kissed and hugged Smitty, then kissed and hugged Jess. But before they could get in the truck and drive away, she added, “And you be careful, Bobby Ray. That boy is a lot like his daddy, and you can say what you want about Bubba Smith, he fights fair. I can’t say that for the Wilsons. But don’t you forget they’re family.” She pointed at Jess. “And she ain’t.”

“Thanks, Annie Jo.”

“You’re very welcome. Y’all get on now. Good luck.”

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