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“No. My Uncle Otto was from Hapsburg.”

He blinked again, and the scowl wilted around the edges. “You are not German.” He sounded very sure.

“My father’s family is; from Baden-Baden on the edge of the Black Forest, but Uncle Otto was from Hapsburg.

“You said only your uncle had the accent.”

“By the time I came along, most of the family, except for my grandmother, had been in this country so long there was no accent, but Uncle Otto never lost his.”

“He’s dead now.” Olaf made it half question, half statement.

I nodded.

“How did he die?”

“Grandma Blake says Aunt Gertrude nagged him to death.”

His lips twitched. “Women are tyrants if a man allows it.” His voice was a touch softer now.

“That’s true of men or women. If one partner is weak, the other partner moves in and takes charge.”

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” Bernardo said.

We glanced at him. I don’t know what the expressions were on our faces, but Bernardo held his hands up and said, “Sorry to interrupt.”

Olaf and I went back to looking at each other. He was close enough now that I might not be able to draw the Browning in time. But if I moved away now, all my peace-making efforts would be for nothing. He’d either be insulted or see it as weakness on my part. Neither reaction would be helpful. So I stood my ground and tried not to look as tense as I felt, because no matter how calm I sounded, my stomach was in one hard knot. I had one chance to make this work. If I blew it, then the rest of this visit was going to be an armed camp, and we needed to be solving the crime, not fighting each other.

“You are either a leader or being led,” Olaf said. “Which are you?”

“I’ll follow if someone’s worth following.”

“And who decides, Anita Blake, who is worth following?”

I had to smile. “I do.”

His lips twitched again. “And if Edward put me in charge, would you follow me?”

“I trust Edward’s judgment, so yeah. But let me ask you the same question. Would you follow me if Edward put me in charge?”

He flinched. “No.”

I nodded. “Great, we know where we stand.”

“And where is that?” he asked.

“I’m sort of goal-oriented, Olaf. I came down here to solve a crime and I’m going to do that. If that means at some point taking orders from you, so be it. If Edward puts me in charge of you, and you don’t like it, take it up with him.”

“Just like a woman to put the responsibility off on a man’s shoulders.”

I counted to ten, and shrugged. “You talk like your opinion matters to me, Olaf. I don’t give a damn what you think of me.”

“Women always care what men think of them.”

I laughed then. “You know I was starting to feel insulted, but you are just too funny.” I meant it.

He leaned towards me trying to use his height to intimidate. It was impressive, but I’ve been the smallest kid around for as long as I can remember. “I will not take it up with Edward. I will take it up with you. Or don’t you have the balls to stand up to me?” He gave a harsh laugh. “Oh, I forgot, you don’t have balls.” He reached for me in a quick motion. I think he meant to grope me, but I didn’t wait to see. I threw myself backward into the floor and was drawing the Browning before my butt hit the floor. Drawing the gun meant I didn’t have time to slap my hands down and take the impact the way you were supposed to. I hit hard and felt the shock all the way up my spine.

He’d drawn a blade as long as his forearm from somewhere. The blade was coming down, and the Browning wasn’t quite pointed at his chest. It would be a race to see who drew first blood, but it was almost a guarantee that we’d both bleed. Everything slowed down to that crystalline vision, as if I had all the time in the world to point the gun, to avoid the blade, and at the same time everything was happening too fast. Too fast to stop it or change it.

Edward’s voice cut through the room. “Stop it! The first one to draw blood, I will personally shoot.”

We froze in mid-action. Olaf blinked, and it was as if time had resumed normal flow. Maybe, just maybe, we weren’t going to kill each other tonight. But I had the gun pointed