Free Reckless Pleasures by Tori Carrington

become a nag?”
    Dari shifted his weight off his cast, thinking he should have taken his cane out of the car. “I thought you gave them up a couple of years ago after your last tour.”
    Jason exhaled and flicked the ash off the end of the smoke. “So did I.”
    Dari remembered clearly because his friend had been hell to live with during the two-month period of the on-again, off-again battle. He’d make it for a week and then buy a pack that would turn into ten before going cold turkey for another week.
    “Is this case that trying?”
    Jason squinted at him in the hazy early-morning sunlight. “It’s not exactly a walk in the forest.”
    Dari leaned against the car as well, putting the sheriff’s office in view. It was little more than a small, squat building that could have been mistaken for an insurance agent or attorney’s office.
    “That’s what I was hoping to do today,” he said, not wanting to go inside that building.
    “What? Walk in the forest?”
    “Yeah.”
    “With a gimp leg?”
    “With a gimp leg.”
    “You’d only hold me up.”
    “Oh, yeah? Try me.”
    Jason pushed off the car and turned his back on the building. “Trust me, I’ve had my fill of slogging through these swamps. If there was something to be found, we would have found it already.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Or maybe not. What are you thinking?”
    “I don’t know yet.” Dari grinned. “I’ll let you know when I do.”
    Jason chuckled and shook his head. “I should have known better than to ask.”
    “Hey, you know I’m more a man of action. Put me on field duty any day.”
    “Yeah, me, too.”
    “Nah, you were always good at working either angle. Actually, from what I’ve seen over the past year, I think you may have missed your calling. You could have done something to land yourself on the Forbes list.”
    “Good God, why in the hell would I want to do that?”
    “Money, of course. And chicks.”
    “Money I could always use. But I’ve never had any trouble in the chick department.”
    “Speaking of which…anything interesting down here?”
    Jason squinted at him but didn’t say anything.
    This time Dari laughed. “It’s not like you to play coy. Don’t tell me you went and found discretion.”
    “It is the better part of valor.”
    “Never where you’re concerned. I usually get the details whether I want them or not.”
    A sheriff’s vehicle pulled up into the lot beside them.
    “So, are we planning to go in or just hang out here all day?” Dari asked.
    “Get your cane.”
    “Why?”
    Jason gave him a long look.
    Dari opened the door and took it out.
    “Hey, Savage,” the uniformed officer called out as he headed in their direction. “Sheriff.”
    The two men shook hands, said something obvious about the oppressive heat and then Jason turned toward Dari.
    “Sheriff Harry Brown, I’d like you to meet one of my partners at Lazarus Security, Darius Folsom.”
    Dari shook the man’s hand, noticing the way he looked him over.
    Jason added, “Dari’s just back from Afghanistan. IED action. Injury leave.”
    The sheriff’s brows hiked up on his forehead. “Rally? Which branch?”
    Dari told him.
    The other man hiked up his pants. “I’m a Marine myself. And my son’s over there now. Kandahar.”
    “Tough duty,” Dari said.
    “You bet your ass.”
    They talked for a few moments more and then the sheriff said, “It’s getting hot as Hades out here.
    What’s say we go inside? I’ve got some info you guys might be able to use.”
    Jason winked at Dari as they followed the other man across the lot toward the building. If he didn’t know better, he’d say his buddy had set up everything from the word go, from hanging outside at the SUV, to bringing Dari along for the ride, down to the cane he’d asked him to get. And as such, he’d gotten offered information rather than begging for some he’d likely never get.
    Dari shook his head. Jason had definitely missed his calling.

    UNFORTUNATELY, AN