“Even tougher than Olaf,” Edward said.
There was a disgruntled sound from behind the rug. The sound of Olaf’s ego getting bruised.
Peter looked at me, and the look had changed. You could almost see him thinking, trying to put my petite female self in the same category as Olaf’s aggressive male presence. He finally shook his head. “She doesn’t look as tough as Olaf.”
“If you mean arm wrestling, I’m not.”
He frowned and turned back to Edward. “I don’t understand.”
“I think you do,” Edward said, “and if you don’t, I can’t explain it to you.”
Peter’s frown deepened.
“Part of the problem with the tough-guy code,” I said, “is that a lot of it can’t be explained.”
“But you understand it,” Peter said. He sounded almost accusatory.
“I’ve spent a lot of my time around very tough guys.”
“That’s not it,” Peter said. “You’re different from any girl I’ve ever met.”
“She’s different from any girl you will ever meet,” Edward said.
Peter looked from one to the other of us. “Mom’s jealous of her.”
“I know,” Edward said.
Bernardo’s voice came from inside the room. “Can we lower the rug now?”
“Don’t tell me you tough he-men are getting tired,” I said.
“Lactic acid builds up in everybody’s muscles, chickie,” Bernardo said.
I’d started the name calling so I let the “chickie” comment go. “You need to join your mom and Becca in the kitchen,” I said.
“Do I?” He was looking at Edward, and I realized he was appealing to Edward, asking permission.
“Yes,” I said and looked at Edward, trying to tell him with my eyes, not to do this.
But he had eyes only for the boy. They stared at each other, and something passed between, some knowledge, something. “Drop the cloth,” Edward said.
“No,” I said and grabbed Peter’s arm. I spun him around, so his back was to the door. I’d caught him by surprise, so he didn’t struggle. Before he could decide what to do about me, Edward spoke. “Let him go, Anita.”
I looked at him around Peter’s shoulder and realized he was taller than me by a few inches. “Don’t do this.”
“He wants to see. Let him see.”
“Donna won’t like it,” I said.
“Who’s going to tell her?”
I looked into Peter’s dark eyes. “He will when he gets mad enough at you or her or both.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Peter said.
I shook my head. I didn’t believe him, and that more than anything made me let go of his arm and back off. If Edward showed Peter this little corner of hell and word got back to Donna, it might be enough to break them up permanently. I was willing to trade some of Peter’s innocence for that. Harsh, but true.
The rug fell away on Olaf’s side first, then Bernardo was left holding the rug in his arms like a limp child. He looked at Edward and shook his head, but he stepped back beside Olaf and let Peter walk into the room. I followed behind him and Edward.
Olaf had moved back near the far door. Bernardo laid the cloth on the table and stepped back to the far end of the table. I took up station at the far wall, almost mirroring Olaf, but at the opposite door. We’d all moved to separate corners of the room, and all of us tried to separate ourselves from what was happening. I don’t think even Olaf approved.
Peter took in all the pictures, turning around and around. He paled, and his voice was a little breathy. “Are those people?”
“Yes,” Edward said. He stayed right beside Peter, not touching, not too close, but very definitely with him.
Peter walked to the nearest wall, to the pictures I’d just been looking at. “What happened to them?” he asked.
“We don’t know yet,” Edward said.
Peter looked at the pictures, eyes flicking from one horrible image to another. He didn’t walk the room or study any one picture as closely as I had, but he looked, he saw what was there. He didn’t scream or faint or throw up. He’d proven his point. He wasn’t a wimp. I wondered if I should warn him about the possibility of nightmares. Nay, he’d either have them or he wouldn’t.
He was still pale, with a light dew of sweat on his upper lip, but he was mobile, and his voice was breathy, but calm. “I better help Mom in the kitchen.” He walked out still hugging his arms around himself as if he were cold.
No one said a word as he walked out. When I was pretty sure he was out of ear shot, I walked up to Edward. “Well, that went better than I thought it would.”
“It went about the way I thought it would,” Edward said.
“Shit, Edward, the kid is going to have nightmares.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Pete’s a tough kid.” He was looking out through the doorway as if he could still see the boy. His gaze was faraway.
I stared at him. “You’re proud of him. Proud of the fact that he looked at this,” I motioned at the pictures, “and didn’t freak.”
“Why shouldn’t he be proud?” Olaf asked.
I looked at him. “If Edward were Peter’s dad, maybe. But he’s not.” I turned back to Edward. I stared at him. His face was its usual blankness, but there was a flinching around the eyes.
I touched his arm, and the touch was enough. He looked at me. “You’re treating him like a prospective son.” I shook my head. “You cannot have this family.”
“I know that,” he said.
“I don’t think you do,” I said. “I think you’re actually beginning to think about doing it, for real.”
He dropped his gaze, not meeting my eyes.
“Shit, Edward, shit.”
“I hate to admit it, but I agree with her,” Olaf said. “If it was just the boy, then I would see no problem. I think you can make of him what you will, but the woman and the girl . . .” He shook his head. “It will not work.”
“I don’t understand why you even want a family,” Bernardo said.
“For different reasons. Neither of you believe in marriage,” Edward said.
“True,” Olaf said, “but if men like us do marry, it should not be a woman like Donna. She is too . . .” he struggled for a word, and finally said, “innocent. And you know that I do not say that about many women.”
“Maybe that’s one of her attractions,” Edward said, and he seemed as truly puzzled as the rest of us.
“You’re already screwing her. Why marry her?” This from Bernardo.
“If all I wanted was sex, I’d have gone elsewhere,” Edward said.
“She any good?” Bernardo asked.
Edward just looked at him, one long look.
Bernardo raised his hands. “Sorry, sorry, just curious.”
“Don’t be curious about Donna,” Edward said. He turned to me. “You believe in marriage. Underneath all that toughness is a midwestern girl that still believes in the white picket fence.”
“I do believe in marriage, but not for people like us, Edward.”
I don’t know what he would have said to that, because the phone rang and he went to answer it.
“Saved by the bell,” I said.
“He intends to marry this woman,” Olaf said.
I nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
“If he wants to marry her, it’s his business,” Bernardo said.
Olaf and I stared at him until the smile on his face faded to a look of puzzlement.
“What?”
“Olaf may be a serial rapist, Bernardo, or even a serial killer, but in his own twisted way he has more scruples than you do. Doesn’t that worry you?”
Bernardo shook his head. “No.”
I sighed.
Edward came back into the room. His face was back to his normal “Edward face,” as if all the near revelations of just a minute ago had never happened. “The monster did another couple in Albuquerque last night.”
“Shit,” I said. “Ar
e you going without me?”
Edward was watching my face just a little too closely, so I knew there was a surprise coming. “Your presence has been requested on site.”
I could feel the surprise on my face. “Is Lieutenant Marks not in charge anymore?”
“It was him on the phone.”
“You’re kidding me,” I said.
Edward shook his head and smiled.
“I don’t get it.”
“I’d guess that someone up the feeding chain chewed his ass for kicking you out. They probably gave him a choice of working with you, or being off the case.”
I had to smile. “A case like this can make a career.”
“Exactly,” Edward said.
“Well, we know Marks’ price now.”
“Price?” Bernardo asked. “You guys bribed him?”
“No,” I said, “but his principles that he so kindly spat in my face yesterday weren’t as precious to him as his career. Always nice to know how strong a person’s convictions are.”
“Not that strong,” Edward said.
“Apparently not,” I said.
I heard Donna coming down the hallway, talking loudly to Becca, but I think it was to warn us that they were coming. The men grabbed the rug and went for the doorway. Edward said in his loud, cheerful Ted voice, “Saddle up, boys and girls. We got work to do.”
I went for my room. If we were going to go outside the house, I needed more weapons.
31
I SAT IN THE front seat beside Edward. It was probably my imagination but I could feel someone staring at the back of my neck. If I wasn’t imagining it, I was betting on Olaf.
I’d added the shoulder holster complete with Browning Hi-Power. Usually, it was the only gun I wore until someone tried to kill me, or some monster showed in the flesh. But I’d kept the Firestar in its inner pants holster. Too many pictures of dismembered corpses for comfort. I even took all the knives, which tells you how insecure I was feeling. Being stared at hard enough to bore a hole through my flesh was beginning to get on what nerves I had left. It wasn’t my imagination. I could feel it.
I turned in the seat and met Bernardo’s eyes. There was a look on his face when I turned around that was nothing I wanted to see. I had an uncomfortable thought that he was fantasizing and I just might be in the starring role.
“What are you staring at?” I asked.
He blinked, but it seemed to take a long time for his eyes to really focus on me rather than whatever was inside his head. He gave a slow, almost lazy smile. “I wasn’t doing anything.”
“Like hell,” I said.
“You can’t tell me what to think, Anita,” he said.
“You’re presentable enough. Go get a date.”
“I’d have to wine and dine her, and then I couldn’t count on sex at the end of the evening. What good is that?”
“Then get a hooker,” I said.
“I would if Edward would let me out on my own.”
I turned and looked at Edward.
He answered the question without me having to voice it. “I’ve forbidden Olaf from . . . dating while he’s here. Olaf resented it, so I told Bernardo the same thing.”
“Very even-handed,” I said.
“It is totally unfair to punish me because Olaf is a psycho,” Bernardo said.
“If I cannot meet my needs, then why should you be able to?” Olaf said. There was something in his voice that made me look at him. He was staring straight ahead, no eye contact to anyone.
I turned around in my seat and looked at Edward. “Where do you come up with these people?”
“The same place I find vampire hunters and necromancers,” he said.
He had a point. Enough of a point that we finished the drive to Albuquerque in silence. I felt I had enough moral high ground to throw stones, but evidently Edward disagreed. Since he knew Olaf better than I did, I wasn’t going to argue. At least not now.
People talk of ranch-style houses, but this really was a ranch. A ranch as in cowboys and horses. It was a dude ranch for tourists so whether it counted as a really real ranch, I wasn’t sure. But it was the closest thing to an actual working ranch that I’d ever set foot on.
The ranch really wasn’t in Albuquerque, but in the middle of nowhere. In fact the house and corrals sat in the middle of a whole lot of nothing. Empty space with bunches of dry grass and strange palish soil stretching out and out to the horizon. Hills ringed the ranch like smooth piles of rock and brush. Edward drove us under an entrance that had a cow’s skull nailed to it and said, “Dead Horse Ranch.” It was so similar to a hundred western movies I’d seen on television that it seemed vaguely familiar.
Even the corral full of horses spilling in an endless nervous circle seemed stage-managed. The house wasn’t exactly what I had pictured, being low to the ground and made of white adobe much like Edward’s house but newer. If you could have just erased the plethora of police cars, emergency units, and even some fire rescue equipment, it would have been picturesque in a lonesome down-on-the-prairie sort of way.
A lot of the police cars had revolving lights, and the crackle of police radios was thick in the air. I wondered if it was the lights, the noise, or just this many people making the horses nervous. I didn’t know much about horses, but surely rushing back and forth around their pen wasn’t normal behavior. I wondered if they had been running in circles before the cops came or after. Were horses like dogs? Could they sense bad things? Didn’t know, didn’t even know who to ask.
We were stopped just inside the gate by a uniformed cop. He took our names and went off to find someone who would let us pass, or find someone to tell him to kick us out. I wondered if Lieutenant Marks was here. Since he’d issued the invite, it seemed likely. What kind of threat to his career had they used to get him to invite me back?
We waited. None of us spoke. I think we’d all spent a lot of our adult lives waiting for one uniform or another to give us permission to do things. It used to get on my nerves, but lately I just waited. Maturity, or was I just getting too worn down to argue over small stuff? I’d have liked to say maturity, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t it.
The uniform came back with Marks trailing behind him. Marks’ pale tan suit jacket flapped in the hot wind, giving a glimpse of his gun riding just behind his left hip. He stared at the ground as he walked, briskly, all business, but he was careful not to look at us, at me, maybe.
The uniform got to us first, but he stood a little back from the open driver’s side door and let the lieutenant catch up. Marks finally got there, and he looked fixedly at Edward, as if he could exclude me by just not looking at me.
“Who are the men in the back?”
“Otto Jefferies, and Bernardo Spotted-Horse.” I noticed that Olaf had to use an alias, but Bernardo got to keep his real name. Guess who was wanted for crimes elsewhere.
“What are they?”
I wouldn’t have known how to answer that question but Edward did. “Mr. Spotted-Horse is a bounty hunter like myself, and Mr. Jefferies is a retired government worker.”
Marks looked at Olaf through the glass. Olaf looked back. “Government worker. What sort of government worker?”
“The kind that if you contacted the state department, they’d confirm his identity.”
Marks tapped on Olaf’s window.
Olaf rolled the window down with the nearly silent buttons on the door handles. “Yes,” he said in a voice that was totally devoid of his usual German burr.
“What did you do for the state department?”
“Call them and ask,” Olaf said.
Marks shook his head. “I have to let you and Blake inside my crime scene, but not these two.” He jerked a thumb at the back seat. “They stay in the car.”
“Why?” Bernardo said.
Marks looked at him through the open window. His blue-green eyes were mostly green right now, and I was beginning to realize that meant he was angry. “Because I said so, and I’ve
got a badge and you don’t.”
Well, at least it was honest.
Edward spoke before Bernardo could do more than make inarticulate noises. “It’s your crime scene, Lieutenant. We civilians are just here on your sufferance, we know that.” He twisted in his seat to give the two men direct eye contact, but turned so Marks couldn’t see his face well. I could, and it was cold and full of warning. “They will be happy to stay in the car. Won’t you, boys?”
Bernardo slumped in his seat, arms crossed on his chest, sulking, but he nodded. Olaf just said, “Of course, whatever the good officer says.” His voice was mild, empty. The very lack of tone was frightening, as if he were thinking something very different from the words.
Marks frowned but stepped back from the car. His hand hovered around his body as if he had a sudden desire to touch his gun, but didn’t want to appear spooked. I wondered what had been in Olaf’s eyes when he spoke those mild words. Something not mild, that I was certain of.
The uniformed cop had detected something in Marks. He stepped closer to his lieutenant, one hand on the butt of his gun. I didn’t know what had changed in Olaf, but he was suddenly making the cops nervous. He hadn’t moved. Only his face was turned towards them. What was he doing with just his facial expression that had them so jumpy?
“Otto,” Edward said softly, so that the sound didn’t carry outside the car. But as he had in the house when he said, Olaf, that one word carried a menace, a promise of dire consequence.
Olaf blinked and turned his head slowly towards Edward. The look on his face was frightening, feral somehow, as if he’d let down his mask enough to show some of the madness inside. But as I looked at him, I thought this was a face to deliberately frighten people, a sort of tease. Not the real monster, but a monster that people could understand and fear without thinking too hard.
Olaf blinked and looked out the far window, face bland and as inoffensive as it got.
Edward turned the car off and handed his keys to Bernardo. “In case you want to listen to the radio.”
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Collection 6-10 Page 159
