Partners (4 page)

“So you’re a funny
guy?”

“No, just Irish. I
like to hedge my bets when I’m facing my possible demise.”

She accepted his
explanation. After all, they were heading for a gunfight. “Okay, I thought you
were just making fun of my driving.”

“I was.”

“Jack-ass!” The
fact that he grinned instead of taking offence one-upped him on the scale where
he presently sat at below zero. “So where did you work before, and why are you
here?” Aurora queried for information, deciding it was best to know a little
about the man she’d be forced to spend her days with.

“Ahhh, you sure
you want to visit and drive at the same time. Maybe the road needs all your
attention.”

“Quit messing
around and answer my question.”

She heard him
mutter, “who’s messing around” but then he did satisfy her curiosity.

“I worked Homicide
in LA, some undercover, mostly gang related stuff. Had unfinished business with
Rhondo that needed to be followed up on, so when I found out he’d likely show
up here, I called in a marker on my old pal Cory.”

“The old pal stuff
might have gotten you the job. Doesn’t mean you’ll keep it. Not unless you know
how to follow orders.” Her tone resonated ‘don’t mess with me’—and if he
resented it—that would be his problem. Either he worked with her as lead, or he
left. And given her druthers, she knew what would be her choice.

The only time in
her career she’d disliked wearing the badge happened while partnering with
Harvey Wittlespoon. ‘Wit’ as the others liked to call him. ‘Witless’ as she
referred to him behind his back. The man had idiot status stamped all over him,
a reputation he’d earned legitimately. Never again would she get stuck
pandering to a male partner had been her motto, and Cory knew it.

Speeding, cutting
the last couple of corners real tight, Aurora sighed her enjoyment. The boost
she always felt sitting behind the wheel of a well-oiled machine kicked in.
Pressing down on the pedal so the vehicle leapt forward, maneuvering into
spaces that anyone with brains wouldn’t even try to go thrilled the hell outta
of her. Today not so much. She knew what awaited her at the end of this ride.
She’d been there before.

The night Rhondo
had attacked her partner; Aurora had shown up early with food for their ‘junk
and drunk’ girl’s night—eating junk and getting drunk. Something they did
whenever they broke a case.

Only that night,
as Aurora remembered, she’d felt sickly, with a pounding headache that began as
soon as she’d pulled into the parking lot, gathered the stuff from the car and
headed towards the apartment. Then, while approaching the door juggling an
aromatic pizza box, bags of chips and Cookies and Cream ice cream and two
bottles of wine she’d heard a loud thud and a blood-curdling scream coming from
inside Debbie’s suite.

As if someone
opened a trap door, her stomach plunged while her heart pounded out a rhythm of
choking fear that nearly had her paralyzed. Only her training kicked in as she
threw the food away and pulled out her purse gun. Without hesitation, she shot
the lock and busted in.

What she saw made
her pulse ramp up even higher as rage like she’d never known filled her and
tuned her into a killer. Her eyes like lasers, scanned the room to see Debbie,
bleeding, partially naked, clothes ripped and hanging, laying on the floor
sobbing. The half-dressed male, who looked like he’d escaped from some scudsy
Elvis wedding chapel, hovered over the writhing body of her friend, using her
for cover. Yanking up his pants, he shot at Aurora to give himself some time.

And he laughed—no
he giggled like some kind of a freakish maniac. He took another shot, and as
she dove for cover, he fled out the open window and down the ancient fire
escape.

Aurora ran to
Debbie’s side and found her rolled into a fetus-like position, knees curled
together almost under her chin and her arms clamped around them.

“Dear Lord, Deb.
I’m so sorry I wasn’t earlier. I—” Aurora felt the guilt gorging huge chunks
from her soul.

“I’m fine.” Deb
choked on the words as saliva ran over her chin to mix with the waterfall of
tears. Smudged mascara highlighted bruises that had formed around cuts and
scrapes. Her lipstick, a parody of color, was now smeared over her cheeks and
on her chin which gave her a grotesque look of a woman who’d been through hell.

“Go after him,
Aurora. Get the son-of-a-bitch. Get him. He hurt me.” The last words were
screamed out between sobs and they galvanized Aurora into action.

“I called for
back-up; they’ll be here any minute.”

“You got here in
time. I’m fine. Go!”

With Debbie’s
prodding ringing in her ears, she’d given chase, but to no avail.

He’d managed to
get to his car. And she’d managed to get the plates and call it in. Then she’d
headed to the district where most of the gangs hung out, waited and prayed for
someone to spot the license number. Sure enough, within the hour a call came
over the radio. A squad had caught the plates and they were in hot pursuit.

Aurora followed.
She’d ended up in an underground parking lot, but had gotten there too late.
Two officers were down, one dead, and Rhondo had fled the scene. Seems he’d set
up an ambush that worked slick as hell and deadly as sin. Two of his men jumped
out from where they’d been hiding, one on each side of the cop car and gunned
down the officers.

“Obviously, you
know where you’re going.” Kai’s voice broke into her reverie.

“Oh yeah! Get
ready to party. I’m using the car to block the entrance. If that prick is still
in here, he’s not driving out.” A slick maneuver with the gas and brake had the
car whipping around sideways to block a goodly portion of the underground exit.

Gunshots were
heard in the distance, and running as fast as they could, they headed towards
where the officers were in trouble. Sirens screamed and more officers piled out
from the other cars that screeched up behind Aurora’s.

In order to get
closer to the battle, some took cover behind the parked vehicles and others
used the large rounded pillars. Soon they came across the bloodiest of scenes.
Two cop cars had smashed into other vehicles, a horn blaring adding to the
confusion. One of the passenger doors lay open with a uniformed body sprawled
halfway out, blood dripping down the hand of the unconscious or dead cop.
Smells of burnt rubber on asphalt emanated and added realism to the scene that
would later be haunting.

It looked as if
only one rookie, pinned down, was holding them off and Aurora knew she’d be
praising that young cop after the gun smoke settled.

A head poked out
from the shooters that wore a gleeful expression. Aurora knew him at once. He
was the same Elvis look-a-like who’d hurt her partner. With Kai hot on her
tail, she worked her way around the outer rim of the underground garage,
creeping as close as to the action as she could.

One moment she was
sneaking forward, and in another her body was securely hidden under the male
who'd grabbed her in time to protect her. She lay under him as the bullet aimed
in her direction whizzed by close enough to have the irritating noise in her
ears performing a symphony.

Heart pounding,
she shoved at him and had to suffer his infernal grin as he whispered. “You
wait here!” The idiot gave orders as if he expected she’d listen. Then with his
gun out, he jungle-crawled under a larger truck and inched his way in the
direction where the thugs were ganged up.

Paying no
attention to the rapid beating her heart performed or the fact that her female
parts were wide awake and interested, she edged around the next vehicle.
Working along the wall, she tried to come up behind the gang, to thwart their
obvious planned exit up the back stairs. Pissed at herself for not setting up a
perimeter around the building, she fully intended to stop their escape.

Sure enough, she
spotted one backing away from the others, sneaking away like the dirty dog he
was, and she sent a warning shot in his direction. Only thing was, they now
knew where she hid, and the subsequent blast coming her way pinned her down
good.

Once they’d
trained their sights on her, Kai managed to come up behind them, and in no
time, the shooting stopped. The weasels threw their guns out into the open and
flung their empty hands in the air.

“Don’t shoot.
We’re giving up. We dropped our guns.”

Two cocky young
teens stood, knowing that because of their age they’d get away with murder. And
the instigator, the devils’ spawn called Earl Rhondo, had disappeared into the
night. The slug had used these stupid kids to do his dirty work while he walked
scot free from the building through any number of exits or windows.

Kai approached
warily. Probably didn’t like her expression. “You all right?” He reached out,
covered her clenched hand and forced her to lower the gun.

“No! I’m mad as
hell. I never thought it could happen again.”

“Trust me. This is
the last time. Next time—and there will be a next time—we’ll get him. I
promise. Okay partner?” his soft voice sent shivers up a spine not used to this
sensation.

Now why his
assurance gave her a lift, she’d never know. But it did. Maybe it was because
she knew they still had the lead from Ross about the party happening the next
night.

Except for the
tingling on the skin of the hand he still held and the soft pleasing hum she
now heard, damned if she didn’t feel better. With a toss of her head, she
flipped her annoying hair back from her face, and gave him the evil eye. He
never flinched, nor did he look away.

Finally she
smiled, amazed at the speculative glint that entered his intense blue
eyes.
 
“Okay.”

A note from the Author

Suspenseful and fast-paced, this short story introduced you to Aurora
Morelli and Kai Lawson; the characters who will star in the full-length sequel
"Roll
the Dice"
(to be released September 15, 2012).
  

So…please hit your "Add to Wish List" button now to be
reminded that you have to follow up on this stormy cliffhanger to see whether
the rotter, Earl Rhondo, is finally brought to justice.

“You shot me!”

“You told me to.”

“Dumb shit!”
Aurora pushed her new partner from hovering over her so she could sit up. “I
didn't mean it. I just wanted you to scare Rhondo.” She felt blood poring from
the wound on her arm and purposely kept her head turned away.

“Shooting you did
scare him. He let you go, didn't he?”

Aurora frowned at
him. Why did his voice have to sound so damn reasonable?

“What-ever!” She
hoped her scorn would get to him.

“Hey! I saw his
eyes, you didn’t.
 
He had every
intention of using that knife. You know, the sharp one he had pressed against
your throat. If I’d shot him instead of you…” He shrugged.

Aurora shuddered,
fighting off nausea. She didn’t want to listen to reason. Being angry made the
situation a whole lot easier to deal with. Sarcasm, the best weapon she had in
a macho man's environment, replaced whining.

She glared at him
and saw his shapely eyebrows rise. The light of the bulb hanging from the
ceiling of the cruddy apartment haloed his head making the bare skin
shine.
 
“Just my frigging luck to end up
with a partner who thinks and looks like Bruce Willis."

Kai chuckled. Her
glower put a quick end to his merriment. He tried changing the subject with
sweet talk. "I've been told I have a nicely shaped head for being
bald."

"Sure and it
goes swell with your baby-blue eyes." She sneered on purpose. No way would
she admit he did look good.

His response was a
grunt of displeasure. “Are you always this crabby?”

Disbelief shone in
her amazed expression. “Not at all…” She said, disdain evident. “…only when
I’ve been shot.”

He ignored her to
call in the emergency and then tried to push up the bloody sleeve of her shirt
for access to the injury.
 
Being that it
was too tight, he gave up and moved to undo the buttons on the top of her white
blouse.

What the hell!
"Get away from me.” She slapped at his hands and wrenched
away.

He pulled back and
cold blue eyes stared her down. No smiles, no teasing now, just a bull-headed
male who would brook no interference. “I have to stop the bleeding. It’s a
scratch but it’s deep. Look!”

Not in a million
years! She knew better than to look. Instead she let him remove the bulletproof
vest she hated wearing and undid her own buttons. Then with his help, she slid
the garment off her shoulder.