“YOU ARE ATTRACTED to Bobby Marchand,” Olaf said once we got outside. Of all the things he could have started with, that hadn’t been on my list.
“I’m not attracted to Bobby,” I said.
“Lies! I saw you with him just now.”
His energy blazed around him so hot that I wanted to step back as if it were real fire and I was afraid of getting burned. God, he was so powerful. It really was a shame he was crazy. The moment I had that thought, I saw my lioness step out of the shadows. She stared at me with dark amber eyes.
“I’m not lying. I don’t want to date Bobby.”
“Why must you always make it about dating? I said you are attracted to him, not that you wanted a relationship with him.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My lioness took the first step forward, sniffing the air. So much power, such strength, he could protect us from the other lions. If we could only get him to hunt with our other lion, and I knew she meant Nicky.
“She doesn’t want to fuck Bobby,” Nicky said.
Olaf whirled toward him, all that power blazing bright and feeding on his anger. He suddenly smelled like food again. “I saw her with him! I saw her beast react every time they touched!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
“Your leopard did react to him, my . . . Anita,” Pierette said.
“Well, yeah,” I said.
“You admit it,” Olaf said.
“That my inner beast reacted to his, yes, but that’s not the same thing as being attracted to him.”
Angel made a sound that might have been a laugh. I turned and glared at her. “Why is that funny?”
“Your beast doesn’t react like that to just everyone,” she said with a smile.
“Stop grinning at me, and just tell me what that means,” I said.
“It means that you have more control over your beasts now, and they flare only if you are sort of attracted to someone.”
“Or if she hasn’t fed the ardeur in more than four hours,” Pierette said.
Edward said, “Do you really want to have this talk in front of the sheriff’s office?”
“Until he can control his energy, we can’t get into a car with him,” Custer said, nodding at Olaf.
“His energy is calming down,” Angel said.
Olaf had been calming down, but now the energy flared again, and the anger flared with it. Damn it, why did his anger smell so good to me?
“If you can tone it down, we can go somewhere and talk in private,” I said.
I fought not to rub my arms or move closer to Olaf. It was like I either needed to wash his power off my skin or touch it. It wasn’t his lion I wanted; it was his rage. Yummy, yummy rage. My thinking of him as food confused my lioness, so she faded into the darkness with only a gleam of golden eyes to remind me she wasn’t gone, just hiding in the dark like a good ambush predator.
“Privacy means no witnesses,” Olaf said.
It took me a second to realize what he was saying and why. I nodded, trying to clear my head of hungers that had nothing to do with solid food. What was wrong with me today? “I’m not wanting privacy so there won’t be witnesses to a crime. I want it because I won’t talk about this shit in public.”
“What shit is that?” he asked.
“Private shit.”
Olaf actually smiled as if I’d meant to be funny.
“Anita doesn’t like talking about intimate stuff in public,” Angel said with a come-hither smile.
“I want to talk of such things with Anita, but I will not let my desire make me foolish,” Olaf said.
Angel cocked a hip to one side so that the swell of her hips was even more promising inside the pencil skirt. She even put a hand on one hip as if to emphasize the swell of them. “It’s not just Anita you get to be alone with.” She literally stroked a hand down one hip. I knew she’d overplayed it before Olaf said anything.
“Two women at once is not one of my fantasies,” he said.
“Then what is?” She made her come-hither go up a notch so that it was a little bit evil or promised to do evil things with you.
“Does this pretense work on other men?”
“I’m not pretending anything,” she said.
“I let you see on my face what my fantasies are when we first met. You showed fear then, which was wise, and then you went back to flirting with me.”
“I flirt with everyone,” Angel said, but she’d moved her hands away from her hips.
“I have noticed. What I cannot decide is if you would carry through with all of it. Would you fuck them?”
She took a breath to answer, but I cut her off. “Angel likes to flirt, but no, she doesn’t sleep with as many people as she teases.”
What I’d said was true, but the last thing I wanted was for Olaf to think Angel was a whore. He tended to kill them faster.
Angel tried to say something else, but I held my finger up, and she took the hint. “We really need somewhere private for this conversation.”
“How many of them will be joining us for the talk?” Olaf asked.
“Most of them,” I said.
“All of them,” said Nicky.
“I don’t think we need everyone,” I said.
“I think we do.” Nicky gave me very direct eye contact as if I was missing something important.
“Then I need guarantees for my safety,” Olaf said.
“What kind of guarantees?” I asked.
“Are you admitting that you couldn’t take us all?” Nicky asked, and that was when I figured out what he’d been trying to tell me with his look.
“Normally I would not worry about four against one,” Olaf said, “but you are all shapeshifters and two of you are former special teams, and one of them is you.”
Nicky acknowledged the compliment with a nod.
“Why only four?” Edward asked.
“You want to know which of us is better. You cannot learn that attacking me in a group.”
I glanced back at the offices behind us. “We need to go somewhere else for this talk.”
“Agreed,” Edward said.
“Sure,” Nicky said.
“You’re not going to protest that he didn’t include you in either attack?” Angel asked.
“Not while we’re standing in front of the sheriff’s station. So let’s try this again. What guarantees do you want, Otto?” I said.
“Your word of honor and . . . Ted’s that I will come to no harm if I go with you.”
“I’ll give my word of honor on the condition that you don’t try to hurt us first.”
“I will not strike the first blow,” Olaf said.
“Promise?” I asked.
“I give you my word.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“You’re just going to take his word, just like that?” Custer asked.
“Otto’s word is good, so yes.”
“Don’t you want everybody’s word of honor?” Custer asked.
“I know that Anita and Ted keep their word,” Olaf said. “I am almost certain that Nicky’s word of honor is worth nothing. He lies too well. The rest of you I do not know, so I cannot trust your word.” He turned to Edward then and asked, “Will you give me your word, Ted?”
Edward actually looked at him for a few seconds and then nodded. “I give you my word.”
Olaf smiled, and it almost looked normal, like he was happy about something. “Where shall we go for this conversation?”
“I expected you to want us to go to your room,” Edward said.
“I did not get a room yet.”
“There aren’t a lot of room choices in Hanuman,” Ethan said. “We have two rooms that have connecting doors at the motel.”
We all looked at one another and just like that we had our location. It was just as well, because Leduc came out on the porch.
“What the hell?” Leduc asked. “I told you this isn’t a supernatural case anymore, so the marshals can stay, but the rest of you can’t.”
“Preternatural branch can deputize, so they count as marshals,” I said.
He shook his head, fingers in his duty belt again in a gesture that looked practiced yet awkward with the weight that had to be new, because he wasn’t used to it yet. “Not if it’s no longer a supernatural case. The only reason you’re still here is that warrant in your pocket. Once that is no longer in effect, then you’re all out of here.”
“Sheriff, we’re in a legal gray area so big that I’m not even sure when I’m supposed to leave.”
That made him laugh in spite of himself. “Well, I guess I can’t argue that, but I know you being able to deputize is meant for emergencies when a marshal is alone on a monster hunt and needs backup. I’m not sure anything about this case qualifies. You never had to hunt Bobby, and now no monsters are involved.”
“Do you really believe that the people who killed Ray Marchand aren’t monsters?” I asked.
The last of the smile vanished from Leduc’s face, and he suddenly looked exhausted and years older. It was that kind of case. “You’ve made your point, Blake. Now get the extra personnel out of here.”
Angel sashayed up to him. “Oh, Dukie, you’ll miss me when I’m gone.”
That put a smile back on his face. “Of course I’ll miss you, Angel. If I said anything less, I would not be a gentleman.”
She kissed him on the cheek the way you’d kiss your uncle, except that she left a perfect crimson imprint of her lips behind. “You’re always a gentleman, Dukie,” she said, voice huskier than it needed to be.
He blushed until his cheek was darker than her lipstick. Angel was good.