“Right!” Smitty’s beautiful, if annoying, mate cheerily replied. Why she was involved in this weirdness, he had no idea. “The Insider. And the Insider is working on our behalf as we speak.”
“Excellent! Now on to our second problem. No pic for that one because, well, he’s sitting right over there.”
Smitty looked around, wondering who Blayne was talking about, and then quickly realized that she was talking about him.
“Me? How am I in the way of something I didn’t even know was going on?”
Jessie Ann slammed her hand down on the table. “You told Mitch what happened at the bout last night!”
“I didn’t know that was a secret.”
“Of course it was!”
“Then you should have made that clear when you told me.”
Jessie’s mouth dropped open and Smitty knew he was in for it, but then that other wolf spoke up. Just ’cause he liked the man’s Aunt Adelle, didn’t mean he liked him none. Of course, Smitty didn’t know him either, but he still didn’t like him.
“Out of curiosity,” the wolf asked, “what did you say to Mitch Shaw?”
“What Jessie Ann told me. That his baby sister spent the whole night on the bear’s lap. Cuddlin’.”
The wolf laughed, but the wild dogs, the one wolfdog, and the pair of older bears gasped as if he’d called up Satan himself. Even worse, Jessie slapped at his arm. He hated when she did that. Those hands may be little, but they could still cause pain.
“What did I do now?”
“You are such a…why do I…Oh! Never mind!”
“Fine. Does that mean we can go?”
“You sit your ass back down, Bobby Ray Smith!”
Grumbling, he did just that.
Blayne walked over to him and smiled again, but he wasn’t fooled by that smile. Like a weak, two-dollar poodle collar worn by a pitbull that smile did nothing but lull a man into a false sense of security.
“Hi, Smitty.”
“Blayne.”
Still smiling, “You know it would really help us if you kept things about Gwen and Lock that you may hear from Jess to yourself. At least until Project: Code Name Bear-Cat is finalized.”
He had to say it. “That is the dumbest name I’ve ever heard.”
And “snap” went that collar.
Blayne slammed her hands against the table and leaned in. “Now listen up, you Navy-loving son of a bitch! If my friend wants that bear, she’s gonna get that bear. And neither hell nor you nor some big-haired, twenty-hour-sleeping king of the idiots is gonna stop me from making sure she gets that bear!”
Van Holtz took careful hold of Blayne’s shoulders and pulled her back. “Excellent, Blayne. Very effective.”
He gently pushed her back toward the front of the room and faced Smitty. He wasn’t an Alpha, was he? But he was no one’s Omega, either. Smitty could dismiss him as a Beta, but that didn’t fit this one either. Naw, this wolf was…something else. And as laid-back, nonconfrontational, and fancy-talkin’ as he was, Smitty didn’t trust him for a damn second.
“Smitty…is it okay if I call you Smitty?”
“As you like.”
“Excellent. Smitty, we’re trying to achieve something here with two incredibly difficult yet loving people, and the assistance of our friends would be greatly appreciated.”
“I ain’t your friend.”
Blayne stormed back over to the table and the wolf held up one finger, stopping her in her unhappy and ranting-ready tracks.
“Understood. But Lock is friend and family to almost everyone in this room—especially your wife. They’ve been so close for years. I’m sure she told you about that.” And they both knew she hadn’t. MacRyrie had been at their wedding, but so had three hundred other people. If the grizzly had a special connection with Jessie Ann, neither had mentioned it. “She was there for him during his hardest time. Fresh out of the military, really not adapting to civilian life after all those years in the Unit.” The back of Smitty’s neck tightened with tension. The bear they were talking about had been in the Unit? The same Unit his cousin Dee-Ann had been in? Even Smitty’s shifter-only SEALs team stayed away from Unit members. The job requirements for the Unit made them more…troublesome than others.
More than once, Smitty’s team had been called in to “put down” a Unit member who had “snapped his bolt.” It was always one of their worst assignments. Not only because it was one of their own but because the Unit team members were the hardest to track and kill. And God forbid they ever came up behind you. God forbid they ever caught you unaware.
And leave it to Jessie Ann Ward to go waltzing up to one of ’em and say, “How do ya do? Come on over to my wedding, which is chock-full of defenseless people!”
Damn, but that woman was going to drive him into an early grave!
“I’ll admit, I’d hoped that something would develop between Lock and Jess, but…well…it didn’t work out that way, now did it? Although I think Lock was open to it. Of course, she’s with you now, and I’m sure her heart is forever yours, but wouldn’t it make us all feel a little better if we could get Lock settled with a girl of his own?”
Smitty sized the wolf up. Typical Van Holtz. Not much brawn but wily.
“You smooth-talkin’ mother—”
“Problem!” Adelle yelped as she ran into the room. “Mary was throwing out the trash and she said she saw Lock and a female who sounds like Gwen heading this way!”
The dogs scattered in seconds. Like the cats, they were good at that. But one wild dog wasn’t going until she got Smitty to move…and he wasn’t in the mood to move.
“Smitty, please!” she begged, holding on to his leather jacket and trying to pull him out of the chair.
“Not sure I’m in the mood to go. You promised me steak and I’m still waitin’.”
“He has to get out of here,” Van Holtz practically snarled.
“I’m trying,” Jessie said. “But he’s in a mood.”
“Y’all do know I’m still in the room?”
The older bears cleared their throats. “Uh…and we’re a little too old and big-boned to scatter,” the She-bear kindly explained.
“Okay, okay.” Van Holtz took a moment. “Let’s do this. Adelle, please take Doctors MacRyrie through the side exit.” Adelle nodded and showed the older couple the way out while Van Holtz focused on him. “And what do you want, Smith?”
“World peace?”
“Bobby Ray!”
He didn’t even look at Jessie, too focused on the conniving wolf in front of him.
“How about information?” Van Holtz offered.
“What information can you give me?”
The wolf leaned in and what he whispered in his ear had Smitty’s body tensing as he scowled at him. “You’re lyin’.”
“I don’t have to.”
Smitty stood and stormed out of the dining room, Jessie behind him, desperately trying to keep up.
Gwen stared around the restaurant and again looked down at her clothes.
“We are so out of here,” she whispered.
“Why?”
“One…I’m still in my work clothes. And two, there’s no reason for you to pay so much for a lousy steak dinner.”
“There are no lousy steak dinners at the Van Holtz.” Gwen blinked in surprise as the wolf she met from the night before appeared beside her and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Hello again, Gwen.”
“Uh…hi.”
Gwen couldn’t help but eye him. He was wearing a chef’s coat and a dark-green bandana around his forehead. Last she heard, only Van Holtzs cooked in Van Holtz restaurants.