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.”
“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.”