Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [72]
Shelby shook her head, but her gun hand never wavered. “You don’t understand, Luna. You can never understand. For them, I’d jump off the top of this building. I’d kill for them. It’s just what my uncles demand. If you don’t do things by their code you’re dead anyway.”
I swallowed, because my throat was closed with that damned self-preservation-induced fear. Could I disarm Shelby before she killed me? Maybe. Before she shot herself? Hell no.
“You told me right after we met that imbalances of power bother you,” I said. “You preach this O’Hallorans Forever crap, but you left. You became a detective because it bothers you, what they do. I saw it in your eyes when we met Patrick. You hate them as much as Victor Blackburn does.”
Shelby’s nostrils flared and her eyes took on a wet glitter. Good. If she cried, I could disarm her.
“Don’t make me kill you, Luna,” she hissed.
“Don’t make me believe you will, Shelby,” I said. “Listen, put aside what you feel for just a second. Be a cop, not the black sheep. Valerie Blackburn is fifteen. She’s a victim, and you know that she’s going to be killed.” I gambled on one step toward Shelby. The gun jumped up at me, level with my eyes. Crap. Crapcrapcrap. Why was I always the one who ended up on the receiving end of bad situations?
Adrenaline junkie, my traitorous inner Luna whispered. Never satisfied until things are in flames.
“If I help you they’ll know,” Shelby sniffed.
“And what will you have lost?” I said. “Trust me, Shelby. I know you can never win back approval that was never given in the first place.” And I did know that, which might explain why I was half glad to get the bite as a teenager. It made me brave enough to get the hell out of San Romita and make a real life for myself.
“Gods!” Shelby cursed. She thumbed back the .38′s hammer and my heart skipped with it. “Why did you have to run this down? Why couldn’t you just let it go as some dumb junkie dying a dumb death?”
“Because I do my job well,” I said. “And so do you. You’re a good cop, Shelby. Don’t become what your family thinks you are.”
She shuddered like I’d slapped her, and then dropped the gun on the floor, covering her face with her hands. Her shoulders quivered as she broke down without a sound.
First, I picked up the gun, eased the hammer down, and put it in the waist of my jeans, where no one could get any crazy ideas. Then I went and sat next to Shelby, rubbing her back until she’d emptied herself of sobs.
“Gods,” she said again. “I’ve been so terrible. I’m just a terrible, terrible partner.”
“Not that I made it very easy,” I conceded. “Listen, if you want some touchy-feely sentiment, make an appointment with Dr. Merriman. Where’s Valerie?”
Shelby scrubbed at her eyes with the silk cuff of her pajamas. “Seamus would take her to Basin Lake. We have a private lodge there. It’s very isolated, especially in the fall.”
Basin Lake was over two hours east of Nocturne City, in the foothills of the Sierra Fuego range. For all I knew, Valerie was dead already.
“Thank you,” I told Shelby, and meant it. For someone I’d disliked instantly, our partnership could have turned out worse.
“I hope she’s all right,” said Shelby.
I was already dialing Mac on my cell phone. “So do I.”
“Get over to the precinct house, now,” had been Mac’s only sentence when I’d called him to request backup at Basin Lake.
“Mac, I don’t have time for this! A girl’s life is in danger!”
“I don’t care if Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ have returned to earth and are out there in the street doing a cha-cha with Saint Peter,” Mac yelled. “Get your ass back here now or I fire you on the spot!”
The phone went dead in my ear. I had never heard Mac sound so angry—but Valerie was still going to die whether I was fired or not.
“Shit,” I muttered. If I went to save her without jurisdiction, or authority, nothing against her kidnappers would stick, and anything I did, like shooting someone deserving in the head, would.
I darted the Fairlane through traffic like a shark cuts through an oceanful of swimmers, missing bumpers