“Fine. Starve me.”

Sissy shook her head and continued eating. Slowly, taking her time. And it took Mitch all of two minutes before his fingers started to tap impatiently against the Formica table.

“Are you going to be much longer?” he demanded.

Sissy could only laugh. “Don’t rush me.”

Mitch slumped back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest.

“My poor, disgruntled baby.”

That got her a hiss, and Sissy went back to eating her food.

“Your brother…” Sissy peered at him, and Mitch added, “Travis.”

“What about him?”

“Have you two always been this way toward each other?”

Sissy wiped her mouth with her paper napkin. “That has to be the nicest way anyone has put my relationship with that idiot.”

“I guess I can take that as a yes.”

“Momma told me that when I was still in the crib, Travis walked up to her and said, ‘I don’t like her. She stares at me.’”

“Did you?”

“She wasn’t sure she believed him at first, so she watched me for a while. My daddy would come in, and I’d giggle and wave my hands and feet. Sammy and Bobby Ray would come in, and I’d reach for them. Jackie and Donnie…I’d start giggling again, and Momma said it was mocking even then. But when Travis came in, I’d immediately stop whatever I was doing and just stare at him. I’d stare until he left the room. And I wouldn’t fall asleep if he was in the room unless I was in either Momma’s or Daddy’s arms.”

“Those are impressive instincts.”

“Sometimes you have no choice if you want to survive.”

“Is he why you left?”

“You mean to come to New York?”

“No. When you were eighteen. With Ronnie.”

“Ronnie was eighteen; I’d just turned nineteen. And I left because no one in this damn town ever leaves. I mean, they go to other Smith-run towns for vacations. Smithburg. Smithville. Smith County. But they never wanted to see what else was out there. I knew when I was five I would travel. That I would see the world. Smithtown is not the beginning and end of all things, but try and tell my daddy that.”

“I’ve never traveled”—Mitch rested his elbow on the table and his chin on his fist—“but I’ve always wanted to.”

Sissy pushed her empty bowl away. She loved talking about traveling. “Where would you go?”

Mitch shrugged. “I don’t know. Anywhere, I guess.”

“Where have you been?”

“I’ve never even been off the East Coast.”

Sissy sat back. “You’re kidding?”

“Nope. And this is the farthest south I’ve traveled except of course, for Disney World in Florida, which I think every family is required to go to at some point.I believe it’s in the Constitution.”

Sissy laughed. “Well, darlin’, we’ve gotta get you out and about.”

“Where would you take me first?”

Squinting, Sissy thought about it for a moment. “I’d start you off easy. I’d take you to Ireland. They speak mostly English, and you can look up your family. And the lions there are real nice.”

“Is this one of the places you’re allowed in?”

“Oh, yeah. Bobby Ray helped me pay that fine years ago. I’d take you to Asia, too. The major cities, to start. Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong. That sort of thing.”

“What about Korea?”

“Yeah.” Sissy wrinkled up her nose a bit. “Maybe not right now. In another ten or so years, ya know, I could definitely…ask.”

“Wait. Are we talking North or South Korea?”

“Well…both.”

“That’s too bad.” Mitch leaned forward a bit and looked into her empty bowl. “Guess we’ll have to find something else to do since both North and South Korea are out and you’re finally done eating.”

Sissy slid out of her chair and backed up. “We should sleep,” she giggled.

“Later.” He came around the table for her and pushed her up against the refrigerator. She could feel the magnets her mother loved to collect digging into her back.

With one arm braced over her head, he used the other to slide down her neck and across her chest. His hand cupped her breast, the fingers teasing the nipple. Sissy moaned as she reached for him.

“Besides,” he murmured, slowly going to his knees, “I never said I was finished eating.”

Chapter 17

Jen Lim Chow, Assistant District Attorney of Philadelphia, single mother of three, Harvard Law graduate, and leopard, pulled her rental car up to the curb next to the Sheriff’s Department offices and stepped out into the sweltering Tennessee heat.

Christ, what was she doing here on a damn Saturday?

Hell, she knew what she was doing here. She was trying to save her case. The biggest case of her career, and the most dangerous. One did not take down the head of a crime syndicate easily. And on first-degree murder witnessed by an undercover cop. It should have been perfect, but her major witness, the one the entire case hinged on, was now hiding in the one place he was safest from full-humans but in constant danger from a bunch of ass-sniffing canines.

She’d grown up hearing about the Smith Packs and all the Smith-run towns. She could count on one hand the number of these towns that were open to any breed. The others were mostly canine, and Smithtown was one of those. Run by one Bubba Ray Smith. Although unknown to most of the universe, he was infamous among the shifters because the wolf could hardly be called sane. Of course, there weren’t a lot of Smiths one could call sane.