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

Four feet in diameter. With a wheel crank that was low to the lid.

“Well, hello there, needle in a haystack.”

Tucking his gun, he knelt down, grabbed the wheel, and gave it a pull. A harder pull. With a curse, he put all his strength into—

The wheel broke off its crank with a screech and Daniel fell back, landing on his ass. “Fuck.”

He had to get inside. To complete what he’d come to do, he was going to need full access.

Repositioning himself over the seal, he wiped more of the dirt off to get a sense of what he’d need to open the thing. Talk about solid. There were no gaps around the—

The bullet sizzled by his ear and pfft’d! into the pine needles behind him.

With a lunge, he threw his body up and over the fallen tree—but because of the rot, most of the trunk was hollow so it offered only visual, instead of tactical, cover. Palming his gun, he hustled down to the base, where things were more solid.

Triangulating the location of the attack, he saw the black uniform behind an outcropping of rocks. About fifty feet away—

“Oh, look at you,” he muttered as he recognized the face. “You got your eyes back, didn’t you.”

It was the guard he’d killed. The one he’d disarmed—

More bullets. Striking wood. Striking ground. Ricocheting off of stone.

Daniel ducked down. What he needed was some backup—

When the count of the bullets got high enough, he jumped up and ran hard, taking advantage of the nanoseconds that reloading required. And just in the nick of time, he back-flatted against one of the few oaks this high up on the mountain.

The guard thought he was still behind the downed trunk, the other man focusing forward as he aimed from behind those boulders.

Daniel leveled his gun and started to pull the—

Pop!

A bullet that was not his own hit the guard in the side of the skull, vaporizing his head, a red cloud with white flecks blowing off in all directions. The decapitated body slumped forward, landing with a thud—and then like the trunk that had revealed the hatch, the still-warm, still-twitching corpse slid forward on the slope until its momentum ended on a facedown.

Or no face, as it were—

Daniel swept his own muzzle around. And pointed it at the tall figure who’d snuck up on the scene.

The Walters Township sheriff was standing on a ridge about thirty feet away, boots planted, hand-cannon service weapon just lowering.

“I think you’re safe now,” came the dry comment. “At least from me.”

With a glance over his shoulder, Daniel made sure he wasn’t being rode up on, on the other side. “Am I?”

“I’m the law. I don’t murder people.”

“You’ll excuse me if I don’t fall for that.”

The sheriff shrugged and strolled forward, putting his weapon away in its holster. But he didn’t come at Daniel. He went across and stood over the guard.

Or what was left of the guard.

Daniel kept his gun on the man, tracking him as he leaned down.

“I know what you are, Daniel Joseph,” Eastwind murmured. “And I know why you’re here.”

“You don’t know shit about me.”

“You’re wrong about that.” The sheriff shook his head. “No eyes to take this time, I’m afraid. That’s what you did with the other one, didn’t you. That’s what you do.”

“I got no clue what you’re talking about.”

“You killed the other one. I don’t know what you did with the body, but you did something. And you took the weapons on him—did you stash them somewhere? I’ll bet you did—before you walked out to the county road and Lydia picked you up. You hid them so she wouldn’t find out what you’d done.”

Daniel stayed quiet. Which was what you did when an opponent was busy sharing exactly how much they knew about you.

“You can’t afford for her to know you killed him.” Eastwind looked across the distance that separated them. “She has no idea what you are, does she.”

“And what have you done to protect her,” Daniel demanded. “I’m just curious. I mean, after she told you she was being stalked, that someone had been on her property, that there was a device under her car … what. Did. You. Do.”

“She can take care of herself.”

“She’s a woman living alone—”

The sheriff laughed in a burst. “Your chauvinism is wasted on someone like her.”

“And you’re neglecting your duties—”

“You have no idea what my duties are.”

“Not that confusing, are they? You’re supposed to protect and serve, and when it comes to Lydia Susi, you’re doing neither.”

“Well, I just saved your life.”

“Bullshit. I had him.”

“Did you?” The sheriff rose up on his feet. “Then you’re a gambling man who doesn’t recognize the true odds when he sees them.”

“I never gamble. I don’t have to.”

“As you say.” Eastwind inclined his head. “At any rate, here’s the way we’re going to handle this. I’m going to take care of our little issue here, and you’re going to forget you ever saw me. You’re going to go back to that bridge, get on that four-wheeler, and return to the Wolf Study Project—where you are going to resign. Then you’re going to get your things out of Ms. Susi’s house and you’re going to leave this area and never return.”