Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

cigarettes anymore. Or bourbon. "I was never sure how much you remembered of those fights. Toward the end, especially."
    "Most of them. Most of them I remember better than I'd like. If it makes any difference, you were right."
    She shot him another glance. "What, about everything? That's a dangerous thing to say."
    He grinned. "I live for risk." The grin faded. "Not for booze. Not anymore."
    They walked in silence for a moment, heading for the loading bay on the side of the building. "I heard," she said finally. "I heard you went to rehab."
    He snorted. "Got my ass shoved into rehab, you mean. I screwed up big-time and I got caught, which was the best thing that could've happened. Course, I was too stupid to see that at the time. Not entirely stupid, because I knew it was only luck I didn't get anyone killed, but pretty damn stupid. You told me that's where I was headed. You were right."
    She'd heard about it. Cody had been off duty when he tried to stop a liquor store robbery. Unfortunately, he was there as a customer - and way over the legal limit already, which was why the idiot had a cab take him to the store. Typical Cody, she'd thought at the time - half asshole, half hero. He'd known he was too drunk to drive, but he'd still tried to take down an armed perp.
    It could have been so much worse. Cody ended up with a slug in his thigh and the clerk got his hair parted by a stray bullet, but they both survived. The perp got clean away.
    Oh, yeah, she'd heard about it. Some of CJ's friends had made sure of that. The way they saw it, if she'd stuck by him, he wouldn't have needed to drink so much. "I didn't want to be right."
    He smiled. "If you're not going to take the opportunity for one helluva good I-told-you-so, I can't make you."
    That smile flicked a lot of memories on the raw. She stopped, looking at him. "Did you know what Hammond and Sheffield said after we broke up?"
    He shook his head. "I was too down-deep in my own miseries to pay attention to much else."
    "They told everyone I'd used you. That the Armani bust should've been yours, but I used you, took the credit, then dumped you once I got some attention from the brass."
    "Shit. Those assholes. I should've guessed they'd shoot off their mouths, but I didn't. I didn't think, which was typical for me back then." His voice went low and fierce. "Lily, you gotta believe me about this much. After you dumped me, I said some shit I shouldn't have. I was hurting, and I wanted like crazy for it all to be your fault so I wouldn't have to look too close at me. But I never talked you down professionally. Not to those two or anyone else."
    Some of the rawness eased. Though she noted the qualifier - he hadn't talked her down professionally - she could let that go. After a breakup, people talked bad about the other one... or that's what seemed to be the norm, anyway. Lily hadn't talked about Cody at all, good or bad, but that was her norm. When she hurt, she clamped down tight.
    "Okay. I believe you. Maybe we'd better let all that rest in peace now. I'm here to get a look at that body. There's a lot riding on this one." She started forward.
    He fell into step beside her. "Guess I picked a bad time to drag up auld lang syne. You're smarting from whatever you were arguing about with your new man."
    "You said the vic was found in a storage shed."
    "I can take a hint. You don't want to talk about him, but I can't help wondering - "
    "Is Magruder the pathologist on this one?'
    He shook his head sadly. "Guess I might as well let it drop. You aren't talking. But you could have knocked me down with a feather when I learned you'd taken up with a lupus. Fun and games I could understand... well, sort of. You weren't exactly the fun-and-games type back when I knew you, but that could've changed. I hear lupi are real good at changing a woman's mind about that sort of thing. But you and he are an item, right? Been together a few months."
    "I'm remembering another reason we used to fight so often. One that had nothing to do with your drinking." They'd reached the loading dock. She jabbed the buzzer next to the normal-size metal door, but the light stayed red, meaning the door was still locked.
    "You fight with your lupus dude much?"
    She punched the button again. "On what planet would that be any of your business?"
    "Friends get to ask that sort of thing."
    "We aren't friends!"
    That came out too hard, too strong. The flicker of hurt in his eyes was real, judging by how quickly he