“Do they really think we’d just go in there and start shooting?” I asked.
Edward looked at me. It was the most emotion I’d seen on his face in the last few minutes.
“Is my rep that bad?” I asked.
Bernardo said, “Most of the police see us as bounty hunters with badges. Cops don’t like bounty hunters.”
“There are going to be things that I need to say that I can’t say in front of Grimes and his men,” I said.
“The lieutenant probably won’t be coming personally,” Edward said.
“You know what I mean, Edward.”
“We’ll see if we can distract them for you,” Edward said.
“If I am not allowed to hurt them,” Olaf said, “then I will not be good at distracting them.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
Bernardo grinned at me. “I’ll do my best, but I’m better at distracting the ladies.”
“I’ll see if I can get you some privacy,” Edward said, and frowned at both the other men.
“Hey,” Bernardo said, “I’m just being honest, but frankly I think the SWAT team is going to glue itself to Anita.”
“Why me?” I asked.
“Deputy Lorenzo is friends with the woman who works in the front office for their SWAT. Did you really do a one-arm curl of two hundred sixty pounds?”
I fought to give him full eye contact. “No.”
“Then what did you do?” he asked.
“A two-arm curl,” I said.
Edward and Olaf were looking at me now, too. “Why would you draw that much attention to yourself?” Edward asked.
“You’ve seen them, Edward; if you didn’t know me, would you let me serve a warrant with them?”
“You’re a U.S. Marshal, Anita. It’s our warrant. They’re backing us up.”
I shook my head. “I needed to prove to them that I could handle myself. The weights were right there. It seemed like the quickest way to settle it.”
“How did you explain that you could curl almost three times your own body weight without falling over or busting something?” He sounded disgusted.
“I don’t need this from you, Edward, Ted, whatever. You don’t know what’s it like to be the girl. To always have to prove yourself. You get tired of it.”
“What did you tell them?”
“The truth.”
He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “What does that mean?”
“That I’m carrying different kinds of lycanthropy. Grimes had read my file, Edward, it’s in there now. The Philadelphia police outed me when I ended up surviving and healing after having my skull cracked.”
“You don’t have a scar,” he said.
“No, I don’t, just like I don’t have a scar from the weretiger attack in St. Louis. You’ve seen Peter’s scars from the same beastie. It gutted me, remember?” I pulled my shirt out of my pants enough to flash my smooth, untouched stomach. “I can’t play human anymore, Edward.”
23
BERNARDO AND OLAF both moved away a little, as if the emotion were too much for them, or they were leaving the hysterical woman to Edward. There was more than one reason he was the unofficial leader. When you do the hard things, you get to call the shots.
He looked at me for a moment, then asked, “Are you all right?”
It was such a weird thing to ask that I wasn’t angry, just puzzled. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means what I said. You seem on edge.”
“Oh, I don’t know, I’ve got a serial killer mailing me body parts. I had Lieutenant Grimes actually ask me if I was Jean-Claude’s human servant. My blood test alone should have gotten my badge yanked, but no one’s come to talk to me about it. I’ve been living with Jean-Claude and the guys at the Circus for months, and I miss my house. I miss my stuff. I miss being alone with Nathaniel and Micah. I miss being alone with anybody. There are too many damn men in my life, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
“You don’t want dating advice from me, Anita.”
That made me smile, in spite of myself. “I guess not.”
“But you aren’t the only preternatural branch marshal who’s been attacked on the job. I think unless you actually shift and they could prove you a danger in court, they aren’t going to bitch. I think they’re afraid of getting sued, workman’s comp or something like that. They certainly don’t want the first of us in court fighting to keep their badge to be you.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“You’re a woman. You’re pretty. You’re petite. You’d look like the poster child for being picked on by the big bad government.”