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A good cop knew a criood cop Nobody trashed your furniture and personal possessions except a scorned lover, a drug dealer you owed serious ht their pet, no less Who brings their ani ina shadow of doubt on the investigation and my possible connection to it, was thanks to the talented Marcy My most personal space, my bedroom, had been left intact The place you lay your head is the first place so to have to pay her er did that to your place," Nick said

"I know" I ran h my hair "The only solution is to continue with the personal angle We’ll have to dig up a foret who had motive to break into my house--which shouldn’t be too hard There wasn’t an actual burglary, so there’ll be no need to press for up happen to have a pet whose fur matches the samples taken fro to back off that easily I’ in your hallway for the next year until this is solved to his liking He’s a bloodhound You haven’t given hi in five solid years, and now you just duh, I know" I gave Nick a sideways smirk "But if he doesn’t back down eventually, I can just beat hiht my arms up and flexed my biceps They didn’t seem any firmer than usual, but I knew they’d inflict a hell of a lot e now if applied correctly--and I planned on applying therow some fur, or take a swipe at hiertips The claeren’t out, but it was cool to know they were there somewhere

"Those would be … effective tactics" Nick chortled "If you were insane And I’o that route"

I sighed Of course there’d be plenty of repercussions, but the real proble run Now that I was Pack, I had a secret to guard and Pack would enforce it without thought If Ray kept digging his nose where it didn’t belong, the Pack would have no probleuy, but I wasn’t ready to sign his death warrant

"I’ll just have to soldier on withoutfate "I’ve got the cas and the passes It’s weak, but it should hold and cast enough doubt into my involvement, which is all I’ll need in the end I’ll just have to find a scorned lover who has a penchant for big dogs"

Nick smiled wryly at me "I’m sure that won’t be a probles to choose from"

Noas my turn to snort "We can’t frame a olf, and none of them would cooperate on their own anyway They’d just as soon have me thrown behind bars so they didn’t have to deal with rinned That was pretty sweet

I picked up my phone and dialed Ray It was better not to put off the inevitable It went to voicemail, which was a small victory "Ray, I’ the city in two hours," I said "See you then"

I had no doubt he would be waiting in my hallway in one and a half

5

Ray Hart had one shoulder braced against the wall, both his arive a shit how long he had to wait To a passerby out on the street, he would’ve appeared to be waiting patiently for his wife to finish up her shopping so they could catch a movie

Except, of course, he wasn’t married and probably hadn’t seen ascreen

I wasn’t fooled

Ray was just under six feet tall with a full head of steel-colored hair It was cut close to the scalp in a style that would’ve been military if he’d ever joined up He had ressive His square jaw matched his thick eyebrows perfectly He wore plain clothes, a pair of dark khaki pants, and a blue dress shirt, and his hazel eyes bored directly into rin, since Ray’s easy stance was in direct contrast to the foul odor he was ee that needed i, or the stale sh--the smell of Ray could’ve knocked me over on its own

He reeked like a potent ression, and it blew into ht atto accept any of the bullshit I’d planned to dish out I had to cole" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>