He gave a little eye roll and the barest raise of his shoulders.
"Oh, come on."
"Well, since I hit my growth spurt in my teens."
"And that's exactly what I mean," Micah said.
"What? Because I've been suave and debonair for most of my life, I can't be part of the inner circle?"
"That can't be why, or Jean-Claude would be excluded," Rodina said.
"See?" Bernardo said.
Nathaniel checked his phone as if the text sound wouldn't have clued him. How long would it take Lucy to get to the room? Nathaniel spoke without taking his eyes from the phone screen. "Do you really want to be part of our poly group?"
"Maybe?"
"Then you'll have to come across," Nathaniel said.
"I've been trying to get Anita to do that since we met," he said, aiming that smile he had that had made more women drop their panties than Elvis in his heyday.
"Not Anita, Bernardo," Nathaniel said, and he did look up then, meeting the taller man's gaze square on with his own big lavender eyes.
"Sorry, bro, but I don't swing at boys."
"And that's why you can't be in our poly group."
"I thought Nicky didn't like men either."
"I like men better than you do," Nicky said, which made Bernardo stare at the other man.
"And just how well do you like men?"
"I don't like them as well as Nathaniel does."
"Only I like men as well as Nathaniel does," I said.
"Actually, Anita, you like them more than I do, and I don't get to say that about many women." Nathaniel grinned as he said it, just in case I took it wrong.
I didn't, and I had a smart-ass comeback all ready, but Ru said, "Would I have to sleep with Nathaniel to be part of your poly group?"
"No," I said.
Nathaniel said, "I don't force myself on anyone."
Nathaniel's phone rang. Denny wasn't in her room. Her bed was still made. Her clothes and suitcases were still there. Her room key was on the bedside table; her purse was beside it. Her bathing suit was laid out on the bed as if she'd started to change to meet everyone at the pool before Peter and Dixie had their incident. That had been nearly five hours ago. If she was truly missing and not just off having a triggered gestalt moment on the beach somewhere, then either the same bad guy had taken them both--Bettina and Denny--at almost the same time, or we had two bad guys abducting women from the same hotel on the same day, at almost the same time. Vegas wouldn't have taken the odds on either, but I knew real cases where both scenarios had happened.
I went to tell Edward. Bernardo headed back to the hotel. The other three stayed with me, because whatever Rankin was, we were stronger together. He'd been hot and heavy after Nathaniel before; this wouldn't make him change his mind. There was more connection between Nathaniel and Denny. Hell, all of us had more of a connection to Denny, except maybe Bernardo. To my knowledge he hadn't slept with Denny. I hesitated as I started to knock on the door of Peter's room. Bernardo visited Edward more than I did because they lived closer to each other. I really didn't know how well he knew Denny. I pushed the thought away and knocked. One complication at a time.
44
DONNA STAYED WITH Peter, but the rest of us headed to the hotel. I'd have left Nathaniel, Micah, and Bram there to help calm them, but they wouldn't stay. "This isn't a case, Anita. You don't get to leave us behind that easily," Micah said.
"I know Denny a lot better than you do. I want to help search for her," Nathaniel said.
Ru had shrugged and said, "I don't know her at all, but I know that in animal form all of us could track her through the hotel."
"I've done that for you when you were on a case," Nathaniel said.
"Those were special circumstances," I said.
"Less special than this?" Micah asked.
"We're rolling out," Edward said. "Debate in the car on the way to the hotel." We all piled into our rental cars and continued to debate.
"I don't really like Nathaniel being near Rankin again," I said.
"Then you should have said that instead of trying to get me to stay with Donna and Peter," Nathaniel said.
"All right, I'd rather you wait at the hospital with Donna and Peter so we can keep you farther away from Rankin."
"Who's Rankin?" Edward asked, and I realized that he'd been at the hospital since the detective showed up.
It was easy to explain that Detective Terry Rankin was the lead on Bettina's disappearance. What wasn't easy to explain was the fact that we were all sure he wasn't human, or at least not straight-up vanilla-or chocolate-flavored human. He was definitely something exotic, like rocky road or Chunky Monkey.
"Explain to me how you know Detective Rankin isn't human."
"I love the fact that you just accepted that if we said he wasn't human, he wasn't," Nathaniel said.
"Nothing personal, Nathaniel. You're Uncle Nathaniel to the kids, but I accepted it because Anita said he wasn't human."
"I know that, but I enjoy the fact that you just rolled with it. No questions asked."
"She's earned that level of no questions asked from me."
"Thanks, Edward," I said, smiling.
Edward scowled at all of us. The look was enough. I knew the next thing out of his mouth would be on point. He'd had enough emotional bonding for one day. "So, explain to me about the detective. What did he do that made you peg him as not human?"
I did my best to explain, but like a lot of mystical stuff, it didn't translate well. "If I said you had to be there, would you understand?"
"If I had been there, would I have sensed anything?" he asked.
I had to think about that one, and look at the other men in the car. They basically all shrugged and turned it back to me.
"You spend the most time with him. Would he have sensed anything?" Micah asked, finally.
"Even I've never sensed anything quite like this," I said.
"The question isn't would Edward know what Rankin was doing, or even what he was, but would he have sensed any of the hocus-pocus?"
"I don't know. Edward isn't head-blind to psychic stuff, but he's not psychic either."
"Everyone in the car needs to start calling me Ted again, because we're almost to the hotel."
"Good point, Ted," I said.
"I've spent more time calling you Ted than Edward lately. I think I'll remember, Ted," Nathaniel said.
Edward actually smiled his real smile for that. "If I haven't said it before, Nathaniel, I really appreciate all the help you've been with Donna and the wedding."
"I enjoyed most of it. I wish we could have a beach wedding."
"We could have one, if that's what you really want," Micah said.
"Let me survive walking on the beach in bedazzled flip-flops and a formal-length dress first, then ask me again," I said. That earned me some laughter; then we pulled up in front of the hotel. Police were everywhere, as if someone had emptied out a bag of them in front of the building like toys, but there was never anything playful about having this many police at a scene.
Rankin was standing outside under the covered parking area. He seemed to be searching the crowd, as if he was waiting for someone and they were late. We pointed him out to Edward. "He looks like one of your men here."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Not too tall, slender but fit, good-looking but sort of androgynous. He's not as pretty as most of your men, but if you dropped him into the crowd, he wouldn't stand out."
I looked at Rankin as if I hadn't really seen him before. "I can see some of that, but he doesn't really float my boat."
"He floats mine," Nathaniel said.
Micah and I looked at him. "I don't think you've ever remarked on another man in front of me," Micah said.
"He looks like you," Nathaniel said.
I looked from Micah back to Rankin where he was still scanning the crowd, as we waited for the traffic to clear out enough for us to park. I tried to see what Nathaniel
was talking about. The hair was too short, the color too dark, not nearly as curly. He was slender built like Micah, but he had a longer torso, and something about that made them look less alike to me. I wasn't even going to try with the facial features, because Rankin just lost out there, at least to me.
"I'm having trouble seeing it."
"There's some superficial resemblance, I suppose," Micah said.
"Am I the only one who thinks he looks like Micah?" Nathaniel asked.
"Yes," Ru and Rodina said in unison.
"It's like Edward said: Rankin looks like he could be part of the team, but I don't think he looks like Micah," Nicky said.
Nathaniel was looking at the detective--no, not just looking, staring almost . . . longingly. He was mooning over him; that's what my grandmother would have called it. I touched his shoulder and he didn't react. I gripped his shoulder and gave him a little shake. He blinked and looked at me.
"Are you all right?" I asked.
He frowned. "I think so."
I touched his face and looked into his eyes from inches away. They were still big and lavender, like spring lilacs. He smiled at me and leaned in for a kiss. I gave it to him, but he pulled back first, which was unusual for him. He was the touchiest and feeliest of all of us. His gaze slid past me to something farther away. I turned to see what he was looking at, but there was nothing to see, not really, not yet. There were people and movement and too many police, and I finally realized there were too many police for just a missing person's case, even with two women missing.
"That's a lot of police," Rodina said.
"Too many, and there's an FDLE car here," Edward said.
"FDLE?" Ru asked.
"Florida Department of Law Enforcement. They have a local field station, but if more of them show up it's because the locals needed more resources."
"Have they found something?" Micah asked.
"If they have, it's nothing good," I said.
Nathaniel shook his head and then shook himself on the car seat, almost like a dog shaking off water, but there was nothing for him to be shaking free of that I could see. He took a couple of deep breaths and blew them out slow and steady.
"Are you okay?" Ru asked.
"No," Nathaniel said. "It's only thinking about what Anita said, that the police are here because they found something bad, that maybe Denny or the other girl is dead. Only concentrating on Denny and how much I like her as a person and that all that could be gone, dead; only that is helping me clear my thoughts."
"Clear your thoughts of what?" Edward asked.
"Rankin."
"What do you mean, Rankin?"
"The moment I saw him I wanted to get closer to him. I can remember what he said to me, that I should tell him what I did with the woman, and I want to tell him."
Edward asked, "Did you do something to Bettina Gonzales?" I was glad he asked, because I wasn't sure I could have.
"No," Nathaniel said, and his body language said just how absurd that was, but then he frowned and tried to look through the crowd back to Rankin. "No, I swear I didn't touch her, but he thinks I did--no, no, that's not it. He wants me to say I did. He wants someone to say they did and he makes you feel like you want to confess to things that you didn't do."
"Do you feel a need to confess, too?" Bram asked Micah from the far backseat.
Micah said, "I didn't feel compelled to confess, but I did have trouble leaving. I'd be at the door, and then suddenly Rankin would say something. I don't even remember what, but then I wouldn't open the door; I wouldn't quite finish leaving. It happened more than once, but I can't remember what he said to keep me in the room."
"He just kept asking me different variations on what had I done to Bettina? Where was she? I remember what he said to me," Nathaniel said, "but that isn't why I didn't leave. I'd think, I should stop talking and get out of here, but then he'd brush his hand against my arm, or his body would rub against my back, and I wouldn't want to stop."
"Wait, he touched you? He, like, caressed you during an interrogation?" I asked.
"No, nothing that obvious. He literally would brush against me as he paced behind me. He patted my hand or clapped my back a couple of times, but most of the touches were really small ones."
"I didn't see him do more than touch Nathaniel's arm like he was trying to be his buddy. It didn't look sexual or inappropriate at all," Micah said.
"The effect was," Nathaniel said, almost a whisper.
"Then we need to keep you away from him," I said.
"Why didn't you say all this before?" Edward asked.
"I didn't remember until I saw him, and then you said that there are too many cops here and I thought about Denny. I mean, I don't want anything bad to have happened to Bettina, but I didn't know her. Denny is my friend. The thought of something really bad happening to her is helping me keep my head clear of whatever Rankin did to me."
"Are you having any issues, Callahan?" Edward asked.
"No. I knew he was doing something to me in the interrogation. I knew he was messing with both of us. Anita connecting with me gave me enough willpower to walk out on him and bring Nathaniel with me."
"You had to grab me by the arm and drag me out, didn't you?"
Micah put his hand on the back of Nathaniel's neck underneath the fall of his hair, the way he'd done when there was so much more of it, and leaned their faces close together. "I thought you were just nervous being questioned."
Nathaniel leaned in, resting his forehead against Micah's. "I was nervous, but that wasn't why I didn't want to leave. You touching me helped; all of you touching me helped more. It's like whatever is wrong with Rankin, whatever he's done to me, is the promise of touching, so real touching trumps it. Does that make any sense?"
"It does," I said.
"Yes," Micah said.
"Is it just Micah and Anita touching you that helps, or will any real touch help?" Edward asked.
Nathaniel closed his eyes and leaned in against Micah. "I'm not sure."
Nicky put his hand on Nathaniel so that he was touching him, too. "Any better?"
"I'm not sure; I don't feel like myself."
"Are you saying that if someone isn't touching you, Rankin could lure you into his interrogation and force you to confess to things you didn't do?" Edward asked.
Nathaniel opened his eyes and drew back enough from Micah to look at Edward. "I'm not sure."
"But it's possible?" Edward asked.
Nathaniel nodded.
"You're a wereanimal; you guys are harder to bespell than a plain human."
"Which makes me wonder how many humans have confessed to crimes they didn't do because Rankin told them to do it," I said.
"I'll bet his closure rate is a hundred percent," Edward said.
"No one's closure rate is that high," I said.
"What's closure rate?" Ru asked.
"How many cases you close, as in find the person you think did it," I said.
"So how many people you get convicted?" he asked.
Edward and I both shook our heads. "Convictions are for the lawyers; closure for us means we turn over the whodunit to them. What happens after that doesn't affect a cop's closure rate," Edward said.
"Are you telling me that if you give the lawyers a terrible case with someone who confessed but couldn't have done it, you still get the points for closing the case, even though it doesn't work at trial, at all?" Ru asked.
"Pretty much," I said.
"Yes," Edward said.
I added, "If you get a reputation for sending bad cases up the line, ones that fall apart consistently, then that will eventually hurt you, but short of that, you're good."
"If Micah hadn't come in the room and helped me, I might have said anything the detective wanted me to say," Nathaniel said.
"I'm betting Rankin uses his mind-fuck powers all the time," Edward said.
"You really think he'd force his closure rate to a hundred percent?" I asked.
He nodded.
"If it is that high, then we might be able to use that against him if we need to," I said.
"How could you use it against him?" Ru asked.
"It would be like getting a hundred percent on all your college finals year after year. No one is that perfect, so you have to be cheating," I said.
Rodina nodded. "I get it, but cheating on tests is easier to prove than whatever this is."
"It would be undue magical influence, or even magical malfeasance, especially if someone he coerced died. They have the death penalty in Florida," I said.
"Isn't magical malfeasance an automatic death penalty in every state?" Ru asked.
We all said yes, in unison.
"But if he'd done it in a state without the death penalty, then he might not be risking getting charged with magical malfeasance to the full legal definition, and that's what will get you executed," I said.
"It's unlike any other death penalty sentence," Micah said. "You don't sit for years on death row. The trial is almost unconstitutionally quick, and then the order of execution is issued and usually carried out in less than a week."
"I hadn't thought about it before, but sometimes you work on the other side of the issue from Anita and Ted," Ru said.
"I've tried to get a few lycanthropes out of the system alive, but once they get charged, it's almost impossible to save them."
"Which means that Nathaniel stays as far away from Rankin as possible," I said.
We all agreed.
A uniformed officer finally came to the window of our car. He had to lean down a ways to talk to us. Edward and I flashed our badges. The officer's comment: "I didn't think the preternatural branch got called in until we were sure it wasn't human."
"What made anyone think it wasn't human to begin with?" I asked.
"You'd need more than fingernails and teeth to do that to a body." His face got that distant look, as if he could still see whatever had put that haunted look in his eyes.
"Bad?" Edward asked.
"Worst thing I've seen, and I thought I'd seen bad."
"Which of the missing women is it? Do you know yet?" I asked. I prayed silently that it wasn't going to be Denny. I liked her, and the thought of her dying in a way that made a police officer look haunted . . . I didn't want it to be her.
"Dark hair, so we think it's the first missing girl, but you know how it is: We won't be sure until fingerprints or dental come back."
A tightness in my gut eased, and then instantly I thought, How dare I be relieved that it was Bettina Gonzales? I was happy it probably wasn't Denny, but I couldn't be happy it was Bettina. I hadn't liked her much, but she had seemed harmless enough. Pettiness and a tendency toward jealousy about men weren't crime enough for her to deserve ending up like this. I hadn't even seen the body yet, but just the little information we had was enough to make me know it had been a bad way to go. No one deserved that.