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Her expression softened with a small smile. “I’m sorry if she bothered you.”

“Jeez, Bri, I’m not a child,” Kendall muttered, scrunching her lips.

Joe gathered himself and shook his head. “I knew I was opening myself up for an inquisition when I agreed to buy all this chocolate, it’s fine.” He held out a hand. “I’m Joe.”

When the vampire he’d technically been speaking to hesitated, Kendall jumped in and took his hand. “I’m Kendall. This is Brianna. Please forgive her deplorable manners. She’s a horrible hypocrite.”

Oh, she obviously enjoyed that way too much. Whatever the story was between these two, Joe found himself incredibly curious. Outwardly, he grinned as his arm fell back to hang at his side. “I think ‘deplorable’ might be a bit of a stretch.”

“I’m sorry,” Brianna said. She offered Joe a smile, showing only a tiny glimpse of pearly whites. “I have no excuse. For once Kendall’s right.” She held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Joe.”

In the course of his life, Joe hadn’t been close to many vampires. Not to say he’d never shaken the hands of any, either. He always found himself expecting their skin to be cold, maybe awkwardly clammy. Once again, he was reminded that that wasn’t the case. Her skin was soft, and as warm as anyone else’s. He pushed the thought from his mind as their hands fell apart. “No apologies necessary.” Whatever he might have added died on his tongue with the sudden, incessant buzzing coming from his cell phone. “Ah, excuse me,” he said instead as he lifted the device from a pocket.

Caller ID said simply Cabin and Joe felt one of his eyebrows raise. He turned partially to the side and put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Abort mission!” Jim Roades whispered urgently on the other end of the line.

Both eyebrows rose now. “What?”

“Ixnay on the ocolatechay,” Jim said. Joe could practically see him making a swiping motion across his throat with his other hand.

Barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Joe glanced at the basket laden with an obscene amount of chocolate and said, “Okay, I guess I meant, why? What’s going on? I’ve got a shopping cart full of choc—”

“Shh!”

Joe pulled the phone a little away from his ear. Had Jim just hissed? What the hell?

In his peripheral vision, Joe noticed Kendall saunter off, out of sight. He supposed he couldn’t blame them for not standing around, though he was a little concerned at the twinge of disappointment he felt.

Jim spoke again in his ear. “Don’t even say the word!”

Joe reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Jim, take a breath. What the hell happened?”

A beat of silence, punctuated by the distant, muffled sound of an impact probably in another room. A slamming door or something dropped, maybe. Then Jim found his voice, though he kept it at a whisper. “So maybe I hadn’t told anyone I’d asked you to pick up some … stuff,” he started. “I would’ve mentioned it to Adam, but he was out hunting. I thought. We thought. Except it turns out he decided to sneak into the city to get some … you-know-what … for Whitney. Like a surprise. And she’s pissed.”

Joe tipped his head back to the stare at the high, dull gray ceiling of the warehouse store. “She’s mad about the trip, right?” He phrased the question carefully, just to be safe.

“Mostly,” Jim said. “Technically.” He paused. “But she’s blaming the cho—stuff. Said she doesn’t ever want to see it or smell it again.”

“What’d she do with what he got her?” He didn’t need to know, but he was curious. The scene seemed outrageous in his mind, but he doubted very much that Jim would be making it up.

“She threw it in the fire.” Jim said it so flatly that the absurdity of the statement nearly went over Joe’s head.

“She did what?” He wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness.

“Package and everything,” Jim said. “Kyle even teared up a little. Until the yelling started. Did I mention she’s pissed?” Jim sighed. “She’s mad about the risk to the pack, and if he’d died she’d have died, and if she’d died the baby’d die—obviously—and all for … you know.”

Chocolate. Joe couldn’t help but grin, a mix of sympathy for his friend and relief for himself for not having to be there coursing through him. “Well, tell Adam good luck. I guess I’ll go put this stuff back on the shelves.”

“Sorry,” Jim said. Something that sounded like a muffled shout echoed through the phone line. “Ah, I have to go. Duty calls.”

Joe wished him good luck and disconnected with a shake of his head. Think I’ll put off visiting for a few more days.

“That was interesting.”

Joe’s eyes widened and he turned back around, finding himself staring again into Brianna’s dark gaze. She hadn’t walked off with Kendall like he’d assumed. In fact, she’d stepped close enough to run her fingers along the flattened top edge of his cart. Crap. With her vampiric hearing, even though they were in a large, well-occupied building, she’d probably heard every word.

The corners of her lips lifted in a surprisingly soft smile. “You’re friends with that wolf pack.” It was a statement, not a question.

For a long second Joe’s mind travelled back through time, to the night of his attack. The night that angry vampire had forced his way into Joe’s home and barreled through everything in his path until he could sink his fangs into Joe’s throat. All because he smelled like he’d been around werewolves recently.

But this wasn’t that. That night was behind him. He’d survived. In the end, the vampire hadn’t.

Joe took a quiet breath, tucked the fingers of one hand into his pocket, and said, “Yes, I am.”