Hit List(90)

She nodded, grinning. “Call me.”

He smiled. “I will contact you.”

Bernardo said, “Now, let’s all go to the cars. Bad guys to catch.” He made a shooing gesture at all of us, and we began to go for the parking lot. The nurse called after Olaf, “Call me.”

He waved at her, but his face was already emptying of that good humor and flirting. By the time we got to the cars his face was its usual self except for the new beard.

I took a breath, but Bernardo beat me to it. “You know the deal, Olaf. If you do your hobby on American soil you lose everything. Your badge, both your jobs, everything, and Edward will kill you, so really everything.”

“He will try to kill me,” Olaf said.

I ignored the last comment, because Olaf had to make it, just like I’d have had to make it. We couldn’t let anyone, not even Edward, think he was automatically better. But the details of Olaf’s deal were new to me. “So, more people than just you, me, and Edward know what he is?”

“A few,” Bernardo said, “but it all hinges on him not doing his serial killer thing here.”

I looked at Olaf. “You must be really good at something for them to look the other way about the rest.”

“I am very good at many things.” He delivered the words almost flat; if it had been another man I think he’d have made it flirty, but Olaf didn’t waste flirting on anyone but his victims, apparently. If he liked you for real, you got the real deal. Normally I preferred that in my men, but since the real deal was a sexually sadistic serial killer it was sort of a mixed blessing. Flattering, since I was pretty sure it was the most he’d ever shown himself to any woman, and scary as hell all at the same time. Flattering and frightening; that was Olaf all over.

“I believe that,” I said, and meant it.

“Do you?” He looked at me, and he seemed to truly be studying me, or trying to.

“Yes,” I said.

“It bothered you to see me with the woman.”

“You let me see in your face what you wanted to do to her, Olaf; of course that would bother me.”

“That bothered all of us,” Bernardo said.

Olaf looked up and I thought he was looking at Bernardo until he said, “It didn’t bother you, did it, Nick?”

“No,” Nicky said.

I turned and looked at Nicky, standing right beside me, face peaceful as it usually was. “Do the two of you know each other?”

“Sort of,” Nicky said.

“Yes,” Olaf said.

I looked from one to the other of them. “All right, talk to me. How do you know each other?”

Olaf said, “I think we might wish to have the other men step away.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Plausible deniability,” Nicky said.

“What?” I asked.

Bernardo patted Lisandro on the shoulder. “Let’s give them some privacy.”

Lisandro looked from one to the other of us, and finally looked just at me. “You tell me to give you some room and I’ll do it, but only because Nicky is here. I won’t leave you alone with Marshal Jefferies.”

Olaf gave Lisandro a long look. “You will do what Anita tells you to do. I’ve seen it.”

Lisandro shook his head. “I’ve seen you, too. I won’t leave Anita alone with you, even if she orders me to.”

I started to say something, and Lisandro just turned to me and shook his head. “We’ve all agreed, Anita, you don’t get left with him.”

“And I have no say in it,” I said.

“No,” he said.

“He does not respect you,” Olaf said.

“I respect Anita, but you”—he pointed at the bigger man—“you are not allowed to be alone with our boss.”

“If Anita truly leads, then it is up to her who is alone with her.”

“No, not on this,” Lisandro said.

Olaf looked at me. “Will you let him rule you?”

The question was a trap. If I said any man “ruled” me, it could turn me from serial killer girlfriend to serial killer victim for Olaf. As uncomfortable as it was for him to think of me as a girlfriend, it was a lot better than just being meat for him. I did not want to change categories in Olaf’s twisted little fantasies.

“Lisandro doesn’t rule me, no one does, but if you hadn’t noticed, Edward doesn’t leave us alone either.”

Olaf frowned. “But if you wanted to be alone with me, he would allow it.”

“Oh, I got this one,” Bernardo said. He did that odd almost stepping between us again. We both looked at him. He said, “No, Edward won’t. He’s given me orders that if I let the two of you go off alone and something bad happens, he’ll kill me.” He smiled while he said it, but it never reached his eyes. He was so not happy about it.