Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #27) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,80

If he goes apeshit again, I won’t risk fighting hand to hand with him.”

“You can’t blame Blake for that, Newman,” Livingston said. He was still holding the shotgun at the ready.

“Yeah, I can.”

“Newman,” I said.

He looked up at me with angry eyes.

“If it had been you in the cell with Bobby when he started to shapeshift, what would you have done?” I asked.

The anger started to fade in Newman’s eyes as he said, “I’d have gone for my gun.”

“You’d have shot him to save your life,” I said.

He sighed and nodded. “I guess I would have.”

“Then don’t blame me for not wanting to push my luck and try to survive a second slugfest with a shapeshifter.”

Newman looked down at Bobby, still touching him protectively. “Who am I fooling? I’d never have gotten my gun out in time. It’s why you didn’t draw yours. There wasn’t time. I don’t have your fight training, Blake, or your speed. If I’d been the one standing next to Bobby when he went animalistic, you’d have been taking me to the hospital or the morgue.”

“And we’d have had to shoot Bobby to save you,” I said.

He nodded. “I know.”

“Do you think he’ll go crazy when he wakes up like he did before?” Kaitlin asked from near the door to the offices. She hadn’t come too far into the cell area this time. I think she’d decided that she didn’t want a repeat performance with Bobby. Me either.

“There’s no way to tell until he wakes up,” I said.

“He had to have control of his change before this,” Newman said, “or his family wouldn’t have let him walk around the house in leopard form.”

“He was trying to suicide by cop when he started to shift,” I said. “He may have carried that thought over as he started to change.”

“Would that have been enough to make him lose control like that?” Newman asked.

“I think it was,” I said.

“Yes,” said Olaf. When the others looked at him, he explained, “If he were a normal person that was intent on suicide by police, he would raise his gun instead of putting it down, so we would have to shoot him. His beast is his gun. That is the only difference.”

“Win, don’t put yourself and Blake in a car with him. I don’t want to have to explain that to Haley,” Duke said.

“Don’t do that, Duke. Don’t bring Haley into this.”

“I know you want to help Bobby, and I know you believe he didn’t kill Ray, but is any of that worth not having a lifetime with the woman you love?” Duke seemed so reasonable, even caring and gentle. It was another glimpse of a good person, a good cop who was in there somewhere. Maybe I really hadn’t seen him at his best.

“Damn it, Duke,” Newman said.

“I’ll call an ambulance and see if they’re willing to look him over. Okay, Win?”

Newman nodded and lowered his head until it was almost touching Bobby’s. If the wereleopard woke up now, it could go badly. But Newman was as aware of that as I was, so I let him be. Duke went into the office to call for an ambulance just as Bobby took a long, shuddering breath.

28

NEWMAN STARTLED SO badly, he sat down hard beside Bobby. I was beside Newman before I’d thought about it, grabbing him under the arm and pulling him to his feet and moving both of us toward the door. Even though he had been damn near crying over Bobby a second before, he didn’t fight me. He wanted to save Bobby, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t scared of him. Livingston moved smoothly away from the door so that the two of us could get out. Olaf closed the door behind us, and we all watched as Bobby coughed and sputtered awake.

“You broke my nose,” Bobby said in a voice that was thick with blood and all the things that happened when someone smashed your nose into their knee repeatedly.

“You’re alive,” I said from the safety of the cage bars.

“What the hell does that mean?” Bobby asked as he lay on his side, raising his manacled hands up to touch his face. He winced and jerked his hands back from his nose.

“Do you remember anything about the fight?” I asked.

He rolled onto one elbow, but apparently having his head hanging down was bad, because he moved so his face was pointed more upward. He pushed stiffly to a sitting position, wrapping the blanket around his shoulders. If