“I need food,” he told her.

“We’re out.”

“Don’t they have delivery around this burg?”

“Yeah, but—”

A voice from outside cut her off. “Sissy!”

“Shit.” Slowly, Sissy rolled to her side and pushed the top half of her body up. She winced, and Mitch ran his hand down her back.

“You all right?”

“Yeah.” Sissy stumbled to the window, pushed it open, and leaned out. “What?”

It took Mitch a moment, but he finally recognized Dee-Ann’s voice.

“Woman in town to see Mitch. She’s from the DA’s office in Philadelphia.”

“Did you check her out?”

“The car she’s got is a rental registered to someone named Kelly Chun, but we can’t find anyone by that name in the DA’s—”

“I know her,” Mitch cut in.

Kelly Chun was the name ADA Jen Chow traveled under when she didn’t want anyone to know where she was. Mitch grinned. Chow must be really worried for her to not only leave a metropolitan city for a small town in the Deep South, but she’d also never been a fan of “canines” as she constantly called them. So coming to Smithtown was like a double whammy.

“I’ve gotta go see her,” he told Sissy while he got to his feet.

Sissy stared at him for a moment before she looked out the window. “He’ll be in town in a bit.”

“Okay. I’ll let ’em know. She’s at the Sheriff’s office.”

With a nod, Sissy closed the window.

Looking him over, she said, “You may want to take a shower before you go.”

“I plan to.” He had Sissy all over him—and he liked it.

Mitch took her hand. “Come on.”

“Come on where?”

“You’re coming with me. We can get food once I check in with Jen. And you need a shower as bad as I do.” From behind her, Mitch wrapped his arms around Sissy’s body and kissed the top of her head. “I think you still have some of my love nectar in your hair.”

“First off, stop calling it that. And second, if you ever do that to me again—”

“I told you it was an accident.” But he still had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

“Accident my ass,” she complained, pulling away from him and heading toward the bathroom. “There are some things that are never accidents, Mitchell Shaw, and that is definitely one of them.”

In Sissy’s estimation, there was only one thing worse than a rich, snobby, know-it-all heifer who thought she was better than everyone else…

It was a rich, snobby, know-it-all cat who thought she was better than everyone else.

As soon as they’d walkedinto the Sheriff’s office, Jen Chow got to her feet like she’d been forced to hang out in a Turkish prison with the inmates.

“There you are!” she’d said. “I thought you’d never get here.”

“Sorry. I got delayed.”

Yeah. The delay of a quick shower that turned into a long one once Mitch shoved his head between Sissy’s thighs.

Lord, the man was insatiable, and Sissy didn’t mind one bit. On more than one occasion, she’d been accused of being “hard to please.” And that was mostly because the male she was with wore out long before she did. By the time Sissy had turned twenty, she’d sworn off the full-human males completely since they had no hope of keeping up with her. The wolves were better, but even then, the phrase, “Would you go to sleep already?” had been tossed at her more than once.

Mitch had been the first who’d managed to keep up with her step for step. Or thrust for thrust. Of course, now Sissy realized that setting up those boundaries had been in her best interest. She could easily get too wound up with a guy like Mitch. A completely uncontrollable male. And lions were absolutely the worst. The males lived to be catered to, and they took shit from no one, not even other lion females. They were pleasant only when they wanted to be and downright surly for no other reason than they felt like it. They were needy and demanding and expected the world to cater to them.

Since Sissy catered to no one but herself, this attitude would definitely be a problem for her.

But, she’d been smart. She’d set up her boundaries and knew Mitch would abide by them. Mainly because he wanted exactly what she wanted. Really good sex.

Great sex.

Yet while Sissy watched Jen Chow talk to Mitch, her hand on his forearm, Sissy had that feeling again. That jealous feeling. And it annoyed her like crazy.

Chow pointed to one of the two interrogation rooms. “Let’s talk. In private,” she added, glancing at Sissy.

“Sure.” Mitch followed behind Chow, briefly looking over his shoulder at Sissy and saying, “Be right back.”

She nodded, faked a smile, and dropped into one of the desk chairs to wait.

“That New York detective…Mick something?”

Mitch pulled out his patience. He’d forgotten how much he needed it when dealing with Jen. “You mean Dez MacDermot?”

“Yes. Her. She believes this lioness was military trained.”

“Makes sense.”

She dug into her briefcase. “We pulled names and did cross-checking on those not already dead or still on duty…and came up with these four.” She placed four photos on the table. “Recognize anyone?”

Mitch shook his head. “Nope. This one’s cute, though.”