“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 condomconversation 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.”