“You sure are good with cats—for a canine.” Dez sat down on the couch opposite Smitty, her son asleep in her arms. “Not as good as you, my sweet Dez.” “Well, darlin’, you lack the equipment for that.”

“This conversation" - Dez rapped her knuckles against the Formica table- "is over.""Be careful, Dez," Jimmy stated earnestly."And don't sleep with him the first night," Vinny warned. "We know what a slut you can be."Dez turned to Sal. "Do you have anything to add to this bullshit?""Yeah." Sal looked down from the ceiling he'd been staring at. "Based on the structure of this building, if we removed that pillar back there, we could take out this whole block."Dez sighed.”

“Smiled at Smitty. Leered at Dez. And practically spit at Mace. Man, the staff at this restaurant really didn’t like him.”

“They'll never take me back to Denazen. I would kill a thousand if I needed to."He nodded to Dez. "And for her?"For her. To keep Dez from going to that place? "For her, I'd kill a million.”

“No, he wasn’t letting Dez MacDermot get away. He’d take her down like his ancestors took down full-grown zebra.”

“Dez turned those gorgeous gray-green eyes on the wolf, and Mace watched Smitty do what any sensible predator would do in a situation like this… Plot to run away.”