Sloane nodded to Cael who added the numbers to the notes he was taking on his tablet. Cael would undoubtedly be adding an algorithm to Themis to find out what the numbers could pertain to. They’d be looking into that later, though Austen had a point. The possibilities were staggering.
“Any idea how many there are?”
Again Austen shook his head to Sloane’s question. “I can’t imagine there are many. Whenever I’ve seen them, they’ve been in groups of five or six at most. Couldn’t say how many groups there are, but maybe if you cross-reference incident times with locations across the boroughs, you might get a rough idea. Can’t be two places at once right?” Sloane gave Austen a nod of approval, which made Austen grin widely. “See. I’m not just a pretty face.”
“All right,” Sloane replied with a smirk before continuing with his questioning. “Anything on the Order?”
“I’ve thrown a few hooks out on that one. I’ll let you know if anyone bites.”
Sloane stood and held his hand out to Austen. “Good work. Contact me if you get anything.”
“You bet.”
“And next time,” Sloane warned, though there was a hint of teasing in his voice, “try not to run.”
Austen strode over to the end of the BearCat and turned to give Sloane a wink. “Now why would I give up the chance to be chased by a hot agent?” He saluted Sloane before opening up one of the doors and hopping out. He disappeared into the trees before Dex blinked. Rosa wasn’t kidding. The guy was fast, even in Human form.
“All right, team. It’s been a long day. Let’s head back to HQ. Hobbs, get us out of here and stop by a drive-thru on the way. I’m starving.” Sloane took a seat on the bench next to Rosa, and Dex dropped down beside him. They buckled up as Hobbs drove them out of the park.
Dex noticed his partner lean back against the truck’s padded wall, then abruptly sit forward. Rosa and Letty didn’t notice as they were chatting away, and Cael was secured behind the console, though he was staring off into space. Now that Dex thought about it, he never saw Sloane sit back against the wall like everyone else did. Dex leaned into his partner, his voice low.
“Hey you okay?”
Sloane’s smile went straight to Dex’s groin. “Yeah, why?”
“The way you pulled away from the wall all of a sudden.”
“You noticed that, huh?”
“Yep.” There wasn’t much Dex didn’t notice about his partner, whether on the job or off. They might not have been officially dating for long, but they’d been seeing each other for nearly eight months. In that time they’d been through a hell of a lot together.
Sloane seemed to think about Dex’s observation before answering. “It makes me feel sick.”
“Motion sickness?” That couldn’t be right. Surely if his partner felt motion sickness, Dex would have figured it out long before now.
Sloane shook his head and leaned into Dex. “It feels too much like that chair.”
Chair? What chair would make Sloane feel sick? An image flashed through Dex’s mind, and he winced. Right. That chair. For years Sloane had been strapped down into a padded chair at the First Gen Research Facility while scientists did God only knew what to him and countless other Therian children in order to learn more about Therians. Dex could only imagine what the government had put Sloane through, and he saw enough pain in his partner’s eyes to know it was horrifying.
Dex’s experience with that damnable chair had come only recently, and although he was certain it couldn’t compare to what Sloane had suffered, Dex was still finding it difficult to forget. His ankles, wrists, and head had been strapped down to the padded medical chair. It was the last thing he remembered from that day at the facility before Isaac Pearce plunged a needle into his neck and pulled his strings like a puppet, with Dex eager to please.
Instinctively, Dex rubbed the small, newly healed scar on his leg. If Sloane hadn’t shot him and taken him down, Dex would have done exactly what that bastard Isaac had asked him to do. He would have killed an innocent man and then himself. Months later he still couldn’t remember anything no matter how hard he tried. All he knew was what Sloane had told him. It frustrated the hell out of Dex.
“Dex?”
Dex snapped out of it to find Sloane watching him worriedly. “Are you okay?”
“Sorry. Just thinking. My next dentist appointment should prove interesting.”
Sloane’s expression softened, and he gave Dex’s leg a pat, allowing his hand to linger a few seconds longer than necessary. “It’ll get easier.”
“Thanks.”
Five minutes later they’d pulled up at a fast-food drive-thru, and Dex said a silent thanks to Austen for forcing Sloane to shift. The only time his partner indulged in anything remotely unhealthy was postshift when his Therian body demanded meat and lots of calories. Hobbs waited patiently while Dex sat on his lap, facing the drive-thru speaker, putting in the team’s order. This particular fast-food chain offered Postshift meals that had enough double quarter pounders to send a Human heart screaming for the hills. Dex put in everyone’s order, then turned to Hobbs.
“What do you want, big guy?”
Hobbs pointed to the Therian specials and a meal with an Angus beef burger that looked like it was the size of Dex’s head.