He’d rather remove body parts before sitting through some overpriced nouveau riche meal with Missy. But before Brendon could state that out loud, his cell phone went off. He checked caller ID and answered. “Yes?”

“Hello, sir. It’s Timothy.”

“I know. I checked caller ID.” After eight years as his personal assistant, one would think Timothy would already know that about his boss. “What’s going on?”

“I received a message from Louise.” Louise had been Brendon’s secretary longer than Timothy had been his assistant. “You wanted me to check the local hotels and find a Smith Pack?”

“Yeah. Did you get something?”

“Sir, they’re here.”

“Here? You mean in New York?”

“No. I mean at the Kingston Arms. They’ve been checked in for more than a week under the name…uh…Sissy Mae Smith.”

Brendon stared at the wall, completely oblivious to his daughter gripping his hair and hanging from his head like a monkey.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, sir. I even went and checked the other hotels in the Tristate area that cater to your”—Timothy cleared his throat—“kind, because Smith is such a common name, but the only Smith Pack I could locate is at this hotel.”

Letting out a deep breath, Brendon grinned. “Good work.”

“Do you need me to do anything else, sir?”

“No. I should be back at the hotel in a few.”

“Yes, sir.”

Brendon ended the connection. “I’ve gotta go.”

Without opening her eyes, Allie smiled. “Figured.”

After unattaching his daughter from his hair, Brendon swung her around in his arms and kissed her neck, then kissed the top of his son’s head. “Both of you be good.”

“Don’t forget,” Allie reminded him, “we’re heading out tomorrow to Grandmother’s property in Sag Harbor for the New Year.”

“Okay. I’ll come over in the afternoon to send you off.”

He put his children beside Allie and opened the solarium door. The arguing hit him in the face. It would take time to get his sister to back off. Time he wasn’t in the mood to give.

“When she’s done, tell my sister I went back to the hotel.”

Allie opened one eye and stared at Brendon. “You’re leaving her here?”

“I don’t feel like dragging her out. I’ll even leave the car. I’ll catch a cab.”

Laughing, Allie closed her eyes again. “Okay. But neither your sister nor Missy will be happy. So I hope whoever she is, she’s worth it.”

Oh, she was.

A good long sleep and a little worshipping of the porcelain god, and Ronnie feltmuch better. Although she still didn’t feel like hanging out tonight and she didn’t know how the rest of the She-wolves were managing it.

Big dinner plans and some club hopping for the whole Pack, courtesy of Bobby Ray. He even tried to drag poor Mace and Dez into it, but from the end of the conversation Ronnie heard, Mace had no intention of getting out of his bed anytime soon as long as Dez was in it.

Ronnie smiled when she thought about the two of them. They were a cute, if unlikely, couple. And she loved the panic in Dez’s eyes every time she caught Mace staring at her like he could simply eat her alive. The man was in love. No two ways about it and nothing Dez did or didn’t do would change that so she might as well suck it up. So to speak.

The Pack stood in front of the hotel’s front desk. At some point they would find permanent dens, and that search would be down to the females. Until then, they would continue to enjoy the luxury of the Kingston Arms.

Bobby Ray retrieved another stack of business papers from the desk staff. He and Mace had already hired a lawyer and apparently Sissy Mae had started working with realtors for a big-enough space to house their office. Clearly Mace and Bobby Ray weren’t men to waste time on “what if”s xand analyzing. They just went for it. Ronnie liked that.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go?”

Glancing down at the pile of legal papers Bobby Ray had shoved into her arms and the ripped, seen-better-days cutoff shorts, scuffed and decades-old cowboy boots, and the worn Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt that once belonged to her daddy, Ronnie shrugged. “I know this is the perfect outfit for the thirty-degree weather we have outside, but I think I’ll stay in.”

“You don’t have to be a smart-ass. I was just askin’, Ronnie Lee.”

Feeling bad for sniping at him, she pushed her shoulder against Bobby Ray’s. “Sorry. But I blame your sister for my cranky attitude.”

“Told you not to go drinking with her anymore.”

“I know. I know. But she’s so persuasive.” Ronnie Lee juggled the papers in her hands and reached out and yanked Sissy Mae’s hair.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“For leading me down the path of sin and drunkenness.”

“Looked to me like you were gettin’ there fine all on your own.”

Bobby Ray slammed another four thick envelopes filled with papers from his lawyer on top of the pile she already carried. “Just drop these off in my room when you go back up.”

“Sure.”

“If you need us, we all have our cells.” Bobby Ray frowned. “And why did management call me about your ripping the phone out of the wall?”

“It wouldn’t stop ringing.”