Page 9 of Heat of Justice (Duty #3)

“Are you testing me?”

Cody enjoyed the way Kim suddenly fixed her, with a hint of healthy warning in her gaze, a little bit more than she knew she probably should.

“Kinda.” She shrugged and opted for honesty. “Yes.”

Then she watched an even more attractive gathering storm in the lawyer’s dark eyes hover there for another second before Kim shook her head and flashed a smile. Such an attractive shift in the way her emotions played out across her face…

“Fair enough, I suppose,” she said. And without hesitation, added: “I think a woman broke your heart in New York. Badly.”

“Oh, really?” Casually, Cody reached for a fry.

“Yes, really. Am I right?”

“Spot on, actually.”

“Yeah?” Kim appeared surprised enough to laugh, but not for long. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

“I’m not laughing at you, but because it was such a lucky guess on my part.”

“You guessed? No psychic trick?”

“Total shot in the dark, yeah. You have an excellent poker face.”

“Cop face. A necessary skill in my trade.”

“Yes. Also, um…” Kim lingered with a thoughtful smile, leading Cody to ask.

“Also, what?”

“I didn’t expect you to confirm a broken heart.”

“Why not?”

The lawyer bit on her lip in slight hesitation, but she never broke eye contact and clearly went with her first answer.

“You strike me more as the kind who would break hearts,” she admitted.

“Oh? And not the other way around? Do I strike you as a heartless womanizer?”

“No, of course not. I mean that you look like… Who would want to…” Apparently struggling to translate her thoughts into words, Kim shrugged in obvious frustration. “Just forget I said anything. I know it’s a silly thing to assume anyway.” She took another bite of her burger, nodded while she chewed, and hit her with a remarkable conclusion: “You are only human, after all.”

Cody had to laugh. “Thanks for noticing, eh!”

Was a compliment buried in this series of odd remarks? It occurred to her that Kim Reed seemed to want to flirt with her almost against her will. As if the impulse to do so kept occurring to her, and was a total surprise every time. Cody herself was no stranger to the feeling. Despite what the woman may think, she was not a serial dater. Also, not against the idea of ever finding herself in a serious relationship again. A part of her, which Cody kept under ruthless control, actually craved it… But since New York, she hadn’t met anyone she was tempted to try with. She decided to share something else, which she rarely did. Her boss, Quinn Wesley, knew about it. So did her partner, Ellie, because being partners was a special kind of relationship, and her side-kick deserved to know a little more than most people. But other than Ellie and Quinn, no one else.

“Her name was Emma,” she offered. “She was a cop too.”

One probably would not need to be a sensitive in order to catch the heavy note of sadness in her tone. Kim went still.

“Oh, Cody,” she murmured. Anticipating the worst, which, again, would not be too hard to guess. “What happened?”

“I had just passed my detective exam. Emma liked working the streets, and she wanted to stay in uniform. That night, we went out to celebrate my promotion. The next day, on patrol, she was shot by a guy who’d just knifed someone in the subway and was running from another cop. She died before the medics could get there and help her.” Cody nodded sharply as she remembered getting the call and her own desperate race to reach the location. “I was too late as well.”

“I am so sorry.”

Kim reached across to touch her forearm, a sweet gesture loaded full of compassion. Cody had time to feel that her fingers were very hot when they landed on her skin, almost unusually so, as if she were running a fever. But it was all she had a chance to reflect before the woman gasped, her eyes emptied, and her face turned white as a sheet.

“Kim?” Cody frowned. “Hey, are you okay?”

As she covered her fingers with her own, Cody was struck by the fierceness of her grip. She also felt a hard tremor coursing through her.

“Kim,” she repeated, a little more intently this time.

The lawyer did not reply. Her eyes remained just as fixed and unseeing, wide open in something that looked disturbingly like fear. Cody quickly slid to the other side and onto her seat. She passed an arm around her shoulder and called to her again.

“Look at me,” she urged. “Kim!”

It was like flicking a switch. The very second Kim stopped holding on to her, she blinked a few times wildly, and her focus returned.

“Oh, God,” she moaned. “Cody!”

“Yes, I’m here.” Cody kept her arm around her as Kim stared back with wounded eyes slowly filling with tears. “Kim, what’s going on?” she demanded. “You’ve gone so pale I can see right through you.”

“I’m okay. I just—” Again, she shivered hard.

“Did you have another vision?”

“No.”

“Did you see Cassie?”

“No, it was—Oh, hell, I’m going to be sick!”

On that warning, Kim pushed past her and flew toward the restrooms, almost knocking a waitress down in her haste. The waitress shot Cody a commiserating look as she watched her follow, probably assuming an emotional argument of some kind had happened between them. Cody flashed her a quick, reassuring nod and kept going. She found the elegantly-dressed lawyer on her knees in one of the thankfully spotlessly clean stalls. With one arm braced against the wall and her head above the toilet, throwing up everything she had. Cody gave a sympathetic wince. She squatted next to her and laid a soothing hand on her back.

“You don’t have to be here,” Kim panted.

“It’s okay. I want to be here,” Cody assured her.

This earned her a reluctant grunt just before another wave of sickness overtook the woman. Once over the worst of it, Kim scrambled to her feet, still refusing any help, and she staggered to the sink. Obviously must be the stubborn kind. Cody did not catch everything she muttered under her breath, but the word ‘Disgusting’ was part of it, and a few heartfelt swear words. She kept a close eye on her as Kim rinsed her mouth and splashed cold water over her face, and dared to take a step closer when she rested, holding onto the sink with her head down.

“Talk to me. Are you alright?”

She was spared a single glance and a terse word in reply. “Yes.”

“What just happened here, Kim?”

Cody could feel her impulse to withdraw into her own self, so she intentionally tagged her name at the end of the question in order to keep them connected. She was a skilled interrogator. Both in the job and personally, she could play stubborn with the best of them. Something deep in her also did not want to let go of this particular connection. Why it should feel so personal, she had no idea… But she would worry about that later, if and when she needed to.

“Kim—”

“No.” Kim raised her hand in a stopping gesture. She also took a step back. “Don’t.”

Cody stilled instantly when she recognized the look in her eyes. It was the kind she so often saw in victims of all kinds of serious crimes. Suspicious, weary, even fearful...

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she promised. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“Alright. Good. I just—”

“And don’t talk to me in that tone,” the lawyer snapped.

“What tone?”

“Cop to victim. That’s not me.”

“Okay. Sorry.” Cody nodded, aware she had automatically dropped into that mode without realizing it. “But what made you react so strongly, Kim? Almost violently? You laid your fingers on my arm, and then…”

She gave a little shrug and allowed her unfinished sentence to float between them. Kim stared a moment longer, suspicion and reluctance written all over her face. Then she took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and clearly made an effort to relax. From the remaining lack of color on her face, Cody assumed that she was not there yet. But at least she opted to share.

“This tragic experience with your… With Emma. I felt its impact when I touched you, Cody,” Kim confided. “Everything you didn’t put into words. Your emotions, the pain... Such acute pain. I felt it.”

Cody’s first reaction to this, a little spike of anger at what felt like an intrusion, surprised her. She thought she had left that sort of thing behind. Anyway, it melted instantly as she noticed the look in Kim’s expressive dark eyes. Naked, raw empathy, and again, a touch of her own pain.

“I’m sorry you had to go through this,” the beautiful lawyer murmured.

“You really felt it?”

“Yes. Your emotions.”

She sounded so sure...

“How?” Cody prompted.

Kim sighed. “It’s like… ink in water. You know how as soon as a drop of ink touches water, it spreads through, and the water is fully colored by it?”

Cody just gave a quiet nod.

“When I touched you, my mind went blank. I couldn’t see you or the room anymore. Emotions spread across my mind like ink through water. I felt fear, guilt, fury. There were flashes of a busy street. A donut store. Blood on the tarmac. I am so sorry.” Kim shook her head when Cody exhaled, perhaps more sharply than she intended. “The last thing I want is to bring these feelings back.”

“It’s okay. I asked.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine. Right now, I’m a bit more concerned about the effect this had on you.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“But I am. Come on, be honest with me,” Cody insisted. “How often does this sort of experience happen when you touch somebody?”

“It’s incredibly rare.”

“Define rare.”

“Three times that I recall in all my life, including with you.” Kim stepped forward, coming to stand in front of her. “Please… may I touch you again?”

“Why?”

“Just to make sure it won’t repeat.”

Heart beating a little faster than she would care to admit, Cody nodded. “Okay.”

Kim held her bottom lip between her teeth, and she looked to be holding her breath when she raised her fingers to her face. She touched her lightly at first, tentatively, as if afraid she might get zapped. Then a bit more firmly, when nothing of the sort happened. Finally, she cupped her cheek. Exhaled nice and slow. Only then did some color come back into her own face.

“Thank you,” she murmured and stepped into her arms.

The move was unexpected, but it also seemed incredibly easy. Pretty much like the most natural thing in the world to happen at this stage. Anyway, Kim did it before Cody had time to react. Her fingers on her cheek had felt so damn good… Cody absorbed this. She was almost sorry the touch did not last a bit longer. But now, a full embrace... She stiffened a bit, in surprise more than anything else, when Kim leaned into her. And soon realized that she was on fire everywhere they came into contact. The hug was both exciting and grounding at the same time. Again, without thinking, Cody tightened her hold. When Kim responded in kind, she was thrilled. And when these hot fingers came to rest at the back of her neck, on naked skin, she closed her eyes. Exhaled deep and slow. Wow… It had taken her a long time, following the death of her girlfriend, to feel like having sex again. Being intimate with another woman took her a couple of years, and even then, something always felt like it was missing from every encounter. Now, for the first time since Emma, Cody took real pleasure in being in the arms of another woman. Her heart jolted at the realization. She felt it begin to race. Before emotions could flood and maybe get the better of her, she pulled back. Kim met her gaze, looking in equal parts settled and questioning. They stared at each other in total silence for a little while.

“Okay?” Cody murmured eventually.

“Yes.” Kim nodded, once again reaching to touch her cheek. Her golden eyes flashed at the renewed contact, but she quickly dropped her hand. “Ah… Sorry, I—”

“What’s the matter now?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, Kim.”

“No, really. It’s… There’s something different about you, that’s all.”

“In a good way?”

“Yes,” Kim answered after another brief silence. “In a good way, for sure.”

As another customer walked in and glanced toward them, she took a step back and let go. Different, yeah, Cody reflected. Tell me about it.

“I’m not really sure what just happened,” she admitted.

Kim flashed a thoughtful but reassuring smile.

“Neither am I,” she mused. “But it’s okay.”