"What do you want, Raborn?" I asked.
"Who's in charge of the muscle?" he asked, and he made sure his tone was offensive.
Nicky shoved a thumb in my direction. "Anita is."
Raborn gave him a look that said clearly, I don't believe you.
"It disappoints me, too," Ares said with a grin, "but she's it."
"What does 'it' mean?" Raborn asked.
"The boss, the big cheese, the head honcho, or honchette," Ares said. "She's it."
"Why would you listen to her?"
Ares looked at me. "Do we have to explain ourselves to him?"
"No," I said, "we don't."
Ares gave Raborn a big grin that filled his olive-green eyes with glee. "You heard her."
"You all f**king her?" Raborn asked.
I felt Edward tense beside me. "That was over the line, pardner." His Ted voice was a little strained around the edges. But it was the other men who were scary in that moment. They went quiet, but it was the quiet that a predator will use when it hunkers down in the long grass beside the trail. It was a tense, waiting quiet, and the energy coming off all of them raised the hair on my arms and tickled down my spine.
"Easy, guys," I said.
"He doesn't get to talk to you like that," Domino said in a low voice.
"No, he doesn't," I said. I sighed and looked up at Raborn. "Do you want me to bring you up on sexual harassment charges?"
"Since when is the truth grounds for harassment?" he asked. His eyes were angry, defiant. I thought in that moment that Socrates was right; it was the fact that I was a woman. Cops usually thought policewomen were only two things: bitches or sluts. I had a reputation for both.
I stood there and thought of several replies, none of them helpful. Raborn said, "So it's true then?"
I let out a breath, and smiled at him. "Actually, I'm f**king" - I pointed to Nicky and he stepped forward - "and" - I pointed at Domino, who moved up to join Nicky. "I forget anyone?" I asked gazing down the line.
Most of them shook their heads, faces very serious. Bobby Lee just stared at Raborn; it was not a good look, or rather it was a very good look if your sense of self-preservation was low.
"See, Raborn, I'm only f**king two of them. Does that make you feel any better?"
He blushed, except the color spread past his hairline and didn't stay red. He was turning a sort of purple. Either it was the darkest blush I'd ever seen, or he was just that angry. Either way, the reaction was sweet and insulting.
"Any other questions?" I asked him.
He glared at me, and then Clark's voice came from behind us. I guess she'd finished her phone call and opened the door quietly enough that Raborn and I didn't hear her. "Marshal Raborn, I need you to drive to Oregon for me, right now."
He glanced back at her, and then moved so he could keep an eye on both her and us, which meant he wasn't as stupid as he seemed. "We have a serial killer in Seattle and you're sending me on some trumped-up errand?"
"As your superior I'm telling you that you are driving to the far side of Oregon today; if you question my orders again, I'll find something for you to do on the far side of Alaska, is that clear?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm tired of your attitude and because I can. One more word and I promise you that you will be seeing so much real estate that by the time you drive back this case will be over."
He closed his mouth tight, lips thinned with anger. The flush that had been fading began to darken again. If it was blood pressure, eventually he was going to stroke out if he didn't learn to control himself. He just nodded.
She handed him a piece of paper. "This is where I want you to drive and what I want you to pick up for me."
His eyes barely flickered over it before he turned on his heel and marched off. I think he didn't trust himself to keep quiet if he stayed near us all.
Clark looked at me and Edward, but finally settled on me. "Bringing in lovers as deputies won't help your reputation, Blake."
I sighed. "I know, Marshal Clark, but neither of them is just a pretty package. They'll be an asset to the case, or we wouldn't have flown them in."
"They better be more than a booty call, Blake. No offense, gentlemen."
"None taken," Nicky said.
Domino just looked at her.
It was her turn to sigh. "Prove to me that they're more than just pretty, or muscle. Prove to me that they can help us catch these things."
"Things?" I made it a question.
"Whatever is killing the weretigers isn't human. Whatever injured Marshal Karlton wasn't human either. What my marshals chased in the woods with you was sure as hell not human. We have a body in the morgue that is charred halfway between human and animal form. Nothing on this case is human, so until I have another word for them, they're things, perps, monsters. Now get out there and do something useful." She went back into her office, and we started moving down the hallway like we had a purpose.
"Raborn is going to be trouble," Lisandro said.
"He'll try," I said.
"How do we stop him?" Domino asked.
Edward said, "Execute the warrant; be so good at the job that he can't come back at Anita."
"The job is to kill . . ." Ares hesitated, trying not to say the Harlequin. "The killers, right?"
"Yep," I said.
Ares smiled, a flash of teeth in his delicate face. "We'll be good at the job."
The rest of them just nodded. I realized in that moment we were a pack, a pride, we were a unit. We were - us. And for the first time since I understood that it was the Harlequin killing the weretigers, I felt . . . hopeful.