I nodded. "I know. What has that got to do with anything that happened today?"
"You knew?" Rufous asked.
"The first time I ever saw Nathaniel, he was in a hospital bed recovering from an attack by one of his customers."
"And you dated him knowing that he had been a whore?" Olaf asked.
I turned on him and gave him the look the word deserved. "First, never use that word in connection with Nathaniel again. Second, yes, I knew he was a high-end and very specialized escort when I met him."
"He was more than that, Blake," Rufous said.
I looked at him. "You ran Nathaniel's name through the system, didn't you?"
"When he came to New Mexico to help with the wedding the first time, he was spending a lot of private time with Peter, and Becca was all over him calling him uncle, so, yeah, I ran him. He may have been a high-end escort when you met him, but his record is for streetwalking and drugs. One of the conditions of the plea was that he go to rehab."
"He went," I said, "and he's been clean ever since."
"He's still got a very colorful past, Blake. I talked to Ted about what I found and was reassured that he knew all about it, and that Graison was one of the rarities, someone who truly turned their life around. I was happy to hear it."
"What does Nathaniel's past have to do with the police questioning him about Peter and Dixie's . . . altercation?"
"They're not questioning him about that," Rufous said.
"Then what are they questioning him about?"
"The missing girl, Bettina Gonzalez."
"What?" I asked, and it was loud enough that a few people looked our way. I lowered my voice and said, "What are you talking about, Rufous?"
Rufous answered, "You have a badge, but you've never been a regular cop. You don't understand how we see certain things."
"Then enlighten me," I said, and I'd stepped closer to him, my hands already starting to make fists.
He didn't tell me to calm down; he just did what I asked. "A young woman flirts with a few young men; then she goes missing after having sex with one of them. The lover is in the clear through witnesses, but one of the other men has a record for prostitution and drugs, and Graison got pulled in by a cop the first time when he was, like, ten, so that's child prostitution."
"He was the victim," I said.
"Yeah, but it's still going to be a hell of a background for someone to overcome. You know that abusers usually start out as victims, Blake."
"I know that's the prevailing theory."
"I've seen it happen, and if Rankin has been on the job long enough to make detective, he's seen it, too."
"So because Nathaniel was everyone's damn victim, the police are going to victimize him again?"
"The missing girl was hanging all over him and Erwin here." He pointed at Ru. "Then she goes and sleeps with someone else. The cops are going to wonder if Graison is the jealous type."
I laughed. I couldn't help it. "He's one of the least jealous people I've ever met."
"Nathaniel likes to share," Nicky said.
"But the police here don't know Nathaniel like the two of you do. To them he's a man who was flirting with the missing woman, then lost out to another man, and then his record pops with all kinds of bad shit. They are going to look at him hard for this. They'd look at anyone connected to the girl whose name popped in the database."
It was so unfair. I had to count slowly to ten, and forced myself to unfold my hands one stiff finger at a time. "Fine, fine, but they have no reason to hold him."
"Blake, he's a shapeshifter."
"How is that relevant?"
"How would they know what he was?" Olaf asked.
"You Google his name and he comes up under his stage name at Guilty Pleasures. There are pictures of him in his leopard form on the website," Rufous said.
"But I'll say again: How is that relevant?"
"Blake, come on. Shapeshifters may have legal rights and Florida is a more forward-thinking state than some of the Western ones, but people are still afraid."
"It's the big, bad wolf syndrome," Rodina said, "or in this case big, bad leopard."
"Come on, Blake. You hunt rogue lycanthropes. You know what they're capable of," Rufous said.
I tried to be reasonable. I tried to think like a cop and not Nathaniel's fiancee, but I was having serious trouble separating the two in that moment. "I know you're right, Rufous. I know I sound like every other girlfriend in the world who says, But my boyfriend would never hurt anyone."
"I've had women and men say it to me with their faces covered in bruises from the boyfriend who would never harm anyone," Rufous said.
"I know, I really do, but it doesn't matter, because it's Nathaniel."
"And he's your boo."
I smiled. "Yeah, he is."
"One of them," Olaf said.
I looked at him, fighting not to frown. "Yeah, he's one of my boos."
"You do have more serious boyfriends than anyone I've ever met," Rufous said.
"I'm poly; it kind of goes with the sexual orientation."
"I thought it was a lifestyle choice," Rufous said.
I shook my head. "Not for me."
Rufous shook his head. "Marisol is enough for me. Normally, I'd say if you find the right one, all the rest just sort of fade into the woodwork, but I've seen you with your fellas, Blake, and it seems to be the real deal."
"Thanks, Rufous, I appreciate that."
"Now, go help your boo."
Olaf tried to go with us, but I didn't have to interfere, because Rufous did it for me. "I need to talk to Jeffries for a minute. You go on."
I wanted and needed to go to Nathaniel, but I didn't want Rufous alone with Olaf until I understood why he was being protective of me. "Rufous, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Jeffries and I will be fine."
"I don't doubt that Otto will be dandy, but I need to ask you something before we all go our separate ways."
He didn't like it, but he came off to one side of the lobby with Nicky and me. Rodina and Ru stayed with Olaf. I heard Rodina say, "So you're Plague."
"Yes," Olaf said, and then we were out of my hearing range.
"Why are you suddenly treating me like a girl, Rufous?"
"You are a girl, Blake," he said with a smile.
"But you've always treated me like one of the guys until just a few minutes ago. Why do you suddenly feel protective toward me?"
"I'd feel protective of most of the men I know if they were going up against Jeffries."
"How did you know he was even here?" I asked, and then I realized. "Ted called you."
"He couldn't leave the hospital, but he told me that Jeffries has damn near been stalking you and he didn't want you to be alone with him. Don't worry, he swore me to secrecy. I know you don't want the other marshals to see you as needing to be rescued, but, Jesus, Blake, most men would need rescuing if Jeffries put a target on them. There's no shame in saying you're outmatched with someone like that. He's a freaking giant."
Like all great lies, it was almost the truth. I nodded. "I've worked too long and hard to be one of the guys to want to be shoved back in the girl box, Rufous."
"I understand that."
"What talk do you want to have with Otto?"
"I'll just tell him to back off."
"It's not your job to have that talk with him," Nicky said.
"Ted told me that he's let people think he's a couple with Anita to keep Jeffries off of her at work."
"I'm her bodyguard. I'll talk to Otto," Nicky said.
"Nicky . . ." I started to say.
"No, Anita, it's better coming from me than from Rufous."
I couldn't argue that, but I really didn't want either of them alone with Olaf. He scared me in a way that very few people did.
Nicky, letting the bodyguard stoicism slip, smiled. "I've got this. You go help Nathaniel."
"You can't scare Otto off," I said. "He doesn't scare."
&nb
sp; "I'll remind him of how I got my job as your bodyguard," Nicky said.
Nicky was saying that he would threaten Olaf with me making him a Bride, which would mean I would own him, control him, the way I did Nicky. It was Nicky's fate as my lion Bride that had made Olaf stay away from me in the first place. He'd even written a note to me saying he didn't want to end up like Nicky.
I glanced back to find Rodina invading Olaf's personal space, but her body language wasn't threatening; it was seductive. Did she think he was handsome, or was she throwing herself on the landmine? I hoped she wasn't. I might not like Rodina, but she didn't deserve to be served up to Olaf.
"I'll be with him, Blake. Jeffries won't try anything against both of us, and one of us with a badge."
I didn't argue with him, but I knew that if Olaf thought he needed to kill both of them, he would, or he'd die trying. Nicky might have a chance of killing him first, but Rufous would just die. I didn't want to widow Marisol.
"Let's do this, Murdock," Rufous said. He sounded a little eager, as if he was hoping for a fight, or at least a little excitement. Had he been wanting to try his luck with Olaf, or was it just the typical cop love of action?
"I haven't agreed to either of you handling this for me," I said. Nicky frowned at something, which made me look. Ru was smiling and walking toward us as if he didn't have a care in the world. He looked slender and almost fragile compared to Rufous, Nicky, and Olaf, and he played to it, doing his best to radiate harmlessness and what I supposed was meant to be sex appeal. What the hell was he doing?
I glanced across the lobby to Olaf, who was watching us all as if he'd memorize us down to the buttons on our jeans. Maybe his being a stalker wasn't so far from the truth after all. Ru put his arm around my shoulders in an overly familiar way. I tensed up as he leaned in and whispered, "You flirted with me at the pool, in front of witnesses. Do you want to explain to the police why we're not flirting now?"
And, see, that was the problem with lies and pretending. Once you started, it was hard to stop. I put a smile on my face and slid my left arm around his waist, being careful that my hand slid high enough to avoid the gun at his waist. Cuddling was always harder with weapons, but with Olaf showing up unexpectedly and the police trying to pin a woman's disappearance on us, we'd work around the weapons.
Olaf started walking toward us, with Rodina trailing behind, a smile on her lips. She looked entirely too pleased with herself.
"What have the two of you been telling Otto?"
Ru kissed my cheek, touching the side of his face to mine.
Olaf said, "Are those your teeth marks in his neck?"
I gaped at him, because of all the questions he could have asked, this wasn't one I'd expected. If Rufous hadn't been there, I might have lied just because I didn't like the emotion coming off Olaf, but Rufous had seen me do it.
"Yeah."
"You bit him in a passionate embrace?"
"Yes."
Heat rolled off him, his beast breaking over us.
"You've taken another lover?"
"That's none of your business, Jeffries," Rufous said.
Olaf turned on Rufous, but Nicky stepped in and said, "Did the girl try to seduce you first?"
It distracted Olaf, made him turn to Nicky. "Yes. Has she tried with you as well?"
"No, but she tried with someone else, because she thought it would make Anita happier."
"I don't understand," Olaf said.
"When you turned her down, Wyatt showed you his neck, right?"
"Yes."
"Rufous here is protecting Anita because that's just the kind of guy he is, but you knew me before I met Anita. I wasn't a self-sacrificing kind of guy. Neither were Morgan and Wyatt before they met Anita."
Olaf looked at Nicky, and then at Ru, and finally at Rodina as she joined us.
"You're trying to distract me from Anita, at any cost."
"Which is why we all need a little talk without Marshal Blake being present," Rufous said.
Olaf didn't even protest. He'd gotten Nicky's message that Ru and Rodina were my Brides. Maybe it would make him rethink wanting to play Sherlock to my Irene Adler. I sent Rodina off with them, just in case. Ru stayed with me, on the condition he be more bodyguard and less flirt. He agreed. He was my Bride--he had to agree to almost anything.
I needed to see Micah and Nathaniel and figure out how I could convince Detective Rankin that my boo wasn't his guy.
41
THE HOTEL EMPLOYEES were impressed by my flashing my badge; the local police were not. "You aren't part of this investigation, Marshal," the uniformed officer standing at the head of the hallway, blocking my way, said. Down the hallway were the conference rooms they were using to question people.
"I just want to talk to my people; that's all."
"Unless you're part of the investigation, you don't get past me. Those are my orders." He was completely unapologetic about it, which meant I probably couldn't bully my way past him. He looked young enough to be new on the job, but there was something about the way he held himself and the buzzed haircut that said he'd been military first. The kind of military who join the police are usually combat veterans. They don't bully easily, and I certainly wasn't going to scare them. He stood at relaxed attention, perfectly content to stand there for hours. No one was shooting at him; it was a good day. When no one trying to kill you is your definition of a good day, it's damn hard to impress you.
I continued to stand there in front of the officer whose name tag read Evans, but I got my cell phone out and texted Micah. "I'm outside the room. Uniform won't let me in. Are you or Nathaniel officially being held?"
"I'm not," Micah texted back.
My stomach did its hard-knot thing again. "Is Nathaniel?"
"Tried to get up & leave. Rankin is trying for material witness."
"He has no grounds," I texted back.
"But he's local, we're not, could he get a warrant?" Micah texted.
I looked at the screen and thought about it. Could Rankin get a material witness warrant against Nathaniel if he got the right judge? Probably. We'd have Nathaniel out before you could say lawsuit, but with the right judge and enough people prejudiced against him for his past and being a wereleopard, it was possible. But one thing I knew for sure was the longer you talked in an interrogation, the more information you gave them to use against you. Hell, if you talked in an ordinary interview for enough hours, you'd end up saying things you didn't mean or wished you could take back. Hours of questions and answers were designed to break you down, to exhaust you, and to make you say things that would incriminate you. Innocent people would confess to things if they were questioned long enough and hard enough.
"Not sure, but either stop talking & say lawyer, or get up and walk out."
"Rankin will imply that we aren't free to go again."
"If he doesn't produce a warrant, he's full of shit."
"OK" was the only reply. I put my phone away.
"What's going on?" Ru asked.
"They're coming out," I said. I believed that; the hard knot in my stomach wasn't quite sure.
I heard my text go off again. When I checked, it was Micah. "We keep trying to leave, but not leaving."
"Why?" I asked.
"Unsure."
That wasn't like either of them. Micah worked with the police for the Coalition and Nathaniel had had enough experience with the police early on that he knew not to talk without a lawyer, or he should have known. So why were they still talking? I'd been so busy being scared for Nathaniel that I hadn't been logical, and logic stated that they should have walked out of there a while ago. No bluff should have kept Micah there, and he'd have insisted Nathaniel go with him. And it was a bluff, because no way did Rankin have a warrant yet.
Officer Evans could keep me out of the room physically, but I had other options and I was willing to use them now. I lowered my shields and reached out toward both of my guys, but I forgot that I was already standing beside s
omeone I was metaphysically connected to. The side of my body closest to Ru ran with goose bumps, all the hairs on my arm standing up. I turned to look at him and found him rubbing the arm closest to me, as if I wasn't the only one who'd felt it. His eyes were a little wide, his breathing quicker.
"What is that?" Ru said.
I stared at him from inches away, and just like I had at the pool, I had a sudden urge to touch him. I shut the link down, putting my shields back in place, so that we were left staring at each other.
I stepped back from the officer and the hallway, and Wyatt followed my lead like a good dance partner. We found a quiet piece of wall and I said, out loud, "I don't know what's wrong with our connection, but it's not like this with Nicky or Rod . . . Morgan."
"You and Nicky have a solid connection. You know what you are to each other. Morgan hates you; it helps her keep you out of her head."
"And you and me?" I asked.
"I mirror the energy around me, the behaviors of the people around me, which makes me nearly perfect at undercover work, but it also means that I'm vulnerable to getting lost in my cover."
"You mean you start believing your cover story?"
He nodded.
"So why does that make my energy weird around you?"
"Nicky said it last night: Brides are food or cannon fodder. We aren't meant to be kept around this long, Anita. I'm trying to become whatever you need me to be, and for your powers, that's food--either through blood, meat, or sex."
"Are you saying you don't care which I choose?"
"I'd rather not die, so I'd prefer not to be your meat." He leaned his face close to mine, his arm going around my waist and automatically sliding high enough to not compromise the gun at my waist, just like I had with him earlier. "If you were a true vampire I would happily donate blood."
I spoke with my lips almost touching his cheek. "I'm not that kind of vampire."
"No, through Jean-Claude's powers you're a succubus like Belle Morte." He nuzzled his face against mine like a cat scent-marking its favorite people.
"I have enough lovers; nothing personal."
"I am not asking to join your poly group, my queen, only to be your food."
I drew back enough to look into his eyes. "You know that I can feed on energy without sex."
"Yes, but of all the ways you feed, sex seems to be the most pleasant. I would like to take the pleasant option, if you would allow it."
I felt my energy rise like someone had added hot water to a cooling bath. Ru shuddered beside me, as if the energy had traveled from me to him. It was as if a part of my power had been cut off, or dampened, and it was suddenly bright again. I knew who it was before I saw them. Micah came out of the hallway behind us with his hand on Nathaniel's arm as if he were leading him. Officer Evans was looking behind them as if for orders--did he stop them or let them go?