The Night Beat, From the Necropolis Enforcement Files by Gini Koch Page B

to tell him I wasn’t sure again, because if his method of convincing me was to kiss me, I wanted to stay unconvinced forever. But we were in the middle of a case with horrifying ramifications and I’d been in law enforcement for several human lifetimes. “I guess so.”
    He stroked my face. “I think it’s kind of sexy.”
    “What is?”
    “You turning into a hot-looking wolf.”
    “I had no idea you were into bestiality.”
    “I’m not. Ken explained, it’s not the same thing at all.”
    As ex-boyfriends went, you couldn’t get better than Ken. “Um, what else did he explain?”
    Jack grinned. “That if I wanted to make a move, I had a good chance of not having my throat ripped out.” He let me go but took my hand. “Think we need to pretend that we’re still just professional partners, at least as far as the rank and file here are concerned.”
    “We’re an item?” I wasn’t arguing, but we were back to moving faster than I’d been prepared for.
    He pulled me to him and kissed me again. Okay, yeah, we were an item. My butt wagging was a clear sign.

Chapter 15
     
    Jack and I finally stopped making out and went into headquarters. I was glad I didn’t bother with makeup, because if I’d had any on it would have been all over my face and his.
    We supposedly looked the same as we always did. I mean, we’d straightened our clothes and fixed the hair and all before we went into the building. And I didn’t think we got a lot of looks from our fellow officers.
    However, the moment we were alone with the Chief, we got the superior glare of disapproval. “You know you’re not supposed to become involved with your partner.”
    I did my best “innocent puppy has not piddled on the rug” look. “What do you mean, Chief?”
    The Chief was short and stocky, pretty much all muscle and coiled energy. I’d never been able to figure out how anyone had managed to convince him to take the highest desk job available on the force. He always seemed like he was ready to trot over to the holding cells and beat a confession out of the perps, probably all at once.
    He glared at me. “I mean you two have crossed the line.”
    “How do you figure?” Jack asked calmly.
    The Chief rolled his eyes. “I’d say it was the fact you both look guilty, but really, how stupid are you?” He pointed to the video monitor screens to the left of his desk. To the one trained on the parking lot, in particular.
    “Oh.” Well, I felt stupid. And forgetful. Hey, a lot was going on.
    “It’s not a normal situation, and you know it,” Jack said.
    “Fine, whatever. What’s actually going on, now that we can, I assume, all stop acting?”
    “You could have told me you knew a long time ago.”
    The Chief shrugged. “I didn’t want you getting sloppy. If you had to fool me and Wagner, then you were going to fool anyone else you came across. As this morning has just proven, the moment you got to stop pretending you also got stupid and careless.”
    I tried to apologize and yawned instead. Widely.
    “Vic got hurt tonight,” Jack said. “She had to go the hospital in Necropolis Enforcement.”
    “I’m fine. My kind heals fast.” Under most circumstances, anyway. However, much as I didn’t want to admit it, while stifling another yawn, I was dog-tired.
    And not hiding it well, if the Chief’s reaction was any indication. “Go home and get some sleep.”
    I considered our options. There were a lot of options, of course. But all the vamps were out now that the sun was up. The Black Angels were top-notch, so were Hansel and Gretel. Monty and Edgar, too. So if something were going down with them, I’d know soon enough. Ralph I wasn’t so sure about -- he had a tendency to make high-level decisions without asking first -- but he had Dirt Corps with him, and they knew better than to keep Monty in the dark about anything. So, all trails covered. But we had four cops and two hookers in the hospital and they needed to be sniffed, at