“How was your trip down to Bowling Green?” Adam asked.
Trevor unscrewed the cap and swigged his beer. How the hell had Adam known where he and Alina had been earlier that day? He hadn’t even known he was going down there until after lunch, and as far as anyone else knew, they’d been in Fredericksburg, not Bowling Green.
He didn’t bother asking, knowing Adam wouldn’t say. Besides, he was more concerned with other things—like the fact that Dick had bugged his apartment. He motioned around the room, then pointed to his ear.
“I’ve intercepted the audio going to our friends on the other end of the wires,” Adam said casually. “They think you’re watching ESPN while you make dinner.”
Of course. Trevor wasn’t sure why he worried. Adam had known his apartment was bugged before he had.
Adam had first shown up three days after John’s murder, letting Trevor know Landon, Ivy, and the others were safe, then asking him to be his eyes and ears in the DCO. The other shifter had said he and the former director were friends, and that they’d devoted the past decade to putting Thorn in prison. Trevor had spent most of his adult life catching spies and traitors, so he was good at knowing when people were lying to him, and his gut told him Adam was on the level.
“It wasn’t a complete loss,” Trevor said. “The man I went down there to see—Seth Larson—isn’t the one who brought the bomb onto the DCO complex, but he saw several people around the main building right before the explosion. I’m sending him photos from the DCO personnel records to look through. If we’re lucky, we might get an ID on the person who set the device.”
“Seems like a long shot,” Adam said.
Trevor couldn’t disagree with that. But until he had a chance to look into a few other leads he’d been working, it was the only shot he had to go on.
“Any word on Kendra?” Trevor asked.
“Tanner saw her a few days ago and said she’s close to having her twins,” Adam said, and Trevor could have sworn he saw a smile tug at his lips. “Declan is terrified he’ll have to deliver the babies.”
Trevor chuckled. He could just imagine the big bear shifter trying to deliver the twins while worrying about protecting Kendra at the same time. He was glad Tanner was in a position to help. The big lion hybrid might have control issues now and then, but there was absolutely no one else in the DCO who possessed his heart and compassion when it came to helping people in trouble.
But then the seriousness of that situation struck him. If Kendra went into labor suddenly, Tanner wouldn’t be able to help with that. “All humor aside, she isn’t going to have to have her kids in that B&B where they’re staying, is she?”
Adam shrugged. “She’ll have to. I’m trying to bring in a doctor and a nurse to take care of her, but I have to be careful. Thorn knows Kendra is close to giving birth, too, and I’m afraid if I use anyone in the area, he’ll catch wind of it.”
Shit. Being in the middle of giving birth to twins while worrying about Thorn’s goons finding you had to be scary as hell. No wonder Declan was freaking out.
“How was your first day with your new partner?” Adam asked.
Trevor frowned. “You knew I was getting a new partner? And you didn’t think that was something you might have mentioned to me?”
That slight smile crossed Adam’s face again. “I didn’t want to put you in the position of having to fake your emotions during your first meeting with Agent Bosch. You know what they say—you never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
“Yeah right,” Trevor said. He might have a hard time picking up Adam’s scent, but he knew bullshit when he smelled it.
“So what’s your first impression of her?” Adam prodded.
Trevor pinned him with a look. “If you know so much about her, why don’t you tell me what she’s like? I’m sure you have a complete file on her already.”
Adam returned his look with those disquieting eyes of his. “Actually, I do have a complete file on your new partner. But those are just facts on a piece of paper. I’d much rather get your personal gut reactions to her. I tend to place a lot more faith in those kinds of assessments.”
Trevor ground his jaw, fighting the urge to tell Adam to kiss his ass. The man could irritate the crap out of him sometimes.
“Well, for one thing, Alina strikes me as very competent,” Trevor said. “Something tells me she was very good at the job she used to have at the CIA. Dick said something about her digging out traitors, so I suppose that’s what she did there.”
He waited for Adam to confirm or deny that last part, but the other shifter didn’t say a word.
“She didn’t lose it too badly when I did a partial shift in front of her, so I guess that earns her a few brownie points,” Trevor added, taking another swig of beer. “But Dick obviously paired her with me at Thorn’s urging, which means she’s dirty.”
Once again, Adam didn’t say anything one way or the other about that. For some stupid reason, Trevor had hoped the other shifter would tell him that he was wrong, that Alina was one of the good guys. Kind of stupid, considering the facts of the situation.
The afternoon he’d spent with the former CIA agent had left him conflicted. His head told him that Alina was completely up to her neck in Dick’s and/or Thorn’s pockets, but after the conversation they’d had on the way down to Bowling Green, not to mention seeing the way she’d handled Larson—and Cody—he kept getting this weird feeling that there was something more to her than he suspected.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure what that something more entailed. He couldn’t even be sure if it was something good or something bad. His shifter instincts, which were usually reliable when it came to judging people, seemed to be withholding their opinion on the matter of Alina Bosch for the time being. A fact that pissed him off to no end.
“Anything else?” Adam asked.
