“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, theirloyalty 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...