Claimed (The Lair of the Wolven #1) by J.R. Ward

And it wasn’t a slip-up. This was a conscious choice.

So he could un-conscious the choice after all this was over.

Or maybe that was un-choice. Not choice. Whatever.

The fact that Susan the checkout woman had picked a matchy-matchy red for the Bic seemed a declaration of her style philosophy. Meanwhile, on his side of the transaction, all he cared about was the flame—

The coughing fit was immediate after the inhale, and as he put the back of his hand to his mouth, he wondered why it was that he always felt hacking your liver up went better if you had something covering the pie hole part of things. It was like a boxer with a punching bag, he supposed.

You gave things a target, not just bald air.

By the third inhale, the disruption eased off, and he felt a buzzing in his head and under his skin. Halfway through the length, he was back in the swing of things, exhaling great streams of smoke like he was a steam engine, a calming coming over him at the same time he felt an intensifying focus.

Not that he’d been confused.

When he came up to the deer stand, he crushed the lit stub between his forefinger and thumb, the lick of pain something he enjoyed. Then he put the butt in his back pocket and looked toward Peter Wynne’s barn—not that he could see much.

Changing directions, he kept going and found the cave where he’d stashed the body easily enough—and the undisturbed nature of that which he had done his best not to disturb was good news.

“Where the fuck were you yesterday?”

At the sound of the voice, he glanced over his shoulder. And casually put his hand in the pocket he kept his gun hidden in.

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Personality,” Daniel drawled.

As he turned around, his oldest friend and ally was looking like he had a hair across his ass. Dressed in loose clothing that covered a variety of guns and ammo, those familiar dark eyes were narrowed under the brim of a hey-there’s-nothing-unusual-about-me John Deere hat. Other than the fact that the guy’s shoulders were big and his jaw like an I beam, everything about him was cultivated to blend in. Escape notice. Remain undetected among the people who passed him by.

“So where the fuck were you?” came the demand.

“Busy. I’m taking up a new hobby.”

“Oh, I know. And her name is Lydia Susi.”

Daniel took a step forward. “She’s not a part of this.”

“She’s fucking in the middle of it—”

“She’s doing nothing but tracking and ensuring the health of the population. That’s it. She’s not involved.”

The smile that came back at him was a knife edge. “Did you get this from her before or after you fucked her—”

Daniel lunged and locked a grip on the front of his buddy’s throat. “You want to rephrase that. While you still have a voice box?”

“So. It. Was. During.”

The syllables were choked, but there was no fear reaction. No struggle, either.

There was a reason they got along, damn it.

“She is not who we’re looking for.” Daniel shoved hard, but his buddy’s balance was not lost for long. The recovery was nearly immediate. “It’s against her principles.”

“Oh, then let’s just look elsewhere because your girlfriend has some kind of pabulum tattooed on her forehead.”

As Daniel tightened the grip on his gun, he had to tell himself to calm the fuck down. “The WSP has no resources. You know that—”

“You are out of control.”

“Fuck off—”

A ramrod-straight forefinger came at him like a laser beam. “You have a conflict of interest. You think I don’t know you’re sleeping—”

“On her property, asshole,” Daniel snapped. “I’m not in her house.”

“Then it’s just a matter of time before you’re in her bed. I know how this shit goes.”

“Because you’re such a frickin’ genius. Right. I forgot.”

“It happened to me once. I got over-involved and I fucked everything up.” His buddy’s massive torso tilted forward. “You stay separate or I’m taking over. We don’t have the time to, or the interest in, rescuing you from a mess of your own creation—”

“You’re not in charge.”

“You want her killed?” His buddy shrugged. “You care that little about the woman? What do you think is going to happen to her.”

“She is not who we’re after.”

“Well, the one thing you and I both know for sure? You can’t be two of a kind. She’s either guilty or she’s innocent—but either way, if you keep involving yourself with her, she’ll end up dead.”

Daniel looked off into the distance. He’d hidden those weapons from the day before, and damn if he didn’t wish he had that suppressor.

“So you want to do this?” he said to his buddy in a bored tone. “Or keep talking at me. Because the latter’s making such a difference in my life.”

“You need to recognize your weaknesses, friend.”

“And you need to step the fuck off. You don’t like what I’m doing, get me removed. Or try to.”

On that note, Daniel brought out his cell phone and triggered the flashlight. Ducking down, he entered the shallow cave—