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Offsed’s feet kicked. Next, he tried to bend his knees to the sides as he tried to lizard crawl out from under the suffocating weight.
Any moves were futile.
The court police had finally fought themselves salmon-like into the room, guns drawn, instructions shouted. Nutsbe got to his feet, immediately shifting his gaze to Olivia.
By then, Olivia had rounded into the witness box, dragged the chair away, and was trying to revive Candace.
“Beowolf, good job. To me.” Honestly, Nutsbe wasn’t sure that was going to work.
Beowolf swung his head around. He looked like he was exerting zero energy, just lounging in the sun.
“Beowolf, to me.” Nutsbe patted his thigh.
Beowolf lumbered to his feet and moved into the instructed position.
Enough time had gone by without a breath, Offsed was unconscious.
Nutsbe focused on Olivia. “Is Candace okay?” he asked, holding his place, not wanting to crowd her.
“I think she fainted. She’s hit her head and needs an ambulance.” She looked at Nutsbe as if he should act, then seemed to realize he didn’t have a phone. She looked down at the phone in her hand and thrust it toward him.
But sirens could already be heard up the road.
Help was coming.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nutsbe
“Again?” Titus had his hands posted on his hips, standing in the middle of Panther Force War Room.
“Right place, right time,” Nutsbe said. “I have the best luck when it comes to being where I’m needed.”
“Outstanding, brother.” Titus extended his hand for a shake as Bob came through the door.
“Where’s Olivia?” Bob asked with a sweep of the room that landed on Beowolf, resting between Nutsbe’s feet.
“She went in the ambulance with Candace. Candace has a goose egg from hitting the edge of the bench when she fainted. Olivia doesn’t want her to navigate the emergency room alone.” Nutsbe put his hand on Beowolf’s head. “I had Beowolf, so I came here for a debrief.”
“And the case?” Bob found a seat and leaned forward, moving his hands over Beowolf’s body, giving him a cursory check.
“Olivia says it will be a while before this comes up again. Offsed is going to have to go through a psych eval to see if he’s competent to stand trial.”
“With Candace on the stand, is it possible he was faking?” Titus asked. “That he was going for an insanity plea?”
“He transformed in front of me. I’ll be honest. It was unnerving. I’ve never seen anything like it. The waves of violence coming off this guy. Yeah, it was like a horror show. And having seen that shift, Candace is one heroic woman to show up at all.”
“Olivia’s at the hospital?” Bob asked. “How’s she getting back to her car?”
“She’ll take a taxi from the hospital. Her car is here in Automotive. When the paramedic was packaging Candace, Olivia showed me that a warning had popped up on her phone as she drove to the courthouse this morning, saying she had an unidentified device tracking her. She wondered if I had put something on her car since I had it last night when Iniquus drove it home from the sniper parking lot. So today, Automotive took it to do a sweep.”
“And?” Bob rested his hands on Beowolf’s back.
“A luggage tracking pod was attached under her bumper with duct tape. Automotive took it to forensics to see if they could get prints.”
“Pod and duct tape?” Thorn drew his brows in.
“Odd, right?” Nutsbe asked. “I want to know who wants to track her.”