Free Karma Patrol by Kate Miller

bring heat to Jade’s cheeks, and she wasn’t even the one on the receiving end. She had no idea how Luke was able to withstand it without blushing.
    “Oh, I’d love to join you, but Jade doesn’t share well.” She paused, grinning at Jade’s pink cheeks. As Luke opened the door to the back seat, Shannon added, “Aren’t you forgetting something, Detective?”
    Luke ignored her. Jade gave her a quelling look that was completely ineffective. Shannon laughed at both of them, holding her hands up with her wrists placed side by side.
    “Handcuffs, Detective.” She winked at Jade. “One of the biggest perks of dating a cop.”

    Jade perched on the edge of a hard plastic chair in the interrogation room, holding a stirring straw like a pencil and poking dubiously at the surface of the coffee Aaron set in front of her.
    “It’s just regular coffee,” he told her, and she shook her head.
    “No, it isn’t. It can’t be.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I
like
coffee.”
    He couldn’t quite restrain a snort of laughter. “It’s the best we’ve got,” he told her.
    She shook her head again, giving him a mournful look. “You risk your lives every day to serve and protect the citizens of New York, and we repay you by trying to poison you. It doesn’t seem fair.”
    “Why don’t we get to the topic at hand and leave the criticisms of our hot beverages for a later date?” Luke proposed, his aggravation coming through in both his tone and his body language. “How did you know about the shooter?”
    “I didn’t—”
    “The concierge says you came into the hotel a good twenty seconds before the panic started outside, and two other desk clerks back him up. I’m sure the video footage from the lobby will confirm that you came in before the shooting started, which makes me wonder why you would come running full tilt into a Midtown hotel lobby in a panic. Unless it was because you already knew there was a shooter out there who was going to start killing people?”
    She’d had the car ride over to the station, short though it was, to think of a reasonable story to explain her behavior. Unfortunately, her creativity had deserted her, and all she could come up with was a lame story.
    “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
    “Uh, no.” Luke stared at her like she was crazy. “It’s not okay. If you have some explanation for your behavior other than that you were aware of the shooter and possibly in league with him, then we need to hear it.”
    She sighed, fidgeting with the red plastic straw in her hands. “I needed to use the ladies’ room.”
    Luke gave her a flatly disbelieving look. “Are you seriously telling me your alibi is that you had to pee?”
    “No,” she said primly, tossing her curls over her shoulder. “My alibi is that I had a
lady problem
I needed to deal with, and the Westin was the closest place with a public restroom. I was panicked when I went in there because I’m wearing winter white.” She raised her arms and indicated her sweater dress, which was indeed cream colored. “I needed to get somewhere I could fix the problem before it became visible to everyone on the street.”
    Across the table, Luke was turning an interesting shade of crimson. His partner had buried his face in his hands, and his shoulders shook with the effort it took to hold back his laughter.
    “I don’t suppose you can prove that,” Luke said finally, and the expression on his face was that of a man headed for the gallows. In response, Jade reached into her purse, pulling out the little pink pouch she always carried in case of an emergency and unzipping the top before turning it upside-down over the table. Three wrapped tampons tumbled out of the case and onto the table, and she gave him a level glance.
    “If you want the specific feminine hygiene product in question, you’re going to have to wait until I’m finished with it,” she told him.
    It was his turn to bury his face in his hands. Next to him,