Austin scratched his jaw. “The pack is new and I want to put a few years behind us. Lexi loves kids and told me she’s ready when I am. I think she’ll say anything to get me to have sex with her while she’s in heat, so I’ll take that with a grain of salt.”
Lexi was an excellent bitch, even though she’d kick your ass three times over for calling her that. Heck, Austin would take care of that for her. That was a rule in the house—one word they couldn’t call Lexi. While the word didn’t carry a derogatory meaning among their own kind, they were aware it did among humans. Lexi had grown up with humans, and for her, it wasn’t a nice word to call a lady.
Reno privately thought to himself that he’d make a concerted effort to avoid using that word around April. Then the thought of another man calling her a bitch stirred a venomous fire in him.
Reno lowered his voice. “You ever heard of a man named Maddox?”
Austin’s eyes flashed up with suspicion. “What do you want with him?”
“His name came up for a job I’m on. It has me curious because I didn’t think he’d turn out to be a Shifter.”
“Not a wolf,” Austin corrected. “But yeah, he’s a Shifter. Maddox has a thick reputation as a favor-trader, but I heard he branched off into monetary loans. I’ve never met him, but when I was a bounty hunter, a few of the guys I brought in had dealings with him.”
“Is he dangerous?”
Austin wiped the sweat from his face and ran his fingers through a tuft of dark hair. “Who can say? I didn’t get much information from the men I busted—only that they were trying to scramble up cash to pay him off.”
Most Breeds didn’t get financially tangled up with humans, so it was an unusual situation. Reno’s connections had recognized the name and identified Maddox Cane as a Shifter. While Reno had bigger things on his mind, like who was after April, he owed Wheeler to help him sort out this mess with Sweet Treats. Wheeler didn’t work for Lexi, but she needed someone with experience in accounting. Wheeler had no choice in the matter. A good Packmaster knows that a man needs work to feel dignified, so Austin had voluntold him for the job.
Lexi shuffled into the kitchen in a pair of loose shorts and a brown T-shirt, her long hair bound in a ponytail. She lingered by the stove and sleepily glanced at the empty plate where the breakfast burritos used to be.
Reno felt a pang of guilt for not having left her one. “I thought you were upstairs taking a nap.”
She shrugged. “I can’t sleep. I’m too hungry.”
Austin crossed the room and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the side of her neck. “Me too,” he murmured.
“You’re all sweaty,” she complained.
“Mmmhmm,” he agreed, kissing her some more. “I think I need someone to wash me off.”
Reno took that as his cue to head out. He had a few errands to run before picking up April at the store. One of them being a quick visit to the sonofabitch at the party who had put his hands on her.
Chapter 14
I was irritated with Reno for driving me to work on my day off. I organized the displays to keep busy, but I felt detached and anxious. The residual effects of the night before still plagued my thoughts. The worst part was I had no idea which part made me want to run into the streets screaming. Sanchez? Trevor? Shifters? Drugs? Waking up next to a naked man?
Well, maybe not so much the last part. Reno was undoubtedly the sexiest alarm clock I’d ever snoozed on.
After five failed attempts to get in touch with Trevor, I called Lexi and barricaded myself in the bathroom for three hours. When she heard how shaken up I was, she insisted on coming to the store to talk to me in person. But I told her I was on the verge of checking myself into an asylum and maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.