Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 27)

He took in a lot of air and let it out slow, as if he was thinking about our options because it wasn’t just my life on the line. Yes, metaphysically the people tied to me might die if I died, but that wasn’t all. Edward was right about Olaf probably starting with killing him. Olaf thought we were lovers, so if he was going to kidnap, rape, torture, and kill Edward’s girlfriend and live through it, then he had to start by killing Edward. It was just logical, and underneath the pathology, Olaf was cold, dispassionate, and logical, just like Edward and me. Practical, we were utterly practical about survival most of the time. Of course, it wasn’t logical for Edward to have tried to pretend to be my lover so Olaf would back off. It hadn’t been logical of me to play along, or to keep talking to Olaf as if any change on his part would make him datable for me. It wasn’t practical or logical that Olaf had been willing to compromise and grow as a person to get to a point where I’d been willing to agree to a kiss.

“I thought he’d cross the line with you before it got this far, Anita. It never occurred to me that he’d try this hard.”

“Me either, but he is, so what the fuck do we do now?”

Edward shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Newman’s voice rang out far louder than it should have for what he said. “Yes, Duke, Marshal Ted Forrester just arrived. Blake is filling him in on the case.” Newman was telling us that the sheriff was about to get us in his sights. We weren’t doing anything we didn’t want him to see, but Newman didn’t know that. Bless his heart, he was a good wingman.

I whispered fast, “What do I do when we go inside?”

“Did you kiss him in front of everyone?”

“No, of course not. Told him no romance in front of other cops.”

“Then act like nothing happened and stay in sight of other people until we figure something out.”

I might have said more about the mess of it, but I could hear the sheriff’s feet crunching across the gravel of the parking area. He was almost here; we’d have to talk about the personal mess later. We had to put our cop faces on and catch the bad guys.

39

WE MOVED OUT from the SUV so that we were walking toward Leduc as he came rolling toward us.

“Newman and I have been on the ground since the start of this case, Marshal Forrester. We can fill you in on things that Blake wasn’t here for.” Leduc managed to sound belligerent and helpful, as if he was ready to cooperate or fight. The choice was ours or, rather, Edward’s.

Edward went into full Ted mode, with a big grin, a hearty handshake, and an accent that was so down-home Texas, or what people thought cowboys from Texas would sound like, that it seemed over the top to me. “Well, that’s mighty kind of you, Sheriff. Just let me get my hat.”

He reached in and pulled out a cream-colored cowboy hat that matched the rest of the outfit. I refused to call it a white hat—it was off-white at best—but it was well-loved and well-worn, the brim shaped just so by his hands. Molded to his head by years of use, the hat fit him perfectly. The first time I’d see him wear it as Ted Forrester, I’d thought it had been going too far. He kept it even when everything else he wore was black. When he’d been just Edward, he hadn’t even liked hats, and if he had, it would have been a black one. Edward was not a white hat, but strangely Ted was, as if the hat was to him what the glasses were for Clark Kent and Superman.

Ted patted the sheriff on the shoulder and got him talking and walking toward the office. Leduc opened up to him, answering questions about the area, though nothing about the crime. Ted was putting him at ease before we got down to crime busting.

Newman fell into step beside me. “I didn’t know that Forrester had that kind of charm in him.”

“Ted’s full of surprises,” I said.

Newman just nodded.

Ted and the sheriff went through the door, and Olaf came out of it. There was a small traffic jam as Edward and he shook hands, but then Olaf pushed past and came out on the small porch. He was suddenly between us and the office area. He was also between me and Edward, and I didn’t like that one bit.

I stopped moving forward. Newman stopped when I did, glancing from me to the big guy. He ducked his head and spoke low to me. “Do you want me to stay out here with you or go inside?”

I patted his arm. “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want you to be part of my beard.”

“Beard?” He seemed to think about it and then said, “Oh, that kind of beard.”

He walked with me to the porch, but when I stopped on the steps, he tipped his hat to Olaf and kept going into the office. Edward hadn’t come back out to check on us yet, and I was suddenly torn about if I was happy about that, but if we’d reached a point where I couldn’t stand beside Olaf in public view, we were past the point of no return. We weren’t there yet.

I did stay on the steps leading up to the porch for a moment, which made the height difference between Olaf and me even more ridiculous. I realized that part of what made me not want to step up was that I’d said yes to a kiss once. I didn’t want him to ask again, because I didn’t want to give the same answer, and I wasn’t sure no was wise. It was like a weird game of sexual harassment, except that one of us would lose a hell of a lot more than just a job if we lost.

I finally made myself get on the porch, keeping the opening between the posts between us by leaning a shoulder against one of them, all casual-like. It also put my right hand closer to my main handgun at my side. It was probably overkill, but if it wasn’t, seconds counted. I wasn’t sure why the one gentle kiss had upped my anxiety this much, but I’d learned that I didn’t have to understand my feelings. I just had to acknowledge them. My pulse was steady and slow, but I was more anxious around Olaf than I had been before the kiss.

He’d put his sunglasses on, so I couldn’t see his expression. His face showed nothing. “Adler.”

“Moriarty,” I said, using the ridiculous nickname, and even that concession made me angry.

“I had begun to wonder if you and Ted had lied to me about being lovers. Attracted, yes, but in Florida at the wedding, I began to see how much he cared for Donna. It made me question whether he would betray her even with you.”

I wished my sunglasses weren’t inside the building, because I could feel my expression sliding away from blank. I decided I’d go for anger, always a good refuge for me. It was better than fear. “I don’t understand what he sees in Donna either, but he loves her to pieces.” I realized that, because I was talking to a serial killer, that might have been an unfortunate phrase, and just thinking that made me laugh. I think it was a stress reaction, but Olaf had never liked being laughed at.