Harmonized (7 page)

“Where to now?” Karma asked when they were back in the truck and headed south. She rubbed her hands together in front of the heat pouring from the vent and realized they were passing the exit that would have taken her back to her hotel. A yawn escaped her.

“I was going to say let's go to Gwyn's building, see if we can pay a visit to Tina.” Zig put the vehicle in drive and headed back to the highway. “But if you're tired, I can drop you at your place. Where are you staying?”

“I'm good. If you can keep going, I can too. I want to find Wesley,” she said, yawning a second time. “Besides, I'm staying at The Beacon on the other side of the city. I wouldn't want you to have to drive all the way over there.”

Zig lifted his chin. “You
really
didn't want your family to know you were back, did you? Because I can't think of another reason you'd intentionally go into that part of Tidewater at night.”

“It was cheap and available.” She exhaled a small laugh, admitting, “And I didn't remember the neighborhood being quite that bad.”

Zig made a U-turn in the middle of the nearly deserted street and headed toward the highway.

“Where are we going?” Karma hiked a thumb over her shoulder. “Gwyn's apartment is that way.”

“Yeah, but we're closer to your hotel than her place.” Zig adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, never taking his eyes from the road. “Did you know there was a rape and double murder in that hotel last week? It's really not a safe place for a woman to stay alone. Let's get your stuff. You can spend the night at my place.”

Her hormones gave a shout of, “Woo-hoo,” but her head was more cautious. “I don't know . . .”

This time, he did meet her gaze. There was heat in his eyes and something more. Something that bordered on protectiveness? “Karma, we've spent half the night looking for Wesley and we're not done yet. If we don't find him soon, then we'll have to start again tomorrow. Do you really plan to get into the Purple Monster and drive to one of the seediest neighborhoods in the city? If it breaks down, you'll have three choices: call a tow truck and wait in the freezing cold for who knows how long, call someone in your family for help, or call me. Who are you going to call?”

“Ghostbusters?” When he simply stared at her, she relented. “You. I don't have AAA and I'm definitely not calling the McKinnons. Okay, but I'll sleep on your couch.”

He laughed at her. “No, you'll sleep in a bed.”

Her hormones did another cheer until he added, “I've got a spare room.”

***

Zig hadn't planned to ask Karma to stay. He hadn't really thought anything. He'd simply heard the name
The Beacon
and the offer had poured out of his mouth.

He followed her to the doorway of her room at the end unit. The parking lot had lots of shadows. Lots of places where bad guys with worse intentions could lurk, waiting for an unsuspecting woman.

The door banged lightly against the frame.

“Did you mean to leave this door open?” Zig stepped in front of her, his hand on his weapon.

She shook her head. “No, but it sticks. Maybe I didn't close it all the way.” Doubt and concern in her voice.

Zig shifted closer to Karma, covering her and peering into her darkened room. The place was like a sauna. Heat wafted out. “Trying to bring a bit of Mexico home with you?”

She arched an eyebrow, her eyes twinkling. “You know it. It also serves the double effect of melting any potential burglars.”

“Funny woman,” Zig said in an undertone. “Stay behind me.”

He flipped on the light and swept his gaze through the room. In under ten seconds, he tugged open the closet door, the bathroom door, and yanked back the shower curtain. Once he was certain the place was empty, he turned to find Karma standing in the middle of the floor draped in his long leather coat.

“Was that necessary?” she asked, her knee jiggling. Her heel made a soft,
pat-pat-pat
noise on the threadbare carpet. “Do you really think somebody would break in here?”

“Yes.” Starting to sweat from the heat, he shucked off his coat. “Okay, maybe I didn't need to sweep the whole room, but finding a door open that shouldn't be, is never a good thing. Better to be safe. Especially with the murderer from last week's double homicide still on the loose.”

Fear had her knee jiggling harder, as she swept her gaze around the room. “Thanks so much. That killed my desire to stay here. And the room had finally warmed up.”

“This isn't warm,” he said, spotting her battered suitcase in the corner. “This is heat exhaustion waiting to happen. Come on, let's get you packed.”

It took them less than fifteen minutes to gather her things, check out of the hotel, and hit the road again. Another thirty before they were headed into Gwyn's apartment building.

Karma started toward Gwyn's apartment, but Zig headed instead for the row of silver mailboxes. “Over here, Karma.”

He was running his finger across the name tags on each one, as she walked up. “Ooh, good idea. Do you see a Tina anywhere?”

“No, but there's one T. Anderson in apartment 101.” He pointed down the hall. Like in his building, Cupid and flowers adorned every door, including T. Anderson's.

He knocked on the door and waited. When no one answered, he knocked again, this time a little harder.

“Maybe she's asleep? It's nearly midnight now.”

A dog in the next-door apartment barked. Seconds later, a man wearing a dirty wife-beater shirt and boxer shorts too thin to be decent, appeared from the adjacent apartment. His heavy jowls swung as he spoke. “Whassmatter? Do you have any idea what time it is? Some people gotta work around here.”

“I'm sorry, but we're looking for my friend Tina,” Karma said, an innocent smile plastered on her face. She spoke with a thick Spanish accent. “I just flew in from Mexico to surprise her. Have you seen her?”

Jowly neighbor blinked. “I ain't seen nobody named Tina. Now go away.”

He started to shut the door, but Karma stuck the toe of her shoe in the jamb. Her eyes round, confusion in them. Her hands wringing. “
¡Madre de Dios!
I could have sworn she lived in this apartment. Are you sure you don't know my friend Tina?”

The act was so good, even Zig might have been fooled. If he didn't know her. And if he wasn't a trained cop. But jowly neighbor definitely bought it.

His face softened into a droopy sympathetic smile. “I'm sorry, honey. You seem like a real nice lady. Not like most of the snobs on this floor. They think they're better than me 'cause I'm a sanitation engineer. I tried to be nice when I moved in, but folks here won't talk to me. If your friend lives on this floor, I'd find a new one.”

“Her friend might've had a baby recently,” Zig interjected. He was about to show his badge, when the scowl returned to the jowly man's face.

“No babies in this building.” He paused, rubbed at the salt-and-pepper stubble on his chin, then gave Karma another pathetic smile. “Sorry. If your friend had a baby, she don't live here.”

Karma met Zig's gaze and shrugged when Zig said, “Thank you, sir. I'm sorry we woke you.”

Jowls quivering, he grinned wide. “'S'all right. Night, now,” he said, closing himself back in his place.

Zig took Karma by the elbow and steered her back to his truck. By the time he'd pulled out of the parking lot, she'd dropped her head to her chest and fell asleep.

She'll get a crick in her neck sleeping like that.

He reached up with his right hand and gently nudged her toward him. She shifted in her sleep until her head rested on his shoulder. Turning his head slightly, he kissed the top of her head.

“Rest, now. We'll be home soon.”

His heart twisted with his words. They weren't going home. Not really. He was going home and she was a guest. Not like when they were younger and making plans for their future. This time, he knew that their time together was only temporary.

But damn, what if she chose to stick around this time?

To only mild surprise, he realized he wished she'd want to. Somewhere between her sauntering into the station and now, it dawned on him that the old buried feelings he had for her weren't so old. Or so buried. What would he do if she chose to stay?

The thought jolted him but not as much as the hope blooming in his chest.

Yeah, if only she'd stick around.

He might just let her.

Karma awoke as the engine cut off. She lifted her head.

That was drool on her mouth and . . . yes, on the shoulder of Zig's coat. She swiped at her lips, then looked for something to dab away the wet from his coat.

Ooh, I'm so classy.

He glanced at the wet spot and grinned. “Don't worry about it. Feel better?”

Surprisingly, she did. She stretched. “I do, thanks. How long was I out?”

“Fifteen minutes.” He unbuckled his belt and reached behind his seat for Karma's suitcase. “Come on, let's head upstairs.”

“I can get that.”

He ignored her and kept right on walking. She followed him up into his apartment and down the hall to the spare bedroom. After rolling her suitcase into a corner, he crossed his arms. “Got any sweats in there? I can't afford to set my heat to tropical on a cop's salary.”

Karma frowned. “Not really. All of my clothes are like these. I don't even own a pair of sneakers. Just heels and sandals.”

He held up an index finger to signal her to wait, and then disappeared across the hall. Soon, Zig was back with a set of gray sweats. “They might be a bit big on you, but they'll do.”

She accepted the clothes, gladly. “Thanks.”

After Zig left, she changed into the cotton running suit. The material was soft and much warmer than her dress and smelled like Zig. She lifted the collar of the shirt to her nose and sniffed, then jumped when he knocked on her door.

“Karma, before you go to sleep I want to compare notes about the last guy we talked to.”

She opened the door to find he'd also changed. He wore a dark blue henley shirt and matching sleep pants that brought out the cerulean in his eyes. In bare feet, he padded down the hall.

“Want a beer?” he asked, heading into the kitchen.

“Sounds really good.” Karma pinned Wesley's picture back onto the fridge, relieved his aura was still there.

“You still see his colors?” Zig opened the fridge and pulled out two bottles, handing her one.

“Thanks.” She accepted the drink but didn't do more than hold it. “Yes, he's still glowing blue. No change. Maybe whoever has him knows about the CAH?”

“Hmm . . .” Zig's noncommittal response had her turning in time to see him reach into the freezer for an icepack.

“What's that ice for?” she asked, following him into the living room.

“My shoulder bugs me a bit.” He arranged himself on the sofa, positioning the icepack between his shoulder and the couch, and opened his beer.

Karma sat down beside him and opened hers too, but didn't drink. She eyed him, worried. “At the station tonight, I asked if you were hurt but you said no. Did I do that to you?”

He cocked his head and rested his chin on the mouth of the bottle. “No. It's an old injury. I overdid it at PT yesterday. It's not important. I'm fine.”

“An old injury?” She remembered the way Jules had hugged him so carefully. “Did it happen on the case where you met Jules and earned the Silver Star?”

Zig exhaled hard, took another swig of beer. “Let's talk about the Bremer case, 'kay? What did you see in Jowly Neighbor's aura?”

“Jowly Neighbor?” She sat puzzled for a moment then realized. “Oh, the sanitation engineer. For the most part, his aura was a dark olive-green, tinged with mustard-yellow at the edges. Exactly what I'd expect to see from a self-absorbed, insecure kind of guy.”

“What do you mean, ‘mostly'?” Zig set his beer on the coffee table and turned to face her. His hand fell casually on her knee. Well, casually for him. For her it sent a zing of awareness shooting through her nerve endings.

“When he started talking to me, really talking to me, his color shifted to a warmer blue-green. Like he was happy to have someone to talk to and like he really wanted to help me. What did you see with your super-spidey-cop's senses?”

Zig frowned at her until she batted her eyelashes at him. A half smile on his face he shook his head. “Cute. My spidey-cop-senses told me that guy has no clue about the people in his building. He didn't know he even had a neighbor named Tina or that Gwyn had a baby upstairs. He was a dead end. We'll go back and knock on her door again in the morning, see if we can catch her then.”

“Oh, so that's it? Just wait until morning?”

“We've done everything we can do on the case for tonight. Awake now that you've had a nap?” Humor sparkled in his eyes. “I've got notes to make on the case but they can wait if you want to do something else?”

Oh yes, she definitely wanted to do something else. “I'm awake. What do you have in mind?”

He took another pull on his beer. A long one. Finally, he lowered it. His eyes were deadly serious. “How about we have that talk now? The one where you explain what happened eight years ago?”

If a human heart could literally jackknife into a stomach, hers would have done it. “On second thought, it's late.”

She started to push to her feet, but he placed a gentle hand on her knee again. This was not casual, nor was it aggressive. “Let me see if I can get you started. This has something to do with your mother.”

Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Karma asked, “How did you know that?”

“My super-spidey-cop's senses.” He gave her a tender smile. “You mentioned earlier tonight that she died years ago. And everything always seemed to come back to your relationship with her. If I hadn't been so emotionally invested all those years ago, I'd have seen it then too. So what happened?” He traced his fingers lightly over her knee.

He'd been emotionally invested in her back then, but wasn't anymore. It was logical. It was smart. It was painful. More so because she could so easily fall for him all over again.

Reluctantly, she admitted to herself she'd never completely gotten over him. Eight years and he was still the star of her sex-filled dreams. Fall for him again, right. Like she'd ever completely stopped being in love with him.

Karma downed half the bottle of beer without tasting it. Zig watched her through those laser-blue eyes of his, curious and assessing.

He took a pull on his beer, set it aside, and sighed low and long. “Guess there'll be no answers tonight for anyone.”

It wasn't what he said so much as the tone and the look of defeat on his face that prompted her to speak.

“You remember I told you about my mother dragging me to the priest when I was fifteen? Well, what happened eight years ago, actually started way back then in Mexico.

“The near-exorcism was the beginning of the end for me. My mother married that boyfriend, José. He brought two children from a previous marriage into the mix. I don't know if you remember me mentioning stepbrothers or not, but they were younger than me and a handful.

“Only two weeks after they were married, José began complaining about me. He claimed I was a bad influence on my younger stepbrothers.” Karma snorted her disgust at the idea of José calling her a bad influence.
Madre de Dios
. She'd barely started speaking and already her hands were shaking. “It came down to them or me. I was only a few years from going to college, but the boys were four and two. My mother loved them and didn't want to lose them. So, one night she came to my room and told me she'd made arrangements for me to live with my father in the States.”

“That's when you came to the States? Moved in with your father?” Zig took the beer from her and set it next to his. His lightly calloused palms held her trembling fingers with such tenderness it made her nerve endings tingle. “I always assumed you wanted to come to Tidewater. You talked about your mother with only love and respect. Did you even know your father before you got here?”

“No. I'd never met him. Mama wouldn't let me. I think she was afraid I'd choose my American life over my Mexican one. So, there I was, a teenaged girl essentially kicked out of her country and sent to live with a man I wasn't sure wanted me either.”

“When I met you, you were so close with the McKinnons. Like you'd grown up with them.” Zig brought her hands to his lips and blew warm air on them.

“In a way, I had. But that part of my life didn't start until I was a teenager. It was terrifying flying up to Virginia. I was ready to turn right back and promise my mother anything if she'd let me come home. But then I met my dad. He was so excited. He showed up at the airport with half the McKinnon clan.” The memory of the way her father's ruddy complexion had brightened when they met, nearly choked her. “He'd told me he'd loved me from the moment he found out about me: when my mother contacted him after her wedding to José. My dad took me home, showed me my bedroom. I kept waiting for him to send me back to Mexico, but he didn't. The day I received my college acceptance letter, I was sitting on my bed, worried about how to pay for school. He told me not to worry about it. The McKinnons took care of their own. That's when he told me he'd known I was truly a McKinnon the moment he'd seen the birthmark on my ear at the airport.”

Karma rubbed at the diamond-shaped spot on her earlobe. The exact same mark her father had on his ear. Tears burned at the corners of her eyes and stung her nose, but she refused to surrender to them.

“I remember how much your father loved you.” Zig grinned ruefully. “The first time he met me, he threatened to kick my ass and make it look like I'd tripped, if I ever laid a hand on you.”

“Really? Daddy always told me how much he liked you.” Shock had Karma's mouth gaping. “Why didn't you ever tell me?”

“And admit that my girlfriend's father scared the piss out of me?” He waved away the notion. “'Cause that sounds really manly.”

Karma laughed at the expression on Zig's face. “You could always do that to me. Make me laugh even when I felt at my worst.”

“Not always. You never gave me a chance to cheer you up eight years ago.” He moved his hands away and a chasm opened between them as wide as the years they'd spent apart. For the first time since the station, he let her see the pain she'd caused him. It made her wince but she didn't look away.

“We had one argument about nothing at all. Hell, we'd had bigger fights about who to vote for for president. But you picked that one fight to decide to be rid of me. Not a word or a note or even ‘Bite me, asshole.' You just left.” His eyes burned with old heartache and resentment. “You were so worried about your family rejecting you but you didn't have a problem walking out on me.”

“Is that what you think happened?” Karma could hardly speak around the ball of regret lodged in her throat. She'd always known she'd hurt him when she'd left, but she'd never dreamed he'd have believed she walked away without a backward glance. She had to tell him the truth. Blinking back hot tears she forced out the words, “I didn't leave you because I wanted to. I sacrificed us to save you.”

***

“What the hell does that mean?” Zig couldn't sit there another second, and yet he didn't trust his legs to bear his weight. Her words knocked the strength out of him. “
Sacrificed
us to save
me
? That doesn't make any goddamn sense. Explain exactly how you did that.”

Karma's shining eyes ripped at his guts. She fought the waterworks. Not a single tear slipped out.

She jutted out her chin and exhaled slowly. “The day before I left, José came to see me.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Her stepfather stank of a con. Zig hadn't been in his presence five minutes when he saw the asshole for what he was: a slick grifter with an oily facade. “He brought you flowers and cards from your mother. Said how much they all missed you while he scoped out every piece of electronic equipment in your dorm room.”

A short burst of air escaped her. “You were a cop, even then. You saw everything. So much more than I did. So did my dad. Not me, though. I mean, I knew José was off, but I really believed he loved my mother.” Her voice shook. She reached for her beer, sipped it, and then cleared her throat. “Anyway, that day in the dorm room, it was clear that you and José didn't exactly hit it off.”

“The way I remember it, he demanded to speak with you alone. Said to get rid of the nosy gringo.”

“And you told him to take his snake-oil salesman's ass out of my room,” she said with an aggrieved chuckle.

“And you told me to go to class.”

“Not that you listened. You followed us through the courtyard. All the way to José's car. What did you think I was going to do?” The annoyance in her voice caught him off-guard.

“That day, I was worried for you. The little you had mentioned about José was never good and I could see he was up to something. I didn't want him to hurt you. José made the back of my neck itch. The dude was bad news. I had no reason to doubt you back then.”

Her eyes shined with more unshed tears, making him wonder what he'd said to bring on the fresh rush of pain.

“I wish you would have told me that back then. Instead of talking to me, you stormed up to José and punched him in the face. You broke his nose! Then told me to go back to my dorm room like I was a freaking child!”

“He had his hands on you. I was protecting my girlfriend!”
God!
Eight years and the woman still made him want to pull out his hair. “Your dog of a stepfather was trying to force you into his car.”

“I told you back then it wasn't what it looked like. I could've handled him. Instead of trusting me, you had to jump in. Your caveman tactics put me in a really bad place.”

What?!
“My actions? I'm not the one who was trying to kidnap you. And as I recall, instead of thanking me for saving you, you told me to mind my own business. I believe you demanded that I stop acting like a jealous, possessive jerk or find myself a different girlfriend.”

“And you told me to stop behaving like a naïve little girl,” she retorted. For an instant, fight lit her eyes then died out.