Лорел Гамильтон - The Harlequin

«He's also a fucking serial killer, whose victims of choice are petite brunette women.» I slapped my upper chest. «Sound like anyone you know?»

He let out a breath; if it had been anyone else I would have said he sighed. «He's a good match for this job, Anita, I swear that he is, but he wasn't my choice, not exactly.»

I stopped pacing and came to stand in front of him. I'd kicked everyone out except Micah when he handed me the overnight bag full of clothes and weapons. I loved a man who knew how to pack for me. When I'd stepped out into the hallway and seen Olaf and Peter, I'd gone back in the room, kicked Micah out, too, and invited Edward in.

«What does that mean, he wasn't your choice, exactly? You just said his skills match this job.»

«They do, but do you really think I'd have brought him within a hundred miles of you, Anita? Olaf likes you, likes you in a way I've never seen him like a woman. He has whores and he has victims, but whatever he feels for you is different.»

«Are you saying he loves me?»

«Olaf doesn't love anybody, but he feels something for you.»

«He wants me to play serial killer with him, Edward.»

Edward nodded. «The last time he saw you, you and he killed a vampire together. You decapitated it, and he cut out its heart.»

«How do you know what we did? You were in the hospital trying not to die.»

«I heard about it later from the local cops. They were creeped by the way you butchered the vampire. Said you were both real good at cutting up the body.»

«I'm a legal vampire executioner, Edward. It's what I do.»

He nodded again. «And Olaf has been a special-ops assassin for most of his adult life.»

«I don't hold his day job against him, Edward; it's his damn hobby that I don't like.»

«Hobby? You call the fact that he's a serial killer his hobby?»

I shrugged. «I think that's how he sees it.»

He smiled. «I think you may be right.»

«Don't you smile at me. Don't you fucking smile at me. You hinted that you didn't want to bring him on this job, so why did you?»

His face sobered. «He wanted to come to St. Louis to see you»—he put air quotes around the see — «on his own. I told him if he came near you I'd kill him. He believed me, but he said that if I ever got called to back you up again, I had to include him. If I didn't, he'd come on his own, and take his chances with me later.»

«Later? Later, after what?»

Edward gave me a look out of those blue eyes that were some of the coldest I ever looked into. «So he's here to what, kill me?»

«He doesn't kill women, Anita. He butchers them.»

I shuddered, because I'd seen Olaf at a serial-killer crime scene. Not his own work. He'd been helping Edward and me track down a different killer. But the victim had been just a pile of meat. It had been one of the worst things I'd ever seen done to a human being. Olaf had looked up from that pile of carnage, and the look in his face had been sexual. As if what lay on that table was the biggest turn-on he'd ever had. He'd looked at me, and he'd been thinking sex, yeah, but he'd been thinking sex not just without my clothes, but as if he wondered what I'd look like without my skin. Most humans didn't scare me anymore, but Olaf scared me.

Edward said, «Anita, you look like you've seen a ghost.»

«I'd rather see a ghost than him.»

He smiled again. «Rather see a ghost; I keep forgetting that you're not just a pretty face.»

I frowned at him. «You're smiling. This fight isn't even close to over.»

«I had to invite Olaf to play, Anita. This way I have his word that he'll behave himself.»

«Define behave himself .»

«No serial killing on your turf, period.»

«So I'm off the menu, too?»

«He wants to help you slaughter your victim of choice, vampires. He'll even help you kill men, he said.»

I shivered, rubbing my arms, squeezing tight so the gun in its shoulder holster dug into my breast a little. I liked the discomfort. I wasn't helpless. It was just that Olaf was six feet plus of trained muscle. I was stronger and faster than a normal human thanks to Jean-Claude's vampire marks, but I still knew enough about physical potential to know that Olaf was a very dangerous man. He was crazy and trained to kill; that seemed an unfair advantage to me.

«You think he would have come on his own by now, if you hadn't given him your word?» I asked.

«Yes.» He wasn't smiling when he said that last. He was as serious as I'd ever seen him. «I would never have invited him to that last case in New Mexico if I'd thought I would be needing your help. Please, believe that the last thing I wanted was for him to meet you. I knew it would be a disaster. I just didn't expect you to… charm him. I didn't know there was a woman on the planet that could have made him feel anything close to…«—he searched for a word—«he wants to help you hunt and slaughter these vampires.»

«I don't want him here, Edward.»

«I know, but this was the best compromise I could make with him, Anita. Actually I hoped he'd be out of the country, so far away that the fireworks would be over before he could get back to the United States. He took a job with a government agency to help train up some of their new antiterrorist infiltration groups. He took a job that he's qualified for—he speaks more Middle Eastern languages than I do—but it wasn't a job that let him exercise his urges.»

«You mean he's not been allowed to kill anyone.»

He nodded.

«Why would he take a job that didn't let him slaughter people?»

«Because he knew if he went out of the country, he'd never make it back in time to be in St. Louis when you needed me.»

I stared at Edward. «Are you saying that Olaf took a job that he didn't want so he'd be closer to me?»

«That is exactly what I'm saying. This last year and some change is probably the longest he's ever gone without killing someone. If you'd asked me, I'd have said he couldn't go this long without killing someone.»

«How do you know he didn't?»

«He's got a deal with our government. He doesn't play serial killer on American soil. They look the other way, as long as he abides by that.»

I hugged myself tight again. «I didn't ask Olaf to be a good boy, Edward.»

«I know you didn't.»

«Why does the fact that he's behaved himself on the off chance that he can come play with me scare me?»

«Because you're smart.»

«Explain to me why it makes my skin run cold that he's gone to this much effort for me?»

«He is crazy, Anita. Which means that you never know what will trigger him with a woman. He likes you as much as I've ever seen him like a woman. But he has high standards for women.»

«What does that mean?»

«It means that when he saw you almost two years ago you weren't sleeping around. Now you are. I'm a little worried that that will change his opinion of you.»

«He kills whores,» I said, my voice flat.

«I did not call you a whore.»

«You said I sleep around.»

«You have half a dozen regular lovers, and you just had sex with a new one. Give me another way to say it.»

I thought about it, then shook my head and almost smiled. «A full dance card. Oh, hell, Edward. Fine, I'm sleeping with a lot of men.» Which brought me to another thought. «God, Peter was in the hallway while Donovan and I were in here…«I felt myself blush and couldn't stop it.

«I figured you for a screamer.»

I gave him a very unfriendly look.

«Sorry, but Peter was embarrassed. What else do you want me to say?»

«Say why you brought him. Say why the hell would you involve him in this dangerous mess?»

«Short version, because we've only got a few hours to find these bastards.»