The Awakening: Liam (Entangled Covet) by Abby Niles

fingerprint. The guy is good. Thorough. Even masks his scent,
    which makes it more difficult for me.” She pinned Liam with her gaze. “Don’t tell Britton I said that, okay?
    I much prefer it when he believes I’m superior to him.”
    Liam held up his hands. “Far be it for me to interfere with this war you two have going on.”
    “Thank you. I want to be honest with you. I’m good at my job, but even I have my limitations. I found
    you on your scent, not the other guy’s. He either forgot to cover yours or believed it would be over before
    we found you. I tend to think he wasn’t expecting a friend to follow you when you went to Miss Michael’s
    place, much less a cop who would immediately bring in SPAC. Either way, if he’d covered your scent, too,
    we’d most likely still be looking for you.”
    Her meaning was clear. They’d most likely be dead.
    Swallowing, he realized how close Ava had come to truly dying. If Ava had not escaped when she did,
    her death would have been imminent. And then it wouldn’t have mattered what happened to him. In fact he
    would’ve probably welcomed death.
    “Miss Michaels also mentioned your captor injected her with something to make you believe she was
    dead.”
    “Twice.”
    Val shot a look at him. “Twice?”
    “He knew too much about Dsershon , Val. He might have tortured Ava, but I believe it was all staged to
    get at me.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “I can’t find another explanation. I even goaded him at one point, to buy Ava time to escape, and told
    him it wasn’t my fault his mate Dserted him. He went fucking ballistic and screamed that it was my fault.”
    “He blames you because his mate left him? Did you ever come between a shifter and his mate?”
    “Never. So I can’t figure out who or what he was talking about.”
    Val shifted her body toward him in the chair. “I hate to ask this, Liam, but what about the woman you
    hit with your car a few years ago? I wasn’t around back then, but I’ve heard tidbits about the accident over
    the years.”
    That night was always there in the back of his mind, reminding him that life was precious and could be
    taken in a minute. And now he had a new reminder, one that hummed in his blood. He never wanted to feel
    it go silent again.
    “It couldn’t be because of that. She was human. Married to a human man, and had two very small
    human children.” He glanced at the floor, remembering the family that had been devastated by one
    senseless act, the two little girls that clung to their daddy while he talked to Liam with red-rimmed eyes. “I
    went to them to ask for forgiveness. The husband didn’t blame me. Said I’d been lucky to survive myself,
    from the look of the car. Little did he know, right? Had I been human I would most likely have died from
    my injuries, too, but I was completely healed twenty-four hours later. It’s unfair that I survived while she
    had to leave her loved ones behind.”
    “What about the drunk driver? Was it a female? Maybe a mate to a shifter, and he blames you for
    getting her locked up?”
    “The she was a he , and he was also human. He also didn’t get locked up. Had himself a kickass
    attorney, no prior record, and a prescription for the Xanax in his system. He blew under the legal limit, so it
    was the cocktail of beer and drugs that caused him to pass out at the stoplight and then coast into the middle
    of the intersection. He pled guilty to driving while impaired. The involuntary manslaughter charges were
    reduced to a DUI and he pretty much got a slap on the wrist.”
    “And you can’t think of anything else? A bar fight? Flirted with the wrong woman?”
    “Geez, Val, for the last eight months I’ve been dealing with Dsershon . Before that I was with Ava. And
    before that…no, I wasn’t a saint, but I didn’t go looking to cause trouble, either, especially with a bonded
    female.”
    Val grimaced. “Sorry. I’m just trying to figure this out.”
    “Trust me, I am,