Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

that no one had followed either him or them.
    "Your man always this careful?" The breeze was growing stronger, blowing her hair in her face. She shoved it back.
    "Pretty much. He likes the cloak and dagger aspect of informing as much as he likes getting a little cash now and... Shit."
    "What?" Lily stopped, her heartbeat revving. Then she realized what he was looking at. Her hand. Specifically, the ring she wore. "Oh. You mean you were, ah... "
    "I had it in mind, yeah. I mean, a lupus - that's temporary."
    Lily eyed Cody warily. "This ring says it isn't. You aren't going to do something stupid, are you?"
    "Like grab you and plant one on?" Cody's teeth flashed white in a grin. "Maybe I thought about it, but, hey, I'm a cop. I can read body language, and yours is saying 'whoa, black belt here.' "
    "Oh." She felt foolish. "How'd you guess? I wasn't a black belt yet when you knew me."
    "You mean you are now? Shit, it's a good thing I finally did develop some sense." He wiped his forearm across his forehead, rearranging the sweat. "Guess I could take it as a compliment that your man was in a hurry to put up that big, shiny KEEP OUT sign."
    A KEEP OUT sign? Like she was property? Lily opened her mouth to tell him what she thought about that attitude... then realized it didn't matter. It really didn't. Maybe Cody would feel better if he thought Rule had considered him a threat. "I guess you could."
    He looked at her for a long moment. "He didn't, though, did he? You may not have been wearing that sparkler earlier, but you had it."
    She smiled. She couldn't help it. Cody had always been at his most appealing when his good sense got the drop on his ego. "I did. We were waiting for the right moment for the big announcement, but I decided right moments can be hard to spot, so why not wear it?"
    His mouth twisted in a wry smile. "Maybe you wanted to put up your own KEEP OUT sign, having just run into me again and all. You'd know that a ring was a good defense against my legendary appeal. Ah - you don't have to actually respond to that. Think I'd like it better if you didn't."
    Lily grinned and started walking toward A12 again. In truth, she'd been thinking of Rule when she put on his ring, and only Rule. Well, him and giving Dreyer a black eye, if she could. "I'm not going to tell you what to think."
    "There's a switch."
    "I did not tell you... okay," she admitted. "Sometimes I did. But I was young."
    "Young, but smart enough to know when to bail. Don't puff up. I mean that. You were right to hand me my walking papers. I've got a lot of regrets from my drinking years, Lily. My stupid years, I call them. I want you to know that you're the biggest one. I shouldn't have let you go."
    Her eyebrows arched. "Shouldn't have let me?"
    "Don't pick at my words, woman. If I'd gone in rehab as soon as... Well, once I knew you meant it, you'd have come back, and you'd have stuck by me. I knew it then, I know it now. You're the kind who sticks."
    She would have. She'd hoped hard that he'd do just that - go into rehab for her sake. For both their sakes. It had been painful, giving up that hope.
    They walked on in silence for a bit. They were in a busier, more crowded section now, which Lily preferred. She'd felt exposed out in the boonies.
    "He's really it for you, this Turner dude?" Cody asked abruptly. "No regrets, no doubts?"
    Lily had always spoken the truth to Cody. She gave him truth now. "No regrets. No doubts."
    His mouth flattened into a straight line, but only for a moment. Then he slipped back into the cocky grin he wore so well. "Guess you finally found someone who worries your mother even more than I did."
    "I did not get involved with you to annoy my mother." When they first started dating, he'd thought her real goal was to shock her mother. That had been the topic of their first fight, but it grew into a shared joke eventually. "That was a side benefit."
    He chuckled. "She give you grief over your fiance?"
    "He's not Chinese," she said dryly. "What do you think?" In truth, Julia Yu wasn't prejudiced in the ordinary sense. She had a keen sense of justice, donated to civil rights organizations, and voted a straight Democratic ticket. And saw no contradiction between that and her insistence that her daughters marry good Chinese boys.
    They were in A12 now, passing the rear end of a dark blue panel van. A trio of teenage girls chattered their way along the center of the traffic lane, much to the frustration of a white Mustang