Obsidian Butterfly - Laurell K. Hamilton [50]
I sighed. “I don’t underestimate her, Edward.”
“She and her friends didn’t understand what a bad man Riker is. Some of the really big pot hunters hire bodyguards, goon squads, to help take care of the bleeding hearts, and even the local law. Riker is suspected of having been behind the deaths of two local cops. It’s one of the reasons that things went so smoothly in the restaurant. All the local cops know that Riker’s a suspected cop killer, not personally, but of hiring it done.”
I smiled, not a pleasant smile. “I wonder how many traffic tickets he and his men have acquired since it happened.”
“Enough that his lawyer filed a harassment suit. There is no proof that Riker’s people were involved, just the fact that the cops were killed at a dig that had been partially bulldozed, and an eye witness that saw a car with a partial plate that might have been one of his trucks.”
“Is the witness still among the living?” I asked.
“My, you do catch on quick.”
“I take it that’s a no.”
“He’s missing,” Edward said.
“So why come after Donna and her kids?”
“Because the kids were with her when she and her group formed a protest line protecting a site that was on private land that Riker had gotten permission to bulldoze. She was their spokesperson.”
“Stupid, she should not have taken the kids.”
“Like I said, Donna didn’t understand how bad a man Riker was.”
“And what happened?”
“Her group was manhandled, abused, beaten. They fled. Donna had a black eye.”
“And what did Ted do about this?” I was watching his face, arms crossed over my stomach. All I could see was his profile, but it was enough. He hadn’t liked it, that Donna had gotten hurt. Maybe it was just that she belonged to him, a male pride thing, or maybe . . . maybe it was more.
“Donna asked me to have a talk with the men.”
“I take it that would be the two men that you put in the hospital. I seem to remember you asking Harold if two guys were still in the hospital.”
Edward nodded. “Yeah.”
“Only two in the hospital, and none in a grave. You must be slipping.”
“I couldn’t kill anyone without Donna knowing, so I made an example of two of his men.”
“Let me guess. One of them would be the man who gave Donna the black eye.”
Edward smiled happily. “Tom.”
“And the other one?”
“He pushed Peter and threatened to break his arm.”
I shook my head. The air had begun to cool, and it raised goose bumps even through my jacket, or maybe it wasn’t the cold. “The second guy has a broken arm now?”
“Among other things,” Edward said.
“Edward, look at me.”
He turned and gave me his cool blue gaze.
“Truth, do you care for this family? Would you kill to protect them?”
“I’d kill to amuse myself, Anita.”
I shook my head, and leaned close to him, close enough to study his face, to try and make him give up his secrets. “No jokes, Edward, tell me the truth. Are you serious about Donna?”
“You asked me if I loved her and I said, no.”
I shook my head again. “Dammit, don’t keep evading the answer. I don’t think you do love her. I don’t think you’re capable of it, but you feel something. I don’t know exactly what, but something. Do you feel something for this family, for all of them?”
His face was blank, and I couldn’t read it. He just stared at me. I wanted to slap him, to scream and rant until I broke through his mask into whatever lay underneath. I’d always been on sure ground with Edward, always known where he stood, even when he was planning to hurt me. But now suddenly, I wasn’t sure about anything.
“My God, you do care for them.” I slumped back in my seat, weak. I couldn’t have been more astonished if he’d sprouted a second head. That would have been weird, but not this weird.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Edward, you care for them, all of them.”
He looked away. Edward, the stone cold killer, looked away. He couldn’t or wouldn’t meet my gaze. He put the car in gear and forced me to buckle my seat belt.
I let him pull out of the parking lot in silence,