He stopped barking but then he growled at the phone like she was holding a live snake.

Good Lord.

Eggie watched Darla on that damn phone. He hated phones.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “What was that? Oh, hi, Miss Pauline. Do I know who?” Darla gasped and looked down at herself. “Yes,” she said into the phone. “Yes. I know him. Please send him here. Under protection please. Thank you so much, Miss Pauline.”

Darla hung up the phone and looked down at herself again. “Lord! I gotta get dressed.”

She darted past him and Eggie followed. “Where are you going?”

“I gotta get cleaned up.” She glanced back as she jogged up the stairs. “I am just covered in you.”

“As well you should be,” he muttered, before he followed her up the stairs and to the bathroom. He stood outside while she turned on the shower.

“So who’s coming here?” he asked.

“My boss.”

Eggie’s eyes narrowed. “Your boss? There’s a Van Holtz on Smith territory?”

Darla spun around to face Eggie. “Egbert Ray, do not start anything with Bernhard Van Holtz.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “We got a damn Nazi coming to the house.”

“He is not and I want you to promise me you’ll be nice to him.”

“To a Van Holtz? Never gonna happen. And I don’t want you being around him.”

“He’s my boss.”

Eggie stared at her. “So you’re going back there?”

Darla blinked, clearly surprised by his question. “Um . . . I don’t . . . I haven’t really . . .” She fluttered her hands in the air. “Egbert Ray, I don’t have time for all this. Now out. I need to take the quickest shower known to man and get dressed.”

Eggie stepped into the hallway and Darla closed the door.

It wasn’t that he was surprised she was planning to go back. Planning to return to San Francisco and her life as a pastry chef for a goddamn Van Holtz. But, what did shock him was that she was planning to go back without him. At least that’s how it felt when she didn’t mention anything about them going back together. Not with her all distracted by some pansy wolf coming to his door.

Confused, pissed off, and hurt, Eggie walked downstairs, went out his front door, and sat down on his porch.

He waited.

Darla tugged on the little summer dress, slipped on her sandals, and quickly brushed out her hair.

She ran down the stairs and headed to the kitchen to get glasses and a pitcher of sweet tea together, but she saw through the windows that Mr. Van Holtz was already here, standing outside Eggie’s house . . . and staring down Eggie.

“Oh, Lord!”

She charged to the door and snatched it open.Neither wolf looked away from the other as she ran out onto the porch. She stopped at the top of the stairs, getting between Eggie and her boss.

“Hello, Mr. Van Holtz.”

The wolf smiled at her and she saw real concern and relief in his face.

“Darla.” He came up the stairs and kissed her cheek. She heard Eggie’s growl but she chose to ignore it. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I heard what happened in Smithville. I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I should have told you why I sent you home, but I didn’t want to worry you.”

She shook her head. “Don’t even think about it, sir.”

“It never occurred to me that they’d go after you there, and I was hoping to get the situation worked out before calling you back.”

“Oh. Did you get it worked out?”

“I’m sorry, no. Not yet.”

Darla hated herself for feeling relieved by that, but she was . . . unsure. Did Eggie want her to stay with him? Or just stay with him for now? It was hard to tell with the man. He wasn’t exactly big on expressing emotion except when he was annoyed.

“Do you think we can take a walk?”

Noting that Mr. Van Holtz wasn’t looking at her when he asked the question, Darla looked over her shoulder. Eggie stood behind her now—she’d never even heard him move—his arms crossed over his chest, his wolf eyes locked on Mr. Van Holtz.

The Van Holtzes were tall but lean wolves. With less brawn, they used their brains to devastating effect when it came to a fight. And, for as long as the two Packs had existed, Smiths and Van Holtzes were sworn enemies, although Darla had no idea why. She did know that there’d been Pack wars over the centuries between the two. They’d been ugly, brutal, and something many hoped would never be repeated.

Darla gestured down the stairs and walked Van Holtz away from the porch. “Give me a minute, would you?” she asked and returned to the stairs Eggie was standing on.

“I’ll be right back,” she told him. “Don’t follow me.”

“You expect me to leave you alone with a goddamn Van Holtz?”

“Watch how you speak to me, Egbert Ray Smith. I ain’t some little whore you picked up on the street somewhere. Understand me?”

He grunted and she decided to take that as a “yes” to her question.

“We won’t be long, we won’t leave Smith territory, just wait until I get back.”

When he didn’t say anything, she returned to Van Holtz’s side. “Ready?” she asked, forcing a smile.

He watched Darla walk away with that smooth talkin’, fancy dressed, skinny-assed rich bastard.