She glanced at her watch. Damn. She was tempted to call Cody and tell him she couldn’t make it . . . but if this snitch of his did know anything, she needed to be there. Cody wouldn’t know the right questions to ask.
If she hurried, she had time to throw together a sandwich, but there was no time for a shower. Pushing to her feet, she hurried to Rule’s office—the actual office, not the dining table he usually used. She scanned the letter with its hanzi characters, printed it, then booted up Rule’s desktop and sent the image to herself, to Ida, and to Ruben.
Seven minutes later she headed out the door—pausing to frown at the two men standing outside. “Where’s José and Jacob?”
Mark grinned. “Truth is, Jacob had a hot date. Steve and I were already here, so when Jacob, uh, mentioned his scheduling conflict to José, we agreed to finish the watch so he could get there on time.”
The explanation sounded reasonable, yet it bothered her. On impulse she grabbed Mark’s hand.
This alarmed him. “Uh . . . ma’am?”
She shook her head and let him go. “Nothing.” Just the usual furry magic, which she should have known without checking. Illusions didn’t work on her. “Tell Rule I already gave Harry his ham, okay?”
“Will do.”
She hurried off down the hall, purse on her shoulder, jacket once more covering her shoulder harness, with a Diet Coke in the purse and a ham sandwich in one hand. And thought about names.
Cullen had said that Grandmother had said—damn, this got convoluted—that the Chimei marked her lover in some way. Could this unknown word inscribed beneath the sorcerer’s left nipple be the secret name? Could it be that simple?
Of course, there was still the business of pronouncing that word correctly, which that unknown character made tricky. Then—if it was a name, or part of one—they had to figure out what to do with it. Just saying it probably wasn’t enough. Magic always needed intention. She knew that much.
But this could be a break. Plus now they had an idea about what the sorcerer wanted. Lily had a feeling the criminal empire he had in mind wasn’t the Chimei’s goal. Maybe she could play that, find a way to work the two against each other.
Things were looking up.
THIRTY-THREE
“WHY do snitches never want to meet someplace comfortable?” Lily complained as she got out of her car.
Cody grinned. “I think someone didn’t get any supper.”
“I had supper.” She’d eaten the sandwich in the car and downed half the soda. “What I didn’t get was a shower.”
They were in the parking lot of the Oceanview Mall—which completely lacked a view of the ocean, offering instead acres of concrete that had been soaking up heat all day. Having received in abundance, it was now giving back. A bit of a breeze was kicking up, though, carrying a teasing whisper of coolness. Lily glanced off to the west, where the stalled cloud-bank looked like a massively bad bruise, all black and purple. Maybe the storm would move in, after all. “What now?”
“Having parked in the boonies, we now walk to section A12, where we look for a 2007 red Ford pickup, California license 3NQS750. Lowrider, orange flame on the sides.” Cody glanced at her. “For some reason Javier thinks my ride’s too distinctive. He didn’t want me parking anywhere near him.”
They started for the congested section he’d indicated. Privately, Lily admitted that, from a snitch’s point of view, the setup made sense in a paranoid sort of way. Public spots were better than dark alleys or bars, and what could be more public yet anonymous than a mall parking lot? The light was fading, but not yet gone. If he was a smart snitch, he’d shown up early and would be watching to make sure they followed instructions—and that no one had followed either him or them.
“Your man always this careful?” The breeze was growing stronger, blowing her hair in her face. She shoved it back.
“Pretty much. He likes the cloak and dagger aspect of informing as much as he likes getting a little cash now and . . . Shit.”
“What?” Lily stopped, her heartbeat revving. Then she realized what he was looking at. Her hand. Specifically, the ring she wore. “Oh. You mean you were, ah . . .”
“I had it in mind, yeah. I mean, a lupus—that’s temporary.”
Lily eyed Cody warily. “This ring says it isn’t. You aren’t going to do something stupid, are you?”
“Like grab you and plant one on?” Cody’s teeth flashed white in a grin. “Maybe I thought about it, but, hey, I’m a cop. I can read body language, and yours is saying ‘whoa, black belt here.’ ”
“Oh.” She felt foolish. “How’d you guess? I wasn’t a black belt yet when you knew me.”
“You mean you are now? Shit, it’s a good thing I finally did develop some sense.” He wiped his forearm across his forehead, rearranging the sweat. “Guess I could take it as a compliment that your man was in a hurry to put up that big, shiny KEEP OUT sign.”
A KEEP OUT sign? Like she was property? Lily opened her mouth to tell him what she thought about that attitude . . . then realized it didn’t matter. It really didn’t. Maybe Cody would feel better if he thought Rule had considered him a threat. “I guess you could.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “He didn’t, though, did he? You may not have been wearing that sparkler earlier, but you had it.”
She smiled. She couldn’t help it. Cody had always been at his most appealing when his good sense got the drop on his ego. “I did. We were waiting for the right moment for the big announcement, but I decided right moments can be hard to spot, so why not wear it?”
His mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Maybe you wanted to put up your own KEEP OUT sign, having just run into me again and all. You’d know that a ring was a good defense against my legendary appeal. Ah—you don’t have to actually respond to that. Think I’d like it better if you didn’t.”
Lily grinned and started walking toward A12 again. In truth, she’d been thinking of Rule when she put on his ring, and only Rule. Well, him and giving Dreyer a black eye, if she could. “I’m not going to tell you what to think.”
“There’s a switch.”
“I did not tell you . . . okay,” she admitted. “Sometimes I did. But I was young.”
“Young, but smart enough to know when to bail. Don’t puff up. I mean that. You were right to hand me my walking papers. I’ve got a lot of regrets from my drinking years, Lily. My stupid years, I call them. I want you to know that you’re the biggest one. I shouldn’t have let you go.”
Her eyebrows arched. “Shouldn’t have let me?”
“Don’t pick at my words, woman. If I’d gone in rehab as soon as . . . Well, once I knew you meant it, you’d have come back, and you’d have stuck by me. I knew it then, I know it now. You’re the kind who sticks.”
She would have. She’d hoped hard that he’d do just that—go into rehab for her sake. For both their sakes. It had been painful, giving up that hope.
They walked on in silence for a bit. They were in a busier, more crowded section now, which Lily preferred. She’d felt exposed out in the boonies.
“He’s really it for you, this Turner dude?” Cody asked abruptly. “No regrets, no doubts?”
Lily had always spoken the truth to Cody. She gave him truth now. “No regrets. No doubts.”
His mouth flattened into a straight line, but only for a moment. Then he slipped back into the cocky grin he wore so well. “Guess you finally found someone who worries your mother even more than I did.”