Lover Beware

Security numbers and all those computers keeping track of us. It means limits, changes to some of our customs. They don’t want to be that visible—or that subject to human law.”
    “Whoever did this is going to end up very visible. I’ll see to that.” Anger boiled up suddenly and she paced in front of him, taking short, jerky steps. “She had two sons. I don’t know their names yet, but one is in the Navy. The other has a wife and child. Once I’ve learned who they are, where they live, I’ll have to tell them their mother is dead because someone had a political point to make.”
    He put a hand on her shoulder. She was all but vibrating with anger. “Killing has always been a political tactic for some. Why do you work homicide when it hurts you this much?”
    She shrugged him off. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m a cop. It’s what I always wanted to do.”
    “It hurts you to see life wasted.” Again he asked, speaking softly, “Why homicide?”
    “Because murder is the worst! It doesn’t kill just once. It throws out waves of destruction that poison so many lives.”
    “This happened to you. Someone you loved was murdered.”
    “My friend. My best friend. Sara Chen.”
    He ached. It took all his control to keep from reaching for her, holding her. But she wouldn’t want that, not here and now. “How old were you?”
    “Seven. A man grabbed her on the way home from school one day. I saw him snatch her. They found her body a week later. They arrested him a week after that.” She swallowed. “I followed it in the papers. My parents didn’t like that—they thought I was hurting myself, that I was obsessed and should let it go. I couldn’t.”
    “No. I can see that. What happened?”
    “He never went to trial. The police were sloppy. They didn’t secure the evidence properly. Seven months later, he killed again. That time, the cops did it right. He didn’t get away with it.”
    She’d given him a piece of herself, something important wrenched up from deep inside where it still hurt. He lifted a hand and rubbed his knuckles along her cheek slowly, thanking her. “This woman isn’t dead because you were sloppy, Lily. You know that.”
    She blinked. “I didn’t mean…I don’t think it’s my fault.”
    Yes, she did. But she was pulling back now, embarrassed that she’d revealed so much. “That’s good. I admire your passion. And your courage.”
    Oh, definitely she was embarrassed now. She turned away, trying to get her cop face back. “The point is, the law has to be the same for everyone. Fuentes has to matter as much as Charlene Hall. And whoever killed them, for whatever reason, has to be stopped.”
    “Of course. Aside from the personal injustice of murder, if there’s sufficient outrage it will affect the vote next fall. Especially if there are killings elsewhere.”
    She stopped moving. “You’re talking about a conspiracy.”
    “I’m speculating. I have no evidence. But with this latest death…” He drove his fingers through his hair. “Killing a woman will garner a great deal more outrage than killing a gang member did, won’t it?”
    “This is going to make trouble for you. She was killed much closer to the Nokolai Clanhome than the others. Rule, I have to talk to your father. I have to talk to a number of your people, but your father first.”
    “He’ll be back tomorrow. I’ll speak to him.” He took her hand, closing his fingers around it firmly. “When are you going to go out with me?”
    Her laugh was uncertain. “I mentioned something before about your odd sense of timing. We’re at a murder scene, for God’s sake.”
    He stroked his thumb along the pulse point in her wrist. “So let’s agree that we have to stop meeting this way, and meet some other way. Over dinner, perhaps. I’m growing impatient.”
    “That’s not my problem.”
    “I want to discuss something other than death and politics with you. I want to see your face when you’re not being a cop.”
    “I’m always a cop.”
    Perhaps. But she was a woman, too. And her heart was beating fast and hard right now, like his. It took all his control to keep from bending to taste that pretty, unsmiling mouth, but he knew how little she’d appreciate that. Her people might see. His mouth crooked up. “I guess tonight is out.”
    “Good guess,” she said dryly. But she didn’t snatch her hand away.
    “Tomorrow won’t work, either. As I said, my father returns then, and we’ll