Trevor exchanged looks with Tanner. Okay, he hadn’t expected that. “So you’re not going to tell anyone about this?”
The priest smiled. “The girl came into my church seeking solace and peace. She was so scared that it was difficult to understand what she was saying, but I did glean from her words that churches have always represented safety and sanctuary to her. The girl’s secret is safe with me…and the church.” He regarded Trevor thoughtfully for a moment. “You never answered my question about whether or not the girl is ill.”
“No, she’s not ill,” Trevor said honestly. He couldn’t exactly lie to a priest. “Sage wasn’t born a shifter. Someone gave her a drug to turn her into one against her will. The out-of-control behavior you saw is a result of those drugs. We’re trying to help her, but she’s having a hard time of it.”
The priest’s mouth tightened. “Besides helping her, I trust you’re doing whatever is necessary to make sure the person who did this horrible thing isn’t allowed to do it again?”
Trevor nodded. “We’re trying very hard.”
The priest looked like he would have said more, but just then, Alina and Jaxson came out with Sage. The girl was practically glued to Alina’s side, and while she’d stopped crying, she still seemed emotionally and physically drained.
“We can take her back to the complex in my vehicle,” Jaxson said. “I should be able to get us through the gate without anyone paying too much attention.”
Alina hesitated, looking in Trevor’s direction. He was about to tell Jaxson that he’d take them in his vehicle and let the other man run interference at the gate, but then his frigging phone rang. He pulled it out to see who it was, intending on letting it go to voice mail. Then he saw who it was.
Holding up his finger to tell Alina to wait, he moved to the side to take the call. “What’s up, Evan? This isn’t exactly the best time to talk. I’m kind of busy.”
“Well, you’re about to get even busier,” Evan said. “Vivian just called. Thorn is heading to the DC office right now for that classified briefing. If you want to hear what he says, you need to be there in an hour.”
Shit.
Trevor glanced at his watch, trying to calculate how long it would take him to get into the middle of DC at this time in the morning. With traffic, it was going to be close. “Did you talk to IT and figure out a way to get a set of ears into the conference room?”
“Yeah, I have a way to do it. I just don’t know how we’re going to make it work,” Evan said. “You never explained how the hell we’re going to get the bug in the room with them.”
That was because he hadn’t given it one second of thought. “Like I said, let me worry about that. I’m leaving now, but it’s going to be tight. Any chance you can rig up a way to slow things down if I’m late?”
There was a long sigh on the other end of the line. “Dammit, Trevor. I’m an analyst, not a field agent. I sit around a soft, cushy cubicle all day and play with a computer. I don’t know how to rig anything.”
“You’ll figure it out,” Trevor said, trying to be as encouraging as he could. “Keep it simple, and you’ll be fine. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
He hung up and gave Tanner a nod, knowing the hybrid had heard the entire phone conversation.
“What was that about?” Alina asked.
While he’d been on the phone, she’d gotten Sage into the back of Jaxson’s SUV and somehow convinced her to stay put. Through the open back window, Trevor could see the girl looking anxiously at Alina.
“Did Dick go after Seth and Cody again?” Alina prompted when he didn’t answer.
He shook his head. “No, nothing like that. I just need to be someplace.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
Trevor’s first instinct was to say yes, but the word got stuck in his throat as his head spoke up and urged caution. Letting her help with Sage was one thing; bringing her to a meeting where Thorn might finally reveal something damaging was a completely different world. He hated himself for doing it, but that didn’t keep him from shaking his head.
“No. I’d rather you help Jaxson get Sage back to the complex and settled. You and she seem to have a connection, and what I’m doing isn’t a big deal. I’ll take Tanner with me and catch up with you later.”
Disappointment flashed across Alina’s face for a brief second before she nodded and climbed in the backseat of Jaxson’s vehicle with Sage.
Trevor had no doubt his partner knew he’d fed her a line of crap, and he could tell it bothered the hell out of her. It bothered the hell out of him, too, especially considering what she’d just done for Sage. But until he knew for sure that she wasn’t playing him, he couldn’t take the risk of telling her what he was doing.
As Jaxson pulled the Suburban out of the church parking lot and drove away, Alina threw Trevor an angry look. It occurred to him then that he might have burned down the already shaky bridge that had started forming between them.
* * *
Vivian met Trevor and Tanner in the lobby of the DC office. With its big reception desk and black-and-white photos of well-known landmarks like the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building on the walls, it wasn’t all that remarkable. It certainly didn’t scream covert organization.
“Thank God you’re here,” she said softly. “Thorn and the people he’s meeting with have been here for a while, and poor Evan is about to blow a gasket.”
