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it will not happen again on this case,” Olaf said.
“I don’t know you that well, Jeffries.”
“If Otto gives his word, it’s good,” Edward said.
My pulse was speeding, but my voice was steady as I said, “His word of honor really is good, weirdly.”
“Great, but that doesn’t mean that you should ride with him,” Newman said.
I don’t know what I would have said, because two SUVs, one white and the other red, crowded into the small parking area. Nicky was driving the white one, and the moment I recognized that blond hair, the mirrored sunglasses hiding his eyes, as Nicky’s, I realized that it was Ethan in the passenger seat, with his white blond hair that had gray lowlights and a streak of dark red that didn’t occur naturally in humans. People usually thought it was all a great dye job. The hair color was natural, but it was always fun watching people get angry with him for not being willing to share his hairstylist with them.
I was down the steps and moving through the parking lot almost before the cars had stopped. If I could run into Edward’s arms while he was Ted, I was by God going to run into the arms of my actual lover. If the other cops thought less of me, fuck them. I wanted a hug and a kiss I wasn’t conflicted about.
47
NICKY GOT OUT of the SUV. I had a moment of looking up into his face and seeing the newly shortened hair, the strong, oh-so-masculine line of his jaw, the sunglasses that hid why he’d worn his hair long for years, and then we were kissing, all lips and tongues, and then he bit my lower lip just a little. It made me make a small eager noise, and that made him tighten his hands against my body so that his fingers dug in, and that earned him another noise from my mouth to his. He swept me up into his arms and because he was nine inches taller than me, he literally swept me off my feet. If we’d both been wearing fewer weapons, I’d have wrapped my legs around his waist, but the best I could do was bend my knees as if I was kneeling in midair. I thought about kneeling for real later if we could find the time, and that brought another eager sound from me. The pain got too much on my lip, and I tapped out, literally the same way I would have in the dojo to let someone know that they needed to ease up or they might hurt me for real. It was our signal when he rendered me speechless in one way or another.
He set me back on the ground, but kept his arms around me, because he knew he’d made my knees weak. It was exactly what I’d needed to wash away the feel of that other, unwanted kiss. It was ironic that Olaf’s kiss had been so much gentler than the one I’d just gotten, and yet the gentle one had spooked me and this one had helped me come back to the center of myself.
I could hear the murmur of voices on the other side of the cars. Ethan and whoever else they’d brought with them were trying to help Edward run interference for me with the other police officers. This wasn’t exactly the best way to introduce the Coalition to Sheriff Leduc. He was going to hate them all interfering in his case without me playing kissy face with one of them. It wasn’t like me to be so uncontrolled in public while wearing my badge.
Edward came around the front of the SUV. “We need you out here, Anita. Hi, Nicky.”
“Ted,” Nicky said with a nod of his head. Edward had paid Nicky the ultimate compliment of being willing to take him as backup even if I couldn’t come.
“Your new guys have ex–special teams written all over them.”
“Former SEALs,” I said.
“Then get out here and help me back Duke off them before they do something we’ll all regret. Also, I don’t like the way that Otto is looking at the women you brought.”
“What women?” I asked, glancing up at Nicky.
“Angel is one of the best at helping inexperienced shapeshifters keep human form,” he said.
“You don’t have to justify Angel. She’s really good at helping newbie Therianthropes stay in human form. Who’s the second woman?”
“Petra,” he said.
I stared at him for a second, because he had to be joking. Petra’s real name was Pierette. Petra was her Clark Kent alias, like Edward’s was Ted or Olaf’s Otto. And just like theirs, Petra was a law-abiding and government-worthy identity, but Pierette had been a spy and assassin for centuries. She was somewhere between Edward and Olaf on stability when she flipped from upstanding citizen to merciless killer, so not my choice for a traveling companion. She was also only a little taller than me with short dark hair and brown eyes. She fit Olaf’s vic profile as well as I did.
“Why the fuck would you bring her here? You know what he is.”
Nicky nodded. “We all do.”
“I don’t even know what that means, Nicky, but fuck, just fuck.”
“Argue later, Anita. I need you policing your men and your women now,” Edward said.
“Shit,” I said, and started moving toward the problems.
The sooner I got things straightened out and maybe even apologized for the public display of affection (PDA), the better. It had been indulgent of me, but I still felt better, clearer-headed even. I walked around the cars with Nicky and Edward at my back. With them as backup, I could do anything if violence was the answer, so not great for Leduc, but potentially perfect for Olaf.
Leduc was literally up in the faces of Milligan and Custer, his big belly shoving at them aggressively almost the way he’d gone after Rico at the first crime scene. Ethan and Newman were trying to calm things down, which left Angel and Petra standing off to themselves with Olaf. Angel’s shoulder-length hair was almost back to natural white blond; only the last few inches were still the raven black that she’d dyed it. Her hair was very straight, but she’d styled it into a faux-1940s hairdo.
Her clothes matched the hairstyle. Chunky black-and-white heels, with a black pencil skirt that hugged the generous swell of her hips and painted its way down the fullness of her thighs, making her look even curvier than I knew she was. A little white blouse with black lace tracing the short puff sleeves made her look like a retro sexy secretary from a soft-core porn. She was five-eleven; in the heels she had to be at least six-one. She glanced back at me, at us, and the makeup was the dark Goth makeup I knew she’d be wearing once I saw the clothes. It wasn’t what she usually wore when she was going out of town on Coalition business, but it was one of her favorite fashions for date nights. I’d discuss with her why she’d dress for a date on Coalition business later.
At least Pierette was dressed for work, in black stretch jeans fitting into tactical boots identical to mine. They looked cuter with jeans than with my tac pants, but the tac pants had more pockets. She’d put on a short jacket that left her lower body with just the curve-hugging jeans. I had a second of realizing that I liked her ass in the jeans better than Angel’s in the pencil skirt. Dating women was still so new to me, it still startled me when I noticed women at all. The fact that I was comparing the two of them the way I thought only men did bothered me, but not half as much as the look on Olaf’s face. Angel was inches too tall for his preferences, even if she hadn’t been wearing heels. With the hair color and the blue eyes, she wasn’t his ideal victim, but she’d said or done something, or maybe Pierette had. Whatever the case, the look on his face was aimed at both of them. I wasn’t even sure how I knew that, but I knew.
