“I want the burgers deluxe.” She looked at her cousin. “What you want?”

“Same.”

Sissy nodded and looked back at the counter. “Make it two!” she screamed. She turned back around and shrugged at Mitch. “What?”

Ronnie hadn’t slept well during the night and had overslept the morning straight into the afternoon, so she wasn’t surprised to wake up and find her mate gone. Nor was she shocked to find him pacing his office.

Shaw thought he could hide his feelings from her. But they were mates. She felt what he felt. Not on some wacky metaphysical level either. Simply the way one who loves another does. And all heaven knew she loved Brendon Shaw.

“You’re gonna wear a hole through that carpet, darlin’.”

He stopped and immediately glared at her. Then he closed his eyes and pulled the simmering rage back. She’d rarely seen Shaw this angry. He had a wonderful nature and made being with him easier than she could have imagined. But his love for his brother was deep and abiding and tinged with guilt over the way Shaw’s father had seemed to forget Mitch’s existence for fourteen years.

Shaw had tried so hard to protect Mitch, but after what Dez had told her yesterday, they needed to take different precautions to protect Mitch. But Ronnie still had a hard time wrapping her mind around what Dez had told her. Even when she knew it was true.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“And stop apologizing. You haven’t done anything wrong.” She walked over to him, put her arms around his waist. “None of this is your fault.”

“Then why do I feel like it is?”

“Because it’s in your nature. Protecting everyone around you is what you do.”

“We need to make sure Sissy knows what she’s dealing with now. How everything has changed.”

“She will.”

“And then we need to make sure—”

Ronnie put her hand over his mouth. “Stop.” She moved her arms until they were around Shaw’s neck and pulled him in until his face pressed against the side of her neck and his arms tightened around her back.

He held her so tight that a lesser woman would have had broken ribs.

“Do you trust me, Brendon?”

He nodded, and she knew he couldn’t speak at the moment. That was okay. She didn’t need him to.

“Then leave this to me, baby.”

Finally, Mitch seemed to have finished feeding that fat face of his and leaned back in his chair with a sigh. “Now that was good.”

“And hopefully, you left enough food for the rest of the town,” she sniped.

“Someone’s testy,” Mitch replied, following that with a mocking hissing sound and a flash of slashing claws. “Saucer of milk for dessert, dear?”

Rudeson of a—

“Thank you,” Mitch told the waitress as he took the check from her. He glanced at it and handed it to Sissy.

She pointedly looked at the piece of paper in his hand and then back at him, one eyebrow raised. “And you’re giving me this why?”

“Ain’t got no money, sweet cheeks.”

Her eye twitched. She hated when he called her that. “Well, Mitchy”—and she truly enjoyed that glare she got in return—“who the hell told you to inhale half my brother’s food supply?”

“Your brother owns this place?”

“Yeah.”

Mitch snorted, balled up the bill, and chucked it at Sissy, hitting her in the head. “We both know you don’t have to pay to eat at your brother’s if you ask him nice. Now go ask him nice.”

Snarling and glaring, Sissy reached for the knife on the table, but Dee moved it first.

“Lord.” Dee grabbed the balled up bill and stood, taking it to the counter.

“You’re gonna make your cousin pay?”

No. She was going to make Mitch pay.

“Done,” Dee told them as she walked back. “See? Not brain surgery. You need a lift, Sissy?” Sissy smiled, and Dee took a sudden step back. “What?”

“Well…he has—literally—eaten me out of house and home. Think you can take me to the Mega Store?”

“You have a car.”

“I have a rental car. Not a pretty little Camaro that you won unfairly.” The Camaro hadn’t been Sissy’s first, but she’d loved it like all the others. “Dee, don’t make me whine.”

Dee held up her hand. “Please don’t. You know how that sound annoys me.”

Sissy held her hand out. “Keys.”

“You’re not driving.”

“Hell I’m not. Gimme.”

Dee blew out a breath and handed the keys to Sissy.

With a grin, Sissy stood. “Come on.”

“Shotgun,” Mitch called, and Dee shook her head.

“I’m not sure that’s such a—”

“He called it,” Sissy cut in. “Shotgun for the cat it is.”

Mitch walked out onto the sidewalk and glanced around. Smithtown was a nice little place. Real homey and clean. The kind of place where people left their front door unlocked during the day. Even with all the local canines glaring at him, he still felt pretty comfortable. Although he had checked each burger to make sure no one had spit in his food.

Opening the passenger door to the ’78 Camaro, Mitch waited until Dee-Ann got into the backseat, then he slid himself in. The car had been expertly maintained and practically had Mitch purring as he sank into the seat.