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.”