Page 20 of Tangled With You

“You, too. Despite the circumstances.”

Trevor joined them and for a moment, Ollie caught a hint ofsomething both harsh and vulnerable in his expression. But then he was besideOllie, and he flashed that ridiculously handsome smile at Brax.

“You two getting acquainted?”

“Re-acquainted,” Brax corrected. “We were at the Academytogether.”

“Roommates?” Trevor asked, and Ollie thought he heard an oddsort of tension in Trevor’s voice.

“Just friends. You roomed with Dustin, right? Where’d heland?”

“Not sure,” Ollie said. “We lost track after he got married.I heard he quit the FBI. Apparently the job made his husband too nervous.” Heshook his head, scattering the memories. “Seriously, it’s great that you’rehere. The SSA’s a stellar operation. You’ll enjoy working in the privatesector.”

“So far, so good. I’ll keep you posted.” He turned toTrevor. “Assignment?”

“Check in with Liam.” Trevor pointed to Liam Foster, a tallBlack man with military bearing.

“On it,” he said, then turned his attention back to Ollie.“We’ll catch up more later.”

Trevor stepped closer as Brax headed away, then tilted hishead, indicating that Ollie should walk with him.

“Update?” Ollie asked.

“Nothing yet. But everyone has their assignments. I have youset up at station seven.”

“Got it,” Ollie said, starting to turn back toward the workstations. First order of business was to get into her electronics and see ifshe’d had a stalker, someone she was seeing, anything suspicious. And, ofcourse, getting into her condo and seeing if there was anything telling there.

Trevor’s hand on his shoulder stopped him, then steered himinto the back hallway. “So, Brax?” His voice was low. “Just a friend?”

“Probably my closest friend at the Academy. We went througha lot of shit together.”

“Anything else? A crush?”

Ollie narrowed his eyes. “No. And that’s not the issue rightnow.”

“No,” Trevor said. “It’s not.” He closed his eyes for a moment.“Sorry. This whole thing—us—has spun me a little. You, I imagine a lot. Wedidn’t have time to, um, debrief.”

“Pity,” Ollie said. “I think I’d enjoy debriefing you.”

Trevor grinned. “Very glad to hear that. Seriously, though.You okay? Not with the Courtney situation, but with—”

“Yeah,” Ollie said, forcing himself not to reach out andbrush Trevor’s arm. “I’d say that on that side of things, I’m doing just fine.”He took a step closer. “And yeah, maybe there was a crush. But I didn’t know itat the time.” He looked up to meet Trevor’s eyes. “And I’m very, very over it.”

Trevor nodded, that adorable smile tugging at his mouth.“Glad to hear it, Agent McKee. Now you should probably get back to work. Weboth should.”

“Yeah,” Ollie said, wishing he had the balls to step evencloser and kiss him. “I guess we should.”

Chapter Seven

Hours later, Trevor watched as Ollie paced the third-floorkitchen, a cup of cold coffee in his hand as he talked aloud.

“She doesn’t have money. She doesn’t have power.” He turnedto look at Trevor, pain evident in his face. “Why take her for ransom? Itdoesn’t make sense.”

“She’s a journalist, right?”

“Yeah, for the last few years. She used to be in marketing.Big corporate marketing. Traveled all over the place, and the job was drivingher into the ground. She quit, then was living on her savings for about a year.I think it was about four years ago that she picked up the journalism gig.”

“And you two kept in touch after you broke up?” He heard thehint of jealousy in his voice, and hoped that Ollie didn’t pick up on it.