“Smitty…is it okay if I call you Smitty?”

“As you like.”

“Excellent. Smitty, we’re trying to achieve something here with two incredibly difficult yet loving people, and the assistance of our friends would be greatly appreciated.”

“I ain’t your friend.”

Blayne stormed back over to the table and the wolf held up one finger, stopping her in her unhappy and ranting-ready tracks.

“Understood. But Lock is friend and family to almost everyone in this room—especially your wife.

They’ve been so close for years. I’m sure she told you about that.” And they both knew she hadn’t. MacRyrie had been at their wedding, but so had three hundred other people. If the grizzly had a special connection with Jessie Ann, neither had mentioned it. “She was there for him during his hardest time. Fresh out of the military, really not adapting to civilian life after all those years in the Unit.” The back of Smitty’s neck tightened with tension. The bear they were talking about had been in the Unit? The same Unit his cousin Dee-Ann had been in? Even Smitty’s shifter-only SEALs team stayed away from Unit members. The job requirements for the Unit made them more…troublesome than others.

More than once, Smitty’s team had been called in to “put down” a Unit member who had “snapped his bolt.” It was always one of their worst assignments. Not only because it was one of their own but because the Unit team members were the hardest to track and kill. And God forbid they ever came up behind you. God forbid they ever caught you unaware.

And leave it to Jessie Ann Ward to go waltzing up to one of ’em and say, “How do ya do? Come on over to my wedding, which is chock-full of defenseless people!”

Damn, but that woman was going to drive him into an early grave!

“I’ll admit, I’d hoped that something would develop between Lock and Jess, but…well…it didn’t work out that way, now did it? Although I think Lock was open to it. Of course, she’s with you now, and I’m sure her heart is forever yours, but wouldn’t it make us all feel a little better if we could get Lock settled with a girl of his own?”

Smitty sized the wolf up. Typical Van Holtz. Not much brawn but wily.

“You smooth-talkin’ mother—”

“Problem!” Adelle yelped as she ran into the room. “Mary was throwing out the trash and she said she saw Lock and a female who sounds like Gwen heading this way!”

The dogs scattered in seconds. Like the cats, they were good at that. But one wild dog wasn’t going until she got Smitty to move…and he wasn’t in the mood to move.

“Smitty, please!” she begged, holding on to his leather jacket and trying to pull him out of the chair.

“Not sure I’m inthe mood to go. You promised me steak and I’m still waitin’.”

“He has to get out of here,” Van Holtz practically snarled.

“I’m trying,” Jessie said. “But he’s in a mood.”

“Y’all do know I’m still in the room?”

The older bears cleared their throats. “Uh…and we’re a little too old and big-boned to scatter,” the She-bear kindly explained.

“Okay, okay.” Van Holtz took a moment. “Let’s do this. Adelle, please take Doctors MacRyrie through the side exit.” Adelle nodded and showed the older couple the way out while Van Holtz focused on him. “And what do you want, Smith?”

“World peace?”

“Bobby Ray!”

He didn’t even look at Jessie, too focused on the conniving wolf in front of him.

“How about information?” Van Holtz offered.

“What information can you give me?”

The wolf leaned in and what he whispered in his ear had Smitty’s body tensing as he scowled at him.

“You’re lyin’.”

“I don’t have to.”

Smitty stood and stormed out of the dining room, Jessie behind him, desperately trying to keep up.

Gwen stared around the restaurant and again looked down at her clothes.

“We are so out of here,” she whispered.

“Why?”

“One…I’m still in my work clothes. And two, there’s no reason for you to pay so much for a lousy steak dinner.”

“There are no lousy steak dinners at the Van Holtz.” Gwen blinked in surprise as the wolf she met from the night before appeared beside her and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Hello again, Gwen.”

“Uh…hi.”

Gwen couldn’t help but eye him. He was wearing a chef’s coat and a dark-green bandana around his forehead. Last she heard, only Van Holtzs cooked in Van Holtz restaurants.

“Dinner?” he asked Lock.

“Is that a problem?”

“Not at all.”

Grabbing two menus from the hostess, he motioned them past the extremely long line of those waiting to be seated, through the packed dining room, and into the back. She knew she was dressed badly, but were they going to have to eat in the alley?

It seemed, however, that the Van Holtz flagship restaurant was more than a dining room and a kitchen. It also had a huge reception hall, and several private dining rooms in the back.

As they passed one of the bigger dining rooms, Lock abruptly stopped, his head lifting, his nose casting for a scent. “Were my parents here?”

Ric stared at him for a long moment before finally answering, “Yes. Earlier. For dinner.”