Skin Trade(100)

I tried one more time to explain how precious our time was, as we waited for yet another team member to get into some distant place. I was actually assigned to Hooper, which meant that I’d be in the front of the line. I don’t know how they decided who went where.

“Hooper, they killed your men in daylight; once darkness falls, the vampires will be able to help them, and it will be worse, much worse.”

“How much worse?” he asked.

“If we keep dicking around, we’re going to find out.”

“I can’t go against orders, Blake.”

I nodded. “I know it’s not your fault, but it will be you and your men who are going to be at risk.”

“My men and yours,” he said.

I nodded. “I’m not sure they’re exactly my men, but yeah. Your men and us.”

“I’d heard that the preternatural marshals didn’t have a strict command structure.”

I laughed. “That’s one way of putting it.”

That earned me a smile. “Then how do you decide who does what?”

“Ted has the most experience, and I let him take the lead a lot. Sometimes he gives it to me. I’ve worked with Otto and Bernardo before, so we sort of know what our strengths and weaknesses are.” I shrugged. “Mostly, we work by ourselves, and we end up being shoved into the command structure of whatever police force we’re working with, but mostly it’s just us, alone.”

“Like the Lone Ranger,” he said, and he held up his hand. “I remember what you told Spider, that the Lone Ranger was a Texas Ranger.”

I smiled. “Yeah, but the whole lone-gunman mentality is pretty high in the preternatural branch. We worked alone for so many years that we just don’t play well with others.”

A boy who looked too young to be doing this, even to me, with huge blue eyes and his hair hidden completely under his helmet, as if he’d hoped a shorter haircut would make him look legal, said, “Rumor says you play real well with others.”

“Georgie,” Hooper said.

He looked embarrassed.

I said, “It’s not just Shaw’s personal issues, is it?”

Hooper managed to shrug under all the equipment. Maybe it was the tension of waiting, knowing that once this tension was over there was a whole new set of it coming down the road. “And what did you hear, exactly, Georgie?” I asked.

He looked uncomfortable then; apparently, it was one thing to hint, but another to tell me to my face in detail.

“Come on, Georgie Porgie, you have something to say to me, then say it. If you don’t have anything to say to me, then shut the fuck up.”

The other men were listening, watching us, waiting to see what happened. Cannibal was with the perimeter team, so he wasn’t here to defend my honor, and apparently Hooper would only defend me against outsiders. Edward was quiet nearby, letting me fight my own battles. He knew I was a big girl.

Georgie’s face hardened, and I realized he was going to tell me. I probably shouldn’t have made fun of his name. Oh well. “I heard you’re shacking up with your Master of the City.”

“And,” I said.

His angry face tried to frown and still be angry. “And what?” he asked.

“Exactly,” I said.

It was Bernardo who said, “She means, Georgie, that, yeah, she’s shacking up with her Master of the City, so what?”

“I heard she was doing you, too,” he said.

Bernardo laughed. “Man, I’ve been trying to get into her pants since the first time I worked with her.”

All I could do was shake my head. Olaf was scowling at him. Edward was trying for a neutral face and making it. Bernardo had the attention of all the guys, though.

It was Sanchez who said, “And?”

“Ask her, she’s right there,” Bernardo said.

They all looked at me. I smiled, not exactly amused. “No.”

“No,” Bernardo said, in a dramatic voice. “She said no, and she’s been saying no. I’ve tried for over two years, and it’s been no.” He did a voilà gesture, as if to say, Look at all of this. “Guys, if I can’t get a piece of the action, how many of the bastards that said they hit the mark do you really think hit it?”

“I’m not an it,” I said.

Bernardo gestured at me. “See, Anita is not easy, not in any sense of the word.”

That made them laugh. In that moment, Bernardo came closer to getting a kiss from me than he ever had before. But, weirdly, for his defense of my honor to work, I couldn’t even say thank you. I just had to shake my head in disgust and call him a horndog.

The radios crackled to life, and Hooper said, “We’re up.” Everyone gathered the equipment they’d put down and settled it in place. Hooper looked at me. “Anita, you’re with me.” You could taste the tension level rise hotter than the heat.