Nicky smiled at him, giving full-face attention. Leduc’s eyes did the slide thing as if he was trying to decide where to look on Nicky’s face, because like most polite people, he didn’t want to stare at the scars. Thanks to Nicky, I’d discovered that I always stared at just one eye on anyone I was giving good eye contact to, and it was always the right eye. I’d tried to change that for Nicky, but he’d thought I was being weird like everyone else. In the end I’d explained my discovery, and we’d both decided that I’d stare at his face the way I did at everyone else’s even if that made it look like I was staring at his scars.
“As members of the preternatural branch, we have the ability to deputize people if we think they’d be an asset on a case,” Newman said.
“It’s your case, not hers, and I know you didn’t deputize someone you don’t know.”
“I met him in the field on the same case where I met Forrester, Jeffries, and Blake.”
Leduc looked Nicky up and down like he was taking measurements. “So, what’s your specialty that makes Blake want you on her cases so often?”
“Tough motherfucker,” Nicky said, face sobering so that he said it straight-faced and serious.
Custer laughed from the wall.
“Are you making a joke?” Leduc asked.
“No,” Nicky said.
I smiled; I couldn’t help it.
“Nicky is a good man in a fight,” Edward said, finally coming forward instead of just watching us.
“Are we amusing you, Blake?” Leduc asked.
“No, sir.”
“Then why are you smiling?”
“Nicky has that effect on me sometimes.”
“He’s part of her poly group,” Olaf said,
and that surprised me more than almost anything he could have done. I hadn’t expected him to spill my secrets to the cops, if I couldn’t spill his. I mean, the kiss had given things away, but him using the poly vocabulary probably wouldn’t help with Leduc.
I shot Olaf an unfriendly look.
“What’s a poly group?” Leduc asked.
Ethan answered, “Poly group and polycule are terms for the permanent members of a nonmonogamous group, a coupleness formed of more than two people.”
We all got poly questions now, but apparently Ethan had heard Micah answer the question a lot, because Micah was the one most likely to have to answer on camera while he was trying to save lives or help lycanthropes—sorry, Therianthropes—get a more positive public image.
“Are you a member of her poly group?” Leduc asked.
Ethan shook his head. “I’m happily monogamous with my girlfriend back home in St. Louis.” A look of nearly shining happiness crossed his face. Ethan had loved Nilda enough to go to couples counseling when they’d barely been dating.
The offer to help pay for therapy for any of our employees who wanted it was one of the best new policies of the last few years. As people had success and showed improvement, they encouraged others to go work out their issues and get healthier. I saw the policy as the same as dental or vision riders to health insurance, just another part of our bodies that needed care and attention.
“Then how do you know all that?” Leduc asked.
“I work with a lot of people that are poly, including my boss . . . bosses.” Ethan smiled at him.
Leduc looked suspiciously at his pleasant smiling face. Ethan was handsome but not in a traditional way. I think it was the mixed hair color. Leduc probably thought it was some rebellious statement. At least Ethan’s eyes were solid gray and not some of the more exotic colors that the rest of the clan tigers had. Unless you knew what tiger eyes looked like, most people’s minds just saw human eyes in Ethan’s face, because it was what they expected to see.
Angel came over to us and tried to help by touching the sheriff’s arm lightly, enough to make most men debate on if you were flirting or just a touchy-feely kind of person.
He shook his head and patted her hand where it lay on his arm. “I appreciate the attention from a lovely young woman, Ms. Devereaux, but it’s not going to get you in to see the prisoner.”
“What will? And a minute ago you were calling me Miss Angel. I liked it,” she said, smiling one of her smiles that wasn’t real, but I’d seen her use it to make men back in St. Louis trip over their own feet. It was like she and her twin brother had come into the world knowing how to flirt.