Chosen Prey by Cheyenne McCray

"How much do I owe you for the room?"
    "Nothing."
    "I pay my way," she said. "I don't mooch."
    "I'm paying, so get over it," he said with an angry expression that caused her to snap her mouth shut. "This mess is my fault, so it's the least I can do."
    When Dare opened the casita the door swung open and he flipped on the lights. Lyra wrinkled her nose at the smell of old carpeting and stale cigarettes.
    "There's only one bed." She looked from the queen-size bed to Dare. "Where are you sleeping?"
    The corner of his mouth quirked into a smile. "You'd make me sleep on the floor?"
    "Or in the tub." After all that had happened to them in the last six hours or so, she was surprised she could return his smile.
    He reached up and caressed her cheek with his knuckles. "You have the most beautiful smile."
    A deep thrill ran through Lyra's belly and she fought the urge to move closer to him, to let him embrace her like he had earlier. Instead she stepped back and he let his fingers slip down her face before he tossed his duffle onto a chair.
    Her hands trembled as she turned her back on him and set her pack onto another straight-back chair beside the door. She was alone in a room with a freaking stranger! A stranger who made her feel something more than she should be feeling right now.
    With a huff of air that caused her bangs to flutter at her forehead, she unfastened and raised the flap of her canvas backpack and tried to ignore her awareness of the man. It had to be a reaction caused by the day's events.
    She jerked a T-shirt out and turned to find Dare with no shirt on, his Stetson, boots, and belt tossed onto the chair with his duffle, and the top button of his Wranglers undone.
    Her gaze moved up from his waistband to his well-muscled chest. He had a large scar on his right shoulder. She could just imagine how it would feel to run her palms over his smooth, tanned skin as she kissed that scar. She'd move her fingers up higher to his neck and into his dark hair—
    Her eyes met Dare's and her heart beat faster. She bit her lower lip and clenched her T-shirt in her hands. He raised his hand and slipped his fingers into his hair, ruffling it in a way that made him look even sexier.
    She cleared her throat. "I think you'd better sleep in the bathtub."
    Sirens screamed.
    Too far away!
    Dare rounded one side of the warehouse while his partner crouched behind the open door on the driver's side of the cruiser.

    "Get your ass over here, Lancaster," Franklin said just low enough that only Dare could have heard.
    He and Franklin had responded to a simple trespassing call at an old building on the south side of Tucson and had come upon what looked like a serious drug deal. The moment they'd realized what was going down, Franklin called for backup.
    They'd managed to keep from being seen and eased away from the doorway to the building. Franklin made it back to the cruiser before Dare.
    "Cops!" came a shout from inside the warehouse.
    "Shit," Dare said under his breath.
    He heard a shot behind him. He swung around into a crouch, his arms straight out, gripping his Glock with both hands.
    At the same time he recognized two facts: Franklin was lying facedown in a pool of blood, and a man was swinging his aim from Franklin to Dare.
    Without a moment's hesitation, Dare shot the bastard in the heart.
    The man dropped.
    Dare shouted into his shoulder radio, "Officer down! Officer down!"
    Keeping low, he bolted toward Franklin. Adrenaline pumped through Dare's body and he dived for the cruiser.
    Shots whizzed over his head.
    Before he reached Franklin, something slammed into Dare's shoulder with enough power to knock him flat on his back.
    Excruciating pain tore through him, almost blinding him.
    Despite the pain, he held his arm close to his chest and managed to scoot behind the cruiser's door, beside Franklin.
    The screeching of tires coming to a halt on the asphalt, the earsplitting wail of sirens, and the shouts of men and women officers told him