LEDUC CAME OUT of the building, moving our way like he had a purpose. That purpose was probably to yell at us. Either Edward and Newman hadn’t been wingmen enough to keep him busy, or Edward had decided Leduc interrupting us with Olaf was the lesser evil. I hoped the sheriff hadn’t seen me kiss either of the women, but of course . . .
“What the hell, Blake? Are you going to kiss all of them? If you want a booty call, then get out of my town and go home.”
Great, just great, he’d seen at least some of it.
Edward was trailing behind Leduc, and just the way he was moving told me that he’d let the sheriff out to distract Olaf, or maybe he’d been afraid of what we’d do once we were all alone with the big guy. Did he really think we’d kill Olaf and play the “We have no idea where he went” game? Or was that what Edward was beginning to debate doing himself? I’d ask him later if we were ever alone on this damn case.
I stepped away from everyone, and when Nicky tried to follow, I said, “Stay, and that goes for all of you.”
I was pissed, so pissed, and before I’d worked on my anger issues, I’d have lashed out at Leduc and made everything worse, but I was in the wrong here. If I’d seen another police officer smooching someone while we were in the middle of a murder investigation and Bobby’s life was hanging in the balance, I’d have ripped them a new one, so what could I do? I tried for a version of the truth, because I couldn’t think of a lie that would help dig me out of the unprofessional hole I’d just fallen into.
“I’m sorry, Sheriff. I have behaved unprofessionally, and I’m embarrassed by it,” I said fast as he was drawing breath to yell at me again.
He hesitated like he was rethinking what he was going to say, which was what I was hoping he’d do. “Hell, Blake, you keep apologizing for all the over-the-top PDA, but you’re still doing it.”
“I know and I’m sorry, but . . . You have a wife, right?” I said.
Leduc frowned at me. “Yes.”
“What would you do if she showed up on the job and wanted you to give her a hug?”
“My wife would never do that. She knows when I’m working, I’m working.”
“Did she know it when you began dating?”
He frowned harder. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Blake.”
I leaned into him like I was confiding in him, and he leaned in to hear me. Let’s hear it for social conditioning. “I was unprofessional with Nicky. I own that. But then I didn’t greet the women the same way, because one stupid moment was all I allowed myself.”
“So why did you kiss both of them? I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that you’re dating this many people.”
“It’s a lot of people even to me, Sheriff, trust me.”
“Then why do it?”
I glanced back at the two women and Nicky. “Which of them would you kick out of bed for eating crackers?”
Leduc glanced behind me and got a considering look on his face. Then he grinned and started shaking his head. He gave me that guy-to-guy look that I’d gotten from a few of the police officers at home when they met some of the women in my life. I’d had two of them tell me, “You dog.” I knew it was a compliment, just not one I’d ever thought I’d get.
“Well, now, can’t argue that, but that much eye candy is going to be damn distracting.” Leduc’s eyes narrowed to nicely skeptical cop eyes. “You going to be too distracted to do your job?”
“I deserve that, but I promise the public displays of affection are over until we get a break in the case.”
“You said the big guy was your mistake, so why kiss the others if you knew better?”
Then I lied, and I took a chance that a long-married man would understand something that you only learned if you dated women. “Some version of ‘if you loved me as much as you love him.’ Basically, those two kisses just kept me out of the doghouse with two women.”
My answer wasn’t strictly true. Angel wasn’t that serious about me or anyone. Pierette would never have pushed her advantage. She saw herself as serving her queen, me. She’d volunteered and pursued the relationship, but she still wouldn’t push that much. But I couldn’t explain all that to Leduc. I could explain trying to keep the women in your life happy.
“But you’re a woman, too, Blake.”
“Trust me, what sex I am doesn’t matter at all, only theirs.”
“So, what if they get their feelings hurt and need more romantic reassurance again? They’re going to distract you from the case.”
“I’m going to make it really clear that this is the one and only PDA for this trip, and if they can’t understand that, then I’ll be in the doghouse when we get home.”
“I can’t quite picture a woman being in the doghouse the same way that a man ends up there.”
“Trust me, Duke”—yes, I even stooped to using his nickname—“if you’re dating women and certain men, the doghouse doesn’t care if you’re male or female.”
He frowned at me. “Seems like women should be smart enough to stay out of trouble.”
I shook my head. “Maybe, but I’m not.”
He smiled. “I heard the rumors that you were sleeping around, but that’s not it. That’s casual, and casual doesn’t give people the power to make you do stupid shit like you just did.”
“Whatever I’m doing, it’s not casual.”
“Well, wouldn’t want to get a fellow officer in the doghouse with two women at once.”
“Thank you, Duke. I really appreciate that.”
He shook his head and actually patted my shoulder. “Being with one woman is hard enough, Blake. Good luck to you.”
“Thanks, and could I have a few minutes alone to explain the no more PDA for the rest of the trip?”
“How many of them are staying for the talk?”
I looked at them and realized that it was everyone but Milligan and Custer. “All of them, I guess, except for Otto Jeffries.”
He laughed. “Then I can give you privacy, Blake, but this is not the definition of being alone.”
“No arguments,” I said.
Leduc went inside, but Olaf didn’t want to go without us—okay, mostly me—so I told him a version of the same thing I’d told Leduc. “I need some privacy to talk to the women in my life, Otto. We need to make it clear that this is the last PDA while I’m working. I smoothed it over with Leduc once, but I can’t do it twice.”
“You have explained it to them,” he said.
I shook my head. “One of the hard things about dating women is that it takes more explaining to explain things, especially emotional ones.”
He stared at me, frowning, thinking hard. “You are admitting that women are not logical?”
“No, but they are more complicated than men when it comes to dating and romance.”
He seemed to think about that and then finally shook his head. “I will agree, and I will leave you to speak to the . . . women in your life.”
Olaf started walking toward the offices. When he walked through the door, Edward tipped his hat to me from the little porch and followed inside.
Once they were inside and the rest of us were as alone as we were going to get, I turned on them and said, “You have minutes to tell me why the fuck Pierette is here. Isn’t it enough that I fit his victim profile? Did you have to endanger someone else?”
“I am your bodyguard. It is my duty to put myself between you and danger,” Pierette said, and she didn’t sound the least bit frightened now. She stood tall and certain, as if the woman who had just finished hiding behind me was someone else. It reminded me of how Edward could switch to Ted.
“What exactly does that mean?” I asked.
Pierette just looked at me with her brown eyes, made larger with the eyeliner, which she never wore at home. “I serve my queen in any way she requires.”
I turned to the one person I knew had to tell me the truth. “What the hell is going on, Nicky?”
“It wasn’t my idea. I knew you’d hate it,” he said.
“What wasn’t your idea?”
“To bring Pierette and Angel here to help you deal with Olaf.”
Then I had a thought, and he was right. I hated it. “Pierette, you were pretending to be afraid of him just now. It’s not enough that you look like his favorite type of victim. You’re playing to it.”
“I am afraid of him, my queen. I would not want to be helpless in his hands. I merely let him see the fear rather than hiding it.” She was so calm as she spoke.
“Why? Why would you do that?”
“To tempt him.”
“What?” Angel tried to put an arm around my shoulders, and I moved away from her. “And you, why are you flirting with him?”
“If you mean the clothes, I was at the concert. I didn’t wear them for anyone here.”
She sounded angry then, but I’d had my last emotional-blackmail moment from either of them. I’d already apologized once for her missing the night out with everyone. I was done with that.
“I don’t mean the clothes, and you know it. Why are you flirting with him, of all people?”
“We wanted to see if he’d respond to normal flirting,” she said as if what she’d done was a matter of course.
“Why would you want him to respond to it?”
“They’re here to try to take some of the pressure off of you,” Ethan said.
I took a deep breath and counted to ten as I let it out slowly. It didn’t really help. “If you came to protect me from Olaf, and not to help me save Bobby Marchand’s life, you can drive right back to the airport and get the hell away from me.”
“If he responds to me flirting with him, then maybe he’s datable in some weird, psychotic way,” Angel said.
“He’s not psychotic, and are you volunteering to date Olaf?”
She laughed. “I’m too tall, too blond, and too blue eyed, but if he wasn’t fixated on his victims, then he’d be totally hot.”
Whatever look was on my face made her laugh again, but this one was a nervous one. “Come on, Anita, if you just look at the physical, he’s smokin’ hot.”
“I guess his whole liking to kidnap, tie up, torture, and rape women ruins it for me.”
“I actually think the danger is part of what makes him hot.”
I looked at Angel as if I’d never seen her before. “Well, forgive me as a woman that fits his vic profile to a T if I don’t find it intriguing.”
“And that is why Pierette is here,” Angel said.
“This is ridiculous. We are not doing this. It is a stupid and dangerous plan.”
“It’s not stupid,” Nicky said, “but I knew you’d hate it.”
“It is stupid. I won’t let Pierette endanger herself. I don’t want anyone to be at Olaf’s mercy—certainly not someone I’ve had sex with and actually like.”
“I am honored that you care for me that much, my queen, but if I could end this threat to you once and for all, it would be worth the danger.”
“You do not understand what he is, or you wouldn’t say that.”
“It is he who does not know what I am,” she said. She let her face show the confidence of centuries of being one of the most feared assassins in the world. She and all the other Harlequin had been so frightening that even mentioning their name could have gotten bad little vampires executed. Now they were part of our bodyguards, and if they spied, they did it for Jean-Claude or Micah. Oh, how the mighty had fallen and all that jazz, but the arrogance naked in Pierette’s eyes showed that at least the ego hadn’t fallen that far.
“I’m not saying that you aren’t fearsome on your own, Petra, but you can’t understand what he is, or you wouldn’t be this calm about using yourself as bait.”
“I understand precisely what he is, and the fact that we’ve allowed him to continue living when he is a terrible threat to you is inexcusable.”
“I’ll say what is and isn’t excusable,” I said.
“That is your prerogative as queen, but if anyone had dared to threaten our old queen in such a manner, it would not have been tolerated.”
“Well, I’m queen now, and that is not how I want Olaf handled. He’s a fellow marshal, for the love of God. You can’t just kill him.”
“We will do nothing to him unless he tries to kidnap or rape me.”
“But if you bait him into doing it, it’s like you’re setting him up to be killed.”
“I will not harm him unless he tries to harm me first, and then I will merely defend myself. I am allowed to defend myself.”
“Of course you are.”
“Then if he behaves himself and passes on the bait, he will not get caught and slain,” Pierette said, and she was still too calm.
I wanted to grab her and shake her until she showed the fear she’d let him see. Had it been an act? Was she an even better actor than Edward? If she was, then I couldn’t trust anything she’d ever said or done with me. Damn it, didn’t she understand this would make me doubt her?
Nicky said, “She understands.”
“You read my mind,” I said.
He nodded. “And both Angel and Pierette understood both the danger from Olaf and that it might damage their relationship with you.”
“We all decided the risks were worth it,” Ethan said.
I looked into his soft gray eyes. “It’s wrong.”
“Why, my queen?” Pierette asked.
“What she asked,” Angel said.
I tried to think how to say it and finally said, “It seems . . . dishonorable. If I have to kill Olaf, I want him to know it’s coming and why.”
“If he kidnaps one of your girlfriends, he’ll know why we’re killing him,” Nicky said. Put that way, it made sense, but it still felt wrong.
“I don’t have time to argue about this anymore. We go inside and you prove to me that you’re all assets on this case, or I will by God send you home.”
“As you like, my queen,” Pierette said.
She even bowed at the neck, which was as much bowing as I allowed her in public. In private she’d press her face to the floor like she was abasing herself before something holy. It was incredibly uncomfortable to have people drop to the floor in front of you. I never knew what to do. Did I tell them to stop that and stand up, or just get off the floor, ignore it, help them up? I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to know. I just wanted to break them of the habit.
“Don’t bow to me where the other police can see it.”
“As you like, my queen.”
“And don’t use any of my titles except for Marshal while we’re here.”
“Of course . . . Marshal.”
“We’re sleeping together. I think you can call me Anita.”
“Thank you, my queen.”
I started to correct Pierette, but then just started walking toward the sheriff’s office. I had a crime to solve and a life to save. I wasn’t letting anyone—not Olaf, not my bodyguards, not my lovers, not even my friends with benefits—interfere with this case. If they kept distracting me this badly, I would send them home, even the two women who were willing to fall on Olaf’s serial killer blade. I’d handled him before with just Edward to run interference. I could do it again if I had to. There was a tiny part of me that wasn’t so sure of that, and a very large part of me that knew someday I’d have to kill Olaf or he’d kill me. So why did it bother me so much that we were setting him up to fall back into his old murderous habits? I didn’t know, and I stopped trying to figure it out. Later. I’d think about it later. Crime first, moral dilemmas later. Oh, wait. The case was a moral dilemma, too. Damn it all to hell.