Mortal Danger by Eileen Wilks Read Free Book Online

assist.”
    She was leaning, dammit. Lily forced herself to straighten. “You call it my investigation, but you brought someone in without telling me.”
    “Blame Ruben. He had one of his notions yesterday. Says he thinks you’ll need her soon.”
    Ruben Brooks was the head of the Unit. He was also an amazingly accurate precog. When he got hit by a notion, it paid to listen.
    Lily turned her head to look at Ruben’s latest notion— the woman whose body had been covered, inch by painful inch, with impossibly intricate patterns of power.
    Or that was the idea, anyway. The Dizzies had been a big deal on the street about a decade ago, a quasi-religious group based on poorly understood African shamanistic practices. Most of them had been black, connected to gangs, and without enough of a Gift to cause much trouble—or to keep the movement going. It had pretty much died out when it became obvious the leaders couldn’t deliver on their promises of power.
    Beneath the inky tattoos, Cynna Weaver’s skin was white. Lily assumed she was an exception in more than pigmentation. The Unit wouldn’t have signed her up if she were as ineffective as other Dizzies. “So how are you going to assist the investigation?”
    “I’m a Finder.” She bared her teeth in a hunter’s grin. “You get me something to work with, and I’ll find that Harlowe bastard for you.”
    Shit. “That may be a problem. His house burned down two days ago.”

THREE
    CYNNA watched Rule hustle his pretty little cop out the door. He was so careful about her, and it was so unnecessary. That one was tougher than she looked.
    She remembered when Rule had been all careful like that with another female who’d insisted she didn’t need any man looking out for her.
    Her mouth twisted wryly. Such a prickly little shit she’d been! Twenty going on twelve, street smart and cocky and scared of all the wrong things. But no matter how much she’d insisted she didn’t want to be coddled, Rule had known better. And she’d eaten it up, hadn’t she? Hoarded the memory of him, too, all these years. Rule’s caring had fed the hungry child she’d been back then.
    Well, she wasn’t that hungry brat anymore. So maybe she was disappointed that he was taken. She’d get over it. She turned to Karonski. “So what the hell am I doing here? I can’t find Harlowe without sorting his pattern, and I can’t sort without something of his to sort from.”
    He shrugged. “Blame Ruben. He thinks it’s a good idea for you to be around.”
    “And doesn’t know why, I suppose.”
    “Does he ever?”
    She shook her head. “Pretty big coincidence, Harlowe’s house burning down right before I arrived. How’d it happen?”
    “Someone doused the bushes with gasoline.”
    “Huh. Think the bad guys have a precog, too?”
    “Maybe. Or else they were just being careful, and the timing really is coincidence.” Karonski pushed back his chair and grabbed his mug. “Come on. Let’s go hassle the locals. I’d like to run a diagnostic on that bolt and find out for sure if it was shifted magically.”
    She stood, too. “Nothing I like better than hassling a few cops.”
    “You are a cop.”
    “Weird, isn’t it?”
    Their little dining room opened onto the main dining room. The Odyssey’s patrons were still being interviewed by the local cops; from snippets Cynna overheard as they made their way to the back, some were excited about their proximity to a crime, some worried, some angry. The poor waitresses and waiters were still trying to deliver food, but no one was much interested in the meal they’d come here for.
    The place must do a lot of private party business, Cynna thought as they made their way through the crowded dining room. The public dining area occupied only about half of the donut. The rest was all private rooms.
    The restrooms were in the center of the donut, off the hall that circled the kitchens at the center. A uniformed cop stopped them just inside that hall.