Shapiro’s bubbly good humor, even early in the morning, made Dex crave coffee. Fortunately, Starbucks opened at four thirty. He took the next right toward a drive-through location he had found on the map soon after arriving in town.
“I have some information on the Merestone Houston site for you. New changes should’ve gone live about twenty minutes ago. Nine hidden turtles, if I found them all when I glanced at the page.”
He couldn’t help but feel he was betraying Kate by passing on that information and shook his head. He needed to remember he had a job to do. If Kate was in on this, then she was betraying her nation, which would take precedence over any personal feelings he had developed, or any responsibility he felt toward her as her Dominant.
He stopped at the thought about Kate, remembering her eyes glazed with passion and her skin flushed with exertion. He pushed those images firmly aside. He didn’t have time to deal with them right now, although he did admit their existence.
Shapiro laughed. “You and that computer brain of yours. Makes the rest of us look like amateurs. Some of the pages I’ve had to stare at for an hour to find the hidden images, and then one of the other guys will come up behind me and find a few more.”
Dex shook his head as he pulled into the drive-through lane for Starbucks. “Trust me, it’s not as much of a blessing as everyone thinks. Everything has its downside as well as the up.”
Shapiro didn’t answer, but the sound of keys clicking told Dex he was taking notes.
“Thanks, Dex. We’re on it. Have you talked to Tanner yet this morning?”
Dex frowned again. First a question about his phone’s security, and then a question about whether he’d checked in with his boss? He might be reading too much into it, but his gut told him he was on the right track. “No. Why?”
“You might want to call him next. He’s been up all night putting together news updates, coordinating staff, and working with our team. He told me to stay on the analysis of the computer code and the graphic design updates, but there was a lot of action going on last night that Ripley and Burgener were involved with. I think Jason wanted to let you continue to work the Miss Fretwell angle to see what you could learn there, so didn’t want to bother you.” The man paused, and Dex heard him take a sip of liquid.
The car in front of him at the drive-through pulled forward. Since there were concrete medians on both sides of the lane, he had no choice but to follow the line through. “Speaking of coffee. Give me a minute, Shapiro.” He pulled up to the speaker box and gave the barista his order before edging up to wait behind the line of cars for his drink.
“Shapiro, thanks. I’m at ‘The BUX,’ getting my morning caffeine fix,” he said, using the acronym the analyst pool had come up with for their favorite java joint.
“Damn, you field guys get all the perks. I’m drinking bad break-room coffee.”
Dex remembered all the long nights and all the pots of horrible break-room coffee he had endured as an analyst. He promised himself he would do something nice for his team as soon as this case was done. He knew how hard they were working to support him.
“All right, Shapiro. I’ll call Tanner now. Thanks for the heads-up.”
Dex picked up his drink at the last window, and then called his boss on his way back to his town house.
He would have liked to speak to Tanner from the bedroom that was set aside as his office, rather than the car, so he could take any notes he wanted. But after Shapiro’s update, he knew he needed to find out everything he’d missed, sooner rather than later.
The analyst’s odd question about the security of his phone bothered him. It was a strange question unless there was some reason to suspect that his phone had been compromised. Normally, the overly eager man would have spilled the reasoning along with the question.
“Dex.” The sound of wind over the line made him think his boss was driving, or standing outside with a breeze hitting the phone mic.
“Hey, boss. Shapiro said you had a busy night last night.”
Tanner coughed. “That’s an understatement. Are you alone? As in, is anyone waiting for you to come back?”
Dex’s brows bunched, and a throb started behind his eyes.
What the fuck was going on?
“I’m alone. Headed back to the town house. Why?”
“Dex. Listen. Don’t go back there.” Jason’s voice had an urgent note in it that sent a cold spear of dread through Dex’s stomach.
“Drive around for a while. Make sure you’re not being tailed. Go anywhere but the town house, then when you can, head back to Phoenix. We’ll make sure everything at the town house stays secure, and we’ll grab all of your personal items and our equipment when we can. I’ve already got a team on Kathryne Fretwell.”