Sucker Punch

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  “Is there a reason you’re trying to stay out of this discussion?” I asked.

  “You won’t like what I have to say.”

  “You’re joking,” I said.

  “Olaf may have a point, Anita.”

  “I really didn’t expect you to agree with Olaf,” I said.

  “I know you didn’t. That’s why I didn’t offer an opinion.”

  “I really thought you’d be on my side on this one.”

  “I’m on Newman’s side, and he isn’t doing well.”

  “I know,” I said. “I don’t think he’s cut out for this job.”

  “I do not think he will be strong enough to kill the victim,” Olaf said.

  I wanted to argue about his use of the word victim, but Edward went right on as if that was an okay thing to call our executionees.

  “I’m more afraid that he might feel he has to kill Bobby and finish the job,” Edward said.

  “Why afraid?” I asked.

  “There are things that a person can do and survive intact, and there are things that will break them. I think killing Bobby Marchand will break Newman in a way that he won’t recover from.”

  Olaf nodded. “I agree.”

  “Hell, I’m not sure I’ll be okay if I have to kill him at this point,” I said.

  “You’ve talked to him too much, Anita. You know better than to interact with the mark before the hit,” Edward said.

  “It does not bother me to interact with them,” Olaf said.

  “You’re a sociopath. Anita isn’t.”

  “I enjoy the kill more sometimes if I have spoken with them, interacted with them.”

  “You’re a serial killer, and Anita isn’t.”

  “She kills as much as we do, perhaps more.”

  “She’s a killer like I am, not like you are.”

  I thought about reminding them that I was sitting right here, but I found it interesting to watch them interact as if I wasn’t here. Was this how they talked all by themselves? Probably not. It was that old conundrum that observing the experiment changed it—just by being present I changed their interactions.

  “Agreed,” Olaf said.

  “I think it might be better if I spend some time with Newman,” Edward said.

  “Are you saying that I can’t teach Newman what he needs to know just because I’m a girl?”

  “No, it’s not you, Anita. It’s him. Olaf is right. Some men are just more . . . tender around women. I think Newman needs a man’s touch.”

  “That’s so chauvinistic.”

  “Why is it chauvinist to say that I’d be better at teaching Newman how to be a man than you would be?”

  “He’s a man already, all grown-up. We’re talking about teaching him how to do this job. Yes, you helped teach me, but I’m good at the job now. So why are you a better teacher than I am?”

  “I’m not saying I’m better at helping people learn the ropes. I’m saying that I think I might be better for Newman right now.”

  “It still seems like some macho bullshit that I didn’t expect to hear from you.”

  “We don’t have time for egos and feelings here, Anita. I think you’ll sympathize with Newman and the Marchand kid too much to help Newman figure out what he needs to do. I won’t.”

  My anger washed over me like heat, and I felt the beasts stir inside of me like my soul writhing to the beat of my anger. Fuck. I did not need this right now, and just like that, I thought, But what does Newman need? Was Edward right? Would some man-to-man talk benefit Newman more than my marshal-to-marshal relationship with him? I didn’t want to kill Bobby now. I knew what the skin of his neck smelled like when I held him close. It was always harder for me to hurt someone after a certain level of physical closeness. It was like, at some level, I equated physical with emotional intimacy. My therapist and I had been talking about that, among other things.

  Thinking about things too complicated for my beasts could either quiet them or make them lash out in frustration. This time it quieted them. I could almost feel them thinking, You complicate your life, human. I couldn’t even argue with them.

  I nodded. “Okay. How do we get you some one-on-one time in the middle of an investigation?”

  “You’re giving in just like that?” Edward asked, frowning at me as if he suspected a trap.

  “You’re right. I’ve gotten too close to Bobby Marchand. I saved his life once by putting my body between him and a gun. It would feel weird for me to kill him now, so maybe I can’t help Newman work through his own feelings about it. It’s not about being male or female. It’s about me being emotionally compromised in a way that you are not, which makes you a better partner for Newman right now on this case.”

  “Exactly that,” Edward said.

  “I am impressed that you worked through your anger so quickly,” Olaf said to me.

  “Thanks. Therapy is a many-splendored thing.”

  “Whatever tool works for you,” he said.

  “Thank you.”

  “You are welcome.”

  “Normally, I’d just ride with Newman once we meet up with him again, but that leaves the two of you alone,” Edward said.

  Olaf and I looked at each other. Did I want to be trapped inside a car with him? No, hell no. I had a moment to realize that it wasn’t him going all serial killer on me that made me hesitate. I believed he’d behave himself until the case was complete The problem was the kiss that I’d somehow let him manipulate me into, or I’d somehow been willing to do. He’d asked for my consent. I’d said yes. But once you say yes, it’s harder to say no later without the man in question getting upset. I did not want to be trapped in a car alone with Olaf when he got upset with me, and I didn’t want to kiss him again. I’d decided I’d say no and make it stick from now on, but the no would have been a lot stronger if I’d never crossed the line. What the hell had I been thinking?

  “I think we will be fine on our own, but Anita’s expression says she will not agree.”

  I didn’t like his being able to read me like that, but he wasn’t wrong. “You confuse me, Olaf.”

  “In what way?”

  Edward pulled into the gravel parking area in front of the sheriff’s station, and it startled me. I’d been so wrapped up in worrying about Newman and Olaf, that I hadn’t realized we were there. Shit, I had to do better than this. “In a lot of ways.” I saw Newman’s Jeep coming up behind us. I nodded in that direction. “Newman’s here. He didn’t go home to get a hug.”

  “He wanted to be alone,” Olaf said.

  I just nodded and shrugged—about this he was right. We’d barely gotten out of the SUV, but Newman was parked and coming our way. He was excited about something.

  Newman called out, “The women are both at their homes. I left messages for Helen Grimes, the cook at the Marchand house. We can interview them now and hope Helen gets back to us soon. I want to double-check Jocelyn’s story ASAP. If they confirm her story, then Bobby is crazy and doesn’t know what’s real and what’s fantasy.” He’d sounded more certain of himself until he said the last part. He rallied though and gave us his tough-cop look. Sometimes the look isn’t for bad guys or for hiding stuff from others. Sometimes it’s for you to try to convince yourself that you’re really as tough as you need to be.

  I went toward Newman’s Jeep, but he said, “It makes more sense if you and I split up so that one of us that’s more familiar with the case goes on each interview. I’ll take Jeffries with me, and you can go with Forrester.”

  “I think I should go with Newman,” Edward said.

  And just like that the moment of decision was here. I had to put up or shut up or something like that.

  Newman shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Anita has explained why my earlier behavior was unprofessional. I give you my word that
it will not happen again on this case,” Olaf said.

  “I don’t know you that well, Jeffries.”

  “If Otto gives his word, it’s good,” Edward said.

  My pulse was speeding, but my voice was steady as I said, “His word of honor really is good, weirdly.”

  “Great, but that doesn’t mean that you should ride with him,” Newman said.

  I don’t know what I would have said, because two SUVs, one white and the other red, crowded into the small parking area. Nicky was driving the white one, and the moment I recognized that blond hair, the mirrored sunglasses hiding his eyes, as Nicky’s, I realized that it was Ethan in the passenger seat, with his white blond hair that had gray lowlights and a streak of dark red that didn’t occur naturally in humans. People usually thought it was all a great dye job. The hair color was natural, but it was always fun watching people get angry with him for not being willing to share his hairstylist with them.

  I was down the steps and moving through the parking lot almost before the cars had stopped. If I could run into Edward’s arms while he was Ted, I was by God going to run into the arms of my actual lover. If the other cops thought less of me, fuck them. I wanted a hug and a kiss I wasn’t conflicted about.

  47

  NICKY GOT OUT of the SUV. I had a moment of looking up into his face and seeing the newly shortened hair, the strong, oh-so-masculine line of his jaw, the sunglasses that hid why he’d worn his hair long for years, and then we were kissing, all lips and tongues, and then he bit my lower lip just a little. It made me make a small eager noise, and that made him tighten his hands against my body so that his fingers dug in, and that earned him another noise from my mouth to his. He swept me up into his arms and because he was nine inches taller than me, he literally swept me off my feet. If we’d both been wearing fewer weapons, I’d have wrapped my legs around his waist, but the best I could do was bend my knees as if I was kneeling in midair. I thought about kneeling for real later if we could find the time, and that brought another eager sound from me. The pain got too much on my lip, and I tapped out, literally the same way I would have in the dojo to let someone know that they needed to ease up or they might hurt me for real. It was our signal when he rendered me speechless in one way or another.

  He set me back on the ground, but kept his arms around me, because he knew he’d made my knees weak. It was exactly what I’d needed to wash away the feel of that other, unwanted kiss. It was ironic that Olaf’s kiss had been so much gentler than the one I’d just gotten, and yet the gentle one had spooked me and this one had helped me come back to the center of myself.

  I could hear the murmur of voices on the other side of the cars. Ethan and whoever else they’d brought with them were trying to help Edward run interference for me with the other police officers. This wasn’t exactly the best way to introduce the Coalition to Sheriff Leduc. He was going to hate them all interfering in his case without me playing kissy face with one of them. It wasn’t like me to be so uncontrolled in public while wearing my badge.

  Edward came around the front of the SUV. “We need you out here, Anita. Hi, Nicky.”

  “Ted,” Nicky said with a nod of his head. Edward had paid Nicky the ultimate compliment of being willing to take him as backup even if I couldn’t come.

  “Your new guys have ex–special teams written all over them.”

  “Former SEALs,” I said.

  “Then get out here and help me back Duke off them before they do something we’ll all regret. Also, I don’t like the way that Otto is looking at the women you brought.”

  “What women?” I asked, glancing up at Nicky.

  “Angel is one of the best at helping inexperienced shapeshifters keep human form,” he said.

  “You don’t have to justify Angel. She’s really good at helping newbie Therianthropes stay in human form. Who’s the second woman?”

  “Petra,” he said.

  I stared at him for a second, because he had to be joking. Petra’s real name was Pierette. Petra was her Clark Kent alias, like Edward’s was Ted or Olaf’s Otto. And just like theirs, Petra was a law-abiding and government-worthy identity, but Pierette had been a spy and assassin for centuries. She was somewhere between Edward and Olaf on stability when she flipped from upstanding citizen to merciless killer, so not my choice for a traveling companion. She was also only a little taller than me with short dark hair and brown eyes. She fit Olaf’s vic profile as well as I did.

  “Why the fuck would you bring her here? You know what he is.”

  Nicky nodded. “We all do.”

  “I don’t even know what that means, Nicky, but fuck, just fuck.”

  “Argue later, Anita. I need you policing your men and your women now,” Edward said.

  “Shit,” I said, and started moving toward the problems.

  The sooner I got things straightened out and maybe even apologized for the public display of affection (PDA), the better. It had been indulgent of me, but I still felt better, clearer-headed even. I walked around the cars with Nicky and Edward at my back. With them as backup, I could do anything if violence was the answer, so not great for Leduc, but potentially perfect for Olaf.

  Leduc was literally up in the faces of Milligan and Custer, his big belly shoving at them aggressively almost the way he’d gone after Rico at the first crime scene. Ethan and Newman were trying to calm things down, which left Angel and Petra standing off to themselves with Olaf. Angel’s shoulder-length hair was almost back to natural white blond; only the last few inches were still the raven black that she’d dyed it. Her hair was very straight, but she’d styled it into a faux-1940s hairdo.

  Her clothes matched the hairstyle. Chunky black-and-white heels, with a black pencil skirt that hugged the generous swell of her hips and painted its way down the fullness of her thighs, making her look even curvier than I knew she was. A little white blouse with black lace tracing the short puff sleeves made her look like a retro sexy secretary from a soft-core porn. She was five-eleven; in the heels she had to be at least six-one. She glanced back at me, at us, and the makeup was the dark Goth makeup I knew she’d be wearing once I saw the clothes. It wasn’t what she usually wore when she was going out of town on Coalition business, but it was one of her favorite fashions for date nights. I’d discuss with her why she’d dress for a date on Coalition business later.

  At least Pierette was dressed for work, in black stretch jeans fitting into tactical boots identical to mine. They looked cuter with jeans than with my tac pants, but the tac pants had more pockets. She’d put on a short jacket that left her lower body with just the curve-hugging jeans. I had a second of realizing that I liked her ass in the jeans better than Angel’s in the pencil skirt. Dating women was still so new to me, it still startled me when I noticed women at all. The fact that I was comparing the two of them the way I thought only men did bothered me, but not half as much as the look on Olaf’s face. Angel was inches too tall for his preferences, even if she hadn’t been wearing heels. With the hair color and the blue eyes, she wasn’t his ideal victim, but she’d said or done something, or maybe Pierette had. Whatever the case, the look on his face was aimed at both of them. I wasn’t even sure how I knew that, but I knew.

  He’d turned so that no one else could see him but the two women. He’d dropped the mask so that they were staring into a face that wasn’t just stripping them naked in his mind, but flaying the skin off their bodies, or maybe he was thinking things about them that I couldn’t even imagine thinking. The look on his face was alien, other, in-fucking-comprehensible to anyone who wasn’t a sexually sadistic lust killer.

  My instinct was to go straight to the two women and mark territory hard, but Olaf wouldn’t attack them here in front of witnesses. We’d established that in the woods earlier. He liked having his secret identity intact, so they were safe for now.

  The energy coming off the two SEALs was so a
ngry, their beasts were beginning to boil under the surface of their skin like water that was almost hot enough for coffee, tea, or third-degree burns. My beasts stirred wolf and hyena because Milligan and Custer were one of each, respectively. My inner wolf and hyena weren’t the exact species as theirs, so the call was never as strong, but their energy still echoed through the cousin beasts I carried. If they started a fight with Leduc, then he’d never let anyone from the Coalition into his jail, so I started with the men. I’d leave the beast and the beauties for second.

  I tried to step between Leduc and the two men, but the sheriff was literally pressed against them, so I stepped into him. I didn’t hit him, didn’t use force, just literally walked so that the front of my body touched the side of his, and the two SEALs moved back as I moved forward. Their energy prickled along my skin, raising the hair on my arms as I stepped into Leduc. He stumbled back, though I had done nothing to make it happen. It was like I’d startled him.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you, Blake?” Leduc yelled it, but his voice didn’t have the force it had had a moment ago. The stumble and me just walking into him had caught him off balance. If I’d been another man, the maneuver might have caused him to take a swing at me, but I was small and female, and sometimes that helped defuse situations.

  “You don’t get to treat my people the way you do your deputies, Duke,” I said. “They aren’t your whipping boys.”

  “Whipping boys? What the fuck does that even mean? You’re over there playing kissy face with the big one and you lecture me on unprofessional conduct?”

  “You’re right on that. I’m sorry for the over-the-top PDA. I won’t even try to excuse it.”

  The apology seemed to catch him off guard, too. “Well, I appreciate the apology and you admitting you were wrong.”

  “But please, from now on, don’t take my bad behavior out on my people.”

  “I thought they were the Coalition’s people.”