“Can I ask you a question?”

“If you must.”

Smitty took her coffee and sipped it. “Do you care if I’m happy?”

“No.” Sissy took her coffee back. “And get your own.”

“Fine.” He swiped up her slice of coffeecake, and as she made a wild grab for it, he shoved the entire thing into his mouth.

“There,” he said, making sure he spit crumbs at her. “I got my own.”

Chapter 7

Smitty had just begun to sign paychecks when Mace walked in his office.

“Do you know anything about this art museum job that just called?”

“Nope. What art museum job?”

“They want us tonight.”

“Not enough time,” Smitty answered, not looking up from the paychecks in front of him.

“We need to make enough time.”

“Why?”

Mace laid a slip of paper on top of the checks he’d been signing.

Smitty stared. “Huh. Look at all those zeroes.”

The cat grinned. “Yeah, just look at ’em.”

“Where’d this job come from anyway?”

“An old tiger who’s on the board for the museum told me he was strongly urged to hire us for tonight’s charity event.”

“Urged?”

“Strongly urged.”

“By... ?”

Mace shrugged, already walking off to start pulling the team together. “Some guy named Phil.”

Smitty stared down at the checks still needing to be signed. “Phil who?”

Jess took off her coat and handed it over to the girl behind the counter. Then she did what she’d been doing for the last hour—she tugged down the hem of her dress again. If you could call it a dress. It was more of a slip for an underdeveloped twelve-year-old.

“I can’t believe you talked me into this damn dress,” she muttered to Phil, slamming him with her shoulder. “I’m at a charity event, but I feel like I should be offering fifty bucks for a hand job and hundred bucks for a half and half.”

“No, sweetie. The way you look? It should be a hundred bucks for the hand job and three hundred for the half and half.”

Jess glared at him so hard that eventually he started to squirm.

“If it helps, the shoes look great.”

Tossing up her hands in exasperation, she stormed off into the main area of the museum. The sooner she got in and mingled, the sooner she could get the hell out.

Smitty smiled an apology and quickly walked away from the full-human female who’d just offered to give him a blow job in the bathroom. Good Lord! These rich women were... scary. He’d had all sorts of interesting offers in the last two hours from women dripping in diamonds and platinum. One woman propositioned him with herhusband only a few feet away. Smitty got the distinct feeling that if he’d taken her up on the offer, the husband would have been in some other room watching. Well, whatever got your rocks off. Although Smitty never could figure out why you’d marry someone if you were willing to share her.

He walked up to Mitch and let out a breath. “Have you been—”

“Offered sex every time I turn around? Yeah. I tell ya, full-human females have their place.”

“Dez is full-human and Mace had to work to get her. I think it’s a money thing. The more money they have, the less vulnerable they feel. We’re just cocks, son, and don’t you forget it.”

“I don’t. And I don’t care, but I learned the hard way you don’t fuck around during work. It leads to all sorts of trouble.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

Marissa Shaw, Mitch’s older sister, Mace’s twin, and one of the stranger lionesses Smitty had known, slid to a graceful stop in front of the pair.

“Smitty.”

“Marissa, darlin’. You are looking gorgeous this evening.”

She reached up and petted his cheek. “Aren’t you just the sweetest canine.” She glared at her brother. “Loser.”

“Fat ass.”

The pair snarled at each other before Marissa walked away.

“I thought you two were getting along better.”

Mitch stared at him blankly. “We are. Can’t you tell?”

Smitty shook his head as his eyes swept around the giant room. They were in the Italian Renaissance room. Whatever. It paid well.

“Holy mother of God.”

Smitty’s body tensed, anticipating trouble. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Not a goddamn thing.”

Following Mitch’s avid gaze, Smitty turned and his entire body tensed. “Lord help me.”

Jessie Ann walked into the room with her four friends behind her. Apparently, the rest of the Pack banged out of this little event. Of course, as much as the tickets for this cost per person, Smitty didn’t blame them for not including the whole gang. Still, Jessie had definitely come up in the world—right along with her skirt length.

Good Lord! What was the woman thinking? It was a freezing New York night, and dammit, there were decency laws! Where the hell was the rest of that dress? And why wasn’t she in her jeans, tennis shoes, and T-shirt? Why was she damn near naked?

“Think if I asked her nice she’d marry me?”

“Get control of yourself, cat. We’re on a job.”

“I quit.” Mitch started to walk over there and Smitty yanked him back by the hair.

“Sweep the area, son, before I get cranky.”