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My chest was constricting and my vision was darkening at the edges. I heard someone call my name but I shook my head. Turning around, I started for the room that Cole and I had been working in before I remembered what Cole had said, too. I turned into the first open door I saw, an empty conference room right down from Trevor’s office. The same fucking one that he’d eviscerated me in, with that same cold tone I’d just heard. I could still hear the words from that day echoing in my mind. You’re nothing to me. You’re the pretty bait that leads to a life sentence. I braced my hands on the table and tried to even my breathing as the tears streamed down my face.
“Ethan?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I should have left the BullPen. Trevor’s voice sounded concerned, like he cared, like I had believed he’d started to. I shook my head at the sound of the door closing. I thought maybe he’d left until I heard his steps coming closer. His perfect fucking scent deepened as he neared.
“Ethan, what’s wrong? Did something happen? Is everyone okay?”
“Why did you bother?”
I turned to look at him then. Through the tears blurring my vision I could see confusion on his face and it pissed me off.
“Why be kind to my family? Why bring me snacks and shit? Be there for me?”
“I don’t understand what’s happening right now, Ethan.”
I shoved at his chest and he grabbed my wrists, not to hurt me though. I could tell he was being careful to make sure he wouldn’t; his hold was only so I wouldn’t shove him again.
“I heard you and Cole! You want to get rid of me. I thought we were getting somewhere. At least becoming friends, and I thought Cole was my friend! Fuck, I’m such an idiot.”
I tried to push past him realizing my voice was rising and cracking with all the emotions running through me.
“That’s not what?—”
“You don’t need to lie to me anymore. You won’t have to see my face here.”
I reached for the door handle, just needing to get out of there, when Trevor’s strong hand gripped my shoulder. He spun me around until my back hit the wall right beside the door. Shifting his hand until he gripped my throat along the underside of my jaw, he held me there. His blue eyes, exactly like Theo’s, glared down at me and I had all of two seconds to be completely terrified before his lips crashed into mine.
What the actual fuck? My brain had short-circuited, and I didn’t move. His hand shifted from my throat to hold my jaw in his palm with his fingers threading through my hair and his thumb against my cheek. Trevor moved back just enough to break the contact between our mouths but not enough that I didn’t feel his words ghost across my lips and his beard tickle my chin.
“We weren’t talking about you, Ethan. I swear. I’ll explain everything, just don’t… please don’t leave.”
Putting my palms on his chest, I used the smallest amount of pressure to move him back. I only wanted to be able to look at his face because I was giving myself emotional whiplash. I needed to see him when he explained himself.
That small amount of pressure made his shoulders sag and his scent dampened as he started to move farther away than I intended. Infuriating Alpha, he thought I was rejecting him. But, before he could move further than I could reach, I gripped his shirt in my fists and pulled him back until his face was only about a foot from mine.
“Talk.”
He nodded and his scent returned to normal, appeasing that instinctual need I had to comfort him.
“We have a mole in the BullPen. That’s who Cole and I were talking about.”
“Fucking what? And neither of you thought to tell me?”
“Cole discovered it when Theo was still in the hospital, and everything has been so crazy. You’ve been working so hard on the case, and we didn’t want to tell you until we knew who it was for sure.”
Stupid Alphas always trying to fix everything when I could have been helping.
A grin kicked up the corner of Trevor’s mouth, so similar to Theo’s smirk, but it was the opposite side of his lips that lifted. My pulse stuttered and my mouth went dry.
“You’re right, we should have told you sooner.”
Fuck, did I say that out loud? I just nodded my head like I’d meant to say it and he continued.
“It’s the reason Cole or I have been here every night. We didn’t want them to have a chance to pull shit like they did when we were looking for Shae and derail all your work.”
“That’s why Cole’s been working with me every time I was here?”
He nodded again, taking one small step closer to me but not closing the distance. I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed thickly.
