Page 5 of Heat of Justice (Duty #3)

Quinn was the stoic type. Never the sort to complain about any-thing that happened to her, whether on the job or otherwise. She absorbed the shocks of life with seemingly perfect equanimity and kept going. Only Lia knew the price of that control. Now she lingered over muscles made so tight that there was no way it wasn’t painful. She caressed her lover, focused on undoing all the nasty tension she could feel under her skin. She used her hands, her fingers, her lips, and her tongue to soothe and enthrall at the same time.

“Lia…” Eyes closed, Quinn whispered her name.

“Yes.” Lia found her already wet and swollen, but she knew how to make the pleasure last.

Quinn groaned when she fingered her clit, and sighed when she started to stroke her.

“Let me—”

“No, let me .” Lia tightened the arm she kept folded around her neck as Quinn attempted to roll over on top of her. “This is all for you now. I want you to relax.”

“I just—”

“Sshhh.”

Lia flicked her with her thumb, making her jerk, laugh, and fall back against the pillows.

“Okay,” Quinn conceded. “But be careful.”

“Or what?”

“I’ll explode.”

“Not yet, you won’t. Not until I let you.” Lia breathed low against her ear, and once again, she relished the way the tight, muscular body shivered in reaction.

A much better kind of tension. Quinn watched her intently, eyes blue and feverish. Lia knew every nuance in her gaze, when to hold back and when to push. She brought her up slowly but no less surely, watched these eyes gradually lose their focus, and Quinn obviously fight to stay in control. Lia grew wet against her thigh at the knowledge that she could take it all any second she wanted to.

“I wanted to punch him, you know.”

Lia had just pressed her fingers over the swollen length of her, but she eased off a little at the words.

“Wilson?” she prompted.

“Yeah. When he told me about the suspension, I wanted to hit him square in the jaw.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Mm. Yeah. I felt so alone. So let down and… helpless, I suppose. I just wanted to run to you, Lia. You are my safe place. My everything, really.”

“Oh, baby…”

Touched beyond words, Lia replied with a deep, long, and steadying kiss. Then she chuckled at her next words.

“Please. Keep going.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lia.” With a grunt of pure impatience, Quinn guided her hand back into place.

“Feeling needy?” Lia teased.

“You know it. Don’t let me distract you from your—Oh, man!”

Lia squeezed her one time, nice and hard, and caused her to convulse. She smiled at the sight of an attractive wave of ripples in her well-defined abs. So damn sexy. But again, she released her.

“Please,” Quinn half-chuckled, half-begged as she twisted, trying unsuccessfully to recapture her fingers.

“Are you going to relax and let me take care of you, then?” Lia prompted. “Or do I have to get tough with you?”

A knowing, hopeful grin, spread across Quinn’s lips.

“I think I’d like both,” she said.

“Greedy.”

“Yes. With you, always. Is it okay?”

The question, loaded with the sort of openness Quinn only allowed herself with her, and no one else, made Lia melt.

“Very okay,” she promised. “I adore you for this.”

She pressed another reassuring kiss to her lips and resumed her slow, intimate massage. Soon, she had Quinn throbbing in her hand. The more she watched her wife losing herself in the rhythm that she established for her, the more aroused and tighter Lia grew in response. She squeezed her legs around her thigh, pressed her engorged clit into her flesh, and bit on her lip with a moan of her own.

Quinn gasped. “You are so hot, Lia.”

“I’m getting very, very close.”

“Make me come with you.”

Make me. Her plea had Lia trembling with a fresh surge of desire. She trailed a couple of fingers through her dripping folds, watched that gorgeous body arch off the bed, and Quinn throw her head back.

“Oh, babe…”

“Don’t close your eyes, Quinn. Let me see you.”

The sight of her so open, exposed, and trusting, panting on the edge of release, brought Lia right up there with her. Time to give and take. With one last precise stroke for Quinn, and a hard thrust of her own, Lia sent them both flying.

◆◆◆

‘Which one are you, Ms. Reed? Witness or perpetrator?’

Kim stared at the detective, momentarily taken aback at the question. Certainly, she had expected to have to explain herself; one did not just waltz into a police station to report a murder and swing back out again without a certain amount of scrutiny. But for some reason, which now struck her as incredibly na?ve, if not outright crazy – she was a damn lawyer, after all! – it never occurred to her that she might be considered a suspect. Some-thing about the detective’s manner was also slightly unusual and definitely intriguing; pleasantly so. Miller’s question was blunt, but her eyes remained warm on her face as she waited. Lost in contemplation, mesmerized by attractive layers of swirling blue, Kim forgot to speak.

“Ms. Reed?” the detective prompted.

Impatience sizzled in her tone. When she frowned, all trace of warmth washed out of her eyes. Kim swallowed, wondering if it was even there to begin with. Steady up, for God’s sake! What the hell is wrong with you?

“No,” she replied. “I am neither witness nor perpetrator.”

That last word also sent a little rush of indignation coursing through her. Good, she thought. She would use it as fuel.

“Do you have a third option?” Miller asked.

“I saw…” Catching a tremor in her own voice, Kim cleared her throat. Keep cool. Just tell her, get it over with. “I had a vision of her dead.”

“A dream?”

“Not a dream,” Kim snapped. “I said a vision.”

Miller blinked, and her expression sharpened, though not in any disbelief or amusement.

“Right,” was all she said.

Kim briefly closed her eyes. She shook her head and sighed. Now forgetting to keep herself so much in check, she did lean her elbows on the table to rub her hands over her face.

“I know it sounds crazy.”

“Hmm. Different, for sure.”

“I considered just calling in and asking you to do a wellness check on Cassie.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know…”

“Sure you do,” Miller invited. “Come on, hit me with it.”

“Well, I’ve been a lawyer for fifteen years.” Kim shrugged. “And if my career taught me anything, it’s that trying to avoid difficult situations never leads to anything good.”

◆◆◆

Cody was pretty sure that there was more to it. The words of the duty officer also floated back across her mind; ‘People don’t need a full moon to be insane these days.’ Kim Reed did not strike her as that kind, though. Just tired, obviously on edge, and extremely wary. Plenty reluctant, too, with a razor-sharp attitude. In spite of this, she was asking for help; begging for it, almost, which must not come easy to a woman as proud and self-possessed as she also appeared to be. Cody was open to hearing the rest of her story, at least. She may not experience visions herself, but she had developed a keen cop sense over the years, the sort of instinct she could never explain but trusted implicitly. A deep intuition that allowed her to connect random links in the cases that she worked, to progress in leaps and bounds not based on anything concrete, where others may remain stuck. Her partner liked to refer to it as her ‘spooky sense’ .

“I’ve never worked with a psychic, but I know the police sometimes do,” she remarked, eager to make the woman feel a bit more at ease.

The attempt clearly failed.

“I’m a lawyer,” Reed muttered unhappily. “Not a psychic. Not a killer either.”

“Okay. So, tell me about this vision you had.”

Finally! Reed’s expression seemed to convey.

“I saw Cassie’s face,” she began. “Her eyes were open and fixed. Empty of any expression, and covered with a layer of fluid. Dead eyes, you know?”

“Yes.” Cody picked up on her words. “I’m curious; how do you know what dead eyes look like?”

Reed stared daggers into hers.

“My grandfather died at home after a long illness. I arrived not long after and closed his eyes for the last time. They looked like that. I can assure you I did not murder him.”

“Understood, Ms. Reed.” Cody answered calmly, hoping it might catch. “And as you must know, it’s my job to ask pointed questions. I assume that’s why you wanted to speak to a more experienced detective instead of a uniform?”

Reed blinked once and let out a controlled breath.

“Yes.” She nodded. “Yes. I do apologize.”

“No problem. Please, continue.”

“Her cheeks, eyelids, and lips, all had a bluish tinge as if she’d been under the ice or in a freezer for a long time. Her hair was wet.”

Cody took note of this.

“Also, more than the look of her, what hit me was the sense of absolute despair that I felt.” The lawyer shivered as she said this, and some of the color drained out of her own face. “It was like… Like a feeling of death, I suppose. To describe it as cold and hopeless doesn’t half do it justice. Physically, it felt like ice seeping into my bones.” She hugged herself as if for warmth, indeed. “It was the worst kind of despair. I don’t know how else to say it.”

“This is fine. Did you see the rest of her body? Any clue as to location?”

“No, just the face. Also, I sensed…”

“What?”

“Terror. Pure and absolute. I felt it.”

The look in her eyes was so fierce that if Cody were not careful, it might make her shiver too. She cast a brief glance at her notepad.

“Okay. I get the picture.”

Reed flashed a wan smile. “You work special crimes…”

“Correct, I do.”

“So, is this special enough for you, Detective?”

“It’s unusual, for sure.”

“Do you believe me?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” She sounded both doubtful and almost pleading.

“Yes.” Once again, Cody met her gaze. “I believe you saw what you saw, and that you don’t think it was a dream.”

“It wasn’t,” Reed confirmed. “I was getting in my car at the time. Fully awake. I sat behind the wheel, started the engine, and the world disappeared. There was just Cassie’s face in front of my eyes, and that awful feeling.”

“You said you’re not a psychic, so I take it this sort of thing hasn’t happened before?”

“Not in this way.”

Getting personal information out of the woman was as easy as squeezing blood out of a stone.

“In what way, then?” Cody encouraged.

“I mean I’ve always been extra sensitive to people’s feelings and emotions,” Reed clarified. “I can tell when their words don’t match what they’re really thinking, for instance.”

“Must be handy as a lawyer.”

“Sometimes, it is. Though I suppose it more or less comes with the territory in our line of work. I bet you can easily tell if someone’s lying to you.”

“Nine times out of ten, yes.” Like I saw that quick shadow on your face, as if you remembered something unpleasant, you don’t want me to know about.

Cody did not ask, but she noticed for sure. She looked at Reed. Their gazes locked. In the loaded silence that ensued, the last thing Cody expected to see was a flash of sexual heat in the woman’s gaze. But she could have sworn it. She watched her darker skin light up, and a line of color flare across her cheeks. Wow. Cody stared, taken aback at the reaction. It was there and gone in a split second, so fast she might have thought she had dreamt it... But her body obviously received the message loud and clear and reacted to it before she could consciously decide not to. A familiar pulse began to pound between her legs. Heat rose in her own face. She was aroused. Damn! I hope she’s not catching any of this... Fat chance of that, probably. The instant the question occurred to her, Cody watched all the light in Reed’s golden eyes vanish. It was like a roller shutter slamming down on her emotions, denying Cody any further insight behind her private lines.

“Do you need anything else from me?” the lawyer asked in a cool voice.

“Uh, no.” Cody cleared her throat. “I think that’s it.”

“Good. Then we’re done here.”

Reed stood up and walked to the door without waiting for confirmation.

“Hold it,” Cody prompted, earning herself a stormy glance she chose to ignore. “Take this. Call me if anything more comes to you.”

Reed took the card she handed to her, barely glanced at it, and shoved it in her pocket.

“You will keep me posted.”

Though she made it sound like an order, Cody did not need to be psychic to sense her level of anxiety. For this reason, she was not reluctant to answer.

“You can definitely count on it,” she approved. “I’ll speak to you soon, Ms. Reed.”