"We know the job," Brennan said.
"Then let's get moving to Dublin, or are we not hooking up with the local police right away?"
"We need to talk about Bobby Lee before we decide where we're going, Blake," Nolan said.
I looked at Edward. "How honest can I be with him?"
"I'd like to know how he knows Bobby Lee before I answer that question," he said.
I put down the bags I was holding; no reason to hold everything if we were going to be there for a while. Most of the guards followed suit. "Fine. We play twenty questions and then we get our asses moving." I turned to the men. "How do you know Bobby Lee?"
Brennan narrowed his dark eyes and went from speculative to nearly hostile. "We don't owe you an explanation."
"Then we're at an impasse," I said.
"Impasse?" Brennan said.
Griffin said, "It means the situation can't progress, that we're stuck where we are until we agree to move forward." He was fighting not to smile at me or at Brennan's discomfort, one or the other. I'd take any lightening of the mood.
"I know what it means," Brennan snapped at him.
Griffin just smiled pleasantly at him. He was teasing the other man and not in a buddy kind of way, more an "I almost don't like you" kind of way.
"You aren't going to share information until we do, are you?" Edward said.
Nolan just stared at him, which was answer enough.
Edward smiled his Ted smile at me. "Anita, you be the grown-up and tell the captain how you know Bobby Lee."
"Me the grown-up, that's different," I said.
"Answer the question, Anita, please." He didn't say please for much of anyone, not when he meant it, so I did what he asked.
"Bobby Lee is one of our bodyguards."
"Our?" Brennan said.
"Jean-Claude's bodyguards," I said.
Edward said, "We all look for work once we get out of the service, Nolan. Now, your turn: How do you know Bobby Lee?"
"We met someplace warmer, and a hell of a lot drier," Nolan said.
"Once you've gone private contractor the military won't take you back," Edward said.
"Bobby Lee can't go back, even if he wanted to," Nolan said.
"I meant you."
"I've never left the military."
Edward looked at him like he didn't believe him, but finally said, "Did you move back to mainstream military?" There was very little Ted in his voice when he asked.
"I put together teams for special assignments."
"You mean like the teams we were assigned to back in the day?"
"Yes."
"If I tell Anita she can trust you, am I going to regret that?"
"Why did it bother both of you that we all know Bobby Lee?" I asked.
"Regular military doesn't work with shapeshifters, not even as private contractors," Edward said.
"Then how did Nolan and Brennan get to work with Bobby Lee?" I asked.
"That is the question, isn't it?" Edward said in a voice that was cold and almost threatening. Ted wasn't going to last as a disguise if he couldn't do better than this.
"What are you afraid of, Forrester?" Nolan asked.
"Regular military doesn't play with shapeshifters, but there are other people who wear the uniform. People I don't want Anita involved with."
I had a thought. "You mean Van Cleef, don't you?"
They both looked at me as if I'd said too much. Nolan looked shocked and walked the two of us out away from the rest of the group. The guards on their four-point formation tried to follow me, but I shook my head and let Nolan lead Edward and me a more private distance up to the front of the Humvee line. When Nolan thought we were far enough away, he turned on us angrily. That otherworldly energy danced in the air and around my skin. I had to swallow past it and tell my inner beasts to stay put and not react to it.
"Forrester, I heard the rumor that you and she were . . . Pillow talk like that will get you in jail for treason."
"She knows the name because I brought her to his attention, or her hanging around with me did. I don't want her to ever meet him, or be involved in anything he's doing, and I need to know right now, Nolan: Is he involved with your unit?"
He looked at me. "Why does Van Cleef want to meet you?"
"I'm not sure he wants to meet me, but I've heard from more than just Ted that he's interested in the fact that I carry lycanthropy but I don't shift."
"She heals almost as well as a lycanthrope, is almost as fast, and has their heightened senses, but she never changes shape," Edward said.
Nolan looked from him to me. "If that's true, then you'd be right up Van Cleef's alley."
"You see why I want to keep her away from him," Edward said.
"You aren't denying that you're a couple with her, then?"
"Couple?" He looked at me. "Anita, are we a couple?"
"Not last I checke
d."
"Fine. You want blunt. Are you lovers?" Nolan asked.
"No," we said together.
"Why don't I believe that?"
"Because no one wants to believe that a man and a woman can be best friends without sex being involved somewhere," I said.
"A lot of the men in our line of work hate the fact that she and I are better at the job than they are, so it makes them feel superior to spread the rumors."
"It makes me Ted's girlfriend, not an equal, I think."
"What does it give them over Ted?"
I looked at Ted. "Good question."
"You're out of step with the younger set, Nolan. Men can be sluts, too. If I'm sleeping with Anita, then I'm getting supernatural help from her, and I'm cheating on my fiancee, which gives some of the jealous bastards a sense of superiority."
"It's a way of explaining why you're better than they are," Nolan said.
"And then Anita isn't good in her own right; she's my protegee, or trainee, or some bullshit."
"To be fair, you did help train me to be a better hunter," I said.
"Monster hunting has always been an apprentice system, Anita, no shame in that," Edward said.
"Who'd you apprentice to?" I asked, because it just occurred to me.
"Van Cleef," he and Nolan both said, at the same damn time. They stared at each other, and it was only partly friendly.
"Are you still his boy?" Edward asked.
"That summer was a long time ago, Ted."
"Answer the question."
"This isn't one of his projects. I swear that."
"But you are in touch with him."
"And you called him in for help just a few years ago, and he came. He sent people to rain hell down on your enemies, helped you save your fiancee and her kids." It was the first time I'd met Donna and the kids; bad guys had kidnapped them, and Edward had turned to the mysterious Van Cleef for help, because the bad guys had known the name, and Edward, too.
"Because some of the men involved were old friends of ours, and of his," Edward said.
"They weren't military anymore; they'd gone more rogue than you have," Nolan said.
"I cannot believe I did not ask you if you were still in his fucking pocket before I got Anita on the plane."
"You call him in when you need him . . . Ted." And there was something about the way he hesitated on the name, as if there were another name he was almost saying. I knew that Van Cleef knew Edward was Edward, and not just Ted. I wondered if he'd shared that with Nolan.