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 voila gesture, as if to say,
“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.
Sanchez said, “Try not to shoot any of us by accident, Anita.” He said my first name with only the syllables it’s supposed to have.
“If I shoot you, Sanchez, it won’t be by accident.”
The other men made noises of either encouragement or disparagement. Then the second order came down, and there was no more time for teasing. I’d been told how Hooper wanted me to enter behind him, because I was the only one of the four marshals who didn’t have official tactical training. I did what I was told. I put my left hand on the back of Hooper’s vest so that as he moved, I’d move. I kept my other hand on the MP5 on its tactical sling so that it wouldn’t accidentally point at anyone, and away we went.
39
THE LAST TIME I’d been with SWAT, we’d come through the door with flash-bang grenades and a green light to shoot everything inside the condo but the victim we were trying to save. This time, we knocked.
Sergeant Hooper called out from behind the shield guy, who turned out to be Hitch, who was almost as broad through the shoulders as I was tall. “Vegas Police, search warramt. Open the door!” He had a nice loud voice, a drill sergeant voice. Even being prepared, it made me jump a little. He repeated it twice more.
Victor’s energy poured across the heat from behind us, well behind us. Since he wasn’t close enough to yell, he’d compromised by sending his energy ahead of him. In some ways it was better than his voice. People might imitate a voice, but no one could imitate that roll of power. In some ways it was not better than his voice. His voice wouldn’t have pressed against my throat, like a hand that wanted inside. I had to up my metaphysical shields to get the energy to back off enough for me not to almost taste it. It was like pushing against some huge weight, to move his power away from me. I’d never felt any lycanthrope with this kind of power.
Gregory Minns would feel all that energy coming from his clan’s “king,” and if he was a good guy, he’d open the door. If he was a bad guy, he’d run, or he’d fight.
I tightened my grip on Hooper’s vest and fought to keep my pulse even. I could feel the adrenaline coming off the other men, and my own tension; so much could go wrong. Victor’s power just made it worse for me. If I hadn’t fought it off, maybe it would have been soothing, but I couldn’t afford to embrace it. The tigers inside me liked it too much. I got a glimpse behind my eyes of them putting their heads up and roaring in that coughing, harsh sound that tigers do. My body vibrated with it, and all I could do was fight to keep my pulse even and my breathing slow, because until I lost control of my body, my beasts could not hurt me. Much.
I really wished that Victor had been allowed to talk through the door.
Sanchez said, “What the hell is that? Is it the tiger inside?”
“Quiet,” Hooper said.
Sanchez could feel Victor’s energy and maybe my tigers. I’d have to remember that he could feel the energy. It might change what I did when we got inside.
Hooper yelled again, “Minns, open up!”
I felt energy moving in the house, almost like one of those infrared pictures, except it was a feeling, not a visual. I almost said,
A man’s voice called from behind the door. “I’m opening the door now. Don’t shoot me, okay?” The door started to open, but the SWAT never gave him a chance to finish the gesture. They poured in, and I poured with them, dragged along by my hand on Hooper.
There was a lot of yelling. “Hands on your head! Get on your knees!” Minns did what he was told and was in a circle of weapons and officers. He looked calm enough. Calmer, frankly, than he should have been at the center of that circle. The calm bothered me.
His hair was actually pale blond, not white. I caught glimpses of his eyes through the legs and bodies of the officers. The eyes were that pale, perfect tiger blue, and he seemed to have no other goal than to look at me. I didn’t like that either.
The white tigress did, though. She paced closer to my surface. I kept controlling my breathing, counting my pulse down, but I could feel Minns’s power. Again, like Victor it was more, different, somehow. Something about the dominants of this clan gave them more… crunchy goodness, as if I should have been able to eat the power, and it would have been something with texture and caramel in the middle. Something you had to chew and swallow hard to get down, but it would be sweet, and you’d want another bite.
He stared at me while they cuffed him and put ankle cuffs on, too. They were taking no chances. He let them do whatever they wanted and just kept staring at me, and I seemed unable to move from the weight of that stare.
