Sucker Punch

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  “I asked Micah Callahan to send his people here. They are all at least work friends for me, so since Micah isn’t here, they’re my people, like your deputies are yours. I wouldn’t disrespect your people the way you just did mine.”

  Duke seemed to think about that for a minute and then he nodded. “Fair enough, Blake.”

  I held out a hand, and after a moment’s hesitation, he shook it, a little tentatively because his hand was so much bigger than mine. A lot of men have trouble with smaller hands like mine, so I didn’t take it personally.

  “This case has us all shook,” he said.

  I nodded. “It does me, too.”

  We said a few more pleasantries, and then the pleasantries were over. I turned toward Olaf and the other women off to the side of the porch. I flashed one of my best professional smiles at Newman and Edward. “How about you guys all go inside, and Duke can make some of that wonderful coffee so we can discuss how we can all help one another deal with this fucking case?”

  Newman started trying to herd everyone inside. He’d believed the smile. Edward knew better.

  “I’ll stay out here,” he said.

  “No, Ted. You go help introduce everybody. I’ve got Nicky and Ethan with me.”

  “Us, too, boss,” Custer said.

  I shook my head and stepped close enough to them that everyone else wouldn’t overhear. “You almost let the local LEO goad you into a fight. That’s not the kind of backup I need right now.”

  “Anita . . .” Milligan said.

  “Boss,” I said.

  He blinked at me, and I watched the ego fight inside of him. Milligan was usually more reasonable than Custer, but I didn’t have time to worry about what Leduc had said to bring out the full special team’s ego issues. I did not have time to babysit that kind of ego right now, so I just looked at him. Not aggressive, just steady, which some people think is aggressive, but they would be wrong, because there’s a difference between direct and aggressive. Milligan would know the difference; all the Team’s guys did.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Milligan said as if he were back in uniform.

  “That’ll do, too. Now, both of you go inside and remember that you are here to make things better, not worse.”

  “If we said that the LEO started it, would you get mad?” Custer asked with one of his usual grins.

  I didn’t smile back. “He started, you started—I don’t care who started it. If it starts again, I will finish it for everyone.”

  They both had a moment of looking at me, of doing that guy math. Physically they could totally take me—we all knew it—but it wasn’t about physical prowess. It was about other kinds of power.

  “You are endangering our mission,” I said, “so your superior skills mean shit to me right now. You are making me babysit your egos while Otto is over there looking at Angel and Pierette like they’re fucking steaks. Get your priorities in order, gentlemen, or get the fuck off my team.”

  “You heard her,” Nicky said. “Go make coffee.”

  Custer and Milligan had been calming down, but suddenly I felt their hackles rise. I pointed a finger at Nicky. “Don’t you start. We are not going to play ‘Who has the biggest dick?’ right now.”

  “Sorry,” he said, but not like he meant it, and there was the problem with this many big, dominant men working together. Until dominance was established, and sometimes even after, they’d push at one another. Add that they were all wereanimals, and it was just worse.

  I walked toward Olaf and the women. I did not look back to see if everyone was doing what I’d told them to do. I was either the boss of them, or I wasn’t. Looking back to double-check made me appear weak, and it wouldn’t change a damn thing. Micah had already established his leadership over the new guys. I thought I had, but apparently I hadn’t in the field. When I’d told Micah to stay home, I hadn’t thought what that might mean with the rest of his crew. Ethan wasn’t dominant enough to be the boss of these guys, and sometimes Nicky and the Team’s guys clashed, which left me to be boss. Damn it, you fix one problem and then cause another. Fuck unintended consequences all to hell.

  48

  “ANGEL, PETRA, WHAT are you both doing here?” I said with a big smile that didn’t reach my eyes. The tone in my voice matched my eyes, not the smile.

  Angel turned with a smile until she saw the look in my eyes, and then it wilted a little around the edges. “Hey, Anita.” She moved to the side so she could keep an eye on Olaf and still see me and the men with me as we came up through the cars. Her base makeup was almost white to highlight the scarlet lipstick and the black-and-red eye makeup. There was a tiny cluster of fake cherries pinned at the center of the rounded collar of the white button-up blouse. More black lace traced the collar. She had a red heart-shaped enamel watch pin on the left side of the blouse. The small touches of red brought out the red in the makeup, or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, it was adorable and sexy.

  Pierette’s makeup was subtle in comparison, a natural look except for the eyeliner around her dark eyes. The slight uptilt to them was emphasized and made her look more exotic than her original French and English ancestry. Though she might have been older than either country—I wasn’t sure when France and England officially became countries. Pierette, through her vampire master’s marks, was a lot older than that delicate triangle of a face looked.

  I wanted to ask out loud, What the fuck are you doing here? You know you’re his perfect victim, but that seemed a little blunt, so I tried, “I asked a question, ladies. What are you both doing here?”

  “You know I travel with the Coalition to help new Therianthropes control their shifting,” Angel said with a smile.

  “You and Ethan are two of the best we have at helping the newbies. I need the help with Bobby, so great.”

  Angel smiled at me. It was a version of a smile that I’d seen a lot—mischief with an edge of evil. That expression reminded me so much of her twin brother, Mephistopheles, that it was disturbing. I still had some issues with the fact that both of them were my lovers now. It just seemed a little incesty. Was that smile on purpose to pull on Olaf’s tail and see what would happen, or was it just her smile, too? When we got some privacy, the good Angel and I were so going to talk.

  I turned then and said, “But Petra doesn’t have your skills with keeping weak little Therianthropes in human form, so I’ll ask the question one more time. What are you both doing here?”

  Pierette gave me the full weight of those big brown eyes and said, “I have come to be whatever you need, my . . . Anita. Whether by sword or flesh, I am yours.”

  She’d almost used the title, my queen. She had lived more centuries with kings and queens than presidents, but I really hoped she didn’t forget and call me queen in front of Leduc or even Newman. Oh, hell, anyone but the people who came with her on the plane.

  “What does she mean by that?” Olaf asked.

  “Oh, let me explain,” Angel said, and the mischievous smile that went with the words blossomed until it was mostly just evil. It was the smile that Mephistopheles, our Devil, Dev for short, wore when he was about to do something unfortunate.

  I shook my head at her. “No. Whatever you’re thinking, just no.”

  “Well, you are the boss of me,” Angel said, but the tone implied strongly that she was humoring me.

  “You are not the boss of me,” Olaf said, voice almost growling low.

  I looked up at him, and for a second, he let me see all that creepy-as-fuck murder lust. The puzzlement at Pierette’s phrasing hadn’t been enough to dampen it, as if he was tired of wearing his civilized mask the way that Edward seemed to be getting tired of being Ted so much of the time.

  “No, I’m not, but you heard what I told Duke about the SEALs.”

  “I did.”

  “That applies to Angel and Petra, too.”

&nb
sp; “I don’t know what you mean,” he said.

  “The hell you don’t,” I said.

  Olaf smiled at me, and he put all that happy creepiness into it that usually spooked me, but in that moment, I was done. Maybe later he’d creep me out again, but not now. For now I was done with this shit. My lioness raised golden eyes and stared up through me.

  Nicky moved a little closer to me, and Ethan moved up on the other side so they flanked me.

  Olaf looked disdainful. “You would let them fight your battles.”

  “That’s what bodyguards are for,” I said.

  “I had thought better of you than this, Anita.”

  “If I ever want to just kill you, I’ll do that myself, but up to that point, I’m going to need some help arm wrestling you.”

  His lips moved upward. Other people would have called it a smile, but it was a snarl, a warning. “I know that you sent the others inside. No witnesses.” His body settled into a deep stillness like the breath before you leap into space.

  “The women are mine. You do not play fuck-fuck games with them.”

  “And if they play them with me first?”

  I looked at Angel. She tried to give me that grin again, but I let her see how unhappy I was with her, and she decided not to risk it. “I’ll be talking to Angel in private later. She won’t give you a problem unless you start one.”

  “Anita,” Angel started.

  “I give you my word,” I said.

  “Your word is good,” Olaf said, “but I do not know this angel of yours.”

  I looked at her. There was no laughter in her voice or face now. She was trying to tell me something wordlessly, but I didn’t have the ties to her that I did with her brother. She couldn’t whisper her message in my head like he could. All she could do was stare at me and try to tell me something with her eyes.

  She laid her fingertips on my arm. The warmth of her golden tiger was instantly there, either from anxiety or on purpose. Angel had near-perfect control of her inner beast, so it was probably on purpose. I could have stepped away from Olaf and let her tell me whatever was so important in person. If she hadn’t been standing there just minutes ago, flirting or pushing his buttons . . . if Pierette hadn’t been standing there, the perfect prey for the big guy . . . if, if, if— It all translated into me being pissed at Angel. I’d sent for help, and now I just had more problems.

  “I’ve given my word, Angel. You have to honor it.”

  I moved away from her so that warm rush of energy wasn’t breathing along my skin. It had felt good, but I didn’t want her to use her energy to calm me down. I was going to hold on to my anger at this whole situation. I’d invited the Coalition to town to make things better; this wasn’t better.

  “Don’t make her promise, Anita, please,” Ethan said.

  I looked at him, surprised. I’d thought it was just Angel being Angel, but if Ethan was asking, then it was a plan, a plot. What the fuck was going on?

  “They are playing both of us, Adler,” Olaf said.

  “I’m beginning to think you’re right, Moriarty.”

  “They aren’t playing you, Anita,” Nicky said.

  “I don’t care what’s going on. I gave my word. I expect anyone that’s mine to honor that and not make me into a fucking liar.” I looked at Angel.

  “You’re ruining my fun,” she said, but there was no teasing look to go with the words.

  “You keep saying that she is yours,” Olaf said. “How is she yours? Is she one of your lovers?” He rolled the last word off his tongue in a way that would have pissed me off a few minutes ago, but I had the taste of Nicky’s mouth lingering on mine, and Olaf always fucked with me. I wasn’t used to my own people doing it.

  “I told Leduc that Milligan and Custer were my people, too. You didn’t ask if they were my lovers.”

  The lust-killer look slid into angry killer; it wasn’t really an improvement. “Are they your lovers?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  He stayed angry, the tension trailing down his hands so they curled into fists. He wasn’t getting ready to fight; he was just so angry, it had to come out physically. I was the same way sometimes. “Tell me which of them are your lovers, Anita.”

  I’d have liked to tell him to go to hell because it wasn’t any of his business, but there was something in the way he held himself that told me not to play games. If we were going to pull the pin on this particular grenade, I wanted it to be over something important.

  “You know about Nicky, and you were on the same warrant with me in Washington State when I met Ethan, so you know we’re intimate.” So there wasn’t confusion later, I added, “Though Ethan has a serious girlfriend now, so he’s emergency food for the ardeur, not on the main list.”

  “That is why you kissed Nicky hello and not Ethan?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So, the women are not your lovers either?”

  I sighed and so wanted out of this conversation, but truth was truth. I wasn’t ashamed of my female lovers, but these were not the women in my life I was the most comfortable with. They were two of the newest, and we hadn’t worked out all the kinks in things yet. Angel slept with Jean-Claude and Richard, Ulfric of the local werewolves, more than me. She and I had sex with the men in my life together more than sex with just each other. She was cheerfully bisexual, just like her brother. The only other person I knew who was as truly bisexual as the twins, without a strong preference for either sex, was Nathaniel.

  “It’s okay, Anita. You don’t have to stake a claim you don’t feel,” Angel said, and there was no teasing or smiling now. Some of the light had dimmed in her blue-gold tiger eyes, because they were the eyes of a tiger caught in her human face. All the pure-blooded clan tigers were born with animal eyes, though most people just thought her eyes were exotic human eyes. People see what they expect to see.

  I looked at her unhappy face, and I didn’t want her unhappy. I closed the distance between us and slid my arms around her waist, which was surprisingly slender for someone so much taller than I was. I was still more accustomed to touching men. She smiled down at me and put her arms around my shoulders.

  “The kiss has to be gentle,” I said, “or your lipstick will be all over me.”

  She wrapped herself more securely around me, pressing her breasts into my face so I had to turn my chin up more not to touch my mouth to any of her. That mischievous smile was back on her face, and it made me happy to see it. She gave a little wiggle through the hips, which was usually an invitation to move my hands from waist to her ass, but I moved them up her back instead. Her back was strong and firm under my hands. I fought not to dig my fingers in, because I knew we’d both enjoy it. The mischief was suddenly evil, and I knew she was debating just how gentle the kiss was going to be.

  “I mean it, Angel. The locals are already weirded out about the whole wereanimal thing. We don’t need to ring the heterosexual insecurity bell, too.”

  “Promise me a kiss like Nicky got once we’re in private?”

  “Better kisses in private, I promise,” I said, and I couldn’t help smiling up at her.

  “Deal,” she whispered, and leaned over me.

  I went up on tiptoe like I did for the tall men in my life. The biggest difference was that there were breasts to brush mine, though with me in body armor, it wasn’t nearly as fun as usual. Her lips were soft and full, and because I wasn’t wearing my own lipstick, I could taste hers. She wrapped her arms around me and pressed us together, and I returned the favor. She opened her lips, and I slid my tongue delicately inside. There was a moment when I forgot about being careful and started to kiss her like I wanted to, with teeth mixed in with tongue and lips until she made a small sound against my mouth. I returned the favor, finally letting my fingers dig into her back. Her hands responded to me, sliding over my body armor like she was t
rying to find me underneath it. When her hands touched my ass, I drew back first, laughing and a little breathless.

  “Enough for now,” I said.

  I fought not to glance in Olaf’s direction. If he was looking all serial killer at us, it would spoil the mood. If he looked at us like so many men who had that lesbian fantasy, that would piss me off, so I just concentrated on the excitement in Angel’s eyes, her face alight with what we’d just done.

  Ethan had Kleenexes in his hands to offer to both of us. Men’s pockets hold so much more than women’s pockets.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  Angel laughed as she got a compact out of a tiny purse that had cherries on it to match her outfit. She started carefully cleaning her makeup. I just started to wipe the lipstick off. Since I wasn’t wearing any makeup, I didn’t need to be that careful.

  I turned to Nicky and Ethan. “Did I get it all?”

  Ethan shook his head. Nicky just took the Kleenex and started dabbing at the corner of my mouth and a little on my chin, which meant I looked like I was wearing bad clown makeup. He put his fingertips on my chin and turned my face to the side. “Clean.”

  “Thanks,” I said, and turned toward Pierette.

  I held my hand out to her, and she took it with a smile. I didn’t have to look very far up to meet her eyes. They were as solid a brown as mine, though not quite as dark. I laid my hand on the side of her face; my other arm went up and over her shoulder. Her arms slid around my waist and up my back. She was one of the women in my bed who made me think words like delicate, dainty, petite. I liked that she made me think words like that as I stared into her eyes from inches away. We leaned in together, and I closed my eyes, though I knew Pierette didn’t. She’d trained herself out of it for safety reasons, or so she’d explained one afternoon.

  Her lipstick was neutral, mostly just a shiny lip gloss. It meant we could kiss without worrying about smearing it, so I did. I kissed her like I wanted to be in her arms. I let her know that I valued my hand cupping the delicate bones of her cheek, the press of her mouth against mine. My tongue slid between her lips and she opened wider, so the kiss grew as we explored each other’s mouths. I thought the same thing I’d thought almost every time I’d kissed her: Her mouth was so small. Pierette didn’t like rough kissing, so I was careful not to use teeth or dig my nails into her back. Her arms tightened across my back. I had a moment of feeling just how strong that delicate-seeming body was, and then she broke the kiss like she was coming up for air and I was water that she had to throw herself free of. She stood there with us just holding hands, her breathing ragged like we’d done more than kiss. I wasn’t nearly as breathless with her as with Angel. I missed the teeth and nails.