Brushing his hair out of his eyes, she said, “You’re in a stairwell, darlin’. And the sun rose several hours ago.”

“Really? And it looked so pretty, too.”

She grinned and Shaw groaned in response. “You have the prettiest smile I’ve ever seen.” Ronnie felt her heart warm for the big goofus. Until he added, “Just like that sunrise.”

“Okay, hoss, let’s get you back—” That scent hit her hard, causing her to pull back.

“What?” he asked, his gold eyes suddenly clear. “What’s wrong?”

She briefly placed her hand over his mouth to keep him quiet and she sniffed the air again. The humans Shaw had dropped were on the move. She doubted they were still looking for Shaw after that beating, but no telling what they’d try if they stumbled across him. And Ronnie really didn’t want to kill anyone today—if she could help it.

“We’ve gotta get you out of here,” she whispered, knowing their voices would echo enough for humans to hear.

“Why are you whispering?” Shaw demanded, ten times louder than was necessary.

Again Ronnie slapped her hand over his mouth. “Keep it down!” She used her other hand to guide him back over the railing and onto the stairs.

“Come on, darlin’. We’ve gotta move.”

She hustled him down five flights of back stairs to the exit that would lead her out the rear of the hospital. She knew she could take Shaw back into the hospital, but she wasn’t real impressed with their Christmas day security if humans could sneak around the Shifter floor undetected. No, she’d be better off taking him someplace safe and away from the city.

“Stay here,” she told Shaw, leaving him by the stairs.

Ronnie took several quick steps to the back door. She examined it and saw it had an alarm on it to alert the hospital staff of anyone coming in or out. Still not wanting to alert the men after Shaw, she quickly located the necessary wires and yanked them out, disconnecting the system. The hospital would probably know someone had tampered with it and their security guards would be there soon to check on it. Just enough time for her to get Shaw out.

Pushing open the door, she carefully leaned out so she could see if it was safe to leave. Thankfully, she didn’t see or smell any humans lurking around and, even better, there was a taxi on the corner.

But before Ronnie could move, she felt big fingers brush against her lower back as they pulled the waistband of her jeans out. Eyes wide, she looked over her shoulder at the man staring intently down into the gap between her jeans and her skin.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“You have the cutest ass,” he sighed out. Gold eyes looked up at her. She had no idea if the fever gave him that hungry look or her butt. “I could spend hours playing with thisass.”

“Now isn’t that a lovely compliment.” She slapped his hand away. “Look, you need to get control of yourself.”

Placing his hands against the door frame, with his enormous arms over her head, he leaned into her. Great, the man was hitting on her like they were at a disco.

“Let’s get a hotel somewhere and work this out,” he murmured.

“We need to get you someplace safe, cat.”

“But I like you.”

“Once you get through this fever, you won’t even remember my name.”

“I’ll remember that ass, though.”

Lovely.

A door slammed several flights up, and Ronnie could hear yelling. She couldn’t wait anymore.

“Come on.” She pulled the door open and took a quick look out, relieved to find the street still empty. Grabbing Shaw’s hand, she pulled him out onto the street and toward the cab.

Once she got him bundled inside, she slammed the door shut and looked at the driver.

“Hey,” she greeted.

The driver stared at her and didn’t say anything. Lord, these Yankees were damn rude.

“I need to go to…” She pulled the slip of paper out of her back pocket and read the address off.

“That’s Long Island,” the driver stated. Like that would mean something to her.

Ronnie stared at the piece of paper. “This says Westbury.”

“That’s Long Island.”

Shrugging, “What’s your point?”

“He’s saying,” Shaw grumbled while trying to remove his hospital gown, “it’s too far to drive—unless you have cash.”

“I have cash.”

“Lots of cash.”

“I have lots of cash.” Ronnie looked at the driver through the partition separating them. “And I’ll give you a huge tip over the meter, but you have to drive now.”

The driver continued to stare at her and Ronnie stared back. When she didn’t turn away or back down, he paled a little bit and pulled out into traffic.

She didn’t mean to scare him, but to be quite blunt she didn’t have time for the little man’s bullshit.

“Where are we going?” Shaw asked.

“My aunt’s house.” Ronnie pulled the gown back into place. “She moved out here years ago, and my momma gave me her address in case I had a problem.” She looked at Shaw. “And you are definitely a problem.”

“Sweet talker.” He grinned even while his eyes closed.

Finally, the big horny bastard slept. Ronnie relaxed against the seat and prayed he didn’t start shifting to lion randomly in this poor man’s cab. There’d be no explaining that to the driver.