That was a pretty serious claim, and she would have appreciated Trevor getting into the details. Unfortunately, he’d refused to discuss the subject. She’d spent a good portion of the drive up from Bowling Green badgering him for information, and all she’d learned was that her new partner couldn’t be badgered. She hadn’t been ignored like that since she was an awkward teen in high school. Crap, Trevor could be irritating as hell when he wanted to be.
She walked over to the island in the kitchen and picked up the picture Cody had made. She couldn’t help smiling. It was sweet of him to give it to her.
On impulse, she walked over to the stainless steel fridge and moved a few takeout order magnets around until she’d made a space for the picture, then used the magnets to hold it in place. She stepped back and admired it. The picture definitely brightened up her rather drab kitchen. Then again, she hadn’t known her kitchen was drab until she’d put Cody’s picture up.
Alina suddenly found herself thinking about how her life would have been different if she’d turned left instead of right after college and gotten a normal, ho-hum job, met a nice guy, settled down, and had kids.
She laughed at how crazy that was. Even though she’d had this apartment in Del Ray for years, she typically wasn’t there more than a week or two at a time. She’d spent most of her time traveling around the world, sleeping in hotels, on planes, and in the backseats of cars while surveilling targets. The biggest factor in renting in Del Ray was because it was so close to Reagan National. If she was going to spend half her life at the airport, she might as well live close to it.
The notion that things could have been different, that she could have been a wife and a soccer mom with two-point-three kids and a minivan was fun to imagine. Looking at Cody’s picture on the fridge, she wondered if she’d be the kind of mother who’d keep kids’ artwork taped all over her kitchen. Probably.
She was just digging through the freezer for a frozen pizza that wasn’t encased in frost older than the last ice age when she heard a quick knock immediately followed by the sound of the door opening, then the scrabble of doggy nails on the hardwood floor.
“You decent in there?” her friend Kathy McGee called as Molly bounded into the kitchen with a silly grin on her face.
“Yeah,” Alina called. “In the kitchen.”
Dropping to her knees, she gave her beautiful baby a big hug. Molly was a blue heeler cattle dog she’d rescued during a snowstorm five years ago. It was probably crazy for a woman doing fieldwork for the CIA to have brought in a stray, but there was no way in hell she was going to let the dog freeze to death. And once Molly had gotten comfortable in her apartment, it hadn’t seemed right to give her to someone else. Fortunately, her next-door neighbor Kathy had offered to babysit Molly anytime Alina needed.
“How’re you doing, girl?” She playfully ruffled Molly’s long ears, then ran her hands through the short fur covering the dog’s flanks. “Did you have a good time with Kathy today? Did you behave yourself and play nice with Katelyn?”
Katelyn was Kathy’s cat and, against all rational explanation, Molly’s favorite playmate. Which worked out well, considering how much time Molly spent in Kathy’s place.
Her dark-haired friend came into the kitchen and leaned one shoulder against the wall but didn’t try to interrupt the happy reunion, which pretty much went the same way regardless of how long Alina had been away. Kathy’s presence didn’t stop Alina from talking to Molly like she was a two-year-old.
“Did you miss your mommy?” she said in her best baby voice.
Molly let out a soft bark, then butted her head into Alina’s hands, demanding more attention and pets. Alina couldn’t help but laugh. Then again, that’s what dogs were all about. They made you happy.
“You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”
Molly let out another soft bark. She wasn’t a noisy dog, but she always got talkative when Alina acted all goofy. Alina had a sudden vision of Trevor watching her kneeling down on the floor, talking like this. He’d probably think she was a big dope.
“Molly wanted to come right over and find out how your first day on the new job went, but I told her she had to wait until you had a chance to clean up and relax a little,” Kathy said.
Alina gave Molly one last pat on the head, then stood. “Oh, so Molly’s the one who’s all eager to hear about my first day at the office, huh?”
Kathy smiled and nodded, her blue-green eyes teasing behind her glasses. “Definitely. But if you’re going to tell her about it, I guess I can hang around and listen in, too.”
Alina gave up on the idea of nuking a frozen pizza and instead grabbed a box of Cheerios from the cabinet, a carton of milk from the fridge, and a bowl and spoon, then headed into the living room with Kathy following close behind.
“So tell me! How was your first day?” Kathy asked eagerly, kicking off her slippers and getting comfy on the couch.
Alina almost laughed at the excitement in her friend’s voice but restrained herself. Kathy worked from home selling socks on the Internet and often said she lived vicariously through Alina’s covert adventures.
Kathy was more than a next-door neighbor and her best friend. She was Alina’s confidante, the only person she’d ever been able to talk to about her life in the CIA. She’d never told her friend anything classified of course, but Kathy was familiar with the stuff that had happened to Jodi and the other members of Alina’s team. She’d also known how much Alina had come to dislike her job at the Agency. In fact, Kathy had been the one to convince her to accept the DCO’s offer.
Molly hopped up between them on the couch and did a few circles before lying down with her head near Alina’s hip. The dog immediately closed her eyes and went to sleep, happy as a clam now that she was with her mommy.
Alina dumped some cereal into the bowl, then added milk. “If I had to sum today up in one word, I guess that word would be…interesting.”
Kathy tucked her sock-covered feet underneath her. “Okay, interesting is a good start. Tell me everything—starting with what your new partner is like. You did meet whoever it is today, right? Is it a man or a woman? Or are you part of a team with several hunky guys? Please tell me that’s it.”
Alina did laugh this time. Kathy could be a bit melodramatic.
“Yes, I met my partner. His name is Trevor Maxwell.”
Kathy leaned forward expectantly. “And?”
