Karma Patrol (23 page)

“How much do they pay you for all of this insanity?”

“They don’t, officially,” she replied, smiling at his disbelieving expression. “When we need money, we find it. You wouldn’t believe how much cash people lose in this city every year. Most of it ends up with one of us. The higher ranking you are in the Fate Divisions, the more money you find.”

“Shouldn’t you be returning it to its rightful owner in order to avoid negative karma?” he asked, and she shook her head.

“What we find is put in our path because it’s been lost by someone as a negative karmic consequence. If we gave it back, we’d just be reversing that consequence and resetting their karmic balance from neutral back to negative.”

“So you’re really doing them a favor by keeping their cash?”

“We’re just doing our jobs. We get our bonuses like that, too. I tend to have good luck with finding designer stuff in thrift shops, especially when my catchment area is performing well. Last year, after I resolved a big karmic snag, I found a brand-new Hermes bag at a thrift shop for two dollars.”

He rolled his eyes at the dreamy tone in her voice. “As long as they’re giving you the things that really matter in life,” he told her, and she snickered.

“They know what motivates me,” she agreed. They’d reached the first floor, and Jade’s hand hesitated on the handle of the door to the lobby.

“Problem?” he asked, and she sighed.

“I don’t usually have a problem with death or gore or anything like that. Sometimes it’s part of the job. This is different, though. These people are my neighbors. Some of them are my friends. I don’t know how I’m going to handle it if any of them are lying dead out there.”

He tightened his grip around her shoulders, drawing her in against his chest for a moment. “You’ll handle it just like this,” he said. “With me backing you up. Okay?”

Jade took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s go see how bad it is.”

“And find a paramedic,” he added, only half joking. “This may not be life-threatening, but it stings like a son of a bitch.”

The lobby was cast in flashing red and blue lights from the police cruisers outside, giving the usually cozy space a bizarre industrial feel. A woman’s body was sprawled in front of the elevator, and two uniformed officers leaned over her. She was lying face down, but Jade recognized her shirt and knew who it was before they turned her over.

“Oh, Dani,” she sighed, watching as one of the cops checked the younger woman’s pulse and shook his head at his partner. “I’m so sorry.”

“Friend of yours?” Luke murmured, and squeezed her shoulders again when she nodded in the affirmative.

“She wasn’t supposed to die,” she began, thoroughly frustrated with Destiny Division and their high-handed nonsense, and then flinched when she realized they were no longer alone. If any of the officers overheard her, they might get the wrong idea.

“She was just a kid,” Luke agreed, seeing the problem and filling in seamlessly to cover up her slip. “And nobody should have to die like this.”

“Excuse me, folks, is everyone—” The uniformed officer who’d started to approach them stopped in his tracks when Luke turned to face him. “Detective Jackson?”

“Hey, Sykes.”

“Did you just get here?” the officer asked, glancing from them to the building entrance, and Jade realized he was confused because she and Luke wouldn’t have been able to come in the front door and get to where they were standing now without having passed him first.

“No, I was here when the shooting started,” Luke replied. “I didn’t see much, so I won’t be real useful to you.”

“And—uh, your friend?”

Sykes was looking expectantly at Jade, and too late Luke realized that having his arm around her shoulders was likely to give away that she wasn’t just a random civilian. If he told Sykes they were together, it would be all over the precinct before tomorrow morning.

Jade seemed to sense his hesitation, but before she could give Sykes one of her bright smiles and some lie about him having rescued her during the shooting, Luke spoke again.

“She’s my girlfriend. This is her building.”

Sykes looked like he might have a few more questions to ask about the long-time bachelor detective suddenly having a girlfriend the department didn’t know about. Cops gossiped like teenage girls, and having Luke claim Jade as his girlfriend in front of another officer was going to blow whatever betting pools they were running about his love life right out of the water.

“Are the paramedics here yet?” Jade asked, changing the subject. “Luke was shot.”

Sykes’ expression turned to one of concern as he looked at Luke’s arm, but Luke shook his head.

“It’s just a graze. Stings like hell, but I’ll be fine.”

“The paramedics are outside,” Sykes told them both. “I’ll get somebody in here for you right away. So far, Detective, you’re probably the worst injury I’ve seen. All of the other survivors just have minor cuts from glass or shrapnel.”

He was the worst injury because all of the others who’d been shot were dead, he realized, and a glance at Jade told him she’d realized it too.

“How many people died?”

The question was Jade’s, asked in a stony voice that sounded unnatural coming from her.

“We’ve found four so far, ma’am,” Sykes said. “We’re still securing the area.”

“There isn’t anyone in the stairwell,” Luke told him. “That’s where we went when the shooting started. No one followed us.”

“Luke? What are you doing here?”

Aaron Sanford, who’d apparently arrived at the crime scene while they’d been talking to Sykes, approached them from the entrance to the lobby. He stopped short when he got a good look at them, and Luke wondered whether he’d been taken aback by the bloody fabric tied around his partner’s arm or by the fact that Luke had his other arm around Jade Bailey. Based on long association with Aaron, Luke suspected it was the latter.

Sykes excused himself, presumably to find a paramedic, which left Aaron alone with Luke and Jade.

“I can’t wait to hear this story,” Aaron informed them.

“You can wait,” Luke corrected him. He’d been okay with telling Sykes that he and Jade were together, even knowing the rumor mill at the precinct would immediately start running overtime, but he wasn’t up for being interrogated by his partner right now. “A handful of Jade’s neighbors just got killed and I’ve got a bullet graze that needs a medic. Satisfy your curiosity later.”

Aaron looked contrite as Luke squeezed Jade’s shoulder, indicating a couch in the lobby that seemed untouched by the chaos around it. “Let’s go sit down,” he prompted her, leading her gently in that direction. “Aaron, I think Sykes went to find a medic. Will you bring them over here?” he added over his shoulder to his partner, who nodded.

Luke sank down onto the cushions, Jade leaning into his side as she sat next to him.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, concerned, and he squeezed her shoulders again.

“I’m fine, babe. Just a little sore.” That was a lie, but he wasn’t sure how it would help anything if he told her he was starting to feel nauseated and dizzy from the pain. “What about you? Are you holding up okay?”

She sighed. “I feel terrible about Danielle, and I wish I knew who was doing this, but I’m okay.”

That was something, anyway. As he used his good arm to pull her closer to him, he reflected on how much had changed in the space of a day. Last night he’d agonized over his feelings for Jade, raging angrily against the soulmate bond that was trying to force him into the kind of relationship he’d spent his entire life avoiding. Now, with her slender body pressed against him and her soft blonde hair tickling his nose as he nuzzled the top of her head, he wondered why he’d ever wanted to fight this.

“It’ll be all right,” he told her. “We’ll find whoever’s doing it and we’ll stop him. I promise.”

he medic insisted Luke go to the nearest ER for evaluation, which didn’t surprise anyone. From the look on Aaron’s face, he’d expected Luke to refuse, but Jade’s hand on her soulmate’s arm stopped his protest before it started. She was grateful Luke was willing to listen to reason, but Aaron spent the entire drive to the hospital giving her a series of incredulous looks that suggested the drastic change in his partner’s behavior hadn’t gone unnoticed.

After Luke was taken back into the examining area, where partners and girlfriends apparently weren’t permitted, Jade decided her best bet would be to pour herself a cup of coffee and settle in for a long wait. She made it halfway to the coffee pot in the corner of the waiting room before her legs became suddenly uncooperative, and she stumbled and collapsed onto one of the couches. Aaron had been over flirting with the admitting nurse, but he was by her side in seconds, his concern visible.

“Maybe they should check you out too,” he said, but she shook her head.

“I’m not hurt. I just—” She gave a shaky laugh. “It’s been a long night. I just need a few minutes, I think.”

He sat down beside her, close enough to be companionable without crowding her.

“So Luke was with you today, huh?”

She nodded, struggling to focus on his words instead of the memories of the shooting that kept threatening to intrude. Despite the overwhelming smell of stale coffee and antiseptic in the waiting room, the copper-tinged scent of blood lingered in her nostrils.

“When did you figure out he was following you like a creepy cop stalker?” he persisted, and she gave him a surprised look. “Yeah, I figured when he took off yesterday morning that his plan was something along those lines. He was convinced that you were part of the sniper setup, even though it was obvious you didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Maybe I do,” she said slowly, realization dawning. “I mean, this is the second time I’ve been in the middle of a shooting in three days. This one was right outside my apartment building. Maybe I’m a target.”

If that’s the case, then Luke got shot because of me
. She felt ill at the thought.

“Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt you?” Aaron asked, and she shook her head.

“No. I don’t have any enemies.” The thought of Mark Tillman flitted through her head, but she dismissed it. Mark was far too lazy to run around Midtown shooting at her, and far too cheap to pay someone else to do it. Killing her wouldn’t get him anything, anyway; it would put him higher on the promotion list, but only until the Fate Divisions figured out he was the shooter. Then he would be in
real
trouble. Interfering with the functioning of the Fate Divisions was a good way for people to get themselves killed. Also, what conceivable reason would Mark have to go around shooting a bunch of politicians? And if he was targeting her, why would Destiny Division have gotten involved, when a Karma Division employee trying to kill another Karma Division employee would fall squarely into the Bookkeeper’s purview?